#or at least the Kieron Gillen version

[orangedodge]

I think Mother Righteous might actually be the worst villain I've ever seen

[gffa]

Hey Lumi, I have a tiny itty bitty silly question. I am ashamed to admit this (there is no anon option so I have to attach my face here and I’m crying) but all the Star Wars media I’ve been consuming so far is in the form of movies/tv shows/games and fanfiction.

I know, I know. It’s horrible, I should have went straight for the good sources a.k.a comics and books the way I did with Marvel/DC. It’s just that when it comes to Star Wars I have no idea where to start from and I get overwhelmed … Does that makes sense? I guess what I’m trying to ask is… where do I start from?

Because I wanna know EVERYTHING but I wanna read the proper works and not wookieepedia. And I can’t ask my best friend, she will absolutely laugh at me if she has to make me another list with titles to read or important pop culture things to see. You are my only hope.

Hi! First of all, I am firmly of the opinion that Star Wars generally works best when watched in priority + chronological release order, because the way Star Wars stories often work is that they assume you've seen/read the previous thing to base your current understanding off the other story, even if it's set as a backstory. For example, a lot of people suggest watching the prequels then the originals and I think that undercuts a lot of what you're meant to get out of the story. You're meant to know Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader, that's a huge part of watching the prequels. You're meant to know that Palpatine is going to become the Emperor, there are all these little comments about future plans, you're meant to know what the Death Star is, so when you see the plans on Geonosis, you understand the gravity of what's happening here. This also applies to reading supplementary material, because the books and comics assume you've watched the movies and the TV shows first, often times your understanding of them is based on that knowledge. So, you're doing things right so far! And that's why I usually suggest, whatever you're looking to get into, whatever you're interested in reading, do it in order of release, because a lot of stories assume you've seen/read the stuff that's already released. The second issue is a bit more of a "It depends on what you're interested in!" one because, well, it depends on what you're interested in! XD If you're coming to me, generally, I'm going to assume you're interested in the prequels characters and my list of Must Read materials will cater to that. (I do have a more well-rounded list here, it's a bit old at this point, but honestly I wouldn't say any of the current books have been must reads in awhile, aside from maybe the Thrawn and Alphabet Squadron books. This is slightly more up to date, but has a lot of the same suggestions. XD) My recommendations are: - Darth Vader (2015 - Kieron Gillen) + Star Wars (2015 - Jason Aaron) - These two series are meant to be read concurrently for at least the first six issues, read issue #1 of SW, then issue #1 of DV, then issue #2 of SW, then issue #2 of DV, etc.  They’re events crossing over into each other and are meant to be seen from different perspectives at the same time and it’s still one of the best series the Star Wars comics have had in Lucasfilm canon!  Gillen’s Vader is more the mystical, unknowable nightmare version of Darth Vader and he does an excellent job of getting into that space with the character.  Aaron also writes the original trio really well and it fills in a lot of the gabs just post-ANH so well, this is a great starting place for reading comics.  You get to see Vader’s moment of realization of who Luke Skywalker is and it’s one of the best comic moments in all of the franchise. - Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith (2017 - Charles Soule) - As tempting as it might be to read them in chronological order, I still think release order works better, and this one is set just after Revenge of the Sith and it’s all about digging into the psychology of Anakin Skywalker choosing to be Darth Vader.  Choosing it over and over and over.  This Vader is INCREDIBLY extra, but underneath the hilarious dramatic antics of this series (HE IS SUCH A DRAMATIC ASSHOLE IN THIS SERIES, IT’S SO FUNNY), there’s genuinely a story that looks at how afraid Anakin was to face his own choices, how Vader’s issues are Anakin Skywalker’s issues, how he goes from Anakin to the Vader we know in the OT. This is still my favorite piece of SW supplementary media, but I may be biased. - Shattered Empire (Greg Rucka) - This is a four-issue mini series that’s basically 100% pure connective tissue between the aftermath of Return of the Jedi and where things were headed to in the future.  The entire point is to show a variety of characters and nothing but focusing on the aftermath, rather than too much of a plot-focus.  Which makes it really satisfying, because it’s finally some breathing room for the characters--plus, it has stunning artwork to go with it. - Princess Leia (Mark Waid) - More aftermath, this time focused on Leia’s character in the days after A New Hope and the destruction of Alderaan.  It includes her going to Naboo (though, she can’t figure out too much, of course, there’s some lovely nods to the Force whispering in her ear) and trying to figure out how to be a princess of a world that’s in ashes, and it’s a lovely look at her character. - Obi-Wan & Anakin (Charles Soule) - A five issue mini series set between The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones and when I first inhaled it, it seemed like a bit of a filler adventure, until I went back to really pay attention the second time and suddenly all these connections and all this groundwork was being laid for understanding where each of these characters was coming from.  It’s a fantastic look at Anakin’s doubts about being a Jedi, that he’s planning on leaving, Obi-Wan’s interactions with him over that, and why Anakin ultimately makes the choice to stay, along with so much of Palpatine laying down groundwork to undercut everything the Jedi are helping to teach Anakin.  Add in the most gorgeous artwork you’ve seen, and it’s a hell of a read. - Poe Dameron (Charles Soule) - I really did not expect to love this comic as much as I did, but it’s incredibly good character work for him (the absolute best Poe-related material) and it does a ton to set up and flesh out the story of the sequels (in as much as anything can) and it’s just very, very easy to settle in with and read.  It’s got great pacing and a great plot and was really, really addicting to read. - Age of Republic (Jody Houser) - There are eight issues in this maxi series (and you can go on to read the Age of Rebellion and Age of Resistance comics, they’re in the same format--four issues about heroes, four issues about villains) and they tell stories of various characters and they’re all really solidly good.  My favorite is the Obi-Wan one, it’s another great look at his relationship with Anakin, though, the Anakin one had some great character stuff and the Maul one got me in the feelings place. - Jedi of the Republic: Mace Windu (Matt Owens) - Heads up about this one, the art style is wonky as hell, including some real nightmare fuel Yoda moments, so you gotta power through that aspect of this mini series.  Once you do, though, it’s a stellar look at Mace Windu’s character!  It’s not necessarily plot-heavy, but the chance to understand more of Mace’s mindset, the incredible Jedi he is, the good man he is, how hard he worked to become the person he is currently, all of that was excellent. - Star Wars Adventures - The series started in 2017 and then was rebooted in 2020, all of them are very worth reading!  They’re aimed at a younger audience, so you’re not going to get too much darkness in any of the stories, but that doesn’t hold them back from being some of the best Star Wars comics.  They’re all little stand-alone stories with characters from all across the three trilogies and you’ll get some wonderful stuff, like Luke and Leia on Naboo, Anakin and Padme going to see a play, baby Leia being told about Padme by Breha, Mace Windu rescuing a young Twi’lek child and giving her a pep talk, Rose Tico having adventures, Obi-Wan and Dex having an adventure, etc.  They’re adorable and super fun! - Kanan (Greg Weisman) - While parts of this have been a bit overwritten by The Bad Batch (to the detriment of the story, this version is so much stronger), the Kanan mini series is absolutely stellar for understanding the character, getting to see the prequels Jedi from the perspective of the Padawans, instead of just the Knights, and getting some great worldbuliding and character work.  It’s split between Kanan’s time in his present with the backstory of what happened to him after the Jedi genocide and it’s brutally heartbreaking in all the right places, hopeful in all the other right places, and the artwork is just stunning. - The Clone Wars - Battle Tales (Michael Moreci) - This is in the same vein as the Adventures comics (and may even be under that label?) so it’s pretty light-hearted but it has some absolutely baller comic moments for the clones and the Jedi.  It’s a quick read, but you’ll have a scream of a time doing it! Books are a more complicated issue, because a lot of the Star Wars books have moments of great quotes, but overall aren’t great stories, in part because they can’t do character work in the same way comics can and all the really good stories are being saved for potential TV series, I suspect.  But two books I always recommend starting with are Matthew Stover’s Revenge of the Sith novelization (nobody has ever come close to the heights that book has achieved) and Star Wars: Propaganda by Pablo Hidalgo, which is an in-universe look at the entire timeline (such as it was at the time) and how art and propaganda shaped things and, oh, it’s so good. Other than that, I like the Thrawn books, the Ahsoka book was solid, Bloodline did a lot of character work for Leia in the sequels, the Aftermath trilogy is one I really love but I personally think you almost have to listen to the audiobook versions because the text versions just bored me while the audio versions gripped me, Dark Lords of the Sith by Paul S. Kemple is more “Vader being Vader” goodness, Resistance Reborn was probably the best sequels book for me, I legitimately enjoyed Phasma a ton but given how her character just kind of fizzled out in the movies, I’m not sure how it would stand up without the excitement around her character, and I enjoyed Catalyst a lot, but I’m a sucker for a book that does connective tissue stuff between the prequels and the originals. I also highly recommend looking up “movie” versions of the Battlefront II storyline and the Jedi: Fallen Order storyline on YouTube, both are excellent stories if you’re not into playing the video games yourself.  You won’t get the full experience (you get much more invested when you spend a bunch of hours running around as your character, after all XD) but they will tell you the stories and they’re both very good and you’ll see connections pop up fairly often.  I also loved the Vader Immortal storyline, but because it’s a VR storyline, you’ll probably only find shaky footage of it and that may hit your motion sickness.  Still totally worth it even though I almost (literally) threw up trying to watch Vader be an asshole. That’s a lot to dump on you all at once, but I promise the stuff goes quicker than you’ll realize and this will give you a very solid foundation of having read the good stuff in Star Wars franchise!

[yellingaboutcomics]

Thor (2020) #24

We back baybee, if only to review the “Next” segment of this Ode to an Odin(son?).

All I’ve wanted in the years since Agent of Asgard’s conclusion was for Loki to be treated with kindness. Not by other characters, Loki has fucked too many people over for that to be possible, but by the writer. For all the epic sagas, the character studies, the bold choices of Jason Aaron’s Thor run, kindness to my favorite Odin-child...was not a story he was interested in but is something that Donny Cates has corrected, gently folding Loki into the narrative with a compassion he almost doesn’t deserve (but does need).

I’ve wondered, in the seven (lord) years since AoA’s ending if anyone but Ryan North and Daniel Kibblesmith actually read it. With this little segment, it in some way proves that it doesn’t matter. Like Kieron Gillen and kid!Loki before him, Al Ewing has saved AoA!Loki from the Marvel universe by simply...removing them from it. All of my “does Loki remember any of this?” doesn’t matter, because the Loki Donny Cates is writing is not the Loki who stepped through the door at the end of issue #17. Throughout his run, Ewing lent a Doctor Who flavor to the character that works beautifully: simultaneously silly and tortured, always changing, growing, but still at the core the one we love. He gently guided Loki through hell, emerging on the other side as someone who loved themself. From the moment I saw Lee Garbett’s gorgeous character design on the page in all their swaggering rapscallion glory, I was undone. To see AoA!Loki kiss Cates’ grieving Loki on the head was...emotional, to say the least (though I wonder how he would feel about this Loki’s relationship with Freyja).

This was the catharsis I’ve unknowingly been waiting almost a decade for, a sweet goodbye to my favorite comic series and my favorite version of Loki.

Or...is it? Y’all I am VIBRATING for Defenders.

[magical-girl-hell]

A Fan-%#&#$-tastically Good Story

A Reading Guide to Marvel Comics’ Loki

This is an updated version of an old post that was getting a little unwieldy to edit. Same caveat as the original post: this isn’t every appearance of Loki in the last fifteen years, but it’s pretty dang close! I’ve tried to focus on trade paperbacks with the most commonly listed author, to make it easy for people to find them.

Part 1: 2007-2015

Thor by J. Michael Straczynski (volumes 1-3)

Thor, now king of Asgard and wielding the Odinforce, is returned from the void after Ragnarok. He decides to bring back the rest of the Asgardians and establish a new Asgard floating above Broxton, Oklahoma, but Loki has plans of his own –  or rather, her own.

There’s a lot in these, but particularly there’s a good amount of time devoted to Loki’s origin and how he came to be adopted by Odin. I highly recommend these! They’re quite good, and if you’re new to the Marvel Comics universe (if you’re coming from the cinematic universe, for example) it’ll give you a good idea of who the characters are and how they fit into this world.

Thor by Kieron Gillen (Complete Collection) and Siege by Brian Michael Bendis

With the help of Norman Osborn’s Dark Avengers, Loki works to bring new Asgard crashing down – but the heroes bring chaos that not even Loki is prepared for.

Thor: The World Eaters by Matt Fraction

In the wake of the siege of Asgard, Thor misses his brother. Oh, and Galactus wants to eat Earth or something.

These are transitional, and there’s a lot less focus on Loki overall, but I still recommend them. Siege is a big Avengers crossover event, Gillen’s book and Siege contain the end of Old Loki, and World Eaters contains the beginning of Kid Loki. If you want to skip them, the next entry in this series will recap them.

Journey Into Mystery by Kieron Gillen

The complete(ish) adventures of Kid Loki. The old Loki is dead and in his place is a new Loki: a child with no memories of his predecessor’s evil. But Asgard doesn’t trust him, and old Loki left behind plenty of schemes. Some crimes can never be forgiven.

If you want these in paperback and you can afford it, there is a pair of lovely and sadly out-of-print omnibus books, but for the rest of us peasants, there are five volumes to keep track of:

Journey Into Mystery: Fear Itself

Journey Into Mystery: Fear Itself Fallout

Journey Into Mystery: The Terrorism Myth

Journey Into Mystery: The Manchester Gods

The Mighty Thor / Journey Into Mystery: Everything Burns

Tie-ins:

The Mighty Thor by Matt Fraction (volumes 1-3) -- While Loki and Leah are doing their own thing in Journey into Mystery, Loki’s having some adventures with Thor on the side, as well. If you want to read about them, this is where to find them.

Young Avengers by Kieron Gillen

Loki schemes to manipulate a bunch of teenage superheroes into helping him regain his full power as the group is pursued across the multiverse by the sinister Mother: an extradimensional entity invisible to adults, who manifests as murderous doppelgangers of the teenagers’ parents.

At least digitally, these are available now as a single collection: Young Avengers by Gillen & Mckelvie: The Complete Collection (But one comic didn’t look that great so... enjoy the original three trade paperbacks -- the full collection has the same cover as the last volume, sans volume title.)

Tie-ins:

A+X 005 (collected in Marvel A+X TPB: Equals Awesome) -- Directly before the events of Young Avengers, Loki appears in issue 5 of Marvel’s one-shot crossover series A+X, in a teamup (of sorts) with Mister Sinister. I can’t find the trade paperback anywhere, but it’s just a one-shot side story and he only appears in the one issue, so unless you’re really invested in finding out the fate of Doom’s Loki clones from Siege or you want to read the rest of the Avengers/X-men teamups in the book, you can skip this.

Loki: Agent of Asgard by Al Ewing

Loki makes a deal with the All-Mother of Asgard: for every mission he takes on for them, they will strike one of old Loki’s crimes from the books. Since the old Loki was reborn when Thor called the Asgardians back from the void, he has been scheming and struggling against the vicious cycles of his past. Loki has done terrible things to become the god he is today -- and now he is determined to wrest back control of his destiny and write his own story at last.

Or die trying... again.

Original Sin: Thor & Loki -- The Tenth Realm by Jason Aaron and Al Ewing

Loki takes a break from dealing with the All-Mother’s missions to accompany Thor on a mission to the sealed-off tenth realm to find their long-lost sister.

These are available as a single complete collection digitally (Loki: Agent Of Asgard - The Complete Collection), and I highly recommend it, as it also contains the relevant parts of the elusive Marvel Now! Point One 001 one-shot prequel comic (without which, the beginning of Agent of Asgard is rather abrupt.) Otherwise, if you want the three original volumes, don’t skip Original Sin -- it’s not recapped in Agent of Asgard, and without it the transition from volume 1 to 2 is very confusing. Think of it as volume 1.5.

Tie-ins:

Ms. Marvel 012 (Collected in Ms. Marvel Vol. 3: Crushed by G. Willow Wilson) -- (Takes place before Original Sin.) Loki makes some mischief in Kamala’s neighborhood -- and her love life! -- in the Valentine’s Day issue of Ms. Marvel. One-shot, can be safely skipped.

Avengers & X-Men: Axis by Rick Rumender -- The full Axis alignment-swap event. Relevant parts are included in the trade paperbacks for Agent of Asgard, but there’s more Loki content in the full event! It can be safely skipped.

Angela: Asgard’s Assassin (Collected in Angela: Asgard's Assassin Vol. 1: Priceless by Kieron Gillen) -- Loki has a brief part trying to help Thor hunt down their sisters when Angela steals Odin and Freyja’s new baby daughter, Laussa. Recommended if you liked Angela from Original Sin and/or if you’ve enjoyed the rest of Kieron Gillen’s work so far. If you’re just here for Loki, you can safely skip it, he ducks out of the adventure pretty early.

The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl 007-008 (Collected in The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Volume 2: Squirrel You Know It’s True by Ryan North) -- Somewhere between the end of Axis and the end of Agent of Asgard, Loki helps Squirrel Girl trap Ratatoskr, the wicked squirrel-god of gossip – never mind that he’s kind of the one that let her out to begin with! While you can skip this one, I actually really recommend reading it unless you’re super not into SG. Loki gets a fair few more little teamups with her (including some that span multiple issues), Thors appear (in both Worthy and Unworthy flavors), and Ratatoskr stays relevant. It’s pretty easy to find single issues digitally if you don’t want the whole tbp. (Loki appears in the second half, in issue #8)

Honorable mention:

Thor and Loki: Blood Brothers by Robert Rodi and Esad Ribic -- In an alternate universe, Loki has waged war on Asgard and won, and now he must decide what to do with his new crown and his captured enemies. To secure victory for all time, all he must do now is execute Thor -- so why does he hesitate?

A heavy deep dive into Loki’s character, his past, and his relationships that, while not canon to the 616 comic universe, has greatly informed both the comics and cinematic adaptations of Loki. A piece of Loki history, and the source of a lot of common fanon.

-

I’ll link to part 2 when it’s finished. Until then, enjoy this updated guide!

I don’t know that I remember some of these well enough to give good content warnings for them, but I definitely remember Siege in particular having some brief but surprisingly extreme gore, so you might want to skip it if that’s gonna bother you. (And maybe World Eaters, if that contains the dream arc?) Tenth Realm and Asgard’s Assassin also both contain babies in mortal peril.

[veliseraptor]

I saw somewhere an idea that Loki TV should play with comics and have 2012!Loki jumping to a dimension and meeting his old evil self, so Loki would be both the protagonist and antagonist of his own show. I love the idea but I'm not familiar with comics so I don't know what/how evil Loki got but I think you do? How do you think post-Avenger Loki would react to seeing himself old, bitter and evil (I heard he was madness and destruction)? Self-reflect or laugh "so this is how it is"?

Oh, I really hope they don’t do it. And I say this as someone who is a really big fan of that storyline in comics. I just don’t think it makes as much sense in the MCU, or at least couldn’t be done as well.

The reason that storyline worked as well as it did in the comics is twofold: one is the way that it is a commentary on the nature of superhero comics and how much they resist character development - how much they tend to over time bend a character back into an “original” mode (in Loki’s case, a major Thor antagonist). If you want to read 8000 words about this, it’s here; for brevity’s sake I’ll just quote from my conclusion:

In my notes for this article, I wrote “can people change? Not in comics!” As a rule, that is true. In more recent years classic villains have been allowed to grow more complex and move out of their traditional roles – Magneto and Emma Frost, mentioned above, fit that category, though both have a longer history of sympathetic portrayal than Loki. However, the general rule over the nearly sixty years of Marvel publishing history is that characters fit a certain mold and will return to that mold.

Writing from within those limits, Gillen and Ewing confront them, challenge them, and draw attention to them. Invocations of story and storytelling, the power of writing both literal and figurative, draw attention to the fictional status of the characters, who are, furthermore, aware of the conventions of their genre and acting against – or with – them. Loki in Journey Into Mystery attempts to tear out the captions to stop his nightmare; Loki in Agent of Asgard narrates in mythological, Eddaic mode to capture the essence of the gods. Narrative, and the awareness of narrative, drives them both.

The MCU doesn’t have that same force - while it has its problems with character development, it doesn’t have the same history or weight behind them. 

The second problem, though - and this is actually my bigger problem, because even without that specific thematic resonance you could probably still tell a good story - is that that particular story relies on Loki being in a specific place in his redemption arc. He is, at that point, well on the road to Working On Being a Good Person, and genuinely believing that he’s making progress and doing pretty good at it. That’s what makes the confrontation with his evil alter ego (who is...an interesting figure in his own right, but that interesting part would probably get lost in translation because it is very ~comics!~ in a way I think general audiences would be reluctant to accept*) so potent: it’s Loki thinking he’s doing better, trying to do better, suddenly being faced with his worst fears for himself. 

The Loki TV series is apparently taking Loki from the point in Avengers after he’s been beaten, before going to Asgard. That isn’t a Loki who is in any way interested in trying to be or do better. That is a Loki at his lowest point, angry and bitter and lashing out at the world around him. That Loki, facing another (even nastier) Loki...it’s a very different dynamic, and without so much of that contrast, I don’t think as compelling of one. Because I do think Loki would just be like “yep, that tracks.” And maybe there would be conflict, but it would be much more likely to be the “I want something that you also want” type of conflict than the “holy shit, this isn’t what I want to be, also our desires are fundamentally incompatible with each other” type of conflict.

And that’s just not, at least for me personally, as interesting.

(YMMV, of course. But I tend to think when Loki is confronting himself as his own worst enemy, the more contrast between the two versions, the more potent the conflict and the more interesting the potential.)

Also I just trust Al Ewing and Kieron Gillen about 500x more than I trust anyone at Disney, so there’s that, too.

---

*To give you the shortest possible explanation - it is an alternate timeline Loki who went through his full redemption arc, realized that no one cared he had changed, went full evil but kind of agreeably so to recreate the status quo with Asgard where everything was back to “normal” (evil Loki, hero Thor fighting him), and then jumped timelines to try to bring up the timeline of his going dark, but also possibly to make a better timeline, it’s complicated. Maybe that was accidental, maybe not? 

Again, it’s very ~comics!~ and therefore I don’t think something that Disney would be likely to put in a TV series for general audiences. They’ve done some weird stuff now, but really nothing that weird.

And if they just made it “Loki went evil because reasons” then that kind of loses all the interesting parts of that Loki as a character, imo.

[boo-cool-robot]

Everyone tell me your favorite writers for Magneto, especially if they did a one-off or short/less well-known run! 

Mine are (keeping in mind there’s lots of comics I haven’t read, particularly from the 90s): 

Chris Claremont. Even though I have a lot of beef with him, he did essentially make Magneto into who he is today. His Magneto is thoughtful, political, flamboyant, a little quirky, and generally feels like he contains multitudes. New Mutants Headmaster Magneto is the best.

Matt Fraction. Maybe he just inherited Magneto at the right time, but his version feels grounded in mutant politics and the relationships that he’s invested in, plus the air of Constantly Doing The Most really works for me.

Kieron Gillen. He only had Magneto for a little while, but using him as basically the bitchy menacing uncle of the whole X-Men was fun as hell. I’m biased towards a Magneto with a sense of humor. 

Overall I think I prefer a Magneto who’s deeply angry and sometimes ruthless but not cruel, quirky/got that Ethnic Grandpa flavor, funny, genuinely cares about people, and feels like he has at least a few interests not directly related to supervilliany/vigilantism. (The ideal is a Magneto with coherent politics who’s explicitly bisexual but that will never happen in canon lmao.) 

[popculturespiritwow]

THE WICKED + THE DIVINE #33: YOUR DERIVATIVE SHIT (AKA TWIST AND SHOUT)

This cover. Black to me signals death, or something awful. And I was certain that we get all-black pages somewhat regularly in WicDiv, but you know, it’s not true. Both when Luci gets “killed” and Laura herself “dies”, we get pages that are black but for two tiny almost exactly duplicated comments.

The Underworld is obviously a land of darkness, and there are two moments – during Laura’s first trip down there and then when Persephone first gets her hands on Woden – where we get a splash page of endless black into which the character is falling.

But the only time in WicDiv that we’re given a non-dialogue-y black page is when Sakhmet takes out her dad in issue 17, and again in issue 28 when she massacres her party people after coming to believe they’re all laughing at her. That last one does give one tiny little glimpse of her, though.

So if there is a “language” to the all-blacks (non haka version) (love you Kiwis), it would seem to be something to do with violence and lost time.

But we’ve already done all the blood and nightmares in this arc, and this issue is instead filled with twists and reveals and honest soul-rending conversation and reunions and new friends and overall kind of a lot of reader satisfaction.  So a very different thing.

Another take on the all-black is this is what you put on your cover when you’re terrified anything else will give something away. But for as much anxiety as Kieron talks about in his notes about “keeping the secrets” of this issue (and also his sense of what nonsense that fear is), he and Jamie have never had any trouble obscuring  reveals before.

So here’s my thought: Maybe it’s like Disneyland. Disney theme parks are built in such a way that on the way in you have to go through a tunnel of some kind, and before you do you can’t really see inside to all the happy happy joy joy good stuff.

The idea is, Disney wants you to feel like you’re entering into a whole different world than the one you left behind, a better world where you can be happy and spend money and want to take the same picture in front of the castle that everyone else does and still feel like it’s special.  And part of that is creating a clear sense of boundary; there was where you were and there’s where you’re going, and the tunnel stands as passage in between.

Maybe that’s why you do a black cover: Not to hide anything or signal violence but to create a boundary, a sense of a passage into something new. 

PHALLUCIES

So we begin with the Vibrator as key. I want to say it might be the perfect Gillen/McKelvie image – it’s naughty and seems like a joke and has been sitting there for so long that we no longer think much of it when in fact it is absolutely essential.

Nothing in WicDiv is superfluous, minor or irrelevant. Everything is trying to express something important. (TELL US ABOUT THE VEILS KIERON.)

A bigger question: does the fact that Jon (and not only Jon but the truth about Laura) is released into the story via a phallic device that vibrates have even more to say? Is pleasure or self-care in a sense the key in WicDiv, a path to freedom and life?

Have I not mentioned already I was an English major?

READ ONLY MIMIRY (#SorryNotSorry)

After an arc that seems very caught up in how the characters are all caught up in/pinned down by stories, suddenly out of nowhere we have Jon, this breath of fresh air who sees that path for the garbage it is and refuses it. He will not fit the options Ananke poses, or any duality, thanks very much.

He is the one who builds.

Of course he is then force-wrapped into stories – the Pantheon (I love the horror of his reaction to his ascent), this weird Odin/Thor thing (complete with the nod to Thor’s alter ego Donald Blake) and also the biblical Abraham and Isaac story, the father sacrificing his son to God (now comes with beheading!).

And if I understand the father/son dynamic, as much as Jon sees the Mimir thing for the lie or trap it is, he still can’t quite help himself from being a builder. There are rules he can bend (see: vibrator) but he can’t quite enact a full break.

His call is really quite beautiful. “You walked among your foes for the sake of love,” the spooky Ananke heads say. “Struck down you are raised up, the Sky King’s grandest treasure.” It’s pretty much the absolute opposite of his Dad’s call.

How crazy is it that we’re 2/3rds done with the series, we’ve just been introduced to a major new character (okay we saw him once before but still), and he fits in so well?

Probably we’re being set up for betrayal and heartbreak, but for now I love it with all the loves. 

MACK THAT KNIFE

Can we just talk about the knife for a second? Like, how exactly does it work? Clearly it somehow enables the user to disengage the head from the body while keeping the head alive. But whereas with Jon that might have happened literally – put your elbow into it, David! – in the case of Luci, Tara and Inanna Ananke used her signature head pop. So what’s the deal? It’s enough to have the knife in your possession when doing with the murdering, or something else?

Also, post-beheading, we see Ananke referring to Jon as “it”.

Is this because he’s now “just” a living head? Or is this how she actually honestly sees all the gods?  It’s um, upsetting to say the least. 

Of course so is Woden’s take on things: Jon stole my life (by being born, you horrible human looking meat puppet), so now I get to steal his.

I don’t know how it would have been possible Woden could sink lower in my estimation than he has (#Dio4Vr), but in fact it is and he has.

CASSANDRA VS. THE DESTROYER ROUND II

As much as I love the Jon reveal, the thing that really rocked my world was actually not that but Laura explaining what she’s been going through. I just – this poor girl. And though we still have two arcs to go, in a way this moment is the heart of the series. Kieron seems to say as much in the notes, talking about how the artist lives in this awful reality of getting what they dreamed of, but it involves awful stuff happening to oneself and others. 

“I’ve talked about having mixed feelings about WicDiv’s success. Laura’s arc is it writ large. I hate that the definitive work of my career is this. If my Dad was not dead I would not have written this book. There is a guilt and anger that is hard to articulate directly there, and is the material I was mining for this.”

Art is built on suffering and loss—and that means on the back of horror done to others. To wish to be an artist is in a sense to sacrifice those relationships in a fundamental and sometimes literal way, in fact that seems a necessity to one’s success. Being a storyteller may be incredibly nourishing for others, but it’s built on harm done to those you love.

Jesus Christ this is dark. And we haven’t even gotten to the point yet of facing the question that society’s survival is supposedly built on those artists’, those children’s destruction. We love you so much, you inspire us, but what cements that for the century is your deaths.

What do you make of this follow-up moment where Laura suddenly turns it to 11 with Cass?

It only happens after Cassandra calls Laura Persephone for the first time, which seems like it’s meant as a kind of respect. Knowing what she’s been through, she is now worthy of her name in Cassandra’s eyes. She is an equal.

Except it seems to set Laura on the path of what – connection, for sure. But through sex, which is actually more escape than intimacy.

What is “The Destroyer”, in the end? Less a malevolence associated with Laura, it seems to me, than the character of all the gods when they get lost in their stories about themselves.  

(More to the point: What the heck is the Machine? Jon says it does nothing. Whuhhh?)

A STEP A HEAD/STOP MAKING SENSE

So, after quite some issues away from it, in the end we return to the heads. Lots and lots of heads. Jon’s head (god that’s a delightful reveal), then Sakhmet’s slice of head – and Minerva – and then finally, the big finish.

I would say my head exploded except I feel like that gag has already been played.

As he has mentioned often in his notes, Kieron loves to hide much bigger reveals within the reveal we know that’s coming. In this case, we knew there was this other Daft Punk member hiding in the darkness somewhere, and we knew there was something up with Laura we needed to hear about.

So we get that and say thank you, and then there’s still four incredible jaw dropping can we please do a happy dance for Luci pages.

Kieron goes into a ton more detail on this writing strategy here, and the particular nightmare challenges posed by this issue. I’ll post excerpts below, but you should read them in full. They are fantastic.

But if I can just ask one question: What the hell happened with Minerva? Am I to believe she did not feel bad about Sakhmet, that she’s that good an actor? Je refuse! And also isn’t the point of the Sakhead reveal that still-Minerva blew it with her fearfulness and lack of skill?

#CRAFTSERVICE: ON TWISTS

Okay… twists.

In reality, for me, it’s a case of once you’ve decided that this is the plot, the only way to do it is dovetail towards an issue like this. Any of these individual beats provide too much connective tissue to the other ones, meaning all must be revealed or none.

(You could argue about Minerva, I suspect. Maybe.)

It’s been strange writing a book like this – when so much is there early on. Seeing who got what and who didn’t, and how people reinforced people has been interesting. That the core WicDiv tumblr community has never really suspected Minerva was off is in some way a surprise – though I’ve had people talk about that directly and personally. Blake/Jon and Minerva-is-Off-In-Some-Way were the two twists I would guard, but their primary importance was in how they led to the Heads.

When Ray Fawkes told me “There’s a reason you’re doing all the decapitations, right?” circa issue 2, I suspected that I’d overplayed the hand by having a literal talking head in issue 3… but it turned out fine.

“Played the hand” is interesting phrasing, and telling. Writing something as intricate as this is like doing a slow-motion card trick, in public, constantly. It is a form of constant stress. I have been paranoid of fucking it up in stupid ways, and it’s impacted every single conversation I’ve ever had about WicDiv. Like just writing one name when I mean another or something. There was a hilarious panic when I added ‘Killer Queen’ to the playlist, just thinking of it as a quite funny Ananke song… and then realised there was only one character in the cast with a connection to the band Queen, and that was Minerva. Should I take it off the playlist? No, someone may notice that, and it’s against my rules anyway. I quickly added a few other things to camouflage it.

As if anyone is watching that closely, y'know?

That’s an extreme example, but an entirely characteristic one. I have lost sleep over it. Even a year ago, I wished I could just get to 33 and not worry about it. When 33 dropped, it was simultaneously excellent (the response was basically what we expected) and an anticlimax (The amount of emotional and intellectual effort you put into doing this is not worth it. It could never be worth it.) I’ve been telling friends that I’ll never write a story that operates like this again. Partially that is because I wouldn’t want to repeat myself, and partially because – as I said above – I think twists are less effective in long-form serialised work in 2017, but mainly as I don’t think I want to do this to myself again. I’ll find some other way to torture myself.

 So apparently Mini has been off all this time. I’m stunned by that.

#CRAFTSERVICE: MORE ON TWISTS!

I’d note that setting up twists that *are* easily guessable by the hardcore is part of the methodology. Having a nice big twist foreshadowed heavily is a good way to hide another twist behind it. “Hey – pay attention to this less subtle sleight of hand while I perform the actual sleight of hand over here.”

Oh you’re expecting a big reveal are you, cool cool cool here it is and also SURPRISE.

He talks about this again later, in response to the reveal that Mimir is just a talking head.

When thinking of plot structure, I talk about a few ways to disguise twists. Earlier, I mentioned a Big Twist can make people suspect the twists are over. This is something I tend to think of as a revealed move. As in, you create a machine of logic with a missing part. You add the missing part as late as possible, and then immediately move to what has been concealed before the audience is able to process the new information.

Oh you’re blown away by Mimir are you? SURPRISE, there are three other heads.  And also Minerva is not Minerva.

It’s a great insight, too – if you fear one bit of new information is going to naturally lead to others, drop it all right now before they even have time to think about it.

#CRAFTSERVICE: ON WHAT WRITING IS FOR

I know this is a lot of quoting the author, but hey it’s a big issue and the author has some great stuff to say and it is helping me. 

How do I actually feel when someone guesses something that’s going to happen? Well, this is long enough already. Let’s put the personal stuff beneath a cut…

I’d say you sigh “Oh, poop” and shrug.

And then you get over your ass, because you know all the above is true. Writers are often megalomaniacs who think they can control everyone’s response to their work. We don’t. We can’t control everything. We can barely control anything. We really have to let go. I’ve said WicDiv is a device to help me improve as a person, yes? It would include in this area. I have to learn to let it go, and internalise all of the above. If I can make most of my readership have the vague emotional response I’m looking for, I’m winning.

Certainly I’ve heard many writers talk about their writing as coming from a personal place. And as a writer myself I’ve had to learn (again and again) that having a sparkly fun idea is not going to be enough to get me up and writing every day, even if people like it. That I need what I’m writing to come from something more specific in me.

But I don’t know that I’ve ever heard an artist talk about their work as well, their work. The journey they’re taking to try and deal with something or figure something out or to let go and get free and be a better version of them. It makes so much sense, and man does it challenge me to have another think about my own work. Because I think most of the time I almost think of the journey as the thing that has to come before the work, the thing that prevents the work – Ima just get my act together and then write this script in fifteen years or so. And reading this it strikes me  oh wait, that’s just the thing I tell myself so I don’t have to do the work.

 There’s so much more to say about this issue. But it’s taken me the better part of a week to say this much already so maybe I’ll just leave it there. Suffice to say, it’s a giant of story.

(And yes, that’s my exhausted end of words attempt at a Mimir pun.)

I’ll be back next week with the two specials. And then, Mothering Invention!

[thisiscomics]

There’s something particularly tragic about this issue given the realisation that Japan is unable to escape the horror of this familiar cataclysm. It may occur later than it did in our world, and at a different location, but still the bomb persists.

The American use of it had been foiled, as though the horrors of the enhanced humans were more than enough for this version of World War II- really, who needs the atom bomb when you have people able to destroy so much with physical force and/or their halo effects? At least, that was what I had initially thought, that one terrible power had been replaced by another, rendering the bomb obsolete just as the super-powered soldiers made most other participants and instruments of warfare redundant.

Sadly, it turns out that the bomb was still lurking out there- perhaps no longer as terrifying after the destruction this war had raged across the world, but once that particular Pandora’s box had been opened it was never going to just disappear quietly. When we learn that it isn’t quite the equal of a Battleship in terms of destructive power, this is little consolation- a recognisable horror has been unleashed, and one assumes there is a civilian cost to rival, if not beat, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Battleship may not be killed by the bomb, but he serves as a reminder of the damage that splitting the atom can do, and undoubtedly wishes that the bomb had been slightly more powerful.

To emphasise the echoes of our history, Hirohito surrenders to the Allied Forces with words familiar to us, a sign that perhaps there are some fates that cannot be avoided in any reality- nuclear fire must be unleashed for the country to surrender and bring to a close the war in the Pacific, the only variable is precisely when and where the player takes to the stage.

From Uber: Invasion 17, by Kieron Gillen, Daniel Gete, Juan Rodriguez & Kurt Hathaway

[rebelsofshield]

Panels Far, Far Away: A Week in Star Wars Comics 1/09/19

In addition to the regular Star Wars releases, this week I also bring reviews of IDW’s graphic novel adaptations of A New Hope and The Last Jedi. Don’t procrastinate kids.

Star Wars #59 written by Kieron Gillen and art by Angel Unzueta

The long, emotionally complicated vacation our team of heroes enjoyed on Hubin appears to be coming to an end. As Leia and Luke’s personal secrets and schemes along with Han’s recklessness begin to overstay their welcome, outside forces arrive on the pastoral world bringing danger and violence.

There is a general strangeness to writer Kieron Gillen’s script here. Whether it’s from a rather bloodthirsty turn by Leia or from the number of secret agendas and double crossing in the script, the strong characterization, which has been the highlight of this story arc so far, feels more distant and stilted than usual here. This may be a simple matter that at this point in the arc’s narrative we are supposed to begin to see the edges of the trio’s time on Hubin fray. We see how they have betrayed the trust of their hosts and that their hosts have been suspicious of them at the same time. It makes sense given the set up and themes of this story, but there is a certain awkwardness in which these events are revealed that is absent from most of Gillen’s other scripts.

Unzueta’s art also feels a little off here. While it still isn’t nearly as hampered by it as Larroca’s was at its worst, the reliance on photo referencing is still present and at times just as distracting.

Regardless, the ending is tense and exciting and reintroduces some fan favorite villains from Jason Aaron’s run that haven’t appeared in quite sometime. Next issue looks to be the sort of fan servicey action fest that Gillen has been waiting on for a while.

Score: B-

Star Wars Adventures: Destroyer Down #3 written by Scott Beatty and art by Derek Charm and Jon Sommariva

IDW’s rerelease of Destroyer Down, like most of their Adventures brand, has been a delight so far. Being able to tell a Rey centric story on Jakku and bridging it to the Galactic Civil War has allowed for a fun sense of era hopping and a bigger scale narrative than the ones that we usually see out of this side of Star Wars comics and the result has been one of their better projects offered by IDW so far.

As has been the case in the previous two issues, Rey’s segments prove to be the highlight. Derek Charm’s art as always is visually charming and also skillful in its layouts and action choreography. It may be relatively light on plot, but it makes for a fun conclusion that ties together both narratives well. In particular, the relationship that develops between Rey and Sarco Plank is fun and oddly heartwarming. Maybe I’m just a sucker for rivals becoming friends narratives but the final pages of Destroyer Down put a smile to my face.

The backup story detailing the doomed destroyer’s crash into the sands of Jakku may be less strong in comparison but the result is still very fun. In particular, writer Scott Beatty’s sense of humor shines through here delivering a heavy dose of chuckle worthy stormtrooper banter.

Overall, if you haven’t had the chance to check out this miniseries in Loot Crate then I highly recommend giving it a shot if you are a fan of Rey or want a low stakes but fun Star Wars adventure. Between the strong art and colorful setting and characters it is more than worth your time.

Score: B+

Star Wars Age of Republic: Jango Fett #1 written by Jody Houser and art by Luke Ross

Despite the importance that his legacy has on the Star Wars saga, Jango Fett is probably one of the least explored characters in the current Star Wars canon. Outside of a strangely noncommittal stance on his being a Mandalorian, Lucasfilm has offered little in the way of Jango material since, well, Attack of the Clones.

Writer Jody Houser takes this opportunity to expand on the one real thread we have on the infamous bounty hunter: his fatherhood. Although we get flashbacks to Tyrannus’s hiring of Jango and his time on Kamino, Houser’s script frames the entire narrative on the titular bounty hunter’s fathering and mentorship of the next generation of Fett.

Fittingly then, this issue ends up being more about Boba than his father. While in some ways this may feel like a wasted opportunity, Houser still crafts an undeniably intriguing look into the value Jango places on the only legacy that matters to him and how it shapes Boba as a result. It shows the ruthlessness instilled in the young boy and the level of esteem he held his father to and ends up giving us a more exciting look at the early days of this iconic mercenary than most other canon material including The Clone Wars.

Luke Ross’s art also proves to be a strong fit. Playing off some of the shadowy work he did on the galaxy’s scum in 2017’s Darth Maul limited series, Ross excels in bringing to life Jango and his bounty hunting cohorts.

Score: B+

Star Wars: A New Hope: Graphic Novel Adaptation- manuscript by Alessandro Ferrari and art by various

As was the case with its adaptations of The Force Awakens and Rogue One, IDW offers up a similarly visually slick but shallow, bite sized version of this classic tale.

By now it’s clear of what to expect through these comic book realization of the various Star Wars films. They more or less function as abridged versions of the events of the films with colorful cartoon inspired art with the hope of appealing to a younger audience. This sets them apart from Marvel’s film adaptations in that they serve a function outside of being a collectible item or by providing footnotes to the film itself. In a way, they have the same mission as the Galaxy of Adventures cartoon shorts in repackaging classic characters and stories for fans that are just dipping their toes in the water.

In this case, Alessandro Ferrari’s manuscript and the work done by the art team accomplish this goal for A New Hope fairly well. Igor Chimisso’s character designs may favor some characters better than others (Luke and Leia have large rounded faces that give them more than a passing resemblance to chipmunks), but overall the look is more often than not visually exciting and fun to look at. Ferrari’s manuscript moves along at a fast clip, but occasionally it does get ahead of itself. Certain lines of dialogue are remixed or dropped and in context certain plot beats are glossed over and a few of the character moments lack the punch they have in their original form. The 90 page runtime also presents some of the film’s highlights like the beautifully executed Battle of Yavin feel mostly glossed over.

Overall, it works and for the $9.99 price tag, is a cheap enough gift to give a younger fan that wants to reexperience the magic of the classic film in a new way.

Score: B-

Star Wars: The Last Jedi Graphic Novel Adaptation- manuscript by Alessandro Ferrari and art by various

The sequel trilogy may just be the best suited stories for IDW’s mini-graphic novels. With their dynamic characters, fast paced plots, and colorful scenery, it is often easy to abridge these narratives and still offer an entertaining package.

The usual missteps still arrive in that certain pieces of dialogue are dropped and a few emotional or character moments are paced awkwardly and lack the impact they had on the big screen, but as a whole The Last Jedi is the strongest work that the IDW team has produced so far.

Much of this is due to Igor Chimisso’s character work which is a particular standout. It may be that he also does the inking work here, but the exaggerated and cartoony style feels more natural here and accomplishes the aesthetic goals of the project.

It’s still a product that is best suited for younger readers who don’t mind that outside of its visuals the product has little original content to offer, but it is still a vibrant little book that is fun to read.

Score: B

[oosteven-universe]

Eternals: Celestia #1

Eternals: Celestia #1 Marvel Comics 2021 Written by Kieron Gillen Illustrated by Kei Zama Ink Assists John LIvesay Coloured by Matthew Wilson Lettered by VC’s Clayton Cowles    THERE IS NO GOD FOR THE ETERNALS!    Now that the truth of their existence is revealed, Ajak and Makkari must pick up the pieces and try to find a road forward... no matter how terrifying it will be, or how their choices will irrevocably shock the rest of the Eternals? Also: How do the Avengers of 1,000,000 BCE figure into it?    Oh I am so very much enjoying the current version of the Eternals as portrayed by Kieron.  This is a great issue for so many reasons and not least among them is seeing Ajak formulate a plan that could turn into the next big Marvel Event, please don’t make it company wide and let it just be its own limited series nothing else.  It does introduce us to Ajak and Makkari and their tumultuous family history which shows that families will fight with one another and still have their back no matter what.  It also delves deeper into the Eternals' history and past and allows the reader to better understand these people and how they live now and in the past and it’s actually quite telling and interesting.    I love, love the way that this is being told.  The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well.  The character development that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter really brings their personalities to the forefront.  The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more and more of the story the more I want to see.  It really has this wonderful cause and effect going on here and Kieron has turned these Eternals into one of my most sought after series.    I do appreciate how we see this being structured and the layers within the story begin to emerge and grow.  The way that these layers open up these new avenues to be explored and boy are there a few that I really want to see more of.  What these avenues add in terms of depth, dimension and complexity to the story is marvellous to see.  How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is impeccably achieved.    The interiors here are utterly sublime.  The linework is exquisite and how we see the varying weights and techniques being utilised to create this level & quality of detail within the work is just astonishing.  That we see backgrounds like we do is amazing in how they expand and enhance the moments.  They also work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story.  The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a remarkably talented eye for storytelling.  The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show an exceptional eye for how colour works and how to maximise its effects. ​    I absolutely love seeing more and more about the Eternals, their past and how it affects the present.  This hammers home the idea that without their gods and without a real purpose, they don’t need to babysit the humans any longer, what is next for them?  This is an exciting time for the Eternals and with the rising threat of Thanos and the Machine not functioning properly well it just makes what they experience all the more exciting.  This is so expertly written with some wondrous characterisation and these utterly sublime interiors bringing it all to life beautifully.  This is a phenomenal addition to the series and I hope we see more along these lines.  

[kevinkevinson]

Can u hc what each of the paladin's fave books/genres might be? 100% cool if u pull from your own faves/bookshelf :3 also music if you're up to it!!

First of all can I say how much I LOVE THIS??? BEST QUESTION EVER. Okaaaaay. Alrighty. Here we go.

Keith: Maybe my brain is completely influenced by fic but I really kinda love the idea of Keith being a literature snob. Complete Shakespeare nerd. If the author’s dead, chances are Keith’s read it. This goes along with the idea that classics are generally easier to access than new books, and I imagine Keith probably had limited access to books and would have read mostly stuff that’s public domain or handed to him in school. I would love for Keith to have been a library kid (hi sorry have you met me), one of the kids who use the library as a hangout space and a place for simple resources that aren’t super easy to come by at home. But maybe a library that wasn’t well funded and had a small childrens/teens section, so as a kid he had to reach for the adult books when he ran out of things that interested him.

Favorite book: Candide by Voltaire

Lance: Lance is my YA/middle grade soulmate. He’s read Harry Potter and the Percy Jackson books with all of his siblings. Imagine it being sort of like a rite of passage in his family: the older sibling is responsible for introducing the “next in line” to Harry when they turn eleven, but Lance loves it so much that he joins in every time (and sneak reads Harry to his younger sibling before it’s “their turn.” Many complaints that Lance is “ruining the family tradition by hogging it all for himself” ensue). Lance has at least one sister who’s a booknerd who keeps him up to date on all the new YA releases. One of the things he looks forward to is coming back to earth and finding out how those several trilogies they were following together end. Lance thinks Percy Jackson is the coolest book character ever created and that he could totally kick Harry Potter’s butt, but Harry Potter is more fun to read.

Favorite book: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by JK Rowling

Pidge: Pidge has to be a sci-fi nerd. But a really, really picky one. She totally looks down her nose at most sci-fi because it’s “unrealistic” and reads a ton of nonfiction on any subject she’s interested in at the moment. She also refuses to get rid of her entire collection of Animorphs books she and Matt spent years tracking down together. This is completely self indulgent, but give me little Matt and Pidge finding old copies of their dad’s Animorphs books from when he was a kid and reading them together. Making fun of all the 90s references and poking at the simple writing, but getting sucked in just the same. Soon enough, they’ve made it through dad’s whole collection and realize he’s only got about 20 books here and they need to know what happens!! So they get on the internet and start tracking down the other books. Of course Pidge finds PDFs of the entire series but Matt insists they gotta “do this thing right and find a REAL LIVE BOOK” so they spend their time digging through eBay and meeting dubious strangers for craigslist deals. Soon they acquire the whole series complete with all the Megamorphs and Chronicles, but not the Alternamorphs because after reading the first volume they determined them “not canon and a waste of time.”

Pidge punches Lance in the face when he finds out she’s reading Animorphs on her tablet and starts making fun of her. No one makes fun of her again.

Favorite book: Dune by Frank Herbert (but it’s actually the Hork-Bajir Chronicles by KA Applegate)

Hunk: Hunk is the one who gets caught reading paperback romance novels and doesn’t apologize for it. And superhero comics. Hunk is my superhero guy. He gets Lance into comics as a casual fan and the two of them get into fights all the time because Lance will throw out a “who would win in a fight, Captain America or Wonder Woman?” And Hunk will go off on him like, “At least pick two characters from the same publisher who could theoretically meet in the same universe before you start throwing your hypothetical ungrounded fight scenarios at me!”

Favorite book: Young Avengers by Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie

Shiro: Shiro reads a lot of nonfiction, probably biographies and history. Military history for sure. Is anyone surprised?

What maybe no one suspected, however, is just how much Shiro loves Tolkien. Shiro is a Tolkien scholar. He grew up reading the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings and cried when he first saw the Fellowship movie. (Based on a real life true friend who started bawling when he first heard Galadriel’s voice in the theater.) He’s read the Silmarillion six times.

Favorite book: The Return of the King by JRR Tolkien

Allura: I have no idea what kinds of books Alteans have, but I imagine there being a well-loved Altean version of Tamora Pierce’s books that Allura adores.

Coran: Coran doesn’t have time for reading because he’s too busy chronicling his own life for his soon-to-be bestselling novelization of his life and times with the paladins of Voltron. Number One in intergalactic novel sales, critically acclaimed, just you wait.

[gffa]

Hi Lumi, thanks for not turning off anons yet, I've wanted to message you for months but I am crippling shy and couldn't bring myself to do it off-anon, haha. I just wanted to ask, do you read any of the Star Wars comics? If so, can you recommend any? I am new to the fandom after The Mandalorian and I really want more Darth Vader content, if you have any recs I'd be very grateful! I love your blog and literally every piece of content you post! Thanks Lumi!

Hi!  I’m glad that I left anon on just for this then!  I do indeed read a lot of the Star Wars comics, though, I go in fits and starts with them, like a lot of people do. 😂 My recommendations are: - Star Wars 2015 (by Jason Aaron) + Darth Vader 2015 (by Kieron Gillen) - I put these two together because the first 6 or so issues are meant to be read concurrently, they’re events crossing over into each other and showing different aspects from different points of view, and I think it really helps to enrich both stories if you’re alternating between the two for at least six issues. Beyond that, they’re both just really, really solidly good comics!  They’re set just post-ANH, where Luke is discovering more about being a Jedi, where we see Vader discovering the identity of the pilot who took out the Death Star, where Leia is dealing with the political stuff of the galaxy, etc.  They’re probably still some of the best comics that SW has put out, imo! - Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith 2017 (by Charles Soule) - This is the second Darth Vader comic series (so pay attention to who the author is--the current ongoing one is by Greg Pak, which is solidly good, but hasn’t yet hit the same heights as either of these, for me) and it’s set in the aftermath of Revenge of the Sith and this is easily my favorite SW comic.  Soule really digs into the connection between Anakin and Vader, how they are very much the same person, how the first volume of Darth Vader comics is about who Vader is during the OT, the Soule one is about flaying him open to understand just how he cannot face what he’s doing or the other choices he could have made. It’s over the top drama (it’s SO DRAMATIC and I LOVE IT) in a way that really highlights just how awful Anakin has become, that he is crushing even more of himself and you can see him losing still yet more and more, eventually leading to something like the OT version we know from later. - Obi-Wan & Anakin by Charles Soule - This is only five issues, as well as I generally recommend reading it two or three times, because Soule is actually pretty solid about not always spoon-feeding you everything and how the narrative arcs and parallels are more subtle than you’d expect from Star Wars.  The art in this one is stunning, the worldbuilding has a ton of cool details, you get to see bb!Anakin considering leaving the Jedi Order and why he decides to stay, as well as some really fascinating connections to how the Jedi see the galaxy and how Anakin sees it. - Age of Republic by Jody Houser - There are eight issues of this maxi series, each one focusing on a different character, and they’re all really interesting and have some amazing character moments.  My favorites are the Obi-Wan and Anakin ones, there’s a lot you really get to see about their relationship and how supportive it actually is, but all of them have really great looks at the characters they’re focusing on. - Jedi of the Republic: Mace Windu by Matt Owens - Okay, fair warning, the art for this series is not going to be for everyone, there are some seriously wonky panels in it, but the story itself is a great look at Mace’s character.  Both for the bits of backstory about him and for about how the Jedi look at the galaxy, that Mace Windu is such a rich, wonderful character and deserved a look at him like this.  Bonus, Kit Fisto is hilarious in this comic! - Star Wars Adventures by multiple authors - Basically anything in the Adventures line is worth reading!  Most of them are fairly light stuff, not super deep, they’re meant to be cute stories, but I’ve enjoyed all of the ones I’ve read and the prequels ones usually have some moment that’s completely batshit in a way that’s totally true to Star Wars.  They’re kid-focused comics, but really, really adorable ones. - Clone Wars Battle Tales by Michael Moreci - Speaking of dramatic fun, this mini series is just an absolute scream, they’re totally ridiculous in the way that I would read a hundred issues of them.  Plus, you get some really great Jedi moments or Anakin hilarity moments and I’m always down for that, too. - Kanan: The Last Padawan by Greg Weisman - Speaking of gorgeous art!  Never will you see a woman as beautiful as Depa Billaba in this comic, my goodness.  But you also get the story of bb!Caleb going through Order 66 and the trauma of running in the galaxy as a former Padawan who had their Master gunned down in front of them and, boy, did this comic know how to make it hurt.  There’s some cool worldbuilding in there, some amazing looks at the Jedi pre-Order 66, and just a whole lot of feelings. - Shattered Empire by Greg Rucka - This is a four-issue mini-series with a) gorgeous art and b) a whole lot of connective tissue/aftermath for the galaxy post-Return of the Jedi.  Rucka’s writing is solid here and you get a good variety of different characters and the paths they’re starting down and what they’re planning to do next, and it’s just a very solid read. - Poe Dameron by Charles Soule - I really didn’t expect to love this comic as much as I did, but Soule really knocked it out of the park and created a funny, moving, interesting journey for the character.  Even if Poe’s not your usual fave, the work this comic put into being interesting and connecting various things and telling a fun, actiony story really was good. - Age of Rebellion and Age of Resistance are both solid mini-series that I would definitely recommend!  My heart beats for the prequels, so I’m more focused on those, but if you’re interested, these are great looks at individual characters, too. HONORABLE MENTIONS: - The Princess Leia comic by Mark Waid is one I haven’t reread in awhile but I remember greatly enjoying it.  I’ve enjoyed Soule’s current 2020 Star Wars ongoing comic, though, because of the pandemic, it hasn’t had a chance to get a ton of issues out yet. I enjoyed the Darth Maul mini series by Cullen Bunn and, if you wind up liking Aphra from the first Vader comic, she gets her own spin off comic that’s really solid, too!

[lit102]

Doctor Aphra | Kieron Gillen etc. | 2017

After Doctor Aphra’s co-starring turn in Marvel’s Darth Vader, I didn’t think I could love her more, but I’m happy that the first volume in her standalone series (collecting issues 1–6) proves me wrong. Aphra and Vader have gone their separate ways (I forget why) and for the first time since we met her (well, not counting Screaming Citadel), Aphra is on her own, with (questionably) loyal droids Triple-Zero (evil 3PO) and Beetee (evil R2) by her side and wookie Black Krrsantan (evil Chewie) stuck to her like a burr til she pays off her growing debt to him. When I type it all out like that, it becomes clear just how much of a ripoff Aphra is; these are morally gray (or pitch black) versions of characters we know and love. Even Aphra is a hotter, gayer Han Solo (with more than a little Indiana Jones thrown in). But despite — or perhaps because of — this, I adore the series; it’s familiar enough to satisfy and fresh enough to excite, and it never pretends to be more than what it is. In fact, it’s having a damn good time being itself, which is probably why it’s so much fun.

Aphra starts her solo series in debt not only to Black Krrsantan, but to the man who sold her her ship (which looks, by the way, not unlike Boba Fett’s Slave I). He demands payment; Aphra stalls for time. When she sells the valuable artifact she just acquired, she can pay off his loan in one go — and then some. But there’s a problem. The legal buyer tells Aphra that her archaeologist’s doctorate has been suspended; without it, they can’t verify the artifact, and on the black market it will sell for much less. So Aphra must return to her alma mater and confront the man who got her doctorate suspended by exposing the fact that she cheated to earn it: her own father.

In a flashback, we see school-age Aphra, stymied by a dead-end doctoral project on the planet Boothi XII and a sadistic advisor who refuses to pass her because, quote “I hate you.” (This was odd — why the vitriol? We see her playing a prank on him, but it’s unclear if this caused their issues or was a symptom of them.) Aphra steals her advisor’s secret stash of abersyn symbiotes (insectoid parasites that are known for wiping out empires) and pretends that she found them on Boothi XII, getting revenge and turning her failed project into a success. Now, using this info, Aphra’s father blackmails her into helping him find the lost temple of the Ordu Aspectu, a rogue branch of the Jedi Order who sought eternal life, led by a man named Rur. To find the Aspectu’s ancient citadel, they must retrieve a map from former rebel base Yavin 4, where they tangle with Imperial forces — including one Captain Tolvan, a tall, slender woman with a shock of short white hair and intriguing armor that covers her neck and the edges of her face, suggesting some kind of injury. Tolvan was assigned to Yavin 4 after fucking up security on Eadu (destroyed by rebels in Rogue One — could this be her fuckup?). After a narrow escape, they head to the ruins of the Ordu Aspectu’s citadel. On the way, we find out more about Aphra’s fractured relationship with her father, who abandoned her and her mother for a fool’s errand — the same one he’s strong-armed Aphra into now.

At the citadel, Aphra and her father must fight off Tolvan and her forces, who follow them there, and activate the core computer — which, it turns out, contains a warped copy of Rur’s consciousness that thinks it’s more than a copy, that it’s his true self, and that an “evil ghost” inhabited Rur’s body in its place… that is, until it killed him and everyone else in the citadel. Angry and resentful, the copy lashes out at Aphra (“I cannot punish the dead. I will punish the living”); she, her father, and her crew barely make it out alive, destroying the citadel and stealing Tolvan’s ship in the process. (Aphra spares Tolvan’s life because she thinks she’s cute.) The copy of Rur’s consciousness is trapped in a crystal that Aphra then has quarantined… or so it seems. On the last page, she reveals that the quarantined crystal was a fake — and, holding the real one while smirking into the camera, says “Let’s get rich.”

I’ll admit that I found Aphra’s father a bore, and his wide-eyed fantasies of eternal life tiresome, even after he revealed that he sought it to save his young daughter from a galaxy that was getting more and more dangerous by the day. Their storyline felt too, well, heartfelt for a comic that finds evil so fun (classic Triple-Zero line: “Sprinting is undignified. I’m made for the finer things in life, like holo-chess and peeling skin from flesh”). But maybe that’s why it’s needed. Aphra isn’t evil, exactly; she’s roguish, selfish (like Han when we first meet him), but charmingly so, and she’s not sadistic or cruel. Sometimes, she even makes more sense than the good guys do; when she lifts a lightsaber off a dead Jedi and her father protests, she retorts “What do you think I actually do, Dad? Archaeology is just grave robbing with fancy paperwork.” She’s… not wrong. Aphra writes her own rules in a lawless world — she’s self-sufficient and vulnerable at the same time, always wrapped up in some get-rich-quick scheme, with the Empire and her creditors nipping at her heels (like Han, again)… So the rules she writes are self-serving; she’d probably say that everyone is selfish. She’s just honest about it.

And last but not least: Aphra is the kind of character, like Jack in Mass Effect 2, that SCREAMS “gay” but rarely is gay, and I can’t tell you how much I love that she IS GAY, and crushing on a butch older woman no less! 

I like Kev Walker’s art okay (and I wish I’d integrated this into my writeup instead of tacking it on at the end). A two-page spread of their arrival at the ruined citadel is very cinematic, like an establishing shot you might see in a Star Wars film. There’s some nice use of color by Antonio Fabela, too. The inside of Rur’s citadel is a frosty blue, which makes the red of the Imperials’ lasers pop. The computer core is bathed in a poisonous green. Four full pages of tough, confessional conversation Aphra has with her father are set here; I like how the light gives this emotional scene an eerie twist.    

[knifeonmars]

Capsule Reviews - Secret Wars Edition

Comixology recently had a sale on items related to their Secret Wars event from a few years back, and I decided to revisit some of the miniseries. I have to admit to a general fondness for Secret Wars and its various tie-ins, because they gave us a lot of series and ideas which just wouldn't have a place in the perpetual here and now of Marvel's normal line-up. Here's what I thought of some of them.

Armor Wars

It's a latter day James Robinson book, so for me, there's kind of a cap on how good it could possibly be, but it manages to be at least that good. The premise of the mini sees an entire city dominated by brothers Tony and Arno Stark, who create the suits of armor keeping the city's plague-afflicted citizens alive. James Rhodes, here the local Thor, because in Battleworld Thors are basically the Green Lantern Corps, but working for a godlike Doctor Doom, is investigating a conspiracy which has resulted in the death of Spyder-Man, the local version of Spider-Man. The story's twists and turns play out pretty much exactly how you might guess, and the story's greatest sin is that it just never manages to get beyond a pretty potboiler "mystery" story. There's also a kind of inexplicable decision to focus on the two least interesting characters in the book, and of the characters in the series, they're the only two with more than a page's worth of characterization who don't die by the end. The art and designs by Marcio Takara are great, and he's a perfect choice for the series, but ultimately, Armor Wars is mostly an art showcase.

Ghost Racers

I love Robbie Reyes. Great design, neat gimmick differentiating him from previous Ghost Riders. Here's the thing about Robbie Reyes though; he's a thin character. Or at least, he was under the pen of creator Felipe Smith. Ghost Racers suffers from the same problems that Robbie Reyes debut series did, which is that art and designs are unparalleled (indeed seeing Felipe Smith and Juan Gedeon run wild with new looks for the classic Ghost Riders is the best part of the series) but the story is painfully stilted and chained to a hero with basically no personality. Robbie Reyes is nice and loves his brother Gabe, who is ambiguously disabled in a way that always feels like it’s just on the very of becoming outright ableist and who inevitably gets taken hostage. The writing is bad, unambiguously. It's weirdly dated, no one aside from the hero receives any real characterization (and what he receives is again, painfully thin), the potentially interesting mythology of the series isn't explored, and it ends with a meaningless call for rebellion or further adventure. A lot of the Battleworld books do this and I understand the impulse, but given that almost none of them had any bearing on the main Secret Wars series, it feels weirdly meaningless.

E is for Extinction

An odd duck, essentially a divergent take on Grant Morrison's X-Men circa just before his final couple of arcs. It, understandably, doesn't quite live up to the standard set by Grant Morrison's own writing but it is very fun. The ending is a tiny bit underwhelming but the art and the mood, while not for everyone, is quite charming, and the way it loops in the Battleworld conceit is great. I don't think it's one of the more provocative or interesting minis, but for anyone who enjoyed Morrison's X-Men or, say, X-Statix, they might find something to like here.

Runaways

Easily mini I was mostly looking forward to reading here. Here's a question: This is a 2015 miniseries written by Noelle Stevenson, now an acclaimed showrunner for her work on the Netflix She-Ra series, written right when she was exploding and becoming a breakout talent after years cultivating a style and audience on Tumblr and through her webcomic Nimona. How the hell did Marvel Comics not lock her down as a writer after this? It's insane that a talent like that slipped through their fingers. Anyway, the actual series is solid. Sanford Greene's art is great, Stevenson's writing is great and embraces the often implicit queerness that the mainstream Marvel Universe never really lets thrive. The story isn't exactly surprising as a standard YA dystopian yarn, but the character beats all work, and it's easy to get swept up in. It's kind of a shame that this, like many of the better Battleworld minis, is essentially forgotten, because this could easily have had a second life for non-traditional comic book readers in bookstores.

Siege

Kieron Gillen's farewell to Marvel Comics, with Filipe Andrade on art, it's most of what you could ask for from the project. The ideas for a mile a minute, the Battleworld conceit is taken full advantage of to create full skewed and not-so-skewed versions of classic characters, like a legion of cloned Cylcops or a version of Magik who is explicitly rather than implicitly queer. It's about a hopeless fight, so it's not exactly an uplifting story, but its sweet and cathartic, and by the final pages it becomes obvious that the whole thing is a metaphor for Gillen's work-for-hire career. It's also got a great Thing moment and ties into the central Secret Wars series more directly than most, so it makes my shortlist of recommendations.

Weird World

Set in a segment of Battleworld which would later be integrated, if only for a sadly short time, into the Marvel U proper, Weird World has Jason Aaron at his absolute most Jason Aaron, with tough warrior men monologuing about how sad they are and also how much ass they're going to kick, cartoonishly evil villains whose lackeys really need to unionize, and Mike Del Mundo absolutely crushing it with some all-time greatest Marvel artwork. Easily worth reading for the art alone, and the deranged, schoolwork doodles take on swords and sandals action delivers on every front. Unlike many of the other Battleworld minis, Weird World actiually ties directly into its post-Secret Wars sequel which means the ending is unfortunately truncated, but it's still a very fun book.

[leftsomescratches]

That's nice to know about Danny boy but it wasn't that. You see the journal had your name and inside was well..Abuse pain even your father. Were you hurt as a child?

Mun!Speak

Alright folks let me share with you some wisdom from the past of one beloved Victor Creed. Now just as disclaimer, I am not leading expert on all things Victor Creed, but I’ve basically read everything on him so yeah, I’ve done my research.

So first off there are two different versions of Creed’s childhood floating around out there. The first I came across was a 2009 one-shot publication: X-men Origins: Sabretooth, written by Kieron Gillen. It features Victor’s first manifestation of his mutation through an altercation with his older brother which resulted in the kids death and Victor’s imprisonment in the cellar of their house by his father.

According to Gillien, Victor was only prisoner in that cellar for a year (if you read the comic it goes from ‘that spring’ to ‘next spring’.) However Marvel files have put Creed in that particular predicament for years. Routinely throughout those years, Creed’s father would remove Victor’s ‘Satan teeth’ believing that if he pulled out enough of them that he would Cure Victor of the devil.

An abusive and sick S.O.B. to be sure, Creed’s father has been theorized to have been abusive to his mother as well. It gives credit to the whole ‘you are the environment in which you are raised’ vibe.

HERE IS A SEGMENT FROM THE MARVEL WIKI FILES

Early Life

When Victor Creed’s mutation first manifested, he accidentally killed his brother over a piece of pie. His father confined him to a cellar and would systemically pull out Victor’s “devil teeth” in an attempt to purge the boy of his “demons”. Victor was chained like an animal in the family cellar for years until one day he chewed off his own hand in order to break free, subsequently murdering his father. Although he would later claim to have killed his mother as well, he actually spared her, and made sure she lived a comfortable life, until she was diagnosed with cancer and confined to a hospital, where she was killed by a member of the Red Right Hand.

Freed from his parents, Victor was unleashed upon society. At age thirteen, he reportedly rampaged across three Canadian provinces and killed at least three police officers. According to Creed, he remained in Canada and, at about fifteen, worked for the railroad, laying down rail from Calgary up to the Yukon. (The Canadian Pacific Railway reached Calgary in 1883 and the route up to the Yukon was completed around 1900. (If Victor Creed was 15 while laying rails that would place his birth between 1868 and 1885.) Among the workers on the line was a belligerent older man who delighted in picking on the teenage Creed. Though the man “had a hundred pounds on him”, Creed gutted him from crotch to Adam’s apple with his claws.

The other common image/ dictation of Creed’s torture in his younger years was presented in Deadpool Vol 4 issues #9 (which is part two of a three issue segment featuring Sabrethooth versus Deadpool) written by Gerry Duggan.

Mind you this publication happened AFTER the inversion event which left Creed actually on the good side of the spectrum. No longer under the control of his feral dark side, Victor teams up with Magneto in hopes to save mutant kind from the devastation that the Terrigenisis Mists, released by Black Bolt when combating Thanos, brought upon them.

Anyways, during the fight with Deadpool, Deadpool accuses Victor of killing his parents, when in reality Wade’s memory was wiped and the ultimate way to test the process was the order for Creed to take Wade to his parents house to ice them. Hey, given how many times people like Wade, Logan, and Victor got their memory wiped, exactly how much of this is truth and how much is a fabrication of their own minds to fill gaps that otherwise can’t be restored. But here’s a picture I’d wish to share:

This picture is before the oh so infamous one that has helped paste the word REDEMPTION on Creed’s forehead e.g. this one

Now for those of us who have been following the comics its clear as to why this particular scene had to happen. Creed was on the ‘road to redemption’, or as least traveling down it as best he can. The Inversion event freed him from the darkness in his mind, in his nature, that held him captive. That’s not to say Victor hasn’t been seen MANY TIMES being or helping the good guys. He’s not all evil, he just has less of a will power to push through the dark suggestions his feral nature forces him into.

I don’t really have the patience to cut out the pages right now, but the best comic that references exactly what Creed has to deal with on the daily can be found in the 1995 release Sabretooth Special “Sabretooth in the Red Zone” Written by Fabian Nicieza (I’ll post pages from that later)

So this particular segment of his past was written as it is to give Creed that redeeming sort of feel to him. So people can start empathizing because more and more has this guy started to become a very common face now that Wolverine (Logan) is pretty much dead.. then wasn’t dead and is now an old man.

In conclusion.

If the consistencies of the story line remain true, Creed manifested his mutation I want to say around 7 or so, and between you and I, I don’t see the reason why Creed would have exceptional writing skills enough to have the words for the horrors he suffered as a child. Or why any child would write in a journal at 7. And that’s assuming that he received any formal schooling what so ever or why his father would deem it necessary to keep up the schooling once he locked the kid down in the cellar.

Also in another conclusion I found this little tib bit under Creed’s father’s Marvel file labeled as Unusual Features: Amber eyes appear to “glow” (i.e. tapetum lucidum), a trait his son would be noted by the Foreigner to possess as well.

[boo-cool-robot]

sounding, i have a question. i love your posts about magneto but my familiarity with the x-men is like... only from the movies. do you have any comic recommendations? there are So Many Comics, im hesitant to just pick something

OH MY GOD I CANNOT BELIEVE MY MAGNETO SHITPOSTS MADE SOMEONE WANT TO READ COMICS

Okay, the first thing you need to know about mainstream comics is that most of them are bad. Like 90% of them suck, and the comics publishing model is awful to actively keep up with. Nonetheless….there’s a good number of elements I find extremely compelling…..like Magneto!

I have not actually read full runs of….most comics, so grain of salt with all my recs.

But anyway, my favorite comics Magneto characterization is probably Chris Claremont’s Uncanny X-Men and New Mutants runs. Stan Lee created Mags, but Claremont was the one to come up with his backstory and make him a more nuanced character than the usual take-over-the-world supervillain. Uncanny X-Men 199 is about Magneto taking Kitty Pryde to a Holocaust memorial and submitting to arrest, and 200 is the story of the subsequent trial as Magneto contends with his crimes and Kitty contemplates growing up in a world with such bigotry. It’s extremely good and would be my number 1 choice for an X-Men story to be made into a movie, but it will never happen because it is contemplative and low on explosions (there’s an attack from psychic N*zi twins in there, but you know, comics.) New Mutants #35 picks up after the trial and has Mags serve as the headmaster of the Xavier Institute and mentor to the New Mutants team. You get to see him lecture teenagers about curfew and tell Rachel and Illyana that he gets the urge to just kill people, he really does, but THEY ARE NOT ALLOWED TO. It’s all very 80′s and has Claremont’s signature stiff-ass dialogue, but it’s fantastic. 

I also think that House of M and related comics are very important, even if I disagree significantly with a lot of its aspects. The core House of M story is a limited run where his daughter, Wanda Maximoff aka the Scarlet Witch has remade reality into one where Magneto is a semi-benevolent dictator who rules a world where mutants are in charge (see end notes for details on Maximoff-Lehnsherr family).  House of M: Civil War is a minseries that details his rise to power and his relationship with that universe’s Charles Xavier. Young Avengers: The Children’s Crusade, is a fix-it for the fallout of House of M that centers on Billy and Tommy, Magneto’s grandsons, and has Mags as a supporting character. The 2015 Secret Wars House of M miniseries is a non-canon story of Pietro trying to take over. House of M as a whole is kind of frustrating both in the way Magneto’s ideals are portrayed and with the stuff they do with Wanda, but it’s very compelling as a story about intergenerational trauma and you should read it if you’re interested in Magneto.

Other than those, I’ve read some of Cullen Bunn’s Magneto solo that follows Mags as vigilante. Very dark, and I don’t love all that characterization either, but it’s worth a read. The most recent X-Men Blue has Magneto in a mentorship role for the time-displaced original X-Men, though I’ve only read a little bit of that run too. 

Of stuff I haven’t read: I’ve been meaning to read the 2013 Uncanny X-Men run that follows Magneto, Cyclops, Emma Frost, and Magik as they recruit mutants to their radical cause because from what little I’ve seen that’s also a good Magneto, but idk. Chris Claremont did a limited run of Excalibur that features Charles and Magneto playing house together that’s supposed to be real gay. Age of Apocalypse allegedly has a long-haired Magneto leading mutants in the fight against their doom. Kieron Gillen wrote some stuff around 2012 about Magneto dealing with the wake of Cyclops’ bullshit? 

Comics during the 90s were generally big on making Magneto totally evil, so skip those. Same with the Ultimate universe version, which is frankly pretty offensive. 

Some important comics Magneto facts that are not canon in the movies that are useful to know:

Magneto was born Max Eisenhardt, in Poland. He has also used the names Erik Lehnsherr, Magnus, and a ton of others, though Magnus is probably the most common. 

Mags has naturally white/silver hair due to his mutation, though it was dark until his adolescence and full awakening of his powers. 

He is very smart and cultured and has a lot of formal education in science and physics. 

His powers vary wildly according to story, but he can do a lot more than move metal with his powers. 

He has been deaged and reaged and other bullshit a lot. It’s not stated how old he currently is, but it’s entirely likely he’s physiologically only about 40. 

In the main comics universe, Magneto has four children. With Magda Maximoff, he had Anya, who died in childhood, and Wanda and Pietro, aka Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. With Susanna Dane, he had Lorna, aka Polaris. He didn’t know that Wanda, Pietro, or Lorna were his children until he met them again in adulthood. Mags also has grandchildren: Luna Maximoff, Pietro’s daughter, and Billy Kaplan and Tommy Shepard, aka Wiccan (?) and Speed, the soul reincarnations of Wanda’s children (it’s complicated). He has a very difficult and complicated history with all of them, but he cares about them a lot. 

He has had a long-running on-again-off-again thing with Rogue. Unlike in the movies, she’s an adult so it’s not as weird, but……I still hate it.

Also, I don’t know if you read fanfiction, but….if you want good Magneto content, you might consider it. Most of it is based on the movies, and most of that is specifically the First Class-Days of Future Past alternate timeline though. At the very least, most fic writers who create stories about him actively like him, which is more than some comics writers.

My favorite Magneto characterization in fic is in The Building of the House and Tehillim, which is canon to the movies. IMO XMCU!Magneto should be written as very traumatized and have significant problems with daily functioning, and these fics give a really fantastic portrait of that trauma. 

These are all AUs that in some cases hew pretty far from canon, but have characterization elements that I really like:

Limited Release, where Erik is a very intense and kind of crazy FBI agent 

I guess I should say thanks or some shit, which has a fantastically douchey young Erik

Lessons ‘Verse, which show Erik as an incredibly difficult and high-maintenance lover (these fics are mostly smut but I REALLY like the characterization)

Synthesis, which gives a really sharp portrait of Erik’s politics 

The end of the world (just not ours), which is kind of a college au that has a deliberately wildly diverging magneto characterization and is unfinished to boot, but…I’m really into it, idk

Anyway thanks for reading this giant-ass post, hit me up with more questions or if you wanna talk about Magneto