#stands on the fringes of superhero society

[age-of-moonknight]

“Session,” Moon Knight (Vol. 9/2021), #10.

Writer: Jed MacKay; Penciler and Inker: Alessandro Cappuccio; Colorist: Rachelle Rosenberg; Letterer: Cory Petit

[vintagegeekculture]

The Pulp Scifi That Inspired the X-Men

I wrote before about the sources of inspiration behind King Kong and Conan the Barbarian, as both of these were so far back in time the things that inspired them are not really read much.

With the X-Men, it’s important to remember that a subgenre of science fiction once existed about mutants who we identified with because they were persecuted and feared by normal humans, which allowed authors to use science fiction to explore the idea of alienation. X-Men is a part of this trend, and seems unique because it’s the only one from this long-standing trend that is actively discussed today. Really, this is a kind of story all people who feel gifted or alienated are compelled to create.

  Slan by A.E. van Vogt

Slan is a story about Jommy Cross, a young boy who watches his parents die in front of him in the first chapter, hunted by the government because they are a telepathic, superintelligent and superstrong subrace of humans with antenna on their heads known as Slans. Slans are hunted to extinction by the corrupt government ruled by the world dictator, Kier Gray. Jommy has to go into hiding, wearing a hat to hide his tendrils.

It’s a good bet that if you think about other planets a lot, it’s because you think this one is somehow a painful and unsuitable place to be for you. Slan is an extraordinarily well written novel that is still intriguing and mysterious even today, it always tops my list of recommendations when people ask me about pulp scifi because it absolutely holds up. What makes it so important is that scifi fandom responded with an unusually strong sense of identification. The circumstances and history of the Slan are not exactly like that of outsiders who are ostracized and “different,” but we relate to emotions, not specific life details. A lot of people who were homosexual, who’s parents are drunks and like to beat them, who were sexually abused, or extremely poor and alienated from richer peers, or just “on the outside looking in” can relate to the Slans. Scifi fans, who’s culture was incredibly fringe, called themselves “Slans” for years in fanzines an fan communications.

It’s no exaggeration to say that for the 1940s to the 1950s, Slan was the most beloved and widely read and influential science fiction novel, and maybe one of the best, too.

  Mutant (aka the “Baldies” stories) by Henry Kuttner

Maybe one of the best of scifi’s forgotten geniuses of the 1940s, Henry Kuttner’s Baldies books are actually a post-atomic story, about a community of telepathic mutants known as “baldies” who hide away from a human race that fears and hates them. All Baldies were linked in a telepathic uni-mind, so none of them were ever alone. The narrator is the last surviving member of his species; the enemy is the prejudice and paranoia of the self-destructive human race.

Children of the Atom by Wilmar H. Shiras

The idea of a school as a setting where mutant children can get refuge and hide from a prejudiced world that doesn’t understand them comes from this book. 

In this one, due to atomic radiation, a sub-race of superintelligent humans emerges. They don’t have any mental powers except their superintelligence. The Children of the Atom take refuge in a school who’s true purpose is unknown. In the finale of the book, a human preacher leads a mob to the door of their school, which makes the Children realize they can’t isolate themselves from the rest of mankind.

  Odd John by Olaf Stapledon

Olaf Stapledon used to be a big deal. He inspired Asimov, C.S. Lewis, and Heinlein with his extraordinary “Last and First Men,” a story set over a billion years about the entire sweep of human history. But one of his more interesting novels was “Odd John,” a novel about the first “evil mutant.” Odd John is a charismatic and sometimes truly creepy antihero, an unusual mutant born ahead of his time; he switches between sympathetic and monstrous. We see his brutal mistreatment at the hands of the human race, but then see him use his powers on women in eerie ways, and see the hardened person he became, who created an island kingdom and base separate from the rest of the human race, a move that the evil mutants in Marvel, in imitation of Odd John, often did several times.

A lot of people identify the evil mutants with militant black leftists, but in the actual comics themselves, their worldview had way less to do with Marx and Malcolm X (as with “Dune is about oil,” that a giveaway someone hasn’t read it and just knows about it), and way more to do with some combination of Nietzsche and Captain Nemo. Like Nietzsche, their worldview is that traditional human morality doesn’t apply to them as another species. Each evil mutant is Nietzsche’s conception of the superman, elevated beyond good and evil and a “sovereign citizen” laws can’t govern. Nietchean “will to power” thinking is found in every single speech by Magneto. Likewise, like Captain Nemo, they are often driven by an urge for solitude in places they can’t be commanded by the small mindedness and petty tyranny of humans. Odd John combined both of these together: he was a Nietzchean superman who had a cruel disdain for ordinary morality, who’s strongest desire was to be left alone.

He That Hath Wings by Edmond Hamilton

 The Angel has a very specific point of origin: a wonderful and tragic story about a mutant born with wings by “Planet Smasher” Edmond Hamilton, who was always fascinated by notions of mutation and human evolution; he invented the story about the “guy who invents an evolution ray.”

The titular mutant is a man born with wings, who, when he falls in love, cuts them off to blend in with the normal human race. He loves his wife so much he gave up flight for her, but unexpectedly, his wings grow back at the end. He knows he has to get rid of them to blend into society, but he is allowed one last night of flight. 

 Gladiator by Philip Wylie

Fans of Superman probably know this novel as one of the major inspirations for the creation of Superman (possibly THE major inspiration), with Hugo Danner, an artificially created mutant who is superstrong, invulnerable, and able to “leap tall buildings in a single bound.”

I’d compare Philip Wylie to Michael Crichton: he was the one “bestseller” scifi novelist at a time when scifi was ghettoized. His work was regularly on the best seller list, including “When Worlds Collide,” a novel that created the “disaster” genre as we know it today, and is still influential through it’s film adaptation.

Philip Wylie’s Gladiator didn’t just create Superman. The angst and anger over being in a world you never made that later became a big part of the superhero story was all right there from the beginning. Hugo Danner was a misanthrope who’s attempts to help were stopped by a senseless and incomprehending mankind that feared and hated him. Like Slan, this is yet another novel from the past that is surprisingly readable and good today.

  The Humanoids by Jack Williamson

This is where the Sentinels came from.

To be clear: Jack Williamson did not invent the idea of robots who turn on the human race. But the very specific kind of robot the Sentinels are comes from the Humanoids, a novel about robots that take the instruction to protect mankind incredibly literally to the point they become dictators and ruthlessly command us, and battles consist of them adapting instantly to whatever strategies the human race uses.

[thinkingaboutscreech-blog]

This is the entire description, personality, and information on Infernix. It’s long as heck so be warned. Seriously, it’s freakin long. It’s mostly here for my own reference when writing her character or commissioning stuff, but feel free to read if reading about other people’s OCs is your thing <3

One sentence description: Full-time crazy bird lady, part-time reluctant super hero

General

Full Name: Holly Burns Nickname: Nix, Nixy Reason for nickname: Shortened version of her super hero name, Infernix Age: 26 years Sex: Female Gender: Female Place of Birth: United Kingdom Birthday: 20th October Currently living in: Municiberg Species/Race: Human [super] Ethnicity: Caucasian Occupation: Works at a rescue centre for birds given up by their owners Sexual Orientation: Bisexual Social Status: Middle class Relationship Status: In a relationship/married (depending on the timeline) Status: Alive

Appearance

Body Build: Slender, but with chubby hips Height: 5’4” Weight: 120lbs Skin colour: Pale Hair style: Long, comes down to mid-back. Straight with fringe over right side Hair colour: Brown Eye colour: Dark brown Distinguishing Features: Has a tattoo of two feathers in a heart shape on her left collarbone, has single piercing in each ear Preferred Clothing: Casual; jeans and a shirt with either a cartoon character or a bird on it Accessories: Blue topaz earrings, hairclip with topaz and amethyst beads and two phoenix feathers

Supersuit: Over-the-knee boots with a flame colour design, over-the-elbow red gloves, white suit with a yellow belt and a phoenix emblem on the chest, attached to the belt is three large phoenix tail feathers and the same beads as those on her hairclip, her mask is curved up at the ends to imitate eyelashes and goes over her nose like a beak, and is orange with three purple accents in each corner

Likes/Dislikes

Likes: Birds, heights, flying, birds, the sky, nature, birds, cartoons, boats, warm days, night time, socks that have animal faces on them, seafood, birds   Dislikes: Planes (it’s not natural flying!), small spaces, spiders, people who don’t like birds, spicy food, really loud music

Hobbies

Bird watching, reading, going for nature hikes in forests and woodland, watching documentaries, aviculture, collecting precious stones

Habits

Has retained many habits from her time spent as a phoenix. She will spend a lot of time “preening” her hair, she makes clicking noises with her tongue when she is happy, she feels awkward about how to position her hands so she usually keeps them against her chest when standing, and she will make bird-like squawks or chirps when startled or curious. Oh and she hisses (like a swan) when angry.

Strengths/Weaknesses

Strengths: Intelligent, fast healing, able to shapeshift into a phoenix which grants her flight, temporary immortality, and fire powers

Weakness: Water extinguishes her fire, certain soundwaves disrupt her ability to maintain her transformation, if the phoenix is “killed” then she is forced back into her human form which has no other powers and will be physically exhausted, is quite easy to emotionally manipulate

Skills/Abilities

Infernix is a super, and her super power is shapeshifting. She can only shapeshift into one thing, and that is a giant fire bird phoenix. Her phoenix is around 10-15 feet high, depending on the amount of energy she can expend into the transformation. She can maintain this transformation indefinitely, but once she changes back, she is physically exhausted and must rest before being able to transform again. In her fire bird form, Infernix can fly, communicate with any bird species, breathe fire, and is immune to any damage from heat/fire sources. She can also speak and understand English as a phoenix. The true power of the fire bird is to engulf itself in flames and burn everything around it, but she has not achieved this yet. As a phoenix, she is of course immortal. She can feel pain and be injured, and even experience the pain of death, but instead of dying, she simply is forced back into her human self. This only applies to her phoenix form, and as a human she is mortal. She has some hand-to-hand combat skills, but nothing advanced. She is quite intelligent, and because the size of her phoenix makes it impractical for her to transform in crowded cities and built up areas, she is usually the ‘brains’ and takes on the planner/sleuther role for fighting crime. Her phoenix has high raw power though, and is very useful in large-scale supervillain battles. As a human she has no other particular powers, except that she recovers faster than normal from injuries and illnesses.

Fears

Spiders, being trapped (especially underground), anything bad happening to Screech, and she has an irrational fear of one day waking up and not being able to use her powers any more and being trapped in her human body forever

Personality

Very emotionally attentive - feels emotions strongly. This can be good as it means she is very loving and very appreciative of little things, but it also means she is sensitive and easily hurt/angered by other people

Very kind and caring towards every living thing, believes that every life is important no matter what body it’s in. Very empathetic and compassionate

Brave, especially when protecting others

Very maternal towards those she cares about

Stubborn, often believes she is right and can be argumentative. Can find it hard to accept when she’s wrong or know when to stop

A lot of her kindness is aimed at animals and the disadvantaged and vulnerable (e.g. children, the elderly). When dealing with typical, healthy humans she can be selfish as she is not used to socialising, and firmly holds the belief that animals (birds) are purer than people

In her human body she is unsure of herself and doesn’t always feel ‘right’. Only feels ‘normal’ when she is in her phoenix form. She is slowly getting more used to it

Relationships

Family: Not in contact with them, except Gus Burns (Reflux), who is her great uncle. In the future, she has 4 children with Screech: Jay (male, 15), Raven (female, 13), and twins Skyler and Robin - (both male, 5) Love interest: Screech (Boyfriend/husband depending on timelime) Friends/Allies: He-Lectrix, Krushauer, Voyd, Winston Deavor, Brick Enemies: Currently none. Not an enemy, but she’s kinda mad at Edna Mode because she criticized Infernix’s giant phoenix tail feathers on her costume

History

Infernix did not discover her powers until very late compared to other supers. During ages 5-10, she was a ‘normal’ kid. She was bullied heavily at school, because she didn’t make any friends and would spend her playtime looking for birds and feeding them. The other kids would call her ‘bird girl’ and throw things like birdseed at her. At age 11, her emotions were running very high, and she could not shake the feeling that she was in the wrong body. She didn’t feel like a human, she felt like a bird. When she saw birds in the sky she felt jealous of them and felt like she just wanted to join them. When she looked at her arms, she saw unnatural, lanky limbs, and they just didn’t feel right. There should be wings there. These limbs aren’t hers. The human body is so weirdly shaped and hairy. Where were her feathers? She felt they were meant to be there, but they were missing. It was then that her first transformation happened, and it terrified the life out of her. It didn’t last long because she could not sustain it. Not sure what was going on, and thinking it was some kind of fever dream, she tried to pretend it never happened. Until it happened again and again, each time when she felt tremendous energy from her emotions. Eventually she was able to bring it under control, so she could decide exactly when she transformed and when she transformed back. She kept her powers hidden, and her family never knew about them; she was never close to them. Aside from learning to control it, she never really experimented with her powers, so she never achieved her full potential. She was pretty content this way for a while, until she met a man she fell hard for. She was infatuated with him, totally smitten, and he appeared to be the same with her. They had a relationship for two years, during which he subtly destroyed her self-esteem without her realising, and then used that to emotionally manipulate and abuse her. The relationship ended when she discovered he had not only been married the entire time, but had a child too. Heartbroken, she spiraled into depression. She felt totally betrayed by humanity, and felt less connected to her species than ever before. Birds never betrayed her trust like this, they were always loving and never had secret intentions. So, she decided she was going to transform into a phoenix and live in the wild amongst the birds. She lived this way for years, completely missing the events of the first and second Incredibles movies.

After the events of the second movie, the “Wannabes” created their own superhero team. Winston was eager to locate the supers who had survived the Omnidroid. Infernix was listed as one such super, since she had powers she was on the NSA database, but since no one had seen her years, she kind of got forgotten. So the “Wannabes” eventually located her, and tried to convince her to return to society. She refused. But they persisted, and reluctantly she agreed, but on the condition that she can stay a phoenix. She took an immediate interest in Screech because she felt he was a fellow bird-enthusiast, who might possibly understand how she felt. Screech of course marveled at her, because she was a giant bird, but that was strictly it. Not long after, during a super villain fight, the phoenix was ‘killed’ and Infernix was forced back into her human body. It took her a long time to adjust, even things like walking felt weird. But now as a human, she and Screech began to bond better. They would talk about birds, and no one but them understood their crazy passion. At one point, Infernix hit a very low spot, after trying to locate her family and being unable to. She confessed to Screech that she felt she had made a terrible choice in running away and had ruined her life. She felt torn between her two lives, and felt like an outcast among other people, because they never understood her and she never understood them. Screech comforted her and told her that he knew how she felt, that he too had been thought of as ‘weird’ for his owl-like habits and appearance, but that he still had a place here with his new friends, and so did she. From that moment, she and Screech began spending a lot more time together, and eventually he gathered the courage to ask her out on a date. Gradually they fell in love, with Infernix loving Screech for his honesty, passion, and pure intentions, and Screech loving Infernix for her similar passion, and her ability to always be loving and kind to people even after the resentment and bitterness she went through.

Trivia

Thinks popcorn counts as a vegetable

Has several pet birds, including 4 budgies, a cockatiel, a pigeon, and a screech owl. Would like a cockatoo

The feathers on her costume are real phoenix feathers, taken from her phoenix form. They do not give her any special powers and are only for display

Does not actually consider herself a superhero; she’d much rather spend time with her birds than fight crime, and she only does so because she thinks it’s the only reason the “Wannabes” remain her friends and she doesn’t want to lose them

Aside from Screech, the person she gets on most with is Voyd. Voyd’s naturally caring and enthusiastic nature makes her feel comfortable

She doesn’t really interact with the Parr family much and thinks Bob’s name is Bill. She also calls Elastigirl “Elasticalgirl” which mildly annoys Helen sometimes

She gets very offended when people call pigeons ‘rats with wings’

Favourites

Food: Sea food, particularly crab, lobster, scallops, and mussels Colour: Orange Animal: Budgerigar Number: 4 Holiday: Christmas Season: Winter Time of day: Night Genre of music: Cheesy love songs Genre of literature: Non-fiction Genre of shows: Documentary Genre of movies: Horror

Health

General health: Excellent, she heals from illness and injuries quickly Any physical illnesses?: No Any mental illnesses?: BDD Take drugs?: No Smoke?: No

Mental/Emotional State

Archetype: The “Everyman”or the “Lover” Act before thinking/Think before acting?: Think before acting Emotion-wise, generally: Pretty mature, but wears her heart on her sleeve

Conversation

Way of speaking: Has a North-Atlantic accent, is well-spoken except for when she is excited Common conversation starter: “Do you like birds?” Swears?: Occasionally, but only for hyperbole effect, not when angry

Education/Intelligence

Education: Has a degree in ornithology IQ: 140 EQ: 100

Secrets

Before her and Screech were a couple, she had a giant plush owl that she called Screech and cuddled at night pretending it was him

She likes cats but distrusts them, because “they eat birds”

Everything in her apartment is bird-themed; bird plates, bird mugs, bird ornaments, bird plushies, bird cushions, etc.

She cannot talk to/understand birds when not in her phoenix form, but she talks to them as if they understand her anyway

She’s into BDSM, specifically as a dom

She likes drawing and thinks she’s pretty good but she’s actually really, really bad at it

[sapphicscholar]

Prompt: hi hello thanks for all the fic you write i flipping love every word of it if you find the time/inspo could you write a fic where lena gets mad at kara for not tell her about being supergirl and it’s gets angsty AF but then happy ending :)

A/N: This is fairly canon compliant post-3x12, save for the James and Lena romance arc. Since I started writing it before ep. 13, I’m not dealing with the fact that Lena seems to have realized Sam’s double identity as Reign.

Chapter Text:

Lena wakes most mornings to dreams about everything that’s happened in the past couple of weeks, but one particular set of memories has haunted her sleeping hours more than any other. All too often she wakes to memories of strong arms wrapped around her and wind whipping through her hair the way it had when Supergirl caught her. She wakes to flashes of Kara’s face looking straight ahead, her eyes flickering down at Lena every so often, worry etched in her features so deep Lena fears it will never fade.

Over coffee, Lena tries to remind herself that Kara laughed at the suggestion, dismissed it as ludicrous. And she was poisoned—that much was easy enough to confirm. There’s no reason that the poison couldn’t have created illusions that seemed as true as any memory. Not that she has much reason to trust her memories, either; after all, she swore she had distinct memories of Lex’s being loving and caring and not at all the kind of person who would slaughter innocent people for a vendetta against a superhero. So she casts her dreams as just that—dreams—and discounts her own memories as nothing more than products of an overactive imagination. Kara is her best friend. Kara has told her time and time again that she trusts her and believes in her. There’s no reason Kara would keep a whole part of her life secret from Lena for this long.

As the weeks fly by in a rush of too much paperwork at both of her companies, and holding Sam’s hand after doctor’s appointments when she hears once more that no one knows what’s wrong with her, and coverage of Reign’s destruction with a new woman who calls herself Purity by her side, Lena doesn’t have too much time to dwell on the question of Kara and Supergirl’s identities. But she still finds herself making idle observations that leave her queasy with doubt, with growing certainty that Kara has been lying to her for over a year.

It starts simply. She prints out full-sized photos of Kara and Supergirl, both of them smiling and cropped down to only the face because the posture is nothing more than a distraction, Lena has realized. Lena has seen Kara with her hair down, has watched it cascade in soft waves over her shoulders before she pulls it back up into a messy bun at game night or movie night. She knows that the difference in hair in those photos is nothing more than superficial. It’s the same color, about the same length. The smile is a little different. Kara’s smile always seems to be halfway on its journey into a laugh, her mouth open a little and the crinkles by her eyes obvious. Supergirl’s smiles seem more professional, like she knows there are cameras everywhere trained on her and knows what they expect of her, what they need from her. So Lena discounts those differences as well. The eyes—Kara’s might be behind those glasses, but Lena pulls out a ruler, going so far as to compare eye size and ratios. Then there’s that little scar, often hidden behind the swoop of Supergirl’s flowing hair but present—provably present. And oh, it seems like damning evidence.

She wonders what someone would think if they saw her with the two headshots and a notebook full of observations. Would she look like Lex? Is she as bad as Lex? She tells herself no, she can’t be; she isn’t doing this to harm Supergirl, after all. She’s doing this to…well, she isn’t quite sure. But Lena knows for certain that she has to know the truth.

The next round of observations involves spending more time with Kara—something she’s never been opposed to, though now she feels a little dirty, like she’s deceiving Kara, even as she finds more and more proof that the woman’s been doing the same to her. There are the broken lunch dates or the movie nights that end early with promises to reschedule and rambled excuses about forgotten meetings or emergency calls from family. All but one time, those disappearances coincided with Supergirl’s arrival on the scene of some would-be tragedy, and Lena feels a whirl of emotions churning somewhere deep inside of her. It isn’t anger per se—she’s happy that people aren’t dying because their resident hero was there to save the day—but it’s something close, something like betrayal and frustration mixed with an excruciating, overwhelming sadness that threatens to consume her. Kara’s always apologetic when she returns, but it’s never for the right reasons, and Lena suspects Kara sees through her murmured, “It’s fine,” each time.

With every bit of proof, Lena feels herself pulling away. She tries once or twice to get Kara to trust her. She tried bringing up the dreams again about Kara whisking her away like Supergirl. She tried asking Kara about where she went, why she wasn’t at her desk during the workday or in mandatory meetings. And each time Kara babbled off some semi-incoherent lie about a lead or an emergency—“gosh, no, not a life-threatening emergency, just, um, family stuff!”—that left Lena more and more certain that Kara was indeed Supergirl and didn’t trust Lena enough to tell her.

It all comes to a head when Reign swoops in through CatCo on a Saturday. Almost no one is in the office. She’s there, of course, and James is in his office with Winn whisper-yelling at him about something from the night before and “safety first” and not having “signed up for this.” Kara had gamely offered to come in with Lena when she mentioned needing to pick up some contracts. In retrospect, she wonders if Kara knew Reign was following Lena. Reign barely even gives a speech this time—something about CatCo’s refusal to publish the truth, their siding with criminals and the evil in society—before she moves to attack.

Lena watches the flash of hesitation on Kara’s expression that lasts barely a few seconds. As Reign sends a blast of heat vision directly at Lena, Lena barely has time to register the attack or Kara’s movements before Kara is standing in front of her, glasses thrown off somewhere, heat vision from her own eyes pushing back Reign’s. She’s still in her Kara Danvers clothes, and Lena can’t help but note that as she follows Winn and James around the office, trying to find an escape route, neither of them look even a little bit shocked at the realization that Kara is Supergirl. And oh, she could have dealt with the lying had Kara been doing it to everyone, but seeing that these two know, seeing that they’d been trusted, allowed in to see a level and a side of Kara that she had not…she doesn’t know if she’ll survive that kind of betrayal.

She watches Kara fight more fiercely than Supergirl ever has. Her expression has never looked less like Kara’s than when Reign comes for Lena once more, and Kara charges at the villain, knocking her to the side and crashing through rows and rows of desks before Reign even seems to realize that her path has been forcibly altered. Eventually James gets them into a stairwell, and a team of people Lena sees in the fringes of CatCo’s Supergirl coverage swarm the building, guns blazing and barking orders. She sees Alex, and her heart sinks a little further. She’s wearing a suit that looks far too much like the one her mother wore the last time she saw her, and Lena wonders if they’ve repurposed it. She yells for someone to “get the civilians outta here” before charging into battle, no thought for her own human mortality. As Lena is shepherded down the back stairwell, she wonders if Alex would act the same were Supergirl not her sister. Then again, the woman had thrown herself in front of a loaded gun for Lena before even having met her, so perhaps she would.

Lena doesn’t see Kara leave the building, but she catches a flash of blonde hair from behind a sea of agents clad in all black and then the telltale glowing green of Alex’s suit.

A few days later, Kara texts her: “Can I come over?”

Lena tries to figure out where she wants to have this conversation. She thinks about going to Kara’s instead because she can leave if things get to be too much. But ultimately she relents, sending back, “Fine.”

A few minutes later, Kara is at her door, clutching two to-go cups from Noonan’s. She looks awkward and more than a little exhausted. She’d been out sick from CatCo both Monday and Tuesday—a fact that had left James and Winn on edge—but if the speed is any indication, she’s at least back up to normal.

“Hi.” Kara shuffles her feet and waits for Lena to step back before she dares to cross the threshold. “I got this for you.”

Lena accepts the cup with a small nod.

“I guess you probably remember Saturday, huh?”

“Would you have preferred I didn’t?” Lena asks coolly. A small part of her feels guilty for the pained expression that distorts Kara’s features, but her overwhelming impulse is still to demand answers.

“Lena,” Kara sighs, “it’s not like that.”

“Then tell me what it is like.” Lena sneers the last two words, feeling anger building at how lightly Kara seems to be treating it all. “Because from where I stand it looks like no matter how much you told me that you trusted me, no matter how many times I saved the world and abandoned my own family to do it, you wouldn’t tell me this massive thing about you.”

“That’s not fair,” Kara shoots back, her voice taking on an indignant pitch.

“No, Kara, I don’t think you quite get what that means.” And oh, Lena can hear herself getting too close to the Luthor side she always worried lurked inside of her, but she can’t quite seem to stop herself either. “You told me Kara Danvers believed in me, that Supergirl trusted me. But neither of those were true. You let me give up a family because I assumed I had people in my corner, even when you knew all along that you weren’t really all the way there, wouldn’t let me all the way in the same way I did for you.”

“You know what, I don’t have to stand here and apologize.” Kara looks angrier then, angrier than Lena’s ever seen her. “I don’t owe you—or anyone, for that matter—a confession or an explanation.”

“Don’t have to apologize for lying to me every day for over a year?”

“Do you not remember when we met for the first interview?” Kara nearly laughs incredulously. “You remember what you were pitching, yeah? A freaking alien detection device to sell to employers because they had the right to know whether their employees were ‘hiding something from them.’ Do you know how incredibly unsettling that was for me?”

“I—” Lena begins, but Kara’s not nearly done yet.

“You were standing there telling me that who I am is something that can and should be used against me if a person isn’t okay with aliens, no matter what rights the president has tried to give us.”

“I eventually pulled the device, didn’t I?”

“Your first instinct was still to make it!”

“It’s been over a year since then! In that time, when have I ever turned my back on you? Or would you rather focus on my family? Want to count up how many times I’ve been accused of being on their side? Or maybe we should talk about that time I went to prison.”

“I defended you then—as Kara and Supergirl.”

“But even after I almost died for you—again—you still wouldn’t tell me the truth.”

“Why is it so important to you that you know? Why do you think I owed that to you?”

Lena swallows the hurt, bites back the explanations that she feels utterly broken by the knowledge that Kara didn’t trust her enough to tell her; it’s safer to focus on anger and indignation—it always has been. “You told everyone else. Winn, James—they weren’t exactly surprised to see Kara Danvers going head-to-head with Reign. The only thing they seemed shocked about was that you did it in front of me.”

“I—they knew a long time ago, Lena. Before I ever met you. Hell, James knew before he even met me, and Winn found out on day one, well, two technically, because I had to tell someone, anyone!”

“So what? I’m just supposed to accept that I didn’t get the same privilege because I’m not your oldest friend? Tell me, Kara, does Maggie know?”

“That’s different.”

“How? I met you before she even met Alex.” Lena doesn’t point out that Kara also had her ups and downs with Maggie—points they had discussed in detail over ice cream while Lena felt herself falling just a little harder at how protective Kara could be over her sister.

“She figured it out on her own.”

“So did I! I asked you about it, and you convinced me I was poisoned with fake memories. And then I tried again and again to give you space for honesty, and every time you laughed and tried to make me seem crazy for even suggesting it.”

“I’m sorry,” Kara finally relents.

“For what?”

“For making you feel like you were crazy.”

“But not for not telling me.”

“I didn’t owe that to you!”

“Fine.” Lena gestures to the door, knowing if they keep going, she’ll end up doing something she regrets, like crying and confessing that she’d given her friendship, her heart, her most vulnerable moments to this woman who couldn’t trust her with her own secret.

Kara seems to be on the verge of saying something, but eventually she drops her head, her shoulders slumping slightly, and she walks out the door without a second look back.

For the next few months, Lena throws herself into work back at L-Corp, managing CatCo from a distance. She spends almost all of her waking moments working, and when she gets home, there’s always a sleeping pill or a glass of wine to help her relax just enough to crash for a few hours. She keeps up on Supergirl coverage, but she never attempt to ask about it, never wants to give the impression that she’s meddling or particularly curious.

For the first time in a while, Lena lets herself leave the office at a reasonable hour one Friday, making it home by 8. She finds Kara sitting outside her door, a bag of takeout on the ground beside her.

“We need to talk,” Kara says.

Lena wants to point out that Kara lost the right to tell her what she does and does not need to do, that there isn’t much of a “we” these days anyway. But she also finds her heart speeding up just a bit. She’s missed Kara, missed the easiness of their nights together, missed having someone she genuinely enjoyed being around, someone who didn’t just see her as a Luthor or their boss. So instead she unlocks the door and holds it open behind her.

“I brought dinner.” Kara begins pulling out different cartons and goes so far as to use her heat vision to warm them back up again.

“You could’ve saved me on some of those utility bills over the months,” Lena points out, unable to hold back the snark.

“Did the latest multi-billion dollar acquisition deplete your funds?” Kara teases, looking like she’s not entirely sure that it’s alright to do so.

“What do you want, Kara?” And the question might sound harsh, but Lena sits down at the table. She’s been angry—with both Kara and herself in turn—and sad and bitter over the past few months, but most of all, she’s been lonely.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry for not telling you sooner. There were a few times when I was so close to doing it. And, yeah, at first I didn’t tell you because I didn’t know how you’d react. Supergirl was the one who told you about your mother the first time, and you still had devices that seemed designed to hurt people like me, people not from this planet.” Lena nods; she doesn’t like it, but she understands more now, gets how things looked to someone who wasn’t in her head, couldn’t know all of her reasoning and her thought processes. “But then we got closer.”

“We did.”

“And I realized you were good—not just good in the way that most people are—”

“The way you believe most people are,” Lena interjects.

“Fine, sure. But you were a different level of good. And no matter how many times your family or the media came after you, you just kept proving yourself and saving the world—sometimes doing a better job of it than Supergirl—than me.”

“So then why didn’t you trust me?”

“Do you remember what you said to me on your couch one night?”

“Probably,” Lena admits

“You told me that Kara Danvers was your hero.” Lena nods; she remembers the night vividly. “Do you know how few people would say that?”

“Kara, you are a hero.”

Kara sighs and shakes her head. “There have been times when even I thought that maybe Kara wasn’t worth salvaging, that it was Supergirl who mattered. And when I had friends—close friends, best friends even—who were out there talking about how their regular personas weren’t enough, that they needed to be a hero to do good for this city, it was hard to believe that other people wouldn’t think the same. And yeah, I had people like Alex and Cat, well, Cat when she was still here, who told me that Kara Danvers mattered. But you called her a hero, Lena. You called her a hero even though you knew her when Supergirl already existed. Alex and Cat—they knew me before I was ever Supergirl. But you—you didn’t, and you still thought that about me.”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“You’re really not getting how special that makes you, are you?” Kara looked almost frustrated. “You treated Supergirl differently than you treated me—not like a villain or an alien you didn’t trust, but it…it was more distant, you know? And that’s the way people treat Supergirl. She literally isn’t one of them, and that’s probably for the best. But people also—well, some people, at least—they worship Supergirl. They’d love me for that persona, not for who I am behind the cape and boots and cool powers, because they’d never even want to get to know that person.”

“I already know that person, Kara. I already know her and like her and want to spend time with her.”

“I know! I just…I guess there was a little, selfish part of me that wanted to keep one person in my life who only knew me as Kara Danvers. I didn’t want things to change. I…well, I kind of needed this—not this, I guess, but you and me hanging out and eating food and watching silly movies without the weight of the world on my shoulders. I didn’t…I don’t want you to look at me every time a siren goes off because sometimes it’s not an emergency, but I don’t want to have to worry about looking bad or disappointing you.”

“You could never disappoint me. You’re still human—or, maybe that’s the wrong word, but you’re still another person. You need time off to be yourself and relax. And I would never want to take that from you.”

“Really?”

Lena hated how vulnerable Kara looked then, like there were too many people out there who had crushed her with the weight of their expectations or let her believe that Supergirl mattered more than Kara ever could. “I promise.”

[anthonydarnell]

Spoilers to follow.

The best Westerns don't have happy endings. Movies like Unforgiven, High Noon, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid end on the lowest of low notes. Our heroes save the day, but they make tremendous personal sacrifices (most often their lives) in order to do so.

Of course, as far as endings go, there's nothing better than John Ford's The Searchers. Ethan Edwards, a haggard and out-of-place Civil War veteran (John Wayne), rescues his abducted niece (Natalie Wood) and returns her safely home. In one of cinemas most famous and bittersweet scenes, Edwards turns around, forgotten by his family, and walks off into the desert silhouetted by a doorway. It's a near-perfect ending. The doorway is a threshold between the outlaw West and civilization; a metaphor for the character's internal struggle to find his place in the modern world.

In Logan, the 10th installment of the X-Men film series, Wolverine (a brilliant and understated Hugh Jackman) has finally found his place. It's a superhero Western by way of Paper Moon and Children of Men.

If there's been one overarching theme throughout the X-Men film series, it's been Wolverine's struggle to show compassion, to give way to selflessness, and to finally be a true member of the X-Men.

For a movie that's been hyped as an R-rated gore fest, Logan is impressively quiet and restrained. In the year 2029, mutants are on the brink of extinction and pushed to the fringes of society. Wolverine is ailing from his adamantium implants, working as a limo driver, and caring for the beyond-frail Charles Xavier (portrayed by the legendary Patrick Stewart). Unlike any other superhero film, Logan shows characters dealing with the reality of age and the aging process. It's beautiful.

You've probably already guessed, but one terrible thing leads to the next and, before you know it, Xavier and Wolverine get caught up in a Mad Max-style dash across the American heartland to save Wolverine's biological daughter.

And then shit just gets worse and worse (if you don't know already, Logan isn't a "fun" movie).

But finally, on the brink of death, after losing everyone he's loved or cared about (including Xavier), Wolverine rescues his daughter, insures her freedom, and secures the future for the next generation of mutants.

In a moment of pure genius, director and co-writer James Mangold shows us that Wolverine is finally part of the X-Men. After giving a beautiful eulogy, his daughter rotates the cross on his grave to form an X and the movie ends. Eat your heart out, John Ford!

I have a complicated relationship with X-Men. I was born in 1985 (today's my birthday in fact) and I vividly remember watching X-Men: The Animated Series, which ran from 1992-1997, on Saturday mornings. It was my absolute favorite cartoon. The first movie I ever went to see in theaters alone was X2: X-Men United when it was released in 2003.

I'm 32-years-old and X-Men has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. I love the characters and the social messages of acceptance (though heavy-handed) that the series imparts to children and adults alike. Of all the superhero franchises, I think that X-Men has an important role to play in modern society. The only pop-culture equivalent that I can think of is Star Trek.

I found myself emotionally drained after watching Logan. These are characters I've cared about and invested a lot of time into. And now, until they're resurrected again at least, they're dead.

If there's one thing that George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire has taught us is that it's important for characters, both heroes and villains, to die. Yes, it's shocking and thrilling, but it also cements their mythology and underlines their importance to the story.

This is why Harrison Ford was right about Han Solo, he should have died in Return of the Jedi. It would have given the movie and the character an emotional depth and resonance that it doesn't have.

Unfortunately, I know that Xavier and Wolverine (and Han Solo for that matter) will return to the screen in the future and that detracts from the ending of Logan. I would love for this to be their finale, but I know they'll be back again. If there's one thing I know about A Song of Ice and Fire, is that when characters die, they don't necessarily come back AND I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THAT.

The unfortunate part about modern storytelling is that there's always another story to tell with these characters. The characters never have a true ending so nothing really matters. Xavier already died in X-Men: The Last Stand, but he's back to die a second time. Strange how that happens.

For me, Logan is really about the actors playing those characters and their story. From what Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart have reported, this will be their last outing in those roles. I know these characters will live on, but the actors won't and that's what truly breaks my heart.

Carrie Fisher is Princess Leia. Patrick Stewart is Charles Xavier (and Captain Picard!). Hugh Jackman is Wolverine. Harrison Ford is Han Solo (and Indiana Jones!). Leonard Nimoy is Spock.

These people define these characters as much as the characters define them.

It's funny that Logan heavily references Shane. In Shane, the wounded titular hero rides off into the sunset and you don't know if he lives or dies. In a world of reboots and retcon, that seems like the most perfect of endings. There's always hope that they'll be back again.

“Now you run on home to your mother, and tell her...tell her everything's all right. And there aren't any more guns in the valley.”

[sciencespies]

Hero Shrews’ Extreme, Superstrong Backbones Are the Stuff of Legend

https://sciencespies.com/news/hero-shrews-extreme-superstrong-backbones-are-the-stuff-of-legend/

Hero Shrews’ Extreme, Superstrong Backbones Are the Stuff of Legend

Conspicuously absent from the long list of animals that have inspired pop culture superheroes are shrews—small, mole-like mammals that love to eat insects. But perhaps these demure little creatures have shirked the spotlight for far too long.

Take, for instance, the hero shrew (technically, two species: Scutisorex somereni and Scutisorex thori)—an animal with an extraordinarily strong, flexible backbone that’s absurdly difficult to break. Stories of its remarkable resilience abound among the Mangbetu people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who reportedly astonished Western explorers in the 1910s by demonstrating that a grown man could stand on the tiny mammal’s back without hurting it.

This tale of anatomical heroism “may or may not be apocryphal,” says Stephanie Smith, a vertebrate functional morphologist at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, in an interview with Jake Buehler at Science News.

But Smith and her colleagues now have solid data to back up other aspects of these creatures’ superpowered spines at a level of detail that’s never been seen before. By scanning the internal structures of the shrews’ vertebrae, they’ve come up with some theories about how their unusual anatomy evolved, and how the animals put it to use in daily life. The findings are reported this week in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

As Jason Bittel reports for National Geographic, hero shrews—native to the Congo Basin—are tough to study in their natural habitat, much of which intersects with regions that have been troubled with political unrest in recent decades. Smith and paleontologist Kenneth Angielczyk turned instead to 16 hero shrew specimens already in the Field Museum’s collections. The pair scanned the animals’ skeletons, comparing them to those of four goliath shrews, which belong to a related species of similar size, but with a notably different spine.

Goliath shrews have vertebrae that, by and large, resemble the bones of other mammals, including us humans: Stacked atop one another in a somewhat loose formation, they’re sturdy but relatively thin, with a spongy interior. Hero shrews, Smith and Angielczyk found, have taken this motif and built enormously upon it, broadening and thickening the typical mammalian spine. Each of their vertebrae are dense and heavily reinforced—features that make the spine sturdier—and fringed with fingerlike projections that interlock the bones together when the shrews contract their muscles.

“It makes the unit more like a single block of bone than regular vertebrae, which are more like bendy units,” Smith tells Science News. This allows the shrews to scrunch their spines up like inchworms, according to a statement, and withstand an enormous amount of force for their weight and size, which is comparable to that of a rat.

The researchers still aren’t sure why hero shrews—and so far, it seems, only hero shrews—evolved these gnarly backbones. One theory posits that the little mammals’ super-strong help them wedge themselves into tight spaces at the base of palm trunks, where they forage for insects or larvae, though this has never been documented, Smith tells National Geographic.

“Backbones are an important part of how animals move, yet we understand surprisingly little about them,” Katrina Jones, an evolutionary biologist at Harvard University, tells Science News. Given how difficult it is to monitor hero shrews in the wild, the new study represents “an important step in understanding this adaptation.”

#News

[tripstations]

The UK’s best seaside events and attractions for summer 2019 | Travel

Watersports

Boardmasters (from £69 day ticket/£179 five-day camping ticket, 7-11 August) is a surfing and music festival in Newquay, Cornwall. Headliners at Watergate Bay are Wu-Tang Clan, Florence and the Machine and Foals, while pro-surfing, skating and BMX competitions take place on Fistral Beach. As well as surfing, festivalgoers can go paddleboarding, coasteering or kayaking, join daily beach yoga sessions or chill out in wood-fired hot tubs.

Wheels and Fins (from £36 day ticket/£103 weekend camping, 7-8 September) is another sporty festival right on the beach, at Joss Bay in Broadstairs, Kent, with surfing, paddleboarding and yoga, pro-skateboarders and a punk lineup topped by Slaves. The Beach Life festival (free entry, 13-14 July) in Eastbourne, East Sussex, has taster sessions of sailing, windsurfing and paddleboarding (£10 each), a giant paddleboard race, plus land-based sports such as skating, including an outdoor roller derby.

Art

Fringe by the Sea, North Berwick

Festival of the Sky (free, 6-8 September) is an inventive new arts event in Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, taking place on the beach, the promenade and around town. The programme includes an immersive fire garden, a night-time hot air balloon show, kite festival, dance procession, street show with giant illuminated animals, an aerial performance from an “urban astronaut”, a Rajasthani brass band and circus, a cloud-watching storytelling event, and more.

Elsewhere, the Ventnor Fringe (from £3, 23-28 July) on the Isle of Wight is celebrating its 10th anniversary with a packed schedule of standup, live music, poetry and theatre; Fringe by the Sea (free and ticketed, 2-11 August) has 160 arty events around North Berwick on the East Lothian coast; and this year’s Arts by the Sea (mainly free, 27-29 September) festival in Bournemouth is themed around mental health.

Family

Dreamland, Margate

Dreamland amusement park in Margate, Kent, has a Roller Coast festival (mainly free, 19 July to 1 September) throughout the summer holidays. Each week has a different theme, from superheroes to science. During Carnival Week, visitors can learn to samba, make a mask and sing along to The Greatest Showman. Rainbow Week celebrates Pride, Street Fest has BMX stunts and Channel 5’s Milkshake takes over for the final week. The Margate Caves are also reopening this summer after a 15-year closure.

So Festival, Lincolnshire. Photograph: JMA Photography

In north Devon, the Sea Ilfracombe festival (free, 31 August-1 September) has traditional entertainment such a Punch & Judy, sandcastle competitions and treasure hunts, plus have-a-go sailing, paddleboarding and kayaking . The So festival (free, 30 August to 1 September) in Mablethorpe and Skegness, Lincolnshire, is a family-friendly outdoor arts event with circus, acrobatics, comedy and street theatre.

Nature

The White Cliffs Walking Festival, Kent

The Shetland Nature festival (free and ticketed events, until 14 July) is a series of guided walks, talks and days out, including a whale watch, otter-spotting, boat trips to see seabirds, bog walks and rockpooling. The White Cliffs Walking festival (mainly free, 22-28 August) has coastal and clifftop walks in Sandwich, Deal, Dover and the surrounding Kent countryside. Nature walks include a Sandwich Bay route to the marshes and bird observatory, coming back along the sand dunes and river. The Marine Conservation Society is recruiting volunteers for its annual Great British Beach Clean (20-23 September). Thousands of people will clear Britain’s sands of plastic pollution and other waste.

Food

Lymington Seafood Festival

The Nyetimber Dorset Seafood festival (free entry, 13-14 July) on Weymouth harbour has nearly 100 stalls serving fishy dishes such as popcorn cockles, hot pollack dogs, brown crab bhajis and cuttlefish croquettes. There are demonstrations by chefs including Mitch Tonks and Mark Hix, masterclasses on filleting, barbecuing and crab prep, a family show about sea turtles – and lots of English sparkling wine.

Later in the summer, the Lymington Seafood festival (free entry, 10-11 August) in Hampshire has live soul, jazz and blues. The Moveable Feast (£3, 13 July, Porthmadog, 27 July, Llandudno, 17 August, Benllech and 24 August, Amlwch) is a travelling food festival in north-west Wales with local producers, brewers and distillers, plus craft stalls and live music. In the Isles of Scilly, intrepid diners can attend a barbecue in the middle of the sea: twice a year, the tides recedes to reveal a sandbar between Tresco and Bryher, usually hidden under 20ft of water. This summer the Low Tide Event (free entry, 1 September) also features a gin bar, paella stand and rock’n’roll band.

Cinema

Luna Beach Cinema, Brighton

Big screens on the sands are a growing trend. This year, the Luna Beach Cinema is back in Brighton with recent releases (Bohemian Rhapsody, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again), classics (Grease, Top Gun) and family favourites, such as Moana, and The Little Mermaid (from £12.50 adult, £8 child, 31 July-18 August). Two beaches in St Ives, Cornwall, have open-air cinemas this summer.

Porthmeor Beach’s programme includes The Greatest Showman and Mary Poppins Returns (£5, 12 and 31 July, 14 and 28 August), while Porthminster Beach has Castaway and Finding Nemo, among others (£9.95, 21 and 28 July, 4, 11, 18 and 25 August). Other options include the first Cinema on the Beach in Aldeburgh, Suffolk (9 and 10 August) and the Cinema by the Sea in Barry Island, Glamorgan (24 and 25 August).

Regattas

Whitby Regatta fireworks. Photograph: Colin Carter Photography

Many have heard of Cowes Week (10-17 August) but there are lots of lesser-know regattas around the UK that make a great day out. As well as the yachting races, Salcombe Regatta in Devon features a sandcastle competition, an ice-cream-eating contest, a harbour swim and a firework display (mainly free, 3-10 August). The Gara Rock hotel is hosting the closing party (£30, 10 August). The Whitby Regatta in North Yorkshire has yachting, rowing and rafting races, plus a greasy pole competition, circus workshops, a dog show and stargazing parties (mainly free, 10-12 August). The Cardigan Bay Regatta has sailing races every day, plus children’s competitions on day one, swimming and rowing contests on day two, and crabbing and raft-building on day three (mainly free, 22-24 August).

Maritime

Charlestown Harbour, Cornwall

Charlestown Harbour, the Unesco-listed Georgian harbour in Cornwall where Poldark is filmed, is holding its first Classic Sail festival this summer. Highlights include a “parade of sail” as tall ships enter the harbour, live music from the British folk band Mad Dog Mcrea and pirate-themed activities for children, plus the chance to visit one of Europe’s biggest shipwreck museums (mainly free, 30 August-1 September). The Great Yarmouth Maritime festival on South Quay has visiting ships to go aboard, three stages of folk musicians and sea shanty singers, street theatre and maritime skills demonstrations (mainly free, 7-8 September). Tarbert in Argyll and Bute holds 10 festivals a year, including a Traditional Boat festival, when vessels from Scotland and Ireland visit the harbour, including a two-masted gaff-rig cutter built in 1903 (mainly free, 20-21 July).

Music

Tunes on the Sands, Blackpool

There’s no need to jet off to Croatia to find a music festival on the beach – there are plenty in the UK. Tunes on the Sands (day tickets from £44, weekend tickets from £97, camping £45pp, 12-14 July) is a new festival on Blackpool Sands in Devon, a sister festival to May’s Tunes in the Dunes on Perranporth beach in Cornwall. The inaugural Sands lineup includes Wet Wet Wet, the Hoosiers and KT Tunstall; there is a big top with circus activities, a silent disco, a gin terrace, a cocktail bar and street food.

The Victorious festival (from £35/£110/£130, 23-25 August) in Portsmouth is right next to the beach and has a seaside stage – headliners are Two Door Cinema Club, Rudimental and New Order. Sand Fest (£50, 14 July) on Sandbanks beach in Poole, Dorset, features top DJs and live acts including Chase & Status.

Other sports

British Beach Sports Champs, Branksome Chine Beach, near Bournemouth

Britain’s beaches are hosting exciting spectator sports over the summer. There are more than 70 beach volleyball events around the UK, and elite players can be seen in action in the Grand Slam Series (free, 13-14 July, Bridlington; 27-28 July, Weymouth and 17-18 August, Bournemouth). Sand Polo, the British Beach Polo Championships, is at Sandbanks in Poole. Tickets include entry to the afterparties on the beach (from £30 one day/£55 two, 12 and 13 July).

The British Beach Sports Champs take place on Branksome Chine beach, near Bournemouth. As well as beach handball, now in its seventh year, the 2019 event includes beach netball for the first time (£10, 2-4 August). This year’s Beach Rugby Wales tournament in Swansea Bay will feature 54 teams from all over the UK. Welsh, Irish and New Zealand national players have appeared in previous tournaments (free, 3 August).

The post The UK’s best seaside events and attractions for summer 2019 | Travel appeared first on Tripstations.

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[albie79]

Do you ever come up with half an idea? Like the outline to a story without really knowing how to start/end it? Do you then put it to one side and come up with another half-idea?

I seem to have a collection of half-ideas, destined never to be completed. I figured I’d get some of them out there to an audience, to see if any of you can spark some imagination in me to complete these particular stories.

The first is one I’ve mentioned before, Hindsight Boy. So, yes, something similar was done by South Park (and previously Marvel), but the idea has stayed with me for years. Here’s the gist…

Young lad living in a Sea City apartment with his aunt and her abusive boyfriend. He is often locked in his barren bedroom, hearing his aunt being verbally and physically assaulted. He's never been brave enough to call the police or strong enough to interject, fearing for his own safety. He finds an escape in climbing out of the window and onto the roof of the building, where he can see the city. He follows sirens as they fly past, running from rooftop to rooftop with his self-taught free running skills as he heads to the scene of the crime/accident/fire. Years of doing this has given him an uncanny knack of knowing what the emergency services do, and what they should have done when things go awry. One particular night he is spotted by a fireman after they have failed to save a family in a burning building, he tells him what he should have done, to which the fireman responds "what are you, hindsight boy?" He starts to try and get to incidents quicker, telling the emergency services what they should do, but they ignore him. But some start to realise that he's right and they take him under their wing. One day he runs right to a domestic violence case, which reminds him of his aunt's situation. And that's where things take a turn...

So that’s the set-up, and I know how I want it to end too, I’ve just not got the middle bit sorted. I have the first chapter written, in prose, but I’m not sure if that’s the best format for the story, I’ve started to picture it more as a one off graphic novel more recently. I’ve never got past writing more than that first chapter though.

Part of the idea behind Hindsight Boy was “what if Uncle Ben was a dick to Aunt May?” or “What if Thomas Wayne was the criminal and not the victim?” The superhero stories so often have a character that helps mould them and gives them their moral guidance. But what happens when that person is a grade A arsehole?

I guess that aspect has become interesting to me again more recently, with me becoming a father in the near future and becoming more and more aware of just how much our kids learn from us; whether we intend them to or not.

The one thing I’m up for changing though… the name. Too similar to South Park’s Captain Hindsight or Marvel’s Hindsight Lad (who is often included on lists of the worst superheroes of all time).

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Hindsight Lad

Captain Hindsight

After putting Hindsight Boy on the back burner I came up with a character called Han and the crew of idiots he works with. The Secret Life of Han was born.

Han is a health insurance claims assessor for Avenue Health just outside Sea City. He works with a bunch of morons, lives on his own and hates most things in existence. So he's your bog standard single British guy in his 30's. Except he wears a wrestling mask and cape to work and people are starting to think he's a former superhero. "The 6" were a British Superhero group who disappeared ten years ago after a massive brawl between them ended with them sinking the Isle of Wight. Some think they all died in the incident, others believe they are being held in some secret super-prison at the bottom of the English Channel and some believe they were mind-wiped by the government and put back into society.

Avenue Health was to be my version of Aviva, based on my time working there. The characters were amalgamations of the people I worked with, I picked character traits from a few different people to create each character… with the exception of Zack. Zack would just be Zack, a carbon copy. For those unfamiliar with Zack, check out @ZackRandom on twitter to see some of his best quotes.

For this idea I imagined a comic book, and I have the first issue scripted and the next 11 issues outlined very briefly. But I kept changing my mind about what I wanted to happen and I just stopped writing it.

Part of me wanted to never see superheroes in the story, so the “is he/isn’t he” mystery would never truly be solved and would instead the whole thing would be some kind of Office Space/Scott Pilgrim inspired weirdness.

Secret Life of Han is kind of saying “we don’t need heroes to save us, we just need to not be so fucking stupid and self-obsessed”.

My original design for Han

Fast forward to this year and another idea struck me. This one I call OAP: Old and Powerful.

Follows an ageing superhero who has retired from active duty, enjoying some peace on the South Coast, in Pier City. His body may be too weak to fight crime, but his powers are still enough for him to fly around the retirement home - a handy ability for someone whose joints are riddled with arthritis and who finds it hard to stand unaided. New heroes haven't appeared since his generation began to age. Some old heroes, like him, are retired. Some continued to fight too long and passed away, heart attacks and strokes being common amongst the hero community. But the villains, they never seem to go away, and when one begins causing problems for our hero, he has to take some unusual steps to save his retirement home.

This one’s a bit more basic, but then I did only think of it recently! But it’s another story that’s on the fringes of superhero stories, just with a little twist. I think this one is inspired more than a little by Bubba Ho-Tep, and definitely needs a lot more work.

Elvis & JFK get ready to battle evil in Bubba Ho-Tep

So, what do you think of my ideas? Got any suggestions or critiques? I’d be interested to hear what you think, especially if you’re up for fleshing the stories out some more as a co-writer. 😛

New Blog Post: Half Ideas (AKA my unfinished #comicbook stories) Do you ever come up with half an idea? Like the outline to a story without really knowing how to start/end it?

[collaboraction]

Critics and Audiences are RAVING about Gender Breakdown!

GENDER BREAKDOWN: REVIEWS Click on the video for RAVE REVIEWS from critics and audiences alike!

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PURCHASE TICKETS ONLINE HERE! * * * * * CONTINUE GENDER BREAKDOWN POST-SHOW DISCUSSIONS BEYOND THE THEATER! Join Collaboraction Theatre's Ongoing Post-Show Discussion Group on Facebook! CONTINUE THE DISCUSSION HERE!

THURSDAY, MARCH 2:

Headliner: Improv with Paige Maney Opener:Jenny Lynn ChristoffersonJenny Lynn has been wearing multiple hats across the theatre scene in Chicago for the past 6 years. As a musician, her music fuses together her musical theatre nerdiness, playwrighting influence, and country and folk music love. She’s crazy for superheroes, thinks a cup of coffee and/or a glass of whiskey are daily MUSTS, and is likely to yell louder at the TV on Sundays during football season than your dad. :-)

FRIDAY, MARCH 3:

Headliner: Beautifully Broken by Ashley J. Hicks Winner of the 2016 Fringe Crush Awards (St. Lou Fringe Festival), Beautifully Broken explores one woman's desire to find her place in society, as a black woman with Albinism.

SATURDAY, MARCH 4:

Headliner: Any of my Enemies by Molly Brennen An adventure into corruption through Clown, music and transformation.

Opener: McKenzie Chinn actor | writer | collaborative + teaching artist // writer for VAM // poet at Growing Concerns

Opener: Le Aboav Le Aboav is a stand up comdian from Chicago and one of the funniest creatures on this side of outer space. A former sign language interpreter and current gender-fluid starman, Le's playful use of language and unique observations on day-to-day life make their comedy relatable to all types of people. They have featured at the Laugh Factory, Second City, and the Chicago Womens Funny Festival, and is a co-producer of SPiN-Off STaND-Up comedy showcase at SPiN Chicago. Le Aboav is sparkley, razor sharp, and ready to party.

Opener: Elle Elle was most recently seen creating the role of Mergatroid in Cinderella at the Theater of Potatoes (The Hypocrites). Chicago favorites include The Addams Family (Mercury Theater) and a recent guest performance with The Fly Honey Show VII.  As a writer and solo performance artist, Elle seeks to empower other trans/gender non-conforming folks through laughter and finding strength through forging new paths - on one's own terms. She is represented by Paonessa Talent Agency. Special thanks to Molly for being the most awesome always, the Walker family, the Salonathon family, Kate, Bea, and the folks at 902.

BUY GENDER BREAKDOWN LOUNGE TICKETS HERE!

ESCAPING THE NEGATIVE PERCEPTIONS AND EXPERIENCES OF WOMEN IN THEATRE

Read the captivating new article by our sponsor, WOMANSCAPE, on Gender Breakdown creator Dani Bryan and how she "shapes meaningful dialogue that provides rewarding experiences for theater artists as well as insightful entertainment for audiences."

READ THE ARTICLE HERE!