#i HAD to know what was making them tick. i was like...the michael bay movies? you want those creatures to sloppy make out?

[camgirlkaminari]

ugh i MAY OR MAY NOT have fallen into a deep hole i cant get myself out of. my commitment to the bit will be my downfall. im like some sort of. rule 34 gajinka. human erotic tulpa generator. anyway last night i drew bowuigi porn

[theatersunavailable]

“Paranormal Activity” film series (2009 - 2015)

“Paranormal Activity” (2007), “Paranormal Activity 2” (2010), “Paranormal Activity 3” (2011), “Paranormal Activity 4” (2012), “Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones” (2014), “Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension” (2015),

R, total running time is 520 minutes (575 minutes if you do the unrated cuts), directed by (in order) Oren Peli, Tod Williams, Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman*, Christopher Landon, and Gregory Plotkin, written by Oren Peli (1), Michael R. Perry (2), Christopher Landon (for 2-5), Tom Pabst (2), and Jason Pagon, Andrew Stark, Adam Robitel, and Gavin Hefferman (6), based on characters created by Oren Peli Rent or purchase digitally on major video platforms; streaming varies by movie. As of 26 November 2020: 1 and 2 are on Showtime, 3 is on Epix, 4 can be streamed for free on Tubi, “The Marked Ones” can be streamed for free on Pluto TV, and “The Ghost Dimension” is also on Pluto TV!. Don’t worry if you don’t already have access to Showtime or Epix to what the first ones. You could really probably jump in anywhere - there’s a loosely cohesive story connecting them all, but they’re also all pretty stand alone (and give a glimpse of what you need from the other when appropriate).

Notable performers: It’s gotta go to Katie Featherston (for reasons that I won’t go into here #spoilers!) 

Why you should watch it in general: I had actually put off watching these for the longest time because I thought they were trying to be like “The Exorcist” but more specifically just about the electromagnetic phenomenon of spirits in the static on TV and stuff (but like, in the cameras…). I don’t know what I was thinking! These are actually pretty damn compelling (and deal with an actual spirit demon possession thing). 

Why you should watch it while you’re stuck at home: It’ll (eventually) make you glad that your sister isn’t going to just pop over with a box VHS tapes that are old home movies that end up reminding you about being haunted by a weird demon when you were a kid.

Is it part of a franchise: It’s the entire franchise, bay-bee! 

Have I seen it before: No. 

Do the trailers do it justice: Honestly, the trailer for the first one is one of those bullshit trailers that tells you how the cast or the audience reacted to the movie, rather than relying on showing you parts of the movie (it also does that) and letting you make your own judgements about it. I think that’s part of why I never bothered with these movies. But as the series progresses, the trailers improve.

You may recall from a previous recommendation that I have this theory about horror movies and the houses that they take place in (if you live in a 1960’s ranch-style house, you’ll never be in a horror movie … though maybe you’ll end up in a prestige television show with some horror elements (I’m looking at you “Stranger Things” and “Umbrella Academy” (season 2)). I also mentioned that, based on my limited knowledge of “Paranormal Activity” that those movies seemed to defy the style of house required for horror movie livin’, because there seemed to be a specific suburban quality to them. And I was right about that. But that specific suburban quality carries through the entire series (with one urban apartment setting, which is also the only one where the main characters aren’t white people - sigh). So maybe that classifies these as their own specific sub-genre within my house theory.

Generic suburban-townhouse-style-homes abound!

I digress. 

These movies are good. They are tense and build and do a good job of not entirely boring you with the minutes ticking by on the camera as you watch people sleep. (Seriously, you’re going to watch a lot of people sleeping in bed, but you’ll be compelled to watch.)

They also, through the weird expansion of their universe, do clever things to tie them together. (Yes, the second movie is a prequel and and is the sister of the woman in the first movie and you’re going to spend some time going “… I don’t get it, if this shit was happening to the sister the entire time a month before the first movie, why does it seem like in the first movie, the main character has no idea what might be happening? They clearly talk throughout movie 2!” But it ends up working.

Also, you know you how “Scream 4” starts with a bunch of a false starts that end up being the in-universe “Stab” sequels? And then it’s explained how “Stab 5” ‘has time travel, which is by far the worst (“Stab”)’ … yeah, there’s some time travel as this series progresses, but it TOTALLY. WORKS. It’s so damn clever. 

Anyway. 

Watch these movies! And I said, even if you can’t start with the first one, you could probably definitely get a way with starting with a later one and then circling back to the ones that are currently only on premium streaming services (if they become available elsewhere later). 

*Yes, the guy from “Catfish”, which depending on how you feel about whether or not they went for him because these are found footage movies that are kind of like a documentary, might lend credence to the whole “Catfish” isn’t a documentary the way that these aren’t actually found footage movies. (I’m still pretty sure the entire “Catfish” franchise is just a bunch of BS.)

[captaincharpen]

Movie Optimus and Megatron are actually really deep guys, seriously

You know what, screw it, I’m dropping all of my thoughts on why I think Bayverse Optimus and Megatron are tragically underrated here. So buckle up kids, here we go

So everyone seems to think that the Optimus Prime and Megatron of Michael Bay’s movie series are either terribly shallow husks of their classic characterizations at best, or atrocious bastardizations of sacred childhood icons at worst.

However I, an intellectual, have unwisely spent several hours of my life poring over every detail of them to come to the conclusion that there’s actually a lot going on with them. So I’m going to drag you, kicking and screaming, into my head and break down exactly what makes these two tick. Starting with Megatron.

Now most people see this guy and think “generic movie bad guy. Makes evil plan, screws up evil plan, slinks away to return in sequel with a more messed up face”. But this Megatron actually has so much going on for him that I think he could almost be seen as a would-be hero in his own way.

While starting a war that effectively killed his planet does dock him quite a few sympathy points, one thing that can’t be denied is that he truly cared about Cybertron when all’s said and done.

While his plots to destroy Earth to restore Cybertron can easily come off as bog-standard bad guy scheming, looking at it from his perspective, he’s fought for centuries to reform his home for, what he thinks, is the greater good. And now that he’s done so much damage to it for that goal, he’s determined to fix it, no matter what it takes.

That’s why he risked stranding himself on an alien planet to find the Allspark when, arguably, it would’ve been easier to simply press on with the war he was winning and find another planet to colonize when the dust settled. It’s also why, no matter how many times he’s left for dead or forced to work with people who’s ideals he’d normally hate, he still chases every chance to restore life to Cybertron anyway. Because that genuinely is the most important thing to him, and he’s perfectly willing to give his life as many times as necessary to save it

And even though his negligence of human life seems terrible from our perspective, in his eyes it’s a necessary evil to sacrifice a bunch of tiny aliens to finally bring his home back from the brink of a death that he’s effectively responsible for. Of course that doesn’t make it okay, but it’s not like he’s a cackling villain who wants to screw over humanity for fun. From his perspective, Optimus abandoned the planet they’d waged thousands of years of war over for the sake of some random alien planet he decided he liked better. And the thing is, he’s kind of right

The Optimus Prime of the movies is usually seen as either a noble, if bland, hero or a psychotic maniac who’s prone to chronic bloodlust. But honestly, he can be, and very much is, a little bit of both

So it’s obvious that this Optimus is a little cracked in the head, and it’s hard to see how he could NOT be after having his figurative and/or literal brother turn on him and failing to stop him from nearly destroying their homeworld and killing millions of people, all of whom Optimus was responsible for protecting. Not to mention being forced to willingly seal his planet’s fate by throwing the Allspark, the one thing that could save it, into the far reaches of who-knows-where.

And through all of this, he HAS to maintain a stoic, optimistic appearance. He can’t show any doubt, hesitation, grief, or even the effects of the general stress of the job, because he’s the one pillar holding up what’s left of the Autobots. They’ve lost literally everything else, and if their perfect leader who’ll get them through any crisis were to ever show that he’s vulnerable, the last thing they could really believe in would effectively be shattered.

So instead he dedicates himself to an, admittedly very unhealthy, black-and-white view of “Autobots and humans good, Decepticons bad”. He’s tried pleading, negotiating and showing mercy to the Decepticons and it got his planet nearly destroyed and him and his loyal friends stranded light-years away. So he’s essentially lost faith in himself and allowed himself to go further than he ever would otherwise just to see an end to the Decepticons for good

I think the best character to compare him to would be, believe it or not, Batman. No matter how far he goes, he’ll always hold onto his one rule. And for Optimus, that “one rule” is humanity. He clearly sees humanity as a reflection of what the Cybertronians used to be and as a result, projects his guilt over his failures and desire to see Cybertron start over, and do things right this time, onto them.

When he makes the decision to sacrifice himself and the Allspark to save Earth from Megatron, it’s arguable that he was effectively running away from what he sees as his failed legacy and giving a new chance to humanity in its place. Now obviously that’s an incredibly short-sighted idea, which even Sam could see, but by that point Optimus had effectively given up on Cybertron and adopted Earth as his “new Cybertron”. In his final speech at the end of the first movie, he seems incredibly dismissive of the loss of Cybertron and seems totally fine to just chill on Earth forever.

And no matter how many times the Decepticons uncover new ways to fix Cybertron, at the expense of the humans, he immediately shoots them down, while never trying to find a more mutually beneficial solution of his own. Even when the cracks start to show in the Autobots’ alliance with the humans and his own mentor and father figure seemingly comes back from the dead to tell him he’s given up on Cybertron, he still gives an optimistic speech at the end of DOTM and says that he’ll never turn his back on humanity. Even after seeing his old world right in from of him, he seems to feel no affinity for it anymore.

That is, until he has his mid-life crisis after the soft reboot of the last two movies. Humanity outright betrays him, almost all of the last of his loyal followers and friends are dead because of it, he could’ve seen the obvious signs of this coming, but he didn’t.

He decides to break his one rule and kill whoever’s responsible for all of it, but still clings onto his black-and-white defense mechanism of convincing himself that this one human is the SOLE instigator of their betrayal, as he’s still unwilling to admit that his new favorite aliens could be just as terrible as his own people can. And when he does finally kill him it’s only when his new human friend would die if he didn’t act immediately.

But once that line was finally crossed, he hits rock bottom. Sure, he goes back on his threat to abandon Earth and commands his Autobots to protect yet another special human friend, essentially falling back on his old ways of having maybe a little too much faith in humans. But once he leaves to find his creators, to “find himself” essentially. He’s forced to confront his failures yet again, this time in front of someone claiming to be his creator and, by extension, the supposed authority on what he should and shouldn’t be. And, in his vulnerable state, he allows himself to become corrupted into “Nemesis Prime”.

Now one could argue this was just simple brainwashing, but I could argue, have you SEEN this Prime? This is essentially what he’s like all the time, only now he’s stripped of the tenuous limits he’s placed on himself. In keeping with the Batman comparison, he’s “lived long enough to see himself become the villain”.

But the thing that brings him back from the brink isn’t one of his precious humans, it’s the voice of the one Autobot who stuck by his side all this time and is still there believing in him even at his worst. When he’s finally reminded of what he’s really fighting for, the Autobots who pledged their loyalty to him, knowing that he could lead them to victory, his faith in himself is restored. Maybe not completely yet, but he’s remembered that the awe inspiring leader that his Autobots see isn’t just a facade. Which is why his “did you forget who I am” scene is one of the most underrated badass moments in the entire movie series. Even without my painstaking overanalysis in your head to back it up.

And with that, I think I’ve rambled long enough that your brain has been reduced to a fine paste, so if you’ve really soldiered on this far, total props to you on that and I appreciate you caring this much about my mad rambling. Obviously, I’ve romanticized both characters here quite a bit, but I kind of had to for the sake of the argument. In practice, both of them are unstable, single-minded and admittedly kind of selfish. But I just wanted to point out that both of them have their own reasons for being the way they are, that could have easily gone deeper and made them into truly iconic takes on these characters if the movies had only run with the concepts they set up.

And so my only solution was to amend that with a hastily slapped together essay on my Tumblr blog that nobody reads. Anyway thank you for coming to my TED talk

[tusoktusok-blog1]

A different kind of food magazine

The food magazine – it’s not the usual lens through in which we consider issues of class. If anything, the conventional publications about food and dining are virtually apolitical. After all, what exactly is there politicize in glossy, touched up pictures of food? 

The food magazines we pick up at groceries, at bookstores, or in waiting rooms are probably one of the easiest distractions we can get to avoid the stress of our already political lived realities. Food is a staple in our lives because we are living beings, and we aren’t given much choice on the matter. But good food is comfort, a form of escapism even, something to imagine fondly much like one imagines a romance. This is the kind of passionate imagery food magazines aim to project in our minds: imagery that leans towards detachment from everything that isn’t the divine and the indulgent. Now, let me dream of this delicious thing I saw on page 35 that I’ll probably never get around to making.

But wait – before you’re completely convinced – there’s of course the argument that of course we can examine the hierarchical nature of our society using food as a medium. More specifically, the food magazine. Through escapism, a more pleasurable, more opulent world is promised. Thus, the idea of food porn. From the most carefully edited food magazines, to even the free-for-all essence of microblogging, especially on Instagram, the idea of food porn has been made so pervasive that even our titas are slapping the hashtag onto their latest post. It’s a buzzword, a surefire headline to even the most overdone article. And what is pornography, be it for food or humans, but a manifestation of escapism and self-indulgence? And to stretch the logic, what is pornography, especially the human kind, but a reproduction of the hierarchy between the man and woman, the masculine and feminine, the empowered and disempowered?

Jumping off of that last point, Alan Madison – a producer and director of high-budget food shows, who happens to have a background as a former production assistant in the porn industry – argues that pornography has nothing to do with the enhancement and increased valuation of images. He argues,

Porn’s images are graphic, not stylized; real, not enhanced… If there were an accurate definition of food porn it would not be recipes in food magazines augmented with the sumptuous close-up photography. Instead, [it] would be the grainy, shaky, documentary images of slaughterhouses, behind-the-scenes fast food workers spitting in their products, or dangerous chemicals being poured on farmland.

And arguably, the “real” things are the things we would rather not think about or talk about, much less in our safe haven in the pages of the food magazine. The “real” things are political, and that brings us back to issues of class and of social hierarchies.

It’s entirely possible to think of these things through food and food magazines – we can simply start by asking the question, for who is all this? What kind of aspirations are we not only encouraged to have, but also told we would be better off having, through these images? Of course, this last question is true for all aspects of advertising. For example, even the most normal, unflashiest of cars get the flashiest and ultra-cinematic treatment of shots of either zipping through the city, going on gritty off-road adventures, or action movie appropriate car chases with Michael Bay-esque explosions in the background (of course all to pick up a beautiful lady in a shapely dress). International food magazines that are targeted to a more affluent audience – like Saveur or Gourmet – have articles about French vineyards and wine connoisseurs, about vacationing in Sicily and the best restaurants to go while you’re there. While there are magazines which are notches lower in snootiness, both international – like Bon Appetit and Food & Wine Magazine – and local – like Yummy and FOOD – there is always a premium put, well, on the premium. Or on whatever product an advertiser is willing to pay more for, but that’s a different story altogether.

But if food is an inescapable part of our experience, why are only the good-looking dishes and ingredients and brands hogging the limelight? We know that food is not always pretty, and there are interesting conversations to be had about them. In order to have truly productive discussions about how we can examine both ourselves and our community, we must take a closer look and dig deeper into the things we often take for granted – like what we eat.

Jack Goody, a social anthropologist, puts it best: he said that status, class, and prestige comprise probably the most important area signaled by food. In division of social class, there is a corresponding division of food and physical space. And of course, maybe not you, but much of us would like to emulate status – the kind of status set forth by lavish food magazines – and so there is an inevitable cycle that begins. But what about the other side of the coin? There is a whole food system out there, a whole world at odds with the haute cuisine world, and it is worth talking about too with the kind of focus and prevailing accessibility of the magazine. This is the food culture of the working class Filipino, of both the consumer and the merchant involved. The food that people like us eat for the novelty or photo-op are the foundations of communities that are afforded less. It is community.

And of course, it’s never really just about food. There are a truckload of issues that must be unpacked when talking about “poor food”, AKA the stuff you’d never see in a mainstream food magazine unless they were to be “re-imagined” by a professional chef and but on a clean white platter. Issues like appropriation, urban beautification, commercialization (which will be attempted to tackle later on), are ticking time bombs that when exploded, will hit the most vulnerable the first and the hardest.

We can imagine the food magazine to be more than what it is, and more than what it has been known to be. Hopefully we can agree that what we eat is political, whether we like it or not, because it involves other people, it involves regulations and prohibitions, and it involves money. So why should writing about it and talking about it stay deliberately apolitical and neutral? We can imagine the food magazine to be an avenue for education and mobilization – and not just towards making a trip to the supermarket or booking a reservation. And the soil is fertile for just that, because food is one of the few things that is universal, that is appreciated and looked forward to by all of us. And this publication will hopefully try to fill in at least a tiny gap in the space left behind by food magazines and other similar literature that move forward and towards a higher center, continuously.

References:

Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies, Vol. 10 No. 1, Winter 2010; (pp. 38-46)

Goody, Jack. Cooking, Cuisine, and Class: A Study in Comparative Sociology. , 1982.

[aion-rsa]

Aquaman, Black Manta, and DC's Year of the Villain

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Kelly Sue DeConnick told us what to expect from Aquaman and Black Manta during DC's Year of the Villain event.

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Kelly Sue DeConnick is a pretty big deal. Her creator-owned work has won her, among other accolades, a Hugo nomination and a British Fantasy Award win for Bitch Planet, the brutal political satire exploitation book she did with Taki Soma and Valentine De Leandro; and an Eisner nomination with Emma Rios for the staggeringly beautiful mythic western, Pretty Deadly. But it’s her work with Carol Danvers that you’re most likely familiar with. Her time writing Captain Marvel made the character one of the biggest superheroes in comics, and paved the way for Carol’s absurdly successful film earlier this year.

So when she made the jump to DC (along with Legion of Super-Heroes reboot mastermind and current steward of the Superman titles Brian Michael Bendis; current writer of the best Superman book in years Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen Matt Fraction; and new Wonder Woman mythmaker, G. Willow Wilson), it was the sign of a massive change for the line. DeConnick took over as writer on Aquaman with December’s #43 and set about building a world around Arthur on land, while leaving plenty of trouble back in Atlantis for Mera to deal with. We had a chance to sit down with her and talk about her time building up Amnesty Bay, Aquaman’s unique power set, and why Black Manta is both the perfect villain for Aquaman and a deeply, profoundly messed up individual.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity. 

Den of Geek: Early on you defined [Aquaman’s] signature power is the ability to ask for help. Is that kind of the overarching key to the narrative here?

Kelly Sue Deconnick: I don't know that I think that's the central thesis. I do think it is a thing about him that I find fascinating that I don't think has been explored. The “heavy is the head that wears the crown” thing has been very explored. I don't know what new thoughts I have to bring to that aside from the fact that it's kind of interesting to see Mera battling with that right now.

But I do think if we're kind of looking at for what hasn't been done, what is rich to be explored with him, and also I think what has often been treated as something that's problematic about him. But I think it doesn't have to be, shouldn't be, and is in fact really interesting, is the fact that his signature ability is this ability to ask for help where he is also just a classically masculine character. Those two traits can sometimes be treated as incongruent. The tough guy doesn't ask for help.

read more: Batman Universe is a New Kind of Dark Knight Story

I think that what's interesting is when we're sort of picking apart the idea of what makes a natural leader. So, one of the ways that they've played with the signature ability in the past is…it’s not that he talks to fish because that would just be ridiculous. He can control them because their minds are really small, but I don't think controlling another living thing is a heroic ability. I think that's a villainous power. Regardless of the depths of the mind of the thing that you're controlling, I think controlling something that has a will of any kind... I think that's villainy.

Right. Coercion or control is the easy way out, right? The inspiring thing to do is to convince a bunch of people to see your way.

Yeah, and the idea being that you have to be in this for the right reasons. They have to trust you, you must have a higher goal in mind in order to have everyone come to your aid.

What made me think that that the ability to ask for help was maybe one of the theses that you were building around was the community that is kind of forming around Arthur in Amnesty Bay. You've got all of the powerful water gods, you've got Aqualad back with him. But, it feels like if the ability to ask for help is what defines him as a hero, it feels like you're setting up a lot of people who are willing to give him help if he asks.

Yes, absolutely. I'm also playing in this particular arc with the idea of forgiveness. I mean, the town is called Amnesty. All of the people that we've sort of pulled in here are people who have struggled on either side of needing to forgive or needing to find forgiveness, which sounds super action oriented and punchy [laughs].

But the thing about superhero stories is finding the humanity in them. It can't just be about pretty costumes bouncing around the page and cool action sequences. Cool action sequences and pretty costumes bouncing around the page are vital components of the genre and they need to be answered, but there also has to be something that transcends that, that's human that we can all relate to in order for us to make the connection that makes it resonate. And so, it's a little bit of a puzzle. And this is something I've worked with before because Carol Danvers is not a thinky heroine. She punches shit. You have a problem, Carol would like to punch it.

But you find the themes in there that resonate, that transcend just the action sequences, and even in the action sequences. Even when you're choreographing the action sequences, you're still looking for ways to... The same way that Stanislavski trained actors to look for psychological gestures to mirror what's going on inside the character, we're looking for that on the page so we can find the ways to make it have a capital T truth to it, make it have something that resonates for us.

read more: Aquaman Comics Reading Order

Mera and Arthur are in a place right now where each of them needs to forgive and each of them needs to ask for forgiveness. They're so strong and so proud that neither one of them wants to be the first one to do it, and they have a ticking clock in the form of a child coming. That's real and human and it's not perfect. It's beautifully flawed and the kind of thing that you don't need to be bulletproof to understand that feeling.

It sounds like you're setting up Black Manta to be kind of the third point of the triangle there, with the needing to forgive and too proud to do it and-

Completely unable to.

Exactly. Right, and letting that kind of consume him. Does he fit in your head as the ur-Aquaman villain?

Oh absolutely. In contemporary Aquaman, the two big villains he has are Orm and Manta, and I was given the directive that they wanted him out of Atlantis for a while. That Atlantis and Atlantean politics had been well covered. It was an excellent storyline, and we needed to remind the readers that he was part of the DC universe on Earth, and we really need to make Amnesty Bay a place that feels like it has a sense of place as much as Gotham or Metropolis. Amnesty Bay should feel like a place we know and recognize. We know the characters that live there. When I say Metropolis or Gotham, you know exactly what I'm talking about, right? So Amnesty Bay, you should have that same sense of place and the characters that populate that place.

read more: Every DC Comics and DCEU Easter Egg in the Aquaman Movie

So we're really trying to build this. And so if the directive we've been given was to tell stories with him in his world on land, Orm doesn't make sense as the primary villain there because Orm doesn't really... With the exception of when Orm flirted with being a good guy for a little while, which I thought was fantastically done, it's one of my favorite Aquaman stories in the last few years. But his concerns are all Atlantean. So, if Arthur leaves Atlantis, Orm is delighted, he does not give a shit. He's not going to come after him. There is nothing that matters to him there. Now, the child might change that.

Hint hint.

MIGHT. I don't know, we'll see.

But if we're talking about Amnesty Bay, and land-based stories, then Manta is just the obvious go-to. And he's such a great character, such a great character, it's not like "Oh damn." It's like "Well great, fantastic. I love him." He's one of those people that, they say resentments are like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. And that's him. He is just everyday drinking poison.

And now we get to drive the mech around.

Yeah. Well, kinda.

It's a little bit better than drinking poison.

Yeah. And the Mech is programmed to be like getting his dad back. There's a lot to play with there too because that's a complicated relationship.

And it's from Luthor, so obviously there's going to be some catch to it.

When we were talking about the villain offers [happening across the DC line as part of this month’s Year of the Villain tie-ins] and it was like, there is literally nothing... There's no fire power, there is literally nothing that Lex could give him that he would give a shit about. He just doesn't care. You want to give him something, he'll take it, but he's not going to make a deal with you for it. Because there's just nothing that's worth it to him. The only thing he would really want is his dad back and you can't give him that, and then it was like "Wait, could you?", and then that became interesting - what happens if you get what you asked for? And when you get what you're asked for, Lord protect me from what I want.

read more: Year of the Villain Leads to the Biggest Event in DC Universe History

Maybe having his dad back isn't exactly what he thought it was going to be. I just had this notion that he got his dad back and his dad wasn't exactly what he wanted. And then he'd remember that like "Oh no, his dad didn't respect him the way he wanted his dad to respect him."

...He fusses with the AI, basically reprogramming the father figure to be the father figure he wants. Which, it's really fucked up and incredibly human.

So what's Robson Rocha been doing art-wise that made you go "Shit, I should probably give him more of that to do?"

I spoke to him in the very beginning. I looked at all of his work when they were trying to make a pair for us, and suggested Robson, and I looked at it, and it was like "Oh, this is big, epic stuff." So, this is kind of like, we've got to start thinking. We got to think big and epic, and then I talked to him and I was like "What do you want to draw?". He was like "Monsters." I was like "Alright! I'm in." So, big, epic monsters. Cool. And he has just been killing the monster thing.

The thing that I discovered though that was fascinating was he's really, really, really good at that, but most artists that I'm familiar with who have that kind of giant epic scope and can do those big sort of airbrushed-on-the-side-of-a-van kind of scenes, that is where all of their energy goes and they're not as good at the small human acting moments. He is.

read more - Aquaman Villains Explained: Who is Black Manta?

He's incredibly good at the small human acting moments, and in fact handles humor beautifully well and the Aqualad introduction. His take on Aqualad and his expressions and even his face, I asked him. I was like "Are you using a model for this kid?" because there's a real specificity to his facial structure. He doesn't look like generic dude.

[Aqualad] exists in space. That construction of his skull stays no matter what. I know we're talking about basic drawing here, but it's not something... It's rare actually to have someone who is that distinctive looking and it's not model-based, and he's like "Nope, just comes out of my head.". I'm like "Oh, okay. You're a genius. Neat."

Yeah, when Aqualad follows Arthur into the water the facial expression, the way that his face is just flopping around on his skull is really like anime humor.

It’s just fantastic. He can do the humor without undercutting the stakes of the action, and that is a gift. So, he is just a complete delight to work with, and he is crazy fast. I feel like I'm being chased. I don't know how he is both that good and that fast.

What's been the toughest thing about Aquaman and Atlantis to crack, and what's been the most pleasant surprise now that you're kinda into it?

It's always hard coming in when you're writing these characters that have these long histories, and I think coming in at the time of the movie and making the book welcoming to the movie viewer, and also not alienating to the longtime fan. That was hard. Also, just getting him... He's a tough guy. He's not chatty. Getting him to kind of open up to me and I'm sort of learning who he is. That was hard. The supporting cast helps with that a lot.

read more: Everything You Need to Know About Aquaman 2

Also, just having the longtime fan base trust me that I don't hate Mera. I love Mera, I love their relationship, but adult relationships can be complicated. I think they are one of the definitive relationships in the DC universe, and I believe they were the first married couple too, which I think is really important. I've no interest in making their love story go away. I am interested in complicating it because human beings are complicated, and I think that makes it more important and more real.

Once we get some of this stuff wrapped up, I want to play with format a little bit. I want to do some more contained stuff. I want to see if I can figure out a way to do some of that. So, the X-Files model where you have these done in ones, but then you also have like larger storylines.

Read and download the Den of Geek SDCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!

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Interview Jim Dandy

Aug 21, 2019

DC Entertainment

Aquaman

from Books https://ift.tt/2Nqy1Kb

[geek-gem]

A talk about the DCEU

I’m gonna be honest. I was kind of nervous and just didn’t know well…at Sierra Vista just near let me see that Jungle Play House at one of the tables the third one. Just kind of in the middle ha man.

Just I’m sorry I’ve been a bit nervous. I’ve been thinking just…I’m gonna tag this. I have been nervous mainly I wanna be okay with what I have to say and spoiler it’s positive mostly man almost left nab ha man…yet I’m worried of people’s reactions not just people who dislike the DCEU even fans themselves. Or just…I mean Tumblr maybe a lot of people see this or not.

I’ll just say it and just said I do or some shit shit. I like the DCEU. I’m being serious. I honestly like what direction they are taking. Including their are things I like. Just saying I had thoughts of making a Zack Snyder post but I feel this will do.

But I like the DCEU. I like the MCU. But this DCEU has some stuff I personally like.

Even with my messy review. I kind of struggle of my liking toward the film yet at times I think.

I like Batman V Superman Dawn Of Justice. The film is not perfect. Yet the Ultimate Edition I feel I know it may seem like bullshit but it really helped me with my thoughts on the film. But I feel some stuff could be better. Yet I honestly like that film.

Other things such as I honestly really like Henry Cavill as Superman/Kal El/Clark Kent and Ben Affleck as Batman/Bruce Wayne that I really don’t want them to be recasted. Those rumors of Affleck leaving are bullshit. I seriously like them as the characters.

Also really I’m confused I like both DC and Marvel. Including I really loved Spider-Man Homecoming including as a Spider-Man movie. Yet just…again their are things I like about what the people behind the DCEU are doing. It’s not perfect yet I like it.

Well maybe I did see quite a bit of DC cartoons when I was younger being exposed to that might help.

I honestly like Man Of Steel and Wonder Woman. But I haven’t seen Suicide Squad just…I have mixed feelings on seeing that film. Just in case anyone reading this maybe a reblog don’t know how to reply to replies or…just a message or ask. Anyone’s opinions ether good or bad. I just feel mixed towards Suicide Squad.

Including I like the casting choices made for a lot of the characters. I’m even okay with Jessie Eisenberg as Lex Luthor because I don’t mind the new direction Zack was trying to take.

Also I might wanna add Gal just everyone maybe in the I can’t or just don’t want them recast even Jessie but need to see Suicide Squad ha man.

Including I mean Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman.

Also I’m gonna say I freakin adored Hans Zimmer’s and Junkie XL’s soundtrack of Batman V Superman including tracks like, “Beautiful Lie”, “Black And Blue”, and, “This Is My World” a track I’ve listened to many times even some remixes. I think I’ve listened to it too much yet imagining the right kind of moments it’s a track that makes me want to cry I’m even thinking of it right now mate ha.

Now Zack Snyder I like him. I really do. Mainly over time just my reaction towards BVS was a bit more negative yet over time I’ve looked into it a bit more.

Also I don’t wanna insult Zack. I haven’t seen all of his work and it’s mainly Man Of Steel and BVS, also Dawn Of The Dead the remake along with that wanna give my piece rest in piece George Romero I found out that news from yesterday mainly a FilmJunkie video about Zack taking down some Justice League stuff.

I can’t really word it right or just I like him. Including what happened to his daughter committing suicide is tragic as all fuck. No one should have to go through that. Really I’m concerned for him and hope him and his family are doing alright. Along with the fact I want him to come back but when he feels like he’s ready.

Even with that stupid joke in my head but it’s with people wondering if he shows up at ComicCon and him being like I’m back mother fuckers and people cheering. Yet I want him to take his time. That’s his choice I forgot if ComicCon okay what time is ComicCon this week or next week. Also damn fly still around.

Really okay I need to be honest it’s not to insult him. He’s not perfect. Yet I like his directing style and I can tell what he’s trying to do. It’s not perfect. Yet just… seriously I really admire him or something.

Including what I’ve learned more on Tumblr he seems like a really cool guy such as respecting women, and that his mother who died years ago inspired him. Theirs more stuff I might need to find out.

In fact my personal thoughts I honestly hate it when people compare him to Michael Bay. The director of those God damn Transformers films. To me at least Zack has well has some class and his direction of what a story he wants to tell. Really I don’t wanna talk much about Michael Bay that’s another story. But I’m just saying I don’t seem to like it when people compare the two yet my opinion man ha chill bro.

Meh it’s normal to smile. I don’t know…just seriously I like the MCU but I feel like the DCEU is a cinematic universe is to my liking. The fact just…I’m really excited for Justice League, even Aquaman, and whatever films they want to put in their cinematic universe.

Maybe beautiful in a way ha but…just I like it. Because just yeah it’s not perfect. Yet their are some things I liked. I’m sorry I don’t know what else to say. I needed to get this off my mind.

I do wanna say I feel ashamed or just disappointed just sad I didn’t see Batman V Superman in theaters twice. Including I would of loved to see the Ultimate Edition in theaters man. That honestly made me change my view on some things.

But just I don’t know almost left hot ha but…how deep can I be with this. Hey I also liked Doomsday. Yeah I seriously do I’m bothered we don’t have more figures of ha his version from BVS.

I wanted to get this off my chest. But I don’t know or forgot how to ha…be more deep with this man. So wrote Wonder Woman tag twice and no Suicide Squad tag ha…sorry yeah normal to smile.

But sorry wanted to get this off my chest that I like the DCEU

edit put the Justice League tag but that was the 2nd thought cause guess I’ll say this…that Zack Snyder or yeah both the DCEU has inspired me a bit ha…in front of GameStop. But I felt the inspiring thing was important ha…it’s okay to smile just…yeah the inspiring thing I felt was important sorry was to nervous to say edit yeah in GameStop sorry some ticks but I seriously felt it was important to mention the inspired part

[dstevensartgallery]

Dave’s Brain Farts; At the 'Costa' My Sanity

Hello internet, and welcome to another one of Dave's Brainfarts. This is where I talk about all things comics, games, toys, movies, and general nerdery.

Considering the subject of my last few rants on here, it should be abundantly clear by now that I really do not like the literary works of Mike Costa.

I'd never even heard of the guy up until 2009, when it was announced that he would be the lead writer on the new Transformers ongoing series, after the 'All Hail Megatron' series. All I knew about him, going into Transformers 2009, was that he had previously worked on IDW's G.I. Joe series, which had gotten pretty positive feedback.

And boy was Transformers 2009 a let down, lemme tell ya...

The series was dead on arrival, though most of the initial flack was targeted towards Don Figueroa, who had done the art for the series, Costa was just as much to blame for many of TF 2009's problems. Most of the complaints towards Don were about his design choice for the Transformers, mainly that he had taken on an aesthetic closer to the Michael Bay movies. They weren't bad designs, but I think what ticked fans off about them were mostly the facial designs of the characters, and the fact that this was shortly after the release of Transformers; Revenge of the Fallen, which was still leaving a bad taste in people's mouths.

But I'm not here to talk about Don Figueroa, I'm here to talk about the guy who's name I made into a terrible pun in the title.

Apart from the art, the other failing point of Transformers 2009, or as it was known at the time, Transformers Ongoing, was the writing, the complete lack of direction, lack of character, and lack of effort.

Let's summarize the events of Ongoing;

Arc 1; Humans are hunting down the Autobots after the events of All Hail Megatron. Ironhide is killed by humans. Hot Rod is being angsty. Optimus is being a whiny bitch and steps down as Leader. Bumblebee is made Autobot leader. The humans and autobots form an alliance.

Arc 2; The Autobots go to war with North Korea... no, seriously.

Oh, and there's a one shot where Spike murders a Decepticon.

Arc 3; Americans are mad that the Autobots are working with humans and use knockoff mind controlling Megatron guns to try and kill them. 

Arc 4; Autobots leave earth to fight Galvatron on Cybertron.

Considering I could summarize most of those arcs in one sentence tells you just how much depth there was in them. Out of the 30 or so issues that went into Ongoing, only TWO ever got more than 3 stars, these two issues are considered the best of the series and are character studies of Optimus Prime and Megatron, which brings up both of their personal histories in the IDW G1 continuity, except Mike Costa did not write these issues, James Roberts did.

From what I was able to gleam from Costa's run of Transformers, I found his writing to be really lacking, he had an inability to properly portray characters or even give people character, the story kept flip flopping all over the place. Things just happened without explanation, Optimus quitting over the death of Ironhide was one such dumb move, Hot Rod partnering with Swindle was another dumb move, and then there was the whole 'International Incident' arc (the aforementioned Autobots vs North Korea story).

His writing is lazy, his characters bland, he tries to set up big plot twists that always fall flat, his stories are riddled with inconsistencies and plot holes, and that's not even the worst of it.

I can tolerate bad writing, most of the time, but what really set me off about Mike Costa was the fallout after Ongoing.

With how badly received the series was by fans, how did Costa respond to the fact that people didn't like his Transformers comic?

By blaming the readers, and blaming the source material.

I can't find the interview in its entirety, but the summarize, Costa first blamed Transformers fans by basically saying, 'they don't know what they want'. He also followed up by saying he didn't know how to make a series about giant robots who turn into cars and trucks interesting or realistic.

Um, Mike, I don't know if you've noticed this but... YOU ARE A WRITER! IT IS YOUR JOB TO MAKE THE STORY INTERESTING!

If you didn't think you could do it, why did you even do it at all?

Suffice it to say, while I'm willing to, sometimes, tolerate bad writing, I have no tolerance for a writer who cannot own up to their shortcomings, or accept the fact that people don't like their work,  and I have no tolerance for a writer who will act like a whiny little pissant who blames his shortcomings on his audience and the source material.

So why am I talking about Costa again, despite having no respect for the guy or anything he writes?

That is because, not only did he write the single most hated Transformers series of the 2000's, he had to go and get his filthy mitts on Venom as well.

Now, like most kids of the 90's, my initial exposure to Venom was through the Spider-man TV series. I knew who Venom was, but I was never really into him at the time, he was just a dark Spider-man, I didn't even know who Eddie Brock was, and to be honest, I didn't care, Eddie didn't interest me, the Venom symbiote did.

I wouldn't learn more about Eddie and Venom until the cinematic trainwreck that was Sam Raimi's Spider-man 3. And all I got from that movie was that Eddie was just a scumbag reporter, who got his comeuppance for being a scumbag reporter, and couldn't accept the fact that he was a scumbag and wanted revenge on Spidey for ruining his life because he's a scumbag.

I actually wouldn't get into Venom comics until I was in college, when I picked up on the Agent Venom run of the comics, usually referred to as 'Venom Volume 2'. I orignally got into this series because I had been reading X-23 comics, which had been cancelled, but I had heard through the internet that Laura would be making an appearance in Venom (this was coming up on the Circle of Four crossover featuring Agent Venom, X-23, Red Hulk, and Ghost Rider). I didn't  want to just pick up some issues without first, maybe, getting a taste of this new Venom run, because I wanted to see what made Flash Thompson different from Eddie Brock.

And to be honest, I liked Flash more as Venom than I did Eddie. I could identify with Flash, I could sympathize with Flash. Rick Remender and later Cullen Bunn told a very compelling story for the former high school bully turned super soldier.

This run of Venom also introduced one of my favorite Marvel characters, Andrea 'Andi' Benton, aka Mania.

Things kinda went south for Flash though after the series was cancelled after 40 plus issues. He was a minor character in the Marvel NOW run of Thunderbolts, before leaving the team, and then was picked up by Brian Michael Bendis and added to the cast of Guardians of the Galaxy... where Flash was completely under utilized, got an upgrade when Bendis retconned the Planet of the Symbiotes story, and turned Flash and Venom into an 'agent of the cosmos'. This started Flash's next solo series, which unfortunately only lasted 13 issues, Venom Space Knight.

While there were some things I liked about Space Knight, it really wasn't as good as Venom volume 2, plus it really did feel like Robbie Thompson, the writer of Space Knight, wasn't able to do a whole lot with the character while Bendis had more control over him in Guardians... despite not using him at all half the time. Bendis had basically written Thompson into a corner.

Space Knight did see the return of Flash's sidekick Mania near the end of the serie, however, she would only return for the finale before the series ended with Flash returning to Earth, and Agent Venom and Mania swinging off into the night declaring 'Long Live Venom, Long Live Mania'.

This is where Costa went and ruined everything, as he always does.

When Marvel announced there would be a new Venom series in 2016 with a new host for the symbiote, me and other Flash fans were skeptical. After an ending like Space Knights, which had Flash and the Venom symbiote as partners and friends, and the declaration of 'Long Live Venom', why were we getting a story where the two would separate? What was going to change in Flash's relationship with Venom that would make Venom choose a new host? The incentive into Venom volume 3, was that this was an all new bad Venom, there would be 'no more Lethal Protector', and 'no more Agent of the Cosmos'. Despite it being announced that the host would not be Flash Thompson, or Eddie Brock, all incentive covers used the Eddie Brock design of Venom. 

Translation; Costa was saying ‘My Venom is better than yours’.

So I picked up the first issue, wondering just what could have caused Flash and Venom to separate, and... we didn't get an explanation, at the start of the series, Venom is already separated from Flash, having inexplicably devolved into a Gollum like gremlin thing and attacking a hobo.

Weak...

The book then introduced the new host for Venom, Lee Price.

Lee Price is, without a doubt, one of the most hated Venom hosts since Mac Gargan, his character is non-existent, his design looks like it was ripped from a Final Fantasy game, and the big selling point about him is that he can 'mentally overpower a symbiote'. How does he do this? By physically abusing the Venom symbiote and beating it with a chair. And what was Lee's big plans for the Venom symbiote? Use it to take over Black Cat's criminal empire, but try not to go too big and risk getting the attention of groups like the Avengers.

To say initial reactions to Lee Price and Mike Costa's first few issues were negative would be an understatement. These issues were reviled.

Costa did manage to do one thing with Lee Price though, he managed to get Eddie Brock fans and Flash Thompson fans to stop fighting each other and unite over how terrible of a character Lee Price is.

We see Lee Price's character is once again a mixture of Costa's lack or originality and laziness. Lee is like Flash Thompson in that he is a former soldier and war amputee (Flash Thompson having lost his legs in Iraq while Lee Price lost all the fingers on one of his hands), Lee is like Mac Gargan in that he is a criminal (because he couldn't get disability benefits for MISSING HIS FINGERS), and his Venom form is basically just a ripoff of Eddie Brock, except it's pointier and, for whatever reason, has bright white knuckles.

The extent of Lee's character, is that he's edgey, and that's it.

Well, that's not it entirely. During the crossover event, Venom Inc, a psych profile of Lee was posted on Marvel's website, which does further detail Lee's backstory and character and mentality.

Except you wouldn't get ANY of this just from reading Mike Costa's run of HIS OWN CHARACTER, because Costa has proven inept at character writing.

Should be noted the psych profile of Lee Price wasn't even written by Costa either.

Weak...

Venom, at its core, is a character driven narrative, it is about the relationship and struggles between the host and the symbiote, and if you cannot get readers to identify with the characters, or get the readers interested in the character, then that narrative falls flat.

In the span of six issues, Costa manages to destroy any development the symbiote had over the course of Venom volume 2, degrading it into a gollum like creature because Lee is able to 'corrupt' it. Despite Venom trying to maintain Flash's heroic influences, Lee is apparently able to mentally overpower the symbiote's influence, and any time the symbiote resists him, he abuses it.

About six issues in, we had the 150th issue of Venom, which celebrated the return of Eddie Brock as the host for Venom, having beaten Lee Price and taken the symbiote from him.

That's when I noticed a change in the Venom fandom, because up to this point, everyone hated the Costa run so far, no one liked Lee Price, they wanted him gone, and now, finally, that wish had been granted, and now Eddie was back in the suit. Basically, Costa had managed to gain the support of Eddie Brock fans in one issue.

To be honest, Eddie coming back and bonding with the symbiote again made little to no sense to me. I had done research on Eddie's comic history, since all I knew about him was from Spider-man 3, and the few bit appearances he had during Venom volume 2. But from what I had gathered, after separating with Venom the first time, Eddie hated symbiote, fanatically hated them. When he became Anti-Venom, and had the ability to 'cure' super powers, this only bolstered his hatred for symbiotes and that he was the cure for them. He fought Flash Thompson once during the Spider-Island event and almost killed him, before Flash fought back by making the Venom symbiote latch onto Eddie, and how did Eddie respond to this?

By screaming "NO! NOT AGAIN!"

Eddie would later return in volume 2 when he decides to go on an anti-symbiote crusade, where he goes around hunting down other symbiote hosts and murdering them, until he's captured by crime master and forcefully bonded to the Toxin symbiote.

Once again, he hated the experience.

Eddie would soon become an Agent Venom knockoff in the Carnage comics where he would wind up killing the Toxin symbiote, except not really, kinda, I don't even know what happened there. But, to put it plainly, Eddie pretty much has hated every symbiote bonding experience since Anti-Venom.

So to have Eddie randomly come back and bond with Venom again, makes absolutely no sense, even more so the fact that this time, instead of treating the need for the symbiote like a drug addiction, as most writers have done in the past, Costa has Eddie and Venom as lovers...ew...

You do remember the parts where he called Venom a demon, tried to destroy the symbiote as Anti-Venom, and went on a symbiote murdering crusade right? Did Costa even read or research any of Eddie's previous canon before deciding to do this, because I really don't think he did.

So, anyway, in Venom 150, we got a bunch of short stories, one written by Costa showing Eddie in his first outing in his old suit, where he kills a guy, and assaults a priest because the Venom symbiote doesn't like him. And then Flash fans finally get an explanation about how Flash separated from the Venom symbiote. To add insult to injury, it's written by Robbie Thompson, the writer of Venom Space Knight, who is, once again, written into a corner, this time by Costa. 

Considering Thompson had tried to end Space Knight on a high note, this short comic is a slap in the face.

Flash Thompson and Andi Benton are out one night, taking on a street gang. Following this scuffle, the two decide to have pizza on a rooftop. 

Andi leaves and Flash decides to stick around a bit longer, and is jumped by a 'rogue government agent' (that's the only description I could find) named 'Agent X'. 

X uses a sonic weapon to blow the Venom symbiote off of Flash, and suddenly, despite this happening to the pair numerous times throughout Flash's tenure with the symbiote, this time is apparently the straw that broke the camels back for the symbiote, and it runs away. 

This leads directly into the events of issue 1 where the Venom symbiote is attacking some random hobo before latching onto Lee.

When I initially ranted about this on twitter, people were quick to defend Costa by saying I should be mad at Thompson for being the one who wrote the short, but really, it was only done because Thompson had to tie it into Costa's narrative. So, yeah, this one is Costa's fault.

The story is forced, and it is the dumbest explanation for why Flash and Venom separated after how things ended in Space Knight, and is completely disrespectful to everything the two had been through over the course of Flash's tenure as Agent Venom. It is disrespectful to the work Bunn and Remender put into him, and it's disrespectful to Thompson by forcing him to write this story after the work he put into Space Knight.

There is no other way for Flash Thompson fans to take this except as a slap in the face.

So now Eddie Brock is Venom once more, and Eddie's fans are now, after regarding this series with so much scorn, now consider Eddie's return as the wonder cure that somehow miraculously made this series a lot better. Hate to tell you guys, but anything times 0 is still 0.

Costa follows up Eddie's return with the 'Land Before Crime' story arc, which as Eddie teaming up with  Stegron, under ground, because reasons, also, Lee Price is let out of prison on good behavior... despite having murdered two inmates and that being brought up at his bail hearing.

Either Costa really doesn't understand how things work, where he's intentionally making things hard for Lee Price to motivate him towards a life of crime by making him not qualify for disability benefits. 

(I looked this up, in some cases, missing fingers would not qualify you for disability benefits if you were working a job where missing your fingers wouldn't impede your ability to do your job, i.e. working as a school teacher or any job that doesn't require the use of your hands. But considering Lee would have been medically discharged from the military, and likely would only be able to qualify for work in labor intensive fields, jobs that would require the use of his hands, he SHOULD qualify for disability benefits.)

But then Costa also makes things unnaturally favorable for Price, such as being released from Prison, despite flimsy reasoning from his lawyer, and the fact that Lee murdered two inmates while in prison, which SHOULD have torpedoed any chance he had at freedom.

I didn't talk much about Costa's 'land before crime' story, because there really wasn't much to it.

Anyway, Lee's release would culminate in Venom's big crossover with Dan Slott's amazing Spider-man, Venom Inc.

I've ranted about Venom Inc enough times for everyone to know why I hate the story so much, so I'll just sum it up as best I can without ranting too much about it.

Lee Price and a gang of thugs ambush Mania in Philadelphia, Lee stuns her while he has his gang set her on fire with flamethrowers and they steal the Mania symbiote from her and leave her in the hospital. 

Flash Thompson learns about this and tries to enlist Spider-man's help in order to track down the Venom symbiote and eventually recover the Mania symbiote. This leads into a confrontation with Eddie Brock at Alchemax, where a piece of the Venom symbiote falls into a vat of a cure made by Alchemax in order to calm the symbiote's violent tendencies. During the scuffle, the 'cure' is dumped on Flash and creates a new Anti-Venom suit, reminiscent of Flash's Agent Venom costume, but with the colors inverted.

Meanwhile, Lee Price has renamed himself 'Maniac', once again showing Costa's complete lack of originality, and is spitting up pieces of the Mania symbiote onto people to mind control them and make them his 'Made Men'. His first move is to take over Black Cat's gang.

Agent Anti-Venom and Spidey build a 'symbiote detector' and track down Price, only to get their asses handed to them by the Made Men. You know, despite Flash now being a walking anti-symbiote weapon, he gets beaten pretty easily.

Spider-man is brainwashed by Lee, who now plans to use the Mania symbiote to take over the entire New York criminal underworld by possessing the 'Five Families'. This completely flies in the face of the whole 'trying not to draw attention to himself' ploy he was doing back at the start of the series.

Andi returns, using powers from her Hellmark (a brand she received back in Venom volume 2), and joins up with Flash to rescue Spider-man. They free Spidey and team up with Venom and Black Cat to weaponize the Anti-Venom and take down Lee.

They succeed, but for whatever reason (Slott and Costa don't even try to come up with one), Price is defeated, but keeps the Mania symbiote.

Venom Inc is riddled with inconsistencies, poor character writing, a bad plot, and a back handed ending. The characters are either written as incompetent or one dimensional, all to try and make Lee look more intimidating by comparison, and Lee completely fails as a villain. 

While both Alpha and Omega issues are handled by both Costa and Slott, Slott handled the Spider-man tie ins while Costa handled the Venom tie ins. Costa's two issues were both just 22 page fight scenes, with the results all happening off panel. If Slott had plots set up in the Spider-man issues, Costa would undo them in his stories in the laziest ways possible.

The comic is, once again, a slap in the face, this time, to Mania's fans, who had to suffer through the first issue by watching Andi, a teenaged girl, getting set on fire by a group of men, and then she is absent up until the fourth issue. After all the effort of trying to reclaim her symbiote from Lee, Andi winds up not getting her symbiote back, and Dan Slott and Costa don't even try to come up with an explanation as to why.

Dan Slott is known for treating side characters like throw away trash, usually in order to build up Spider-man, or whoever the lead is, so it's not surprising he'd pull a stunt like this. Costa, on the other hand, gets to keep his uninteresting OC around at the expense of a much better character.

But I digress.

We now get to the final arc of the 2016 Venom run, 'The Nativity', which was advertised that the Venom symbiote has been hiding something from Eddie, something that could 'completely shatter Eddie's trust in the symbiote'!

And what is this secret?

The symbiote's pregnant again.

The first issue leads no where, it just serves as a remind that Venom Inc. happened, with a confrontation with Jessica Drew that has Venom temporarily bond with her to explain all this. 

Eddie is then captured by Mac Gargan, the Scorpion, in order for Scorpion to take the new symbiote once Venom spawns it. But Eddie escapes and runs to Alchemax so Venom can, erm, gives birth...

When it appears the new spawn is a 'still born', Scorpion gives up and leaves. And the series ends with Eddie and Venom leaving the new spawn, which is actually not a still born, in the hands of Alchemax. Because a shady company that used to be run by Oscorp is clearly trustworthy.

Suffice it to say, that this does not 'completely shatter' Eddie's trust in the symbiote, and if it did, it comes off more as this secret only sort of inconveniencing Eddie, as opposed to shattering his trust in it.

With Donny Cates taking over as of this month's new Venom series, Cates has managed to do a better job writing a 'Eddie's trust in the symbiote has been shattered' story in ONE ISSUE, than Costa did in an entire arc.

With Cates at the helm, and having mentioned in a livestream that 'Mania will have a role' in this story, as well as the fact that this will host a cast of supporting Venom characters both new and old, I have higher hopes for this series more than I did for Costa's run.

So, that's the entire 2016 Venom run in as much of a nutshell as I could put it. It is, in all honesty, the weakest run of Venom I have ever read, it had a lousy start, became riddled with inconsistencies as things went on, and just became bland and uninteresting.

And yet, Eddie Brock fans ate it up. It may just be because I'm a Flash Thompson fan more so than an Eddie fan, but, you have to realize that this just was not a good run.

Costa's writing did not change from the start, the story did not magically improve just because Eddie became the new host of Venom again, having Eddie back in the lead role but regressing him back to his 90's persona is not groundbreaking or new or original. I would hope that readers would see this, but it seems Costa, and Eddie Brock fans are so mired in blind fanboyism that they can't see or understand this.

Bringing Eddie back was somehow this band-aid that would fix everything that Costa had managed to destroy with Lee, that bringing Eddie back fixed everything that was wrong with the book. But it didn’t, the only reason Eddie fans suddenly liked Costa and everything about this book suddenly was simply because he brought THEIR Venom back, he didn’t improve anything about Eddie, didn’t change anything, he regressed him back to the 90′s, which has become a trend at Marvel, since they seem to have it out for their legacy characters right now. Having Eddie back did not change anything, didn’t improve the story, did not fix any of the problems present.

The story is inconsistent, Lee's motivations keep changing and he never stayed on point, his character is non-existent, and failed as both a lead character and antagonist. 

Flash Thompson's separation from the symbiote is one of the most forced and insulting aspects of the story.

Catering to everyone's 90's nostalgia boner by making Eddie like he was in Lethal Protector, trying to be an anti-hero but having trouble with the symbiote's violent tendencies, is lazy, it's been done, give us something new.

Giving Mania, her fans, and Cullen Bunn the biggest 'eff you' ever in order to bring Lee Price back into the game is lame and insulting. You depowered a hero in order to make a villain look better and it failed miserably, because Lee did absolutely nothing while in possession of the Mania symbiote and had others doing his dirty work for him. 

And I refuse to call Andi's symbiote the 'Maniac' symbiote, it is not Lee Price's symbiote, it does not belong to him, it belongs to Andi and she should get it back.

As stated before, Venom is a character driven narrative, but if the the characters aren't interesting, and the reader can't identify with the character, then the narrative fails. And considering this run started out with Lee Price, and then shifted to Eddie Brock, and neither of them came off as interesting or relatable, this means Costa failed to write a character driven narrative not once, but twice.

His writing is lazy, inconsistent, tries to build interest on shock value alone and fails, tries to throw plot twists at you that fall flat. If the whole 'Eddie's trust in the symbiote is put to the test' thing was supposed to affect Eddie, it really didn't come off as such. A lot of stuff in the books just 'happens' with no explanation or build up, it comes off as Costa just saying 'it happened because I said so, deal with it'.

I just... really did not like this series, and I refused to buy any more issues with Costa's name on them, I simply chose to hate read them in the comic store, or read online scans. I'm looking forward to the Cates run of Venom, because Cates has managed to build more interest in one issue than Costa did in the entire 2016 run, and I'm interested in how Cates is going to continue with this new 'Rex' arc.

Costa's series deserves to be thrown onto the ash heap and forgotten.

[junker-town]

The 2016-17 NBA season was magical, but also predictable

The bevy of MVP-caliber regular season performances were undercut by largely expected team hierarchies.

We’ve reached the end of yet another NBA regular season and what a year it’s been. Paul Flannery and Tom Ziller look back in our final regular season F+Z.

FLANNERY: This is the last F+Z of the regular season and tradition dictates that we try to make sense of the last six months. We will do that, but first, I have a question for you: Is there anything you'd like to get off your chest?

ZILLER: I would like to hereby renounce my Sacramento Kings fandom. I just ... don't care anymore. This isn't so much about the DeMarcus Cousins trade (which is complicated, as Cousins really had run his course in town) but about the past 10 years in total. It's just ... why? What's the point in hanging on every result when the well of failure is so deep? There's so much beauty in this world and this league that committing a substantial portion of your waking life to emotional investment in perpetual mediocrity for REASONS is absurd. I'm out.

Beyond that, the league has been straight up special this year. Defense is down significantly, and that's fine with me. I love and appreciate effective defense, but watching stars trade incredible baskets is otherworldly. I hope things don't grind to a halt in the playoffs.

FLANNERY: I've become distrustful of fandom in the modern age. It's a one-way street in which fans are expected to be loyal, and passionate without objectivity or objection. It wouldn't hurt if they believed every other opponent was trash too. For their devotion they will be rewarded with all the team gear they can buy and a steady stream of sponsored propaganda. That leaves very little room for questioning authority.

So, when a franchise makes more soul-crushing decisions than all the other teams combined over a 10-year period of time through multiple owners and executives ... it’s more than reasonable to become a conscientious objector.

Where were we? Oh yes, the league. It's been fun. Offense is good, scoring is great, points are fantastic. I'm worried just a bit about the balance, however. I think it's a tick out of whack. Those things tend to correct themselves over time, and the playoffs will be fascinating to see just how far the pendulum has swung.

I gotta say, I like the occasional 83-81 slugfest in the postseason.

ZILLER: Game 7 on Father's Day was a defensive battle! It was the most exciting game in three years. Slugfests are fine.

But shootouts are divine. Not to peek forward while we're looking back, I feel like we're going to our share of both in the first round. That's where I think there's good balance. We have the Spurs plus a Spurs clone in Utah. We have the offensive monsters scattered throughout the league. We have Golden State, who can do it all. You're more likely to see a 120-119 game than 83-81, but it's all possible,

One thing about the offensive renaissance I'd like to note is that PASSING has been a huge part of it. Russell Westbrook will average 10 assists this season. There's a world in which the Rockets' renewed devotion to the threeball results in ugly basketball, but thanks to James Harden's passing acumen the Rockets are NOT ugly. The Warriors remain spectacular ball movers. The Jazz can be poetic on offense, like the Spurs.

This isn't universal: Boston has one of those dominant ballhandlers but the Celtics' offense isn't terribly beautiful. It just works. Again, I think there's a dystopia out there where the statistical revolution led to ugly, efficient basketball. This ain't it.

FLANNERY: While the overall quality of play has been strong, I'll admit that some portions of the season left me flat.

Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images

Underlying all of that has been an inherent lack of drama. We came into this season expecting a Warriors-Cavs rubber match and we will leave this campaign expecting the same.

Barring catastrophic injury I don't see anyone seriously challenging Golden State. The Cavs, however, are messing with the Basketball Gods and the Gods are not to be trifled with. Blowing a 26-point lead against Atlanta with homecourt all but assured ... um, guys? I know it's LeBron and I know the East is whatever but I am not 100 percent convinced of their inevitability right now.

ZILLER: How could anyone be convinced given the inconsistency they've shown? We should note that pretty much every team in the East playoff bracket has given Cleveland a game or two of trouble this season. That doesn't mean anyone can beat them, but they look nothing like invincible. Coming off an emotional title, the Cavaliers have been pretty flat overall but still might be No. 1 because of LeBron. Kyrie Irving did not have the season we expected, to be sure.

The Warriors remain remarkable, as most assumed they would be. There's not really much else to say about them. If the Cavs don't make the Finals and the Spurs somehow don't make the conference finals, I think a 16-0 playoff run is plausible.

FLANNERY: I don't see 16-0 simply because the Warriors don't deal well with prosperity. They have a track record of dropping games here and there.

Troy Taormina-USA TODAY Sports

We should talk about the thing that's overshadowed everything this season: the Most Valuable Player award debate. You made your choice last week in Russell Westbrook. My vote will be unveiled on Friday and I'm still mulling, quite honestly.

Last week I noted that Russ and James Harden had lapped Kawhi Leonard and LeBron James and I received IMMEDIATE pushback from a friend and colleague whose opinion I value as much as anyone else's in the league. (Hi, Zach.) It's a fair point. That was me trying to push my own choice further along down the highway. No one has lapped anyone in this field. I'd be perfectly comfortable with any of the four contenders as MVP. Truly.

This is one for the ages, I think.

ZILLER: I'm too young to remember the vaunted early '90s MVP races, but it's certainly the best race of my adult life. We had previously lamented the certitude with which Westbrook's fans claimed he was the only possible choice. It's only fair we now note that the Houston Hive is being very persistent that anyone who isn't with Harden is a fool. This whole thing Daryl Morey and Harden himself are saying about winning being the biggest factor is really hilarious considering Kawhi's team is up 7 games on the Rockets!

All the politicking aside, it's been an amazing race. Harden is such a joy to watch in action. Westbrook has been a 6-month Michael Bay movie. Kawhi's growth is just incredible to behold, and LeBron is the best since MJ. I'm hoping for an encore next year.

FLANNERY: That's cause you don't have a vote. Beyond the MVP race, the Cavs drama, and all those points, I can't be the only who feels like this season has been underwhelming.

The rise of the unicorns was fun for a while, but then Joel Embiid got hurt and everyone this side of Giannis Antetokounmpo is going to miss the playoffs. You can say the Rockets were a big of a surprise in terms of win count, but most of us had them pegged as a playoff team at least. There weren't any other major shockers unless you count Miami's tremendous rise during the second half. Even the DeMacus blockbuster felt more like an absurd relief then a sea-change. Everything else played out more or less as expected.

Tell me when I'm being too curmudgeonly.

ZILLER: I'll have something Wednesday morning to make you and other skeptics fall in love with the 2016-17 season all over again. Just you wait.

[geek-gem]

A little talk about Michael Bay

I'm gonna say if I sound stupid forgive me and shit. Including correct me please. Also I might get off topic. Yet it's mainly well about the Michael Bay thing on the Dora The Explorer movie.

Including I found the notes funny mainly in the 2nd thing I reblogged that relates to this which was the last thing before my latest reblog. Seeing funny notes and ones I agree with. Basically the kind of jokes I forgot to hope for people would make when Michael Bay gets involved with a franchise. Including a cartoon.

I'm gonna say Thank you @angel-baez hope your not bothered by me mentioning you. But thanks for sharing that news.

But okay back on topic Michael Bay. I don't like him as a director. While honestly some of his films seem okay haven't seen them all. I'm mainly talking about the bigger ones where he's involved with a franchise. Such as Transformers and TMNT. Now Dora too and I remember okay these are cartoons in a way. While others were film franchise's.

Including I was inspired seeing a latest post about Steven Universe a reblog by Angel himself love that name lol chill out normal to smile just did. But about view points or yeah it's that post I mainly think about. But also the other Dora related posts.

Basically I wanted to say this and I did think a bit and waited till these women left Pizza Hut where I feel better to type this.

In fact this is where I get off topic.

Despite all the critical shit Steven Universe gets.

In a way or no yes.

Be grateful Steven Universe doesn't have Michael Bay putting his hands on it.

Including being pissed off at times at certain times people hating on the Crewniverse however it goes yeah that's how it's spelt remember.

But remembering seeing someone call Rebecca Sugar a racist which made me go what the fuck and other things. Including at times me being angry that I would like the show to be taken away from people yet that is not reasonable.

The concept and idea of Micheal Bay working on an adaption of Steven Universe or on the show itself. You would be begging for the original crew to still be working on it and praise the original show as a masterpiece.

Including Micheal Bay his films mainly the big ones or just.... here's some stuff. The explosions lots of people know that it's like a meme of him. Including sexualizing women at times. But at the same time I'm trying to not sound stupid. Yet women in his films just...Jesus. Also racism and I suppose if I remember right stereotypes. Along with thin plotlines honestly not everything has to be big but when it's the same shit mainly discussing the Transformers films. Basically Michael Bay does a lot of shit.

It's fucking amazing the 5th Transformers film was shit and it had new writers but it proved something if Michael Bay is still on. We are never going to get a film as okay or as good as the first film or even better. Including the aftermath of that 5th film sweet Jesus I'm glad I didn't see it. Yet it feels so weird I didn't seeing the film on sale on the PlayStation Store on my PS4 and just that 4th film changed me. Or basically I don't really like the Nostalgia Critic yet his video about that 4th film changed me. Where Doug plays the character.

Even though I changed over time about my opinions and shit. Yet I'm mainly upset and see the Transformers live action films as some of the worst ways to adapt a franchise got a text message from a aid from school told her some what an hour ago I left.

Seriously it makes me sad. Including I wanna mention seriously you would praise a Zack Snyder adaptation or just version of Steven Universe and I have thought of this. I don't hate Zack Snyder I like his work. But also people's reactions to him are crazy. Including I some times make jokes about Steven dies and he comes back Jesus style.

Including during the first Steven Bomb of 2016 after that bomb actually. Made some weird thing this thought Rose is God, Yellow Diamond is the devil, and Steven is Jesus yet that's bullshit some weird religious meaning shit but when I found out about well actually more in depth of what the show was doing. That no one was a villain in the show and we look into why they do the things they do. It changed me thinking that some post I liked when I was still new here on Tumblr. Basically talking about or mentioning yeah Steven Universe isn't a black and white tv show.

But sorry to get off topic. Were on the case of Michael Bay but just saying you'll like a Zack Snyder version of Steven Universe maybe he'll shove a lot of story lines in the face and change some stuff. Yet respect them at the same time. Also just really I'm thinking just... seriously some criticals have pissed me off that I think of how the show should be.

Yet Michael Bay back to him. His work on stuff like Transformers and TMNT, will say the first film is the reason I became a fan yet just...it's another story. I don't mind the third yet seriously just everything.

I was okay with the first TMNT but thought the 2nd was better. Yet their not the best it depends on your own opinion.

Seriously no one attacks Michael Bay or says let's boy cott his stuff yet people assume Rebecca Sugar is a racist when clearly their intention was not that. Along with even if it's a show. Movies and TV shows are different but seriously you complain of how some characters are portrayed and consider some stereotypes. I could try to understand in a way. But compare that to the shit Michael Day has done. Including other films like Pain And Gain a film that was really surprised and shocked me. In a way one of his better films. But my judgement is a weird considered he based that upon a real life crime and other shit.

Also the famous Nostalgia Critic review of Pearl Harbor while I never seen the film. Just well I have seen bits of it at Hawaii last year yeah interesting right at Hawaii just....I don't care for Nostalgia Critic much these days despite some funny moments. The film doesn't seem to be the best.

I'm sounding stupid basically just what he touches I just don't like his work. Seriously it's a miracle he doesn't have his hands on the Sonic The Hedgehog franchise on that upcoming film by Paramount not Sony. While I rather have Warner Bros to have the rights for personal reasons. Yet keep Bay away from that shit typos for shit and others.

I remember that Sonic Legends fake movie thing I talked about and it was fake yet I believed it, but it was on Deviantart this awesome poster and information. It saying Michael Bay directing and I think Steven Spielberg executive producing like with the Transformers films. Also DreamWorks and Paramount a CGI PG-13 movie. Amazing years later Paramount actually gets the rights.

But the thought of that and Michael Bay fucking up storylines while not the best some were deep. Such as Shadow's story from Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Unleashed a game I love and reblogged a shit ton. Including even keep him away from Sonic Forces and Sonic Mania despite I dislike the custom character. I'm being weird wanna mention 06 but no yet just tv is on in here and some guy in here.

Seriously I thought this imagine The Loud House him working on that and considering the shit that went down, or Wander Over Yonder, or OK KO shows I love and others too.

I got off topic yet this could relate to Dora The Explorer which was a cartoon first. Just.....I'm getting worked up. But I wanted to talk about that Steven Universe part and Sonic. Yet I thought of other things like other cartoons.

Oh yeah imaging Michael Bay's Gravity Falls I don't like that show anymore but God damn the idea lol normal to smile.....

I don't think I'll tag this just....I'm typing this in a Pizza Hut lol just I feel that says something. But lol almost left I but just almost left o.....smiled right now.....

I'm getting distracted but I seriously wanted to talk about this. Sorry ticks started to get ahold of me my Autism. I was basically trying to be deep lol just....smiling a bit because it's funny in a way but sad.

Yet I could be getting worked up. But I think someone should say sometime I seriously thought that was fake yet that college humor thing did it say it parodied Michael Bay just asking. I need to finish my pizza and sorry to bother

Edit wow my smile wasn't really a little talk and even thought first I just wrote This