#but also that one book by James A. Gardner(?)

[wifelinkmtg]

TUMBLR POST EDITOR WON'T LET ME TITLE THIS POST ANYMORE SO I GUESS THIS IS THE TITLE NOW. WEBBED SITE INNIT

So let's say you grew up in the nineties and that The Lion King was an important movie to you. Let's say that the character of Scar - snarling, ambitious, condescending, effeminate Scar - stirred feelings in you which you had no words for as a child. And then let's say, many years later, you're talking about it with a college friend, and you say something like, "oh man, I think Scar was some sort of gay awakening for me," and she fixes you with this level stare and says, "Scar was a fascist. What's the matter with you?"

The immediate feeling is not unlike missing a step: hang on, what's happening, what did I miss? You knew there were goose-stepping hyenas in "Be Prepared," but you didn't think it mattered that much. He's the bad guy, after all, and the movie's just pointing it out. Your friend says it's more than that: the visuals of the song are directly referencing the Nuremberg rallies. They're practically an homage to Riefenstahl. This was your sexual awakening? Is this why you're so into peaked caps and leather, then? Subliminal nazi kink, perhaps?

And then one of your other friends cuts in. "Hold up," he says, "let's think about what Scar actually did in the movie. He organized a group of racialized outcasts and led them against a predatory monarchy. Why are you so keen to defend their hereditary rule? Scar's the good guy here." The conversation immediately descends into a verbal slap fight about who the real bad guy is, whether Scar's regime was actually responsible for the ecological devastation of the Pride Lands, whether the hyenas actually count as "racialized" because James Earl Jones voiced Mufasa after all. Your Catholic friend starts saying some strange and frankly concerning shit about Natural Law. Someone brings The Lion King 2 into it. You leave the conversation feeling a little bit lost and a little bit anxious. What were we even talking about?

INTRODUCING: THE DITCH

There is a way of reading texts which I'm afraid is pervasive, which has as its most classical expression the smug obsession with trivia and minutiae you find in a certain vein of comic book fan. "Who was the first Green Lantern? What was his weakness? Do you even know the Green Lantern Oath?" It eschews the subjective in favor of definitively knowable fact. You can't argue with this guy that, say, Alan Scott shouldn't really count as the first Green Lantern because his whole deal is so radically different from the Hal Jordan/John Stewart/Guy Gardner Corps-era Lanterns, because this guy will simply say "but he's called Green Lantern. Says so right on the cover. Checkmate." This approach to reading a text is fundamentally 1) emotionally detached (there's a reason the joke goes, oh you like X band? name three of their songs - and not, which of their songs means the most to you? which of them came into your life at exactly the right moment to tell you exactly what you needed to hear just then?) and 2) defensive. It's a stance that is designed not to lose arguments. It says so right on the cover. Checkmate.

And then you get the guys who are like "well obviously Bruce Wayne could do far more as a billionaire to solve societal problems by using his tremendous wealth to address systemic issues instead of dressing up as a bat and punching mental patients in the head," and these guys have half a point but they're basically in the same ditch butting heads with the "well, actually" guys, and can we not simply extricate ourselves from the ditch entirely?

So, okay, let's return to our initial example. Scar is portrayed using Nazi iconography - the goose-stepping, the monumentality, the Nuremberg Lichtdom. He is also flamboyant and effete. He unifies and leads a group of downtrodden exiles to overthrow an absolute monarch. He's also a self-serving despot on whose rule Heaven Itself turns its back. You can't reconcile these things from within the ditch - or if you can, the attempt is likely to be ad-hoc supposition and duct tape.

Instead, let's ask ourselves what perspective The Lion King is coming from. What does it say is true about the world? What are its precepts, its axioms?

There is a natural hierarchical order to the world. This is just and righteous and the way of things, and attempts to overthrow this order will be punished severely by the world itself.

Fascism is what happens when evil men attempt to usurp this natural order with the aid of a group or groups of people who refuse to accept their place in the order.

There exists an alternative to defending and adhering to one's place in the natural order - it consists only of selfish spineless apathy.

Manliness is an essential quality of a just ruler. Unmanliness renders a person unfit for rule, and often resentful and dangerous as well.

And isn't that interesting, laid out like that? It renders the entire argument about the movie irrelevant (except for whatever your Catholic friend was on about, since his understanding of the world seems to line up with the above precepts weirdly well.) It's meaningless to argue about whether Scar was a secret hero or a fascist, when the movie doesn't understand fascism and has a damn-near alien view of what good and evil are.

There's always gonna be someone who, having read this far, wants to reply, "so, what? The Lion King is a bad movie and the people who made it were homophobes and also American monarchists, somehow? And anyone who likes it is also some sort of gay-bashing crypto-authoritarian?" To which I have to reply, man, c'mon, get out of the ditch. You're no good to anyone in there. Take my hand. I'm going to pull on three. One... two...

SO PHYREXIA [PAUSE FOR APPLAUSE, GROANS]

We're talking about everyone's favorite ichor-drooling surgery monsters again because there was a bit in my ~*~seminal~*~ essay Transformation, Horror, Eros, Phyrexia which seemed to give a number of readers quite a bit of trouble: namely, the idea that while Phyrexia is textually fascist, their aesthetic is incompatible with real-world fascism, and further, that this aesthetic incompatibility in some way outweighs the ways in which they act like a fascist nation in terms of how we think of them. I'll take responsibility here: I don't think that point is at all clear or well-argued in that essay. What I was trying to articulate was that the text of Magic: the Gathering very much wants Phyrexia to be supremely evil and dangerous fascists, because that makes for effective antagonists, but in the process of constructing that, it's accidentally encoded a whole bunch of fascinating presuppositions that end up working at cross-purposes with its apparent aim. That's... not that much clearer, is it? Hmm. Why don't I just show you what I mean?

Atraxa, Grand Unifier (art by Marta Nael)

In "Beneath Eyes Unblinking," one of the March of the Machine stories by K. Arsenault Rivera, there's a fascinating and I think revealing passage in which Atraxa (big-deal Phyrexianized angel and Elesh Norn's lieutenant) has a run-in with an art museum in New Capenna. The first thing I want to talk about is that, in this passage, Atraxa has no understanding of the concept of "beauty". A great deal of space in such a rushed storyline is devoted to her trying to puzzle out what beauty means and interrogating the minds of her recently-compleated Capennan aesthetes to try and understand it. In the end, she is unable to conceive of beauty except as "wrongness," as anathema.

So my first question is, why doesn't Atraxa have any idea of beauty? This is nonsense, right? We could point to a previous story, "A Garden of Flesh," by Lora Gray, in which Elesh Norn explicitly thinks in terms of beauty, but that's a little bit ditchbound, isn't it? The better argument is to simply look at Phyrexian bodies, at the Phyrexian landscape, all of which looks the way it does on purpose, all of which has been shaped in accordance with the very real aesthetic preferences of Phyrexians. How you could look at the Fair Basilica and not understand that Phyrexians most definitely have an idea of beauty, even if you personally disagree with it, is baffling. This is a lot like the canonical assertion that Phyrexians lack souls, which is both contradicted elsewhere in canon and essentially meaningless, given Magic's unwillingness or inability to articulate what a soul is in its setting, and as with this, it seems the goal is simply to dehumanize Phyrexians, to render them alien, even at the cost of incoherence or internal contradiction.

Atraxa's progress through the museum is fascinating. It evokes the 1937 Nazi exhibit on "degenerate art" in Munich, but not at all cleanly. The first exhibit, which is of representational art, she angrily destroys for being too individualistic (a point of dissonance with the European fascist movements of the 20th century, which formed in direct antagonism to communism.) The second exhibit, filled with abstract paintings and sculptures, she destroys even more angrily for having no conceivable use (this is much more in line with the Nazi idea of "degenerate art", so well done there.) The third exhibit is filled with war trophies and reconstructions from a failed Phyrexian invasion of Capenna many years prior, which she is angriest of all with (and fair enough, I suppose.) But then, after she's done completely trashing the place, she spots a number of angel statues on the cathedral across the plaza, and she goes apeshit. In a fugue of white-hot rage, she pulverizes the angel heads, and here is where I have to ask my second question:

Why angels? If you are trying to invoke fascist attitudes toward art, big statues of angels are precisely the wrong thing for your fascist analogues to hate. Fascists love monumental, heroic representations of superhuman perfection. It's practically their whole aesthetic deal. I understand that we're foreshadowing the imminent defeat of Phyrexia at the hands of legions of angels and a multiversal proliferation of angel juice, but that just leads to the exact same question: why angels? To the best of my knowledge, the Phyrexian weakness to New Capennan angel juice is something invented for this storyline. They have, after all, been happily compleating angels since 1997. We could talk about the in-universe justification for why Halo specifically is so potent, but I don't remember what that justification is, and also don't care. Let's not jump back in the ditch, please. The point is, someone decided that this time, Phyrexia would be defeated by an angelic host, and what does that mean? What is the text trying to say? What are its precepts and axioms?

Let me ask you a question: how many physically disabled angels are there in Magic: the Gathering? How about transsexual angels? How many angels are there, on all of the cards that have ever been printed for Magic: the Gathering, that are even just a bit ugly? Do you get it yet? Or do you need me to spell it out for you?

SPELLING IT OUT FOR YOU

There is a kind of body which is bad. It is bad because it has been significantly altered from its natural state, and it is bad because it is repellent to our aesthetic sensibilities.

The bad kind of body is contagious. It spreads through contact. Sometimes people we love are infected, and then they become the bad kind of body too.

There is a kind of body which is good. It is good because it is pleasing to our aesthetic sensibilities, and it is good because it is unaltered from its (super)natural state.

A happy ending is when all the good bodies destroy or drive into hiding all of the bad bodies. A happy ending is when the bad bodies of the people we love are forcibly returned to being the good kind of body.

Do you get it now?

ENDNOTES

It's worth noting that the ditch is very similar to the white American Evangelical hermeneutics of "the Bible says it. I believe it. That settles it," the defensive chapter-and-verse-or-it-didn't-happen approach to reading a text, what Fred Clark of slacktivist calls "concordance-ism". I don't think that's accidental. We stand underneath centuries of people reading the Bible very poorly - how could that not affect how we read things today? We are participants in history whether we like it or not.

I sincerely hope I haven't come across as condescending in this essay. Close reading is legitimately difficult! They teach college courses on this stuff! And while it is frustrating to have my close readings interrogated by people who... aren't doing that, like. I do get it. I find myself back in the ditch all the time. This stuff is hard. It is also, sorry, crucial if you intend to say something about a text that's worth saying.

I also hope I've communicated clearly here. Magic story is sufficiently incoherent that trying to develop a thesis about it often feels like trying to nail jello to the wall. If anyone has questions, please ask them! And thank you for reading. Next time, we'll probably do the new Eldraine set.

[fashionbooksmilano]

Dance in Close Up

Hans Van Manen seen by Erwin Olaf

Hannibal, Veurne 2022, 120 pages, 32x32cm, Linen hardcover with tip-in, ISBN 9789464366273

euro 65,00

email if you want to buy booksinprogressmilano@yahoo.it

Exclusive art project by photographer Erwin Olaf and choreographer Hans van Manen offering a unique view on dance and photography

“Ballet inspires me. Human beings have the capacity to express themselves through many art forms, but when it comes to dance – and especially classical modern ballet – I am always amazed by that unbelievably elevated form of expression. It's so precise and so incredibly skilled; I admire that enormously.” ― Photographer and filmmaker Erwin Olaf

“The fact that the photographer is looking through the camera lens means they have a different perspective from looking directly at the figure. That is voyeuristic. The camera can do something that the audience member can't: zooming in for a close-up.” ― Choreographer Hans van Manen

The grand master of Dutch dance, Hans van Manen, celebrates his 90th birthday this year. That has given rise to international celebrations by leading ballet companies with the Hans van Manen festival from 8 to 29 June 2022, the exclusive publication Dance in Close-Up and the exhibition of the same name in Galerie Ron Mandos in Amsterdam from 19 June to 17 July 2022. From the 1970s to the 1990s, Hans van Manen was not only one of the world's leading choreographers, but also an internationally acclaimed photographer. It was during this period that the then very young photographer Erwin Olaf met the famed artist, who immediately took him under his wing and introduced him to the world of the visual arts and studio photography. This book celebrates their 40 years of friendship, with a photo series in which Van Manen directs moments from his choreographic career, recorded with the utmost precision by Erwin Olaf. With text contributions from the authors Nina Siegal and Michael James Gardner.

04/01/24

[popculturebuffet]

Beetlemania Epilogue: Batman Brave and the Bold (Rise of the Blue Beetle, Fall of The BB, Revenge of the Reach and Meanace of the Madinks) (Comission for WeirdKev27)

Hello all you happy beetlemaniacs and welcome to the long delayed finale/epilogue to my look the blue beetle. So while I was working on this project which for those just tuning in was a look at all three men to wear the blue, Kev asked me to take a look at Ted and Jaime's brave and the bold apperances. Being a massive fan of both, enough that Brotoman asking me to do this retorspective in the first place was one of the easiest yesses i've made in my career, and absolutely loving brave and the bold it was an easy addition.

So for those less familiar with this cartoon, Batman: Brave and the Bold was a 2009 cartoon. Brave and the Bold is easily the most unique of the batman cartoons thus far: while each one has it's own touches, Bold decided to go against the usual dark and broody nature of batman he'd had in the 70's to do something a bit diffrent.

Instead BATB takes after the silver age of comics, a time of camp, innosence, and fun goofiness like batman getting his own dimensional imp, Superman and Supergirl having two pets with superpowers and capes a piece, and of course a bunch of kids from the future who still act like it's the 50s who come to grab a young superman, leading to one of my faviorite teams of all time. But not before you know making him cry because 50s. It was a time of brilliant concepts, bonkers carefree storytelling and superman in a pope hat.

And while some fans titled their head, some wailed he needed to be grim and gritty and I just said "oh cool plastic man's in this"... the change in tone was both brilliant and needed. We'd already had three fairly serious batman shows, each distinct: BTAS is a noir masterpiece, Beyond is neo noir putting someone else in the role and thus giving us a batman with school and family to juggle and an older bruce as the mentor, and The Batman was an attempt to really shake things up, using both a younger batman and wildly diffrent versions of his rogues. So while another likely would've worked, and as seen with Beware the Batman it did as likely will the caped crusader, I can't blame showrunners James Tucker and Mike Jelenec for deciding to do something entirely unique.

Thus while Batman's still stoic, instead of being a loner who slowly adds sidekicks and uses over the top silver agey gadgets, from having a jetpack and helmet in his suit, to being able to summon fighting gloves to having his batmobile as a transformer. It comes off as a child's idea of batman: a guy who can do anything and can use all those neat toy add ons you usually only see in his action figures. It's a batman that has a sense of fun about it: While he's stoic as ever, the world he's in is werid and he adapts to it.

The the other secret sauce here is the show's decision to be a team up show: instead of the batfamily, who still show up on occasion, Batman teams up with a fellow superhero in each episodes opening teaser as a fun one off adventure and then in the main story, another nod to the silver age in how many books would have more than one story, batman in particular. It's also telling that most of the main focus heroes are almost entirely b listers: Common sights include Plastic Man, Blue Beetle, Captain Marvel (aka Shazam, pre movie), Guy Gardner Green Lantern and Aquaman, the only a-list of the bunch and the main character. Some had shown up before in the DCAU, sure, but most hadn't gotten this kind of focus and some like Blue Beetle, our natural focus for today's, hadn't shown up at all thanks to rights issues. And even some like Aquaman got a revamp, with the stoic brooding 90's anti-hero of the DCAU replaced with a glorious large ham whose every bit as goofy as the silver age but every bit as badass as he is now. They also wisely kept his beard.

It provides a nice mix of actual silver age characters, and more modern ones like the Jason Rusch firestorm or Jaime that simply hadn't been adapted yet, as well as for whole teams like the Metal Men, JSA and Freedom Fighters to get proper first appearances in animation. This series is one giant love letter to dc and just about every hero they could cram in here and have it make sense is here> And if that wasn't enough, for me personally instead of doing a big 7 lineup of the justice league or just using heroes batman had teamed up with a lot like green arrow or plastic man, they just straight up decicided to recreate my faviorite Justice League Lineup of all time, the Justice League international, even bringing in Martian Manhunter just to make it as close as possible to the core lineup of Batman (Who was leader in those days), Martain Manhunter, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold, Guy Gardner, Fire and Ice. The only changes were changing the beetle from Ted to Jaime (to fit the shows continuity) and adding Aquaman as it'd be all kinds of weird to not feature the shows breakout star.

So with what the show is down that finally brings us to the Blue Beetle and his long overdue first animated apperance. The DCAU PLANNED to include him but rights headaches meant Ted was relegated to the tie in comics. And since Jaime was such a fan faviorite , when it came time for Brave and the Bold he became the primary beetle instead, providing the fun angle of batman having a teen sidekick.. whose far more powerful than he is, if lacking experince. We rarely see Batman mentor superteens, and it's an intresting concept: He has a partner he can order around and such but can't REALLY stop if Jaime wanted to operate without him. IT's something I hope gets explored again sometime.

That said while Jaime was the main blue beetle, and one of the most common recurring cast members, the series , like most adaptations didn't forget ted exists or to honor him. And while they sadly didn't give us the two beetles operating at the same time, something we didn't get in full blast until Blue Beetle: Graduation Day LAST YEAR (He did mentor Jaime for a while but weirdly they didn't have him resume the costume for a while), we do get one hell of an episode focusing on both beetles in the past and present, another hell of a heroic death, and a time travel episode with Ted's best buddy booster going back to see his friend one last time... and fucking it up because it's his superpower. So join me under the cut as we put on the armor and see the dawn of a new blue beetle and the legacy he protects one more time.

The Rise of the Blue Beetle!: Stinger: Batman teams up with Green Arrow to defeat clock king. Honestly my reaction to this version of Ollie is mostly

As he dosen't really have anything that makes him that.. unique or intresting. He's cocky and wants to one up batman. That's about it. I love Ollie, but this version is so boring. It dosen't help most of his spotlight episodes feature someone more interesting.

The opening however.. is solid, spotlighting the two's competitive nature with each other (and contrasting Ollie's open boasting with Batman being reserved and not showing his compettive streak outwardly), and fighting Clock King. And not the more grounded, awesome version we saw in Batman TAS, but the goofy silver age version complete with robes and a clock face.

Is it the best cold open they could've used? Probably not. But it gets across the team up theme of the series, and the important fact that most of the foes we face.. aren't batman's usual foes. Most of his Rogues are mia, and the only one who gets used a LOT is Joker, and even then it's in more creative ways like having him be Batman's team up for the mid season finale (And leading to the glorious scene in the final fight of him just running around with a mallet like a giddy three year old), teaming up with his own inspiration, or adapting emperor joker. Just like the team up format allows for a wide exploration of the dc's heroes, the antagonists are usually guys you wouldn't see or at least wouldn't see fighting batman.

The episode proper begins with Jaime and his best buddy Paco talking superheroes, with Jaime hyping up batman. It's here we get two big changes: the first is Jaime's personality: Instead of a kind, reserved, if with a biting tounge when called for it kid who just wants to help out his friends and family and who feels overwhlemed, this Jaime is a superhero fanboy whose super jazzed to have power armor.

This change is hit and miss for me: it does kinda miss a lot of the point of Jaime and his personality, a kid burdened iwth incredible power and responsibility who uses it not because he wants to but because it's the right thing.. but I get it for the context of this series. Here Jaime's being trained and mentored by batman, and thus having him be a bit more cocky and eager in places opens up stories more as otherwise Jaime would just be waiting at home. Not only that the series already had a reluctant legacy hero in Ryan Choi, the Atom, so at least one of them had to change personality a bit and it made more sense with Jaime. So while i'm not a huge fan of this change, I understand it enough to not be all that bothered by it, especially since both his Young Justice and Movie Counterparts hem closer to the comics.

A change I DON'T like at all.. is that Jaime's best friend Paco (his family and brenda don't show up).. has NO IDEA who he is. There is absolutely NO justification for this either. We don't see enough of Jaime's home life for him having a secret identity to have any impact and there's really nothing about his appearances that coudln't of been done without him knowing. In fact his next two probably would've been better had he known. It feels like the producers didn't know how to handle a superhero who doesn't have a secret identity.. despite Plastic Man and Aquaman, neither of whom have one and are just fine, being recurring characters. It's an annoying decision and one i'm not a fan of at all, especially since Paco doesn't seem to be in ANY other adaptations.

The rest of the episode is okay. Out of the episodes I had to rewatch (and in our last case watch for the first time) it's the one I was the least happy to see again as it didn't leave much of an impression. On rewatch it has some intresting ideas, but is mostly just a typical "supehero needs to not rely only on his powers" story mixed with a training the peaceful villagers one: Batman and Jaime are shanghied to a colony of admittedly neat looking little protoplasmic blob men woh put out an energy charge. They kidnapped Jaime to help because a previous wielder of his Scarab saved them from Space Pirate and justice league villian Kanjar Ro. Ro is part of why I largely forgot this one as i've never been a huge fan of the guy. He dosen't look terrible but other than space pirate there isn't much to him. The DCAU used him well but also had him as a simple criminal helping frame John Stewart. Here he works decently enough as he's intimidating ENOUGH to be a foe for Jaime, whose the real focus here, and give batman a fight, while still clearly being a villian of the week.

I do like that already, even before we get to ted, the writers of the show get that Jaimee. .is tied into legacy and It's a neat idea to hint at just who carried the scarab before Dan Garret, the first beetle, who for all we know very well COULD have been the person who fought Kanjar Ro before. It's just a shame this NEVER comes up again which is disappointing. It'd be neat to know if the Scarab had a host before the reach dispatched it to earth.

The rest of the episode is pretty by the numbers though, and while the idea of jaime getting cocky isn't bad... he's just not cocky Enough with his powers for the message to work. The episode has more clever stuff like batman hooking one of the little goo people up to a power cable to save them when kanjar leaves them all tied to a piece of debris to die, with the little guys later hooking their guns into themselves, using the fact Kanjar Ro harvests them for fuel against him. It's a clever chekovs gun and speaks to the message of the episode that DOES work: relying on one's self and the power of inspiration.

I"ll also say Batman is kinda.. fucked as a mentor this episode: While I get his logic, having Jaime pretend to be his predecessor to inspire these adorable blobs to kill their opressors, a good message for all, it's still mildly fucked up Batman is asking a children to lead a bunch of people to posisbly die in a war against a ruthless space pirate. I get jaime needs to be a symbol but maybe do't gloss over just how big an ask your asking bats.

Finally i'll say the episodes climax has a good idea: Jaime forced to rely on his brains.. and Kanjar Ro taking the armor. The problem.. is the latter RAISES A LOT OF QUESTIONS, especailly since later episodes go with the idea from the comics, that the scarab coudln't bond with ted kord and specifically choose jaime, making it come off contrived as all apokalips that Kanja Ro JUST SO HAPPENS to be a compatable host. It dosen't ruin the climax, seeing someone evil let loose with the armor is neat and Jaime turning the gamma gong, Ro's weapon he used to strip Jaime of the armor in the first place, against him is genius.

Overall an episode that's jus tokay. i'ts not a bad start to the series or Jaime's time on the show, but it's still clear they needed an episode or two before they started really cooking with gas. Thankfully that only took the first 4 or so episodes and by the time we next saw Jaime this season, the show was firing on all cyllnders with a true classic.

Fall of the Blue Beetle!:

Fall of the Blue Beetle! is more like it and while i'ts not where my obessesion with ted started, that'd be

This episode certainly didn't hurt. It is where Jaime started to grow on me though and where a lot more of his character from the comics comes from.

The biggest part of this.. is Legacy. We got a touch of that with the previous scarab wielder in Rise, but a key aspect of Jaime is that he ISN'T the first blue beetle. That he has to step into someone else's shoes. And it's something that fits dc like a glove as one of DC's bigger draws, one that they snuffed out for a while, is Legacy. Most heroes have more than one version and many have sidekicks, something marvel almost completely avoids thanks to Spider-Man's existence being a direct response to the concept, who more often than not later take up the mantle or find their own new one, leading someone take up THEIR old costume. Often you'll also get heroes sharring identities: it's why we have 9 earth green lanterns, three flashes, and two supermen.

So the fact that Blue Beetle was ALREADY a legacy made ted fit right in long before Jaime had to follow him up after his fatal case of bullet to the head. And Jaime learns that early, and thus has to carry around the fact that not only did Ted die a hero.. but armor or no this could EASILY happen to him. He has to learn to think with his head and learns to appricate Ted as he was. It's not an overwhelmingly major part of the book but the fact Jaime is part of a proud legacy is still important and when he needs help for his final fight, it's Ted's grandaughter Dani and Ted's friends in the JLI who come to help... because they know it's what ted would want.

Brave and the Bold cleverly plays with this as while like his comics counterpart Jaime knows there were other beetles.. he dosen't know what happened to Ted off the bat and this episode brilliantly plays with that.

It also plays with another Key aspect of Jaime: his self doubt. At the end of the days Jaime is a throughly normal kid given great power. In the comics and movie a lot of it is simply not WANTING this power, but with no way to remove the scarab and live he does what he can with it anyway because it's the right thing. The poor kid teared up because during a fucking hurricane, made worse by a supervillian, the kid couldn't save everyone, with his vetran dad having to explain that.. you simply can't. And the fact Jaime was there still saved a LOT of people.

While this Jaime's way more happy in the roll from the off, being a superhero fanboy, the idea that he's not worthy of it still crops up here in a clever way: He and Paco have a campout, and when he recites the Hal Jordan Green Lantern's origin (Which he likely knew as he easily could've met Hal at this point as he DOES exist in this continuity), Paco is doubtful. For those whose attitude to green lantern lore isn't

Like yours truly, a quick recap: The Green Lantern corps are space cops, though thankfully not nearly as corrupt as that implies, who patrol sectors of space. When one dies, their ring finds a replacement. But in this case, dying Green Lantern legend Abin Sur didn't really have time for the ring to do it's thing so he crashed his rocket on earth near Hal Jordan, the nearest worthy canditate and gave it to him personally.

Paco.. dosen't buy any of this, thinking heroes aren't chosen and most dickishly that a hero.. is just their powers. It's just the RING that's special not the person.

Okay look I try not to go on tangents refuting a fictional character.... but given this kind of argument occasionally crops up in real life... no. While a heroes powers are cool and what allow them to do the job...it's the person that makes the hero. And the green lantern's are the biggest example of that. They were all chosen sure but each chosen because they can overcome great fear (Paco IS right that the idea of someone being WITHOUT fear is kinda fucked and the daredevil comics have gone into what exactly that means, it's why they changed it), nad because each one of them chosen brings something to the table. Hal Jordan can think on the fly like noone's buisness, Guy Gardner WILL never give up (Wether he actually should or not), John Stewart is a tactical and archetcural genius, Kyle Rayner has a boundless imagination and some of the best contracts, Jessica Cruz has deep and noble heart and empathy and the power to go on and Simon Baz has a drive no lantern can match. And tha'ts not even getting into Alan Scott, gay icon or the ones whole books I own but haven't read like Jo Mullen or Tai Pham, both of whom deftinely deserve it.

I do love the episode exploring this idea though as given it's something a kid watching this might've thought it nicely deconsturcts it.. and shows what hearing that would do to a person. IN Jaime's case he sprials and goes to his mentor for validation. And this brings us to one of the weaker parts of the episode as Batman is in Batdick mode this episode. Granted at FIRST it's a bit understandable: jaime interupts him during a fight with Doctor Polaris. That fight itself.. is a nice subtle nod to Jaime's history as in the comics, one big arc had him fighting the newest Dr. Polaris. It's really damn good for the record and I hope it gets reprinted. Later we can see batman having recently beaten the Squid gang from Ted's first solo issue. It's some nice background stuff.

Jaime is worried he wasn't chosen for a reason, and while Bruce not reassuring him at first is okay... bruce saying, and I quote "you are NOTHING like the blue beetle I knew" is a level of dickish only suprassed by this guy

Seriously bats, a teen comes up to you, is clearly going through something regarding being worthy of this. I get it, Bats was close to ted in this continuity.. but even in that context it's comes off pretty dickish to compare the kid to someone who had years more experince in the field.

Also yes, in this continuity Ted and Bats.. were besties. I had honestly forgotten that and it's a fun uniquely wholesome take. See in the original comics.. Ted and Batman weren't exactly FRIENDS. They were coworkers: Batman was the stern, often mean boss who expected everyone to do what he said without question, and Ted was the snarky guy in his cubicle who'd shut up when that guy said to but certainly would talk behind his back. It was a good comedic value. Even later, when ted was in his final hours in countdown, batman was someone he turned to.. and Bats didn't take him seriously.. and later deeply regretted it.

Here? The two utterly respect each other, and we get a lot of fun dialogue as the two talk about their gadgets: Bats is impressed Ted managed to get a mini laser working, he switched the coils, while Ted is suprised he can get smoke pellets on his belt because his always blew up. Bats then explains he had the same issue and the casing was ungodly expensive. Thankfully he just put it on the bat credit card.

As for how the two are interacting when Ted's a corpse in present day, that's where one of the episodes most clever aspects comes in: rather than have the intro be an unrelated cold open... the intro is Bats and Ted's on Ted's final case. We don't find out the last part till later, but it's a clever way to have ted around while still having him sacrifice himself in some way.

I'd also like to stop for a moment to talk about how great the voice actors are for our beetley buddies.. and this show in general. For Jaime we have vetran voice acting legend, feeeeee-hany fan, podcaster, and critical role hall of famer Will Fredidle, who does a great job with Jaime's wide eyed enthusasim, ocasional haminess.. but also his vunerablity and depth. You can sense at times in these episodes a kid who badly WANTS to be a good as hero as the heroes who inspired him, covering it up with a layer of jokes... just like his predecessor really. Granted this all comes with the necessary asterix of THEY SHOULDN'T OF HIRED A WHITE GUY TO PLAY JAIME.. which.. they really shoudln't have. It's.. not complicated and it shouldn't of taken till 20goddamn20 for that to be standard practice and not just what some productions did and other didn't. Given a cast this size they STILL coudl've cast my boy in a roll that wasn't racist. Hell he woudl've made a great booster (though who we got is excellent). So the casting decision dose'nt have a leg to stand on.. but Will still did a good job and I dearly miss his voice acting. He's still around granted: he's currently doing the podcast pod meets world with fellow BMW allums Danille Fischelle and fellow voice actor who really should be doing more of it these days Rider Strong. Seriously he was great in Star Vs. Maybe he's focusing more on his family, as he sometimes watches episodes of BMW with his son for the pod, and if so.. fair enough. I do miss these guys and I am glad Will at least is showing up in Legend of Vox Machina and that they have a podcast together.

The other will in the equation is will wheaton, star trek's scrappy doo turned geek icon. Will is a natural fit for ted and does him justice: this version's a bit more anlytical, but as we see later with boosters ep he can play the jokey side just as well and does ted really good. he's the bar that's set for whoever plays him in live action.. and i'm pulling for their top pick of Jason Sudekis. that is PERFECT ted kord casting and the only thing that could top this casting. If not.. will is old enough to still fit the part in the live action dcu. Just saying.

The freindship adds a nice layer to Batman's action: yes he's being bat dick... but it's clearly hard to talk about his best friend's death, someone who really got him as a crimefighter and he could relate to. Green Arrow uses similar methods.. but Ollie's ego's so big he's more concerned with one upping bruce instead of talking to him like a person. Given mots of Batman's partners defer to him in some way or form (and it's telling that for as much as his boisterous baffles our blue bat, he treats aquaman with respect), it had to hurt deeply. And as we'll see later the pain is still there and he's still not quite over Ted's death. It also explains why he's specifically mentoring Jamie: he wants to protect Ted's legacy. While the meteor mission in the last episode was to test of Jamie was ready to partner with him regularly with this ep it feels more like he wanted to make sure Jamie was worthy of his friends mantle.. and makes how proud batman was at the end all the sweeter. It also shows that despite batman using the worst possible phrasing, he DOES think Jamie is worthy.

It also adds a layer to Batman's

Behavior regarding what happened to ted, refusing to tell Jamie and then flying off in his batjet. Bats later fully admits he was worried Jamie coudln't handle it.. but it may be in part he simply didn't want to relive one of the worst moments of his life, when once again someone he loved died and he could do nothing but watch. He didn't want to saddle a teenager with his grief or the fact that in this job you CAN die. And that's something shockingly consitent about this series: Dead.. means dead. There's only three major deaths in the series: Ted's, B'wanna Beast's and the Doom Patrols, but all three stick. All are given weight and gravitas and all deeply effect bats.. not from episode to episode as this is more episodic but the moment still clearly shakes him.

Jamie isn't really happy with that explination and the scarab suggests checking the internet. Turns out ted has a fanpage run by a notboostergold. Who knew? It tells Jamie ted vanished a while back and is headquartered in Hub City, Ted's hometown in the comics though where he operates out of varried: he also operated out of Chicago, New York, el Paso and currently Palmera City alongside Jamie and his long lost slightly older sister we just met because the movies gave him one and DC thought "eh this could work". Which .. honestly it does, with Vicotria being more buisness minded and ruthless. Also sidebar but.. this.. this has happened with booster and ted right?

This had to have happened. We're alli n agreement, good.

Anyways Jaime heads to Hub City and finds Ted's old layer, covred with dust, something the movie ended up copying and I fully approve of. In fact it feels like the movie took some cues from this episode, turning Ted's adventure on pago island into a jamie story, having someone try and use the scarab to create robots, little touches like that. I don't mind as they did enough of their own thing with it and frankly more people are going to see the movie over this episode, so i'm fine with a good idea being used twice.

Speaking of which Jaime finds out the last cordinates were Pago Island. For anyone who knows Ted's origin that's a red flag. Quick recap for those who didn't read my review of Ted's first two solo issues: Ted worked with his uncle jarvis, found out he was a bad dude, and then brought dan to stop him. Good news: it ended terribly for jarvis with his robots sealed and him dead. Bad news: it ended with dan dead. Gooder news: Dan told ted to take up his legacy. So the fact Ted died on an island where nothing good happens cannot end well for Jaimie.

Batman DOES try ot make up for earlier, calling Jaimie.. only for Jaimie to tell Bats where he's going and where to stick it. Batman takes it like a mature adult and while flying ot rescue Jaime, mumbles "no more teenage partners"

This line.. just.. my god> I mean yes he says "adults got him into just as much trouble " right after.. but he still soley blames JAIME for this catstrophe. Jaime is screwing up yes.. but h'es a kid desperate to know he was chosen for a good reason and to live up to someone he found out went missing on his own because you coudln't take two bat minutes to try and explain things. Maybe tell him about ted without telling him what happened just yet. INstead you accidently told him he wasn't good enough then got mad when he was rightfully pissed you gave him nothing. His timing sucked, but you really should've brought up ted LONG before this.

And as a result.. it makes it VERY easy for Jarvis, still alive here, to con Jaime into giving him data on the scarab , claming he intends to improve humanity's lot and make things better. I get not telling him he was dead.. but maybe if you'd screamed "Ted kord was dead", as traumatizing as that would've been it woudl've at least stopped a villian you KNEW was still around fro mconning him

I"ll also say this.. Jarvis' scarab based tech.. looks amazing, very beetly and while I saw the twist coming... most viewers not familiar with jarvis' existance wouldn't. The tech all looks like something ted would make. It's something I give it over the movie where despite victoria kord's OMAC"s being based directly on the scarab.. they look NOTHIGN like the scarab armor nor the actual omacs. i'm fine with it being different enough to be visually intresting but the omacs and later caprapax armore are just.. boring. But that's a rant for another review.

The main takeaway is that Jamie has accidently given a mad genius an army of super fighting robots.. and by bringing up batman NEARLY caused the man's death. But not only does Jaime catch on the robots are weapons whne one spills i'ts bullets, Batman, being you know, the goddamn batman, is alive and well. He only gets tied up when Jarvis puts a gun to Jamie's head.. which i'm 90% sure is a bluff as the scarab can take on MULTIPLE green lanterns as we'll see next episode, but it speaks to Batman's character he doesn't risk it.

Jarvis.. is an excellent villain here, taken from your usual cackler to a guy who genuinely seems like his talk about wanting to make the world better is legit.. he's just willing to conquer it to make that happen. And a utopia forged in blood isn't rally a utopia is it? But Will does a great job as Jarvis too, making his voice similar enough to ted to buy him as an older ted.. but diffrent enough to hint at the twist.

With that Batman FINALLY is forced to explain what happened: Ted gave Jarvis the scarab because he genuinely thought he could help him use it. IN this continuity dan died another way. So when Ted found out from Batman that Jarvis was instead plotting world domination, he lept to stop it.

In the end though while they did beat Jarvis... he had one last play: launch a rocket full of his robots out to begin his world conquest. So much like with Countdown when backed into a corner.. Ted sacrificed himself to save the world, not telling Bruce exactly what his plan was till the was already on the rocket. As for how the Scarab got away that's easy: ted stole it back during the scuffle and put it on the rocket, so like the comics but in a much simpler way, it still got rocketed to el paso. Ted Kord once again died a true hero.

This dosen't help Jaime as he feels he failed Ted and his leagacy and was chosen just to do this. Batman explains the episodes aseop, similar to last times but executed better: it's not being chosen or what powers you have that make a hero. It's choosing to do the right thing> Despite not having the scarab Ted choose to use his intellect to fight crime. And while Jaime didn't chooose the scarab.. he choose to use it to help people and fight for good.

The two naturally escape, fight off jarvis, and fight the throng of robots, actually beating him this time and with Jaime setting it to explode. Our heroes win, Batman shows his pride and Jamie has his confidence back.

As you can probably tell.. I love this episode> it's one of brave and the bold's best and aside from the excess of bat dick, it's a compelling story of legacy and loss. If you haven't seen the show or are curious about ted and jaime after watching the film, this is an excellent watch.

Revenge of the Reach:

Revenge of the Reach is another banger episode. On first watch I wasn't really into this one and didn't really remember it but on rewatch it was a lot of fun. I'm also happy this episode is as good as it is... as this marks the final Jaimecentric episode in the series. The big reason for this is simple: The Justice League International.

For those less familiar with Ted and this show itself, the JLI was the first version of the justice league post crisis on infinite earths, the grandaddy of crisis crossovers and the event that brought Ted into the DCU. Writer J.M. Demattis finally got the gig writing the league after begging for it but the amount of stuff being reworked post crisis meant most of the vetran justice league was off limits. Demattis and his partner in crime Keith Giffen decided "Fuck it let's make this a sitcom", and used lesser known heroes including good old ted. The only vetrans to join the team were Black Canary (Who only stayed for about the first 12 issues) , Martain Manhunter, and Bats himself as leader before giving that headache to Jonn.

And since Brave and the Bold already had prominent spotlights for key members Blue Beetle (Jaime instead of ted), Booster Gold, and Green Lantern Guy Gardner, featured Fire as a guest star and had Batman as it's lead, it was easy enough to simply introduce Martian Manhunter and Ice. Also Aquaman was there since, as said before, he was their biggest star. The team showed up a decent amount in season 3 and likely would've more had the series not been cut so short, eventually adding other members from the comics like Rocket Red and Captain Marvel.

So with season 3 cut in half and the crew knowing the end was nigh, there was less time to give Jaime more stories, instead focusing more on stuff they clearly wanted to get in before the end: Stories with the league, a whole episode dedicated to Superdickery that's one of the most glorious things ever put to film, an origins episode for batman and his other recurring patners that weirdly didn't have jaime. Season 3 was just packed and had only so much time left. It also had powerless which objectively sucks and I will get to when we eventually do a JLI in brave and the bold retrospective, one of a few Kev's floated along with the Starro arc and Batmite (the latter I especailly want to do as I forgot the late great paul rubens was his voice. ) So this is Jaime's last hurrah. And lucky for him, he got a heck of a writer on board as J.M. Demattis himself wrote this one.

Spekaing of the Starro arc, our intro ties into it and i'll likely be covering again when I do that one. It features a jack kirby creation, THE CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN, with the intro for the segment funly done in the style of a 60's tv show. THE CHALLENGERS OF THE UNKNOWN are a quartet of adventurers who well.. challenge the unknown, experts in their fields who survivied a plane crash, put on matching jumpsuits and took on weird cases for the pentagon. They , to my shock came BEFORE Kirby would move on to Marvel, and with the challengers not having got a lot of traction, and even in recent dc works mostly showing up for one off apperances, I wouldn't be shocked if he reworked the concept of four adventuerers with public identtites who fight weird shit while wearing matching jumpsuits as the fantastic four.

Anyways the quartet fight a weird creatue with batman... but where this connects to the eventual story arc.. is after batman leaves a bunch of mini starros popping out of the meteor to posses the challengers.

So let's move on. Our main story has Jaime going out to space for an unauthorized solo mission. I'd say it was suprising Batman dictated when he could save lives or not .. but he is batman. And TBF, Batman probably wouldn't chastise Jaime if say he stopped a local fire or helped out with disaster relief. I"m sure the kid does the basic heroing stuff daily to stay sharp, and Batman, for all his faults would never want someone to not step in and help when they could. He just likely dosen't want Jaime tackling super crime without him.

Jaime fights Evil Star, whose name isn't a joke from me, but an actual Green Lantern villian, fitting given the Corps plays a large role in this. With some unknowing help from Paco, Jaime does in fact win on his own merits. Batman however isn't pleased as he apparently has Jaime chipped and followed him out there in his bat space suit. What I like though is Bruce isn't mad and his reasons for keeping Jaime on a leash aren't dickishness like last time: he TRUSTS Jaime, he both likely worries about his young ward, especially after loosing ted.. and DOSNE'T trust the Scarab, knowing nothing about it.

The two take him to Oa to drop Evil Star off. Oa is the home of the Green Lantern Corps I mentioned earlier, where new corpsman are trained and the central power battery, the source of their power is stationed. It's there a squad of Lanterns comes to pick up the leftovers, lead by Guy Gardner

So quick backstory for guy: guy was the second space cop green lantern for earth, being a backup for Hal Jordan and only not picked because Hal happened to be closer to where Abin Sur could land. For a while he was an also ran who ended up in a coma.

Eventually though Steve Engleheart decided to make use of him. During his run Steve made John Stewart the main green lantern and had Hal depowered for being mad at the responsiblity and such. Standard angst. Many a fan was simply, as tends to happen in comics, waiting for Hal to come back. Steve however didn't want that and had a simple thought: "Why CAN'T there be more than one earth lantern? Ther'es thousands of others up in space". So he not only allowed John to remain in the role, hence John getting to be the GLC's rep for crisis, but also brought Guy back, this time as a jingoistic right wing loud mouth. According to wikipedia Steve.. regrets the decision a bit as other people around him weren't fond of it and he got no royalties as he didn't create guy. Which is sad as this version became the premiere one.

But while steve lit the spark, it was Demattis who turned him into the tire fire we all know and love, deciding to pick guy for the JLI, likely because out of the four lantern's avaliable, Guy fit into the dynamic the most. While the JLI was still fighting superheroes, it made sense for a more comedic group to have a resident asshole, someone within the group who generally tends to start shit. The person no one likes but they can't really chuck for whatever reason. So for the JLI, guy was that dick, swaggering onto panel demanding to be leader and pissing everyone off with his abrasivness and general dickishness, paticuarlyl Black Canary who, in one of JLI's weaker moments, was portrayed as a straw feminist, working best against guy as a chauvnist. It was essnetially if someone had given Steve Dallas a power ring.

While Guy has mellowed out slightly over the years, he's still largely the loud obnoxious older brother of the superhero set, mostly known for challenging batman to a fist fight with predictable yet hilarious results

Guy ended up as BATB's main GL, mostly because he fit the tone well and James Arnold Taylor did a pitch perfect job getting Guy down. He never got bumped up to the status of Jaime, Plastic Man or Aquaman of being as close to a main character as the series format allowed, but he was still a memorable part of it and they did him good.

Which is bad for Jaime as Guy's approach to the lantern's request to take JAIME in with his prisoner goes over like a lead ballon, not helped by Guy basically saying "Shut up and get in the van' While his fellow lanterns do fuck all to actually explain WHY the guardians want Jaime. A fight insues and it's easily the best part of a standout episodes. See with the Green Lantern's what makes them so awesome is that the power ring can make ANYTHIGN they imagine. Any thought can be a weapon. There's limits of course: some things can tamper with the vibration, the user needs to be able to concetrate, the rings have to be recharged by reciting the badass oath, stuff to keep the stories interesting, but even with those limits the ring is a deadly weapon in the right hands. It's also what makes the lanterns fun in comparison to other heroes who share the same power sets: while they all have the same ring, each person uses it diffrently: from Hal Jordan favoring planes due to his airforce background, to Kyle Rayner going with a lot of Manga style designs due to being a self confessed "Manga nut with a power ring". It's just some writers can't see the full potetial and just have it be a glorified ray gun or have them only reatrain people with rings and such.

Demattis.. dosen't have this issue, and also fully gets that Jamie's scarab is just aas formidable, leading to a dope as hell fight as we get two fighters both experinced, both with weapons that can do anything going at it with highlights including guy making a sword and shield and later armor for himself, befitting his brawler styles.

Batman eventually steps in and stops this, though I like that he dosen't chastise Jaime. While Jaime esclated, he was faced with a bunch of people wanting to take his incredibly dangerous scarab that he saw as a friend and not explaning why. Guy on the otherhand.. is guy and tries to get Bats to butt out.. only for Batman to remind him he punched his lights out in this contuity too. Yes folks BATB made sure to adapt that moment for Guy's debut. Guy wouldn't listen to batman on a mission, with Bats keeping him on a short leash.. so Guy decked him. While Guy mumble's it was a lucky shot.. it's clear he's cowed and the Guardians step in.

They explain things to the trio in private: the Scarab is, like in the comics a dangerous weapon of the Reach, intergalactic conquerers the Corps defeated years ago, with the scarab users being a false flag: heroes sent to help them.. to keep the planet alive long enough for said user to conquer later when the programming tookover. The diffrence here is in the comics, the Reach played the long game, planning to wait a few generations to sell the planet and use it's inhabitants for slaves, slowly making them docile so by the time they were ready for market, they woudln't fight back. IT's part of what made them such a threat: Jaime coudln't just punch them away, he had to outsmart them.

Here their more like the borg from star trek: a cold collective with but one purpose, a hive of insects planning to swarm. The false flag part remains, it's just less nuanced. And tha'ts.. okay. I didn't like it at first, but I get that unlike Young Justice after this... BATB simply didnt' have the real estate for that kind of story, so they codnsensed it.

The Guardians let Jamie go for now as they want to see if he can control it and trust Batman's words. Guy being guy.. isn't convinced.. and proves a broken clock is right once a day as the Scarab, now in position to do some damage way sooner, regretfully hyjacks Jaime. The one weakness of this one is it's hard to buy Jaime and the Scarab as friends given we've barely seen the two and don't really see them bonding. It just beeps behind him, with the comics, movie and young justice taking effort to show Jaime warming up to his metallic parasite.

Most of the ep is really just a large fight between a possesed Jamie and the corps, and unlike the comics, where their on an even keel, or when Jamie is in control.. this scarab easily mows through them without anyone holding the leash, and Jamie only gets to wake up for a secona nd panickedly try to fight it's control.

So we're left with two sides; Guy who, again, being a dick assumes Jaime is a willing traitor

And Batman.. who see has come a long way, now fully respecting Jaime and has all the faith in the world he can fight this. He gets blasted a lot but is ultimately p;roven right even as a small reach squad arrives.. and easily mops the floor with an ARMY of green lanterns who barely hold them back.

Jaime ends up turning the tide though, fighting his way free and proving himself.. and Guy decides to trust him because why not. How Jaime wins is also clever: he has the lanterns load him up with thier power.. but choose THEM for a reason: since the lanterns run on a user's will, it allows jamie to tape into the scarb's hosts an dresotre there,s disarrming the scarabs. The guardians not only thank jamie ut plan to destroy them... and Guy, as is necesiated by tv law, steps in and tells them not to include Jaime's, with Batman fully graduating his old sidekick.

Revenge is a solid ep. It lacks some of the depth of Fall, but is still a fun episode with some really tightly animated action and plays with the toys it has beautifully. So that leaves us with one last beetlecentric episode.. only this time.. it's Ted's farewell.

Menace of the Madniks!:

We end this retrospective still in season 2.. and this is a very close second favorite out of this pile. It's also the only one I hadn't seen, having not really tracked down most of the episodes I missed, apart from the Doom Patrol one.

The opening.. is the Haunted Tank. Now the concept of a possed wwII era tank, is awesome and the car chase is great. But for some reason not only did the original writers think it being a CONFEDERATE ghost was okay.. but so did the staff of BATB. I get this was long before BLM but.. come on. Just.. come on. He has CSA ON HIS HAT. WHy is batman riding shotgun with a racist confederate ghost? WHY IS BATMAN TEAMING UP WITH...

Menance builds on Batman's characterization from Fall of the Blue Beetle, having been one of Ted's closest friends and working hard to mop up the Madniks, the only member of Ted's rogues gallery to have staying power after his death. Their a bunch of artists, doodly doo, who want to peddle their weird anti-society ways man. Basically their what Steve Ditko thought beatniks were, but work because they have great designs that help cover up being created by an old man who yells at clouds.

Batman is trying to take them down in ted's honor.. but wasn't the ONLY one with that idea as we get the glory that is Booster Gold. Booster was ted's best friend in the comics, a janitor from the future who came back to our time to get rich being a hero, learned to be a hero, and spent most of his time in the league dragging Ted into get rich quick schemes

The two are joined at the hip, with Ted's death shattering the poor guy. Their also shipped a lot. Not really my thing in most cases but this episode is very much "the two guys into me have to hang out and neither likes each other", and I suppport it.

And tha'ts how they cleverly account for Booster and Ted's history not having been brought up till now: Ted was close with both bats and booster.. but made sure neither one knew about it, with booster only finding out when Batman berates him.

Booster being a time traveler also allows for them to cleverly bring ted back without undoing his sacrifice: While he is VERY dumb, Batman outright snaps at him later when he asks too many time travel questions a time traveler should DAMn well know, and Skeets, Boosters robot buddy voiced by voice acting legend billy west (Who along with Booster's va tom everett scott is reprsing his role from the DCAU, the only actors to do so here), is worried Boost just wants to save ted. He dose'nt know: while he'd LIKE to, he's again not THAT dumb and simply wants to see him again and wrap up the madmen as they were the last case Ted worked before Pago island.

It's sweet at first as we see how close the two are: Ted's super happy to see booster, glad to work with him, and only mildly confused his best friend is here after seeing him just a week ago. It speaks to the type of friends they are: wo goofuses who need each other and speak the same very dumb language. Ted is way more relaxed in this episode and it implies his more withdrawn manor with batman.. is simply matching bat's energy. IT's a nice way to have ted still be the awesome science guy.. but inject the fun back in.

The two go to stop the Madniks together, but booster makes an oopsie and shoots the gun their stealing. Their all imoblized by it but if you thought "a weird raygun backfiring and spraying red ominous energy over a bunch of c list villians" is going to end badly, your correct as Booster going back to the present.. finds it ravaged by three weird energy monsters who i'm calling the Meganiks as unlike booster, you can put two and two together. Booster tells on himself, and Batman, having not even REMOTELY suspected him, makes Booster take them back.

This leads to the fun part of the episode: Ted awkwardly having to navigate his VERY different besties, with batman being utterly shocked Ted spends time with such a goofus, not getting that not EVERYONE thinks fighting crime is the funenst thing possible. Seriously this episode has such "my best friend hates my boyfriend" energy and I love it. The two naturally bicker a lot with Ted trying to be civil before just telling the two to shut up and admitting this is WHY he didn't tell them about each other. Eventually the two DO end up working together well enough when Ted's in real danger.

And that's where the two sweetest parts of this come from. The first is when Booster finally admits he just wanted to see Ted again.. and Bats not only realizes he was a bit hard on the moron, accidently end of the world or no.. but that their friendship was as strong as Bats own with ted. I mean really.. who WOULDN'T want one last moment with a loved one, wether that loved one knew it or not. It bonds the two.. and in doing so gives ted something better than simply finishing his last case.. he gets to see the two people he cares about most actually get along. It's a really nice way to end it and when they get back to the present bats decides to invite booster to patrolw tih him. They may not really get each other.. but mayeb they can help each other move on.

So all in all one meh, early episode and a bunch of REALLY strong episodes. In general Brave and the Bold was really fantastic and only had maybe a few duds. It's a glorious celebration of the dcu and I wholly recommend checking it out especailly if you love those boys in blue

For now.. it's time to let Jamie and Ted have a rest. I'll go back there someday, I still want to cover the movie at some point, the rest of Jaime's run but for now we can simply watch as one flies and one swings off into the sunset, for more adventures, and a bright future. The bluest, and bravest, heroes there ever were. Thanks for reading.

[scotianostra]

On 17th October 1821 Alexander Gardner, renowned photographer of the American Civil War was born in Paisley.

Gardner became an apprentice jeweller at the age of 14, lasting seven years. He had a Church of Scotland upbringing and was influenced by the work of Robert Owen, Welsh socialist and father of the cooperative movement. By the time he reached adulthood he and his brother James had the idea to create a cooperative in the United States that would incorporate socialist values, they travelled to Iowa with this in mind in 1850, Alexander returned to Scotland to raise money for the project and purchased the Glasgow Sentinel, quickly turning it into the second largest newspaper in the city.

On his return to the United States in 1851, Gardner paid a visit to the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, New York, where he saw the photographs of Mathew Brady for the first time. Shortly afterward, Gardner began reviewing exhibitions of photographs in the Glasgow Sentinel, as well as experimenting with photography on his own.

In 1856, Gardner decided to over permanently to America, eventually settling in New York. He soon found employment with Mathew Brady as a photographer. At first, Gardner specialized in making large photographic prints, called Imperial photographs, but as Brady’s eyesight began to fail, Gardner took on more and more responsibilities. In 1858, Brady put him in charge of the entire gallery.

Two years later, Gardner opened a portrait studio for Brady in Washington, D.C. It was so successful that it helped to support Brady’s more extravagant New York studio.

When the American Civil War erupted in 1861, Gardner assisted Brady in his effort to make a complete photographic record of the conflict. Brady, however, refused to give Gardner public credit for his work. Gardner therefore left Brady in 1863, opened a portrait gallery in Washington, and continued to photograph the hostilities on his own. His photographs President Lincoln on the Battlefield of Antietam as seen in the photos and other portraits of Lincoln are among the best-known photographs of the war period.

Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book of the Civil War, a two-volume collection of 100 original prints, was published in 1866. When Brady petitioned Congress to buy his photographs of the war, Gardner presented a rival petition, claiming that it was he, not Brady, who had originated the idea of providing the nation with a photographic history of the conflict. Congress eventually bought both collections.

In 1867 Gardner became the official photographer for the Union Pacific Railroad. Primarily active in Kansas, he photographed the building of the railroad and the new settlements that grew up near it. He also compiled valuable photographic documentation of the Plains Indians of North America.

Returning to Washington, he gradually lost interest in photography and devoted the rest of his life to philanthropy.

In 1871, Gardner gave up photography entirely to start an insurance company. He lived in Washington until his death in 1882. Regarding his work he said, “It is designed to speak for itself. As mementos of the fearful struggle through which the country has just passed, it is confidently hoped that it will possess an enduring interest.”

The first pic is of Alexander Gardner, next is Ta-Tan-Kah-Sa-Pah (Black Bull) of the Brule-Sioux tribe, North Dakota, President Lincoln on Battle-Field of Antietam and Abraham Lincoln and his son Thomas, then Lewis Payne, one of the men involved in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and finally the Leavenworth, Lawrence, and Galveston Railroad Bridge across the Kaw River at Lawrence, Kansas, in 1867

[manuscripts-dontburn]

The Faceless Woman

Author: Emma Hamm

First published: 2018

Rating:  ★★☆☆☆

Two perpetually horny people with the attitude of whiny teenagers endlessly banter annoyingly while hiking the Otherworld (or was it Otherlands?). They are totally into each other just because. Everything they need is immediately gotten. Every question they ask is immediately answered. There is a cat.

Lady Audley's Secret

Author: Mary Elizabeth Braddon

First published: 1862

Rating: ★★★★☆

A good example of a book that seems to be good, but not THAT good, but then it really turns out there is more to it than it first seemed. I enjoyed myself! Also, I would recommend it to anyone who would like to get into classics but is not ready for the likes of Dostoyevsky (Is anyone truly ready for Dostoyevsky?)

My Sister, the Serial Killer

Author: Oyinkan Braithwaite

First published: 2018

Rating: ★★★★☆

A dark, intriguing exploration of how far family loyalties can lie, peppered with uncomfortable truths and secrets. Not really a thriller, if that is what you are looking for. Thanks to very short chapters it read extremely quickly.

Death on the Lusitania

Author: R.L. Graham

First published: 2024

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Like... I wasn´t mad at this, you can certainly tell a huge amount of historical research went into constructing this story, but all in all it read very dry. Furthermore, I chose to read this book because the tragedy of Lusitania is something I have been fascinated with for a long time now yet in the book its tragic demise comes about with little urgency and takes a surprisingly small space in the overall length of the book. The famous ship is a background setting rather than the main event and you never get to explore her.

Peach Blossom Spring

Author: Melissa Fu

First published: 2022

Rating: ★★★★★

Somebody messed up and so in my edition of Peach Blossom Spring every single instance of the word QUIET was replaced by QUIETEN, which jarred the eye and flow of the afflicted sentences. But not even that could take away the sensitive, melancholy beauty of this book. A historical fiction with just the right amount of background information without over-explanation, it follows a family trauma and how characters with that trauma make their decisions and change over time. By the end, I felt very deeply for all the characters and, even though my own culture and heritage are completely unrelated, trace the certain human traits we all seem to share, portrayed with great care.

Weird Medieval Guys: How to Live, Laugh, Love (and Die) in Dark Times

Author: Olivia Swarthout

First published: 2023

Rating: ★★★★☆

Perhaps not laugh-out-loud funny, but amusing and clearly written with much love for history. I only wish the physical book was larger, so the pictures could be viewed in more detail and my weak-ass-eyes not struggle to read the small text.

The Imaginary Lives of James Poneke

Author: Tina Makereti

First published: 2018

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Though quite short, there is a lot going on in this book. The story is that of a native boy from New Zealand who, after losing his family and people, gets an English education and makes his way to London is set in the 19th century and focuses on issues of predatory colonialism, insensitive treatment of people who look different and eventually also sexuality. There is a profound sadness etched into all of it. I was not sure whether the sexual angle was necessary and the one explicit scene felt jarring, as if I suddenly was reading a different book altogether.

Crypt: Life, Death and Disease in the Middle Ages and Beyond

Author: Alice Roberts

First published: 2024

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Unfortunately, this wanted to be a lot and ended up being a not uninteresting but rather confused, unanchored and disjointed collection of papers. Not recommended if you are primarily interested in history and not biology.

I, Coriander

Author: Sally Gardner

First published: 2005

Rating: ★★★★☆

I would have eaten this up as a kid! As an adult, I still enjoyed it a lot, but I must say the historical parts of this story worked much better than the fantasy-infused ones. Could Sally Gardner possibly rewrite this story as an adult horror? Because that would be blood-chilling.

The Beekeeper of Aleppo

Author: Christy Lefteri

First published: 2020

Rating: ★★★★★

This book started as a weary, melancholy journey and ended up being an explosion of pain. The story is told from the point of view of Nuri, a Syrian refugee trying to make his way to the UK while trying to stay strong for his blind wife and hopes for some normalcy in the future. Because you only get his interpretation of events Nuri is sometimes an unreliable narrator, which, I personally think, explains some of the points other readers have criticised. Nuri does not give a comprehensive and complex portrayal of his journey, he is simply engulfed in his own thoughts and existence, noticing select things and reacting to select situations. It is an exploration of trauma anyone can relate to, while at the same time, it absolutely does call one's attention to the very real plight of refugees, happening right now. It is beautifully written too.

Kaikeyi

Author: Vaishnavi Patel

First published: 2022

Rating: ★★★★☆

It is always dangerous to choose an actual religious story rather than a mere myth to retell and spin in a way that would be innovative, respectful and not feel redundant. Vaishnavi Patel has managed to win this uneasy battle by choosing the possibly most interesting character of the mix and creating a complex woman who is fantastically human in her errors and yet you cannot really feel for her, especially in the last part of the book, because she reasons, she fights, she repents, she questions herself. I especially liked the focus on the conflict between the male sense of pride and honour and what was presented as a much more feminine trait of letting things go to avoid war and pain. The middle part of the book did feel rather sluggish and the equality of the sexes, at times, bit too on the modern nose, but the heart of the story prevailed. No doubt there will be Hindus taking offence at liberties and changes made, but since the author herself is a Hindu, I believe it is not my place to argue for or against this case.

A Manual for How to Love Us

Author: Erin Slaughter

First published: 2023

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Let´s just say this was not for me. The stories were certainly weird but with not much impact (bar one). I bought this book because it has a gorgeous cover and somebody said the stories are connected (which is one of my favourite things in books), but if the connection is there, I could not find it. Just because it is all weird, sad and weirdly sad women does not "connected" mean.

A Romanov Fantasy: Life at the Court of Anna Anderson

Author: Frances Welch

First published: 2007

Rating: ★★★☆☆

In comparison to The Resurrection of the Romanovs: Anastasia, Anna Anderson, and the World's Greatest Royal Mystery this book is definitely not offering as much information on the whole question of why so many people believed in Anna Anderson and where the discrepancies were in many of her claims. I was also irritated at mislabeled pictures of the Romanov sisters as Anastasia on more than one count (I suspect the editor´s mistake here). But this is still a readable and fascinating portrait of a very abnormal life and some very unhinged people. Even more than Anna I was taken by Gleb Botkin and his delusions and reasoning. Interesting, though it does not have the latest information due to the year of the publication.

[romancomicsnews]

Who should play The Flash in the new DCU?

Given Ezra Millers crimes, the disappointing box office of The Flash, and James Gunn resetting the DC Universe, a new take on the character of The Flash seems imminent.

Unlike many other DC heroes, The Flash has had a pretty good history in live action. He's had 2 shows headed up by John Wesley Shipp and Grant Gustin, and even appeared on Smallville. And while Ezra Miller is a criminal and should be tried for their crimes, they had a decent portrayal of the character, particularly in Zack Snyder's JL.

After the big three, I'd argue The Flash is DC's most iconic character. He's the most well known speedster across media, has one of the best rogues galleries, and has been a fan favorite across comics.

I believe after Batman, he will be the next big cast. Which begs the question, who will play The Scarlet Speedster?

First we gotta answer some important questions:

Which Flash?

You'll now notice in the previous paragraphs I didn't refer to any Flash by their name.

That's because there are many iconic characters who took on the mantle. Jay Garrick, Barry Allen, Wally West, Bart Allen, Avery Ho, there are a lot of choices. And with the recent casting of Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern/Guy Gardner, it's clear James Gunn isn't going to necessarily introduce these characters in comic book order.

In order to determine which Flash we should choose, we should look at what has come before to determine what we should do next.

Grant Gustin as Barry Allen

The most iconic and best interpretation of the character, Grant Gustin as Barry Allen rules. He's charming, he's funny, he's dorky, and he can nail some one liners. What I think really determines a good Flash is heart. He's not a god among men, he's not a billionaire, or an alien. He's the most regular guy on the team, which usually makes him the heart of it. Gustin nails this, and it shows in his more dramatic scenes.

Any Flash from now on will be compared to Gustin, so I think it would be beneficial to look at other characters who took on the mantle of Flash in order to differenciate.

John Wesley Shipp as Barry Allen & Jay Garrick

John Wesley Shipp is the only person on the list that has the luxury of playing the Flash twice, once as Barry and once as Jay. I am more familiar with his Jay Garrick, who is a mentor character. He is strong, he is kind, and feels classically heroic.

While he is a good actor and a fun character, it doesn't feel like Barry Allen in the same way Adam West doesn't feel like Bruce Wayne. The suit is rad though.

Ezra Miller as Barry Allen

Ezra is... annoying. Which I think isn't necessarily bad, it is partially what The Flash can be. But instead of comedic, they feel more pathetic. T

his Barry does have that heart I was talking about Grant exemplifies, and I think if we would've had more Ezra, we could've seen it more in the JL.

While it is a decent interpretation, I don't think beating it will be extremely difficult. I believe Ezra Miller will go down as a Val Kilmer Batman, solid but overall forgotten. Given that it was so recent, something fresh may be in order.

Given the three big live action versions and the characters they played, I think it's time for something a little different. A character who can give us the iconic look and feel of The Flash, but be different enough to blaze their own trail.

A fan favorite character who has been seen throughout animation but barely ever through live action:

Wally West.

Who is Wally West?

Wally West is the nephew to Barry Allen, Iris West's Nephew to be exact. After trying to recreate the experiment that gave his uncle powers, he becomes Kid Flash, The Scarlet Speedsters first sidekick.

Wally West had made several appearances in media. He was a fan favorite on Young Justice (shameless plug for my Young Justice article here) Teen Titans, and several animated DC movies.

He is also thee Flash on Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, with absolutely no mention of Barry Allen, voiced by Michael Rosenbaum. This makes him a lot of hardcore DC fans introduction to the character.

He is also given an underrated performance by one Keiynan Lonsdale in the CW's The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow. As Kid Flash, Lonsdale is funny, arrogant, a good partner to Barry. He had some of the best fight scenes and quips, plus he really rocked the look in my opinion.

How does he fit into the DCU?

In Lonsdale version of the character, he is a mix of Wally and Wallace West (don't ask comics are weird), so instead of Iris' nephew, he's her brother.

For this version, that's what I'm going to go with. It explains why he's older, and how he can recreate the experiment.

I will also go out of my way to say Barry Allen was The Flash in this universe and is now missing. He can come back in the future maybe, or not! Truly, I don't need Barry. This will not be a Kid Flash movie, this will be a Wally West Flash movie. He will be the DCU's Flash.

In the film he will recreate the experiment, try to don the costume, and eventually create his own spin on it and make being The Flash his own.

What is Wally's ethnecity?

I just want to touch on this rather briefly, because as you can see in the pictures and gifs, there's some ambiguity.

Wallace West in the comics is a person of color, but Wally West is not. When combining two ideas for characters, it's important to acknowledge this can get dicey.

In live action media now, Iris West is often portrayed as a black woman, which I think should still remain. However, one thing Fan4stic did well was trust audiences can understand the concept of adoption, and brother/sister characters don't need to be the same ethnicity.

For the time being, I am going to say either way works, as long as they fit the character of The Flash and Wally.

Are there any Other Stipulations?

Yes, a few.

Whoever is playing this character needs to feel younger than our Superman, David Corenswet, who is currently at the age of 30. The Flash being the youngest member of the team was something I did like in Justice League, and would like to remain.

I'm looking for a lanky build simple to Gustin.

He should also feel more comedically gifted than all those who came before.

I don't mind recasting someone who has done a superhero role before, but I don't prefer it.

Because The Flash is such a big character, I think we can bring in someone with a name, but who can excel at bringing out the comedy in others.

Finally, I want someone with that Heart.

My Top 3:

To be clear, I love all three of these picks, and I think any of these can absolutely nail the role.

3. Jharrel Jerome

Known for his work in Moonlight, When They See Us, I'm a Virgo, and Across the Spider-Verse, Jerome is a star on the rise.

He's been playing younger characters who are discovering themselves and their strength, and that's exactly what we need from a Wally West. And at 26, he's younger than our Superman and could be in this role for years to come.

My only concern with Jerome:

He seems pretty darn cool. Not that The Flash can't be. But much like Spider-Man, there's a dorkiness to The Flash that is key. But then again, Andrew Garfield was cool, and he proved us all wrong.

Jerome playing a superhero feels like destiny (he's got the alliteration name and everything), and is not a matter of if but when. While I can see him as a great John Stewart of Henry Irons down the line, I think his Flash would cause a lot of buzz.

2. Ncuti Gatwa

If you don't know his name, you will soon.

Known for his breakout role in Sex Education, Ncuti Gatwa has upcoming huge projects such as Barbie and most notably, Doctor Who as the 15th Doctor.

Gatwa of the three choices has the most flair and screen presence. Much like Justice League Unlimited Flash, Gatwa is a scene stealer in pretty much every episode of Sex Education. While he is a flawed character, he definitely shows heart, with his best friend Otis and boyfriend Adam.

Gatwa knows comedy, he knows sci-fi, and I think is the only one on that list that can fit that classic superhero look John Wesley Shipp did in that suit.

My main concern is age. At 30 he is on the cusp with our Superman, and with his strength he may come off as older.

And unlike our other candidates, Gatwa's got a franchise he will be leading for years to come. While he could do an incredible Flash, his focus may be else where.

1. Justice Smith

Detective Pikachu. Dungeons and Dragons. The Get Down.

Justice Smith is exactly what I'm looking for.

Smith is not only able to hold his own against big hitters like Ryan Reynolds and Chris Pine, he somehow finds a way to elevate performances as to make the whole cast funnier. He's the type of actor you want in a big ensemble piece like Justice League

Even in films I don't particularly love like Paper Towns or Fallen Kingdom, Smith always find a way to highlight his strengths.

He's got the heart of Gustin, he's got the comedy of Rosenbaum, and leading man power coupled with ensemble energy.

And at 5'10 and 27 years old, he feels young enough to be the kid of the team, old enough to be a threat.

That is Wally West. He's funnier, cockier, but at the end of the day, that same heart Barry has. Smith is the type of actor who can give us the iconic Flash we deserve on film.

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[weaselandfriends]

What are your favorite books, and which books do you feel have been the most influential on your work? Do you read much non-fiction?

I watched all of School Days because of you. What do you like about it? How ironic is your enjoyment?

I am loving CQ thus far.

When I was very young, the books I read and reread again and again and which certainly had some formative impact on me as a writer were Loser by Jerry Spinelli and Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, but I think the most clearly influential books on my writing today are Franz Kafka's novels, The Castle and The Trial, as well as Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. I first read all three of these novels as a teenager and they really unlocked the world of literature for me. All three depict ordinary landscapes as surreal nightmares, the way I would go on to depict the locations in Modern Cannibals and Cockatiel x Chameleon. Another work I read as a teen and which surely influenced me was King Lear by William Shakespeare. I've always been a fan of the bleak and tragic.

Other favorite literary works of mine include (in no particular order):

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

VALIS by Philip K. Dick

Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys

Ulysses by James Joyce

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

2666 by Roberto Bolaño

The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West

Nightwood by Djuna Barnes

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

Demons by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Grendel by John Gardner

Paradise Lost by John Milton

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

As you can see, my reading is on the European and especially Anglo-centric side, which is probably to be expected given I primarily speak English myself. I'm always reading new stuff and try to branch out into time periods and locations outside of Western canon, especially given I've read most of the Western canon by now anyway.

I'm not a large reader of nonfiction. Fiction has always been my passion, since I was very young.

As for School Days, I want to stress that my enjoyment of it is in no way ironic. People ask me this all the time, but I legitimately just think School Days is excellent on its own merits. School Days is a detailed, complex psychological drama in which characters are pushed or push themselves into increasingly uglier directions based on initially small flaws or miscommunications that they are unable to overcome or grapple with. There's very little fat or filler in School Days, it is a lean work in which nearly every conversation has some kind of psychological subtext or is deepened by its context, and the pacing consistently pushes the story toward its explosive, tragic end. I recently watched Breaking Bad (also excellent) and found it similar in how an initially neutral or merely flawed protagonist gradually devolves into outright villainy on account of those flaws; other comparable works would be Nightcrawler, Taxi Driver, the aforementioned Wide Sargasso Sea, or Shakespeare's play Macbeth.

I think the overwhelming backlash about School Days is a byproduct of the Western anime culture back when it aired in 2007. This was just about when the internet was coming to prominence and Western viewers were able to access seasonal anime for the first time via fan subs and dubs; before this, anime watching in the West was either hack-n-slash dubs of kid's shows like Sailor Moon or Pokemon or isolated to a few select (and often Western-influenced) shows like Cowboy Bebop on late-night programs such as Adult Swim. Because of this, the Western anime community was fairly embryonic in 2007, comprised mainly of younger people, and almost entirely male. I don't think this audience collectively had the patience and comprehension skills to appreciate a dialogue-based psychological drama, and especially not one primarily concerned with digging into and exposing what we might nowadays call "toxic masculinity."

2007 was a year where "There are no women on the internet" was taken as an absolute truth, a pre-GamerGate era before even tepid incipient criticisms of sexism in gaming were being made by the likes of Extra Credits or Anita Sarkeesian. School Days, depicting a seeming everyman whose casual objectification of women transforms him into a callous monster, was simply not something this anime community was ready for. And so it was raked over the coals, memed on, and generally held up as "one of the worst anime ever made" (around the same time the anime community thought mind-boggling dreck like Elfen Lied was "mature" art). You would see School Days on Worst Anime of All Time lists right next to Mars of Destruction. I think even if you're only lukewarm on School Days you can see how that level of excoriation is utterly unwarranted.

The community, and the internet in general, and popular media criticism, has changed a lot since then, and I think the current zeitgeist is one that would be far more willing to accept School Days and realize its virtues, but its reputation precedes it and few are willing to watch "The Room of anime" with any amount of good faith. Certainly not enough good faith to pick up on its subtle and psychological writing. I think it's no longer as frequently held up as one of the worst anime of all time, but it's still generally despised (usually by people who haven't even seen it).

So, that's why I do my part to try and change the perspective on School Days.

[rapierdagger]

also, I thought it might be worth linking some interesting books I found on archive.org:

the song of achilles - madeleine miller

the old man and the sea - ernest hemingway

snow crash - neal stephenson

good omens - terry pratchett & neil gaiman

american gods - neil gaiman

six of crows & crooked kingdom - leigh bardugo

the secret history - donna tartt

on earth we're briefly gorgeous - ocean vuong

dagger: on butch women - lily burana, roxxie, linnea due

dnd 5e dungeon master's guide, monster manual and player's handbook & xanathar's guide to everything & the lost mine of phandelver

the gulag archipelago - alexander solzhenitsyn

atomic habits - james clear

eat that frog - brian tracy

conflict is not abuse - sarah schulman

why does he do that? - lundy bancroft

empire of pain - patrick radden keefe

the utopia of rules - david graeber

the hot zone - richard preston

the silk roads - peter frankopan

flash boys - michael lewis

the immortal life of henrietta lacks - rebecca skloot

behave - robert sapolsky

homo deus - yuval noah harari

persepolis volume one - marjane satrapi

persepolis volume two - marjane satrapi

this changes everything - naomi klein

silent spring - rachel carson

braiding sweetgrass - robin wall kimmerer

black skin, white masks - franz fanon

the wretched of the earth - franz fanon

the autobiography of malcolm x - malcolm x, alex haley

women, race & class - angela y. davis

various politics/history/postcolonialism books (incl edward said, amartya sen and francis fukuyama)

various art history books (art history: a very short introduction, art theory: a very short introduction, art in theory 1900-2000, gardner's art through the ages, history of modern art, the books that shaped art history, the story of art, twentieth-century american art)

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #655

Top Ten MCU Actors Who Could Join the New DCU

It feels like it’s been a big moment for superhero TV recently. Two new shows have just started based on both DC and Marvel characters – The Penguin and Agatha All Along, respectively – and there’s increased jibber-jabber about upcoming programmes too. Creature Commandos – the first proper, official, for-realsies production from James Gunn and Peter Safran’s new DCU – starts in December. And there’s been some interesting casting tittle-tattle about what’s probably the biggest show they’ve got on the docket, Green Lantern series Lanterns, which is going to feature both Hal Jordan and John Stewart.

We already know what one Green Lantern looks like, at least, thanks to paparazzi shots of Nathan Fillion as Guy Gardner on the set of next year’s Superman. But Gardner is always, really, the other Lantern; too much of a dickhead, and possessed of too terrible a hairdo, to really be considered the main event. Hal and John, on the other hand, could both be considered the “proper” Lantern, and so it’s going to be really interesting to see them share the screen in what appears to be a sort of buddy-space-cop crime drama.

Anyway the really interesting thing about all of this is the names apparently in the mix to play Hal. I think we already knew (or assumed) that Hal was going to be the older character, more of a mentor-type figure to a younger John, and this has been borne out in some of the actors they’ve either been looking at, talking to, or who’ve already turned the role down. These include Ewan McGregor, Chris Pine, Timothy Olyphant (who, of these names, would be my choice), and Josh Brolin. Now, three of these have already played comic book characters before; both McGregor and Pine are in prior DC films. But Brolin was, of course, an absolutely huge part of Avengers, playing interstellar bad guy Thanos across a number of films (if Brolin had taken the role, he’d have been not one but four characters in Marvel and DC: Thanos, Cable, Hal Jordan, and Jonah Hex – so maybe he thought it was a bit much).

If Thanos can cross the floor, so to speak, to take a major role in a DC show, then – of course – nothing’s off the table. Heimdall himself, Idris Elba, is also DC’s Bloodsport; and there have been a number of smaller-scale roles cast with actors who’ve had a foot in both ponds. I think Thanos being Green Lantern might have been the biggest deal, however; we may have to contend with everyone’s favourite emerald space cop being a major Star Wars character instead.

This has inspired my list this weekend, which is all about actors who’ve had (moderately) significant roles in the MCU, who could now jump ship and appear in a DCU production. I’ve done a few casting suggestion lists over the years, so I’ve tried not to repeat myself – as such I’ve avoided even speculating on truly major JLA-type roles, so there’s no “Chris Pratt for Batman!”-type stuff. Some of these I think would be truly excellent suggestions; others would just be amusing.

Have at it, Jim and Pete! Take your pick!

Pom Klementieff as Zatanna: Klementieff brings a certain other-worldliness to her roles; she always feels at a remove, can project a kind of oddness that’s either adorable and endearing (Mantis) or strange and threatening (Paris). I think this, plus her great comic timing and natural ability, would be perfect for backwards-talking magic-user Zatanna. And – hey – I kinda feel like magicians should be French, I don’t know why.

Edward Norton as Clayface: Norton is, I guess, only technically part of the MCU, but he still counts! He’s got a reputation as a super-serious actor; this would make him perfect to play Basil Karlo, a vain and fading actor who ends up becoming a shape-shifting goo man. He could play him like his character from Birdman, but, y’know, in clay. And he’s got form with CGI characters! Sort of! Anyway, it’d be funny.

Frank Grillo as Slade Wilson: Grillo was great as the super-gruff Crossbones in Winter Soldier and Civil War; he was tough but charismatic, and held his own against Captain America. He’s been public about wanting to carry on the role, despite being killed off, so perhaps jumping into DC waters would be cool. He looks the part for Slade, and can do the action stuff, and as the character is meant to be a bit older and more experienced, I think he’d bring a good sense of hard-earned wisdom to the role.

Dave Bautista as Dr. Will Magnus: I definitely think Bautista will pop up in the DCU. I’d like to see him in a role that was less physical; he’s a terrific actor, capable of bringing out humour, tragedy, and pathos. So it’d be good to see him as a scientist; there are plenty to choose from. Magnus is great because I guess he’s essentially a good guy, but also a bit morally dubious, and has a history of both mental health issues and slightly dodgy relationships with some of the robots he builds. So there’s lots there for Bautista to get his teeth into.

Sylvester Stallone as Wildcat: I don’t know what the plans are for the Justice Society, and obviously casting a guy in his seventies isn’t really going to allow you to make a decade’s worth of intense action movies. But Wildcat was a boxer before becoming a crimefighter; he’s tough, he’s a fighter, and (depending on continuity) trained Batman. The Society are usually presented as older anyway, the previous generation of heroes. Do I need to explain why Stallone is perfect for this role?

Benicio del Toro as Sinestro: Sinestro is, basically, a corrupt cop who really breaks bad – I wouldn’t be surprised if he cropped up Lanterns, as he’s really the big Green Lantern bad guy. Rather than making him a moustache-twirling British guy, I think having del Toro bring both a bit of the grit and strength he has in films such as Traffic, as well as the charm and humour he naturally possesses, would really make the character stand out.

Sam Rockwell as Ralph Dibney: I don’t know what their plans are for these characters, and maybe Rockwell’s too old if The Elongated Man is supposed to be a contemporary of a (presumably mid-thirties) Flash. But come on: a light-hearted, wisecracking detective who can also stretch his body? Don’t tell me his wouldn’t be a fantastic role for Rockwell. I’d want him front and centre of every Justic League film, though. Maybe they could also bring across Rachel Weisz as his wife Sue?

Jenny Agutter as Granny Goodness: Agutter has been really underused in the MCU; after Winter Soldier, I was hoping she’d keep popping up as a sort of British version of Nick Fury. So casting her entirely against type as an evil, cruel, vicious general and leader of the Female Furies, working for ultimate big-bad Darkseid, would be really cool. The only downside is Goodness is usually presented as a plus-sized woman, and it’d be a shame to lose some of that representation (Amanda Waller, for instance, has had a significant weight loss in recent years).

Jeff Goldblum as The Riddler: I’ve tried to limit both the number of former Guardians cast members and also the number of specifically Batman-related characters (sorry, Karen Gillan as Poison Ivy). But we’re back in Gotham for this utterly perfect casting. Goldblum is great at three things: appearing smart, projecting hidden darkness, and a wild eccentric charisma. Making the Riddler an older guy looking for a legacy – a would-be genius out to prove he’s smarter than everyone else one last time – would make him really different from both Jim Carrey’s utterly manic turn, and also Paul Dano’s weird serial killer (who, I’m sorry, is great, but is not the Riddler).

Samuel L. Jackson as Darkseid: is this on-the-nose? First base? I was basically thinking about the voice; who has the best voice for this? Well, to be honest, the answer is the sadly departed James Earl Jones, but Jackson also has a fantastic baritone. Also, if he were to appear in a more human guise, I like he image of a taciturn Jackson randomly appearing in someone’s front room to threaten or tempt them. Jackson is excellent at projecting menace, but also great at delivering elaborate soliloquies. And he’s very funny.

[moneypenny-coins]

Hey Coins!

I just got a TON of books that'll last me for a few months but I also wanted to read some more Tom Clancy once I'm done with them, got any good recommendations?

If for Tom Clancy, I might as well suggest the petralogy of Red October, Patriot Games, Cardinal of the Kremlin, Clear and Present Danger, and Sum of All Fears. Rainbow Six is pretty good, too, although the plot points are repeated a lot (like, the bad guys are environmentalists and dumb, Rainbow are a bunch of badasses, and so on).

Bear and The Dragon is a hard one. On one hand, the action is really good, but it is also incredibly racist and heavy-handed, even for 2000. Teeth of the Tiger is boring and just plain silly. I am not sure about Dead or Alive, although I did like it the first time I read it. It's almost a conservative fantasy from what I remember.

Okay, Clancy praising aside, if you want something else, I'd suggest The Dogs of War (Forsyth, Frederick); I, Alex Cross (Patterson, James); Fleshmarket Close (Rankin, Ian; the American editions may swap out Close for Alley); RWBY: Roman Holiday (Myers, E.C; :neosmirk:); Nobody Lives Forever and Icebreaker (Gardner, John); and The Man with the Golden Gun (Fleming, Ian). ...Christ, I need to start stocking up on more books.

[candy-floss-crazy]

Burger Joints Of The World, Hardees Burger Chain

Today's hero of the burger world is one Wilber Hardee, who launched his namesake restaurant in Greenville, North Carolina on 3rd September 1960. He had viewed the first McDonald's in the area and been impressed by the money it was taking when he clocked up $168 in an hour. As he exclaimed, at 15c a burger that was some sales. He already operated a successful restaurant called 'Silo', but wanted a slice of the burger market. His first years trading was so successful that he looked into expanding. A meeting with James Gardner and Leonard Rawls led to the opening of the first 'Company' store in Rocky Mount. Early Hardees Restaurant Change Of Ownership Wilber didn't stay in charge of the company for long. Selling his share in Hardees Burger Chain to his other two partners in 1961. There are conflicting accounts of how this arose. Wilber claimed that he lost a controlling share of the business in a poker game to his two partners. Realising he no longer had control he sold the remaining stock. However in a short book he self published in 2000, Wilber told a different story. The other partners evidently plied him with alcohol, getting him drunk enough to begin signing legal papers without understanding what they were, leading to him signing the rights for franchising away to the other men. However in a later interview he claimed that he had just been basically stupid, and agreed to set up a company where each partner had equal voting rights, leading to the situation where the other two could always out vote him on decisions. Rapid Expansion The chain expanded rapidly, not just with the franchising operation, but they also bought two other chains, Sandy's and Burger Chef. By 1984 it was the fourth largest chain in America, for a brief period surpassing Wendy's to become the third largest. New Ownership 1997 saw the chain being acquired by CKE restaurants. Standing for Carl Karcher Enterprises, owners of the famous Carl's Jr. chain, this created a group of 3828 stores in 40 states and 10 countries. The chain however was struggling, problems with the menu, service and quality control meant sales were declining. 2003 saw a new management team planning a turnaround, and a massive sales campaign, coupled with the reinstatement of charbroiling (Wilber Hardees secret weapon) which had been abandoned years earlier. New menu items such as the thick burger saw an upturn in the groups fortunes. Since then the group has grown to over 5000 locations worldwide. The current chain pretty much replicates the Carl's Jr. menu, just with different names. Their flagship offering being the Monster Burger. With two 1/3 lb patties (though knowing Americans they might be better calling them 3/9 lb patties). Monster Thick Burger Wilber Rides Again Not one to rest on his laurels, Wilber launched another burger chain, called Little Mint. The name referring to the fact that he considered burger joints should be little, and the chain was going to make him a mint. Though not reaching the heights of Hardees Burger Chain over the next seven years he grew the chain to 50 locations. Little Mint Burger Place When the company went public his shareholding made him worth $2 million dollars'. Sadly by 1971 competition and other adverse factors meant the chain started to struggle and after falling out with the other board members he eventually sold out for $90,000. Ever a tryer Wilber opened three 'Hot Dog Cities' and a seafood restaurant over the next couple of years. None lasted more than a couple of years, and eventually he was forced to sell his house, eventually filing for bankruptcy. His low point came when he planned to kill himself by driving his car into a tree. happily his nerve failed and he never carried the plan through. Beef & Shakes Burger Chain 1978 saw him raising the capital to start 'Beef & Shakes' expanding to three outlets, before selling two and rebranding the remaining one Biscuit & Chicken, before eventually settling on the name Biscuit Town. This was to be his final success, he franchised a couple of stores, before his wife died suddenly. Despondent he sold the chain to his old outfit of Little Mint. you would have thought that was the end of his story, but he used the money to open three Burger Castle stores. Sadly these failed, and though he opened another five ventures over the next few years, his final one at the age of 75, none of them were successful. It was reported that Wilber was always bitter about the lack of recognition in the group. Though it carried his name, the company recognised Rawls as its founder. And the second store was considered the start of the brand, not Wilber's original. This changed when Carl Karcher took over. He honoured Wilber as the founder of the hardees Burger Chain, naming it's most prestigious franchising award after him. Sadly he died in 2008 from a heart attack, just short of his 90th birthday. Resources; The Story Of Hardees Read the full article

[somerabbitholes]

Essays

Here’s a (non-exhaustive) list of essays I like/find interesting/are food for thought; I’ve tried to sort them as much as possible. The starred (*) ones are those I especially love

also quick note: some of these links, especially the ones that are from books/anthologies redirect you to libgen or scihub, and if that doesn’t work for you, do message me; I’d be happy to send them across!

Literature + Writing

Godot Comes to Sarajevo - Susan Sontag

The Strangeness of Grief - V. S. Naipaul*

Memories of V. S. Naipaul - Paul Theroux*

A Rainy Day with Ruskin Bond - Mayank Austen Soofi

How Albert Camus Faced History - Adam Gopnik

Listen, Bro - Jo Livingstone

Rachel Cusk Gut-Renovates the Novel - Judith Thurman

Lost in Translation: What the First Line of “The Stranger” Should Be - Ryan Bloom

The Duke in His Domain - Truman Capote*

The Cult of Donna Tartt: Themes and Strategies in The Secret History - Ana Rita Catalão Guedes

Never Do That to a Book - Anne Fadiman*

Affecting Anger: Ideologies of Community Mobilisation in Early Hindi Novel - Rohan Chauhan*

Why I Write - George Orwell*

Rimbaud and Patti Smith: Style as Social Deviance - Carrie Jaurès Noland*

Art + Photography (+ Aesthetics)

Looking at War - Susan Sontag*

Love, sex, art, and death - Nan Goldin, David Wojnarowicz

Lyons, Szarkowski, and the Perception of Photography - Anne Wilkes Tucker

The Feminist Critique of Art History - Thalia Gouma-Peterson, Patricia Mathews

In Plato's Cave - Susan Sontag*

On reproduction of art (Chapter 1, Ways of Seeing) - John Berger*

On nudity and women in art (Chapter 3, Ways of Seeing) - John Berger*

Kalighat Paintings  - Sharmishtha Chaudhuri

Daydreams and Fragments: On How We Retrieve Images From the Past -  Maël Renouard

Arthur Rimbaud: the Aesthetics of Intoxication - Enid Rhodes Peschel

Cities

Tragic Fable of Mumbai Mills - Gyan Prakash

Whose Bandra is it? - Dustin Silgardo*

Timur's Registan: noblest public square in the world? - Srinath Perur

The first Starbucks coffee shop, Seattle - Colin Marshall*

Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai's iconic railway station - Srinath Perur

From London to Mumbai and Back Again: Gentrification and Public Policy in Comparative Perspective -  Andrew Harris

The Limits of "White Town" in Colonial Calcutta - Swati Chattopadhyay

The Metropolis and Mental Life - Georg Simmel

Colonial Policy and the Culture of Immigration: Citing the Social History of Varanasi - Vinod Kumar, Shiv Narayan

A Caribbean Creole Capital: Kingston, Jamaica - Coln G. Clarke (from Colonial Cities by Robert Ross, Gerard J. Telkamp

The Colonial City and the Post-Colonial World - G. A. de Bruijne

The Nowhere City - Amos Elon*

The Vertical Flâneur: Narratorial Tradecraft in the Colonial Metropolis - Paul K. Saint-Amour

Philosophy

The trolley problem problem - James Wilson

A Brief History of Death - Nir Baram

Justice as Fairness: Political not Metaphysical - John Rawls*

Should Marxists be Interested in Exploitation? - John E. Roemer

The Discomfort You’re Feeling is Grief - Scott Berinato*

The Pandemic and the Crisis of Faith - Makarand Paranjape

If God Is Dead, Your Time is Everything - James Wood

Giving Up on God - Ronald Inglehart

The Limits of Consensual Decision - Douglas Rae*

The Science of "Muddling Through" - Charles Lindblom*

History

The Gruesome History of Eating Corpses as Medicine - Maria Dolan

The History of Loneliness - Jill Lepore*

From Tuskegee to Togo: the Problem of Freedom in the Empire of Cotton - Sven Beckert*

Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism - E. P. Thompson*

All By Myself - Martha Bailey*

The Geographical Pivot of History - H. J. Mackinder

The sea/ocean

Rim of Life - Manu Pillai

Exploring the Indian Ocean as a rich archive of history – above and below the water line - Isabel Hofmeyr, Charne Lavery

‘Piracy’, connectivity and seaborne power in the Middle Ages - Nikolas Jaspert (from The Sea in History)*

The Vikings and their age - Nils Blomkvist (from The Sea in History)*

Mercantile Networks, Port Cities, and “Pirate” States - Roxani Eleni Margariti

Phantom Peril in the Arctic - Robert David English, Morgan Grant Gardner*

Assorted ones on India

A departure from history: Kashmiri Pandits, 1990-2001 - Alexander Evans *

Writing Post-Orientalist Histories of the Third World - Gyan Prakash

Empire: How Colonial India Made Modern Britain - Aditya Mukherjee

Feminism and Nationalism in India, 1917-1947 - Aparna Basu

The Epic Riddle of Dating Ramayana, Mahabharata - Sunaina Kumar*

Caste and Politics: Identity Over System - Dipankar Gupta

Our worldview is Delhi based*

Sports (you’ll have to excuse the fact that it’s only cricket but what can i say, i’m indian)

'Massa Day Done:' Cricket as a Catalyst for West Indian Independence: 1950-1962 - John Newman*

Playing for power? rugby, Afrikaner nationalism and masculinity in South Africa, c.1900–70 - Albert Grundlingh

When Cricket Was a Symbol, Not Just a Sport - Baz Dreisinger

Cricket, caste, community, colonialism: the politics of a great game - Ramachandra Guha*

Cricket and Politics in Colonial India - Ramchandra Guha

MS Dhoni: A quiet radical who did it his way*

Music

Brega: Music and Conflict in Urban Brazil - Samuel M. Araújo

Color, Music and Conflict: A Study of Aggression in Trinidad with Reference to the Role of Traditional Music - J. D. Elder

The 1975 - ‘Notes On a Conditional Form’ review - Dan Stubbs*

Life Without Live - Rob Sheffield*

How Britney Spears Changed Pop - Rob Sheffield

Concert for Bangladesh

From “Help!” to “Helping out a Friend”: Imagining South Asia through the Beatles and the Concert for Bangladesh - Samantha Christiansen 

Gender

Clothing Behaviour as Non-verbal Resistance - Diana Crane

The Normalisation of Queer Theory - David M. Halperin

Menstruation and the Holocaust - Jo-Ann Owusu*

Women’s Suffrage the Democratic Peace - Allan Dafoe

Pink and Blue: Coloring Inside the Lines of Gender - Catherine Zuckerman*

Women’s health concerns are dismissed more, studied less - Zoanne Clack

Food

How Food-Obsessed Millennials Shape the Future of Food - Rachel A. Becker (as a non-food obsessed somewhat-millennial, this was interesting)

Colonialism's effect on how and what we eat - Coral Lee

Tracing Europe's influence on India's culinary heritage - Ruth Dsouza Prabhu

Chicken Kiev: the world’s most contested ready-meal*

From Russia with mayo: the story of a Soviet super-salad*

The Politics of Pancakes - Taylor Aucoin*

How Doughnuts Fuelled the American Dream*

Pav from the Nau

A Short History of the Vada Pav - Saira Menezes

Fantasy (mostly just harry potter and lord of the rings)

Purebloods and Mudbloods: Race, Species, and Power (from The Politics of Harry Potter)

Azkaban: Discipline, Punishment, and Human Rights (from The Politics of Harry Potter)*

Good and Evil in J. R. R. Tolkien's Lengendarium - Jyrki Korpua

The Fairy Story: J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis - Colin Duriez (from Tree of Tales)*

Tolkien’s Augustinian Understanding of Good and Evil: Why The Lord of the Rings Is Not Manichean - Ralph Wood (from Tree of Tales)*

Travel

The Hidden Cost of Wildlife Tourism

Chronicles of a Writer’s 1950s Road Trip Across France - Kathleen Phelan

On the Early Women Pioneers of Trail Hiking - Gwenyth Loose

On the Mythologies of the Himalaya Mountains - Ed Douglas*

More random assorted ones

The cosmos from the wheelchair (The Economist obituaries)*

In El Salvador - Joan Didion

Scientists are unravelling the mystery of pain - Yudhijit Banerjee

Notes on Nationalism - George Orwell

Politics and the English Language - George Orwell*

What Do the Humanities Do in a Crisis? - Agnes Callard*

The Politics of Joker - Kyle Smith

Sushant Singh Rajput: The outsider - Uday Bhatia*

Credibility and Mystery - John Berger

happy reading :)

[johnvenus]

How YJ & JLDark Dropped The Ball With Zatanna (1/5)

So, this is something that I have been wanting to get off my chest for a while now.  This isn't meant to be an incoherent rant but a fair and balanced comparison of Zatanna's character arc in the comics with her character arc on YJ and JLD to show what worked, what didn't and what could have been.

Zatanna's been around for 58 years now (first appeared in 1964) but it feels only a handful of her stories gets referenced these days. Hence these two posts are meant to be draw a thoroughline through her entire history.

I am going to recap of her character development from her introductory arc in 1964 to the 2011 Paul Dini ongoing. My main focus will be on the period between her joining the League in 1978 to her final appearance in JL Vol1 and the 1987 Zatanna Special.  Then compare how it stacks up to her depiction in YJ and JLD.     This is a super condensed version of her history but as a follow up I will create separate posts for some of the stories posted here to explore them in greater detail.

Part One: Zatanna’s Search and early JL appearances    

Part Two: Joining the League, Sindella’s story and the introduction of the Homo Magi:

 https://johnvenus.tumblr.com/post/679908715915313152/how-yj-jldark-dropped-the-ball-with-zatanna

Part Three:  New Look, meeting Raven, romance with Barry Allen, losing her powers, becoming League chairwoman:    

https://johnvenus.tumblr.com/post/679909340257370112/how-yj-jl-dark-dropped-the-ball-with-zatanna

Part Four: Detroit era, final JLA arc, the 1987 Zatanna Special and everything that happened in between:  

 https://johnvenus.tumblr.com/post/679910087824916480/how-yj-and-jld-dropped-the-ball-with-zatanna-45

Part 5: Zatanna in the 90′s, Books of Magic, Identity Crisis and first ongoing + thoughts on her depiction in YJ and JLD:  

https://johnvenus.tumblr.com/post/679911011538616320/how-yj-jldark-dropped-the-ball-with-zatanna

I also want to make the case that the best Zatanna writer isn't Ram V, James Tynion IV, Greg Wesiman, Grant Morrison or even Paul Dini but Gerry Conway (@gerryconway).

Art by: Brian Bolland

First, a little backstory;  

So, in the 50′s superheroes had largely fallen out of favor with the exception for Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, most of them had been cancelled. Sci fi, westerns, horror, fantasy were all the rage. Then came ‘Seduction of the Innoccent’ by Dr Frederick Werthman which blamed comic books for juvenile delinquency and ‘spreading homosexuality’ and that combined with the Red Scare lead to the creation of the ‘Comic Codes Authority’. The CCA was meant to regulate comics so congress wouldn’t and the former’s stringent censorship killed off every genre except for superheroes.    

In the late 50′s, DC (then known as National Periodic Publications) had some success reviving the Flash but this time with a new character, Barry Allen, under the mantle. This lead to them reviving Green Lantern with Hal Jordan, the Atom as Ray Palmer as well as reinventing Hawkman and Hawkgirl as alien space cops as opposed to reincarnated lovers. Many of them had no connection to their predecessors at first, Barry was the exception  since he was explicitly stated to have been inspired by the comic books about Jay Garrick’s Flash.      

Zatanna debuted not long after the Atom and shared a more explicit connection with her predecessor, John Zatara, by being his daughter. John Zatara first debuted in ‘Action Comics’, the same one that Superman debuted in. It was an anthology comic back then so they weren’t stated to be in the same universe. He was just one of the many features in the comics. But the character proved to be popular enough that he had a long running back up feature in Action Comics and later World’s Finest up until 1951 after which the character disappeared.  

Zatanna's Search

Zatanna first appeared in Hawkman #4 written by Gardner Fox with art by Murphy Anderson. This was the first part of ‘Zatanna’s Search’. Katar and Shayera are investigating the appearance of unaccounted for artifacts at the museum. The two of them split up to search two different locations from where the artifacts originated from. They each find a girl standing still in a catatonic state murmuring gibberish. They bring the girl aboard their ship orbiting the earth whereupon they learn that the girl is speaking backwards with each ‘half’ speaking one half of the sentence.

The Hawks manage to restore the girl to her normal state and we learn that her name is Zatanna Zatara. She is a magician and the daughter of the Golden Age hero John Giovanni Zatara. Her father went missing and she’s been searching for him for ‘years’. 

 In order to hasten her search Zatanna tried to use a spell to appear in two different locations at the same time but the spell went wrong and caused her to be stuck in place. She used whatever magical ability she could muster to lure the Hawks to their location. Katar asks how she figured out their secret identity, to which Zatanna only smiles, a magician never tells their secrets.  

The Hawks decide to help Zatanna search for her father but their instruments reveal that he is no where on earth. Thus the issue ends with Zatanna having to continue her search for her father with a small tease of what’s to come:

Zatanna would then ‘appear’ in Detective Comics #336  written by Gardner Fox and drawn by Sheldon Moldoff starring Batman and Robin. I say ‘appear’ because her role in the story  is not revealed until the Justice League #51, the finale of ‘Zatanna’s Search’.

Her next appearance was in  Atom #19 written by Gardner Fox with art by Gil Kane. Since her father is nowhere on ‘earth’, she has to widen her search to other dimensions and planes of existence. Hence why she sought out Ray Palmer/The Atom. She needs his help to access a sub atomic world that exists in a book called ‘the Book of Magic’ (yes, this is it’s first appearance).  

At the time the dwarf star matter that allowed Ray to shrink only worked on him and was fatal to anybody else. This wasn’t a problem to Zatanna who had magic to protect her.  The two of them venture into the subatomic world of Catamoore wherein they encounter the Druid. A being who can absorb magical power and has enslaved the inhabitants of the land of Catamoore: 

Zatanna learns that her father had been here to confront the Druid. She fights him  but she is still a rookie and fighting him only causes him to absorb more of her power. It takes some prodding from Ray for the two of them to figure out how to beat the Druid and free the inhabitants.    

The two of them return to their world but with Zatanna still continuing her search for her father and we get a tease of who she might meet next.  

She would then appear in  Green Lantern #42 written by Gardner Fox with art by Gil Kane.

Hal is following the trail of a flying pirate causing chaos (ah, comics!) and this leads him to a gate way to another dimension called ‘The Land of Ys’ where he is psychically contacted by Zatanna:

     We also learn that Zatanna has a heroic side by being willing to sacrifice herself to stop the Druid:  

So the Warlock wants to use GL’s power ring to crossover into the main universe where he would grow unimaginably powerful.   Zatanna's powers also begin to wane but she realizes that she can still use her powers here, but only if she speaks her sentences forward.  

GL and Zatanna confront the Druid and we also learn that John Zatara was in this world as well.    

Talk about an ‘I must scream’ situation but don’t worry, this won’t be the Warlock’s last appearance.  I don’t think comics back then thought too deeply about the fates heroes would sometimes subject villains (see also, the JL leaving the Crime Syndicate to float in an enclosed bubble in a rift between universes).    

The inhabitants of Ys decide to remain there..   This place hasn’t appeared in any modern comics but I wouldn’t mind this place being explored more. Especially considering the fact that the Warlock himself, even though he is evil, is driven by the desire to escape the monotony of his world.  

For the inspiration being the Land of Ys, check out this link:  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ys

Zatanna would appear next in Detective Comics #355 in which she helps Elongated Man/Ralph Dibney round up some gangsters while she recovers some magical items (the Ting Tripod and the Book of I Ching) that could help her search for her father.  

Like all the stories in Zatanna’s Search, this one is also written by Gardner Fox with art by Carmine Infantino whose definitely showing why he is considered a legend.

IMO, he is the best artist in this cross over followed by Gil Kane.  

Unlike the previous heroes, Ralph is well aware of Zatanna’s search for her father and the story is about him recounting his case to Sue Dibney.  Also note Zatanna being established to have talent besides magic even back then.   

The ‘Book of I Ching’ and the ding tripods are references to certain things in real life:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ding_(vessel)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Ching

Zatanna’s story would culminate in Justice League of America Vol 1 #52 titled ‘Z as in Zatanna and Zero Hour’  (no connection to the actual Zero Hour event that would happen 40 years later),  in which she gathers all the aforementioned heroes including Batman to thank them for their help in finding her father.

Batman is confused as he had never met her before. Zatanna explains that the witch Batman and Robin fought in ‘Tec  336 was actually herself in disguise and that she magically planted the ‘thought’ in Robin that lead to her seeming ‘defeat’ and that she was being controlled by the villain of the issue (the Outsider). 

This was actually a retcon by writer Gardner Fox, it’s clear that in ‘Tec 336, that this witch character wasn’t originally meant to be Zatanna. From what I’ve heard the creative team wanted to include Batman in the story due to his increased popularity thanks to the ‘66 Batman show (ah, the more things change....) so Fox retconned an earlier story he wrote so he can justify putting Batman in the issue.  

Bats even makes the cover of the story:  

Anyway, back to Zatanna’s Search; Zatanna recounts to the League how she found her father. After the encounter with Elongated Man, Zatanna met Allura; an elemental trapped in the ‘Sword of Paracelsus’ who promises to help her find her father. After freeing Allura from the sword, the latter hides inside Zatanna.  

Zatanna summons duplicates of the heroes  to help her fight them off:

(I admit, I felt a bit cheated that it wasn’t the real Justice League she summoned and for obvious reasons this is not an ability we see her use again.)

But whose sending these obstacles her way? Why, it’s her father of course:  

But why?

The duplicate League members (more specifically Batman) quickly realize that the enemies aren’t trying to harm Zatanna, they’re after something else which turns out to be Allura whom they exorcise from Zatanna’s body:

Thus, comes the big reveal that Allura was the one who cursed John Zatara so that if he ever saw  or tried to communicate with his daughter  in any shape or form, they would both die. Hence why he fled the earthly plane and in to other dimensions so he can find Allura’s good half.  However, when he found the good Allura in the ‘Land of Kharma’, he found out that the good half cannot leave the land. That’s when Zatanna, lead by the evil Allura found her way there.  

Once the evil Allura is exorcised from Zatanna’s body, she fights the good Allura (referring to her as sister) and is finally forced to lift the curse she placed on John Zatara, thus father and daughter are finally reunited:

Not much is known  about Allura (no connection Supergirl’s mom whose name is  Alura In Ze but with only one ‘L’).   The Allura in Zatanna's comics is described as  'Mistress of the Dark Elementals', she would be appear a couple of more times in Zatanna's stories (which I will cover in this post and the coming posts) and is the closest Zee has to an arch enemy.

The Sword of Parcelsus that she was trapped in is a references to Paracelsus, a 14th century alchemist who is considered the father of toxicology.  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus

Here is a link to a blog which does a good job of linking to various references in the story.    

https://50yearoldcomics.com/2016/12/13/justice-league-of-america-51-february-1967/

The story itself is very much a product of it’s time. Some strange choices like Zatanna creating duplicates of the League, randomly retconning an old Batman story to include him here when he could have met her in this story for the first time and of course, I would have liked more details Allura.   However, there are interesting story elements here, Zatanna is powerful but still young and inexperienced. There is a nascent rogues gallery for her here in the form of the Druid, Warlock and Allura. Plus some world building elements like the Land of Ys, Catamoore and the Land of Kharma.  Sadly, many of these elements have been forgotten and neglected over time.    

Thus far, the only addition to this story happened in 1980, in  DC Blue Ribbon Special #5 written by Gerry Conway with art by Romeo Tanghal which showed the moment Zatanna  first found out her father was missing, learned more about his backstory and her magical heritage.  

After Zatanna's Search ended, Zatanna appeared intermittently throughout the 60′s,  She would get her own feature as a back up title of Supergirl's 1972 ongoing. during this time we are introduced to Zatanna's stage manager plus love interest: Jeffery Sloan who also bears a suspicious resemblance to the writer Len Wein.  

Source: Supergirl #1

The back up stories were nothing to write home about, some were cute while others were just bad. The tone and style of storytelling is best summed up by this image:    

Later, after Supergirls first ongoing was cancelled, Zatanna would occasionally get a story in Adventure Comics. The most notable being 1971′s  Adventures Comics #413-415 which is later reprinted as ‘DC Super Stars of Magic’ (1977) written by Len Wein and drawn by the incomparable Gray Morrow.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the mansion, John Zatara is attacked by a mysterious mystical assailant. When Zee and Jeff meet him, he banishes them to another dimension where they have to fight their way back which includes taking on Gorognus, a cyclops like being who can turn others into stone with just a look:

The art by Gray Morrow is just gorgeous and the climax  involves Zatanna fighting her father: 

(Anybody else heard Jeff screaming ‘yaaa’ right after Zatanna said ‘and you’re murdering Jeff’ ?)

And yes, the villain turns   out to be Allura who is now inexplicably blonde for some reason. Is her ‘good half’ evil now? Did the bad half possess the good half? Was it a colouring error?

Also, poor Jeff. He should talk with Steve Trevor and Larry Lance about being a normal guy in love with a superheroine. But unlike the aforementioned who gets some chance to shine, Jeff is so utterly darn helpless when it comes to the kind of things Zatanna deals with on a daily basis.  

Gorgonos would make one more appearance in Adventure Comics #419 (1972) also written by Len Wein.

Guest Starring In The League + Meeting Barry

Zatanna guest starred in JL a couple of times before joining the League.

She appeared in Flash #198 written by Michael Friedrich and drawn by Don Heck. The story involves Zatanna being pulled into another dimension during a magic show and Barry following her into it as the Flash. The story is notable because Zee is already acquainted with Barry and also knows his secret id (no mention of when that happened) and also she kisses him as part of her act.

They also published a fan letter where the reader was asking for more Zatanna and for her to get her own comic. If there were any cross overs between Barry and Zatanna prior to this, let me know because I couldn’t find any.  

Then in JLA #86 written by Micheal Friedrich with art by Dick Dillen and Joe Giella. Zatanna arrives at the League HQ to celebrate the anniversary of the League helping her find her father. Of course they’re drawn into trouble and is likely her first meeting with Superman. But this story is so bad and the only notable things is that it introduced ‘The Champions of Angor’ whom fans of JLI might recognizes but I’m going to skip over this specific one.     

Both of Mike Friedrich's stories are kind of pervy, especially the JL one with characters practically drooling over Zatanna in ways that don't feel in character for any of them. The Flash story is better as its more teasing and playful with wonderful Don Heck art.

I bring this up because her connection with Barry is something that will come up in later stories and this is where the seeds were planted.

Zatanna gets a much better showing in JLA #100 written by Len Wein with art by Dick Dillin and Joe Giella. She was one of the many players in a three part crossover between the JLA, JSA and the Seven Soldiers of Victory in which the heroes team in small groups to travel across space and time to rescue the Seven Soldiers in Victory who were believed to be dead.

This would be the first time we get to see Zatanna interact with the other magic users, in this case, Dr Fate and Johnny Thunder:

Each of the teams have a JLA and JSA member on them and each group gets their own separate story in a different setting.  Zatanna’s story appears in JLA #102 where she, Barry and Red Tornado travel to the times of Ancient Greece to rescue the E2 Speedy/Roy Harper who it turns out has been turned into a half animal by the witch Circe. The same fate befalls the trio who came to rescue Speedy which Zatanna manages to undo by flapping her sparrow wings to the tune of her backward spell. The trio then manages to beat Circe and rescue Speedy.

Though Zee flirts with Barry in the issue, she doesn’t pursue, since he is married and all. 

Initially I wanted to cover Zatanna’s mom’s story in the same post but too many images caused the editor to slow down and not save any of my edits so I had to split it into two posts.   

For now, here is a scan of Zee, Wonder Woman (during her Emma Peel phase) trying to cut a huge cake together:

Next up: her new look, joining the League for real, Sindella’s story and the origins of magic.

Part 2:  https://johnvenus.tumblr.com/post/679908715915313152/how-yj-jldark-dropped-the-ball-with-zatanna

[batboyblog]

Books of the year.

So it's almost New Years! and looking back at 2021 it turns out I read something like 40 queer YA books in the year (not counting re-reads) and a lot of them were shit some of them were okay and a few were truly great so lets run down the greats that you should totally read in 2022.

1. All Kinds of Other

by James Sie

I literally can not recommend this book enough, if I thought it would work I'd attack strangers on the street to force them to read it, when my 14 year old cousin came out as trans this is the book I got him, I love this book. So 2021 saw a flowering of trans mlm books, which is great, only most of them were horrible. All Kinds of Other brings us a trans teenager who is funny, snarky, faces dysphoria and transphobia in totally human and relatable ways. It deals with issues without ever becoming a PSA slog. Again this is most likely my book of the year and if even one person reads it because of this I'll cry tears of joy. oh also the author James Sie is the voice of the cabbage guy in Avatar The Last Air Bender if that matters to you.

2. The Darkness Outside Us

by Eliot Schrefer

I don't even know how to talk about this one without spoiling I guess I'd say the first half is "what if Romeo and Juliet, but gay, set in the sci fi future in space and co-staring the HAL 9000?" and then we get into an amazingly deep, at times painful examination of what it means to be alive, to be human, what is destiny and what is love. There are scenes of unflinching intensity and gut punches that leave you feeling for the characters all the way through. I'm currently enjoying a reread right now with a friend.

3. A Complicated Love Story Set in Space

by Shaun David Hutchinson

When he's firing on all cylinders there's almost no one better than SDH and A Complicated Love Story Set in Space is one of his best. Yes it's another love story set on a space ship where not everything is as it seems sue me I have a type. In here you'll get an intense meta criticism of reality TV and a gut punch to any one who writes fiction and ever sat up late at night feeling guilty about the things you do to characters and the things we maybe should think more deeply about before using as tropes in fiction.

4. The City Beautiful

by Aden Polydoros

If you're into historical fiction or intensely Jewish stories/characters this is for you 100%. Lots of loving detail has gone into depicting 1893 Chicago particularly it's Jewish world. It's full of Jewish food, Yiddish, 1890s political radicalism, Judaism, and Jewish folklore. It's a bit of slow burn on the romance but the imagery is lovely and if you're a nice Jewish boy you'll feel Alter Rosen on a deep level.

Honorable mentions:

Flash Fire by TJ Klune and Mister Impossible by Maggie Stiefvater

Since both books are part of a series, Flash Fire being book two of a trilogy and Mister Impossible being book two of a trilogy that carries on with characters from another series of books I can't rate them as stand alone works. But if you're looking for series there are few better than the Raven Cycle and the Dream Trilogy is great so far, I loved Mister Impossible's mediations on art, particularly all the John Singer Sargent, he's always been a favorite and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum which appears in the book a lot is one of my favorite places. TJ Klune's Extraordinaries series is laugh out loud funny, a little sassy and a little rude. If you've ever liked Superheroes its totally for you, if you've ever been an ADHD mess or an awkward but lovable boy also worth your time

[ufonaut]

Alan being gay came out of nowhere. Tom Taylor hates gay men, it’s not my fault you’re too stupid to see it

no, no, hold on, i'll ignore the fact that you're replying to tags i've used over a year ago and added to a post as part of one of those tag games and i'll say i can stand for many things but never the baseless claim that alan being gay came out of nowhere

i've talked many many times about how alan was gaycoded in the 1940s (x, x, x) and he was gaycoded in the nineties and at all points in-between but to recap:

between 1939 & 1984 alan scott never had a love interest, which anyone familiar with comics might tell you is a rare thing indeed. irene miller & molly mayne/harlequin were both resolutely rejected at every turn, alan lived with a male best friend (doiby dickles) and generally led the life of a confirmed bachelor. if you've got the faintest knowledge of gaycoding, scenes like the below panels form a very clear picture in the grand scheme of portrayals of gay men across media adhering to the hays code or the comics code authority in our particular case

(all-american comics 1939 #60)

alan & doiby share a bedroom and a bathroom, frequently at the same time, throughout every single one of their appearances in all 1940s titles (all american comics 1939, green lantern 1941, comic cavalcade 1942). they go on vacations together, adopt a dog together, babysit doiby's nephew together, etc. this is not to say the implications of a relationship between doiby & alan exist but that close male friendship is prioritized over nonexistent hetereosexual relationships to an undeniable & unignorable degree (once, when having lunch at work with irene miller, alan remarks that he misses doiby despite having spent the morning with him).

though linked above, i'll also note comic cavalcade features a story with the clear implication of alan having been to a bar of a certain repute. to emphasize the importance of this we have to remember alan spends every moment he's not green lantern or working at the radio station either playing checkers with doiby or trying to write material for the radio, he's got no friends besides doiby and certainly no reputation to uphold as he's still young and quite poor at this point in time

(comic cavalcade 1942 #23)

and yet doiby claims alan befriending the owner of the bar in question could ruin his life. gee, i wonder why that is!

alan's lack of interest in women was such a sure thing that when paul levitz & gerry conway took over the newly revived all star comics in 1978, levitz took the time to state that doiby & his career were all alan had

(the amazing world of dc comics 1974 #16)

with this context in mind, you have to understand roy thomas' actions in infinity inc (1984) as clear attempts at damage control -- alan would be given a wife & children because he'd been read a certain way for too long. until then, there had been no sign whatsoever that alan had ever been on a single date with a woman, let alone slept with one. even so, instances of gaycoding peristed (see: the above link to an analysis of his role in the book of fate 1997, his fear of institutionalization in guy gardner warrior #31, his breakdown over not considering himself a 'real man' in showcase '95 #1)

in the present day, it was the green lantern 80th anniversary that first acknowledged decades of gaycoding -- in a story written by james tynion iv, a bisexual man. here, alan was said to have had a tragically short-lived romance with jimmy henton, who's been a part of alan's origin since the days of all-american comics #16 (alan notably refers to him as a "dear friend" in all-american comics #26). afterwards, before any main continuity coming out, we got tom taylor specifically thanking tynion for the inspiration on twitter before the release of injustice: year zero, which saw an alternate universe alan & jimmy happily married and written tremendously well

(injustice: year zero #5)

(injustice: year zero #13)

i agree with what's been said about tom taylor here & elsewhere and the criticism of his handling of barbara gordon, etc. all the same, the importance of one of dc's earliest superheroes and the first to bear the name of an iconic legacy being shown both at peace with his sexuality and kissing another man for the first (& currently only) time on-panel cannot be understated, especially as actual canon is inevitably marred by tragedy. just this once, alan is allowed genuine happiness.

afterwards, we got an official coming out in main continuity canon in infinite frontier (2021) #0

and remarkably, dc comics themselves acknowledged the decades of gaycoding that had gone into this moment

(x)

similarly, last summer's dc pride special features a fantastic and hard-hitting story of how far alan's come, of everything he'd faced as a gay man in the 1940s. i wrote a brief analysis of it here

alan scott being gay did not come out of nowhere nor was it invented in injustice: year zero. i would recommend actually reading comics!

[scotianostra]

On 17th October 1821 Alexander Gardner, renowned photographer of the American Civil War was born in Paisley.

Gardner became an apprentice jeweller at the age of 14, lasting seven years. He had a Church of Scotland upbringing and was influenced by the work of Robert Owen, Welsh socialist and father of the cooperative movement. By the time he reached adulthood he and his brother James had the idea to create a cooperative in the United States that would incorporate socialist values, they travelled to Iowa with this in mind in 1850, Alexander returned to Scotland to raise money for the project and purchased the Glasgow Sentinel, quickly turning it into the second largest newspaper in the city.

On his return to the United States in 1851, Gardner paid a visit to the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, New York, where he saw the photographs of Mathew Brady for the first time. Shortly afterward, Gardner began reviewing exhibitions of photographs in the Glasgow Sentinel, as well as experimenting with photography on his own.

In 1856, Gardner decided to over permanently to America, eventually settling in New York. He soon found employment with Mathew Brady as a photographer. At first, Gardner specialized in making large photographic prints, called Imperial photographs, but as Brady’s eyesight began to fail, Gardner took on more and more responsibilities. In 1858, Brady put him in charge of the entire gallery.

Two years later, Gardner opened a portrait studio for Brady in Washington, D.C. It was so successful that it helped to support Brady’s more extravagant New York studio.

When the American Civil War erupted in 1861, Gardner assisted Brady in his effort to make a complete photographic record of the conflict. Brady, however, refused to give Gardner public credit for his work. Gardner therefore left Brady in 1863, opened a portrait gallery in Washington, and continued to photograph the hostilities on his own. His photographs President Lincoln on the Battlefield of Antietam as seen in the photos and other portraits of Lincoln are among the best-known photographs of the war period. 

Gardner’s Photographic Sketch Book of the Civil War, a two-volume collection of 100 original prints, was published in 1866. When Brady petitioned Congress to buy his photographs of the war, Gardner presented a rival petition, claiming that it was he, not Brady, who had originated the idea of providing the nation with a photographic history of the conflict. Congress eventually bought both collections.

In 1867 Gardner became the official photographer for the Union Pacific Railroad. Primarily active in Kansas, he photographed the building of the railroad and the new settlements that grew up near it. He also compiled valuable photographic documentation of the Plains Indians of North America.

Returning to Washington, he gradually lost interest in photography and devoted the rest of his life to philanthropy. 

In 1871, Gardner gave up photography entirely to start an insurance company. He lived in Washington until his death in 1882. Regarding his work he said, “It is designed to speak for itself. As mementos of the fearful struggle through which the country has just passed, it is confidently hoped that it will possess an enduring interest.”

The first pic is of Alexander Gardner, next is Ta-Tan-Kah-Sa-Pah (Black Bull) of the Brule-Sioux tribe, North Dakota,  President Lincoln on Battle-Field of Antietam and Abraham Lincoln and his son Thomas, then Lewis Payne, one of the men involved in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and finally the Leavenworth, Lawrence, and Galveston Railroad Bridge across the Kaw River at Lawrence, Kansas, in 1867