#at least once the aftermath comic is released in a few months

[captainevans]

nick spencer is no longer writing steve rogers or sam wilson comics thank you jeebus 🙌🏻🙌🏻

[chibinoyume]

Creator meme

Thank you @indelibleevidence for the tag!

RULES: it’s time to love yourselves! choose your 5 favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works <3

--

This made me realize once again how much Fandom helped me through the pandemic for a few months - browsing through my own tags there’s so much stuff I’d completely forgotten about!

1) “Jane Doe” - a 3 part comic series (especially the first one)

Post 5x10, where Jane has lost her memories because of the ZIP, and slowly bonds again with Kurt and the team. Originally it was meant to be a 4 to 5 part comic series, but I needed to get it done before the finale aired, and I ran out of time. Since I have the lines written down somewhere, I may write it as a fic at some point, albeit a very minimalist one (and it would count as canon divergent post 5x10), because it was meant to be a comic script.

Still, the first part of this comic took SO LONG and while I can still pick at things I could have done better, I’m proud of it anyway, especially because my specialty are chibi-like drawings. Cute is my cup of tea, serious is haaaard. 

2) “Ever After” - a bittersweet Jeller oneshot.

Technically there is a second chapter to this, but reads more as an epilogue, so this could be read as a standalone (and I don’t know if I’ll ever get to finishing that 2nd chapter! I’ll try, though).

I mostly wrote it for myself as a fix-it fic (sort of) after the series finale. While I stubbornly will stay in happy-ending camp, sometimes when I saw images of the sad-ending, that feeling of dread filled my gut. I had some ideas in my head to narratively justify what happened, including the odd dinner scene, so I rushed to write it out while the Muse kicked and screamed at me to do so.

So in the fic, it starts as Jane collapses to the ground, but not everything is rosy and magically fixed. Both Jane and Kurt have to deal with the aftermath of what happened, and be there for each other as they learn their new normal and start healing from it, in the way supportive partners do ♥

3) Nightmares - a hurt/comfort Jeller fanart.

Post 4x12, this is how I’d imagine things may go, at least sometimes. Jane almost died (again), and even though she is now fine, has her memories and is no longer poisoned, losing her is still Kurt’s biggest fear, and he has nightmares about it in the following days or weeks. Not all the time, but when they show, it hits hard. She’d always try to reassure him as best she can, whispering words of comfort as he mumbles incoherently and apologizes for what could have been.

While some details about it still bug me (why am I like this) I still like this drawing a lot. One of the many scenes of Jeller in bed that are in my headcanon, if only finding good references for Jane’s tattoos (other than her arms) wasn’t such a hassle, I swear I’d have done so many more.

4) Honest screencaps: one & two (I couldn’t choose) 

I just had to lol when I was rewatching season 1 earlier in the year and screencapping things for drawing reference and because of reasons, some facial expressions where just too good not to caption. The ridiculous lines worked even better as a screencap-comic rather than an actual comic, imo.

It’s so much fun.

5) Too tired for subtlety - a silly Jeller comic.

Early season 5, Kurt is still very much a workaholic, even in the bunker. But this time, Jane is not having it. Mwahaha. 

It took a while to find photos of the relevant tattoos, and even then I had to BS a good bunch of them because the images were too blurry to tell xD. I swear if they released an artbook I’d buy it in a second. They could use the same pictures they had in SIOC where Jane was standing up with all her tats, they blur out the necessary bits and have a map of ALL the tattoos, dammit! 

How am I supposed to draw Summer Jeller when drawing Jane in a bathing suit is gonna take 5 hours just to find references D:?

Bonus) :D this ridiculous video (feat Rich’s rescue)

Basically, expectations vs reality.

This tiny video took way more than I’d like to admit lol and it still looks so choppy. But it’s part of the charm, right? lol Even so, the idea wouldn’t leave me alone and I had to do it. And I feel honored and proud that Ennis saw it on instagram xD

***

Hmmm, trying to tag people Amy hasn’t tagged yet! @marv-el-spot @birdsaesthetic @mchellesvanity @whatshouldjustbeours @singinprincess 

Anyone else, feel free to do it! So much fun.

[jinmukangwrites]

Whumptober Day 7

Support | Carrying

Ao3

Warnings: Gunshot wounds, blood, canon typical violence

-o-o-o-o-

Here was the thing about fighting crime in Gotham. Well, or just fighting crime in general. Sometimes things just went wrong and there was nothing you could do about it. You could be the most powerful superhuman in the world, or the most skilled martial artist, or have a reputation to the moon and had the documentation to prove that reputation wasn't complete bull. 

No matter who you were, sometimes you got hurt from a dumb thing. A thing you could have avoided. A thing that you most certainly will beat yourself up over in the coming weeks. 

Sometimes a stray bullet just happened to ricochet juuuuust right off the concrete walls and into the back of your hip while you were fighting crime in the streets. 

When Jason felt the intense pain of the aforementioned stray bullet entering his flesh, it took every ounce of will power he had to not cry out or fall down. 

"Hood!" 

He heard Nightwing call his name. The idiot practically begged for tonight's brotherly bonding session and Jason wanted nothing more than to look up and glare at him. Saying: "let's patrol together, Jason! It will be fun , Jason!"

He didn't for a number of reasons. Mostly because he couldn't say his real name out loud; though he supposed he could say 'Hood'?. Anyway, it was also kinda because he had his helmet on and it was sorta hard to glare through it unless he had the helmet literally sculpted into a glare. Partly because the pain was muting even though the bullet couldn't have gone that deep. It should have lost power while bouncing off the stone bricks, and the material of his jacket and under armor should have stopped it a little . All the way if it hit right. But it didn't hit right. Somehow, it came at him in that very specific angle that Kevlar didn't like. 

He had a bullet in his hip. He could feel warm blood pouring out of a hole in his body, trickling down the back of his legs and ever so slowly becoming painfully stabbing. 

So while Jason wanted to joke, look up at his dumb older brother and tease that this is why they don't do things together, it was all he could do maneuver his arms so he didn't faceplant when his hip eventually gave out. 

And oh yeah. The pain was definitely settling in now. It forced his eyes to widen and tear up, his hands to clench, his arms to twitch as his body desperately tried to figure out what to do without his consent. He wanted to grab at the wound, which was good right? Stop the blood flow? But it was at an awkward position behind him, and he was sure there were still thugs in the alleyway; he kinda really didn't want to be seen clutching his ass in front of them all. 

So he sorta just... laid there pathetically, hating how a simple patrol turned out like this; with Jason laying in a growing puddle of his own blood.

This was Dick's fault. Jason was sure. When he got the medical treatment he needed, he was definitely going to hold this above Goldie's head for the rest of time and eternity. 

Although, quicker than what he expected, Dick was by his side with eyes comically wide behind his mask, hands hovering over Jason like he wasn't sure what to touch or where to apply pressure. Jason had just the presence of mind to remember that he was hit by a ricochet bullet, shot in the back by a projectile that should have, by all means, missed. Dick wouldn't have seen him get shot, just the aftermath. The poor idiot was babbling like a soaking wet domesticated house cat, probably thinking he was shot somewhere much more important than his rear end. Like his heart or something. 

"Hip-" Jason gasped, and then groaned when hands immediately landed at the area just to the side of the small of his back. It hurt like a bitch, that was for sure, but it really couldn't have gotten that deep. It probably just entered him at an angle instead of straight on. More torn flesh that way. And Jason knew from experience that the pain of a wound didn’t necessarily correlate with how deep the said wound ran. It could be how long it was. How gaping. How beaten and bruised. 

It seemed silly to drop from a wound such as this. He could hear Dick muttering about how it didn't look horrible and that Jason probably didn't need a hospital and most likely didn't get hit in the bone, but it still hurt. A lot. 

He sucked in a deep, lungful of air, then forced his head to turn towards where they had been previously fighting a group of thugs who thought they could mug some beanpole old man. Confusion washed over him slowly. The thugs… they were so determined to fight Nightwing and Red Hood when they showed up. One of them was even bragging about having fought one of the bats before. Which Jason doubted. They probably ran away from whatever illegal activity they were doing before the bats actually arrived, but put that little white lie on their criminal resume to get hired for big gigs more easily. If they'd fought a bat before, they wouldn't be so excited to fight them again. 

Regardless, the guy was excited and trigger happy, even after the man they were trying to mug managed to escape. You could probably guess who managed to get a one-in-a-million shot on Jason without having to be told.

That all added up to why Jason was confused at this moment, laying on the ground, hands on his back that pressed down with way more force than Jason thought necessary. The alley was empty. Not a thug in sight. No unconscious bodies with hands restrained and a note taped to their foreheads for the cops. Nada. Goose Egg.

"Wh- where-?" Jason tried, but talking made everything hurt . 

Thankfully though, Dick knew what he was trying to ask. "They ran off after they realized they shot you. Got cold feet."

Jason opened his mouth, but ground it shut as Dick increased the pressure with one hand and removed the other to probably get some bandages going. Jason just breathed for a moment. Catch his breath. Bring the focus of his attention away from the hole in his back to return to the matter at hand. 

When Dick pressed a thick sheet of cotton over the wound, Jason knew the next few minutes would be agonizing; as Jason would soon be sat up to allow bandages to be freely wrapped around his hips and stomach. He opened his mouth before Dick could begin the process and forced the words out.

"You let them run?"

"Of course," Dick grumbled, and Jason wasn't sure if he said it as a “ yes Jason, because I love you I let the enemies go so I could take care of you !” or a “ of course you'd ask this, geeze, so annoying…” kind of way.

Jason was offended either way. 

When Dick forced him up so he's sitting and leaning heavily against the older hero, he was positive he saw stars. Bright, flashing starts shining through the constant murk that was Gotham's sky. Or maybe he was just in intense pain. 

Oh well. 

Dick wrapped the wound—working with way more clockwork and practice than what any normal person without a medical degree should be able to do—then, at the count of three he lifted Jason by grabbing the arm of Jason's good side and wrapping it around his shoulders. Jason could barely contain a yelp as he was lifted to his feet. His hip screamed at him, trying to get him to fall back down and just lay there. Probably just die there. He had to force every ounce of his willpower into moving his good leg, dragging his bad one behind him, as Dick struggled to carry his weight out of the alleyway. 

Not so happy to be small and quick now, huh Grayson? Rethinking those offers Jason had made months ago to teach you how to go make more muscle and maybe even get a little taller? Pathetic. Can't even drag Jason's injured ass out of an alleyway without breaking a sweat on your forehead. 

"M'not that heavy," Jason grumbled anyways though when Dick began to release small, panting puffs of air.

"You're heavier than B," Dick wheezed, "so shut the fuck up."

Jason lifted an eyebrow under his helmet. He was sure Dick could sense his amusement, if the twitch of his lips were anything to go by. "How do you know how heavy B is?" 

"Oh you know," Dick said in a mock-sigh, his voice almost singsong, "I'm always saving everyone's asses. Drag each of you to a med bay at least once a month. Did you know Orphan is heavier than Red but not as heavy as Spoiler?"

"Do you want Orphan and Eggplant to kill you?"

Dick let out a bubbling laugh, which made Jason wonder if Tim, Cass, then Steph was really the order of that scale. Jason wouldn’t linger on it for long though, because they've finally made it to where they've parked their bikes. Jason immediately began to plan on how he was going to ride to his nearest house without passing out in Gotham late-night traffic. The dead-hours of night always brought out the best and worst in Gotham drivers. He'd have to manage. He did it before. 

However, all of his plans suddenly flew out the window as Dick disregarded his own blue and black bike and proceeded to try and force Jason into the passenger seat of his own bike. 

"I can-"

"I'll cuff you if I have to Hood," Dick snapped, though there was mirth and amusement in his tone. "I'm driving you."

"You're not ," Jason grunted though clenched teeth as he inevitably lost the battle with Dick and was forced into the passenger space. "You're gonna take me to the manor if I let you drive."

"Yeah?"

" No ."

Dick sighed then stepped away from the bike, planting hands on his hips as he gave that disappointed older brother pout he'd been working on and improving for the past decade. It worked on most everyone except Jason and maybe Cass. Jason was immune to the Older Brother Pout™. Still didn't stop Dick from giving it. 

"Little Wing, you have a bullet in your back."

"Woah, thanks for telling me, I didn't know!" 

Now Dick looked a little annoyed. Good. "Jay-"

"No," Jason snapped, desperately wanting to stand up and cuss him out like he deserved. "We'll go to my safehouse."

"What one?" Dick argued and angrily Jason threw his hands in the air on instinct. 

The action sent bolts into his back, making his brain short circuit as his body tried to figure out if it wanted to bend forward or back. In the end, it didn't matter, because like the absolute bastard he was, Dick used his pain as a distraction to jump onto the sitting space in front of him. He turned on the engine and Jason felt himself go boneless, the pain of the wound on his back ate up his energy more violently than a crocodile. His metal helmet slammed against Dick's back, and when he felt the bike jolt with motion, he angrily, carefully, and reluctantly wrapped his arms around Dick's waist. 

"'ny of them," Jason mumbled, blinking blurry shapes from the corners of his eyes. "Ju's don' take me t'the manor…" 

"Alright," Dick chimed, revving the engine. He sounded too happy about something, but Jason was too focused on holding on and ignoring the pounding hole in his back to question it too much. 

Dick drove with more caution than what he normally did. Jason had ridden with Dick on bikes and in cars before, and the guy is borderline psychotic while driving. Jason supposed it was because his adrenaline junky tendencies mixed with the famous Blüdhaven road rage to create a man to be feared on any sane roads. Or as same as Gotham got. Jason swore Dick was always on the horn, always looking for that split second window to speed up and get to where he wanted as fast as possible. He wasn't a dangerous driver, just one that wasn't one to trifle with when in the zone of driving. Yet now, while the speed was fast and the spaces between cars was utilized to get the cycle through quicker, there were hardly any other risks involved. No running lights, no cutting it close between cars, no sharp and split second turns. Everything was calculated and smooth, and Jason made a mental note to mention it to him later. 

So you do know how to drive?

With the hum of the engine and the warm body in front of him, it became rather difficult to keep his eyes open. A weary cloud had slowly begun to settle around him, probably not because of any blood-loss but because of falling levels of adrenalin and perhaps mild shock. He squeezed his arms tight around Dick's chest—he silently promised that if Dick mentioned this as a hug he would lose it—and let his eyes fall shut. He would just rest them… for a little while. He had a long night ahead of him. One of digging out a bullet and stitching the wound shut. He should guilt trip Dick into going out to buy ice cream or takeout chinese later.

And thankfully, focusing on the sounds around him by having his eyes closed helped him ignore the pain. Well, not all of it. It was there. Just… muted. 

He could relax to this. 

It was a pity all the peace and relaxation left the moment the bike suddenly dipped in altitude, the sounds of the city becoming the seemingly endless echoes of the bike itself. Jason snapped open his eyes, recognizing the dark tunnel around him. A growl escaped his throat. 

"Dick," he hissed. Or well, grumbled. His voice was slurred and definitely sounded as tired as he felt. 

"Yup?" Dick replied like he was innocent. Jason will kill him. 

"Safe. House."

"Yup." He popped the "p" on that one. Alright. Jason will definitely kill him. 

"This isn't my safe house," he growled, putting as much force as he could into each syllable. " No manor."

"Kay," Dick hummed, "but I don't know where any of your safehouses are. So I thought, Jason doesn't want the manor, so where's the next best place?"

"The manor includes the cave, Dickhead!"

"Y'know, everytime you insult me with my own name it just gets more and more sad."

Jason wanted to scream. "I'll show you what's sa-"

The tunnel opened up, revealing one of the last places Jason was in the mood to be at. The Batcave was just as large, impressive, and condescending as ever. Dick came to a stop near where the rest of the vehicles in the cave were parked, killed the engine, then stuffed the keys into his gauntlets so Jason couldn't snatch them and drive away in a pain filled haze and probably crash in the straight and narrow tunnel used to get here. Dick looked up from the bike, smiled, and waved. 

Jason wanted to shoot something. With rubber bullets, don't worry, but he still wanted to shoot something. 

Of course Batman and Robin couldn't be out in the city right now. Of course they were right here, a good distance away near the batcomputer, both standing up to curiously regard their guests. 

"Don't tell the truth of how it happened," Jason said quickly.

Dick scoffed and dropped his hand, using the other to tear off the edge of his mask. "I don't even really understand what happened-"

Jason glared. "Just make me sound cool, alright? I have a reputation. Can't have them know I was taken out by street level thugs."

"Don't worry, Jay," Dick assured, jumping off the bike and grabbing Jason's arm again, grunting under the weight to eventually help Jason to his feet. "I'll make sure your ego isn't bruised."

"Ya better."

"Richard," came the voice of the most tater tot boy to ever tater tot. "… Jason." There was only one kid that could say someone's name like it was a poison that tasted good. Jason looked up from where he'd been focusing on his feet to see the kid had ran up to get ahead of the big man.

He grinned wickedly, because he loved watching the kid be a little unnerved by him. Not in a rude way. Just in a " hell yeah, little man, I'm your second eldest brother and you gotta respect me " kinda way. 

"Hey, short stack," Jason waved half-heartedly as Dick began to guide him over to the medbay. Alfred, who was standing by the computer, looked Jason up and down, sighed, then walked over to the medbay as well. "How's the cow? Ready for the grill yet?"

"Batcow is fine," Damian replied civilly. Jason wondered why that was. Normally the kid was ready to throw down at the slightest tiny itty bitty inkling of a suggestion of cooking any of his pets. Jason wasn't even subtle about it this time. And Damian also had issues with comments of his perfectly normal for a thirteen year-old shortness. Jason honestly expected reddening, bloating cheeks and narrowed eyes. Instead, Damian looked him up and down, his green eyes calculative and his posture looking oddly like he was trying to convince himself to say something more.

Luckily, or unluckily in many cases, Bruce came up before this odd little exchange could be explored more. 

"What happened?" He demanded in that worried-but-constipated-about-it way of his that he was always so good at.

Jason saw Dick open his mouth and he prepared himself for the coming lecture. Always be ready for an attack, Jason. Be prepared for anything. Even if the enemy is low level street muggers who barely even know how to hold a gun, Jason. Ugh. 

"I shot Jason."

Aaaand Jason now remembered that Dick was literally the worst liar in the whole entire goddamn world. Alright. Jason could work with this. 

"Yup. Dick shot me," Jason agreed, probably enjoying Bruce's frown way too much. Bruce walked around towards their backs and Jason fought a tense as a hand barely even brushed across the bandage around his lower abdomen. 

"Richard wouldn't shoot anyone, even someone as annoying as you," Damian argued, looking genuinely outraged and confused. 

"I'm sorry, Dami," Dick continued, sighing in mock apology as he continued to drag Jason closer to the medbay. "I finally snapped."

"No you didn't!" 

"I did, and I'll do it again!"

Jason tuned out the coming shouting match between a literal child and Damian. That would keep them occupied. He side-eyed over to where Bruce was walking besides them, looking torn between walking ahead to the bay or helping Dick carry Jason. It was times like these that Jason found himself more grateful than ever for his helmet, it allowed him to watch as Bruce has a whole mini crisis, trying to decide what to do with his hands, without Bruce actually seeing him paying attention to that stuff. 

"B," Jason tried, and somehow his voice carried over regardless of Damian's shouting about how Dick wasn't secretly a murderous psychopath who had been repressing his violent urges up until this point. Dick really was going to stick with that story huh?

Bruce's eyes flickered up towards Jason, looking immediately guarded. Jason knew it was a front. So he reached up with his free hand and took off his helmet. He proceeded to look Bruce directly in the eyes. 

He tried a smile, even though he really didn't want to be here in the cave right now. He'd rather be at home, watching replays of Harry Potter and stuffing his face with chocolate fudge brownie ice cream. But, he supposed, if he was going to be forced to be here via one stubborn prick of a brother, pun intended, then he was going to do his best to be as civil as Damian was a moment ago. 

He had a reputation to keep up, after all. Jason didn't get gunned down by street muggers, and he didn't lower himself below the only kid in the cave. 

"Why don'cha help out, yeah?" Jason asked, "Dick is tiny and slow and my back hurts."

Dick squawked. "I take offence to that! I might just shoot you again, Hood!" 

"Stop it Richard! You don't shoot people!"

"I can't help it, little D! The urge to shoot people is stronk ."

Damian groaned at the horrible attempt at gen z slang while Bruce slowly and almost... timidly grabbed Jason's other arm and immediately sped up the process of getting him towards the ever awaiting Alfred and the cot behind him. 

Jason tried to not focus too hard on that. Of how far they have fallen from when Jason was still young. Robin. Full of magic. 

He tried not to think about how far they have come from when Jason was stuffing heads in duffle bags. 

He just allowed Bruce to take him to the cot and gently set him down, shooing Dick and Damian away as Alfred approached with the tools he needed. 

Dick was correct in saying that the bullet didn't go in far, and Jason was right that it went in weirdly and that was why it was so painful. After an excruciating makeshift surgery and a stitching session, Jason reluctantly allowed himself to be lowered into the cot. He was all tuckered out. He was so tired from the entire night that he couldn't keep his eyes open, even though Bruce was in the same room and Jason still didn't feel comfortable being vulnerable around him. 

He might have imagined it, but when he was a sliver away from falling fully into a deep sleep, he might have felt something warm and calloused grab his hand and stroke the joint of Jason's thumb. The hands holding his own were easy to recognize. Bruce had unique hands. He might have felt weirded out by that, that Bruce was holding his hands as he fell asleep, or maybe annoyed. But like he said, he was too exhausted to really… care. 

Too tired to know if it was real. 

"I'm glad you're safe, Jay-lad," Bruce whispered. Or maybe he didn't. 

Jason was too far gone by then. 

[bigskydreaming]

Posting anon because I don't want to upset my friends who stan Tim, but that post about the roots of why Dick started going from fandoms golden boy to being actively disliked really hit home. Friends who I agree with on over 98% of other topics just can't let go of Dick giving Robin to Damian and then going on to commit an entire laundry list of other crimes against Tim, especially citing how he'd just lost his recently adopted new dad, Bruce, and turning it into a trauma olympics so that Tim wins and Dick fans sound like assholes for insisting Dick was hurting, as well. It feels like many of these fans only came into comics with or during the Nu52, and then went back to read the Red Robin series, after the fact, so many of them missed out on the Dick being a loving big brother phase, and they jumped straight into Dick being "mean" to Tim, Tim and Jason now as best buddies, Dick being absent in Bludhaven or Chicago, and Jason being there and now best friends with Dick's old friends and in the process saying that it's Dick's fault and what a poor friend or boyfriend he was to begin with.

Yeah, thing is, there’s always going to be a slight disconnect when it comes to reading the stories as they happen vs only coming across them years later and reading them in hindsight and a highly condensed form and time frame. BUT this fandom makes this particularly....exaggerated, as a phenomenon, by not just focusing on specific characters at the expense of others, but by not really putting any effort into at least knowing the CONTEXT of what’s going on with the other characters in the same family as the ones they’re focusing on.

Like, I’m VERY familiar with the hugely prevalent trend that is stories in the Battle for the Cowl era focusing on everything Tim had lost, and that’s why Dick not appreciating/respecting/understanding what Tim was going through at that time was such a huge offense (even though again, this is already blatant revisionist history as Dick very much DID care about what Tim was feeling and going through, just not in the specific way Tim wanted him to, ie total and unconditional acceptance of everything he said and believed, no matter what it might cost Dick to believe it only for it to turn out not to be true).

But I’m just saying, the reason this skewed perception of their respective losses, as though Dick didn’t also just lose his second father and thus know exactly how that felt.....like, the reason it bugs so much in particular is not just because I hate Trauma Olympics in general, but additionally.....when you’re familiar with the whole context and time frame of EVERYTHING that was going on at the time of those stories....things look very, very different.

To be perfectly clear, its not that Tim hadn’t suffered a huge series of losses, and everything he was feeling and how much he was reeling was valid. I’ve never once disputed that and I never will. Dude went through a lot, and that’s not in question. He had only lost his first father a couple years before this, as well as believing Steph was dead for most of it, and having lost Connor not long after Jack died.

BUT.

But but but but but.

The thing that is NEVER mentioned or acknowledged in ANY of these stories, the HUGE disconnect that is responsible for making it seem like Dick is so out of touch and just can’t fathom these kinds of losses himself....

Is the stuff with Jack, and Steph and Connor, all happened in a very specific time frame. It was a few years before BftC’s release in real world time, like, these events unfolded over the course of the first three or four years of the 2000s, and while comic book time is messy and inconsistent, it was always pretty clear that they all happened within a span of just a couple years.

But while comic book time is inconsistent and hard to pin down, its actually very easy to keep concurrent stories concurrent. Like its not always easy to say was there a year between this story and this other one, or was it two years or even five....but it IS easy to say, well however long these events took to unfold, we know these events in this story took place at the same time as these events over here in this other story, because they’re referencing these events in both stories and have characters crossing over.

Point being, no matter how long before Bruce’s believed death the losses of Jack Drake, Steph and Connor took place....AT THE EXACT SAME TIME.....

The Blockbuster story happened. And then the aftermath.

And I’m not just talking about Dick’s circus being burned down, or his apartment building targeted and blown up with everyone of his neighbors inside it, or the break-up of his relationship with Babs, and the rape by Tarantula....

I’m also talking about how seven months after that, in comic book time, and thus slightly after the deaths of Jack and Steph, and literally just issues before the loss of Connor.....Slade and the Society of Supervillains blew up Bludhaven.

So by all means, I’m down with stories focusing on how Bruce’s believed death impacted Tim because it compounded all the other losses he’d suffered in the years leading up to that. Anchors away with the angst there.

Its just really, REALLY annoying to see this hammered home repeatedly with the CORRELATING idea that Dick, by comparison, was just fiiiiiiiiiine, or at most was JUST struggling with Bruce’s death.

When by any viewing of comic book time, the context was very clear.....the long, extended and absolutely brutal string of losses Dick suffered during the Blockbuster story and its aftermath, that he was specifically targeted as an individual, to have those losses inflicted just to hurt him, to take away the things he cared about....his childhood home the circus, his current home and community he’d made for himself, and then literally the entire city he’d dedicated himself to protecting....

All of this, too, happened in the couple years before Battle for the Cowl, at the exact same times Tim was undergoing his own losses.

So the constant focus on everything Tim lost but JUST everything Tim lost, and using this to FORCE even more of a divide between Dick and Tim than the comics ever put in there, and all by emphasizing the idea that Dick just didn’t care about everything Tim was going through, he just didn’t UNDERSTAND what Tim had lost or what it was like to lose THAT much, THAT close together, in THAT short a span of time.....

I mean.

Just.

Lulz for days, y’know?

[battlestory]

TARO YAMAMOTO, also known as Japan's Bernie Sanders, turned from an actor to a politician and recently created a new party for the leftist populism, "Reiwa Shinsengumi." At the end of September, Jonathan Soble, a former New York Times journalist, flew to Hokkaido following Yamamoto, who started a tour around Japan.

On a bright, unseasonably warm fall afternoon in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, a man in a black motorcycle jacket was apologetically ringing strangers’ doorbells. Shitsurei shimasu—sorry to bother you. I’m Taro Yamamoto. Yamamoto, 44, is fit, youthful-looking, and possessed of mysterious reserves of energy. He walks fast. He talks in often emotion-laden torrents, especially about the subjects he is passionate about—nuclear power, poverty, and the state of Japanese politics, which is, in his view, terrible.

Yamamoto was a popular actor before he began speaking his mind, in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns in 2011. Many of his views are controversial—he once called Japan a “terrorist state” for its flawed handling of the nuclear accident—though in Asahikawa that didn’t seem to matter much. Drivers who spotted him lingered at intersections to snap pictures with their phones. Homeowners, at least those who were around in the middle of a weekday, broke into smiles at the celebrity encounter.

Yamamoto was in Hokkaido drumming up support for a new political party, the leftist, populist Reiwa Shinsengumi. He founded the party in April, near the end of a six-year term in the upper house of Japan’s parliament, to which he was elected as an independent in 2013. In the latest upper house contest in July, Reiwa candidates secured two seats, but Yamamoto himself failed to win re-election. Although he is no longer in parliament, he remains the party’s leader, spokesman and all-around center of gravity.

Reiwa has big ambitions. Yamamoto wants to field 100 candidates in the next general election, which will take place in 2021 at the latest, but could happen sooner. That would be ten times the number of candidates the party fielded in July. Under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the conservative Liberal Democrats, long the dominant force in Japanese politics, have been enjoying a period of renewed vigor. Abe recently became Japan’s longest-serving postwar leader. The opposition is weak and fractured. Reiwa, Yamamoto and his supporters say, could deliver a shot in the arm to Japan’s beleaguered left. Critics argue it will simply deepen the disarray.

Whatever happens, Reiwa promises to be a kind of litmus test for Japan. At a time when anti-establishment insurgencies are on the march worldwide, forming governments from the United States to Europe to Asia, Japan has remained largely immune to the temptations of populism. Young people, in particular, seem content to leave things to Abe, the scion of a three-generation political dynasty, and his über-establishment LDP. To make headway, Yamamoto will have to prove two things: first, that after years as a sometimes theatrical one-man critic of the government, he can build and manage a political organization. And second, that Japan is sufficiently fertile ground for his people-versus-the-powerful message.

So far, Yamamoto has attacked the challenge with his most conspicuous assets: charisma and boundless energy. In Asahikawa, he hustled from house to house, shaking hands and appealing for support—and for wall space on which to paste Reiwa’s bright pink campaign posters. Reiwa has raised a little over 400 million yen from individual donors, and its showing in the July election ensured it will receive government subsidies as an officially recognized political party. But it is poor compared to its rivals. The posters, put up by squads of volunteers, are central to its PR strategy. “It’s the cheapest, most visible advertising,” Yamamoto says. “You have to win with the tools you have.”

Yamamoto was born in Takarazuka, in Hyogo Prefecture. His father died when he was just a year old, and he and his two older sisters were raised by his mother, who sold Persian rugs to support the family. By his own admission, he was an unruly child. “I could never sit still, I was a bit A.D.D.,” he says. “If something happened at school, I was the first one to be blamed. Eight out of 10 times, I deserved it.”

His family was Catholic, and for a while in the fifth and sixth grades he spent a lot of time at church. “For me it was a safe place, a way to get away from home.” He clashed frequently with his mother, who struggled to control him. “The priest was young, he put up with me. When it was time for dinner and I was still there, he’d cook for both of us—there wasn’t much choice. It was a small church, so often it was just the two of us.” He says he has never been especially religious, but these days he is more attracted to Buddhism, with its notion of endlessly repeating death and rebirth.

Yamamoto’s irrepressible energy made him famous as a teenager. On YouTube, you can still find clips of him capering in a red Speedo and yellow swim cap, on Beat Takeshi’s variety show Tensai Takeshi no genki ga deru terebi. His comical dance steps and faux-bodybuilder poses are simultaneously manic, graceful and mesmerizing. By 16, he had dropped out of school and was pursuing a career in entertainment. He was a mover more than a talker but, defying expectations, he soon began landing acting roles in television dramas and films, often playing tough-yet-good-hearted supporting characters. Before long he was an established star.

“I’ve become a kind of object lesson for entertainers—if you say something political, you’ll end up like that guy,” he says of the swerve his career took after Fukushima. “In the end, you’ll have no choice but to go into politics.”

In Japan more than in the United States or Europe, talking politics is a good way to wreck a show business career. Why Yamamoto, and not other celebrities, broke the industry’s taboo against controversy after Fukushima is hard to say. He claims he had little interest in politics before 2011. He had taken up surfing a few years earlier, and was curious enough about environmental causes to search for information online. When a massive tsunami knocked out power at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, he remembered a warning he’d seen, issued by Greenpeace, about the possible consequences—the meltdowns that ultimately split open the facility’s reactors and released their radioactive contents. In Tokyo, he watched like millions of others as the disaster unfolded on television. When rumors circulated that major companies were preparing to pull staff out of the city, he concluded that the government and the plant’s owner, Tokyo Electric Power, were keeping vital information from the public. Soon, he found himself expressing this belief on Twitter, and then in media interviews. By the time he decided to run for political office, in 2012, his acting work had all but dried up. (He blames nervous producers and corporate sponsors.) His first election campaign, for the lower house in 2012, failed, but he won a seat in the upper chamber in 2013.

“I don’t think I’ve ever done anything in a calculated way in my life,” he says, explaining his transformation as a series of small, mostly impulsive steps. “If I have any kind of plan now, it’s just to take political power. That’s it.”

Yamamoto found life as a legislator frustrating. His efforts to get Japan to abandon nuclear energy went nowhere. (Despite growing signs of climate change and its dangers, he still believes nuclear power to be a greater threat than fossil fuels.) Other opposition parties didn’t know what to make of him. Although he shared many policy positions with the established left—against free trade or a stronger military, for instance—his tactics were splashier and more confrontational. He sparked an outcry when, at a garden party in 2013, he handed Emperor Akihito a letter denouncing the government’s handling of the Fukushima accident. The act flouted both protocol and the constitutional divide between the emperor and politics.

“At the time I felt I had no choice,” Yamamoto’s says. “If I could go back in time, with the benefit of six years of experience, I probably would have found a different approach.”

Yamamoto’s personal life also took unexpected turns. He married a professional surfer in 2011, just as his anti-nuclear activism was blossoming, but the relationship ended in divorce three months later. He has not remarried, but he has one child, whom he is careful to keep out of the public eye.

In 2014, Yamamoto formed an alliance with the veteran political strategist Ichiro Ozawa, eventually joining Ozawa’s Liberal Party (now part of the Democratic Party for the People). The experience served as a kind of apprenticeship in the collective, organized politics that Yamamoto had until then avoided. He broadened the range of his concerns, taking a particular interest in economics. He read up on technical subjects like modern monetary theory—essentially, the idea that governments can pay for public services by printing money rather than levying taxes. He mastered statistics on poverty rates and suicide. One of his go-to lines became, “We have to stop being a society where people want to die.”

In attention-grabbing orations in parliament and at political demonstrations, he mixed indignation with wonky detail. His main target was Prime Minister Abe and the LDP, but there was a broader sweep to his indictments, which took in corporations, the bureaucracy and the media. In his telling, the elite’s inability to improve the lives of average Japanese was not just a failure, it was something closer to a conspiracy. “The more that people have to focus on the day-to-day just to get by,” he says, “the easier they are to control.”

@ gqjapan.jp

[invertedfate]

Random Ask Dump - Anniversary Edition (50+ REALLY OLD ASKS!)

Going through OLD AND CRUSTY ASKS to try and chip away at the inbox. HERE WE GOOOO...

That’s an interesting idea, and I could run it by Cake, but I think it would honestly be a LOT to track from a programming perspective. Especially ‘cause killing Sans is gonna result in a “bad ending,” so to speak.

An attempt was made by Undyne to have all three hang out at the same time. Papyrus was SUPER EAGER. ...but one thing led to another and there were many messy explosions of chemicals and lots of smoke. Alphys had to step in before things got out of hand. It was all very daunting for her. Pap and Undyne are VERY LOUD, VERY AMBITIOUS PEOPLE.

I actually have some ideas of some side comics I may do at some point! :o It’s just that right now there’s a lot going on.

I need to poke Carni about that at some point. He’s just been very busy with other projects!

Clearly he’s standing on the “out to lunch” sign.

I wanna say that it’s very possible in theory. :o It probably affects them differently since monsters’ emotional state affects their magic and their physical state.

I do like little easter eggs like that, though I’m not sure where I’d fit it in atm just ‘cause I already showed Pap’s room, haha.

I made the chase theme for Mad Dummy as well as Mad Mew Mew’s battle theme. @pinewsun​ made the battle theme for Mad Dummy, and @thomasthepencil​ made the Season Dude battle theme and MD’s overworld theme. :o

That’s a really fascinating conundrum! You’re absolutely right- if IF was a standalone game, then from a writing standpoint, having more subtle implications would make sense! The reason I chose a different approach for IF is because it’s set after Flowey’s already known to be evil and I like to give different POVs rather than stick to just Frisk’s.

That’s an interesting thing, actually- both fights lean heavily on the fourth wall. Both are treated as climaxes for their given routes. It’s funny because Asriel’s fight is a lot more straightforward and less meta by comparison.

I agree! The thing with Papyrus is that he’s extremely powerful- he just doesn’t want to kill. But it’s a deliberate choice not to kill- he’s able to force his attacks to do next to no damage. He’s also pretty darn crafty, as he made the Gauntlet himself. It really is just a case of Undyne’s personal biases and concern for him.

That was a deliberate choice. :O Papyrus is very influential toward Frisk. He is best skeleboi.

Papybot loves you, anon! He just wants to feed you WHOLESOME SPAGHETTI!!!

It is possible to whistle through teeth. ...alternatively, magic. As for the music, Undertale implies that the music is heard! Maybe it’s just... a thing that exists in this world. Or it’s just meant to be a silly meta joke. I try to keep it somewhat ambiguous other than occasional nods to it. Chara’s pants are lighter because I just... felt like it, I guess? Haha. I wanted their feet and pants to stand out more from each other, so they have khaki pants. As for the Undyne fight being animated, well, this ask is old by now, but Sparks was the one who was down for it.

Well, the teaser’s been out for a long time now, but that’s the idea! It’s also why this has been in production for so long. The Determinator has some really over the top attacks (that weren’t even shown in the teaser), and Sparks animated in Photoshop. That’s how hardcore he is.

Shhhhh. Don’t give me ideas. I’m already slacking on Tem Village. :P

Sometimes I do have slumps and burnouts (see Antipode’s lengthy hiatus), but breaks lead to me being refreshed and coming back with even more enthusiasm than before!

Oh, there are a lot of these throughout the comic. For instance...

Flowey appears in a few background shots in the Ruins!

When Sans says “or maybe...” he looks at the empty flower pot. This was one of the earliest bits of foreshadowing about who created Flowey, and nobody noticed it at the time!

The MTT vending machines initially look like this but have helpful items.

And then they look like this, with an angry face and pose- Mad Dummy has possessed them!

As of Part 38, it’s been revealed that he did first meet Asgore as “Santa.” As for whether or not he knows the truth, time will tell. :o

Oh, these are excellent suggestions for calls! I’ll try to keep these in mind.

So, I believe Glyde uses the Mysterious Door motif. Jerry uses the motif in its battle theme- I believe it’s a mix of original motif and Wrong Number song?

Sans is a master of power napping. He probably gets a decent amount of sleep, though.

There are a lot of ways to interpret Pap’s lack of sleep! In IF, he can get by without it, but he also has a lot of reasons to avoid sleeping. Some reasons include productivity but also due to a looooot of heavy baggage. More on that later.

I think sleep can definitely make monsters healthier. Rest = better mental health as well as physical health, and with how important mental and emotional help is for monsters, that’s very important!

They just really like socks. Socks are warm. Socks are slinky. And googly eyes are the best. So they took on the form of a really eccentric sock puppet and sock collector. Scandalous.

It also has Alphys’ motif, as the two are the leaders of the royal guard!

I would say the lack of Asgore as an influence has left Undyne slightly less grounded? Like, she had Toriel and Gerson in her life, but her relationship with Toriel is... definitely not quite as close? Like, Toriel by that point kept people at an arm’s length due to losing multiple children (including one from old age). So, while they were on friendly terms until the aftermath of the DT experiments and the tapes’ release, it was more like mutual respect and a sorta professional relationship with Undyne admiring Toriel and wanting to spare her from more heartache.

That is a really interesting idea. While that didn’t happen, I do need to maybe revisit the grumpy dog at some point or another. He’s still a lil’ salty.

I think in terms of layout it won’t change much, but there will be new/different content for sure. :O

Mad Dummy’s base design is mostly original, but she has a wig + headband from DIO from Jojo Part 3! Fun fact: While MTT has Kamina shades, Papyrus’ goggles are loosely based on Simon from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann in terms of color. :O

So basically, when Asriel defeated Frisk, he had the power over the timeline to reset it as he pleased- in theory. However, that power was overwhelming for him, and due his lack of understanding OF said power and one last ditch attempt at resisting from Chara, things went wrong.

There is a track that takes some inspiration from Rage Awakened. It’s not released, and it’s not exact, but it won’t be released for a WHILE. Like until the part comes out.

I think it’s just the fact that tacos are so random. Like, my biggest beef in that regard was that OG Underswap had a lot of arbitrary replacements for things in UT and not all of them made sense. Like, if Sans was to make a foreign food, ramen would’ve made more sense due to Alphys being weeb trash, haha.

Okay, so the rough timeline iiiis... Falling: - Cyan - Green - Orange - Blue - Purple - Yellow Dying: - Cyan - Orange - Blue - Purple - Yellow - Green

You know, it’s funny because this ask is super old, but that’s basically sorta what happened. :O It became a beach-themed resort.

Never forget MTT fangirl Temmie’s pool escapades.

I think Forgespring for me because I had to make the tileset myself (it took a few months, I think?), but Aquarius was definitely in the works for a while. But once I had the tileset from Fours, the rooms were very easy to design!

That woulda been pretty rad! Maybe I can find another spot for it one day, haha.

I think for Dohj, I’d have to check with Fours, but I’m certainly not opposed at some point? Right now, the following chars can take questions: - Frisk - Papyrus - Sans - Undyne - Alphys - Napstablook - Mettaton - Asgore - Chara - Flowey

Cyan appears in Part 45! :O No answer about orange for now, tho.

I do have vague ideas for Tem village. I just haven’t had time to go back and do it.

Stay tuned and you may find out! :O

Hmmmm... I had a lot of fun with MTT SPIRAL and the Determinator, tbh. They were both very time consuming, but I love how they came out! Also, buff Jerry.

Turnabout Storm. :)

It’s a really awesome fan crossover that works way better than it should. :P

None taken! We know that with headcanons, everyone is gonna have their own interpretations. These are just the voices we liked for Fireglobe Production, but everyone has their right to their favored interpretations!

Yeah, Knight Knight is one of the coolest CORE mercs in the original game. It was fun to repurpose them for Inverted Fate as royal guards. :o It made room for unique encounters in the CORE in the form of them robots- as Undyne would rather use machines than other monsters to do her work.

Personally, I see it as an Asriel motif, but I also acknowledge that at one point it WAS gonna be an Asgore motif. Toby has a habit of just using whatever music works for a scene (see sans. at the snail farm.)

I do have a few ideas, though I won’t say for what yet. :o

He’s likely made blueprints for that train. :P

It probably would just have different flavor text/progression!

So basically, I treat the starting motif for BAaTH/Power of NEO is just a “true hero” motif.

MTT is definitely major in IF! As for whether or not he’ll have a hangout, time will tell. There’s definitely more to resolve with him, though.

I’m gonna remake at least a few of the older tracks, including Regret. My goal is just to bring the OST to a similar standard of quality.

So, animated parts coming up: Part 47, Part 49, Part 50. There may be some other parts, but we’re gonna wanna scale things back for a little bit for the sake of all our sanities.

I go with both. ;)

Honestly, probably fairly similar to the bully fight in the Ruins- which is why I ultimately decided not to do one. Both fill similar archetypes, though I think if I did do a battle, I woulda still had Flowey interrupt at the end and scare them off.

It’s a very emotional scene. Far more tragic than her geno death, IMO.

Well, the main goal in that regard is the remasters (Part 9 is in progress). Otherwise, I do think these hiatuses are good for working ahead. I’ve still gotta do more work, though, because my buffer this time around is a lot smaller from the trial-hiatus buffer. Alas!

Honestly, the website is the best thing to happen to IF. It’s allowed us to do so much with the comic’s presentation that would be impossible with imgur. NORIX IS THE BEST...

[onwardintolight]

Canon Catchup

With TROS coming out soon, I’ve been doing a lot of catchup on canon material that I’ve missed, particularly that which I think will be most relevant either for the movie or for Resistance Reborn (which I finished yesterday and will talk more about below). I will avoid major spoilers, as excited as I may be about some of them, haha, but I wanted to write out a few of my thoughts here while they’re fairly fresh.

A Crash of Fate by Zoraida Córdova and Galaxy’s Edge by Delilah Dawson—these don’t seem quite as relevant to TROS, but I read these two Galaxy’s Edge tie-in novels a few months ago and I thought I’d say a few words. I REALLY enjoyed the A Crash of Fate; it was such a lovely, heartwrenchingly beautiful story that reminded me a little of Lost Stars in the way that it focused in on a friendship/romance between two people who wouldn’t ever be main characters in the movies. The story was told primarily over the span of a single day, and wow did I not expect my heart to be pulled in so many different directions. Definitely one I will read again and again. 

I’m not sure I’ll do the same with Galaxy’s Edge. It was a super fun read, with some great, Indiana Jones-like action sequences, and I’d recommend giving it a go especially if you’re planning on ever going to Galaxy’s Edge—but it also had a few seriously problematic elements that I just couldn’t overlook. For one, NO WAY is Leia going to force Vi to work closely with someone who tortured her, and speaking of torture, many black people have already commented on the problematic nature of the excessive violence Vi undergoes in this book.

TFA and TLJ Junior Novelizations by Michael Kogge—I wanted to get a refresher on these stories, and since I’d never read the junior versions, I decided to give them a try. Overall I enjoyed these quite a bit. The TFA one was way better imho than the adult novelization by Alan Dean Foster, and both had some really meaningful character moments. There was one Leia scene at the end of the TFA one that brought me to tears.

Aftermath: Life Debt and Aftermath: Empire’s End by Chuck Wendig—I’d originally read the Aftermath trilogy as each book was released, but with everything I was hearing about Resistance Reborn, AND with the return of Palpatine in TROS and the promise of finally figuring out what’s been going on in the Unknown Regions, I thought it was a perfect time to revisit it. I skipped the first one (my least favorite of the three, and also my copy is in a box somewhere from when we moved last and the library’s audiobook copies were checked out) and read a synopsis instead to refresh my memory, then dived straight into Life Debt. Both of these books were as good or better than I remember them. I enjoyed them the first time, but I enjoyed them even better this time around. I feel like they’ve gained even more significance now. My HanLeia shippy heart is happy with some of their scenes, and also I rediscovered that I absolutely adore and would probably die for Norra, Wedge, Jas, Sinjir, Temmin, and crew.

Spark of the Resistance by Justina Ireland—this was a super cute but ultimately rather forgettable junior novel. The best part about it was seeing Rey, Poe, and Rose interacting. I may revisit it sometime after TROS and see if my unexpectedly skyrocketing feels for these characters (see below) makes it better.

The Poe Dameron comic run—I’d previously read the first trade (Black Squadron), the third (Legend Lost), and maybe a tiny bit of the second (The Gathering Storm), and aside from a really poignant bit in Legend Lost I just didn’t find myself very invested. This time around, however, flipped that on its head. Trades 4 and 5 (Legend Found and The Spark and the Fire) completely did me in, and without warning, I found myself 100% invested in Black Squadron. Poe, Jess, Snap, Karé, Suralinda, and L’ulo have officially joined the Aftermath crew in my list of characters I would die for. I just want all my babies to be okay! There were numerous moments in those last two trades (including the AMAZING Annual #2, a must-read for HanLeia new canon fans) which made me cry. I’m not even joking. So good. Well done, Charles Soule.

Resistance Reborn by Rebecca Roanhorse—Buckle up because I have a lot to say! I HIGHLY recommend reading the Aftermath trilogy, Bloodline, the Poe Dameron comics, and watching the Battlefront II campaign (which I talked about in another post) before reading this because HOLY MOLY. You won’t be lost if you don’t, but it will mean so much more to you if you do. Speaking of crying, I literally lost count of the moments that brought me to tears, and so many were significant because of how all the stories I mentioned and more have been so beautifully interconnected in this one. Wedge and Norra, Zay and Shriv, and so many others—each was given their due and it was amazing. One character’s surprise appearance had me practically on my knees with joy and heartbreak all at once, and I would say more but I’m really trying to keep that promise not spoil you, haha. 

If the Poe Dameron comic weren’t enough to win me over, this book has officially cemented Poe as one of my favorite sequel trilogy characters. Tbh, I’ve had trouble feeling much of a deep connection with any of the sequel trilogy leads—I love them, sure, but not like Leia, Han and Luke, the trio I grew up with. I’ve wanted to love them more, I’ve wanted to be more invested in them, but it just hasn’t happened. I’m really glad I read this book before TROS, because I think this has changed that. I was definitely getting a few OT golden trio vibes with Rey, Finn, and of course, my Boi™ Poe—except they’re completely their own characters, and I’m really starting to love them for who they are.

Overall, I absolutely loved this book, it felt really meaningful, and I can’t wait to read it again. 

That being said, when I finished it yesterday I felt a little bit disappointed, like it tasted a little bit bittersweet. I’m still trying to figure out why that is, but I think it may be down to three things: 

1) Though there were a number of fantastic character reveals, there were some obvious people absent and I can’t help but wonder where they are. I hope they’re not dead. I hope TROS includes some of these characters, too. I hope we get the rest of their stories either way.

2) The book is way too short. Especially on the heels of the Aftermath trilogy, this feels like only the first act of at least three. The ending comes way too soon, just after it really seems to get going. This I don’t blame the author or the publishers for at all; they are very limited, after all, in what they can portray leading up to TROS. But it really left me longing for more. This book had such a wonderful focus on character, but in the end, I wanted to see the character arcs get even more resolved than they do here... but I guess they really couldn’t be, and that’s what TROS is for. I just hope the movie does it well! I need all these people to be okay <3

3) It doesn’t shy away from grief, struggle, and the mental cost of war. Honestly, that’s part of why I love it so much, but I think that’s also part of why it left me feeling a little melancholy. The Resistance is in such a seemingly hopeless place, and while things do get better over the course of the book, there’s still such a terribly long way to go.The First Order rains merciless terror on anyone or any planet who gives even the slightest hint of opposing them or of aiding the Resistance. The whole galaxy is afraid. Poe struggles deeply with guilt and with how to make up for the horrible mistakes he made in TLJ (this is not brushed off in the slightest, not by the book or by the characters in it, and I appreciate that). Rey is confused and still unsure of her place in things. Characters are faced with the fact that they will almost certainly die because of their choice to join the Resistance, and it’s heavy. And Leia. Oh, Leia. I am deeply grateful to Roanhorse for her very realistic portrayal of Leia as someone who has lost so incredibly much (most recently her husband and brother), most definitely has PTSD, and probably is dealing with a bit of depression. Leia is weary. Leia struggles to keep stepping forward, struggles to figure out the next step for those she leads. Leia struggles to keep hoping. The battle between hope and despair in the face of terrible loss and terrible odds is very much felt in this book. But as ever with Leia, hope always wins in the end. By the end of the book, you can still feel the struggle, but hope wins. 

I think that because I personally relate so much to Leia, reading some of that was hard. Not because I feel like it’s contrary to who Leia is, but because I resonate with it so much and because it reminds me in a particularly strong way of some of the struggles I’ve dealt with that I’d like to forget. It’s no wonder that my heart felt heavy after I closed the book. But along with that, I also see how Leia perseveres, how she’s finally gotten to a place where she lets herself rely on and be comforted by others, and how she accomplishes the seemingly impossible just because she damned well refuses to give in to despair, no matter how tempting it may be. It reminds me that I, too, can accomplish incredible things despite all my struggles, despite the odds stacked against me.

Anyway, I highly recommend this book. Resistance Reborn hasn’t quite come up to the level of Bloodline or LPOA in my personal ranking, but with future rereads, it very well might someday. 

This book—along with all of this reading—has put me even more on the edge of my seat for TROS than I was before, if that’s possible. I desperately want it to be the best ending possible for the Skywalker Saga and for all these characters who’ve become so beloved to me. I’m trying to temper my expectation—TFA still isn’t especially my jam, after all, and while overall I’m a fan of the ST (the TROS trailers made me cry, for goodness sakes), I have a somewhat complicated relationship with it in general—but goddammit, I’m hoping anyway. There’s so much beautiful setup in the new canon EU, such a deliberate focus on character, and so many hints that this might reach through the whole saga and bring together something bigger than we can imagine. 

I’m hoping anyway.

[mediabasedlife]

2017 Year in Review

     This past year was, to put it mildly, rather tumultuous. For every high point of the year, there seemed to be low points all around it. But now the year has ended, and hopefully, this next one brings more good and a hell of a lot less bad than its predecessor. However, as said; 2017 wasn't all bad, and this is what I've decided to write about today. Finding myself inspired by the myriad of posts about people's top five or ten games, movies, shows, and so on, I've decided to continue that trend and catalogue the media I found to be exceptional, the media that helped me through the ups and downs of these twelve long months we just experienced. Some I may have written about before, and some will be new, but all of them deserve praise and recognition abound...at least, in my opinion. So without further ado; here are my most enjoyed pieces of media I experienced in 2017.

     We'll start this article off by discussing a category I haven't really discussed on this blog before - music. The reason I don't usually write about music is due to how disparate my preferences can be for this particular media medium. Some days, I'm all about hard and the heavy, while others I'll dip into instrumentals, jazz, or video game soundtracks. Hence, the music I'll be listing here won't have much of a comparable flow - I just thought it was all pretty good.

     This first album ties into one of my favorite games from 2017, easily a contender for my choice for Game of the Year; the soundtrack to the superb indie game Night in the Woods, as orchestrated by Alec Holowka. The soundtrack is beautifully mellow, pleasantly tuned for ambiance. In the game, the music accentuates and emphasizes all of the game's themes, emotional depth, and down-to-earth feel. Out of the game, the soundtrack is perfect for chilling out, studying, writing, or any such easy-going activity. I frequently found myself playing it in the background whilst reading or doing the few articles I wrote, or using it to relax after a particularly trying moment. Continuing the theme of game soundtracks, another that caught my fancy was the Persona 5 OST, composed by Shoji Meguro. An eclectic mashup of genres, the soundtrack bounces between somber piano, energized guitar, and jazz compositions, with a handful of excellent vocal tracks thrown in for good measure. This album is great for a variety of moods or activities thanks to the numerous tones and tempos the music flows between. And with nearly four hours worth of music to sift through, it stands to reason you'll be able to find something you like.

     Moving from video game music, another album I found myself enjoying through the year was Alestorm's No Grave but the Sea. If you're unfamiliar with Alestorm, they fill a rather particular music niche; Pirate Metal, a fusion of piratical slang and heavy metal. Alestorm further accentuates their distinct sound with frequent usage of brass and string instruments, as well as a synthesized accordion. I found myself intrigued by their music several years ago when the band released the album Back through Time, and have followed them since. No grave but the Sea is relatively short, coming in at under an hour across its ten tracks. If you're a fan of niche genres, or just a metal fan looking for something new, I'd recommend you give it a listen. Closing out the music section is Linkin Park's One More Light. OML released only a few weeks after Alestorm's No Grave but the Sea but usurped it in my music library almost instantly for a brief time before the unfortunate suicide of Chester Bennington. In fact, I would call One more Light one of Linkin Park's best albums, despite it being the starkest departure from the band's hard rock sound to date. That isn't to say the album isn't heavy, though. One More Light is heavy in tone, as opposed to sound; If you want an example, listen to the premier single "Heavy" or the titular "One More Light", and you'll get a firm grasp on how the album feels. One more Light clocks in at a short but sweet thirty-five minutes, and I would wholeheartedly recommend taking the time to sit down and listen to it in full.

     TV shows take the second slot, though I'll be honest; I definitely don't watch a lot of television. Not live, anyway. Most of what I watch is through streaming services, so a few of these aren't technically from 2017, at least not in full. But since I first watched these shows in 2017 it counts. Without further ado, here are my favorite television shows I started or finished in 2017.

     Kicking off the television roster is Twin Peaks. If you're unfamiliar with the show, Twin Peaks was written and directed by David Lynch. It stars Kyle MacLachlan as the charming and amusing Special Agent Dale Cooper, a federal investigator sent to the enigmatic small town of Twin Peaks to solve the murder of local sweetheart Laura Palmer. Not much can be said about the plot of this show without spoiling it or just plain confusing somebody, but suffice it to say that all they appear to be. Everybody has a secret, and the show doesn't take too long to spiral into the surreal in typical Lynchian fashion. Twin Peaks initially debuted in 1990, earning two seasons and a cult following that lasted the 26-year gap until its third season released in 2017. Long story short; the show is great - It has intrigue, comedy, a wide cast of interesting characters, and a story that will keep you guessing until the end and beyond. The show isn't without its faults and can be flat out baffling at times, but despite all of that the show and its story is a fantastic experience to behold.

     The next show on my list both compliments and contrasts Twin Peaks; Broadchurch. Broadchurch is a crime serial taking place in the fictional (and titular) town of Broadchurch, starring David Tennant as Detective Inspector Alec Hardy, and Olivia Colman co-stars as Detective Sergeant Ellie Miller. The series kicks off by investigating the murder of local youth Daniel Latimer, before moving on through its three-season run to investigate another murder case and finally a sexual assault, all the while weaving a compelling tale of a small town trying to cope with and move on from these horrible crimes. Broadchurch is a heavy experience, with very little levity to break up the tension of each investigation. That being said, It's still an excellent show with a genuinely compelling narrative backed up by the top-notch acting of the cast.

     Setting aside the crime drama, we come to the next show - Voltron: Legendary Defender. Technically, the series' first season debuted in 2016, but 2017 saw the release of the second, third, and fourth seasons, meaning it was a pretty Voltron filled year. Legendary Defender is the latest in the long line of Voltron adaptations, following the Paladins of Voltron as they fight to defend the galaxy from the evil Galra Empire. Now I've never watched any of the other Voltron shows, so I can't speak for their quality (or lack thereof). As far as first impressions to a series go, Legendary Defender couldn't be better. Helmed by DreamWorks and Netflix, and written by the creative minds behind Avatar the last Airbender and its sequel Legend of Korra, Legendary Defender was probably the best-animated show I watched all year. In terms of quality, the show is top notch. Excellent voice acting, great animation, and a fun but serious story that has me eagerly anticipating wherever it goes in 2018.

     Wrapping up this section are the many, many Netflix Marvel series. This includes Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Defenders, and finally The Punisher. I had already seen some of these before but went in for a rewatch in preparation for all the new stuff coming out in 2017. If you're not familiar with these shows, however unlikely that is, I'll summarize each show in a sentence or two. Daredevil follows Matthew Murdoch who, after losing his sight but gaining superhuman senses as a child, fights crime in hell's kitchen on two fronts; as a lawyer, and as the vigilante Daredevil. Jessica Jones follows former street hero turned private-eye, Jessica Jones, as she tries to deal with the aftermath of a traumatic incident in her past while an old foe comes back to haunt her. Luke Cage follows Ex-Con and titular character Luke Cage as he tries to clean up the streets of Harlem and free it from corruption. Iron Fist follows Danny Rand, boy billionaire and sworn defender of Kun Lun as he tries to combat a mysterious organization known as The Hand. The Defenders finally unites these four heroes for the first time, as they all come together to battle the aforementioned Hand in an attempt to stop them once and for all. Finally, we come to The Punisher, which follows war veteran turned vigilante Frank Castle as he hunts the people responsible for the murder of his wife and children. I won't go into an extended review here, so to keep it simple; Daredevil is amazing (though its second season has some flaws), Jessica Jones is great, Luke Cage is great, Iron Fist is fine, The Defenders is amazing, and the Punisher is fantastic...to summarize, pretty much all of these shows are worth a watch.

     Now, as I said at the beginning of this article, 2017 was a pretty shaky year. A lot of ups, and a lot of downs. Many of these ups, at least for me, are in the next category; 2017 was a pretty great year for movies, in my opinion. It was a busy year for movies, but when isn't it? For every one movie I watched, there were three more I had to wait on, but pretty much every film I watched in 2017 knocked it out of the park. From comic book films to horror flicks, each one of these movies takes the cake.

     The premier movie for this article is Get Out, one of the contenders for my favorite movies of the year. Helmed by Jordan Peele, Get Out is a genuinely uncomfortable horror/thriller about a black boyfriend meeting the family of his white girlfriend. It tells a heavy but undeniably compelling story, one that keeps you guessing and inspires a fair amount of thought after the fact. I won't go into too much here, but I will say that if you haven't seen this movie, you absolutely should. Speaking of movies that make you think, Bright is up next, the new racially-conscious Netflix movie starring will smith and....no, not really. Actually, The Lego Batman Movie is up next; a goofy, charming, and stark contrast to all of the gritty DC movies that have been churned out over the past few years. This movie was genuinely funny and felt fun to watch...something that can't be said about some of the more recent DC films. I've written about this movie before, and my thoughts today still echo that review; This was one of the best Batman movies I've seen. Following The Lego Batman Movie, the next film on my list is John Wick: Chapter 2. There's not much to say about this movie other than the fact that it's a top-notch sequel that keeps all of the pros of its predecessor, and in some cases, improves on them. It isn't a terribly different story than its predecessor; Somebody messes with John Wick, so John Wick messes back by going on a vengeance-fueled spree. It's an action-filled thrill ride that doesn't disappoint.

     Another action-filled thrill ride takes the form of Logan, and....wow. Logan is another contender for my favorite film of the year. The movie serves as equal parts finale for both Patrick Stewart and Hugh Jackman as Charles Xavier and Wolverine respectively, and it does so perfectly. Logan is a shining example of what Comic Book films should aspire to, with an outstanding script, Oscar-worthy acting, and a top-notch story to close out this era of the X-Men cinematic universe. Finally, we come to one of the last movies released in 2017; Star Wars The Last Jedi. I'm sure if you're reading this, you've probably seen this movie. Maybe you liked it, Maybe not. I, however, thought this movie was pretty damn good. One of the better Star Wars films, I think Rian Johnson did well at what he set out to do. I won't say it's the best movie of the year, but it makes my list of favorites.

     Finally, we come to the last section of this year in review: Video Games. I actually got to play a fair few of these this year and liked basically all of them. But, this isn't "Year in Review, things I thought were passable". This is "Year in Review, my favorites", and so what follows are my favorite games of 2017. From AAA titles to simple indie games, each one of these had the right amount of fun, charm, and entertainment to keep me hooked and keep me coming back to them time and again.

     We'll kick this list off with a game that embodies charming simplicity; Slime Rancher. This game debuted back in 2016 as an early access title but finally released in an official capacity in August of 2017. I didn't think much of it when it came out, just grabbed it since it was free through Xbox Live's games with gold program. Color me surprised, then, when it turned out to be one of my favorite games of the year. I previously wrote about this so you can see my full review here, but what I'll say here is that Slime Rancher is a surefire recommendation on my part. The next two games are anything but simple, at least in terms of story; Kingdom Hearts 1.5 and 2.5 HD (PS4). I had played these games before, on the PS2 and PS3, but what can I say? Kingdom Hearts is one of my favorite gaming franchises out there, and the ability to play it again on modern consoles was a treat. With the release of Kingdom Hearts III on the horizon (hopefully), going back to experience the franchise in full was a fantastic refresher. If you've never played Kingdom Hearts before, getting the modern gen remasters is your best way to experience these games right now. 

     Following Kingdom Hearts is Persona 5, one of two games I would strongly consider as Game of the Year. I had never played a persona game before this, at least not in full, and this game almost made me regret that. Persona 5 is near perfect, with a great story, smooth and snappy gameplay, and a top-notch aesthetic balanced between its visuals and its sound design. Atlus has a history of making quality games, and Persona 5 is no exception. Continuing from there, we come to Night in the Woods, the second of my two Game of the Year contenders. In fact, were it not for Persona 5, Night in the woods would be the winner for 2017, at least in my book. This is another game I've written about in full and I would recommend reading that review here because I had a fair amount to say. Night in the Woods saw two releases in 2017, once at the start of the year, and once at the end of it. Because of this, the game both kicked off and closed down my 2017 year, and I couldn't have asked for a better game to do so.

     That about wraps up my Year in Review. 2017 was a full year for media, and I have a lot to catch up on, but luckily I was able to experience just about as much as I missed. Not everything I did this year appeared in this review, but these were the things that elevated themselves above the competition and took the titles of favorites for 2017. I extend my thanks to anybody who stuck with this blog, or even read just one of my articles in the last year, and hope that the new year is kind to all of you. This year promises to be just as good, if not better for media purposes, so I eagerly await whatever comes next. Here's to a great 2018, folks.

[mylittledragonhoard]

Fic: A Growing Trust - Chapter Seven: Second Chances

Semi prequel to A Sign of Trust.

AO3 Link

 Linane’s Edit

Shabbyblog’s art: here and here and here!

(I am so spoiled <3)

Everyone deals with the aftermath of Fili’s transfer. Some deal with it better than others. 

When Thorin arrived at Erebor, it seemed way too early in the day to be up and about, but he supposed that's what happened when one hadn't slept the night before.

He leaned back in the driver's seat after shutting off the engine of his truck and closed his eyes for a moment, listening to the ticking as the engine cooled down and trying to ignore the fuzzy lull that was trying to pull him back to sleep. It was going to be another long day.

He was used to long days, enjoyed them most times since they meant a full schedule and plenty to do. These last few long days had been just the opposite though:  not much to do and too much time to think and worry. It didn’t help matters that even when he wasn’t at work he was still thinking and worrying.

A sudden brightness appeared against the backs of his eyelids, and he slowly cracked his eyes open to see that the sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon to the east, dancing over the shifting ocean and casting the islands off the coast the facility was located on into shadow.

It was a breathtaking sight and had a calming effect on one's soul, and, aside from being so close to the ocean itself, this view was one of the reasons why he'd bought the land here to build Erebor. With the remote location of the facility, one got to witness the rise of the sun, but also got to see the setting of it too. Though Thorin was rarely free by the time the sun was setting, he hadn't been able to imagine his day without it starting just like this.

Well, almost like this. Today he really couldn't summon the energy to appreciate it the way he normally did.

Releasing a long and tired sigh, he rubbed at his eyes before grabbing a bag sitting in the passenger's seat and climbing out of his truck to begin the day.

Before heading to his office, he made a routine walk-around to all the active tanks, doing a check on their residents and having a quick once over the enclosures to see if anything needed to be done today aside from the regular tasks. All was quiet up top, and only the new penguin chicks seemed to be awake at this time, almost cooing as the four of them gathered together in a crèche for warmth despite the higher temperature of their quarantine room.

They'd been brought to the facility the week during what the staff was calling The Wetsuit Fiasco, and Ori had been busy doing his best to nurse them back to health as he was Erebor’s penguin expert. They hadn't even fledged yet and were too young to be without parents, but Thorin could see a noticeable improvement from the first day he'd laid eyes on them. Ori was doing a good job.

He continued up to the tank he was saving for last because then he could attempt to drag Kili to the bunker so the young man could actually get some sleep.

Kili had taken to staying during the night at the facility again because Fili had stopped eating. Thorin hadn't bothered fighting him, knowing the young man's guilt over having to trick the mermaid was eating him up inside. At least this time was different than the first when Kili had moped the entire time, and had instead been keeping himself busy around the facility when he could. Thorin always found him sitting by Fili's new tank in the morning.

He stopped on the observation deck that overlooked the tank, but Kili was nowhere to be seen this morning. He eyed the water in the tank in case Kili had had the bright idea to get in, but it was calm and there seemed to be no body within the water. He knew that Fili was hiding beneath the underwater platform right below him though, and had been since he disappeared beneath it four days ago.

Four very long days.

He let out a long sigh as he peered over the railing and into the seemingly empty tank. "You don't realize it, but he only cares about what's best for you." He found himself saying. His only response was a couple of seagulls crying out from outside the facility. The water in Fili’s tank remained as calm as before.

"Talking to the fish?" A voice from behind startled him, but Thorin didn't have the energy to jump.

He turned to find Nori coming toward the tank, doing his rounds since he was on night shift this week. "Maybe. I'm not even sure if he's listening." Thorin admitted. "Where's Kili? This is the first time he hasn’t been here when I arrive.”

Nori smirked as he motioned to the tank, "Made the kid go sleep in the bunker. He looked like he was going to fall in any moment, and I figured you'd appreciate not letting him get chewed on." He teased with a slight grin.

Apparently Nori had done what Thorin hadn’t been able to if that were true. "I do appreciate it. Some days I wonder how he's managed to get this far in life." Thorin attempted to smother a yawn this time as it crept up on him.

Nori snorted in amusement, "Well, he hasn't had his heart tied up in knots over a mermaid all his life." He pointed out as he leaned his arms on the safety railing above the tank. Before the transfer this action would have drawn a snarling mer to the surface of the tank since Fili didn't like Nori, but everything remained as it was. Too quiet.

"No, no he hasn't." Sometimes Thorin wondered if he'd made a mistake in giving this assignment to Kili, and not because he thought Kili couldn't do it. Clearly he'd been the best choice, and Thorin would always support the young man the best he could. But at what cost to Kili? The emotional roller coaster that came with it was hard on him, and he'd probably been more stressed these last couple of months than he ever had been before.

Thorin would never say these thoughts out loud though. He didn't doubt Kili. He just wished it could be easier on him.

After a quick rundown of the night, (Nori had done his regular rounds, had played with Lady for a while which was not out of the ordinary for any of the staff, and had done a little maintenance on their cooling unit for the food. Nori was also helping Ori out with feeding the penguin chicks at night and had been doing that every few hours as well) Thorin threw one last look into the tank before making his way to his office.

Even before he reached the room, he knew someone was in it. The light coming from the open doorway was too bright to be from the window that looked out into one of the temporary tanks.

He stepped inside the dimness and saw that the security monitor was the source of the light, and the fact that the maximised view was of Fili's tank told Thorin just who the shadowy figure stretched out along his couch was. Not that it could have been anyone else with those snores. It seemed Nori hadn’t been as successful as he’d thought.

Reluctantly turning on the light, Thorin expected the sudden brightness to wake Kili up, but the young man continued to sleep on, face down and smooshed against an old cushion that did little to muffle his sounds. The way he'd squished himself to fit on the smaller couch would have been comical any other day, but Thorin had no idea when he'd finally passed out and he still looked utterly exhausted.

Sighing in exasperation like a parent would, Thorin stepped over to a small closet that was just on the other side of his desk and placed in the corner of the room. From it he produced an old worn afghan that he spread out over Kili's form. "Brat." He muttered affectionately before going back to his desk.

After hanging a sign that read 'be quiet or you'll be on tank cleaning duty', Thorin settled himself at his desk so he could get some work done. At least he’d have a couple of hours of peace and quiet.

Kili snorted and shifted in his sleep.

Well, almost quiet.

It was around noon when the lump on the couch finally stirred. Thorin stopped typing and glanced over, seeing Kili's eyes open but knowing from the somewhat glazed expression the younger man wasn't exactly awake.

After rubbing the sleep away, Kili blinked at him owlishly before he made a particular sound of amusement that only he understood. "I was dreaming about Fili clicking at me, but it was your keyboard." He explained with an almost grin, but then a frown appeared as the memory of the mer probably came to him. "What time is it?"

"Time for you to go home to sleep in your own bed." Thorin tried his best not to make it sound like an order, but he doubted his efforts worked. He also doubted Kili would actually listen.

And he was right.

Kili made another sound but this time there was no amusement present. He didn't have to tell Thorin that there was a snowball's chance in Hell of that happening. He managed to sit up, pushing the afghan off him as he continued to try to wake up, staring at it in confusion for a second before probably figuring out how it got there. He scratched at the stubble on his face, yawning so widely that Thorin heard his jaw crack from the other side of the room. With a hesitant motion to the screen above him, he wondered, "Has he...?"

"No." Thorin shook his head, not needing him to finish the sentence. "But he'll make an appearance eventually." He had faith in that. He couldn't believe that all the good they'd done had been for nothing and this time the mermaid really had given up. It went against what they’d learned about Fili’s personality. No, this wasn’t the mer giving up. This was the mer sulking. "You've slept most of the day. Why don't you take the rest of the day off and spend some time away from here?" Never mind the fact that this was technically Kili's day off already, and he'd been spending them at the facility for months anyway.

"Nah. Got stuff I need to do." Which was horrible code for spending time at Fili's tank hoping that today was the day the mer decided to show himself.

Thorin felt like smacking his face against his keyboard. He honestly didn't know whose stubbornness was worse - Kili's or Fili’s, but one or both of them were going to drive him clinically insane if things went on this way. Instead of going through with the urge, he counted to ten silently. "I figured as much. You should add talking to Oin on your list of things to do - and no," he interrupted as he watched Kili's face go white at the mention of their veterinarian and the brunet opened his mouth to speak, "there isn't anything wrong." He promised, "Now get out of my office and go talk to Oin."

Knowing he'd be more likely to have his questions answered by Oin, Kili left the room without another word.

***

The vet was sitting at his desk when Kili entered, and it seemed like charts and graphs and what looked like test tubes had spilled out of an open box that sat tipped on its side, spreading out all over the usually immaculate desk. The older man was muttering to himself as he read over a rather lengthy letter, reading glasses perched on the tip of his nose.

The brunet stepped closer to the desk, habitually turning to look through the observation window that led to the tank outside. He flinched as he realized what he was doing since it wasn't the first or even second time. After months of always checking, it was going to take a while before he stopped expecting to see Fili through the window.

"Hey doc." He greeted tiredly. He still felt like he could sleep another twelve hours, but that had become his regular way of being since a blue eyed mermaid had come into his life.

Oin didn't look up from his letter, an annoyed frown stuck on his face. "Have a nice nap did you?"

Kili flushed, wondering how many people had walked into Thorin's office while he'd been asleep. "Ah, yeah." He motioned to the mess on top of Oin's desktop. "What's all this? Usually it’s Thorin’s desk that looks like disaster.”

"This," The greying man moved the letter in his hand, "is a lot of ass kissing." He grunted before folding it up and sticking it in the top drawer of his desk. If it had been Thorin's desk, that letter might as well have been thrown into the abyss.

"Oh...kay?" Kili wasn't sure how to respond to that.

"It's from the main lab where I sent Fili's tissue and blood samples." Oin elaborated as he picked up another piece of paper.

He had Kili's immediate attention at the mention of the samples that had been sent away so long ago. The day he’d handled the samples had been one of the worst days of his life, and he did his best not to think about it. He’d completely forgotten that Oin had sent them away to get tested. "So?" He asked, not bothering to beat around the bush.

Oin rather angry expression shifted immediately and he looked at Kili almost gleefully. "Well, it took so long because they've never seen samples taken from a live mermaid before." He explained as he leaned back in his chair. "Among all the ass kissing and brown nosing in that letter, they've requested I take more, but I don't believe I'll be doing that anytime soon." He crossed his arms and that annoyed frown returned. "I think they've forgotten they're talking about an actual living creature. They've been in their labs too long." He huffed.

Kili was glad that nobody would try to take samples from Fili again. The first samples had been taken while Fili had been unconscious. He knew that attempting it now would terrify the mer, and things were bad enough. "What did the samples tell them?"

"Just the basics. They have his DNA in their system now, but what they'll do with it, I have no idea. I'm a vet not a scientist. But we know he's disease free and while his organs weren't doing well at the time, things have improved since. And," Oin smiled then and looked at the paper he held in one hand, "now we know the approximate age of your mer." He turned the page around so Kili could see.

"He's not my mer." The brunet muttered as he took it, too excited to really care about the vet's smug smirk. His eyes scanned the sheet, practically going cross eyed upon seeing the graphs printed on the page. The data was in some kind of nerd language that he had no way of interpreting, but he did understand the neat 'APPROXIMATELY 60 YEARS' typed on one of the lines.

"Sixty." Kili took a breath and let it out slowly. He knew that Fili was older than he looked as mermaids aged differently, but to see it on paper was a little shocking. "He's older than you are." He began, not meaning the insult and immediately backtracking when he realized how it sounded. "Sorry - I just-"

"I'm under no illusions about my age, brat. And I've got a few more years before I'm as old as your mer." Oin snickered. "The lab compared their results with that of a human, and from what they can gather sixty years for a mer is comparable to around the mid to late twenties for humans, though another sample in a few years’ time would give them better information.”

Kili looked away from the page at that, a little wide eyed. "You mean...we're pretty much the same age." A wide grin began to form on his face at the thought.

"Some days I have to wonder because you both tend to act like children. But essentially, yes." Oin muttered the first part as if Kili wasn't supposed to hear it, but he didn't mind the jab at all. "Maybe that's why you get along with him."

That sobered Kili up and his grin disappeared. "Got along, you mean." He sighed mournfully as he looked over the paper once more to see if anything made sense. When nothing jumped out at him, he placed it back on Oin's desk, sure that it and all the other papers would make their way into Fili's file eventually.

The vet frowned, "I'm positive that this is just a minor setback. It had to be done, Kili. If we had waited for Fili to be ready, then we could have been waiting forever."

"It's not that." Kili shook his head, glancing toward the empty observation tank. It had been emptied of water and scrubbed well. Kili had even been the one to do most of the work since he'd had the time while Fili was hiding. "He's smart, and I know he understood why we had to move him even if he didn't like it." He looked back at the vet, "It's the how we did it. I mean, you saw when I asked him to swim into the harness, and then he did. He not only understood what I wanted, but he did it because I asked." Kili's heart ached remembering the way the mer had clung to him while they were transporting him.

Fili had been through something like that before. What had gone through the mer's mind when he'd realized it was happening again? The sight of that tear streaked face and the way Fili had cowered would be something that Kili would regret forever. Would having asked to begin with changed things? Made things easier? Kili would never know now.

"I should have asked him in the first place instead of manipulating him into eating those stupid grapes. Now he'll never trust me again, and he won't eat. He's going to die after everything just because I didn't fucking ask." The brunet growled as he glared at the empty tank. His eyes were burning again but he refused to let his tears fall. He was angry at himself, and honestly didn't think he had the right to them. "I'm no better than the scum that caught him in the first place."

Oin chuckled humourlessly. "You and I both know that's not true."

"Yeah, well. It feels like it." Kili knew he was being difficult, but he felt like a piece of utter shit.

"So that's it then?" Oin asked blandly, tone flat as he got up from his desk and began to straighten the papers on it. "Perhaps I'm being a little dramatic here, but God knows I wouldn’t be the only one. You don't give up for weeks when the mermaid is practically at Death's door, and after exhausting all options, somehow you manage to do what nobody else has ever done before. You get this mermaid to eat for you, to survive for you." He began packing the test tubes inside their box. "And suddenly now, after a few days, you're just going to write him off as dead because he’s having a tantrum? I really don't understand, Kili." He shook his head and closed the box, stepping over to a cupboard to put them away.

Kili flushed at the disappointed tone being directed at him. He could stand anger but had never been comfortable disappointing people. "It's not as simple as before, though. I didn't have his trust at all. Now I've broken it. Even with humans that's hard to gain back, and you said yourself that mermaids hold grudges."

Oin closed the cupboard door and turned back to face Kili, leaning back on the counter. "They are known for it, and Fili certainly hasn't proven the opposite with the way he reacts to most of the staff." He admitted as he crossed his arms, taking off his glasses and pulling out a handkerchief to wipe at the lenses. "But it's not like you to give up so easily. You're as much a fighter as your mermaid." He managed a slight smile as he held the glasses up to the light and squinted at them to see if he'd gotten all the smudges.

"I just..." Kili began, wrinkling his nose when he didn't know how to continue. He didn't know if he wanted to continue. "I feel like I don't deserve Fili's trust anymore."

Oin snorted derisively at the suggestion as he slipped his glasses back on, "Poppycock." He frowned and narrowed his eyes at Kili, lights from above glinting on his lenses and making his expression a little more intense. "The worst thing you might have done - what we all might have done, is gone about the transfer the wrong way. We made a mistake. If Fili can't understand that, then mermaids must live in a perfect society that I'm envious of." He huffed out a breath.

Kili managed a smile because obviously that wasn't possible. "I am being over dramatic, aren't I?" He asked sheepishly, scratching at the hair tickling the back of his neck. He hadn't realized how long it had grown but he couldn't be bothered to get it cut. He'd had a lot more important things on his mind.

"Perhaps, but you aren't the only one. The mood swings of mermaids are one of the things that remain constant in any readable source. Between moving him and the fact that Fili was already irritable and frustrated because of his small enclosure, having him hide away for a bit doesn't seem like a cause for alarm. He was at a healthy weight when we moved him, and after what we’ve seen him endure, a few days aren’t going to do any harm.”

Kili's shoulders sagged a little, though he wasn't sure if it was because he felt relief or because he felt kind of silly. "I overreact a lot." He admitted.

"That is the understatement of the century, but it seems to mostly be when it comes to Fili." Oin had not only been observing their residents, but apparently the staff too. "You're like a first time parent. Every little thing is magnified and made ten times worse than it is." His observations weren’t wrong either. The vet stepped forward and put his hands on both of Kili's shoulders, giving him a light shake. "But I have faith that you'll both make up eventually."

"And if he's decided I'm just as bad as everyone else?" Kili tried not to sound as dejected as the thought made him feel.

Oin's mouth pinched while his eyes narrowed and for a moment the brunet was sure he was going to get smacked across the back of the head. It was the same expression his mother sometimes wore beforehand, but it seemed like Oin had better self-control. "I very much doubt it. He has always reacted differently to you. Even while we were transferring him, he didn't growl or snap or try to bite you. He was upset, yes, but that doesn't equate to...well, disliking you as much as he does some of the staff."

Disliking was certainly a nice way of saying despising, but Oin had a point. Fili had growled at the vet when he'd had to check the mer's vitals, and he probably would have done more had he been able to. He hadn't shown any aggression toward Kili despite everything. In fact, he'd even sought Kili out for comfort. That lightened Kili's heart a little.

"Okay..." the brunet began, unsure where to go from there. "Where do I even start? He won't eat anything - not even grapes."

"Food is clearly going to get you nowhere." Oin moved back to his desk and sat down in his chair, leaning back in it. "You and I are both aware that he's an intelligent being, so I think it's best to try a different approach."

***

The sun glinted off the calm surface of Fili's tank, and though it was passed mid-day and approaching evening, the water that covered the tank's underwater platform was still warm. Kili had ventured down into the tank for the first time since the transfer, having stayed up on the observation deck in hopes of giving Fili the space he needed before now.

Clearly, staying away was getting them nowhere, so it was time to change that.

The brunet sat on the platform for about half an hour before finally shifting so he could spread out on his stomach, propping his head up with an elbow so he could keep his face above water. His clothes had long since soaked through, but he was used to that. He'd been thinking about what he'd wanted to say to Fili, having discussed things with Oin that afternoon. Expecting Fili to react to food like a common animal not only felt wrong, but was wrong. He was an intelligent being, so Kili would do what he had always done with the mer: talk to him.

He looked into the depth of the water just over the ledge, wondering just where the mermaid was located beneath him. He had no doubt that Fili knew someone was there, and he probably knew it was Kili.

When nothing happened for a few quiet moments, he slid his left arm over the edge and let it hang beneath the surface, fingers gently churning the water. "Hey, Fili." He spoke gently, almost anticipating something touching his hand, wanting the mer to reach out somehow. He'd even take another warning nip like the one he'd received when Fili had been introduced to apples. "You doing okay under there?" He wondered, continuing to move his arm gently in the water.

He sighed when nothing happened and tried not to grow too disheartened. He'd waited once, he could do it again. He'd been prepared to squish himself onto a ladder rung for weeks to make up for the wetsuit, so he could do this too.

"I don't know if you've come out to take a look at your new home yet, but it's certainly bigger than the other place, isn't it?" He began, watching the little waves his movements were making. "And so much deeper - and you have a place to hide now...when you want to be alone." He tried to make light of that, as though Fili hadn't spent four days hiding already.

For a moment Kili felt like burying his face in the water and screaming so nobody could hear him, except he knew Fili would be able to and he didn't want that. Instead, he took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"I know you weren't ready, and maybe I should have tried to prepare you better, but we felt that you needed to be moved." He began quietly, unsure if the mer could hear or was even listening. Kili wondered if he was being given that angry expression Fili glared at everyone else with. Thinking that was almost enough to make him smile. "Everyone was worried about you, and it just seemed like the best time." He spread his fingers under the water before relaxing them again.

"I messed up." Kili stated bluntly, wanting Fili to know that Kili was well aware of that fact. "I promised no one would ever hurt you, and what the hell do I do?" He let out a self-deprecating snort, disgusted with himself. "It may not have been physically, but I know I did. I'm so sorry Fili. I'll never be able to say that enough. I betrayed your trust and that's sometimes worse than anything else. I should have told you about the grapes so you'd have been able to make the choice yourself. Nothing like that will happen again."

They'd taken away what little control Fili had had over himself. Kili couldn't imagine how scary it had been for the mer to go from excitement over something he enjoyed to fear and confusion because of the same thing that brought him joy.

"Promising it is pointless since I've broken my biggest promise to you already. Why should you trust my word now? But it won't happen again, and I'll spend forever proving it to you if I have to...if you let me." He stared at the water, willing Fili to at least understand and maybe give Kili a second chance - to at least give him the opportunity to gain back the friendship that had been growing between them. "But for me to do that, you have to be around for it. That means eating and not hiding anymore." He explained with a bit of a watery smile. "I only want you to be healthy and happy, Fili." He ended quietly, sniffing a little to clear his nose.

Kili fell silent for a long time with the only sounds being the gentle lapping of the water against the sides of the tank and the occasional seagull that could be heard nearby. Kili intended to stay for a bit longer before giving Fili his space once more, but when he was just about to get up he felt something barely brush against his wrist, making him still instantly. He’d felt the sensation often enough against his legs and feet to know that the source was Fili's hair floating about in the water and knew that meant the mer had moved closer.

Whether this meant he was going to get that warning nip now or not remained to be seen.

Bracing himself for the sharp sting and praying that he wasn't about to lose a finger, Kili held his breath and tried to keep his hand as relaxed as it had been only seconds before.

Instead of pain, another hand slid into his and fingers curled and gripped him tighter then they'd been able to before.

Tears of relief suddenly sprang to Kili's eyes unbidden, and a wide trembling smile appeared on his face. Having nothing else to say, Kili gently squeezed the hand in his. And then to his surprise and utter joy, the squeeze was returned.

And it felt like forgiveness.

[captainstrangequill]

The MCU timeline

Okay

I’m going to try to explain the MCU timeline

(~disclaimer: I don’t follow the shows so this will not include them sorry. This is the movies only~)

 A lot of people are confused by Spiderman: Homecoming because it states “8 years later” after the opening scene which shows the aftermath of the first Avengers.

 Now, a lot of people think marvel movies happen more or less in real time (like people thinking Avengers takes place in 2012, the year it released). But that’s not always true. Sometimes it does line up, sometimes it doesn’t. So here’s a list of the chronological order of MCU movies (or at least the closest approximation I could make up):

1.     Iron Man – it actually does happen in 2008.  in Spiderman: Homecoming Tony states he’s been carrying the ring since 2008. And it’s January in the movie because they mention Pepper celebrating her birthday (which is January 24th)

2.     Iron Man 2- it supposedly takes place around 6 months after Iron Man, making it probably around the July-ish 2008. (and keep in mind if the small kid IS Peter Parker as Kevin Feige and Tom Holland state, he’d be around 6 or 7 )

3.     The Incredible Hulk and Thor- according to the marvel tie-in MCU comic, there’s this thing called Fury’s Big Week where the events of Thor, Iron Man 2, and The Incredible Hulk happen the same week, and hints of debris of Steve Roger’s ship are found in the ocean, so 2008 as well.

4.     Captain America: The First Avenger- Obviously the majority of this film is the 40s but I’m focused on the last few moments and opening shots. In Fury’s Big Week it states they found Steve about a year after finding those debris so this must take place 2009. Fury also states Cap has been asleep for ALMOST 70 years (and if it’s 2009, he’s been asleep for 65, which yeah, I’d round it up as well, and this is proven correct during a line in Spiderman: Homecoming that I explain below)

5.     The Avengers- Considering Fury is still trying to get Steve to leave the facilities and get out into the world, and knowing Steve is not a person to stand around idly, Steve couldn’t have been awake long. Like I seriously doubt he’d stay holed up in a building for more than a month. So I’d say this movie takes place 2009. ALSO nathasa tells Bruce he’s had over a year without incident so later 2009 looks good. ALSO fury says the thor incident happened last year.

6.     Thor: The Dark World- Supposely 2010, Jane states she hasn’t seen Thor in 2 years

7.     Captain America: The Winter Soldier- supposed to be around 2 years after Avengers according to Scarlett Johanson so I’m gonna say 2012

8.     Iron Man 3- Takes place 2013, because “13 years” after new years eve 1999. And yes I’m aware of the trailer that states 6 months after Avengers, but considering it never made it into the movie, and it makes more sense to have been awhile after, also allowing Tony’s PTSD time to develop, I’m going to stick with 2013.

9.     Guardians of the Galaxy- 26 years after 1988, aka 2014

10.  Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2- 2 months after Guardians 1, so 2014 as well (THANK YOU JAMES GUNN FOR MAKING THIS EASY I LOVE YOU)

11.  Avengers: Age of Ultron- Cap says he has been under for 75 years. I’m going to go ahead and assume that once again, just like Fury, the number is rounded up and say it takes place 2014 or 2015 And honestly that’s the only point of reference I can find

12.  Ant-Man- Feige has stated Ant Man takes place soon after avengers 2 so that’s the only estimate I can make so I’d say 2014/2015

13.  Captain America: Civil War- okay. Here’s where this timeline gets funky. Vision states that it’s been 8 years after Tony announced he was Iron Man, making it 2016. Now a lot of people think Avengers 1 takes place 2012 due to the quote in the movie “For the past 4 years you’ve operated with unlimited power and no supervision”. But…. The Avengers did have supervision at first, they were supervised by SHEILD, so maybe he’s referring to 4 years since Winter Solider.

14.  Spider-Man: Homecoming- okay this is supposed to take just a couple months after the events of Civil War, and considering it’s a Homecoming dance, I’d say this film takes place September 2016. It’d fit with the film stating 8 years since the Avengers, and in the Cap cameos Cap states “take it from a guy who waited for 65 years”(or something like that)  (and these videos were obviously done right after he came out of the ice judging by his Avengers 1 suit) 2016 also works if the kid in Iron Man 2 is Peter Parker.

15.  Doctor Strange: Multiple props in the movie clearly state 2016 in plaques and awards, although I loathe using props as a guide. Though, his car is a 2016 model and his phone is a 2016 model as well (it’s an Honor 8 which released July 2016, lol talk about product placement.) The director also stated the movie’s end takes place in the present (being 2016).

tl;dr: Here’s the list of the chronological order (or at least my best guess)

2008- Iron Man, Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk, Thor

2009- end of Captain America: TFA, The Avengers

2010- Thor: The Dark World

2012- Captain America: The Winter Soldier

2013- Iron Man 3

2014- Guardians of the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

2014/2015(?)- Avengers: Age of Ultron, Ant-Man

2016- Captain America: Civil War, Spiderman: Homecoming, Doctor Strange

[themeatlife]

Avengers: Endgame, the Legacy of the Avengers, and the Future of Disney and the Marvel Cinematic Universe

#DontSpoilTheEndgame is over on Monday, so I’ll discuss Avengers: Endgame - the movie itself and the larger impact it has on the legacy of the Avengers and the MCU.

Avengers: Endgame - A Review

To begin, it’s kind of hard to judge the film on its own. Even more so than its predecessor Avengers: Infinity War, Endgame is largely dependent on the previous films. So the impact of it is less so on someone that’s only seen a handful of the Marvel movies than for someone who has invested time seeing the now 22-film catalog.  With that being said, for those who have seen most or all of the other movies, wow. It is both extremely entertaining and extremely gratifying.  If you are an MCU fan, Endgame was made especially for you.

Now, SPOILERS AHEAD!

I’m not going to explore all the plot points (because there is a LOT of plot), I want to hit on some of the major ones though.

Much of the first two hours of the film (this thing has a three hour run time) is spent in the melancholy post-Snapture.  The opening scene is Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye with his family as they disappear from Thanos’ snap.  Just in case you forgot the stakes that were established in Infinity War, well this will certainly remind you.  We see our heroes trying to deal with loss and trying to move on in the aftermath.  I like this touch.  Throughout the MCU, the writers and directors have always tried to a least have a sort of psychological realism, always visiting not only the epic battles but the emotional aftermath.  To reenforce this, next we see Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man and Karen Gillan’s Nebula stranded in space running out of resources to get to Earth (much of this featured heavily in the trailer). It looks hopeless until Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel rescues them and reunites them with the surviving Avengers at Avengers HQ in upstate New York. She doesn’t really have much of a role in the film outside of this and the some of the final sequences.

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After hunting down and killing Thanos in the first 20 minutes of the film (Thor goes for the head this time), time jumps to five years later.  Earth’s mightiest heroes go on what Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man calls a “time heist,” a quest to use the quantum realm go to the past to collect the Infinity Stones.  Ant-Man’s return from the quantum realm having only aged 5 hours rather than 5 years spurs this. Not to change the past and prevent Josh Brolin’s Thanos from the Snapture, but to bring everyone back that was lost by the Snap, mainly because Stark now has a family with Gwyneth Paltrow’s Pepper Potts and a little daughter he doesn’t want to lose.

The time heist features three teams: Iron Man, Ant-Man, Chris Evans’ Captain America, and Mark Ruffalo’s now hybrid Bruce Banner/Hulk going back to 2012 during the Battle of New York in the first Avengers movie to retrieve the Space, Mind, and Time Stones.  Chris Hemsworth’s now broken and depressed and overweight Thor and Bradley Cooper’s Rocket Raccoon going back to Asgard in 2013 during the events of Thor: The Dark World to retrieve the Reality Stone.  And Don Cheadle’s War Machine, Nebula, Jeremy Renner’s Hawkeye/Ronin, and Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow going back to Morag/Vormir in 2014 during the time of the first Guardians of the Galaxy with War Machine and Nebula tracking down the Power Stone and Hawkeye and Black Widow tracking down the Soul Stone.  Highlights from these ventures include Captain America fighting his 2012 self, Thor interacting with his mother on the day of her death, and Hawkeye and Black Widow’s dramatic fight for who will sacrifice their life so the other can get the Soul Stone.  We also get a bonus time jump back to 1970 with Iron Man and Captain America. (My gosh, so much plot here, and that’s not even all of it. No wonder this thing is three hours long.)

While I won’t dive too deeply on what happens, what this part of the movie effectively does is show just how far back the arc of the original six (Stark, Rogers, Thor, Banner, Barton, and Romanoff) goes and how far they have come.  We also get to see how focused 2014 Thanos was at achieving his Snapture goal even back then.  And it’s a good excuse for Marvel to revisit some of the places they have been, kind of like a Greatest Hits album (although I wouldn’t consider The Dark World one of those hits, I would consider it a flex by Disney/Marvel to make one of their lesser movies that important in the long term story).

And then the last hour of the film is all kinds of crazy action, and the results are satisfying and enjoyable. 2014 Thanos gets onto the Avengers plan and sends 2014 Nebula to replace 2023 Nebula to go back to the future (OH I forgot to mention there were a lot of Back to the Future and other time travel movie jokes). So 2014 Nebula opens up the quantum realm portal to 2014 Thanos. That Thanos takes out the Avengers HQ right after the Hulk snaps his finger with the new Stark-made Infinity Gauntlet. There is then a showdown between Captain America, Thor, and Iron Man against Thanos, after which sets up an epic splash-page like final battle between Thanos’ Chitari army and the recently resurrected rest of the Avengers crew. Highlights in this part include a psyched Thor when Captain America not only lifts up Thor’s hammer Mjolnir but summons it and wields it’s power and a touching brief reunion between Tom Holland’s Spider-Man and Iron Man. The battle ends with Tony Stark swiping the Infinity Gauntlet back from Thanos and snapping Thanos and his army out of existence.

This concludes the Tony Stark character arc, for the snap was too much to bare and ultimately kills him. But not before Peter Parker and an Iron-suited Pepper Potts say their goodbyes (Potts with the emotional “now you can rest” line). There is a somber funeral sequence with all the major Marvel characters that are still alive making an appearance, along with a big surprise.

After the funeral, we also see the conclusion of the Steve Rogers story arc. Hulk sends Rogers back in time to return the Infinity Stones back from where they grabbed them. He doesn’t return when Hulk tries to summon him back but Anthony Mackie’s Falcon and Sebastian Stan’s Winter Soldier notice someone sitting on a bench in the distance. It’s old Steve Rogers, who ended up settling down in the past after returning the stones. He hands off the Captain America shield to Sam.

The movie ends with Steve Rogers sometime in the 1940’s in a new house finally having that dance with Hayley Atwell’s Peggy Carter.

Rather than a credits scene, the opening of the credits showcases each Marvel hero over the years with the actor who played them and ends the sequence with the original six Avengers with the actors’ signatures displayed on screen. Cool way to salute the actors in some of the major roles over the years.

Other than a couple of time travel issues (time travel is ALWAYS tricky to pull off in movies and television and maybe some other time I’ll go over those), the storyline works very well. I dug the balance it struck between the emotional weight, action, and humor. It was smart to have a lot of small moments early in the film where it focuses the interaction between characters. And it was a lot funnier than I expected it to be. The film as a whole is emotionally gratifying and clearly wraps up this chapter in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But as I said earlier, it is at max effectiveness if you’ve already invested the time in the characters’ previous stories, in particular the original six. If you know the original six’s stories in particular, you will thoroughly enjoy this movie.

I’ll save my ranking the Infinity Saga movies for after Spider-Man: Far From Home (Marvel President Kevin Feige calls the latest Spider-Man the final installment in the Infinity Saga). You can expect that Endgame would rank very highly in my ranking.

The Legacy of the Avengers

What is the biggest impact the Avengers and Marvel’s Infinity Saga have had on pop culture?

It is crazy to think that when Iron Man came out back in May of 2008 when Marvel Studios was using Paramount to distribute, it was considered a risk. Robert Downey Jr had yet to make his comeback complete (Iron Man and Sherlock Holmes a year later marked his return full return to stardom). Iron Man was a few months before The Dark Knight came out and garnered critical acclaim and helped legitimize the comic book-based genre. And the MCU was in its infancy, no one thought it would become the bohemeth it is now.

Marvel Studios, whether intentional or accidental, helped mold and was molded by the changing methods of which people were consuming their visual entertainment. The early 2000’s saw the advent of binge-watching television, where serial series like Alias, 24, and Lost saw people prefer to consume episodes in bulk. Once Netflix got their streaming service going, the idea of binge-watching caught on everywhere. Television ratings waned as people watched things more on their time on devices other than an actual TV. People only tuned in to things when they are originally broadcast if they were billed as an event, like a series finale (or in Game of Thrones’ case a final season) or a live event like the Super Bowl. Similarly, film started becoming more event-based. Blockbusters had to be built up as an event to go to in order for films to be successful, more so now than any other film era. And in making an event out of their films, Marvel serialized their MCU movies like a season of Lost - individual episodes focused on a character or set of characters with the overarching story in the background until culminating in the season finale, or in Marvel’s case an Avengers movie.

So the biggest impact the MCU has had is shaping other movie studios approach to movie releases. After 2012’s The Avengers, many tried the serialized team-up event concept to varying degrees of failure. Universal flopped trying to launch a shared monsters universe with Tom Cruise’s The Mummy reboot in 2017. Warner Brothers has a semi-successful MonsterVerse going with Godzilla and King Kong. We’ll see how that progresses with the new Godzilla movie this summer. Warner Brothers also has the mostly failed DC Extended Universe. Starting strong with 2013’s Man of Steel but limping thereafter with lackluster installments in 2016’s Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad and 2017’s Justice League, DC/Warner Bros has seen more success with the mostly standalone attempts Wonder Woman in 2017, Aquaman in 2018, and Shazam in 2019. DC’s current strategy is kind of confusing though, with some plans to continue the DCEU, and other plans to do more standalone work.

So the fact that Marvel’s shared universe set of movies has worked and has been the only one to work so successfully is an anamoly and an achievement. Marvel was allowed to build its world over time, a luxury that was afforded to them by Paramount from 2008-2011 and by Disney when they were acquired in 2012. The first two phases of the MCU spanned ten films from 2008-2015, building a foundation for what the franchise is today. That type of patience has not been lended to DC in particular, something that ended up looking and feeling rushed and resulted in a less successful and less satisfying result in the DCEU.

The Marvel approach has changed not just the method of outside studios release strategies but also in releases within their Disney family. For studios to make money on these films, they have to culminate in an event to get people to the theater. Fewer and fewer indie films turn into financial successes, at least at the theater. So event movies galore are on the horizon at Disney. Disney proper has “live-action” remakes of classics animated classics Aladdin and Lion King coming out this summer. Pixar has Toy Story 4 set for a summer release as well, even though the third installment was originally thought to be the conclusion of the story. Lucasfilm has what has been announced to be the finale of the Skywalker saga in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker coming out this winter. Each of those marketed as an event, whether it be a nostalgic event, an unexpected continuation, or a conclusion of a story.

Up Next for the Disney and the Marvel Cinematic Universe

While Marvel Studios has changed the movie industry and pop culture, it is hard to say what the next step for the MCU is. We know of a few things coming though.

With the announcement of Disney’s streaming service, Disney+, coming in November, there were MCU projects also announced to debut on the service. Loki, Falcon/Winter Soldier, and Wanda/Vision will all get series on Disney+. There will also be an interesting What If series where they were explore what if scenarios of some of your favorite Marvel characters.

The MCU’s film future is less set. We know that Spider-Man: Far From Home (co-release with Sony Pictures) comes out in July and is set in the immediate events after Endgame. After that, we know a few projects are in production but no definitive release dates have been set. Projects include a Black Widow flashback, origin stories for The Eternals and Shang-Chi, and sequels for Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, and Black Panther as well as talks of sequels for Ant-Man and Wasp, Captain Marvel, and Thor (although I think the route for the Thor character should be to join the Guardians).

And then there is 21st Century Fox. Disney acquired the entertainment wing of Fox proper earlier this year (I was scared of Apple taking over the world, but Disney is closer to doing so). Fox owned the movie rights to all the Marvel properties included in the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. Fox’s run of X-Men movies presumably concludes this summer with Dark Phoenix. Since Marvel Studios now owns the movie rights to what has been traditionally two of the more popular Marvel brands, one would think some sort of reboot and integration into the MCU would be coming in this next chapter.

I’ll end on this. The Avengers Infinity Saga, the Star Wars Skywalker Saga, and Game of Thrones are all pop culture epics that will be ending their current chapters this year. It is hard to imagine the changing entertainment world will ever have subjects as impactful as these given the number of formats available and the vast number of entertainment options now available. Those three epics, especially the oldest being Star Wars, caught pop culture at a time when people would watch and experience the same thing. Soon, the event-centered entertainment world will grow smaller with less people gathering to experience and watch the same thing. Or maybe I’m wrong and every generation finds a way to galvanize to have that shared experience (Gone With The Wind, the original Star Wars, Titanic in the film world all being previous examples). I hope for the latter, but I can’t help but feel that the record-breaking Avengers: Endgame will be one of the last of its kind: an event that everyone wants to share and experience together.

[affleckfan]

After weeks of rumors and speculation, Ben Affleck has confirmed he will not direct the planned upcoming superhero movie The Batman. The filmmaker says he still intends to reprise his starring role as Batman, a project for which he’s been working on a screenplay for the last several months.

Affleck released the following statement confirming his departure as director: “There are certain characters who hold a special place in the hearts of millions. Performing this role demands focus, passion and the very best performance I can give. It has become clear that I cannot do both jobs to the level they require. Together with the studio, I have decided to find a partner in a director who will collaborate with me on this massive film. I am still in this, and we are making it, but we are currently looking for a director. I remain extremely committed to this project, and look forward to bringing this to life for fans around the world.”

Warner Bros., the studio behind the current slate of DC Comics movie adaptations, issued the following statement about the situation: “Warner Bros. fully supports Ben Affleck’s decision and remains committed to working with him to bring a standalone Batman picture to life.”

Whether it’s an oversight or an intentional omission, the statement focuses on the question of director and acting, but makes no mention of the script. Affleck is likely using the extra time to work on the screenplay, but continued buzz that the script is not coming together as hoped makes it possible the omission could be a sign Affleck has done as much writing as he is going to do for now, and is handing it off to someone else at this point — perhaps Geoff Johns, who has been cowriting with Affleck.

Several names are floating around already as being in contention for the director’s chair, including Matt Reeves, Gavin O’Connor, Denis Villeneuve, Matt Ross, and perennial favorite George Miller (I hope Kathryn Bigelow and Peter Berg wind up on the list as well). While there’s expectation for Warner to make an announcement soon, keep in mind there’s also good reason not to rush the decision, since The Flash suffered the loss of two directors already and is now starting over nearly from scratch, and Wonder Woman lost its first director as well. The Batman has already lost one director at this point (despite any claims to the contrary, since Affleck was announced as director and confirmed himself as director a few times), so it would be a huge blow to the project after all of this drama to lose a second filmmaker.

With Wonder Woman releasing this summer and Justice League hitting later in the year, Warner could be inclined to take it slow and wait for reactions before they commit fully to a project that still doesn’t have a script they’re happy with. Moreover, if additional changes and delays might be in store for The Batman – more on that in a moment – the studio might prefer to hold off on naming a director until they’re certain where all of the chips are going fall.

I’ve been hopeful and positive about this project and the DCU for the past several years, and have told fans several times — via social media and articles here — to remain calm and to remember that rumors come in all shapes and sizes, and to avoid letting rumors upset them or make them worry unnecessarily. We can’t know what’s going to happen until it happens, I said, and the signs tended to point toward positive developments and plenty of reason to stay hopeful. I even said, you may recall, that while I took Affleck at his word when he publicly insisted he was going to direct The Batman, we should understand that sometimes unexpected things do happen and plans can change, but that if he did hypothetically walk away from the director’s chair it wouldn’t spell doom to the project. A Batman movie written by Ben Affleck and starring Ben Affleck, but directed by Miller, Reeves, O’Connor, Ross, or Villeneuve would still be a great project giving us reason to have faith.

While all of that’s still true, I’m not going to lie to you – the announcement that Affleck won’t direct The Batman hurt my enthusiasm and faith a great deal, partly because an Affleck-directed Batman movie is something I’ve dreamed of for many years, and partly because despite all of the buzz to the contrary I’d become convinced the odds favored him remaining on the project. I was told several weeks ago by a variety of sources that Ben Affleck was probably going to walk away as director, and that his departure was more likely than anyone would publicly admit. I was concerned, but felt reassured when I got other information conflicting with those dire warnings.

Yet despite public assurances from Affleck himself and other expressions of confidence that the project was on track, the expected start of production in Spring was pushed back. New rumors of trouble arose, and once again I was warned the odds heavily favored Affleck quitting the project as director. But once again, other factors – most notably Affleck going on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and declaring he would direct The Batman – made me doubt he would really give up the chance to direct a Batman movie, so I felt confident his problems had turned a corner and things would continue to improve.

Sadly, that wasn’t the case after all, and I regret doubting the refrain in my ear warning me the project was in danger and Affleck’s involvement was going to diminish. While I’d not have rushed to publish a story based on that information at the time, since I lacked enough confirmation to feel comfortable basing an entire story around the claims, I would’ve eventually ran stories addressing the overall status of The Batman and would’ve noted the consistent buzz about Affleck quitting as director.

In particular, I’d have pointed to The Batman’s continued scripting problems, his despondency and frustration in the aftermath of Live By Night’s poor critical and box office reception, the sheer pressure and grueling schedule he endured over the past 18+ months, his need to focus on working out personal issues, and the fact he felt exhausted and pressured and somewhat restrained professionally due to the long production schedules required for these big-budget superhero tentpole productions (from May 2014 through October of 2016, the actor shot three different DCU movies while writing another one).

Unfortunately, among the things I heard about his departure as director, I heard a few specifics that — if true — lead me to worry there is at least a chance Affleck could also walk away from starring in the picture. I don’t feel those concerns are as likely to bear fruit, and I still expect Affleck will finish the screenplay as planned and then start prepping for the role by getting into “Batman shape” to ensure he’s physically and mentally prepared for the role. That said, I do believe there’s a chance now that Affleck could depart the project as an actor, winding up merely serving as cowriter and producer.

Even assuming he does star in The Batman, I think the odds Affleck might walk away from the DCU after the film have increased. Obviously the pressure and exhaustive production schedules of these blockbuster superhero films, and being so heavily involved not just as a performer but also as a writer and in the editing room and as a producer, contributed to Affleck’s overall feeling that in order to concentrate on rewriting the script and starring in the film, he couldn’t shoulder the directing duties. This is precisely what I talked about in previous articles with regard to what factors could lead him to give up the directing role, and I feel the same factors also raise the question of whether he would be able to focus on his other projects as much as he’d like if he’s constantly committed to these tentpole superhero pictures (a problem that affected Live By Night, in fact).

The Batman seems to be facing a few key obstacles now. First and foremost, it needs a good completed script, and apparently this continues to be a real problem. Without a good script, the project won’t go forward – certainly not with Affleck aboard, since I don’t believe he’ll agree to put on the costume again unless he believes the script is at the right place. This is the number one problem to solve now. Second is of course finding a director, which could take a day, or could take a month, or could take a year. Warner might move quickly as they say they will, or they might decide to slow down, or they might try to find someone and simply remain unable to do so. And not to belabor the point, but with plenty of time now to get the project started and completed (since 2018 doesn’t seem to be in the cards) there’s no reason to rush the director selection while the project is still struggling to get a good finished script.

Third, Affleck hasn’t been able to start the sort of intensive physical training necessary to play a superhero character like Batman. And he’s surely not going to go into a “bootcamp” situation until the timing for production is squared away and close enough for him to need to get into that kind shape. Which is all to say that right now he’s in good shape but not “Batman shape,” and so timing will depend in part on his schedule being free not only for the filming but also for intensive physical preparations well before the cameras start to roll.

Fourth, a 2018 release date seems out of the question, but it’s also possible that a hypothetical extended delay — if scripting drags on til late in the year and the director search goes slow – then there’s a possibility (however unlikely it might seem to us now) that production might not get underway until Summer of 2018, and if that scenario played out then it would be hard to ignore the chance the film might not be ready for a 2019 release. Again, this is just a “what if things take too long” hypothetical, but the previous obstacles and slowdowns can’t be ignored, and they have certain implications for how things might go down the road.

What seems clear now is, we’re getting Wonder Woman and Justice League this year, we are probably getting Aquaman in 2018 (as long as James Wan doesn’t depart the project), and we are likely to get Gotham City Sirens in 2018 or 2019. I’m no longer as confident the latter film can make a 2018 release date, since I don’t know how much The Batman factors into David Ayer’s decisions and choices for Gotham City Sirens, which is set in the same bat-world and features multiple characters from Batman’s supporting cast of friends and foes. Green Lantern Corps and Black Adam movies look likely to get into production in the next year or two, but I’m hesitant to be too bullish about projects in the early stages.

Besides Wonder Woman, Justice League, Aquaman, and Gotham City Sirens, the other projects that seem most likely to stay alive are The Batman (since a Batman movie will get made one way or the other eventually in the next few years), Man of Steel 2 (since Superman is a big enough brand and two movies featuring him grossed $1.5 billion over a three-year period, despite underperforming), Suicide Squad 2 (which could become a Will Smith Deadshot project, keeping the Suicide Squad branding while serving as more of a stand-alone story for him), and some sort of Flash-Cyborg project (be it The Flash film with Cyborg in a supporting role, the Cyborg film with Flash in a supporting role, or an outright Flash-Cyborg team-up project that gives them double billing or has a Titans branding).

That’s basically the same worst-case scenario list for the DCU that I laid out in a previous article.. But with news of Affleck’s departure from the director’s chair on The Batman and lingering rumors that his involvement in the DCU for the long haul could wind up with more limited screen-time, I am far less confident that a Batman sequel film and Justice League sequel (two other films on my previously published list of “worst-case scenario DCU slate of films) will be guaranteed in a worst-case situation. A Justice League sequel depends on the financial and critical success of both Wonder Woman and Justice League this year, while a Batman sequel depends on the nature and extent of Affleck’s involvement in The Batman.

Affleck’s statement yesterday stressed his commitment to portraying Batman and working on the film, but the simple fact is that less than three weeks ago he was on Jimmy Kimmel Live! saying unequivocally that he would direct the film. By that time, I’d been hearing claims that he was going to give up the director’s chair for weeks, and clearly even if the final choice was made in the last several days, the possibility was well known by all principals at the time of his appearance on Kimmel’s show. It’s understandable that filmmakers and stars often cannot say what’s really going on, and are forced into uncomfortable positions where they either deny they’re involved in a project (“I’m not Aquaman” for example) or claim they’re doing something they probably know or suspect they won’t be doing after all. This is just part of the business these days, and we should all realize it by this point.

What this means, though, is Affleck’s statement saying, “Performing this role demands focus, passion and the very best performance I can give… I am still in this, and we are making it,” cannot be assumed to be the final word on the matter. I wish I could feel confident in taking it as gospel, but at this point I feel safer waiting until we see actual firm evidence, such as the start of physical training to prep for it. Hopefully it comes to pass, but now I’m much more inclined to take seriously Affleck’s remarks about not making the film if he’s unhappy with the script – and the script is part of the problem, remember.

If Affleck decides — or has already decided — that he’s less interested in continuing in the Batman role, then I wouldn’t be surprised if The Batman winds up rewritten. One option is to have Bruce Wayne pass the cowl to Dick Grayson or someone else, so another performer can continue in the role without trying to outright recast Affleck’s role. The benefits of this, from an objective standpoint, are that it allows a loose adaptation of something akin to Batman Beyond, which some fans and a few folks at Warner seem to support. That approach certainly offers something very different from any Batman we’ve seen before, although the counter-point would be that a regular Bruce Wayne version of Batman set in a larger DCU with other superheroes already offers a new approach we’ve yet to see on the big screen. Regardless, if Affleck is inclined to make The Batman his last picture in the DCU, I’d bet handing the cowl over to a new Batman is the most likely approach.

If Affleck actually steps down from the lead role in The Batman altogether, then an alternative to a full recast could be rewriting the script as a “prequel” with a different actor playing Batman during an earlier point in his career. One huge benefit of this approach instead of the “passing the torch” option is instantly clear: these sorts of Batman movies can be produced entirely apart from the other DCU projects, since a bat-prequel series would predate the events of the DCU movies to date, inoculating Batman’s prequel-world against negative reactions to the rest of the DCU. It would reboot without having to overtly admit to being a reboot, and it wouldn’t upend the plans for the rest of the DCU films even while it hedges Warner’s bets in case those films don’t succeed.

A shared Gotham universe of characters tied to Batman has great shared-world potential while effectively cutting off the Batman series from the rest of the DCU, allowing it to continue no matter what happens to the other superhero franchises. On the other hand, this approach would presume a lot of negative things about the future of the other DCU projects, and seems likely to ensure Batman will wind up left out of the other superhero crossovers and team-ups, since it would be confusing to have him appearing in films set in the past while also appearing in other movies set during a different era.

I think a prequel approach is less likely since it limits the studio’s ability to use Batman in crossovers to boost other pictures. And really, a bat-centric shared world of films — including Batman movies, Suicide Squad and Gotham City Sirens pictures, Batgirl, Nightwing, Huntress, the Outsiders, and other concepts linked to Batman — is possible without setting it in the past. Such films can focus on their own bat-world and ignore the goings on of the other superhero projects, leaving Batman free to also drop by on other superheroes from time to time, and it all remains tied together as much or as little as Warner prefers.

One minor point of speculation I want to mention — much has been made about Armie Hammer’s possible involvement in the DCU, with fans speculating he could portray Hal Jordan in Green Lantern Corps. That’s certainly possible, but I feel he might be more likely to show up in The Batman, and if so then it’s worth noting he could reasonably portray a younger version of Ben Affleck’s Batman, since he has the height and size potential to pull that off. Alternately, if The Batman winds up having Bruce pass the cowl to Dick Grayson, Hammer could also be a good choice for a Nightwing-turned-Batman potrayal. Fans surely remember Hammer was once cast as Batman, in George Miller’s original Justice League: Mortal project. It would be very interesting if Miller wound up directing The Batman and Hammer wound up wearing the cowl.

Batman is a cash cow, so he’s getting a movie regardless of who does or doesn’t participate in it. The project might have to substantially change, and its connection to the other DCU movies might evolve, but with $4.6 billion in box office for his theatrical appearances, Warner will find a way to get him back on the big screen. And if this year’s slate of DCU pictures are critical and box office failures, then I think it’s fair to expect the Batman franchise and related bat-centric projects to take over studio planning for a while (and you can be sure there’d be changes in leadership at Warner as well).

But we can talk “what ifs” all day. What we know for sure is this: The Batman went from being a fast-tracked project by writer-director-star Ben Affleck, to being a project with script troubles and a writer-director-star exhausted and unhappy due to professional and personal matters necessitating a delay in production, and now comes word Affleck will hand over directing duties to someone else. Warner has worked hard to get the DCU back on track, to send positive vibes about the state of their superhero franchises, and to overcome lingering negative buzz and rumors about their upcoming projects. So while we can still remain hopeful about the project, news that The Batman won’t include the credit “directed by Ben Affleck” is a serious setback for those efforts and a disappointing turn of events.

[hellosaltysaladcollectionstuff]

Peacock is here, adding thousands of hours of content on top of the already endless list of things we have at our disposal to watch. The streaming service comes from NBCUniversal and features a ridiculous amount of TV shows and movies to consume. Where do you start, though?

First of all, take a look at everything already leaving Peacock. Many of the blockbuster films that might have drawn you to the service will be departing shortly, even though the service launched widely today. Combine that with our overall thoughts on Peacock and you might question whether it's worth trying out at all. If you're like us, though, and you need a complete set of streaming services to choose from, there are quite a few excellent moves for you to delve into on the service.

Below, we've come up with the 20 movies most worth watching right away. Some of these you've likely seen many times before but are always worth another viewing. Others, though, might be new discoveries for you to enjoy. Whatever the case, you'll have plenty to watch while you wait for The Office to finally be added in full.

1. All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records

If you were a child of the '80s or '90s, chances are you are at least somewhat familiar with Tower Records. The iconic chain music store had locations around the world before online music became a thing and it was eventually driven out of business. This documentary, directed by Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle star--and noted son of Tom Hanks--Colin Hanks, digs into the store's history, its expansion throughout the '90s, and its eventual bankruptcy. If you've never seen this documentary, it's more than worth your time and shows just how devoted people were to this chain, including some of the biggest stars in the music industry.

2. American Psycho

Before Christian Bale played Batman, he portrayed a fictional serial killer named Patrick Batemen in this very weird and entertaining 2000 adaptation of a Bret Easton Ellis novel. Bateman is an investment banker with a dark side who brutally murders people at random, usually while dancing to '80s pop music and spouting music trivia. The film is told from his point of view, as he searches for meaning.

3. Back in Time

What better series of movies to do a documentary on than Back to the Future? Back in time is loaded with new interviews, plenty of behind-the-scenes stories, and a deep dive into what made this franchise so special.

4. Fletch

Sure, these days Chevy Chase is best known for playing horrible human being Pierce Hawthorne on the TV show Community. In the '80s, though, Chase had quite the film career, including the National Lampoon's Vacation franchise. Fletch is some of his most entertaining work. It's a comedy in which he plays a news reporter and master of disguise (Not really, he just puts on costumes and pretends to be other people) trying to get to the bottom of a millionaire's plot to have him killed. It's absurd and very funny.

5. Universal monster movies

What would a streaming service from NBCUniversal be without the Universal monsters? Peacock is filled with classic Universal monster movies, from Dracula and Frankenstein to The Creature from the Black Lagoon and Abbot and Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. There's even an entire section of the service dedicated solely to these classic films.

6. Highlander

There can only be one! The 1986 film about a sword-wielding immortal named Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) launched a franchise that included multiple movie sequels and several TV shows. Only the first movie is available, but it's worth watching--especially if you love battles to the death.

7. Howard the Duck

This is obviously the most important Marvel movie of all time. Who needs the Avengers when you have Howard the Duck? Yes, long before he was an Easter egg in Guardians of the Galaxy, Howard the Duck had his own movie, and it's somehow wonderful and terrible all at once. The plot is utterly ridiculous: Howard is propelled from his duck-filled world to Earth, where he agrees to manage a rock band. Then he finds out why he's really there: to stop a laser from destroying his home planet. Watch this movie and marvel (get it?) at what comic book movies were back in 1986.

8. I Am Big Bird

Ever wonder what life was like living inside of a giant bird puppet? This documentary explores the life of Caroll Spinney, the man who portrayed Big Bird on Sesame Street from 1969 until 2019, performing both in-costume and the character's voice. It's a fascinating look at the person behind one of pop culture's most iconic figures.

9. King Ralph

While you may know him as the dad from Roseanne/The Conners, or the guy from 10 Cloverfield Lane, or even Walter from The Big Lebowski, John Goodman also starred in 1991's King Ralph. In the film, the entire British royal family dies in a freak electrocution accident, and American lounge singer Ralph Jones (Goodman) winds up becoming the King of England. Is it a ludicrous setup for a film? Absolutely. Is it a funny movie? Absolutely.

10. Man on the Moon

Jim Carrey's performance as Andy Kaufman is spellbinding to watch in this biopic that studies the comedian's career. Whether he's wrestling Jerry "The King" Lawler or assuming the alter ego of lounge singer Tony Clifton, it's hard to look away from Carrey as Kaufman in this movie.

11. Matinee

Peacock really does love John Goodman. In Matinee, King Ralph himself stars as a movie producer trying to mount a preview of his B horror movie in Florida during the Cuban missile crisis. While set during a very serious and troubling period, this comedy is ultimately very funny--and at points truly bizarre thanks to director Joe Dante (Gremlins, Small Soldiers). If ever you've wanted to see Goodman get punched out by someone in a mutant ant costume, this is the film for you. And if you haven't wanted to see that, it should probably be on your list now.

12. Psycho

The horror classic is one of many Alfred Hitchcock films available on Peacock. You can also watch The Birds, Rear Window, Vertigo, and Rope, among many others.

13. Reservoir Dogs

Before Pulp Fiction, this was the movie that put Quentin Tarantino on the map. Shot on a small budget with an A-list cast, Reservoir Dogs is one of the most interesting heist movies you'll ever see. What makes it so interesting--and cheap to make--is that you don't actually see the heist. Instead, you see the planning and then the aftermath when it all goes horribly wrong. Rather than focusing on the actual heist, Reservoir Dogs is a character study as you watch these relative strangers fall apart when their seemingly perfect plan doesn't work out.

14. Silent Running

Silent Running, which was released in 1972, is never included in discussions about the best sci-fi movies and that's a serious mistake. It's set in a future where all plant life on Earth is dead and a botanist (Bruce Dern) tends to some of the last existing vegetation on what is essentially a space station connected to a commercial freight ship. Things take a drastic turn when he learns the plant life is to be destroyed and sets out to protect it at all costs.

15. Sleepaway Camp

You won't find much on Peacock from the slasher subgenre of horror films. However, the first Sleepaway Camp movie is there and if you've somehow never seen it before, get ready for a wild ride. It's a familiar story of teenagers at a summer camp where bodies start piling up, but the journey is a fun one and it led to sequels. While you won't find those on Peacock, they are on Shudder.

16. The Blair Witch Project

The Blair Witch Project is the found footage movie that all other found footage movies aspire to be. From the moment the first trailer for this film premiered before screenings of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, audiences were terrified of whatever was going to happen on-screen. The end result is a low budget horror movie that remains absolutely terrifying to this day. Peacock also has the non-found footage sequel, Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows. You can skip that one, though.

17. The Bourne Identity

The first Jason Bourne movie remains the best Jason Bourne movie. The Bourne Identity introduced Matt Damon as the action star nobody knew he could be. Playing Jason Bourne, a man with amnesia and incredible fighting skills that many people seem to want dead, Damon and director Doug Liman created a gritty and violent action film that launched a franchise--and a theme park stunt show.

18. The Matrix

Of course, you've seen The Matrix. Everybody has seen The Matrix. You're probably one of the unfortunate souls that sat through sequels to The Matrix too. And when The Matrix 4 hits theaters, you'll line up to see that too. That doesn't mean you should stop rewatching the original, though, and Peacock has it ready and waiting for you. The sequels are also there but don't do that to yourself.

19. The Mummy

Sure, you could watch the old Mummy movies where he's one of the Universal monsters. Instead of that, though, you should watch Brendan Frasier fight the Mummy. What movie hasn't been improved by having Brendan Frasier in it? This take on the Mummy, which is more action than horror, is fun and is ready to stream on Peacock--along with 2001's The Mummy Returns.

20. You're Next

2013's You're Next is a thrilling and inventive horror movie in which a house full of people is being taunted by home invaders as they are picked off one-by-one. Produced on a tiny budget and released just a couple of months after The Purge, You're Next wasn't the box office smash it deserved to be. Thankfully, though, it can find a new audience on Peacock.

from GameSpot - All Content https://ift.tt/2Oqjduo

[hermanwatts]

Sensor Sweep: Richard L. Tierney, Diana Gabaldon, Jirel of Joiry, Stan Lee

Conventions (Pulp Flakes): If you have been following my pulp convention reports for over the last 10 years, then you know they all have appeared on Steve Lewis’ excellent MYSTERY FILE website.  He has published and encouraged me to report the activities for Pulpfest, Windy City, and PulpAdventurecon.

  Authors (DMR Books): I saw that old movie The Silver Chalice when it first came out, and enjoyed Jack Palance’s portrayal of the sorcerer, Simon Magus. In about 1960 I wrote my first Simon of Gitta tale, “The Ring of Set”, picturing Simon as Jack. I never intended it as the start of a series. It lay around in manuscript for about 16 years, till my friend, Kirby McCauley, submitted it to Andy Offutt for his first Swords Against Darkness anthology, which appeared in 1977.

  Authors (Goodman Games): Gary Gygax named H. P. Lovecraft as one of the immediate influences in the Dungeon Masters Guide’s Appendix N. Lovecraft is best known for the creation of the alien god, Cthulhu, from the short story “The Call of Cthulhu” published in Weird Tales in 1928 (and be sure to check out our collection of reprints featuring Lovecraft’s works). Cthulhu is but one of many alien creatures that are perceived as gods by men; some writers that followed in Lovecraft’s footsteps have even tried to organize the gods into a pantheon.

  Authors (Frontier Partisans): There’s this thing called The Outlander Effect. It refers to the massive impact the Outlander series of books by Diana Gabaldon and the STARZ series based on the novels on the economy and culture of Scotland. Over the past quarter century, the books and show — largely set in the Highlands at the time of the Jacobite Rising of 1745, then moving to the North Carolina backcountry in the run-up to the American Revolution — have created a measurable increase in tourism in the Scottish Highlands.

  Fiction (DMR Books): The seventh and final installment in the serialized version of Tros of Samothrace is titled “Messenger of Destiny” and consists of what would become chapters 82 – 96 of the novel published in 1934. Set in the summer of the year 54 B.C., this story tells of the aftermath of Julius Caesar’s invasions of Britain and was first published in three parts in the February 10th, 20th and 28th 1926 issues of Adventure magazine.

  Book Lists (Hi Lo Brow): Seventy years ago, the following 10 adventures — selected from my Best Forties (1944–1953) Adventure list — were first serialized or published in book form. They’re my favorite adventures published that year.

  Writing (Monsters and Manuals): A lot of the violence in Tolkien’s work happens “off camera”, so to speak, or is described in very broad brush strokes. Even when we get a “live” account, as in the scene above, it tends to be a sketch or a few edited highlights – the only blow-by-blow fight we really get in The Lord of the Rings, at least as far as I can recall off the top of my head, is the scene just after this one when Frodo gets stabbed by the orc captain’s spear.

    Ian Fleming (M Porcius): In Casino Royale and here in Live and Let Die, Fleming does not limit himself to presenting only Bond’s point of view or to only writing scenes in which Bond himself appears.  In Casino Royale there were a few scenes with M and S (head of the division of the British Secret Service devoted to the USSR) and Moneypenny in which Bond was absent, and a scene inside Le Chiffre’s automobile while Bond was pursuing him in his Bentley.

  Gaming (Sacnoth’s Scriptorium): So, I’ve been wanting to brush up my 1st edition AD&D knowledge, which I find has gotten overlaid with bits and pieces from other iterations of the game during all those years I spent working on 2nd edition (over forty modules, books, and boxed sets) and editing 3rd edition (about another twenty works, including co-editing two of its three core rulebooks).

  Fiction (Hillbilly Highway): Devil’s Call is one hell of a story, a bloody weird western propelled by protagonist Li Lian’s remarkable voice.

Li Lian is the mixed race daughter from a family where witchery runs on the female line.  She follows her husband, a former army doctor, to the Nebraska frontier.  It is there that something goes terribly wrong.

  Fiction (Tip the Wink): The Liaden universe is the setting for an ongoing series of science fiction novels and stories written by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. The series covers a considerable time period, some thousands of years in all, although since it also covers more than one universe the exact chronology is…difficult. However the main timeline extends across only a few generations.

  Writing (Pulp Archivist): In 1947, Stan Lee, then editor of Timely Comics, which would later be rebranded into Atlas, then Marvel, wrote in Writer’s Digest that “There’s Money in Comics!”, explaining how a writer could adapt to the comics medium. As a result, Lee also explains many concepts of selling writing that are universal to all media before applying them specifically to the visual medium of comics. Many a pulp writer made the transition.

  Fiction (Jon Mollison):  Back in the bad old days when I only rarely dipped my toes into NYC publishing waters in search of a rare good read, a brother recommended the First Law books by Joe Abercrombie, and so with the trepidation of a man burned once too often, I grabbed a copy of Red Country from the library and proceeded to get burned once again.  As a novel it failed to clear every bar set before it.  It failed to deliver adventure.  It failed to deliver heroism.  Worst of all, it failed to deliver fun.

  Doc Savage (Black Gate): Doc Savage was not created so much as he was assembled in much the way Victor Frankenstein stitched together his infamous monster from unconnected charnel parts.

The year was 1932. At the Street & Smith publishing company, they had a surprise runaway success in a magazine called The Shadow. Inspired by a creepy radio voice used to promote their Detective Story Magazine, the mockingly laughing Shadow captured America’s imagination in that dark Depression year. The magazine kept selling out. S&S pushed author Walter B. Gibson into producing two novels a month so they could release the pulp periodical every other week. The Shadow Magazine kept selling.

  Art (Adventures Fantastic): Artist Darrell K. Sweet was born on this date, August 15, in 1934.  He passed away in 2011.  When I was in junior high and high school, if  book had cover he’d done, I always picked it up and gave it a look.  I didn’t always buy the book, but based on positive experiences with some of the first books I read that he’d done the cover art for, I always gave it a look.  I had the privilege of meeting him a couple of times, and I had the opportunity to tell him that at the 2006 WFC.

    Firearms (Tom McNulty): As most Clint Eastwood fans know, the famed actor first used the famous snake grip Colt Single Action Army (SAA) revolver in the first season and second episode of Rawhide. The air date was January 16, 1959. The episode was titled “Incident at Alabaster Plain.” Eastwood would use that same gun again in A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and For a Few Dollars More (1966), both directed by Sergio Leone.

  Fiction (Pulp Rev): Mention the words ‘Strong Female Character’ and immediately a visage of a tigress fills your head. She is powerful and fearless, unbeatable in combat, sexually alluring, takes no nonsense from anyone, and can best any man in any masculine pursuit. It’s a trope solidified over decades of repetition on the silver screen and the printed page. And then there is Jirel of Joiry.

      Sensor Sweep: Richard L. Tierney, Diana Gabaldon, Jirel of Joiry, Stan Lee published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/

[aion-rsa]

CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2016: #75 – #51

Each year, CBR takes a thoughtful look at the comic book industry’s abundance of offerings and poll the passionate, thoughtful and always-opinionated CBR staff for their rankings of the top comics of the year. Every publisher putting out new comics material in English, regardless of genre or format, is fair game; each individual list is then factored in (all thanks to the power of mathematics and the magic of spreadsheets) to determine the overall Top 100 that will be unveiled on CBR over the course of this week.

2016 was another big year for the Top 100, once again with more than 40 contributors to the list and more than 200 comics nominated. That’s resulted in a typically diverse and sometimes unpredictable field: world-famous superheroes alongside creator-owned works; major publishers sharing space with indie favorites. Of course, even with 100 spots, no list can be an exhaustive collection of every noteworthy piece of work in a year, but the end result of the CBR Top 100 is a wide selection of eclectic comics and graphic novels worthy of attention.

On Monday, we started unveiling the list with entries No. 100 to 76, and the countdown continues today with No. 75 to 51, with more each day this week. Here’s the remaining schedule, mark your calendars accordingly (all times Eastern): Wednesday, 1/4, 3 p.m.: Top 50-26; Thursday, 1/5, 9 a.m.: Top 25-11; Thursday, 1/5, 3 p.m.: Top 10; Friday, 1/6, 9 a.m.: Master list.

Start perusing the list below, and if you feel so moved, take to Twitter and (politely) discuss your thoughts using the hashtag #CBRTop100. While you’re here, feel free revisit our Top 100 lists from previous years:

CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2015

CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2014

CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2013

CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2012

CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2011

CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2010

CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2009

CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2008

CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2016: 100 -> 76 | 75 -> 51 | 50 -> 26 | 25 -> 11 | 10 -> 1

75. The Goddamned

Written by Jason Aaron

Art by R. M. Guéra

Publisher: Image Comics

Cain, the inventor of murder, may need redemption in this series, but creators Jason Aaron and R. M. Guéra do not. The series is violent, disgusting and sacrilegious: What the hell else could you want?

— CBR Contributing Writer Jason Strykowski

74. A.D.: After Death

Written by Scott Snyder

Art by Jeff Lemire

Publisher: Image Comics

Although there’s only been one volume so far [editor’s note: issue #2 was released on Dec. 28, after the cut-off for Top 100 voting], I think the first installment was absolutely brilliant. Innovative storytelling, distinctive visuals and huge themes make this one of the best and most original series of the year.

— CBR Contributing Writer Jason Wilkins

73. Nailbiter

Written by Joshua Williamson

Art by Mike Henderson

Publisher: Image Comics

The elevator pitch for “Nailbiter” is “Twin Peaks” meets “Seven.” Yes, it’s that good. It’s got amazing characters and a fantastic sense of horror and creeping dread, but where it really excels is pacing and reveals. With “Nailbiter,” Williamson and Henderson give a master class on long-form comic book mysteries. Each arc and issue offers up compelling reveals and makes you excited for the next big, exciting, and often creepy twist.

— CBR Staff Writer Dave Richards

72. Living Level 3: Iraq

Written by Joshua Dysart

Art by Alberto Ponticelli

Publisher: Published online by the World Food Programme

Joshua Dysart and his team dove into stories of refugees, migrants and hunger in the Middle East as part of a moving comic that blended fact, fiction and documentary. It was a heartbreaking journey, brought to life by the World Food Programme, telling the trials and tribulations that these people suffer day in, day out. From losing families to kids being sexually assaulted, kidnapped or killed, to children groomed as child soldiers, it’s not the easiest of reads, but one we need to dive into. Dysart spent time there interviewing, so this story’s as real as it gets. Bringing relief is an expensive and tedious task, and the awareness this comic spreads emphasizes that we need more of these stories.

— CBR Contributing Writer Renaldo Matadeen

71. Legend

Written by Samuel Sattin

Art by Chris Koehler

Publisher: Z2 Comics

Have you ever read the novel “Watership Down,” or at least seen the traumatizing animated adaptation? “Legend” kind of reads like that, only swap the rabbits with dogs and cats, and have it set after what appears to have been a zombie outbreak that wiped out humanity. Now throw in a mysterious creature of shadow and teeth called the “Endark.” Samuel Sattin and Chris Koehler show us what life is like for former household pets who have to live in this post-apocalyptic setting by blending spectacular artwork with the naive innocence of dog (and cat) logic.

— CBR List Editor Brian Patry

70. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers

Written by Kyle Higgins, Steve Orlando

Art by Hendry Prasetya, Thony Silas, Corin Howell

Publisher: BOOM! Studios

BOOM! Studios is doing a great job with the :Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” titles. There are faithful to the show while set in a similar, yet different, continuity. The issues capture the spirit of the show while giving it a bit more of a action movie feel to it. If you are a fan of Power Rangers or the Japanese “Super Sentai” shows it is based on, you are probably already getting and enjoying this title. If you don’t watch Power Rangers, the comic stands on its own merits and is a fun read.

— CBR Staff Writer John Mayo

69. Moon Knight

Written by Jeff Lemire

Art by Greg Smallwood, Francesco Francavilla, James Stokoe, Wilfredo Torres

Publisher: Marvel Comics

If you want a book that makes you think, look no further than the Jeff Lemire-written “Moon Knight.” Tackling mental illness, Lemire paints a picture where we’re left trying to decipher whether Moon Knight is a legitimate superhero or if it’s all just a figment of Marc Spector’s imagination.

— CBR Contributing Writer Adam Barnhardt

68. Tomboy

Written & Illustrated by M. Goodwin

Publisher: Action Lab Comics

An incredible riff on the Magical Girl concept, twisted by crooked cops, murder and revenge, Action Lab’s “Tomboy” is marked by an incredible depth of character writing and a darkly stirring narrative. It is a credit not just to the talents of creator M. Goodwin and her collaborator Michelle Wong, but of the unique stories that Action Lab is unafraid to publish.

— CBR List Editor Steven E. Paugh

67. Rolling Blackouts: Dispatches from Turkey, Syria, and Iraq

Written & Illustrated by Sarah Glidden

Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly

Traveling through Turkey, Iraq, and Syria with a team of freelance journalists, Sarah Glidden chronicled not only the stories of individual refugees and the aftermath of the Iraq War but also the process of journalism itself. Both sides of the story are fascinating and skillfully told.

— CBR Staff Writer Brigid Alverson

66. Giant Days

Written by John Allison

Art by Max Sarin

Publisher: BOOM! Studios/BOOM! Box

Every aspect of “Giant Days” seems designed for maximum comedic effect, and yet the craft on display flows so naturally and easily from creator John Allison, artist Max Sarin, inker Liz Fleming and colorist Whitney Cogar. The continuing adventures of Esther, Susan and Daisy are consistently delightful, whether they’re searching for a new apartment, fuming about ex-boyfriends or scheming for educational shortcuts. Allison’s dialogue doesn’t waste a word, Sarin’s storytelling is spot-on and Fleming and Cogar put the finishing touches on a series which, month in and month out, is virtually immaculate.

— CBR Staff Writer Tom Bondurant

65. Chew

Written by John Layman

Art by Rob Guillory

Publisher: Image Comics

Chew gave us its last great chomp this year as it finished its run. It’s one of those rare breeds of comics that gave us consistently great storytelling and art on a regular basis, and completed the mission it set out to do. Congrats to all involved on this masterpiece!

— CBR Contributing Writer George A. Tramountanas

64. Red Team: Double Tap, Center Mass

Written by Garth Ennis

Art by Craig Cermak

Publisher: Dynamite Entertainment

This reads like a prime time television police procedural in all the right ways. Great story, excellent art. The first issue was one of the best comics I read all year and the subsequent issues have not disappointed. Highly recommended if you like the police procedural genre. Somehow both this series and the previous “Red Team” series a few years back flew completely under my radar. I love finding, to me at least, a hidden gem of a title.

— CBR Staff Writer John Mayo

63. Criminal: 10th Anniversary Special

Written by Ed Brubaker

Art by Sean Phillips

Publisher: Image Comics

After last year’s “Savage Sword of Criminal,” in which Tracy’s old man Teeg whittled away his time in the slammer through the comic adventures of a swashbuckling barbarian, Brubaker & Phillips made the metatextual pulp treasury an annual tradition with “Deadly Hands of Criminal,” in which Teeg and a 12-year-old Tracy are on the road getting into no good when Tracy discovers Fang the Kung-Fu Werewolf, a teenager with all manner of powers except any that might allow him any sense of control. The story might be Brubaker and Phillips’ masterpiece. Not only is the “Criminal” chapter a fantastic character exploration, but it’s a specifically tailored love letter to comics and the way comics get loved most, and best. It’s a proof of concept for the power and purpose of not only comics as a practical medium but also the surrounding collecting culture that forged it into what it is today. Not despite of but in fact because of its kung-fu werewolf star, “Deadly Hands” is a heartbreaking testament to the the loneliness and alienation that is so often discovered in adolescence, and achieves this while making the case that, in their way, if you love comics they can love you back.

— CBR Staff Writer Brendan McGuirk

62. Angel City

Written by Janet Harvey

Art by Megan Levens

Publisher: Oni Press

Everything about this miniseries has been incredible: strong women, complicated characters and a pitch-perfect yet updated take on noir. The writing and art works seamlessly together to provide texture and mood as former starlet Dolores Dare goes after a killer.

— CBR Contributing Writer Beth Bartlett

61. Daredevil

Written by Charles Soule

Art by Ron Garney, Goran Sudžuka, Matteo Buffagni

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Even though Matt Murdock is a fan-favorite character, the current run of “Daredevil” is a bit underrated currently. Donning a new black suit for his post-“Secret Wars run,” Daredevil battles the Hand before starting a rocky relationship with New Attilan and the Inhuman Royal Family. Alongside his new protege Blindspot, the Man without Fear is in the midst of another great era.

— CBR Contributing Writer Adam Barnhardt

60. Wonder Woman: The True Amazon

Written & Illustrated by Jill Thompson

Publisher: DC Comics

In this glorious masterpiece written and painted (yes, painted) by Jill Thompson, we get a Wonder Woman origin story (out of continuity) like no other. Rather than start off as strong, confident, wise and compassionate, she’s, uh, kind of a brat. The first girl born on the island of the Amazons in ages, Princess Diana is realistically spoiled rotten by such an environment and learns the hard way that there’s more to life than being worshipped and adored. Seeing her not-so-altruistic reasons for becoming a mighty warrior is surprisingly refreshing. The more you read, the more the story’s ending becomes predictable. Yet shockingly, seeing those predictions being met is incredibly fulfilling. This is a testament to Thompson’s simple, elegant storytelling method, which is beautifully enhanced by her equally elegant and stunning artwork.

— CBR List Editor Brian Patry

59. Equinoxes

Written & Illustrated by Cyril Pedrosa

Publisher: NBM Publishing

First published in English in North America this year, I was floored by the sheer amount of craft Cyril Pedrosa packs into this graphic novel. An engrossing, sophisticated exploration of human interaction that uses innovative visual storytelling to weave together multiple narratives into a beautiful, dynamic tapestry that resonates across time and space.

— CBR Contributing Writer Jason Wilkins

58. Nod Away

Written & Illustrated by Joshua Cotter

Publisher: Fantagraphics Books

Joshua W. Cotter’s first graphic novel in years is well worth the wait– and what’s fascinating is that, for a graphic novel that fans have been waiting for for so many years, “Nod Away” is very much about waiting, as the story is about that sense of dread in a horror film as things get worse and worse. Here, we are slowly given more and more information about a future society where the world is connected via the mind of a young girl, only that is just the first step in a darker conspiracy where the more we learn, the more disturbing things are. Cotter knows how to cut to the heart of characters, making his protagonists easily relatable, which makes the dread feel even worse, as we really like our scientist hero (who has to deal with sexism on top of all the horror stuff) and want things to go well for her. It’s a triumphant return by Cotter, and I selfishly hope we don’t have to wait this long for his next graphic novel.

— CBR Staff Writer Brian Cronin

57. Midnighter and Apollo

Written by Steve Orlando

Art by Fernando Blanco

Publisher: DC Comics

I was devastated when Steve Orlando’s “Midnighter” run ended, but this miniseries has more than made up for it. A refreshing new take on a relationship between two hyper-masculine men where stereotypes in and outside of the bedroom are constantly challenged. Their romantic journey together is rooted in honesty; things don’t just magically fix themselves when you get back together with an ex, you’ll still have problems. Also, Fernando Blanco’s ability to draw abs good enough to eat off of, along with stellar colors by Romulo Fajardo, Jr. I never knew I needed a comic about a guy going all the way to Hell to rescue his superhuman boyfriend until now; like a gay Western.

— CBR Contributing Writer Heather Knight

56. Animosity

Written by Marguerite Bennett

Art by Rafael de Latorre

Publisher: AfterShock Comics

A unique story in the dystopian genre where animals have “woken up” and, for the most part, no longer want to tolerate human existence. It’s as terrifying as it is beautiful, every issue nail-biting, painful and achingly good. It’s also about a young girl and her dog, but don’t mistake that for a nice story. Marguerite Bennett is at it again with another incredible book full of heart, complimented with art by Rafael de Latorre and colors by Rob Schwager. This comic is ruthless and unapologetic and worth every second of it.

— CBR Contributing Writer Heather Knight

55. A City Inside

Written & Illustrated by Tillie Walden

Publisher: Avery Hill Publishing

After a fantastic two-book debut in 2015, Tillie Walden released her third graphic novella in 2016. Like her earlier work, this one offers a narrative that is based more on the invocation of emotion than on action, and is all the more powerful for it. Her tumbling cityscapes and sense of architecture are delightfully beguiling and I am certain that 2017, which will see the release “Spinning,” her most extensive work to date, will be Walden’s breakout year.

— CBR Contributing Writer Rob Cave

54. Doom Patrol

Written by Gerard Way

Art by Nick Derington

Publisher: DC/Young Animal

Way and Derington’s “Doom Patrol” restores a frantic, surreal unpredictability to DC’s stable, requiring a whole new imprint to house it. The new series pays homage to Grant Morrison’s famous run without being beholden to it, creating new adventures for the strange heroes that feel just familiar enough before diving full-on into the carefully structured absurdities that fans crave. Oh, and it reads like a song.

— CBR Staff Writer Shaun Manning

53. Goldie Vance

Written by Hope Larson

Art by Brittney Williams

Publisher: BOOM! Studios/BOOM! Box

It may feel like damning something with faint praise to call it “smart,” but damned if that’s not what “Goldie Vance” is from top to bottom. Larson’s period piece about a plucky girl detective in a Florida resort cuts against the grain of by-the-numbers stories in comics and Middle Grade fiction with well-observed characters and a sharp, witty approach to historical fiction. And Williams’ art is nothing if not elegant, imbuing all the book’s ideas into the smoothest of lines. This isn’t the kind of book where you say, “How did no one think of this before?” It’s one where you go, “Thank God someone thought of this.”

— CBR Staff Writer Kiel Phegley

52. Archie

Written by Mark Waid, Lori Matsumoto

Art by Veronica Fish, Ryan Jampole, Thomas Pitilli, Joe Eisma

Publisher: Archie Comics

Each character lives with such honesty, such purity, such innocence — it makes me long for the simpler days of playing in a garage band or discovering a first love. Mark Waid has drawn me into the world of Riverdale and Pops’ so much that I wish I was friends with Archie, Betty and their gang of misfits. Veronica Fish’s artwork is bold and vibrant; perfectly complementing Waid’s storytelling, which makes every emotion each character feels even more palpable.

— CBR Staff Writer Lauren Gallaway

51. Star Wars

Written by Jason Aaron

Art by Leinil Yu, Jorge Molina, Mike Mayhew, Mike Deodato, Salvador Larroca

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Like the novels, the “Star Wars Rebels” cartoon and the “Star Wars: Battlefront” game, the Star Wars comics have largely done a great job of capturing the feeling of the films, while expanding upon the saga in interesting ways. This is especially true for these ongoing series, which have been smartly written, clever in their execution, and great at seamlessly adding new elements to the larger story.

— CBR Staff Writer Paul Semel

The post CBR’s Top 100 Comics of 2016: #75 – #51 appeared first on CBR.com.

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