#fuck you margaret thatcher rot in hell

[opossumfeels]

DING DONG

[motherwasapapafucker]

What's your thoughts on Ennis's 2007 Dan Dare series ?

Oh shit damn yeah, I have like...a weird amount of thoughts about that one, but also keep in mind it's been like...six years since I read it last and my broader Dare reading is pretty patchy. (Remember those lovely hardback trades you could get in Waterstones when you were wee? bring them back) Also like, gonna talk about Morrison's Dare from Revolver way back in the way back a lot in this rambling shit, because the two are heavily interlinked in my mind. S'also king interesting how many fairly notable creators have worked on Dare after the fact like that? you've got Morrison, Ennis and Milligan recently (haven't read that one as of yet, pretty meh on titan and so/so with Milligan's more recent work. Though the Prisoner mini titan published with him is the better side of the so, so.) Anyway aye, it's a strange wee book, even just being part of Virgin Comics, but that's more in terms of any major entity forming a comic publishing sideline. (Or buying one, hyooo) On a surface glance it's not a book you'd really think of as a Garth Ennis work, lacking the usual black comedy cynicism that's defined a lot of his work but really, it was never going to have that and there's still cynicism but far more in line with the more serious elements of Hellblazer run. On top of that it also feels like an extension of his aviation stuff, just dressed in sci-fi clothes. Which is where the overlap between it and Morrison's Dare come into play. Your classic Dan Dare, for all its future setting has often been noted as being very immersed in the realities of the Post-War UK, it's optimistic yes, but there's a grubby underside of danger because basically, for a decade or everything genuinely was still a bit fucked. Dan Dan emerges into a world where rationing is still a thing, but the NHS is new, fresh and the biggest development of a post war world. In Dare, the world is clean, advanced and....facing food shortages. Like it can't be stressed how often food as a concern drives those initial dare strips. In Morrison's Dare we see the 1980s to this worlds 1950s tinged future, the utopia that just seemed around the corner hasn't materialised because, and I cannot stress this enough, Margaret Thatcher was elected. Dare's stalwart, oh so English persona reduced to little more than a marketing tactic for right wing politics while the real man drowns himself in alcohol and faded glories. Eventually we learn, as happened in real life, Thatcher worked with the Mekon to transform hopeful off-world colonists into cheap food solving both hunger and housing in one fell swoop. Dan eventually joins up with an embittered Digby who's teamed up with some punky freedom fighters and at the end of the day, Dan Dare hides a bomb inside Anastasia and uses it to destroy London, Thatcher, himself and the Mekon. The bastards might still be on top, but he's still spat in their faces at least. (Or burnt them to ashes, you get it) Anyway, aye, Ennis' Dare is the early 2000s to the original's 1950s, and in many ways casts as bleak an outlook at Morrison's Dare's bursts of hope...but also the cynicism. Tony Blair is the evil of the day, a spineless sell-out that happily plays puppy for a returned Mekon facing a faded, but still fighting Dan who the book views as both a very old-fashioned type of English hero but also a true modernist betrayed by the realities of a modern Britain. You could say it's a book perfectly aware that the imperfections of 1940s society built to this, but also aware that there had to be people creating the good that came out of the aftermath of the second world war. It's a bit doddering, a bit too content with these noble ideals but at the same time I don't think it's so wrong for that to be the spirit of your Dan Dare book? He's heartbroken by the collapse of the UN Spacefleet, cynical about the realities of this New Labour future but at the heart of it he's right to be, and even then he still comes back, still fights try and fix some of it. Where Morrison's Dare stages a suicide bombing in one final act of Punk rebellion, Ennis' Dare is

a slightly out of touch figure left trying to sift something good out of the wreckage. And that's not to say it isn't at it's heart a sci-fi adventure comic; It's already far more so than Morrison's Dare ever could be, but also more so than the original Dare itself in all honesty. Which is maybe a bit of an issue, the world design is cool but it's a little harder to picture it existing alongside the 1950s Dare's slightly more introspective sci-fi adventure. This is fully Star Wars territory; With space Spitfires, ominous capital ships, mutants, faceless stormtroopers and a version of the Mekon that's went and bought himself a latex catsuit. The narrative is a sequel, but the look feels like a reboot? In Morrison's Dare it still feels like that original setting just filtered through a few years of urban decay and rot. It's arguably in line with the far more overt changes seen in the 2000ad Dan Dare really? Basically, it's not the best thing in the world but it ain't half bad for what it is? At it's heart Ennis seems to have as much genuine affection for the character of Dan Dare as he does Superman, arguably more so which is kinda worth a thought in terms of what figure Ennis does portray as worthy of respect within his own fiction. Which again, a lot to be said for how willing it is to view this things without any harsh criticism, but you'd need a very surface level view of Ennis as a man to think he's Mr. Pro-Military. Aye, read it. Ennis is really back up there in my mind tbh, Hellblazer and Hitman are worthy of every bit of praise flung there way, but for all his characterised by the gross out/murderfest his work is filled with interesting wee curios that do a lot to undermine the image of him as a creative with a single, uncompromising style. Hell, I fucking hate the Boys and I canny even hate it that much because its existence seems to be largely god punishing Chris Clermont fans for their hubris.

[blindrapture]

Hellish excerpt from a spontaneous ramble

(cw: actually bad people, infernal ironic punishments)

(Breitbart, by Steve fucking Bannon!!! The actual white nationalist filmmaker! Who studied WoW gamers for years because he thought their culture could be exploited and weaponized! And that resulted in GamerGate, the test run for the alt-right! *That* Bannon! Who advised both Trump *and* Boris Johnson! *That* guy! Him being in any way involved with Facebook *is* pure evil! If the DOJ ever indict him, it will be too soon! Fuck Steve Bannon! Let his legacy disappear overnight amidst widespread awareness of his efforts and understanding of his impact! Let him watch history dismiss him to a prison of his own making! Let his descendants reject everything he stands for, to his face! Let Adolf Hitler greet him in Hell with a disappointed "dude, eternity is a long time to spend after realizing your faults only fifty years in; why did you envy *me?*")

(Zuckerberg will be in Hell too, wearing a VR helmet on his head that lets him pretend he's in Heaven.)

(And Trump will be stuck on the infernal internet, watching as God righteously tweets at him, Trump unable to reply.)

(Mitch McConnell will stand still forever in the infernal courts, trying to vote on the redemption of his soul, against an assembly which filibusters him.)

(Vladimir Putin will feel the spiked strings scrape against his skin, forever as the devil's puppet. He will never hear the sound of Russian again, not even in his own cries.)

(And Boris Johnson will be trapped face-to-face with Margaret Thatcher's rotting head.)

[opossumfeels]

International Holiday