#they are all of course product of their times and the stories that dc happened to want to tell at that time

[abuddyforeveryseason]

I dunno... talk about a small head.

Still, not bad, all things considered. I've been trying to draw stuff that looks more modern, with lighter penstrokes and a style that's a big closer to cartoon animation than to vintage comic and manga art.

I guess that stuff is more popular because comics and manga no longer have the limitations of printing technology that prevented the art from looking rougher and more dynamic - and avoided the "rubber stamp" look of thick lines and square panels.

But because so much of what I read is from that early era, I got used to it - or, even if it's a modern book, it's going for a nostalgic look like that.

But I'm tired of superheroes, anyway. This is the first summer in a long ass time I won't be watching any new Marvel movies. And, although it's understandable that people are sick of it, it's kind of a shame because it was interesting watching that type of worldbuilding evolvnig every year - and it was something that was carefully constructed, too.

Of course, in a way, what happened to Marvel movies is the same thing that happened to Marvel comics - they kept trying to keep things from stagnating and ended up with something that no longer had the charm of the early stuff.

And it doesn't help that a lot of older people were complaining about superhero franchises killing cinema. Although, really, the only real superhero franchise is the MCU. DC tried to copy the model with the Snyder movies, but those never really got a lot of traction, and the good DC movies were the ones that tossed the franchise idea out the window.

In many ways, the movies I'm excited about nowadays aren't so much part of a shared universe, but ones released by the same production companies - A24, Blumhouse, 2AM, Miramax, Focus and whatnot.

But, I still think that, 20 years from now, people will miss the Marvel model. It was fun going to the movies to see how the story developed, must've been what it was like to go watch Republic serials every month, like my grandpa used to do when he was a kid.

He was a big fan of Zorro Rides Again. They'd release one chapter a month, through the whole year, and kids would buy a ticket to "the movies" to check it out - meaning, they'd get a ticket to see five different things, running on a loop: A newsreel, a cartoon, an episode of the serial, an A-movie and a B-movie.

Must've made for quite an outing. It's hard to imagine, now, that anyone would have the time (or the patience) to be in a movie theater for like five freaking hours to see the whole thing. And it was really cheap, too.

But, lest I also turn into another of those old guys complaining about kids these days and their short attention spans, I'll just remind everyone that they can watch all those episodes at once, for free, thanks to the magic of Public Domain:

[lonelywretchjervistetch]

My DC Cinematic Universe: Superman (Epilogue)

Epilogue: My Adventures with Superman

...Well, holy shit. Just when I was getting worried that nobody would get Superman, along comes one of the best comic-book related products we've seen in years, which delivers me so much of the stuff I wanted in a cinematic version of Superman...and is almost perfect. Yeah, it's definitely not perfect, but goddamn if this isn't one of my ideal versions of Superman.

Y'know, I've considered doing sort of a sum-up of the different major adaptations of the Superman mythos by bringing together all the points made in my essays, but I felt it was too much. For this, however, I think that makes sense. And yes, I'm doing this after only 4 episodes have aired, and yes, I realize that what just happened in the most recent episode is fucking insane and something I desperately want in a Superman story...but I'll at least cover my personal approach, since this show's kinda hot right now. And rarely do I have the chance to jump on a burgeoning fandom, so FUCK IT!

If you'd like to see my previous and insane essays on my preferred version of the Man of Steel, here's the link! Always. Be. Plugging. But if you'd rather hear my opinion of My Adventures with Superman, then check out the section after the jump. But just know that I like it, with a couple of caveats that you've probably already heard about this show.

Clark Kent: Abnormal Superman

Um...did somebody read my essays before I even thought about them, because this is pretty goddamn close to my ideal Clark Kent. He's a big ol' dork with a heart of god who wants to do the right thing, but is also nowhere near perfect in his everyday life and methods. He's a teensy bit clumsy, but still very well-put together. He wants to help when and how he can, and is willing to go along with shenanigans to do so. He has an actual personality, and most importantly, he feels human.

Yeah, this is a dude from Kansas who also happens to be an alien. And good goddamn, is scaling down his powers and knowledge of his past a great idea. Smallville, of course, did this, but that version of Clark was often too serious and rough around the edges. And maybe most importantly, Tom Welling's Clark never seemed like an outcast. I mean, the dude was handsome as all fuck, and built like a linebacker. And yet, I'm supposed to buy that the guy is a loser and outcast? Yeah, no, not buying it. But this Clark? Yeah, the guy's a massive dork. Handsome and built like a fucking freight train, yeah, but still a dork. And maybe most importantly...I don't buy this dude as Superman.

Yeah. Really. I mean, dude is OBVIOUSLY Superman, because he's built like a tank and super nice, but I get not fully seeing this guy as Superman. Somehow, FUCKING SOMEHOW, they pull this off better than literally any other version I've seen since the Christopher Reeves version. And yeah, that's insanely high praise, because Reeves has some of the best dichotomous acting I've ever seen. But this Superman and this Clark both seem like the same person and separate people at the same time somehow. It's an impressive feat that I can barely explain.

And yet...they're still definitely the same person. Any sane person would be able to figure it out eventually, with enough personal interaction. It's one of the reasons why the glasses joke exists, because it really shouldn't make much sense. But in this series, the glasses actually change the shape of his pace, and slight changes in his posture and voice (by the pretty great Jack Quaid) actually do work as a subtle mask for the character. But will that last forever? Well...more on that later.

I also said this before, but I love the fact that we're learning about Clark and his powers as he's learning about himself. This series is obviously anime-inspired, and it really leans into the shonen angle thematically and visually. When the first art for this show came out, I was intrigued but cautious. Now, though, I'm into it. We'll see how the more anime-esque electrical powers work out, but it actually seems like a reference to the sporadically used bioelectric field manipulation ability that Superman has in the comics. Yeah, he has a field of bioelectricity around his body that provides him (and his costume) with invulnerability, and also occasionally gives him plot-convenience powers. Don't ask questions, OK? It's a comic book thing.

Speaking of that, though, the creators are definitely playing fast and loose with the Superman mythos, and I'm interested to see exactly how that plays out as the series continues. I'm a little cautious for reasons to be addressed later, but I'm still quite interested. So, now that we've covered Superman, whom I think is fantastic in his characterization...let's get to the character who I think is excellently represented in this series.

Lois Lane: Intrepid (Intern) Reporter

Jesus Christ, this is a great Lois. There are a lot of ways you can do a good Lois, and there are a number of great Loises, but MAWS' Lois ranks extremely high on that list. Dogged to the point of recklessness, determined to get the truth at all costs, and desperate to be a great reporter, she has the stuff that makes any great Lois. But what really puts her over the edge for me is her characterization. Alice Lee does a fantastic job as Lois' voice, and gives her a mix of naivete, determination, and...oddly, hope. I dunno, there's something about Lee's portrayal that really works for me.

And a lot of people have pointed out two things. One, she's basically Lux from The Owl House. Yeah. And? Fucking and? Luz is a fantastic character in her own right, and very Lois Lane-esque. Personally, I think that's a great and worthy comparison for any version of Luz. Secondly, she's a tomboy. And I think most people on Tumblr are fine with that, but I also see some criticism for that choice. And for those who don't like that...fuck off a little bit. Not a lot, but a little bit. There's nothing wrong with a slightly more tomboyish Lois, and I actually adore a Lois who isn't a damsel in distress all the time. She literally fights some of the bad guys in this series, and we're only four episodes in! Seriously, I love that. And she is occasionally in distress, but she gets into that shit herself, which is exactly what Lois Lane is supposed to do. Look, I love this Lois. Oh, and another thing!

Is Lois Korean? Holy shit, that's fantastic! I said in my second essay that Lois is one of those characters who isn't racially bound in any way. There, I suggested that she could be played by a Latina, which has been hinted at before in some comics. But honestly, this is a great choice! And I only say Korean because, in the most recent episode, she appears to be wearing the top half of a hanbok, which is a traditionally Korean dress. And yeah, I'm fully here for it. Don't know if she's mixed or not (we'll probably see Sam Lane at a later date), but this is great all on its own.

And then, there's the other thing: Lois' position as Superman's Inevitable Love Interest. The ILE is, of course, a tradition in all things superhero comic, and Lois is arguably the first and most famous of all ILEs. Like Thanos before her, she is truly inevitable, and that seems to be at the center of this series. Oh, and at this point...sort of SPOILERS AHEAD??? I mean, come on, this was obviously gonna happen.

By the end of episode 4, these two are clearly romantically interested in each other. Hell, by the end of episode 1, these two are interested in each other. And can I just say that's they're hands fucking down the most adorable Clark and Lois I've ever fucking seen? I mean it, they're the best version of this couple in live-action media, and I can actually see them becoming the comic book versions of that couple.

As a quick compare and contrast of the most notable versions:

Reeves and Kidder were great, but the movies never actually committed in having them be a couple. They actively made sure it wouldn't happen a couple of times, to much irritation, and their relationship never truly blossomed, which was based on the comics at the time.

Fuck Dean Cain...but Cain and Hatcher were pretty good as a couple, pre-and-post-marriage. Which, again, was a part of comics at the time, so it makes sense. Even then, I wouldn't call them particularly cute, just more of a relatively normal couple.

Don't get me wrong, I love Daly and Durance's animated versions of the two...but they never actually became a couple until the very end of Superman: The Animated Series. And we only saw them as Lois and Superman, not Lois and Clark. So, sadly, they don't rank.

Welling and Durance were...off-and-on. Funnily enough, their appearance as this version of the couple in the Arrowverse crossovers was probably better than any other appearance they had, and their appearances in the 10th season were genuinely quite nice. High up there as the best version, and one of my favorites.

Hoechlin and Tulloch are, in my opinion, the best married version of the characters. They honestly nail it, and their chemistry is pretty much perfect. Their versions of the characters still rank pretty high as some of the best, and they're even better as a couple.

Routh and Bosworth...moving on...

Cavill and Adams...well...I mean...they have some chemistry, and...they've definitely had sex. Um. Yeah. That's it. Whoooooo.

O'Connell and Romjin are a little-remembered animated version of the two, and not the only animated version of the two, either. But honestly, they're really good in The Death of Superman and Reign of the Supermen, and were my favorite animated version of them as a couple...prior to MAWS.

And OK, sure, we've barely seen these two as a couple at this point, but I really like them. They're adorable, they're adorkable, they're supportive of each other, and their chemistry is basically immediate. They're just really cute and fun to watch, and I can't wait to see them progress. Especially because...

OK, I can't stress this enough, but skip the next GIF if you don't want spoilers, and scroll down until you get to Jimmy Olsen. Please. This is a biggie. OK? Got it? Read at your own peril.

HOLY FUCKING SHIT ARE YOU SERIOUS THEY ACTUALLY DID IT

If you've read my Superman essays, you know that I want movie Lois Lane to have found out Clark is Superman on her own, and before the movie starts. And holy shit, they actually did it in MAWS! FUCK YES! Lois is smart and sharp, so she should pick up on the fact that Clark is Superman! I love that they did this, even if her way of finding out was somewhat by accident. She still put the clues together on her own, so I'm satisfied with this ending! And I'm pretty sure they're not going to reverse this! If they do, I'd be pissed off, but I don't think they will. Just...HELL YEAH, BABEEEEEEEEEE

OK...I think the spoiler-free have scrolled past this by know, so...let's move on with the essay, shall we?

Supporting Cast: Jimmy and the Rest

OK, let's talk Jimmy Olsen (played by Ishmael Sahid). Honestly, I love the fact that he's a conspiracy nut with his own YouTube channel, and that he's literal bunkmates with Clark in this series. This is also pretty close to my perfect version of Jimmy Olsen, not gonna lie. His streaming name is even Flamebird, a deepcut comics reference that shows the creators not only know their stuff, but also actively care about Superman comics and history. That's one of the things that one me over in the first episode, for the record. But more on that later.

Jimmy is the third wheel, but one who's usually welcome. We'll see the fallout of the Lois-Clark romance soon, I'm sure, but Jimmy's role has been pretty much perfect. However, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that a black Jimmy Olsen, while welcomed by me...is a little weird when you look at the legion of ginger characters in media that have been replaced by black characters in adaptations. While, again, I don't think Jimmy is racially bound to being ginger, it is a fairly iconic part of his identity. And...yeah, a lot of ginger characters have been translated into black people in recent years, and that's...really weird, not gonna lie. Makes me think even more about my Legion of Super-Heroes essay, honestly. Still, solid-ass Jimmy, and I can't wait for more.

I actually adore Perry White (voiced by Darrell Brown) in this series, and his grumpy boss persona is...well, quintessential Perry White. I'd actually say this is a perfect version of the character, although that's not as difficult to nail as some other versions. Looking forward to seeing more of Perry's life as he supports our bumbling interns.

I was tickled pink to see Cat Grant (Melanie Minichino), Steve Lombard (Vincent Tong), and a genderbent Ronnie Troupe (Kenna Ramsey) in this show, because it once again signals to me that the show creators really care about Superman mythos. And honestly, these guys were transplanted essentially unchanged from the comics, as far as we can see so far. This may change in the future, but I'm very excited to see the rivalry between our three and these reports build and develop during the series. Great job with these guys.

The Kents only make an appearance in one episode thus far, but I think they're pretty good! We see them in the past and in the present, and they're a couple of farmers who love their son. They're also some of the youngest versions of the characters we've seen in adaptations, save for Smallville, and it works well! They also make it apparent that these are Clark's parents, even in the short time we see them. Again, good job so far, and I want to see more!

So, with all of that, I adore this series, and it's perfect! Right? Right?

The Villains: Literal and Figurative Cons

If you've heard anything about this series from Superman fans, then you've probably heard that the villains are...not amazing so far. And that's mostly because the villains are where this series takes the most liberties, while also downsizing most of them pretty severely. I'll go through them briefly here, but just know that the changes made so far are...not my favorite. And if you've read my essays, you know my opinion on villains in superhero media: you gotta nail them.

So, let's start with Livewire, AKA Leslie Willis (voiced by Zehra Fazal). I really love this character (and actually positioned her as a major villain in the second Superman movie of my cinematic universe), so I'm quite invested in Livewire. And this version is a tech-powered villain who kicks off the conflict for the first part of the series. She's a completely different version of the character...and she works? Kinda? Look, as the first villain to face Superman, she's fine, but she's barely Livewire. The end of the second episode hints that she may become more like the original down the line, but she's missing that sass of the original. And yeah, she works without that, but it doesn't feel like Livewire to me. That's nitpicking, though, because we have a much worse set of adaptations to cover.

Intergang is so much of a non-entity in this show, they have no GIFS on Tumblr. Understand, this community has made GIFs of every other character except these guys. In total, they are Silver Banshee AKA Siobhan MacDougal (played by Catherine Taber), Mist AKA Kyle Nimbus (played by Lucas Grabeel), and Rough House AKA Albert (played by Vincent Tong). And they've been changed from:

A cursed Scottish-Irish woman, empowered by magic and a major threat to the Man of Steel, having nearly killed him multiple times...and is currently dating Jimmy Olsen, which I kinda love?

A scientist who invented a process to turn himself into gaseous form, and used his powers to fight the hero Starman; this rivalry was passed on to the next generation, on the side of both hero and villain.

And the clone of a gangster endowed with super-strength, serving beneath Boss Moxie of Intergang, and the forces of the dark world of Apokolips above him.

...into a group of loser who got technology they couldn't handle. Yeah, it's a major downgrade, and two of those guys weren't even that notable in the first place. Siobhan gets completely fucking shafted here, and I think it's a genuine failure of this series. Harsh, I know, but seeing Silver Banshee get fucked over that hard really sucked for me.

Oh, and yeah, Intergang was a major villainous group for the Superman film in my cinematic universe, so removing their Apokoliptian ties...bums me the fuck out, too. Also, it looks like Flash villain Heat Wave is an upcoming member, which is...weird as fuck, honestly. We'll see how this pans out, but I'm not terribly enthusiastic about it.

And then there's Anthony Ivo (played by Jake Green), who's been repurposed into a tech bro entrepeneur in the vein of Elon Musk, in charge of AmazoTech, which is obviously a reference to the comic book version. And this was an...interesting set of choices, honestly. Some spoilers here, but Ivo's version of AMAZO is an armor that drains the power of Superman and redirects it against him. And yes, that makes Ivo also this universe's version of...Parasite. ANOTHER villain that I put in the second movie of my cinematic universe, and one of my absolute favorite Superman villains.

I don't hate the reinvention, but that's only because of what happens to Ivo at the end of the episode. I won't spoil it here, but he definitely turns into a more proper version of the character, so we'll see what happens there. As for his assistant, Alex (played by...somebody), well, he's interesting, isn't he? At first, I thought he was Alex Allston, one of the Parasite twins from the 2000s. But a number of people seem to think he might be another familiar red-headed Superman villain named Alexander, if you know what I mean. Let's just say, there's a possibility that he'll steal forty cakes at some point. And that's terrible.

And finally, there's...wait, is that Deathstroke AKA Slade WIlson (played by Chris Parnell)? Why is he young...and hot? Why is Slade young and hot? And two-eyed? I mean, yeah, sure, that's not the worst thing in the world, but...goddamn, that's some whiplash. Interestingly, he appears to be affiliated with Task Force X, which is name dropped in episode 2. Plus, Amanda Waller is clearly in the background, so a much wider plan is in play. And yeah, while it's weird to see young hot Deathstroke, I'll give it a chance.

Other villains have been hinted at, and allegedly radically reinvented, such as Mr. Mxyzptlk and Brainiac, but we've yet to see what will become of them. Still, this is a divisive start. As long as we get some actual supernatural threats, and not just people in armor, I'll be happy. Time will tell.

Story: Just Getting Started

At this point, it's pretty much impossible to judge the story of this series, since we've only just started. But, with the technology obtained by Livewire from a mysterious source, and then leaked into the criminal underworld, we at least have enough threats to supply tension throughout this first portion of the series. The relationship of our trio is progressing nicely, with Jimmy realizing his third-wheel status, and with the Lois and Clark relationship moving along interestingly and unexpectedly.

There's also a number of hanging plots that look promising, including Clark discovering his powers and origins; Task Force X and Deathstroke, as well as their interest in Superman; the missing Parasite technology after Ivo's fall; the rivalry between the interns and their reporter rivals; and even Lois' relationship with her father (who...might be the guy standing next to Waller in Task Force X? No clue, that's just a guess). So, we have some stuff to look forward to! And maybe, just maybe, the villains will also steadily improve. I think Silver Banshee's a lost cause at this point, but I have hope for Livewire and Parasite, at least. But again, time will tell.

I also can't wait to see what the creators have up their sleeves. They're obviously ans of Superman and his mythos. I didn't even mention what won me over on this show in the first place! Other than Clark and Lois themselves, of course. In the first episode, Lois introduces Jimmy and Clark to her information gatherers: the Newskid Legion. And for those of you who don't know, that's a reference to the Golden Age of Comics, and a group of street-wise kids that would become supporting characters of Superman's during the '90s (through the trendy magic of cloning)! The kids have an adaptation in this series, and that attention to lore alone made me an instant fan of this show. Sounds like nothing, I know, but it meant a hell of a lot to a Superfan like me. Now GIVE ME MY EVERYMAN BIBBO BIBBOWSKI!

Conclusion: A Hopeful Tomorrow

I'm...scared about Gunn's Superman film. I won't write a whole essay about it, but it sounds ambitious to the point of being bloated. A lot of recent casting news makes me feel like this is more of a set-up to the wider DCU, as less of a Superman film in and of itself. Plus, with rumors that Luthor is being cast, and no sign of a villain announcement yet...I dunno. It has me worried. So thank God for My Adventures with Superman.

This series is a blessing so far. Sure, it could blow for the rest of the season, but call me hopeful. I think this show is fantastic so far, and I'm really thinking it'll stick the landing with the first season. Alongside that, honestly, is the fact that it's trying something new for any Superman adaptation, and there's a bravery in that. I don't know if it'll go down as my preferred Superman adaptation (Superman: The Animated Series is a hard one to beat for me), but it's got a good start. And a brave series that inspires hope in the face of fear and impossible odds? Man, that's what Superman is all about.

And now that that's said and done (for now, anyway)...

I believe I have another essay series to finally finish.

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

Part I: Why I Love Superman

Part II: On Lois Lane

Part III: The Kents

Part IV: The 'Rents

Part V: The...Frendts?

Part VI: Lex Luthor

Part VII: The Real Villains

Part VIII: Superman's Rogues Gallery

Part IX: The Story - Act One

Part X: The Story (Acts Two and Three)

Part XI: The Story - Climax

Part XII: Epilogue (Part One)

Part XIII: Epilogue (Part Two)

[dappercritter]

Why The Monsterverse Doesn't Feel Right to Me (not that I mind)

Honestly, as much as I tend to harp on about the Monsterverse for better or worse, I don't really hate the Godzilla and Kong movies anymore. They're made for fun, people had fun, and that's really all you can ask for at the end of a movie.

The only real complaint I have is how I would have liked to see what the sequels would have been like if WB stuck with Edwards and that moody, foreboding atmosphere or the Nolan Batman-esque direction they had before Kong came in. Or better yet if they just made them into their own thing.

The worldbuilding of the Monsterverse is more likely to drive you to madness than anything Lovecraft came up with and each movie just adds a new weird wrinkle to the "literal-mythology-meets-hollywood-ecology" angle they've taken.

But the most frustrating thing is how every time Godzilla movies get rebooted to try taking themselves more seriously, there's always a cause-effect relationship between fans demanding more monster fights and the studios doubling down on making crowd pleasers to boost the box office results.

Sure that's par for the course in Hollywood, but that goes for Toho's own stuff too. Just look at the mood swings before The Return of Godzilla (1984)!

To put it in the ever popular superhero movie terms, imagine if Superman Returns' success turned The Nolan Batman trilogy into something campier and... well, that already sorta happened back in the 90s after Batman Returns, didn't it?

So let's imagine if after The Nolan Batman movies, WB decided that next Superman movie should be more grittier, darker--oh no wait, that already happened too.

Alright, then let's say Legendary made a Pacific Rim sequel but instead of the grungy underdog story GDT did they made it into a totally cliched blockOH GODDAM IT--

(Hmm... It's starting to feel like radical shifts in the quality and production of genre films in an attempt to become more profitable via mass appeal is standard practice for Hollywood...)

Well, all I'm saying is as far as future Kong reboots and western adaptations of Godzilla go, maybe we should just give cinematic universes a break and either do what Alien vs. Predator did.

Or better yet, hope Toho lets whoever gets the license next to take after the new WB-DC movies and find the right balance with solo movies and team-ups.

[ufonaut]

look im not gonna proclaim to be very knowledgeable on alan scott but and feel free to correct me, but. the preview has him like nurturing this pride in himself in the face of homophobia - which seems entirely contradictory to alan “most repressed man in comics” scott. alan “took eighty years to come out of the closet” scott. Sheridan seems completely unwilling to explore the repressed side of alan, and turned alan’s doublethink and unwillingness to admit his homosexuality to himself as all externally motivated. All the conflict about Alan’s sexuality is externally driven, not internally. Maybe I was expecting too much, but I honestly thought this run was gonna be a hell of a lot more introspective than we’ve seen.

i don't necessarily disagree but i'm having the opposite issue? i think tim sheridan's take is too internally motivated because alan's own feelings on his sexuality seem to hinge entirely on christian guilt, which is not a trait that has ever existed in the past eighty years of publication. alan is not and has never been religious in any way. regardless of external factors like the army and the asylum, the foundation of alan's concerns and pride is still religion ("it's a sin"/"the way god made me"). that is entirely nonsensical to me.

the way i've always seen alan's approach to his own sexuality is based entirely around societal pressure, primarily because he's already historically & canonically hiding parts of himself seen as undesirable by society at large -- his much more pronounced gotham accent for one (as per the vast majority of his 1940s stories), his social class and the way he worked his way up to his present day status (a la 'scenes from the class struggle at jsa mansion' from golden age secret files among many other examples), and the fact that he's quite clearly not neurotypical. so much of the man alan grows up to be is just facades on top of facades, hiding his sexuality is just another part of it.

see, when i call alan repressed i mean emotionally repressed -- i think he closed himself off from the world after doiby left, i think he was significantly more honest with himself in the 1940s when he was very young. with doiby gone, with the HUAC after the jsa, alan's career became the most important thing in his life. he has to be the big shot ceo, with all that implies in 1955. hence: the lies. i don't think admitting his homosexuality to himself plays any part in it, not when we've got stories like comic cavalcade 1942 #23 or frankly alan's whole entire life in those golden age stories where he proudly rejected women and lived with his male best friend. i think he stayed a confirmed bachelor until it was no longer acceptable, i think he became whatever he needed to become to stay on top because he's always been so insanely driven & ambitious and a sincere workaholic.

point being i don't think alan was necessarily sexually repressed, he was certainly a 'man about town' like paul levitz puts it but it just seems unlikely to me that he would've ever formed long term relationships along the line of what we see with johnny ladd in the new book. he's not the marrying kind, in every sense of the phrase.

there's a lot of internalized homophobia at play, of course, because alan's a product of his time through and through but we must also consider the fact that he's not emotionally open & vulnerable with anybody about anything and the crowd he frequents is as much a product of their time as he is: his sexuality would not have been accepted so it became none of their business. i think the fact that todd had an easier time with it in terms of society at large made alan dislike him but it also proved to him that times had changed indeed, and he's not lying in dc pride 2021 when he says todd's the reason he came out. alan now had evidence that it was safe to do so.

i don't know, man, i guess more than anything my thing has always been that alan hiding his homosexuality isn't something that happens in a vacuum. he's hiding all of himself, the soft underbelly of his real self and that's not just being gay. i wish we got some of that! something that acknowledges alan's astounding complexity from all angles!

[thenixkat]

Go, Ted! Handpicked to help defend the multiverse. Also chosen to represent the Earth 4 heroes in this crossover event

Again, Ted is strong as hell. Holding up a whole grown man's full weight with one arm

Isn't that the fucker that was fighting dr fate in the Rebirth Blue Beetle run? also 45,000 years b4 the present… a bit overestimating how long humans have been around

superhero mentality I swear. Just cause you got attacked after being invited/forced to go somewhere doesn't mean it was a trap/set up on the part of the inviter

also, the only things that actually hurt the shadow demons have been shown to be the Scarab, the Green Lantern's light, and the lights in the Monitor's ship turned up to full brightness

ok yeah, that Atlantean is the same character but… he's an antagonist in the rebirth Blue Beetle story for… reasons. And looking at his wiki he was not a fucking villain until post-crisis stuff

also fucking superheroes assuming the Monitor lied to them b/c things are going to shit and not dude had a plan but it isn't working like he thought it would

mfers really be jumping to conclusions and wanting to fight someone about it

local asshole villain Dr Polaris really said 'fuck yeah! let's kill some Nazis!'

while Ted would also like to kill some Nazis, he's focused on the mission they got sent there for. Also, the Ted being a mama's boy thing has come up twice this far in this crossover. That is entirely fucking new, Ted never mentioned his mom in his og comics

so man got brought over to the DC universe and they made him more flirty and a momma's boy

of course, I do have to question why in this fight the shadow demons get zapped from just touching Beetle while in the first encounter that didn't happen

of course, it hurts like hell just to get touched by the shadow demons

the Monitor is disappointed that the Beetle doesn't work as effectively against the demons as he thought the Scarab would so he sends the fucker home, really?

Also, I guess Jaime would be plowing through these demons like tissue paper then if he were in this

also, Ted having the Scarab in the first place is another retcon but it's a very minor change, he's still a tech hero since it doesn't actively give him powers

but the passive protection from demons is fascinating

cause like from Khaji Da's narration at the end of the Reach arc it did bond to Ted too, it was just too damaged to do shit for him

of course, we need superheroes to fight so now Ted thinks that he'd been kidnapped and fed lies

hey someone aware that this fighting and these thoughts feel forced

the Anti-Monitor boosted Psycho Pirate's powers and is making him influence people on the 3 remaining Earths to fling themselves into the antimatter waves and fight the heroes that try to stop them

heheh Ted really the cosmic representative of Earth 4. He's literally just... a guy but apparently he was that popular

Khaji Da listening to this in Ted's pocket: The Oans have no equals… what are we chopped liver?

I'm just picturing the Reach and their kin on the other side of the known universe seeing shit go down and just going 'ugh, we're gonna loose so many days of productivity over this' and just phase shifting into the Bleed and watching the Oans and lanterns get their shit rocked

again I'm just imagining the Reach watching all this fuck shit going on and going, that is not my problem

will finish reading the issues with Ted in them remaining for this crossover later. It's given me a bunch of thoughts

also, just the Spectre is fucking useless, yer telling me it goes after fuckers who've escaped the vengeance of man and there's a whole league of supervillains just sitting there unsmote

Superheroes said you are not allowed to retire from being a superhero even if we know that you are actively dying every time you use yer powers

the cosmic treadmill can do shit but none of the magic users that's wild. Fucking run fast enough and you can travel across dimensions

Wild that we can time travel to save the universe when the plot calls for it. That we can create a massive time paradox to save the universe when the plot calls for it. But Booster Gold can't be allowed to use time travel to save his best friend Ted Kord from getting shot.

combining the forces of many heroes and villains fuckers are going back in time and across the universe to 'defeat' (read kill, everyone is ok with killing this time) the ANtiMonitor.

Also, imagine DC Comics buying you out so they can have yer characters and then kill off all but one of yer characters in a crossover event.

Also, why did observing the Big Bang lead to the creation of the antimatter universe in the first place or open a second antimatter gate when someone did it again?

The superheroes without powers applicable to fighting cosmic beings really just here for moral support, huh?

[beyondthetemples-ooc]

I may be getting back on my Raven bullshit. But maybe not because it's, believe it or not, tangential to where my mind is right now.

Long story short, I'm thinking about Dove Going to Therapy (let's be real. the girl Needs it) and trying to figure out who that therapist is that sees the mystics/etc. in canonical DC comics and browsing my "panels" tag because I SWEAR I reblogged it... except I keep getting distracted because that tag has a Lot of good panels in it.

Has lots of Raven, of course. Because it's my blog, why wouldn't it?

Longer version: I know in the last chapter of DDD (it's mostly written, just not Polished yet), Dove has this moment where she's like "I deserve how much this hurts, I don't deserve to be here with you guys, and I'm dangerous, so you need to send me away!" To which Robin basically replies, "This is the best place for you right now, and psych wards aren't qualified to handle demi-demons."

And, I mean. All the rest of DDD happens. Dove Desperately Needs Therapy. (I don't say that to disparage her; I say that out of compassion, because getting the right therapy does help you heal and move on from things and learn how to cope with trauma/anxiety/etc.)

Between the time of writing that scene (I think it was written when I was 19ish?) and now, I found out that there IS a psychologist (psychiatrist?) in DC (or maybe it was Vertigo?) canon comics that the pages show treating Zatanna. So like. Homo magi, massive amounts of power, danger and daring adventures, if someone could treat Zatanna, surely that someone could handle Dove? And the treatment room seems to be magical; maybe it could handle Dove's powers getting loose if the conversations turns Too Emotional?

I'm trying to figure out How That Works when she's an illegal immigrant with no social security number, and thus no health insurance, and also part demon and the other part is a mystical race that doesn't exist anymore? I'm definitely thinking too hard about the logistics here. But I want to figure out Who That Therapist Was so I can research if she's something I can add to Dove's canon.

As I mentioned on Dove's blog when I was headcanoning whether Dove would get Sieara certified as an Emotional Support Animal: I know that as a teenager, Dove wouldn't be comfortable at ALL talking to a stranger about her Problems^tm. If they tried to send her then, she'd just clam up and withdraw the whole time, and eventually fall silent and just be able to nod or shake her head. It wouldn't be productive at all. (Hence the final decision that even though Sieara functions as one, she wouldn't get the Official Letter. She'd never need it, anyways.)

But as an adult, I could see her being able to open up to someone eventually. It would certainly take a few sessions to build trust before they get into the Deep Down Stuff, but like. I think it usually does to get to the heart of the matters, let alone the Healing Parts. Maybe Srentha would go with her? Be in the room with her and everything? At least for the first few months. I imagine Raven might be willing, but would probably have to leave because of All the Emotions in that place. (Therapy can get... intense.)

But even though Srentha gets a job (temporarily) in adulthood, he and Dove don't exactly have secret identities. It would HAVE to be someone who can treat the hero population. With the extreme levels of dangers and emotions and the sheer mystical WEIRDNESS in Dove's life... and also, it would have to be someone she can talk to about her father being a demon and All the Issues that Come With That. And losing Azarath. Her mother's spells. Just, weird shit that a normal therapist probably doesn't know how to approach.

(Hell, none of my therapists have known how to approach my emet*phobia or dyscalculia. I've had to figure those out for myself. I can't imagine they'd have any idea how to tackle magic powers.)

....I can't seem to find the pages with Zatanna in therapy, actually, and now I'm doubting I've even reblogged them.

[watchingeverydcmovie]

Fleischer/Famous Studios Animated Superman Shorts (1941-1943) Pt. 2

I am watching every movie based on a DC publication in release order, for more information, see my pinned post.

This is movies 8-18 on my list and is the second post on these Superman shorts, so for the entire introduction, see that post. Annoyingly, there's still one more of these shorts that just happened to come out after another movie, so they'll be another post about that single short at some point in the future.

THE MAGNETIC TELESCOPE IMDB Rating: 7 My Rating: 7 "Hope nothing goes wrong," Clark Kent says right as the magenetic telescope causes a comet to crash into the city.

Also Lois decides to call Perry White in the midst of the building she's in actively getting hit with pieces of a comet and then acts surprised when the building falls on her.

This is probably the best of these shorts I've seen yet. The setup is interesting in that there's a mad scientist that's definitely a bit evil, be he doesn't actually cause any issues, it's the police trying to stop his expirement that do. Also, at the end, Lois kisses Superman in the dark, but then the lights come on and he's changed back into his Clark Kent apparel, and that was cute.

ELECTRIC EARTHQUAKE IMDB Rating: 6.8 My Rating: 4 This one had a fun title card, it shook and crumbled.

Beyond that, this one wasn't very good. The villain is a man who wants the Daily Planet to print a story revealing that Manhattan actually belongs to "his people". Who are "his people"? We don't know. Why does he think this? We also don't know. Anyway he does crimes about it. Said crimes are just...electricuting the ground to start an earthquake?? I'm not sure that's how earthquakes work. Also superman gets attacked my a non-sentiant, non-controled electrical cord at some point?? That was confusing.

VOLCANO IMDB Rating: 6.9 My Rating: 7 HIS POWERS CHANGED!!! I mentioned in my first post about these shorts that I found it incredibly interesting that these shorts came out when Superman's powers still didn't include flight, so the little intro to all of the shorts said "able to leap tall buildings in a single bound". BUT, for the first time in this one, that intro was changed to "able to soar higher than any plane". He can fly now!!! Incredibly wild that they made that change in the midst of this series of shorts. I thought for a second this change might have happened when the production of these changed from Fleischer Studios over to Famous studios, but this one and the one after are still Fleischer. Moving on from that, Lois and Clark are sent to report on a volcano errupting on an island, and Lois STEALS Clark's press pass to get rid of him. This is the FIRST TIME we are seeing Lois and Clark animosity, and I'm really not even sure WHY she did this. Lois is kinda badass in this one ngl.

TERROR ON THE MIDWAY IMDB Rating: 6.5 My Rating: 5 The music is too loud over the start of this one and you can barely hear what Clark and Lois are saying. Overall, this one gets points docked for the sound design in general. It's about a buch of circus animals escaping, and all of the animal noises sounded strange and grating. Superman does fight a panther at some point though, so points for that ig.

JAPOTEURS IMDB Rating: 6.3 My Rating: 3 Oh boy. The youtube video that I watched of this was titled with "World War 2 american propaganda" and yeah, that's all this is. It's very racist and very boring. Superman saves a bomber plane and that's it, most of the short is spent setting up how cool and amazing this American bomber plane is.

SHOWDOWN IMDB Rating: 6.8 My Rating: 6 This one changed the intro again!! It went from "Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to soar higher than any plane" to "faster than a streak of lightning, more powerful than the pounding surf, mightier than a roaring hurricane". I wonder why. This short starts with Superman committing CRIMES. Except it's not actually Superman, of course, just someone in his costume. Interestingly, along with the change in intro, he's back to not being able to fly, just jump really high. That's really strange.

ELEVENTH HOUR IMDB Rating: 6.1 My Rating: 1 We're back with the World War II propaganda and racism. Even if you were to try to disregard those two things, this one just isn't good at all. Clark and Lois are in Japan, we're never really told why, and Clark is sabotaging the army operations there. Lois also gets captured at some point, but the whole short is really just Superman doing sabotage.

DESTRUCTION, INC. IMDB Rating: 6.4 My Rating: 4.5 This one just isn't particularly well written. It starts with some guy getting murdered and dumped in a pond, but then I'm not really sure how that ties into the rest of the story, which is about a group of workers attemping to blow up a torpedo manufacturing plant...for some reason?? Clark diguises himself as an elderly security guard, that's kinda fun.

THE MUMMY STRIKES IMDB Rating: 6.4 My Rating: 5.5 This one just...doesn't really fit with the rest of them??? It dives straight into like ancient Egyptian curses. Superman fights straight up mummies at some point. Everything else seems fairly rooted in the 'sci-fi' angle, and this one just doesn't really mesh. It's still interesting though.

JUNGLE DRUMS IMDB Rating: 6.3 My Rating: 2 Back at it again with the racism and propaganda. I overall just think they didn't put as much time into writing the shorts that were war related because they expected patriotism to carry them alone.

THE UNDERGROUND WORLD IMDB Rating: 6.7 My Rating: 6 BIRD MEN????????????????????????

[gaykarstaagforever]

Alright, you bastards. Here is Superman Vol. 1 No. 221, from November 1969.

In mylar. Because God forbid this stupid piece of crap waste away in the elements.

I should set it outside unprotected, just on principle.

People are paying upwards of $30 for this.

Don't.

PART 1. SUPER-PANCHO!

If I may bury the lead because the actual story is terrible, let's talk about the other feature in the issue, "The Revolt of the Super-Slave". Which, unbelievably, is actually kind of good. For this era, it's a masterpiece.

I understand what you're thinking after looking at this. "SUPER-PANCHO?! WHAT KIND OF RACIST GARBAGE IS THIS?!"

And fair enough. This is the year before Lois Lane was sent by Perry White to interview Black people, and she decided the best way to prepare for it was to have Superman build a machine that would give her a Black woman's body.

Never forget. Jesus Christ.

Once you recover from now knowing that happened and remember the Super-Pancho thing: don't worry, actually. That name alone is the only regressive thing about this. No one wears a sombrero or bandolier, no one speaks in broken English, no one eats a taco. This as racially sensitive as 1969 DC comics could get, in that everyone in this made-up Caribbean island nation (I think that's the idea) is just a white person in shorts.

...I mean, that's certainly POC erasure. But now that you've seen the Ebony Lois thing, I hope you'll appreciate how low the bar was at this time.

Super-Pancho is actually pretty cool. He is an enslaved person on an island where men are forced to tend to glass bubbles filled with flowers that are processed into nerve toxin, for sale on the black market. Pancho escaped but was recaptured before this story takes place, and he was on the mainland long enough to learn about Superman, who he hopes will come and save the enslaved people. He turns a scarecrow into a makeshift Superman mannequin, and holds nightly meetings in his hut, trying to convince his fellow subjects to bet on Superman.

Eventually he manages to tie a bunch of flower balls together and dump them in the ocean as a signal to attract Superman.

Because, as everyone knows, 1960s Superman is drawn to representations of himself like a moth to a street light.

That isn't a joke. That happens probably a hundred times. The man builds statues and robot clones of himself at least half the week. Almost like the people making these felt they weren't paid enough to draw another guy, or something.

The signal works as intended, of course. Superman arrives and meets Pancho, just as Pancho has been dressed in his replica Superman outfit and chained to a cliff. This was done by the evil General Satanta, a character with a stupid name that I never once pronounced correctly in my head.

I was mostly thinking "Santana." Because it's a hot one.

Satanta did this to Pancho because he was making fun of Pancho's obsession with Superman. He even has his goons trick Pancho into thinking he has the real superpower of not getting eaten by jaguars. ...Which turns out to be a weird, counter-productive flex, because Pancho snaps and thinks he's actually Super-Pancho, who has powers when he gets mad. And it kind of makes him a confident revolutionary badass.

Again, Superman shows up in the midst of all this. He immediately realizes that Pancho has cracked. But also, conveniently, that Pancho looks exactly like Kal-El, with stubble. So he gets Pancho to hide in a cave with his own real Superman suit, and takes Pancho's place in his scrubby one as a real super-powered Super-Pancho.

Genuinely cool super-antics ensue.

Yes, he eats the nerve-toxin flowers, and spits a bullet message into the side of a helicopter.

I told you this was good.

At some point Pancho, believing he has real powers, comes out of his cave in Superman's costume and starts talking shit. Superman, protecting Pancho, uses his powers to confuse Satanta about how many Super-Panchos there actually are and what they can do. This culminates with Satanta being so flabbergasted by this chaos that he and his men flee the island.

The enslaved people freed, Superman gets Pancho to settle down long enough to understand that he does not in fact have real powers. But he tells him to keep lying to everyone that he does, because most Silver Age Superman plans are 60% lying and 40% his own clone robots. He then leaves Super-Pancho in charge of the island, where his lies will keep criminals in check under a cloud of confusion and terror for the foreseeable future.

Yay, Superman! You've done it again!

The only really weird part of this story is how Superman decides to disguise himself as Pancho, a man who looks exactly like him but with some facial hair. Fast-growing hair? Face paint? Some kind of weird fake face stubble plant that only he knows about?

No, sorry. The correct answer is "rubbery man-skin costume he somehow has, that is never explained."

I know it seems like I'm going hard on this. But for all it's many, many flaws, this is a pretty solid "wacky 60s Superman" story. Pancho is pretty loveable, and everything generally works out well for everyone, besides the bad guy. You literally cannot expect more from the Silver Age.

...They should really bring Pancho back, if they haven't already. Superman finds out later he exploited his advantage to become a dictator himself, reverting back to selling the nerve toxin on the black market. Superman has to return and sort it out. Deep commentary on colonialism and the White Savior narrative, or something. Especially since Superman is in fact an unauthorized immigrant orphan alien creature who just passes for Midwest cracker.

I mean, that won't be fun. But it could be meaningful and interesting. God forbid we try that with a superhero comic once in awhile.

Stay tuned for Part 2, the bad Fat Superman story.

Here's General Santana and a cracker to play us out:

[covertblizzard]

WHY JASON TODD IS THE SWEETEST CUTEST TINIEST ROBIN

(but like in terms of meta / out-of-universe / story-telling reasons)

When Dick as Robin was first conceptualised, it was more of a person to let Batman talk to so that the readers knew what was going on, sort of a Watson to Batman’s Sherlock. It was also fun to watch a little boy wreck shit up for the villains, no insanse “is a child hero okay” thing going on, just plain simple fun and don’t think too much about it.

By the time it reacher Jason’s era, DC has been running for over 40 years. Overall, they have moved away from the very episodic storytelling and started to have more overarching storylines and more theme explorations (not that there weren’t before but they were of different types).

One of the themes I felt like they were exploring a lot during that time was about how young and vulnerable Robin (Jason) was as a child, specifically probably to explore Bruce as a father. I’m not saying that they didn’t do this with Dick ever, just that Dick didn’t start out with that intention, whereas this was a heavy theme for Jason right from the start. Seriously, they hit you over the head with it every few issues.

A copy of Dick at first or not, Jason opening storyline would inherently differ from Dick’s because of being 40 years apart and because the thematic focus and purpose of Robin shifted during this time. As a result, a lot of portrayal of Robin Jason would have him being more young / cute / sweet / innocent / vulnerable in general because it was needed to portray Batman Bruce as a father. It was essential to the story they were trying to tell that Jason was a sweet little boy who was easy to love (I’m pretty sure Bruce essentially said so in his own words when talking about Natalia).

Tim was created to be Batman’s partner. Steph... I don’t know what the comic writers were thinking with her treatment (and will probably come to better conclusions when I read about her because I don’t know who to trust about her stories). Damian was created in an era where comic felt the need to give “justifications” for why a child hero was okay and was hence a super-trained child assassin. 

None of the other options really gave space to be or showcase them as properly young or vulnerable as often (and mostlly required the exact opposite), whereas Jason’s storyline happened to require him shown in that light quite often imo. Basically, the same reason why Bruce was his most fatherly with Jason is the reason why Jason gave the tiniest vibes.

[mishasminions]

The Last Time I’ll Write a Long Post About Supernatural (15x18-15x20)

15 YEARS OF WATCHING THIS SHOW. 11 YEARS OF RUNNING A BLOG ABOUT IT. IT’S BEEN QUITE A RIDE.

[15x20 Speculation + evidence at the bottom]

First off, I just wanna come clean and say, after all these years, I still think they should’ve ended at Season 5.

If you’re going to come at me with “Then why’d you stick around to watch it if you didn’t like it?”, your question is immature, and the answer is simple: I just want to know what happens next (I also love the main characters and their actors too). You can watch a show and still think it’s shit.

Call me a clown, but despite all the disappointment and trust issues that this show has given me, I would still look forward to the day where it might just turn itself around and bring back the quality it once had, or realize the potential of each story it was trying to tell, or at the very least, do justice by my favorite ship.

Never happened.

They’ve had a few good episodes here and there. I can’t imagine the SPN Universe without The Man Who Would Be King, The French Mistake, and Scoobynatural. Seasons 6-10 were enjoyable at times. I blocked out most of 7 & 11-15. 

If you’ve been following this blog since its heydays in 2010-2014, you’d know I’d try my best to defend Destiel and this show’s decisions regarding it no matter what.

Because you know what, as a CONCEPT, this show is good. If you take a look at all the worlds its storylines have birthed in fanfiction/fanworks, you’d see how much Supernatural has wasted its own story arcs. The writing got shittier as each season progressed, and they’ve obviously given up in production as well because the quality in the execution has noticeably gone down too, but if you take a step back and take a look at the bigger picture, you’ll see that this show still tries to make sense of itself.

[If you’re still following this post, please bear with me, I know this is long, but I just want you to understand how jaded and pessimistic I am with regards to this show, so maybe you can buy into whatever hopeful thing I’m about to say later on.]

SO LET’S TALK ABOUT DESTIEL

Never in my wildest dreams did I think that they would give us Castiel’s “I love you” speech. To the point where, if I weren’t so desperate for it, I would argue that it was completely out of character for him to word vomit the way he did (but I’m not gonna diss on that right now because I’ll take what I can get).

I’ve valued every meaningful and obscure exchange that Dean and Cas have had in the earlier seasons, and I was willing to accept their relationship as just that--undefined, without any clear boundaries as to what they really are. And I think that was beautiful on its own.

But now, they’ve chosen to define it.

After they’ve driven every possible wedge between Dean and Castiel in seasons 11-15, to try to explain away their feelings as something they offer to a collective.

Dean can’t mourn and pray for JUST Cas, he has to mourn and pray for EVERYBODY--even Crowley, even some chick he just met, because god forbid he cries about just the guy who has given up everything for him--that would be “too homo”.

They’ve even set Cas on a path to abrupt fatherhood just so he can care about something other than Dean. Make it seem as if Dean wasn’t his purpose through and through.

And after all these years of this stupid show trying to deny it, they choose to acknowledge it at the worst possible circumstance, at a time where they’ve been so far apart, that it seems so foreign for them to suddenly come together.

But here we are. And they’ve chosen to tell us.

Chosen to tell us that everything that Castiel has done leading up to his death, he has done it because he was IN LOVE WITH DEAN WINCHESTER.

Chosen to tell us that the ONE THING THAT WOULD MAKE CAS HAPPY IS DEAN WINCHESTER.

Chosen to tell us that BEING WITH DEAN WINCHESTER is something that CAS WANTS BUT KNOWS HE CAN’T HAVE.

And they’ve also chosen to tell us nothing about how Dean feels.

Sure, finding out your angel made a deal, the stipulations of said deal, his newfound happiness philosophy, his long-winded monologue of why he loves you and why you’re worthy of his love, and to top it all off he tells you that being in love with you is enough to make him happy while he subtly hints that he’s always wanted to be WITH you romantically, was a lot to process in the 5 minutes after you’ve just had an existential crisis.

It’s whatever, right? Let’s culminate 11 years worth of tension and feelings in 5 minutes. Let’s waste the entire episode with cringey expository dialogue, and irrelevant sequences. The whole season was a waste anyway.

You know what Supernatural? FUCK YOU FOR THAT. They deserved better. WE deserve better.

And I would love nothing more than to hurl every possible insult your way,

But for the last time, I’m going to HOPE that you’re finally going to try to make it better for the fans that stuck by you all these years.

No more baiting new viewers, no more placating casual viewers, no more excuses. 15 years. Bring it home for the people who have actually been around.

SO HERE’S HOW I THINK 15x20 IS GONNA GO

There’s two ways this series is gonna end. Horribly or Spectacularly.

First let’s all take into consideration what Andrew Dabb says about it:

So, let’s start with

ENDING HORRIBLY

In this scenario, Misha is telling the truth about his last day of filming being 15x18. His “camping trip” during the last few days of filming 15x20, was actually a camping trip. He doesn’t go to Vancouver to shoot.

Jensen wasn’t “being careful” during the zoom interviews that it was just him and Jared quarantining for the shoot, it really was just him and Jared (althought most of these were done pre 15x19) Supernatural isn’t smart enough to do misleading PR, and they’re once again oblivious to the potential of their own story.

Misha hasn’t posted a “Goodbye Castiel” tweet because he’s probably saving it for last episode or he forgot because it was overshadowed by the Destiel trend that night.

So what we get is:

Sam and Dean are on the road again, up against the monster of the week. Only their world no longer has actual Supernatural beings anymore, so the monsters they’re fighting are humans.

Humans end up killing the Winchesters (despite having gone up against literally every powerful being imaginable INCLUDING God himself). Dean and Sam end up in heaven and relive their greatest hits.

Meanwhile, Castiel rots in The Empty because he died after realizing that he was happy and gay. Jack doesn’t bother rescuing him—his surrogate dad, the guy who made this specific deal to spare him—even though it was so easy for him get Cas in and out of The Empty when he had a fraction of the power that he has now.

Dean never speaks of Castiel’s confession because despite all the hints of a profound bond in the earlier seasons, and the fact that Dean has never cared for anyone (who isn’t his actual brother) as immensely as he does Cas, Supernatural just can’t have its main macho character be “suddenly bisexual” because that would hurt the male ego or some shit.

His heaven would probably be living happily ever after with his family. “Family” meaning Mary and John Winchester--two of the shittiest parents ever (but they’re not going to include them in this episode like they were supposed to because of Covid) and Sam.

Sam also gets a dog. As usual.

I wouldn’t put it past Supernatural to do this. After everything they’ve pulled, this would be right up their alley. I actually expect this ending.

Anyway, onto the next possible ending

ENDING SPECTACULARLY

In this scenario, Supernatural tries to stick the landing, and Jensen’s whole “It didn’t sit well with me at first, but then I took a step back after talking to Kripke, and realized that I had to view it from an audience perspective, I am now really excited about it” (DC Con 2019) anecdote about his thoughts on the final episodes, were actually about Dean potentially ending up with Cas. (Which would totally make sense because Jensen at first didn’t see Dean as anything but hetero, but as of late, he has been throwing in Destiel jokes of his own, so he seems to have warmed up to the idea)

Backed with Misha’s tidbit (DLConline 2020) that he and Jensen had conversations about Destiel, and that they wouldn’t have gone through with it if Jensen wasn’t onboard with it, but Jensen didn’t push back at all. (Why would they need to check with Jensen if it was just Cas going all in?)

Robert Berens (writer of 15x18) also wrote the script at the beginning of Season 15, but made Misha privy to the concept a year prior (Season 14), so they went into this season knowing about Destiel going canon.

This one’s a reach, but this scenario also supposes that Misha was lying about his whereabouts during the filming of the final episode, and him saying that 15x18 was his last episode is part of the diversion to avoid taking away from the weight of Castiel’s death.

And that Supernatural is actually self-aware of its own material (similar to how they have wrapped things up in the past—lots of expository dialogue, poor execution, but fulfills the story arc)

Since Season 15 is basically a Meta Season (Chuck/God as a writer, pretentiously calling out how he created the worlds, its characters, and basically invalidating the past 14 seasons), and 15x19 is supposedly the finale for Season 15, written by two of the worst Supernatural writers, Brad Buckner and Eugenie Ross-Leming (Bob Singer’s wife), then we can assume that 15x19 is where the shitty writers kill themselves--as Chuck, of course.

So we get a badly written episode that produces a bad ending, or as Becky put it, “All action, and no Cas”

So we get the bad writers season ending at 15x19.

And 15x20 is where Sam and Dean write their own stories, and where the cast had a hand in pitching ideas for it.

Dabb has mentioned that 15x20 (Act Two) is a SERIES finale, where they try to resolve the characters’ journeys.

Because as everyone has acknowledged, Supernatural isn’t about the story, it’s about the characters.

So here’s what we can get out of it:

With no more Supernatural beings left to fight, Sam and Dean are in a stalemate. They’ve resigned themselves to fighting to the bitter end, but the “end” has passed, and they’re still standing.

So they try to figure out who they are now, and what they want out of the life they still have.

Sam still wants a normal apple pie life. Before Dean dragged him out of college to go hunting with him, he had a whole life planned out for him. Become a lawyer, settle down with a nice girl, and get a dog. He gave all that up because they had work to do, but now the work is finished, he can finally go back to wanting that for himself again.

Dean finally realizes his self-worth after Cas saves him again. His prayer to Cas in purgatory may have helped him come to terms with his anger, but the whole “you’ve done everything you did for love” speech finally put him in his place, and he learns not to hate himself anymore.

But of course, he cannot fully reconcile with himself if he doesn’t get Cas back, and tell him how he feels.

Because Dean actually wants something for himself this time. Something he knows he can finally have if he can just salvage it.

So maybe this time around, with the help of Jack (off-screen), Dean saves Cas. Grips him tight and raises him from perdition.

They bypass The Empty deal by turning Cas human, and he lives the rest of his days with Dean.

Dean and Cas know they deserve to be saved, and they know that they deserve to be happy.

(Wishful thinking, maybe they kiss a little)

Anyway...

I’m just saying, there’s NO WAY that they’d have Cas go through that whole rushed speech, if they weren’t going to do anything about it later on.

But again, after 10 years of disappointment, I wouldn’t put it past Supernatural to pat themselves on the back and say, “Okay, we sort of gave them what they wanted. We’re good now”

If that’s the case, Supernatural, I’m sorry I wasted my time on you.

Here’s to hoping 🤡

[tech-crew-confessions]

LET ME TELL YOU A STORY

Whenever someone asks me about the stupidest thing that has ever happened in my theatre I tell them this story. This right here is a story about why two show days are the work of the devil or some evil theatre gremlin.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

Me: a lowly stagehand and dresser Mel: The fabulous wardrobe woman SM: The VERY PREGNANT stage manager whose body was filled with so much sass and sarcasm I’m surprised a baby could fit in there DC: The director and dance coordinator THE FUCKING ACTOR: who by the end of the show run we all wanted to push down the fucking stairs. 

Off to the side was the amazing ASM, the rest of the stagehands, and the actors who weren’t complete and total shitstains

The Scene of this story. The second act of the musical. The stage decked out with moving carts, platforms and so much glitter it would have made Liberace proud (No Liberace was not the show we were performing. We actually did that show the next season)

also please note that this wasn’t early on into the production this happened well into the run of the show. 

In the final scene before the ending big musical number, my job was to push in a rolling cart that held the apartment set. During tech, DC told the actors “hey I know you're running around before this scene but make sure you don’t end up in this ‘waves his arms’ area. Because the apartment carts are rolling in and it’s your job to watch out for them. Not the run crews”  This is honestly why I loved this man.  Now during the course of the run, the actors all pretty much stuck to what DC told them. Of course, we had other problems, especially with THE FUCKING ACTOR. who kept using prop napkins to wipe the sweat off his face no matter how many handkerchiefs we stuffed in his pockets for that specific purpose!

SO in the morning production of this show during that pivotal scene, I get my cue to push in the rolling cart and LOW AND FUCKING BEHOLD. THAT FUCKING ACTOR is in my damn way.  Like an improperly placed piece of furniture, you always wack your damn leg into. Apparently, during this morning production, he didn’t feel like running around the stage like the rest of them and just sorta stood there. Now the lights are still down I still have time to get my cart to its spike point so I Pull back the cart a little and sort of nudge him with the cart a little bit to let him know. We still had a couple seconds he could have still taken ONE DAMN STEP FORWARD.

BUT FUCKING NOPE he just stood there like a video game NPC glitch.

The lights came up and my cart was about a 3 and a half feet off its spike mark. Which of course SM noticed right away and when she calmly asked me why in frick fracks name was my cart two feet of its spike. I took no time at all to throw the fucking actor to the Pregnant sarcastic lion. Which is when SM started cursing up a storm.  regardless we got to the end of the show with all the glitter and pizazz that was required of it.

now over the course of the break between shows. We the lowly stagehands swept, swept again (Lot of fucking glitter), and mopped the stage. SM came to me and in her wisdom, she used these exact words

"That ass of a man knows better then to stand there so if the fucking actor is in the way of your cart. RUN HIM THE FUCK OVER. HIT HIM WITH IT IF YOU HAVE TO"

Now some of you with that may be guessing where this story is going. Yet I continue

The show opens for the evening performance. There’s glitter and singing and some homophobic lady in the audience who clearly did not read the show's synopsis and hasn’t cracked a smile since the first drag queen sashayed across the stage...

We get to the big scene and there I was keeping an eye out and there was the fucking actor....YOU GUESSED IT...STANDING IN MY FUCKING WAY AGAIN.

So I in my innocent wisdom did exactly what SM told me to do. I pushed that cart with all my weight onto the stage (I Admit, I did this with a large amount of glee.) Now I am an average sized women. The fucking actor is VERY LARGE MAN.

 You can probably guess how this interaction ended.

The answer: I get the wind knocked out of me and a decanter filled with juice spills its contents all over the stage before the final dance number. Which Mel the fabulous wardrobe women had to wipe up with a massive arm full of towels when the rain curtain closed. This is why the theatre gods hate two show days and that’s my story

[spenciegoob]

Who Needs Luck?

A/N: hi! I solely wrote this because of my 3 recent visits to NY (no, I sadly did not meet mgg)... plus i’ve been going there my whole life.. this is becoming the longest authors note, but as i’m writing I just want to say the people who work at food trucks in nyc are the nicest people ever, ask them about their day (AND TIP OMG PLS)

Summary: Reader invites Spencer to go to New York City with her where he finally sees the beauty right in front of him.

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Fem!Reader

Category: Fluff!

Content Warnings: reader can’t drive very well (I apologize if this is a callout post), slight road rage, language

Masterlist

Word Count: 2.4K

____

I never considered myself a lucky man. Life had proven time and time again that no matter how many four leaf clovers I set out to search for, how many pennies on the ground faced heads up I stumbled across, luck was never on my side. I’ve learned to live with it, accepted my fate as the world’s smartest punching bag long before I was even in college.

But then I met her, and as cheesy as it sounds, I didn’t need luck that morning.

The second I woke up, the universe seemed to have it out for me specifically. I swung my legs over my bed, and in my half asleep daze stepped on my glasses, successfully breaking them. Unable to see on my short trip to the bathroom, I stubbed my toe… twice. Once I finally finished my morning routine more methodically, I walked out of my apartment only to bump into a stranger, sending the coffee she was holding all the both of us.

I had tried to apologize so many times, cutting my words short when they didn’t feel right. I had gotten through a series of “I’m, uh, oh, I, you,” before her smile interrupted my thought process, leaving me awestruck instead.

“That’s okay, but you owe me a coffee now.” She giggled, actually giggled, even with the scorching liquid causing her shirt to stick to her body. “Maybe… together?”

I didn’t hesitate to agree, taking her up on the offer that weekend and never looking back. Even when a loud crash, followed by a quiet, harsh ‘shit’ woke me up in a startle, there was no regret. Maybe just a little concern for my girlfriend who now that my eyes have adjusted to the darkness, can be seen holding her knee on the floor of our bedroom.

“Hey, I didn’t mean to wake you,” she whispered out, grabbing onto the dresser to stand straight again. Once she was on her feet, she came over to sit on the edge of our bed, immediately running her fingers through my hair. If I wasn’t so worried about her knee, I probably would’ve fell asleep again.

“Are you okay?” She giggled at my scratchy morning voice before nodding her head. It’s then I realized how the sun hasn’t even begun to rise, the room still pitchblack. “What are you doing up?”

“Getting ready to go to the city, sleepyhead,” she said as if it was the most obvious answer, but truthfully, it left me with more questions.

“At... 5 am?” I sat up, glancing at the alarm clock three times just to make sure I was reading it right. She may have always been a little strange, but usually at a reasonable hour.

At this, she stood up to continue getting ready for the very early morning. Now I notice why she fell, the piles of clothes leading to the closet had to have at least half of her outfits compiled together.

“Well, yeah. I want to get there before noon.” Even in my perplexed state, I rose from the bed and carefully tiptoed around haphazardly thrown clothes to reach her.

While wrapping my arms around her waist still hidden under my t-shirt, I questioned. “It’s right outside? You have 7 hours.”

She turned to look at me funny as if I wasn’t the one digging through clothes and waking up before dawn to walk literally 5 minutes to my desired location. My eyebrows must have subconsciously furrowed at one point, because she brought her hand up to stroke her thumb on my forehead. Immediately, I felt the tension melt, no longer caring to correct my confusion. She still did it anyway.

“Not DC, silly. New York!” I wish it were untrue, but my heart dropped at her words. She was leaving, going to a city I wasn’t familiar with beyond reading about, solving cases, and memorizing subway maps. Is this how she feels every time I board that jet?

“W-what? You’re just going to New York City?” I inwardly cringed at how desperate and sad I sounded, but I really didn’t want her to leave.

“Mhm,” she mumbled, turning back around to return digging in her closet.

“For how long?” Please change your mind. Please change your mind. Please change you-

Realizing that I was fully awake, she let out a boisterous laugh, allowing the way it bounced off our four little walls to return back to us. It was a sound most treasured. “I was hoping to get back around 9.”

“What?” I leaned back to look at her like she was absolutely preposterous. I mean, she was!

“Roadtrip!”

That’s how I found myself in the passenger seat of her car, no coffee in my hand because I wasn’t allowed until I have “a real cup of coffee.” Whatever the hell that means better happen soon, because as much as I loved watching the way she concentrates on the road in front of her, my eyes were starting to droop.

“It’s going to be another 4 hours. You can sleep, my love.” How she knew me so well, I will never be able to figure out, but I was out before we even made it across state borders.

That however, didn’t last very long. My girlfriend may be short and sweet, but behind the wheel? That’s a different story. The horn to her car is a very familiar sound when I’m jolted awake by a sudden stop.

“Really, asshole? Go!” She yelled, slamming her hand against the top of the steering wheel before looking over at me. “Hey, I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to wake you yet. I forgot how awful drivers are here.”

“Where is here exactly?” I questioned, sitting up from my slouched position to find cars practically on top of each other on a road not wide enough for two lanes.

“New Jersey. We’re 10 minutes away.” Wow, I didn’t realize I slept for that long, and I have to admit I’m a little surprised I wasn’t woken up sooner.

“How are we 10 minutes away? It’s at least another 30 to get to the tunnel.” Looking at our surroundings didn’t help me determine our exact location. To the left of us, there were dozens of graffiti murals on the side of what I assumed was another elevated highway. To the right, sidestreets with local businesses ranging from auto repair shops to fast food joints to gyms.

“Nuh uh, stop analyzing mister. You’ll know when we get there.” She waved a finger in my directions, putting a pin in my scrutinization. I pouted right back, successfully playing along to the theme of her scolding me like a 5 year old.

“I don’t like surprises you know.” It was the truth, but her contagious laughter that filled the car made me slightly less disinclined to stop asking questions.

“Oh I know, but trust me, you’ll like this one.” She went to go reach over to grab my hand from where it was resting in my lap, but stopped short and retracted in favor of slamming the horn. “Oh, come on!”

***

“So you drove to a train station... in New Jersey?” I asked while she was… attempting to park the car.

“Well, yeah. I’ve been taking this route since I was a little girl.” Once she finally figured out how to evenly space a two door convertible in a very spacious parking spot, she unbuckled her seatbelt, and was quick to grab her bag from the backseat. “Well, come on mister, we’re going to miss the train.”

To be quite honest, I have never been so lost in my life. I could probably pinpoint our exact location on a map if I wanted to, granted I was given any sort of information, but part of me didn’t want to. Scratch that, all of me didn’t want to, because my entire life has been planned out in front of me before, but right now, I get to be spontaneous with the most beautiful girl on the planet.

“Don’t let go of my hand,” she told me, lacing our fingers together and pulling me forward. “Don’t stop to look around, you will get pushed.”

We made it inside, and if I thought the DC transit system was bustling with people constantly, this place was so much worse. There were hallways left and right, all packed with people in a rush. It seems everybody had some place to be and zero time to get there.

“Upstairs.” We walked up two flights before reaching a platform, buying our tickets and making it just in time for a train to arrive. “I know they come every 8 minutes, but thank god we made this one,” she said as she sat down.

The cart we were in wasn’t too crowded, and once I finally found a map on the wall across from us, I saw that it was a direct ride to the World Trade Center.

“You said you took this train when you were little?”

“Yeah, I went to the city a lot as a kid. This was the easiest, and the cheapest way there.” A small smile played at her lips, obviously the product of some childhood memory. “I used to hop it.”

“Of course you did,” I laughed back with her, thinking about how an innocent looking child would be the first person to get away with sneaking onto the train.

***

“I said it before, I will say it again. Do not let go of my hand.” This time it was more stern, and if I were being honest, I would say that it got me the slightest bit nervous. She must have noticed, she always does, because she continued. “Don’t worry, it just gets congested and I don’t want to lose you.”

She was right about that, it indeed was very congested, but that was okay because she was holding my hand, and I would follow her just about anywhere if it meant she kept looking over her shoulder and smiling when she saw me. Once we made it across the way, and in front of heavy looking glass doors, she turned to me and started walking backwards.

“You okay? This is definitely not off to a great start.” She was wrong, it was off to a perfect start.

“Yeah, I’m okay, but you might want to watch where you’re going,” I said before her back hit the door.

“Please I can get here with my eyes closed.” And then we were outside, and all 5 of my senses were hit immediately. The sun was shining down on us, and before I could complain about not bringing my sunglasses, she handed them to me. My heart fluttered at the innocent act, taking the sunglasses with such gratitude even though she had already moved on to retrieve hers. “Do you smell that?” She asked.

“There are a lot of answers to that question,” I told her, not knowing if she was talking about the smell of the construction happening at the corner, the permanent garbage smell or something entirely different.

“The hotdogs, silly. Come on, there’s nothing like ‘em.” This time, I laced our fingers together, not because I was scared of losing her, I was, but I just really wanted to be closer to her. She didn’t mind, in fact, she let out a content hum and leaned her head on my arm as we walked to the stand.

“Can I get four hotdogs with sauerkraut and two grape sodas,” she asked the vendor, who politely nodded before moving on to prepare our food.

“You’re going to have a heart attack by 35,” I said as I nudged her with my shoulder. She gave me a small push back before answering.

“Is that a doctor’s diagnosis?” She asked as she took our now ready food into her hands, after paying the man before I even had time to blink. I just grabbed the two cans of soda and followed her where she was making a beeline for a park bench. “Watch out for skaters.”

“Yes, it is indeed a doctor's diagnosis.” I unwrapped one of the hotdogs before taking a bite. I closed my eyes and let out a content hum. “It may be a little worth it.”

“Exactly.” We sat there quietly, enjoying the warm weather and sounds of wheels against pavement. At one point, she rested her head against my shoulder, and I am convinced wherever she went would be Heaven.

***

“Are your eyes closed?” We found ourselves with both our hands interlocked, my eyes closed while she walked backwards. I gave an ‘mhm’ before she continued. “We’re here, just keep them closed, and…” her words trailed off. “Okay open.”

I opened my eyes to her holding her arms out in the middle of the largest bookstore I’ve ever seen. “Surprise!” My eyes were bouncing everywhere. It wasn’t too crowded, the large stairwell across the store catching my eye first. There were bookshelves tens of feet high, all loaded with different genres and authors. To the right of us, tiny knick knacks and pins and socks. It was beautiful.

“Wow,” I whispered out, still stuck in my place admiring our surroundings. She was beaming up at me, a hint of pride at her successfulness to drag me 6 hours away to the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen.

“The Strand has always been my favorite place in the city. Come on, let’s go explore.” She grabbed my hands again, pulling me deeper into the store towards a shelf labeled adult fiction.

***

Six books, three pairs of socks and a postcard later, we were back on the busy streets of New York, aimlessly walking and admiring the tall buildings and different attractions. Well she was, I was admiring the way she was looking around like it was her first time here. Maybe I should have been paying more attention to our surroundings, but no amount of skyscrapers or fountains could possibly ever match up to her level of beauty. 

“Have I ever told you how much I love you?” I asked randomly, startling her into jumping a tiny bit before giggling. She stopped us, turning to face me fully before reaching up to grab my face in her hands.

“Once or twice.” The kiss we shared on the New York streets were no different than the ones before, but this time, it felt like a silent promise. A passing between two lovers that no matter where we are, our love is the most beautiful thing there is. “I love you too, dork.”

___

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[hellyeahheroes]

Robin(2021) #1 Review

Opening this comic with an assessment of a character that I have no choice but to agree with is a cheap way to score points with me.

Anyways, we caught heat for being unfair to this story since it was announced because all of us wanted it to be a Cass story since forever. And it became yet another thing Damian absorbs. I mostly ignored it because I’ve always been open about my disdain for the character and his fandom for nearly a decade. I never liked Damian because put these characteristics on a non-white passing character, they’d be dead inside of year. Then again I hate almost all of Grant Morrison monstrosities.

Regardless, new story who dis is in full effect here. We open this bad boy up with Damian gone missing and the Batfamily searching for him. Nightwing tried asking Damian’s old Teen Titans team and they obviously don’t know and probably hope Damian is dead. Tim checked Arkham Ruins(???) and Damian wasn’t there. I honestly don’t think Tim was trying to find Damian. Steph and Cass checked Damian’s farm and Steph concluded Damian has been there at least because while Damian may be a little shit, he loves his dog and pet bat dragon. Barbara checked facial recognition pings and his transactions and dude is an IRS nightmare.

Damian is missing. Bruce is worried that maybe making a violent murderous preteen Robin raised in a cabal of killers to be chief murderer was a bad idea and is worried. Barbara ensures him that they will find his son and we cut to Damian fighting Snake guy in some musty ass fight put somewhere. Because of course it’s a musty ass fight pit because while the story is well drawn, it never claimed to be not cliche.

Damian hands the scrub his ass and it turns out Damian is trying to earn a marker to participate in some tournament. I liked this panel.

Not because of the artist flex of changing the art style, but it establishes Damian with a relatable hobby, reading manga. And not just a Shounen as you expect him to read but a slice of life manga which kind of puts his life in perspective. Also the lesson in the manga is reflective of what happens in the comic. Damian’s mastery is reflective of how he sees Hana. Hana decides to go beyond what her masters taught her. She decides to innovate and make her art her own. And that’s indicative of another flaw of Damian: Damian leans of the prestige of his teachers. He is the student that replicates the style 1:1. He wants to inherit Batman’s mantle, but doesn’t want to shed his teachings that he is proud of. And it comes down to this idea that Damian refuses to innovate and adapt because he is hiding behind his masters.

This panel saved the story so good job.

And after a talk with dead Alfred, it’s revealed that Damian is on this journey as a way to mirror Bruce’s journey into becoming Batman. It’s his way to iron his resolve without a catalyst to find a need to. It highlights his naïveté. He thinks that he can just simply copy the steps and get the same results.

Regardless what happens next simultaneously undermines the story or the impact of it.

Okay, when you think of Martial artists in DC, you immediately think Batman, Shiva, Deathstroke, Black Canary, Bronze Tiger, Richard Dragon, and Shiva. Why I said Shiva twice? Because Shiva is the pinnacle.

So to reveal that three premier martial artists in the universe are not only not participating but they were paid off to not participate, cheated out, or were subbed in as an entry replacement, it undermines the promotion. It’s like going to a Beyonce Concert only to find out that between the words in small print Beyonce and Concert was ‘s Sister’s and now you are watching Grammy award winning Solange. Sure, it’s an unique experience but it ain’t Beyonce.

And also, there is no amount in the world that would keep Shiva away from this tournament if it’s as prestigious as it’s led to be. Let’s be real. If anything, it’s far more likely that she saw the roster of scrubs and decided to make some scratch.

There are two characters that I recognize: Connor Hawke and Rose Wilson. I am not familiar with Connor so I am not sure if he is out of place. Rose is fine but y’know, scrub. I’m sorry Rose Wilson got her ass handed to her by Cass in the previous universe. There is no universe where I take her seriously in a fighting tournament to crown greatest fighter because the ass stomp was so thorough that Cass was beating Slade’s ego by proxy.

Back to the comic, Damian interrupts the host and basically is the fighting tournament trope of overly confident disrespectful guy with too many accolades which he will proudly tell you about them. What I like about this is the nice nod to the previous manga panel. Damian is not a great fighter. There I said it. Damian’s ability hinges on the idea that he was trained by the greatest killers and Batman but the issue is that name prestige doesn’t make great fighters. Too many times, comic books overly rely on this idea of fighting being a what you know and not being a game of not getting hit and getting hits in. It does not matter if Damian is trained by the League and Batman and it’s questionable as to how much Batman taught him in the first place. Hence why we see Damian with a sword or staff to compliment his lack of range. Damian can’t read muscle twitches like a Cass or Shiva so he has a normal reactive response and comics never highlighted his ability. The most impressive thing I’ve seen Damian do is catch a Batarang which is something I’ve seen Tim do. Damian overly relies on the idea that his teachers taught him to be the best when they simply taught him to survive in a fight.

“But why does Cass get away with it?,” you ask. Cass has this broken hax that is reading muscle twitch and immediately knowing the instant of what you are going to do before you do it or decide to do. Cass doesn’t need range because to her, you are screaming your intentions. She doesn’t need to block an attack when she can just parry. She doesn’t need to step back when she can just step forward while slipping all attacks. She is an autistic savant at fighting with an absolute defense. Damian is just another badass teen in a world of badass adults.

And the humbling of Damian begins...again.

Pros:

-Damian’s new costume. I like that he is branching out and starting to own his own colors. It’s nice.

-Using a character flaw to make it a theme. I like Chekhov’s gun via teachable moment. In tournament arcs, what separates the good ones and the bad ones is the idea that the hero simply must overcome their opponents and not their own self. This is why Yuyu Hakusho is awesome.

- Great art and nice continuity. It’s nice that Damian’s past wasn’t ignored for once and they didn’t just throw his Teen Titans characterization down the tubes. Say what you want, but it was arguably Damian’s longest run in spite of his fans hating it. And contrary to what they believe, it was very much in character for him. My fear going into this that Damian would not face any fallout and lo and behold he ran away.

- it’s a good start for a Damian story. Say what you want, but it’s unique in that the little shit gets his comeuppance immediately. And not that just by losing, but by dying. Damian has killed before and readily justifies it because he never realizes the weight of taking someone’s life. He’s been killed before but those were painted in a way that he is valiant. Here, this is death caused by his own arrogance. He mocks a fighter for talking shit and gets murked while talking shit. He spouts names of his own teachers and expects people to care or be weary as if Rose Wilson and Connor aren’t there. It’s a tournament sponsored by the League of Assassins, Damian. They have been taught by the league too.

Cons:

-Look I get promotion. No promoter is going to undermine their product but the fact that this tournament reeks like ABA is killing my interest to give a shit. It’s a convenient caveat to say that, “Well, a character won this so they can have the title but the title doesn’t mean anything.” I know of regardless of whom wins this, they aren’t the best. Go ham or don’t at all.

-not enough emphasis of the importance of this arc. Why even have this tournament? What’s the prize? What’s even the point?

-While the art is nice, the action is framed poorly. I like physical action like this to be nearly choreographed in a way I can see and piece movement in my head. The two fight scenes we get are somewhat disjointed in that it’s just poses. For example, Flatline’s first kick makes no sense at all and I don’t get her follow up. Trying to picture the movement hurts my head and in an action concept like this, it’s best to frame action scenes as more than doing poses. Here is a good example:

This only emphasizes the action and gets the reader to acknowledge that this a tournament of great fighters or at least a great fighting story.

All in all, do I think this story is off to a good start? Yes. Is it going to change my opinion on Damian? Hell no. My reaction to Damian getting his ass handed to him was this.

The issue is that it never sticks. Damian can learn and be a better person but the development never sticks. It becomes a cyclical series of events because whoever writes him next will just keep writing him as this shitty entitled murder rich kid who never learns anything and gets validated somehow. It’s been over a decade and I’m tired of the same excuses of his shitty behavior. I am tired of writers validating it or excusing it.

Damian losing isn’t an outcome I care for because it’s wasted on him. Honestly I am more interested in Connor and Rose being there. I have no faith that it will stick nor does it undo the shitty idea of the character. I have never wanted to see Damian fight. It’s never been fun to read about nor has the impetus of his character emphasized the ability or style. Placing Damian in an Enter the Dragon style tournament lacks the pizzazz of Cass doing the same thing. For example, let’s try Marvel.

Let’s say someone pitches an idea of a tournament arc styled after Game of Death. Immediately you think Martial Artists non-powered. Danny Rand, Daredevil, Elektra, Shang-Chi, Pei and Colleen Wing. Okay, instead of giving those characters the honor, you give the story to Black Cat. Honestly, I’d read it because Felicia could sell me a documentary on grass and I’d buy it but the point stands, why does Damian have this Bruce Lee inspired Martial Arts story versus the actual Chinese or East Asian Martial Arts focused member of the Batfamily, Cassandra Cain?

But this has nothing to do with what could have been. It’s a fun beginning of a possibly fun arc. In that regard, it delivers but what’s the point?

Like I said, fun story.

@ubernegro

[davidmann95]

New Superman show! Thoughts?

Anonymous said: Thoughts on the new Superman animated series?

cheerfullynihilistic said: Thoughts on the new HBO Max DC animated shows?

Anonymous said: A NEW SUPERMAN CARTOON!!!!!! WOOOHOOOO!!!! Also another Batman cartoon. That looks cool too

jcogginsa said: NEW SUPERMAN CARTOON!

Anonymous said: So what do you want from the new animated show? It seems to be about a “Year 2” Superman which suits me perfectly, I just want fun adventures with the trio. We’ve still got S&L and the animated movies for a more “mature” take on Superman if this is too childish.

deathchrist2000 said: So they’re making a new Superman cartoon about him falling for Lois. Thoughts?

As it happens I had to wake up much earlier than usual today, so I saw the Batman announcement pretty much as soon as it happened. I had the car ride to the comic book store to think about it, mulled over the notion that while I like Batman too much to be resentful about this it was of course notable that there was no accompanying Superman announcement, leading me to conclude that hey, they should make a Superman cartoon too, a blistering spark of unprecedented inspiration to be sure. Then since I was early I checked my phone while waiting for the store to open, and I believe I audibly yelped.

In the order they were announced: psyched for Caped Crusader! I guess this is what the ‘BTAS is coming back!’ rumors a few months ago were about, and if this basically is “BTAS but serialized, getting to go heavier, and with modern production values”, I’m more than onboard with these names attached. Assuming Abrams’ role is mostly ceremonial, and hoping since he wasn’t in the original Hollywood Reporter headline with the other two Timm’s is mostly aesthetic (the degree to which his input beyond that could be a good thing depends on how much his uncomfortable horniness can be reigned in. Not even saying anything less than exceedingly horny, just don’t have Bruce and Barbara hook up again), this looks to be mainly Reeves’ baby which really shows how far WB is investing in him as the shepherd of their biggest IP. Must be a dream gig for him, getting to do his versions of the big hyper-modern unique reinvention and the classic iconic take at the same time: between that, Timm getting to go in the darker direction he always wanted, and Abrams getting to put his name on a thing everybody already likes again the way we know that guy loves, everybody’s getting what they want with this one. I can’t imagine this not turning out well.

Additionally, controversial take: despite the Timm design hoping this isn’t another Conroy return, we all love him but he’s phoned it in for a bit now and this should scream new as much as possible.

So first off: love that title. What a joyful, clever, lovely spin on an old standard.

Second: love this setup, aesthetic, and apparent tone! Instantly love this Clark and especially this Lois and their dynamic from the one image alone, I’m not familiar with Jake Wyatt’s work but taking a quick glance I’m very glad to see he’s part of this, and getting folks from the Voltron and She-Ra reboots sends a clear message as if the art wasn’t enough of what kind of thing this is going to try to be. Which is pretty much a perfect tack for a modern Superman cartoon: tell the 20-somethings who watched Adventure Time and Steven Universe and the like “hey, this is like those, but focused on your new age group”, and the kids watching Infinity Train and Owl House “hey this is like those but Superman”. If nothing else doing a show rooted around superheroism as a metaphor for the 20s experience rather than being a teenager is a relatively unique tack (as far as mass-media goes PS4 Spider-Man is the only other one that leaps out at me), and anchoring it and the adventures around the slice-of-life escapades and growth of Lois, Clark, and Jimmy as a trio of friends ala Morrison’s Action rather than the traditional duo with a sidekick is inspired. Gut instinct, but I have a feeling this is gonna be a revelatory Lois interpretation in particular. And if All-Star was Jack Quaid’s reading for inspiration as Clark, well, that’s sure not a bad sign either.

(The above’s from reddit, I guess some concept art from early enough that the title wasn’t finalized; the person who leaked this said the girl on the right is a member of the Newsboy Legion, now the Newskid Legion.)

(Also glad to see he's in his real clothes but if he's starting the show figuring the identity out, and there's some Morrison influence, they could do worse than to have him start in the t-shirt and jeans.)

20 years since the last proper Superman on TV, and now we’re getting two shows at once! One of them Superman for KIDS, if you can imagine such a thing. Between My Adventures With Superman as an early days, poppy all-ages series, Superman & Lois as a drama acting as the de facto sequel to pretty much every prior mass-media Superman take, and the upcoming movie apparently being a fairly standalone prestige reinvention, it really feels like all the bases are being covered. Hot damn, he’s well and truly back. Worth the inevitable agonizing hellpit discourse surrounding the franchise now that it’ll be a young adult animated series open to that scale of criticism, and as noted in my Twitter mentions, while not lining up in the strictest chronological sense, in terms of paving the way for this Superman in the collective cultural headspace McKenna Jean Harris probably deserves some royalties, or at least to get to work on the show.

Anonymous said: DC giveth and DC taketh away. We get a new Superman cartoon!... and an Injustice movie. Oh well it was inevitable right? Disappointed they’re doing Injustice before Kingdom Come though, and the petty side of me hopes we get a Metal adaption with the evil Batmen down the road.

Anonymous said: Injustice is finally getting adapted. That sucks but it looks like they’re adapting the first game’s story?

lol, two out of three ain’t bad

Really don’t care, this whipped up some Twitter mentions but basically no one especially gives a shit about these DTV joints at this point anyway (even if Man of Tomorrow turned out really solid) and the contrast today is a particularly humiliating one. So sure, do this too while you’re at it, a friend noted their new burgeoning shared universe sets it up to adapt the original ‘good Earth V evil Earth’ plot pretty well but it hardly matters.

[bigskydreaming]

broadwaybutterfly310

The idea that Ric is the "true" Dick Grayson and not DC's massive fuck up is the worse take I ever heard

LOL, so okay here’s the thing for me. I don’t think Ric Grayson is the ‘true’ Dick Grayson, in the sense that he’s not the character he’s BECOME and that most of us are here to read specifically, and thus while I’m kinda protective of Ric Grayson for what he IS I don’t blame people who are just like....this isn’t the character I want to read starring in the Nightwing solo title, because like....he’s not! Its true!

I personally view humans as being a product of nature AND nurture, with it being hard to definitively parse where one aspect of a person is specifically one and not the other, but one thing that’s big for me is I do believe that its impossible to define a person as NOT being the sum of their experiences, at least in large part.

What that means for me, is like I said in that “Things Ric Grayson knows” post.......it took from the time Dick’s parents died in his origin story, until he got shot in the head by KGBeast....to become the character that people viewed as Dick Grayson at that point. He was the endproduct of all the experiences he had in between those two points in time, he was informed by how those experiences affected him, his behavior was influenced by what he chose to do BECAUSE of various things that had happened to him, etc.

Without conscious awareness of all those experiences, it is categorically impossible in my mind for Dick to BE the same person he was when he WAS aware of all those experiences and actively affected and informed by them.

So from THAT angle, no, Ric Grayson is definitively not the same as the person he was when he was the summation of all those life experiences.

But at the same time.....I do think that Ric Grayson is still A true Dick Grayson in the sense that even though he called himself Ric, he was no LESS ‘really’ Dick Grayson....than say, he’d been when he had first lost his parents fifteen years earlier. That version of a young Dick Grayson ALSO had not experienced all the life experiences that led to him being the one we read about as an adult, and thus he was a very different character in a lot of ways than his adult self. But that doesn’t make him a different person. Just both of those people two different versions of him at two different points in time, characterized by different life experiences and a different FOCUS on which life experiences he was actively being impacted by the most at those times.

Ric Grayson, to me, is no different. He’s STILL Dick Grayson, because he’s still the product of all the life experiences he had up to the point of his parents’ death, which is where his memory loss started from. He’s just.....Dick Grayson from a different vantage point, if that makes sense?

And this also goes back to why I always stress so much that Dick in his earliest years at the Manor was not this eternal bubbly sunshine child that he’s often characterized as. I have a hearty dislike of the take on children as Teflon, like they just bounce back from tragedy like no, that’s not how that works. Even children need time to grieve, and that grief is RARELY pretty. And the determination with which people willfully focus on JUST sunshine Dick Grayson as a child, with very little attention - by choice - paid to the uglier parts of his grieving process, to me smacks of bad survivorism, aka that thing where people tend to judge people for not reacting to trauma in the way they’d prefer or want to assume they should?

And I view Ric in a similar light, and its part of why I’m protective there lol. Like.....let’s be clear, bad writing was at the root of Ric’s worst character moments of course, but like......I think it gets way too glossed over that Ric’s entire arc is like one long trauma response? The dude burst onto the scene ALREADY traumatized. It wasn’t just Bruce showing him a video of him getting shot in the head that did it. We’re talking about a guy who woke up one day to be told that his parents were dead and it was fifteen years later.

The reason I bring it back to child Dick Grayson so much is for me, its largely the same thing: just like I harp on about how Dick’s initial tragedy wasn’t JUST the loss of his parents, but the loss of every source of stability in his life, his entire world and way of life as he was ripped away from EVERYTHING he’d known and loved when not allowed to stay with the circus, continue on in the direction his life previously had been taking him, having to learn brand new routines from the ground up in practically every aspect of his life from how he was educated to his social interactions and more....ALL of this, singularly and in combination, is trauma in and of itself.

And Ric experienced the exact same losses, just in different ways. Everything he knew and relied on as steady and familiar and comforting was gone between one day and the next. He had to start over one morning, from a hundred feet behind the starting line, while everyone around him expected him to just pick up exactly where the older Dick Grayson had left off. Nobody had any patience for him needing time to find his footing again, or even in the first place, and he was judged in how he acted and how he reacted to things against the measuring standard that was peoples’ expectations for a Dick Grayson who had an additional fifteen years worth of life experiences he couldn’t possibly be privy to.....instead of being judged on his actions, choices and reactions against the measuring standard of A Dick Grayson who had JUST lost his parents and everything he knew and loved and trusted in as though all of that was fresh and had just happened, and he hadn’t even had a chance to grieve those losses.

And there’s absolutely NO way for someone to be graceful or polite or gracious about coping with that kind of extreme trauma and loss in the space of like, two or three issues (which is about how long Ric’s vaunted ‘asshole stage’ lasted, because it was honestly only like at most three or four issues into the Ric Grayson arc that he actively started acting as a vigilante again and doing things not all that differently from the Dick Grayson most of us are used to).

So basically, like.....its yes and no. I don’t think Ric and the Dick Grayson we usually talk about are interchangeable, but I also don’t think Ric was just some completely different person or caricature of one....or at least he didn’t have to be. Its nuanced. *Shrugs*

BUT.

An important element here too, and one that ties into what I was addressing when I mentioned in that other post how the second the plot came up with a reason for Dick not to care about peoples’ feelings and he started talking honestly about how he felt, people hated him for it both in universe and out....

Its also important to keep in mind how both characters and readers PERCEIVED Ric, and acted in regards to him. Because a large part of why I said things that way is that neither characters nor readers in my own personal experiences online and in fandom during that arc, like.....ever seemed to prioritize making a distinction on THEIR end, between Ric and Dick.

Basically, it was a lot of characters in fics and readers in posts talking about how they hated how Dick didn’t care about Damian or how Dick didn’t seem at all interested in getting to know this family that had adopted him, etc....

And I don’t think when people are TREATING Ric as just Dick Grayson, that its at all inaccurate to say as I did that like......the second Dick in ANY incarnation or version of himself, ie basically just the figure in Dick’s starring role and title with his face and history....the second that character, no matter HOW you view him personally, started saying and doing things people didn’t like, the WAY this was described by most fans and characters was “Dick did this” or “Dick said that”....

And that, SPECIFICALLY, is what led me to my point about how people have no patience for Dick for any reason and in any form, like, being honest when that honesty isn’t saying something they like.

Because it may have been Ric saying and doing it specifically, but it was very much still Dick Grayson who people held to blame for that. And that was kinda my whole point. If that makes sense?

[rollflasher]

Another Sonic ramble

So once again I’m here with one of my rambles about my incredibly subjective view of how the Sonic series should be handled! *Beat*

...anyway.

So, one of the more recurring opinions on the fandom is that Sonic games should be written by Ian Flynn, I have talked before about the gripes I have with his writing and why I disagree with this but this post is not entirely about him, but rather a more general topic that has been bugging me for a long time.

The other day I was watching a video speculating about the upcoming Sonic Rangers, there’s not much to write home since it was pretty well made but there’s a particular part that inspired me to do this post and talk about it with other fans to discuss it.

See, at one point the video critisized the fact that Sonic Forces was written by a Japanese writer because they have to re-write the script in English and that can cause problems with localization, and that it would be better to have western writers from the get-go since Sonic’s main demographic comes from there, while making an off-hand suggestion that Ian Flynn could be a main choice. While I can see where they’re coming from, my response was a simple:

‘‘Absolutely, not’‘

See, I have a lot of issues with this to put it bluntly and I’ll try to break them down and explain them the best I can since they’re pretty subjective in nature, but I’m bringing this up because I want you guys to share your thoughts as well.

So, why does it bug me so much the idea of Sonic being handled by western creators?

In my case, the main reasons are because Sonic loses a core part of it’s appeal because of this, the fact that SEGA of Japan seems to have a better grasp of the franchise’s tone and characters and there’s the very subjective point that, in my eyes, American versions of Japanese franchises were always nothing more than dumbed down products of the source material.

To start with my first point, whenever someone talks about Sonic’s creation, a lot of people are quick to point out that our favorite blue hedgehog and his games were inspired by western pop culture and cartoons, and that is true, however oftenly they forget to mention a core thing that not only inspired, but also formed part of the core identity of this franchise.

Sonic is very inspired on anime, and at heart this franchise is a shonen.

(This image by The Great Lange expresses more clearly what I mean)

Generally, the most acknowledgement anime gets on it’s hand on Sonic is the mentions of Sonic being inspired by Dragon Ball, particularly the Super Saiyan, but there’s so much more than that, as Sonic blatantly takes inspiration from Studio Ghibli films specially in games like Sonic 3, which draws a lot of inspiration from Laputa: Castle in the Sky, this great post shows proof that this is not a coincidence.

And it doesn’t stop there, Shiro Maekawa himself has stated that SA2′s story (and in particular, the characters of Shadow and Maria) draw a lot of inspiration from the manga Please Save My Earth.

Even Sonic’s character design resembles shonen protagonists moreso than the main characters of silent cartoons, don’t believe me?

Sure, Sonic has a cartoony anatomy, no one can deny that, but he also exhibits a lot of traits from shonen characters such as spiky hair/quills (?), dynamic posing, a confident, courageous and energetic personality and most importantly, fighting spirit.

If you compare Sonic’s personality and more specifically, his abilities and moves to, say, cartoon speedy characters like the Road Runner, there’s a pretty big disconnection between him and western cartoon characters. Hell, this disconnection is even just as present if you compare him with a character like The Flash from DC.

Simply put, Sonic acts, moves and more importantly, fights like a shonen anime character. He doesn’t just go Super Saiyan and that’s it. Here’s even a quick comparison if necessary.

And this is important because this doesn’t apply just to him, but the whole franchise as a whole and when it takes a more western approach, all of these details are kinda lost or more downplayed, of course this depends on the artists and there’s YMMV at hand, but I think my point is clear.

My second point is...SoJ has consistently proven they have a much clearer grasp on how Sonic’s world and characters are compared to SoA.

Hear me out, yes, Sonic 06 and ShtH exist and yes, SoJ is not perfect by any means. But hear me out...when did the characters start to get flanderized and turned into parodies of themselves? In the 2010s...and when did SEGA move from Japanese to western writers in the games?

Of course it was more then that since there’s a whole tone shift that came with this decade and the new writers, but it’s not a coincidence that when writing in Sonic started to decay, western writers also happened to get on board with the games.

Besides that, SoA has a wide history of not getting Sonic’s tone and characters, from how they made media without much of Sonic Team’s input, to altering how characters are seen in the west. (Such as how they amped up Sonic’s attitude in their media or how the English scripts of the games featured things like Sonic seemingly barely tolerating Amy while the JP scripts portrayed this as Sonic just not understanding girls all that well instead, or for more recent examples, the addition of the ‘’torture’’ line in Forces). Not only that, but even ignoring obvious infamous writers like Ken Penders, even the ‘’best’’ writers from the western side of Sonic are still not above of giving us Pontaff-esque gems.

Like this one.

Or alternatively, I feel like sometimes western writers on Sonic rely a bit too much on their personal vision about Sonic which may or may not be a good thing, clear examples of this are Ian Flynn himself and Pontaff.

By contrast, while SoJ has it’s own share of notorious inconsistencies when dealing with writing (The 2000s era is a big offender), it seems that for them Sonic hasn’t changed much and this is visible not only on the JP scripts of the Modern games which are for the most part better than the ENG ones, but also things like the Sonic Channel comics and the recent one-shots they made with Sonic interacting with the cast show that for all intents and purposes, the Japanese’s staff vision of Sonic is much more clear and consistent compared to the west. Because of this, I’d rather have a good Japanese writer on Sonic games with the localization being focused on being faithful with the original script than have a more western writers dramatically changing the characters. (I don’t mention the tone since either way, SEGA is the one in charge of that and the writers have to follow that)

My last and very subjective point is that, at least for me, everything SoA does with Sonic involving the writing and canon feels like a dumbed down version of the source material. One of the reasons it bugs me so much that in the latest decade Sonic has taken a more western direction is because a lot of what I pointed out gets lost as a result, even if some of those elements are still there, you can tell they’re more downplayed with products like the Tyson Hesse shorts having a more predominant cartoon direction. If any of you have been following my blog for a long time, you should be aware that just because I prefer the Japanese Sonic content doesn’t mean I won’t give the western products a chance, my enjoyment for Mania, the Tyson Hesse shorts and the movie should be a testament of that, but at the same time I can’t help but being sour about the fact that because of these products, we don’t have stuff like a new anime for Sonic or even a serialized ‘’main’’ manga as an alternative for the comics, and my hype for these products is generally more subdued as a result since I’d wish SEGA rather spent that money and resources on more Japanese content than just merchandise.

In particular, because Sonic is a Japanese franchise with a notorious inspiration from anime, what I get from this is a pretty big contradiction. I know Sonic is much more popular on the west but...is it really necessary for his game or products to be handled by western creators to keep their appeal?

For instance, imagine if Dragon Ball’s manga and anime got replaced by western comics and animated series because of it’s world-wide appeal, would that really be the same?

Or imagine the same thing with Fullmetal Alchemist, a pretty aclaimed anime that has a lot of western influence. Would it really not matter at all if it’s Japanese products were replaced with western ones?

At least for me, it wouldn’t.

And what I said about American versions of Japanese franchises being nothing more than watered down versions of the source material? I have that view because of countless examples.

Mega Man and how the English manuals removed a lot of important information about the story of the Blue Bomber’s game and world, causing a lot of plot holes in the process.

American remakes like Godzilla 1998 or Dragon Ball Evolution being an in-name only version of the source material.

Or the many censored anime English dubs from the 2000s, for instance, whenever I see the Yu-Gi-Oh! dubs, I only see a very dumbed down and childish version of a show that was originally a shonen.

And I know that all of these things don’t have to necessarely get lost since every creator is different and there’s franchises like Avatar which are made on the west but draw a lot of inspiration from anime and I’m aware of that, and I want to make it clear that I’m not trying to say that American writers are not allowed to work on Sonic, what I’m trying to say is that inevitably there’s always gonna be some culture dissonance and clash when writers from another culture handle a foreign franchise. And even with examples like ATLA, I think being made by one culture while being inspired by the other is actually a big part of these franchises appeal and it’s something that can’t simply be replicated by handing it to creators from that specific culture they draw inspiration from.

I think James Rolfe’s quote about the same thing with the Godzilla franchise sums up how I feel about this.

‘‘It’s like champagne, anybody can make their own and call it champagne, but unless it’s from Champagne France, it’s not real champagne’‘

So, this last part was very subjective, but I think this post in general sums up why I dislike so much the idea of Sonic having western writers specifically in the games or just focusing more on that side in general.

But what do you guys think? I guess I am too biased so that’s why I wanted to ask for opinions and discuss this topic.