#tom king rant

[johnconn]

i know its been 5 plus years and enough people have talked about this enough but i cannot physically refrain from clawing my eyes out every time i come across this panel. Truly one of the most ridiculous things tom king has ever written (and the list is huge). Like why is this character who is almost in his thirties comparing himself to his brothers who are atleast 5 to 12 years younger than him? Of all the things he could have an identity crisis about they actually made him lose his mind over what type of robin am I? Not parents dying in front of a whole ass audience or withstanding the demands of being the perfect soldier in batman's crusade or having to put up with the pressure of being a leader other heroes look up to or his friends and family dying all the time, and man i could go on and on. I assure you he is not losing any sleep over where he stands with a bunch of people he cares for very deeply and ultimately thinks of as kids.

[sliipppy]

I haven't read anything with her in it so sorry for being a hater, but I'm a Lizzie Prince hater. I'm sorry, just no one can convince me to like anything made by Tom King. It feels like a convenient way to shelve my glorious queen Yara Flor. Like istg she was everywhere in 2021, and now I feel like we barely see her. Is this me being a hater? Yes. It is. If you like Lizze, power to you. And like yeah, I've seen some panels they're cute ngl. But she feels so forced in like the just NEED a third trinity member. I love the wondergirls so so so much but I don't really love Lizzie because she feels like less of a character to me and more of a cash-grab, article-bait, and way to prop up Jon and Damian more or something.

Edited this because I got the Tom's confused again and I thought Tom Taylor made Lizzie but it was the other evil Tom, Tom King who is even MORE evil than Taylor because i mean at least Tom Taylor isn't a war criminal which is. apparently the bar.

[esperata]

I've been reading King's Penguin series and, while I'm not at the end because for some reason the tpk only goes to issue #7, I have a few thoughts. I'll put it under a spoiler in case people want to avoid details. Warning: rant ahead.

First and foremost is how disparaging its being towards its lead. We have Selina disbelieving that Oswald found ten women who'd sleep with him (really, Selina?) Followed up by his own wife reportedly saying she would close her eyes and imagine Riddler while they had sex. Does King not realise there are people who actually are attracted to overweight, not stereotypically handsome men? Or even that power is an aphrodisiac.

Secondly the whole rewrite of Oswald's origins as the Penguin. Instead of forging his own empire, either from humble beginning or lost wealth, he's gifted his position by Bruce Wayne and allowed to operate by Batman. Its clear that Batman knows the game and just... tolerates him. Honestly it felt demeaning, reducing Oswald to a puppet.

A lot of the series hasn't even focused on him though. I've learned more about the Help, Force of July, Black Spider, and Lisa St Claire than I needed to know. And a whole issue is from Catwoman's point of view. Its felt very disjointed, especially with the time jumps in the later issues.

The narration style doesn't help either. We get text boxes with character thoughts narrating events but its not always clear whose they are. It will switch perspective, leaving you briefly stumbling to find your footing. And personally I found the bleeped text, $&@&, excessive and confusing. I needed more clarity rather than simply intuiting what was generally being said.

Also Oswald's fiancee, who he is supposedly doing everything to protect, was mentioned early on and hasn't been referred to since. There was no build up of their relationship that we see and I feel no emotional attachment to her. Neither apparently does Oswald from what's been displayed so far. I can't even remember her name right now. Rita?

As I say, I haven't finished it yet but I'm not even sure I will. I have not liked how King has handled Oswald thus far and found his tongue in cheek joke about his past run with "Penny" tasteless. The treatment of Oswald's children was a wasted opportunity. We didn't even get to meet most of them before they were killed off. One small mercy is that Ethan isn't actually dead.

So I'm not emotionally invested in anything that's happening. The writing and characterisation is frustrating. And no, I have not forgiven King for his crimes against the character.

[curiouslyeasy]

DONT read books i suggest and enjoy them i will fall in love with you !!!

[makiruz]

Actual CIA agent Tom King is gonna make a Wonder Woman comic about her going against the USA government; sure Jan

[erinwantstowrite]

God I fucking HATE TRINITY UGH. TOM KING GET AWAY FROM WW COMICS GRRRRR

extremely valid and also im using this post as a backboard thank you <33333 wonder woman fans, here's a poll:

there are probably more options here but i just woke up a little bit ago. i would appreciate any and all insight, there are no right or wrong answers. if it helps to know my standpoint, i think Lizzie as a concept isn't terrible and her design is cute, BUT!!! i don't appreciate her actual written origins and believe she's too centered around Batman, Robin, and Superman. she's supposed to be a Wonder Woman character... i'd appreciate if anyone could give me "well this is how i WISH she had been written" advice so i can gain some research for if i do end up writing her. i have a couple ideas of my own but ultimately i am not THAT well versed on Wonder Woman lore at the moment. this post is specifically designed here for people to rant/rave/whatever so don't worry about bugging me with your thoughts, i WANT them. the more the better!

ALSO ALSO: this post is NOT an excuse to go after anyone with a differing opinion. anybody who starts being rude to someone else will be deleted or blocked. i can't tell if this warning applies to Wonder Woman fans... am i scarred from Batfam posts...

[sliipppy]

this is your reminder not to buy the Wonder Woman series or the upcoming Black Canary. If you want to read them, pirate. If we want Tom King, aka the war criminal who turns all of his comics into weird racist metaphors for 911, we need to show DC that he can't sell books.

and if you want to be SUPER cool you could pre-order the new batgirl when it becomes available 😗

[cottoncandiescupcakes]

I'll be honest to TROP haters that say it changed too much of the material I mean YES you are right but so did Peter Jackson

I mean Arwen's fate being tied to the ring? Arwen saving Frodo instead of Glorfindel, a very important elf who actually slayed a Balrog, who wasn't in the movie at all. Tom Bombadil, Goldberry and Old Man Willow also weren't in it

Also Tolkien would not be happy with Gimli's fairly undignified treatment at times and also, Legolas' 'orc counter',

Legolas would never happily kill he'd do it to save his friends and for Middle Earth obviously but he's not going around treating killing orcs like a kind of action game having fun doing it

Also for some reason he made Thranduil almost a kind of villainous character though he does redeem himself(and looks fabulous doing it) and I do love this character but it's not very accurate to Tolkien's thoughts on this character which was literally just a typical elf king who mistrusted dwarves and rightfully imprisoned a bunch of dwarves sneaking into his woods

Other things Peter Jackson did he made Denethor WAY more evil than in the books. In the books he's basically a broken, grieving very old man who has lost it versus a 50-60 or something year old man just ranting and raving on everyone going crazy

Another thing Peter Jackson did was make the evil characters like Saruman and Grima way more obviously evil than the book ones so you could instantly tell they were evil, which, the point was they decieved people. That Grima decieves no one lol.

So he changed a LOT of things about the characters, for example Aragorn looks like, you know he's going to be heroic from the start just because of Viggo's bearing but he's meant to be almost unattractive and scary looking at first, then slowly becomes like a king and noble and handsome looking. Like, Pippin literally says he looks foul LMAO I am serious. Boromir is meant to be the perfect gallant hero looking one who almost falls to temptation where Aragorn is meant to look very rough but have a noble heart, they are like foils

I love those movies but he also did change a lot but especially, PJ's work glorifies war too much for Tolkien's standpoint, not always but there are scenes he's making it too action-y while other scenes, like Boromir and Theoden's deaths, are perfect

Also BOTH these works make the elves too serious, like, the books have the elves singing, playing tricks and carrying harps and flutes around and acting more like Medieval fairy ring style elves at times along with being more serious also, they had both sides to them while adaptations just make them very dignified

I know Gil-Galad misses his harp guys HE WAS ALREADY SINGING. Free him

[ribombeee]

it’s also just not accurate to how her shift towards femininity actually occurred in comics. it didn’t happen overnight— it was discussed pretty heavily, and we know what the given reasons for it were.

cassie’s change in appearance had nothing to do with diana, though it would be fair to say being negatively compared to diana (and donna) by the public played a part. cassie became more feminine because it’s what people wanted and expected from her, and because she wanted people to respect her and take her seriously. 2000s comics had absolutely no problem stating this as a positive thing. if, as a woman, you are only feminine because you feel pressured to be— well, whatever it takes to get you to look how we want!

i don’t really think a watsonian reading gets us very far here tbh. it’s obvious the writers and artists (not pointing fingers at anyone specific, many people are to blame here) just wanted her to look different. they didn’t want to learn how to draw a girl that wasn’t feminine, and/or didn’t want to waste time drawing/writing a girl that wasn’t attractive to them. the sentiments of characters in these comics pretty obviously echo the things people at dc and in the fanbase were saying and thinking at the time. in real life, yes, people change as they get older and someone might have many reasons for dressing more feminine over time. but cassie is a character written by people with agendas. as usual instead of owning up to the misogyny of their earlier works DC would rather plaster over their mistakes with a veneer of shiny pop-feminism. a very gross, lazy, and shallow writing decision if u ask me.

I hate this scene so much. Just to be clear I know that this does reflect a real experience a lot of women and girls go through growing up, the realisation that you don't actually hate feminine things and you just were taught to. And to give him credit I feel like Tom King read one feminist think piece about internalised misogyny and girls growing to like pink so congrats for the effort I guess.

But the problem is, did it have to be Cassie? Cassie is one of the few characters in the Wonder family, and honestly in DC, to be gender nonconforming (in presentation). And DC if full of kickass feminine women who can hold their own and fight. Hell, that is literal the entire point of the Wonderfamily and the amazons. Cassie being butch could have been shown girls and women that there are all sorts of ways to be a woman. That being gnc or more masculine doesn't mean you have to hate other girls or femininity. It just means that it isn't you. And that's okay.

Some gnc Cassie panels:

And sure, this isn't the worset thing that happened to Cassie (New 52 was a bad time) but it still frustrates me. To me this scene low-key implies (perhaps intentionally) that Cassie being a tomboy as a character flaw that she had to grow out of and did after meeting the Wonders. That the more butch elements of her characterisation that a queer fans saw themselves in was actually just her not believing feminine women could be powerful. And considering this is written by a cishet man (not a woman reflecting her own experiences with the struggle of femininity) I am not a fan.

[fantastic-nonsense]

Why don’t you like Tom King?

I mean, I know why I don’t like him but I would love to read the opinion of someone with a much more extensive comic knowledge, accurate grasp on dc characters, and who doesn’t struggle to put down in words their thoughts (you 💗).

The short version is that I do not like how he writes basically any pre-existing character he's handed, I do not like how he writes women, I do not like how racist he is about MENA people in his stories, I do not personally like his trend of long-winded external narration, I think he's bad at writing dialogue, I think his understanding of politics is terrible, and I think letting a man who is proud of the fact that he helped plan the invasion of Iraq continue to write comics where he uses the characters to subtly prop up his old job is abhorrent.

I could do a novel-length rant about him, of course, but what good would that really do? It's exhausting that DC continues to not only give him books but has seemingly appointed him as a go-to writer for female-centric books despite the fact that his writing of women is largely garbage. Stop hiring the nepo baby war criminal and hire more women, DC. It's not hard!

[lizardsfromspace]

THE BIGGEST MOVIES OF SUMMER 2025: A PREVIEW

The hottest movies you'll be seeing in cinemas, and three weeks later on streaming, in the following year!!!

BAMBI, MUFASA: THE FIRST LION KING, & DUMBO: WE REMADE IT AGAIN

That Disney (TM) magic (TM) you loved (TM) growing up is back on screen - with some of the emotion intact! The Mufasa one is real

TERRIFIER 4: ART THE CLOWN GOES HAWAIIAN

The movie people on Twitter can't stop saying saved horror is back. You loved Terrifier when he killed people without a real plot for two hours. You loved Terrifier when he did that again. You loved Terrifier when he did it on Christmas. But next summer, it's time for Art the Clown to "catch a wave" as he starts to surf - on waves of terror! ifier.

THE MATRIX 5 - THE RISE OF THE HOLOGRAMS

Original series writer Sophia Stewart returns for another movie of exciting Matrix action. Remember when they built a highway for The Matrix 2? For The Matrix 5, they built a full pyramid for the Egyptian God-King Neo to stand in front of as he fights the machines, and engages in a twenty minute unbroken rant about Rothschild central banks and the power of the all-seeing eye

I SAW THE TVS GLOW

The year is 2466 and a distant human colony has fallen under the spell of gender dysphoria. Now it's time for Tara and Isabel to rise from the grave and kick Mr. Melancholy's ass. For good. In space.

LIFE OF CHUCK

Mike Flanagan's life-affirming sci-fi drama starring Tom Hiddleston won the audience award at the Toronto Film Festival, and is primed to make a splash in the Oscar race next year! Fun fact: it is not only Flanagan's first prominent non-horror project, but is based on a rare non-horror work by Stephen King - shades of fellow Oscar favorites Stand By Me, The Shawshank Redemption, and The Green Mile.

[jennistarjs]

Rings of Power Characters Go Bowling

Galadriel - Almost gets a perfect game but misses out on one point because Sauron turns into Halbrand to distract her. Broods about this all night long.

Elrond - Keeps forgetting to take his turn because he's chatting with other people. Only scores a strike when Durin bets him he can't.

Gil-galad - Didn't turn up. Too much work to do.

Celebrimbor - Spends ages judging the angle that the ball needs to roll in order to hit the pins with maximum effectiveness. When he does roll, it only knocks over one pin. Complains about this to anyone who doesn’t run away fast enough.

Cirdan - Scores a decent score, not because he's naturally good but because he has centuries of practice.

Arondir - Scores well and makes it look effortless. People stop their conversations to watch him roll because it's so elegant.

Durin IV - Throws the ball so hard he smashes up the lane and is thrown out. Cheerfully accepts his fate and sits at the bar nearby so he can cheer Disa and Elrond on.

Disa - Scores the perfect game and wins. No one saw it coming.

King Durin III - Too distracted by his shiny ring.

Narvi - Doesn't want to play, never wanted to play, only turned up because Celebrimbor is there. Props up the bar and listens to Celebrimbor's ranting with good humour.

Theo - Sits in the corner texting his friends and complaining about being dragged here.

Estrid - Is too busy cheating on her fiance with Isildur to even start playing.

Elendil - His attention is too taken up with helping Miriel roll to focus much on his own game.

Miriel - Didn't need Elendil's help but accepts it anyway so they can flirt with each other.

Pharazon - Gets Belzagar to roll for him. Berates him when he doesn't roll well enough.

Isildur - Too busy snogging Estrid. Is actually a very good bowler when he puts his mind to it.

Earien - Rolls with deadly accuracy, is horribly competitive, sucks all the fun out of it. No one likes playing against her.

Valandil - Keeps rolling with skill and finesse but has the worst luck (balls get stuck in gutter, pins refuse to fall over).

Kemen - Wasn't invited.

Nori and Poppy - Ordered all the food and drink and are stuffing their faces. They roll well but the balls are a bit big for them. The Stranger helps them with their go.

The Stranger - Doesn't understand the rules, gets more confused when people try to explain it to him, ends up bowling down someone else's lane.

Tom Bombadil - Sits in a corner singing, and when someone asks if he's going to play, he just laughs enigmatically.

Adar - Helps Glug and the other Orcs learn the game, forgets to actually play himself.

Sauron - Glares at the pins until they all fall at his feet.

[5-7-9]

The animation was too suspiciously bouncy but now I checked to see any other hints/signs (not the nsfw one obviously).

So they mentioned multiple problematic subjects surrounding Dick.

Including: Their post about Dick’s harem of old men featured some interesting characters. Midnighter had this one scene where he openly states him objectifying Dick’s ass at one point, which sorta feels homophobic to make the one gay character start sexualizing male characters just because they’re gay (at least that’s how I feel). Same problem with John Constantine. Edit: Just checked and those were in Grayson which were written by Tim Seeley and Tom King. Seeley is sorta known to have read Devin’s run and working with King is self explanatory.

Another post: There was an issue/comic that rewrote that one spider-related lady (idk her name) to be a sexual predator that raped Dick this one time. The writer (Devin Grayson) that wrote put out a statement where they said they didn’t seem to think of it as rape and instead called it “non consensual” (I am unaware if they have changed their opinion as of now but they still wrote it when they believed that). Not to mention the concept of making woman sexual predators for men is a very tried and tired misogynist trope, aimed to villainize woman rather than dealing with the complexity of trauma itself. Edit: just checked it again and you can add racist to it, the lady seemed to speak Spanish(?) during the crime and there’s a stereotype of Latino women being hypersexual. Another funny thing to note is that Devin also tried retconning Dick to be Romani but used many racist stereotypes and consistently used the g slur so yeah, history of being racist I guess.

The post referencing spies: There was a time when Dick became a super cop or a secret agent 37 of the like. This was written by Tom King, an ex-CIA member. So this guy mischaracterized Dick to seem manipulative, which is so mind-numbingly mind-blowing me for how wtf it is. The point I’m trying to make is, That Dick was soooooo not him (I haven’t read it but sounds like copoganda and I’m anti Tom King so I probably won’t). Also another one of those guys (I think he’s called Tiger) from the harem post featured during that cop traveling era.

hi so user @/h-l-w is a brud!ck shipper and makes fanart of the ship plus other batcest ships such as jayd!ck proof can be found at their account @/h-l-wtf which is where they post all their nsfw and fucked up content

I’m not willing to post screenshots of the art itself but these two are the same user and it’s pretty clear if you compare the art styles that they are the same person so. Make of that what you will but I wouldn’t be willing to support someone who makes work of a character as a child with a parental figure while simultaneously drawing them in a relationship.

[almighty-letu]

(Wym)

I just imagined Tom, Tord and their kid.

So imagine Tom in the kitchen eating and being nonchalant while Tord is ranting about their kid because of a phase. (Tord is being dramatic for dramatic effects) and it would be more funny if it was because their kid did something minor or was just a phase.

And throughout it all Tom is just an unbothered king

This kid is gonna have to go through so many conflicting statements. Tord will be teaching them one thing, and Tom will go ahead and teach the exact opposite. No matter what, this kid can't please both their parents!

Tord: "Our kid failed their shooting practice test today! Can you believe this?"

Tom: "Oh don't be so hard on them. Here, kiddo; good job! *kneels down and hands the kid some extra allowance money* now go spend all this cash on video games"

Kid: "Cool! I'mma play Barbie horseland."

Tord: "NOOOOO!"

[theabsolutelycrackheadboy-girl]

THE STORM RUN SO FAR (i finally got to reading it, i know shameful that i haven’t read it b4 now)

Okay okay. Can I js say that I’m in love with Murewa Ayodele’s writing?

and no i don’t just like everyone’s writing (*cough* *cough* Tom King’s WW run)

But like Storm’s character has been written right in the past. That’s not what i’m elated about.

The heritage. Having a black writer write Storm (maybe has been done in the past not sure).

But as a Black person I’m eating it up. Seeing Storm wearing a headwrap. Mentions of Sango of the Orishas, Her curly hair (THANK GOD) I could talk about her hair forever.

To be honest with Storm’s white hair and blue eyes it almost felt sometimes like the original creators were trying to make her less black so this is fixing that for me.

Turning her into a character I can relate to (because i obviously don’t have white hair and blue eyes)

Also the story line is peak. I love Ro-Lo (Ororo x Logan) and I’m having so much fun.

Fav screenshots from what i’ve read.

i’ll finish the rest at some point and post another rant probs.

[honeyandthmoon]

ranting about wonder woman's daughter (spoilers ahead)

I gave tom king the benefit of the doubt so many times and i liked some of his most controversial stories... i have lots of his books in my shelf, but that's just insane to me, wonder woman is my favorite one, this is just garbage.

retconning the contest/trial just to have diana punch her mother? to have lizzie punch diana?

it still sucks for me that his idea was to create the sovereign, a "joker/lex luthor" type of menace as if she doesn't already had villains powerfull enough to give her a hard time. it still sucks that he decided to give diana a daughter even if fury still exists (somewhere in the multiverse). and it's not her first child in recent years too! who remembers that one justice league story from a few years ago when they gave her a son that she supposedly abandoned because he was a boy? oh in the same storyline where hyppolita became a mindless monster (also called the sovereign!). that's just recycling of bad ideas. but he probably didn't even knew about that. probably just a bad coincidence. and that's me again giving him the benefit of the doubt.

it still sucks that lizzie is not her biological daughter. it still sucks that she's called wonder woman's daughter when diana herself doesn't see herself as a mother. it still sucks that she's called wonder woman's daughter when diana didn't even raise her? what is up with those weird stories of jon and damian raising her? wonder robin? a mural of batman and superman in themyscira? with batman front and center? IN THEMYSCIRA???

if she's not her biological daughter and was saved by diana and trained as an amazon, what differs her from donna? and why aren't donna and cassie part of her upbringing? why are the supersons responsible for this child?

what's the point of giving diana a daughter if you strip her of every aspect of motherhood?

I defended g willow wilson against people online who hated her run, i thought she was so great, even if she didnt knew much about her at the beginning but she at least was able to reconcile diana and veronica (sort of) and bring her back to themyscira, continue previous plots from the rucka's run and bring ares back (bonus point for putting steve always shirtless and in need of saving)

i was even one of the few that actually enjoyed becky cloonan and michael's run. the stories sure could've been better planned but they got the spirit, build a strong wonderfam in activity and set the ground for a more modern structure of amazons in this new context. they gave me etta and diana acting truly as friends, they gave me three founding mothers for themyscira, they gave me doctor psycho stories (he is really fun to read).

I defended james robinson (!), he at least knew diana was strong enough and had her defeat darkseid and free the gods by herself

i've been reading wonder woman for years. i still have some runs i hadn't had the chance to read fully but basically everything in the past 20 years + perez era formed my love for this character. i hate how out of character she is right now. they should bring back that one rule if you wouldn't do this to batman or superman you shouldn't do it to wonder woman, that's truly disappointing.