#frank reeves x you

[johnwickb1tsch]

Vino Veritas - Part III

A Destination Wedding Frank x Fem!Reader Fic

Attending the wedding of your ex-fiancé gets slightly better when you meet someone having just as miserable a time as you... Warnings: Nothing too serious holy shit. Cursing. Broken engagement. Nihilism, existential bullshit, copious amounts of sarcasm. NSFW. Angst. Grump/sunshine trope. Loosely based on the movie but I'm not that smart. Or bitter. 😆 chapter map.

III. Just what the world needs, Another Fucking Sunset Wedding

It’s almost sweet. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think Frank had been waiting for you to catch the shuttle to the wedding venue, dallying in the lobby pretending to look at an atrocious modern art print while keeping one eye on the hallway.

“You look nice,” he grumbles, taking in your white A-line sundress printed with big red roses.

“Thanks,” you say, admiring his navy blue suit unabashedly, since he brought it up first. “You look very handsome.”

This makes him stand up a little straighter, clearly not sure how to take the compliment, but you dare to think, he liked it.

When the shuttle drops you off at the base of the vineyard you look up the steep hill planted with curling grape vines in their nice neat rows with a sense of dread.

“Fuck.”

“What?”

“I am not wearing the right shoes for this.”

He looks down at your platform heels. “It said in the itinerary you’d have to walk up a hill.”

“Ok, but what was I supposed to wear? Hiking boots? The unfair standards of women’s dress clothes don’t allow for that.”

He holds out a hand, albeit begrudgingly. “Come on. I’ll help you.”

“I swear, these shoes are actually usually the sensible option.”

“Sure they are. Wearing anything that elevates your feet four inches off the ground is a sensible option.”

You sigh, and take his hand, trying to ignore the thrill running through your bones as you feel the strength in his fingers and his arm, as he helps propel you up the incline.

“I can’t believe they don’t have…stairs, or something? Did the old people have to do this?”

“Presumably not.”

“Then what the fuck?”

“Quite.”

Men’s dress shoes aren’t exactly made for rough terrain either, and at one point you both almost slip, clutching each other in a bid not to tumble back down the hill. It’s…nice, you have to admit, to be held close by this man.

He looks at you with wide eyes, for a moment for all the world appearing as though he’s drowning, before that thunderous frown appears. “Fuck this.”

You yip with surprise as he sweeps you up into his arms, and marches determinedly the rest of the way up the hill. Before you can even think about taking it as a romantic gesture, he practically drops you back to your feet at the top, releasing you as though you’d burned him.

You sit together in the back, as usual, though Frank very pointedly crosses his arms and is careful to keep a respectable amount of distance between you.

That shouldn’t make you feel sad, but it does.

The excruciatingly drawn-out bullshit Reception

“I used to like this song,” you muse, watching the dancers on the floor with an odd mixture of wistfulness and distaste. Keith dips his new bride, and a mean little part of you really wishes he would drop her.

“Do you…want to dance?”

Frank could have knocked you over with a feather, after how he’d behaved earlier. It definitely colors your answer, the knee-jerk impulse to push him away too.

“I said I used to like it.”

“Fine.”

Then, of course, you feel bad. And maybe you feel…a sliver of hope, however stupid.

“Why, do you want to dance?”

“Of course I don’t want to dance. It’s moronic and ridiculous. No one wants to fucking dance.” There is more venom in this statement, than perhaps the situation calls for.

After a moment, a bit softer and with a hint of apology, he qualifies, “I just thought it might take your mind off things.”

If you looked miserable, it’s ironic that for once, Keith was not the cause of it.

Perhaps this should send you running in the opposite direction too.

“Do you want to take a walk?” you ask instead.

He looks pointedly down at your questionable footwear, but you point at the basket behind you bearing what are professed by a whimsically written sign: Walking Shoes. They’re some kind of slide on deal that will do in a pinch. Honestly you’re willing to go bare foot, if it gets you out of that tent.

The meandering and pointless Walk

“You know, I was actually diagnosed with PTSD after the whole Keith thing?”

Frank snorts at that, the farthest reaction from sympathy he can manage. “Rich people’s PTSD.”

“I’m not rich.”

“Fine. Privileged.”

That’s probably true. Goddammit.

“Well…am I not allowed to have problems?”

“Sure, just no one wants to hear about them. Anyone who doesn’t have to worry about food, housing, or getting shot by the police should just keep it to themselves.”

“That’s not very healthy.”

He shrugs. “It’s not just you. No one should care about my problems either.”

“What if I care?”

He snorts. “Then I will feel even sorrier for you than I already do.”

“Ok, fine. Maybe not me specifically. But what if…say, you find someone else you actually like. Isn’t it ok to talk about your problems with friends?”

“Isn’t that a terrible thing to do to someone you like? Making friends or a significant other listen to your problems for free, when you should be paying a shrink for it?”

“It’s just a thing people do who are close to each other. They talk.”

“People who aren’t close too, apparently.” He says all this with a surprising amount of cheer in his tone, either enjoying himself, or the walk, or the view…or maybe even your company.  

He changes the subject as you round a bend. “So, are you glad you came to this thing? You made your show of strength, you’ve got your closure now that the knot is tied and they’re legally bound to be miserable together, and you’ve fled the scene with his half-brother, whom he despises, which the family surely will gossip about. You could almost chalk it as a win, if you squint just right.”

You huff, breathing a little heavy as you walk up a hill on the ridge the path follows. It truly is beautiful in the backcountry of the vineyard, rolling mountains planted with nice neat rows of green vines.

He makes a good point, but strangely…you don’t feel satisfied. “I guess.”

“You guess?”

“I’m not sure how I feel,” you admit, pausing to incline your head up at him. He pauses too, looking down that straight nose at you, and he is standing very close. You fancy you sense him tense, as though about to take some great leap, and he looks at your mouth with something like consternation, when a god-awful yowling roar travels down the path at you.

You both turn to see a very big, very unhappy cat displaying its impressively large and sharp canines at you.

“What the fuck is that?”

“I think it’s a mountain lion.”

“What the fuck do we do?”

“I don’t know. We’re too far away, no one will hear us scream.”

“Is it a bobcat?”

“It’s not a fucking bobcat. Look at the tail.”

“You should run. It’s going to eat me anyway.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m smaller and slower.”

“I wouldn’t presume about the last part.”

It roars again, and you clutch at his arm.

Suddenly Frank charges the thing, making that god-awful hissing sound from earlier with his finger in his ear. They both sound like demons from hell, and with shock you watch as the predator backs away.

“Now, we run,” says Frank, grabbing your hand and booking it down the hill.

You run what feels like a long way. Your legs are burning, and the stupid little slide-ons are not made for athletic activity. And the thing about running downhill is…sometimes gravity gets the best of you. Like now, when you trip over a rock, and take Frank with you. Suddenly you are both tumbling down a steep grassy incline, locked together in a death roll.

“Fuck!”

“Fuck!”

“Fuck!”

“Fuck!”

When at last you come to a stop you are utterly stunned. “Y/n?”

You just lie there, unable to move.

“Y/n?”

Are you even alive?

Suddenly, Frank grabs your arm, hauling you around. “Ah!”

He looks…so worried, that if he hadn’t wrenched your back, you would have been touched.

“I’m fine! Jesus!”

“Ok. Sorry.”

You lie there for another moment looking up at him. He has grass in his hair; it’s endearing somehow, seeing this put-together grouch of a man just a little undone.

“You saved me,” you tease, sitting up beside him.

“I saved us.”

“Yeah right. It would have eaten me anyway. Why’d you save me?”

“Because I’m an idiot.”

“Oh, come on.”

“Just trying to spare myself the guilt.”

He reaches up to pluck grass out of your hair. His light touch gives you a thrill down your spine. Again, you are aware that you are very close, and his dark eyes have gone wide again, that slightly panicked look he gets. His gaze flicks to your mouth, then back to your eyes, and you are completely taken by surprise when he grabs the back of your head and pulls you swiftly into a hard kiss.

He retreats from it just as quickly, and now he does look like he’s seen a ghost. “Fuck. Sorry.”

“I—”

Before you can say anything he’s grabbed you again, and this kiss is less forceful, though maybe no less desperate. You’re able to reach up to cup his cheeks before he shoves you away again, this time hard enough that you topple back in the grass.

“Hey!”

“Sorry,” he pants again, looking for all the world like a horse that would like to bolt. “I don’t—it’s been a long time. Heat of the moment. Near death experience. Fuck. I’m sorry.”

“How long?” you ask, incredulous. Because, this man is so…so. Fucking. Good looking. How has he not been with anyone?

He scowls at the grass. “I don’t think I’ve felt real pleasure since 2006.”

This admission makes your eyes go wide. You sincerely hope he’s exaggerating, but then again, the way he behaves towards people…maybe he’s not.

“It’s just…” he mutters, more to himself than to you. “If it all sucks, then fuck it, but if it doesn’t? Then there’s so much pressure.”

A part of you wants to snark at him. Well well well, welcome to the human race at last. But another part of you…another part of you just wants to kiss him senseless and fuck him silly, and make him feel all the things you’ve both been missing out on because he’s been such a goddamned coward this whole time and you’re not much better.

 Maybe he reads the pity on your face, because he feels the need to defend, “Not that I haven’t been with anyone. Just…”

“You weren’t that into it?”

He looks away, glaring at the world again. “Yeah.”

“It’s been a while for me too,” you admit.

“Please don’t say it was Keith,” he snarks. “I’ll kill myself.”

You laugh. “No, your brother was incredibly, monumentally selfish in bed. I literally could have had better sex with a lamppost.”

He looks at you sideways. “That really shouldn’t make me as happy as it does.”

Your lips twist as you try not to smile. Frank, however, is back to frowning at the vineyards again. “We can’t have sex right now. I don’t have any protection. It would be irresponsible.”

You’re a little amused, that his brain has leapt immediately to sex, while you are sitting in the dry grass together. Apparently just kissing was not enough—or maybe he’s been thinking about it for a while. You’d be a liar, if you said you haven’t.

“What if I said you’re in luck?”

“I would say that’s highly improbable.”

You feel bold enough to cup his cheek, bringing his attention back to you. It doesn’t take much persuading this time, when you press your lips to his. He kisses you back, his fingers digging into your ribcage, and you’re not really sure who’s more desperate to feel alive after defying death at the claws of a tiger or whatever the fuck that thing had been.

“That’s not helping,” he pants when you part.

“Why? Are you actually into it?”

He pulls you closer with hands on your waist. “Pretty into it,” he admits begrudgingly. You smile against his mouth, suddenly feeling electrified from head to toe. The colors of the world around you seem brighter, somehow. You take him by surprise when suddenly you straddle his waist, perching on his legs and pushing him back down into the grass, your pretty skirts spread around you.

“What—”

You unbuckle his belt and undo his pants, freeing him to the desert air. “Oh…” When you bend over to lick his tip and take him into your mouth you get an even more emphatic, “Oh…”

“What about now?” you ask him as you withdraw with a pop.

He blinks, for the first time since you’ve met, speechless. At least, for a few long moments.

“I think I’d like to be inside you.”

“How’s your health?”

“Fair to middling, for a man my age.” You give him a look, and damn if he doesn’t soften for you, even if just for a fleeting second. “Clean,” he answers quietly. “You?”

“Clean. And fully armed with IUD.”

He blinks. “Like they use to blow up humvees in the Middle East?”

You laugh, throwing your head back, your curls bouncing around your shoulders. You haven’t had this much fun in a long time. “Like, an intrauterine-device?”

“That definitely makes more sense.”

“Well?”

You watch as he licks his fingers, reaching under your dress to push your panties aside and find your center. The saliva is appreciated but not necessary. You are drenched, and his big fingers rubbing your clit feel like magic. “Is all that for me?” He sounds genuinely surprised, like this was a gift from the universe he did not expect to receive. Usually it’s more inclined to deliver a kick to the balls.

“Who else would it be for? The lynx?” He snorts, and in a softer tone you confess, “I have been a wet little mess for you since…the moment we started arguing in the airport.” He blinks at this, dumbstruck for a moment, before kissing you with an edge of desperation you both feel keenly in your bones.

He guides you onto him with his big hands on your buttocks. That feels like magic too, his thick tip at your entrance sinking in. It’s your turn to say, “Oh,” with your head thrown back, his big cock sliding deeper and deeper inside you, until he’s filled you to the hilt. For a moment you just sit like that together, joined, wrapped up in each other’s arms. It’s wonderful.

You imagine how ridiculous you must look, to an outsider looking in. Two people tangled in the dirt, grass in your hair, dust all over your nice clothes. You giggle a little to yourself.

“Something funny?”

“Just…do you ever think about how silly humans look, doing the things we do?”

“All the time.”

You laugh joyously, but you feel him withdrawing from you, that subtle tension returned in his limbs. You realize he thinks you’re making fun of him. It’s like this man expects he’ll have to defend himself from the world at any given moment. Then, from what he’s told you about his life, you guess he has. You don’t let him get too far, pulling him closer. “But fuck it feels glorious. I don’t care. Fuck me, Frank. I need you.”

 You feel him relax, and maybe even surrender. He moves for you, and you with him, his thumb on your button and his mouth on your neck as you ride him out…it’s the fastest you’ve ever orgasmed, with another person involved, that shining pleasure ambushing you in the cradle of your hips and spreading outwards. It’s almost embarrassing, except he’s right behind you, holding you almost desperately with arms locked around your waist, his face buried in the bend of your neck. Neither of you are quiet about it, your yells echoing across the empty hills.

“Oh my god…” you pant, resting your forehead against his.

“Can’t say…I believe much in god,” he informs you, out of breath.

“Me neither,” you admit. “But that was fucking fantastic.”

“Yeah. That was pretty damn good.” He sounds so surprised about it.

He kisses you, more softly this time. There is a long moment of eye contact between you; it is vulnerable, and electric, and raw. He is the first to look away, almost flinchingly. Then he focuses on the business of disentangling yourselves.

“I’m afraid we’re about to make a huge mess.”

“You don’t have a handkerchief?”

“What am I, a nineteenth century dandy?”

“Okay, relax, Romeo. I’ve got it.”

You rather cleverly, if you don’t say so yourself, use the petticoat of your dress to avoid staining his trousers as you uncouple, in a way that won’t leave you an embarrassing mess when you return to the tent either.

“I like that dress even more now,” he quips, looking at you with something almost akin to tenderness as you right yourselves. He reaches up to pull another sprig of straw out of your hair with a smirk.

“Frank…” You’re not really sure what you want to say. There’s a pent up ball of something in your chest, and it kind of actually hurts, and you’re not sure you like it at all.

“No,” he answers resolutely, but he cranes his neck down to kiss you anyway. “Want to go back to my room?”

“Yes.”

TBC...

-----------------

ahhhhh I didn't have the courage to make it as awkward as the movie 🤣🤣🤣 but I feel like I need to make a note here bc i'm always writing wildly irresponsible sex practices: always use protection with a new partner. It's just a good idea. And ALWAYS use some kind of birth control, or you WILL get pregnant. mother nature is a bitch.

[yourboyfriendsbodyguard]

I'm planning out to finish All of Your Colours and have 2 more fanfics in the works.

I know I've been gone for a while and haven't been on to the Fandom as I was before. I'll be honest with you all, it was due to the harassment I kept receiving.

I kept getting asks, emails, and DMs on my insta and X accounts constantly calling me names or threatening to dox me. All because I'm big into the YB Fandom. According to these accusers, something Fuboo did involving a minor and sexual harassment, the story seemed to vary from person to person. Now I had no idea this was a thing and this had happened, but I wanted proof so I tried searching for it and asking for proof. It seemed that everything was coming up inconclusive.

Now, let me tell everyone something very, VERY important. I don't condone violence or the sexual harassment or exploitation of a minor in any way. I hate that, and I'll go up in arms to protect all children.

HOWEVER, I am very weary of lack of evidence when it comes to someone accusing another of these sexual claims.

If Fuboo did this, I'm disgusted and disappointed, but I'm gonna be neutral because false allegations are also a thing.

Vic Mignogna, Keanu Reeves, Jason David Frank, and so many others have been accused of Grape, and sexual misconduct only to be proven innocent and their reputations nearly ruined. Because of this, I'm super wary of allegations until evidence is solid. I knew a kid in high school who was accused of sexual misconduct. He was 18, and the girl accusing him was 15.

Police were called, he was thrown in holding, his parents berated him, he lost his scholarship, family, friends, and girlfriend.

He went through a spiral and was found unalive in his home. He drank some pills he stole from his grandma, (the only person who believed him) and overdosed. It wasn't until then that the girl confessed she lied, because he rejected her and she was humiliated. I don't know what happened to her because I moved away, but I told myself until I see solid evidence or proof I don't want to whole heartedly assume something of someone until proven otherwise. So regarding all of this, because I do like others in the Fandom and I'm a fan of indie game companies and the game is fun, I don't care about the harassment anymore and I'm just going to continue with my blog and fanfic.

Peace!

TLDR: I was being harassed for so long by others over the YB Fandom. I'm growing old, I'm tired af, and no longer give a fuck. I'm gonna continue my fic.

[fortheloveoffanfic]

Navigation

✨ 18+

✨ Most works explore adult themes, discretion is advised.

✨ My works are exclusive to this blog and ao3; any copying, reposting or translating is not permitted.

Because of the ban on certain tags, ALL warnings are posted at the top of my fics and are always emboldened. Please read all warnings (if any) carefully before proceeding.

✨ Requests are open, however, I retain the right to refuse any request that I do not want to or have the capacity to write.

✨ All interaction is welcome but any form of hate or discriminatory language will not be published. This blog is a safe space for all.

✨ All fics are tagged with their names for added ease of access.

Keanu Reeves Characters:

John Wick (John Wick franchise, 2014-)

Tom Ludlow (Street Kings, 2008)

Jack Traven (Speed, 1994)

John Constantine (Constantine, 2005)

Julian Mercer (Something's Gotta Give, 2003)

Shane Falco (The Replacements, 2000)

Cillian Murphy Characters:

Thomas Shelby (Peaky Blinders, 2013-2022)

Jim (The Delinquent Season, 2018)

Chris Evans Characters:

Ransom Drysdale (Knives Out, 2019)

Andy Barber (Defending Jacob, 2020)

Frank Adler (Gifted, 2017)

Rahul Kohli Characters:

Hassan el Shabazz (Midnight Mass)

Napoleon Usher (The Fall of the House of Usher)

Keanu Reeves/Characters

Cillian Murphy Characters

Chris Evans Characters

Hozier

12 Days of Christmas Writing Event (2021)

Masterlist Page

*If the previously mentioned links do not work, a common occurrence on mobile, try "masterlist tag" in the search bar of my blog.

a03

✨ Updated weekly

Anywhere That You Are. Hozier x reader. Summary: A scene of Y/n and Andrew enjoying their vacation in a secluded spot in the mountains of Italy. Warnings: NSFW/SMUT, semi-public sex, an obscene amount of fluff.

Broken Chords: See how it shines. Hozier x reader. Summary: 6 weeks after they last saw each other, Andrew can’t seem to get past his and Y/n’s last exchange in New York. In a last-ditch effort to save their relationship, Andrew makes a long distance call from Paris. Warnings: Angst.

Moves: Hozier x reader. Summary: Y/n has had feelings for Andrew for a while now, and she's pretty sure he feels the same. Can one night change everything?

[hellostarrynightblr]

highlights of April & May

1. Favourite movies: To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Mildred Pierce (1945) 2. Decent movies I liked / appreciated but not loved: Pat and Mike (1952), Emma. (2020), Suzume no Tojimari (2022), Bullets or Ballots (1936) 3. wtf movie/ending: Rebecca (2020). The movie is so lifeless that even gorgeous locations don't save it. It looks more like a tourist advertising. As far as the ending is concerned, leaving it vague makes the movie feel even more pointless and empty than it already was. 4. Best scenes: the ending / the police station argument in Pat and Mike (1952); 'If I loved you less...; from Emma. (2020); Katharine getting her comeuppance in Working Girl (1988); stealing a corpse from the hospital in Nine to Five (1980); the opening from Mildred Pierce (1945); the courtroom scene in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). 5. Favourite genres: drama, fantasy, comedy, romance. 6. Favourite directors: George Cukor (Pat and Mike, 1952); Makoto Shinkai  (Suzume no Tojimari, 2022); Michael Curtiz (Mildred Pierce, 1945); Robert Mulligan (To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). 7. Favourite actors: Deanna Durbin, Herbert Marshall (Mad About Music, 1938); Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn (Pat and Mike, 1952); Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn (Emma., 2020);  Melanie Griffith Harrison Ford Sigourney Weaver Joan Cusack (Working Girl, 1988);  Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton (Nine to Five, 1980);  Keanu Reeves Ian McShane (John Wick: Chapter 4, 2023); Roger Livesey (I Know Where I'm Going!, 1945); Joan Crawford Ann Blyth (Mildred Pierce, 1945); Edward G. Robinson, Joan Blondell (Bullets or Ballots, 1936); Gregory Peck Brock Peters Mary Badham (To Kill a Mockingbird, 1962); Frank Sinatra, Kim Novak (The Man with the Golden Arm, 1955); Bette Davis (A Stolen Life, 1946). 8. Least favourite performances: Armie Hammer in Rebecca (2020). Not only is it a terrible performance when compared to a master class that was Laurence Olivier, but even in its own right this performance is truly horrendous. It lacks all possible nuance that Maxim's character needs and is overall more a caricature than one of my favourite characters in movie history. 9. The most wasted cast: Lily and Kristin Scott Thomas in Rebecca (2020). I do believe they are capable of giving great performances, but not in this film. It's like a void sucking the talent of otherwise good actors. Also, I don't understant why make Cruella (2021) at all. The actors are fine and all but the entire film is just... wrong. This character is not Cruella, this is not her backstory, it's someone's fanfic. Nothing in the plot makes a lick of sense. Emma Stone, Emma, Joel Fry, Mark Strong. 10. The best wasted premise: Rebecca (2020). A gothic mystery romance. Sign me up... most of the time. You have to try to stuff it up. They managed. 11. Best premise: Suzume no Tojimari (2022). Crazy and brilliant. 12. Favourite cast: Pat and Mike (1952), I guess. I just really love seeing Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy together on screen again. They light up every scene they are in. 13. Favourite on-screen duos: Herbert Marshall x Deanna Durbin in Mad About Music (1938); Katharine Hepburn x Spencer Tracy in Pat and Mike (1952); Anya Taylor-Joy x Johnny Flynn in Emma. (2020); Melanie Griffith x Harrison Ford in Working Girl (1988); Jane Fonda x Lily Tomlin x Dolly Parton in Nine to Five (1980); Keanu Reeves x Donnie Yen in John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023); Sadie Sink x Dylan O'Brien in All Too Well: The Short Film (2021); Joan Crawford x Ann Blyth in Mildred Pierce (1945); Edward G. Robinson x Joan Blondell and Edward G. Robinson x Humphrey Bogart in Bullets or Ballots (1936); Gregory Peck x Mary Badham and Phillip Alford in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962); Frank Sinatra x Kim Novak in The Man with the Golden Arm (1955). 14. Favourite on-screen relationships: Pat Pemberton + Mike Conovan (Pat and Mike, 1952); Emma Woodhouse + George Knightley (Emma., 2020). 15. Favourite characters: for the first time since I've started writing these I know exactly who the best character is. Possibly the best character of the entire year. Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). I adore this man for his reserve, conviction, strength, love, patience, compassion. He is the most inspirational character I can think of. Gloria Harkinson, Richard Todd / "Mr. Harkinson" (Mad About Music, 1938); Pat Pemberton, Mike Conovan (Pat and Mike, 1952);  Emma Woodhouse, George Knightley (Emma., 2020); Suzume Iwato (Suzume no Tojimari, 2022); Bruce Wayne / Batman (Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, 1993); Doralee Rhodes (Nine to Five, 1980); Caine (John Wick: Chapter 4, 2023); Roger Livesey (I Know Where I'm Going!, 1945); Mildred Pierce, Veda Pierce Forrester (Mildred Pierce, 1945); Detective Johnny Blake (Bullets or Ballots, 1936); Atticus Finch, Scout, Jem (To Kill a Mockingbird, 1962). 15. Favourite quote: You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it. (To Kill a Mockingbird, 1962). 16. Favourite fact discovered in 2023: I have a couple. Gregory Peck and Mary Badham formed a life-long friendship on the set of To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). Harper Lee and Truman Capote's real-life friendship was also depicted in the film. 17. The most overrated film: like half of them? Rebecca (2020) is terrible; Working Girl (1988) is a bit cringe; Nine to Five (1980) is ALL cringe; John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023) is okay but not a masterpiece; I Know Where I'm Going! (1945) has the most annoying protagonist; Highlander (1986) is a bit meh. I'll go with Cruella (2021) because it has no right to even exist. 18. The most disappointing film: Rebecca (2020). 19. The biggest surprise: Gregory Peck and the entire To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). An introspective character study. Truly deep and meeningful, masterfully written, diracted and acted. What do they say? They don't make them like they used to? Indeed they don't. 20. Best cinematography: The absolute best one is Ernest Haller for Mildred Pierce (1945). Cinematography in that film is breathtaking. It's one of the best-looking noirs I've ever seen and that is saying something as I've seen about a hundred of them. Honourable mentions go to Erwin Hillier (I Know Where I'm Going!, 1945); Russell Harlan (To Kill a Mockingbird, 1962). 21. Best set design: George James Hopkins (Mildred Pierce, 1945). 22. Best costume design: Mildred Pierce and Working Girl (1988). 23. Best music: Nine to Five (1980) just because the song is an absolute smash hit! I have had it on repeat for years. 24. Best prooduction choice: cinematography, costumes and casting in Mildred Pierce (1945). Joan Crawford is a knockout! Also, everything about To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). 25. Worst production choice: making Rebecca (2020). Who in their right mind thought it was a good idea to remake a Hitchcock classic? Was 1998's Psycho not enough? But also, they made it in the brightest possible colours. It's supposed to be a dark mystery almost horror and it looks like a Taylor Swift music video. Moreover, the costumes are truly baffling. They don't look 1930s at all and paired with rainbow colours all the style of the story or the 1940's adaptation is gone. Just by looking at it, you'd confuse it for a modern melodrama. I can't leave it at one. The whole existance of Cruella (2021) annoys me. Such a pretentious and irritating film! The obnoxious costume design is one of those notoriously bad production choices. 26. Film of the month: To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). There isn't a single doubt in my mind.Mildred Pierce (1945) is a close second, also quite a gem of a film.

[lookwhathappenedtomack]

Ladies, gentlemen, and interesting people, welcome to...

The Mackolades are my personal annual film awards, awarded to my favorite (for the most part) movies, performances, and people from all the movies I watched for the first time in 2022, regardless of release year. This is more or less a companion series to Brendan’s Pink Bettes, as most of our movie watching is together. You can see the first and second Mackolades here on my tumblr, now let’s get started on the third!

FAVORITE DRAMA

WINNER: tick, tick...BOOM! (2021) dir. Lin-Manuel Miranda

FINALISTS:

Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) dir. James Cameron

Dramarama (2020) dir. Jonathan Wysocki

Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) dir. Daniel Scheinert & Daniel Kwan

TÁR (2022) dir. Todd Field

NOMINEES:

The Batman (2022) dir. Matt Reeves

The Godfather (1972) dir. Francis Ford Coppola

Klaus (2019) dir. Sergio Pablos

Pride & Prejudice (2005) dir. Joe Wright

The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999) dir. Anthony Minghella

Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022) dir. George Miller

GREAT year for the Favorite Drama category! I knew from the first few minutes of tick, tick...BOOM! that it was winning, but two of the finalists (Dramarama and Everything Everywhere All At Once) gave it a real run for its money. And then TÁR was just impeccable in every way (CATE!!!!!!). Special shoutout to The Godfather for actually living up to the hype and The Batman for being a genuinely good superhero movie. Highly recommend Dramarama in particular to any of my theatre friends that see this.

FAVORITE HORROR

WINNER: The Menu (2022) dir. Mark Mylod

FINALISTS:

All About Evil (2010) dir. Joshua Grannell (aka Peaches Christ)

Nope (2022) dir. Jordan Peele

Pearl (2022) dir. Ti West

Scream (2022) dir. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett

NOMINEES:

Arachnophobia (1990) dir. Frank Marshall

Barbarian (2022) dir. Zach Cregger

Fresh (2022) dir. Mimi Cave

Hellraiser (2022) dir. David Bruckner

What Keeps You Alive (2018) dir. Colin Minihan

X (2022) dir. Ti West

GREAT year for horror, too! The Menu is such a fun ride, almost more of a dark comedy than horror. I had a lot more actual scares this year than in 2021, particularly in Nope, Scream, Arachnophobia, and Barbarian.

FAVORITE COMEDY

WINNER: Barb & Star Go To Vista Del Mar (2021) dir. Josh Greenbaum

FINALISTS:

Do Revenge (2022) dir. Jennifer Kaytin Robinson

Glass Onion (2022) dir. Rian Johnson

Hello, My Name Is Doris (2015) dir. Michael Showalter

Kissing Jessica Stein (2001) dir. Charles Herman-Wurmfeld

NOMINEES:

Burn After Reading (2008) dir. Ethan Coen & Joel Coen

Fire Island (2022) dir. Andrew Ahn

Little Miss Sunshine (2006) dir. Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris

Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris (2022) dir. Anthony Fabian

My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) dir. Joel Zwick

See How They Run (2022) dir. Tom George

Hey guess what. It was a great year for comedy, too. Barb & Star is destined to join Romy & Michele and the Tragedy Girls as a pair of gal pals that live in my head for the rest of my life. They’ve had this win sewn up since I first saw the movie in August, but there was still plenty of competition. Do Revenge is probably my unofficial runner up - those twists and turn and goops and gags and outfits!

FAVORITE SERIES

WINNER: Before Trilogy (3/3)

FINALISTS:

The Godfather (3/3)

Hell House, LLC (2/3)

Wong Kar-wai’s Love Trilogy (3/3)

X/Pearl/Maxxxine (2/3)

God, what can I say that hasn’t already been said about Richard Linklater’s Before trilogy? It’s just two people talking, but it’s perfect!

THE THANKS! I HATE IT! AWARD

WINNER: Whiplash (2014) dir. Damien Chazelle

FINALIST: Fall (2022) dir. Scott Mann

This new category is for movies that are good, but I hate them anyway! And there’s no movie that quite fits that bill like Whiplash. What an incredible work that I never wanna see again. Or dwell on for long here.

BIGGEST SURPRISE

WINNER: Halloween Ends (2022) dir. David Gordon Green

FINALISTS:

Brothers (2009) dir. Jim Sheridan

The Invitation (2022) dir. Jessica M. Thompson

Nerve (2016) dir. Henry Joost & Ariel Schulman

Uncle Peckerhead (2020) dir. Matthew John Lawrence

NOMINEES:

Fall (2022) dir. Scott Mann

Hatching (2022) dir. Hanna Bergholm

Hello, My Name Is Doris (2015) dir. Michael Showalter

Kissing Jessica Stein (2001) dir. Charles Herman-Wurmfeld

The Lost City (2022) dir. Adam Nee & Aaron Nee

Valentine (2001) dir. Jamie Blanks

After Halloween Kills won Biggest Letdown at last year’s Mackolades, I went into Halloween Ends with rock bottom expectations, but was pleasantly surprised! From the opening scene it showed it was completely different from any Halloween movie that came before it, and I was mostly delighted by what followed. It’s far from the best Halloween, and has some major problems, but it’s leagues ahead of Kills, and that alone win it Biggest Surprise for me.

BIGGEST LETDOWN

WINNER: Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness (2022) dir. Sam Raimi

I’ve engaged in a fair bit of MCU hate over the last few years, but I’ve held onto the belief that I’d probably enjoy them if I gave them a chance and just didn’t think too hard about it. Well... I guess I was wrong. I really thought I’d like this, the trailers looked interesting and Sam Raimi has a pretty good track record with me. But yeah... Martin Scorsese was right, these are just flashy theme park rides. Absolutely zero substance worth engaging with. What a disappointment, for me and for general culture. Anyway, somehow this was the only movie I watched in 2022 that I went into with expectations that were significantly let down, and I figured I’d give it its own multiverse of mediocrity with the myriad of posters available.

FAVORITE LEAD ACTRESS PERFORMANCE

WINNER: Cate Blanchett, TÁR (2022)

FINALISTS:

Mia Goth, Pearl (2022)

Janelle Monae, Glass Onion (2022)

Keke Palmer, Nope (2022)

Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

NOMINEES:

Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021)

Sally Field, Hello, My Name Is Doris (2015)

Natasha Lyonne, All About Evil (2010)

Lesley Manville, Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris (2022)

Thandiwe Newton, God’s Country (2022)

Anya Taylor-Joy, The Menu (2022)

Okay I have to bullet point this one so I can talk about all the finalists.

Cate is THE performance of the year for me. Her take on Lydia Tár is nothing short of amazing - even from the opening scene, with that TED Talk-like scene where she just talks about music for a few minutes, had Brendan and me grabbing each other and whispering in the (otherwise empty) theater about how breathtaking her performance was. I can’t believe I’m giving her lead actress two years in a row (out of three total!) but she really does deserve it.

Brendan and I loved Mia Goth in 2020′s Emma, but she reached new heights in X and, in particular, Pearl. The monologue! The face journey! The everything else! She’s now on the We’ll See Anything She’s In list, and I can’t wait for MaXXXine.

Janelle! I don’t have as much to say for her, but damn she picks projects well! Incredible lady and fantastic performance(s) in Glass Onion.

Keke - #ReleaseTheSpinCut! What a joy.

Okay I adore Michelle Yeoh and if Cate doesn’t win the Oscar I hope it’s hers. Truly wonderful and deserves everything good that’s coming her way right now.

FAVORITE SUPPORTING ACTRESS PERFORMANCE

WINNER: Hong Chau, The Menu (2022)

FINALISTS:

Jamie Clayton, Hellraiser (2022)

Courtney Cox, Scream (2022)

Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

Brittany Snow, X (2022)

NOMINEES:

Margaret Cho, Fire Island (2022)

Tovah Feldshuh, Kissing Jessica Stein (2001)

Vanessa Hudgens, tick, tick...BOOM! (2021)

Andrea Martin, My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)

Alia Shawkat, Being The Ricardos (2021)

Tandi Wright, Pearl (2022)

Hong Chau is another 2022 addition to the We’ll See Anything She’s In list, and she got an Oscar nom for the other one! Yay! But this is about my favorites, not objectivity, and I prefer her in The Menu. What a treat! I don’t have much to say about the finalists and nominees that wouldn’t require this becoming far too long, so I’m just gonna move on.

FAVORITE ACTOR PERFORMANCE

WINNER: Paul Dano, Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

FINALISTS:

Marlon Brando, The Godfather (1972)

Austin Butler, Elvis (2022)

Alton Brown, Elvis (2022)

Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022)

NOMINEES:

Rohan Campbell, Halloween Ends (2022)

Ralph Fiennes, The Menu (2022)

Andrew Garfield, tick, tick...BOOM! (2021)

Robin de Jesús, tick, tick...BOOM! (2021)

Haley Joel Osment, Sassy Pants (2012)

Conrad Ricamora, Fire Island (2022)

I started watching Little Miss Sunshine for Toni, but I remember it for Paul, particularly the sequence pictured above. Special shoutout to Alton Brown for stealing the show for a scene or two of Elvis (a difficult task when Austin Butler’s Elvis is present!)

THE TONI “SHE HAS THE RANGE” COLLETTE AWARD FOR MULTI-GENRE EXCELLENCE

WINNER: Jim Carrey, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)/Sonic The Hedgehog (2020)

FINALISTS:

Jamie Dornan, Barb & Star Go To Vista Del Mar (2021)/Belfast (2021)

Idris Elba, The Dark Tower (2017)/Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (2022)/Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022)

Jenna Ortega, The Fallout (2021)/Scream (2022)

Tilda Swinton, Burn After Reading (2008)/Constantine (2005)/Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022)

I mean, Jim Carrey was basically born to play Dr. Robotnik, and when you contrast that with Eternal Sunshine, well, that’s basically what this category is for!

THE CARLY RAE JEPSEN “SHE MAKES MY BLOOD FEEL CARBONATED” AWARD

WINNER: Elaine Stritch, Original Cast Album: Company (1970)

During the Ladies Who Lunch sequence of the Company documentary, I must’ve turned to Brendan at least three times to say “I love being gay” - Elaine’s an icon and a queen and I hate I didn’t get into theatre soon enough to appreciate her while she was alive. (NOTE: If I’d started this category a year earlier, Carol Channing certainly would’ve gotten it for the documentary Larger Than Life, and it felt wrong to not mention that here)

HOTTEST DADDY

WINNER: Russell Crowe, The Nice Guys (2016)

FINALISTS:

George Clooney, Solaris (2002)

Guillermo Diaz, Bros (2022)

Thomas Forbes-Madison, The Lost City (2022)

David Harbour, Violent Night (2022)

NOMINEES:

Daniel Craig, Glass Onion (2022)

Idris Elba, Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022)

Ethan Hawke, The Black Phone (2022)

Martin Henderson, X (2022)

Peter Sarsgaard, The Batman (2022)

Bradley Whitford, tick, tick...BOOM! (2021)

Someone ask me what kind of guys I like. I dare you. I downloaded six entire movies to get enough usable shots of these men - definitely the most work I did for any single category.

Anyway, that’s the 2022 Mackolades! 65 movies honored (or dishonored) from an eligibility pool of 205. Now you know what I love - any recommendations of what to watch in 2023?

[helpersofindie]

hey! do y'all have any suggestions for indigenous male fcs with long hair? any age range. thank you!

huge shoutout to @indigenousrph and you can find resources for almost all of these fcs on that blog! under the cut, you can find 51 fcs and all of these fcs have at least some resources  or references where they’ve had long hair. hope this helps!

d’pharaoh woon-a-tai (21)

joshua odjick (~22)

kekoa kekumano (24)

makela yepez (24)

dakota beavers (~24)

river thomas (24)

john lakota locklear (25)

roman zaragoza (26)

ziggy ramo (28)

kiowa gordon (32)

frank waln (33)

cooper andrews (37)

martin sensmeier (37)

takanka means (37)

roman reigns (37)

alex meraz (38)

bobby wilson (38)

eddie spears (40)

dallas goldtooth (40)

santiago x (40)

michael spears (45)

eugene brave rock (45)

taika waititi (47)

rick mora (47)

gregg deal (48)

brandon oakes (51)

moses brings plenty (53)

manu bennett (53)

marcus lavoi (54)

gerald auger (54)

michael greyeyes (55)

zahn mcclarnon (56)

jason scott lee (56)

jonathan joss (57)

keanu reeves (58)

christopher judge (58)

jesse borrego (60)

david midthunder (61)

rodney a. grant (63)

gregory zaragoza (68)

gil birmingham (69)

delno ebie (unknown age)

tai leclaire (unknown age)

ajuawak kapashesit (unknown age)

ricky marty-pahtaykan (unknown age)

william belleau (unknown age)

joseph reuben silverbird (unknown age)

gregory odjig (unknown age)

tzutu baktun kan (unknown age)

bear witness (unknown age)

[typing-catastrophe]

📝Everything you need to know

characters I write for: tasm!Peter Parker, Charles Xavier, Erik Lehnsherr, Peter Maximoff, Matt Murdock/Daredevil, Frank Castle/The Punisher, Poe Dameron, Pietro Maximoff, Bucky Barnes, Loki, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, Avengers (platonic), Supernatural characters (platonic), Stanford Pines, Neo (Matrix), John Constantine (movie w Keanu Reeves)), Newt (Maze Runner)

fandoms*: marvel (mcu, xmen movies, defenders), supernatural, gravity falls, star wars, stranger things, the magnus archives, marauders, maze runner, sherlock bbc, hannibal nbc * fandoms I am currently in, I won't guarantee that I'll write for all of them tho

pairings: Cherik (Charles Xavier/Erik Lehnsherr), Steddie (Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson), Wolfstar (Sirius Black/Remus Lupin), Destiel (Dean Winchester/Castiel), Stucky (Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes), Obikin (Anakin Skywalker/Obiwan Kenobi), Newtmas (Newt/Thomas), Napollya (Napoleon Solo/Illya Kuryakin), all the previous listed characters x reader & cherik x reader (at the moment the only poly ship I write for)

no-gos: underage reader and characters (platonic okay), cnc/nc, incest, pregnancy, real people (actors e.g.) and anything else that makes me uncomfortable

Even if something/someone is not on the list, feel free to ask me about it :]

💕 = fluff ⚡ = angst 🔥 = smut

There is gonna be no use of y/n. (unless someone requests that for some reason I guess?) Everything will be written in 2nd or 3rd person. The reader will be gender neutral unless otherwise specified. You will find warnings/content tags, word count and a summary at the beginning of each fic/longer piece.

Explanation Tags:

'typing...' is my tag for basically just yapping about smth

'my writing' is every imagine, headcanon, fanfic, drabble etc. I wrote

'request' is every request I get and answered or anything related to them

And that's it I think. Let me know if I should include anything else in here.

Updated: 14 september 2024

[spiderispunk]

Request Guidelines

[Please read the following post before submitting requests]

Requests are currently: OPEN

I will NOT write: Super long and detailed requests, fics about underage characters, torture of any kind, toilet play, rape, and anything else I don't want to.

Here are the following fandoms I typically write for:

Marvel

DC

Shadow & Bone

Top Gun: Maverick

Star Wars

Characters I currently write for:

Marvel: Billy Russo, Sam Wilson, Bucky Barnes, SamBucky (x Reader and without), TASM!Peter Parker, Eddie Brock (w/Venom and without), Frank Castle, Loki Laufeyson, Sharon Carter, Matt Murdock, Druig, Drukkari, Joaquin Torres, M'Baku

Star Wars: Boba Fett, Fennec Shand, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Darth Maul, Han Solo, Koska Reeves

DC: Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne, Alfred Pennyworth

Top Gun: Maverick: Jake "Hangman" Seresin, Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw, Javy "Coyote" Machado, Natasha "Phoenix" Trace, Mickey "Fanboy" Garcia

Shadow & Bone: The Darkling, Nikolai Lantsov, Matthias Helvar, Nina Zenik, Helnik (x reader or separate)

Miscellaneous Characters: Jim Hopper

Please be patient when submitting requests. I'm a teacher and life can get kind of busy. If you submit a request that I don't vibe with, and decide not to write, don't take it personally!

[terrifiesthem]

idk how it went from john wick to stank but u know

[astrognossienne]

What celebrities can you think of that have managed to develop their sun or reach its highest potential if that makes sense? Like how you said Betty White is one of the few developed Capricorns, do you think there are others who have done the same with their sign?

aries: lady gaga, kristen stewart, reese witherspoon, jennifer garner, selena, jessica chastain, bette davis, marvin gaye, gregory peck

taurus: malcolm x, audrey hepburn, george clooney, leonardo da vinci, elizabeth II, penelope cruz, cher, william shakespeare, daniel day-lewis, stevie wonder, orson welles, tchaikovsky, socrates, jimmy stewart, laurence olivier

gemini: lauryn hill, lenny kravitz, jfk, marilyn monroe, stevie nicks, johnny depp, prince, paul mccartney, naomi campbell, judy garland, jean-paul sartre, marquis de sade, michael j. fox, anne frank, miles davis, josephine baker

cancer: robin williams, princess diana, meryl streep, diahann carroll, prince william, elon musk, solange, dalai lama, nikola tesla, tom hanks, nelson mandela, angela merkel, mike tyson, alexander the great, frida kahlo, liv tyler, ernest hemingway, anthony bourdain, julius caesar, natalie wood, franz kafka, ringo starr, richard branson, malala yousafzai, debie harry, elizabeth warren, chris cornell, missy elliott, marcel proust, antoine de saint-exupery, cat stevens, helen keller, kawhi leonard, lena horne, michael phelps

leo: jackie kennedy, jennifer lopez, arnold schwarzenegger, robert de niro, coco chanel, kate bush, helen mirren

virgo: michael jackson, keanu reeves, mother theresa, karl lagerfeld, elizabeth I, jeremy irons, ray charles, mary shelley

libra: desmond tutu, rita hayworth, cardi b, brigitte bardot, gwen stefani, catherine deneuve, kim kardashian, oscar wilde, bruce springsteen, christopher reeve

scorpio: lisa bonet, grace kelly, vivien leigh,alain delon, pablo picasso, winona ryder, marie curie, hedy lamarr, rupaul, chloe sevigny, robert f. kennedy, carl sagan, sylvia plath, joni mitchell, anna wintour, albert camus

sagittarius: jimi hendrix, zoe kravitz, brad pitt, bruce lee, tina turner, frank sinatra, ludwig van beethoven, edith piaf, maria callas, jane birkin, adam clayton powell jr, marina abramovic, jane austen, gianni versace

capricorn: david bowie, aaliyah, betty white, dolly parton, mlk, ralph fiennes, michelle obama, francoise hardy, kate moss, sade, marlene dietrich, joan of arc, benjamin franklin

aquarius: abraham lincoln, jennifer aniston, shakira, mozart, oprah, megan thee stallion, paul newman, fdr, thomas edison, virginia woolf, kelly rowland, brandy, michael hutchence, peter gabriel, eddie van halen

pisces: sidney poitier, anais nin, albert einstein, kurt cobain, liz taylor, drew barrymore, juliette binoche, edgar cayce, jon bon jovi, johnny cash, chopin, michelangelo, nina simone, fred rogers, ruth bader ginsburg

[johnwickb1tsch]

Vino Veritas - Part IV

A Destination Wedding Frank x Fem!Reader Fic

Attending the wedding of your ex-fiancé gets slightly better when you meet someone having just as miserable a time as you... Warnings: Nothing too serious holy shit. Cursing. Broken engagement. Nihilism, existential bullshit, copious amounts of sarcasm. NSFW. Angst. Grump/sunshine trope. Loosely based on the movie but I'm not that smart. Or bitter. 😆 chapter map.

IV. Showering Together To Conserve Water

You are both tired as you return to the hotel, and maybe a little giddy from what you did in the backcountry of the vineyard. You certainly didn’t drink enough wine at the reception to be stumbling the way you are, and when you nearly trip over your tall shoes again Frank sweeps you up into his arms for the second time that day.

When you look at him with surprise he qualifies, “If you break an ankle, it will ruin my night.”

You chuckle to yourself, and rest your head on his shoulder. It’s a very nice shoulder, broad, solid. If you were braver than you are, you might even dare to think it feels…dependable. It doesn’t escape you, that he carries you like a bride over his threshold, on this day when you watched your ex-fiancé marry someone else.

Frank would be a much better prospect than Keith—but you are not thinking about that.

You’re trying not to, anyway.

The shine doesn’t even diminish while he curses as he fumbles to get out his key. It’s all highly entertaining, and very sweet, and that cloyingly painful ball in your chest only feels like it's growing.

He sets you down on the bed, and immediately sets about unbuckling the ankle straps of your shoes. “These things are an accident waiting to happen.”

“But they make my calves look amazing,” you defend.

He pauses to assess the body parts in question, nodding begrudgingly. “They’re quite nice on their own though. You’re a very attractive woman.”

This hits you a bit like a shovel to the head. You guess he’d complimented your clothes before, but it wasn’t quite the same thing.

“I think you’re very attractive too,” you confess, though you’re sure he already knows it.

The fleeting look on his face isn’t exactly surprise—but you dare think that maybe it moves him too.

“Excellent. We’ve had sex and now we admit we’re attracted to each other,” he deflects with a smirk. “However, I also think you’re dirty after our roll in the hills, and I am too. Want to take a shower?”

You can only presume he means together, and you nod.

*** 

At first you focus solely on washing, which is nice when he lathers his big hands up with soap and runs them all over your body. You’re all too happy to return the favor, which yields the inevitable arousal for both of you.

“I know it’s how it’s done in the movies,” he says between kissing you, “But if I pick you up to fuck you the odds are excellent I will slip and fall and we will both get hurt.”

You’re not entirely disappointed to hear this. You’ve always thought it precarious and awkward anyway. In answer you turn to lean on the shower wall. “How about this?” you suggest, standing on tiptoe to offer your ass up in the air, looking back with a mischievous smile.

“Maybe if we could get you a footstool,” he snarks, before engulfing you with his body behind yours, his front pressed to your back. He grumbles with appreciation as he kisses the back of your neck, his hard member pressing into your spine. “I think we can make this work,” he muses, his voice gone low and gravely with desire. That alone is enough to make you gush between your legs, and when he touches you he finds your slit slick and ready for him. It’s almost embarrassing, really, how much you want it with this man.

When he bends his knees to enter you the both of you moan, the wonderful pressure of his beautiful cock filling you up making you see stars.

It’s also embarrassing, how fast you cum on his fingers with his cock inside you like this, the hard clench of your walls bringing him right along with you again.

“Oh my god,” you pant, pressing your cheek against the cool tiles. You can feel the hot drip of his seed running down your thighs—it’s marvelous, if you’re being honest. It’s wonderful and you’re afraid you never want it to end.

“Yeah,” he agrees, leaning above you, leaving you feeling surrounded by his body and strangely secure in the shelter of his larger form.

“I never—” You stop yourself short, thinking that maybe it’s too much to confess this soon in your budding relationship, if this can even be called yet. Leave it to you, to scare him off straight out the gate.

“Tell me,” he says, almost gently, his throbbing manhood still inside you.

Fuck it.

“I never cum this quickly. I usually get freaked out that I’m taking too long, and it’s a nightmare, and I just end up faking it to make it stop. You are…” You evacuate the breath from your body, so that you don’t say something insane, like you’re a dream come true.

You tense, waiting for the inevitable snide comment that will shatter the moment, but it does not come. He just kisses the back of your head and slides out of you, so that he can stand upright again. However, he does not let go of you, holding you snug against the shelter of his body with an arm still looped around your waist. 

“That sounds crushingly disappointing,” he says against your ear.

“Yeah.” You’re not sure why your throat is suddenly tight, and that’s all you can get out at the moment. You guess before Frank, you weren’t that into it either. 

He turns you in his arms and kisses you again under the warm stream of the shower, so sweetly one would find it hard to believe he’s the same man from before. “I’m honored. And…same.”

“You’ve faked orgasms before?” you ask, incredulous.

“No, but you—this is the best I’ve had in a long time. So…same.”

You nod, and resolve not to pick at it anymore, happy with what you have for now. You rest with your head against his chest, catching your breath, your knees–and your heart–feeling like they’ve turned to jelly.

[grace-928]

“The Vanishing of Will Byers” Part 2

ClPairings: Steve Harrington x Henderson!reader

Warnings: none

A/n: Thank you to everyone who liked the first part! This story is just for fun and I’m happy that some people like it:)))

Word count: 1459

*Btw the gifs aren’t mine and don’t apply to this part of the story I just wanted cute videos of Steve lmao*

Shit. Shit. Shit. We are so fucking late.

“Dustin!” I yell, the tooth brush hanging between my lips. “Get up, we’re gonna be late!” I hear a loud groan as I finish brushing my teeth and wipe my mouth off. 

Right as I’m about to bust up into Dustin’s room I hear our house phone start ringing. Sighing, I run to the kitchen and grabbed the phone before it stopped ringing. “Hello?” 

“Hi, Y/n, it’s Joyce.”

“Oh, hi, Mrs. Byers.”

“I was wondering if Will spent the night at your house last night?”

Confused I reply, “Uh, no ma’am. He biked off to your house once Dustin and I got home from Mikes. We left a little after eight, why? He’s not home?”

 “Uh,” Mrs. Byers starts off, “You know what? I think he just left early for...for school. Thank you so much. Bye.”

“Oh, ok, by-” I try to respond, but she hangs up before I can finish my sentence. ‘That was odd.’ I thought before hanging the phone up. 

Walking to Dustin’s room I slam open the door and the first thing I see is the drool running down his chin. “Dude, get the hell up and get dressed.” I say as I rip the blankets off of him. “Mom will be pissed if she gets a call from the school saying that we were late...again.” 

“I’m up, I’m up.” He groans, getting up and walking to his closet. 

“Good, I’m gonna fix us a quick breakfast and by the time I’m done you better be ready to head out the door.” He rolls his eyes murmuring a ‘yeah, yeah’ before I walk out of his room, heading to the kitchen. 

After feeding Mews and fixing Dustin and I a pop-tart, I head to my room to grab my keys and my bag. Mine and Dustins rooms are right beside each others making the wall behind our beds connected to each other. When Dustin was little he would have these little nightmares, so he would knock three times on the wall and, since I’m a light sleeper, it would wake me up. So, being the amazing big sister I am, I would go in there and hold him until he went back to sleep. I eventually would end up falling asleep along side him. I slam my fist on the wall behind my bed. “Hurry the hell up dipshit! You have three minutes until I’m leaving your ass here.” 

“I’m coming!” He yells, exiting his room at the same time I exit mine. I throw him his pop-tart, making him stumble with his jacket and book-bag. Dropping both items in the process. I laugh at the clumsy tween in front of me. I walk out of the house, Dustin soon on my trail, and get into my car reeving the engine. Right as he shuts his door I put the car in reverse and speed off to school.

_____________

“Mom’s gonna have your ass if she finds out how fast you just went. Especially in the school zone.” Dustin says, a mischievous grin on his face.

Parking at the middle school to let him out, I roll my eyes looking at my little brother. “What the hell do I have to do now?” 

“I won’t tell mom that you were going fifty in a twenty-five if you give me the Marvel Chris Claremont and Frank Miller’s Wolverine.” 

“What?! No?! That took me six months to get and it was hella expensive. No way, think of something else.”  I say, rolling up my window before I head to the high school.

Opening the door to get out of the car, he shrugs his bag on, the same evil grin on his toothless face. “Then I guess when we get home moms gonna find out and your gonna be in deep shit.”

“Okay, okay!” I yell, right before he slams the door shut. “I’ll give it to you.” He throws his fist up in victory. “But,” I start, and the happy smiles slowly goes down once he knows whats coming. “Just remember...payback is a bitch.” 

“Well, shit.” I hear him whisper before he slams the door shut and I speed off to go park at the high school. 

As I’m walking to my first period class, I have to ignore the usual stares I get from the assholes of students in this Godforsaken high school. I don’t really get along with anybody in this school except for maybe Nancy Wheeler and Barb Holland. It’s not that I don’t want friends it’s just that people either think I’m weird or I’m hot. And when they think I’m weird they don’t stick around for long, but when they think I’m hot they just use me to get with one of the many guys that I have rejected here. 

“Good morning, Y/n.” 

I jump from the surprise of another persons voice as I unlock my locker. Once I notice it was Barb who greeted me, my nerves slowly calm down. 

“Good morning Barb, Nancy.” I say as I notice Nancy taking out her Chemistry book. “Don’t worry about Kaminsky’s test. You’ll-we’ll do fine on it.” 

“Thanks.” She says, a nervous laugh following up. “You’ve been nervous for it too?” She asks after a few seconds.

“Oh, definitely. His tests are impossible, no matter how high someones GPA is.” I say laughing along with her. “But, come on Nance, you’re the smartest person I know, you’ll be fine.” I glance over to the inside of her locker and notice a folded up piece of paper. “Oh, now what is this.” I quickly grab the paper before she can protest. “ ‘Meet me. Bathroom. -Steve.’ Gross, thank God I know exactly where I won’t be before class.” 

She snatches the paper from my hand and puts it in her pocket, a blush slowly appearing on her face. 

“You were saying?” Barb says. Which I’m guessing is from their previous conversation. 

“I’ll see you guys later.” Nancy says, before closing her locker and rushing off to the girls bathroom.

“Have fun Nancy, we all know you will!” I yell out to her, Barb smacking my arm, but eventually she, too, was laughing at my remark. 

-------------

Halfway through Kaminsky’s review packet of the test. The principal walks in interrupting the class.

“Mr. Kaminsky, may I see Ms. Y/n Henderson, please. This will only take a moment.” The principal asks. 

Kaminsky nods to me. I put my packet into my binder and grab my bag. Once I’m out of the room I see the Chief of police. Jim Hopper. 

“Um, what is this about?” I ask the chief. 

“I’ll explain once we get to the office. We just have to ask you a few questions about last night.” He replies as we start to walk to the office.

“It’s about Will, isn’t it? Joyce called me this morning before Dustin and I went to school.” I admit as we walk into the office. When we all have taken our assigned seats, he grabs a note pad and starts to ask the questions.

“Can you tell us everything that happened last night? You were at the Wheelers house, I believe?” He starts off.

“Yes, well I wasn’t there as long as the boys but I was there around eight to eight thirty-ish. I went to go pick up my little brother, Dustin.”

“And did you take him in your car or...?” 

“No, I drove behind him, Lucas, and Will to make sure they got home. Lucas got home first, then me and Dustin. Wait. Did Will not make it to his house last night?” I asked, cause now that I think about it, I didn’t follow him to make sure he got home safely. 

“No, he did not. And now we are trying to locate him. Do you know what road he takes home?” He asks, placing his hat on his head.

“Yeah,” I say, starting to get nervous for absolutely no reason. “The boys call the road Mirkwood. It’s from The Hobbit.”

Sighing, the chief stands up. “Yeah, that’s exactly what the three boys told me. You’re excused Ms. Henderson. Thank you for your help. When you get out of school, you head straight home and make sure your little brother stays put. We don’t need three more boys going missing because they were too stubborn to listen.”

“Yes sir.” I say as he walks out with his lieutenant in tow. As the principal dismissed me back to class, there was only one thing on my mind. Knowing the boys, those three little shit heads were gonna get themselves in trouble by going out to search for Will. Great, now I gotta be their damn babysitter. 

--------------

A/n: Just btw, it might seem that the reader is mean to Dustin but when I write them together it’s like a brother/sister kind of love. or a love/hate relationship lol. I didn’t want anybody to think I’m hating on Dustin, I would never, he’s one of my favorite characters! Anyways, hope ya’ll liked it, enjoy! <3

[requirednoise]

Excited to announce our very first podcast episode coming soon. Presenting artist, DJ, producer and label owner Alinep. Tune in to our Mixcloud, Soundcloud, YouTube channels on April 4th, 2022. Link in bio for more. “Deepsomnia" by Alinep is a word that not only defines his style and sound but also represents his true passion for the music he plays, by which he has succeeded in becoming a DJ, Producer, Label owner, Radio Host and a Promoter. In his almost 20 year old music career, Alinep has released his music in numerous record labels and manages his very own techno only label, Deepsomnia Records. Now based and living in the UK, Alinep is Manila’s very own and one of Asia’s electronic music talents to date. Alinep's musical imprint in his DJ sets and music production are very poetic and greatly influenced by different shades of house music and techno, minimal to electronica, Detroit to Chicago and the beat goes on and on defining his own club space. Alinep has shared the decks alongside Darren Emerson, Nick Warren, Yousef, SLAM, Dave Seaman, Anil Chawla, Luke Fair, Jimmy Van M, Josh Wink, Umek, Joy Kitikonti, Timo Garcia, Nelski, Frank Mueller, Quivver, Xhin, Secret Cinema, Silicone Soul, Nadja Lind, DJ Bone, Ramon Tapia, James Zabiela, Guti, Dirt Crew, KiNK, Satoshi Fumi, Alex Flatner, Tigerskin, Martin Eyerer, Dubfire, Nic Fanciulli, Osunlade, Re.You, Kate Simko, Eric Volta, Ken Ishii, Evil Eddie Richards, Gabriel I, Kenny Glasgow, Djuma Soundsystem, John Acquaviva, Shaun Reeves, Marco Effe, Agent! You & Me and many more. Links to Alinep: www.facebook.com/alinepmusic www.instagram.com/alinepmusic/ https://soundcloud.com/alinepmusic www.beatport.com/artist/alinep/225391 www.ra.co/dj/alinep

Be sure to follow, like, subscribe and share! linktr.ee/requirednoise

X

[greaterstokesawareness]

Collection: Brian Stokes Mitchell performs at the Hollywood Bowl tribute to Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee, July 27, 2022

[Brian Stokes Mitchell performs at the Hollywood Bowl tribute to Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee, other guests included Billie Eilish, Debbie Harry, Dianne Reeves, Bettye LaVette, Christian McBride, Seth McFarlane, and the Count Basie Orchestra, July 27, 2022].

Event page on Hollywood Bowl website (x)

Review in Orange County Register (x)

Review on MusicConnection.com (x)

Set List of songs below that Stokes performed with links to audience videos: [full program set list (x) from Dave Glasser's facebook (x)]

Luck Be A Lady (x) (x)

I've Got You Under My Skin (x)

Nice Work If You Can Get It with Dianne Reeves (x)

[davidmann95]

So... Morrison’s 10 part interview on All-Star Superman, along with all other older Newsarama articles, just seem to have ceased to exist. One does not simply live without having those interviews available to reread... Can I find them anywhere else?

Rejoice! I finally borrowed a computer I could put my flash drive into, and emailed myself my copy of the Morrison interview. Here it is below the cut, copied and pasted direct from the source way back when, available again at last:

Three years, 12 issues, Eisners and countless accolades later, All Star Superman is finally finished. The out-of-continuity look at Superman’s struggle with his inevitable death was widely embraced by fans and pros as one of the best stories to feature the Man of Steel, and was a showcase for the talents of the creative team of Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely and Jamie Grant.

Now, Newsarama is proud to present an exclusive look back with Morrison at the series that took Superman to, pun intended, new heights. We had a lot of questions about the series...and Morrison delivered with an in-depth look into the themes, characters and ideas throughout the 12 issues. In fact, there was so much that we’re running this as an unprecedented 10-part series over the next two weeks – sort of an unofficial All Star Superman companion. It’s everything about All Star Superman you ever wanted to know, but were afraid to ask.

And of course there’s plenty of SPOILERS, so back away if you haven’t read the entire series.

Newsarama: Grant, tell us a little about the origin of the project.

Grant Morrison: Some of it has its roots in the DC One Million project from 1999. So much so, that some readers have come to consider this a prequel to DC One Million, which is fine if it shifts a few more copies! I’ve tried to give my own DC books an overarching continuity intended to make them all read as a more coherent body of work when I’m done.

Luthor’s “enlightenment” – when he peaks on super–senses and sees the world as it appears through Superman’s eyes – was an element I’d included in the Superman Now pitch I prepared along with Mark Millar, Tom Peyer and Mark Waid back in 1999. There were one or two of ideas of mine that I wanted to preserve from Superman Now and Luthor’s heart–stopping moment of understanding was a favorite part of the original ending for that story, so I decided to use it again here.

My specific take on Superman’s physicality was inspired by the “shamanic” meeting my JLA editor Dan Raspler and I had in the wee hours of the morning outside the San Diego comic book convention in whenever it was, ‘98 or ‘99.

I’ve told this story in more detail elsewhere but basically, we were trying to figure out how to “reboot” Superman without splitting up his marriage to Lois, which seemed like a cop–out. It was the beginning of the conversations which ultimately led to Superman Now, with Dan and I restlessly pacing around trying to figure out a new way into the character of Superman and coming up short...

Until we looked up to see a guy dressed as Superman crossing the train tracks. Not just any skinny convention guy in an ill–fitting suit, this guy actually looked like Superman. It was too good a moment to let pass, so I ran over to him, told him what we’d been trying to do and asked if he wouldn’t mind indulging us by answering some questions about Superman, which he did...in the persona and voice of Superman!

We talked for an hour and a half and he walked off into the night with his friend (no, it wasn’t Jimmy Olsen, sadly). I sat up the rest of the night, scribbling page after page of Superman notes as the sun came up over the naval yards.

My entire approach to Superman had come from the way that guy had been sitting; so easy, so confident, as if, invulnerable to all physical harm, he could relax completely and be spontaneous and warm. That pose, sitting hunched on the bollard, with one knee up, the cape just hanging there, talking to us seemed to me to be the opposite of the clenched, muscle-bound look the character sometimes sports and that was the key to Superman for me.

I met the same Superman a couple of times afterwards but he wasn’t Superman, just a nice guy dressed as Superman, whose name I didn’t save but who has entered into my own personal mythology (a picture has from that time has survived showing me and Mark Waid posing alongside this guy and a couple of young readers dressed as Superboy and Supergirl – it’s in the “Gallery” section at my website for anybody who can be bothered looking. This is the guy who lit the fuse that led to All Star Superman).

After the 1999 pitch was rejected, I didn’t expect to be doing any further work on Superman but sometime in 2002, while I was going into my last year on New X–Men, Dan DiDio called and asked if I wanted to come back to DC to work on a Superman book with Jim Lee.

Jim was flexing his artistic muscles again to great effect, and he wanted to do 12 issues on Superman to complement the work he was doing with Jeph Loeb on “Batman: Hush.” At the time, I wasn’t able to make my own commitments dovetail with Jim’s availability, but by then I’d become obsessed with the idea of doing a big Superman story and I’d already started working out the details.

Jim, of course, went on to do his 12 Superman issues as “For Tomorrow” with Brian Azzarello, so I found myself looking for an artist for what was rapidly turning into my own Man of Steel magnum opus, and I already knew the book had to be drawn by my friend and collaborator, Frank Quitely.

We were already talking about We3 and Superman seemed like a good meaty project to get our teeth into when that was done. I completely scaled up my expectations of what might be possible once Frank was on board and decided to make this thing as ambitious as possible.

Usually, I prefer to write poppy, throwaway “live performance” type superhero books, but this time, I felt compelled to make something for the ages – a big definitive statement about superheroes and life and all that, not only drawn by my favorite artist but starring the first and greatest superhero of them all.

The fact that it could be a non–continuity recreation made the idea even more attractive and more achievable. I also felt ready for it, in a way I don’t think I would have been in 1999; I finally felt “grown–up” enough to do Superman justice.

I plotted the whole story in 2002 and drew tiny colored sketches for all 12 covers. The entire book was very tightly constructed before we started – except that I’d left the ending open for the inevitable better and more focused ideas I knew would arise as the project grew into its own shape...and I left an empty space for issue 10. That one was intended from the start to be the single issue of the 12–issue run that would condense and amplify the themes of all the others. #10 was set aside to be the one–off story that would sum up anything anyone needed to know about Superman in 22 pages.

Not quite as concise an origin as Superman’s, but that’s how we got started.

NRAMA: When you were devising the series, what challenges did you have in building up this version of the Superman universe?

GM: I couldn’t say there were any particular challenges. It was fun. Nobody was telling me what I could or couldn’t do with the characters. I didn’t have to worry about upsetting continuity or annoying people who care about stuff like that.

I don’t have a lot of old comics, so my knowledge of Superman was based on memory, some tattered “70s books from the remains of my teenage collection, a bunch of DC “Best Of...” reprint editions and two brilliant little handbooks – “Superman in Action Comics” Volumes 1 and 2 – which reprint every single Action Comics cover from 1938 to 1988.

I read various accounts of Superman’s creation and development as a brand. I read every Superman story and watched every Superman movie I could lay my hands on, from the Golden Age to the present day. From the Socialist scrapper Superman of the Depression years, through the Super–Cop of the 40s, the mythic Hyper–Dad of the 50s and 60s, the questioning, liberal Superman of the early 70s, the bland “superhero” of the late 70s, the confident yuppie of the 80s, the over–compensating Chippendale Superman of the 90s etc. I read takes on Superman by Mark Waid, Mark Millar, Geoff Johns, Denny O’Neil, Jeph Loeb, Alan Moore, Paul Dini and Alex Ross, Joe Casey, Steve Seagle, Garth Ennis, Jim Steranko and many others.

I looked at the Fleischer cartoons, the Chris Reeve movies and the animated series, and read Alvin Schwartz’s (he wrote the first ever Bizarro story among many others) fascinating book – “An Unlikely Prophet” – where he talks about his notion of Superman as a tulpa, (a Tibetan word for a living thought form which has an independent existence beyond its creator) and claims he actually met the Man of Steel in the back of a taxi.

I immersed myself in Superman and I tried to find in all of these very diverse approaches the essential “Superman–ness” that powered the engine. I then extracted, purified and refined that essence and drained it into All Star’s tank, recreating characters as my own dream versions, without the baggage of strict continuity.

In the end, I saw Superman not as a superhero or even a science fiction character, but as a story of Everyman. We’re all Superman in our own adventures. We have our own Fortresses of Solitude we retreat to, with our own special collections of valued stuff, our own super–pets, our own “Bottle Cities” that we feel guilty for neglecting. We have our own peers and rivals and bizarre emotional or moral tangles to deal with.

I felt I’d really grasped the concept when I saw him as Everyman, or rather as the dreamself of Everyman. That “S” is the radiant emblem of divinity we reveal when we rip off our stuffy shirts, our social masks, our neuroses, our constructed selves, and become who we truly are.

Batman is obviously much cooler, but that’s because he’s a very energetic and adolescent fantasy character: a handsome billionaire playboy in black leather with a butler at this beck and call, better cars and gadgetry than James Bond, a horde of fetish femme fatales baying around his heels and no boss. That guy’s Superman day and night.

Superman grew up baling hay on a farm. He goes to work, for a boss, in an office. He pines after a hard–working gal. Only when he tears off his shirt does that heroic, ideal inner self come to life. That’s actually a much more adult fantasy than the one Batman’s peddling but it also makes Superman a little harder to sell. He’s much more of a working class superhero, which is why we ended the whole book with the image of a laboring Superman.

He’s Everyman operating on a sci–fi Paul Bunyan scale. His worries and emotional problems are the same as ours... except that when he falls out with his girlfriend, the world trembles.

Newsarama: Grant, what are some of your favorite moments from the 12 issues?

Grant Morrison: The first shot of Superman flying over the sun. The Cosmic Anvil. Samson and Atlas. The kiss on the moon. The first three pages of the Olsen story which, I think, add up to the best character intro I’ve ever written.

Everything Lex Luthor says in issue #5. Everything Clark does. The whole says/does Luthor/Superman dynamic as played out through Frank Quitely’s absolute mastery and understanding of how space, movement and expression combine to tell a story.

Superboy and his dog on the moon – that perfect teenage moment of infinite possibility, introspection and hope for the future. He’s every young man on the verge of adulthood, Krypto is every dog with his boy (it seemed a shame to us that Krypto’s most memorable moment prior to this was his death scene in “Whatever Happened To The Man of Tomorrow.” Quitely’s scampering, leaping, eager and alive little creature is how I’d prefer to imagine Krypto the Superdog and conjures finer and more subtle emotions).

Bizarro–Home, with all of Earth’s continental and ocean shapes but reversed. The page with the first appearance of Zibarro that Frank has designed so the eye is pulled down in a swirling motion into the drain at the heart of the image, to make us feel that we’re being flushed in a cloacal spiral down into a nihilistic, existential sink. Frank gave me that page as a gift, and it became weirdly emblematic of a strange, dark time in both our lives.

The story with Bar–El and Lilo has a genuine chill off ammonia and antiseptic off it, which makes it my least favorite issue of the series, although I know a lot of people who love it. It’s about dying relatives, obligations, the overlit overheated corridors between terminal wards, the thin metallic odors of chemicals, bad food and fear. Preparation for the Phantom Zone.

Superman hugging the poor, hopeless girl on the roof and telling us all we’re stronger than we think we are.

Joe Shuster drawing us all into the story forever and never–ending.

Nasthalthia Luthor. Frank and Jamie’s final tour of the Fortress, referencing every previous issue on the way, in two pages.

All of issue #10 (there’s a single typo in there where the time on the last page was screwed up – but when we fix that detail for the trade I’ll be able to regard this as the most perfectly composed superhero story I’ve ever written).

I don’t think I’ve ever had a smoother, more seamless collaborative process.

NRAMA: The story is very complete unto itself, but are there any new or classic characters you’d like to explore further? If so, which ones and why?

GM: I’d happily write more Atlas and Samson. I really like Krull, the Dino–Czar’s wayward son, and his Stalinist underground empire of “Subterranosauri.” I could write a Superman Squad comic forever. I’d love to write the “Son of Superman” sequel about Lois and Clark’s super test tube baby.

But...I think All Star is already complete, without sequels. You read that last issue and it works because you know you’re never going to see All Star Superman again. You’ll be able to pick up Superman books, but they won’t be about this guy and they won’t feel the same. He really is going away. Our Superman is actually “dying” in that sense, and that adds the whole series a deeper poignancy.

NRAMA: Aside from the Bizarro League, you never really introduce other DC superheroes into the story. Why did you make this choice?

GM: I wanted the story to be about the mythic Superman at the end of his time. It’s clear from the references that he has or more likely has had a few super–powered allies, but that they’re no longer around or relevant any more.

For the context of this story I wanted the super–friends to be peripheral, like they were in the old comics. The Flash? Green Lantern? They represent Superman’s “old army buddies,” or your dad’s school friends. Guys you’ve sort of heard of, who used to be more important in the old man’s life than they are now.

NRAMA: Some readers were confused as to how the “Twelve Labors” broke down, though others have pointed out that Superman’s actions are more reflective of the Stations of the Cross (I note there’s a “Station Café” in the background of issue #12). Could you break down the Twelve Labors, or, if the cross theory is true, how the storyline reflects the Stations?

GM: The 12 Labors of Superman were never intended as an isomorphic mapping onto the 12 Labors of Hercules, or for that matter, the specific Stations of the Cross, of which there are 14, I believe. I didn’t even want to do one Labor per issue, so it deliberately breaks down quite erratically through the series for reasons I’ll go into (later).

Yes, there are correspondences, but that’s mostly because we tried to create for our Superman the contemporary “superhero” version of an archetypal solar hero journey, which naturally echoes numerous myths, legends and religious parables.

At the same time, we didn’t want to do an update or a direct copy of any myth you’d seen before, so it won’t work if you try to find one specific mythological or religious “plan” to hang the series on; James Joyce’s honorable and heroic refutation of the rule aside, there’s nothing more dead and dull than an attempt to retell the Odyssey or the Norse sagas scene by scene, but in a modern and/or superhero setting.

For future historians and mythologizers, however, the 12 Labors of Superman may be enumerated as follows:

1. Superman saves the first manned mission to the sun.
2. Superman brews the Super–Elixir.
3. Superman answers the Unanswerable Question.
4. Superman chains the Chronovore. 
5. Superman saves Earth from Bizarro–Home.
6. Superman returns from the Underverse.
7. Superman creates Life.
8. Superman liberates Kandor/cures cancer.
9. Superman defeats Solaris.
10. Superman conquers Death.
11. Superman builds an artificial Heart for the Sun.
12.Superman leaves the recipe/formula to make Superman 2.

And one final feat, which typically no–one really notices, is that Lex Luthor delivers his own version of the unified field haiku – explaining the underlying principles of the universe in fourteen syllables – which the P.R.O.J.E.C.T. G–Type philosopher from issue 4 had dedicated his entire life to composing!

You may notice also that the Labors take place over a year – with the solar hero’s descent into the darkness and cold of the Underverse occurring at midwinter/Christmas time (that’s also the only point in the story where we ever see Metropolis at night).

It can also be seen as the sun’s journey over the course of a day – we open in blazing sunshine but halfway through the book, at the end of issue #5, in fact, the solar hero dips below the horizon and begins the night–journey through the hours of darkness and death, before his triumphant resurrection at dawn. That’s why issue 5 ends with the boat to the Underworld and 6 begins with the moon. Clark Kent is crossing the threshold into the subconscious world of memory, shadows, death and deep emotions.

Although they can often have bizarre resonances, specific elements, like the Station Café, are usually put there by Frank Quitely, and are not necessarily secret Dan Brown–style keys to unlocking the mysteries. I think there might be a Station Café opposite the studio where Frank Quitely works and the “SAPIEN” sign on another storefront is a reference to Frank’s studio mate, Dave Sapien. At least he’s not filling the background with dirty words like he used to, given any opportunity

NRAMA: For that matter, do the Twelve Labors matter at all? They seem so purposely ill–defined. They seem more like misdirection or a MacGuffin than anything that needs to be clearly delineated.

GM: They matter, of course, but the 12 Labors idea is there to show that, as with all myth, the systematic ordering of current events into stories, tales, or legends occurs after the fact.

I’m trying to suggest that only in the future will these particular 12 feats, out of all the others ever, be mythologized as 12 Labors. I suppose I was trying to say something about how people impose meaning upon events in retrospect, and that’s how myth is born. It’s hindsight that provides narrative, structure, meaning and significance to the simple unfolding of events. It’s the backward glance that adds all the capital letters to the list above.

Even Superman isn”t sure how many Labors he’s performed when we see him mulling it over in issue 10. 
When you watched it happening, it seemed to be Superman just doing his thing. In the future it’s become THE 12 LABORS OF SUPERMAN!

NRAMA: And on a completely ridiculous note: All–Star Superman is perhaps the most difficult–to–abbreviate comic title since Preacher: Tall in the Saddle. Did you realize this going in?

GM: Going into what? Going into ASS itself? In the sense of how did I feel as I slowly entered ASS for the first time?

It never crossed my mind...

Newsarama: I’d like to know a little more about Leo Quintum and his role in the story. He seems like a bit of an outgrowth of the likes of Project Cadmus and Emil Hamilton, but in a more fantastical, Willy Wonka sense.

Grant Morrison: Yeah, he was exactly as you say, my attempt to create an updated take on the character of “Superman’s scientist friend” – in the vein of Emil Hamilton from the animated show and the ‘90s stories. Science so often goes wrong in Superman stories, and I thought it was important to show the potential for science to go right or to be elevated by contact with Superman’s shining positive spirit.

I was thinking of Quintum as a kind of “Man Who Fell To Earth” character with a mysterious unearthly background. For a while I toyed with the notion that he was some kind of avatar of Lightray of the New Gods, but as All Star developed, that didn’t fit the tone, and he was allowed to simply be himself.

Eventually it just came down to simplicity. Leo Quintum represents the “good” scientific spirit – the rational, enlightened, progressive, utopian kind of scientist I figured Superman might inspire to greatness. It was interesting to me how so many people expected Quintum to turn out bad at the end. It shows how conditioned we are in our miserable, self–loathing, suspicious society to expect the worst of everyone, rather than hope for the best. Or maybe it’s just what we expect from stories.

Having said that, there is indeed a necessary whiff of Lucifer about Quintum. His name, Leo Quintum, conjures images of solar force, lions and lightbringers and he has elements of the classic Trickster figure about him. He even refers to himself as “The Devil Himself” in issue #10.

What he’s doing at the end of the story should, for all its gee–whiz futurity, feel slightly ambiguous, slightly fake, slightly “Hollywood.” Yes, he’s fulfilling Superman’s wishes by cloning an heir to Superman and Lois and inaugurating a Superman dynasty that will last until the end of time – but he’s also commodifying Superman, figuring out how it’s done, turning him into a brand, a franchise, a bigger–and–better “revamp,” the ultimate coming attraction, fresher than fresh, newer than new but familiar too. Quintum has figured out the “formula” for Superman and improved upon it.

And then you can go back to the start of All Star Superman issue #1 and read the “formula” for yourself, condensed into eight words on the first page and then expanded upon throughout the story! The solar journey is an endless circle naturally. A perfect puzzle that is its own solution.

In one way, Quintum could be seen to represent the creative team, simultaneously re–empowering a pure myth with the honest fire of Art...while at the same time shooting a jolt of juice through a concept that sells more “S” logo underpants and towels than it does comic books. All tastes catered!

I have to say that the Willy Wonka thing never crossed my mind until I saw people online make the comparison, which seems quite obvious now. Quintum dresses how I would dress if I was the world’s coolest super–scientist. What’s up with that?

NRAMA: Was Zibarro inspired by the Bizarro World story where the Bizarro–Neanderthal becomes this unappreciated Casanova–type?

GM: Don’t know that one, but it sounds like a scenario I could definitely endorse!

Zibarro started out as a daft name sicked–up by my subconscious mind, which flowered within moments into the must–write idea of an Imperfect Bizarro. What would an imperfect version of an already imperfect being be like?

Zibarro.

NRAMA: I’d like to know more about Zibarro – what’s the significance of his chronicling Bizarro World through poetry?

GM: It’s up to you. I see Zibarro partly as the sensitive teenager inside us all. He’s moody, horribly self–aware and uncomfortable, yet filled with thoughts of omnipotence and agency. He’s the absolute center of his tiny, disorganized universe. He’s playing the role of sensitive, empathic poet but at the same time, he’s completely self–absorbed.

When he says to Superman “Can you even imagine what it’s like to be so different. So unique. So unlike everyone else?” he doesn’t even wait for Superman’s reply. He doesn’t care about anyone’s feelings but his own, ultimately.

NRAMA: The character is very close to Superman, so what does it say that a nonpowered version on a savage world would focus his energy through that medium? Also, does Zibarro’s existence show how Superman is able to elevate even the backwards Bizarros through his very nature?

GM: All of the above. And maybe he writes his totally subjective poetry as a reflection of Clark Kent’s objective reporter role. The suppressed, lyrical, wounded side of Superman perhaps? The Super–Morrissey? Bizarro With The Thorn In His Side?

But he’s also Bizarro–Home’s “mistake” (or so it seems to him, even though he’s as natural an expression of the place as any of the other Bizarro creatures who grow like mold across the surface of their living planet). He feels excluded, a despised outsider, and yet that position is what defines his cherished self–image. He expresses himself through poetry because to him the regular Bizarro language is barbaric, barely articulate and guttural. And they all think he’s talking crap anyway.

It seemed to make sense that an interesting opposite of Bizarro speech might be flowery “woe is me” school Poetry Society odes to the sunset in a misunderstood heart. He’s still a Bizarro though, which makes him ineffectual. His tragedy is that he knows he’s fated to be useless and pointless but craves so much more.

NRAMA: Zibarro also represents a recurrent theme in the story, of Superman constantly facing alternate versions of himself – Bar–El, Samson and Atlas, the Superman Squad, even Luthor by the end. Notably, Hercules is absent, though Superman’s doing his Twelve Labors. With the mythological adventurers in particular, was this designed to equate Superman with their legend, to show how his character is greater than theirs, or both?

GM: In a way, I suppose. He did arm–wrestle them both, proving once and for all Superman’s stronger than anybody! And remember, these characters, along with Hercules, used to appear regularly in Superman books as his rivals. I thought they made better rivals than, say, Majestic or Ultraman because people who don’t read comics have heard of Hercules, Samson and Atlas and understand what they represent.

For that particular story, I wanted to see Superman doing tough guy shit again, like he did in the early days and then again in the 70s, when he was written as a supremely cocky macho bastard for a while. I thought a little bit of that would be an antidote to the slightly soppy, Super–Christ portrayal that was starting to gain ground.

Hence Samson’s broken arm, twisted in two directions beyond all repair. And Atlas in the hospital. And then Superman’s got his hot girlfriend dressed like a girl from Krypton and they’re making out on the moon (the original panel description was of something more like the famous shot of Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr kissing in the surf from “From Here To Eternity.” Frank’s final choice of composition is much more classically pulp–romantic and iconic than my down and dirty rumble in the moondirt would have been, I’m glad to say).

Newsarama: Tell us about some of the thinking behind the new antagonists you created for this series (at least the ones you want to talk about...): First up: Krull and the Subterranosaurs...

Grant Morrison: We wanted to create some throwaway new characters which would be designed to look as if they were convincing long–term elements of the Superman legend.

We were trying to create a few foes who had a classic feel and a solid backstory that could be explored again or in depth. Even if we never went back to these characters, we wanted them to seem rich enough to carry their own stories.

With Krull, we figured a superhuman character like Superman can always use a powerful “sub–human” opponent: a beast, a monster, a savage with the power to destroy civilization. For years I’ve had the idea that the familiar “gray aliens” might “actually” be evolved biped dinosaur descendants, the offspring of smart–thinking lizards which made their way to the warm regions at the Earth’s core.

I imagined these brutes developing their own technology, their own civilization, and then finally coming to the surface to declare bloody war on the mammalian usurpers! It seemed like we could develop this idea into the Krull backstory and suggest a whole epic conflict in a few panels.

Dom Regan, the Glasgow artist and DC colorist, saw the original green skin Jamie Grant had done for Krull, and suggested we make him red instead. Jamie reset his color filters and that was the moment Krull suddenly looked like a real Superman foe.

The red skin marked him out as unique, different and dangerous, even among his own species. It had echoes of Jack Kirby’s Devil Dinosaur that played right into the heart of the concept. A good design became a great design and the whole story of who Krull was – his twisted relationship with his father the Dino–Czar, his monstrous ambitions – came together in that first picture.

The society was fleshed out in the script even though we see only one panel of it – a gloomy, heavy, “Soviet” underworld of walled iron cities, cold blood and deadly intrigue. War–Barges that could sail on the oceans of heated steam at the center of the Earth. A Stalinist authoritarian lizard world where missing person cases were being taken to work and die as slaves in hellish underworld conditions.

NRAMA: Mechano–Man?

GM: An attempt to pre–imagine a classic, archetypal Superman foe, which started with another simple premise – how about a giant robot villain? But not just any giant robot – this is a rampaging machine with a raging little man inside.

Giving him a bitter, angry, scrawny loser as a pilot turned Mechano–Man into a much more extreme and pathological expression of the Man of Steel/Mild–Mannered Reporter dynamic, and added a few interesting layers onto an 8–panel appearance.

NRAMA: The Chronovore – a very disturbing creation, that one.

GM: The Chronovore was mentioned in passing in DC 1,000,000 and would have been the monster in my aborted Hypercrisis series idea. It took a long time to get the right design for the beast because it’s meant to be a 5–D being that we only ever see in 4–D sections. It had to work as a convincing representation of something much bigger that we’re seeing only where it interpenetrates our 4–D space-time continuum.

Imagine you’re walking along with a song in your teenage heart, then suddenly the Chronovore appears, takes bite out of your life, and you arrive at your girlfriend’s house aged 76, clutching a cell phone and a wilted bouquet.

NRAMA: One more obscure run that I was happy to see referenced in this was the use of Nasty from the old Mike Sekowsky Supergirl stories. What made you want to use this character?

GM: I remembered her from the old comics, and felt her fashion–y look could be updated very easily into the kind of fetish club thing I’ve always been partial to.

She seemed a cool and sexy addition to the Luthor plot. The set–up, where Lex has a fairly normal sister who hates how her wayward brother is such a bad influence on her brilliant daughter, is explosive with character potential.

They need to bring Nasty back to mainstream continuity. Geoff! They all want it and you know you never let them down!

NRAMA: Speaking of Mike Sekowsky, I’m curious about his influence on your work. I have an odd fascination with all the ideas and stories he was tossing around in the late 1960s and early 1970s – Jason’s Quest, Manhunter 2070, the I–Ching tales – and many of the characters he worked on, from the B”Wana Beast to the Inferior Five to Yankee Doodle (in Doom Patrol), have shown up in your work. The Bizarro Zoo in issue #10 is even slightly reminiscent of the Beast’s merged animals.

GM: Those were all comics that were around when I was a normal kid, prior to the obsessive collecting fan phase of my isolated teenage years. They clearly inspired me in some way, as you say, but certainly not consciously. I’d never have considered myself a particular fan of Mike Sekowsky’s work, but as you say, I’ve incorporated a lot of his ideas into the DC Universe work I’ve done. Hmm. Interesting.

While I’m at it, I should also say something about Samson and Atlas, halfway between old characters and new.

Samson, Atlas and Hercules were classical mainstays of old Superman covers, tangling with Superman in all those Silver Age stories that happened before he learned from his friends at Marvel that it was possible to fight other superheroes for fun and profit, so I decided to completely “re–vamp” the characters in the manner of superhero franchises. Marvel has the definitive Hercules for me, so I left him out of the mix and concentrated on Atlas and Samson.

Atlas was re–imagined as a mighty but restless and reckless young prince of the New Mythos – a society of mega–beings playing out their archetypal dramas between New Elysium and Hadia, with ordinary people caught in the middle – and Superman.

Essentially good–hearted, Atlas would have been the newbie in a “team” with Skyfather Xaoz!, Heroina, Marzak and the others. He has a bullish, adolescent approach to life. He drinks and plunges himself into ill–advised adventures to ease his naturally gloomy “weighed down by the world” temperament.

You can see it all now. The backstory suggested an unseen, Empyrean New Gods–type series from a parallel universe. What if, when Jack Kirby came to DC from Marvel in 1971, he’d followed up his sci–fi Viking Gods saga at Marvel, with a dimension–spanning epic rooted in Greek mythology? New Gods meets Eternals drawn by Curt Swan/Murphy Anderson? That was Atlas.

Samson, I decided would be a callback to the British newspaper strip “Garth.” Although you may already be imagining a daily strip about the exploits of time–tossed The Boys writer, Garth Ennis, it was actually about a blonde Adonis type who bounced around the ages having mildly horny, racy adventures.

(Go look him up then return the wiser before reading on, so I don’t have to explain anymore about this bastard – he’s often described as “the British Superman,” but oh...my arse! I hated meathead, personality–singularity Garth...but we all grew up with his meandering, inexplicable yet incredibly–drawn adventures and some of it was quite good when you were a little lad because he was always shagging ON PANEL with the likes of a bare–breasted cave girl or gauze–draped Helen of Troy.

(Unlike Superman, you see, the top British strongman liked to get naked. Lots naked. Naked in every time period he could get naked in, which was all of them thanks to the miracle of his bullshit powers.

(Imagine Doctor Who buff, dumb and naked all the time – Russell, I’ve had an idea!!!! – and that’s Garth in a nutshell.

(Sorry, I know I’m going on and the average attention span of anyone reading stuff on the Internet amounts to no more than a few paragraphs, but basically, Garth was always getting naked. In public, in family newspapers. Bollock naked. Let’s face it, patriotic Americans, have you ever seen Superman’s arse?

Newsarama Note: Well, there was Baby Kal-El in the 1978 film...

(Brits, hands up who still remember the man, and have you ever not seen Garth’s arse? Do you not, in fact, have a very clear image of it in your head, as drawn by Martin Asbury perhaps? In mine, Garth’s pulling aside a flimsy curtain to gaze at the pyramids with Cleopatra buck naked in foreground ogling his rock hard glutes...).

Anyway, Samson, I decided, was the Hebrew version of Garth and he would have his own mad comic that was like an American version of Garth. I saw the Bible hero plucked from the desert sands by time–travelling buffoons in search of a savior. Introduced to all the worst aspects of future culture and, using his stolen, erratic Chrono–Mobile, Samson became a time–(and space) traveling Soldier of Fortune, writing wrongs, humping princesses, accumulating and losing treasure etc. Like a science fiction Conan. Meets Garth.

Fortunately, you’ll never see any of these men ever again.

Newsarama: How have your perceptions of Superman and his supporting characters evolved since the Superman 2000 pitch you did with Mark Waid, Mark Millar and Tom Peyer? The Superman notions seem almost identical, but Luthor is very different here than in that pitch, and so is Clark Kent. Did you use some aspects of your original pitch, or have you just changed his mind on how to portray these characters since?

Grant Morrison: A little of both. I wanted to approach All Star Superman as something new, but there were a couple of specific aspects from the Superman 2000 pitch (as I mentioned earlier, it was actually called Superman Now, at least in my notebooks, which is where the bulk of the material came from) that I felt were definitely worth keeping and exploring.

I can’t remember much about Luthor from Superman Now, except for the ending. By the time I got to All Star Superman, I’d developed a few new insights into Luthor’s character that seemed to flesh him out more. Luthor’s really human and charismatic and hateful all the same time. He’s the brilliant, deluded egotist in all of us. The key for me was the idea that he draws his eyebrows on. The weird vanity of that told me everything I needed to know about Luthor.

I thought the real key to him was the fact that, brilliant as he is, Luthor is nowhere near as brilliant as he wants to be or thinks he is. For Luthor, no praise, no success, no achievement is ever enough, because there’s a big hungry hole in his soul. His need for acknowledgement and validation is superhuman in scale. Superman needs no thanks; he does what he does because he’s made that way. Luthor constantly rails against his own sense of failure and inadequacy...and Superman’s to blame, of course.

I’ve recently been re–thinking Luthor again for a different project, and there’s always a new aspect of the character to unearth and develop.

NRAMA: This story makes Superman and Lois’ relationship seem much more romantic and epic than usual, but this one also makes Superman more of the pursuer. Lois seems like more of an equal, but also more wary of his affections, particularly in the black–and–white sequence in issue #2.

She becomes this great beacon of support for him over the course of the series, but there is a sense that she’s a bit jaded from years of trickery and uncomfortable with letting him in now that he’s being honest. How, overall, do you see the relationship between Superman and Lois?

GM: The black-and-white panels shows Lois paranoid and under the influence of an alien chemical, but yes, she’s articulating many of her very real concerns in that scene.

I wanted her to finally respond to all those years of being tricked and duped and led to believe Superman and Clark Kent were two different people. I wanted her to get her revenge by finally refusing to accept the truth.

It also exposed that brilliant central paradox in the Superman/Lois relationship. The perfect man who never tells a lie has to lie to the woman he loves to keep her safe. And he lives with that every day. It’s that little human kink that really drives their relationship.

NRAMA: Jimmy Olsen is extremely cool in this series – it’s the old “Mr. Action” idea taken to a new level. It’s often easy to write Jimmy as a victim or sycophant, but in this series, he comes off as someone worthy of being “Superman’s Pal” – he implicitly trusts Superman, and will take any risk to get his story. Do you see this version of Jimmy as sort of a natural evolution of the version often seen in the comics?

GM: It was a total rethink based on the aspects of Olsen I liked, and playing down the whole wet–behind–the–ears “cub reporter” thing. I borrowed a little from the “Mr. Action” idea of a more daredevil, pro–active Jimmy, added a little bit of Nathan Barley, some Abercrombie & Fitch style, a bit of Tintin, and a cool Quitely haircut.

Jimmy was renowned for his “disguises” and bizarre transformations (my favorite is the transvestite Olsen epic “Miss Jimmy Olsen” from Jimmy Olsen #95, which gets a nod on the first page of our Jimmy story we did), so I wanted to take that aspect of his appeal and make it part of his job.

I don’t like victim Jimmy or dumb Jimmy, because those takes on the character don’t make any sense in their context. It seemed more interesting see what a young man would be like who could convincingly be Superman’s “pal.” Someone whose company a Superman might actually enjoy. That meant making Jimmy a much bigger character: swaggering but ingenuous. Innocent yet worldly. Enthusiastic but not stupid.

My favorite Jimmy moment is in issue #7 when he comes up with the way to defeat the Bizarro invasion by using the seas of the Bizarro planet itself as giant mirrors to reflect toxic – to Bizarros – sunlight onto the night side of the Earth. He knows Superman can actually take crazy lateral thinking like this and put it into practice.

NRAMA: Perry White has a few small–but–key scenes, particularly his address to his staff in issue #1 and standing up to Luthor in issue #12. I’d like to hear more about your thoughts on this character.

GM: As with the others, my feelings are there on the page. Perry is Clark’s boss and need only be that and not much more to play his role perfectly well within the stories. He’s a good reminder that Superman has a job and a boss, unlike that good–for–nothing work-shy bastard Batman. Perry’s another of the series’ older male role models of integrity and steadfastness, like Pa Kent.

NRAMA: There’s a sense in the Daily Planet scenes and with Lois’s spotlight issues that everyone knows Clark is Superman, but they play along to humor him. The Clark disguise comes off as very obvious in this story. Do you feel that the Planet staff knows the truth, or are just in a very deep case of denial, like Lex?

GM: If I had to say for sure, I think Jimmy Olsen worked it out a long time ago, and simply presumes that if Superman has a good reason for what he’s doing, that’s good enough for Jimmy.

Lois has guessed, but refuses to acknowledge it because it exposes her darkest flaw – she could never love Clark Kent the way she loves Superman.

NRAMA: Also, the Planet staff seems awfully nonchalant at Luthor’s threats. Are they simply used to being attacked by now?

GM: Yes. They’re a tough group. They also know that Superman makes a point of looking out for them, so they naturally try to keep Luthor talking. They know he loves to talk about himself and about Superman. In that scene, he’s almost forgotten he even has powers, he’s so busy arguing and making points. He keeps doing ordinary things instead of extraordinary things.

NRAMA: The running gag of Clark subtly using his powers to protect unknowing people is well done, but I have to admit I was confused by the sequence near the end of issue #1. Was that an el–train, and if so, why was it so close to the ground?

GM: It’s a MagLev hover–train. Look again, and you’ll see it’s not supported by anything. Hover–trains help ease congestion in busy city streets! Metropolis is the City of Tomorrow, after all.

NRAMA: And there’s the death of Pa Kent. Why do you feel it’s particularly important to have Pa and not both of the Kents pass away?

GM: I imagined they had both passed away fairly early in Superman’s career, but Ma went a few years after Pa. Also, because the book was about men or man, it seemed important to stress the father/son relationships. That circle of life, the king is dead, long live the king thing that Superman is ultimately too big and too timeless to succumb to.

NRAMA: There is a real touch of Elliott S! Maggin’s novels in your depiction of Luthor – someone who is just so obsessive–compulsive about showing up Superman that he accomplishes nothing in his own life. He comes across as a showman, from his rehearsed speech in issue #1 to his garish costume in the last two issues, and it becomes painfully apparent that he wants to usurp Superman because he just can’t be happy with himself. What defeats him is actually a beautiful gift, getting to see the world as Superman does, and finally understanding his enemy.

That’s all a lead–in to: What previous stories that defined Luthor for you, and how did you define his character? What appeals to you about writing him?

GM: The Marks Waid and Millar were big fans of the Maggin books, and may have persuaded me to read at least the first one but I’m ashamed to say can’t remember anything about it, other than the vague recollection of a very humane, humanist take on Superman that seemed in general accord with the pacifist, hedonistic, between–the–wars spirit of the ‘90s when I read it. It was the ‘90s; I had other things on my mind and in my mind.

I like Maggin’s “Must There Be A Superman?” from Superman #247, which ultimately poses questions traditional superhero comic books are not equipped to answer and is one of the first paving stones in the Yellow Brick Road that leads to Watchmen and beyond, to The Authority, The Ultimates etc. Everyone still awake, still reading this, should make themselves familiar with “Must There Be A Superman?” – it’s a milestone in the development of the superhero concept.

However, the story that most defines Luthor for me turns out to be, as usual, a Len Wein piece with Curt Swan/Murphy Anderson– Superman #248. This blew me away when I was a kid. Lex Luthor cares about humanity? He’s sorry we all got blown up? The villain loves us too? It’s only Superman he really hates? Genius. Big, cool adult stuff.

The divine Len makes Lex almost too human, but it was amazing to see this kind of depth in a character I’d taken for granted as a music hall villain.

I also love the brutish Satanic, Crowley–esque, Golden Age Luthor in the brilliant “Powerstone” Action Comics #47 (the opening of All Star #11 is a shameless lift from “Powerstone”, as I soon realised when I went back to look. Blame my...er...photographic memory...cough).

And I like the Silver Age Luthor who only hates Superman because he thinks it’s Superboy’s fault he went bald. That was the most genuinely human motivation for Luthor’s career of villainy of all; it was Superman’s fault he went bald! I can get behind that.

In the Silver Age, baldness, like obesity, old age and poverty, was seen quite rightly as a crippling disease and a challenge which Superman and his supporting cast would be compelled to overcome at every opportunity! Suburban “50s America versus Communist degeneracy? You tell me.

I like elements of the Marv Wolfman/John Byrne ultra–cruel and rapacious businessman, although he somewhat lacks the human dimension (ultimately there’s something brilliant about Luthor being a failed inventor, a product of Smallville/Dullsville – the genius who went unnoticed in his lifetime, and resorted to death robots in chilly basements and cellars. Luthor as geek versus world). I thought Alan Moore’s ruthlessly self–assured “consultant” Luthor in Swamp Thing was an inspired take on the character as was Mark Waid’s rage–driven prodigy from Birthright.

I tried to fold them all into one portrayal. I see him as a very human character – Superman is us at our best, Luthor is us when we’re being mean, vindictive, petty, deluded and angry. Among other things. It’s like a bipolar manic/depressive personality – with optimistic, loving Superman smiling at one end of the scale and paranoid, petty Luthor cringing on the other.

I think any writer of Superman has to love these two enemies equally. We have to recognize them both as potentials within ourselves. I think it’s important to find yourself agreeing with Luthor a bit about Superman’s “smug superiority” – we all of us, except for Superman, know what it’s like to have mean–spirited thoughts like that about someone else’s happiness. It’s essential to find yourself rooting for Lex, at least a little bit, when he goes up against a man–god armed only with his bloody–minded arrogance and cleverness.

Even if you just wish you could just give him a hug and help him channel his energies in the right direction, Luthor speaks for something in all of us, I like to think.

However he’s played, Luthor is the male power fantasy gone wrong and turned sour. You’ve got everything you want but it’s not enough because someone has more, someone is better, someone is cleverer or more handsome.

 Newsarama: Grant, a recurring theme throughout the book is the effect of small kindness – how even the likes of Steve Lombard are capable of decency. And Superman gets the key to saving himself by doing something that any human being could do, offering sympathy to a person about to end it all.

Grant Morrison: Completely...the person you help today could be the person who saves your life tomorrow.

NRAMA: The character actions that make the biggest difference, from Zibarro’s sacrifice to Pa’s influence on Superman, are really things that any normal, non-powered person could do if they embrace the best part of their humanity. The last page of issue #12 teases the idea that Superman’s powers could be given to all mankind, but it seems as though the greatest gift he has given them is his humanity. How do you view Superman’s fate in the context of where humanity could go as a species?

GM: I see Superman in this series as an Enlightenment figure, a Renaissance idea of the ideal man, perfect in mind, body and intention.

A key text in all of this is Pico’s ‘Oration On The Dignity of Man’ (15c), generally regarded as the ‘manifesto’ of Renaissance thought, in which Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola laid out the fundamentals of what we tend to refer to as ’Humanist’ thinking.

(The ‘Oratorio’ also turns up in my British superhero series Zenith from 1987, which may indicate how long I’ve been working towards a Pico/Superman team-up!)

At its most basic, the ‘Oratorio’ is telling us that human beings have the unique ability, even the responsibility, to live up to their ‘ideals’. It would be unusual for a dog to aspire to be a horse, a bird to bark like a dog, or a horse to want to wear a diving suit and explore the Barrier Reef, but people have a particular gift for and inclination towards imitation, mimicry and self-transformation. We fly by watching birds and then making metal carriers that can outdo birds, we travel underwater by imitating fish, we constantly look to role models and behavioral templates for guidance, even when those role models are fictional TV or, comic, novel or movie heroes, just like the soft, quick, shapeshifty little things we are. We can alter the clothes we wear, the temperature around us, and change even our own bodies, in order to colonize or occupy previously hostile environments. We are, in short, a distinctively malleable and adaptable bunch.

So, Pico is saying, if we live by imitation, does it not make sense that we might choose to imitate the angels, the gods, the very highest form of being that we can imagine? Instead of indulging the most brutish, vicious, greedy and ignorant aspects of the human experience, we can, with a little applied effort, elevate the better part of our natures and work to express those elements through our behavior. To do so would probably make us all feel a whole lot better too. Doing good deeds and making other people happy makes you feel totally brilliant, let’s face it.

So we can choose to the astronaut or the gangster. The superhero or the super villain. The angel or the devil. It’s entirely up to us, particularly in the privileged West, how we choose to imagine ourselves and conduct our lives.

We live in the stories we tell ourselves. It’s really simple. We can continue to tell ourselves and our children that the species we belong to is a crawling, diseased, viral cancer smear, only fit for extinction, and let’s see where that leads us.

We can continue to project our self-loathing and narcissistic terror of personal mortality onto our culture, our civilization, our planet, until we wreck the promise of the world for future generations in a fit of sheer self-induced panic...

...or we can own up to the scientific fact that we are all physically connected as parts of a single giant organism, imagine better ways to live and grow...and then put them into practice. We can stop pissing about, start building starships, and get on with the business of being adults.

The ’Oratorio’ is nothing less than the Shazam!, the Kimota! for Western Culture and we would do well to remember it in our currently trying times.

The key theme of the ‘Dark Age’ of comics was loss and recovery of wonder - McGregor’s Killraven trawling through the apocalyptic wreckage of culture in his search for poetry, meaning and fellowship, Captain Mantra, amnesiac in Robert Mayer’s Superfolks, Alan Moore’s Mike Maxwell trudging through the black and white streets of Thatcher’s Britain, with the magic word of transformation burning on the tip of his tongue.

My own work has been an ongoing attempt to repeat the magic word over and over until we all become the kind of superheroes we’d all like to be. Ha hah ha.

 Newsarama: The structure of the 12 issues involves both Superman’s 12 labors and his impending death. Do you feel the threat of his demise brings out the best in Superman’s already–high character, or did you intend it more as a window for the audience to understand how he sees the world?

Grant Morrison: In trying to do the “big,” ultimate Superman story, we wanted to hit on all the major beats that define the character – the “death of Superman” story has been told again and again and had to be incorporated into any definitive take. Superman’s death and rebirth fit the sun god myth we were establishing, and, as you say, it added a very terminal ticking clock to the story.

NRAMA: When we talked earlier this year, we discussed the neurotic quality of the Silver Age stories. Looking at the series as a whole, you consistently invert this formula. Superman is faced with all these crises that could be seen as personifying his neuroses, but for the most part he handles them with a level head and comes across as being very at peace with himself. You talked about your discussion with an in–character Superman fan at a convention years ago, but I am curious as to how you determined Superman’s mindset.

GM: I felt we had to live up to the big ideas behind Superman. I don’t take my daft job lightly. It’s all I’ve got.

As the project got going, I wasn’t thinking about Silver Ages or Dark Ages or anything about the comics I’d read, so much as the big shared idea of “Superman” and that “S” logo I see on T–shirts everywhere I go, on girls and boys. That communal Superman. I wanted us to get the precise energy of Platonic Superman down on the page.

The “S” hieroglyph, the super–sigil, stands for the very best kind of man we can imagine, so the subject dictated the methodical, perfectionist approach. As I’ve mentioned before, I keep this aspect of my job fresh for myself by changing my writing style to suit the project, the character or the artist.

With something like Batman R.I.P., I’m aiming for a frenzied Goth Pulp-Noir; punk-psych, expressionist shadows and jagged nightmare scene shifts, inspired by Batman’s roots and by the snapping, fluttering of his uncanny cape. Final Crisis was written, with the Norse Ragnarok and Biblical Revelations in mind, as a story about events more than characters. A doom-laden, Death Metal myth for the wonderful world of Fina(ncia)l Crisis/Eco-breakdown/Terror Trauma we all have to live in.

The subject matter drives the execution. And then, of course, the artists add their own vision and nuance. With All Star Superman, “Frank” and I were able to spend a lot of time together talking it through, and we agreed it had to be about grids, structure, storybook panel layouts, an elegance of form, a clarity of delivery. “Classical” in every sense of the word. The medium, the message, the story, the character, all working together as one simple equation.

Frank Quitely, a Glasgow Art School boy, completely understood without much explanation, the deep structural underpinnings of the series and how to embody them in his layouts. There’s a scene in issue # 8, set on the Bizarro world, where we see Le Roj handing Superman his rocket plans. Look at the arrangement of the figures of Zibarro, Le Roj, Superman and Bizaro–Superman and you’ll see one attempt to make us of Renaissance compositions.

The sense of sunlit Zen calm we tried to get into All Star is how I imagine it might feel to think the way Superman thinks all the time - a thought process that is direct, clean, precise, mathematical, ordered. A mind capable of fantastical imagination but grounded in the everyday of his farm upbringing with nice decent folks. Rich with humour and tears and deep human significance, yet tuned to a higher key. We tried to hum along for a little while, that’s all.

In honor of the character’s primal position in the development of the superhero narrative, I hoped we could create an “ultimate” hero story, starring the ultimate superhero.

Basically, I suppose I felt Superman deserved the utmost application of our craft and intelligence in order to truly do him justice.

Otherwise, I couldn’t have written this book if I hadn’t watched my big, brilliant dad decline into incoherence and death. I couldn’t have written it if I’d never had my heart broken, or mended. I couldn’t have written it if I hadn’t known what it felt like to be idolized, misunderstood, hated for no clear reason, loved for all my faults, forgotten, remembered...

Writing All Star Superman was, in retrospect, also a way of keeping my mind in the clean sunshine while plumbing the murkiest depths of the imagination with that old pair of c****s Darkseid and Doctor Hurt. Good riddance.

 Newsarama: This is touched on in other questions, but how much of the Silver/Bronze Age backstory matters here? What do you see as Superman's life prior to All-Star Superman? (What was going on with this Superman while the Byrne revamp took hold?)

Grant Morrison: When I introduced the series in an interview online, I suggested that All Star Superman could be read as the adventures of the ‘original’ Pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Superman, returning after 20 plus years of adventures we never got to see because we were watching John Byrne‘s New Superman on the other channel. If ‘Whatever Happened To The Man of Tomorrow?’ and the Byrne reboot had never happened, where would that guy be now?

This was more to provide a sense, probably limited and ill-considered, of what the tone of the book might be like. I never intended All Star Superman as a direct continuation of the Weisinger or Julius Schwartz-era Superman stories. The idea was always to create another new version of Superman using all my favorite elements of past stories, not something ‘Age’ specific.

I didn’t collect Superman comics until the ‘70s and I’m not interested enough in pastiche or nostalgia to spend 6 years of my life playing post-modern games with Superman. All Star isn’t written, drawn or colored to look or read like a Silver Age comic book.

All Star Superman is not intended as arch commentary on continuity or how trends in storytelling have changed over the decades. It’s not retro or meta or anything other than its own simple self; a piece of drawing and writing that is intended by its makers to capture the spirit of its subject to the best of their capabilities, wisdom and talent.

Which is to say, we wanted our Superman story be about life, not about comics or superheroes, current events or politics. It’s about how it feels, specifically to be a man...in our dreams! Hopefully that means our 12 issues are also capable of wide interpretation.

So as much as we may have used a few recognizable Silver Age elements like Van-Zee and Sylv(i)a and the Bottle City of Kandor, the ensemble Daily Planet cast embodies all the generations of Superman. Perry White is from 1940, Steve Lombard is from the Schwartz-era ‘70s, Ron Troupe - the only black man in Metropolis - appeared in 1991. Cat Grant is from 1987 and so on.

P.R.O.J.E.C.T. refers back to Jack Kirby’s DNA Project from his ‘70s Jimmy Olsen stories, as well as to The Cadmus Project from ’90s Superboy and Superman stories. Doomsday is ‘90s. Kal Kent, Solaris and the Infant Universe of Qwewq all come from my own work on Superman in the same decade. Pa Kent’s heart attack is from ‘Superman the Movie‘. We didn’t use Brainiac because he’d been the big bad in Earth 2 but if we had, we’d have used Brainiac’s Kryptonian origin from the animated series and so on.

I also used quite a few elements of John Byrne’s approach. Byrne made a lot of good decisions when he rebooted the whole franchise in 1986 and I wanted to incorporate as much as I could of those too.

Our Superman in All Star was never Superboy, for instance. All Star Superman landed on Earth as a normal, if slightly stronger and fitter infant, and only began to manifest powers in adolescence when he’d finally soaked up enough yellow solar radiation to trigger his metamorphosis.

The Byrne logic seemed to me a better way to explain how his powers had developed across the decades, from the skyscraper leaps of the early days to the speed-of-light space flight of the high Silver Age. And more importantly, it made the Superman myth more poignant - the story of a farm boy who turned into an alien as he reached adolescence. I felt that was something that really enriched Superman. He grew away from his home, his family, his adopted species as he became Superman. His teenage years are a record of his transformation from normal boy to super-being.

As you say, there are more than just Silver Age influences in the book. Basically we tried to create a perfect synthesis of every Superman era. So much so, that it should just be taken as representative of an ‘age’ all its own.

In the end, however, I do think that the Silver Age type stories, with their focus on human problems and foibles, have a much wider appeal than a lot of the work which followed. They’re more like fables or folk tales than the later ‘comic book superhero’ stories of Superman when he became just another colorful costume in the crowd...and perhaps that’s why All Star seemed to resemble those books more than it does a typical modern Marvel or DC comic. It was our intention to present a more universal, mainstream Superman.

NRAMA: In your depiction of Krypton and the Kryptonians, you show the complexity of Superman’s relationship between humanity and Earth even further. Krypton has that scientific paradise quality to it, but the Kryptonians are also portrayed as slightly aloof and detached, even Jor-El. But from Bar-El to the people of Kandor, they’re touched by Superman’s goodness. What do you see as the fundamental difference between Kryptonians and Earthlings, and how has Superman’s character been shaped by each?

GM: My version of Krypton was, again, synthesized from a number of different approaches over the decades. 
In mythic terms, if Superman is the story of a young king, found and raised by common people, then Krypton is the far distant kingdom he lost. It’s the secret bloodline, the aristocratic heritage that makes him special, and a hero. At the same time, Krypton is something that must be left behind for Superman to become who he is - i.e. one of us. Krypton gives him his scientific clarity of mind, Earth makes his heart blaze.

I liked the very early Jerry Siegel descriptions where Krypton is a planet of advanced supermen and women (I already played with that a little in Marvel Boy where Noh-Varr was written to be the Marvel Superboy basically). To that, I added the rich, science fiction detailing of the Silver Age Krypton stories and the slightly detached coolness that characterized John Byrne’s Krypton, which I re-interpreted through the lens of Dzogchen Buddhist thought, probably the most pragmatic, chilly and rational philosophic system on the planet and the closest, I felt, to how Kryptonians might see things.

We also took some time to redesign the crazy, multicolored Kryptonian flag (you can see our version in Kandor in issue #10). The flag, as originally imagined, seemed like the last thing Kryptonians would endorse, so we took the multicolored-rays-around-a-circle design and recreated it - the central circle is now red, representing Krypton’s star, Rao, while the rays, rather than arbitrary colors, become representations of the spectrum of visible light pouring from Rao into the inky black of space. In this way, the flag, that bizarre emblem of nationalism becomes a scientific hieroglyph.

Showing Krypton and Kryptonians was also important as a way of stressing why Superman wears that costume and why it makes absolute sense that he looks the way he does. I don’t see the red and blue suit as a flag or as rewoven baby blankets. There’s no need for Superman to dress the way he does but it made sense to think of his outfit as his ‘national costume‘.

The way I see it, the standard superhero outfit, the familiar Superman suit with the pants on the outside, is what everyone wore on Krypton, give or take a few fashion accessories like hoods and headbands, chest crests and variant colors. In fact, all other superheroes are just copying the fashions on Krypton, lost planet of the super-people.

Superman wears his ’action-suit’ the way a patriotic Scotsman would wear a kilt. It’s a sign of his pride in his alien heritage.

 Newsarama: Although All–Star Superman ties in with DC One Million, you style of writing has changed dramatically since then.  How do you feel about One Million now?

Grant Morrison: I just read it again and liked it a lot. Comics were definitely happier, breezier and more confident in their own strengths before Hollywood and the Internet turned the business of writing superhero stories into the production of low budget storyboards or, worse, into conformist, fruitless attempts to impress or entertain a small group of people who appear to hate comics and their creators.

NRAMA: Obviously, this book is the most explicit SF–Christ story since Behold the Man, only...happy.  Superman/Christ parallels have existed for decades, but this story makes it absolutely explicit, from laying his hands on the sick and dying to...well, most of issue #12.  You’ve dealt with Christ themes before, particularly in The Mystery Play, but outside of the comics, how do you see Superman as a Christ figure for the “real” world?

GM: The “Superman as Christ” thing is a little too reductive for me, and tends to overlook the fact that Superman is by no means a pacifist in the Christ sense. Superman would never turn the other cheek; Superman punches out the bully. Superman is a fighter.

When did Christ ever batter the Devil through a mountain?

The thing I disliked about the Superman Returns movie was the American Christ angle, which reduced Superman to a sniveling, masochistic wreck, crawling around on the floor, taking a kicking from everyone. This approach had an odd and slightly disturbing S&M flavor, which didn’t play well to the character’s strengths at all and seemed to derive entirely from a kind of Catholic vision of the suffering, martyred Jesus.

It’s not that he’s based on Jesus, but simply that a lot of the mythical sun god elements that have been layered onto the Christ story also appear in the story of Superman. I suppose I see Superman more as pagan sci–fi. He’s a secular messiah, a science redeemer with tough guy muscles and a very direct and clear morality.

NRAMA: Continuing the religious themes, in issue #10, you have Superman literally giving birth to himself, both philosophically and as a character – a nice little meta–moment showing how Superman inspires a world where he is only fiction.  How did that idea come about?

GM: It came from the challenge we’d set ourselves: as I said, issue #10 had been left as a blank space into which the single most coherent condensation of all our ideas about Superman were destined to fit.

I wanted to do a “day in the life” story. So much of All Star had been about this threat to Superman himself, so we wanted to show him going about a typical day saving people and doing good.

Then came the title “Neverending,” which comes from the opening announcement – “Faster than a speeding bullet!...” of the Superman radio show from 1940, and seemed to me to be as good a title for a Superman story as any I could think of. It seemed to distil everything about Superman’s battle and his legend into a single word. And the story structure itself was designed to loop endlessly, so it went well with that.

 On top of that went the idea of the Last Will and Testament of Superman. A dying god writing his will seemed like an interesting structure to use. Then came the idea to fit all of human history into that single 24 hours. And then to show the development of the Superman idea through human culture from the earliest Australian Aboriginal notions of super–beings ‘descended” from the sky, through the complex philosophical system of Hinduism, onto the Renaissance concept of the ideal man, via the refinements of Nietzche and finally, down to that smiling, hopeful Joe Shuster sketch; the final embodiment of humanity’s glorious, uplifting notion of the superman become reduced to a drawing, a story for kids, a worthless comic book.

And also what that could mean in a holographic fractal universe, where the smallest part contains and reflects the whole.

Of course the next panel in that sequence is happening in the real world and would show you, the reader, sitting with the latest Superman issue in your hands, deep within the Infant Universe of Qwewq in the Fortress of Solitude, today, wherever you are. In “Neverending,” the reader becomes wrapped in a self–referential loop of story and reality. If you actually, seriously think about what is happening at this point in the story, if you meditate upon the curious entanglement of the real and the fictional, you will become enlightened in this life apparently. According to some texts.

NRAMA: On a personal level, you’ve explored all types of religions and philosophies in your work.  What is your take on religion and how it influences humanity, and the Christian take on Jesus Christ in particular?

GM: I think religion per se, is a ghastly blight on the progress of the human species towards the stars.  At the same time, it, or something like it, has been an undeniable source of comfort, meaning and hope for the majority of poor bastards who have ever lived on Earth, so I’m not trying to write it off completely. I just wish that more people were educated to a standard where they could understand what religion is and how it works. Yes, it got us through the night for a while, but ultimately, it’s one of those ugly, stupid arse–over–backwards things we could probably do without now, here on the Planet of the Apes.

Religion is to spirituality what porn is to sex. It’s what the Hollywood 3–act story template is to real creative writing.

Religion creates a structure which places “special,” privileged people (priests) between ordinary people and the divine, as if there could even be any separation: as if every moment, every thought, every action was not already an expression of dynamic ‘divinity” at work.

As I’ve said before, the solid world is just the part of heaven we’re privileged to touch and play with. You don’t need a priest or a holy man to talk to “god” on your behalf: just close your eyes and say hello. “God” is no more, no less, than the sum total of all matter, all energy, all consciousness, as experienced or conceptualized from a timeless perspective where everything ever seems to present all at once. “God” is in everything, all the time and can be found there by looking carefully. The entire universe, including the scary, evil bits, is a thought “God” is thinking, right now.

As far as I can figure it out from my own reading and my own experience of how the spiritual world works, Jesus was, as they say, way cool: a man who achieved a state of consciousness, which nowadays would get him a diagnosis of temporal lobe epilepsy (in the days of the Emperor Tiberius, he was crucified for his ideas, today he’d be laughed at, mocked or medicated).

This “holistic” mode of consciousness (which Luthor experiences briefly at the end of All Star Superman) announces itself as a heartbreaking connection, a oneness, with everything that exists...but you don’t have to be Superman to know what that feeling is like. There are a ton of meditation techniques which can take you to this place. I don’t see it as anything supernatural or religious, in fact, I think it’s nothing more than a developmental level of human consciousness, like the ability to see perspective – which children of 4 cannot do but children of 6 can.

Everyone who’s familiar with this upgrade will tell you the same thing: it feels as if “alien” or “angelic” voices – far more intelligent, coherent and kindly than the voices you normally hear in your head – are explaining the structure of time and space and your place in it. 
This identification with a timeless supermind containing and resolving within itself all possible thoughts and contradictions, is what many people, unsurprisingly, mistake for an encounter with “God.”  However, given that this totality must logically include and resolve all possible thoughts and concepts, it can also be interpreted as an actual encounter with God, so I’m not here to give anyone a hard time over interpretation.

Some people have the experience and believe the God of their particular culture has chosen them personally to have a chat with. These people may become born–again Christians, fundamentalist Muslims, devotees of Shiva, or misunderstood lunatics. Some “contactees” interpret the voices they hear erroneously as communications from an otherworldly, alien intelligence, hence the proliferation of “abduction” accounts in recent decades, which share most of their basic details with similar accounts, from earlier centuries, of people being taken away by “fairies” or “little people”.

Some, who like to describe themselves as magicians, will recognize the “alien” voice as the “Holy Guardian Angel”.

In timeless, spaceless consciousness, the singular human mind blurs into a direct experience of the totality of all consciousness that has ever been or will ever be. It feels like talking with God but I see that as an aspect of science, not religion.

As Peter Barnes wrote in “The Ruling Class”, “I know I must be God because when I pray to Him, I find I’m talking to myself.”

 Newsarama: When we spoke earlier this year, you talked about some of your ideas for future All Star stories. Are you moving forward on those, or have you started working on different ideas since then?

Grant Morrison: I haven’t had time to think about them for a while. I did have the stories worked out, and I’d like to do more, but right now it feels like Frank and Jamie and I have said all there is to be said. I don’t know if I’m ready to do All Star Superman with anyone else right now. I have other plans.

NRAMA: You end the book with Superman having uplifted humanity – having inspired them through his sacrifice and great deeds, and with the potential to pass his powers on to humanity still there. Do you plan to explore this concept further, or would you prefer to leave it open–ended?

GM: I may go back to the Son of Superman in some way. At the same time, it’s best left open–ended. I like the idea that Superman gets to have his cake and eat it; he becomes golden and mythical and lives forever as a dream. Yet, he also is able to sire a child who will carry his legacy into the future. He kicks ass in both the spiritual and the temporal spheres!

 NRAMA: The notion of transcendence – always a big part of your work. But the debate about All Star Superman is whether or not it "transcends its genre." Superman becomes transcendent within the series itself, and inspires the beings on Qwewq, but does the work aspire to more than that? Is it simply the greatest version of a Superman story, and that’s enough?

GM: That would certainly be enough if it were true.

It’s a pretty high–level attempt by some smart people to do the Superman concept some justice, is all I can say. It’s intended to work as a set of sci–fi fables that can be read by children and adults alike. I’d like to think you can go to it if you’re feeling suicidal, if you miss your dad, if you’ve had to take care of a difficult, ailing relative, if you’ve ever lost control and needed a good friend to put you straight, if you love your pets, if you wish your partner could see the real you...All Star is about how Superman deals with all of that.

It’s a big old Paul Bunyan style mythologizing of human - and in particular male - experience. In that sense I’d like to think All Star Superman does transcend genre in that it’s intended to be read on its own terms and needs absolutely no understanding of genre conventions or history around it to grasp what’s going on.

In today’s world, in today’s media climate designed to foster the fear our leaders like us to feel because it makes us easier to push around. In a world where limp, wimpy men are forced to talk tough and act ‘badass’ even though we all know they’re shitting it inside. In a world where the measure of our moral strength has come to lie in the extremity of the images we’re able to look at and stomach. In a world, I’m reliably told, that’s going to the dogs, the real mischief, the real punk rock rebellion, is a snarling, ‘fuck you’ positivity and optimism. Violent optimism in the face of all evidence to the contrary is the Alpha form of outrage these days. It really freaks people out.

I have a desire not to see my culture and my fellow human beings fall helplessly into step with a middle class media narrative that promises only planetary catastrophe, as engineered by an intrinsically evil and corrupt species which, in fact, deserves everything it gets.

Is this relentless, downbeat insistence that the future has been cancelled really the best we can come up with? Are we so fucked up we get off on terrifying our children? It’s not funny or ironic anymore and that’s why we wrote All Star Superman the way we did. Everything has changed. ‘Dark’ entertainment now looks like hysterical, adolescent, ‘Zibarro’ crap. That’s what my Final Crisis series is about too.

NRAMA (aka Tim Callahan): Continuing with the theme of transcendence: The words "ineffectual" and "surrender" are repeated throughout the book. Discuss.

GM: Discuss yourself, Callahan! I know you have the facilities and I should think it’s all rather obvious. 


NRAMA: What was the inspiration for the image of Superman in the sun at the end? (I confess this question comes as the result of much unsuccessful Googling)

GM: I didn’t have any specific reference in mind - just that one we‘ve all sort of got in our heads. I drew the figure as a sketch, intended to be reminiscent of William Blake’s cosmic figures, Russian Constructivist Soviet Socialist Worker type posters, and Leonardo’s ‘Proportions of the Human Figure‘. The position of the legs hints at the Buddhist swastika, the clockwise sun symbol. It was to me, the essence of that working class superheroic ideal I mentioned, condensed into a final image of mythic Superman, - our eternal, internal, guiding, selfless, tireless, loving superstar. The daft All Star Superman title of the comic is literalized in this last picture. It’s the ‘fearful symmetry’ of the Enlightenment project - an image of genius, toil, and our need to make things, to fashion art and artifacts, as a form of superhuman, divine imitation.

It was Superman as this fusion of Renaissance/Enlightenment ideas about Man and Cosmos, an impossible union of Blake and Newton. A Pop Art ‘Vitruvian Man‘. The inspiration for the first letter of the new future alphabet!

As you can see, we spent a lot of time thinking about all this and purifying it down to our own version of the gold. I’m glad it’s over.

NRAMA: Finally: What, above all else, would you like people to take away from All Star Superman?

GM: That we spent a lot of time thinking about this!

No. What I hope is that people take from it the unlikelihood that a piece of paper, with little ink drawings of figures, with little written words, can make you cry, can make your heart soar, can make you scared, sad, or thrilled. How mental is that?

That piece of paper is inert material, the corpse of some tree, pulped and poured, then given new meaning and new life when the real hours and real emotions that the writer and the artist, the colorist, the letter the editor translated onto the physical page, meet with the real hours and emotions of a reader, of all readers at once, across time, generations and distance.

And think about how that experience, the simple experience of interacting with a paper comic book, along with hundreds of thousands of others across time and space, is an actual doorway onto the beating heart of the imminent, timeless world of “Myth” as defined above. Not just a drawing of it but an actual doorway into timelessness and the immortal world where we are all one together.

My grief over the loss of my dad can be Superman’s grief, can trigger your own grief, for your own dad, for all our dads. The timeless grief that’s felt by Muslims and Christians and Agnostics alike. My personal moments of great and romantic love, untainted by the everyday, can become Superman’s and may resonate with your own experience of these simple human feelings.

In the one Mythic moment we’re all united, kissing our Lover for the First time, the Last time, the Only time, honoring our dear Dad under a blood red sky, against a darkening backdrop, with Mum telling us it’ll all be okay in the end.

If we were able to capture even a hint of that place and share it with our readers, that would be good enough for me.

[iworshipkeanureeves]

Anniversary Picnic (Keanu Reeves x Reader)

Summary: You and your husband Keanu share a romantic anniversary picnic.

Warnings: mostly fluff, but it gets a little smutty towards the end, also conversation about having a kid (not sure if this should be a warning though).

Words: 1,7 K

A/N: This was definitely inspired by Destination Wedding, though Frank seemed too grumpy for this and I decided to go with Keanu instead. Also, for everyone quarantined right now, have fun on this imaginary picnic.

“Here we are,” Keanu exclaims cheerfully, parking his car on a hill in a middle of nowhere. Today, it is your wedding anniversary, and every year he has a little surprise for you. It is something that you really appreciate, because instead of buying random expensive gifts, he always takes his time to organize something fun.

You are a little puzzled viewing around, “Is this your surprise? Are you going to murder me here and feed my body to the mountain lions?” you giggle, seeing only empty fields, which actually remind you of a deserted vineyard.

“Common, let’s go, you’ll enjoy this,” Keanu urges as he leans in to kiss you, but you are quite hesitant at first; fortunately, he is quick to take a picnic basket out of the trunk, and food is definitely an incentive to get out of the car.

“Be careful,” Keanu takes your hand as you are walking down the hill, he is leading the way and you have no choice, but to follow him. Luckily, you are wearing a linen apron dress together with comfortable flats, which turns out to be an appropriate outfit for your unexpected romantic hike. The sun is blazing and the only thing you regret not taking is a pair of sunglasses, as it is getting harder to see the path, so you keep stumbling on roots that are sticking out of the ground.

Keanu notices that you’re struggling, he slows down a little and turns around handing you a picnic basket. You are a little confused grasping it, when suddenly, you  feel one of his arms by the back of your knees, another giving support to your shoulders and, just like that, you are up in the air. Keanu is squeezing you tightly, giving you a playful smirk, and then kissing your temple.

“Ke, slow down, I don’t think this is a good idea, we’re both going to roll down this hill,” you chuckle smacking Keanu’s chest, but he seems to be persistent with this idea of his.

“Don’t worry, honey, we’re almost there,” he nods insistently, and you submit, comfortably positioning the basket on top of your stomach.

You close your eyes to rest them a little, enjoying soothing rocking created by his rhythmical steps and the feeling of mellow warmth lingering on your cheeks, causing you to slowly drift away in his embrace. Time has disappeared in your mind, and at this point you can’t tell if it has been a minute or ten of Keanu carrying you, but eventually, he gives your forehead a wake-up kiss and you open your eyes to see him admiring you.

Keanu gently lays you down on a blanket, which surprisingly has already been stretched on the grass, taking the basket off your belly, and you look around in awe, realizing that everything has been prepared beforehand. It is a cozy place on a bank of a river, and you feel yourself sinking into soft pillows, having your face sheltered in a shade of a tree, savoring a delightful breeze brushing your cheeks.

Keanu slowly crawls on top of you, kissing your lips affectionately, “Y/N,” he looks at you, “I love you so much, you can’t even imagine,” his palm is gently stroking your shoulder, as he leans in to kiss you again.

“I love you too, Ke,” you whisper, pulling closer to squeeze him tightly, leaving his face buried deep in your chest. Happiness is filling your veins as you feel his breath tickling your skin, his hands wrapping around your waist, and the woodsy smell of his hair teasing your nose.

“So, what’s on the menu?” you chuckle, and Keanu turns over reaching for the picnic basket, presenting every dish as if he was an actual chef taking pride in his creations.

“For starters, you can choose between tortilla chips with scallion dip and apricot-prosciutto focaccia” he grins, “Then, I can offer crab rolls together with Greek salad, and for the dessert, pecan pie, your favorite of course”, you both can’t contain your laughter and you approach a packet of chips as he is taking out cups to pour some lemonade.

“How did you arrange all of this to be prepared in advance, the pillows and everything?” you wonder as you keep on dipping chips, looking around in awe.

Keanu giggles, “A magician never reveals his secrets, honey,” and he reaches to hug your sidewards, nuzzling your ear.

“No, but seriously, Ke?” you insist, sipping your drink.

“Okay, okay… I had a movie set here last summer and people living on the other side of the hill, whom I’ve made friends with, were nice to help me with this, that’s my secret,” he tumbles you down, attacking the crook of your neck with ticklish kisses. You try to escape him, but that is a lost cause, so you just give in.

“Happy anniversary,” you tilt your head to smooch him, brushing his stubble with your fingers.

“Every day is happy, when I’m with you,” Keanu smirks, realizing how cheesy that was.

After romping like two naughty little kids for a while, you calm down a little. You nestle on top of Keanu’s chest, staring into the flow of the river. He is stroking your locks, twirling them in his fingers, while another of his palm is slowly reaching to reside on your breast, fondling it lazily, slipping in and out of your bra.

At this point, you start to realize that he keeps on gasping, as if he wants to say something, but can’t force himself to. Crazy thoughts are running through your head, though you are pretty sure he wouldn’t have brought you here on your anniversary to announce bad news, and something like proposing is also out of picture since you have been married for six years, so you keep on wondering what it is.

Eventually, Keanu slowly sits up and turns to you breaking the silence, “How is it possible that you’ve never been on a picnic before?” He leans closer stroking your half covered thigh, slowly going up and down, making you shiver every time he reaches a little higher than before.

“I guess I’ve just never had anyone to go with,” you gush, feeling his fingers tickling you in the right places, giving him a sign, to keep on working his magic.  

“Not even with your family?” he frowns, “Like when you were a kid?”

“Well we weren’t this kind of family that would go on picnics, you know, only compulsory events like Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving…” you sigh shaking your head, rising to rest on your elbows and Keanu gives a compassionate smile.

“Then let’s see how you like it today and maybe we can make this a thing our family could do,” Keanu stalls his hand, letting it rest on your knee and stares into your eyes, waiting for you to respond.

Now, Keanu’s behavior is beginning to make sense and you can feel where this is going. Realizing what has been bothering your man, you try to help him a little by opening a conversation that you are about to have, “You mean just the two of us or…,” intentionally leaving it for him to add in.

“The more the merrier, they say,” Keanu chuckles, tucking a strand of hair behind your ear, caressing your cheek amorously.

The last time you talked about having kids was three years ago, when you decided that it wasn’t the right time, and both of you wanted to wait a little longer. Now, the timing seems perfect, as he is about to finish his project, and you have a well-established career, which is possible to put on hold.

You sit up silently gathering your thoughts, making a longer pause and Keanu anxiously stutters, “Honey?” as he is nervously grabbing your shoulder, “I’m so sorry, I’m not pushing if you’re not ready.”

“Ke, relax, I really want to,” you come closer to wrap yourself around him. Your lips are brushing his ear, “I think we should start trying, it’s about time.”

Keanu looks astonished, yet thrilled, and he may have taken your words too literally, as you begin to feel his hand sinking under your dress, worrying he might want to knock you up right here, on this blanket near the river.

“What are you doing, Ke?” a squeak leaves your throat, as you feel his fingers pulling your underwear to the side, spreading your folds with eagerness. You try to pull yourself together, to tell him no. After all, this is sort of a public place, you’ve seen a few people wandering around and the last thing you need, are paparazzi shots of you sharing intimate moments turning up on TMZ. But why is this so hard to resist…?

“Oh honey, you’re all soaked”, Keanu grabs your hip and pulls you closer. His fingers rubbing circles, spreading wetness all over your heat, and his lips buried in the crook of your neck, leaving a trail of sizzling kisses.

Involuntarily, you haul him even closer, feeling your folds plumping and throbbing with all the blood rushing down there. You know this is so wrong, and you do your best trying to talk some sense into him “Ke, this is too risky, anyone could see us,” you groan, “I don’t even think that’s legal, baby,” moans leave your mouth as you keep fighting yourself, but he is spreading you so well, and your hand gradually wanders to meet his growing bulge, pulsating in his pants.

“I’m pretty sure we’ve done worse things,” Keanu glares, teasing your entrance with his middle finger, yet not sure if he is allowed to go in.

Luckily, you get your act together, stopping his hand, “Yeah, but if we’re going to have a baby, we have to be responsible adults. We can start practicing now,” you smirk, pulling your dress down and crossing your legs.

It appears to have woken Keanu’s enthusiasm even more and he pulls your hair to the side, nuzzling your ear, “Then I’m responsibly taking you home, so that we can finish what we’ve started.”

“A car will do just fine,” you reply with a wink, stretching your hand for him to help you up.

---> After the Picnic (smut)