#anyway. Scarlet can now commit war crimes with it :)

[valiant-portabella-pirkko]

Guess who finally finished their first legendary!! Incinerator ACHIEVED.

[giggles-and-freckles]

swoon june day 15: masquerade

He finds her quicker than he normally does at these sorts of things. It’s surprising, given the masks and elaborate apparel of all in attendance. But Anakin recognises Padmé's soft extravagance immediately, and can’t find it in himself to be discreet as he cuts across the dance floor to pull her from her conversation with other senators.

“Milady,” he says, resting a hand at the small of her back. She flinches in surprise, but turns to him and offers a strange smile. “Sorry to interrupt,” he says, nodding to the other senators who look miffed at his intrusion. He doesn’t remotely care. “But I was hoping for a dance.”

She doesn’t say anything. Just offers her hand and allows him to pull her to the dance floor.

It’s liberating, being able to be with her like this, unconcerned by the watchful eyes and judging gazes. He should be more careful, anyway–he knows he should. But it’s so rare for him to be able to have his hands on her anywhere that isn’t her apartment, so he’ll take further advantage of the convenience than he likely should.

He tries to pull her closer to him, annoyed by the inches of space she’s purposefully placed between them.

“Padmé,” he says, under his breath. “What are you doing...no one’s even watching. Just–”

She places a hand on his chest, pushing him back. Her feet don’t falter and their rhythm isn’t lost, but Anakin reels back nonetheless.

“What’s wrong?” he says, trying again to pull her flush against him. She shakes her head quickly. “Padmé,” he sighs. “I’ve missed you. Please, just–”

“She wishes to see you,” she says quietly.

Anakin stumbles, but manages to catch himself and her, continuing their gait about the floor. He squints, focusing on the eyes behind the mask. “Motée?” he whispers.

A slight nod.

His eyes widen in embarrassment. “I’m so sorry.” He clears his throat. “Where’s–”

“Her office.”

His face screws up in confusion. “Her office? She’s supposed to be here. How...why–” He straightens up, almost stepping on her feet. “Is she all right?”

Motée’s eyes flicker to the side of the room, where Obi-Wan sits, primly watching the room around him. His mask is in place, but his shoulders are hunched in further than they should be. He’s ignored all of Anakin’s attempts to engage him in the gala.

“Obi-Wan?” Anakin asks in bewilderment. “What does he–”

She nods her head emphatically.

“Oh,” he sighs. “The Duchess.”

Motée’s hand squeezes his, tightly.

“I’m gonna–” His eyes shift between the door and Obi-Wan. “I’m gonna go.” He drops her hands and begins to walk, but then turns. “Will you…” He bites his lip, struggling for the words. “Can you–”

“I’m going to grab a refreshment,” Motée says. “Perhaps Master Kenobi will want one as well.”

Anakin smiles gratefully. “Thank you.” She nods and turns to walk toward the older Jedi.

Anakin makes it to the doors of the ballroom and slips through them, beginning the jog from the top of the Senatorial Complex down to the lower levels containing Padmé’s office. He’s out of breath by the time he arrives, but he steels himself and knocks anyway. The echo of his mechno-arm against the durasteel door hollows through the hall.

The door slides open.

“Padmé?” he calls immediately, his eyes searching the room. He finds her, crumpled on the floor, an elaborate dress bunched up in a pool around her. An exquisite scarlet and black mask is on the floor next to her, looking crumpled and tossed aside.

“Hey,” he says with a frown, rushing to her. He drops to the floor in front of her, careful not to step on her dress. He’s committed that crime far too many times to be so foolish now, even in the midst of her distress. “What’s going on?”

She looks up at him and the light from the window catches on the wetness of her cheeks. Without thinking, he lifts his hand to gently swipe at them. She closes her eyes and leans into his hand.

“Talk to me,” he says softly, rubbing his thumb along her cheekbones. WIth his other hand, he pulls off his own mask, tossing it to the side. It matches hers, he realises, and knows that wasn’t an accident. “Are you okay? Motée said…”

She cuts him off with a shake of her head. “I’m sorry,” she manages. “I didn’t mean to pull you from the gala. I just...I–”

“Hey, hey, shh,” he says, sliding his hand down under her chin. He pulls her gaze up. “Don’t apologise. I hate those things anyway, you know that. The only reason I go is to see you.”

She tries for a sort of snort, but it falls pathetically between them. “And Obi-Wan,” she adds.

“I mean sure,” Anakin shrugs theatrically, “he doesn’t look bad in dress robes, so I suppose that’s another reason, but–” he trails off, the joke clearly not doing anything to fill the cracks of Padmé’s countenance. “Yeah,” he says quietly, “I go for Obi-Wan, too.”

“How is he doing?” she asks.

“The same.” He drops his hand and frowns. “He won’t let me help him. I know he’s in pain, but he...he won’t let me do anything. Won’t even talk about it.”

She nods and another tear falls down her cheek. He catches it with the tip of his finger. “He cared about her deeply.”

“He loved her,” Anakin corrects fiercely, then takes a breath. “But I don’t understand why he’s so ashamed of that. Why–”

“He’s not ashamed, Ani,” Padmé says, frowning at her husband. “He’s grieving.”

“Well then he should do something about it.” He throws his hands up in frustration. Fire sparks in his fists as he thinks about the monster who did this to the Duchess, to Obi-Wan. “We know where Maul is. We should–”

“Ani.”

He falls from his precipice of rage. “What?”

“Not everyone grieves the same, my love.”

And something about the way she’s looking at him, like she’s chastising him but also pitying him–it makes him pause.

“You’re grieving, too,” he says in final understanding, guilt and shame drowning him. He’s sitting here planning revenge while his wife cries on the floor of her office, skipping the masquerade he knows she’s been looking forward to for weeks. “Padmé,” he chokes out, “I’m so sorry. She was your friend. You–”

She shakes her head again, offering a sad smile. “It’s okay,” she says. “But yes. She was.”

His hands are around her shoulders within moments, pulling her into his chest. She snakes her arms under his robes to clasp behind his back–and falls apart. Her trickle of tears become a steady stream and she heaves as she struggles to find oxygen between her broken sobs.

Anakin hates this feeling. Hates the knowledge that he can’t do anything to expunge her pain. He doesn’t want to ease it, he wants to erase it. She deserves infinite happiness and he can’t give it to her. It’s another stinging reminder of how much more he has to learn and become to be enough.

“I’m so...tired of this war,” she manages into the folds of his tunic. She’s still shaking. “I’m so tired of losing.”

swoon june 2021 prompts

[alleycat97]

Before There Was Us

Pairing: MC x Kamilah

Tag list: @themaskedanon @onyxgaytrash @kamilahslittlehoe @kelseyapperson @lightning-fury @beyondthenakedeye28 @wildsayeed @scarlet-letter-a0114 @mrskamilxh if you want to be added or removed let me know!

...

It was just a typical Thursday night for Kamilah, number 107,328 to be exact, but who was counting? There was no more days to her. She didn’t live by a calendar anymore, there was no need, the sun rose and set each day, nothing more or less.

Kamilah typically came home from work to work, a solitude she grew use to in her many years of being alone. Except a horrific cough coming from her master suite made her alter her typical plans.

She entered the room and set her eyes on the source, Amy. Amy, the mortal, the one who came into Kamilah’s life and completely stole her heart and ran with it. The young woman had Kamilah bad, something the vampire was trying to come to terms with after being alone for over a century.

She sat down on the bed next to Amy and instinctfully placed her hand on her forehead. “How are you feeling?”

“Terrible. I think I’m dying.” Amy winced as she tried to sit up, Kamilah holding her down.

“No. You need to relax and rest.”

“I’m tired of being here...” Amy whined causing Kamilah to laugh.

“Well I don’t want to tell you I told you so, but what did I say?”

Amy groaned recalling the other night. She wanted to go bar hopping with Lily but Kamilah insisted she stay in due to the rain and flu going around. Amy insisted she was immune and went anyway. After the 4th bar and way too many shots later she was stumbling around outside waiting for Kamilah to pick her up...in the rain.

Amy just slid further into the bed in defeat not wanting to admit that Kamilah was right, she would die before she would let her have that satisfaction.

Kamilah just laughed and kissed Amy’s forehead before rising to leave. “I’ll be back in a bit, I’ll just be in my office.” She couldn’t be too hard on her. She knew what the culture was like today and young adults of Amy’s age all did these things. Except it was very different from when she was that age, she just wanted Amy to be happy.

“Kami?” Amy called out in a tone that usually gets her anything she wants.

Kamilah stopped in the threshold, “Yes habibti?”

“Can you tell me about Egypt?”

Kamilah made her way back to the bed, she knew it would come eventually, but didn’t really want it to, not wanting to recall the past.

“I don’t know Amy. It was so many years ago. I don’t think I can recall it.” She lied crawling into the bed to join Amy who instinctfully latched on.

“Please....” Amy insisted.

“Ok let’s see...Well you know of my twin brother and being Cleopatras cousin.”

“Was she your first cousin?” Amy asked.

“Well then we didn’t call them that, but yes. Her father, the one who gave Lysimachus the horse, and my mother were siblings.”

“That’s so cool! Tell me about Cleopatra! I bet you guys were like partners in crime!” Amy said getting excited.

“Well early we were pretty close. Especially when my mother passed. We would play by the Nile with the other children. Cleopatra even talked me into wrestling against the boys.”

“So that’s we’re you get your tough act from.” Amy replied.

“Cleopatra was the more exciting one as kids. She was older than me but she was smart and cunning and would do anything.”

Kamilah took a minute to just sit back and enjoy the memory’s. “A lot was expected of us even as children. Her father, Ptolemy Xll was very strict. We did have fun but we also worked like any other. He went easier on Cleopatra because he was her favorite child.”

“What about your father?” Amy inquired.

“He was a General for the Army. He was always away fighting and one day he didn’t return. Lysmachus, wanting to be like father, joined the army and went off to fight much to the pleasure of Ptolemy. He took me into the palace and I was an assistant to Cleopatra.”

“Was Eypt violent?”

“Not particularly. If anything it was flourishing. Ancient Eygpy however, is a different story. We had chores yes, the men had to fight, but we were prospering, especially under Cleopatra.”

“Tell me more about her.” Amy said shifting slightly.

“Well Cleopatra was actually from Greek descent. She could speak 7 languages and everyone loved her because she embraced Eyptian culture and opened trade to many Arab nations.”

“So if she was the favorite? What happened to her?”

“Well when she turned 18, her father passed away and she took the throne. Except she had to share it with her younger brother Ptolemy Xlll. They were forced to marry and rule.”

“Oh gross!” Amy squealed. “That’s nasty.”

Kamilah laughed, “It was very common among nobility. He was 10 at the time.”

“Ewww. Please skip this part Kami.”

“You know I was engaged then as well.” Kamilah set the trap, feeling Amy tense, she loved when Amy got jealous.

“Kami. I said skip this part!”

“Oh relax, I’m just teasing. Anyway, after Ptolemy got older her forced Cleopatra and myself out of the palace and took over as ruler.”

“What did you guys do then?”

“Julius Caesar...”

“Ya’ll fucked Julius Caesar!?” Amy said cutting off Kamilah, bolting from her sheets.

“If you would let me finish please, no we didn’t. Well I never did but she did however, but not at this point anyway. He came to the palace and she snuck into the palace inside of a bedroll.

“How did she do that?” Amy quizzed.

“Who do you think rolled her into it?” Kamilah sighed face palming.

“Oh. Right.” Amy said blushing.

“Anyway. She made an alliance with Caesar and the two formed an Army and defeated Ptolemys Army at the Nile. Ptolemy tried to escape and drowned. She took back over the throne.”

“I’m getting bad bitch vibes from her.” Amy awed. “That’s when I officially became Nomarch.” Kamilah added.

“What happened to Julius?”

“He and Cleopatra became an item and she birthed his son Ceasarion. Together she ruled with her son.” Cleopatra visited Rome but always declared to keep Egypt separate.”

“Did Caesar like that?”

“It was merely a political alliance. Caesar needed the grain from Eypgt to feed his people, Cleopatra wanted her throne back. She seduced him to get what they both wanted. She was extremely intelligent.”

“Did she ever speak of Rome?” Amy asked.

“I was there. She took me with her.”

“What!!!!! No way!”

“It was beautiful. The culture, the architecture, it was like a complete other world. But it was also scary and chaotic. The country was on the brink of civil war with the thought of Ceasar becoming the Emperor. Fear lined the streets.”

“Then he got stabbed.” Amy recalled from history class.

“Very good Amy, yes he was murdered and Cleopatra and I returned to Eygpt where she later met Marc Antony.”

“Oh he sounds hot.”

“Oh...he was.” Kamilah smiled remembering. “He was just a smart and witty as Cleopatra, a perfect match.”

“Wait...so who ruled Rome after you guys left?”

“Antony, Caesar’s great nephew Octavian, and Marcus Lepidus, know as the second triumvirate. They hunted the liberators, those who killed Ceasar and formed the Roman Empire. Antony took control of Rome’s eastern provinces, alas, Eygpt.”

“So then he and Cleopatra fell in love?” Amy asked.

“Yes. The three rulers wanted more power and Antony married Octavia, Octavian’s sister, to calm the tension and show his commitment. But he kept up his affair with Cleopatra and had three kids with her.”

“So what were you doing while this was happening?”

“I just served alongside of Cleopatra with the other Nomarchs. I was in charge of a province and I spread Cleopatra’s influence in it.”

“Was it fun? Being so important?”

“Well I don’t know about fun. I had important decisions to make that affected peoples lives.” Kamilah recalled having to make tough decisions that helped shape her into the woman she is now.

“So back to Cleopatra, what happened to her and Antony?”

“Well they decided to strikeagainst Octavian to gain control over Rome that broke into civil war. Antony fought Octavian three times and was finally defeated after all of his men deserted him.”

“They left him?”

“Battle after battle, Antonys much larger Army left him and he was finally defeated without a fight.

“What did he do then?” Amy inquired.

“He fled. He was going to be captured so he ran. He received a letter that Cleopatra was dead, which in reality she locked herself and treasure into her mausoleum. Antony stabbed himself however he didn’t immediately die and found out Cleopatra was alive. He made it to Egypt to see her and eventually die in her arms.”

“Ah how romantic!” Amy cried. “True love!!”

Kamilah continued her story, “With Antony dead, Cleopatra sent Octavian her official word to abdicate her thrown in favor of her son and then took her own life once word had spread that Octavian was coming for her and her treasures to parade her around Rome as symbol of triumph.”

“How exactly did she die?”

“Snake poison.”

“I hate snakes.” Amy said shivering, placing her head in Kamilah’s lap.

“Then Octavian had Caesarion killed and he finally cemented his legacy as the first emperor or Rome and the one and only rightful son of Julius Caesar.”

“Oh. Poor guy. How old was Cleopatra?”

“39.”

“What did you do when you found out she died?” Amy asked.

Kamilah started rubbing Amy’s hair with delicacy,

“I cried. She was like my big sister. I was off training troops when a Roman Legion attacked us. We wouldn’t submit and then I met him...”

“Gaius...” Amy started with anger.

“He attacked and killed all of my soldiers and that’s when he turned me and brainwashed me. We immediately left Egypt and I never returned.”

“Omg Kami...I’m sorry.”

“It’s ok now. I was young and dumb then, I was 34 when I was turned.” Kamilah laughed revealing her age.

“Well we should go back and visit.” Amy said yawning.

Kamilah never thought about it. Eygpt was a special time in her life, she never had anyone to share it with. Maybe it would be fun to go visit and see how much has changed. “I think that would be a great idea Amy. Amy?”

Kamilah said as she stopped rubbing the girls head and watched the younger woman sleep in her lap. She easily removed her head from her lap and quickly got up to change before rejoining her and holding her close.

“Goodnight Habibti.” She said kissing the back of Amy’s neck.

[mymarvelbunch]

Different Roads... Same Destination: Part One

Pairing: Steve Rogers x Reader (established)

Summary: When the Avengers went back in time to get the Infinity Stones, new timelines were created. By not delivering them back to their exact same spots, you and Steve created major changes in those timelines. What happened? (Non-American!Reader)

This is a sequel to “Be Your Own Hero”. I highly recommend you read it first, since it features many major changes in canon that are addressed here.

Notes: Y/N = your (first) name; Y/Co = your home country; Y/Ci = your home city; Y/N/L = your native language (to be ignored in case you speak English).

Masterlist

Part One

New York, 2012

The Avengers were still trying to understand what happened when a loud ‘thud’ was heard. Tony turned to see the Scepter lying on the ground.

“Well, here is the thing Loki used to brainwash people”, he said. “But where is the Tesseract?”

“This isn’t the Mind Stone”, Loki said. “They placed the Tesseract in the Scepter.”

Everyone turned to him. He had already been right minutes prior, when he pointed out there were four Avengers from the future. Now the team was more inclined to believe him again, especially Thor.

“How do you know this, brother?”, he asked, frowning.

“The glow is different, for starters. And... I don’t know how to say this accurately, but I feel different when the Mind Stone is near me. Ever since those warriors came from the future and took it, I felt... lightweight, even if for brief moments. As if...”

Thor’s eyes widened. “As if the Mind Stone has some sort of power over you.” Loki nodded weakly. “Well, this is important information. Mother will certainly know to fix this. Stark, hand me the Scepter. It will be safer in Asgard.”

A SHIELD agent opened his mouth to protest, but there was little they could do as Tony gave Thor the Scepter. The Asgardian walked to the open balcony, his brother in his arm, and left, though not without asking his ‘brothers-in-arms’ to find the Mind Stone first.

“We’ll do surveillance around the Tower”, Runlow said, “with your permission, Mr. Stark.”

“Yeah, yeah, sure. I don’t want that thing near any of us.”

~~

“Wait”, Tony said. “Loki was under mind control back then?” 

You turned behind to face him, but a quick glance told you almost everyone was surprised. “You didn’t know? He told me back in 2014.”

Loki wasn’t there to defend himself, busy as he was being king, but Thor was. “Honestly, I didn’t know either, not until Asgard was destroyed. Loki told me on our way here that Mother chose to perform her purification spells out of everyone’s eye because... It would be better (or less worse) to have people believe Loki had turned evil than to have them know about Thanos. But yes, he was under Thanos’ influence through the Mind Stone. It wasn’t exactly like what he did to Barton and others, but close enough.”

That made an awful lot of sense. No one had a good answer for that, and they turned back to the ‘screen’.

~~

It took five years for the Mind Stone to be found. In the meantime, SHIELD was dismantled, the Winter Soldier was revealed to be a brainwashed Bucky Barnes and HYDRA was taken down piece by piece.

There was no Scarlet Witch, no Quicksilver, no Ultron, no Sokkovia Accords, no Zemo. Steve found Bucky in Bucarest in 2016 and, after weeks of talking and with Sam’s help, took him to New York. There, they faced another battle, as many people wanted him in jail for the crimes he committed as the Winter Soldier.

Surprisingly, their help came from Tony. “I know what he did to my parents, yeah. I read all those files Romanov leaked. But we all saw what brainwashing does to a person, huh?”

No, Tony and Bucky didn’t become friends. Despite his forgiveness, Tony was still wary of him; poor man had his own mental health issues to face already. But he was willing to pay the best lawyers to convince the public that Barnes had no control over himself for the past seven decades, and that the Winter Soldier was nothing but a weapon in HYDRA’s hands. It took time and money, but it was worth it, for Bucky was absolved and reclaimed his status as war hero.

Even so, he didn’t want to stay in US. “Too many memories”, he explained, and Steve understood. It all got worse when one of Tony’s employees found a glowing Stone in the elevator shaft. Thor wasn’t on Earth when it happened, so the Mind Stone stayed at the Tower for a while. Needless to say, Steve was worried, and Bucky was terrified.

“I found a place that might be good for you”, Maria Hill told him one day. “Y/Ci, in Y/Co. It’s a place untouched by HYDRA and with no evidence that the Winter Soldier ever stepped foot in there. No memories, no triggers.”

Bucky accepted the offer almost immediately, and Steve was happy to follow him. “I’ve had enough fights for a lifetime”, he said. “We should have retired from soldier duty decades ago, Bucky. We both deserve a normal life.”

It was early 2018 when they finally settled, and, upon Steve’s insistence, Bucky started looking for mental health care facilities.

~~

Your grip on Steve’s hand tightened when you recognized the mental health facility Bucky got inside. “I was an intern there at college”, you said. Steve’s eyes widened, and he grinned.

“Maybe Bucky will be the one to get you instead of me”, he teased.

Behind you, whispers could be heard.

“It’s weird to not see myself with you guys”, Wanda said. “I wish I could know if Pietro is alive.” Vision rested his hand on her shoulder, likely reflecting on how would his life be if he had stayed as a disembodied voice.

“Wakanda wasn’t even mentioned”, Shuri said. “I guess with father still alive, the borders remained closed.”

“Probably the reason why Bucky moved to Y/Co instead of Wakanda”, Sam added. “If people still think Wakanda is a poor country, no one would think of it as a mental health care reference.”

“I’m not mentioned either”, Scott said, “which is kind of weird, because I don’t see why I wouldn’t meet at least Sam.”

“Yeah, but there was no fight in Germany for you to take part of”, Hope replied. “They probably never contacted you again. Parker isn’t mentioned either.”

Someone shushed them.

~~

Even though he had scheduled it all by himself, Bucky didn’t want to go his first appointment alone. So, when Y/N called for Sebastian Stan (his new alias), he and Steve (who called himself Chris Evans) stood up together from their seats.

Inside, Bucky soon confessed his true identity. Your surprise was visible for five seconds, and then you smiled. “I’m glad you trusted me with such a delicate information, Mr. Barnes. But I wish you’d tell me your story with your own words, not just what was said about you on newspapers.”

Steve stayed inside the whole time, having also revealed who he was. Bucky didn’t tell his whole story at once, give there was a time limit for his appointment, but you asked him to come back in a week. “We can’t give you any concrete diagnosis for now, Mr. Barnes, though we have a few suspicions. But I assure you we’ll help you in every step of your recovery. You won’t be alone.”

After three more sessions, he was diagnosed primarily with PTSD, along with general anxiety disorder and memory problems (he had yet to remember key details of his past).

You were supposed to leave the facility at the end of the month, but your mentor offered you a prolonged stay. “You mentioned your next internship would be in surgery, and you don’t like it, right? I can pull some strings to keep you here. It’s not like you’ll need those skills to become a psychiatrist.”

You happily accepted his help. You’ve always been sure of what you wanted to do after finishing college; skipping surgery internship was honestly a dream come true, and you were eager to follow Barnes’ case. Your classmates didn’t know his true identity, but the case discussions made it clear you got one of the most complex cases at the facility, and some classmates envied you.

Your teacher was successful, and for the following three months you stayed, taking care not only of Barnes, but of other patients as well. It was a wonderful experience, and you were sure you had fallen into the staff’s good graces, which increased your chances at getting into residency program there after graduation.

As the weeks went by, though, you noticed something rather odd. Barnes had been getting inside the room alone since his fifth appointment, but Rogers still accompanied him, waiting for him outside. Eventually, you asked your patient why that was, assuming he’d say he still didn’t feel safe coming alone. Instead, he grinned.

“Oh, he pretends he comes for my sake, but he actually just wants to get a glimpse of you.”

You nearly choked on your own saliva.

~~

At your side, Steve laughed and hugged you tight.

“Guess I didn’t steal Y/N from you after all, punk”, Bucky said, grinning just like his alternate counterpart.

“Thank God”, you replied. “No offence, Bucky, but seeing us dating would have been way too awkward.”

“Couldn’t agree more.”

---x---

It wasn’t easy for Steve to convince you to go on a date with him. You were hesitant, given he was her patient’s best friend and roommate, but eventually you conceded.

“We won’t talk about Barnes at all”, you said firmly. “And if I sense this will affect my relationship with my patient, it’ll be over.”

“Yes, ma’am”, he replied instantly, willing to do anything to see you more.

You had charmed him from day one, and his interest on you only grew as weeks went by. When the day of your date arrived, he was a nervous wreck.

“Haven’t seen you like this since Peggy”, Bucky mentioned.

“Shut up, jerk”, he retorted. “And go hide, I don’t want Y/N to see you and cancel our date.”

“She’s got you wrapped around her finger and you haven’t even kissed yet”, he teased, but left to his room anyway.

A date led to another, and another, and another... Steve waited for you to leave the facility and stop seeing Bucky to ask you to be his girlfriend, and she promptly agreed.

A year later, when you met the Avengers for the first time, Thor told the story of how he, Loki and others fought Thanos when he invaded Asgard to take the Space and Mind Stones. Your eyes widened as he gleefully detailed the purple alien’s demise.

“Glad you defeated him still in Asgard”, Tony said. “We just found out about another of these Stones here on Earth. A wizard here in New York is its guardian.”

“Really? Give me his address, I figure we have much to discuss.”

You didn’t really understand all those talks, but Steve’s visible relief was enough information for you.

~~

On the current timeline, that same relief was visible among everyone. “A peaceful timeline”, you commented. “I hope there are more of these.”

After Strange showed what happened to the Avengers who were not featured, Wong took his place to show another timeline. You straightened your back as the ‘screen’ showed you briefly kissing Steve in Morag.

~~

Did you like it? I was looking forward to write about the consequences of those changes. Butterfly effect is strong here.

For those who don’t remember, in ‘Be Your Own Hero’ Loki tells the Reader he was under the influence of the Mind Stone in the events of the first Avengers movie. This is a popular theory that explains some differences between his behavior in that movie and his behavior on... well, any other movie he’s in.

In this, I try to touch on how things would be different if this information was made known right away, instead of being kept a secret. Being seen as a victim instead of a villain changes a lot for Loki’s story, and therefore Thor’s arc as well (The Dark World and Ragnarok’s. It also helps Tony understand Bucky’s story and actions better, since he saw the effects of mind control on Clint and Loki.

Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver, Ultron and Vision are all products of the Mind Stone, meaning that, in its absence, they don’t exist. The events of Age of Ultron are what make Civil War happen, meaning one doesn’t exist without the other. With no Civil War, nobody reaches out to Scott, T’Challa doesn’t become king to open the borders, and Peter Parker’s role in Tony’s life is probably less significant (though I do believe he mentors the teenager anyway).

If you want to follow my crazy ideas on time travel and its consequences, taglist is open!

[nitrateglow]

Thoughts on Nightfall (1957) and what makes a story seem “contrived”

Some movies don’t work for you and you know why right away. Some are more sneaky about it. Such was Nightfall for me, a well-shot film noir that seems to have a lot going for it. And yet, I found myself quite uninterested in the story only half an hour in. Why?

Because the characters are paper-thin puppets jerked about by the needs of a very flimsy, contrived plot.

Now, what makes a story seem contrived? I would say when the characters aren’t acting like people but more like pawns. Noir stories are often in danger of coming off as contrived since they are commonly incited by chance encounters and bad luck, but the best pull them off by giving us credible characters. One bad day, one wrong turn, and bam, you just got framed for murder or moved to commit a crime you normally wouldn’t. Now your life is hell.

Scarlet Street is a great example of such a story-- Edward G. Robinson’s character is a decent guy whose life is destroyed when he chooses to save a woman from being beaten by her pimp-- not realizing this woman is going to squeeze him for every penny he has once they become friends. Everything that follows does not feel contrived because Robinson’s character acts in ways that feel true to his character’s motivations, frustrations, and personality. The same with all of the other characters in the film. Events get out of control, but you believe they could happen. They make sense in their own twisted way.

Here, so many of the things the characters did make no sense to me. I can handle a little plot hole here and there, I don’t expect any movie to be perfect, but these lapses in logic kept adding up and taking me out of the story.

Okay, since this isn’t a well-known movie outside of super-noir nerd-dom, I should probably give you an idea of the plot:

An affable artist named Jim is out camping in the Wyoming wilderness with his nice old man doctor friend. They see a car crash and decide to help the two injured men in there. Turns out these fellows are bank-robbers who appreciate the help but decide to kill the two to cover their tracks. They shoot the old man, then try to get Jim to shoot himself to make it look like a murder-suicide. Jim doesn’t play ball, but just ends up shot for his trouble anyway.

Soon, Jim wakes up alone, bleeding but stable enough to walk. The robbers have left him for dead, but they left something else too: the bag of stolen money. They grabbed the doctor’s bag by mistake. Now Jim is stuck with a bag of money, a dead body, his fingerprints on a gun, and a story the cops likely won’t believe. He flees with the dough but somehow loses the bag. Now he lives on the lam under a series of assumed identities, evading both the cops and the robbers. Unfortunately, the robbers have caught up with him just as the movie starts.....

Okay, not bad. A decent noir set-up: a chance encounter that turns your life to hell, now you have to deal with it. We have good actors all around. The cinematography is beautiful. And the climactic fight is shockingly violent for the 1950s.

But the execution of the story that follows-- with the robbers finally finding Jim and trying to get him to share the location of the money-- is just bleh.

The antagonists might be the biggest blow to the story, often acting more inept than they need to be. Why do they just assume Jim is dead when they shoot him, especially given he could just walk it off after? The robbers also conveniently get into fights anytime Jim is at their mercy, making it easy for him to escape with a well-timed punch.

Now, bad guys in movies don’t need to be perfect criminal masterminds all the time and human beings often act recklessly (even the intelligent, ruthless Palpatine in Star Wars ultimately loses because he felt the need to play with his food before he ate it), but unless Shredder from the 1980s TMNT series is your villain, your antagonist does need to be competent at least 75% of the time or the suspense fizzles out. And the two baddies here, fun as they are when bantering, are not very threatening because they hold the Idiot Ball one too many times.

The obligatory romantic subplot also takes away much from the credibility of the story. Rarely have I ever encountered a love story this needless. Jim meets a woman at a bar (played by the amazing Anne Bancroft)-- she has no connection to the robbers or the cops, but throws in with Jim because... uh, yeah this woman goes along with the hero for no reason beyond “I have nothing better to do.” Actually, wait, no, she’s there for two reasons: A) to ward off what Mr. Plinkett would call a case of the “not-gays” for our noir hero and B) so the hero can be heroic in rescuing her from the baddies.

It doesn’t help that Jim himself isn’t interesting. Even everyman noir protagonists usually have a savage streak in them. Once again, Robinson in Scarlet Street is a decent, sweet guy whose anger at his abusive wife, artistic frustrations, and affronts to his masculinity send him spiraling into adultery, theft, and murder. He’s a normal person pushed too far. But Jim... I don’t know. He never struck my interest. He’s a square-jawed fellow who feels more like a plainclothes cop than a normal man in over his head and pushed to violence, and given he’s being threatened by two goobers, I never felt frightened for his life.

It’s such a shame this didn’t work out. Director Jacques Tourner gave cinema one of the quintessential noir films ever made in Out of the Past a decade previous, but Nightfall doesn’t even come close to measuring up.

6/10

[readingraebow]

Gone with the Wind Section Six

Chapters 37-43

1. What does Tony Fontaine’s arrival in Atlanta make Scarlett realize? It makes her realize that the South is really in trouble and the world they knew definitely isn't coming back. "Justice" as they knew it and the system with the courts is no longer in place. Now, they are subjected to the whims of the Yankees. Because the Yankee solders are still in the South basically punishing them for the war, they can do whatever they want to offenders. Which is why many of the former upstanding citizens are now on the run from the law, like Tony Fontaine, or are due to be hanged for crimes they may or may not have committed, like Rhett Butler. Scarlett realizes that she doesn't want to raise her children in such a sea of hatred. But until the Yankees grow bored with oppressing the South, that's what she's going to get.

2. Gone with the Wind describes the Reconstruction from a purely Southern perspective. Does this change any opinions about the way the South was treated after the Civil War? It honestly does. Because war is usually told from the prospective of the victor and so far all I've ever heard is tales of how the South was awful and deserved to be punished and how we saw to it that this happened. But reading it from the prospective of a Southerner is a completely different ballgame. It's like giving your enemy a face and a name and seeing them as a person changes your desire to harm them. Because, yes, I don't agree with the South or slavery and I definitely agree that it should've been abolished but I also don't think the South should've been treated the way they're currently being treated. People who were formerly wealthy are now starving to death with no means of income and no help from the government who caused it. I would think that "Reconstruction" would have a means of helping the people it has left helpless. And it honestly disappoints me a lot that it didn't. Because yes the North won the war, but I don't think it gives them the right to treat the losers anyway they please. I think their presence in the South should be to help them rebuild and restructure their lives and move forward, not to continually oppress them and make it hard from them to even live. So, yes, this book has definitely changed my opinions about the Reconstruction and I'm honestly a little horrified by what I'm reading.

3. What do you think of Scarlett’s lumber business? Are you impressed with her business savvy, or disgruntled with her lack of ethics? I am super impressed with Scarlett's business savvy. While I don't like that she's flat out lying about the products her competitors produce, I get her need to do business at any cost. And Scarlett is the only one actually consistently bringing money into her family. So with her business alone, she's surviving and thriving and saving Tara and taking care of her family. And that honestly impresses me a lot because what a long way we've come from the selfish girl at the start of the novel.

4. What is the irony about Yankee women that Scarlett discovers? The Yankees are the ones who freed the Blacks but they don't like them??? Some of the Yankee women staying in town stop Scarlett and tell her they've lost their nurse and don't know how to go about getting another one and ask for her advice. She tells them to stop any Black woman walking by and ask if she's looking for work. And the Yankee women are absolutely mortified because they don't want anyone Black in their home. And Scarlett is just like ????? but they're loyal and they will be good to your children and you're literally the ones who wanted them freed. And the Yankee women are like "no we didn't. That was our men." They hadn't even seen anyone Black until they came to Atlanta to join their husbands. What?????

5. What led to the event that brings Scarlett back to Tara? So, Scarlet gets a letter from Will saying that her father died so she hops the first train back and Will picks her up at the station. Well, on the way to Tara, he tells her what happened. Scarlett says she wished Will would've told her Gerald was sick. She would've come straight home. But Will said Gerald was never sick. So. What happened was Scarlett was sending home money every month and they were using it for repairs on Tara and for food and basically to get by and there wasn't anything left over for new clothes or anything like that. Well, everyone was okay with that except for Suellen. She never really got used to this new life and she wanted the new dresses she saw on Yankee women in town. So, she heard that the Yankees were paying anyone who made a claim that they'd been a Union sympathizer but the Yankees had burned their farm. So, she started taking Gerald on walks and basically buttering him up since he was born in Ireland, not in the Union, and hadn't had any sons to fight in the war, she could pass him off as a sympathizer, she just needed to get him to sign the oath. So when she finally took him to town to get him to sign it, he refused. So she got him really drunk and then he agreed to sign it. Well, when he was just about to sign it, she mentioned two other families, who Gerald didn't like, and that they'd signed it and when Gerald heard that, he kind of snapped back to his old self and went into a rage and said he wouldn't sign anything they'd signed. So, he barreled out of there, took Alex Fontaine's horse and rode home. Well, Will and Ashley were outside and saw him coming. He was jumping fences on his way to Tara. But when he got to the last fence, the horse refused to jump it and stopped. Gerald was flung over the horse and by the time Will and Ashley reached him, he was dead.

6. What do you think of Suellen? Honestly she drives me nuts? She is basically the definition of entitled. (Scarlett, at least, changed with the world after the war ended. But it's like Suellen doesn't get that the world is never going to be the same as the one they knew and no amount of pouting about it is going to change that.) I get that she's mad that Scarlett stole her betrothed. She has ever right to be. But trying to convince her father, who isn't right in the head anymore, to sign the oath just to get money for her to buy new clothes??? And then leading to his death, even though that wasn't what she intended, was honestly pretty awful. So, I kind of don't like Suellen and for literally all the reasons I hated Scarlett at the beginning of this book. Read the world, Suellen, and stop being entitled.

7. What does Grandma Fontaine warn Scarlett about Will? Do you think there’s truth to what she says? Basically she approves of Will marrying Suellen but she doesn't approve because they're different classes. She says that Will is an uneducated Cracker who will be loyal but by allowing him to marry into the family, there will be talk and no one will ever respect Will the way Gerald was respected. Because the O'Hara's are one of the "old families" and even though everyone likes Will and he could basically have his pick of any of the girls and he's literally better than Suellen, breeding hasn't changed any and even though the war changed everything, no one forgets where you came from. And Will came from nothing so deep down, everyone still sees him as such. And I honestly don't agree with this at all? Because the world has changed and as awful as this sounds, all of the people who are set in the old ways are people who are older. And they're going to die. And the people who are picking up the pieces are people like Will and Suellen. So basically I don't think the next generation will feel like Grandma Fontaine and the old generation. And I think once the South truly does start rebuilding, Will and Suellen's class status won't matter in the slightest.

8. What is the secret to survival? Who does Grandma Fontaine identify as survivors? "Don't holler-- smile and bide your time." Grandma Fontaine says that those who are flexible and bow to the inevitable are the ones who will rise up out of the dirt and carry on. She gives examples of a bunch of the families around them who aren't adapting to the new order and who will probably end up not making it through the Reconstruction or, at least, not coming out rich once more. And then she talks about her grandson Alex who was raised just like Ashley and the others around him who are struggling but the difference is Alex changed and adapted and he learned to far and work the land and actually make money and survive. And she predicts that he will come out of this as rich as his father and his grandfather were before him because he learned how to survive instead of waiting around for the world he knew to come back. People like him and people like Scarlett have learned the secret to survival.

9. What does Scarlett propose to Ashley? Do you think this is a good idea? Scarlett asks Ashley to come run one of lumber mills. It's the first one she bought and it's currently being run by the old own but Scarlett knows he's stealing from her so she wants to replace him with someone who she knows is honest. She also heard that Ashley is planning to move North and work in a bank. So to stop him from leaving, she offers him the position as manager and a half interest in the mill. Well, he initially refuses her but when Scarlett tells Melanie and Melanie is 100% on board, he is forced to accept. And I honestly think it's an awful idea. Ashley is basically useless, which everyone could see from his "help" running Tara, and I don't really think he'd be any different in a mill. He's either not bright or not motivated and I can't really decide which? And for Scarlett to hire someone like Ashley, when earlier she didn't want to hire a man who didn't have gumption, is honestly perplexing. She literally overlooks all of his faults because she's in love with him and I'm honestly pretty sick of it. Because I don't think Ashley will run her mill well. I don't think anyone will run them as well as Scarlett can.

10. How does Scarlett plan to solve the problem of free blacks quitting on her? Is this a wise solution? She wants to hire prison labor which I think is an excellent idea. Finding poor whites isn't really going to work since everyone has been finding something to do and starting their own businesses. And obviously hiring free blacks isn't working since they don't want to work for extended periods of time. So I don't really see another option? Prison labor will be cheap and dependable and I think that will make Scarlett's mills even more profitable. As it is, I honestly don't see how her mills have been so profitable this far if it's hard to even get someone to cut the lumber. So I think having a crew that consistently works will give her even more product and help her sell more.

11. Who is Archie? What do you think of him? So when Melanie gets her own house, she entertains all kinds of people and there are always people over at her house and such. Well, she also has three rooms in the basement that were formerly servants quarters. One of them houses Dilcey, who came with them from Tara, but the other two rooms are vacant so she lets travelers, mostly people who are down on their luck, stay in them. One of these people is Archie. It turns out that Archie is a convict who fought in the war and, in exchange for fighting, was given his freedom with the surrender. Well, no one but Melanie knows this and since Scarlett is having trouble with Frank and he won't let her visit the mills on her own, Melanie sends Archie to Scarlett to drive her around so she can go back to work. Archie is really gruff and opinionated but he eventually becomes a driver for all the women in town since they're all scared and won't go out on their own. And since he also has a big personality, he tends to clash a lot with Scarlett, which is interesting. And I honestly really, really like him?? He definitely has some quirks and a few things I don't agree with (yes, your wife was sleeping with your brother but that definitely didn't give you the right to kill her???) but I find him really interesting and just picturing him taking Scarlett everywhere is honestly pretty hilarious and I quite enjoy it. Especially since he's so openly opinionated and basically hates all women (except Melanie) but ends up being their bodyguard and ~taking care of them. I love it so much!!

12. Do you think Rhett has a right to be upset with Scarlett? Do you agree with how she justifies her survival tactics? I 100% think Rhett has a right to be upset with Scarlett. When he gave her the money for the mill, he made her promise that the money would in no way ever be used to take care of Ashley. And, now, Ashley is running the mill. In making Scarlett make that promise, I think Rhett was trying to force Ashley to buck up and not let Scarlett take care of him (by trying to make Scarlett not take care of him) and trying to break Scarlett of her hold on Ashley. Because we all know that Scarlett is never, ever rational where Ashley is concerned but maybe if she could just see him who he is, for once, she'd see what everyone else sees and realize that her love is pretty much wasted on someone who doesn't deserve it. And I honestly don't agree with any of Scarlett's justifications of Ashley. I think she's let her crush run too far and for too long and I'm honestly as irritated reading about her justifying Ashley's every fault as she is to hear Rhett bring up Ashley. I'm just sick to death of it and ready for her to finally see the light and move on, both for her sake and for ours as the readers.

  Section Six Reading Journal

So, I liked this section a little less than the last (because less Rhett) but I am still loving this book a lot more than I did. I really like Scarlett’s lumbermill business and all of that is completely fascinating. And I really loved when she was pregnant and Rhett would just show up and drive her around. And then, after Rhett left, I loved when Archie showed up and did the same.

I am honestly so completely annoyed with Frank. I hate that he got Scarlett pregnant thinking it “would calm her down” especially since she had a baby that she didn’t even want. (That’ll be a great environment to be raised in.) And I was seriously so enraged when, while Scarlett was resting after having the baby, Frank searched her stuff, found all of her money and put it in the bank IN HIS NAME and then basically locked up the coach so she couldn’t go anywhere unless he said she could. Excuse me??? No. Scarlett is THE ONLY ONE MAKING MONEY FOR THIS FAMILY and Frank is actually useless. So don’t????? Honestly Frank’s existence in general annoyed me in this section??

Will though. I love Will. I love that he’s going to be running Tara is going to be part of the family. But I honestly hate Suellen and she would’ve been a much better match with Frank. (Hi, Rhett. Where were you to marry Scarlett when we needed you so she didn’t have to marry Frank????) And I wish Carreen would’ve married Will. That would’ve been a much better match. But with the exception of who he is marrying, I love everything about what happened with Will. Though extra sad face about Gerald’s death and wow Suellen, that was actually the worst thing you’ve ever done. Good job.

Okay and also. The only person who annoyed me more than Frank, in this section, is Ashley. I wish Scarlett would’ve just let him go North. That would’ve been the life he deserved. Though I 100% agree with everything Rhett said about him in the last chapter of this section. Not dying in the war just means that Ashley doesn’t know where he belongs now and won’t man up and figure it out. He’s content to live on the charity of others (even though he says he isn’t; but someone else also found him that bank job so I don’t know how that situation would’ve been any different) and he’s honestly an actual disaster at running ANYTHING, let alone a lumbermill. And Scarlett is definitely losing money on the mill he’s running. So. I wish she would’ve just let him go North.

And apparently this is just going to be me complaining about all the people I don’t like, haha. And I know I had something else I had thoughts about but I’m awesome and I forgot so I’ll just say that I definitely can’t wait to read the next section. I think we’re finally getting close to Scarlett and Rhett and I. Cannot. WAIT. So. I’m enjoying this book quite a lot now and I honestly can’t wait to get back to the next two sections.

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #130: The Reality Problem!

December, 1974

Not sure what this title means.

And I think “one of the greatest battle issues ever!!” is maybe overselling it a bit. But I appreciate that your own stories excite you, Steve Englehart.

Last time: Kang kidnapped Mantis, Scarlet Witch, Agatha Harkness because one of them was destined to be the Celestial Madonna (it was Mantis) and Thor, Iron Man, and the Vision to stuff into Macrobots to cause World War III. Swordsman, Hawkeye, and Pharaoh Rama-Tut freed the other Avengers but at the cost of Swordsman’s life and Rama-Tut and Kang disappeared into the time stream after slightly nudging a lever.

This time: A bunch of villains interrupt a perfectly good funeral.

But the splash page was a bit ahead of where the story actually starts. After thwarting Kang in China, the Avengers have returned to Avengers Mansion to catch up.

Hawkeye tells the Avengers (and Agatha Harkness who is sitting in on the meeting and distracting Wanda with her cat) that Captain America has become Nomad. They’re all just thrilled that Cap is getting back out there into the game of punching people in the face after he was so disillusioned post-Secret Empire.

Iron Man assumes that Hawkeye is going to be rejoining but Hawkeye is non-committal.

Then Mantis comes in and tells them that this is goodbye. She doesn’t feel she can remain with the Avengers after her actions dishonored them. She’s going to return to Vietnam and try to figure out her past. And she only asks she be allowed to take the Swordsman’s body to bury it in Vietnam.

As far as she knows, it is where he was the happiest.

It occurs to me that because of the nature of the biz, they are going to bury him without knowing his real name (Jacques Duquesne). Or his life outside the mask at all. It actually turns out that he had a daughter and although he never really raised her, apparently swording is genetic because she became a master of the blade too. But because Swordsman never told even Mantis anything outside the swashbuckling persona he wanted for himself, the Avengers don’t learn about her until 2014. And who knows how many years that is in sliding timescale time.

Just goes to show. If you’re a superhero with a secret identity, make arrangements. You could die during the next big event. Although it might later turn out that you weren’t dead or you may be resurrected so it could be hard to make any kind of arrangements you’ll be happy coming back to.

Anyway.

Thor says that they were holding off on burial arrangements because they were waiting to see what her wishes were. And says thee nay to goodbye. Obviously the Avengers are going to the funeral.

Mantis is shocked that the Avengers are sticking with her after the terrible way she acted but Thor says “thy chastened demeanor doth reflect a penitent soul.” I guess as long as you know you goofed up?

Scarlet Witch can’t go though. Agatha Harkness insists that she get back to her witchcraft studies. And although she doesn’t say anything out loud (because it would be in poor taste) she wishes Vision would stay with her because she still doesn’t trust Mantis around him.

Vision does initially decide to remain. But because he no longer trusts himself. He has frozen up in the middle of battle three times now: once against Dormammu, once against Zodiac, and now once against Kang. He doesn’t feel fit company for the Avengers.

But Iron Man and Thor talk him into coming. Its better that he be along where they can aid him if necessary than cooped up alone in the mansion, since Wanda is going to be sequestered.

ELSEWHERE, the Saigon Diamond Exchange. A probably-ex-GI has covered himself with razor blades and called himself the Slasher. I’m not sure how he feels about shipping but he’s slashing prices down to nothing!

... he’s stealing the diamonds.

And he means business. When a security guard tries to intervene, the Slasher back hands him across the face, causing several spurts of blood.

And then he runs off with the diamonds. And since nobody can block his way without getting cut, he escapes easily. THE PERFECT CRIME.

Hours later, the Avengers Quinjet over to the abandoned temple of the Priests of Pama.

Mantis chose this spot for the Swordsman’s burial. BUT ONLY BECAUSE IT FILLS HER WITH AN OVERWHELMING SENSE OF TRANQUILITY. Its not like she believes that she was raised here.

(I think there’s a somewhat darker reason she chose this location but we’ll get to that a moderate amount down the line)

And then the burial.

Hawkeye thinks something that I had been thinking. That Swordsman was basically a Hawkeye that never got the breaks. And with that realization, Hawkeye is sorry for giving him so much grief.

Mantis lets her feelings out in a chant of lament and then asks Thor to speak for Swordsman as a god, despite not knowing Swordsman’s chosen faith. But hey, if he was Norse, he definitely earned a place in Valhalla. Died in battle.

Thor: “All Father Odin, we who be immortal are ofttimes tempted to forget the meaning of mortality -- that life is but a temporary gift for most. A man cannot exist without the knowledge that he may forfeit that gift whenever he places himself in the path of peril... yet men do risk their lives, and sometimes lose them, for many and varied reasons... and the greatest of these... is love.”

And then they bury the Swordsman.

So he’s gone forever.

And then the Avengers hear a scream from outside the temple and go rushing into action. They’d have liked to mourn the Swordsman much longer but being an Avenger means running towards the screaming.

And they find Iron Man foes the Titanium Man and the Crimson Dynamo and Thor villain and Master of Evil the Radioactive Man chasing a man out of the jungle.

The man sees the Avengers and hopes they’ll save him but he doesn’t make it before Crimson Dynamo and Titanium Man start blasting him.

But they’re not killing him. They say they are only teaching him a lesson. For this man, Sen Fa, struck his wife so hard that she died of it.

The Avengers run to intervene but Crimson Dynamo goes Red Light. This is their business, the business of the Titanic Three. And the Avengers have no authority here.

See, this is after the Vietnam War cease-fire but before the fall of Saigon. And in North Vietnam (which is where the temple is, I guess) the Titanic Three are the superheroes.

Radioactive Man recaps their origin. He was sent to America by his Chinese masters and then joined the Masters of Evil but he met defeat each time. Likewise, Titanium Man fought Iron Man several times for the Russians and always lost. His final mission was to persuade the exiled Crimson Dynamo to return to Russia. Instead, Titanium Man joined Crimson Dynamo as an independent agent. And hearing about it, Radioactive Man broke out of prison to join them.

The three allied themselves with the Viet Cong, the only popular front in Vietnam, because none of the superpowers could touch them without political complications. And together they became the TITANIC THREE!

Here, they are the LAW. And the Avengers are trespassers. So kindly gtfo.

Now this is a fascinating concept. I always like for non-America countries to have their own superheroes. Because you’d think that logically, the same amount of weird lab accidents, mutations, and inventing would happen outside America and create superheroes and villains.

Failing that, during the Cold War, a lot of comic villains were enemy agents sent by Russia or China to America to steal plans or sabotage or fight American superheroes or whatever. If they would just stay home, they could be the Russian Avengers. (The Russians do get a superhero team later which includes a guy who turns into a BEAR!)

But with the Titanic Three you get the added wrinkle that they’re all devoted communists but tired of how their homelands treated them so they all moved to Vietnam to be superheroes there. Still half-communistic but independentish from China and Russia.

And they may not act like the Avengers would view superheroes (clearly torturing a helpless captive) but on the other hand, they tracked an abuser and murderer through the jungle to bring him to justice. On some level, they do seem committed to the idea of being heroes. Maybe if only to put some tallies in the win column for a change.

I expect it only to last until someone wants to use one of the three as a villain of the month.

Anyway, Iron Man takes great exception to being told to leave. Titanium Man and Crimson Dynamo were responsible for the death of a woman he loved and the Viet Cong was responsible for him becoming Iron Man. So he is itching to pick a fight.

Thor holds him back.

Thor: “‘Tis their land now, and even as we may not follow Dr. Doom into his kingdom of Latveria -- so are we powerless here!”

Well, the Avengers did go into Latveria once, although they were lured into a trap so it probably doesn’t count.

Iron Man then attacks Thor to get him out of the way.

It goes about how you’d expect.

Thor is mostly embarrassed that Iron Man is making him settle this dispute so publicly. And in front of their villains, no less! Geez, Tony.

Anyway they agree to leave and head for Saigon to investigate Mantis’ past. Since Captain Marvel is Kree, they broadcast a worldwide signal for him or Rick Jones but they’re both busy in Captain Marvel’s own book so the Avengers go to do some legwork.

Mantis goes to a house she remembers living in when she was young but the inhabitants tell her the house was only built two years ago.

Leaving Mantis to realize she may be mistaken about her whole life and being.

Hawkeye asks whats the deal with Mantis anyway and Vision recaps all the Mantis highlights, which is handy for any readers just tuning in. Although because he’s a gentleman he doesn’t share that Mantis was aggressively flirting with him before Swordsman’s death.

Mantis leads the Avengers to other landmarks from her youth but nobody at those places remembers her. And her spirits sink lower and lower.

The tour just so happens to go by the Slasher’s hiding spot (oh yeah, he was set up in this issue, wasn’t he?) and he instantly assumes that they’re looking for him. Because he has an over-inflated sense of his own importance and a little bit of paranoia.

Initially, he plans to just lay low until his fence arrives so he can palm the jewels off on him. But then he happens to spot the Titanic Three walking around on another street.

Because they can just visit Saigon whenever they want because nobody can prove they’re with the Viet Cong and they probably beat up anyone that accuses them.

But that gives the Slasher an idea.

Meanwhile, some brief Mantis self-doubt. Her whole life as she knows it is probably a lie, implanted memories by the dead Kree priests. And she doesn’t see herself as any kind of Madonna, not after how she treated Swordsman and tried seducing a man already in a relationship. And if she is the Celestial Madonna, then who is her mate supposed to be?

And then this character moment is interrupted by an action scene.

The Titanic Three show up with the Slasher yelling about the Avengers abusing their privileges. And now that they’re not in North Vietnam, Thor has no problem throwing down.

Thor gets into it with Titanium Man who blasts Thor and then tries to hold him down, accusing him of bothering a Viet Cong sympathizer. Thor just hammers him.

Crimson Dynamo tackles Iron Man claiming that the armored Avenger only blames him for Janice Cord’s death to spare himself. And then Iron Man blasts him in the face.

Crimson Dynamo realizes that Iron Man is even stronger than last they fought and decides on a strategic retreat down an alley but a hooded figure swings from a rooftop and kicks him off his feet. Which Crimson Dynamo is kind of befuddled by. Dude knocked him on his ass with his bare feet.

Meanwhile, Hawkeye shoots Radioactive Man in the face with a FOOM! arrow because he’s bored of talking politics.

Meanwhile meanwhile, Mantis engages the Slasher. But she’s out of sorts what with Swordsman’s death and learning that her past is a lie. In a brief exchange, the Slasher gets the better of her, BOP!ing her across the face. Thankfully without using any of the many blades glued to him.

And then Vision steps in.

Slasher tries to tackle him but Vision just goes diamond-hard and Slasher bounces off. Some of his little blades even break off in the impact. It’s pretty great.

It’s stuff like this why Vision has one of my favorite power sets.

Anyway, Vision then uses Solar Beam which was Super Effective because it knocked Slasher’s diamond sack loose. The not-so-sharp sharp guy goes scrabbling for the diamonds.

But Titanium Man calls the fight to an end. See, the Slasher told the Titanic Three that the Avengers were harassing him with trumped up theft charges. But he really did have stolen jewels!

Plus, Thor says that the Avengers didn’t even know of the Slasher’s existence until his fight.

Titanium Man: “So! We have been duped! He is a thief -- and as such, he deserves no aid from any decent man!”

The Slasher: “Decent man? You? YOU’RE A COMMIE!”

Titanium Man: “Come, comrades. We need not listen to this filth. We have no further business here.”

The Slasher: “No! Come back! You can’t leave me -- to them!”

Thor: “This man did precipitate battle most foul between two bands of super-beings! To think that one such as he could do that.”

The Vision: “But isn’t that always the way, Thor? Whenever a war is fought, it is never the people who must fight it -- who have any reason to bring it about.”

You sure said a thing, the Vision. A thing that is probably relevant to the country you’re currently in. A thing about a Western guy causing a war in Vietnam after trying to rob the country.

Anyway, the issue felt kind of fillery. Like Englehart needed some Mantis exploring her past before what happens next issue but didn’t want an issue with just with that. So we get a little engineered conflict between the Avengers and the Titanic Three so the action buffs have something.

Still, it gave us the Titanic Three.

Oh. Also, back in the post for issue #126, I said I’d never find out why Klaw teamed up with Solarr. I was wrong. The letters page included in this issue has what I guess was the winning fan theory.

“While Klaw was in a Rudyarda prison, he requested for privileges to get American newspapers, seeking perhaps, an ally to free him. The permission granted, strangely, he read of Solarr’s battles with Cap. Solarr, a maniac with no scruples, who would murder without remorse, was the perfect ally. Calling a human contact on the outside, Klaw set up the freeing of Solarr. Solarr, grateful and anxious for another chance to kill and pick up a few thou, springs Klaw from the Rudyardan slammer, and the end result, AVENGERS #126!”

[paradise-x-hunter]

8♥️, A♣️, Q♣️, 6♦️, J♠️, K♠️

♥️ ♣️ Send a playing card to my ask box! ♦️ ♠️

8♥️ - How well does your muse perform in social situations?

This completely depends on the social situation. I will be using the DC Arc and the Yorkshin Arc as examples(because I love them both) for this. In the Yorkshin arc, Jordyn is constantly around Mafioso which she absolutely loathes. While she remains calm outwardly during the auction, she eyes everyone and even picks one out to murder herself. She constantly belittles these people to herself, glaring and scowling at each and every one of them. She also refuses to show any good manners to them.As for the DC Arc(which I’m still planning out and figuring out–TOGASHI PLS), Jordyn is surrounded by many kinds of people. None of these people she recognizes as Mafioso and despite the clear threat of dying, she remains calm and indifferent towards the whole succession war. However, she still disguises herself and does treat the other bodyguards with some form of respect, even going as far as to try to share plans and make sure as many people survive this as possible. These both can be argued that between these arcs, Jordyn had a major change of heart. But regardless of that, she would still react the same if she was surrounded by Mafioso as opposed to people who had not wronged her in any way. All in all, she can either act like an upstanding citizen, or she can act like a backstabbing weasel that’s planning out the person’s demise without them even knowing. 

A♣️ - What’s your muse’s strongest talent?

This would probably be Jordyn’s agricultural skills. She’s raised animals and has shown off her botany skills more than a few times. In Scarlet Thorns verse, Jordyn’s and Kurapika’s apartment is just cluttered with plants that she painstakingly cares for. They all remain healthy and happy despite some not getting much light in the first place. She can name a plant without hesitation and even figured out how an ecosystem structured itself in yet another Arc I have not gotten to writing just yet. I…really need to get back to that Fic.

Q♣️ - Do other people consider your muse charming?

I’m not exactly sure? Reader-wise, I’m not sure how many really find Jordyn charming as a character or if they just look at her, see she’s an OC, then avoid like the plague(cuz apparently there’s something wrong with OCs). In her own story, though, I guess some characters may find her charming? It’s incredibly hard for me to say these things cuz most of the time Jordyn’s eccentric behavior is pushing other characters away, but on the other hand, she winds up doing that on purpose anyway cuz she’s scared of being close with anyone. She can be a real charmer when she wants to be(usually when she wants something out of someone) though this can also boarder on her being a temptress rather than a charmer. It’s very hard to answer this question.

6♦️ - Is your muse responsible with their money?

She most likely is. She used to care for her animals with her own money before becoming a Hunter, often only having enough to get herself instant meals or just eat what crops she had. After becoming a Hunter, she does seem to be a little more loose with her money(well she doesn’t have any animals to take care of now HUHU), but she only uses her funds in order to further her goal(for now). Heaven’s Arena gave her a lot of cushion in that regards, so she barely uses her Hunter’s License in the first place. So all in all, she only ever spends her money on food and probably a place to stay when she isn’t sleeping outside. 

J♠️ - Who would your muse most likely end up in jail with?

As far as the Fic goes, she would probably wind up in jail with either Hisoka or Illumi. Both for the same reason. Public Disturbance and Disturbing the Peace. This would probably happen more with Hisoka than Illumi, since she absolutely hates his guts and would fight him any chance she got. The only reason she would get in a fight with Illumi is probably during the Election Arc when she is trying to protect Alluka and Killua from his psychotic obsession with them. She loves children.

K♠️ - What is one thing your muse considers a grave injustice?

Criminals who go unpunished for what they did. Jordyn grew up with her family being oppressed and bullied, she watched her father struggle and knows he kept his woes from her because he did not want her to realize the horrors of the world at such a young age. The people that tormented her family went unpunished for years and she still holds a massive grudge against the Mafia organization as a whole. If she had it her way, these people would be punished and tormented in much the same way her family was, though she probably wouldn’t hesitate to torture them in much more gruesome ways. And yes she does fall under this category, having committed murders and not been caught by anyone. However, during and after Yorkshin Arc, she goes to great lengths to repent for these crimes. though she figures she would probably never be able to forgive herself for what she’s done.  

[sorayahigashikata]

Chapter 59: "None of you are free from sin."

[how2to18]

THE GRAND EXPERIMENT continues. Reviewers, at least some of them, experienced a kind of wonderment at the appearance of the first three volumes of the Graphic Canon. Five years later, the wonderment has deepened to just this side of bafflement. Not that editor Russ Kick, known for his work in the underground press way back, and his exposure of government secrets later on, means to be secretive. Not in the least. Indeed, he is so attached to his indirect creation (that is, the work of the artist-adaptors, and only occasionally his own adaptation scripts) that he provides a sometimes intensive, sometimes casual introduction for each entry. He really wants this project taken seriously in the large field of comic art. And understandably so, since he has managed to create something unprecedented in comic art, at least in the English language.

Or perhaps the reader is only likely to infer that claim because Kick’s volumes have now reached thousands of oversized, intermittently color pages, and stand to reach many more. The initial series of three volumes covered assorted literary genres across the ages, from antiquity to present, in more or less chronological order. This was followed by two volumes of children’s stories, told without much talking down or dilution of the scary parts. Now we have passed on to the world of noir, where practically everything is scary, and not much in a supernatural way.

There is so much good art and fine storytelling in this latest volume that complaints and criticisms seem almost niggling. But I consider the vision or map rather too broad when we can go from Solomon and Sophocles to de Sade, from Boccaccio to Nathaniel Hawthorne to Agatha Christie, within a single volume. “Crime and Mystery” becomes, in the process, a catch all for the stories that fascinate the omnivorous editor, and for which he has found a talented (mostly very talented) set of illustrators who also usually functions as adapters.

But crime and mystery, as a generic category, might be defined more precisely as literary responses to the social realities of the last couple centuries. Slavery, mass slaughter, and so on are, of course, present in previous eras and just as monstrous as they are today. But what sets off crime and mystery as a genre, what makes it the object of endless treatments in every phase of popular culture, is modern property relations. The novel in general emerged to transcribe the drama of the worthy rising bourgeoisie against sinking aristocrats, and for Dashiell Hammett and Columbo right down to the classic years of Law & Order, the contemporary master class is ultimately the guilty one. Hammett himself, as a teacher of mystery writing in the left-wing Jefferson School of the 1940s, supposedly told his students, “Look for the money, always look for the money.”

Never mind. What is here is remarkable enough. I am especially drawn, for instance, to Sophia Wiedeman’s retelling of Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter in black and white with the use of one color, of course red. I am not sure that Wiedeman has captured the interiority of Hawthorne himself and his acceptance of guilt, as a descendant of New England’s pitiless Puritan settlers, for the American conquest of the land from its earlier inhabitants. But the fate of women, one woman, caught in the maw of patriarchal judgment — Wiedeman nails that, for sure.

Elsewhere in the volume, Rick Geary brings his vine-like style to Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment and captures the heart of the story, its essential action, in only a few pages. Another painterly Dostoyevsky, this one Hadar Reuven’s The House of the Dead, invokes the Holocaust with its scenes of men in beards in a monstrous prison.

Arriving in the 20th century, Sarah Benkin misses the crypto-racism of the wife and murderer of her husband in James M. Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice (“He’s so greasy!” the scheming missus says about her husband in the original), instead showing hubby as a jolly Italian American. She also misses the lust that drives her collaborator into the murder. But the essential story is here, anyway. Ellice Weaver’s full-color version of Iceberg Slim’s Pimp, meanwhile, works as a series of amazing paintings with a subordinated narrative.

It would be easy to go on indefinitely, but I’ll mention only a few more examples. Theo Ellsworth’s adaptation of Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” is a 30-page comic novella in itself, so intense that the reader gets a feeling of emotional exhaustion, in a good way, pages before the end. Robert Berry has made a section of James Joyce’s Dubliners into a Mutt and Jeff dialogue of sorts, in a bow to the immortal (for old time comics fans) Bud Fisher as much as to Joyce. As I am an admirer of R. Sikoryak’s intriguing approaches to comics history, I find his rethinking of de Sade as a series of comic book covers in “Sadistic Comics” — with an improbably helpless Wonder Woman at the center — utterly delightful. That may exhaust my list of particular favorites in the volume, except for the adaptation of Pauline Elizabeth Hopkins’s short story “Talma Gordon” (reputed to be the first mystery published by an African-American writer) by C. Frackes, herself a rising feminist artist.

If I commit myself to describing particular stories, it’s because every generalization about this volume fails and must fail. While each piece, taken by itself, is not necessarily strong or convincing, together they convince.

Convince us of what? That is the question, at least for this reviewer. We can usefully examine The Graphic Canon from another angle. The international sweep of its cast of artists and writers offers impressive evidence of a global comics community. It also testifies to Russ Kick’s amazing capacity for outreach. But as with Kick’s career, we find the essential origins of the series in the breakthroughs of the 1960s and 1970s, breakthroughs that left behind so many of the limitations long imposed upon comic art.

The comics-reading public, mostly readers under the age of 30, know little of this history today. Superheroes of every kind; quirky and sexy personal stories of mostly inward or troubled youngsters; the occasional historical saga (March, eulogizing John Lewis within his lifetime) — these comprise nearly all of today’s menu of comics, to judge from sales and advertising on the web. Hardly remembered now, except as an influence on today’s graphic memoirs, the distinct comics of the Vietnam Era and a decade after profited from artists’ ownership of their uncensored comic art, delivering up marijuana use, feminism, denunciation of corporations and the government, and flagrant sex of every variety, often flavored with humor. (The Southern California feminist series Tits & Clits Comix comes to mind.) Contemporary readers, excepting academic or those with a taste for the “old stuff,” tend to be familiar with only a fraction of this body of work — perhaps R. Crumb and Art Spiegelman, along with slightly younger figures like Alison Bechdel, Lynda Barry, and the Hernandez Brothers.

Stop for a moment and contemplate what that origin of a new comics, a new comic art, meant. It was a ragged community (just ask the feminists), but it was a real one. It recalled, in American life and art, nothing so much as the Works Progress Administration artists of the 1930s or the group gathered around The Masses magazine in the 1910s. These had rebellion of form and content, narrative and style, written all over them, but also a vision of a different relation between art and popular life in a better future. In the comics world, this is what slipped away by 1980 or so.

The elevation of comic art followed, although its arrival at true respectability arguably awaited Art Spiegelman’s Pulitzer Prize in 1992 — and arguably, dolefully, also awaited the return of the cutting-edge comics publishing locus from California back to New York, its historic location. Today, with the advance of college teaching into visual culture, the comics canon is taught very much as the canon of literature has been taught forever. In part, this is the nature of canonization: the few remembered, the mass of artists forgotten.

But this is also the case because the comic art anthology, pretty much the foundation stone of underground commix, has practically ceased to exist. Post-1970s efforts, like Spiegelman and Françoise Mouly’s Raw magazine, could not be sustained financially. My own series of topical anthologies ended with the volume Bohemians (2014), because these efforts no longer seemed worth publishers’ attention. The annual Best of Comics anthologies and the more or less annual World War 3 Illustrated appear too infrequently, and have too few pages, not to mention idiosyncratic editorial tastes. Rumors of a revival of Arcade, the Spiegelman and Bill Griffith–edited anthology from the late 1970s, appear to be unfounded, for various reasons.

Altogether, we see too little work side by side — and more than that, we get far too little sense that comic art has a purpose comparable to the socialist modernism of a century ago or the counterculture of the late 1960s. Perhaps the website The Nib is the exception, because its social criticism comes fast and furious, day by day, topic by topic. But we need more, much more, with a dialogue among artists and their admirers, editors, and others. At least, this is my conclusion after 50 years as an editor.

Russ Kick’s Canon thus does something that too few venues for comic art do nowadays. It is, for now, the most sustained anthology of comic art in the English language — the best showplace of what comic art is today and what it can do. That’s quite an accomplishment.

¤

Paul Buhle was publisher of Radical America Komiks (1969) and has edited a dozen comics since 2005. His latest is Johnny Appleseed, drawn by Noah van Sciver.

The post Creating a Comics Canon appeared first on Los Angeles Review of Books.

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[gokinjeespot]

off the rack #1145

Monday, January 2, 2017

 I'm a day late and a dollar short but Happy New Year everybody. I am hoping and wishing for the best to one and all. So far so good. We started off the year with friends and some lovely surprises that made the evening special. No big resolutions except to try to be a better person than I was last year. Do more things that I'm proud of rather than the opposite.

 Archie #15 - Mark Waid (writer) Joe Eisma (art) Andre Szymanowicz (colours) Jack Morelli (letters). I have one question: where did they get the money to pay for all the stuff for Archie's parents' anniversary party? The feud in Switzerland between Veronica and Cheryl will now move to Riverdale. There's a lot more nastiness in these new Archie comics then there used to be.

 Briggs Land #5 - Brian Wood (writer) Mack Chater (art) Lee Loughridge (colours) Nate Piekos (letters). One look at this issue's cover and you can see that this book doesn't shy away from controversy. Yes those are skinhead brown shirts with Nazi armbands. The menace and violence is not explicitly shown but it's palpable. It's sad to see that some readers have dropped this title, because I think it's a very gripping story.

 Doctor Strange #15 - Jason Aaron (writer) Chris Bachalo & Jorge Fornes (pencils) John Livesay, Tim Townsend, Al Vey, Victor Olazaba & Jorge Fornes (inks) Antonio Fabela (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). Chapter 4 of "Blood in the Aether" finds Stephen being driven around in a cab by the Orb. It's really quite a trip. This all boils down to a bunch of super villains wanting to kill Doctor Strange. I hope Wong and Zelma can come to the rescue in time. I thought that the changing art styles between Chris and Jorge's pages would be annoying but they meshed very well.

 Avengers #2.1 - Mark Waid (writer) Barry Kitson (pencils) Mark Farmer (inks) Jordan Boyd (colours) Ferran Delgado (letters). One of the oddest super villains from the old days appears this issue.  I never really got what the Stranger wanted way back when but he sure was powerful. Having this foursome of Captain America, Hawkeye, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch making up the Avengers is quite humbling. I loved the scene on public transit.

 Amazing Spider-Man #22 - Dan Slott & Christos Gage (writer) Giuseppe Camuncoli (pencils) Cam Smith (inks) Jason Keith (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). Now that the identity of the person behind the jackal mask has been revealed it's time to lay out that person's plans for all us fans. Will Peter succumb for his loved ones? The answer may be in Dead No More #4.

 Invincible Iron Man #2 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Stefano Caselli (art) Marte Gracia (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). Half of this issue is Riri fighting a bunch of Iron Mans while AI Tony tries to train her and the other half are flashbacks to expand on her past so we get a better understanding of why she wants to be a super hero. This is the reason Bendis books do it for me. He takes time to show us the human side of super humans.

 Thanos #2 - Jeff Lemire (writer) Mike Deodato (art) Frank Martin (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). Thanos's son Thane is assembling a team to kill his dad, who has a terminal disease. The Titan is dying anyways and according to his father the scientist, Thanos doesn't have long to live. There is no cure. Thanos even destroyed another whole civilisation to find one. I love Jeff's writing and Mike's art but here's what I see happening. Thanos will be cured by fighting Thane. Villains like Doc Ock, Victor Von Doom, Wilson Fisk and Thanos will never die.

 Occupy Avengers #2 - David F. Walker (writer) Carlos Pacheco (pencils) Rafael Fonteriz (inks) Sonia Oback (colours) Travis Lanham (letters). The two do gooders, Hawkeye and Red Wolf, team up to do some good. I think this book is going to be light reading even though they may tackle lofty ideals like trying to save a fresh water supply from greedy corporations. Remember the old Hulk TV show that had Bill Bixby wandering around the country as Bruce Banner and then Lou Ferrigno helping people as the Hulk? This might be just like that but with Clint Barton making things right as Hawkeye. I do like Hawkeye and David may not be Matt Fraction but his writing is acceptable so I will check out subsequent issues to see if I might read them.

 Moonshine #3 - Brian Azzarello (writer) Eduardo Risso (art) Eduardo Risso & Cristian Rossi (colours) Jared H. Fletcher (letters). This was a bloody fine issue from the cover to the last page. This story has more fluids flowing than just the homebrew hooch.

 Action Comics #970 - Dan Jurgens (writer) Patrick Zircher (art) Ulises Arreola (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). It's the Trial of Lex Luthor. Yes it's for crimes he's yet to commit and the only one defending him is Superman. The verdict is no surprise to anyone. Now we see if the sentence will be administered.

 Saga #41 - Brian K. Vaughn (writer) Fiona Staples (art) Fonografiks (letters). Many lives are on the line and someone does die. You have to read this issue to find out who.

 Hulk #1 - Mariko Tamaki (writer) Nico Leon (art) Matt Milla (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). They dropped the She prefix so I wouldn't blame She-Hulk fans for passing this by. Please don't do that because this is a really good reintroduction of Jennifer Walters to the rack. Jen may have recovered physically from her near death while fighting Thanos in Civil War II but she is still suffering psychological damage. Doc Samson hasn't shown up yet but somebody needs to help the lady lawyer cope with what happened to her. I like the way Nico draws Jen but there were some panels where she looked part Asian. That's a whole different take on the character than previously depicted. Jen doesn't Hulk out this issue but she is on the verge. I will be interested to see how much control Mariko gives Jen when she's green.

 Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps #11 - Robert Venditti (writer) Rafa Sandoval (pencils) Jordi Tarragona (inks) Tomeu Morey (colours) Dave Sharpe (letters). Larfleeze is my least favourite character in this whole colour scheme. He's just a hoarder and the colour is a mix of red and yellow. He's not even a good villain because his avarice makes him stupid. I find the orange corps to be a bore.

 Mighty Thor #14 - Jason Aaron (writer) Steve Epting (art) Frank Martin (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). Yumpin yimminy that was another great issue. The League of Realms fights bravely against overwhelming odds as Malekith continues his campaign against the Ten Realms. He's just laid waste to Niffleheim so which one is next? If you like Steve's art in this book you should check out Velvet.

 Batgirl #6 - Hope Larson (writer) Rafael Albuquerque (art) Dave McCaig (colours) Deron Bennett (letters). Batgirl flies home after her Asian adventures and meets up with a surprise passenger. The guy being picked up at the airport was a surprise to me too. I'm sure he's going to make life interesting for Barbara Gordon.

 Uncanny Avengers #18 - Gerry Duggan (writer) Kevin Libranda (art) David Curiel (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). Avengers Mansion is now a Marvel super hero theme hotel? Get outta town. Well, aside from that bit of hoohaw I really liked this issue even though Gerry stonged me with a Rick Astley song brought on by the title to this issue. The Red Skull with Charles Xavier's powers is playing a lot of head games and I am looking forward to seeing how the good guys beat him. Kevin Libranda is a fine fill in for Pepe Larraz.

 Detective Comics #947 - James Tynion IV (writer) Alvaro Martinez (pencils) Raul Fernandez (inks) Brad Anderson (colours) Marilyn Patrizio (letters). The finale to the Victim Syndicate story ends with a back stabbing betrayal by one of the good guys. They couldn't be more obvious with one of the covers. It's understandable given the grief that character was going through. Speaking of Red Robin, who's the hooded guy in the last panel? This Batfan wants to know.

 Spider-Man/Deadpool #12 - Nick Giovannetti & Paul Scheer (writers) Todd Nauck (art) Rachelle Rosenberg (colours) VC's Joe Sabino (letters). This would be a great way for kids to learn how Christmas evolved from the ancient Roman celebration of Saturnalia honouring the god Saturn but it's got way too much adult content for them to be casting their beady little eyes on. For us more mature readers it was a fun time.

 Wonder Woman #13 - Greg Rucka (writer) Renato Guedes (art) Romulo Fajardo Jr. (colours) Jodi Wynne (letters). This issue spotlights Steve Trevor, looking a lot like Oliver Queen, as he tries to keep a mind altered Diana from being captured by bad guys. I'm not a fan of Steve calling Diana Angel. It's too saccharine. Whatever happened to make Diana mentally handicapped still needs to be determined and a way to get her back to normal still needs to be found. Those mysteries will keep me reading.

 Civil War II #8 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) David Marquez (art) Justin Ponsor (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). It's over at last but not really. This story is merely a launching pad for changes in the Marvel U. Some have already hit the racks like the new Incredible Iron Man starring Riri Williams. Many are poised to start off 2017 with a plethora of new exciting (we hope) stories. There are a bunch of full page possible futures featured and I got to play my favourite game of "who's drew that?". Well, these folks did: Adam Kubert, Leinil Francis Yu, Daniel Acuna, Alan Davis & Mark Farmer, Marco Rudy, Mark Bagley & John Dell, and Esad Ribic. It was fun guessing.

 Justice League vs. Suicide Squad #2 - Joshua Williamson (writer) Tony S. Daniel (pencils) Sandu Florea (inks) Alex Sinclair (colours) Rob Leigh (letters). This answers the question of which team would win in a fight. The answer will surprise you. Meanwhile, the third team is about to embark on a mission in preparation for taking over the world. Once this super villain team is discovered I'm sure the Justice League and the Suicide Squad will team up to stop them.

 Black Widow #9 - Chris Samnee & Mark Waid (writers) Chris Samnee (art) Matthew Wilson (colours) VC's Joe Caramagna (letters). Natasha teams up with Bucky to fight her mysterious stalker. I finally saw Captain America: Winter Soldier recently. That was a pretty good movie. Meanwhile back on the racks, we have the Weeping Lion plotting something nasty against the Black Widow to look forward to.

 Infamous Iron Man #3 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Alex Maleev (art) Matt Hollingsworth (colours) VC's Clayton Cowles (letters). I know this book isn't going to last but I am thoroughly enjoying it while it's on the stands. This issue explains what changed Victor Von Doom from being the super villain Doctor Doom to the super hero Iron Man. It's tied into Secret Wars where Doctor Doom was the god of all those universes smooshed together. I figger Victor will suffer another disfiguring accident and he'll revert to being a bad guy again. In the meantime, meet Mrs. Von Doom.

 Spider-Woman #14 - Dennis Hopeless (writer) Veronica Fish (art) Rachelle Rosenberg (colours) VC's Travis Lanham (letters). My favourite thing about this book are the friendships that Jessica has. She is going to need a lot of help to get through this grieving period after the death of the Porcupine. But wait, who's this in the back of the book?

 Spider-Man #11 - Brian Michael Bendis (writer) Sara Pichelli (art) Gaetano Carlucci (ink assist) Marte Gracia (colours) VC's Cory Petit (letters). This issue is all about Jefferson Davis, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. I don't mind that Miles is barely in this because it's so well written and I get to see Sara draw the Black Cat, even though I hate chunky soles on pumps. Just ignore the impractical footwear folks. The cover shows Spider-Man disintegrating but that just means that he's not going to be the major focus of this new story, his dad is.

 Star Wars #26 - Jason Aaron (writer) Salvador Larroca (art) Edgar Delgado (colours) Chris Eliopoulos (letters). He's Penny's favourite Star Wars hero. Luke may be prominently featured on the cover but the real star of this issue is Master Yoda. Still can't stand his inverted speech pattern though.

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