#i will bring hellfire to dc

[call-me-strega]

Dc x Dp prompt #13: Hell to Pay

They say there are only two things certain in life: death and taxes. That’s why even the Joker doesn’t fuck with the IRS.

However, unfortunately for the Joker the other certainty is death and he has yet to pay his dues. Just like how he could only get away with tax evasion for so long, there are only so many times the Joker can dodge death.

Death is coming to collect, with interest.

And the Joker will have hell to pay.

~ A dark green cloud swirls over the city. From it, emerge three oppressive figures:

The one on the far left with flowing hair like white-hot fire. His vambraces made of (what appeared to be) molten glass stopped under his fingers, which then extend into into claws that seemed to drip lava. He had spiked obsidian pauldrons on his shoulders, fastening a luminous, stark-white cape to his shoulders. He wore a coronet of lightning and wielded a flail that appeared to be made of coal chains and a shrunken Red Giant star.

The second on the far right had a helm of dark iron wreathed in a plume of purple flame. His gauntlets and sword flamed with green hellfire. A pure black sheath seemingly made of void and a silver hunting horn were tied to his waist. He wore an armor forged of shadows and proofed with fear. He rode atop a mighty stead. An inky dark stallion with a curved horn and bat-like wings. His form was constantly slightly shifting depending on the angle which you viewed him making him appear larger and more slippery than he was, enhancing his disquieting nature.

The third stood in the middle, smaller but no less terrifying than her companions. Her hair was wild with movement, only just visible because it appeared as if someone had bound the winds to her head. She wore a tiara made of storm clouds and pearls. She carried with her a spear, the shaft crafted of amazonite and the tip of a clear quartz, almost reminiscent of sea salt. At her hip lay a whip made of a restrained gale and a sea glass knife. She wore armor that appeared to be Greco-Roman in origin: a chest plate made of some sort of coral-like material and a battle skirt decorated with metallic bronze feathers.

They slowly descent on the city, bringing down a sense of power and dread. They paused at the top of Wayne Tower, where the city's vigilantes had all gathered in an attempt to create and feasible plan of action to discern what these beings want. The young woman in the middle speaks and the wind carries her voice. She is not loud but it the whole of Gotham hears her words.

"Greetings, Heroes of Gotham. It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Spirit, Princess and Head Diplomat of the Infinite Realms. This is Samhain, the Fright Knight, loyal knight to the king,” she gestured to her right before switching to her left “and this is Prince Wraith, current General in Chief of the Realms. We come to you as the King’s Guard and entourage. We have official business in your city and wish to civilly notify you of our presence. The King will be arriving shortly and your cooperation would be great fully received.”

Batman moved forward to shake her hand and address the situation.

“I’m afraid that we prefer not to have unknowns operating within the city. Would you be able to tell us what business you have here? Perhaps we could reach an agreement?” Batman tried to negotiate as politely as he could. He did not want to risk offending the evidently powerful beings.

Princess Spirit’s smile sharpened as she thrummed her finger against her knife. She spoke again with an unnervingly pleasant tone.

“It appears you do not understand. We are not asking for your permission.” Her grip around his hand tightened. “ We are informing you.” She finished releasing his hand.

Batman withdrew his aching hand and regarded her with the beginnings of a protest on his lips. She didn’t allow him to speak.

“ This is out of your jurisdiction Batman. This is a matter of the Realms and the Afterlife. Whatever worldly rules or morals you wish to impose on those who enter this city do not apply to us. We will do our best to work within them, so as to appease you and to attempt to maintain a friendly relationship but in the macrocosm of the multiverse and afterlives you have no official power over us. Additionally, we have direct permission to operate here however we see fit from the City Spirit herself, Lady Gotham.”

Batman’s shadow seemed to fluctuated. His and his team's shadows moved from beneath them, closer to the Princess. Lady Gotham, though not manifesting, was making her presence and approval known. Batman could not deny what he was seeing. His team shifted uncomfortably behind him. He appealed to her once more.

“ I see that we can’t stop you. We don’t want to get in your way either. Could you at least tell us why you are here?”

She smiled as if telling a joke, “All will be revealed in time”

Suddenly, there was a loud noise that sounded like tearing fabric. The green clouds mixed with purples and blues and began to churn faster. The cyclone emitted a flashes of bright light. In unison all three of the King’s Guard lifted up from the roof and took place underneath the eye of the wind storm.

Spirit holds her spear aloft. With one swift, commanding move she slams the butt of her spear down, creating a platform out of solidified air.

Wraith bellows out smoke and ash onto the platform to discolor it. With ferocious and precise movements his claws to carve in a sigil, leaving a soft orange glow against the black and gray.

Samhain sheathes his sword and pulls his horn from his waist. He wills his dark stead to rear up as he blows the horn, letting out one loud prolonged cry.

The three warriors stand at attention and Princess Spirit calls the winds to project her voice once more.

“ Now introducing the Ruler of the Infinite Realms, High King of the In-Between, The Great One, The Benevolent King, The Peace Maker, The Guardian of Souls, The One with the Cloak of Stars and the Crown of Frozen Light, The Perfect Balance, Ancient of Space and Reality, The Infinite King: Phantom!”

With a flash of white light a figure appear in the center of the platform. Simultaneously, the three knights bow in reverence.

The King has arrived.

As the Heroes of Gotham regain clear vision they are met with a striking figure.

There stood a toned young man appearing both boyishly young, yet wisened and weathered. He had side swept hair the creeped to the bottom of his neck. His skin was pale with an icy blue tint. He opened his eyes to reveal they shone an electric green. Upon his head rest a crown made of a crystalline material, reminiscent of an aurora. He wore a navy blue cloak that had a rich purple hood lined with stark white fur. The underside displayed a shifting galaxy pattern. His under suit was the same midnight black as Samhain’s. He donned golden arm bands and a gold chest plate in style quite similar to Spirit’s. His hand were covered in snow white gauntlets that matched Wraith’s vambraces.

They all stood in awe, beholden to the almost divine figure.

The king sent them a gentle smile. It was warm and comforting yet sent a chill down their shoulders.

King Phantom began to fly down toward the center of the city, his entourage fell into step behind him. He hovered several hundred feet over Wayne tower and looked down at the city. He then spoke in a booming voice, his tone kind but commanding.

“ I humbly greet the Lady Gotham, her champions, and her citizens,” the shadows curled toward him appreciatively. “ I am grateful for your cooperation in our effort to rectify a great injustice. As High King of the Infinite Realms it is one of my duties to preside over the afterlife. To bring guidance, peace, and justice to the souls under my jurisdiction. Recently, it has been brought to my attention that there is a soul among you who has not only dodged death, but caused great strife to a vast number of souls who call for justice.”

On the roof of Wayne Enterprises Jason and Damian both stiffen, but remain firm in their gaze toward the king. The king looks out at the city and sparing them the quickest of glances. He continues onward.

“ The man formerly know as Jack Napier, now called The Joker. He has avoided death on many an occasion but his life should have ended moment he fell into a vat of chemicals. Since then he has sent hundreds more to the afterlife. He has long yet to pay his dues. That is why on the behalf of justice, restoring balance, and of my subjects I officially condemn Jack Napier.”

“Jack Napier, you have been allowed 24 hours turn yourself into our custody in order to be put on trial for your crimes in the Infinite Realms. Should you fail to turn youself in, we shall take that as an admission of guilt and acceptance to be punished for your actions. After the 24 hours are up, Samhain shall use his horn to summon The Hunt and we shall track you down.”

His gaze passed specifically over Red Hood, one of the Oracle’s drones, Nightwing, Signal, Red Robin, and Batman before he spoke his next words.

“All those souls who have been wronged by the Joker, both living and deceased, who wish to have a hand in their justice have been invited to join The Hunt if they so choose.”

The king lifted his hand, calling the swirling green clouds to his gather in his palm. The clouds swiftly rearranged themselves into a smokey timer hanging in the sky.

An impish smirk graced King Phantom’s face as he let out a malicious laugh and gave his final decree.

“ Your time begins now!”

[ijustwanttoreadfanfiction]

Friendly Sex - Chapter 8 - The Visit

First of all, I want to apologise for the delay in posting. This chapter kicked my ass, I wanted to cover a lot of ground and this must be the 8th version but I'm still not 100% happy with it, had to happen at some point.

Secondly this covers topics that will likely be uncomfortable for some people, involving a manipulative step-parent and abandonment issues. If anyone needs to talk about this subject, my ask box is open.

Chapters warnings: MDI (18+ only), mentions of smut, explicit language, adult themes, drug use, abusive step-father, emotional manipulation.

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

Tuesday 20th May 1986

You’re holed up in the back of Eddie’s van, straddling his lap, furiously making out whilst Touch Too Much - AC/DC plays. It was a habit you had gotten into over the past few weeks, one of many habits actually. Eddie along with the rest of Corroded Coffin played a regular gig every Tuesday evening at The Hideout, you had found it was as good a place as any to hook up, particularly when the regular audience was made up of ten drunks and the bar staff. Eddie had threatened Gareth and Jeff into sworn silence about your sudden presence under pain of death, exile etc etc.

“I should be getting home soon.” You whisper against his lips, Eddie answers by holding your hips tighter, grinding you down harder.

“Five more minutes sweetheart.” He murmurs breathlessly, sucking at the sensitive spot on your neck, since that night at the trailer it's become something of a catchphrase for him; always wanting five more minutes between your thighs, five more minutes of fooling about in the Drama club costume closet, five more minutes of hammering into you.

“You’ve already had ten.” You sigh without any trace of reproach, grabbing his face to bring him back to your lips, feeling him grin.

“I’m just making the most of my time.” He says, kneading the flesh of your ass. “Seeing as you’re abandoning me this weekend.”

“I’m not abandoning you, I'm going to visit my mom, you know, the Queen of Abandonment.” You mumble, feeling your mood plummet as it had been prone to doing the last couple of days. Eddie had made a valiant effort in listening to and trying to soothe the various worries you had about your upcoming trip to Chicago, how it couldn’t be for anything good, having to spend time with Philip, watching the twins enjoying the life you once had before it was all messed up.  

“Hey,” Eddie cups your cheek. “It’s just for four days, you’ll be home again before you know it.”

You nod, fiddling with the black stone ring on his right hand, allowing yourself to be coddled as he presses a kiss to your forehead. 

“C’mon princess, let’s get you home.” He hums.

-------------------------------------------------------------------Wednesday 21st May 1986

Wednesday nights were Hellfire Club nights, with Eddie being decidedly occupied, you had invited Robin over to hang out and compare English notes before your final in a few weeks. Both of you laying on your bed, feet at opposite ends, heads meeting in the middle over a pile of paperwork. You heave a heavy sigh, correcting a sentence, trying to ignore the slight twinge in your back. Despite promising to get you home, you and Eddie had gotten carried away last night, which led to you bouncing on his dick in the driver’s seat of the van, the steering wheel as it turns out was not the most comfortable thing to lean against.

“So, you seeing Eddie later?” Robin asks nonchalantly, highlighting something in her book.

“No, tomorrow.” You reply, distracted by a tricky paragraph. 

At first it’s like white noise, a dull fuzzy sound filling your ears, but then her words and your admission sink in, turning so quickly to face her you crick your neck; she’s grinning wide enough that you think her cheeks might split.

“What?” You squeak, feeling all the colour drain from your face. “We’re not - how?” You feel sick.

“Got three words for you babe, closed circuit television.” She says like a cat that’s got the cream. “I saw you both on the security monitor when he came into the store a couple of weeks ago.”

Your heart was in your mouth, or your ass, one of the two. How could you have been so stupid? Keith had specifically had camera’s put in after the adult section was opened, which happens to be right next to the Sci-Fi shelves. 

“YOU’VE KNOWN FOR A COUPLE OF WEEKS?!” You shout incredulously before remembering your dad is downstairs, dropping your volume to a frantic hiss. “Oh my god Robin, why haven’t you said anything?!” You ask freaking out, hiding your head in your hands.

“I was waiting for the right time.” She reasons calmly like you’re discussing the weather, not your deepest darkest secret. “So what’s happening?”

“Nothing is happening, we kissed, once, that was it.” You say in complete denial.

“Bullshit, I saw you getting into his van the Saturday before last and on Monday you turned up to my practice smelling of weed with twigs in your hair and huge hickey.” She looks extremely pleased with herself, whilst you’re still trying to stop yourself from spiralling into a full blown panic attack. “So, are you together?” She asks.

“No.” You say shortly, huffing in annoyance when she gives you a look that screams ‘liar’. “I’m telling the truth Rob, we’re not together.”

“Soo, what then?” She presses, taking your hand in hers. “You can tell me, I won’t judge.”

You bite your lip, in the month you and Eddie had been hooking up it had often occurred to you that your agreement may become public knowledge, you’d had enough close shaves with the Principal Higgins/Fred Benson incident, and the first time Gareth walked in on you both the men’s room of The Hideout. But now it came to actually talking about it, you were terrified.

“It was the night of the party.” You mutter quietly. “I was upset about Steve, Eddie was out in the garden and we got talking, turns out he’s got it bad for Chrissy Cunningham.” 

Robin does a very poor job at hiding her amusement, but presses her lips into a tight line, gesturing for you to continue. 

“It’s your fault actually.” You jibe at her. “I told him that you thought I just needed to get laid in order to get over Steve, one thing led to another and we…” You trail off giving her a pointed look.

“You had sex in the garden?” She gasps.

“More like the street.” You wince at the confession, feeling your cheeks heat up.

“God damn.” She breathes. “Again not judging.” She adds quickly, holding her hands up in defence. 

“After that we sort of made a pact.” You say.

“What kind of pact?” Robin asks, she’s near shaking with curiosity, but you can tell she’s trying to keep a handle on it for your sake. 

“The kind of pact where we’ve been having lots of ‘casual’ sex.” You don’t know why you do air quotation marks around the word casual.

“And there I was thinking you were just using sex to pay for drugs.” She whispers, effectively stunned, you shove her insulted and you both burst into a fit of giggles. “So the mystery guy has been Eddie Munson the whole time?”

“Uh, huh.” You say, still giggling, some weird hysterical euphoria gripping you now you’ve told someone. You collapse back on the bed, Robin joining you so you’re staring up at the ceiling, holding hands like you did when you were little.

“Sorry I didn’t tell you sooner.” You sigh, giving her hand a squeeze. “I didn’t want you to think less of me.”

“Babe, I was in love with Tammy Thompson, a literal muppet. I could never think less of you.” She says, pressing your foreheads together with a soft smile. “So - is he good?”

You nod, exhaling heavily and she whistles.

"It's always the freaks." She laughs, sounding thoroughly impressed. 

You think about how much lighter you feel with Robin now in the picture, but the stress of keeping it a secret from the rest of Hawkins still lies heavy on your mind.

"Rob -" You say seriously. "-Steve can't find out. He'd kill Eddie." Robin bobs her head in solemn agreement, whilst making a movement across her mouth, an imaginary zip.

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

Thursday 22nd May 1986

You’re busy packing your gym bag ready for your flight tomorrow, when your bedroom landline rings, you grab the whole phone shoving the receiver between your shoulder and neck.

“Hello?”

“Hey princess.” Eddie’s voice crackles through the speaker, and you try to ignore the immediate smile that creeps across your face.

“Hi.” You reply, grabbing a few pairs of clean socks with your free hand. 

“Good day?” He asks, with a slight yawn.

“Eddie you literally saw me -” You check your watch, laughing “- four hours ago.”

“A lot can happen in four hours sweetheart -” He reasons and you can almost hear his devious grin. “- a person could get up to anything.”

“Oh yeah like what?” You goad, shoving your Hawkins High sweater into the bag. 

“Well, I for one have played guitar, made some Kraft Mac & Cheese and jerked off.” He says, sounding incredibly pleased with himself.

“Wow, that is impressive.” You deadpan.

“I know, I did have some difficulty with the jerking off though, nothing feels as good as your tight pussy anymore.” He teases, and even though you’re alone in the house you still get flustered, almost dropping the phone. 

“Ed’s you gotta stop.” You say sternly but the effect is lost when you start laughing again.

“What time is your flight again?” He asks, and you can tell from the change in his tone that he's trying to behave himself.

“3pm.” You sigh, chucking a pair of converse on top of the bag.

“It’ll be ok sweetheart.” He reassures you, before clearing his throat, devilish Eddie back in play. “Now get on the bed and talk dirty to me.”

____________________________________________________

Friday 23rd May 1986

You hate flying, and have always preferred to take the train but your mom doesn’t understand why you would want to take a five hour journey over a one hour journey. You stand awkwardly outside the main terminal at O’Hare, glancing at your watch every five minutes until you hear two little excited screams heading your way. The twins.

Your half brother and sister are on you before you can blink.

“Oh my god, look at you guys you’ve gotten so big!” You exclaim, lifting Heidi up as Paul clings to your legs. “Where’s Mommy?”

Paul points back in the direction they sprang from, your mom bustling along in high heels, hair perfectly coiffed. 

“Darling!” She calls happily, reaching you slightly out of breath, placing a quick kiss to your cheek. “You’re so pale!” She cries standing back to observe you.

“I’m fine Mom, there was just some turbulence when we were landing.” You sigh, hitching Heidi more securely to your hip as you pick your bag with some difficulty, Paul wanting to hold your hand at the same time. “No Phil?” You ask as you walk back towards her car, the kids chattering away over each other so you only pick up every other word.

“He got called into work, but he should be home for dinner this evening.” 

__________________________________________________

After a manic afternoon of playing with Heidi and Paul, you’re taking a break before dinner, reading 'The Colour Magic' as loaned to you by Eddie. Perched on the plastic wrapped sofa in the fussy living room you feel distinctly out of place, everything in your Mom’s house is pristine, coasters on every surface, fresh flowers adorning each room, shoes off at the door so as not to ruin the shag carpet, even the magazines in the rack were alphabetized. You imagined taking her round to Eddie’s, she’d probably faint.

You hear the kids suddenly shouting in excitement, obviously Philip is home, he rounds the door and you instinctively tense up, both of you looking at each other with open dislike.

"Hello Y/n, how was your trip?" He greets you stiffly, like there's a broom up his ass.

"Fine thank you, how was work?" You ask so overly polite you sound near robotic.

"Busy. Heidi tells me you gave her and Paul some candy?" It's so prompt and accusatory you're amazed he bothered even saying hello; a new record in his self-restraint at criticizing you. You mark your place carefully in the book before trusting yourself to respond.

"Just some Red Vines I had in my bag." You reply as measured as possible. 

"The children don't usually have candy, particularly not this close to dinnertime." He chastises, and you can tell he wants you to apologize, you can see it in his hard stare, the way his jaw ticks.

"My mom said it was fine." You say, rising to move past him.

"She was humouring you, next time respect our rules." He says bluntly, grabbing your bicep none too gently. "Every time you're here you cause trouble, my children do not need your bad influence."

You yank your arm out of his grasp, about to respond when a small voice interrupts.

"Mommy says dinner is ready " Paul mumbles, little face hovering by the doorway, his expression worried. You scoop him up, leaving the room and Phil at speed.

"C'mon Paulie, let's eat."

________________________________________________

You were rattled, Phil's grip still feeling like it's curled tightly around your arm, as your mom passes the salad bowl to you.

"Looks great Mom." You say looking at the food on your plate.

"Moussaka darling, Phil and I had it in Greece last year." She smiles blissfully at the memory. "I like to make it for special occasions, and what's more special than having you to stay." She reaches over to give your hand a quick squeeze.

"So Y/n, how are your studies?" Philip asks you, pouring himself a big glass of red wine, like he hadn’t physically restrained you ten minutes ago.

"I have two finals left and that's it." You say taking a sip of milk, thinking you'd much rather have the wine.

"And your college applications?" 

"I’m uh - taking a year or two out, save up some money, maybe travel for a bit…?” You hesitate, feeling diminished in his presence.

“That’s quite an ambitious plan, particularly on your salary I would imagine.” He says smarmily, and you feel your temper rise. “Or were you planning on asking your mother and I to fund you?”

“I don’t need your help, I save everything I make.” You spit out between clenched teeth.

“We know darling, Philip is just teasing you.” Your mum reassures but you can see the high flush of colour on her cheeks, a sign that she’s stressed.

“I actually thought I could come up a bit more often once I graduate, maybe once a month, give  you two a break from the kids, take them out to the cinema and things.” You say, speaking directly to your mom. Smiling as Heidi and Paul both gasp and bounce up and down excitedly in their seats at the prospect.

“Oh that’s very nice of you darling but -”

“- we won’t be here.” Philip’s voice cuts across your Mom’s like a knife.

“What do you mean?” You ask, your mom suddenly finding it difficult to meet your eyes.

“We’re moving sweetie.” She says quietly.

“To Sydney.” Philip chimes in, a broad smirk on his face.

“As in - Australia?” Your voice shakes as you look between them. “But, that’s so far away...” Your stomach drops in a sick swooping motion.

“It’s a big change, but an exciting one. Phil has a new job, and they’re paying almost double what he's on now.” Your mom says, trying to inject some excitement back into the room, but she falters under your tearful gaze.

“What about me?” You ask in a small voice.

“You’ll still be able to come out darling.” She soothes.

“Not to Australia, Mom! There's no way Dad can afford it.” You shout, feeling your chest rise and fall rapidly.

“We’ll pay you for you sweetie -.” 

“- no we won’t Evelyn, we agreed, she either pays her own way or she doesn’t come.” Philip snaps, the following silence suffocating around the small dining table.

“Did -did you agree to that?” You ask, your heart breaking into a million pieces, noticing Heidi was silently crying opposite you.

“Well not in so many words, we just thought, Philip suggested that maybe you could contribute something -'' She trails off, looking at Philip for support who simply sips his wine, looking impassive.

“Mom, how am I going to see you? The tickets will be close to a thousand dollars!” You cry, feeling like you’re ten all over again, begging her not to go.

“Well I guess you should start saving then.” Philip mocks and you feel yourself break, eight years of hatred pouring out. 

“You fucking asshole.” You snap, hands shaking as you kick your seat out from under you . “What? You weren’t happy enough that you took her from me the first time so now you’re going to take her to the other side of the world?!”

“You watch your mouth you little bitch.” He shouts back, slamming his fist into the table, Heidi and Paul both openly crying as your mom tries to soothe them.

“M-mom?!” You sob desperately needing her to back you up, but she doesn’t even look at you.

You rush away from them to the spare room locking the door, feeling like you’re going to pass out, choking on your tears. You grab the phone and dial.

____________________________________________________

Eddie was having an incredibly delightful evening, Wayne was working, he had left over lasagne, a couple of beers, a bong ready to go, the only thing missing was you.

He could have sworn while he was jerking off earlier that he could smell your perfume on his pillow and it had sent him wild, he wanted nothing more than to rail you into the mattress but you weren’t here, he wouldn’t see you until Tuesday at the earliest and it was torture.

He was just about to start watching The Shining when the phone rang, probably Reefer Rick wanting to offload some shit.

“Yeah?”

There was silence at first, enough that he was ready to hang up when he heard a tiny sniffle

“Eddie?” The panic that washed over him was instantaneous, hearing you call his name in a cracked voice.

“Sweetheart? What’s wrong?” He asks frantically, already tugging on a Reebok before remembering you were in Chicago.

“S-she’s - leaving me.” You cry, it sounds like you’re breaking your damn heart.

“Who?”

“My Mom.” You sob, Eddie can hear how hard you’re breathing, he’s worried you’re going to have a panic attack.

“Sweetheart, I need you to calm down for me, ok?” He paces on the threadbare carpet feeling completely useless as you just cry harder, little whimpering sounds escaping you.  “Can you take a deep breath in through your nose and out through your mouth, can you do that for me princess?”

He hears your breath stutter slightly, but then you inhale shakily.

“That’s it, in through your nose, and out through your mouth.” He finds himself doing it with you, the hand that’s not holding the phone rising up and down, it’s about another minute before Eddie feels that you’re stable enough to talk again.

“What’s happened baby?” He asks gently.

“They’re moving to Australia.” You say thickly. “Mom, the kids and Philip.” You spit the name out like it’s poison.

“Shit.” Eddie says heavily, and he’s irritated with himself that he can’t think of anything better to say. “I’m so sorry sweetheart.”

“She doesn’t love me.” You sound so sad, hating that he can’t wrap you up in his arms.

“Hey, that’s not true.” He insists.

“Then why does she find it so easy to keep leaving me?” You ask, voice cracking into tears once more.

“Because people do stupid hurtful shit princess, even to the ones we love.” Great he was sounding like a fucking hallmark card. 

“I just wanna go home.” You whimper. “Everything is so fucked up. I wish I'd never come here, I just wanna be home with you.” You say it so quietly that at first he thinks he’s misheard, but the way his heart stopped said differently. “I-I miss you Eds”

You can’t miss him, surely? What was there to miss? You guys had a good time, sure, but he didn’t give you anything that you couldn’t get elsewhere. You just wanted comfort, you were far from home, going through hell. You probably didn’t want to put your dad through it so you rang him, but you could have called Robin? Maybe even Harrington? He ignored the spike of jealousy at the thought of Steve comforting you instead of him.

“Eddie, are you still there?” You sniffle. Shit, way to fucking go Munson, just give her the silent treatment whilst she’s pouring her heart out.

“Y-yeah, I'm here sweetheart… I miss you too.” He breathes, shaking the nervous energy out of his hands, he wants to expand, tell you how much he misses you when he hears a loud banging in the background and a muffled voice, possibly a man’s.

“Fuck off Philip I'm on the phone -” The banging continues, Eddie hears you grunt followed by a dull thud, he assumes you’ve thrown something against the door, followed by more muffled yells. “-yeah well you can bill me and upgrade your seats to first class you prick!” You shout back.

“Cunt.” You mumble, and Eddie can’t help but laugh, you let out a wry huff.

“Ed’s I'm gonna have to go.” You say, sounding miserable once more.

“Will you be ok?” He’s worried about how volatile Philip the Cunt was, ready to drive through the night to get you if wanted to.

“Yeah, I'm gonna run Phil’s phone bill up some more, call my Dad. Maybe get a flight back tonight.” You heave a sigh of exhaustion. 

“I’ll see you soon sweetheart.” He promises.

“Counting on it Munson.”

Taglist: @avalon-wolf @mystars123 @lolalanaie @eddiemunsonsgf2@eddieslildarling@bakugouswh0r3@sidthedollface2@81rain@blueberrylemontea-fanfic@winchester-angel@bimbobaggins69@tuskjohnny@fckyeahlames@thecomfortgoth@alanamarie@miarosso@ghosttownwherenoonegoes@somespicystuff@eddiethesexy @unfocused81 @1paire2vans @take-everything-you-can

[zahri-melitor]

Newish Comics:

The Flash #7: The Linear Men? The Linear Men??? Si Spurrier, what is cooking in your brain and can you keep giving me a direct line to it? (I mean bringing the Linear Men in a series that also gave us Gold Beetle makes perfect sense because Rip would be so into her but wow. It looks like they've barely been used since Flashpoint too). Also it's fascinating watching the re-establishment of Max and Bart's relationship.

Barry seems to finally have risen out of his ennui a bit, only to notice Something Is Wrong With Linda and then immediately suspect (wrongly) it's Hartley. Still pretty sure Linda's main issue is PPD but it being imposed by an external source is certainly something.

Green Arrow #10: this is another issue that mostly exists for people to hug each other, while Williamson goes 'remember that these people had relationships?' Sean Izaakse's art is just so good in terms of drawing the memory backgrounds so well I can pick out the specific issues and storylines he used as references (Batman + Arsenal shoutout!)

Also, remember when Amanda Waller didn't put bombs in people's heads, she just very occasionally put explosive collars or wristbands on the most dangerous and/or irritating Suicide Squad members? (Like Captain Boomerang?) Because I do. I remember Suicide Squad 1987.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold #11: part of this is me just being contrary, I know, but I am extremely not convinced we are going to see Maps as an active Robin in a main title, given Kerschl is a Gotham Academy creator anyway, and she's currently getting appearances as Meridian over in Birds of Prey. Gotham Academy continuity is only about 1/4 linked to main book continuity. (Someone is going to try and point out 'they appeared in Robin War' or something but it was an active and new title then, and honestly, nobody writing most Bat titles cares about them. It's its own sub universe. Also this story has Bruce dating Isla MacPherson, something I guarantee will not be followed up anywhere else)

Also imagine being called Karl Kerschl and coming to DC to write? How much time does this poor man spend saying "no, not Kesel".

The Artemis story remains amazing and I am fully supportive of it retconning whatever character crimes it is currently trying to excuse as weird.

Also how did we get so unlucky as to have both a Bat Lash AND a Sgt Rock story in this issue?

Amazons Attack #6: and this tied things off nicely! Honestly for an event that didn't need to happen, Josie Campbell did well with it, featured a whole host of Wonder Woman characters that Tom King's barely interacting with, and added to some relationships between characters that needed additional work.

Alan Scott: The Green Lantern #5: I am sure this is a far more meaningful issue if you care deeply about Green Lantern lore. Also DELIGHTED that the JSA team up in this series actually happens on page rather than in the final splash like in Wesley Dodds: The Sandman. (Wesley Dodds is still the best of the three minis to me, but I'm happy here that we're going to get JSA backup).

The Warlord #45: Previously on Lost World of the Warlord (I said I would) Travis set out to find out what had happened to his daughter Jennifer. He goes back to the village of dwarfs and gets his old sword back (since he chucked Hellfire into a lake), and ends up fighting some Cyclops' that took several of the dwarves to eat. Tragically nothing particularly fun happens here (though a skeleton IS tied to a cross, the bondage isn't involving any characters I care about AND it's just a warning threat)

Also something weird went on with the lettering this issue where what I think were script directions ended up as text boxes for all the scene transitions. If it was a stylistic choice on Grell's part it's a particularly odd one.

[mikeo56]

The most despicable thing about the way Israel supporters smear Israel’s critics as anti-semites is that they are exploiting a very healthy impulse to advance a profoundly sick impulse. They knowingly exploit the fact that the further to the left someone is on the the political spectrum the more likely they are to (A) support Palestinian rights and (B) be very receptive to any suggestion that they might be acting in a racially insensitive way.

My followers who are on the right side of the political spectrum always have melodramatic conniptions whenever I say this, but there is a lot of value in learning about the role racial inequality plays in the injustices of our society and getting real with ourselves about where our own racial circumstances fit in with those unjust power dynamics. It’s a very healthy impulse to look within yourself and figure out if there’s anything in you as an individual that feeds into the racial injustices of our society, whether you‘re aware of it at first or not. This is especially true of white people, since racial injustices tend to benefit us in this society.

The further someone is toward the left end of the spectrum, the more likely they are to respond to an accusation of racism by stopping in their tracks and inquiring deeply into whether the accusation might have some truth to it. If the accusation is that you harbor the same kind of racism that gave rise to the Holocaust — one of the worst mass atrocities in all of human history — then you are all the more likely to stop and take the accusation seriously.

This is a healthy impulse. If everyone took seriously their responsibility to expunge everything in them that feeds into the injustices of our world, we would have peace and harmony on earth very quickly. But this impulse gets exploited in the most odiously cynical way imaginable to defend the interests of a murderous and tyrannical government whose very existence is premised on racism, apartheid, ethnic cleansing and abuse.

Have you ever noticed that it’s never the actual anti-semites who get attacked as anti-semites? Nowadays it’s very seldom the assholes saying Jews rule the world and are the source of society’s ills who are inundated with such accusations; supporters of Israel tend to more or less leave them alone. The ones who get slandered as anti-semites are people like Jeremy Corbyn — leftists who’ve dedicated their entire lives to anti-racism, whose only actual offense is believing that Palestinians are human beings and should be treated as such.

In fact actual anti-semites are some of Israel’s strongest allies. The lion’s share of forceful support for Israel in the United States comes not from Jews but from Christian Zionists who support Israel because they believe it will bring Jesus back so he can damn all non-Christians to eternal hellfire. Televangelist John Hagee, who believes Hitler was sent by God to help create Israel, had a prominent speaking spot at Tuesday’s “March for Israel” in Washington DC.

While people who hate Jews so much they want them to writhe in eternal hellfire are warmly embraced as allies of convenience by Israel and its supporters, healthy leftists who oppose racism in all its forms are attacked by Israel apologists as Nazis and Jew-haters. This is because their actions are not designed to protect Jews or reduce anti-semitism — their actions are to facilitate the strategic objectives of the Israeli government and its allies.

Really what’s happening in Gaza right now isn’t about Jews or Judaism at all; it’s about using violent force to take land and resources away from an indigenous population, as history has seen happen time and time again in situations that had nothing to do with Jews. It’s a profoundly unhealthy impulse that’s been causing immense human suffering for centuries, and people who’ve noticed the same patterns in Israel that they’ve seen in all the other settler-colonial projects over the last 500 years are being shouted down and bullied into staying silent using some of the most unethical manipulations ever devised.

The good news is that it doesn’t seem to be working as much anymore. People are gradually becoming aware that accusations of anti-semitism are used by Israel apologists to stagnate and stifle support for Palestinian rights, and are beginning to take those accusations a lot less seriously. There’s only so many times you can watch dishonest smear campaigns against good-faith leftists before you start to figure out that you’re being manipulated.

As with most problems, the solution to this one is to expand consciousness. The more people become aware of the way accusations of anti-semitism are cynically used to shut down pro-Palestine sentiments around the world, the less power those methods will have. That doesn’t mean we stop treating real anti-semitism like a real problem or that we become less sensitive to racial injustice; it simply means we see what’s being done in this specific instance and start calling it what it is.

[its-minart]

Baby Robins get to meet The Justice League their heroes pt.3

Batdad will always win <33

Pt.1 || Pt.2

[nerdythebard]

#29: Jason Blood/Etrigan [DC]

So... this is one of those characters I've always wanted to try and play. For those who don't know, Jason Blood is a former Knight of the Round Table. Bound to him is a demon from Hell, Etrigan (thanks, Merlin). The character features often whenever something infernal or magic-related happens in the DC comic universe. Blood's occult knowledge and Etrigan's physical capabilities make them a truly terrifying 2-in-1 special.

Next Time: What is best in life? To crush your enemies. To see their riches before you. And to see the lamentations of the DM.

Come one, come all, see what we need, to play as the demon that makes everyone plead!

Buy One, get the Other One free: Jason and Etrigan have their lives bound together. They are two separate beings, but they both cannot reside on the same plane of existence at the same time.

Sword & Sorcery: Jason is a full-blown knight, but also (in modern times) one of the leading authorities on demonology and the occult.

Hellfire Elite: Etrigan the Slayer is no mere louse, with fire and brimstone he brings down the house.

---

Jason Blood (aka Jason of Norwich) was a regular human, back in the times of King Arthur. But because of his current condition and aptitude for magic, we're making him a Variant Human. We get to add a +1 to two abilities of our choice (Constitution and Intelligence), we know Common and one additional language (suggesting Infernal here), and we get proficiency in one skill (Arcana). Now, normally we would also get a feat here, but I propose a trade; ask your DM to replace a free feat with one of the Dark Gifts listed as character creation options in Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. Specifically, we're gonna get the Symbiotic Being gift, which binds another life form to us. Thanks to sharing the body with Etrigan, we gain proficiency in one skill of our choice from the list (Intimidation) and if we ever fail a saving throw, we can roll one of our Hit Dice and add the result, potentially changing the outcome. Our symbiote does, however, have its own agenda and if we refuse to sometimes cooperate, they might want to take over our body (Charisma saving throw, failure results in 1d12 hour charmed effect).

We're going to follow our past as one of King Arthur's warriors, by picking the Knight of the Order background from Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide. We gain proficiency in Persuasion and one other skill of our choice from the list (History), proficiency in one gaming set or a musical instrument, and one language of our choice. With the Knightly Regard feature, we may receive shelter and help from the members of our order and their supporters. If the order is religious in nature, we may also gain aid from temples and churches. This feature is very similar to Military Rank and Shelter of the Faithful.

ABILITY SCORES

We'll start with Strength; it's gonna be one of our main fighting stats and since we're a knight, we need to have a good swing strength with our sword-arm. Constitution is next, Hit Points are always a good choice. Follow that up with Intelligence - centuries of learning ins-and-outs of the occult will give us that Galaxy Brain.

Dexterity will be next, I don't remember any particular feats of agility from either of them. Charisma is a little low, especially for a particularly intimidating demon, but we're gonna fix it later. Finally, we'll be dumping Wisdom, despite all of that time together, there are times Blood still views Etrigan as a burden and did not decide to do the clever thing and patch things up. He is also sometimes swayed into the villain role.

CLASS

Level 1 - Fighter: Pretty straightforward beginning. Fighters get a d10 Hit Die, [10 + our Constitution modifier] initial Hit Points, proficiencies with light armour, medium armour, heavy armour, shields, simple weapons, and martial weapons. Now, out of the two, Etrigan is sometimes portrayed wearing armour, so I'd say we go for the medium Spiked Armour and a standard longsword here. Our saving throws are Strength and Constitution, and we get to pick two class skills (Acrobatics and Athletics).

We start by picking our Fighting Style. Now, Blood may be a knight and use weapons, but if Etrigan is to be our main source of muscle, we're gonna pick Unarmed Fighting. Our unarmed strikes now deal [1d6 + our Strength modifier] bludgeoning damage (instead of just the modifier). We can also deal 1d4 bludgeoning damage to a creature we grapple, at the beginning of our turn. We can also heal [1d10 + our Fighter level] Hit Points once per short or long rest thanks to the Second Wind feature.

Level 2 - Fighter: With Action Surge, we can take one more action on our turn. We can do this once per short or long rest.

Level 3 - Fighter: We get to pick our subclass, our Martial Archetype, and for Blood's side of the coin we're getting Eldritch Knight, which lets us combine sword-fighting and magic. We gain Spellcasting, with Intelligence as our casting ability, we have a fixed number of spells we can learn (they have to be either from Abjuration or Evocation schools), and we get two cantrips at the start:

Booming Blade seems like a good option for enhancing our sword attacks. To activate it, we need to make a weapon attack against a creature within 5 feet of us. A successful hit deals regular weapon damage and leaves an aura around the target until the end of our next turn. If the target moves willingly during that time, it takes 1d8 thunder damage and the spell ends.

Fire Bolt is your classic spell that shoots a mote of flame at one target within 120 feet. On a successful hit, the target takes 1d10 fire damage (damage increases as we level up).

We start with two 1st-level spell slots and we know three 1st-level spells:

Burning Hands creates a 15-foot cone of flames from our outstretched hands. Each creature within range must make a Dexterity saving throw or take 3d6 fire damage (half damage on a successful save).

Chromatic Orb creates a swirling mass of energy that we launch at one target within 90 feet of us. On a successful hit, the target takes 3d8 point of one of the damage type we choose: acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison, or thunder.

Shield is a reaction to taking damage. If an attack hits us, we get to add a +5 bonus to our AC until the start of our next turn.

Finally, Eldritch Knights get Weapon Bond, which creates a link between them and their main weapon. Once established, the bond prevents us from being disarmed for as long as we're not incapacitated, and we can use a bonus action to teleport the weapon to our hand (granted we're on the same Plane of Existence as the weapon).

Level 4 - Fighter: Time for our first Ability Score Improvement! Let's raise our Strength and Constitution this time. We also get another 1st-level spell: Earth Tremor causes shockwaves to ripple from a point of our choice in a 10 feet diameter. Each creature other than us within range must make a Dexterity saving throw or take 1d6 bludgeoning damage and be knocked prone. At this point, we might also want to sell our armour, because of what comes next.

Level 5 - Barbarian: There it is! We can finally say the thing!

We can now flavour a combination of our Dark Gift and the Barbarian's Rage, as the demonic transformation. Our 'transformation' lasts for 1 minute, we can use it twice per long rest, and we cannot cast spells while it lasts. We do gain some benefits, though:

We have an advantage on Strength-related checks and saving throws

When we make a melee weapon attack, we get a +2 bonus to damage rolls (it increases as we level up)

We have resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage

We also gain Unarmoured Defence. While not wearing any armour, our AC is equal to [10 + our Dexterity modifier + our Constitution modifier].

Level 6 - Barbarian: With our Danger Sense, we gain an advantage on Dexterity saving throws related to dangers we can see, such as traps or spells. We must not be blinded, deafened, or incapacitated to use this benefit.

We also get the Reckless Attack option here. Whenever we make the first attack on our turn, we can choose to make it a reckless one. We get an advantage on that melee weapon attack, but all attacks made against us until our next turn are also made with an advantage.

Level 7 - Barbarian: Time to pick our second subclass, our Primal Path. For Etrigan, who fights primarily with his hands, we're going with Path of the Beast from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything.

Thanks to our Form of the Beast, whenever we're raging we can manifest a natural weapon; it counts as a melee weapon for us and we attack and deal damage with our Strength modifier. We can choose claws, fangs, or a tail.

Level 8 - Fighter: Jumping back into the Fighter for a quick moment, we get to pick Extra Attack. From now on, we can take one additional attack during a single Attack action.

Level 9 - Fighter: Time for another ASI. This time, let's put two points into our Dexterity for better AC and Initiative bonus.

Level 10 - Barbarian: Coming back into our demonic friend's shoes, this is where we would've get Extra Attack, but I've decided to pick the Fighter's version since it stacks. We do, however, get Fast Movement which increases our speed by 10 feet provided we're not wearing heavy armour.

Level 11 - Barbarian: This is our final Barbarian level, and we're getting the Bestial Soul feature. Our natural weapon attacks (claws, fangs, or a tail) now count as magical for the purpose of overcoming resistances and immunities.

When we finish a short or long rest, we can choose one of the following properties that lasts until the next short or long rest:

We gain a swimming speed and we can breathe underwater

We gain a climbing speed and we can climb difficult surfaces (such as upside-down) without a need to make a skill check

When we jump, we can make an Athletics roll and add the result to our jumping distance (this works once per turn)

Level 12 - Fighter: Coming back into the magic knight subclass, we are greeted by War Magic; whenever we use our Action to cast a cantrip, we can use our bonus action to make one weapon attack.

We also get access to 2nd-level spells! Arcane Lock places a charm on a locked door, window, chest, etc. preventing anyone we don't allow from opening it. We can also set a password that suppresses the spell for 1 minute (it normally lasts until dispelled). We now have a way to hide our arcane treasures collected through the centuries.

Level 13 - Fighter: Time for another ASI! Let's raise our Wisdom by two points to get rid of the negative modifier.

We also learn another spell; this is also one of the moments where we can learn a spell that is NOT abjuration or evocation. Dragon's Breath gives us (or anyone we touch) the ability to channel a draconic ability to breathe some form of energy attack for up to 1 minute (concentration). We choose one damage type (acid, cold, fire, lightning, or poison) and we can use an action to exhale a 15-foot cone of aforementioned energy; creatures within range must make a Dexterity saving throw or take 3d6 points of damage (half damage on a successful save).

Level 14 - Fighter: At this level, we get the Indomitable feature. Once per long rest, we can re-roll a failed saving throw; we have to use the second roll, though, even if it's worse than the first one.

Level 15 - Fighter: Our subclass gives us the Eldritch Strike feature here. Whenever we hit a creature with a weapon attack, that creature has a disadvantage on the next spell saving throw it has to make before the end of our next turn.

We also get to pick another cantrip: Green-Flame Blade lets us make a melee weapon attack against a creature within 5 feet of us. On a successful hit, the target suffers regular weapon damage and we can choose to affect another creature standing within 5 feet of our initial target. The second target suffers [1d8 + our spellcasting ability modifier] fire damage.

We can pick another 2nd-level spell, as well. Mental Barrier from Unearthed Arcana: Fighter, Rogue, and Wizard is a reaction, which we can take when we're forced to make an Intelligence, a Wisdom, or a Charisma saving throw. Until the start of our next turn, we have an advantage on the aforementioned throws, as well as resistance to psychic damage.

Level 16 - Fighter: At this level, we get an upgrade to our Extra Attack. We can now attack three times during a single Attack action. We can also get another 2nd-level spell: Scorching Ray creates up to three rays of fiery energy that we can shoot at up to three targets within 120 feet of us. On a successful hit, the target takes 2d6 fire damage.

Level 17 - Fighter: With another ASI, we raise our Dexterity by two points.

Level 18 - Fighter: At this level, we get to use our Indomitable feature twice between long rests. We also finally learn 3rd-level spells: Magic Circle creates a 10-foot radius, 20-foot tall cylinder of enclosed boundary. It affects the following type of creatures - celestials, elementals, fey, fiends, or undead. The designated creatures cannot willingly enter the circle, have a disadvantage on attacking targets inside the circle, and those who are inside cannot be charmed or frightened. The Circle can be cast in reverse to keep the designated creatures inside.

Level 19 - Fighter: We get our final subclass upgrade. Arcane Charge lets us teleport up to 30 feet into an unoccupied space as long as we use our Action Surge. We can choose to teleport before or after taking the extra action.

Level 20 - Fighter: We unfortunately end this build on an ASI. Let's get our Charisma a little more up this time. If you've survived until level 20, you probably are going to face possibility of being charmed and/or frightened.

--- Let's see what we got from this crazy double trouble: I'd say we have a pretty balanced ability scores with three 16s, a pretty decent set of skills, good combat abilities and a pretty good tanking capabilities. Our Unarmoured AC is 16, we have a +3 to our Initiative and 187 Hit Points on average. Unfortunately, for a world-class leading authority on the occult, our spellcasting capabilities are a bit limited to scratching 3rd level. Also, our two abilities that are the most common saving throws - Wisdom and Charisma - are pretty low, so we may be in danger of getting charmed or frightened. --- Okay, finally done with this one. I really like the Jason/Etrigan duo and wanted to make them for a long time now. I hope you've enjoyed this one and I'll see you in the next one! - Nerdy out!

[revolutionaryjackelving]

What do you think constitutes a two-dimensional character vs a three-dimensional character? I remember asking about Peter Parker’s characters flaws a while ago and you mentioned how Alan Moore stayed Marvel characters tend to be two-dimensional, which I find interesting.

What are some examples of three-dimensional characters in superhero comics?

A great question. To be honest this is a running theme of most of my posts on Spider-Man and other stuff. Some day I might address this in more detail. For the time being, below the cut.

It's hard to explain what three-dimensional characters mean. But, take THE GODFATHER, with Michael Corleone (Al Pacino). We watch those movies and understand that Michael is a villain but we also see him as a tragic figure, we as audiences understand and empathize with him. In a superhero story, Michael Corleone would be one of those anonymous gangsters below the paygrade of Batman and others. He wouldn't emerge with the depth and complexity that THE GODFATHER gives him. Three-dimensional characters are deeper and go beyond fixed and assigned moral categories of hero/villain, and good/bad guy. Tim Burton's BATMAN RETURNS is an example of a superhero story that takes that approach with Pfeiffer's Catwoman where she transcends the fixed and assigned genre categories and overturns the hero/villain binary at the end. In general, it's hard to impossible to do a three-dimensional character in a genre where you have fixed categories and ideas of good/evil. There's also the case to be made that three dimensional characters don't work with serialized characters that ultimately it works best with standalone stories. Jay Gatsby in THE GREAT GATSBY is a three-dimensional character but he's there in the one story and has more complexity than Indiana Jones has over four movies. In the case of Marvel, Moore noted that Marvel characters are two-dimensional in that they fight crime like the DC heroes but they don't do it for entirely heroic reasons. Sometimes it's for selfish reasons, like the FF rocket-flight in FF#1 is purely selfish, driven for the sake of Reed's career aspirations with the slimmest patriotic nonsense placed on top to justify it. Spider-Man initially became a superhero because he wanted to be "superhero Justin Bieber" and it took a single act of selfishness to bring him down to earth and make him a neurotic mess. That's more complex in psychology than Superman and Batman in the Silver Age but it's not fully three-dimensional yet. "With great power comes great responsibility" is too thin a concept to build a complex personality out of. Having said that, I think you need to separate the individual example from the broader Marvel continuity. What that means is that with Marvel you are supposed to treat everything as a big ongoing story but only a few of the comics are really well-written, or written well enough to be fully deserving of a deep personality. So individual stories do have well realized deep characters. Examples include: -- The Phoenix Saga/Dark Phoenix Saga: Where under Claremont, Jean Grey emerges as a fully realized personality with an inner life, interior struggle and an uncertainty that makes her tragic and relatable. -- Triumph and Torment by Roger Stern and Mike Mignola. This is a dark gothic story wrapped in hellfire and fantasy but at the end of it, Doctor Victor von Doom does emerge as a complex figure who escapes simple binaries of good/evil, you have a bad man with an absolutely heroic motive (saving his mother's soul) and despite achieving it, he doesn't achieve redemption but is still somewhat damned. You have a character who redefines our sense of good and evil. -- "Daredevil: Born Again" by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli, with Matt Murdoch and Karen Page becoming this messed up compelling punk romance between two people who are exploited and tossed aside by society but find personal meaning outside ruins and fixed categories. Born Again redefines the superhero dynamic since by the end Matt doesn't defeat Kingpin and is still not fully back so the story is about coping about defeat. -- "The Daydreamers" by Roger Stern/JRJR (ASM#246). This is a more light-hearted comic but through four vignettes it explores Felicia, Mary Jane, Jameson, Peter Parker and shows their fantasies and daydreams many of which are often selfish and self-indulgent and you have a sense of the secret shame and desire of these characters and how much and how little they are able to overcome it. -- "Kraven's Last Hunt" by JM DeMatteis/Mike Zeck. This is probably the one superhero comic that is a straight genre

story i.e. Masked guys versus masked bad guys that gives a human and psychological explanation to the costume gimmicks and what it signifies. Without changing a single thing about Kraven, DeMatteis has him emerge as the most fully realized villain in any narrative about Spider-Man, and through Kraven you also have a deeper and mature exploration of the humanity and warmth of Peter Parker and his supporting cast. So this is one comic where the characters do achieve three-dimensionality. There are other examples but these stick out of the top. Basically any time a superhero story looks at characters outside the fixed categories of hero/villain and good/evil or tries to root those categories in a more realistic world where stuff like that is blurred and complicated by more intricate stuff in real life like politics, class, sexuality.

[burnyouwithacigarettelighter]

all my fears they have become

“Where do you expect a military base to be?”

“DC? Like the Pentagon?”

The Anderson family make their way to the Military secured base in Nashville, but are denied entry.

(cross-posted on ao3!)

here is this series’s masterlist!

𖥔

When Ron was several years old, he pushed another boy on the playground to the floor.

They had been arguing about the slide, shoulders and hands jutting and grabbing at each other in an attempt to slow the other down.

Ron looked at the boy, smaller than him, and perhaps even younger, and shoved the boy off the bars that lead to the structure and the slide.

He had fallen onto the wooden chips with a harmless thud, but his eyes still widened and watered, limbs that had been pettily swinging now crumpling into himself.

Ron remembers watching that boy drop into himself emptily, mother running over to him and fussing over the boy worriedly. He looked so weak.

(And Ron remembers just as clearly not feeling a drop of sympathy for him.)

His mother had taken him aside, patting the spot beside her in the bench as a gesture to sit down.

“Why’d you do that, Ron?” She said simply, eyes gazing over the small park. Her hands sat in her lap, even though Ron felt like she should have been holding his own.

“Because I wanted to go on the slide first.” He replied, looking at her. There were patches of dusty foundation appearing in blotches on her skin, and the young boy absently wondered where the purple went.

After a moment of silence, she finally turned to him, brows furrowed with something he couldn’t quite make out at the time. “You can’t do that. You can’t push or hurt people just to get what you want.”

Ron blinked, “But why? It works.” Ron really couldn’t comprehend why his mother didn’t want him to do so, especially when it was something she never had a problem with when he did it.

“It’s not —“ Her eyes thinned, “you hurt him, Ron. You shouldn’t hurt other people.”

And Ron watched his mothers expression poke at him, face contorted into something that made him want to look at his shoes. It made him feel small. It made him feel weak.

“Okay, Mom.”

Ron didn’t want to make Sam feel that way. In fact, Ron wanted his brother to feel the exact opposite of that.

But he couldn’t leave it alone — how could you, when you can see clearly where those thoughts are going?

“What the hell do you mean we can’t allow you entry?!” Ron’s father shouted, finger digging sharply into the man’s chest.

The soldier in front of him, dressed in neat camouflage print uniform and flat military cap, looked at Ron’s father with a straight-face, while also addressing the large crowd forming behind the Anderson family, “The base has already reached maximum capacity, and in allowing you entry, we will be effectively sabotaging our efforts, as well as the lives of other citizens.”

“What about our lives? We’re fucking citizens, are we not?!” Someone behind them rasps out angrily.

Ron’s father looked to hold the same sentiment, hands bunched into fists at his sides. The family of four had pulled the car out of the side of the road after Ron’s father had done something underneath the hood of the car, before resuming their route down an extra (and significantly less crowded) road that not many used.

“We have children!” A mother in the crowd says desperately. The highway overhead makes a crashing noise, attention flitting to the sound momentarily. It’s filled with cars that honk angrily, and many split off down the nearest exit route.

(They had the right idea, Ron thinks later on, going down the city main road that leads straight out of Nashville.)

The soldier’s straight face split for a slight moment, one that held pity and a light apology, before slipping back into poker, “We have direct orders to escort remaining citizens to another camp outside of the city.”

The crowd’s rumbling quieted, all looking at each other with a sort of hopeful relief. A few people had actually seen the dead walking — not quite clearly, in Ron’s case, but mob paranoia was a wonderful thing that spread like absolute hellfire.

His father teetered on the edge, while his mother tried desperately to pull her husband back to peaceful sobriety. She looked not nearly as worried as Ron’s father, but perhaps she was just better at pretending.

“Ron? Where — are we going?” Sam stuttered out, hand nervously clutching Ron’s own like a lifeline, wideyedly surveying the grey building, as well as the others — which was starkly blacked out in comparison to the military building that held a small, though noticeable, brightened window.

“We’re, uh,” Ron racked his mind for a simple response. His brother was a stubborn person, and an easily frightened one, too. One wrong answer would send him off the deep end of rapid-fire questions, whilst the other would mute him into wincing obedience. “We’re going, er, somewhere.”

Ron bit his tongue. Wrong answer.

“Where’s somewhere?”

“I don’t know, maybe Tellico.” Ron responded with a shrug, deciding to try and humor (distract, perhaps) his younger brother. Their mother and father ushered the two of them along, worried they might break off.

Sam wrinkles his nose, “No way. Tellico is boring.”

“Where do you expect a military base to be?”

“DC? Like the Pentagon?”

Ron blew air from his lips halfheartedly, slowly boarding up the steps of the cramped bus with his brother and his parents in tow, “Sure.”

The military bus wasn’t discreet, holding camouflage splatters on every inch of the steel armoured frame, with an equally green and serious soldier driving in the front seat.

“D’you think Aunt Stacy is in a military base?” His brother said without much thought, eyes piercing into the side of Ron’s face.

“What?” Ron said, looking back at his brother with a tense expression.

Aunt Stacy was their mothers sister — sick with the illness, not so much as able to communicate with them, and couldn’t see their mother nor them in the urgency to cease all actions with the sick in a shaky attempt to stop the spread.

Sam repeated his question simply, fingers tapping lightly on the side of his seat.

“Why—“ Ron blinked incredulously, eyes doing a once over on his brother, “What do you mean?”

His brother gave a shrug, “She’s sick. She has the sick.”

Ron nodded slowly, “So?” Their aunt was safely (well, that was what the government had said on the news, with doctors and nurses who looked aged far beyond their years, worn and frail, nodding seedily) being taken care of in Nashville’s hospitals, after the Knoxville hospital hadn’t any room left.

“Do they still even bring the sick? Don’t they turn?”

They… did. Turn, that was.

But Ron was sure it could be handled, right? The officials said so, echoing it with a laugh.

The world was past illnesses like the flu that would’ve killed many centuries ago, so they could do this, right?

Right?

“I’m sure they can handle a flu, Sam.” Ron said, brows creased.

(He knows he’s trying to convince himself. He knows. But it keeps the fear on hold, for now.)

“Shouldn’t they just leave them?”

Boys Sam’s age didn’t have a filter, and were sometimes ignorant, but Ron was sure they could still be empathetic, whether or not what he said was the truth.

“I,” Ron’s lips couldn’t quite form the words he’d wanted, “Don’t think about that, Sam.”

His brother opened his mouth to respond, “Don’t.” Ron interrupted, sharper than he intended.

“Okay, Ron.”

𖥔 

Ron couldn’t fall asleep.

His brother was out like a light against Ron’s forearm, breathing light and seamlessly in the seat, as well as many others, who’s breathing mirrored Sam’s in each row.

Ron’s father sat still as a statue, eyes closed tightly, and Ron thought his mother had been fast asleep on her husband’s shoulder, but her own open eyes reflected against street lamp lights in the furthering plains like the crystal marbles he used to collect.

It was completely calm in the bus, littered with families, and was slowly followed by another military bus holding more citizens, and perhaps more soldiers.

Despite the safety that was guaranteed, there was an uneasiness sitting in the pit of his stomach, twisting and turning without fail as to make him nauseous, settling in like it’d never go away.

His brother’s words echoed carelessly in the depths of his mind, while a whispering appeared, planting seeds of doubt where there shouldn’t be.

Aunt Stacy… she’ll be okay, right? They have a cure, don’t they? It’s just a flu… you know, you’re starting to sound like your father.  

Ron felt his mouth go dry.

You saw the hospitals, Ron. How could they possibly fix all of it? The government’s keeping information mum — and you’re on a bus to a military camp outside of Nashville… is this how they fix it?  

Is this how, Ron?  

No. No, Ron thinks, shaking himself.

Sam is right, isn’t he? They just need to leave the sick… seal them away… that’s what you think now, too, right? Just leave Aunt Stacy… and the rest… just leave them.

That’s how they’d fix it, right? That’s how they should fix it, right, Ron?

Ron feels something pull the sleeve of his sweater, making his head turn.

“Are we there yet, Ron?”

The older boy swallows the dry feeling in his mouth, trying to respond, “We’re,” the bus fell to a stop.

The soldier driving in the front slapped the roof of the bus with a step, “We’re here.” Though his attention seemed to be targeted to his fellow soldiers, rather than them.

“Yeah. Sure.” Ron said, giving a weak grin to his younger brother, whose eyes peered outside of the windows carefully.

The Anderson family stepped out of the bus, watching the remaining passengers and soldiers file out of the vehicle. The sky had turned dark, now, and stars speckled it’s black backsplash like paint on canvas, littering its surroundings luminously.

One of the men clad in military print surveyed the back of the bus carefully, a rifle in hand that swung in his grip without much care. He pulled a few soldiers back with him, whispering things Ron couldn’t make out.

The clearing they’d parked in was just that, sitting near an undergrowth of trees, whilst it’s left side was remarkably dry bare, not much in sight. Sam shivered lightly, looking up at the sky like Ron had done so earlier, and the older boy shrugged off his coat and placed it on his brother, more than a little worried he’d catch something.

Sam had always been fragile, even as a baby, and the family would spend countless nights awake, watching him carefully — as well as many nights rushing to the hospital. He was premature, so Ron would learn to accept it as something that just happened.

His mother always liked to point out the differences between the boys, late at night when her eyes drooped with fatigue, and Ron tried to get her to sleep.

“Sam’s delicate. You know that — but, you, Ron,” She’d chuckle, “you’ve always been the opposite. Never needed much care, much attention.”

Ron would nod absently, looking for blankets hidden in the couch cushions, because if his mother didn’t want to sleep in bed beside her husband, well, so be it.

“You’re brother got it from your dad, definitely. A lot like me, you are, Ron.” She’d trail off.

(Ron didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing — and if it was even true at all. His mother was wrong about a lot of things, and later in the blond’s life, she’d echo anger towards him, “You’re exactly like your father. Exactly.” and Ron wouldn’t know what was real.

But Ron did know what he’d gotten from the man — his paranoia. Though the world Ron would grow up in called for exactly that, Ron knows that even if it hadn’t gone to shit, things around the corner of his home would ingrain paranoia into his bones.)

Before Ron could think, the soldiers appeared once more, and ushered the group back into the bus with little indignation for their questions.

The soldier who had driven sat back into his seat, pushing down on the accelerator pedal as soon as they had all boarded, looking behind him and into the side mirror every so often.

No one asks any more questions, simply content with what they’ve been given, and the guarantee of safety just in their reach, but Ron’s mind drifts elsewhere.

He’d heard the soldiers talk about the ‘rendezvous point’ that they’d stop at to account for the citizens and men — and had just as equally heard when the driver of their bus said, “And if one of us doesn’t arrive, we know what that means. We go, and we don’t look for the other.” as the rest of the soldiers nodded solemnly.

Ron closes his eyes, wishing for sleep, and tries to convince himself that the bus is just lagging along, and will soon catch up with them.

(He waves away the thoughts that it could’ve been us, could’ve been us and the worser thoughts, like thank god it isn’t.)

[popculturebuffet]

Hickman’s X-Men One Year In: Part 2: The Dawn of X

And we’re onto part 2. Since it took me a while to talk about Hickman’s Series outside of Giant-Size and the setup here, that’s in part one if your curious, I split this little retrospective into two parts, with this part here talking about the rest of the books. This isn’t to say they aren’t great, many of them are, it was just easier to do this as a two parter so with HIckman himself out of the way how did his hand picked batch of talented writers handle the lofty status quo he set up?Find out under the cut. Pax Krakoa baby. 

Mauraders Okay just to get this out of the way this is my second faviorite x-book running, after X-Men itself and it often equals it and far and away the best tile of the run and restored my faith in Gerry Duggan.  Duggan is not a bad writer and I blame the messy finish of his otherwise awesome guardians run with infnity wars on marvel trying to cram other characters into it and then a weird mash up idea that while cool, kept the guardians out of their own damn event and from confrting a now mad gamora, but that and deadpool made me forget the guy is a good writer and can do great things. Maruaders however won me back to him with intrest.  A unique concept, the x-men as pirates helping ferry goods to krakoan allied states and ferry trapped mutants from hostile ones, is fucking awesome. The only thing missing is nightcrawler and it’s clear hickman has other plans, though I still feel he shoudl’ve been on the boat as he has both the relation to kitty pryde and pirate pedgree that fit in perfectly.  Speaking of kitty after years of writers misusing her due to having a crush on her as a kid and shoving her into half baked romances with peter quill and her ex peter rasptuin, the latter failing so badly that marvel pulled the plug on their wedding because fans clearly didn’t want it, and battling my own reluctance ot see her front and center again, Duggan makes good use of her again: Kitty is given the unique hook of the portals not working for her and no one, even her old friend Doug after he gets back, being able to figure out WHY. Though I do hope Doug does show up here and explain it more, as him being kitty’s best friend once is rarely brought up since he got back and it’s silly it hasn’t been. But rather than take this on the chin Kitty strikes up a crew consisting of big sister Storm, first class graduate x-man, badass gay and kitty’s friend and ex iceman, bishop who reluctantly joins as her bishop more on that in a second and the best of them by a mile: Pyro. The original, finally brought back and given some intresting backstory: he was the first mutant brought back and felt good about it..t ill he realized that despite sacrificing himself to save a, if your familiar with the various cartoons this will be baffling but trust me, reformed senator kelly as Pyro himself was dying from the legacy virus, only to find out they did him first because they considered him expendable basically and naturally was upset over that, drunk a bunch of the liquor kitty smuggled in, for logan naturally, and passed out and then joined in on the rescue mission that formed the team because why not and stayed because it was a great offer.  Speaking of offers with a new purpose, Kitty accepted her old enemy Emma Frost’s offer to be red queen, which includes a seat on krakoa’s council and was basically emma’s way of saying fuck you to her old cohort who she was forced to bring back on to handle the seedier side of Krakoa’s dealings via his underworld connections, sebastian shaw. Emma is the fincical  backbone of krakoa, having the shipping connections to get the flowers in and out and now having kitty to handle the stuff she can’t and do some of the shipping, as well as again tell Sebastian, who naturally wants both gone and is pissy at Emma being so far ahead of him, wants gone. And while he’s seemingly succeded with kitty I not only have every expectation that while ressuection is failing to work on her she’ll be back, but that trying to murder one of the most beloved x-men whose consdiered family to among others three of krakoa’s captains, bishop after this series, four of their council, five if you include Doug whose best friends with both his left arm which is also a deadly space robot and the very place they live on. The only reason he’s not going to die 80 times in increasingily horrifying ways is because the five can’t take on that kind of workload and one murderous ass beating from half of krakoa and krakoa itself is close enough. 

Emma is easily one of the books best parts, being written back as she should: An anti hero who while quick with a cutting quip, truly cares for her charges, and mutantkind as a whole and has grown from the monster she started as or even the kind of person who’d use a therapy session from a desperate man having issues opening up emotionally after apocalypse used his body as a rental car to convince him to fuck her.  And yes that’s how things started with Scott and Emma and yes it’s really fucked up and yes the story treats it as such, though I still wish Scott would get actual therapy, but as Linkara recently pointed out in his House of M Review the Marvel and DC universes weirdly lack therapists for the most part and thus it was left on my mind the last two weeks.. and yes I know DC tried but when your final product at trying to serious tackle mental health is heroes in crisis.. I award you no points and god have mercy on your soul.  But while Emma and Kitty get the lions share of the focus the rest of the group is enjoyable, well done and intresting, if not given many arcs to themselves, but still have enough character moments to counterballance that. The standout of the rest of the crew is easily Pyro, taken from “why is he still dead despite being super popular and used in a heavy role in X2 that’s garnered fans of that version to this day and bafflement he became a foot note in the next movie and used in every adaptation” to fun side character with a skull on his face and a love of booze and setting things on fire. He’s finally given the respect he deserves sorta and while I hope more is delved into his ressurection angst, he’s a ton of fun and it again makes me wonder why it took 20+ years to bring him back, but i’m glad the right person did it. The rest of the crew are fun with Bishop being another standout.  That being said part of the reason there isn’t a lot of focus is simply because in additoin to our brave crew the book is juggling a LOT of characters.. the morlocks and calisto, both given a proper treatment after wya too long, jumbo carnation a minor character from morrisons run who was introduced in the same issue he died is emma’s designer, shinobi shaw and christian frost, the latter I question why a main relative of one of marvel’s a-list mutants who was one of marvel’s earlier gay characters hasn’t been used in a big way till now but no time like the present, Sebastian and the people he shares his big bad spot with Homines Verde aka those tweens who ran the hellfire club during jason aaron’s run because the man is nuts and who I only seemd to liked, brillinatly revamped as a racist replacemnt for the hellfire club and so far a clever threat. The book is just stuffed iwth good characters, beautiful art, and a great tone that combines spectacular humor with really good story and worldbuilding. It’s also a nice contrast to hickman’s stuff: don’t get me wrong I love hickman’s writing style but it’s nice to have something JUST as good.. but with a cheerier tone and less weariness to it, while still not lacking weight. I can’t wait to see where this goes.. it’s a pirates life for me. 

Excalibur:  Like most of the dawn of X-Line outside of fallen angels, more on that in a minute and even then that had an intresting new directoin for betsy braddock, I was pumped for this one. A team I loved: While I struggled to find a run I loved with Claremont’s run having Brian Braddock be a raging dick whose terrible to his girlfriend and gets away with cheating on her and Claremont not really bothering to explain Saturnyne or other characters and their history with Brian well to us yanks who never had the chance to read those tales.. though why stories by alan moore and chris claremont haven’t been republished properly or in epic collections is beyond me. Warren Ellis, who I now loathe for being a scheming weasel who treated women like garbage, had a decent run with plenty of warlock, in a weird phase where he thought he was doug, Moira and Wolfsbane stuff I loved.. but also had 30-40 something pete wisdom shacking up with 18 year old at most kitty pryde, with Pete at the time being basically Warren Ellis badass self insert character, and given recent revelations i’m pretty sure he damn well knew kitty was just 18 and even if he didn’t having his own fanfic character deflower her is just all kinds of EWWWWWW. He also had Colossus, fresh of being a villian for a while for understandable reasons, nearly beat pete into a coma in a jealous rage over the ex.. the ex he dated while she was still a minor, and left because HE , and editorial, was uncomfortable with it for damn obvious reasons. I can see why fans like to see her as bisexual and pair her with Illiayna.. I mean why the fuck not? They have better chemistry than most of he hetrosexual intrests and are paried because of that and not because the writer wanted to make out iwth kitty as a teenager and forgot “oh yeah she’s fictional and i’m 40!”  Christ thank god for Gerry Duggan.  But yeah moving on from that I was still pumped as a magical x-men book with Besty Braddock now captain freaking britan, and apocalypse on the roster. And rictor and jubille? nad rouge and gambit I guess.. I don’t knokw if they fit but whatever. Sign me up. The actual result is a mixed back. I do like Tini Howard’s work here to a point: Betsy gets good character stuff and theres actually good tension from the fact that the new captain britan is no longer primarily a british ctizen, and the book brought back a character I felt marvel needed to do more with: Jamie. if you don’t know, Jamie is betsy and brian’s, her brother and the former captain britian, older brother who went insane due to his powers and thus just goes around in his underwear convinced reality isn’t real and he can do what he wants and the tension with Jamie refusing to have anything to do with his brother for no good reason is really good. Rictor and Apocalypse are likewise good sensable additons: Rictor turns out to be a natural to being a druid which is a nice twist and makes sense given when he lost his powers the biggest issue with that was loosing touch with earth after having a connection to it be a vital part of him for years. Apocalypse as an ominus chess master slowly securing magic for mutantkind with some goal we’re about to get answers to is really investing and adds a layer to his character, that much like doctor doom he’s as much sorecer as he is scinetest and given the guy’s immortal, it dosen’t feel like it was pulled out of nowhere.  The problem is the other half of the cast.. dosen’t really work. I fucking love Jubilee, a faviroite of mine as an xman despite not being a huge 90′s x-men cartoon fan, just feels kinda shoe horned in. Her son becomes a dragon and she worries about him constantly, but her worrying about her son possibly not being a mutant on mutant land could be done in any other x-book, and fraknly I feel her personality would fit better with the maruaders, and it’d be intresting to see kitty and her on the same team since both really haven’t interacted. Here she just feels like “well tini wanted jubilee and no one else did soooo I made her son a dragon to justify getting her”. I feel more could be done and hope Tini has better plans for her. Rouge is one of my faviorte x-men and All New X Factor and Kelly Thompsons work with him and Rouge made me like Gambit again, and I DO love their marriage and it was a way better idea than the one Guggenhiem had planned.. but while the idea of Rouge being reborn is intresting and all, she still dosen’t really get to do much and like Jubilee just feels weirldy out of place while Remy has that plus he’s annoying, as while he’s the only one rightfully supscious of apocalypse he also won’t shut the fuck up about it for five minutes. Ig et where he’s coming from  but it dosen’t make him less annoying. These aren’t bad characters, but sof ar they just feel weirdly out of place in a magic based book and unlike Rictor tini hasn’t made any of htem but Rouge feel in place. 

That being said I could ignore that more.. but the villians are also week. So far at least, as the return of Satyurne has given the book it’s first good antagonist.. but what I feel drags the book down the most from it’s potential is the bad guys; Morgan Le Fay is the first antaognist, being mad at apocalypse’s intrusions and corrputing Brian.. but her motives are just so boring: She wants power and to rule, she hates mutants... while “hates mutants” is a qualifier for every other antagonist so far, she just feels bland.. Tini just dosen’t make her feel like a good antagonist and it’s a shame as mutant hater or not she’s something DIFFRENT from the throngs of mutant hating conspiracies, mostly from russia in the other books... she’s just so bland it dosen’t work. And after her is Cullen Bloodstone who as far as I can tell is written out of character.. haven’t read his book but I had both a friend confirm it and having read his marvel wiki entry, it just seems like an odd turn to have him be a racist asshole. But even with all my problems and underwhelm here.. I still WANT the book to get from okay to amazing, and feel it genuinely has the potetial. I’ve seen books sharply improve after a rough first arc, Duggan himself showed me that with his Guardians run. Sometimes it just takes time for something to truly blossom and I have a feeling even with my issues, with x of swords coming up howard’s going to flip it all on it’s head and leave me standing there gasping like a moron. I have hope for that. And if nothing else the book is at least UNIQUE. And not in a trainwreck way: by giving mutants a piece of the magic pie and having them tackle far weirder threats, it’s at least doing something new and it probably lands for other people if not me, and if nothing else it does brian 80 times better than the claremont run did. not a high bar but I do like the character and it’s nice to see him take such an intresting path, and the same goes for Betsy. Tini’s still got magic to do, and I have a feeling it’s going to take me by storm very soon. 

Fallen Angels: Now for the other half of the coin as it were. Some fans weren’t happy about Betsy getting her old body back, and yes Psylocke wasn’t orignally asian but a white british woman bodyswapped iwth a japanese assasian and yes that’s as ludicrious and unteitonally offensive as it sounds, because horrible implications of said Body Swap or not, Psylocke was one of the few asian superheros of note. So to compromise , Hickman and co decided to split the diffrence: Betsy would come back and get a rank up to captain britan, while Kwannon, said assasian, would take over as Psylocke. Hence Excalibur above and fallen angels here and I was excited about it. The Body Swap thing went on a decade too long and this way fans got the character they knew as Psylocke in another book while the face they recognized would finally get some fleshing out. I was excited about that and while probably the least excited about this book of the intitial 5, it did have an intresting lead, two characters I did like (Kid Cable I grant was only under hickman who turned him from that brat version of cable who killed the one I really love to a good character in his own right), and an intresting antagonist in a sentient machine.  In practice it was okay. The best I can say is that writer Brian Hill DOES do a great job taking a mostly minor x-character and really fleshing her out and making her engaging and Kwannon’s quest to save her daughter is really compelling.. but the premise of those who don’t fit with krakoa dosen’t work with the roster given. Laura Kinney is not only sticking with the x-23 name after dropping the wolverine mantle for no reason previously, something Hickman fixed as soon as he realized how fans felt for her apperance in the main book, while Cable feels nothing like the far more fun version from Hickman’s X-Men and later Duggan’s Cable. Add in Husk and Bling who do deserve to be on a team but feel out of place here, and it just.. is okay. The book has an intresting angagonist and a great lead, but just dosen’t work as a team book and would’ve been better off being JUST about kwannon herself, who is far and away the best part about the book and i’m glad she got fleshed out. Not TERRIBLE but nothing special and it’s a shame given the antagonist, whose name I can’t even remember at this point, is intresting and ties into mutantkind’s greatest enmies being man and machine accoridng to house and powers.. basically a decent concep twith a flawed execution. Maybe hill’ sbatman and hte outisders run is better. I need to get on that. That being said the premise and idea is so far being done well in Hellions which we’ll get to, even if I’m being cautious really getting into the book with Zeb Wells track record. But more on that in a bit. 

X-Force: Time to make noise, bad guys leave us no choice.. you know the rest. But yeah X-force. The concept here grabbed me, having X-Force rather than just be the black ops squad but be literal black ops for krakoa, was really great and fit the brave new world.. what worried me was the writer, Benjamin Percy. Now a lot of x-fans probably knew him from the much beloved “Wolverine: The Long Night” podcast, which i’ve heard is utterly fantastic as is it’s followup.. but I hadn’t heard it, and had only heard of Percy from DC comics where under his belt was an okay teen titans run and a not very good and politcally unsubtle green arrow book. And i’m not against politics in comics it just wasn’t done at all well there and the “oliver queen looses hif ourture due to a shadowy conspiracy thing” was already done better by jeff lemire. So yeah I was going to give this a chance but figured like those books it’d start strong and then peter out.  I. Was. Wronnnnggg. X-Force is easily one of the best of the dawn of x and uses said premise well. It started a bit roughly, mostly becasue the first arc idnd’t make clear x-force didn’t exist yet but was a great origin story: a squad of military commandos working for a shadowy consirtum who become x-force’s big bad, plunge onto Krakoa and massacre a bunch of mutantas and assinate charles xavier. He comes back, though it’s trickier for obvious reasons, but it’s clear from this, and from wolverine and kid omega’s sucessful investigation and finding domino, that this can’t go on and thus X-Forces is formed; The intellegence and black ops arm of Krakoa and the one arm of it’s goverment exempt from the ‘dont’ kill humans rule”. What followed was nearly a years worth of fast paced adventures with good character stuff: Wolverine is in his element, kid omega, while I had my doubts due to quinten being way overused , turned out to be a perfect choice basically being a more compitent teenage sterling archer, cocky and loving this but also really good at his job, while Domino gets a great arc dealing with her trauma over her mutalation and having some of her power stolen by the shadowy masked dickheads while Colossus deals with his trauma over what went down when he rescued some Russian mutants, with the book slowly building up new threats and towards a showdown with Russia, something that’s also been built up by conflicts in Wolverine and Mauraders, which again makes the world of x feel more like an actual world instead a bunch of comics in one cast herd.  Jean Grey is good for intellegence, though by now seems to have noped out as she couldn’t take the toll, it’s not for everyone and most notably after 5 or 6 years of being treated worse and worse and written worse and worse and becoming a bigger and bigger piece of shit Beast is FINALLY put in the right spot: his darker turns aren’t ignored but he’s back to being an actually intellegent hero as X-force’s director, still a bit greasy but now for good reason and without a god complex or some such bullshit and with a tiny bit of his humor back. Not much else to say really, X-Force is well paced, enjoyable and gritty, getting the spirit of the team at it’s best down right while doing something fresh with it. 

New Mutants (Ed Brisson) Last one, New Mutants is the odd duck of the dawn of x line in terms of how it was launched. Fallen Angels ended up being a mini series both due  to Hill being busy and it’s cast being needed elsewhere but will presmibly get a follow up later, but it’s not the ONLY mini series in the line with Fantastic four/x-men, the giant sized one shots and now Empyre: X-Men all debuting in wave 2. New Mutants however is the first book to change writers and said writer STARTED in the middle of hickman’s run, partly due to scheduling delays but even before that it was partly by design and those issues haven’t been collected yet, with hickman’s short run being collected first. So you have a run that builds off what Hickman started but with it’s own ideas that started insidei t and suprisingly it .. really works.  While I do think there are better books in the line Brisson’s new mutants is enjoyable, combining humor and character work. New Mutants focuses on the sextant, which was first brought up in hickman’s run, the series of habitats for younger mutants on krakoa that the new mutants look out for, and while the original new mutants are in space, Armor decides to try and bring some old friends in to join in paradise with the help of Glob Herman, that big pink guy with a visable skeleton and eyes, and Maxine and Manon, who in the tradition of layla miller were created for an event and not great htere but turned out amazing under the right writer.. who I think also wrote that event but whatever, a pair of empaths and telepaths who have trouble grasping the right ethics for using their powers.  The four go to get one of my faviorite x-men back: BEAK! I missed him even if he’s weirdly suddenly repowered. Beak and his wife Angel only haven’t joiend in with their kids because his dad’s sick, and things soon escalate when a bunch of criminals try holding them all hostage and it’s up to boom boom, bored since everyone left her alone, to save the day! After that we deal with Magik rangling them and the team’s new mission statment: not wanting ot mess up again like she did with beak, who did join them but not without loosing his dad and then his memory of his dad thanks to the twins misguided efforts, Armor still wants to try welcoming new mutants in with the vetrans help, and thus we have our puprose: focusing both on how these younger mutant 20 somethigns of various ages from early to late work together to make a better world nad help their own get back to this world. it’s intresting.. I’m not in love with it like mauraders or x-force, but it’s still pretty good and their first big foe so far, DoX, a blog that well.. doxes mutants that haven’t arrived yet, seems to be intresting. Not much to say just pretty good and and better at mixing comedy and character stuff, and getting the cast right. Ed Brisson had already proven himself on old man logan, but this cements him as one of the hottest new x-writers around and i’m glad he was given a book here. He’s also succeded in making me actually like Glob Herman so that’s a plus. 

Fantastic Four/X-Men The first title of wave 2 and easily one of the best, right up there with mauraders nad probably JUSST behind it and ONLY because i’ts a mini series, giving the X-Men their first real step into the rest of hte marvel universe. Sure the 4 had cameoed in the first issue and there’s been mentions of krakoa in other books and one off issues but mostly Krakoa really hadn’t impacted anything.. but that first issue also set things up with Scott’s conversation with Sue Richards

Yeah and in case those who haven’t been aware of what’s going on with the FF lately and either remember franklin as a 6-11 year old or wondered why the hell he was suddenly a teen when they read this crossover, it’s actually simple; At the end of secret wars the Richards family was put on a bus, also so marvel could shove the ff as a proper team out the door due to the whole fox rights thing, and when Dan Slott had brought them back.. and cleverly had more time pass for the richards than for the 616 proper, so he could age Franklin up to his late teens and Valeria up to her early ones, allowing the richards children to actually age since Franklin’s age always had to stay vauge due to marvel’s vage and wobbly time scale. This way they get both consitant ages and more agency.  But the return also came with a price as Franklin, who if you didn’t know is so powerful he can create whole universe and shape the sturcture of the universe, had his powers break saving his family, and thus since he came back, he’s onlyg got so much of them left in the tank before they run out entirely, and it’s been an issue for him in Slott’s run as he worries about being the normal human in a fantastic family and comes to a head here, though rather than Hickman himself, who as mentioned last time has a marvelous track record with the family or FF series writer dan slott Hickman choose a wild card for this, though had both Hickman and Slott’s permission to do whatever he wanted: Chip Zdarsky, a modern marvel for marvel who’d writtne the four in marvel two in one but for some reason didn’t get the main book and this book makes me hope whenever Dan Slott bows out he gets his turn and while this is his first x-men work, Zdarsky proves he’s just as good here as is in most of his work on Howard the Duck, Jughead and Star Lord.. a weird selection I know but all classics. 

With this power outage, Franklin is worried his dad is, at least subconciously, not really trying to help him and to make matters worse teh x-men show up to offer their help.. and Franklin his birthright. The arguments made by both sides are great and I will be covering the series in full soon but in a nutshell the four dont’ want to give up their son/nephew, Reed dosen’t trust Xavier and feels he wants to use his son’s powers while the x-men feel it’s franlin’s choice and he’s old enough to make it, he belongs with them and he’ll be safer there. It also works because Franklin understandably isn’t swayed by either as neither is reallyt alking to him more at him, especially his parents .. and only tries the gate when Kitty Pryde, the two  bonded back in the 80s and a young franklin stopped her from comitting suicide long story but really moving, is the only one to tell him it’s his choice. This dosen’t go quite well though since Reed Richards, father of the year, decided to make a device to mask his son’s mutant gene and no one, including his own family, is happy about htis.  Naturally Franklin, with Val’s help, runs away.. and then as if it couldn’t get worse DOOM shows up wanting to help so now it’s a three way dance between them for hte fate of franklin. The series has gorgeous art form the dodsons a really damn compelling story and great setup for further stories for both lines and feels like the best of both franchises. It’s the x-men’s first huge impact on the rest of the marvel universe,a nd it feels like it with the ending showing that and showing this might not be the last time both sides crossover. It’s everything you could want from a crossover and i’m only being so brief because I want to review it soon as a huge fan of both groups. Easily one of the best x-men stories of the line and one of the best stories for both groups period. 

Wolverine:  We’re onto the final two, and Percy’s second book and the first solo.. and it’s logan again! Makes sense though: Wolverine only just came back from the dead, and while both is daughter and alternate future self carried the woverline banner for him, the original hasn’t gotten his own ongoing in some time. And so far.. it’s pretty good> the first issues a bit messy due to it’s lenght, but overall the book is intresting and has Logan graple with being the best at waht he does and if he can be better or if he deserves paradise while also delivering a compelling solo mission teaming Wolverine up with a federal agent who resents mutants. it also does some good world building, explaning why Krakoan drugs have things like wait lists (they want to control production closely both to avoid having the flower taken away and for quality control), and expanding the russia subplot while using Dracula of all people as a major antagonist, which is clever especailly since this isn’t his first rodeo with the x-men. Just a fun book wiht loads of promise.

Hellions: NOt much to say here as it’s hard to judge after two issues, buti f nothing else this series brought back the delightfully batshit Nanny, who just with last weeks issue offered to nurse Greycrow (who had his name changed from scalphunter because of course marvel did why wouldn’t they) and falling down. It combines humor with an odd but well thought out cast and makes Alex Summers intresting without making everyone else assholes, a hard but earned feet. If it continues to be good.. I dunno, especially since i haven’t been impressed by any of zeb wells other works especially his new mutants run, good god that one’s am ess, but so far he’s winning me over with a clever concept and roster full of deep cuts.  Final Thoughts:  I won’t be covering Empyre: X_men, though I did enjoy it and i’l save that one for next time. For now this has been a hell of a year of x-men comics, with even the weaker books still having something intresting and none being outright terribule and only one had a bad grasp on some of it’s cast and for a line this big and expansive, that’s a gold medal achivment. After YEARS of stasis the x-men have finally risen again better, bolder and stranger than ever. IS every book A+ gold star etc etc, no, but what’s important.. is that it’s all DECENT. There’s enough standout books to make it work but as i’ve made clear what isn’t the best of the best is still good or decent. There’s nothing bad, no one phoning it in or not giving an effort, everyone is trying thier hardest and succeding on SOME level even if not completely and that.. that’s truly amazing and I look forward to more of it as this line continues. Pax Krakoa and hopefully i’ll see you again. 

[bigskydreaming]

For the fic ask meme, 4, 16, 24, or 28

I will answer 16 now, because No Reason, Just Whimsy, but stay tuned as I’ll probably end up answering 4, 24 and 28 at some point anyway, because like. No Reason, Just Whimsy. *Shrugs*

16.  If you only could write one pairing for the rest of your life, which pairing would it be?

I can’t tell you, see, because I would simply make that one pairing endgame and everything else leading up to it like, contain all the other ships I could not bear to be without. (Hahahaha this is why I could never be a romance author, I can not abide by the rules of HEA or HFN in relationship stories to save my LIFE). So, y’know, SPOILERS.

No but also I’m completely aware that this is cheating and not the point of the question. But I can not choose though, that is the point, like, have you met me? I am the original poster child for ADHD. I’m THAT old.

So instead I will simply say that in the realm of Teen Wolf, Scanny is very very very important to me, which like, surprises no one. But also I would still fight someone who tried to take either Scira or Scallison from me, I remain obnoxiously fond of Scackson’s potential, and I’m still out here being like, the sole Scosh (Scott/Josh Diaz) shipper in all the land, I’m pretty sure, lmfao. 

And I mean, also there’s Scyle, of course. I could never give up the Scyle.

As far as Marvel goes, like, I am going to be riding the high of Bobby/Christian being canon for quite some time, as anyone who has known me long knows that I have been shipping this ship since Christian was first introduced and then written offstage like two issues later….seventeen years ago.

(I have a lot of issues with straight writers making gay characters’ gay-specific tragedies and traumas like….someone ELSE’S angsty back story, while they themselves are just shuffled off the page and considered irrelevant. For those who don’t know, Christian is Emma Frost’s gay older brother who she adored and when their father had Christian institutionalized against his will because he was gay, this was what made Emma break away from the rest of her family for good and set her on the road to becoming the White Queen of the Hellfire Club. 

And then, despite like, this being life-defining for her, not a single writer in the next fifteen damn years ever thought to ask themselves…..hmmm, why would Emma Frost, one of the most powerful telepaths in the world and someone whose personal morality in no way makes her above using those powers, her wealth or Hellfire resources however she damn well pleases in the name of protecting herself, those she cares about, and advancing her agendas…..why would this woman who has never let anything stand in the way of what she cares about before like….simply just…never once in all the years since she was a teenager think to herself….hmm, what if I simply go to the institution where my beloved brother is kept against his will, and just…..made them release him?)

So, aside from always thinking Bobby/Christian would be a great ship with amazing potential given Bobby’s unique history and dynamic with Christian’s sister and the fact that Christian shares a lot of the same traits, backstory and other elements that make Emma an amazing and multi-faceted character and he’s just been sitting there in Limbo for fifteen years with all this untapped potential just waiting to be mined….

I’m always going to be gleeful about this ship and with a special fondness for Sina Grace for bringing Christian back from comic book Limbo and laying the foundation for this ship, like, just because like……I feel its long overdue and the only way to ACTUALLY make anything decent out of the bullshit that was mining his oppression for the sake of another character’s angst: by finally giving HIM the chance to be a character who is affected by all that, developed and moved forward from all of that, is the FOCUS of all that…..and even more importantly, now after being left offscreen for fifteen years by writers who considered his narrative nothing more than tragic filler….he finally has a chance to be an example of a gay character who gets to come BACK from all of that and move FORWARD from it, and like…find healing and happiness with another character, like Bobby.

So Bobby/Christian is actually hugely important to me for a variety of reasons, especially right now since this is all just happening recently, and I will love them forever and in defiance of the inevitable bullshit some future writer pulls that will piss me the hell off. Y’know, just going off of Vegas odds or whatever.

Aside from Bobby/Christian I’ve also always had a weakness for Bobby/Johnny Storm because they are the most iconic ice and fire characters out there and I am basically twelve. I also have blogged at length in the past about all the reasons I’m a huge fan of Bobby/Bishop and not just because their ship name would make them a literal bop. Again, I refer you to the thing where I’m basically twelve. But yeah, there’s a whole history there where when Bishop first came back into the past and met the X-Men who’d all been legends in his time, he kinda fanboyed a little over Bobby because of Bobby’s future legend, and then was kinda like….oh, that’s it? about him once he got to know Bobby and Bishop became like, the physical embodiment of underwhelmed. 

And ever since then Bobby’s always low key been like, a hyper-active puppy around Bishop, like, trying not to SEEM like he cares an awful lot about whether or not he’s managed to impress Bishop but because he can’t be subtle to save his life, mostly just coming across as “am I living up to the hype now? how about now? am I legendary NOW? What about now?” and I dunno. Its just kinda cute and a fairly unique dynamic, and Bishop has this deliberately bland, blink and you miss it sense of humor with the right writers and that I’ve always thought has a ton of potential for him to be privately amused by this tendency of Bobby’s, enough that he’s unwilling to confess to him that Bobby actually earned his respect years ago by this point, and he just doesn’t want to let Bobby know because then he’d stop. 

And then in terms of DC, I’ve posted a lot a lot a loooooooooot about my love for Dick/Kory in canon, and how they - and by extension we - were robbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbed, and if DC doesn’t give me my canon Mar’i and Jake Grayson one of these days, I don’t care if they have to import them from another universe and then have this universe’s Dick and Kory awkwardly try to co-parent them while living their own lives separately before finally coming back together and falling in love all over again and then becoming a single united family unit forever and ever in the most ridiculously complicated comic book version of the Parent Trap ever, like…..

I can’t even think of an over-exaggerated threat creative enough to convey just how badly I want and need this, DC, give it to meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee plzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

And then also, I’ve actually posted a lot a lot a loooooooooooot (though not in a few years, probably, so those posts are all super old, lol) about how I think Kyle and Donna are a criminally under-rated canon couple and were actually really really good together because they went through so much together and Kyle literally grew so much as a character specifically on the things Donna called him out for the first time they dated, like, literally so he could be BETTER, and then with how anticlimactically they ended...because the thing is, they never actually even broke up! It was this thing where like, when Donna went to LA with Kyle for his high school reunion and to literally MEET HIS MOM, like HELLO, that is not a basic relationship step, that is Advanced Dating, like…..that is where they were at in their relationship when Donna literally got the call then and there that her ex-husband and her son had just died in a car accident. 

And Donna was devastated of course, and Kyle was devastated too - for her, and also in his own way, because he’d adored Robert and like, there were these issues where they were super cute and took him to the zoo together and Kyle was bonding with him and just like, melting over this kid, and Robert and Terry were killed by a drunk driver, and like, there was a later story where Kyle just went apeshit on this drunk driver he encountered because he had all these repressed feelings about Robert’s death and how it had hurt Donna and he’d made sure not to show any of that to her or even let on that he hurt for Robert’s loss in his own way, because he didn’t want to make it about him, he KNEW better…

And anyway, the point is…they never actually broke up in the sense of either of them at any point being all, oh we no longer love each other or think this can work, we need to end it. Instead, Donna said that she needed to take some time away from Kyle and everyone else and just…come to terms with what she’d lost and figure out who she even was now in the wake of that….and Kyle totally understood, didn’t argue or try and change her mind, he just said take as much time as you need, I’ll be here when you’re ready, and oh btw, here’s this lantern construct of a locket that I want you to keep because as long as it exists you’ll know that a part of me is still thinking about you and wanting you to be happy, wherever that is.

And then like…..less than a year later, DC did their super weird Dark Angel story where Donna was erased from reality and then had to be ‘recreated’ from Wally’s memories, and for awhile just existed in the form and identity she’d been recreated from, which was based entirely on what Wally knew of her and thought and felt about her, and so there were huge gaps in her identity where she was missing stuff she should have known but didn’t now because WALLY didn’t know about it.

Such as how when Donna met Kyle’s subsequent sorta-girlfriend Jade some time later - I say sorta because she and Kyle were still figuring things out at that stage, and Jenny-Lynn in part didn’t know if she wanted to actually get into a relationship with him because she thought he was still in love with Donna - well anyway, when Donna and Jenny-Lynn met in a later issue and she said all this to Donna, Donna reassured her not to worry about it, she was reading more into it than actually existed because she and Kyle had never been that serious anyway. 

Which. SCREECH! Brakes please. HOLD UP. 

Like, I’m sorry JAY FAERBER YES I REMEMBER IT WAS YOU WHO WROTE THAT ISSUE UGGGGGH, but like, in what UNIVERSE is “dated, broke up, then got back together later because she thought Kyle had matured a ton since they first tried dating and now they were so much stronger as a couple that she oh I dunno, introduced him to her son and they went on playdates together, went with him to meet his mom, had a never-vanishing lantern locket construct that signified just how much he would always love her” uh…..’never been that serious anyway’? I’m. What? Does not compute.

BUT WHATEVER.

LOL. Anyway, point is, so things like that actually make sense when you factor in the role Wally’s memories and perspective played in who Donna literally WAS for awhile (and the understandable existential crises she went through as a result). But like, at the point in time when Kyle and Donna were most serious, Kyle was still fairly removed from a lot of the rest of the DC universe, he wasn’t a core member of the JLA yet and usually operated independently, and he and Wally were NOT close at all yet, let alone friends….in fact, for as long as Donna and Kyle dated, Wally pretty much still actively hated and resented Kyle for just existing, since he’d always been close with Hal since he was a kid and Hal was his Uncle Barry’s BFF-and-homosexual-life-partner-in-all-but-name. 

Like, it was only after Kyle became one of the core JLA alongside Wally that the two of them finally worked out their mutual antagonism and became friends, but before that, Wally was NOT shy about expressing he hated this new GL guy and wanted nothing to do with him, even though it was for unfair reasons, sooooo……like, its not really that shocking that even though Wally and Donna are two of each other’s oldest friends and super tight, like, he was never going to be the friend she called up to let him know how great things were going with her and Kyle these days, lol, y’know?

So it makes sense that when Donna was first magically reconstituted thanks to Wally’s memories/view of her (btw, this was because Wally was out of phase with reality and was in the Speed Force at the precise moment that Donna was erased from reality by the Dark Angel’s magic, and that’s why he alone remembered her and was the template for undoing what the Dark Angel had done). But anyway, it makes sense that she would for a time have had very little memory or even knowledge of her and Kyle’s prior relationship, and basically just know/remember what little Wally actually knew of it. So from her perspective then, it could very well have seemed that they were never that serious, and everyone but Kyle like….kinda just nodded and figured okay, you would know after all, and just…..everyone ended up walking away with the idea that they were just this brief fling and neither had ever had strong feelings for each other, let alone love.

The problem I’ve always had is that eventually Donna DID regain her full memories and her own sense of self, and like….she was Donna again, through and through, existing as she always had without being limited to just Wally’s view or memory of her.

Soooo, at THAT point, she should have been perfectly aware of what her and Kyle’s relationship had ACTUALLY looked like, in its entirety, and I mean, I can understand them not getting back together at that point. It’d been years, they both were in very different places, Kyle had eventually gotten together with Jade after it was expressed by Donna herself that there was no reason not to, given that its not like they were ever that serious….so by the time Donna herself would have realized otherwise, I can totally understand her feeling that the moment had passed for them, that Kyle had moved on (just as Kyle had only ‘moved on’ once he felt there was no longer a chance of them returning to what they were). Like, all of that is super weird and complicated even by ridiculous comic book soap opera standards, so I mean….lol, how do you even BEGIN that conversation, y’know?

Buuuuuut, it just kinda sucks that at no point after that Faerber issue has any later writer ever had either Donna or Kyle discuss their previous relationship(s) in terms of what it ACTUALLY was, for BOTH of them, rather than just this trivial, ancient history fling that neither had ever been super invested in….even though for several years in the nineties they were one of THE major hero couples in comic books.

So. Yeah. As evidenced, I have a lot of unresolved Donna and Kyle feelings lol.

And then of course, there are and always will be my epic “OMG DICK AND KYLE COULD BE THE GREATEST SHIP AND END ALL THE SHIPS LIKE COULD YOU EVEN IMAGINE” feelings, but like. That’s a thirty pound tome in and of itself, so. Like. Just picture the two of them standing staring soulfully into each other’s eyes and then me, creepily fixated on them twenty feet away, chin propped up on my hands and going awwwwwwww while my own eyes like, sparkle anime style but also are the heart-eyes motherfucker meme at the same time.

[langernameohnebedeutung]

people need to learn to think critically like fictional characters are fucking fictional they're not using real reasons like having big boobs no it's whatever dudebro is in charge choosing to have them unzip the outfit to show off their boobs

Especially if it's always the women who "want" to show off their assets and never the guys who “make the decision” to wear stuff like that - This theme is so evident that even shows like The Boys or films like Galaxy Quest (20 years ago) parodied it to excellence. so the connotation of “you think that’s misogyny??? hmm??” is so hilarious like. this is not some new, radical feminist notion.

On the other hand, shows or films can also highlight that it's a character making a decision. I remember watching Umbrella Academy and it really stood out to me that you had Klaus who wore the tightest, most revealing, definitely intended to be sexy clothes - a guy. But it's never sexualised or treated as "empowering" - it's just the way he dresses, there is no montage of him empowering himself wearing these outfits, the camera doesn't go up and down his body. He's a disaster boy and that's how he dresses.

We can also think of Avatar. We have a lot of female characters - Azula, who prefers armour, Mai, who has this long goth-looking coat that conceals her many knives, Toph who wears in a tom-boyish fashion that is also a rebellion against her up-bringing, Katara who wears her traditional coat throughout the show. So when we see Ty Lee wearing a crop top, it highlighted as an actual choice to wear something that reminds her of her favourite place, the circus (yeah we’re even given background on that one). Plus we have some cultural context - for example, the outfits from The Beach are episodes by actual traditional outfits that exist so in a show that draws on various Asian cultures, it makes sense that a character woudl wear an outfit like that. 

I also brought up Lorna's outfit in that scene in The Gifted (that she has in my icon). Throughout the show, she wears expensive, elegant (goth) clothing when she's with the Hellfire Club and less expensive, messy clothing when she's with the poorer Underground. And she's surrounded by female characters who usually all have a rather distinctive style, none of them sexualised - and that outfit isn't sexualised either when she wears it. So even without agency, that is how you portray that someone chose to wear that outfit.

But in most superhero or spy flicks, we don’t even find out where they get their outfits or it’s literally just spelt out that someone else developed this. For the heck of it, I literally just went through all the promo pics for the standard-version vault hunters in Borderlands to see whose wearing something that reveals any skin on their chest below the collar bones:

#Borderlands 1: Lilith, the only female playable character has a deep. All the guys are covered up

Borderlands 2: Maya, the only female playable character, has a turtleneck - with a boob window. All the guys are covered up. 

Borderlands the Pre-Sequel: For the first time, we have two female characters. One, Athena, is fully-covered up! Nisha...has a crop-top and some cleavage. While she’s on an adventure on a moon.

Borderlands 3: keeping up with the 2 female characters on the team. One is wearing a crop-top, the other has cleavage. Apparently, these characters all “chose” to wear these outfits. But with 1 exception, all women “chose” to wear something sexy. What a coincidence. Another example that always dumbfounded me even as a kid was Winx Club. Literally all the girls either wear mini-skirts or crop tops or magically turn into creatures that wear magical mini-skirts or crop tops. The only exception are older characters like the headmistresses, the guys who are all completely covered, and those two witch side-characters who are not traditionally beautiful (which is a huge plot-point). They can’t “choose” an outfit like that if they magically turn into it.Or let’s look at the Avengers - Black Widow and Maria Hill both seem to have made the “decision” to wear a tight bodysuit paired that they both decided to partially unzip in the front. Also remember how long BW was the only female character on the team. You know. Until Wanda joined them.

.... sure glad she made a “decision”And I’m not going to pretend I know much about DC but let’s look at the Justice League:

“But she’s from a warm island!” - yeah and Aqua Man is isolated against the freezing temperatures of the ocean, he should be sweating his ass off thereLet’s see who made the “decision” to show skin in X-Men First Class:

I wonder about the corresponding villain team-

(also let’s not forget that literally all major female characters in X-Men First Class “decided” to strip at some point)It’s really interesting how we women are a hive mind. Or as this 30-something tumblr user said: “ Girl wants to flaunt her stuff and prove she still can fight, let her!” Dude, I’m not stopping “her”, but honestly, it’s not rebellion anymore.It used to be. The short dresses in Star Trek TOS were “rebellion” - and the fact that it’s interpreted as misogyny today is an interpretation happening before a completely different background. Except in 2009 -

it’s not a rebellion anymore. 

Ah ya know. The girls and their decisions-

[thecomicsnexus]

Who is Donna Troy?

NEW TEEN TITANS #38 JANUARY 1984 BY MARV WOLFMAN, GEORGE PEREZ, ROMEO TANGHAL AND ADRIENNE ROY

SYNOPSIS (FROM DC DATABASE)

Rescued from a burning apartment building as an infant by Wonder Woman and raised by Queen Hippolyta on Paradise Island, Donna (Wonder Girl) Troy has never known her true identity. Now, with their wedding in the offing, Terry Long asks Robin to investigate the secret of Donna's unknown past. 

At the site of the fire-gutted building, Robin finds a child's doll which Donna vaguely remembers. 

Subjecting the doll to chemical and computer analysis, he traces it to a kindly old toy shop owner who had once repaired it for a Mrs. Cassiday of Willowbrook Orphanage in Virginia. 

Locating Mrs. Cassiday in a nursing home in Florida, Dick brings Donna to meet her, and they learn that Donna's mother had brought her to the orphanage when she learned she was dying of cancer. 

Donna was then adopted by a couple named Stacey. Returning to Virginia, they find the former Mrs. Fay Stacey, now remarried as Fay Evans, and foster mother and daughter are tearfully reunited. 

Dick and Donna then learn that, two years after Donna's adoption, her foster father had been killed in an accident, and his wife, penniless, had been forced to give Donna up for re-adoption. 

Donna is satisfied at this, but Robin investigates further and discovers that the couple who died in the apartment building fire had not adopted Donna, but were go-betweens for a child-selling scheme run by a crooked lawyer. 

Finally aware of her past, Donna visits the grave of her natural mother, Dorothy Hinckley.

REVIEW

“Who is Donna Troy?” is a very important question. The reason why her origins are not well known, are that she shouldn’t have existed in the first place. She was part of some kind of imaginary stories, and eventually became reality, but without an origin.

This new origin didn’t last long untouched either, as Crisis erased Wonder Woman from the past, so she couldn’t have saved Donna and taken her to Paradise Island, but that is a story for another day.

This book is centered around Dick and Donna. It’s as much a Dick Grayson story as it is Donna’s. And it is a very emotional one.

Breakdowns are a bit different than usual in this episode, Perez probably needed to adjust his panels to leave room for emotional scenes.

It’s not an easy to explain origin, and perhaps that is why it keeps being rewritten all the time. That’s the problem with sidekicks, if you reboot the main hero, sidekicks and extended family get into trouble. Especially when the sidekick has a large fan base.

This is a perfectly constructed story that allows us to actually follow the detective procedure. We know Batman and Robin are detectives, but we rarely see an entire episode constructed like this, with finding evidence and analyzing it.

Bonus: The X-Men/Titans sequel would have involve the Hellfire Club and Brother Blood.

I give this issue a score of 10

[aftermathdb]

DEATH BATTLE Review: Ghost Rider vs. Lobo

Two badass bikers have one hell of a fight!

Ghost Rider′s Preview.

If one were to take a look at Johnny Blaze, you wouldn’t really expect much out of the son of a famous stuntman who had died in a stunt gone wrong. But, you’d be surprised. Johnny’s new dad, Crash Simpson, got cancer.

So Johnny turned to the one man who could fix the problem: The Devil.

It worked… Until Crash crashed.

From that day forward, Johnny became merged with Zarathos. A being of power that scared Mephisto. And together, they became: Ghost Rider.

Ghost Rider possesses your typical powerset for a bounty hunter for the devil. From your typical Superhuman strength and speed, with a side of insane durability and an extra large healing factor.

And to top it all off, Ghost Rider’s signature weapon of choice is fire. But not just any kind of fire. Hellfire (Insert Hunchback of Notre Dame reference here).

Hellfire burns, but not in the conventional way you might think. Hellfire burns away at the soul, bypassing any defenses that would normally protect against typical burn damage. It’s like Salazzle’s Corrosion ability, only with fire.

But, if you’re going to be on the hunt for bad guys to make them pay for their sins, you’re going to need a toolset to match. From your typical hellish chains to soul manipulaton, Ghost Rider is one hell of a guy to fight…

Real talk: Lowkey disappointed that there weren’t more hell puns like this in the episode proper.

But if there’s anything that Ghost Rider is known for, it would be his Hell Cycle. Which we get a Wiz and Boomstick animation for the explanation.

Moving on, Ghost Rider’s other signature move is his Penance Stare. A Bloodcurdling gaze that burns the victims with the agony of their sins. Every life they’ve ruined, every person they’ve killed, all of it comes hitting you at once. Basically, it’s the “I’m not mad, just disappointed” phrase weaponized to the point that it burns. If you’re a truly sinful being, your soul goes bye bye. It’s like the Dark Hado, only with a less complicated button input.

And since the hosts neglected to mention it here (or even in the list of feats (Though, it is shown)), this stare once brought Galactus to his knees. Here’s the video link.

With all that power, Ghost Rider has taken on some insane opponents.

From the likes of Thor, to World War Hulk, to Doctor Strange, Ghost Rider has taken on a great slew of opponents, both good and bad.

However, Johnny doesn’t exactly have the best relationship with the Ghost Rider.

In fact, Johnny’s relationship with Ghost Rider is similar to Bruce Banner’s relation to the Hulk. Johnny suppresses Ghost Rider’s full potential, and the two often clash.

Also, since I forgot to bring it up earlier, The Penance Stare doesn’t work on the blind, those without a soul, those who draw power from pain, or masochists.

However, plot twist, Zarathos is actually an angel of vengeance, not a demon.

And similar to the Hulk, when Johnny opts to let the reigns loose, Zarathos. becomes so powerful, that he scares Doctor Strange.

For reference to Zarathos’ power, he’s equal to the divorce judge Mephisto, who in turn, once battle Galactus. The fight was so intense, that the entire universe was at risk as a byproduct of the battle.

Zarathos himself can eat souls. As for Johnny himself, the guy is still a mortal man, so he’s vulnerable to any kind of conventionally lethal attack. The Rider himself is vulnerable to holy weaponry, and is killable through it.

And even if he’s not too keen on being the Devil’s bounty hunter, Johnny’s doing alright. He even overthrew Mephisto… Does this mean that Peter and MJ’s divorce is null now?- I’m pretty sure that it’s null on the grounds of it being filed under duress, but still.

However, should you be walking out on your own, hearing a feint sound of a chopper drawing near, and see a glow on the horizon getting closer, you better hope that it’s not you that the Ghost Rider is after.

And you better pray to whatever deity that you believe in for mercy.

Because Ghost Rider won’t be giving it.

Lobo′s Preview.

It’s the 1990s, and the world of comics entered a darker age. After the success of such books like Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns, comic book companies started to churn out gritty anti-heroes by the dozen.

From the time-traveling mutant Cable, to the darker and grittier Azrael, and Overkill. It was an… interesting time, to say the least. They were certainly cool-looking, but at some point, it just got ridiculous, that the world needed someone to take these guys down a peg.

The world needed a hero- no. A parody.

Enter: Czarnia. A planet that was known to be the most peaceful place in the universe… “Was” being the keyword there. The planet was. ravaged by a biological lifeform that left only one survivor: The guy who killed them all: Lobo.

For the record, Lobo’s name roughly translates to “He who devours your entrails and enjoys it.”

(So, he’s basically the NRA).

Lobo’s birth caused so much destruction, that pretty much everyone around him died out. Hell, some theorists think that the universe made Lobo just to balance out the peacefulness of Czarnia.

Lobo strives to be unique, and what better way to be unique than to be the last of your kind?

Lobo has left destruction in his wake. Which is possibly why he became a bounty hunter, as it’s the only profession that legally lets you kill people… Not that it stops him from killing you illegally as well.

Lobo is so insanely durable, that his healing factor is stupidly powerful. And his strength is off the charts. He’s like the unholy child of Superman and Deadpool. Speaking of which…

Oh, Taka… You never fail to make us laugh.

Anyways, not only can Lobo regenerate from a single drop of blood, he can also basically clone himself from it.

If you haven’t guessed by now, Lobo is stupidly hard to kill. He’s taken on the likes of Superman and other high-level fighters to the point that he’s basically  invulnerable. And if that’s not enough for you, he’s also pretty smart capable enough of doing complex equations to be able to tag the Flash.

Lobo can even deduce the weak points of any opponent he faces.

Of course, you don’t get to be an infamous bounty hunter unless you have the tools for the job.

Lobo’s ride responds to his whistle, can fly fast enough to escape a black hole, comes equipped with numerous machine guns, and has numerous other add-ons to boot.

And he has numerous firearms to deal with anyone who gets in his way. Even better: He’s also a fan of chain weapons.

Lobo also likes to ignore some things too. Like how he can sing “Born To Be Wild” while in the vacuum of space.

If that’s not physics-breaking enough for you, Lobo also once did this:

He pulled down Solaris despite it being physically impossible. Not, physically like his physique is inadequate, more like… It breaks physics. Meybe he and the Flash can bond over that.

For reference, this is how much strength Lobo would be exerting to pull Solaris down, assuming that Solaris has a mass similar to our sun.

Lobo also once crushed an entire city to fit in the palm of his hand. And then he ate it. There’s not a laxative in the world that can make that easy to digest.

And thanks to his rambunctious attitude, and constant heavy metal playing, Lobo has been banned from the afterlife. As in, his soul is not to be collected by death. Once the universe ends, he doesn’t go with it.

Lobo has a bomb that wiped out the dinosaurs, allegedly murdered Santa Claus (Who could bypass Apoklips’ defenses to give Darkseid a lump of coal), and has even walked through literal willpower.

However, despite his many claims, Lobo isn’t perfect. He can still take damage, and while his spirit can fight on without his body, he’s not exactly invincible.

He also has a… fondness for dolphins… Apparently. But, he’s also a man of his word, and will follow things to the spirit too. So, he’s basically the exact opposite of the NRA.

And unlike guys like Doctor Fate, the Green Lanterns, and Darkseid, Lobo isn’t immune to retcons.

This new Lobo is a dark and tortured soul. Literally the thing that the real Lobo was meant to be a parody of.

Thankfully, some of the writers at DC had a sense of irony, and decided to shelve the new Lobo… Literally.

And with all that, Lobo is one fighter that you don’t want to mess with. Because when the Main Man gets a contract…

The Battle Itself.

Zack, Luis, and Jerky are heading this animation. Ghost Rider will be voiced by Steven Kelly and Lobo will be voiced by Jason Marnocha. ), sprite artists, Ride to Hell by Brandon Yates. Audio is led by Chris Kokkinos.

The fight starts off with Lobo collecting a bounty, only for the Spirit of Vengeance to show up and give Lobo what’s coming to him.

Lobo, being Lobo, doesn’t take too kindly to someone telling him what to do, so he just runs over the Hell Cycle to get away.

Ghost Rider, understandably mad as hell, gives chase, and even fries Lobo’s bounty while doing it. So now even the Main Man is mad too.

After a brief battle of chains, Lobo does a Scorpion impression and grabs Ghost Rider to give him one hell of a headbutt.

But Blaze doesn’t take this lying down, so the battle gets forced to a city… Hopefully abandoned.

And now it’s Ghost Rider’s turn to do a Scorpion impression as he uses his hellfire to give Lobo a nasty Burn.

This being Lobo, he powers through it to get to Ghost Rider to eat a building.

This being Ghost Rider, the Spirit of Vengeance bursts out, spilling blood everywhere. But, this is Lobo.

Or rather, Lobos (Note the plural). They dogpile on the burning skull head, forcing Ghost Rider to unleash Zarathos.

Lobo, pretty miffed at the moment, blasts Ghost Rider with a massive gun.

So, with the battlefield fragged, the finishing blow (Yes, this wasn’t the finishing blow) is coming up in 5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

Hot damn…

Verdict + Explanation.

Okay, so… This being Lobo, it was a pretty intense fight. Lobo doesn’t die easily. And Lobo also takes many of the physical advantages, like strength. But Ghost Rider wasn’t a slouch in this area either.

Given the insane durability and amount of pain that each fighter could take and dish out, it was hard to say for sure as to who would win out. But, Lobo doesn’t have any specific weaknesses that are obscure, and he wasn’t equipped to have anything to really kill Ghost Rider.

Now, you might be thinking “Who cares about Holy Weapons when you can crush and eat a whole city?” While that’s a good question, and it’s also a good question to ask if Lobo could just overpower Johnny.

However, Remember: Zarathos = Mephisto, and Mephisto = Galactus. Given that the fight between Mephisto and Galactus put the whole universe at risk, it’s reasonable to say that Zarathos could do the same.

Now, given Lobo’s own speed, he couldn’t really run from the Ghost Rider either. Recall that the Hell Cycle could outrace Mjolnir, and Mjolnir could move over 100 Billion times the speed of light. So, even if Lobo could figure out Ghost Rider’s weaknesses, he can’t exactly get away to find a holy weapon to work with.

Essentially, Lobo could handle the Ghost Rider, but once Zarathos was unleashed, his means of victory started diminishing fast.

But now, for the big elephant in the room: How do you kill a person who’s banned from the afterlife?

Well, this is where you need a lawyer, because there’s a small little loophole that Ghost Rider can exploit:

Lobo’s soul can only not be collected, there’s nothing saying that his soul can just go poof. And Ghost Rider has three ways of just ending Lobo’s soul.

His hellfire bypasses normal defenses, his Penance Stare can deal damage to Lobo since he’s got trillions of dead people on his hands, and Zarathos could just straight-up eat his soul. Lobo has no defenses against attacks that target the soul.

Essentially, Lobo was toast.

The winner is Ghost Rider.

Overall impression.

This fight was cosmic. In essence, it takes some of the most intense fighters and pits them against each other. This fight has a lot of hype behind it, and it’s one

hell

of a fight.

However, the lack of “Hell” puns during Ghost Rider’s rundown is somewhat disappointing. But the fight is awesome. It also helps that the music is intense in the good way that it makes it really feel like a battle straight out of hell.

The fight’s awesome, the explanation makes sense, and the music is a banger.

8.666/10

Next Time…

A friend of mine on Deviantart is doing reviews of these Kaiju Movies and a few Power Rangers episodes too. I’m feeling that this fight might interest him.

Is there a fight that you want me to review? - Send an ask/request, and I’ll look into it!

Do you want to read my fanfic based around DEATH BATTLE itself? click here!

Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you next time for…

Robo-Kaiju Rumble.

[newx-menfan]

Are you gonna read Age of X-Man? I think I'll ignore it and wait until they eventually come back. It's not like 90% of what happened in Heroes Reborn really matered on the long run.

…I might look at some of it, since it has some great writers onboard.

NextGen I MAY pick up just to support the possible NXM appearances although I already prepared myself for the likelihood of it being a stealth Glob mini…

To be honest… I’m just a bit pissed off and burnt out. So I may just wait till the event is over and basically hope Marvel will get decent writers on books after this horrid event.

BUT EVEN WITH THAT- I kind of keep in mind that the only books I continually picked up and put on my pull list after PR was ‘X-Men Red’ and 'X-23’. Before that the only X-books were 'ANW’ and 'Generation X 2.0’…

More than likely-I’m getting ONE series that will end up on my pull list and the rest I’ll read intermittently just to stay in the know. Even then, even ONE is still feeling a bit hopeful after this recent event…

My biggest hope-Leah Williams will do a Hellfire Club book with Emma and include some past Hellion’s, Gen X-ers, ect…

OR…

Marvel tries to compete with DC’s Wonder Comics, especially Young Justice, and chooses NXM. This is VERY unlikely, since Marvel is kind of already bringing back YA as a way to complete…AND the X-Office just for whatever reason hates NXM.

So yeah, those are kind of my 'wishing for a unicorn’ moments…

[bluboothalassophile]

Hello since it will be Jason's birthday tomorrow I was wondering if you could make a oneshot where Raven surprises him on his birthday and she accidentally confesses that she is in love with him

Hello,

Happy Birthday to Jaybird! We love him and Fuck DC for making him so damn miserable all the fucking time. Anyways here’s a piece for you’re request and I hope you enjoy the story!  There’s a part two to this as it fits a prompt request I have somewhere in my inbox. =)

Something We Want…

Occasionally Jason would, rather morbidly, dwell on how he’dgotten this far in life. He’d been killed, stabbed, beaten, blown up, tortured,discarded, and every time he somehow came back. He was starting to thinkhimself a cockroach or something, and not in a good way.

Getting home, to his safehouse apartment, away from everyonehe rolled his shoulder feeling the old aches from having been strung up for twomonths, his chest was itchy, and the scar on his face was throbbing. His rightankle was bothering him; he guessed there’d be a storm coming tonight, somehowthat was fitting. Also, there was this raging energy scratching beneath thesurface of his skin, it was annoying him enough that he had bid his family andfriends who had gathered for his birthday adieu and removed himself from thepremise of all their company.

Truth be told he was just overwhelmed at the sheer amount ofpeople there, and it was exhausting to him. People in general were exhausting.

Jason discarded his heavy jacket, jeans, boots, and shirt infavor of some low riding, ratty sweats, as he picked up a favored hoodie. He wasn’tsubconscious about the scars; it was hard to be when they were scars, but hedidn’t like people staring at them or him, so he didn’t undress around anyone;not even family or ‘dates’ anymore.

Kara had stared at his scars in disgust, Donna had looked inhorror at them, Rose had merely added to them, and his family… Fuck, them andhis friends stared at him with this unrelenting guilt; like the scars weretheir fault somehow.

“Okay, so I have Deadpool 1, 2, & 3, also I have Equalizer,all of them, and of course I brought your birthday present. I also got cake;don’t panic, I didn’t bake it, I picked it up from the baker we like,” Ravensaid as she walked through the shadows. “And I brought Beauty and the Beast,and I’ll hear nothing about it other than how much we like it, tomorrow you caninsist I forced it on you.”

“I wanted to be alone Raven,” he pointed out catching herhead and halting his much shorter friend. Her dark eyes flicked up to him asshe frowned.

“When have I ever left you alone when you want to be alone?”she demanded. She was unphased at the sight of his chest and body which had himdropping the hoodie as he flopped on his couch.

“You’re a bitch.”

“I’m a witch, keep it straight.” She dropped herselfunceremoniously into the seat that she typically claimed. “And I’m not leavingmy best friend alone for his twenty-eighth birthday.”

“Stop, you’re making me feel old,” he groaned.

“You are old, ancient according to Damian,” Raven frowned.

“Twerp barely decided on going to Berkley, he can come gripeto me about being old when he’s legally allowed to drink,” Jason stated.

“That’s terrible,” she said. “But true, and that brings meto the final gift of the night; a bottle of B’s finest whiskey, a gift from Selinato you, she handed it to me after nicking it from his stash.”

“It’s scary how close you are with my family.”

“Ah-ha! So, you admit they’re you’re family.”

“Merely a relation through adoption,” he grimaced as heshifted to get comfortable. His chest and scars were killing him right now.

“One of these days you’re just going to accept they’re family.”

“Are you part of that package?” he chuckled.

She snorted. “Fuck no, do I look Batty enough to be a Bat?”

“You look rather vulnerable as a little bird to be honest.”

“I’m Queen of Hell, hardly vulnerable,” she mused as she setup Deadpool.

“And I’m merely the Right Hand of the Queen,” he chuckled. “Rae,”his tone was serious as he looked at her, she turned as she cocked her head abit. Her long hair fell just so, the rays of the light made it violet ratherthan midnight, and her dark eyes looked brilliant blue then. His heart did thatfunny thing it’d been doing since he was sixteen and she would look at him likethat. “Thanks,” he smiled.

“Of course, what else are best friends for? Now move over, Iwant to sit right here,” she decided as she tucked herself so effortlessly intohis side, pulling his arm around her and she sighed as she made herselfcomfortable.

“Are you comfortable?” he chuckled as he assessed her.

“I am now,” she smiled.

He hugged her a bit tighter. “If I didn’t know any better,love, I’d think you were claiming a spot as girlfriend, what would Jerichothink?” he mused.

“Joe and I are over,” she stated unceremoniously which hadhim stiffening. “It wasn’t going to work with him mooning over some guy and noteven being with me to be with me. So I called it quits, besides, I don’t thinkI’m his type past platonic interests. We have a lot in common, but nothing lasting.”

“Do I need to go get Victor to help me beat the idiot blackand blue before burying the body? I know he’d more than willingly help me out,”Jason admitted.

“No, Joe and I are friends,” Raven reached up and touchedhis jaw. “Joe also said it’d never work as long as you and I were friends.”

Jason frowned at her. “You and I are best friends, and that’sall; if he thinks less of you because of that then he’s an idiot.”

“He doesn’t think less of me, he just thinks no one can competewith you in my life; which is utterly ridiculous as we know,” she shook herhead. “You’re my best friend, that means everything to me at times. You’repractically family for importance,” she admitted softly.

Jason said nothing as he watched the opening scene ofDeadpool and Raven magically summoned popcorn.

He was so fucking sunk. He could feel that much.

~~~*~*~*~~~

Raven lay there, securely against Jason’s side and enjoyedhis warmth.

What Raven didn’t tell Jason was that her and Joseph hadfought about him; again, as most their fights had revolved around herrelationship with him. Joseph had grabbed her and screamed it as best as hisdamaged voice would permit:

‘You Love Him!’

Those three words had hung heavy between them as they hadstared at one another, Joseph had been quick to sign his thoughts and furtherarticulate his evidence for this claim before he had smiled brushed her hairaside and kissed her brow. Then he had told her to go to Jason and they werestill friends, but they weren’t together. If they ever had been.

Raven didn’t know how to feel about this revelation.

Yes, Jason was a sexy mother fuck if she ever saw one. Hehad that bad boy persona wrapped up in tragedy and forged with hellfire, he wasthe only person she’d ever dare to say was her true equal; even if he wasn’t a ‘powerful’man, just a dangerous human, who was merely human. But more than that, he washer best friend. Since about day one there’d just been this instant connection,one she couldn’t explain, a familiarity as if he’d always been there.

True, the trust wasn’t there in the beginning, the sarcasmand distrust were evidence of that, but somewhere between that first meetingand that first mission of knowing each other they had gained true friendshipand trust in each other. Also, she picked him.

Raven always picked Jason. She had promised to pick him, buthe also made it easy because he was Jason. She got Jason, he was someone shejust understood. She didn’t need to sit there and analyze every nuance of hisemotions or expressions, something about him just made sense to her. It alwayshad. These past few months had kind of proved that to both her and Joseph andshe pressed herself closer to Jason. She took a few of his old aches from hisscars as she watched Deadpool.

She pretended not to notice the deep radiating emotions fromhim as she lay there. Frequently she had felt this emotion from him, she couldn’tname it, but it was almost peaceful.

But now she had a name for the emotion and she stared dumblyat the television.

“I love you,” she blurted out which had Jason freezingbeside her as his head snapped to her. His eyes pulsed that dangerous green,she stared at him levelly though. She knew that face, she knew his eyes, andfreckles, she knew that scar and those lips. She knew the scars, the stories.She knew him.

“Raven…” he started.

“I love you,” she repeated before he could doubt it and shetwisted a bit, pulling herself to straddle his lap. Raven carefully traced hischeek with her thumb and stared at his eyes as they pulsed green to blue. “Idon’t expect anything from this, Jason, I just… I want you to know, I love you.”

He said nothing but somehow his mouth was on hers, and hishands were on her hips as he dragged her closer. Raven didn’t squeak, shemoaned as she dove her fingers into his hair. Great Azar! This felt divine as hedeepened the kiss and she kissed him back. Fingers trailed over her hips andbeneath her shirt, his hands were on her skin and they moved upwards to the dipof her waist. They didn’t move as he circled his calloused thumbs over her skinand held her tight.

Jason groaned a bit as she pulled away from the kiss, mostlya groan of frustration as his lips trailed over her jawline.

“Jason,” she whispered as she felt her eyes flutter a bit.

“Raven,” he managed against her skin, his teeth traced overher jugular and instinct had her tilting her head to give him better access. Henibbled a bit on her pulse which had her humming a bit as she tried to movecloser to him. His grip kept her at bay though as his hands moved over herskin. “What are we doing?” he murmured against her skin.

“Something we want,” she whispered back as he finally sild hishands down to grip her ass as he dragged her closer. Raven gasped as shecrashed into his chest and then she kissed him again. Her tongue traced hisbottom lip as she slid her hands between them, over his skin, noting his warmth.

Tenderly she traced the symbol of the Arkham Knight, carvedinto his chest, skinned and grafted there, looking like an angry red burnthough it’d healed rather well in recent years.

“Rae,” he moaned his head fell back as she traced the scar,she watched his face as his eyes closed and he looked near pain and bliss.

“What do you want Jason?” she asked him.

His eyes snapped open, there was a pulse of green before shefound herself flattened on the couch as he loomed over her. Jason said nothing,his eyes were pulsing dangerously as he stared intently at her. “Raven this isn’ta game,” he warned. “You are my best friend, I don’t want to fuck this up.”

“You can’t,” she promised as she came up to him and kissedhim lightly. “I don’t know when, and I don’t know where, but somewhere betweenthe start to now I fell in love with you Jason,” she whispered against and shelet him fell it as she gripped him tightly, so he could feel it. He kissed herhard then as his hands gripped her hips and pulled closer to him.

“I think I wanted this too long,” he murmured.

She smiled as she traced his scars, his stories. Jason inhaledsharply before his mouth was on hers again, and his hands slid over her thighsas he made himself comfortable.

“Say it again,” he whispered.

“I love you,” she admitted as her hands traced his theragged scars on his spine.

[arn-and-friends]

I created an ecounter

Narzugon Encounter

This encounter is designed to be a deadly battle for a party of 5 level 15 adventurers. It should be the culmination of a quest or campaign with a fiendish setting. Perhaps a powerful lord has hired the party to free him from a pact with a devil, or perhaps the party has a warlock with a Fiend or Hexblade patron, and is either serving his master, or seeking to escape from the bargain he made to gain his eldritch magic.

This encounter is meant to be entered by a party that is fully rested. A party of different size or level should have the lower-level foes adjusted accordingly, by adding or removing a few bearded devils or spined devils, or by downgrading the Balgura to a Shadow Demon, or upgrading it to an Armanite.

A party of 15th level that is proceeding through a fiend-centric campaign should already be prepared with items such as silvered or magic weapons, and the ability to cast Protection from Evil and Good several times. A Cleric with the Holy Aura spell may make the encounter significantly easier, but since it is a concentration spell, the foes would focus their efforts on breaking that concentration if the spell is cast.

Background:

In searching for clues in their quest, the party would encounter a powerful Spellcaster, perhaps a Night Hag or an Archmage. This Spellcaster agrees to help the party, if they will complete a task first. They are sent on a quest to retrieve a special gemstone and return it to the Spellcaster, with a level-appropriate medium or hard difficulty.

Once the party brings the gemstone to the Spellcaster, it is explained that the Spellcaster is seeking to gain control of a demon. The Spellcaster knows of a powerful devil that holds a demon under thrall by knowing its true name, and uses it to do his bidding. The devil is a Narzugon, and is the devil that the party is seeking to defeat for their own quest. Since the party and the Spellcaster’s interests align, the Spellcaster is willing to help arrange a confrontation.

The Spellcaster will describe the Narzugon as “An armored devil writhed in flame, it rides upon a fiendish steed, and wields a fiery lance. The souls of those who are killed by this lance are taken straight to Hell. It knows the true name of a fearsome demon of the Abyss, and can summon that creature to fight for it.”

The Spellcaster explains that the Narzugon is a servant of the Archdevil Titivalus, a master manipulator and the primary advisor of Dispater, lord of the Second Hell. Destroying the Narzugon may attract the attention of Titivalus, but that Archfiend’s motivations are secretive. It may seek revenge, or it may even claim that the party was working on its behalf against a traitor. (This can lay the groundwork for a party warlock to continue their pact with a higher fiend, or be the story hook for a higher-level campaign or encounter in the future.)

The Narzugon inhabits his own stronghold in the Second Hell, and the Spellcaster is willing to teleport the party to that stronghold. Killing the Narzugon anywhere other than the Hells will not result in the Narzugon’s death; it will only melt into a puddle of ichor and reform in the Hells. The party can teleport directly to central hall of the stronghold and begin the encounter immediately, or choose to teleport to the outer wall and attempt an infiltration. This may be favorable to a stealth-centric party, and allow spellcasters the time to lay down Magic Circle or other protections, and bring the fight to them.

Before teleporting the party, the Spellcaster will spend some time working on the gemstone that the party retrieved, and then bring it to the apparent leader of the party. The Spellcaster will explain that when the Narzugon summons the demon, it will speak the demon’s true name. If a member of the party is attuned to the gemstone, and the Narzugon speaks the demon’s name within 90 feet of the gemstone, the attuned party member will also learn the true name, and will be able to vie for control of the demon against the Narzugon. (Contested persuasion checks, each with advantage, on either controller’s turn). If the demon is destroyed, it will melt into a puddle of ichor, but it will return to the Abyss at full power. If the party successfully kills the Narzugon in Hell, it will be permanently destroyed.

Upon completion of the fight, the party may send some sort of message to the Spellcaster, and they will open a portal to return the party to the material plane (If no one in the party has the Sending spell, the Spellcaster will supply one scroll with the Sending spell, or perhaps an imp servant to witness the battle and send word to the Spellcaster. Regardless, it may be in the party’s best interest to procure their own backup means of escaping Hell, as they should not fully trust the Spellcaster, an should certainly believe that if they do not gain the demon’s name, the Spellcaster may leave them in Hell to die.)

Once the Narzugon is destroyed, an alarm will sound throughout the fortress, and Titivalus (MToF 178) will arrive in 1d4 hours, in disguise as a Balor, and accompanied by 4 Erinyes and 40 spined devils. If the party has not yet left the fortress, they will most likely be destroyed. They can attempt to loot the fortress, and may recover the Infernal Tack or the hoard, but there should be a general sense of dread, and the alarm will continue blaring until Titivalus arrives.

Once the party returns to the material plane, the Spellcaster will ask that the gemstone be turned over to them, and that the party member that learned the demon’s name submit to a Modify Memory spell to erase that name from their memory. If the party acquiesces to this, the Spellcaster will reward them with a level-appropriate magic item(s). If the party refuses or is belligerent, the Spellcaster will become first insistent, then threatening, then violent. This encounter should be planned for, but not expected. Perhaps a high-DC Hold Person, or an Anti-life Shell around the Spellcaster will prevent another fight.

Fight:

The fight will consist of:

1 Narzugon CR 13, AC 20, 112(15d8+45) HP (MToF pg167)

1 Nightmare (The Narzugon’s mount, see mounted combat rules, PHB 98) Large, CR 3, AC 18 (plate barding), 68(8d10+24) HP (MM pg 235)

1 Balgura Large CR 5, AC 15, 68(8d10+24) HP (MM pg 56)

2 bearded devils CR 3, AC 13, 52(8d8+16) HP (MM pg 70)

1 spined devil CR 2, AC 13, 22(5d6+5) HP (MM pg 78)

The Narzugon begins the fight unmounted. On its first turn, it summons the Balgura, which enters the fight alongside the bearded and spined devils. On the Narzugon’s next turn, it summons the nightmare and mounts it. Until round 6, or until the Balgura is destroyed, the Narzugon does not move toward the party, and only uses its Infernal Command or Terrifying Command abilities. When the Balgura is destroyed, or upon round 6, the Narzugon and the nightmare enter combat. Before then, if any of the party (or the Balgura) engage the Narzugon or the nightmare in melee, they with both respond in kind.

The Balgura makes a Charisma saving throw at the end of each of its turns. If the Narzagon is controlling it, the DC is 17, and the save is with disadvantage. If the party member with the gemstone is controlling it, the DC is the party member’s spellcasting DC, and also with disadvantage if the party member spoke the Balgura’s true name. If the Balgura succeeds on the save, it attacks its most recent controller on its next turn, unless control is re-asserted.

If the Balgura is uncontrolled and not deafened, the Narzugon or a party member my attempt to gain control on their turn, once per turn, as a free action, by speaking the Balgura’s true name. The Balgura immediately makes another Charisma save, same DC as above, at disadvantage.

If the Balgura is controlled and not deafened, the Narzugon or a party member may attempt to wrest control from each other on their turn, once per turn, as a free action, by speaking the Balgura’s true name. This is made with a contested persuasion check, both with advantage.

If the Narzugon is destroyed before the Balgura, the Balgura attacks the closest creature at random, unless controlled by a party member.

Those affected by the Narzugon’s Terrifying Command are frightened of both the Narzugon and the nightmare, may not move toward them, and have disadvantage on attacks against them, or contested persuasion checks for control of the Balgura.

If the party makes no effort to control the Balgura, the Narzugon will use its Healing ability on the Balgura if it is below 20HP. Otherwise it will use Healing on itself if it is below 40HP.

If a party member is killed by the Narzugon’s lance, follow the rules of the Hellfire Lance listed on the Narzugon’s stat block. This may lead to permanent character death, or even a story hook to retrieve the lost party member’s soul.

If the Narzugon is destroyed, the Infernal Tack may be found on its corpse. A party member may claim the tack and the servitude of the nightmare.

The Narzugon may have a hoard as described by the DMG, including Treasure from the Challenge 11-16 table on DMG138. This hoard may be hidden, protected by wards, or trapped, at the DM’s discretion. The alarm and approaching reinforcements led by Titivalus should be a major concern as the party searches the hoard.