#or the dangerous mysterious outcast who is just too fascinating to the main character

[dykeonysus]

I’m so sorry Tumblrinas but I love the just-coded-enough-to-show-up-if-you-squint type gay characters in like mid 20th century Hollywood movies. I’m a slut for innuendo and slight of hand. YES I know so much of it is based in homophobia but there’s also something that reads as “here I am, I know you’re out there too, I hope you catch this” that I just lose my mind.

[interact-if]

Day 1 of the Game Jam Winners Months Featured Author Interviews, starting with Rhain!

Rhain (Raindev), author of The Hanging Heart

The hungering tree stands tall on the hill beyond the village. it is a beautiful but dangerous, almost malicious thing. it rises high, trunk white as snow, leaves a mix of gold and crimson. no one dares to approach it, not anymore - too many lost their minds to its vicious pull, but none can resist casting a quick glance, admiring its vibrancy against the dead sky or even coveting the shimmering heart hanging from its lower branches. you most of all. in a world where people wear their glimmering hearts, sources of power and magic, in bracelets and in chains around their necks, you have none. your chest is empty like theirs, but you have no heart to call your our own. you don’t know - or don’t remember - why, which isn’t surprising; the last years are foggy for many, since the war of the angels ended and the world, shattered and hurting, started healing. for a heartless being like you, nothing is as tempting as the hanging heart on the branches of the hungering tree. but claiming it as your own might be even more dangerous than you thought. something watches from amidst the tree’s leaves and some villagers might know more than they let on - about you, about the tree, and about the war that ravaged the world. you might get more than you bargained for.

Read more about The Hanging Heart [here]

The Hanging Heart Demo | Dev Blog

Tags: Fantasy, Mystery, Content Warning for Violence.

[INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT UNDER THE CUT!]

Q1 . Tell us about the story you made for the Jam!

The Hanging Heart is about exactly what it says in the title: a heart hanging from a tree, except the heart is magical and tree is monstrous, starving and dangerous. It tells the story of the main character – the player – who, for some reason, has no heart in a world where people walk around with their hearts in chains around their necks or safely stored in their pockets. Hearts are a source of magic, of humanity, and not having one makes the player an outcast in the tiny village the story is set in. That’s why the main character is fascinated by the hanging heart and desires to claim it for themselves, except, you know, there is a vicious, mind-eating tree kind of guarding it.

Q2. What was the biggest challenge in creating a game in such a short time span? How did you manage it?

The fact that I started halfway through the jam, mostly! I found out about the jam right when it was announced but when January rolled around, I had completely forgotten about it. So, when I saw the post again I just went “oh, shit” and spent a few days wondering if I should even try anymore. It was only when the idea for The Hanging Heart popped in my mind that I committed to participating and it was already January 13th or 14th by then. I ended up cutting a whole route because of that and decided to go for a very short story that is the same in every route (all two of them lol), except you get to experience it in a different way in each one. Going for more variation or more endings would have made it impossible to submit the game for the jam in time.

Q3. What was your inspiration for your entry?

A prompt by deepwaterwritingprompts on Tumblr! Their blog is my favorite prompt blog ever and months ago they posted one that got stuck in my head. I don’t remember the words exactly, but it was about a tree growing out of the last vampire’s heart and a group that every year tries to steal its fruit before the council burns the tree again. The imagery of a tree growing out of a supernatural being’s heart was very interesting to me, and I’m a huge fan of forest magic and trees as more aware, conscient beings, so I smashed all of this together and got the first inkling of what would become The Hanging Heart.

Q4. Is this your first time working on a game like this? What do you like (or not like) about working in this format?

It’s not my first interactive fiction game, but it is certainly is my first interactive fiction game whose story was, from the very beginning, intended for an interactive fiction game. My first IF was adapted from a short story and even though I like the story a lot, it was pretty obvious it wasn’t planned for an interactive medium. So with The Hanging Heart I tried to use the interactive part more, even if I had to cut a lot because of the time constraint.

What I enjoy most about working with IFs is the freedom that comes with it. Sure, a story is still a story and there are expectations about how it should be developed, but if you make it interactive you can come up with all sorts of things and mechanics to enhance the experience. Plus, the idea of choice leading directly to different outcomes is very fun. I love playing games, not strictly IFs, where after a playthrough I find out online about wildly different scenarios other players got because of different choices. It makes the story world feel more alive to me.

There is very little I dislike about IFs. If I had to pick anything I’d say the blank slate protagonist. The idea of having to accommodate super different personalities for the main character was what kept me away from IFs from a long time. There are aspects of it I deeply enjoy: being able to choose gender, appearance, pronouns, sometimes powers or background, etc – these are fun to make and fun to play as, especially as someone who is rarely – if ever – represented in the media. But dealing with the possibility of wildly different personalities for the main character is just not fun for me. Some character archetypes I just don’t want to write about. So that’s what I do nowadays. You can come up with the appearance for the heartless in The Hanging Heart, for example, but you will never get the choice to make them give up on the heart. You might choose to give up on it for now, but they will try again. If they gave up, they wouldn’t be the heartless. Having a base personality (and even motivation) defined and letting the player decide how the character develops is far more interesting for me.

Q5. What is your favorite part about your entry? What have you enjoyed most doing during the Jam?

The relationship between the characters is certainly my favorite thing about The Hanging Heart. The songbird, the guardian and the heartless are a very fun trio to write about, even if their relationship isn’t obvious/there on the page for most of the story. That’s what I enjoyed most: trying to leave hints of just how connected these characters are throughout the story, even if the heartless has no clue about it.

Q6. What is your advice for sprint projects like this one?

Cut your scope in half. Then do it again. If during the jam (or the sprint) it still feels a bit too big, cut it if in half one more time. The initial idea for The Hanging Heart was waaay bigger than the final product, and not only because I cut a route. It spent a lot more time developing the world, as well as the characters themselves, but 1) I didn’t have the time for that, and 2) that was not what the story was about. The Hanging Heart depends a lot on mood and atmosphere, and overstaying the welcome could’ve ruined that.

The more time you spend in a story – and I say this as in, the world of the story itself, the length of it – the more you are expected to explain it all and this explaining can be too much for the story you are trying to tell. So, my advice is: go serial killer on you scope and know what kind of story you are aiming for.

Q7. Do you have any other works you'd like to promote?

Yes! My main project is Briarheart, where you play as the chosen one who failed returning to the royal court after seven years in exile to marry someone you mother – the queen – chose for you. It involves a lot of what I like to write about, and in this aspect it is very similar to The Hanging Heart: it has forest magic, weird trees, a post-apocalyptic fantasy world, etc. It’s also much bigger and more complex than The Hanging Heart. If The Hanging Heart was a feisty house cat, Briarheart is a very pissed lion, and it is currently coming for me.

Jokes aside, I’m writing the first chapter of Briarheart and my plan is to release it as soon as possible with the already written prologue (maybe this month? Fingers crossed). If I had to pitch the story, I’d say it’s HOLLOW KNIGHT meets FINAL FANTASY XIV meets, uh, THE HANGING HEART. It focuses a lot on platonic relationships, duty and devotion, and embracing and/or refusing a fate chosen for you. You can read more about it on the intro post or on the briarheart tag on my blog.

[dwellordream]

“We remember the fascination of the villain from when we were children: Captain Hook, the old hag in “Hansel and Gretel,” the Wicked Witch of the West. As T. S. Eliot recognized, “It is better, in a paradoxical way, to do evil than to do nothing: at least, we exist” (344). The Romantics, those poets who always admired the view from the eyes of the child, were everywhere mesmerized by the villain, by strangeness in beauty, by the corrupt, the contaminated, the imperiled. The Brontës held onto the richness of their childhood imaginations and from this kept treasure Rochester and Heathcliff emerge. Yet Rochester was not the first character to wrap up the contradictions of lover and enemy into one subjectivity.

The tragic hero whose main energy comes from villainous actions, self-destructive impulses, or character flaws can be traced back to Elizabethan and Jacobean tragedy, and even earlier, to the Nietzschean will-to-power of Machiavelli’s The Prince (1532). Such early magnetic scoundrels range from the cursed ambitions of the ur-seeker-of-other-worldly-knowledge, Marlowe’s Faustus (c. 1588); Promus, the just man who wrestles with his desire for Cassandra and loses in George Whetstone’s Promus and Cassandra (1578); and Guise in Fulke Greville’s Alaham (1590s), who displays the sublime but wasted subjectivity of the Byronic hero. 

An erotics of evil develops out of these characters and their ambitious will for destruction coupled with the genius of an all-seeing eye. Shakespeare’s Richard III (1592–94) combines a dreaded cruelty with a witty intellect and an insatiable drive. Hamlet (1600–1601) brings into this history the important characteristic of the tragedy of impotent melancholy, a sense of a world too barren for action, for an attempt at change. Running through Jacobean tragedy, the tormented, sympathetic reprobate appears in such characters as Vindice in Cyril Tourneur’s The Revenger’s Tragedy (1607); the atheist, D’Amville, in The Atheist’s Tragedy (1611); and Giovanni in John Ford’s ’Tis a Pity She’s a Whore (1633). 

Lucifer in Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667), the serpentine tempter of Eve, falls from grace as later dangerous lovers will. And Eve’s seduction by this demon lover, causing her own fall from grace, is repeated again and again in the erotic historical where the heroine, after her seduction by the devilish rogue, becomes outcast with him. As Gilbert and Gubar point out, this gives a new meaning to the “fall” in “to fall in love.” And this fall stands always in relation to knowledge, whether it be occult knowledge, which gives one too much power to live in the world, or a cynical knowledge that comes to know the world too well, emptying it of mystery and possibility. 

Luciferian dangerous lovers always cut a devilish figure with their sneering rebellion and refusal to bow to any power but that of their own tortured subjectivity. Considered by many to be the first romance (some even call it the first novel), Samuel Richardson’s Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded (1740–41) places the villain as both the heroine’s worst foe and her final blessing for virtuous behavior. An early example of the reformed rake formula, Pamela centers around the scoundrel/suitor Mr. B., who plots Pamela’s ruin by seducing her but, so impressed is he by her strict sense of the virtuous and dutiful place of a young serving maid, he marries her instead.

In Pamela, as well as in the Gothic, eroticism resides in texts—letters that Pamela keeps in her “bosom” and then are purloined by Mr. B. While these missives masquerade as virtuous tracts on how to stay away from a scheming rake, they become a nexus for erotic activity with Pamela’s flurried excitement in her letter writing, her exhaustive recording of the minutiae of her seduction, and her bringing the texts to bed—nailing Mr. B’s sadistic letter to her bedstead as a masochistic reminder to “be good.” The letter even becomes a substitute for sex when Mr. B. reads Pamela’s letters instead of continuing his seduction. 

The highest point of sexual satiation is the text, and furthermore, the text that does not reach its proper destination (her letters are addressed to her parents). These dead letters represent the love that becomes, at least temporarily, a kind of dead letter: love is misunderstanding itself. In Radcliffe, the most romantic of the Gothic novelists, the virtuous heroes are quickly forgotten; in their paleness they fall away next to the bold chiaroscuro shine of the cruel villain. The villains in much of the Gothic create the central development and complexity of the narrative by their inexplicably meaningful actions, their deeply perturbed spirits which precipitously race toward ruin on a grand scale. 

These villains and their violent machinations against the heroine’s virtue steal the show while the characterless lover is lost in the background with his transparent tenderness and adoration. Both Schedoni in Radcliffe’s The Italian and Ambrosio in Matthew Lewis’s The Monk contain the erotic complexities and fascination of a manifold and fearful enemy, while the lover in contrast seems easily read. Schedoni’s fallen greatness and gloomy violence disclose a hidden world of darkness and death. 

There were circumstances, however, which appeared to indicate him to be a man of birth, and of fallen fortune; his spirit . . . seemed lofty; it shewed not, however, the aspirings of a generous mind, but rather the gloomy pride of a disappointed one. . . . Some few persons in the convent . . . believed that the peculiarities of his manners . . . were the effect of misfortunes preying upon a haughty and disordered spirit, while others conjectured them the consequence of some hideous crime gnawing upon an awakened conscience. . . . His figure was striking . . . there was something terrible in its air; something almost superhuman . . . gave an effect to his large melancholy eye, which approached to horror . . . and his eyes were so piercing that they seemed to penetrate, at a single glance, into the hearts of men, and to read their most secret thoughts. . . . (34–35) 

His penetrating glance exposes the hidden body of the other, without itself showing anything, making the other’s interiority known. Schedoni’s melancholy self magnetically pulls the other who desires to know; he is like an emptiness which draws in a material to fill it. In The Monk, a Gothic bildungsroman, Ambrosio begins as the adored “Man of Holiness” but develops into a corrupted malefactor when he is seduced by a temptress disguised as a monk (herself a dangerous lover). The Gothic enemy moves, changes, hides a riveting past and future, while the Gothic lover’s insipidity comes from his stasis as a character, his ability to be only one thing. The Brontës knew this in spades. 

With the collapse of the blackguard and sweetheart into one Rochester, Brontë can begin her story with the intriguing Gothic stranger, and only later transform him into the domesticated and dependent lover. The evil double contained in a single character is itself a Gothic mainstay, as in James Hogg’s Confessions of a Justified Sinner (an interesting case of a homoerotic haunting by a devil-self). A variation on this theme is being haunted by a double represented in another subjectivity, as in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and William Godwin’s Caleb Williams. In post–Gothic Victorian novels, these Gothic doubles continue to proliferate, as in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and even Jane Eyre with Bertha as Jane’s double.”

- Deborah Lutz, “The Spectral Other and Erotic Melancholy: The Gothic Demon Lover and the Early Seduction Narrative Rake (1532–1822).” in The Dangerous Lover: Gothic Villains, Byronism, and the Nineteenth-Century Seduction Narrative

[badbookopinions]

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - Inheritance Trilogy #1, N. K. Jemisin

B+ (yeah I’m doing letter grades now baby! I’ve decided I hate the 5-star system so I'm officially making my own way in the world)

Yeine Darr is an outcast from the barbarian north. But when her mother dies under mysterious circumstances, she is summoned to the majestic city of Sky. There, to her shock, Yeine is named an heiress to the king. But the throne of the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is not easily won, and Yeine is thrust into a vicious power struggle. (from the Goodreads page)

I am a big fan of Jemisin’s work, so it was really cool to see how her style and skill has developed. This book isn’t nearly as strong as some of her other work I’ve read, but is still a good time. Anyone who’s read her other work and liked it will appreciate this.

Props for just... monstrous characters! Jemisin has this gift for terrible people, which is half not shying away from the terrible things they do and half making them more than the terrible things they do. This story is full of gods who don’t fall into mortal morality and it was horrifying and fun to read about them. Even our main, Yeine, is a little bit of a monster - she could so easily be the villain of someone else’s story, and she’s got this wonderful pragmatism about it.

Also props for my other favourite Jemisin trope, which is narrators that give something to the story. It’s told in first person, but as you keep reading you realize that Yeine is wonderfully aware of the audience as she reflects on her past... and then you realize it isn’t us she’s aware of, but some other audience. 

I think some parts were a bit more awkward - too much sex and not enough attention paid to the worldbuilding or minor characters - but it’s a strong start I’m excited to read more of!

Plot: good. I don’t like when books happen over too short a time for character and relationship development to feel authentic, and this one takes place over two weeks, which is a bit on the short side. I loved how much time Jemisin spent fleshing out the backstories of the gods and the story of Yeine’s mother giving up her power. I think they were more interesting than Yeine’s own story at times, although I think if Jemisin had focused more on them they would have crumpled.

Characters: they’re all so terrible, I love it. Even Sieh, the child-god I want to protect from the cruelties of the world, is also a fair amount monstrous. The relationships between the three main gods is terrible and fascinating and I can’t wait for it to be fleshed out in the next book because it is an A+ concept. I wish more time had been spent on some of the more minor characters: the two other captive gods, the two other heirs, because they end up quite involved in the climax and I could appreciate it fully because I hadn’t realized I was supposed to be paying attention to them ahead of time.

Setting: fantastic concepts, lacking in detail. From Sky, the floating city staffed by the royal family’s bastards, to the pantheon of gods, to Yiene’s own matriarchal home of Darr, to the rest of the hundred thousand kingdoms - there is so much to explore here. But Jemisin tends to gloss over it, not really telling us the details I found myself craving. You get the sense of a debut author having bitten off a bit more than they can chew, and in balancing between revealing boring details and revealing too little has decided to err on the side of caution and reveal too little.

Prose: you can see the beginnings of Jemisin’s style developing, and it’s great. While her quotes aren’t quite Fifth Season-level (have any of us ever forgotten the first time they read that ‘This is how the world ends’ passage?) there are some bangers here. “It is blasphemy to separate oneself from the earth and look down on it like a god. It is more than blasphemy; it is dangerous. We can never be gods, after all - but we can become something less than human with frightening ease.”

Diversity report: Yiene is brown or black, but not tied to any real-world culture. Some truly screwed-up gay relationships (if you’ve ever wanted to see a really toxic gay relationship but not toxic because of homophobic reasons, this is the place for that).

[imnoexpertblog]

Lonely Netflix Movie Binge

6/21/18

In my boredom with Baby being gone on his business trip and needing something to watch/listen to while I pack up our apartment, I have been watching random Netflix movies that were suggested to me based on my interest and past viewings. I never watch new movies alone. I can re-watch anything I want by myself but I like seeing new stuff with someone else. Over some intense self-reflection the past few years I think this is because I have always had company in some form throughout my life. I was rarely alone. I never had to do anything myself. My mom was very social when I was growing up and she always had friends over. My siblings were also always with me. Then as I got older, I was usually in a relationship. When I was single, I had a roommate I was very close to. I’ve become used to doing things with someone else. Going out to eat, watching new movies, going to events, even just hanging out. It’s not to say I can’t do these things by myself, I have grown to appreciate my alone-time. But. I prefer to have company when doing certain things. I like sharing experiences with people; talking about what we are doing, making memories, having someone else to enjoy time with. But with Baby being away, I forced myself to watch six whole new movies by myself! These are the ones and what I thought about them. (I tried to pick unique and understated ones but that were still specifically recommended to me by Netflix and that went… Not so great).

Adore

“Two lifelong best friends each begin a steamy affair with the other's son, but trouble begins to brew when one of the two young men desires a lover his own age.” I have seen the cover art for this movie for a long time now, maybe a year. I don’t know why I have skipped over it every time until this week; maybe because I never read what it was about. The synopsis intrigued me enough to start watching it though. Seems pretty risky and taboo, doesn’t it? That always makes something enticing. I will say, though, it is odd. It has a soap-opera type of feel to it. Instead of being really cliché, it turned out to feel a little deeper than that. I am not sure how believable the whole plot is, but who watches a movie to see a boring realistic story? I was pleased with the cast and the acting. I think it was scored well, too. There is tension and drama, but it’s a calm flick. I wasn’t sure what to make of this movie until I found out it’s actually a French production. That changed my perspective a bit, considering the difference in culture. The setting made it easy to watch; the beach is absolutely gorgeous. I was genuinely interested to see how in the world this unique situation would turn out. The reviews aren’t very good, but I didn’t hate it, my any means. I thought it was interesting to see how everything played out for them all.

Open House

“A teenager and his mother find themselves besieged by threatening forces when they move into a new house.” This one I was excited for initially when it was new. I like thrillers and I like the main actor, Dylan Minnette from 13 Reasons Why. But man oh man. This movie is so slow. Not until half-way through the film did I actually feel some excitement or anticipate what comes next. The whole beginning half I was just kind of waiting. The “build-up” didn’t build me up at all. I was bored watching this. The real excitement did start until there was 22 minutes left in the movie. A lot of wasted time, if you ask me. The same “scary” weird things happen through the entire first 3/4 of the movie and it was just redundant and anticlimactic. But once it got going, HOLY COW. I will say I was so confused because there didn’t seem to be anything in the movie that would point me in any direction of guessing what was happening once the action was going down. So, that also frustrated me. It was a pretty intense last 20 minutes or so, but that is not to say it was good. Thumbs down for sure.

Below Her Mouth

“Jasmine is a successful fashion editor living with her fiancé. On a night out in the city with her best friend, she meets Dallas, a roofer recently out of a relationship. Surprised by the confidence with which Dallas pursues her, Jasmine turns Dallas down but can't get her out of her head. When Jasmine finally succumbs, the two women embark on a steamy affair that forces them both to re-evaluate their lives.” Okay. I didn’t expect this movie to have so much sex in it. Again, I watched it out of intrigue for the taboo nature of it. And taboo it was, oh my goodness. There was no limit to nudity or openness of sexual scenes. I have no issue with intimate scenes, but I was surprised to see just how much there was involved in the film. It seemed to be overkill at some points. I was fascinated by how these two women acted with and towards each other so early on in knowing each other. I guess I can’t judge. Baby and I felt like we were together forever by the time we were a week into seeing each other. We acted like it, too. Anyway, this movie just seemed like a lot of erotic moments with little substance. I did need to know how this affair would unravel, though. Not sure how I feel about the ending. All of that being said, I wasn’t sure how to rate this.  It is rated pretty poorly overall. A lot of people attacked the main focus being on sex. Which it was. It got in the way of getting to know the characters. There was nothing to invest myself in. The acting was also dull until the erotic scenes. The more I type, the more I realize that I was unimpressed, as was everyone else. I’ve read that this is a crappy version of another movie on Netflix, “Blue is the Warmest Color.” Maybe I will watch that next.

Friend Request

“Laura is a popular college student who graciously accepts an online friend request from Marina, a young social outcast. To everyone's shock, Marina takes her own life after Laura decides to unfriend her. Soon, a disturbing and mysterious video appears on Laura's profile and her contacts slowly dwindle. When her friends suddenly begin to die one by one, the frightened young woman must figure out a way to stop the carnage before it's too late.” I remember seeing the trailer for this in theaters back when it came out 2 years ago. I did NOT want to watch this movie. I thought it looked ridiculous, to be honest. I have never been interested in the social . I know I shouldn’t watch anything remotely scary if I have to sleep alone (I have issues with a type of nightmare/sleep disorder but we will get into that another time) but beyond my better judgement, I watched it anyway. I was actually very interested the whole time I was watching. I did think the kills were different. The reviews are horrible. People have ripped this movie apart. Maybe I’m a broken human being (LOL) but I didn’t mind it. I also actually really enjoyed the ending. I wasn’t sure how this could end up, but I like the way they did it. Again, I’m on the fence about rating it. I wouldn’t say it was great, but I wasn’t struggling to watch it either.

Inconceivable

“Angela develops a friendship with a mysterious woman named Katie and offers her a job as a live-in nanny. The natural bond soon turns into a dangerous obsession as Katie becomes overly attached to the family's young daughter. Enduring lies and manipulations, Angela and her husband realize that sweet Katie is actually trying to destroy their family from within.” This started off with a bang. It also revealed the twist within the first half of the movie. I was pretty interested in it the whole time because I liked the story-line. You get enough information at the right pace. It didn’t drag and it didn’t bore me at any time. I was a little apprehensive with how all these movies have been underwhelming this week, but I liked this. I didn’t find it predictable. The reviews, you guessed it, are bad. I actually rarely agree with reviews on movies that aren’t huge. I didn’t this movie to have crappy reviews though, to be honest. I recommend this movie.

Dismissed

“An optimistic, straight-edged teacher finds trouble when a star student is willing to do anything to get an A.” Alright. First of all. Dylan Sprouse acted the hell out of this role. I was thoroughly impressed with him in this film. He was so believable! A great film about psychopathy. I was hooked right away, even with the vague synopsis/summary. There was so much potential for this to be so cheesy but it wasn’t at all. They didn’t hold back in this film; the incidents that occurred. Some reviews said it was predictable but I highly disagree. Reviews also said it was low budget (is also said that they did well with such a low budget) but I didn’t see it that way. I don't want to give too much away because really liked it and I recommend it.

I wish I had better suggestions for you guys, I really only recommend Inconceivable and Dismissed out of these six movies. I guess I’d say watch Adore if you are bored and wanna throw something on for background noise; something to catch every now and then while cleaning maybe. Friend Request might have been something I liked just because I like scary movies, but watching those can be fun. Below Her Mouth, honestly is just super erotic. Take that as you may. And lastly… Please, I beg of you, never waste your time on Open House.

In other news, I have decided to take this day to myself. If you are not my fiancé, I can't promise I will be talking to you today. I have packed a lot (which I wouldn't have gotten done without the help of my sister Vanny, my best friend from work, Ryan, and his best friend named Cal), slept less than I've wanted to, been to the bank too many times, and have seen my mortgage lender too often lately. It is time to shower, sleep, watch better movies for sure, and lay around without having to answer ANYONE. If you feel like you've been stretched too thin or you're stressed, you should consider doing the same. I've been non-stop going at it for about six weeks now and I deserve this. I love you all, but I need today. Comment away, just expect a response tomorrow. Xoxo.

[aion-rsa]

Marvel Cosmic: The Greatest Space Epics

From the moment that a group of shape-shifting Skrulls landed on Earth to eliminate the Fantastic Four ahead of a Skrull invasion (which was promptly spoiled by merely showing them drawings of monsters from Earth comic books to prove to them that Earth was too dangerous to ever invade), the Marvel Universe was one that had a very healthy interest in stories outside of the planet Earth.

RELATED: Heavenly Bodies: Marvel’s Most Powerful Cosmic Beings

In their famed “Journey Into Mystery” back-up story, “Tales of Asgard,” Jack Kirby and Stan Lee regularly told stories about adventures that did not involve Earth at all. Jim Starlin expanded the scope of Marvel’s cosmic universe in the 1970s. Since then, there have been a number of amazing comic book stories that were set primarily in outer space instead of on Earth. Here, we spotlight the most amazing of these space adventures (note that having the stories set primarily off of Earth eliminates “Dark Phoenix Saga,” “Coming of Galactus” and “The Korvac Saga,” among many other great stories).

THANOS IMPERATIVE

Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning’s tenure as the architects of Marvel’s cosmic stories was nearing close in 2010 with the release of their final crossover, “The Thanos Imperative,” drawn by Kev Walker and Miguel Angel Sepulveda (the release of this event came with the cancelation of their two major cosmic titles, “Guardians of the Galaxy” and “Nova”). At the end of the “War of Kings,” a tear was created in space-time and it opened up the “Fault,” which was a portal to a whole other universe known as the Cancerverse. This was a world where Death had been completely conquered, but a world without death obviously is not really a world at all, it is a terror.

The Cancerverse version of the Avengers traveled to the main Marvel Universe to seek out Thanos, because while Cancerverse Mar-Vell (who led the team) was the Avatar of Life, Thanos was the Avatar of Death. In the end, unsurprisingly, Death won out. However, Star-Lord and Nova sacrificed themselves to stay behind and trap Thanos within the Cancerverse while also making sure that it was cut out from the rest of the universe.

WAR OF KINGS

Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning’s previous crossover event was “The War of Kings” (drawn by many artists, but Paul Pelletier drew the main series) which saw the Inhumans head to the Kree homeworld both to embrace their Kree heritage and to also take control of the Kree Empire. They achieved this through marrying Crystal of the Inhumans to the Kree ruler, Ronan the Accuser. Meanwhile, Gabriel Summers, the psychotic third Summers brother known as Vulcan, had recently taken control of the Shi’ar Empire. A group of X-Men had remained in outer space to work with the Starjammers to try to dethrone Vulcan, while the exiled former head of the Shi’ar Empire, Lilandra, had found refuge with the Kree.

However, Vulcan sent Gladiator and the Imperial Guard to attack the Kree and capture Lilandra. Gladiator did his duty, although he loathed his new emperor. Thus began a new war between the Kree and the Shi’ar. Lilandra tried to persuade her old friend, Gladiator, and she eventually got through to him. Tragically, though, Lilandra was then murdered by a rogue terrorist in Darkhawk armor. In the end, Black Bolt defeated Vulcan, but Vulcan set off a bomb before he died that seemingly killed Black Bolt and opened up a tear in space and time itself. Gladiator became the new head of the Shi’ar Empire.

OPERATION: GALACTIC STORM

The initial war between the Kree and the Shi’ar took place in the epic crossover event, “Operation: Galactic Storm,” which took place in all of the “Avengers” related titles for three months in 1992. When star gates used for transportation during the war were destabilizing the Earth’s sun, the Avengers called together as many of their members as possible divided them into three teams on three separate missions. One would head to the Kree homeworld, another to the Shi’ar homeworld and the third would stay on Earth just in case anything happened back home.

While on the Kree homeworld, however, Deathbird of the Shi’ar assassinated the Kree emperors, making things unsafe for the Avengers there. As it turned out, the whole conflict was orchestrated by the Supreme Intelligence as a way to force the Shi’ar to use the powerful Nega-Bomb that they had been building for the conflict. The bomb was stolen and then detonated over the Kree homeworld, killing billions.

However, the survivors mutated and evolved into superior beings, which was the Supreme Intelligence’s plan all along. The Avengers (who managed to survive through the efforts of their teammate Sersi) debated over what to do with the Supreme Intelligence. One faction decided to just kill him, so they did, driving a further rift between Captain America and Iron Man over superhero ethics.

TRIAL OF GALACTUS

The “Trial of Galactus” is a strange storyline in that it took place over a number of years and it was interrupted by a number of stories between each part of the overarching narrative. However, it was collected into one of Marvel’s first mass market trade paperbacks as “The Trial of Galactus,” so that’s how we’ll count it, as well. The story began with Galactus once again attacking Earth. However, this time the heroes of Earth not only stop him, but also they’re in a position where they could have killed him if they wanted to. Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four, though, realized that Galactus was a force of nature that should not be extinguished, so he instead set Galactus up with a new herald, Nova, who would keep Galactus from occupied worlds.

That did not last long, however, and Galactus ended up devouring the Skrull throneworld. This led to a group of worlds gathering together, arresting Reed Richards and putting him on trial for his actions in protecting Galactus. Reed (in a trial attended by John Byrne, writer/artist of the series at the time), successfully made his “Galactus is a necessary part of the universe” argument, so he was freed.

SECRET WARS

“Secret Wars” was a year-long maxi-series that coincided with a popular line of toys based on Marvel’s heroes and villains. Jim Shooter came up with a plot line (drawn by Mike Zeck and John Beatty) that would explain why all of Marvel’s heroes were fighting against all of Marvel’s villains. As it turned out, a powerful being from Beyond, later known as The Beyonder, summoned most of Marvel’s heroes and villains to a planet that he had created called Battleworld. He then told everyone to fight with each other and the victors would get whatever their hearts desired.

This, of course, led to a fight between heroes and villains. However, factions opened up among the heroes and the villains. The X-Men sort of split off and kept to their own, Galactus decided to try to devour Battleworld and Doctor Doom split off to see if he could steal Beyonder’s powers. The heroes ultimately defeated all of the villains (especially once the X-Men came to their senses and joined the other heroes) and everyone managed to stop Galactus. Doctor Doom, however, succeeded in stealing the Beyonder’s powers and made himself a God. A remnant of the Beyonder possessed Klaw, though, and picked away at Doom’s ego until the heroes defeated him and the Beyonder got his power back. The heroes and villains were then returned to Earth.

ANNIHILATION CONQUEST

After the events of “Annhilation,” Peter Quill, Star-Lord, helped build up the defenses of the Kree Empire. Unwittingly, however, he opened up the Kree to an attack by the technological creatures known as the Phalanx, which led to “Annhilation: Conquest,” written mostly by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning (although prequel miniseries were written by other writers) and the main series was drawn by Tom Raney. The Phalanx quickly conquered the Kree Empire and they then revealed that they were being led by none other than Ultron! Their plan was to attack Earth next.

Quill and a small group of heroes and outcasts banded together to take on Ultron and the Phalanx. This storyline is famous for being the one that first banded Quill together with Gamora, Rocket Raccoon and Groot. They all worked together, along with Adam Warlock and Phyla-Vell (the new Quasar) to take down the Phalanx and Ultron. In the end, the heroes formed a new team – the Guardians of the Galaxy!

MANGOG SAGA

For years during the mid-1960s, Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and Vince Colletta had been doing the “Tales of Asgard” back-up stories that we mentioned in the introduction of this article. These back-ups introduced a number of fascinating concepts, including the Norse mythological idea of “Ragnarok” (the end of the gods) and the bizarrely awesome idea of the Odinsword, a sword so gigantic that only Odin could lift it, but if he took it out of its scabbard, it could destroy all of Asgard.

Finally, in “Thor” #154-157, all of these ideas that Kirby, Lee and Colletta had been introducing in the back-ups came together for one massive epic as the super evil, super powerful being known as Mangog had escaped the prison that Odin had put him into and now planned on heading into Asgard and unleashing the Odinsword. The problem is that Odin was in the middle of his regenerative “Odinsleep,” so he was unable to help. It was up to Thor and the warriors of Asgard to stop Mangog or die trying, and a whole lot of them did just that, as Mangog was as powerful as an entire alien race. Luckily, Odin woke up in the nick of time.

FINAL THREAT

Jim Starlin had more or less finished his initial stint at Marvel Comics by 1977, but he still had some loose ends to tie up with his characters during his run on “Warlock,” so Marvel’s then-new Editor-in-Chief Archie Goodwin got him to wrap up the story in two odd titles, “Avengers Annual” #7 and “Marvel Two-in-One Annual” #2. The story, best known by the title “Final Threat,” saw Thanos attempt to put together the soul gems into one super-powerful gem that could destroy whole solar systems. Captain Marvel, the Avengers and Warlock got together to stop Thanos, but along the way, Pip the Troll and Gamora were both murdered. Warlock himself even died at the end of the first part.

The Avengers had destroyed the giant power gem, but the remaining soul gem that Thanos had was enough to destroy the Earth’s sun. Thanos then captured the heroes. The second part brought Thing and Spider-Man into outer space where they rescued Captain Marvel and the Avenges. Through the help of Warlock (whose soul was now in the remaining soul gem), they defeated Thanos who was killed by a burst of Warlock’s soul power. Starlin managed to kill off the heroes and the villain from his “Warlock” run, all in one epic tale.

ANNIHILATION

After Keith Giffen got things started with a miniseries starring Drax the Destroyer, editor Bill Roseman, Giffen and writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning helped to form a new look at Marvel’s cosmic heroes through the crossover event “Annihilation.” There were a few miniseries that led into the main storyline. One of them, “Nova,” established Richard Rider as a powerful cosmic hero. The miniseries led into the main “Annihilation” series by Giffen and artist Andrea Di Vito, where the various Marvel cosmic characters teamed up against Annihilus, who had created an “Annihilation wave” of powerful ships that was cutting a swath through the universe.

Thanos had allied himself with Annihilus, but ultimately decided he was a nut and didn’t want to have anything to do with him. He planned to release Galactus, who Annihilus had captured and turned into a giant power source. However, before he could do so, Drax couldn’t help himself and killed Thanos. Eventually, Galactus was freed and he turned the tide against Annihilus. In the end, Phyla-Vell and Nova defeated Annihilus, with Nova delivering the fatal blow.

PLANET HULK

The Illuminati had grown tired of the destructive rampages of the Hulk on Earth, so they came up with a plan where they would send the Hulk into outer space where he couldn’t hurt anyone. The problem was that his ship was knocked off course and they were all too caught up in the events of “Civil War” to notice their mistake. The Hulk instead landed on a gladiator planet.

The Hulk became the world’s most popular and powerful gladiator and he decided to team-up with his fellow gladiators to overthrow the sadistic Red King, who ruled over the world. In the end, even as they successfully won their revolution, the Red King tried to get his revenge by activating a device that would tear the world apart. What he didn’t know is that the Hulk is pretty damned strong, even managing to hold the world together just by himself. Sadly, the Hulk’s victory was short-lived, as his queen (and his unborn child) were seemingly destroyed by the ship he came here on. One of his allies presumed that it was sabotage by his former Earth friends, so Hulk decided to head back to Earth for revenge (but that’s another story).

THE ETERNITY SAGA

The “Eternity” Saga is a hard one to quantify, as there are plenty of stories within the saga that take place on Earth, but we feel the majority of the story is in other dimensions. Steve Ditko’s final “Doctor Strange” storyline began with the Dread Dormammu and Baron Mordo teaming up against Doctor Strange. During the storyline, Doctor Strange seeks out and meets Eternity for the first time, the embodiment of the universe! He sought out Eternity to prepare himself for the battle with his two greatest foes.

Throughout the story, Strange is in and out of different dimensions, especially Dormammu’s Dark Dimension where Strange actually fights Dormammu in one on one combat. The mysterious Clea played a big role in this story, as her betrayal of Dormammu on the behalf of Strange kicked off this storyline. Eventually, Dormammu decided to take on Eternity himself in battle and the result was some of the trippiest artwork that you’ll ever see, as Ditko said goodbye to the title in an explosive finale (which finished with Denny O’Neil on scripts after Lee left the book with a few issues to go).

THE SURTUR SAGA

New “Thor” writer and artist Walter Simonson was a big fan of the Kirby/Lee/Colletta years, especially their “Tales of Asgard” stories, so he mined that material for the villainous Surtur. Slowly but surely, through a pounding “Doom” that was repeated over and over again, louder and louder, until we realize that it was Surtur building his ultra-powerful Twilight Sword, which he intended to use as part of his invasion of Asgard. It is probably the most famous building of anticipation for a villain in comic book history (Simonson’s wife, Louise, and her fellow “Superman” creators would borrow the approach for their slow introduction of Doomsday before the “Death of Superman”).

Much like his idols Kirby and Lee, Surtur’s approach on Asgard was like a much bigger take on the Mangog Saga, as Surtur was this gigantic, seemingly unstoppable force. In the end, Thor, Loki and Odin all had to join forces to stop Surtur (with the iconic bit where they each ran into battle exclaiming their reason for fighting. “For Asgard!” “For Midgard!” “For myself!”) and Odin seemingly sacrificed himself to end Surtur once and for all.

KREE/SKRULL WAR

Like “The Eternity Saga,” the “Kree/Skrull War” a good deal of the action actually takes place on Earth. We think that there’s just barely more story off-world than on, so we’re still counting it for the list. The concept behind “The Kree/Skrull War” is that the Kree and the Skrull are caught up in an interstellar confrontation, with their battle carrying over to Earth without any of its residents even having a say in matters. Roy Thomas, writer of the story, compared it to how little tiny islands off the coast of Japan suddenly found themselves caught up in the major battles of World War II.

In this war, Captain Marvel, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch are captured by the Skrulls, taken into outer space where Mar-Vell is forced to build a projector that could wipe out the Kree race. The Avengers, meanwhile, head into space to track down their teammates. Vision showed his growing love for the Scarlet Witch by becoming enraged by her capture. When the Kree Supreme Intelligence sparks a power within Rick Jones that leads to him creating phantoms of Golden Age heroes, he uses them to help the Avengers defeat the Skrulls and save their teammates. Neal Adams and John Buscema were the main artists on this story.

MAGUS SAGA

After proving himself with “Captain Marvel,” Jim Starlin was then given the chance to work his magic on Adam Warlock, first in the pages of “Strange Tales.” Then, when things were shown to be improving, he was able to bring Warlock back to his own title. The concept behind the storyline was that Warlock ran afoul of a powerful religious group that was led by a being known as Magus, who seemed to be, well, Warlock himself! As it turned out, it was Warlock from the future.

Starlin introduced a striking supporting cast for Warlock in this story, namely the loutish Pip the Troll and the dangerous Gamora (“the deadliest woman in the universe”). Most impressive was probably how Starlin took his old creation, Thanos, and made him almost an anti-hero. Thanos and Warlock worked together against Magus. Starlin’s solution for the Magus problem was brilliant and it is one he would re-visit back in “The FInal Threat.” Starlin’s “Magus Saga” was very advanced for the time, with themes of religion and power being discussed in a way that few comics would at the time.

INFINITY GAUNTLET

Years after leaving Marvel, Jim Starlin returned and promptly brought Thanos back to life and set the mad titan off on a quest to collect all of the soul gems (now called Infinity Gems) to form the Infinity Gauntlet, a weapon that would give him control over the entire universe. From their perspective within the Soul Gem, Warlock, Pip and Gamora knew that things needed to be done to stop Thanos, so they also came back to life, along with Drax.

They were too late to stop Thanos from getting hold of the gems and the Gauntlet, so the first thing he did as a tribute to the love of his life, Mistress Death, was kill half of the universe. However, they were able to gather the remaining heroes of Earth and formed a plan to stop him. Eventually, Warlock succeeded in stopping Thanos due to how well he had grown to know him over the years. The “Infinity Gauntlet” miniseries was drawn by George Perez, Ron Lim and Joe Rubinstein. It will likely form the basis of the next “Avengers” film.

What’s your favorite Marvel outer space epic? Let us know in the comments section!

The post Marvel Cosmic: The Greatest Space Epics appeared first on CBR.com.

http://ift.tt/2jkcncp