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greatwyrmgold · 2 years

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The Age of Magneto

Here's a question for X-Men fans: How long until Magneto's expiration date? And what happens then?

You probably know what I mean, but this post is as much an excuse for me to spell out my thoughts on the matter as it is asking for other people's input. (I would still like to hear other opinions, mind you.)

Most metahumans' origin stories are free-floating in history. Batman's parents could have been shot in any decade, Krypton could explode in any decade, Dr. Doom's lab accident could happen in any decade. We just quietly accept a character barely aging between the 70's and the new 10's, if not longer, because that's how comics work. But if a historical event is central to your character's backstory, you could have problems.

The Holocaust was stopped roughly 77 years ago. Any mutant with strong enough memories of Nazi Germany for them to be a significant part of his motivation would need to be in his mid-80's, at minimum. That's longer than most people who don't regularly engage in superpower fights live; it's not old enough that still being an active villain breaks your suspension of disbelief, but my dad was talking about this when Magneto could plausibly be sixty-something.

Each passing decade makes it exponentially less plausible for Magneto to be an active supervillain, but he's a critical part of the X-Men. He's their most iconic villain, his dynamic with Professor Xavier is the centerpiece of everything X-Men says about civil rights, and while I don't follow the comics that closely, I know that Magneto is the father of several significant mutants. He can't just fade into the background when he stops being plausible, like Captain America: Commie-Smasher did.

So at some point, whether in the COVID 20's or the Cyber 30's or the Giant Alien Spider 40's, Magneto will have to change in some way. I only see three ways to do this, and none remotely preserve the X-Men's status quo.

The Natural Solution

The simplest way to make Magneto not unrealistically old to survive both Colossus and leukemia would be to have him just not survive. Possibly a big sacrifice or dramatic battle, possibly just old age or mundane disease, possibly dramatic disease or a mundane battle. Regardless, it seems likely that they'd want to kill Professor X around the same time, if only to put a clean coda on their iconic rivalry.

Now, they would still be important figures in the comics, but more the way that Uncle Ben or the Waynes are, or that MLK and the Black Panthers are to modern African-Americans. The older mutants fight to continue the legacy of their fallen leaders, the younger ones idolize them, but they are gone.

Despite being the only option that doesn't require a reboot or retcon, it's the most disruptive to the status quo, so I doubt they'd pick this one.

Same Genocide, Different Decade

Unfortunately, the Holocaust was not the last event of its kind. Sure, no genocide has been of the same industrial scale as the Holocaust (except the Holomodor, depending on what estimates you use and where you draw the line between "part of the Holocaust" and "just another Nazi war crime," let's leave it at that). But is the Rwandan genocide less tragic, criminal, or traumatic than the Holocaust just because "only" several hundred thousand people died?

Magneto's character wouldn't need to change an inch if he was a Cambodian in the 70's, a Hutu in the 90's, or even a Darfur (or is it Fur?) in the 2010's. But that doesn't mean there wouldn't be issues from this change, and I don't mean continuity ones.

First off, in all likelihood, executive mandate would cut away at this reboot of Magneto until it was, like, Magneto's parents died in a Latverian mutant genocide. Something comfortingly fictionalized. But let's pretend they'd keep a real genocide in there.

Losing a Jewish Magneto would suck. Even if we got different representation out of it, it would suck. And there's no way around it; antisemitism still exists, some organized antisemitism in the past 60 years probably qualifies as genocide, but none approaches the level of generational trauma caused by the Holocaust.

And then there's the race issue. You know how a certain type of reactionary flips out when a codename traditionally belonging to a straight white dude gets assumed by a "political" character? It would be so much worse if we couldn't point out "That's Kal's son" or "That's Tony's student" or "That's the Falcon with a shield". And any Magneto from a major post-WW2 genocide would either need to be a POC (and hence attract those chuds) or a Holomodor survivor (which would just change what chuds you pissed off).

This idea has a lot of good to it. It preserves the time-proven structure of X-Men storytelling, it's probably net positive for representation, and above all, it would remind the audience that the horrors which scarred Magneto did not end with the Nazis. But it also has a lot of bad to balance that out.

Iceman (not that one)

If Magneto is going to continue to be from the Silent Generation, and continue to be an active presence in the story, there will eventually need to be some reason for him not to be a centenarian. You could just make it a side effect of his magnetism somehow, but that feels like it's drawing attention to the problem more than it solves it. Luckily, the Marvel universe has an established mechanism for WW2-era characters to get from D-Day to the modern day.

(Come to think of it...Cap and Magneto were both around during the same pivotal historic period. Heck, Wolverine was, too. Are there any storylines that do something with that quirk of the timeline?)

Or you could use some functionally similar plot device, like being imprisoned in a stasis chamber for some reason. Also, Magneto doesn't need to be frozen for 60-70 years solid for this to work; if he gets put on ice during the 60's or so and defrosted a decade or two before the nebulous modern day, he could be kept at a comfortable middle age until the X-Men franchise stops making money.

But while this option makes it more plausible that his arthritis wouldn't cripple his powers and that one punch from Logan wouldn't break half the bones in his torso, it complicates his relationship to modern mutants.

The biggest problem is his rivalry with Xavier. It could be interesting if Xavier had several decades to get over the reasons he fought with Magneto and Magneto didn't, but that dynamic can only last so long before Xavier has the exact same problem as Magneto: If Xavier was Magneto's rival before he was frozen, X needs to have been an adult in the 60's, which makes him at youngest an early baby boomer.

And it would be supremely awkward to freeze Xavier alongside Magneto. Magneto doesn't not have bonds with his fellow mutants that would be distorted by the Captain America treatment, but Xavier is almost literally a goddamned institution of the mutant community. The school that bears his name would be radically different if Xavier wasn't there.

Which basically leaves us with Magneto being frozen in the 60's after minimal to no interaction with Xavier, then developing a rivalry with him in the relatively short period between Magneto's defrosting and the nebulous presence. It doesn't not work, but it's just not the same as a rivalry developed as the two of them grew up.

I've run out of stuff to say

So, yeah. Magneto needs to change some decade or another, but the least disruptive solution I see is to slap an anti-aging power on him (and probably Xavier) and hope nobody cares.

Maybe there's a solution someone else sees. Or maybe someone else has an interesting thought about or twist on one of the broad possibilities I've described. If you've read this far, I assume you have some kind of Magneto opinion. Would you like to share it?

#magneto #x-men #marvel #comics #superheroes #timeline #meta

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wily-one24 · 7 months

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Weird asks: 1, 20, 34, 43, 46

Here we go!!

Who is/are your comfort character(s)?

Hahahaha. Ok. Well. I guess it depends upon the show i'm watching at the time, doesn't it? I mean, I have favourites in all my shows, but my absolute comfort characters, whom I love and invest in...

Veronica Mars, Emma Swan, Samantha Waters, Olivia Benson, Kaylee Frye, Buffy Summers, Jane Rizzoli, Cordelia Chase.

I have previously stated that I have a type and that type is emotionally damaged but hella strong women who are somewhat lackadaisical when it comes to their own personal safety when it comes to solving a case/getting justice (all of the above women fall into this, except perhaps Kaylee Frye, but she is my 'happy face/light in the darkness' lady, all the rest are my 'strength will rise up from the ashes like a pheonix' ladies).

I have many other faves and likes, however, you can pretty much narrow it down to who I have written fic for. These are my comfort characters, because fic IS my comfort. I have so much free therapy because of fic. I've pretty much written that post before (years ago, I would have to hunt it down) about what each major fic in my life was allegorical to... and I probably don't even WANT to know what my SVU fics are trying to break through in my brain, BUT, when I need comfort, this is where I turn.

Edit to add: Hunted!!

Go here to get a rundown on some self therapy in my major fics.

And here for a more in depth analysis of Paint It Black (question 11).

20. Do you say soda or pop?

No. Neither. I'm Australian. I say "Soft drink". Soda or pop? Pfft, get jumped on. It's SOFT DRINK. I mean, if you're feeling really old fashioned you can say 'Fizzy drink", but nobody really does. Soft drink, thank you.

34. Is there a song you know every word to by heart?

Buah hahahahahaha. Like, I think the easier question to ask there is "is there a song you DON'T know every word to by heart?"

I have a few Spotify playlists, my biggest one is called "Sing Loud", it has 114 songs on it, 6 1/2 hours worth, and I know every single word. Because I *DO* sing loud. And, also, it's worth noting that that is not my entire mind's playlist of favourite songs. Just the ones I sing loudly to. I have full musicals I can sing the entire lyrics to, musical episodes of my favourite tv I sing along to, entire ALBUMS from the 90s that I listed to on my Discman to and from Uni on the train...

OBVIOUSLY, I know most Sheryl Crow songs by heart (at least those pre 2010, I haven't really caught up to her new stuff yet), gimme a bunch of Sarah McLachlan, the Whitlams, No Doubt, Madonna, Machine Gun Fellatio, Garbage... anything from the 90s, a BUNCH of stuff from the 80s. I also like heaps of things from the 70s and some from the 60s, some from 2000 onwards as well. My taste is rather eclectic.

You don't quite know the range of eclectic until someone on the train watches fascinated as you take Rob Zombie out of your Discman and swap it for Sarah McLachlan. I got some *weird* looks.

My brain is very lyrically inclined and I remember so many words to so many songs, it's insane. If I like a song, I will listen to it over and over again until I get the lyrics right. Which, I have to say is so much easier NOW than it was back in the 80s, when you had to hover around your stereo so you could press play/record simultaneously the second your favourite song came on the radio just so you could have a copy...

But, yeah, once I like a song and I've heard it a few times, those lyrics are BURNED into my brain forever. That's why so many of my fics are song titles. Paint It Black, Memory Cloud, Wicked Game, Foolish Game, The Girl of My Dreams (Is Giving Me Nightmares), The White Room, Hybrid Lives, Silver and Cold, Spoonful of Sugar, Breaking the GIrl... etc... and those are just off the top of my head. This is why I used to vid, decades ago.

43. What’s your take on spicy foods?

There's a take? I like somewhat spicy foods.

I do not like stupidly spicy foods, to the point that it hurts and you can't breathe and it's basically a competition of how much you can hurt yourself to win... that's not fun for me.

But I do like a bit of kick. I like spicy thai curries, and mexican chillis, and jalepenos, something that doesn't necessarily want to kill you, but does bite back a little.

I am sensible with my spice level.

46. Favorite holiday film?

TBH, I'm not really sure I have one.

I mean, Die Hard is always a Christmas Classic, I guess? I'm not really one to sit around and watch a Christmas movie or... is there such a thing as an Easter movie? A Queen's Birthday movie? Ramadan? The Melbourne Cup? I don't really know.

(Well, there's probably a few movies about the Melbourne Cup, now that I think about it).

I'm not against them, per se, like if there was a movie on and it looked interesting and it was the holiday times and happened to focus on that holiday, I'm not going to turn it off, but I'm not going to seek out that specific movie.

The only real special holiday thing I watch each year... might be the Carols By Candlelight on Christmas Eve and the New Year's Eve Countdown, but those are not necessarily movies. They're not. One is a concert and one is... well... a countdown retrospective of the year and some fireworks.

I guess the Christmas movies always seemed a little too... faked for me. Maybe it was all the happy families (so fake) or the overly twee messages (please) ... maybe it was all the fucking snow and over the top decorations that seem to be uniquely American.

I don't think I've EVER seen a Christmas movie that represents what I know as Christmas, in the middle of summer in Australia.

@dahllaz

#dahllaz #ask and ye shall receive #things nobody cares about but me

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mdverse · 2 years

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15-22, 30, 54, 56 :)

so many numbers for me akdkdfjh thank u! will put them under the cut in case this gets long <3

music ask game!

15. A song or album from the 60s:

at last! (etta james)

16. A song or album from the 70s:

rumours (fleetwood mac)

17. A song or album from the 80s:

black velvet (alannah myles)

18. A song or album from the 90s:

jagged little pill (alanis morissette) <3

19. A song or album from the 2000s:

trouble in shangri-la (stevie nicks)

20. A song or album from the 2010s:

you never walk alone (bts)

21. A song or album from this year or last year:

glimpse of us (joji)

22. What’s your favorite song or album from the year you where born?

dirrty (christina aguilera ft redman)

30. Songs you love to sing along to:

oh there are so many but here's a short selection for u

black velvet - alannah myles

you've really got a hold on me - jinkx monsoon <3

that i would be good - alanis morissette

edge of seventeen - stevie nicks

separate ways (worlds apart) - journey

54. An album you loved since the first time you listened to:

the inevitable album (jinkx monsoon)! really no skips there except for the mini samba interlude. but also any of the albums i mentioned above, especially rumours and jlp

56. A song/album/artist you wish you could forget so you could have the experience of hearing it for the first time again:

oh... uninvited by alanis morissette.... or bound to you by christina aguilera... angsty songs like that have a death grip on me

#ask md #mist <3 #ask games #actually discovered a lot of music through glee! which has been really fun #i could add so many songs to my list for 30 tho i sing along to music a lot #anyway thank u love i enjoyed sorting through my music for u :)

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tj-crochets · 3 years

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I got new sheet music that’s got a book per decade and it’s so much fun but also my voice is almost gone I sang too much lol

#the person behind the yarn #the 80s decade is weirdly expensive #so I got the 60s-2010s except for the 80s #as a present to myself for getting my taxes done/going to a three hour dentist visit/finishing commissions #and other general adulting-type tasks that needed doing #mostly the taxes and the dentist those not gonna lie #it was the tax return that gave me the idea and then I went to the dentist and was like yep new sheet music time #so far I have played through the 60s and knew more music than I expected to from the 60s?#space bear is almost done! I got the face sewn on and the head sewn today #so just the body left to make #I haven't actually cut fabric out for the weighted poly pellet pouch either I should do that #once I catch my breath from singing so much lol #I no longer have asthma attacks from singing too much! I get tired and a little out of breath but no asthma!#I'm counting it as a major win even if I couldn't play all my new sheet music today

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pro-exotics · 3 years

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This isn’t “new” as the post above is from 2011, but I was curious if there were any actual lifespan studies on pet or zoo parrots, and found this first.

Here is the link to the actual study: https://zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1469-1795.2011.00477.x#t2

From what I have learned from lifespan studies on toothed whales, I know talking about lifespan can be very, very difficult.

(Apologies in advance that this post got so long-winded.)

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For example, when looking up beluga whale “average lifespan”, you can find figures anywhere from 13 to 80 years, both claiming to be “average”. But what does that mean?

Rather, 13 years is what they found the lifespan of belugas to be counted from birth, including all calves that die (which is a very high number). 80 years being the estimated maximum, and then some perhaps less educated person put that as “average lifespan” on a website about whales.

I think the reason for this comes largely because we judge from those two species closest to us; humans and dogs. Human lifespan? Eh, 80 years. In many countries today, a girl has a life expectancy at birth of perhaps 83 years. That is also very close to a “maximum” lifespan (say 90 years), with the exception of some outliers that live far longer. When you’re 83-90 years old, you’re quite ripe, as a human. So “maximum” and “average” is very close, in humans.

As for dogs, 11 years is about average. It’s also old, with some living a bit longer, say the maximum is about 15 (again, with the exception of some remarkable individuals). So, average and maximum, pretty close.

As for beluga whales, the maximum may be about 60-65 (I frankly don’t know where they got “80″ from, as the oldest small whales and dolphins tend to die off in their early 60s, I don’t know of any confirmed older than 65), but the average adult dies in its 30s, and life expectancy at birth is ~13-15.

So the maximum is about twice the typical lifespan for an adult which is about twice the life expectancy at birth. You see how this is complicated? I talk about whales here because it’s what I know best.

To compare with humans, in a more “wild” setting (our ancestors), the maximum we have today of ~115 is twice what our ancestors would start dying at (55 would be quite old and a lot of them would be dead, but they could still sometimes live to 90), and our life expectancy at birth was closer to 25-30, due to high infant mortality. Three completely different figures, in the same way as the belugas.

So allow me to wonder when I read this study on parrot lifespan in zoos. First... and this is the same as with whales in zoos... the older animals will have been caught or born in a time when we didn’t know how to care for them very well (and this study goes back to animals born in the early 1800s). They may have spent their first several decades, or even their entire lives, with a poor diet, habitat or care.

Any animal born in the 1990s or 2000s, that is dead today... obviously didn’t get to live a long time, for whatever reason. Animals born in 2000 or 2010 that will live to the age of 50 or beyond, will not yet die and be included in a study like this for a long time, so they are not included. Again, complicated. (And which is why, when I calculate lifespans, I use strict rules for time of birth and death, and don’t mix those groups, like animals born in 1950 with those born in 1990.)

I know these people are professionals and I am not, but each study is different, and different methods may be used. I am just writing all this to explain how lifespan studies are complicated and may not always give a true picture.

----------

To the point then, I am confused regarding the cockatoos:

It says the oldest Moluccan cockatoo lived to an age of 92 years, but that the average lifespan for birds who survived to adulthood was a mere 9.5 years.

The oldest greater sulphur-crested lived to nearly 73 years, and the oldest lesser sulphur/yellow-crested lived to just under 40 years. Okay. And for both species, the average for those who survived to adulthood, was 8-10 years.

This doesn’t make any sense. Putting these three species together, all with the same average in the end, the maximum was ~68.49 years. That puts the average (not at birth, but for those who survived their first four years) at a mere 14.2% of the maximum lifespan.

I assume zoo parrots would be spared from many of the dangers pet birds are exposed to (open windows, pet cats and dogs, open water, flying into windows, being caught in doors, etc.), so this really makes me wonder at the causes of death.

I could try to make an unprofessional little study by looking around forums where people report their parrots deaths at various ages. Again, it would be very unprofessional and could not be directly compared (no two studies can ever truly be compared side by side, unless the exact same methods were used), but it would be interesting to see, because I just find this so unlikely.

Looking at the macaws, it’s interesting as their maximum ages were not as high as those of the cockatoos, but their average was better, in their 20s or near the 20s. The highest average (of the birds who survived to adulthood) with a reasonable sample size was of the red-tailed amazon, at 21.93 years, from a sample of 15 birds. (And makes me wonder even more why so many cockatoos died young?)

It does say the oldest Meyer’s parrot lived to be 31 (and the average was 9), but I know for a fact that Meyer’s parrots have lived to be over 40 (outliers, however). I guess I can be happy that my Meyer’s is now 18. While data on her species is very poor, I expect her to maybe live to her 30s.

My white-bellied caique got sick and died a few months before his fourth birthday. Looking at his species here, it says this:

34 birds total. The oldest lived to 23.14 years. Total average lifespan was 4.97 years, with 8 birds dying before the age of 4. The remaining 26, who survived to the age of 4 and beyond, died at an average of 5.79 years. However, the additional 3 birds alive when they published the study in 2008, averaged 20.28 years. Huh. (Three is a tiny sample size and you can’t compare living ages with the lifespan of the dead, but it’s funny that they averaged so close to the maximum.)

Anyway. I will be looking at more studies and surveys that might exist of captive parrot lifespans, because this is interesting, and while I doubt 9-10 years is actually a normal lifespan for large cockatoos, I’m certain “50-100 years or more” only belongs to outliers.

#parrots #parrot lifespan #old parrot #birds #pet parrots

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rametarin · 2 years

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Speaking of the 70s.

As a child, I absolutely hated media from the 60s and 70s. Whether it was cheesy shit or the real edgy shit. With rare exception.

It just had this aura of smug or cynical activism. Like, you get in a car and there’s a frowning person in the back seat grumbling under their breath sarcastically over everything you say to segue about pollution or general hatred “society” exhibits or nuclear war or something.

I despised it. I used to think, “I’m so glad that we in the late 80s/early 90s are passed that point, because the 60s and 70s was full of protests and vitriol and anger and riots! Glad everything is nice now.”

And for the most part it was. That shit played itself out as people graduated college, got jaded to the rhetoric, hit the bottoms of the ideological rabbitholes, grew up, disseminated wisdom to the younger that dissuaded them from the excesses of their romantic ideologies, and they settled in to raise families and for the most part just be nuclear families and perpetuate for the next gen.

And the 90s they kinda-sorta tried to bring the 70s back with the cynical dark edge and muttering but it was more real and disaffected this time, so they ignored the mumbling provocateur type and out darked and edgied them while doing nothing. Except learning computers and how to hack, and shit.

It didn’t have anywhere NEAR as much respect or attention paid to it. Though it did have the underground and swept the sails of LGBT activism. So, it concentrated efforts there.

But the ‘10s, we’re back to a bunch of fist medallion waving socialists screaming about liberating minorities and calling for the abolition of capitalism. Screaming matches and arguments by delirious people picking and choosing the language, the environment and the subject of arguments so just to engage them you need to unpack them and have limited maneuverability to argue. So, they’re messy, slanted and more obnoxious than ever.

I’m just happy that kids today have the internet. The internet and social networking has made it easier than ever, if one really looks, to find contrarian facts and news and have it pass by their faces. Whether it’s endorsed by the establishment, or not. So while they’ll definitely see news blurbs of Kyle Rittenhouses being depicted as a heartless mass shooter that was there for no reason, they’ll also get eyewitnesses, boots-on-the-ground camera footage and other things from those that were there.

They’ll get the romantic heroic tales told by progressive activists of antifa by themselves, as well as the unflattering footage of things like cringy protesters all drugged up calling black cops niggers and traitors and hitting random people with their ugly flags, and taking up entire sidewalks to only let women and non-whites pass.

I loathed 70s media because it was just so discordant and very perceptibly tarnished by the distress of the era. And I dread the sort of shit people born or coming into cognoscence after this era will think of the 2010s-20s.

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polar-stars · 3 years

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ok. i must know the music tastes of *preparation cough* [insert all of your ocs here] :}

Thank you for enabling me to talk about this 🙏

Kimiko Yukihira 🍳

Kimiko has her own little radio in her room and this radio is pretty much her main source of exposure to music. She therefore listens to a lot of Pop and is especially fond of the upbeat kind. Thanks to the men in her family she has been introduced to various Rock or more Alternative songs as well though.

Favorite Artists: I feel she’d like Owl City & possibly also Paramore

Hiroshi Aldini-Tadokoro ⚓️

Hiroshi listens to soft things that ease him down. His playlist is full of cute, soft-sounding pop songs and acoustic stuff.

Favorite Artists: Hm, Jason Mraz, Sleeping At Last & Ai Means Love, I think

Mika Aldini ☀️

As an avid dancer, Mika mainly listens to songs that you can also dance to. So her playlists mainly consist of very fast-paced, exciting songs. Her favorite Genre is Latin-Pop, but she listens to a lot of regular Pop as well (as long as it’s good for dancing). She also does enjoy some Reggae once in a while, especially if she does feels like relaxing.

Favorite Artists: Shakira & Jennifer Lopez

Kaori Hayama 💐

Kaori listens majorly to Soul, R&B & Blues. She considers it very relaxing and she does mainly listen to music in order to relax. Kaori does also have a little soft spot for a lot of older jazzy tunes from her mother’s favorite movies.

Favorite Artists: Aretha Franklin, Sade, Alicia Keys & Adele

Lola Nakiri 🦊

Lola is Daddy’s little girl when it comes to the matter of music. When Lola Nakiri puts on headphones, she’ll be blasting her ears off with Rock & Heavy Metal. She’s also known to have a rather impressive collection of band T-shirts. She can find some appreciation in the sassy Pop her mom listens to, but ultimately Rock & Metal is where her heart is.

Favorite Artists: Iron Maiden and Led Zeppelin I guess. And probably another Metal Band. I sadly only know a few and only by name because I do not listen to Metal, ever.

Mona Nakiri 🐺

Techno. Mona walks around with her headphones a lot more than Lola does and what she listens to is all sorts of Techno sub-genres and House, with a good number of Remixes in-between.

Favorite Artists: Lea doesn’t know any tbh sfghgfhg

Takayuki Hojo 💥

Takayuki listens to Rock like the tough cookie he is. Should he ever listen to anything that isn’t Rock, his father or Suzume most likely made him listen to it. His two favorite songs of all time are “T.N.T” by AC/DC & “Eye Of The Tiger” by Survivor (Takayuki loves the Rocky movies)

Favorite Artists: As long as it’s Rock he doesn’t care who sings. Okay but he is pretty fond of AC/DC and Guns n’ Roses

Kazuo Mimasaka 💕

My boy Kazuo surely has one big playlist that is filled with nothing but the most sappiest and emotional love-ballads imaginable. And I don’t even want to think about how long it would be. Kazuo can listen to almost anything, the exception being Hardcore Gangster Rap, but what he listens to privately is...yeah, Ballads.

Favorite Artists: Lionel Richie & Celine Dion are the first names to come to my mind. “My Heart Will Go On” is at the very top of Kazuo’s playlist

Yasu Ibusaki 🌲

Shun passed his liking for Rock down to Yasu. When growing older, Yasu additionally also developed a love for all things Indie & Folkish. Has been called a Hipster for his music taste more than once by Hideyoshi.

Favorite Artists: Arctic Monkeys, Twenty One Pilots, Hozier

Chieko Marui 📚

Chieko does listen to a lot of LoFi or Movie/Video Game Soundtracks for studying and relaxation. Her favorite movie soundtrack is that of “The Theory of Everything”. However, when it comes to casual listening her mother got her into Pop. And also thanks to her father, Chieko kinda became accustomed to Pop from all decades. She majorly listens to all sorts off love songs.

Favorite Artists: TAYLOR SWIFT, Chieko is a confirmed Swiftie. Also really likes Britney Spears tho I feel.

Hideyoshi Kawashima 🎤

Hideyoshi listens mainly to things you can #party to. Out of all the characters he’s the one who keeps up with the charts the most. Likes Pop and also K-Pop! His dad did successfully get him into some HipHop as well though. Hideyoshi also has a secret soft spot for the boybands of the 90s.

Favorite Artists: Jason Derulo, Backstreet Boys & BTS

Daisuke Aoki 🎸

Daisuke is our Retro-Kid. His music libraries is mostly 80s and 70s, with some songs of the 50s and 60s that his father likes in-between. Is usually the last one in Polar Star to discover the newest hit in the charts, because he’s too busy bopping to the past. Lea can relate.

Favorite Artists: Queen, A-ha & Huey Lewis & The News

Hiraku Yukihira 🐙

Hiraku likes the modern Rock from the 2000s and 2010s. Occasionally he will stumble over something in the Indie and Alternative department and then be real proud over being the only one who knows a particular song.

Favorite Artists: Panic! at the Disco, Coldplay and Imagine Dragons

Akio Hayama 🌱

The same as Kaori. This is a thing they have in common, they both do enjoy the same music pretty much. Though I can picture Akio liking some Reggae once in a while in addition. Also just a few days ago, I established that he’s a secret theatre kid who also listens to a lot of Show Tunes.

Favorite Artists: Stevie Wonder & Marvin Gaye

Suzume Hojo 🔥

Out of all the characters in the cast, I’d say that Suzume probably has the broadest music taste. She is capable of enjoying a lot of stuff. Being the Meme-Lord that Suzume is, she does love to put on some Meme- and Guilty Pleasure songs. Though of course, there is irony playing into that enjoyment. When it comes to the songs she enjoy unironically, they’re mostly very fast-paced and energetic. I guess you could say her favorite genre is bouncy pop of all decades. Her favorite song of all time would be “Girls just want to have fun”.

Favorite Artists: Lizzo, Beyoncé and Cindy Lauper.

Shigeo Eizan 💎

Jazz is Love. Jazz is Life. Shigeo listens to Jazz ahdhd. A lot. He basically always has Jazz going on in the background when he’s working. When he finds the time to listen more attentively, he loves listening to Swing the most.

Favorite Artists: Frank Sinatra. Also likes Michael Bublé tho I feel.

Noboru Shinomiya 🍂

Noboru loves nothing more than his collection of classic French Chansons. It’s what he listens to on his long autumn walks through Paris and it makes him happy and content. He also does like the Enka-songs his mother enjoys though.

Favorite Artists: Joe Dassin and Édith Piaf

Kiyoko Saito 🌸

Kiyoko really loves Classical Japanese music a lot but she only really does listen to it on special occassions. She does also enjoy a lot of modern Pop and also K-Pop as well though and she really loves to put it on whenever she dresses up, paints her nails... etc. (Also I can see her being into Vocaloid tbh).

Favorite Artists: BLACKPINK. I can also see her liking Ariana Grande

Masashi Eizan 🍜

Okay this is our true Classic-Fanatic. All of Nene’s efforts to bring Masashi to operas, ballets and just plain classical concerts have paid off. Masashi listens majorly to Classical Japanese music or Western Classical music. He also does really like Enka.

Favorite Artist: His favorite Western composer is Beethoven, I haven’t figured out anything else yet.

Ran Mimasaka 🖋

Ran listens to a lot of operas actually ahdh because, well, she likes operas. Aside from that, she does also enjoy Rock and ChillHop though shdhf. To some this might be a weird combo, but it do be like that sometimes.

Favorite Artists: In the Rock-department it’s David Bowie.

I admittedly only did the most important high schoolers here, I will need a Part 2 I guess ahdhdf

But still thanks for asking ☺️

#Well #That took longer than I expected #But it was still fun ahdfhf #Gofer answering to stuffz #Shokugeki no Kimiko Stuffz

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blackbatpurplecat · 4 years

Text

Catwoman 80th Anniversary

In 1940, one of the now most popular comic book heroes of all time got his very first solo run. It would become a milestone in comic book history. But he wasn’t the only one who had a chance to shine. In that premiere issue, even TWO of his most famous antagonists would be introduced: The man who laughs and the woman who steals.

That woman was intended to become the love of the hero’s life. The good guy and the naughty girl, the appeal was palpable. However, she wasn’t just a love interest or a generic thief or only another villain in the ever growing gallery of rogues the hero would face over decades to come, no - she was quite the character.

Her first alias was “The Cat” which would ultimately become Catwoman. Selina Kyle, the best thief in the world, a literal cat burglar, a classy seductress and queen of sass. And fans loved her so much that over time, she grew to become just as famous as the hero.

Her story has had its ups and downs. Mostly ups. ;) Going from the pages of the comics to the little and the big screen in the 60s, then she disappeared for a while, then made a comeback. She married the hero and had a child, though that marriage was later rebooted and was followed by a depressing origin story a sexist author made up for her in the 80s.

The 90s then turned out to be her decade! She found herself on the TV screen again, animated this time. She was portrayed by a Golden Globe winner on the big screen again. And she finally got her very own solo run in comics.

Her solo title was successful enough to run for over 20 years, a time in which her development from antagonist to anti-heroine would pan out. She would be a member of several teams, dance on both sides of the law, and even have another child. The screen called her back in form of a movie and a tv show. In one she was a thief with a love for killing, in the other a teenager. And we already know that her movie career will soon continue with two more projects.

In 2016, DC rebooted their entire universe. Catwoman’s origin story was changed, her relationships were lost, her solo run got canceled. No one knew what was real anymore - and fans didn’t like it. Only a year later, a retcon followed in a pathetic attempt to restore a status quo fans were familiar with and approved of. Even her solo run came back and today, in June 2020, we celebrate her 80th anniversary!

Catwoman is my favorite DC character ever. She’s clever, she’s funny, she’s stubborn, she’s classy, she’s confident, she plays by her own rules. When written right, she is such an entertaining character, unpredictable and fun.

In 80 years, there have been countless appearances, so many incarnations and interpretations of her - sure, I didn’t like all of them but you can say there’s something for each one of us. You don’t like her in the 2010s? Check out the 90s. You don’t like her in the 40s? Check out the 80s. There’s a version of Catwoman for many different tastes. She never goes out of fashion.

So to celebrate one of DC’s most famous women, they published a collection of 10 stories in total, written and drawn by people who have had touched her character over the past years.

Did Catwoman 80th Anniversary - Celebrating Eight Decades of Beauty and Burglary do her justice?

Warning: Spoilers!

Let’s check out each story and see what the writers came up with for this very special occasion. Except for one, none of these are meant to be canon, it’s just a collection of shorts meant to emphasise why Catwoman is so good. Something I noticed was that each writer had not picked any Catwoman to write but “their” Catwoman. A nice detail. Consistency, why not? Write what you feel comfortable and familiar with. This can only help with the quality of the stories, right? ... Right? ...

Strap in folks, this is going to be a LOOOOONG post!

Story #1: Skin the Cat by Paul Dini

Selina’s just living her normal life with her cats, occasionally stealing some money and jewels. Hey, a girl’s gotta eat. ;) What catches her attention are news reports about stolen big cats. I’m a cat lover myself and this series of crimes would worry me just as much as it worries Selina. She deduces where in Gotham someone could hide those wild cats, breaks in, and is welcomed by an eerie voice - as well as the taxidermied cats. Fucking bastard... The villain Taxidermist, quelle surprise, is behind the cat murders. He now intends to gas Selina and add her to his cat collection but Selina reveals that she’d already turned off the gas before breaking in. She escapes his long knives and watches as three big cats she had brought with her attack and kill him.

What an intro! A story about Selina’s love for cats and her strategic thinking. I really liked the first half! But once the Taxidermist shows up, it loses itself in drawn out exposition. Selina goes on a long monologue to explain to the reader who the Taxidermist is, how she knew it was him, how she turned off the gas, and how she replaced three of the dead cats with alive ones. I would have preferred to actually SEE her preparations for the face-off in flashback panels instead of having to read it. It didn’t feel natural at all. Also how the fuck did she bring 3 wild cats and switch them for the stuffed ones?! How?! And when?! I’m also quite sad that she didn’t get to save the cats. That was a bummer. So all she basically did was bring 3 big cats to kill a killer.

The art’s gorgeous, nothing else to say here!

6/10

Story #2: Now You See Me by Ann Nocenti

Ann Nocenti’s name immediately made me go uh-oh... Her bad and convoluted writing style made readers drop the Catwoman books which eventually lead to the solo run’s cancelation so you can understand why I was concerned.

So Catwoman is hiding a little pouch in a pigeon loft on a roof while pondering who to sell her stolen goods to - as well as where to vacation afterwards. She then notices a surveillance camera. The scene cuts to two cops on surveillance duty. They’re both bored as hell so when one spots Selina, he quickly distracts his colleague and leaves to find her. He takes the pouch out of the pigeon loft and a fight between him and Catwoman ensues. He reveals that he wants to become her partner. He wants to feed her any intel he can see on his screens so she could steal and sells some goods, and they’d split the money. When Selina refuses, he tries to blackmail her into complying. Selina presses a button on a little device and whatever’s in the pouch the cop sacked, explodes, sending him over the edge. Luckily, he lands on an umbrella Penguin had sent off apparently because we see him in one panel, angered that his plan was foiled. I’m not entirely sure what his “brilliant plan” was supposed to be. Something with gas tanks that were strapped to the umbrella I assume? I have no idea.

This one is missing too much context for my taste. What was in the pouch? Did the explosion kill the guy? What was Penguin doing there? What was his plan? Why did we need the second cop? For a super obvious but unnecessary parallel between Catwoman vs. corrupt cop and random woman vs. random man on one of the surveillance screens? Why give Catwoman so little “screen time” and so little dialogue? Is this short story referencing anything from Nocenti’s awful run and I just forgot? To quote Val Kilmer Batman: “It just raises too many questions.”

The art’s okay, nothing too special.

3/10

Story #3: Helena by Tom King

Oh boy. This is the big one. The one everyone’s been waiting for, I guess. The man who not so long ago had promised us a BatCat wedding just to shove a huge middle finger in our faces, promised us a pregnant Selina this time. I was skeptical of course. Also other readers were convinced he’d just let Selina have a miscarriage. Well, the good news is it wasn’t a miscarriage. The bad news is he almost makes Selina seem like she would have preferred a miscarriage.

The story goes like this: Selina hasn’t been feeling well so instead of going to a doctor like a normal person, Bruce scans her head and checks her vitals and blood (I can only assume because we’re not shown). Selina’s convinced that she’s seriously ill but a gentle, hopeful smile on Bruce’s face reveals the actual truth: She is pregnant. And her first reaction is shock and denial. We cut to BatCat fighting Tweedledum and Tweedledee (I think, you can’t really see them but the two men they knock out look identical). Selina then bends over and says that she’s about to throw up. Followed by a Batbucket joke. I’m getting so tired of all the forced self-awareness, guys. We cut to Catwoman, now sporting a baby bump underneath the skin-tight leather, sitting on a roof. She prepares a glass of wine while telling the baby that it is just like Bruce and it’s such a dick for taking away her freedom. After one sip, she chucks the glass away and curses. We’re then treated to a montage of BatCat fighting several rogues while Selina’s belly grows with each panel until it’s an 8, maybe 9 months along belly. I... I have no words. Except for yes, this was written by a man. BatCat are then standing on a roof and Selina laments that she’s a thief, not a mother, and the baby will derail her life and plans. The scene switches to Bruce and Selina in bed, arguing because she’s in labor. Bruce is ready to roll while Selina is STILL in denial, crying that she’s not a mother, that she’s not a hero or a good and brave person like him. Bruce tells her she didn’t run off so that means she’s a good person and they agree that it’s time to have the baby. Another cut to Selina having to take care of a crying baby Helena, asking why she’s crying when it’s Selina’s turn to stay at home and not Bruce’s. Selina talks to Helena, saying she’s luckier than Selina was because Selina’s mom ran off. She fucking FINALLY says something nice about her own child (”You’re a cute little kitten.”) and wonders what they’re going to do with her. The last page is old Selina and grownup Helena after Bruce’s death. Selina’s complaining about the pretty cemetery while Helena likes it. Her daughter’s ability to not shit on just everything and not be a total killjoy all the time causes Selina to say again that Helena is like Bruce. Upon Helena’s question if she’s anything like her mother, Selina answers that she’s just as stubborn as her. If she wants something, she steals it. Helena asks what she ever stole and Selina delivers the last predictable cliche of the story: “You stole my heart.”

Ugh. King’s Selina is just such a boring read. She’s not charming or interesting or sympathetic. Maybe I’m too used to a fun Selina but this one’s just a drag. A heavily pregnant Catwoman fighting Joker, yeah sure, totally not absolute bullshit. And the way Selina keeps distancing herself from the child inside her? For over 9 months?! Is she going out in that ridiculous catsuit because she wants to cause a miscarriage, is that it? So she doesn’t have to make a decision like abortion, adoption or leaving the baby with Bruce? Her constant cussing over the situation and crying and whining turns the pregnancy of my favorite DC couple into such a depressing ordeal.

The art is very pretty! Thank God.

4/10

Story #4: The Catwoman of Earth by Jeff Parker

After the depressing pregnancy of Catwoman, we switch to the wacky 60s version of her. Catwoman and her henchmen are robbing a science fair when suddenly, a UFO arrives. WTF?! Four aliens and a robot are beamed down to the surface and the group’s leader, an arrogant jock-like guy proclaims that they will take over the planet and enslave humanity. Catwoman angrily stands up to him. Turns out the evil aliens are sexist too when the male one tells Catwoman females have to ask for permission to speak and the female alien in the group unhappily agrees. The jock alien tells the muscly male alien to dispose of Catwoman but she’s not easy to dispose of! She fights off the brawler, she cuts the tentacles off the tentacle alien (someone WILL jerk off to that one panel), dodges the jock’s laser gun, steals the laser gun with her whip, shoots the robot to bits, and lets the police take the males away. The female alien seems much happier now and invites Catwoman to a flight around the world in the UFO. Catwoman suggests a trip to Paris so she can loot the Louvre.

Aliens and Catwoman don’t mix. I didn’t really care for this story. I mean it’s great to see Catwoman in action and taking down four guys on her own but... aliens and Catwoman just don’t mix. It was a bit jarring to me. Also the aliens’ designs weren’t super interesting. They were basically pink elves.

The art is beautiful. Catwoman looks like Julie Newmar and the entire color scheme is very 60s.

4/10

Story #5: A Cat of Nine Tales by Liam Sharp

Catwoman’s caught stealing a diamond necklace by an armed security guard. He seems a bit scared of her but knows it’s his job to stop her. She’s not engaging in a fight - of course not, he has a gun pointed at her! So instead, Catwoman relies on her talking skills. And intimidation skills. She tells the guard that there are 9 ways their situation could play out: 1. The guard lets her tie him up and escape with the necklace. 2. She beats his ass. 3. He kills her. 4. She scratches his eyes out. 5. He slips and gets knocked out. 6. He fires his gun, misses her, and the bullet ricochets until it kills him. 7. They team up. 8. She gives up. 9. She kills him. However, the story ends with the guard fainting because Catwoman’s just so damn scary.

Very short, very simple. Even the art is simple, on one page there are 3 very similar panels with only minor changes. Nothing memorable but not too bad. It shows how Catwoman can take someone out even without touching them. It’s okay.

The art reminds me of a comic from the 80s or maybe 90s. Hard to describe why. Guess you have to see it. Again, it’s okay.

5/10

Story #6: Little Bird by Mindy Newell

Selina learns from a news report that a priceless mezuzah has been found at a flea market. It’s currently at the Jewish Museum of Gotham City and Selina immediately steals it. Later, Batman shows up at her place and asks why she wants the mezuzah. She doesn’t give him much of an answer so he leaves. Pretty pointless scene I would say. A flashback reveals that a young Selina used to live with a Jewish lady. I dunno, I guess she’s a foster mother? And the woman liked Selina so much and considered her family so she gave her that mezuzah to pass it on to her own kids one day (even though Selina doesn’t want kids, is not related to the lady, and isn’t Jewish). Back to the present, Selina’s punishing a client. That prostitute background made an unwanted comeback for this story because Selina’s resisting and denying herself love so she’s “whoring”, to prove to herself how despicable she is. Okay...? There’s an inner turmoil going on, she’s torn between selling the artefact or not. Eventually, she decides to bring the mezuzah back to the lady she used to live with. The lady’s grown old and demented, lives in a home and is at the verge of dying. Selina places an envelop between the lady’s hands and leaves. The home’s director finds the envelop which contains the mezuzah, an official document which basically ensures that the lady will be taken care of before and after her death, and a poetic note from Selina.

My least favorite story out of them all - and that is quite an accomplishment when there are King and Nocenti in the same book! It had that Frank “I’m an insane sexist racist asshole” Miller prostitute bullshit in it and Selina hating herself again. This time, the “whoring” (and this word is not me, it’s from the actual story) is used as a way of self-punishment. Because it’s disgusting and wrong and Selina only does it to torture herself. Dunno if that’s the right message you wanna send here... The Jewish lady was kinda random to me because Selina’s not Jewish and never has been Jewish. This is not a negative point, it’s just so random. And the Batman scene was pointless, I have no idea what purpose it served. Except for showing us Batman pay Selina like a john and having Selina make jokes about “whoring.” Ugh.

The art was great, very clean.

1/10

Story #7: Born to Kiln by Chuck Dixon

Going from my least favorite to my favorite story in this book!

Catwoman knows there’s a diamond in a safe on a boat that is set to leave the harbour in the morning. So she climbs aboard at night to steal the gem. She finds several dead sailors and they’re all covered in mud. Who could have done this? Yes, you guessed right - it’s Clayface! He’s already at the safe, opens it, and retrieves the big stone. Catwoman reveals herself and aims a fire hose at him. Her confidence, however, dies the moment the hose doesn’t work. Clayface swallows the diamond and starts chasing after her. There’s apparently a machine to spray-paint cars on the boat so she lures him inside, activates the paint to blind him, and the hot lamps for the drying process immobilise the big pile of mud. Now that he’s nothing more than hard clay, Catwoman takes a wrench to him and takes the freed diamond.

FINALLY a story I really, really like from beginning to end! First off, IT’S PURPLE CATWOMAN!!! Selina is wearing my favorite costume, the iconic Jim Balent suit from her 90s solo run in this story - and I LOVE IT!!! Yeah, her boobs are quite loose in it and sometimes dangle in strange ways but fuck it! LOL I prefer hanging boobs over a tight corset that should reduce her agility or a back breaking pose anytime! We get sneaky Selina, we get playful Selina, we get over confident Selina who has to think fast and run even faster, and she gets what she wants in the end without killing anyone.

The art is gorgeous! It’s very fluid and alive. I also absolutely adore the cute facial expressions on Kitten’s face, especially when she locks Clayface in. I miss Catwoman being fun. In this, she’s just adorable and not sexualised at all.

8/10

Story #8: Conventional Wisdom by Will Pfeifer

Selina finds herself at a Bat Con and is supposed to give autographs. The whole scenario seems weird and confusing to her, she doesn’t remember how she got there or what is going on. Bruce, Joker, Riddler, and Two-Face being there with her to give autographs is even weirder. And why does no one except for her react to that unconscious, bloody man on the floor?! On her way to her panel, she runs into several cosplayers which is basically only fan service. But you will find the male, dark-skinned version of me at her panel, asking when the fuck she will finally put that 90s suit back on!!! The dialogues keep breaking the fourth wall, pointing out that this story is about to end. One of the panel’s attendees looks like Marvel’s Taskmaster and another is Selina herself in her Catwoman suit. Selina slowly remembers what happened: The Taskmaster dude is Doctor Destiny, she broke into his lair and stole his reality distorter, a little machine she’s been carrying around for the entire story. She smashes the machine to wake up back in the lair and cracks her knuckles, ready to take down Doctor Destiny and his goons.

And it was all a dream! That twist has never been a favorite of mine. Even though it’s not really a twist; you know immediately that it’s a dream. We don’t learn anything new about Selina or see anything Catwoman-y in this. It’s really basically fan service. They wanted Selina to see and interact with real life fans of hers so they made it happen. She also comments on various versions of her costume. It’s cute but kinda forgettable.

The art is good, it’s rare to see light and bright colors in a Catwoman book so it was a nice change. And the cosplayers looked nice. But they could have used different body types to make the fans more diverse and visually appealing.

3/10

Story #9: Addicted to Trouble by Ram V

And here we are, the premiere of the duo that will take over Catwoman’s current solo run from #23 onward. We get a first taste of the writing and art and I must say it’s a good taste.

This short story serves as a continuation of Joelle Jones’ #21 issue where at the end of the arc, Selina and her sister Maggie left Gotham in a purple car. So we see a short recap of how they got the car and where they were headed but unfortunately, the engine dies. They hitchhike to Memphis. Selina’s frustrated that Maggie doesn’t talk to her. They get drunk and start a fight at a bar. The cops show up and arrest them. While sitting in the back of the cop car, the girls start laughing together and steal the car. They leave behind their luggage which only contains stuff they won’t miss - including Selina’s cat funeral dress. They drive back to Gotham, Selina steals food and drinks on the way, and they cuddle on a rooftop overlooking the city. The story cuts to Selina and Leandro, a character I would know if I had continued the Jones run. She tells him she wants to lay low for a while and stay out of trouble. When he asks “Oh? Really?”, Selina throws a naughty smile towards the reader. Yeah yeah, lay low my ass. :D

First off, I have no idea what happened before the road trip, I don’t know why they took it or why Maggie doesn’t talk or what the purpose of all of this was because all they do is get drunk, fight an entire bar, and go back. No idea what that accomplished. And I feel sorry for the car because it was so gorgeous. Anyway, I am happy to say that Ram V has a great writing style! He gave a good voice to Selina, it sounded very natural and like a human would talk, no forced exposition or fake deepness.

The art was good, there were a few expressive faces and the bar fight was well executed.

5/10 (because I don’t know the context)

Story #10: The Art of Picking A Lock by Ed Brubaker

Instead of ending with a transition to the next Catwoman issue (which I would have preferred), the collection offers one more story and it’s written by the man who successfully handled the second half of Selina’s first solo run. He turned her stories more into the film noir direction and gave her sidekicks. The run also gave her a fugly suit and made her have sex with old men and Brubaker wanted to kill her off and have her not know who the father to her unborn child was so... yeah, I’m torn about that guy.

The last story shows us Catwoman breaking into a warehouse full of Joker goons while thinking about the thrill of breaking locks and how she learned how to do it when she was at a juvenile detention center. She beats them all up and demands to know where “he” is. Later, her friend Holly is on a motorcycle chasing after a cab while Catwoman is riding on top of a subway. Both reach Gotham’s harbor. We see that the cab is filled with Joker gas and the driver is laughing maniacally. Holly can’t reach the cab in time and it drives off into the water. Catwoman swings down and jumps after it. She breaks the trunk open and reveals a handcuffed Slam Bradley. Cut to the three back on dry land. Holly chides him for going after Joker alone and not waiting for backup. He admits that it was dumb, then shares intel on where Joker will strike and Selina should tell “her friend.” She says she will and Slam ends the book with the words that he could really use a cigarette. NO, this book was not that good that it would warrant a cigarette at the end!

This short obviously takes place during the second half of the first solo run. We see Catwoman in action, that’s cool. Taking down almost a dozen of armed Joker henchmen, that’s pretty badass! And a woman saves the man damsel in distress at the end, that’s a nice ending as well. However, I don’t care about the costume so the visual appeal wasn’t there and I really don’t care about Slam Bradley so the reveal at the end was pretty ugh to me.

The art is great! It’s like a modernised/smoother version of Darwyn Cooke’s style, the artist Brubaker worked on the Catwoman title in the 00s with. So that gives it a pretty nostalgic feel.

5/10

In addition to the 10 stories we’ve now covered, there are pages to show off the Catwoman costumes of each decade as well as pinups. The costume pages are designed in the decade’s style (the 40s are black and white, the 60s psychedelic etc). But what I don’t get about the 90s one: It’s purple Catwoman grayed out in the background and gray BTAS Catwoman in color in the foreground - why make the purple outfit gray when you have an already gray outfit?! Just switch them! Also who put together the 70s one, couldn’t they find better costume examples?!

The seven pinups are pretty, unfortunately the majority feature the black outfits. I was surprised that even Tim Sale drew the black costume and not the purple one from his Long Halloween series. We get one of the gray BTAS costume and Jim Balent thankfully gives us BatCat with his purple creation. Nice!

Well, looking back at my personal scores for this collection of stories, Catwoman’s anniversary issue reached a total of 44/100 points in my book. Wow. That’s... not that good.

Most of the stories ranged from average to bad. Nothing spectacular, nothing memorable. There’s a lack of witty dialogue, Catwoman’s rarely fun to watch. In six stories she’s seen fighting, in three she’s seen being chased so I’m missing the variety here. I would assume you can do more with Catwoman than that. She often rather fights instead of using her wits and smarts. And actual cats are only featured in two stories but in one they die and in the other, Selina says she should drown them. -_-

A collection of 10 new stories was a great idea but celebrating the character this is not. I’m happy that the next writer for Catwoman left a positive impression on me and the story feat. Balent’s Catwoman was a delight. However, the writers didn’t really bring their “A” game for this anniversary issue which is disappointing.

Would I recommend it? Hmmm. It pains me to say: not really, no. You don’t miss much by skipping it. You don’t miss sassy lines or breathtaking art, you don’t miss out on funny scenes or emotional depth. This anniversary issue is merely average and I highly doubt I’ll go back to reread it.

(a huge THANK YOU to everyone who read this entire, way too long post! i highly appreciate it 💜you’re a real trooper!)

#catwoman #review

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nomadicism · 4 years

Note

I read that one posts. I agree with Sol. I think it's more likely that Dreamworks crunched the numbers, figured it wouldn't be profitable and just canned the project than them cancelling it because of a very small section of the internet. p1

“p2 Mecha is just a dying genre as a whole. Even in Japan, isekai has taken it's place and there are hardly any new mechas outside of Gundam. That's in Japan! In the west, mecha is even more niche of an interest and general audiences don't gravitate towards it. I don't think that any mecha movie wouldn't do well at the box office. I'm even worried about that Gundam movie bombing at the box office.”

Hi Anon, thank you for the Ask!

Yeah, I agree with Sol too—and at risk of repeating what I’ve said in other posts about the movie thing—it’s really hard to convey just how incredibly unlikely a property like Voltron or Robotech will ever be made into a live-action movie. It really is about the numbers, as it always has been. Since the 80s, there’s this whole persistent and stupid element of the cartoon industry that continues to delude itself that promises or interest from Hollywood will ever pan out. There are so many scripts sitting in production limbo, that it’s almost criminal.

No one wants to risk money on a live-action movie based on children’s media IP that won’t bring in rated PG-13 or R dollars from adults, and no one wants to risk repeating the 80s He-Man film. The exceptions are live-action films made from children’s media IP that are fully owned by the company paying to produce the movie. I’ve got more to say about the complexities of royalties, but that’s awfully long-winded when I get into it, and I’d rather be long-winded about giant robots. (◕ᴗ◕✿)

The topic of mecha genre dying out is what really interests me here. It’s a topic that I think about a lot, as the beginnings of the mecha genre had a lot of deep cultural time-and-place stuff behind it, even if the stories were just kids and teen boys hopping into a giant robot to beat up other giant robots and monsters, in what were essentially 30 minute long toy commercials.

Isekai will come-and-go as all genres do. It’s not a new genre, but right now the types of themes driving the isekai stories being made speaks to a lot of interesting things happening in the youth of Japan’s relationship with digital gaming and role-play escapism. It’s fascinating, even though the focus of the genre as it’s done today hasn’t really grabbed me in the same way that isekai of the 80s-90s did.

Mecha isekai exists, and it’s only a matter of time before someone either remakes Vision of Escaflowne, or does a more mecha-focused isekai story similar to Magic Knight Rayearth. I doubt anyone would revisit Aura Battler Dunbine, or Super Dimension Century Orguss, but an otaku can dream.

Before we can say the mecha genre is dying, let’s briefly skim over the genre trends of the past +40 years. Every decade or era of mecha anime has a trend that reflects cultural concerns built into it, in a way that I don’t think any other genre of animation can touch (until now, with Digital/Virtual/Fantasy RPG World Isekai).

Late 60s-70s was: Super Robot smashes monsters and alien robots

Mid-70s – early 80s was: Combining Mecha Sentai Team Super Robot smashes monsters and alien robots

80s was: Real Robot + “how many sci-fi/fantasy settings can we put a robot into?” + the death-throes of Super Robot (e.g. Dairugger XV, Golion, Baldios, Godmars)

Also 80s: What the hell was Super Dimension Fortress Macross about? Cold war tensions of escalating end-the-world arms race meets an alien species whose only culture is fighting. Where songs about love, and the culture of love, are what win the day, not just transforming robots and big guns. Macross is deeper than it lets on.

Fun 80s: GoShogun happened. The first parody-satire mecha anime that still feels more serious than they intended, but is actually hilarious once you get past the dated gender roles humor (which was also kind of intentional satire).

WTF 80s: Space Runaway Ideon broke everyone’s minds.

Still not done with 80s: Gunbuster happened. The first angst-driven parody-satire mecha anime that blew everyone’s minds.

Late 80s-early 90s OVA mecha was a mix of Serious Cyberpunk-influenced Real Robot for older teens and adults + Mecha with Tits & Tentacles for Adults (see also space elf lesbians).

90s was: The Franchises Will Survive With Prettier Pilots, and Super Angst-Bot That Was Way More Influenced By Drugs And Ideon’s Ending Than Anyone Wants To Admit (aka Neon Genesis Evangelion) + “Since Gunbuster was a success, how many parodies of Super Robot and Real Robot can we do?”

Mid 90s isekai gems: Magic Knight Rayearth and Vision of Escaflowne

Late 90s: Brain-Powerd (not a typo) happened and it’s a shame no one remembers it. I’ve seen it’s influence come up in the 2000s – 2010s.

The 00s seem to be filled with a lot of re-treading of everything that came before but with different cross-genre influences and some of it really damn good but hard to remember because it all kind of blends together.

The 2010s-today: I have no idea what’s happening now b/c I can’t keep up with anything that isn’t Gundam. And why bother when there has been a flood of classic 70s-80s mecha releases—many for the first time in the US—to binge watch?

Knights of Sidonia was cool.

Since I haven’t kept up, I can’t speak to what new mecha anime is like, or why it's less popular (though I have an educated guess). It was gonna happen eventually, and I suspect that the kinds of post-nuclear and Cold War existential dread that informed mecha anime of the 60s-80s has moved on as target audiences grew up. Those lates 80s OVAs, where the stories could be more adult, reflect that growing up (and also Blade Runner’s influence).

I see the 90s as very transitional, includes reactions to the prior eras, but also reflects a lot of angst by Japanese teens and young adults caught up in the after-effects of 80s stagnation, and the constant test-studying to get into the best school to get the best job (if it exists) and figure it all out before you’re 14 so you can pick the best school to test into. Also, salary-man dad works 120 hours a week and is never home. Get in the Angst-bot Shinji.

Excluding the stand-out brands that survived their respective eras: Gundam, Macross, Braves series, Mazinger Z, Getter Robo, Evangelion; there’s not much other ground that can be covered right now that would warrant a series. The franchise mecha shows are grounded in their respective niches. It’s kind of odd that there isn’t an isekai mecha franchise, b/c that’s a niche that hasn’t been owned in the way that the other niches have (unless maybe Machine Hero Wataru is still a Thing?)

It’s worth mentioning that Sport Anime has really been having a moment for almost a decade now, and that’s super interesting to compare against isekai. Isekai about dungeon slimes or whatever vs literal horse-girls racing each other like high-school track. Thanks Japan, are y’all all right over there?

A few last things:

The success of Super Robot Wars tells me that mecha genre isn’t dying. Consider the ages of players. How many of them actually grew up watching Yuusha Raideen (aka Yūsha Raideen / Raideen the Brave)? There is an SRW manga anthology series, and loads of gachapon and collector’s grade mecha figures from old mecha anime get released with regularity. Someone’s buying that all that shit.

SRW is nearly 20 years old now, and they are still making video games that do one thing really well: rotate a 40 year old cast of everyone’s favorite robots into a battle strategy game held together by a duct-tape plot that doesn’t take itself too seriously. The games are fun, and it’s cool to put all these mecha into the same field. It’s really great to see older shows that will never be remade have little cut scenes in a newer animation style that still feels like the originals.

There’s also the old staple that started it all: the tokusatsu genre of live-action Super Sentai shows (e.g. Power Rangers). They’ve been making the Super Sentai Series since 1975, and there’s still fun to be had watching color-coded warriors use special powers/tech to summon forth some combining mecha to do battle with rubber suit monsters from outer-space. The effects are much better these days, but it’s the same formula, year after year and people still love it.

So with respect to mecha, I think what’s died or dying, is that people are afraid to have shameless child-like fun with giant robots. The genre got too serious and too angsty (and too horny without the grown-up edge of 80s OVA Tits & Tentacles mecha). The franchises carved their niches and aren’t going anywhere, while the genre survives in video games and collectables.

A lot of that shameless fun has moved into other genres, because nothing else explains a title like: “Is It Wrong To Pick Up Girl’s In The Dungeon?” or the nearly-ecchi concept behind the sports anime “Keijo!!!!!”. But that kind of fun is less child-like and more self-deprecating or pervy-humor. Both sports and isekai anime have their serious side, but seem to be dominated by stories that don’t take themselves too seriously, or like Yuri on Ice, aren’t afraid to take a concept that no one ever saw coming, and shape it into a good story.

I eagerly await a mecha sports anime (wait, no, I think that already happened), and I’d love to see a knock-out isekai mecha anime again. I think it will happen eventually, but probably not from Toei or Sunrise. If Tatsunoko could get beyond Moe Idols In Space, then the Macross franchise already has everything it needs to do a isekai series. That would be rad.

#mecha #ask me anything #anonymous #i'm sorry this got long

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f4liveblogarchives · 4 years

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Fantastic Four Vol 1 #171

Mon Aug 12 2019 [11:20 PM] Wack'd: Early titles for "Love is a Battlefield" did not inspire confidence

[11:20 PM] Bocaj: Pfft [11:20 PM] Bocaj: Also. Thats just a really striking title [11:20 PM] Bocaj: And I kind of want to make it a truism that people say [11:20 PM] Umbramatic: i would like a golden gorilla to snap my spine, killing me instantly [11:21 PM] Bocaj: "Take care of yourself, Jim. Death is a golden gorilla!" "Hey, it sure is!" [11:21 PM] maxwellelvis: "Death is a Golden Gorilla" almost sounds like something a Venture Bros. character would say. [11:21 PM] Wack'd: So uh, slight problem. This is Rich Buckler's last issue until 1989...buuuuuuuut he's gone inside of three pages, replaced with Pérez. [11:21 PM] maxwellelvis: Though they'd probably throw in a "glorious" in there as well. [11:21 PM] Wack'd: So I guess I do the post-mortem now? [11:22 PM] Bocaj: RIP Rick Buckler. I'll never forget your stick figures [11:23 PM] Bocaj: I shouldn't joke since I just googled and he actually is dead 😐 [11:23 PM] Wack'd: 😟 [11:23 PM] Umbramatic: oh [11:23 PM] Wack'd: So what is there to say about Rich Buckler? He's a good artist. He's pretty expressive. I like the way he draws the Thing. His two-page spreads and collage pages are really neat looking. He handles Kirbyisms pretty well. [11:23 PM] maxwellelvis: But he died in 2017 so he at least didn't die while in the middle of this issue. [11:24 PM] Bocaj: "Buckler drew virtually every major character at Marvel and DC, often as a cover artist" He was mad prolific [11:24 PM] maxwellelvis: Instead he probably either quit or got yanked [11:24 PM] Wack'd: A fundamental problem with doing postmortems for artists at this point is that everybody is still beholden to a house style. Being indistinguishable from your peers is a kind of strength. Any innovations you bring is just either neat new poses, like the Buscema punch, or new layouts. [11:25 PM] Wack'd: Like, I could rag on him for making Reed so beefy, but so what? So does everybody [11:25 PM] maxwellelvis: So now you can get a bit why people fell all over themselves praising guys like Todd McFarlane or Rob Liefeld? [11:25 PM] maxwellelvis: Maybe not Liefeld? [11:25 PM] Wack'd: As a Fantastic Four artist, he's good at drawing things the way they're supposed to be drawn, and finding new things to do in the margins. [11:25 PM] Bocaj: I assume it was an industry wide case of mass hysteria [11:25 PM] maxwellelvis: But McFarlane, Jim Lee, the Savage Dragon guy? [11:25 PM] Bocaj: Like when fifty people see a UFO [11:25 PM] Wack'd: I suspect until we hit the 80s, that's the best I'll be able to say of anybody. [11:26 PM] Bocaj: But its just swamp gas reflecting off of a weather balloon on Venus [11:27 PM] Wack'd: Here's Ben on page three, drawn by Buckler...

[11:27 PM] Bocaj: Thank god that in these modern 2010s we have a diversity of styles but nothing that looks like a pen threw up like some Image stuff being touted as the hotness. Except attempts at photorealism which look like shit [11:27 PM] Wack'd: And here's Ben on page 4, drawn by Pérez.

[11:27 PM] Bocaj: He combed his hair [11:27 PM] Bocaj: And his pecs [11:27 PM] Umbramatic: shiny [11:27 PM] maxwellelvis: And his chin [11:27 PM] Bocaj: He combed his chin [11:28 PM] Wack'd: Yeah. The differences are very slight. [11:29 PM] Wack'd: So anyway, we're doing danger room shenanigans. Ben is cheesed that he's falling down the power rankings [11:29 PM] Wack'd: Sure, Hulk was always a problem, but now he's losing to Thor and Hercules [11:29 PM] Wack'd: "Next thing ya know, a punk like Spider-Man will be mopping the floor with me!" [11:30 PM] Bocaj: The Avengers also had a danger room like room very briefly in the either 60s or 70s. They called it the Toy Box and then never mentioned it by name again [11:30 PM] Wack'd: "Andy's coming!" *Avengers collapse to the floor* [11:31 PM] Bocaj: Pfffft [11:31 PM] Bocaj: Incredible [11:31 PM] Umbramatic: pffff [11:31 PM] Wack'd: Another new power for Sue! She can now collapse numerous separate items into one force field [11:32 PM] Wack'd: Sue also tells Ben that Alicia has really taken to babysitting--"maybe she's trying to tell you something" [11:32 PM] Wack'd: And now I'm wondering if Ben can conceive while he's in Thing form, so thanks for that [11:33 PM] maxwellelvis: They could always adopt. [11:33 PM] Wack'd: True! [11:33 PM] Wack'd: Meanwhile Johnny and Frankie have reconciled, and Frankie says it's too early in the relationship for him to consider leaving the superhero life for her [11:33 PM] Wack'd: And she's okay with it in the meantime [11:34 PM] Wack'd: AND THEN A SPACESHIP CRASHES [11:34 PM] Wack'd: Johnny wants to go see if anybody's hurt, but Frankie asks him not to get involved, since the police have just showed up [11:35 PM] Wack'd: *michael bluth voice* I don't know what I expected

[11:35 PM] maxwellelvis: Frankie, Frankie, this is a comic book and that's a UFO. When cops show up, they tend to get vaporized. [11:35 PM] maxwellelvis: GIR! Unleash The Monkey! [11:36 PM] Wack'd: Golden Gorilla quickly jumps to giant size, and Johnny almost intervenes before remembering that flaming on freaks Frankie out [11:37 PM] Wack'd: And then it decides to climb the Baxter Building [11:37 PM] maxwellelvis: Because of course it does [11:37 PM] Wack'd: Also it grabs Sue [11:38 PM] maxwellelvis: I was just about to say, too bad there aren't any dark-haired women in this comic the gorilla could kidnap. [11:38 PM] Wack'd: Isn't that character traditionally a blonde? [11:38 PM] maxwellelvis: Yeah, but here the GORILLA is a blonde. [11:38 PM] Wack'd: Oooooooh [11:38 PM] Wack'd: Good goof [11:39 PM] maxwellelvis:

REED: "Well, looks like he's the Avengers' problem now." JAN: "HEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLPPPPPPP!"

[11:39 PM] Wack'd: Anyway something about the golden gorilla's glow is weakening Sue's powers [11:40 PM] Wack'd: Johnny, hearing about what happened on the radio, realizes that he can't keep himself from intervening just because his new girl doesn't like it [11:40 PM] Wack'd: "Why does every man I date eventually ditch me to go fight giant gorillas from space?"

[11:41 PM] maxwellelvis: I hope they have a good explanation for this, because this otherwise feels like a MAJOR overreaction on Frankie's part. [11:41 PM] Umbramatic: that's why i can never get a date [11:42 PM] Umbramatic: damn space gorillas [11:42 PM] maxwellelvis: Like, lady, it's not like he has a secret identity, you knew what you were getting into up front. [11:43 PM] Wack'd: I looked it up and we do eventually get a suitably convoluted explanation [11:46 PM] Wack'd: In the meantime, back to the story at hand [11:46 PM] Wack'd: Sue does a neat thing

[11:46 PM] maxwellelvis: Where'd that apron come from? [11:47 PM] Wack'd: She was making lunch earlier [11:47 PM] maxwellelvis: Ahh [11:47 PM] Wack'd: "I said lunch, not giant gorilla attack!" [11:48 PM] Wack'd: Anyway, Sue closes a force field around the gorilla, forcing it to shrink [11:48 PM] Bocaj: Sure [11:48 PM] Wack'd: I mean keep in mind we've already established that it can alter its size [11:48 PM] Wack'd: As far as Fantastic Four plots go this holds together pretty well [11:49 PM] maxwellelvis: I just remembered Ben Grimm's voice actor for the 1994/1996 cartoon was one of the Far-Out Space Nuts, @Wack'd [11:49 PM] Wack'd: Yes. I totally did that on purpose. You can't prove otherwise [11:50 PM] Wack'd: Anyway, the Four get the gorilla contained and--

[11:50 PM] Wack'd: I'm going to level with you! I did not see this coming!

#1976 #Roy Thomas #Rich Buckler #George Pérez #The Main Book

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livingasaghost · 4 years

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buckle up bitches we’re reflecting on high school tonight!

recently i’ve been dwelling a lot on ~the past~ mainly high school and it’s been really interesting because i feel like i can look back on everything more clearly now than i used to. like i’ve finally gotten enough space and perspective that it feels...distant. but also if i think too hard i can physically remember it all.

like part of what made high school such a TIME was that i had just started exploring other parts of the internet - obviously i got a tumblr, but i spent a majority of my time reading random blogs and stalking flickr profiles (this was pre-instagram my dudes) and watching youtube videos. and all of that resulted in me creating this version of myself that i thought didn’t exist. the one who read a bunch of cool books and wore rings and cute clothes, who ran a successful blog and took photos on her film camera all the time and wrote songs and posted them on the internet. who made playlists and mix cds and drove around in a janky mini-van (except it was ~cool~ ya know?) and went to bonfires with her friends and stayed up late watching movies at sleepovers....and it all felt like this dream i could never achieve. i just kept seeing it happen to other people and i pretended i was living their lives while i just sat on my couch after school eating cereal and watching reruns of what i like about you. and in truth, i do recall feeling very stuck. i was bored, didn’t have access to a car most of the time, and i also just like...didn’t WANT to go out into the world. i was really depressed and scared and i wanted everything to stay the same forever. (and plus i had a SHITTON of homework to do every night.) but in truth, looking back, i...had that life. that romantic life i wanted. maybe not to the extent that i expected, maybe not in a way that was truly as aesthetically pleasing as i wanted, but it was there. i did all those things. i had a stereotypical high school life. and hell i even did all that PRE-smart phone!!! which was actually great.

it’s just kind of shitty that for YEARS i convinced myself that my life wasn’t enough. like i spent all those months sitting on my parents’ couch on my laptop going “OH WOE IS ME I WISH MY LIFE WERE LIKE THIS PERSON’S!” but like.....did i not notice my parents making me dinner every night? did i not see all the stupid film i developed like a pretentious asshole? did i not notice all the cool books i was reading or the music i was listening to? it just sucks that i was romanticizing a life i already had and i COULDN’T RECOGNIZE THAT!!! so then, as i was considering all this, i wondered if maybe i was doing that now. if i have a life now that is what i actually want it to be but i’m so blinded by all the things i want to change that i can’t recognize it for the beautiful thing it is. like true the last 3 years have been hell and they’ve been weird and they changed me as a person, but goddammit they have been SPECTACULAR! and i don’t appreciate this time enough! i was in my early twenties and doing so many cool things - my job was so WEIRD! so unique! so interesting! - and yet at the end of the day i was still kinda depressed and upset with where i was at in life. i didn’t appreciate a damn thing.

growing old is interesting because you do get a chance to reassess your life every few years and you start seeing patterns and unhealthy ways of thinking, and yet you’re still you. like if 2010 jenna showed up we could talk for hours bc genuinely i still love 80% of the stuff she did. but i’d also have a stern talking to her about stuff like her political beliefs and the career she wants to pursue and the way she handles procrastination and her diet and her self-talk and so many things. because i recognize now all the weird stuff that was going on back then. i realize now that A BITCH SHOULD’VE GONE TO THERAPY BC SHE WAS DEPRESSED! but i couldn’t recognize it then. i didn’t realize a lot of things bc i was just young. and i’m sure in 10 years i’ll think “oh god remember when you were 24 and you thought you had it all figured out?” which is also pretty cool. because if i’m confident in who i am as a person right now, if i’m happy with myself and my life and my work, then that must mean that after ten more iterations of this “self” i will be somewhere INFINITELY better than where i am now. more than that, if it keeps happening, by the time i’m 40, 50, 60, 70, i will be....INCREDIBLE.

humans just love romanticizing things and i find it fascinating that we romanticize the past and the future but rarely the present. like right now i am sitting in my freezing cold room, on my full-sized white-sheeted bed with a fluffy blanket around my legs (i can’t feel my feet they’re so cold) and my hair’s up in a near-perfect messy bun. my room is....incredibly cluttered - i have boxes to my right that i need to pack things in, a suitcase ahead of me that’s overflowing with clothes, my space heater is ON, there’s chickfila on my desk from dinner, and i feel....so content. like it’s a mess, i’m ready to move, but this room has supported me for nearly four years now. i feel at home, happy, blessed. and i know in a few years i’ll be thinking back on this room, on this time, going “oh my god but that gallery wall i had! the lights were so cute! that room had so many bookshelves!!! it was eclectic but damn it was so nice and homey.” and i’ll forget the bugs i had to kill or the fact that i use like 2.5 bathrooms regularly or that the kitchen was gross or that it’s always freezing in the winter or that the hardwood floors were covered in hair...but there’s something romantic about that too isn’t there?

i guess i just miss ten years ago. even though i’d NEVER ever go back to who i was or what i had to do back then (2011-2012 was a bitch and i fucking hate her)...that was the first time i really felt like myself. like when i first found this website i really felt changed as a person. it was a place i felt seen, understood, where i could fully express myself even if no one heard me. and the life i lived back then was just...straight out of a stupid ya novel. with difficult classes and my friends inviting me to the occasional sleep over. i miss the stupid honors students who would always be so pretentious. i miss my german teacher who was annoying and loud but who always decorated her room with christmas lights during the winter months. i miss watching what i like about you reruns, honestly. and i miss flickr!!!! a lot! (i know it’s still around but it isn’t the same.) it’s just you never notice when you’re in something until you’re out of it. and then it’s over and all you can do is reflect on it and reminisce and wish you could go back. and even if history repeats itself, it never does so in the same way. like i can reread all my favorite books from ten years ago, but it doesn’t change the fact that i’m in a different stage of life, that i can never go back to who i was the first time i experienced all that.

life is just so goddamn long.

i really do wonder what my life will be like looking back on this time in ten years. i wonder where i’ll be then thinking about where i am now. who i’ll be. who i am.

#personal

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lulawiththesnakes · 5 years

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The whole way the Amber Heard vs Johny Depp issue has been treated by Tumblr and media in general is straight our UNbelievable. The claims people make hold so little ground it’s mindblowing that you people even dare make them.

Like, come on!

One, people claiming people believe Amber just because she is a woman. Like, first almost NOBODY believed her, like, you scroll down over post after post of people claiming that one, they never believed her and two, that everybody else did. Like, come on, be self-aware for once. And second, to claim people believe her (they don’t) because she IS a woman. Are you people blind? Do you have any idea of how difficult for a claim of abuse to pass is? Nobody believes women. Never. Women need tons of evidence: video, photos, audios, before their claims are even acknowledged, and you’re all out here pretending her womanhood is the only thing going for her. Smh.

Like, this is textbook. An abused woman not being believed. Being gaslighted into believeing she is the abuser instead. An abuser claiming he’s actually the abused one because his abusee dared not cowtow to his every wish. Give me a break. An abuser claiming the abusee cheats on or wants to cheat on him. Puh-lease.

Two, people claiming men’s lives (especially Depp’s) can be ruined by women’s claims. Are you kidding me? Depp got role after role after Amber’s statements (he made 2 movies in 2010, 2 in 2011, 1 in 2012, 2 in 2013, 3 in 2014, 2 in 2015 and suddenly, after Amber’s accusations: 4 in 2016, 2 in 2017, 4 in 2018 --just to make it clear - 10 in 5 years before the accusations, 10 in 3 years after, hardly the career of a “cancelled man”). Yes, they took away Jack Sparrow, but those movies were a trainwreck waiting to happen (On Stranger Tides made little more than half of what Dead man’s chest did, and Dead Men Tell No Tales made even less). Rebooting them is about money, not solely about Depp’s career, and claiming otherwise is completely disingenuous. Women’s accusations against men rarely, if ever, make any dent on men’s careers, and when they do it’s exceptional enough that people seem to believe the world itself has turned upside down and that women should shut up now and stop talking because somehow several women against one man finally having a consequence is “going too far” (80+ for Weinstein and 60 for Cosby. That’s how many women are needed to make a real life-altering effect on a man’s career. Take a minute to reflect on that).

Three, claiming that believeing Heard is going against male sufferers of abuse. Fuck you. I don’t believe Johny Depp is an abuse victim. That’s it. I think, in fact, he’s a text-book manipulator, who can’t help but try and show Heard who’s in control after she had finally regained some sense of it. I believe he decided, three years on, when he finally started to see that he was not on top of it as he believed, to ground on on her, refusing to let go of his hold on her.

When they divorced, it was agreed on that “neither had lied”, i.e., Amber had told the truth. They had a settlement in which he agreed to give her 7 million, and she pledged to donate them to charity. Mind you, she didn’t have to, it was her money and it had been given to her. Regardless, in an I’m-in-control-here move, she never touched a penny. Depp donated it, in her name, directly to charity, and nothing screams abuse and being obsessed about control as much as that move. Whether she should or would have given that money to charity is not the point here. What he did is. He took that decision away from her in a very deliverate movement, and claiming otherwise is asinine.

You know who’s actual career suffered from the whole affair? Amber’s, not Depp’s. From 2010 to 2015 she’d been in 15 movies and 1 TV show. Then suddenly, 2016, she lost movie roles (which were recast), and has since gotten 5 movie roles and one tv show one. And it wasn’t until now (March, 2019), when she recovered herself with Aquaman and came on top, that Depp decided to counterattack, only three months after she was both upheld as an ambassador of women’s rights, getting positive representation for once and her movie (aquaman) did well in box office and with the critics (kind of). Doesn’t that say anything to you? Doesn’t that speak to you about his need to not let her succeed and make her know she’s under HIS thumb?

Four, people keep claiming she’s a convicted abuser. What? Her ex, as Johny’s (btw, but somehow this only seems to matter when it’s his exes that defend him, nevermind that abusers don’t abuse everyone, just their victims, and that one of their main traits is how charming they can come across as most of the time, while victims are usually the less well-liked party, as they are traumatized by the abuse and can come across as unstable), has come out and claimed it was all a misunderstanding, that they were actually victims of discrimination, since they were a wlw couple.

Five, well, there’s no five. Just know that your attempts to undermine feminists and the #metoo movement just to defend a racist and downthrodden actor just because he happens to be a man, are transparent to a lot of us, and that you’re being completely hipocritical. Depp is far from the actor he was when he filmed Finding Neverland, the Secret Window and Sleepy Hollow.

#johny depp #anti johnny depp #amber heard #angry rant #i never do this #im so upset and tired of this narrative #and if im wrong well #it's not the end of the world and depp will fucking make it #he has the support of the entire planet #how can anyone defend him is beyond me #and of course #the necessary disclaimer #im not a native english speaker and im sorry for any mistakes #bleh

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elysiumwaits · 5 years

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Ely’s Ever-Changing Playlist - Sat. Aug 31st

You can find the playlist on Spotify right here. The Ever-Changing Playlist is best listened to on Shuffle Mode. I plan on updating this playlist every Saturday, and rotating songs out and in with new releases and whatever’s caught my fancy this week.

Feel free to send me music you like, I’m always open to new songs to listen to and I like literally every genre except death metal and polka. (I’m also not a big fan of musical theater, tbh). But like seriously, fuck polka.

This first playlist is a pretty eclectic mix of new releases and not-so-new releases, in a variety of genres. Probably a little heavy on the rock, to be honest, but that’s the mood I’m in this week. You’ll get whiplash, though, ‘cause there’s some good country and pop on here too.

Song list and comments are under the cut!

Scrawny by Wallows - I love self-deprecating but somehow still kind of cocky rock (like Polaroid by Imagine Dragons). They also have that bedroom rock kind of vibe that I love. Plus I love the line “I’m a scrawny motherfucker with a cool hairstyle” and hardcore relate to the line “I say the wrong shit at the right time.”

Wild Roses by Of Monsters and Men - I honestly didn’t know how to feel about the new album for a couple of weeks. They’ve definitely gone for a more pop vibe to their songs - Alligator was catchy but it seems like a lot of the songs on their Fever Dream album just don’t have the same lyrical depth as songs like King and Lionheart or Wolves Without Teeth or Little Talks. It’s a good song - catchy, like I said - but honestly I was hoping for better when I heard a new album was coming out.

Blame It On my Youth by Blink-182 - This may actually be my most highly-anticipated release this year. For one thing, Blame It On My Youth actually sounds like Blink-182, like you could follow it with All the Small Things and there’d be no real musical shift. Which is honestly amazing, considering how much they’ve been through as a band, and of course, the lineup changes. Hoppus still sounds like Hoppus, though, and the music is still that glorious “fuck you, watch this” guitar that kickstarted the whole early 2000s guitar rock (you wouldn’t have FOB without Blink-182, and you can tell in the early FOB albums). I love to see Nine come out on September 20th - Blink-182 is a legendary band in the punk genre and hearing this song felt like coming home. “I was bored to death, so I started a band/ Cut my teeth on the Safety Dance, my attention span never stood a chance.”

Love All Night (Work All Day) by Yola - You know those gentle 70s rock/soul songs? Vaguely influenced by country, definitely influenced by R&B, leave you with a feeling of home and comfort while also kind of inspiring you to go out and work on some social change? It’s definitely got a Memphis rock vibe, but it also really made me want to listen to The Temptations and Creedence Clearwater Revival. The best part about it is that this album came out this year.

Circles by Post Malone - I’m actually a huge Post Malone fan, because I’m a huge Fleetwood Mac fan. You might be wondering how those two things add up. Post Malone cites one of his major influences to be Stevie Nicks, and in fact his vocal (when he sings, instead of rapping) draws a lot from Stevie’s unique vibrato and slurring of the words. Circles captures this beautifully, but if you really want the best that Post Malone has to offer (in the singing department, I’ll fight people over how good Wow. is), you really need to check out his remix and mashup of Fleetwood Mac’s Dreams from his August 26th mixtape. Check it out here. The unfortunate thing is that it can only be found on Youtube or the mixtape app DatPiff.

Drive by The Cars - So this is on the list because Tim McGraw put out a cover, and I usually like Tim McGraw, but Drive is not a song you can make a country cover out of. You can’t do it. Listen to this one instead of the Tim McGraw version, and if you’re really wanting a Tim McGraw fix, Neon Church is good.

Refugee by Melissa Etheridge - Speaking of covers, this is my girl Melissa’s cover of Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker’s Refugee, and frankly, I like it more. She goes hard, is the thing, sings every word like she fuckin’ well means it. That’s the thing about Melissa Etheridge, she is passionate about her music. This cover was released on her greatest hits album in 2005 - fun fact, this album included four new songs total, including I Run for Life, written for others, like Melissa, who have gone through breast cancer. It’s a damn good album, I had to recently buy a new hard copy because I wore the first CD out.

Mornin’s Gonna Come by Brent Cobb - I actually don’t know why this hit the Apple playlists this week, considering it was released on the album Providence Canyon back in 2018. It’s a pretty southern-rock style song, despite the country label, and sounds like a party song right up until you’re listening to the lyrics. Turns out it’s about the fact that everything done in the dark will eventually come to light, whether that’s a hangover or something deeper.

Soon You’ll Get Better by Taylor Swift feat. Dixie Chicks - Okay, listen. I love this song. Hearing Natalie come in on the vocals in the background for the first time since 2006 made me bawl. The Dixie Chicks were the main music of my childhood, I grew up with Wide Open Spaces and Fly. Add in the poignant lyrics about watching someone struggle through illness - Taylor opens up in an article that it’s about her parents’ battles with cancer, but we all take something away from music we listen to and it made me cry because I relate to it from a mental and chronic illness standpoint.

60 & Punk by Death Cab for Cutie - So, Death Cab actually has a new EP coming out and the new single on it Kids in 99 is pretty good, but I’m still stuck on their album Thank You for Today. I don’t know if it was my stint in the Pacific Northwest that kickstarted my Death Cab love, or if I’m just naturally drawn to their music, but I would argue that Thank You for Today may be their best album. 60 & Punk is sad, honestly, about watching your heroes grow old and give into the world around them. But it’s good.

Reaper Man by Mother Mother - Mother Mother is one of my favorite bands, and Reaper Man is right up there in my self-deprecating-but-cocky genre. Released in 2014, and a staple on my playlists since.

Head Above Water by Avril Lavigne feat. Travis Clark (of We The Kings) - Okay, raise your hand if you can still sing Complicated or Sk8er Boi from memory, because I sure as hell can. I can also do Check Yes Juliet from memory, because I grabbed it off the free iTunes download back in the day before it ever blew up - I’m a hipster. Anyway, Avril’s surfaced with a frankly marvelous album about growing up, getting divorced, and dealing with the devastating effects of Lyme disease. This is a bonus single - you can find her solo version on the album also titled Head Above Water.

Hollow by Barns Courtney - There’s really no deep meaning to this one for me, I just really love Barns Courtney and haven’t found something they’ve put out that I didn’t like yet. Catchy and rock and pop, this song makes me want to dance.

Summer Girl by Haim - Everyone I knew back in 2013, in my little pocket of rural America, turned their noses up at Haim. I was like, “Oh my god, they’re amazing!” and my coworkers are like “Why does she sing like that?” It was weird to me because The Wire was named one of the best songs of the year, hit charts all over the place - weird. Anyway, Summer Girl has a super lowkey acoustic vibe, and I love it.

Far From Born Again by Alex Cameron - So Alex Cameron is pretty hit or miss for me - I either hate what he puts out, or I obsess over it. Far From Born Again is an obsess-song, because it’s honest-to-god the best sex worker song I’ve ever heard. Every time a “positive” sex worker song comes out, it’s always something like Porn Star Dancing or Shakin’ Hands or Pay Me. The worker is always over-sexualized and vilified in some way or another, and frankly, it’s exhausting. I like Far From Born Again because it’s super realistic to my experiences - lines like “It ain’t your goddamn business if she does it for pay” and “pays bills while you all still text jerks” and “she’s a woman earning more than a man” - puts the focus where it should be. She’s not some over-sexed nympho doing it for the thrill of it, it’s a job that she’s good at.

Don’t Call It Love by Quiet Riot - So, literally everyone has heard Cum On Feel the Noize or Metal Health. It’s interesting to see Quiet Riot pop on charts again, especially considering that they haven’t had a founding member of the band in the lineup since 2010. That said, the members currently do include Banali and Wright, who were in the band at the height of Quiet Riot’s success in the mid 80s. Current vocals are done by James Durbin, as the vocalist Kevin DuBrow passed in 2007. Quiet Riot as we know it was revived mostly to celebrate the memory of DuBrow, actually, and on the insistence of DuBrow’s mother.

Last Day Under the Sun by Volbeat - I just really fuckin’ love Volbeat. That unique mix of hard rock and rockabilly, mixed with my frankly inappropriate feelings for Michael Poulson’s voice, gets me every time. I was drawn in by Lola Montez and here we are today.

All Apologies - Live & Loud by Nirvana - So this live album was actually released in 2013, and just popped up on my feed because it was just put onto Apple Music, which is where I get all my music from. You can also watch the whole concert for free, which I can’t bring myself to do yet. Nirvana is my favorite band of all time - literally of all time - and All Apologies has the ability to bring me to tears. I actually have “All in All is All We Are” tattooed on my back. Vinyl is coming out, concert is up, go live your grunge baby dreams with me.

Black Hole Sun (Live from The Artists’ Den) by Soundgarden - So this is a recent release of their 2013 Artist’s Den concert. It’s a bittersweet release for the band, who decided earlier this year to disband after the death of Chris Cornell, following their only concert without him. They chose to release the live album because they remember how much fun Chris had that night, according to a Spin article. Of the major original Seattle grunge bands, that means that only a few remain - Alice in Chains lost Layne Staley, Nirvana lost Kurt Cobain, and Soundgarden lost Chris Cornell. Pearl Jam is still going strong, though. (Technically Alice in Chains is still active, but DuVall has nothing on Staley).

Can You Feel It? by White Eskimo - Okay, so following all that rock trivia, I was absolutely floored when I found out that White Eskimo had recent music... because I only know them as the band that Harry Styles was in before One Direction. Anyway, it’s a pretty catchy pop-punk song, I dig it. I love that the first actual info I found about them, with current news, was on the Harry Styles wiki.

Lullaby by Kalie Shorr - Here’s that whiplash again, how about some country? Brand new country, even. I have a bone to pick with country lately about how it all sounds like pop with exaggerated accents and how that pisses me off, but I like the acoustic vibe Kalie Shorr has going on. It’s that good old country song about loving someone you shouldn’t and then letting them go. She honestly reminds me a lot of Sunny Sweeney.

Tennessee Whiskey (Live from City Winery Nashville) by Sara Evans and Olivia Barker - This is a classic country song, written for a half-drunk slow dance with your sweetie at the dive bar (which is honestly the best way to hear it, not gonna lie). The best version is the without a doubt Chris Stapleton’s cover, and this cover is a cover of that cover, but if you want to go back, it was originally recorded by country great David Allan Coe - of “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” fame if you do the bar circuit like I do. It was also recorded by George Jones in the 80s, and then a bunch of other people. There’s a reason Sara Evans is a modern country great.

The Chain (from The Kitchen) by the Highwomen - I got a lot of bones to pick with the Highwomen - I don’t like them and I’m not afraid to say it. I think it comes from the fact that The Highwaymen was created by the pioneers of outlaw country, who were pretty much on the outskirts of country music due to their lifestyles and other factors. The Highwomen have good sound and good writing, but they’re all pretty mainstream, and they should have chosen a different name. Anyway. This is a good country cover.

The Daughters by Little Big Town - I like this song because it tackles a lot of issues still prevalent in societies in country and rural areas, primarily feminism. A lot of people don’t realize that out here in the sticks, the gender norms are alive and well - if you don’t have a kid by 21 and you’re a girl, you’re out of the norm and you’re gonna die alone. You get a lot of women who get married young, then spend their lives cooking and cleaning and never thinking about anything more because this is all they know, this is what their mothers did. The song goes over the delicate balance a woman plays down here - you have to be strong but not too strong, and you have to “know your place.”

The Louvre by Lorde - I wasn’t a fan of Lorde’s second album at first, because I was very much stuck in the sound of the first. It’s growing on me.

Remember the Name by Ed Sheeran, Eminem, and 50 Cent - So I’m a big fan of Ed Sheeran, and my mom loves Eminem and 50 Cent. I like some Eminem, and some 50 Cent, but overall I’m not a fan of rap. What I like about this song is that it sounds like an early Eminem a la “The Real Slim Shady” so it’s catchy and easy for my audio processing issues to follow. I also just dig cocky songs.

20 Something by SZA - I started listening to SZA when my brother sent me the DJ Khaled song Just Us that featured her vocal. I love her voice and lyrics, and also the fact that my little bro relates so much to a lot of her music that it sometimes makes him cry (apparently Just Us made him cry). 20 Something is my favorite off her debut album - I mean, everyone I know is a 20-something right now, and the lyrics hit home.

#ely's ever-changing playlist #spotify #playlist #music

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Text

•Title of the Text:

PACQUIAO MAKES CASE FOR FIGHT OF THE YEAR, FIGHTER OF THE YEAR

•Author of the text:

Roy Luarca

•TITLE of the JOURNAL/PUBLICATION: RAPPLER

•Synthesis:

Manny Pacquiao, in full Emmanuel Dapidran Pacquiao, byname Pac-Man, (born December 17, 1978, Kibawe, Bukidnon province, Mindanao, Philippines), professional boxer, media celebrity, and politician who became world-famous for winning boxing titles in more weight classes than any other boxer in history.

His rise from abject poverty to the pinnacle of his sport was made even more remarkable by his life outside the ring. The charismatic “Pac-Man” was an idol and a unifying force in the Philippines, where his unprecedented popularity led to commercial endorsements, movies, television shows, CDs, and his image on a postage stamp.

Pacquiao started boxing at the age of 14 while living in the streets of Manila and turned professional when he was 16 years old. He had a record of 60–4 as an amateur and currently has a record of 62–7–2 as a professional, with 39 wins by knockout.

"Many of you know me as a legendary boxer, and I'm proud of that," he said. "However, that journey was not always easy. When I was younger, I became a fighter because I had to survive. I had nothing. I had no one to depend on except myself. I realized that boxing was something I was good at, and I trained hard so that I could keep myself and my family alive".

With Manny’s boxing style once he is within range, Pacquiao is one of the finest combination punchers in the sport. Earlier in his career, his natural speed and punching power made his straight left hand a devastating punch. But once again, Roach built on the existing strengths of his fighter. By taking Manny’s hand speed and punching power, marrying it with his stamina and adding a variety of punches to his arsenal, Roach helped Pacquiao become an explosive, unpredictable, offensive wrecking ball.

With his speed, punching power in both hands, an arsenal of punches at his disposal and the stamina to put punches together in large numbers, Pacquiao became one of the most entertaining fighters in the sport. At his peak, it was not unusual to see Manny repeatedly reel off six, seven or even eight punch combinations throughout his fights.

These power punching combinations, together with his footwork, was what made Pacquiao so effective. There is a sporting cliché that offense is the best form of defence and rarely has a single athlete embodied that saying more than Manny Pacquiao. Buzzing into range and firing off a volley of power punches forced all but the most skilled of counter punchers to cover up and try to weather the storm. By the time his assault had ended and his opponent had even begun to think about firing back, Pacquiao had buzzed safely back out of range and out of harm’s way.

After his victory was announced, Pacquiao said of Thurman: "He's not an easy opponent. He's a good boxer, he's strong." The Fighting Senator doubled-down on his statement in the press conference, wherein he called Thurman a "very tough" opponent."He's heavy-handed, not like other opponents I faced before," said Pacquaio. "This guy – he can fight."Pacquiao compared Thurman's punching power to that of Antonio Margarito, whom he beat via unanimous decision when they fought in November 2010.

The Filipino ring icon also sought to encourage Thurman, who had talked trash all throughout the build up to the bout but proved classy in defeat."His journey does not end tonight," Pacquiao said of Thurman. "He has a lot of future . . . Don't be discourage; this is part of boxing.""I know he's not over, he's not finished. This guy is a warrior," he added. "I can say that, because I've been fighting a lot of opponents, and this guy is heavy-handed.

The kind of opponent you cannot underestimate."Thurman, for his part, acknowledged that he got beat by the better man that night."I've always said I'm not afraid to let my '0' go, if you can beat me," he said on Twitter after the bout. "Manny Pacquiao beat me tonight. Hats off to the Senator on a great performance."

Keith Thurman vowed to end Manny Pacquiao's career but it was the Filipino boxing legend who taught his younger rival a lesson in Las Vegas.

The 40-year-old set the tone by flooring Thurman in the first round with a straight right hand and won the 12-round bout on a split decision to become the oldest welterweight champion in history.

•EVIDENCE THAT SUPPORTS THE MAIN IDEA:

Already a sure of Hall of Fames, Pacquiao climbed further in the ladder of boxing greats with a convincing beating of the previously untouchable Keith Thurman on Saturday, July 20.

His Fighter of the Year plums in 2006, 2008 and 2009 were enough to merit Pacquiao the Fighter of the Decade award (2001-2010), putting him in the illustrious company of all-time greats like Sugar Ray Robinson (only two-time Fighter of the Decade Awardee), Muhammad Ali (60’s), Roberto Duran (70’s), Sugar Ray Leonard (80’s), and Roy Jones Jr. (90’s).

Links:

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/21/sport/pacquiao-thurman-boxing-welterweight-las-vegas-intl-spt/index.html?no-st=1564321554

https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/07/21/19/pacquiao-lauds-heavy-handed-thurman-calls-him-a-warrior?fbclid=IwAR1vpNJpBsTfoLgYfP9R6d2B2foMy7DOGWsCoA5htnlRqSclVd_GktnVQaQ

https://punditarena.com/boxing/mmccarthy/manny-pacquiao-stylistic-analysis/?fbclid=IwAR3VQt4_SiYOgYOZvK6QkO9dc1sfG5qii-5xWYQkOMdIn3KZ4MU_FrAT6a4

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manny_Pacquiao?fbclid=IwAR2RkAMsByzshwW6PFOY5bhUni0lzMnv6uAGh-M2oV9LSkUhYjdYYASTFFk

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Manny-Pacquiao

(Source: google.com)

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