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[zahri-melitor]

Miracle Oh, miracle Wonder

March 22nd - Queen Hippolyta sculpts a child from the clay of the beaches of Themyscira. The child is given life and great gifts by the Olympian goddesses, and Hippolyta, with her new daughter, gives her the name: Diana

Happy birthday to Diana, the woman who wondered, who has seen wonders!

[zahri-melitor]

So I wanted to turn my hand to trying to make a fanvid.

This is Dick/Babs, set to Something Just Like This by The Chainsmokers & Coldplay.

(If you want citations for anything, I have it all mapped out, just ask)

[zahri-melitor]

I've looked through what LOCG has listed as Free Comic Book Day comics and picked out a list that's at least worth my time considering:

Absolute Power Special Edition #1 (DC) - this is just DC's summer event advertising. Probably will just contain excerpts from other material.

Asterix Olympics Special #1 (Papercutz) I can't quite tell if this is new material or just a new translation of older Asterix and the Olympic Games stories, but I'd be happy with either.

Barda Special Edition (DC) - This is again just going to be an excerpt of the new teen book but I am so pumped for it.

Disney's Encanto & Turning Red: The New Adventures #1 (Papercutz) - probably worthwhile for Disney fans.

Maleficent #1 (Dynamite) - I am literally going to have to pick this one up for my housemate who is a huge Maleficent fan.

Marvel & Fantagraphics Present The Atlas Comics Library #1 (Fantagraphics Books) - some pre-Comics Code old stories.

Star Wars Young Jedi Adventures/Plants vs. Zombies #1 (Dark Horse) - and THIS I will be picking up for my niece who likes Young Jedi Adventures.

The Worlds of James Tynion IV #1 (Boom! Studios) - I keep almost buying a trade of The Woods, I figure this might be a good test for which of his series I might like?

Unico Awakening #1 (Graphix) - I do not know this manga but they've got Gurihiru on art and that's a selling point to me.

Whispers from the Voyage #1 (Unique Dimensions) - unlike almost everything else I've flicked though, this will either be absolute wank or something that may get me onto a new story. The writer is REALLY up themselves in their summary however.

[zahri-melitor]

Since it’s coming up (this weekend!) does anyone have their eyes on anything decent in the line of FCBD comics?

I’m getting the Barda excerpt if at all possible, but obviously this is the time to see if I can get anything interesting from smaller publishers, not just DC’s advertising for the summer event.

[zahri-melitor]

Shazam! #10 2023 opening panels.

Oh my babies.

[zahri-melitor]

sunsets after 7pm now !!!!!!!!!!! we made it guys !!!!!!!!!!!!

[zahri-melitor]

Also I have to acknowledge this amusing snotty Martha Wayne joke:

(Birds of Prey #8 2023)

French Wayne at Martha’s Vineyard.

(Yes I’m aware Martha’s Vineyard is a place but this is also a quality stealth pun)

[zahri-melitor]

Birds of Prey #8 spoilers.

So at first this issue I thought that Dinah was being homophobic to me personally:

We’re all too young to see this.

Because Barda looks fine here.

Like OMG I think I have seen less powerful art of DIANA than this.

But then I worked out it’s just that Dinah is a one woman kinda gal.

There is literally nobody else in the universe to Dinah in this moment.

Anyway as you can tell I am feeling completely normal about this.

[zahri-melitor]

Okay this is a question that has been on my mind for the last few days

no nuance allowed unless you add tags/comment

[zahri-melitor]

I have poll idea that will start a fight but I’m so curious. Can you ask DC fans if Fans who only read new comics 2011/2016 and onwards are comparable to fans who don’t read comics? And if fans who refuse to read comics after a certain point are as bad as fans who don’t read comics?

Rewording a bit for clarity but hopefully it still covers what you were curious about. Also I think "refuse" and "as bad as" are biased words here and make assumptions about voters, so for this poll we're not going to infer people's reasons or feelings in the wording of the options. But! People should absolutely share those kinds of sentiments in the tags.

And if youve got one of these that you dislike most, put it in the tags!

[zahri-melitor]

the thing I always forget is that the whole “I trust oracle implicitly despite not knowing who they are” arc of dinahbabs was like. a dozen or so issues. bop (1999) ran for so many years and that particular dynamic was such a small sliver of it. but it was also the best thing it ever did for us, so to me, it feels like it should have been 50-70 issues of just that. the blind trust. the faith. the leaping without looking. what do you mean they knew each other almost the whole time.

[zahri-melitor]

*steeples fingers and stares at my tablet with gimlet eyes*

so. Road to NML. You mean to tell me that the reason the rest of the country, Congress, and the President himself decided to write Gotham off, blow the bridges, and isolate everyone left - all criminals and asylum lunatics and 'undesirables', of course - was in large part due to *checks notes* a satanic rock star's unnatural, irresistible charisma and cult-like media manipulations aimed at dooming the city for his own benefit?

and that in order to find out what actually happens to this villain, who disappears from the Batman and 'Tec storylines...I'd have to *checks notes* read Azrael's event issues?

....yeah, PASS. I only included JPV's book on my reading list when I absolutely had to (*cough* whenever Cass pops up *cough*), so it's off to the wiki summaries for me!

...but okay, on the one hand I find it very funny how thoroughly fandom has excised this demonic media influencer aspect from the collective consciousness of NML - or at least it had never made its way to me via either fic or fandom posts. I know how few people read comics in general in this fandom, and even for those who do, NML is a Beast that only a percentage have tackled (see: me just starting to pick away at it!), so honestly it's not that surprising.

and like it can easily be left out of the story and still leave it coherent lmao!! One can certainly argue things are in fact neater that way; certainly it's not something that would ever be kept (or at least not in the same form) if NML were adapted to another medium, except as perhaps a normal media demagogue (or a montage of them).

but on the other hand...hmm. Thinking about Hurricane Katrina hitting all of six years after the NML storyline played out. And the debate over whether funds should be used for reconstructing New Orleans and other massively damaged areas. And people around the country wondering if New Orleans would or should be rebuilt at all. Or if a vibrant, historic city would just be basically wiped off the map.

I know this is a conversation that happens everywhere and every time a major disaster wrecks a city. There are always huge fights over disaster aid and funding allocations of any kind.

but man. It's something to see this fictionalized depiction in such close proximity to a real life disaster that paralleled it so strongly, and to know that - yes, there are always people who Do Not Abandon Their Homes and work to reclaim them. Yes, massive amounts of aid (federal and otherwise) and federal reconstruction funding did get dispensed. Yes, people cared, and yes, we rebuilt.

so...maybe we do actually need the demonic social media influencer's evil powers in order to comic book logic explain how everyone in the country turned their backs on Gotham and created No Man's Land.

like - no, it's not necessary. the narrative would work without it. and yet...

the premise imagines - requires? - a significantly more callous, selfish populace. Still plausible and compelling! Possibly even stronger as a story since the turnaround for No Man's Land still hinges on winning the country over to open Gotham back up, let aid in, and rebuild. But. You do have to start from - kind of a bleaker take on humanity?

it also kind of reminds me of what scintillyyy pointed out a few weeks ago about Dick killing the Joker, and how actually there's an important comic book superpower interaction going on there, too, with Rancor present massively amplifying Dick's hate and anger to push him over the edge.

but so few people ever notice or remember that and it certainly isn't one of those things that gets transmitted via fandom osmosis. (It was news to me!!) People focus on Dick breaking down and letting loose solely due to being pushed too far.

and that's extremely compelling on its own! It is! Just like the no-satanic-Nick-Scratch NML.

just thinking about fandom's tendency to ellide the supernatural or powered influences that are canonically affecting a situation, in order to explore/focus on more purely humanistic explanations or motivations...that actually end up being darker than what we might reasonably expect from real life, or from a character's typical values.

like it's part wanting to brush off comic book nonsense, part wanting to dive into gritty realism (that's not always realistic), part not having all the information because of learning things secondhand so you construct the most reasonable explanation...idk it's just interesting.

anyway.

more importantly: Dick and Tim are adorable in 'Tec 727-729!! Especially love them trading off yelling each other's names in fear/alarm, and also trading off protecting each other - Dick's "You hurt that kid and you're gonna be eating through a tube!" and Tim's clever solo rescue of a thoroughly captive Dick via clever use of a voice modulator and a two-way radio. The Boys 😊

[zahri-melitor]

I was reading Action Comics last night and I remembered exactly how much I love Lois & Clark’s dynamic together.

God. They love each other SO much and they bounce off each other so well and they get those moments where they look into each other’s eyes and go ‘I get you’ even as they’re bantering.

It just fills me with joy to read them, even if all that is happening is they’re at work and eating lunch or whatever.

[zahri-melitor]

i feel like high school/middle school sitcoms set the unrealistic expectation of being able to have lunch time outside

[zahri-melitor]

Out of sheer curiosity and dread I tried reading Amanda Waller’s current wiki page to try and work out what’s supposed to be happening right now. She’s been at war with Rick Flag for the last 3 years or so??!!??

Rick. Waller’s having issues with RICK? And given Ben Turner and Mari McCabe are both also not giving her the time of day, how has she not figured out SHE’S the outlier in this situation?

I mean. If Rick Flag and Ben Turner are pissed with her! (Somehow Bones seems to still be talking to her, but that’s Bones for you)

Amanda. The Wall. Could just possibly YOU be the problem here?

(Someone who’s willing to read more recent Suicide Squads is probably now going to tell me Waller hasn’t had any respect for Rick for a decade or something but I’m working from the stories I’ve actually read)

[zahri-melitor]

I need to reread the holy texts (Blue Beetle 2006 and the Booster Gold 2007 backup) so I am back on top of Danni Garrett and can write the enraged autistic lesbians yelling match Danni deserves to have with Victoria Kord.

(With Jaime standing there staring at Ted going “neither of you own me OR Khaji-Da and as sapient beings you CAN’T own us…stop arguing about who Khaji-Da ‘rightfully’ belongs to!”)

[zahri-melitor]

Back on All-Star Batman, and Scott Snyder managed both a compelling yet amoral Ivy and a Mad Hatter who was a genuine threat.

Also this scene (I snorted even as Snyder’s taking the good name of the Blackhawks in vain for complicated plot reasons)

(All-Star Batman #7&8)

Seriously though. I am loving this run. It’s just fun.