#what if we put this in... superverse

[theinsanecrayonbox]

FOP: A New wish e31-36

short bought here huh? that's what we get for a finale i guess. it's so weird having a whole season air in LESS THAN 2 YEARS. ahem, sorry about that ^^; lets get this party started (during a tornado watch!)...and finished a day later because i lost power with LITTERALLY 3 min left of the last episode

Episode 31: Hazel Wells and the Multiverse of Jenkins

is the title a reference? i mean aside from multiverse shenanigans, because holy wow multiverse shenanigans??? i am excite! can i get a cameo?? (please note; this is a joke, i don't seriously think i'm cool enough to be on the creative team's radar*)

wait title cardTHAT is Jenkins?? the beanpole kid with the glasses?? i remember him from the zombie episode

haha Dev's causing trouble because he can, i'm betting Jenkins doesn't have a crush on Hazel at all...and maybe Dev told him the inverse so that's why he's gonna be after her

oh Father Time, because a do-over...like Deja-Vu...eh they're keeping consistent within itself, so i can't complain *glares at s9* hehe the clock poof said "wibbly wobbly"

so many time loops. Hazel is such a disaster girl lol. but those who don't eat the cereal, even the mystical, are affected by the loop, very interesting.

we keep mentioning the daylights savings (which is back an hour, so it's fall season??? what time is it????) at the start of each loop, so i'm sure that'll be a big deal

aww sweet in one loop the hijab girl gets a crush on Hazel

her middle name is Antoinette?

heh everything in the hallway was a metaphor for Hazel's problems. but she learns her lesson with minimal magic. and ha i called it, Dev made it up to annoy her.

so...it wasn't really a multiverse thing, more a time loop.

ah, well, still a good cute short story. we need fun light and easy too. good job.

Episode 32: Growing Pains

synopsis sounds like a standard aging up plot. lets do it

hi big brother. and yay Hazel's love of horror movies returns!

hey a canon teen Hazel, that saves me time. but lol "your neck is longer" way to call out the stylization lol

hey is that Dinkleberg as the theater cashier???? also Chinfinity War poster

but teenager shenanigans montage. ok cool. more punk goth girls, this time it's Hazel. huh

pasta puberty? o...kay...it's fairy puberty...o....kay...you guys never put any other godkid who wished up their ages through this

heh pads. this show is great

and her pasta pits are working like octo-legs. why does FOP have so many Spiderman connections/themes/allusions???

dawwww such a sweet comforting, realistic talk with her parent

and a gross button to end on. eh, not so bad.

this was another fun light episode. again, minimal magic to fix it, main character learns a growing up life lesson. good stuff.

Episode 33: Fairy for a Day

synopsis sounds like the episode where Tim wishes to be Cosmo and Wanda's fairy godparent who's title i can't seem to find right now...

old Jorgen design!! and Fairy Con??? but Cosmo Con said it was held every millennium...or was that only because of how long Binky was spinning?

i would want that shirt, not gonna lie

ah she's not being an actual fairy, she's cosplaying to sneak into a con. mkay

wow, we're actually bringing up magical backup...and death memorials...what are you show? (that third one isn't me right O.o no...that doesn't look like how i've ever drawn me, but the 8s....)

Hazel don't you know never to sign contracts with the fae?? now she's a real fairy...with starry glitter hair...huh *makes superverse notes* and kids can't wish to be fairies? uh yeah they have; is that another rule Tim had made?

Anti-Hazel???? cool! why she has a backwards name though, that was unique to Peri and Irep...but i guess since they were the first *new* fairies in a bazillion years, maybe the backwards names is what the newer gen of anti-fairies is doing.

i don't have much commentary on the magic battle to get the paper back, it's pretty ok. and everything is fixed and reset to one by the end. it's a fun magical romp, good one.

Episode 34: Stuck in my Head

synopsis sounds almost like parts of Imaginary Gary???

oh Hazel, it is just a silly internet quiz, don't sweat it ^^;

ok he inner mind is a museum. both works to info dump which is eth goal, but also since she's such a bookworm and organized, it also fits-

SHE WANTS TO CREATE A COMICBOOK SERIES????? and she writes poetry? Hazel, baby girl, i love you sweet child

why was Vizolia (sp?) here?

can't wish away Hazel's mindworm huh? can't remove her negativity huh? despite...having done that before with Tim in Emotion Commotion (not that it ended well sure, but still), or Vicky Looses Her Icky, or even earlier this season with Jasmine's fears in Fearless (though i guess it just manifested the fears she still had them)

but hey, defeating it with the power of positive thinking as taught by her mom, that's a good lesson to teach. good story.

Episode 35: Mind the Gap

oh boy Tooth returns. how's her design going to be wildly different like most of returning characters...

hey follow up on Patty Possum...well sort of, we got distracted lol

oh look, Tooth has no design change. weird since we changed everyone else that's reappeared

talking teeth...ok...who speak in teeth puns

haha the line! "How'd you do X-thing? "Uh...internet?" lol i love it, 10/10 A+

ah i think i see where this is going, Toothica, being an artificial tooth is just totally fake in all her actions/words

that joke wasn't funny...especially with the pause for laughter part...maybe that was the joke?

the logistics on how a tooth sets a mouth up as a rave and invite other teeth is...dumb to unravel. so let's just marvel that the colosseum setup in Fairy World still exists

of course the bad guy outs themself and the day is saved and we reset to one. it was an ok episode.

Episode 36: The Battle of Big Wand

a double (30 min) length episode for a finale huh? and the title does sound fitting for such an event. 1 millionth wish huh/ sounds almost like something muffin worthy....which yeah, why are there so many ways to get a rule free wish when they are so no-no?? (it's almost like fae rules make no sense lol)

heh they're padding her wish count to get her to hit the goal

new math thinking meme screencap please

heh 39-40 times, because it's episode 36

oooo evil-fied Fairy World looks cool

wait, did Dev take everything over OFF SCREEN?? please tell me they'll show us how as the ep progresses via flashback, because that's some really big development to do OFF SCREEN (*grumbles about Marvel*)

ok we are getting a montage explanation...sort of. i feel like Dev taking over ad teaming up with Irep could've been an episode in itself.

Dev misnamed Wanda Pam. funny...and kinda close to Pan, which i named Blonda "Panda" after Cosmo's datebook misnaming Wanda that in Dog's Day Out...hm....

oh he's evil gloating to the world. welp, you just revealed Fairies and magic to the world at large (heh Crocker cameo, also AJ), so if he wasn't in control of the Big Wand i'm sure he'd be loosing Peri and mind wiping right about now. Dev why you slide back so hard into antagonist? you were doing so well! another episode would've helped flesh that slide, just saying

hey Patty and not-Timmy too

heh Dale just praising Dev because he's the new overlord

oh we brought up magical backup because Peri is dying. wow

Anti-Cosmo and Anti-Wanda!

Pet Cemetery joke??? O.o Show! i love you so much

pffft thank you! everyone DID notice the magical stuff and just didn't bother pointing it out. but they did think it was weird.

gotta make some calls for backup at the commercial break huh? you gonna call in the previous wishes? or are we gonna get Timmy...

oh back to the evil lair, guess we'll find out when they attack

see Dev isn't evil and wanted world domination, he just wanted to be noticed and validated, like always. Dale wanting world domination follows

ah yeah she called in all the wishes

Anti-Fairies should love broccoli, why is that a bad thing?

dawww Peri telling Dev he loves him, Dev gives the key. he is really a good kid, just like i've been saying he doesn't know what he wants so he can't be pleased. and Cosmo even said it! dawwww

magical backup was never that fast acting before...is it sped up because the Big Wand is off so there's no syphoning to help mitigate?

so...was restoring Fairy World her rule-free wish? since it was the next wish granted?

dawwww Dev willing to take responsibility and punishment. but he is mind wiped

oh no it wasn't the next wish was auto rule-free, you have to state you're using it. and it's to let her friends remember magic...huh, that could be an interesting dynamic for a s2, the only time we've had others remember magic were when they were antagonists (Remy) or co-protagonist (Chloe). plus, with Dev mind wiped, the chance for that to get undone is also looming. so we got plot threads we can follow up on

and yes Peri, a fart joke...i do hope for a s2 too because this series was actually very fun!

i think towards the start i said this was sort of a do-over for what they tried for Chloe, and to a degree...yeah still is. you can see the shared elements, but by removing Hazel from Timmy, it made it work so much better. as i say, i actually loved Chloe but she was a huge well of missed potential, and Hazel seems to have learned from that and made it work.

i am quite ok with New Wish being the prime timeline continuation, and i hope it continues to thrive...for at least another season (we don't wanna ram it into the ground repeatedly like we did the original series after all)

[munequitx-blog]

Well, that’s sweet. But you don’t have to worry about me, I know how to deal with the authories.

munequitx:

What a caring friend you are. I was going to suggest that you make your getaway on his shoulders.

          i’m faster than him and he can talk his way out of anything.     [ calm sip ]     i was thinking about you. 

[davidmann95]

Shared on Twitter, sharing here too: a compilation I put together of nearly 100 sketches from the abandoned Alan Moore/Rick Veitch project Superverse that the latter posted to Facebook.

Background for those who didn't hear anything about it: Alan Moore has a collection of short stories titled Illuminations releasing later this year, with one chapter apparently constituting a novella in itself called What We Can Know About Thunderman, which "charts the surreal and Kafkaesque history of the comics industry over the last seventy-five years through several sometimes-naive and sometimes-maniacal people rising and falling on its career ladders...Moore reveals the dark, beating heart of the superhero business".

This called attention to a sketch Rick Veitch had posted last year without much notice of a character named Thunderman, perhaps a notion carried over into Illuminations, from the scrapped project titled Superverse. It turns out he spoke quite a bit about it: it was a project he described as covering the whole of superheroic history, "like 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' but with long underwear guys," with Thunderman and his counterpart Thundergirl meant to be siblings sent from their presumably-doomed world to parallel Earths and unaware of one another's existence.

It was of all things meant to tie into Moore's film The Show, with in-universe comics appearing in it (probably somehow via the film's 'superhero' supporting character The Flash Avenger) which Veitch and Moore would have actually made, each essentially promoting the other. This was conceived of roughly 8-9 years before Veitch originally decided to start rounding up his assorted character designs and posting them to Facebook, and he alluded to part of why it fell through being due to some outside funding being cut off. There were no formal scripts or plot outlines, these sketches were purely spawned from conversations between Moore and Veitch and apparently there were ideas for a couple hundred more characters before the plug was pulled.

A loss for the medium for sure, as evidenced by the remarkable flair and cleverness on display in the linked album above, but keep in mind two things to ease your soul:

* Moore would have been forced to give even more interviews about superheroes than he already does, and the man's miserable enough having to talk about them once or twice a year.

* Given Moore's notorious apparent fondness for Superfolks, the imagery of the two evoking the Silver Age Superman/Supergirl with all the memetic weirdness their relationship occasionally brought about, and that it's specifically noted they didn't know they were siblings, Thundergirl and Thunderman absolutely would have fucked, so we dodged that bullet.

[melody-fox]

i finally got a fully chapter finished for Supergirl: Into the Superverse finished, so here yah go (below the cut)

feedback is liked and appreciated, so let me know what you think

@butimaloneandfree @aqueenthatisfrozen

also on ao3

“We’ve got sisters’ night tomorrow night, don’t forget,” Alex’s voice filters through her comm, the wind whistling through her ears. “It’s been too many weeks. I miss you.”

Kara smiles, speeding through the air to the fire Alex had just alerted her to. It really has been too long. With Kara getting increasingly busier between Catco and Supergirl, and Alex fully taking command over at the DEO, sister time had taken a backseat to all their other tasks. “Of course, how could I forget that? You’ve been planning it all week, you’ve been reminding me about it since Tuesday, and this is only the fourth time today that-”

“Alright, you stinker, I get it. I’m harassing you, and it’s probably getting annoying. I’m sorry, I’m just stressed about everything right now.”

“You and Maggie-”

“- finally decided to adopt? Yes, and now there’s paperwork, and meeting potential birth parents and I just- I want everything to be perfect and there are too many variables for me to watch out for and-”

“Al, take a deep breath, you’ll be fine,” Kara laughs, Alex’s adorable worried face coming to mind. Alex and Maggie have been going back and forth on the kids idea for years, first juggling their jobs and their relationship, then the wedding plans, then they both got promotions, and finally, finally, they have both agreed that now was a good time to start growing their little family. “You and Maggie have weathered through four years, a wedding, and several other disasters. You’ll be just fine.”

Alex sighs audibly. “I don’t know how you always know what I need to hear. Thank you. Have I told you recently how much I love you?”

She grins. “Yeah, but I like hearing it. Say it again.”

“Cheeky. I like it. Okay, fine. I love you, Kara.”

“Love you too, Alex.”

“Now, stop the mushy stuff, you have a fire to put out.”

“Oh, right!”

The fire takes only a few minutes to put out, and Kara waves to the firefighters and paramedics as she flies off. They wave back with grateful smiles on their faces, cheering her on. It’s moments like these that make so much of what she does worth it. She’d still do it if no one noticed, but knowing they know, that they watch and care fills her heart with warmth.

Touching down at her apartment, Kara superspeeds into the outfit she picked out for this evening.

(Lena has told her several times that it looks best on her, that it’s her favorite to see on her).

Kara has the whole evening planned out. It’s going to be amazing. Dinner at Gino’s (Lena’s favorite), chocolates from the Sweet Shop (also Lena’s favorite) and then a romantic walk by the bay along the beach (another Lena Favorite™).

All things tonight will be Lena’s favorite. Everything has to be perfect.

In a moment of brief panic, Kara checks her coat pocket one more time, as though she hasn’t done it twelve times in the last thirty minutes and several times a day ever since she bought the damn thing. Finding her treasure, she sighs in relief.

Oh, thank Rao. Still there.  

A tiny box carrying a beautiful ring worth so much more than the price she paid for it.

Though, for Lena, she’d pay any price.

Tonight’s the night.

Kara flies out the window - grateful that she's quick enough no one will notice it's her - and speeds off to L-Corp. She touches down in the alley just around the corner and walks the rest of the way into the building, through security ("Hey, Kevin, how are the kids?" "Great, thanks for asking!") and into the elevator.

The ride to the top is a lot longer when she's not flying, she muses, and carefully checks her wool coat for stray hairs. There are far too many for her liking, but it gives her hands something to do while her nerves are beginning to go a bit wild.

The elevator comes to a stop at the floor to Lena’s office, and Kara takes one last deep breath before the doors open.

“Hey, Jess! Is she still working?” Kara sidles up to Jess’s desk, leaning over the top as she says hello.

“She’ll stop working when she’s dead, Kara, we both know this," comes the deadpan response.

Jess is, in Kara’s humble opinion, one of the best humans on this entire planet, and Kara had worked overtime to get in her good graces. Jess has always been extremely protective of her boss, and Kara’s early efforts had been met with suspicious glares and raised eyebrows.

The first time L-Corp was attacked after Kara and Lena had started dating had been the turning point. It was also the same time Jess learned Kara was Supergirl.

(“Everything about you just became unbelievably clear.”

“Is that supposed to be a good thing or a bad thing?”

“Don’t test me, you’re still on my shit list.”

“And you still scare me, so shutting up now.”)

“We’ll get her to stop, one day; you and me. Two woman army against Lena Luthor.”

Jess just shakes her head in exasperation. Three years of Kara dating Lena had taught her a lot about both of them. “If she doesn’t listen to you, she’ll never listen to me. You have far more sway than I do.”

“I know, but she listened to you for years before she ever met me.”

“True,” Jess smirks, her ego sufficiently stroked. “Now,” she looks around the empty hallway conspiratorially. “Have you got it?” she whispers, even though there’s no one else there to listen.

Kara grins broadly, hoping her nervousness about the big moment doesn’t show as much as she feels it and pulls out the tiny box.

Jess ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ over the ring, she and Kara grinning giddily at each other. Jess gives it one more fond look before quickly shutting the box and handing it back to Kara. “Who’s taking the photos tonight?"

“James. He and Lucy are going to be hiding behind… oh, I don’t know, whatever James the Giant can fit behind and they’ll be recording and snapping photos for me.”

“Only the best photographer in National City for Lena Luthor.”

“Of course. She deserves the best of everything.”

“Okay, you romantic sap, get in there,” Jess laughs, waving Kara away. With a wink, she says, “I want to see all of the photos. Go make her day, Supergirl.”

Kara winks back at her and pushes open the office doors.

“Kara, darling, what are you doing here?” A tired smile lights up her face, and Lena Luthor stands up to give Kara a tight hug, all the work she’d previously been engrossed in completely forgotten on her desk.

“Well, I missed my favorite person, and suddenly I found myself here,” she says, giving Lena an affectionate squeeze.

Kara can feel Lena’s face heat up even before she pulls away. Never going to get tired of seeing that. Smiling, Kara says, “What about you? Why are you still here? Today's Friday. It' five o’clock! It’s the weekend.”

Lena sighs, gesturing to the paperwork on her desk. “A CEO never rests, though I think at this point I might kill someone to let me back into R&D. I never should have let Lex talk me into this job. He’s the talker, I’m the scientist. Why am I here signing every other damn paper that comes through the door and he’s off-”

Kara cuts off her rant by tugging her in and shutting her up with a kiss. Lena melts into it, and Kara smiles against her.

Pulling away, she says with mock confusion, “Sorry, what were you saying about Lex?”

“You play dirty, Danvers, that was not fair,” Lena replies breathlessly.

“Only for you.”

“I love you.”

Kara smiles softly. “I love you, too.”

Giving her another kiss, Lena asks, “So, what are you actually doing here? I planned to finish up in an hour, you’re early.”

Play it cool, Danvers. This is going to be a wonderful surprise if you can just play it cool.

“Well,” she starts, “you’ve had a long busy week, preceded by a long, busy month, and you’ve been stressed out of your mind working on this new campaign, so I thought I should take you out for a nice night, good food, pretty walk along the beach. Whadda you say?”

“Sounds like a wonderful idea,” she says, punctuating each word with a kiss.

“Hm. You agree?” Kara smiles blissfully.

“Absolutely. Let me get my coat and we can head right out.”

Oh. That was easy. Kara had expected Lena to put up a bit more of a fight. This project she’d been working on had been consuming most of her time for the last few months. “You gave up on working very easily. Easier than usual. Getting soft on me, are you, Luthor?”

Lena laughs, the melodic sound Kara fell in love with muffled as she’s reaching into her closet to pull out her coat. “Is that such a bad thing?”

Kara just smiles at her in response, and together they walk hand in hand out to the elevator, bidding a grinning Jess good night.

Kara’s hand has a tight grip on the box in her pocket, and she wills the universe to please please please let this night go right.

(The universe doesn’t tell her that Lena is doing the exact same thing.)

//

Three hours later, they’re walking along their favorite stretch of beach, hand intertwined and barefoot despite the early fall chill.

“Thank you so much for this, Kara,” Lena says, leaning into her warmth. “I really needed this today.”

“Anything for you, Lena. Always,” Kara murmurs.

They come to a stop at their favorite spot, one most people don’t know about. The sunlight reflects off the surface of the ocean, illuminating the green of Lena’s eyes.

Her phone buzzes quietly in her pocket. That better be James or Lucy letting her know they’re ready. Oh, they better be. Because she’s losing her nerve, her stomach is doing belly flops, and Lena’s eyes can only look so amazing in the light of the setting sun before she completely loses the ability to speak.

Rao, help her tongue remember the words she wants so desperately to say to this wonderful woman at her side.

“Something on your mind?”

Ever observant, Lena pulls her out of her reverie with a mildly worried expression on her face.

“Uh, yeah. Yeah, um, there’s something I want to say to you.”

The worried expression only grows. “Yeah? What?”

Here she goes.

Swallowing hard, Kara turns and takes both of Lena’s hands in hers. Stroking her thumb along Lena’s knuckles, she takes a deep breath and begins.

“Lena, when my parents sent me away, when my planet, my people and my culture were all destroyed, I never thought I’d be happy again. I never thought I’d feel whole again. And, marriage was the last thing on my mind.”

Memories of high school, college, and every relationship she’s had outside of her close-knit groups of friends replay through her mind. The feelings of worthlessness, failure, and self-hatred were hard to overcome, but she got there eventually. Because of Alex, because of Winn, because of J’onn, because of James, Lucy, Maggie, Nia, and Brainy. And most of all, Lena.

Kara is nervous, her hands are shaking, and it feels like everything is coming out wrong, but Lena is smiling and looking at her the same way she always has, with love and adoration in her eyes. And she knows, she just knows that this is all worth it, that this is what she wants, Lena is what she wants. A life with her is all she could ever want right now.

“You changed all that.” There are tears in both of their eyes. Lena’s grip on her hands tightens, and she steps just a bit closer as Kara continues. “For the first time in over fifteen years, I feel perfectly at home. You made me feel like the most amazing person - me, Kara Danvers - without even knowing what I could do, where I was from, that I was Supergirl. You forgave me for hiding who I really was from you for years because I was too scared to risk losing you. And I never want to lose you. Ever.

“So, Lena Luthor,” she reaches into her coat pocket, pulling out the ring she’s been hiding for three weeks, and kneeling down in the sand, arm outstretched. “Would you marry me?”

Lena hides her broad, tearful grin behind her hands for one terrifyingly long moment before she pulls them away to take Kara’s hands again.

“Kara, can I tell you something you’ll find outrageously amusing?” she says, laughing through her tears.

“Only if it’s yes. Please, Rao, say yes.” She knows she sounds desperate, but hey, she's proposing to Lena Luthor.

Still laughing and crying, Lena reaches into her pocket and pulls out a ring box of her own. Dumbfounded, Kara stands, laughing right along with Lena. “Seems you beat me to it. I was going to ask you next week. I had a trip to Paris planned, a week in the city for the two of us and-”

For the second time that evening, Kara cuts Lena off with a kiss.

She can hear James and Lucy quietly whooping and squealing over the sandbank, just far enough away not to be noticed, but close enough to capture this moment in time.

Lena smiles against her as they pull apart from the kiss, foreheads still touching. “How can we be so in tune and yet so out of sync with each other at the same time?”

“I don’t know, but I’d rather be in tune and out of sync with you than with anyone else on this wonderful planet of yours.”

Lena laughs again, and Kara thinks she’d die happy if that was the last thing she heard. “Kara Zor-El Danvers, you’d better stop. You’ve already made me cry once this evening. My mascara can’t take any more.”

“So, is it a yes? You’ll marry me?”

“Yes, yes, yes! A thousand times, yes!”

“Oh, thank Rao, cause I don’t know what I’d do if you said no.”

“Stop joking, and let’s exchange rings already.”

“Good idea.”

Two rings and several kisses later, Kara turns away to call over her shoulder, “You guys can come out now!”

Lucy pops up immediately, giggling like a maniac. “I can’t believe you two idiots both got each other rings, that is so sappy and romantic!” she yells at them as she bounds over the sand, slipping wildly in her shoes.

James follows with a wide grin on his face, his camera slung over his shoulder. “Kara, the timing was just right. The light was incredible.”

“Oh, thank goodness, it’d be really dumb if we went to all this trouble and the photos turned out bad,” Kara laughs in relief.

“How long have you had this planned?”

“At least three years-” she deadpans before her phone starts ringing. Her work phone, not her regular phone.

“Hold on a minute, this is Alex." Into the phone, "Hey, Alex, where’s the fire?”

“We’ve had a development with Cadmus. I’m going to need you to come down to the DEO, we don’t have a lot of time.”

Kara sighs. Of course, she couldn’t have just one evening of peace. “I’ll be right there.”

James and Lucy are wearing sympathetic looks. Lena smiles sadly and gives her a soft kiss. “You go save the world, I’ll meet you back at the apartment, okay?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

//

Kara lands on the balcony of the DEO not two minutes later and makes a beeline for her sister. No time for chit chat today, she’s got a fiance to get back to.

“Alex, what have you got for me?”

Alex Danvers, direct as always, wastes no time getting straight to the point. One of the things that makes her so effective as Director and a quality Kara has always admired in her sister.

“We’ve intercepted intelligence that has helped us pinpoint a few possible locations for Cadmus facilities around National City. We’re going to send teams to raid all of them, and I’d like your help with one. Brainy will be joining another, and J’onn will be on the third. I want all of our bases covered.”

“Alright, which one-”

“-hold up a minute, I’ve got a little more information for you.” Alex sighs, looking down for a moment before meeting Kara’s eyes. “Supergirl, we will likely be finding prisoners and aliens in the facility, and I’d be surprised if any of them haven’t been experimented on. Be careful, and be ready. We don’t know what we’ll find there.”

With a single look, Alex is able to communicate to Kara everything she didn’t say. Meaning… Kal might be in there. Hope rises in her chest, but the tension in Alex’s face tells her to reign it in.

Don’t get your hopes up only to have them be dashed. It has been sixteen years since she landed here on Earth, and she’s never found Kal. Never seen another Kryptonian pod, and every rumor of powered beings has fizzled out into nothing.

But maybe… maybe her wait is coming to an end. Maybe Kal is alive.

It’s too many wonderful things at once. A fiance, and now possibly finding her long lost cousin after all these years. Kara takes a deep breath to steady herself.

But if he’s been in that facility, at the mercy of Cadmus this whole time... There will be hell to pay, and Kara will burn them all to the ground. Suddenly it’s a lot harder to reign in her strength, and Kara gives all the expensive technology in the room an extra foot of room. Heads are going to roll once she gets there, no one and nothing here at the DEO needs to suffer the consequences.

“Where do you want me?”

Alex types a few things into her tablet, calling up a site located in National City’s old and nearly unused docks on the monitors. “This building is most likely the facility with the greatest security and therefore the greatest potential threat. Given that you carry a bit more power than Brainy and J’onn, I’d like you on that team.”

“And where will you be?”

Alex grinned, “Right behind you, just like old times.”

Kara smiles back, though not as brightly. There are still too many thoughts rushing through her head.

Kal, Kal, Kal, Kal, Kal.

Even if he’s there, I’m still too late. I wasn’t there. He grew up without me.

And he won’t even know who I am-

“Kara.” She looks up, and her sister is there, hand on her shoulder, with support, and love in her eyes. “If he’s there, we’ll find him. We’ll bring him home.”

She nods, not trusting her voice right now. Alex pulls her in for a hug, and Kara holds her as tightly as she can without breaking her human sister. She takes a deep breath after Alex lets her go, and watches as Director Danvers moves on to direct the three teams to get ready to head out.

“You’ll meet us there?”

“Uh, yeah.” Kara starts backing out toward the balcony. “I think I’ll do some recon first, make sure it’s safe for you guys to move in.”

“Be careful. We’ve still got sisters’ night tomorrow.”

“Always am.”

“No, you’re not!”

“Ah, you know me so well."

"Hey," Alex says, stopping just before she heads off to coordinate the last of the preparations. Kara turns towards her. “I love you, Kara.”

Kara smiles. “I love you too, Alex. See you in a few.”

//

The sun is long gone when Kara lands outside the hidden Cadmus facility down by the docks. The cold doesn’t bother Kara, never has, but the dark has always been something she tries to be wary of.

It reminds her too much of the Phantom Zone. The years she spent there. The time lost. Astra... Those are never good memories to relive.

And it’s easier to blow out her powers at night. No sun to recharge with, as she has learned several times over.

Gotta be extra careful tonight. Too much to lose.

Using her x-ray vision, Kara scopes out the best door to use as an entrance. Hailing her sister on the comms, “Alex, I think the best entrance for your team will be on the Southwestern side. I’ll leave a mark for you.” She carves a star on the exterior brick with her heat vision.

“Thanks for the tip, Supergirl.”

The door opens will very little effort on the part of the Kryptonian, locks falling to the ground, ripped apart like they were made of butter.

It’s dark inside. And quiet. Eerily quiet.

Stepping into the facility, Kara keeps her ears open and her eyes moving. She passes several rooms that have no one in them but are filled with various pieces of tech and science equipment. She finds a large room that looks a bit like the command center at the DEO and quickly scans it with her x-ray vision. No one here.

But, there’s a computer that hasn’t been signed out of yet. Whoever was using it previously must have left in a hurry and forgot to close out.

She calls her sister again on the comms.

“Hey, Alex, it looks like there’s no one here. Someone must have tipped them off, or Cadmus actually believes in having a life outside of your job.”

“What? What do you mean no one is there?”

“I mean no one is here. This place looks empty.”

“Dammit. The whole point of a raid is to catch people by surprise,” Alex grumbles. “Okay, thanks for the heads up. We’ll be there as soon as we can.”

“Yeah, no problem, Al, take your time. There’s an open computer, I’m going to do some digging.”

“Alright, we’re twenty minutes out.”

“Really?” Kara chuckles a bit despite the situation. “Man, you guys are slow!”

“Hey, I had to get three squads ready. Not all of us can fly!”

Kara grins sheepishly, “Point taken. See you in a few.”

Alex signs off and Kara sits down to snoop through the Cadmus information. Honestly, it’s a bit too easy, finding a computer open like this, tonight of all nights. “Someone’s losing their job for irresponsibility,” she mutters darkly, moving the mouse around to find the cursor.

She pulls up the file browser and begins searching through their documents. Much of it doesn’t make sense to her, it’s all coded in a way she doesn’t understand, but something catches her eye.

It’s a large share file, hundreds of gigabytes of data contained in it, and the folder name is just two letters: Kr.

Kara had spent enough time with Alex memorizing the periodic table for their chemistry classes to know the atomic symbol for Krypton.

Could this be it?

Could this be Kal?

Her stomach twists and suddenly she doesn’t want to see, she doesn’t want to know, to know what they’ve done to her cousin, her baby cousin. She hasn’t seen him in over fifteen years, and oh Rao, he’d be a teenager now, he’s older than she was when she left Krypton and he has no idea, he has no idea who he is or where he came from.

A sudden panic comes over Kara, and she frantically clicks on the folder, skimming through the next batch of folders it opens up to:

52-001-KR-PRELIMINARY_TESTING

52-002-KR-GEMMINI_PROTOCOL

52-003-KR-SUBJECT_GROWTH

52-004-KR-OUTREACH_OPPORTUNITIES

52-005-KR-PROJECT_SUMMARY

Moving the cursor over each of them, she decides to start with the summary. Get the gist of everything, no matter how horrible it can be because she doesn’t have time.

There are several files in the summary folder, and so Kara just opens all of them and starts looking through the first one that loads.

There are photos. Many photos. That’s her pod- no, that’s Kal’s pod. Oh, Rao, they found him. When did they find him? When did he crash here?

The date on the photo of the pod tells her it’s been ten years since he landed and her heart skips a beat because it’s been ten years, but thank Rao it hadn’t been any longer than that. Her blood boils as she goes to look through the remaining photos, and one thought becomes especially prominent in her mind.

Everyone in this building is going to burn. If any of them are left, they are all going to burn for this.

The last few photos are extremely confusing. The boy shown in them looks like a much younger version of her Uncle Jor, but he looks a little too old to be the age Kal should be, based on the pod crash date. Could that be him? Is that him? Is that Kal-

A loud crash behind her takes her attention away from the computer, her ears tuning in to the rest of the building, trying to narrow down the location of the sound. She finds it in seconds, and her jaw sets as she curls her fingers into fists.

Whoever they are, they are going to pay for what they’ve done to Kal. They are going to pay. They are all going to pay.

[hannahindie]

We’re No Heroes - Chapter 2

Characters: Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, sister!reader, Tony Stark Word Count: 2,169 Warnings: Adult language, crochety Dean, and Tony Stark. I think that’s enough warnings. A/N: So this whole Avengers/Supernatural idea I had got out of hand, and this is the second part to it. There is no timeline for either universe; it’s most definitely an AU. As far as the Avengers go, it’s obviously before Infinity War (for reasons I’m sure you can guess) and I think, generally speaking, we’re just ignoring that Age of Ultron existed. (Unlike a lot of people, I didn’t mind it...but that’s just whole other level of me trying to fit stuff in, and it already hurts my brain. lol) Also, we’re just going to pretend that Civil War either happened and turned out better or it just didn’t happen at all. The Supernatural part is set sometime after they’ve found the bunker. What I’m saying is, I do what I want, and I want all of these people in one spot, and there doesn’t need to be an explanation. Doesn’t have to make sense. Just...let it happen, and bask in it.

Beta’d by @pinknerdpanda, because she’s been my lifesaver as of late. Well, always, but especially here lately. Thank you, twinny. <3 “ I love grumpy old man Dean.”

As always, tags are at the bottom. If you’d like to be added let me know! This fic will, hopefully, be updated every Wednesday until it’s over. Hopefully.

“So, Agent Springfield...Springfield, right?”

“Yep, that’s right.”

“Like Rick Springfield?”

“Yep. My friends call me Dick.”

“May I call you Dick?”

“Nope.”

“Okay, Agent Springfield, what I’d like to know is why you’re in New York. I’ve spoken with the local authorities, and not one of them can tell me why you’d be called in. Not a clue.”

“Hmm. Well, the locals aren’t always included in federal investigations, so there’s your explanation. I don’t report to them.”

“I don’t think you report to anyone. I think you’re impersonating a federal agent, and at the same time, lying to one. You do realize that I’m part of the organization, right?”

“I don’t even remember your name, much less your job description. No offense.”

“Let me refresh your memory, Dean Winchester. My name is Phil Coulson, and I’m the reason you aren’t in a jail cell in a high security lockup. You’ve done some pretty heinous things, so forgive me if I’m less than patient with you. Now tell me, what in the hell happened out there?”

“Why don’t ask you ask your merry band of men in tights? I seem to recall they had a hand in all of it.” He leans forward and Coulson sits back slightly, his eyes wide. “They certainly didn’t seem to be offended by someone like me. Maybe explain why the heroes of the universe would associate with such a heinous individual such as myself? You call me a serial killer? Looks like maybe you should do your job better. I seem to recall a few casualties at the hands of,” Dean rolls his eyes as he air quotes, “‘Earth’s Mightest Heroes’. Now my bro…” he clears his throat and leans back in his chair, “my partner, he’s the true crime expert so he would know better than me...and correct me if I’m wrong...but that sounds a hell of a lot more like a serial killer to me.  And you just let them run around in high tech suits and without superversion…” he whistles and puts his hands behind his head, “Doesn’t sound like a good idea to me, although I guess the government has a lot of those-”

“They aren’t serial killers, and if I were you, I’d be very careful how far you step over the line. I’m not asking them, I’m asking you. What happened out there?”

“You’re not as much of a pushover as I thought you would be, Phil. What’s your last name again? Collins? I bet you can feel it in the air tonight, can’t you?”

Coulson glares at Dean, his knuckles white as he clenches them tightly. “It’s Coulson,” he manages to grind out, “and you’d do best to remember that. Now, tell me.”

“Awwe, I’m just having fun with you. I know your last name is Coulson, Debbie Downer. Anyway, it started about a day after we got to New York…”

“Well, that was a fucking bust, wasn’t it?” Dean grumbles as he takes his jacket off and tosses it in the backseat.

“Did you really expect it to go any differently? Since when do we ever actually get the answers we need?” Sam grabs Dean’s jacket off the seat, straightens it, then lays it gently on the bench seat with his own. “Maybe Y/N’s got something.”

Dean climbs into the car and shuts the door as Sam goes around to the passenger side, “Yea, maybe.” He starts the car, and after checking his mirrors, pulls out into the road and is quickly honked at by a taxi that seemingly appears out of nowhere. He sticks his arm out the window, flashes his middle finger, then continues into traffic. Sam rolls his eyes and sighs, and Dean looks over at him. “What?”

“Nothing.”

“Why don’t you call Y/N, see what she’s found?”

Sam is already scrolling through his phone, and he glances at Dean as he puts his phone up to his ear, “You know, you could go easier on her. She's an adult, and she grew up the same way we did. It's different with her, she can take care of herself.” He frowns when she doesn't answer and hangs up.

“What?”

“No answer. She's probably researching. Let's head back to the hotel and see what she's up to.” He taps out a quick text and hits send, then puts the phone back into his pocket.

“I know she grew up like we did, but that doesn’t mean anything. We just found her, the last thing we need is another Adam situation.” They both fall silent at the thought of the youngest Winchester brother still trapped in the cage. “Anyway, I’m just saying, we gotta watch out for her. Her mom will kill us if something happens.”

“She’s not going to kill us.”

“Sam, she could be Ellen’s twin. She will absolutely kill us.”

“Dean, you’re being ridiculous.” They pull into the valet parking and Dean practically growls when he hands his keys over. “What is wrong with you?” Sam hisses under his breath as he grabs their jackets and his bag from the backseat.

“If she so much as gets a thumbprint on a window…” he glares at the valet as he climbs into the driver's seat, Adam’s apple bobbing nervously as he swallows thickly under Dean’s hateful gaze.

“She’ll be fine. What is with you today?”

“I just don’t see why we have to stay in this fancy ass hotel. We could have stayed outside the city for cheaper, and I could park my own damn car. Maybe gone to a bar where I don’t have to pay to just sit down.”

“You don’t have to...you know what, never mind. It’s only for a couple of days, anyway. We’re scoping it out, then we’ll meet up with Garth and see what we need to do.”

Sam smiles at the woman at the front desk, and she blushes furiously before ducking behind her computer. Dean rolls his eyes as Sam pushes the elevator button.

“What?”

“Nothing, Mr. Universe, nothing at all.” They walk into the elevator and Dean jams his thumb into the thirteenth button. “Thirteenth floor. I feel like that's just asking for it.”

It is Sam’s turn to roll his eyes as they ride the rest of the way to their room in silence, other than the canned Muzak playing through the small speakers above them. The elevator finally slows to a stop and the doors slide open with a ding. “When we get to the room, please just...lay off her, huh? She's not a kid, she's a good hunter.”

They step out and begin walking down the hall. “Why don't you quit telling me what to do? As much as you're repeating it, it sounds like you're trying to convince yourself that she's fine.” He puts a hand on Sam’s arm and stops him outside their door, “She’s our responsibility now. We promised Alice that if she came with us, we’d keep her safe. Just being a Winchester is one strike, and I’m sure Y/N taking our last name is probably a second.”

Sam sighs, “Do you really think Alice would have let her come with us if she didn’t trust us? I mean, you’ve met her, right? She’s not exactly a pushover, and I’m also pretty sure she doesn’t care about the last name thing. Y/N did that before we even knew she existed. Nothing is going to happen to her, okay? Not everyone we care about dies.” Dean raises an eyebrow and Sam sighs again. “Alright, I see your point. She’ll be fine.” Sam unlocks the door and pushes it open, “Y/N, were you able to find anything-” He stops mid-sentence when he sees the that the room is empty and exactly the way they had left it that morning. “Y/N?”

Dean throws the bathroom door open, then walks into the connecting suite to find it also empty. He walks back into the living room, “You were saying?”

“I’m sure there’s a good explanation. Maybe she decided to work at the library instead of coming back here.” He pulls his phone from his pocket and frowns, “She’s not answered my text message.” He taps the screen, then quickly puts the phone to his ear. “Y/N, where are you? Call us back as soon as you can.” He hangs up, then looks at Dean, his brows knitted in concern.

“Okay, clearly no one came here...so somewhere between the police station and here, she went off course. It’s Y/N, so that’s not a surprise. And like you said, when she’s researching, she doesn’t pay attention to anything else. You’re probably right, she’s just at the library. Now, where’s that?”

“Do you realize how many libraries are in this city? She could be anywhere.”

Dean plops down on the couch and runs a hand over his face, “Yea, well, we have to start somewhere.”

“If you have a good idea, let’s hear it-” Sam is interrupted by his phone ringing and he quickly answers it. “Hello?”

“Hey, it’s me. Get anything?”

“Seriously? Where are you?!”

“Oh, yea, sorry, I got caught up. You’re never gonna believe-” A muffled voice in the background cuts her off, there is a moment of whispering, and then she comes back on the line. “Actually, can you meet me somewhere? It’s uh...it’s kind of hard to explain. But I think I’ve got some help on this little demon problem we’re having...well, not little. It’s not little at all.”

Dean grabs the phone out of Sam’s hand, “Where the hell are you? You were supposed to come back to the hotel room, what happened?”

“Like I said, it’s hard to explain. I need you guys to meet me at this address.” She rattles it off before Dean has a chance to answer and he grabs the notepad from the coffee table and hastily scribbles the information she gives him.

“But you’re okay, right? All in one piece?”

“Yes, Dean, I’m fine. Thank you for being worried. Now, hurry your asses up and get over here.” The line goes dead and Dean hands the phone back to Sam.

“She gave me an address, let’s go.”

“Where is she?”

“I guess we’re going to find out.”

Dean pulls up to the address Y/N gave him and slows to a stop, his eyes slowly traveling from the entrance to the top of the very tall building.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“What?” Sam asks without looking up from his phone. Dean grabs his face and turns it to the window and he looks up, his jaw dropping at the sight in front of him. “Are you... are you sure this is the address she gave you?”

“Yea, I’m sure.”

They both climb slowly out of the car, their heads turned upward at the sight, and close their doors.

“Mr. Winchester?” Dean looks down and sees a valet standing in front of him, his hand held out and smiling. Dean frowns and the valet laughs, “I’ve been told you’re very protective of...Baby. I promise, sir, she’s in good hands. I wouldn’t have this job if I wasn’t good at it.”

“He’s right you know, I don’t hire riff raff. Happy parks my cars all the time, top notch parking. As a matter of fact, he just parked my car, did it perfectly. Actually, we’ve got a deal, ideal parking in thirty seconds or it’s free.”

Both Winchesters snap their heads in the direction of the voice, their eyes wide. The man belonging to it walks casually down the stairs, sunglasses obscuring the upper part of his face. Dean drops his keys in the outstretched hand and walks around the Impala to join Sam. The man stops in front of them and pulls his sunglasses off, and Sam’s face transforms from disbelief to pure awe.

“What...we…”

“You must be Sam.” He looks him up and down for a moment, “You sure you aren’t part of the super soldier experiment? I mean, you’re huge. What year were you born? And where? I’d like to know what they put in the water there, maybe use it for something here. Science, you know. And you,” his eyes travel to Dean, “you must be Dean. I mean honestly, Y/N said you guys were large, but I think our resident super humans are going to be a little jealous. I’m not, because I’m comfortable with what I was born with, but you know how superheroes can be. Well, genetically enhanced superheroes, anyway.” He holds his hand out, and both Sam and Dean shake it half-heartedly, still confused by what is happening.

“Y/N...is here?”

“Yea, funny story about that. Anyway,” he waves in the general direction of the building, “welcome to Avengers Tower. I’m your host, Tony Stark. Food and beverages will be provided. Now, I think we’ve got some demons to take care of. Shall we?”

Like what you see? Would you like to see more? Check out my master list HERE.

Forever Tags: @trexrambling @pinknerdpanda  @wheresthekillswitch @emilywritesaboutdean @arryn-nyxx @emptywithout @escabell @charliebradbury1104 @jarpadandjensenaremyheroes  @deanssweetheart23  @canadianjelly @super-not-naturall @aubreyreadsstuff @dean-winchesters-baby @melissaj616 @fandomismyspiritanimal @keepcalmandcarryondean @assbutt-still-in-hell @owllover123 @rosie-winchester @amionthetumbler @duubaduu @hiimaprofessionalfangirl @goldenolaf25 @authoressskr @nanie5 @mrssamfuckingwinchester @zincomms @kathaswings @crazynerdandproud @barbedwireandbubblegum @sandlee44 @boxywrites @justanotherdeangirl @smalltowndivaj @captainradicalpassion @myloveforyouxx @atc74 @mrsbatesmotel53 @there-must-be-a-lock @masksandtruths @thelittleredwhocould @jotink78 @amanda-teaches @ilsawasanacrobat @squirrel-moose-winchester @mjdoc90 @anticipate1003 @mrswhozeewhatsis @mogaruke @speakinvain @linki-locks11 @wildlandfox @rhochradel @lostnliterature @eternal-elir @spn-ficfanatic @polina-93 @lexiiiii28 @poukothenerd @emoryhemsworth

Dean Only: @akshi8278 @valkyrieslament @lavieenlex @highonpastries @wholelottajackles @imascio08 @adoptdontshoppets

Sam Only: @bunnybaby121115

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[shelbyhuesario]

#Comics #Supergirl  Facebook Live Chat with #EricaDurance #Smallville

Erica Durance did a Facebook Live Chat with the fans top answer their questions about her new gig in “Supergirl”. Here are the questions she answered:

David Palffy: Hey you remind me a lot of my mom! I think you will be an amazing Alura as I know that you are an amazing mom! Oh by the way it's your son! Love you as always and forever! Erica Durance: Is that my wonderful son? My inspiration and constant source of pride. Brandon Christopher: When are you going to get Tom Welling to make an appearance? Not that you alone getting back into Superverse isn’t awesome! ED: It's on my to do list. Ha! Luke Tucker: Welcome back to the land of superheroes! After 5 years on a different style of show in Saving Hope, what are you most enjoying being back in this genre (action, comedy, costumes)? ED: Hey Luke! Yes, after Acting, producing, and directing...the blood, gore, and science of medicine, it is nice to have pretty hair, beautiful dresses, and a wind fan. Rachel Fitz: Will we see you again in season 3 with Melissa aka Kara in a scene and maybe see your character alive just like we all think Mon'el is alive too but on another planet Erica?! #Supergirl#AskErica ED: I have worked with Melissa, loved it, she was what you would expect. Down to earth and incredibly generous. As for Alura's future. We will be seeing more of her in new and very creative ways... Sam Hudson: Did you ever foresee a moment where you would become another character in the "Super" world, much like many actors became new characters on Smallville? ED: No I didn't, but it seemed like it would be fun, and I looked forward to working with dear friends.....SUZANNE Olivia Luder: What does it mean to you to be on such a feminist show, particularly in this day & age?) thank you! ED: Any chance to be part of something that puts women in the forefront is a pleasure. Aaron Price: An as aspiring actor, I always love the work of others in the industry. My question Erica, what got you interested in acting and who was your inspirations idols? ED: Knew I wasn't going to be a neurosurgeon... so... acting it was. HA! Seriously though, just gravitated to it and kept coming back for more. Cindy Kat DM: Did you needed to do an audition to get the part in Supergirl? + If you needed to do one pls tell me the details of it! Thanks! ED: No, just spoke with Andrew. Rachel Luciano: You looked stunning in the season premiere! Can't wait to see what else is in store for you this season. Can you share a fave memory so far? ED: I had a scene in an upcoming episode with the young Kara... It was really nice to play a mother/daughter dynamic. Carey Johnson: Erica, you're coming into an established show, Supergirl, much like you did with Smallville. How do you navigate being the new kid on the block, compared to being the lead, like on Saving Hope? ED: Good question. After 5 years as a lead i needed a break, so this is lovely to come in, do my work and then take off home to my babies. Nathan Sponenberg: Are there particular versions of Lois that you looked to for inspiration when playing the character? To me, you're the perfect live action version of the Animated Series Lois. ED: Thanks, to be honest, when I started on Smallville, it was fast and furious, so not a lot of time for research. But loved Margot Kidder. Eric Johnston: How many episodes have you filmed so far? ED: About 5 so far but its been great Giovanni Mark Mane: In general who is better Lois Lane or Iris West? ED: Why do they have to compete? Chantël Rodriguez: How does it feel to be apart of the supergirl cast? ED: Everyone has been very welcoming. Fun to be apart of this universe again.

[swipestream]

SUPERVERISVE: “Trigun” is indeed probably the most Christian anime ever

I really didn’t know what to expect with “Trigun”.

Everybody had been recommending it to me for awhile, but I had tried the first couple of episodes already. They weren’t bad, but the show never really clicked for me. I was left there scratching my head wondering what was supposedly so special about it. I got why somebody might enjoy it in a “It’s not that great but it’s amusing” sort of way, but no more than that.

And then to be told that at its heart it was a Catholic story philosophically, thematically, and morally?

It should have been right up my alley, but I didn’t see the path from point A to point B. Still, so many people were praising it, and it had been recommended to me so many times, that I felt obligated to finish the series out. It’s not as if it was painfully bad or anything, and there must be SOMETHING to all the talk, right?

So I kept watching.

And man am I glad I did.

“Trigun” is an excellent show.

“Trigun” is the story of Vash the Stampede as told by insurance girls Meryl and Millie. Vash is a mysterious yet highly destructive drifter from the western-style planet of Gunsmoke, and Meryl and Millie have been tasked with following him around because every time he shows his face it costs their company enormous amounts of money. Vash has a 60 billion double dollar bounty on his head, but there’s something strange about him:

He’s a really, really great guy. Funny, fun, great with children, defender of the weak and helpless, and abhorrent of all killing of any kind.

So what’s with the bounty? And what’s with Vash?

And there’s your story.

“Trigun” starts off as light as a feather, even goofy, and then gets…dark. Really, really dark. Bloody deaths of beloved characters type dark.

“Trigun” is a show that is great at little, bad at some (the animation is rather weak, though I find much criticism of the dub to be unwarranted), but good at almost everything, and by the time it all ends the whole feels much greater than the sum of its parts. One thing the show is particularly good at is making you empathize with everyone, even the bit characters – nobody is acting like a jerk just to act like a jerk. If you have a giant wall up guarded by gunmen to keep out outsiders, you probably have a good reason for it and don’t just hate orphans. And if you want to kill Vash the Stampede, well, join the club.

“Trigun” is also uncompromisingly brutal when it comes to exploring its themes. Vash has taken the philosophy of “Thou shalt not kill” to the extreme, refusing to do so even in self-defense or defense of others, at least at the point of the series’ start. And we love Vash for it!

But it’s not so black and white. How many lives would Vash have saved if he’d just killed Knives? Hundreds? Thousands? And what if it really does come to protecting innocents, in that moment? Should you STILL not kill? Why not? And what does it mean for you if you do?

“Trigun” asks these questions without flinching, putting the matter before you as starkly as possible. And we never really get straight answers.

“Trigun’s” characters are rather unmemorable as a whole, with a few notable exceptions. Legato is one of the most chillingly horrifying villains I’ve ever seen, Vash himself gets a lot of rich character development, and, of course, preacher man Nicholas D. Wolfwood, the man with the most badass Cross on the planet, is the most awesome character in the whole damn show.

The man. The myth. The legend. Nicholas D. Wolfwood

Let’s talk a little more about Wolfwood, who is a fascinating character. It is interesting that Vash, “The humanoid typhoon” who doesn’t really talk about God or religion all that much, is the absolute pacifist of the group, while Wolfwood, the Priest, provides the counterargument. Wolfwood believes in a rougher world than Vash and in some ways comes from a rougher world than Vash, so he finds Vash’s no-kill policy naive, frustrating, and insulting, implying that men like him who kill to protect themselves or others are just as bad as cold-blooded murderers. It’s a legitimate grief, and the show portrays it that way. Like the best fiction neither side is shown as being exactly “right” or “wrong”. Instead, the idea is explored and examined in an intelligent and even-handed way.

There’s so much more to say about Wolfwood, who is truly a fantastic and fantastically written character, but to go deeply into what makes him so great would be to get into some really annoying spoilers, so instead I’ll leave this fantastic article out there for all of you to read when you finish the series.

The final episode – at least the second half, when the useless clip section of the episode is over – features one of the most outstanding gunfights I’ve ever seen on screen, almost completely dialogue free and brilliantly filmed. And the ending?

Well…

When I first saw it I’ll just say I was REALLY, REALLY ANGRY, though my brother pointed out some small details about the scene that helped me look at it in a new light. Still, it’s fair to say that it makes you think and stays with you a long time after it’s over.

Worth noting: “Trigun” features one of the most beautifully shot and filmed death scenes I have ever seen, and one of the saddest. I won’t say who it is who dies, but the scene is so well-done I feel that it is worth calling out specifically as being perhaps the best scene of the entire show. I don’t think I’ll need to link it – you’ll all know what I mean.

“Trigun” isn’t a masterpiece on the level of “Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood”, “Cowboy Bebop”, or the first half of “Death Note”. It never reaches the insanely high heights of any of those shows. Yet it’s never truly bad, even during its slow start, and it evolves into something that feels unique despite the fact that the sci-fi western is essentially its own sub-genre, with shows as brilliant as “Cowboy Bebop”, “Firefly”, and “Outlaw Star” (so I’ve been told, anyway) all fitting into that niche. Its uncompromising and unflinching nature gives it a fresh perspective on a lot of well-worn themes, and its take on Christianity feels both sympathetic yet somehow alien – like it’s being investigated by an outsider and all of its potential weaknesses are being shaken out and examined. When everything in the show’s DNA all clicks together the result is excellent comedy and compelling, and sometimes devastating, drama. While I don’t think it’s up with the top tier of shows, if somebody were to tell me it was their favorite I could definitely understand that.

Is it superversive?: Yes, fascinatingly so

Overall score: 8 of 10. Well worth your time.

(A note – after googling around while writing this article I’ve found that there is a TON of excellent “Trigun” analysis out there to read – it really is a much deeper series than you might give it credit for at first glance. Many of these essays are fascinating, and it might be worth your time just to google something like “Trigun Christianity” and look at some of them if you’re that type of guy!)

SUPERVERISVE: “Trigun” is indeed probably the most Christian anime ever published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames

[sweetwriting]

Tim Drake Positivity Week -Day 4: Funny or Serious

Category: Gen

Genre: Humor/Fluff/Angst/Family

Fandoms: DC Comics, Batverse, Superverse

Continuity : Post-Crisis/Pre-Flashpoint referenced. Rebirth

Summary: Family is a tricky matter in those parts and it's especially true for people who were gone from the world for so long. (featuring Jon, Clark and Conner)

Word Count: 4 979

AN: I'm very late because while this piece has been finished for like a month, I didn't have time to write it on my computer so its posting has been delayed and I apologize (I was already late because it got away from me and started getting long. I had to cut some parts).  

This is part of my own version of Tim Drake's come back in the DC Rebirth Plot which I've been working on and planning for, for about a year and a half now. Since I kind of loath Tynion's take on his character...I mean people talk about Lobdell but Tynion worsened everything like 100 times and at least Lobdell admitted to his fault when he created his first Origin Story by saying it wasn't Tim Drake... they literally had everything on a silver platter and they decided to throw it out. It's ridiculous I'm telling you. I still haven't read A Lonely Place of Living, I'm waiting until next Thursday to read it all at once partially because Tynion's writing feels so bland -mostly bc his notion of character development is using timeskips and because he's told a fan he considered Rebirth!Tim to be the same as preboot!Tim and it scared me more than anything because he's exactly the same as N52!Tim- partially because I didn't want to have to wait for a story I had 99% chances of disliking because of the issues I mentioned in the tags and here (or as Shawn Spencer said in Psych, "Just 'cause you put syrup on somethin', don't make it pancakes").

ANYWAY, this happens during my AU which I promise I will start posting some time in November. It kind of gives away a part of it but at the same time, it's something that's so obvious it's not really given away (especially if you've read some of my Tumblr posts). The point of the other fic being "how does it get to this point?".

To read it on AO3

Finally! It was time. Jon had been waiting for this for months (well three months). Which was when Kon-El/Conner had come back to the land of livings...or Earth. True he hadn’t been thrilled to learn about Jon’s existence at first -more the opposite actually- apparently because he and his dad had had issues? And Jon being the new Superboy or something. On top of which there had been the Tim Drake and Bart Allen cases to deal with which prevent any of the older Super’s issues to be solved. But Conner had warmed up to him and now Jon was allowed to spend his Week-End at his place. In Ca.li.for.nia!

Now Jon had gotten used to Metropolis (his self from three months ago would have killed him for it) but the sun of Metropolis wasn’t as agreeable as the one of their old town? And definitely not as nice as the one in California!

He was also finally going to really meet Damian’s “lost” brother whom he had nicknamed the “real” Tim Drake (not to be mean to the other Tim but Witness Protection program and all that Jazz made it his fake name).

So Jon was really excited. His dad was coming down the stairs now, so he could fly him over (Jon still had trouble controlling his power of flight). Jon had just kissed his mom goodbye and was literally jumping to the ceiling in excitement.

“Conner, if you keep pacing like this you’re going to leave a trail on the ground.” Conner stopped. He turned to his right to look at Tim who was reading something on his tablet, comfortably settled on the couch, lounging in jeans and T-shirt, a look Conner was still trying to get used to. Not that Tim had never worn those before, it simply hadn’t been a common sight. He tried to glare at him but the panicked look in his eyes and seemingly emanating from every pore of his skin made him look more like a scared puppy than anything else.

“You don’t get it Tim. You didn’t completely mess up with your younger brother!”

Tim looked up from his Tablet, stared at Conner for a few seconds while raising his eyebrows. It was quite obviously meant to be taken as a “seriously?” and When had Tim learned to do that? And from who? Okay, that question was easily answered. It was probably Alfred.

“I meant as a first meeting! You tried to welcome Damian while I basically just had a small fit like a spoiled brat.”

Great. He was pouting now. Tim sighed and put his tablet on the coffee table next to him. Conner sighed as well and went to sit on it so he could face Tim.

“Look I understand you’re stressed out but it’s quite clear that the kid is ready to forgive you…Plus you had extenuating circumstances…you know with the “mixed memories” and the “having just woken up in a tube” things. And you’re great with kids. Remember Traya, she could make you do anything just by looking at you? You’ll be awkward at first and then you two will be planning my doom”. He paused, seemingly deep in thoughts. “Now that I think about it, I should probably be the one to worry. I mean your little brother or nephew or cousin or whatever is friends with Damian.”

Conner snorted and looked at Tim, now a lot calmer.

“Please. I’m pretty sure you’d be able to tell if he was planning something, he’s not very sneaky”. He paused, breathing deeply. ”Okay, I’m feeling a little better now. Thanks, Wonder Boy.”

He clapped him on the knee as Tim started to smile at him. Both started when the doorbell rang and Tim saw Conner stiffen. Seeing as the meta was starting to panic again, Tim got up first, quickly followed by Conner, and answered the door. He couldn’t help the smile that grew on his face as he saw the new Superboy bouncing on the ball of his feet. He would have smiled anyway (he wasn’t the social butterfly of the Batfam for no reason after all) but at least now it was completely genuine.

“Hey, Clark, Jon, welcome.”

Jon beamed up at him and bit his lower lip as Clark had settled his hands on his shoulders, probably to prevent his son from accidentally showing his powers to their neighbors. Tim moved to his right so they could come in, closed the door and turned to see Conner awkwardly trying to start a conversation. Jon looked at them, in boredom or disbelief, Tim wasn’t sure. So he walked toward him, leaving both “older” Kryptonians (and damn, Conner was younger than his younger brother) trying to avoid the elephant in the room as he addressed Jon.

“Hey, do you want me to show you your room while these two shuffle awkwardly?”

Jon looked at him with pure relief in his eyes and replied with said relief seeping through his words.

“Yes please” He paused “Wait.” He looked between Conner and Tim “I get my own room?”

Conner, who had been glaring at Tim along with Clark, nodded at slowly, taken aback by the kid’s excitement but a smile started to grow because of it. He was definitely a cute kid. Now the point of this Week-End was to find the personality hidden underneath all the cuteness and see if they had a chance of getting along even outside of the vigilante field. Tim had been right when he had told him, a few days after being back, that Conner needed a family outside of the Teen Titans. Something more stable that didn’t rely on a roster and Tim himself was looking for his own place within the Bats or…How had he said it again? “I’d help you by lending you mine but I’m not sure what it entails right now”. And of course they had each other but Conner was sure Tim meant “aside from each other”. He used to have Ma (and Pa for a short time) but he was barely starting acclimating to them when he died and he had finally (relatively) gotten used to it, having a stable family life when those world-changing event happened. There had been that first year in Hawaï with Roxy, Tana, Dubbilex and Rex but “stable” wasn’t the word he’d use to describe that time (still the closest he had for about two years)…And well he did miss Clark and Steel (and Kara and Matrix but…). And Okay, he had never really thought about having siblings. He already had Roxy and Bart and the kids from Cadmus but the idea was appealing even if, technically, Jon would be his nephew? What did you call the child of your cousin? Now that he thought about it was his cover still that of Clark’s cousin? Or was he his brother now? His son? No. He was brought back to that first time of awareness in this new world and shuddered so briefly that only Clark had noticed it. The fact that Tim had apparently lead Jon to his room and left them to their own devices while Conner was daydreaming might have helped in that. Clark who was now lifting an eyebrow, demanding an explanation for Conner’s mind’s wandering. Nice to know Clark was still the king of righteousness. Conner sighed and replied to Clark’s silent probing.

“It’s nothing, something just reminded me of the tube I woke up in. Which got me thinking, are we gonna use the same “I’m your cousin" I.D?”

Clark cleared his throat having been clearly hoping he’d be able to avoid the topic or maybe he was just that awkward with him.

“Actually, Lois and I were thinking that since, uh, you’re not 21 yet, and Ma’s not here anymore”, he paused. Both Kents feeling the weight of her loss in their heart, she was much better at dealing with these family matters than either of them. Conner should have stayed with her. He wanted nothing more than to have stayed with her –with Tim while he sorted through his own family matters of course. But she was gone. And he had to get used to that fact. Apparently, all his parental figures had died while he was “asleep” or whatever had happened to him. Clark’s voice broke him out of his thoughts. “We thought we could be your legal guardians with me being your big brother. It’d be a little hard to explain your existence any other way without making up a whole different family tree.” He paused again. He had started to gain a good rhythm but it seemed like it wasn't easy. Clark was more used to forcing his will on Conner (even if he had gotten better at talking to him over time…Clark still wasn’t Ma Kent and the thought almost had him panicking. He tried to control his breath again -his meeting with Parallax and Sinestro not yet forgotten- and continued. Conner’s little frown didn’t help). “I meant that we would have to create a new mother and where you’d have lived before coming to Smallville -you know how thorough Batman can be when he wants to- and I just thought that me becoming my younger brother’s legal guardian after the death of our Mother made more sense. It allows you to stay here and continue your studies, if you want to. But if you need anything you know my home is yours.” Clark stopped. He was starting to mumble. This situation, with Conner, had never been easy. He had barely started to hit his 30’s when Kon had first appeared. He was too young to have a teenage son (it didn’t help that the child in question was born because a creep stole his DNA to experiment on). Now he was hitting his 40’s and Conner had lost so many years, first with his own death then with the last world-altering nonsense (if only it was only those) and he hadn’t caught up, Conner was barely out of his teens and while Clark could now be a father. Their history got in the way and Conner had a confusing enough track record and putting a little “normalcy” and “stability” in his life had been one of his main reasons to have him live with Ma in the first place. And yet, things had gotten so messed up. He looked at the young man in front of him (because at virtually 19 that’s what he was now and if it that didn’t send a wave of regret…-for Conner’s missed childhood? For not helping him like he should have been helped in his first few years? For everything Conner missed while he was forced to not grow up (and there were too many times it had happened in his life)?- then what could?). Conner seemed startled. Clark didn’t know what exactly had startled him but then he grinned and held out his hand for Clark to shake and said:

“Deal.”

Of course, Clark wasn’t naïve enough to think Conner was perfectly okay with this but being given a chance was all he could ask for. And they smiled awkwardly at each other. Damn.

“Hey Tim, what’s the matter with dad and Conner?”

Jon had just finished putting his clothes in the dresser of his room under Tim’s watchful eyes –he felt lucky he had had to deal with Bart for years and learned to watch out for hyperactive-like kids. The question, while expected was not one Tim was keen on answering.

“It’s not really my place to say at this point. Maybe you try asking him tomorrow morning?”

That pout. Damn. Tim could definitely see the family traits. Though Conner’s always seemed a lot less innocent (to be fair he never looked like an 11 years old and he almost always had terrible ideas fueling them). On a side note, what were the chances Jon had listened in on the other two? Tim didn’t know him enough to actually utter a guess.

“Anyway, due to various time issues we weren’t sure what kids your age like but we thought Video Games was kind of a timeless thing and we’ve got tons of them. Cass has been filling our living room with books if it’s more your thing but Conner and I are more comic books people…There’s also my own training gear in my version of the “Batcave” if you want.”

Apparently, those were the right things to say to divert the child’s attention because he seemed ready to start jumping again (it was probably the mention of video games).

“You’ve got video games? Are they old? ‘Cause you’re old, you’re even older than Conner and you guys haven’t had a lot of time to adjust right?”

Tim felt the urge to cry in protest but had to remind himself of the kid’s age and managed to avoid snapping at him.

“We’ve got all kinds, remember one of us is a speedster so even if Conner and I hadn’t yet, he’s had the time to catch up”

“Cool! By the way, did you mean it when you said I could train in your…what did you call it again? Nest?”

Once again Tim was glad he had had to deal with Bart for a long while otherwise, he’s not sure he could have followed Jon’s babbling. He wondered vaguely if Conner would have acted in a similar way had he been given a chance to be 11. And the bad jokes…Was Superman as bad? He seemed to be from the little times they had interacted and from what Conner had told him (though that one seemed more like unreliable narration).

“I don’t call it anything other than HQ. Conner calls it a nest too though so you can do it.” He paused. “Just please don’t use it outside of this apartment”.

Jon tried to hold in a laugh (and quite obviously failed) before Tim ushered him back downstairs.

“C’mon let’s save those two from an awkwardness overload.”

As Conner closed the door behind his cousin. Wait. Brother. It felt weird. He turned to his best friend and to the kid who apparently was his nephew now.

“So…This is finally over.”

He felt his phone vibrate in his back pocket and he felt his cheeks heat up as he read the message he had just received: “I heard that you know.” Tim and Jon looked at each other questioningly but seemed to decide not to pry (if only because they had already guessed what had happened, Jon himself having been on the receiving hand of his father’s hearing quite a few times). Conner tried to ignore them as he started walking to the kitchen.

“Alright, it’s time to eat!”

Tim’s deadpan voice came from where he and Jon and stayed, making him stop in his track:

“Conner it’s barely 6. How about we spend some downtime together”

Conner’s cheeks turned pink. in his hurry to forget what had happened with Clark he had forgotten pretty much everything else that was going on. He took a sudden turn to the right, toward the living room as he exclaimed:

“Video Games it is.”

Tim sighed and mumbled something about how it was lucky Jon was part of a video games generation and they had already decided it was going to be their next activity or the night would have started badly.

“Right, turn on the Switch, we still have the last sonic game to play and it’s ideal when we have guests”.

Tim snorted as he approached his best friend who had paused in the doorway, patting him on the back as he took his wrist to lead him toward the various video game stations they had. He turned to John.

“C’mon, want to help me destroy his sorry ass?”

“Tim! Don’t talk like that! Clark’s never gonna forgive me if we talk that way in front of his kid!”

Conner was starting to panic, and Tim felt sorry for him. That he was so stressed out about something as simple as…What was wrong exactly with what he had said? He looked at Conner Questioningly.

“You realize you’re not supposed to use words like “ass” in front of a kid, right?”

Tim’s eyes turned slightly vacant. He had, in fact, not known that.

“Oh.”

He turned toward Jon who, annoyed, was grumbling about not being a kid.

“Sorry Jon, I had no idea Conner had become a proper adult. You shall now only refer to him for adult matters. He’s the responsible one”.

Tim had left Conner’s side to set up the console with Jon while his friend was still shell-shocked. Conner was fuming, and he started to raise his arms in frustration.

“It’s not funny Tim! You know how much is riding on this!”

Tim stopped for a second and signed for Jon to keep taking out the console. He got up and walked toward Conner setting his hands gently on his right shoulder and forearm so Conner would drop his arms. He did, forcing Tim to drop his hands and turned to face Tim whose left hand had replaced his right one on Conner’s right shoulder as the other settled on the left side of his neck, hoping he could get his best friend to look him in the eye so he could try to ground him and avoid what he knew was going to turn into a sour mood.

“Hey, it’s okay Conner. Jon’s 11 so I doubt he’s never heard the word before that and he probably knows not to use this kind of language in front of his parents. And you’re stressing yourself too much this is just a mise-en-bouche.”

He stopped for a second, making sure Conner was looking into his eyes “But I promise I’ll make an effort” He patted his friend’s neck and put his hands back to his side and started to walk back toward the consoles. “C’mon let’s get defeated by your brother…Nephew...whichever.”

Conner caught up to him in a few tranquil strokes (being taller than Tim had its advantages and reminding him of the fact was one of them).

“Apparently, it’s Nephew, I’m Clark’s little brother now. Also you might get defeated but that’s because you su- I mean you’re awful at those kinds of Video Games.”

Tim was smiling. He knew it. He may not have been able to see it but he could feel Tim’s wry smile. It was there. Because not two minutes ago he had been pani- no he had been lecturing Tim about his language and he almost had a slip up himself. But Tim seemed to feel magnanimous enough not to mention it…yet.

They had been playing for about an hour and Jon had, in fact, kicked their asses. Conner would probably feel less sulky if Tim hadn’t gotten the best of him too.

He was starting to pout (glare. He was glaring at them) when Tim interrupted the game to say they should prepare their snacks-dinner and to join him once he was done taking the ingredients out. Conner wondered what it could be since they didn’t have much more than pasta ingredients and it wasn’t really “snack-dinner” worthy…Unless…Nah Tim wouldn’t show this side of them to a new guest…Would he?

Anyway, Tim had been in the middle of the couch, between the two Supers and feeling him slip away had Conner almost latching onto his arm and beg him to stay with them when the older teen threw him a look that meant “He’s here so you guys could bond, I’ve been playing the mediator for the past hour and a half, it’s time to deal with your shit”. Okay, so maybe Conner was reading a little more into this and the look just meant “grow a pair”, or “grow up”. The point of the message was still the same.

And damn, it was probably gonna be awkward. What if it was as awkward as when he talked to Clark but this time he would be in Clark’s shoes? This is a terrible ending. What if…

“Tim’s really cool! You’re lucky he was your Robin. I have to deal with Damian. I mean, we get along better (way better) than we did months ago but he’s still a pain. Tim was probably a thousand time more fun to deal with! I mean he’s already much more fun to deal with than most of the other bats even if he’s old.”

Conner looked at the new Superboy, mouth slightly open at having been interrupted in his internal freakout. He couldn’t help but laugh, both at Jon’s conclusion and in relief, startling the kid.

“Oh, Believe me, Tim wasn’t fun or even funny back then. Well…He still isn’t funny. His jokes are awful. He was our leader you know, so he felt responsible for our lives. Plus back then there was the secret identity issue. It frustrated me a lot. Back then we…We didn’t get along actually. In a different way from you and Damian because we wanted to be friends but the circumstances got in the way and pushed us apart. It was quite complicated if I’m being honest. Way more than I realized back then”.

He paused looking at his hands. He had loved that time; when they were all pretty innocent even if some of the most tragic moments of their lives happened during that very period of time : Tana’s death, Guardian’s, Gotham turning into a No Man’s Land, Bruce being accused of murder and going awry, the first time the gap between Tim and Steph really made itself known, Cissie almost killing someone, one of Bart’s clones dying…Apokolips in general…, among others. He really missed the innocence they had before all those events started accumulating. On the other hand, and he knew it was selfish of him considering all the hurt that was needed to get there and how much it caused afterwards, he wouldn’t give up the depth it had given to his and Tim’s friendship for anything in the world, with maybe the exception of Tim having a happy life. He looked up at the kid beside him, hoping he wouldn’t have to go through half as much as he did (but he had Clark and Lois and there was a better support system for young Heroes so he was already off to a better start than Kon had been, and he’d make sure to help keep it that way). He had to take a deep breath as nostalgia took hold of his heart. Because despite everything he had just thought, he wished the evolution of his and Tim’s relationship hadn’t happened at the expense of their innocence and he felt terrible at being responsible for such a big part of Tim’s own. Whether during the war or when he died. He was brought back to reality by Jon hovering next to his arm, looking slightly worried. Conner tried to recompose himself as he continued:

“What I mean is that we had to go through many trials for Tim –and the rest of us really- to learn, and re-learn to have fun and stop being so serious all the time. Now that Tim’s not needed in Gotham, he’s free to be more…at ease I guess…That and he’s trying to make us more...content I guess, so we would have less of a chance to end up like his family.”

He watched Jon grimace and mutter a small “yeah no kidding” and he winked at the kid. He was starting to truly like him. But he felt it was time to join Tim, after all –and despite what Tim himself might think- he needed to bond with Jon almost as much as Conner did.

They both got up as Conner ushered the young hero toward the kitchen which they found filled with recipients and when Conner started smelling it, all he could do was stop abruptly and say:

“Wait a second. Cheese? Potatoes. More cheese?” He paused, his voice going lower as if he had found the answer to the universe because he realized Tim had actually decided on what he had hoped they would be eating. “A deep fryer.”

He shared a look with Tim who smiled at him and they both exclaimed at the same time:

“Cuatro Quesos Dos Fritos!”

Jon started, surprised at their exclamation, staring at them as if they were aliens. Okay, wrong choice of word. Not alien, but something he hadn’t expected. Wondering if they weren’t lunatics –or if they really were adults. He asked in a small voice:

“What’s Quatro Quesos Dos Fritos?”

Tim seemed to remember they had a novice in the delicious art of cheesy food with them and started explaining as he got close to the oven.

“Only the most delicious snack of all time. It’s potatoes filled with a cheese mixture. And when they’re finished, they look a little something like this.”

While he had been distracting both Supers with his little explanation, Tim had taken a plate from within the oven and showed it to them. Conner looked at him, half amazed, half laughing.

“Dude, how did you just fabricate Cuatro Quesos Dos Fritos out of thin air?”

Tim smiled as Jon looked like a fish out of water. Luckily Conner had decided to humor him in his little game.

“C’mon Conner this is how all successful TV chefs do it.” He turned to Jon, his smile threatening to break his face as he took in Jon’s amazed look. “Try one of those, kid, because here’s the best part, they’re very healthy for us."

Jon snorted as he tried one of the Cuatro Quesos dos Fritos then stopped as he was hit by the amazing flavor of the treat, ready to complain to his father for hiding such marvelous food from him all his life. Conner, for his part, rolled his eyes and chose to focus on the delicious taste of the potatoes as he replied:

“I don’t even care that’s not true”

Tim looked affronted as if Conner had said the worse possible thing.

“Are you kidding? All major cheese groups are represented, you’ve got yellow, orange and white!”

Jon grinned as the two almost adults started arguing on the benefits of cheese.

They spent their night making Cuatro Quesos Dos Fritos and playing video Games. Jon complained about Damian (fully supported by Tim) and talked about his adventures in Super Hero-ing while Conner traded him for some of his own. Mostly those back in Hawai (no need for the kid to know about those times he was left to his own device or his Luthor Paranoia) with Roxy, Tana, Dubbilex, Rex and Sam. And while his heart squeezed when he thought about them (Dubbilex was dead and there was nothing he could do about it), they remained at the back of his thoughts. He was starting to truly move on from that part of his life and the various circumstances that had caused him so much grief. He was happy. His relationship with Jon was merely in its early stages, they were merely acquaintances at this point, but he could actually say “early” and believe there would be a follow-up.

He was happily settled against Tim, sharing his family with him because that’s how far they had gotten and he now had a nephew who looked up to him and it both scared him and left him elated (it almost reminded him of Bart when he was Impulse but he had known Kon’s issues better than Jon did and was much less star struck by him).

The best part though was that they were here making jokes and smiling and being happy without thinking about what could go wrong and, really, he couldn’t think of anything he would want more at this point (except having Bart and even Cassie with them).

Bonus:

“Can you believe it Robin? They had so many video games it was amazing! And Cuatro Quesos Dos Fritos had to be made in heaven, it’s hard to believe they exist!”

It was Sunday night and Jon and Damian had gone out for “Patrol” as Damian called it, and Jon had started rambling about his week-end in California the second Damian showed up. He snorted. His relationship with this Drake was more vitriolic than with the other one. Some details were confusing. The merging of the worlds meant that some things didn’t make complete sense as their different sets of memories adjusted to each other and some were just lost. In any case, it didn’t mean he had to be happy to hear about Drake’s “amazingness”.

“I’ve got to say though, I didn’t know what to expect when I got there but they’re so cool. Conner’s so lucky to have a boyfriend as cool as Tim!” He paused. “Wait, does that mean that we’re…kinda officially a family and…”

“They’re not dating”.

The voice cut right through Jon’s monologue like a cold shower would a heat streak gotten on a beach near Ajaccio. Jon was dumbstruck.

“What?”

Damian tried to level his eyes with Jon.

“I said that they’re not dating. As in they’re not together, not in a relationship”

Jon froze and Damian started waving his right hand in front of the younger boy’s eyes until he started blinking again. It was as if his stress levels had risen all at once and so had the pitch of his voice.

“How the hell is that possible ! ? “

Jon was now reviewing his whole Week-End, completely lost and looked at Damian when the boy, coming out of his own shock at Jon’s vocabulary, cleared his throat, trying to regain his snark.

“Now do you understand why I call Drake an idiot?”

AEN: First thing firsts, Conner actually knows what happened to him he just doesn’t want to think about it more than he has to. It was also a fairly important plot point in the real fic so when I thought about it later on I was fairly relieved :p

2nd, in my mind, Tim is about 6-10 months older than Conner. Because Conner was 16 for like a year and a half but when he started aging Tim was 15. So he died when he was 17 and Tim had turned 16 like 3 months before (Tim’s 16th Birthday issue happened around the beginning of Teen Titans). Then Kon was dead for a year and a half going on two years, Tim was 17 almost 18 at the end of Red Robin (we know that if N52 hadn’t happened we would have an issue about Tim’s 18th Birthday fairly soon after) so he was about 17 and a half (probably a little more) when Conner came back to life. Hence Tim being between 6 and 10 months older than Conner.

3. they need hugs. They all do.

4.  the Cuatro Quesos Dos Fritos was shamelessly stolen from the Psych Slumber Party bit on USA today for a Psych Marathon a few years ago. Because Half the time I see Shawn and Gus I can't help but think of Tim and Kon (except I reverse the roles often). I just slightly modified it to fit the story. (but seriously if you haven't, go watch the first four seasons of Psych).

[hermanwatts]

Sensor Sweep: Antiheroes, Theodore Sturgeon, A. E. van Vogt, Dreadstar

Popular Culture (Adam Lane Smith): Much has been made about the oft-lamented shift from Hero to Antihero and the modern obsession with romanticizing evil. Most frequently, I’ve heard this complaint directed at modern western media’s fixation on selecting one unyielding human trash fire after another as every main character. There’s a reason modern book sales and movie sales are struggling. To understand the shift over the last hundred years of stories and main characters, one must understand the cultural environments and the mental aspects at play, particularly attachment formation and its impact on society.

  Writing (Rawle Nyanzi): With every passing day, it seems that global pop culture disappoints us more. Classic franchises are vandalized into self-parodies to “modernize” them, creative talent increasingly treats fandoms as the enemy, and geek-oriented media champion the intimidation and silencing of creatives who don’t toe a very particular ideological line. The Pulp Mindset is not a book on how to make millions with one simple trick. It is not a book about gaming Amazon’s ever-changing algorithm. It is a book about having the right mentality for storytelling.

Hugo Awards (Dark Herald): This years Hugos went so far beneath my radar I didn’t know they had happened. I think we have finally reached the point where a Hugo Award is actually damaging to an author’s reputation. Certainly, no one who loves Science Fiction will want to buy a book with the words Hugo Award winner on the cover. As you may know by now. George R.R. Martin hosted the 2020 Hugo Awards and he was apparently too old to be Woke.

Fiction (DMR Books): Now I don’t have to wait six months to release my collection! Necromancy in Nilztiria will be available in next month, and the cover illustration (which you can see to the left) is based upon “A Twisted Branch of Yggdrasil.” In this tale, the Norseman Hrolfgar and the Atlantean Deltor have been drawn through the labyrinths of time and space to the world of Nilztiria by a sorceress, who commands them to slay her enemy, Xaarxool the Necromancer. But as you can see this is no easy task, for Xaarxool has giant skeletons to defend him.

Fiction (Marzaat): Like most critics, he regards Sturgeon’s supreme strength as characterization. Sturgeon was allegedly good at seeing the cruelty behind civilization and the ways “conventional morality” (supposedly Sturgeon distinguished that from “fundamental ethical systems”) created anxieties and phobias hence some of his horror stories like “Bianca’s Hands”). Stableford contends Sturgeon never was onboard with John W. Campbell’s enthusiasm for science and technology. He suggests that Sturgeon’s “Killdozer!”, with its bulldozer under the control of a hostile alien force, is a hostile metaphor for that enthusiasm.

Fiction (Wasteland & Sky): Much credit should go author and editor Richard Paolinelli for all the work he has done in the Planetary Anthology series. After Superversive Press shuttered it looked unlikely that the project would ever be completed and was destined to be a what-if, but not only has Tuscany Bay released more volumes than Superversive did (and next month will have re-released all of Superversive’s old volumes), it has also carried the project into a whole new medium. That would be into the burgeoning audio book world.

History (Jon Mollison): The pre-history of the Americas is a true dark age – a time of great uncertainty and filled with mysteries for which we may never have solutions.  The most basic of these, who was the first to arrive, remains shrouded in conflicting narratives and contradictory evidence provided by scattered and controversial archaeology sites. The question assumes the Bering Straits Theory is the only one that holds water.  A rather sizable assumption given the dearth of evidence.  And the possible explanation lies in the stone-age sailing ship piloted by Thor Heyerdahl.

Dragon Awards (Dragoncon): In this three-part series, past Dragon Award recipients talk about their award-winning novels and their Dragon Awards experience. During this time, nothing provides a better escape from the world than diving into the pages of a Dragon Award winning novel. The Dragon Awards, launched in 2016 in tandem with Dragon Con’s 30th anniversary, allows readers, writers, publishers, and editors a way to recognize excellence in all things Science Fiction and Fantasy. These Awards are by the fans, for the fans, and are a chance to reward those who have made real contributions to SF, books, games, comics, and media.

Cinema (Other Master Cylinder): John Saxon was born Carmine Orrico in Brooklyn, the first child of Antonio and Anna Orrico. His mother was born in Caserta, a small city near Naples in Italy. There’s some confusion about John’s age, partly due to his fiddling’ of the dates for his first contract. “I was born on August 5, 1936. Many have it wrong because I made myself a year older to get a Universal contract at the start. If I had been younger it wouldn’t have worked.”

Review (George Kelly): The 9th book in the Harry Dresden series features Dresden in a desperate quest to clear his vampire brother, Thomas, from a cunning plot by powerful Magical Interests. Harry Dresden, professional Wizard and Private Investigator for the City of Chicago, grew up an orphan. His upbringing included a lot of physical and mental abuse which explains his taciturn disposition.

Comic Books (Totally Epic): Finally! After 3400 pages of Epic Illustrated, we’ve (that is, I) have finally arrived at the first thing published by Epic Comics! Er, or, rather not, because first we’re doing Marvel Graphic Novel #3, Dreadstar. I mean, I kinda have to, because it bridges the story started in Epic Illustrated and The Price (over at Eclipse) and the Dreadstar series proper.

Fiction (Amatopia): I’m three-quarters through The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons–sequel to Hyperion and book 2 in the 4 book Hyperion Cantos series–and I can’t stop singing these books’ praises. I think so far I’ve convinced over ten people to give Hyperion a shot. It has been a long time since I’ve found a novel or series that has engrossed me to this degree, particularly a sci-fi novel.

Fiction & RPG (The Other Side): Over the last couple of years, I have been on a quest to find and read all the Raven books by “Richard Kirk” who was, in reality, the pen name of authors Angus Wells and Robert Holdstock.  Both wrote Book 1 and then they alternated with Wells on Books 3 and 5 and Holdstock on Books 2 and 4. The story is one that is simple, but close to many FRP gamers. Raven wants to kill Karl Ir Donwayne. How is going to do that? Well, they need to Skull of Quez to appease this ruler to get to Donwayne.

Review (Rough Edges): The Digest Enthusiast, Book Twelve – Richard Krauss, ed. Interviews

Tony Gleeson (Fantastic, Amazing Science Fiction, Mike Shayne, Personal Crimes).

John Shirley (Weirdbook, Fantastic, The Crow, Constantine, Wetbones).

Games (25 Years Later): From the very beginning, you are made readily aware of not only the stakes but the epicness of the tale at the heart of Darksiders. The tale I speak of is at first set in modern-day Earth, and you take up the role of War, one of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, who finds himself in our realm in the midst of a battle between Heaven and Hell. This is where Darksiders gives us a taste of War’s power before stripping it all away when he is killed during the battle. After War’s demise, he is brought in front of the Charred Council, where the blame of the apocalyptic events is placed squarely on his shoulders.

Pulp Fiction (DMR Books): The story starts in the “author as ghostwriter” conceit, as was the fashion of the time ever since its popularisation by Edgar Rice Burroughs in his Sword and Planet tales, and indeed utilised by Merritt himself in other stories such as The Moon Pool. So ubiquitous is this method of acclimatising the reader to tales of death-defying derring-do, it almost lulls the reader into a false sense of security – that this adventure will be just another ripping yarn, good for the mental exercise, but could safely be put down after reading.

RPG (Black Gate): Getting into Conan 2d20, for the casual gamer, or for the merely curious, demands a fair amount of cognitive load. This is because, I believe, the system is so innovative — and those innovations are precisely what makes this a Conan game. I have encountered many anecdotes of gamers and consumers gleefully obtaining this gorgeous hardcover tome (or PDF), riffling through it, saying, “Huh?” then setting it aside with a “Sorry, not for me, but the art is pretty, and this still makes a good resource.” adventures, the pandemic hit, and these two players weren’t interested in online play.

RPG (Silver Key): Ideas are a dime a dozen. It’s all about execution. The title of the post should speak for itself, but a little context. Heard on the intranets recently… “Gary Gygax ripped off Dave Arneson! Dave is D&D’s true creator!” My response: Horse shit. Ideas are like a@#$holes. We’ve all got one, and most stink. I can sit here in the calm quiet of my living room and fire off a dozen. “Weight loss app.” “Online mentoring program for pediatricians.” “Telehealth scheduling interface.” “Dying Earth role-playing game.”

Comic Books (Bleeding Cool): Sylvian Runberg writes: “When I was offered to do an adaptation of Conan, I was immediately thrilled, and for several reasons.     The first is that this character was a part of my childhood, especially with the comics drawn by John Buscema and obviously the film with Arnold Scharwzenegger. But the second, and maybe the most important reason, is Patrice Louinet, one of the worldwide best specialist of Robert E. Howard, who could advise us during the making of this adaptation, offered me the possibility to discover an another Conan from the one I had in mind from this childhood, a more complex character living in a more complex world, even if we’re still talking about fantasy, magic spells, epic adventures and monsters.

T.V. (Dark Worlds Quarterly): In 1982, Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Cimmerian was brought to the big screen in a film featuring Arnold Schwartzenegger. The success of Conan the Barbarian spawned a plethora of bad Sword & Sorcery films (including Conan sequels). I will make no comment on those films here but state none was better than average and most were far below the worst of the Ray Harryhausen’s classics. Until 1999’s The Thirteenth Warrior I can’t think of a post-Conan film of a heroic fantasy of any real interest. Since the release of Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, Fantasy films have been experienceing another renaissance.

Tolkien (The Wert Zone): The Hugo Awards are the premier awards for science fiction and fantasy literature, first given out in 1953 and every year since 1955. One of the more interesting mysteries of the award is that J.R.R. Tolkien, widely regarded as the most prominent fantasy author of the 20th Century, was never given one despite being eligible on multiple occasions.

Science Fiction (Fantasy Literature): This collection of nine short stories, novelettes and novellas originally appeared in hardcover form in 1952, from the publisher Pelligrini & Cudahy, and sold for $3.50. By the time my edition came out, the Berkley Medallion paperback from 1963, with another wonderfully abstract/Surrealist cover by the great Richard Powers, the cover price had dropped to 50 cents but the number of stories in the collection had been reduced to seven. Missing were the novelettes “Vault of the Beast,” from the Aug. ’40 ASF, and “Heir Unapparent,” from that same magazine’s June ’45 issue.

RPG (Grognardia): I bought Mörk Borg solely because of its physical characteristics. A local friend of mine raved about it months ago and then, while perusing Free League’s website recently, I caught a glimpse of it in all its lurid glory. I was so intrigued by its bright yellow cover and black, white, and red artwork that I ordered a copy and anxiously awaited its arrival. I was not disappointed when it appeared at last: the 96-page A5 book is sturdy and well-made, like so many European RPG books these days. Most of the paper in the book has a satin finish, but its last section, presenting an introductory adventure, has a rough, natural feel to it.

Fiction (Adventures Fantastic): Today, July 24, is the birthday of John D. MacDonald (1916-1986). MacDonald wrote for the pulps and transitioned to paperbacks when the pulps died. (I wish someone would collect all his science fiction.) For today’s birthday post, I want to look at One Monday We Killed Them All. Dwight McAran beat a girl to death and went to prison for it. He’s about to get out. Dwight is Fenn Hillyer’s brother-in-law. Fenn is a cop. They don’t get along.

Sensor Sweep: Antiheroes, Theodore Sturgeon, A. E. van Vogt, Dreadstar published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/

[aion-rsa]

INTERVIEW: Priest & Cowan on Deathstroke and Real World Violence

SPOILER WARNING: The following interview contains spoilers for “Deathstroke” #11, in stores now.

All these months later, and storied DC Comics characters are still lining up for their respective debuts in the publisher’s Rebirth reality. This week sees the reemergence of that jaundiced, feral freak, The Creeper, along with his Fourth Estate alter ego, Jack Ryder. To make the return all the more odd, it takes place in the pages of “Deathstroke #11,” by Christopher Priest and guest artists Denys Cowan and Bill Sienkiewicz.

Priest and company have hardly taken the typical approach to Slade Wilson or his terminations with this series, opting instead for something just as violent, but far more introspective. That’s especially evident with this latest issue, a frank examination of gun violence and vendetta–not in Gotham or Metropolis, but real world Chicago. When multiple perpetrators of gang murder turn up dead themselves, journalists flock to cover the story of a potential serial killer. Is this justice, or the kind of “eye-for-an-eye” vigilantism that only feeds the cycle of violence? Perhaps an assassin with an eye-patch may prove the best testimony.

CBR: Chicken and egg question: Did Deathstroke #11 start with the outline, or the knowledge that Denys and Bill would be the art team?

Art from “Deathstroke” #11

Christopher Priest: The issue began as an inventory story, which is an issue we prepare and hold in case there are production or scheduling problems with the book. I wanted to do an anti-violence story and thought, what better place to do an anti-violence story than Deathstroke — a book that all but glorifies violence. As I see it, my run does not glorify violence so much as it examines the consequences of violence and the effect living this lifestyle has on this man Slade Wilson. I thought a stand-alone inventory issue would be a great platform to make a more forward-leaning statement about those consequences.

At the time of commissioning, there were many stories about the rising toll of shootings in Chicago, with 2016 being a record-breaking year in terms of gun violence and homicides. I thought this tragic situation would make an appropriate platform for my story, and discussed it initially with film director and producer Reginald Hudlin (“D’Jango Unchained,” “2016 Academy Awards®,” “Marshal”), who is now a principal in Milestone Media Inc. I invited Reginald to co-write the issue, but he was busy at the time directing the upcoming biopic “Marshal.” He did share his views on the culture of violence—including Hollywood’s role in it—and suggested my story might work as an urban spin on the classic western “A Fistful of Dollars,” wherein the beleaguered townsfolk hire the gunslinger Clint Eastwood to resolve their problems by means of violence. “Dollars” is a cautionary tale and an anti-violence statement in its own right, and Reginald’s suggestion provided the direction I ultimately pursued.

I thought the story would be a great fit for Milestone Media in its renewed relationship with DC Comics, and had hoped for a mini Milestone reunion by inviting Reginald and Milestone co-creator Denys Cowan to join me. I was incredibly pleased when Denys said yes and worked the “Deathstroke” story into his busy schedule. Denys then brought along our longtime friend Bill Sienkiewicz as well as longtime Cowan letterer Willie Schubert (“The Question,” “Legends of The Dark Knight,” “Lone Wolf & Cub”).

Was there ever any resistance to this story?

Priest: DC has been unqualified in their support of this story. I was actually prepared for a fight and kind of expected the story to get dumped somewhere along the approvals process, but both Bob Harras and DC Publisher Dan DiDio were extremely supportive, making me feel a little like a dope for, essentially, doing to the company what I’d experienced for so long — making assumptions along cultural lines. I kind of owe the company an apology for my having suited up for a fight that never happened.

Art from “Deathstroke” #11

Obviously, every project is different, with its own mood and pace. Denys, were there any particular challenges when putting pencil to paper on this one? Anything you wanted to try?

Denys Cowan: The challenge of this story was to try to convey the city of Chicago and the people who live there, because the city is as much of a character in this story as Deathstroke is. I tried my best to show this… and with the excellent story by Priest and the inks by Sienkiewicz, I’m very happy with the way this issue came out.

I don’t imagine this applies to anyone on this call, myself included, but there are those who don’t want politics to infringe on the escapism of their comics reading experience. What’s your take on that?

Priest: Read other comics. [Laughs] The way I see it, there are so many choices these days and so many genres from both major and indy publishers, that there should be room for a myriad of approaches. You know, once there was a Cary Bates approach and a Denny O’Neil approach, with Chris Claremont emerging as a kind of amalgam of the two: the high-energy larger-than-life superhero action but character-driven and grounded in reality.

DC films are very much grounded in reality, while the main grouping of their superhero comic books tend to read more like animated series in terms of their heightened reality and high-octane action. Everything is really loud and really bright and occasionally silly, with colorful villains like Abra Kadabra and so forth. But The Dark Knight was so good, it actually worked without the costumes. I mean, if Bruce Wayne had been a Bond-style vigilante rather than Batman, that movie would have still worked.

If I were writing Justice League, the book would probably not be something DC fans would want to read because it would be far less larger than life and would echo life as we know it. I mean, what if there really were a self-appointed group of godlike people “protecting” us? How would the world respond to these people? My JL book would examine the real-world conflicts, challenges and consequences and be less concerned about the next galactic menace the heroes would have to fight.

Art from “Deathstroke” #11

This isn’t to criticize writers who write the bang-zoom stuff; these are very talented people doing a great job. But I, personally, don’t read those comics unless I have to for research because they don’t appeal to me, and nobody is writing “JLA: The Real World,” which would appeal to me. It’s also possible I am simply not the audience for mainstream superhero comics because so much of it is just too cranked and too loud for me. I want the real world—or as close to it as I can get—and then pop the heroes into it.

Cowan: This isn’t a political issue to me. Gun violence is a human problem. We deal with this subject in the context of a thriller type story.

Still others might ask why Deathstroke the Terminator is the right guy to relay questions about the cycle of violence in the real world. Do you think audience perception of Slade is a hurdle or an advantage in telling a really charged, meaningful story?

Priest: I think only Nixon could go to China. If DC is going to do an anti-violence story, it really has to take place in “Deathstroke” in order to have real credibility. You had to send the most staunch anti-Communist crusader to talk to Mao in order for any agreement to be trusted by both sides.

I went into this one cold. In fact, I read this digitally without having seen the cover. So when the Creeper shows up, it was maybe the last cameo I expected to see. It’s almost a shame most other readers will have already seen him on the cover. How did the Creeper become part of the equation?

Priest: For this story, I wanted Deathstroke to be portrayed, more or less, as a force of nature. He has very few lines. The story is told by a point of view character. I thought that POV character should ideally be a reporter; someone who could ask questions. I did not want to the book to preach to the readers “Violence Is Bad!” I wanted to preach a good sermon. A good sermon is like a good court summation: tell a story, ask pointed questions, which lead the hearer to draw their own conclusion.

I initially wanted Lois Lane, but there was so much going on in the Superverse that we looked elsewhere. When Jack Ryder came across my desk, I felt Ryder — a former Jerry Springer-type — would be perfect. The story is built around Ryder however, as it developed, it became obvious that if we have Ryder in the book, readers would expect The Creeper to make an appearance.

I actually did not want Creeper on the cover, but this is the first post-Rebirth appearance of the character, so it made sense that DC would want to play that up. Hopefully, the way the book is written, most readers will have all but forgotten about The Creeper until he makes his entrance. I think it still works.

What’s important to you right now, as storytellers in, let’s call it 2017? What do you personally want to explore or say or ask? What do you want to get out of it?

Art from “Deathstroke” #11

Cowan: As a storyteller in this medium, I’ve always tried to explore the human experience using extraordinary superheros to entertain and reach people. It’s just as or maybe more important in 2017 to continue to do that.

Priest: I’m still trying to decide if I’m having a good time or not, and how long I’ll be writing comics. It’s a lot of hard work, and there’s this big team the editor has to corral, like herding cats. I worry that I’m really not in sync with what is popular and what sells these days, which is probably why I am not offered leading, or A-List titles. A friend told me last week, “Dude, that [Denny O’Neil] era is over.” Man, I really hope not. I loved Cary Bates’ Superman and Flash, But Denny took Superman and grounded him in reality — got rid of Kryptonite and de-powered him, then wrote him introspectively. It should not be zero sum. Grant Morrison’s “JLA” was certainly larger than life and sold a gajillion copies, obliterating my “Justice League Task Force.” So, do I still belong here? I guess that’s for the readers to decide.

I’d like to be writing novels and exploring other creative avenues. As of this writing, there are lots of possibilities and I’m really kind of shocked that so many people have approached me to work with them. It’ll likely be at least another month or so before I know for sure what 2017 looks like.

Art from “Deathstroke” #11

The post INTERVIEW: Priest & Cowan on Deathstroke and Real World Violence appeared first on CBR.com.

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[theinsanecrayonbox]

Fairly Odder: episode 3

so e2 wasn’t that bad. lets keep a-going!

oh we’re opening on the jr high? again...which looks a lot like the elementary school except with more stairs and buildings back behind. maybe it’s because i didn’t have a middle school separate from the high school...and also i’m an east coast (rural) kid not a west coast one, but i don’t really get that campus styling for teenagers. and starting it off illustrated in a style that isn’t even close to accurate is still...off putting to me. also i now am wondering is that is Mount Doomsdale in the background maybe???

Myths and Muffins? ok, sure, we know muffins were always a huge deal in Dimmsdale.

this though is pushing my Superverse thoughts...cause here we have the kids all being Greek themed...but the Glamazons are [spoilers] so...hm...and Zina is hunting by scent, could i use that...

TJH? The Junior High? uh...kay...also, didn’t Dimmsdale have just a high school? we saw that in one episode, with Dunswurth right?? again, i’m not used to there being 3 schools, so maybe i’m wrong...and again, this has been several years passing, even i wrote in my fic that the schools got rebuilt or something like that *shrugs*

oh Zina’s in cat ears now. huh, maybe she should be Catgirl...

School House Rock homage/reference with Stacky the newspapers??? O.o

oh ���what could possibly go wrong” another classic!

shouldn’t Roy’s sweatshirt be gold while he has his arms crossed during the montage? also how did he dress himself then? i mean his phone changed so...

again 9 min into the episode we get the opening. i’ll stop pointing out why it’s dumb, just will clock it because principles.

can’t unwish your sibling’s wishes huh? good to know. and tat would not have applied to Tim and Chloe because they were not siblings.

those newspaper animations looked very....cheap...

wait the Mayor is a baby? i mean...they once elected a goat so i guess...but really, a baby? ok...would’ve been funnier if it was Chompy Jr the 4th or something...

does no one realize that you don’t carve gold, you melt it to pour it into a mold to make statues? also, no animal attacks for 100 years huh? i...don’t feel like pulling up citations on that, just rest assured, there have been many animal attack episodes in Tim’s long reign in the show my dudes. also your goat mayor probably attacked people too in the past.

Nutso Busto Town? another point on the map????

i wish they’d stop saying “chis” it’s weird

so no one else can see the thought bubbles. ok, that works, sure. salt and vinegar muffin though, really? ew.

awwww sassy wolf is all off screen until goldened? boo, lame.

well, it was another pretty standard and stock plot. i think the previous episode was better, but this wasn’t terrible. i don’t hate that i watched it. maybe because it was solo focused more on one kid...and nothing was really that learned? meh *shrugs*

[sweetwriting]

Tim Drake Week 2017 - Day 6 (part 1): AU

Category : Gen

Genre : Angst / Murder / Mystery

Fandoms : DC Comics, Batverse - Superverse

Continuity : Post-Crisis/Pre-Flashpoint

Summary : Tim really didn't want to deal with a murder case.

Word Count : 1861

To read it on AO3

Day 6 : Crossover

Author’s notes (under the cut ‘cause it’s long) :

A few things before starting this AU : 1. This What if Universe is "What if Tim had never talked to Dick and Bruce ?" It basically went down like this : Batman got a lot more violent until meeting Steph a year later. She underwent about 6 to 8 months of training and is a pretty good Robin (she and Cass are still BFF of course but she's also Wonder Girl's BFF). When Tim's parent died when he was 13, he was sent to a foster home. But there's like 1 social worker for 17 cases and Tim's personality is not as big as that of some of the other cases his social worker had to, well work. So he ended up in a few pretty bad foster houses and decided to run away from one when he was almost 16. He got out of the state of NJ and right into NY where he made his way into Metropolis. Also he's a lot less sexist that he was in canon 'cause women didn't let him be in this verse and Tim is a character that usually learns when confronted with his problems (it doesn't show here 'cause there are no female characters).2. Tim shows signs of (complex ?)PTSD + Development of Borderline Personality Disorder in his early days. Meeting Dick and Bruce and becoming Robin kinda helped prevent Tim from actually developing the PD but he still kept some of the symptoms up to the end of the preboot. So if he hadn't met Dick&Bruce, Tim would have most probably developed the PD so here he was diagnosed with it. Remember that once you have developed a personality disorder you can't get rid of it but you can be taught on how to control your behavior.3. As for Kon, without Tim there to form YJ he and Bart sometimes see Secret and she comes to ask for their help but nothing more. He and Wonder Girl met a few times during the different crisis but without being forced to hang out together nothing ever came out of it. The Teen Titans were never re-formed. And Kon's parcour was similar to that of the 2nd part of Superboy v3, without the extra fuckboy crap. After Roxy's cameo she and Superboy stayed in contact, as such he went with her instead of going to live in Metropolis when Cadmus Disappeared. Superman still had him go live with the Kents but Roxy is a constant presence and ends up visiting a lot once she stopped bailing her father out. She's still very much his sister (like we needed the blood transfer for that to happen), Kon still only does superheroing on the W-E once he lives in Smallville but with Superman, Supergirl and Steel. Some of the character changes never happened without Tim like : his arrogance is still partially there, he's more angry because his friends are scarce. He still talks to Hero who is, by all means his BFF along with Bart I retcon Geoff Johns' retcon that made him slightly homophobic OKAY. STill, between his PTSD and depression he has his own anger issues. Overall he met the others but beside Bart never really befriended them. He and Kyle worked together a few times though and he really looks up to him. Without feeling like he had to protect Cassie, he never died (one of the scientist also miraculously thought about sunlight in Infinite Crisis)

Tim didn't know what he was doing. He was lucky Perry White had some sort of conscience hidden and locked somewhere deep inside his gruff journalist interior and exterior otherwise he'd be living on the street (or maybe not, he was pretty resourceful and a hard worker after all. And he had pretty much lived under a bridge for about two years before meeting Mr. White six months ago). And okay, working at the archives of the Daily Planet was about as exciting as feeding your goldfish but Tim got to read weird stuff in the comic and in the miscellaneous news items which gave him a sense of randomness that was much needed despite his desire for a slightly more stable life than what he had had in the past few years.           Of course, this lack of excitement was not that common, even in a simple archive room because this was metropolis and, while obviously not on Gotham's crime levels, it was in its on category as far as big crisis went. And he wasn't talking about one of Ms. Lane's dubious request either.

Now if only he could convince the guy -whose trembling hand held a a gun that was pointed toward him- that he was simply a low-level employee, maybe he could have a chance of making it alive because, unlike what a lot of people thought, completely unexperienced people were as dangerous for low mortals like himself as perfectly trained ones for the simple reason that they were unpredictable. And really Tim may not have been all that attached to his life but it didn't mean he wanted it to end this soon.

So, here he was, sweating profusely when none other than Superboy arrived and started a "conversation" with the man (read: made unfunny jokes about the man) who, in frustration at the young man, started shooting at them.       Superboy put himself between them before punching the guy who lost consciousness on the spot. He was about to turn the guy in to the police when Tim stopped him urgently:

"Wait! Don't you want to know what he wanted?"

"What? No. Why should I care?" came the condescending answer of a superhero Tim just knew he wouldn't like. As such, he couldn't help the equally condescending tone as he answered him:

"Well this isn't exactly Metropolis Bank you know. Why do you think a guy in his forties who obviously never touched a gun in his life visited the archive room of a big newspaper, genius?"

Superboy glared at him and replied, clearly losing the little patience he had:

"Okay then, what did he want Smartass?"

"How would I know? He just showed up and pulled a gun on me when you appeared and insulted him before knocking him out without asking him what his goal was", Tim snapped.

This seemed to have struck Superboy speechless and increase his annoyance with Tim. Not that Tim felt any better than him…or that he minded, he was seriously hoping not to see the young man again after whatever this was (hopefully it wouldn't last more than a few minutes or he might get really angry and he was trying to control his "intense anger" dixit the therapist he was "forced" to see as part of his deal with Mr. White -because it was pretty obvious that Tim was not *okay* and while Mr. White wanted to help he wasn't going to let in some kid who could be a danger to his employees).

Superboy took a deep breath as he closed his eyes, trying to calm himself, and turned to face the man. He tied him up and they waited. It only took a minute before he woke up. He looked up, surprised, and tried to move his arms before he realized he was tied up. Superboy looked at him with a cold look in his eyes which made Tim shiver slightly from fear and it effectively stopped the anger he felt toward the young man. In his annoyance, he had forgotten that Superboy was, in fact, a powerhouse, no matter how ridiculous he could seem on TV (granted that hadn't happened in a while). Good Cop/Bad Cop it would be then... he hadn't expected to ever play the part of the good cop though. He placed himself besides Superboy and tried to be engaging.

"Excuse him he's not very welcoming toward people who shoot others for no reason." Okay, so Tim was indeed not used to being the good cop... or soothing... or nice in general, he was quite clearly out of practice even if his therapist had helped him make tremendous progress in behaving in a more acceptable fashion. "What I mean is, why are you here?" And now Superboy was looking at him like he was an idiot, like it's not hard to not be tactless. As if the guy was allowed to say anything considering he's the one who insulted the man without thinking things through and startled and annoyed him into shooting at them. Tim continued while trying to prevent the anger that was starting to build again from coming out.

"I mean you obviously didn't come here for the money. "

Now the question for 300 000 $: Which is worse, Condescension or Hostility? Seeing as the man was now frowning and more ready for a fight than scared to death, hostility might have been better. Oh well. He could see Superboy rolling his eyes, yeah well, it was still mostly his fault they were in this situation.

Superboy placed himself between them again, apparently no amount of annoyance could prevent him from protecting people. Good to know. He glowered at the man who cowered and started trying to explain himself and apologize every few words.

"I'm sorry I just, I've been wrongly accused of a crime and, I, sorry, I, I got out of jail a few months ago but no one wants to believe me, I tried to get journalists to help but they wouldn't and the library doesn't have every newspaper of the Daily Planet and I don't know how to use the internet well enough and I needed the information. And I didn't expect anyone to still be here at this hour"

Tim looked at the man then shared a look with Superboy. They both seemed to agree that this man most likely needed help and the police wasn't going to be it. So Tim turned back to the man and asked him what his name was and when the crime had happened: April 19th 1998.           And Tim found it, a young woman had been lacerated and slowly bled to death. She was found on an altar in her boyfriend's basement along with every single one of the boy's close family members who were found surrounding the altar in a circular fashion, stuck in a prayer position, forehead against the floor, arms resting next to their heads, a knife in the neck. They were all wearing dark robes with a hood lowered, stained with their blood. And okay, Tim felt like throwing up. Superboy barely seemed phased but the widening of his eyes gave him away. The man, Martin Bastre, was the boyfriend in question and the haunted look in his eyes as he managed to get up and look at the screen wasn't that of a man who committed a murder so much as that of a man who couldn't prevent it. Tim now truly believed that he was innocent and if he had to think objectively, there was almost no chance anyone would bring back this kind of story to the surface unless they were innocent... or a narcissistic person who wanted everyone to remember their crimes (which would suggest they considered this their best work, a work which could never be reproduced or they would have simply done another one. Since this one concerned his family and girlfriend it could very easily be his favorite work).     And now Tim had a headache.   So maybe his gut chose to believe the man because the other possibility was too screwed up, even for him, or maybe it was because he really believed it. In any case he really wanted out of this right now. He had been forced to look into too many murder cases in his life and now that he had a choice he'd rather be far away from it. So first he told Martin that even while his gut seemed to believe the man, he still had a thing to talk over with Superboy. Then as he whispered his thoughts to the young man he could see that the reasoning had never entered his mind - then again, managing Tim's brand of pessimism mixed with naivety was a very hard thing to do.     Tim tried to make sure Superboy understood he only told him as a "just in case" scenario and not as a really big possibility for the man to be that horrible so he wouldn't go and knock him out again after Tim left them to their own device. This seemed to slightly surprise Superboy.

"Well I'm not gonna join you in anything dangerous. I'm trying to work on my issues not worsen them. So I'm gonna help try and find a few things to connect together but I'm just a kid who was, honestly not that good at school, and I may be able program a VCR player but I am no genius okay, my abilities stop at web design and hacking photoshop."

Superboy looked at him as if he was a very strange person. Then again, he was surrounded by teen heroes, so he was probably not that used to non-heroic types being involved in a case like this refusing to go out and fight bad guys.

In any case Tim ushered the both of them out, saying it was too late and that if the Martin's murderer friend had been out for 20 years, one more night wasn't going to change anything. He told them he would looked through the archives during the day and to meet him again tomorrow night at the Planet when no one would be around.  Once the two started leaving. Tim turned on to go home without looking back. He was in no hurry to continue this adventure but if the man was actually innocent he really did not deserve what had happened to him. And someone had to help. If it was him and SuperAttentionSeeker then so be it. He still hoped their working duo wouldn't last.

As he got home, Tim never noticed the mics hidden in the plug sockets of his apartment. He made himself a warm cup of hot chocolate before slipping in his bed, soon joined by the two cats who had decided to overstay their welcome. Not that Tim actually minded. Especially not tonight. He burrowed his face in one's fur and held the other close to his heart. The two almost teddy bears started purring and helped him fall into a semi restful sleep, hoping not to have any nightmares about the pictures he saw that night.

Authors’s Note 2 : I only wrote this as a "mise en bouche". This is why a lot of things are not explained (like how Tim ended up working there). If you want me to I might write a multi chapters fanfic about it (I know everything about this AU, which includes this arc and the others).

[theinsanecrayonbox]

This year for SDCC the Superverse will not be going back to the world of the Super Teen Squad, but instead be celebrating the history of Wondergal and the Glamazons, in honor of Wonder Woman.

The event will go as follows: each day we will take a look at the aspects of the story of Wondergal ranging from the meta-fictional to the in-universe mythos itself. Specialized art will also be appearing, as well as several glitterized POPs revealed daily. (Note: I set this schedule when I thought Thursday not Wednesday was preview night)

Day 1: Meta-History, a look at the publishing history of the character/s, as if we were in the regular(ish) canon of the show

Day 2: Character History, a look at the individual lives of each member of the ���Wondergal family’ as they appear in the Prime Superverse (for the most part)

Day 3: Behind the Scenes, a chance to ask the artist/writer about what’s happened and what’s going to happen; feel free to ask questions before the final day, and maybe the answers will be revealed then

I hope you all enjoy this event; it’s been planned out for a few months now, and it has been fun putting this all together. 

[theinsanecrayonbox]

Hare Raiser/Kale Patch Kids review

ok DVR had this recorded so I’m saying its aired. Have my backlogged first viewing reaction review of the episode when i watched it like 9 months ago

Hare Raiser:

 Part of me is partially hoping this is a Hellraiser parody, but I know that’s highly unlikely…

 Also I know spelling different but named after a character. People are gonna get so confused…

 Oh wow Kevin isn’t just a one-off character?? He’s going to be a regular?? Oh wow. That’s sort of awesome. (Note: this is Kevin’s second apperance in the show by production ordering)

 The whole excuse note bit was actually great. From the “Please excuse [them] from certain death”, to the “I wrote it in disappearing ink even though I’m a pencil”. I just, I don’t know, I really liked it. It’s a little long winded for a joke, but it’s cute.

 Is it just me, or does the rabbit look like a Gigglepie? I hope it’s a Gigglepie. Tell me it’s really a Gigglepie.

 Shikadance family???

 “You’d sell your freedom for mac n’cheese?” haha that was also a great line/gag, and it wasn’t as long a setup. These writers are really getting the hang of this now I think

 Ah Chloe, friend to all creatures, liberator of the downtrodden. You also have unleashed the beast unto the unsuspecting masses…yet again. Wow, this is such a good parallel to the monster attack that landed you in Dimmsdale to begin with, isn’t it.

 Ok, making the conflict that Cosmo changed the wands into carrots and then the rabbit eats them…that feels a bit shoehorned…rabbit monster though is awesome. I am going to now headcanon that Gigglepies turn into those beasts…or half their species look like that (the females; the males are the adorable annoying things lol)

 Cosmo playing the background music-yeah ok. “Let’s check these conveniently placed security monitors” lol yes, make fun of yourself more

 Awww, it’s all Kevin’s fault. Poor Kevin. But poor life choices is a Crocker family trait. Loved the “Lights Out” panel though

 Whoawhoawhoa wait!!! “Estranged half-sister”, you ACTUALLY explained how Crocker and Kevin are related???? That is AWESOME! But this begs so many more questions!! Since the Crocker looks are from Dolores, does that mean she had another child?? And when?? Must’ve been after Denzel lost his fairies, which means sister is at least 10 years younger than Denzel…UNLESS she’s older than him. Why are they estranged? Did her father take her away? Was she given up for adoption? Dolores was a teen beauty queen, having a child young is plausible…Did Denzel have a stepfather for a while, if she’s younger than him; is that why he had no problems accepting Vic as his stepfather, because he’s gone through his mom remarrying before? Or is this revelation that he has a sister brand new because she’s older and wasn’t in contact all this time? And why/how does Kevin have the Crocker name then? Did his mom not use her dad’s/her adoptive family’s name? Is she unmarried like her mom? There are so many more questions!!!

 Yay the return of the theme song as a ringtone

 “If this was a horror movie…which it’s sort of become…” lol yes, I love this

 Booger jokes…kay…..well it’s better than toilet humor

 Wow Waxelplax’s office sure has changed…it’s now the vault from the Conjuring

 The rabbit uses the internet. Uhhu.

 Chloe has an aunt!!!

 Haha Scooby moment where the badguy helps you barricade the door. Classic.

 “Your hippie food put us all in danger!” lol that is a great line

 HAHA! I guessed female right!!! Babies are random, but ok, we can roll with it; did ingest magic, so could’ve poofed them up anyways

 “Well the world just got a little weirder” yup, pretty much the understatement of the year there

 And we get to see the Shikadance. Neats! *makes notes of designs for Superverse*

 So over all, not a Hellraiser parody (pretty much knew that), and not a Gigglepie (boo), and the whole reason for the problem was blehish, but over all, actually an enjoyable episode I say! Kevin returned and was a little more explained, and there were plenty of good jokes, so good job guys! Onto the next one!!

The Kale Patch Caper:

 Oh this is exciting! Chloe is such an 80s/90s kid. First she loved the Care Bears parody, now the Cabbage Patch Kids??? Please bring back “Pretty Pony”, make fun of “gritty reboots” with it, by making the new on be like Fallout (and also shout out to the fandom that did that lol). I mean, you had a Transformers parody already. Make fun of the dark gritty reboots with pastel ponys!! (and include Francis at least in the background!!)

 Ok real episode plot time…

 Ok so the Kale Patch Kids are a blending of Cabbage Patch Kids, Veggie Tales, and Beanie Babies I guess…still 90s nostalgia honestly

 Compost Kids = Garbage Pail Kids. That’s not even trying honestly, but do I care? NOPE!! ^^

 Chloe is actually a computer nerd with “connections” online. Huh…I actually called hacker!Chloe right. NEAT!!

 Also thrift store/second hand collectable shop!! Hunting for the rare missing collection piece. Al the 80s/90s memorabilia. When did Chloe become me???

 Crocker running the shop….meh. dad suddenly collecting these and causing the plot problem…meh. Pointless parts, but we’ll still roll with it for now…I guess using like say, Remy as the one who bought it before Chloe could, with eth reasoning being “I don’t want your girlfriend to be happy Turner, because then you’d be happy, so I got it and I’m going to kill it, muwahahaha” to which they both go “s/he’s not my boy/girlfriend!” would’ve been a bit more convoluted. I just want a moment where Chloe says to Timmy “wow you have a lot of enemies for a 10 year old” after she’s had to face like, a bunch of them

 “You didn’t tell me your Dad collected [these]” “I was ashamed” more like he didn’t until the plot said he had to…

 Legal Jorgen, haha. And hey I was just thinking the other day about magic and copyright laws, neats that canon said something about it Rules wise.

 Wow must be a super slow news day if Chet is covering the pretend marriage of stuffed animals…Timmy’s flowergirl design is cute though ^^;

 Heehee yes Chloe, turn to the dark side. Silent Avenger is a cool codename. But again “over the top with the spygear” was a Tootie trait…Chloe really is the new Tootie…:(

 “I may have done bad but I’m not gonna admit that!” lol oh Chloe, you are too cute. But of course you’re going to have a subconscious guilt trip

 You’re still wearing it because it’s cute ^^ and hey purple!

 Badgirl!Chloe has an eyepatch??!! Chloe with an eyepatch??!! Man, I called that too. What are the odds??? I wish Francis was part of this “wrong crowd” of hers though…haha the super villain costume is great; why couldn’t this have aired BEFORE I designed her Negaverse counterpart…also why no eyepatch on this super villain?? Was it all cosmetic??

 I sorta wish Dad had picked up the blueberry instead of the banana there…because red and “sort of a player” could be Knockout, who is also Daran, and it would’ve been a funny thin reference…

 And Jorgen appears again for a third time. Meh, I’ll let pointless Jorgen slide since we haven’t seen him in a very long time.

 Also watching the credits, I find it odd that Chloe isn’t in any of the pictures, but Sparky is…

 But this episode was great. So much nostalgia, so much Chloe development. Limited/no magic, all dealing with real problems in (slightly) real ways. Very good!

 As a whole episode, both parts work very well together. Neither is overtly strong or weak. I enjoyed both quite a bit. Highly recommend if you want some nice, clean, and easy Chloe characterization.

[hermanwatts]

Sensor Sweep: Viking Bikers From Hell, Lovecraft & Hemingway, Hadon of Ancient Opar

T.V. (Bare Bone E-zine): But Milius’ mark on Sutter’s creative process may go far beyond simple story and dialogue.  A more concrete clue lies in Milius’ end credits when Miami Vice scenes and the superimposed B-movie episode title “Viking Bikers from Hell,” pseudonymously written in 1987 by Milius, flash across the screen with other clips from his filmography.  Though Sons of Anarchy is stylistically, tonally, and philosophically different from Milius’ episode, it is not a leap to see how it put the gas in the tank of Sutter’s imagination.

  Horror (DMR Books): One of Lovecraft’s earliest stories written as an adult is “Dagon.” After his ship is sunk by German U-boats, a castaway finds himself on an unknown island. There he encounters the title creature. This story is one of Lovecraft’s earliest and one of his lesser ones; however it still has elements of genuine terror.

Games (Walker’s Retreat): Ghost of Tsushima is out now. In case you missed it, it’s this: Yep, a game set during the Mongol invasion of Japan. Gameplay is very reminiscent of the well-regarded Breath of the Wild for the Nintendo Switch blended with the more recent Assassin’s Creed games. Yes, playing in Japanese with subtitles is an option, as is playing in Black & White for the Full Kurosawa effect. This has the Death Cult in games mad, especially when Japanese outlets have been positive about this game. The meme below summarizes aptly.

Fiction (Rough Edges): A while back, I read SON OF GRENDEL, a novella that’s a prequel to this full-length novel. Now I’ve read BATTLE FOR THE WASTELANDS, and it’s a fine post-apocalyptic yarn, just as I expected based on my enjoyment of the novella. It’s the future, of course, after some disaster that has left vestiges of what people call the Old World. The countries, states, and cities that we know are gone, but firearms technology remains (although at a much lower level for the most part) and dirigibles are still around.

RPG (RPG Pundit): The newest issue is out, and RPGPundit Presents #102: The Woodsman is a very short issue, but it’s also only 99 cents! In it, I present a brand new character class for Lion & Dragon, that can also be used in other OSR games: the Woodsman! This is essentially a non-magical ranger-style class, based on Medieval-Authentic concepts of what a Woodsman was and did. If you want to play a native English (or Welsh) character who has ability in hunting, trapping and wilderness lore, this is the way to go!

Lost Race (Cirsova):   In Hadon of Ancient Opar he presents a tale of the Ice Age in Africa. Some readers will not care for the earthy, rough sexuality which still has the power to shock and disturb, despite the passage of decades.  Willy Ley’s “Chad Sea” and “Congo Lake” (Engineer’s Dreams, 1954) are present here as Mediterranean-like basins, while cities of a Jakob Bachofen-type matriarchy (Mother Right, 1861) flourish all around. Hadon, a sports champ/gladiator, is to become king but is instead sent on a deadly mission, and we’re off into whitest Africa, with Rider Haggard’s characters Laleela and Paga appearing alongside the Hercules-like Kwasin and the mysterious “grey-eyed god” Sahhindar.

Writing (Wasteland & Sky): We’ve talked many times about the awful state of art right now in the modern world, but we haven’t offered much in the way of solutions aside from the obvious: just keep trucking. Today that changes as I introduce to you my newest book due out at the end of this month: The Pulp Mindset!

  RPG (The Other Side): Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea (AS&SH) is more closely aligned with “Advanced Era” D&D, but its feel for me has always been more OD&D, though over the last few years I have been treating it as another flavor of Basic.  I have mentioned in the past that I see AS&SH as a good combination of B/X and AD&D rules.  Essentially it is what we were playing back in the early 80s.

Writing (Pulprev): Updated Call for Submissions: Pulp on Pulp. Misha Burnett and I are working on a free collection of essays for writers. Titled Pulp on Pulp, this collection offers practical advice on creating fun, fast-paced fiction. This collection is aimed specifically at writers who want to create pulp-style fiction, though writers from other genres may learn something new from this collection. This project is a labour of love, allowing writers to share everything they have learned.

Fiction (Tentaculii): Ernest Hemingway published his first novel in 1926, just as Lovecraft was writing “The Call of Cthulhu”. Over time Lovecraft’s star dimmed away almost to nothing, while Hemingway struck the world like a meteorite. So much so, that Robert Bloch once remarked that it was difficult to conceive that Lovecraft had actually been living and working in the same era as Hemingway. Another protege, J. Vernon Shea, also observed that… “Part of the reason for Lovecraft’s unpopularity with the literary critics of his day lay in the fact that mainstream literature, following Sherwood Anderson’s and Hemingway’s leads, was turning more and more toward simple sentences and action–packed narration”.

Non-fiction (Marzaat): In “Slaves of the Death Spider: Colin Wilson and Existentialist Science Fiction”, Stableford talks about Wilson’s Spider World series in a way that convinces me there’s probably not much of merit in them. He finds them not that original – specifically derivative of Star Wars and Murray Leinster’s “Mad Planet”. He finds it ironic that Wilson, who once accused science fiction of being fairy tales for adults who have not outgrown fairy tales, has written, inspired by his occult interests, a story that seems to suggest, a la L. Ron Hubbard’s Dianetics, that mankind’s salvation will come. In short, Stableford says Wilson neither delivers a new plot or anything conceptually satisfying.

Fiction (Jon Mollison): Celebrate your independence from authors that hate you, the good, the beautiful, and the true.  You should pick up your copy of The Penultimate Men today, and I’ll tell you why. or starters, it includes a new Morty and Kyrus story from Schuyler Hernstrom.  If you have read any Hernstrom, you already know his entry is worth the price of admission alone. In addition to that story, you get Jeffro Johnson’s inimitable break-down of the post-apocalyptic genre, a pair of tales from my own pen, and something you’ve never seen before.

Art (DMR Books): The artist, John Byrne, turned seventy today. I would reckon most DMR Books fans know him from his work on superhero comics like The X-Men and The Fantastic Four. However, Byrne has a long history of drawing heroic fantasy characters. Back in 1971, barely in his twenties, Byrne wrote and drew his first published comics story which was published by the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary. The protagonist of the comic was called “The Death’s-Head Knight” and the plot was firmly within heroic fantasy parameters. Check it out here.

Pulp Fiction (Adventures Fantastic): I read “The Black Gargoyle”. It was the cover story for the March 1934 issue of Weird Tales.   It is available in the collection of the same name. Set on Borneo, the unnamed narrator and his companion, Martin Gow, are traveling upriver to join a museum expedition. They stop to rest at an outpost run by a man named Gomez. Gomez is an evil man, the very stereotype of the white oppressor. Gomez has given them a hut in which there are several skulls and a shrunken head on a shelf above the beds. Also staying in another hut are a man and his wife.

Pulp Fiction (Pulp Net): I have posted previously on the prolific H. Bedford-Jones (1887-1949), who is considered the “King of the Pulps,” having written over 800 short stories, 200 novels, and more. While he had several series of works with single characters, many of his longest series were instead around certain themes. Kind of fictionalized histories or docu-dramas. Many of these were done for Blue Book, one of the “Big 4” of pulps. The longest of these series was his “Ships and Men” series that ran for 34 parts from January 1937 to November 1939.

Fiction (Superversive SF): Probably the best known of the series, THE BLACK CAULDRON follows the Companions as they seek to stop Arawn from acquiring more cauldron born. It is very different from the Disney movie version. The silent, stalking soldiers cannot be slain but weaken the further they get from the land of the dead. The companions have a mission—steal the cauldron and destroy it. That’s not as easy as it sounds. However, the one who jumps in must know it will cost his life. One of Prince Gwydion’s main allies turns traitor, and one of Taran’s new companions is out for his own glory.

Culture Wars/RPG (Grey Hawk Grognard): Sometime over the last couple of days, Wizards of the Coast decided to put up the following disclaimer on all D&D products earlier than 5th edition, plus a few 5E items as well. Setting aside the typos and grammatical errors of this hastily-done disclaimer, I can’t say I’m surprised that Wizards of the Coast has decided to bend the knee to the SJW crowd.

Fiction (Pulp Serenade): Robert Silverberg’s criminal past has been coming to light—and I, for one, am thrilled, just as readers were undoubtedly thrilled decades ago. In 2011, Stark House Press republished two of the sci-fi master’s earliest novels,  Gang Girl (1959) and Sex Bum (1963), both of which originally appeared under the pseudonym Don Elliott. These are from the heyday of smut paperbacks, a time when rising talent (like Silverberg, Donald Westlake, and Lawrence Block) were cutting their teeth on T-and-A-tastic yarns, honing their writing skills and getting paid for it.

Sensor Sweep: Viking Bikers From Hell, Lovecraft & Hemingway, Hadon of Ancient Opar published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/

[hermanwatts]

SUPERVERSIVE: “Brand New Animal” is the first great show of the year!

So the winter anime season was all right.

I liked a few shows, some I even liked quite a bit, but none of them were GREAT. None of them lived up to the best shows of winter 2019, “Kaguya-Sama: Love is War” and especially “The Promised Neverland”.

True, I didn’t see “Dorohedro” yet. But even so – its reputation is good, not great.

The spring season, however, is a different story. FINALLY, we have a great show: Trigger’s (Who else?) “Brand New Animal” is an absolute blast to watch!

“Brand New Animal” is the story of Micheru, a teenage girl who one day randomly transforms into a Tanuki-person (a raccoon-dog with a long history in Japanese folklore).  In this world, beastpeople are a separate species who have the ability to change between human and beast forms (humanoid animals) at will.

Since the beastmen have publicly revealed themselves they’ve faced persecution from humanity, so in response they formed Animacity, a city founded by beastmen and meant for beastmen. With nowhere else to go and unsure what’s going on, Micheru decides that making for Animacity is better than staying locked in her home, and thus our story starts.

Let’s start off with the biggest issue of BNA: It makes no sense. When the series starts off, Micheru is stuck in her beast form, so that’s fine. It gives her a good reason to need to escape to Animacity. But the regular beastmen? Who even cares? They can turn into humans at any time. They’re basically just regular humans with superpowers. Why would their ability to transform cause people to persecute them? Worst comes to worst, don’t transform with people around. It’s the X-Men problem.

The strangest part is how easy it is to correct this issue. Just don’t give the beastmen human forms. There, problem solved. But their worldbuilding is immediately janked from the word go thanks to this silly aesthetic choice.

Annnnnnd that out of way let’s talk about everything this series does right.

Plus, A+ facial expressions

First off: It’s a Trigger show, and if any of you know Trigger shows you won’t be surprised to hear that it looks incredible. The animation is smooth and fluid, and right there in episode 1 we get to watch an absolutely sick action scene. The soundtrack is also excellent.

Of course, those are aesthetic elements, and while those matter, there are more important things. As you’d expect, the typical Trigger style can’t help but be fun: Loud, over the top, and always trying to top itself with the sheer insanity of its visuals. BNA is also very, very funny, with a lot of great sight gags and fun physical comedy as everybody rolls with the sheer insanity of what happens onscreen. Episode 5, where Micheru is roped into joining a baseball team, is the most Kill La Kill-ish episode of the show and absolutely hilarious.

Huge hole in the premise aside, the world BNA creates is endlessly intriguing. From episode 1 we’re hit with shadowy conspiracies, terrorist attacks, evil corporations, and beastmen mafia that engages in beastmen trafficking. We even get a nifty twist where the poor put upon women manipulated by the evil men turn out to not be quite so innocent after all.

Micheru in front, human form Shirou behind. Can I just say I absolutely LOVE Micheru’s character design?

Which is a good segue into the characters. Micheru is one of the best and more realistic teenagers I’ve seen in fiction in a good while. She has a good heart but she’s sort-sighted and self-centered, but not in a malicious way. She acts like a typical teenager, in other words: She makes dumb mistakes and doesn’t think through all of the consequences of her actions but she also wants to help and is likable enough. Micheru is an easy character to root for, with enough going on plot-wise to make her compelling.

Shirou, our deuteragonist, a fairly standard noir detective, but he gets some killer action scenes and there’s a mystery surrounding his apparent invulnerability that makes him a little more interesting than the stock version of that character. And the many minor characters rounding out the cast are colorful and fun.

Finally, it is probably necessary to address the elephant in the room: “Beastars”.

Yes, “Beastars” has a lot of similarities to BNA. They are both noir, both feature mysteries as major plot points, and obviously both take place in worlds featuring humanoid beastmen. They also share a lot of the same themes, specifically unjust prejudice against outgroups and the difficulties of coexistence.

“Beastars” handles its themes much better. Its worldbuilding is much more robustly constructed, and its conflicts follow from the way its society is structured, a stark contrast to the unfortunate hole in the premise of BNA.

“Beastars” also has a better soundtrack. BNA’s is great, but “Beastars” is much more original and memorable as a result.

On the flipside, while “Beastars'” CGI style does look extremely cool it is hard to look at its somewhat jerky animation and say it looks better than BNA, which looks consistently amazing. “Beastars'” few action scenes are exciting enough but pale in comparison to BNA’s.

“Beastars'” writing may be a lot tighter but this is partially because BNA is much more ambitious, with various conflicts swirling around many different characters and Micheru’s struggles only being a small part of this story. “Beastars” certainly covers a lot of territory but Trigger’s bread and butter is BIG, and BNA is absolutely no exception to this. Make no mistake, that is a positive, because there’s always something to pay attention to and think about.

BNA is also much, much funnier than “Beastars”.

So which of the two shows is better? I think you have to say “Beastars”, if only because it doesn’t bungle its premise so dramatically, but the shows are different in a lot of ways to the point that no matter what you think of “Beastars” it’s still worth watching BNA anyway. The experience is very different.

The word I keep coming back to with BNA is FUN. The show is really, really fun. It looks great, it’s interesting, it’s exciting, and it’s endlessly addictive. BNA is the first show of 2020 that ranks up there with the best of 2019.

Highly recommended.

SUPERVERSIVE: “Brand New Animal” is the first great show of the year! published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/