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alexanderwales · 3 days

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Book Review: Metropolitan Man

[content warning: sexual violence]

It's been 10 years since I wrote Metropolitan Man, and last night I read it for the first time in almost that long. Since writing it, I've written over 4 million words, and hopefully, grown as a writer. I've also forgotten parts of the story, so was looking at it with as fresh of eyes as possible. These are my overall thoughts.

I should say, before I start, that I've read tons of comments and discussion on this story over the years. I don't know how many of these thoughts are my own, or how much I've internalized things that people have said.

Writing Style

There were lots of changes I thought about making while reading, but people hate change, and this story is about ten years past when I wanted to be making editing passes on it. In many places I kept thinking of little extras I would add, things that would make the dialogue pop a little more, or provide characterization. I had this idea for a line where I describe Lois typing out two letters like she was letting loose with both barrels of a shotgun. There's dialogue to clean just a bit more, a few places where words are repeated or something is just a bit awkward, and where it could have been tighter or more clear.

The biggest thing that stood out to me was how little time got spent on scene setting and how short some of the snippets were, just five paragraphs to get a scene across before we're onto the next thing. I might have webserial brainrot, but those are definitely places where today I would give a little more breathing room and maybe use the same amount of words to describe something in a more oblique and stronger way. One that stood out as a clear example was a private investigator going home with Jimmy Olsen even though she was done pumping him for information, which could have been twice as long and benefitted from it. Another was a brief little thing about a Superman spotter on the roof, where I'd now describe everything he was doing, and only get to the conclusion of "he was a Superman spotter" at the end of the section to let the reader have this mini mystery of what they're being shown and why.

I would describe things more if I was writing this today, trying to get those nicely tight and evocative descriptions and ditch the stuff like "she wore a white blouse", but I often feel that way about stuff that I'm revising from last week, so it's not surprising.

The plot is very tight, which is good. I tend to prefer my plots tight, but it takes work, and webserials aren't conducive to it because it's difficult to know when you're writing a scene whether it's really pulling its weight as far as moving things forward. The initial idea for MM was to move as cleanly as possible through a series of events: Superman -> Superman is invincible -> Superman is Clark Kent -> Clark Kent grew up in Smallville -> the ship is in Smallville -> the ship has a Kryptonite power source -> Kryptonite can kill Superman -> Superman is dead. The only thing that would make it any faster would be if we dropped the Lois Lane subplot, but that's like half the novel.

Superman is OOC

I've gotten tons and tons of comments on this story over the years. If I hated myself, I would go back through my email and count them up, but there are some death threats and "kill yourself"s in there, and I prefer not to reread them. The major thing that people hate is the ending, which I don't care to talk about, but the other major thing is that Superman isn't Superman.

In this, I largely agree, but then, I'm pretty sure I've always agreed. That said, Superman has had a ton of interpretations over the years, and there's a wide range of acceptable behavior from "a Superman", even if we're not counting the really out there variations like Red Son or some of the alternate timelines.

... but I still would probably make him more like a canon Superman if I had to do it all over.

There are a few things that raise red flags at the beginning, which is where I think they're inexpertly placed. Superman takes Lois off the roof and flies her around, making her very afraid, and this is fine, I think, a misunderstanding that might be stronger if we got his insight into what was happening before we got hers to help bridge some of the disconnect there and characterize them both better. But there's a little note after that, where Clark makes a joke about "Superman's girlfriend Lois Lane" that I think is a HUGE red flag, and which probably comes too early in the story. It would be better as a joke someone else made that Clark laughs along with, which raises the red flag to half mast.

The other major moment I would change is when the bombs start going off. Superman pulls back, unsure whether he's actually immune to mustard gas, and I think this is one of the moments that most goes against the character of Superman. Canon Superman would just say "welp, guess I gotta find out whether I'm immune to mustard gas in a hurry". Superman making the argument that he doesn't know the bounds of his powers and so should exercise caution reads as either cowardice or as him being way too bitten by the rationality bug.

This would then obviously have to change the plot of that section a bit, because in the novel as it stands right now, Superman is convinced by Lois Lane that he can't just sit on the sidelines for game theory reasons. Better to either scrap that section or have Lois convince Superman that for game theory reasons he should offer to have testing carried out against him in a way that doesn't harm civilians, which canon Superman might submit to if it saved lives. Then the rest of the plot can proceed as normal, because Superman is immune to everything and that's the whole plot beat anyway.

I'd definitely clean up some of Superman/Clark's dialogue to nail the character voice better, but I don't think it's that bad, and it's mostly a few places where the wording is off. I think in particular the points where he's feeling anger go too far, and are not how someone internally conflicted about the anger might talk.

And then, oh yeah, Superman punches a guy's head clean off, which I think is the biggest sticking point for most people.

I've thought about that scene a lot. I personally like it. But if I were ever trying to sell this story to DC, it's one of the things I would almost certainly change. Superman doesn't kill, except in that one movie that came out just before this story was published where Superman snapped a guy's neck.

The change I am most happy/comfortable with is that Whitman, the governor whose children were [REDACTED], is the one to kill Calhoun. This happens just outside the courthouse with Superman watching and not intervening in the slightest, or maybe catching the bullets as they go through Calhoun so no bypassers get hit.

I don't know, as I type it out, it doesn't have the same weight to it. It's not cool. It's not a watershed moment. Maybe there's a plot thread to pull there, where Superman has tacitly endorsed other vigilantes, and it would be a great time to pull in other mundane street-level heroes ... but that's an entirely different story at that point.

Another option is for Superman to simply fly off with Calhoun and put him away, but that lacks punch too, and gets talky, and ... it's about the rage, right? The feeling of injustice, not just at Calhoun, but at the entire world, and it's not just an unhappy side effect that there's blood everywhere, all over the clamoring press, that's part of the point.

Social Justice

I really enjoy how wide-ranging the novel is, and how many things it touches on. Good job me. There was a line I had completely forgotten about where Lois asks "Why doesn't Superman stop abortions?" that I had completely forgotten I had ever written, and which brought a big smile to my face (but no wonder some Superman fans hate this story).

There are a few other things that I raise my eyebrow at a little bit, at least sitting here in 2024. There's a particular line that Superman gives when talking about this whitewashed mural of the past they're walking by, and he says "It's easy to forget that slavery ever happened, you know?" Now, I will grant you that this is a part of a conversation where he's saying that maybe he should have been a better student of history, and is saying this as a white guy in 1934, but I wanted him or someone else to tear that statement apart. It never really happens.

"It's easy to forget that slavery ever happened [if you and your people have not been affected by slavery]". The novel takes place ~70 years after the end of the Civil War, which means that when Clark was growing up there would have been freed slaves who were in their fifties, probably many of them in Kansas, though Smallville is (notably) small. I don't know, it wouldn't have been historically accurate for them to have a discussion of privilege, but there's way more meat on that bone, and it's all left as subtext.

Also probably the case that if I were writing it now, I would pay more attention to race in general, but that I'm less sure on, because it would mean some major structural changes to be done well. There's a single black guy in the whole thing, who is barely a character and has no speaking lines: the farmhand Ma Kent has before he gets lured away with the promise of being an actor. I have never felt that any novel needs racial balance to it, but if you're going to be talking about slavery and whether Superman would have done anything about it, you start to make black people look like props, which is not a good look.

I mean look, I think it's fine for a given story to not actually take a stance on political issues or have a diverse cast, but this story goes from abortion to the Equal Rights Amendment to Prohibition to Nazis to the death penalty, and then despite being set in 1934 sort of talks around the subject of how shitty race relations were. As a white guy, I never feel comfortable talking about race, but I think it would have been appropriate to have here in more than the cursory way it was handled. But the cast is just not that large, and the way that modern Superman stories handle that is usually making Jimmy Olsen black and then not actually talking about the fact that he's black so it's just a palette swap, which I don't think would work here, especially since Jimmy is such a bit character, and also it's 1934.

Sexual Violence

Alright, I will say it: there's too much sexual violence.

Chapter 7 is when the two Whitman kids get kidnapped. Their driver gets his throat slit, the boy gets dismembered, and the girl gets raped. I knew it was coming and I was still horrified by it.

I would not remove this part. I would foreshadow it better with a few scenes with Calhoun, the brutes, etc., and I might change some of the details to be a bit less awful and gruesome, but I don't think I would remove it. There are a few core ideas here that I think all work:

The better class of criminal has left the city now, and all that are left are the worst of the worst, the people who will not respond to incentives or symbols or rational thought.

If you cannot strike at Superman's physical self, you strike at his mind instead, and one of the ways to do that is psychic damage. In Calhoun's case, this is irrational, a pure desire to hurt Superman in any way possible while his empire collapses.

The amount of evil in the world is enormous. The pain and suffering cannot be comprehended. I love what Superman says, that this isn't really unique, that these things happen to children all the time. He's upset about not being able to save them, but they're a drop in the bucket.

I think you have to be careful with sexual violence, whether it's depicted or hinted at or just briefly mentioned. There are tons of people who are not on board with that in their media, and even of those who are on board, it has to be handled carefully and can feel very cheap, as though you're just going to the worst and most transgressive thing you can think of for the shock value. People will see it as lazy and trivializing and making entertainment out of this horrible thing.

I think the world is shit. I think terrible things happen. I have always felt both oppressed by the weight of evil in the world and powerless to stop it. I think that's the thing that I'm gesturing at here, and it feels weird to me that sexual violence would get put on a pedestal as the one thing too horrible to mention, even though we're mentioning all the most horrible things.

How do Superman comics and shows and movies deal with this? My impression is that they don't. Surely Superman must be stopping rapes from happening, but I cannot think of a single time I've seen it happen. I'm actually having trouble thinking of a time it was implied to happen. I think this is probably a good idea on the part of the people who make these bits of media, but it's absolutely not realistic if you're thinking about how Superman would operate in the "real world". Sexual violence happens, child abuse happens, and I guess we just sort of assume that these things are dealt with by Superman off-screen.

Though ... I mean it impacts the characters, right? Does Superman not have a trauma response? Does he have a superpower where he can bottle it all up? He's definitely too late to stop certain crimes, and he definitely can't make things better for some of the victims, and I guess in the comics when he shows up to a burning building he generally has a 100% success rate and people come out with only minor injuries, but ... alright, this is definitely the sort of thing that led me to write this fic in the first place.

It's a question that the fic doesn't have an answer for: how do you go on living when you know that there's so much evil in the world?

I think dialing that particular scene back is, maybe, fine. But it's the sort of thing that would feel like I was being less authentic in a way, as though I wanted to grapple with the big questions but not that one, wanted to consider ethics and morality but silo myself away from things that actually are on my mind. I see the point of blunting that scene, and I rebel against it because I don't want to be blunted, I want to be sharp.

I would, however, remove a lot of the earlier references, or blunt those, because they didn't need to be sharp. There are, before the Whitman stuff, about five references to sexual violence, and maybe even just using "sexual violence" would be enough, rather than "rape". One of these references is to what crimes Superman is statistically most likely to stop, another is to a plot to besmirch his name, both can be massaged or they can go.

I don't know if I think about these things differently because time has passed or I've had a bunch of discussions about these issues, or whether it's just having the outside view. It's weird to think about what a conversation with myself would look like, if we were working on the story together.

Retrospective

I understand why Superman fans sometimes hate this story. There's the Superman OOC stuff, sure, but there are also a lot of questions about Superman that apply to canon equally well, and people hate that. Superman is a fantasy, maybe the ultimate comic book fantasy. He stops crimes and bullets bounce off him! You're not supposed to think about his stance on abortion rights. You're not supposed to look at the Clark Kent mask and say 'huh, that's strange'. I mean it's media, you can do whatever the hell you want, but if Superman is a fantasy, then there are a lot of questions that are fantasy-ruining.

I stand by the story as written about 80%, which is higher than I thought it would be, though there are certain things that I stand by more than others. There are certain structural changes and many line-by-line changes, and I'm glad that I didn't have the story open in edit mode, because it would have taken me three times as long to read and when I hit "save changes" people would grumble about archives or bad changes or whatever, because you can't please people.

About five years ago, I started writing A Common Sense Guide to Doing the Most Good, which was meant as a companion piece to MM. It ended up being all mechanics, no plot, and the plot that I wanted it to have was divorced from the center questions it wanted to answer. It didn't feel as grand, I guess, and the cats were out of their bags a little too quickly.

One of the Answers that MM gives is that the thing you should do in the face of overwhelming evil is to grind relentlessly, grind until your bones are scraping the grindstone and there's nothing left of yourself. The story does not believe this answer, but it's one of the places I ended up ten years ago, and am still sort of at now. The other answer is to live as best you can, be aware of the evil and do what you can against it without letting the idea of it (or the battle against it) consume your soul.

When I was finished reading, I kind of wanted to write an uncritical Superman comic. Something where Superman can be as his most loyal fans see him, someone who is Good and doesn't often have to grapple with what Good means, where the thorny edges of moral quandaries never come to light and the hero is always there in the nick of time. Where Clark Kent is a bold and noble expression of humanity rather than a deception and a mask. Maybe I will go do that.

#fanfic #metropolitan man #book review

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thatoneluckybee · 5 months

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inaccurately assigning the sbg kids marina songs

Yes, I KNOW these are NOT the actual meanings of the music, nor are they even that accurate. But I am being self indulgent here and you can't stop me (:

Ashlyn Banner

Solitaire: A major part of her character is learning how to balance her introverted nature with opening up to others. I like how she isn't shamed for being a private person, though, just encouraged to give others a chance, so I'm giving her the song about that.

Oh No!: Ashlyn is a very confident person as far as we've seen (though there are still some insecurities she has to work through) who isn't going to change her entire self for some random kid. Oh No! fits that kinda in that Ashlyn has flaws, but she is aware of them and she decides what's worth trying to change.

Aiden Clark:

Too Afraid: Aiden. Buddy. CHILD. He is incredibly extroverted, outgoing, social, and tends to take up the spotlight wherever he goes. This isn't a bad thing in its own light, however we've seen that it's largely become a coping mechanism for him. This kid's mind is or at the very least WAS in a very dark place before, and it's being repressed largely (at least, that's what it seems like.)

Primadonna: Like the exact same thing as above. Takes up the spotlight because the minute you stop off the stage, what's left?

Ben Clark:

I Am Not a Robot: Ben is a very stoic-seeming character. We've gotten to know him and he's a gentle, kind-hearted, nervous, and sweet person, albeit one with astoundingly destructive and angry tendencies. A bit part of his character, to me, has been seeing him balance not allowing his rage to run away with him but also not bottling up until it overflows. He is NOT a robot.

Valley of The Dolls: Yeah this song's about a book I've never read so uhhhhh ANYWAYS. Ben's past self was ANGRY. He was hurt and upset. No matter how many people he fought, or how much it hurt, he couldn't feel better, if anything at all. There was an emptiness he couldn't heal. Maybe it's still there. But he's healing.

Logan Fields:

Karma: I think this song could fit his relationship with his bully (Baron or Barron? Can't remember how to spell it), especially in the arcade fight scene (LOVED IT). Baron has been getting away with horrific acts simply because nobody knew, but now that it's come to light, now that Logan is stronger, now that he has people in his corner, karma's coming.

The Family Jewels: I'm concerned about Logan's home life, honestly. We don't know (as far as I'm aware) why he lives with his grandparents. Did something happen to his parents? Is he an orphan? Is he not with them for another reason? Also, what's going on with his grandparents? Is it because they're florists that they have access to painkillers and sedative type drugs, or another reason?

Taylor Hernández:

Orange Trees: I don't even know. I just really like the song. And I really like Taylor. And i think she would vibe to it. Taylor has a really fun personality and I think this fits her.

Can't Pin Me Down: On a more serious note, oftentimes Taylor (by both characters and the fandom, myself included) is unfortunately reduced to "aww happygolucky bestgirl!" Especially after Tyler's tragedy, we've gotten to see a new side of her: fierce loyalty and pure anger that stems from her kindness. She's going off the rails and I LOVE this for her, but I can only hope she doesn't lash at out the wrong people.

Tyler Hernández:

Are You Satisfied?: Giving him one of my ALL TIME favorite songs! Since the death of their father, Tyler has been caring for both his mother and sister and keeping the household afloat effectively. Through this, my dude doesn't seem to know what it means to take a break. He needs one.

Highly Emotional People: Furthermore on that note, I can see Taylor saying these lyrics to her twin brother. Tyler has gotten to used to being the caregiver at such a young age he doesn't seem sure how to be cared FOR. My dude is repressing and lashing out and everything in a very unhealthy way. If anything good comes out of the tree kebab, it's forcing him to accept outside help and let others take on some burdens. We're highly emotional people, and everyone deserves to show that.

Anyways I didn't expect this to take so long to type :^

#Rambles #taylor hernández #Taylor hernandez #tyler hernandez #tyler hernández #ben clark #logan fields #aiden clark #ashlyn banner #marina #marina and the diamonds #bee is self indulgent today :3 #Sbg #school bus graveyard

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littleeyesofpallas · 2 months

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Digging up these early scenes just reminds me how disappointing it was, not just that the whole Failsafe plot turned out stupid and drawnout and nonsense gibberish, but that it started off with SO MUCH potential.

Like, I actually do love the idea of Batman's Tower of Babel continency plan being brought back up to address the idea of what his own failsafe is. I love the idea that the whole scenario is actually a manufactured false positive on Failsafe's activation; that Bruce has been tricked into thinking he killed someone, and thus Failsafe has come online on the assumption that Batman has gone out of control.

Because if it weren't for the stupid introduction of Zur into this equation, I love that there should be a difference between the a real Bruce who is actually still abiding his code but has been implicated in a murder, vs the 12-move-ahead/5D-chess phantom of a purely hypothetical renegade Batman that Failsafe was supposedly programmed to take down.

Like, it could have been a great excuse to try and draw lines around how bad Batman is/isn't, because he's always going to be written such that goofy unaccounted for implications, bad writing, and fridge logic will make him out to be some kind of Frank Miller masked super fascist. But Batman having to outline for himself and for others what he would or wouldn't do, and how that defines what Failsafe's profiling, tactics, and capabilities are is a great excuse to address those things directly.

But more importantly, Failsafe's entire M.O. should have been very very clear. It doesn't need to be a fucking invulnerable super robot that can singlehandedly beat the JL; it doesn't need to have all of Tower of Babel rolled into it. It only needs to beat Batman, and by extension it needs to be built to keep the fight only between itself and Batman.

Like, after being immediately fought to a standstill in hand to hand, in gadgets and other hardware neutralized, and his navigation of Gotham either matched or cut off, Batman's next move should have been the contact the batfam, and he should have found his commlink blocked and hijacked by Failsafe. He should have made the move to contact Clark, and then the reset of the JL and found his emergency beacon, again neutralized. He should have been confident that the batfam or Supes would be able to deduce or detect that something was wrong when he went radio silent, only for Failsafe to be accurately mimicking his communications and life signatures. So not only can Bruce not ask for help, but everyone who tries to do any routine check ins only sees signs that everything is fine and normal.

The key to the entire fight shouldn't be Bruce thinking his way out on the fly, or having a plan, or being prepared, it should emphasize all the ways that once Failsafe is one step ahead, Bruce's only real plan B is his support network, and Failsafe should have cut him off from it. Because THAT's Batman's real weakness, that for all his planning and scheming, he's still just one guy and he knows it, and he trusts and relies on so many other people close to him to make up for that. And that as a theme is such a perfect antithesis to the Tower of Babel. The entire conflict should have been this game of cat and mouse of how Bruce survives without his teams, because in the situation where Batman would have to turn on the JL, that's the situation he'd be left in: without his team.

And more over, as the Most Dangerous Game routine drags on, it should also shed light on how, both in the past and the future, Gotham operates without a Batman.

But the real twist to the whole thing should have been Batman having to turn to Gotham's villains for help, not only because they know how to fight him, but because they're the only people Failsafe wouldn't have been designed to cut him off from. And other than just making for some fun team ups, ultimately his ability to communicate, negotiate, and empathize with villains is the thing that would prove he wasn't the heartless fanatical murderer that Failsafe was designed to stop in the first place.

#dc comics #batman #failsafe

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clay-cuttlefish · 9 months

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Finally we've arrived at 52, the series that turned me from a casual reader of a few comics into a full-on DC fan and Question enthusiast. This is the reason I set out on this project in the first place. I love it so much.

This is my fifth time reading this in full, I think, and I still get hyped at this opening issue. Look at my guys.

It's a miracle this came together as well as it did. The omnibus is great for giving some insight into that construction process.

There's just so much in 52 and I can't believe they pulled it off. Part of that is that it's thematically coherent, despite how different the plots are. Grief, reinvention, self-destruction as a means to cope with loss... it all feeds into itself.

In a slightly different timeline I came out of 52 fixated on Booster Gold and stumbled back into the Question later through Blue Beetle, instead of the other way around.

It took 416 issues but they're interacting! They're together! It's paying off!

Renee's heartbreaking spiral into self-destruction is interrupted by this massive dork. I love them.

I really need to read Steel. Captivated by these two.

Skeets nudging the gyro cart owner out of the way is a very good panel. Catlike behavior.

Booster and Bea's conversation is so. Hhh.

In the omnibus, Mark Waid calls Vic and Renee's scene "one of the high points of the entire series", and I'm with him.

Renee and Maggie...

The metahuman hospital's a really cool piece of worldbuilding.

The only plotline I don't care much about is the spaceguys. I still like them, but the bar's really high here and I want to see other characters more.

Wish this was less creepy about Starfire.

Kind of obsessed with Bob the theatre teacher and villain-for-hire, conceptually.

It takes a while for the Black Adam plot to pick up steam so this part isn't quite hitting yet.

Booster having a normal one.

Renee hasn't talked to her mom in three years by this point. Oof.

The exes of all time!

Booster... Ralph blaming him for Ted's death is brutal.

Oh cmon girl you're smarter than this. It's Lex Luthor, when has he ever had anyone's best interests at heart.

At least Ollie's still doing his thing.

Clark hating Booster is so good.

"Smart-ass." "Consistency is everything." He is so annoying!

The John and Natasha fight is great.

#10

Clark taking a page from Lois' book is so good. Ridiculous.

I like Will and Professor Morrow a lot, nice that they're back in focus.

Supernova time :)

#11

His anti-smoking rant...

"I don't owe you anything." Oof ouch my soul.

Big talk here from a guy who spent a decade hung up on Myra.

The one superheroine ass shot I respect is in the "that's a Batwoman" panel because Renee deserves to appreciate Kate's ass.

#12

Besties moment.

Black Adam's plotline is gaining speed.

Oh Ralph.

#13

Oh NO, Ralph.

#14

They both look so good here. Love his stubble.

Desperately want to hear Tot's side of their conversation, and also their previous phone calls, because I'm sure he'd have Opinions about Vic deciding to become a mentor.

Shaking him. You are so annoying!

"There's no such thing as crazy, just behaviour that society has deemed unacceptable." SO true bestie.

#15

BOOSTER...

#16

Oh god, Renee.

Billy officiating Black Adam's wedding is very sweet.

#17

Luthor's superteam is one of the series highlights.

Still very funny that there's just a guy named Hannibal on it. Zero subtlety here.

Oh Lobo. I do not care about you.

#18

He's so silly.

Renee is having truly awful time falling back into old coping measures and he's out here getting scooped and being made fun of for cockblocking.

Booster's shitty funeral still fucks me up. Choosing to believe Skeets intentionally didn't invite people for evil reasons because the idea nobody showed up is too much.

Once again, oh no Ralph.

#18/2

A backup with Vic's origins. It's about right, though I prefer him starting as the Question before moving back to Hub City.

It lists his "essential storylines" as Mysterious Suspense, The Question 1987, and Cry for Blood, which I mostly agree with. Mysterious Suspense is less important but reading a pre-DC story is useful background for the 87 run and it's his only solo option.

#clayposts #clayreads #the question #vic sage #renee montoya

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theliterarywolf · 10 months

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"Did Lois pull an Amber or not really?" Someone who actually watched the show here: ...not really?

Amber is a selfish bitch who ditched Mark because his fucking SUPERHERO LIFE SAVING DUTIES conflicted with what SHE wanted.

Lois figured out that Clark was Superman based on piecing evidence together the prior episode and spent this week's episode trying to get him to admit to it on Clark's own terms (unsuccessfully) rather than going "bitch why'd you lie to me" right off the bat.

Her getting angry at him only happened at the very end where Clark came back from a fight with Deathstroke where he has VERY VISIBLE CUTS ON HIS LOWER NECK and he told her a rather pathetic lie of "nah Lois I just went home to shave haha <:)"

So after an episode's worth of buildup trying to understand her crush and why he's being so secretive, the reason she got mad isn't so much selfishness and more "Why are you pissing on my leg and telling me it's rain?"

I'm presenting this mostly without comment but I also wanted to add in that I've seen some people's negative reaction to the scene in MAwS because they're still reeling from not only how 'What Do Yo Mean I'm Not Your Keeper' was handled in Invincible, but also how it was handled in Masters of the Universe and apparently in the CW Flash show as well.

And, hell, though it's nowhere near as serious, even the PBS Kids show Wordgirl pulled this same trope, so I think people are just reactive at this point.

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blorb-el · 5 months

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3 and 15 for the asks? happy new year! ✨

3. favorite line/scene you wrote this year (fanfic end of year asks)

uhm. idk if it's cheating a little to say something i haven't posted yet, but the heart of chapter 8 (or 9 depending on where the split ends up) of wsbf, between diana and clark, was my favorite to write. it's going to need a fair bit of revision when i get there in editing but it was what started me on writing the whole fic!

as far as single lines go the last line of isostatic still makes me go >>>>>:3ccccc because its a sillay little contextualization of the entire everything that came before it even if it is grammatically a little awkward. And a somewhat related line I've repeated most to myself from a wip: tanahvruhtodh rrup rrivahzh w rrehd khahp vo?! i'm pretty terrible at languages so any given kryptahniuo line is memorable because it takes me about 87 years to come up with it. but this one feels so satisfying to snarl out. it translates to 'do you understand what you DID to me?!' which may be familiar <3

15. something you learned this year

posting what i thought was gonna be really niche idfic and having it get an absolutely crazy positive response was a little eye opening and also very validating. it happened last year with tacere and this year with wsbf. it really reinforced the idea of writing for myself first, and along the way there might be people who are interested in the same things i am. and even if that isn't true i still end up with a story Perfectly Tailored to My Interests, so. win win

when i'm using sprinto in this very lovely supportive writer's discord it helps SO much not only to sprint with other people, but announce my target word count before the sprint begins so there's mild public accountability. weaponizing anxiety for my own benefit

i gotta read everything out loud in the editing pass even when i don't wanna... it's so helpful.....

the problem is either about 5 paragraphs before where i THINK the problem is or a fundamental dissatisfaction with the entire premise of the section that i gotta take a walk about and then sleep on. if neither of these solve the problem trying to explain the problem to someone else usually ends up in fixing it at the cost of me sounding unhinged. if THAT doesn't work it's time for the fic to go in the drawer for a while

sitting in cafes at lunch/during appointment cancellations with a cup of tea and a crepe and a Little Treat and my notebook and fountain pen FELT very satisfying and it did get quite a few words on the page but my God was it expensive. also not happening with my new job 💀 i ought to figure out how to make crepes at home

triple check ya damn contractions to make sure they're clear 😭😭

happy new year to you too!!!

#thanks for the ask :^)#unbreakabledawn #writing

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cosmic-navel-gazin · 10 months

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COSMIC!!! BLORBO BINGO- the thing dog 💕 -🍮

Dog-Thing aka MY BABY🐺🐾🦴👾

The Free Space is for all the delicious dog treats out there, they deserve them^^

(I love them but realistically I would have to end up plotting their demise and the only reason the *puts them in the wood chipper*-box isn't filled in, is because I think it would just make matters worse with me now having to deal with a billion tinny lil Things, so I opted for filling in the "plotting thier demise"-box. Pretty privilege extends to all of Dog-Thing's many forms of course. They're complex and well-written in Peter Watts retelling of the film but from Thing's pov called The Things)

I'm gonna try and restrict my love for Thing to just Dog-Thing in particular:

Love is stored in Dog-Thing's different ever changing designs, with multiple heads, deformed limbs, crab legs, muscular arms and tendrils! I just love the first on-screen transformation. The way Dog-Thing's head splits open and the skull falls off and its tongue starts dancing in the air *muah!* I love you seamless mixture of practical effects and puppetry and stop-motion and arghhhhh...

Speaking of many forms, I love that we never get to see Dog-Thing/Thing-in-general's original form! It's scarier that you don't know! It let's your mind conjure all sorts of fucked up images that are way scarier than anything they could have designed it's the best and I applaud the films restraint in that way!

I love that Dog-Thing spend 1h-1:30h alone with Clark and he didn't get assimilated, what's that about?!?!!? What does it mean and what does it say about Dog-Thing? I'm not sure you could read a lot into it I feel, but I do know one thing, and that is that Clark is the best dog handler there is!

I LOVE how Dog-Thing subverts the famous "dogs can sense evil" trope in horror movies! If this was any other film, you would have all the humans be unsuspecting while the huskies would be freaking out about Dog-Thing the second they set eyes on it BUT NO! When Dog-Thing enters the kennel all the other dogs are chill. Only when Dog-Thing starts changing and lifting its perfect disguise do they freak out. I love it I love it it's such a good way to show how perfect the imitation really is early on in the film without having to state it. All the dogs in the kennel are chilling and barely react to Dog-Thing's arrival, I love this detail so much:

(they're all just laying around!)

Speaking of kennel, I love seeing blind reactions to The Thing. And one of my favourite parts is watch people's shifting opinion on Dog-Thing. Movie begins with some lads on a helicopter shooting at a dog and almost always, everyone watching is pissed off they're shooting at it and they're yelling at the screen for the guy to stop! Then enter Jed the Wolf-Dog and his magnificent performance: the calculating stare, the composed demeanor, the calm and collected steps, and some people start thinking something's weird about the dog but most are still very loving towards Dog-Thing. Then comes kennel scene, where all the "asshole stop shooting at the dog" shouting suddenly turns into complete shock and horror, going "OH MY GOD OH MY GOD SHOOT IT FUCKING SHOOT IT RIGHT NOW" I love it. And you just know that this was the moment when, if you were a parent in the summer of '82 and were indecisive about which alien movie you wanted to take your kids to watch, this scene is where your mind is made up. I'm just imagining all the parents rushing out the doors to take their kids to watch E.T. during dog kennel scene lmao

LOOK AT JED/DOG-THING'S ACTING I LOVE THEM:

I love this quick moment. The lads are all watching the Thing-"corpse" Copper and MacReady brought from the Norwegian cam, and the camera suddenly cuts to Dog-Thing watching its own autopsy!!!!!!!!!!!! I WONDER ABOUT WHAT DOG-THING'S THINKING ABOUT SEEING ITS OWN CHARRED BODY SO BAAAAAAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JED YOU WERE SUCH A GOOD ACTOR , THIS STILL PIC DOES NOT DO YOU JUSTICE BUT HERE:

A lil treat from Peter Watts' The Things , this one is from the scene above, I love the ending where Thing is terrified and disgusted by the human brain calling it a tumorous lump, it's great:

Autopsy. MacReady and Copper had found part of me at the Norwegian camp: a rearguard offshoot, burned in the wake of my escape. They’d brought it back—charred, twisted, frozen in mid-transformation—and did not seem to know what it was. I was being Palmer then, and Norris, and dog. I gathered around with the other biomass and watched as Copper cut me open and pulled out my insides. I watched as he dislodged something from behind my eyes: an organ of some kind. It was malformed and incomplete, but its essentials were clear enough. It looked like a great wrinkled tumor, like cellular competition gone wild—as though the very processes that defined life had somehow turned against it instead. It was obscenely vascularised; it must have consumed oxygen and nutrients far out of proportion to its mass. I could not see how anything like that could even exist, how it could have reached that size without being outcompeted by more efficient morphologies. Nor could I imagine what it did. But then I began to look with new eyes at these offshoots, these biped shapes my own cells had so scrupulously and unthinkingly copied when they reshaped me for this world. Unused to inventory—why catalog body parts that only turn into other things at the slightest provocation?—I really saw, for the first time, that swollen structure atop each body. So much larger than it should be: a bony hemisphere into which a million ganglionic interfaces could fit with room to spare. Every offshoot had one. Each piece of biomass carried one of these huge twisted clots of tissue. I realized something else, too: the eyes, the ears of my dead skin had fed into this thing before Copper pulled it free. A massive bundle of fibers ran along the skin’s longitudinal axis, right up the middle of the endoskeleton, directly into the dark sticky cavity where the growth had rested. That misshapen structure had been wired into the whole skin, like some kind of somatocognitive interface but vastly more massive. It was almost as if . . . No. That was how it worked. That was how these empty skins moved of their own volition, why I’d found no other network to integrate. There it was: not distributed throughout the body but balled up into itself, dark and dense and encysted. I had found the ghost in these machines. I felt sick. I shared my flesh with thinking cancer.

and one more treat where Thing describes its time as a doggo:

I left that place in ruins. It was on the other side of the mountains—the Norwegian camp, it is called here—and I could never have crossed that distance in a biped skin. Fortunately there was another shape to choose from, smaller than the biped but better adapted to the local climate. I hid within it while the rest of me fought off the attack. I fled into the night on four legs, and let the rising flames cover my escape. I did not stop running until I arrived here. I walked among these new offshoots wearing the skin of a quadruped; and because they had not seen me take any other shape, they did not attack.

Dog-Thing and Thing is just an awesome concept with an even more incredible execution what's not to love!!!!!

#getting Dog-Thing for the blorbo bingo was such a nice surprise <3 <3 ty my friend #The Thing 1982 #asks/replies #ask game

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tobeornottotc · 1 year

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Hiya! Curious why you don’t like between us? I was so looking forward to it but haven’t been able to get into myself. I watched the first episode and didn’t feel anything so I’ve been watching the rest through gifs to see if it will spark my interest. I won’t go as far as to say I don’t like it, I’m hoping once it finishes I’ll be motivated to watch in its entirety. So far I’m just not connecting to it. Just wondering your thoughts on why you don’t like it?

Hi, Hello

Oh Boy here we go. Okay first of all I don't think I'm the right person to trust with this show. A small backstory on my relationship with this director, I don't like anything he produces, so that includes the famous Until We Meet Again which is loved by most people, and is my most hated BL series, like you however, I did look forward to between us because BounPrem and WinTeam stuck in my heart I liked them, I liked their edits, I even liked analysing the novel premise. Ofcourse I do it has psychology, trauma, depth, characterisation and a love story that is meant to be passionate (put a question on that one), so I thought between us even underneath this director would make sense and I would love it.

However anon, it didn't this director makes me want to fight someone, (I'm a peaceful person but he unleashes a horrible side to me) because I despise his choices, I despise how he directs, how slow it always feel, how I feel like there's no plot even he chooses the best plots to adapt, how grating his characters all of a sudden feel each time they're the main character, how lacklustre his shows feel sometimes even when something exciting is going on he has the power to make me hate my self each time I watch his shit. And honestly it's a me thing because personality wise I like him he's the cousin of my bias and he cares aboout queerness being represented correctly but I can't lie to my self I hate Between Us, I just can't even look at it every time, and it hurts because when it's WinTeam sometimes there's hope, other times I don't know why I'm watching this, the side couples are fuckking irritating, they take up so much screen time for nothing, and that's my taste, I dislike comedy so maybe New isn't for me, all I know is I'm not the person to try and ask this question to because I'm still processing what it is about this directors stuff so everything he's involved in makes me hate my self and wanna stop watching BL, because it's not adding up, and I've seen some reactors be able to equate how I feel see Kent Clark example who kinda makes fun of between us all throughout my school president episode 2 reaction he himself feels the same way I feel, yeh some points makes this show feel good, consent, passionate love, characterisation, some scenes, some even side couple storylines have potential but something isn't clicking it constantly feels like a fuckkking waste of time and honestly it's been 6 episodes and I'm not someone who is a masochist so I won't keep putting my self through extreme pain to get why this show is good and it leaves me feeling very isolated (but again I'm not trustworthy in this situation) like episode 6 where while I got why it should be loved I thought the acting was abysmal, sorry I guess, I thought i'm not connected to these characters even though I should be and I just wanted to turn it off, with any other director and script of the same story Between us will be my favorite so to see another New piece be intensely disliked by me despite me knowing why people like it, is just very sad, I don't want New anywhere near my fave books, companies (DMD, GMMTV should stop giving his shows too), and writers. I don't want him to direct anything I think I can watch because he ruins it for me and this has been happening since Love By chance so yeh No.

Sorry for the very biased and ignorant response but this is my truth, I hate myself for it, I think Between is can be amazing for a lot of people however I really do think it's overhyped because of the looks and somewhat chemistry of the main actors, i think it's efforts to having a deeper insight into characters that make sense is good but the whole execution just falls apart and I don't know how else to explain it, I know I'm a hypocrite because I know there must be some heavy biases here but honestly the fact that New has made me dislike the acting and appearance of my favorite thai bl actor, you know that something is wrong so I won't hide it. Gifs are really pretty, fanmusic videos are the best way to watch between us I know once its over the youtube your story edit of WinTeam i'll watch and i'd like probably because it's not them in the show that's the problem it's New. And I think a lot of people feel it but they can't explain why it feels that way to them even UWMA people had this complaint, people say it should be good because it's an amazing story premise, idea, thought, representation but all they feel is annoyance and a weird dislike for it and some people are doing for the same for this but not majority so even though I hate it doesn;t mean you'll hate it.

Thanks anon

I know I wasn't probably nice, or helpful but this show like takes my excitement and happiness out of me, like UWMA, Remember me, Star in my Mind, Dear Doctor, Love by chance 2, and so many fuckking more directed by New. Alright I'm out. Thanks for the question :)

#bl series #bl drama #thai bl #reviews #asks #asianlgbtqdramas

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muzzable · 2 years

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Luke Triton for the character thing?

Oh boy, my boy! (I have many boys)

First impression: I think I found him annoying lol. First PL game I played was Curious Village and I was presumably younger than Luke at the time, but similarly to him at the stage where you want to act mature and I probably thought he was too immature.

Impression now: I love this character a lot. Eventually I started identifying with him somewhat because I also like blue, have a similar hair color that can get messy in similar ways, and found his character arc about keeping a calm head to think things through relatable (which iirc is more prevalent in the novels, though I know most haven't read them). Also I wish I had his power to talk to animals.

Favorite moment: That's a hard one, but I think I'd have to say the scene with the statue in Unwound Future. He's a very emotive character, so the solemn quietness of the scene really stands out, and I like how tender the moment between him and the Professor is with the reminder that yes, things do change and people might leave your life, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're gone forever, and you'll still have those memories.

Idea for a story: I'd definitely like to see more of his time in America, especially with the information we learned about it during the anime. We know he learned karate, fell in love, got married, and solved mysteries with his wife, so there's a lot to explore there. Imagine a spinoff series focused on the mysteries he and Marina solved while also showing them going from friends to newlyweds.

Unpopular opinion: Maybe this isn't as unpopular as I think, but I like his design as an adult. I think keeping the primary color as blue but making it darker conveys his maturity well, you can see some influence from Layton and Clark in his fashion choices, and it looks gentlemanly. I see it and think "Look at him, he's all grown up, he's no longer a gentleman-in-training!" Plus I admire that they actually went and made it noticeably different from the Future Luke design in Unwound Future. I will concede the fedora is too small though, and the anime's inconsistent animation didn't help it, though that part's understandable given the amount of animation they had to do. (But seriously like, did he buy one of those costumes for dogs and take the hat from it or something?)

Favorite relationship: I'm gonna go generic and say his relationship with the Professor. I like how he encourages Luke to better himself, and is always patient and gentle with him, and their conversations flow really naturally. Over the course of the series it feels like they both grow into better/healthier people overall because of it; at the beginning of Last Specter Luke's closed himself off from the world intentionally, but Layton's also somewhat of a loner as well, and after knowing each other they both learn to open up to people more. I'm also partial to his and Emmy's sibling-like teasing and how in Unwound Future he's all "Ugh Flora can't you take this seriously? 🙄" but you can tell they actually have a lot of fun together and he's just being 13.

Favorite headcanon: I like how it feels like pretty much all of the fandom agrees Luke and Marina met in school and/or due to a mystery he was trying to solve. The first feels very real and would be a good way to show he's adapting well to life in America, while the second is very in-character because if there's a mystery we all know he can't leave well enough alone (wonder who he got that from lol).

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cynicaldesire · 1 day

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Handful of Book Reviews

I have the Summer off from school and a part-time job, so I have plenty of time to get into something. In the couple weeks after school let out and I had nothing to do, I started thinking about writing. It was beautiful, euphoric. I figured I would get back into reading as a way to research writing.

So far, I have read like five books. I was reading one over the end of year break between semesters, so I've read six books since the new year. Five of them were in the last like 6 weeks. (Geez, I haven't been keeping active track. That's a lot of reading.)

I started with Gallant by V.E. Schwab. It was okay. I was expecting something else. I started reading it because someone on Tiktok said it was a book about a girl following her mother's journal and I have a character that does something similar. Except his mother was a medic, a herbalist, that sort of thing, and she has loads of journals and almanacs and such.

The really unique thing about the journal in Gallant is that it has text and inksplotchy images. These texts and images are peppered throughout the book until they're all collected somewhere about 60% in, I'll guess. Since we've already seen them all in the book already, it's just a way to show the reader what the protagonist is reading.

Speaking of, the protagonist is a young girl that is hearing but has no voice. She has to sign or use writing to converse. The story follows her in an orphanage and then she gets a letter from her Uncle stating he wants her back home. But the place she goes back to is the one place her mother told her to stay away from: Gallant. It's a manor with a kind of greyish vibe to it, half-dead. And all the stuff that happens there. No spoilers.

The next book was A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark. I loved this. Well-written, well paced, protagonist is a power lesbian and so is her girlfriend. There's racism and sexism and it isn't rewarded by the narrative. It has a diverse group of people that seemed to have been well represented (I'm white and have never been to Egypt, so I don't know for certain.) It was set in Egypt, in a 1918-1920s era, I think before the first World War because it kept being mentioned as being on the horizon. In a world where Djinn and magic exist, how has the world been shaped? It seemed well-thought out.

Basically there's a murder of a cult by a guy thought to be long dead and our protagonist is the investigator assigned to the case. She's the youngest female investigator and very good at her job. It opens with an introduction scene and then some of the stuff that happens becomes important later. It's pretty tightly written. Ugh, I love it so much.

Next book was An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir. I was middling to positive on this. There were some… There were several questionable choices made, most of it to do with the weak worldbuilding, some of it to do with the weak characterizations, etc., but overall it was a nice brain-off read. If I thought too hard about it, it kinda sucked, but if I just turned off my brain and went along with the story that it was telling, it was fine.

We follow two protagonists, each on opposite sides of a conflict, they end up in the same place dealing with a lot of the same people from different vantage points. One is a Scholar who infiltrates the headmistress's servants to gather information for the Rebellion. The other is a student at the military academy that actually hates being there but he's the top of his class of ninja assassins. There's supposed to be magic, but no one believes it's real, even after it's totally real. There's a bunch of other stuff that goes on and it's all pretty weak overall, but I still had some fun.

Next was Jade City by Fonda Lee. This book was awful to read. It is compared to the Godfather, and I'm assuming that since I haven't seen the movie, I can't fully appreciate the book. It wasn't necessarily poorly written, though the more I think about it, it might've been, but it was like 500 pages of boring plot beats and time skips to more boring shit. Characters were mishandled or not handled to their full potential. So many characters spent their entire time navel-gazing and never making any meaningful progress. The characters start the story in the same place and end in the same place, emotionally and mentally, very much not physically. It seemed to punish compassion and mercy and reward greed, ambition, and ruthlessness.

The story takes place on the isle of Kekon, a place where a magic rock called Jade was found that provide those with sensitivity to it magical abilities. This Jade is a controlled substance by the clans that can weild it, the No Peak and the Mountain. It's very Asian, the clans fighting over territories and very concerned with honor, tradition, and power. We follow several characters that are the members of the No Peak Clan, three biological siblings and an adoptive one, and another guy that is a criminal introduced in Chapter 1.

It spent so much time telling me what was happening, how the characters interpreted these things, what they did, etc., and also gave me all the history needed for context about why they were doing it or feeling it, how we got to this point, why the rival gang leader was so fearsome (she was adopted by the previous gang leader and got mad that he didn't choose her to inherit a position so she killed all the people in charge and took leadership), that we hardly got to see anything actually happen.

Anyway, I hate that book. It made me realize what not to do and how Tristan's book may be suffering from this stuff and I need to go back over it and prune out some stuff.

Last book I read was Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo. Now, I love me the Grishaverse, especially Six of Crows, Crooked Kingdom, and King of Scars. Rule of Wolves is the second book in the King of Scars duology. I feel like it was thrown together to continue churning out work, like a fanfic author trying to maintain a readership, or like Bardugo was trying to maintain a contract of churning out a book every couple years. It felt… I still love these characters and this world, but it felt like the author was tired of holding to the limitations of the magic system. Or maybe I had forgotten how it worked. The plot had so many moving parts and I was confused at some of it by virtue of having read the previous book several years ago. It felt like everything was going wrong, but the timeline of acting out solutions was too fast. There was a heist at some point and it moved very quickly through planning and execution and on the way out of the heist, Nikolai hears news of attacks and then the thing they stole was already processed into the things they needed it for and they were using it. Like… within a few pages/one chapter of acquiring it. Maybe Bardugo was getting tired of the book sitting in her WIPs and wanted to just get it done and printed so she could move on to something else. I don't know.

Still had a great time with it. I know the Grishaverse, the characters were consistent but had positive change, it just went a little too slapdash. Would still recommend.

I have been using my library to get access to these books, and the next holds I have, waiting for them to arrive, is Engines of Empire by Richard S. Ford and The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton. Engines of Empire was described as Final Fantasy 6-esque and I'm realizing it's not all the things I take from FF6 (romance, character drama, etc) but instead the Empire of Emperor Gestahl and politics and such. The Wisteria Society just seems like a cool romp akin to the Gail Carriger Finishing School books. I loved those. They really helped get me back into reading.

Oh, the book I read over the new year was The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon and it was pretty good too. Great fantasy, good use of magic and dragons and such.

Let me know if you enjoyed this, your thoughts if you read these books, etc. I'd be happy to hear from others.

#about me #book reviews #book recs #recommendations #reading

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theharpermovieblog · 3 months

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#HARPERSMOVIECOLLECTION

2024 MOVIE LIST

www.tumblr.com/theharpermovieblog

STEPHEN KING THEATRICAL WEEK

I re-watched Needful Things (1993)

It's Stephen King theatrical week, in which I look at 3 Stephen King film adaptations made for theatrical release.

In a small town, a mysterious man opens up a curio shop, which has everything the residents could want, but the price may be their souls.

This movie is directed by Fraser Clarke Heston, son of legendary actor Charlton Heston. Fraser Clark Heston's other credits are films I've never seen and this film may be his biggest and most well known. I could be wrong, I didn't look very deep into his career.

"Needful Things" has a pretty fantastic set-up. Devilish guy opens up a curio store in a small town and uses people's deepest desires to gain their souls, and to wreak absolute havoc by turning neighbor against neighbor.

The big problem with this adaptation (I haven't read this novel so I don't know if the book is the same) is that outside of Ed Harris' and Bonnie Bedelia's characters, everyone is unlikeable. Rather than have these characters devolve by revealing their inner hatreds and secrets, they start off as blatantly shitty and selfish people on the surface. People who very clearly hate each other. It wouldn't exactly take someone as powerful as Satan to light this powder keg of a town, and these unlikeable characters don't matter to use in the least.

This is really a shame too. Had there been a better script that had Max Von Sydow expertly manipulate this town and it's people by using their buried secrets, this would be a much better movie. But, instead, the devil comes to a town that probably would have devoured itself anyways.

The best thing about "Needful Things" is that it's tone is kind of fun and over the top. I actually enjoyed myself (a little bit) while watching it. It has a great cast. It has some good sequences, especially the Ave Maria fight scene between two women with kitchen knives. Max Von Sydow is the best person to cast in the role of Leland Gaunt. And, overall the story here is such a good one and should have made for a fantastic film....and still could.

I've said before that even the worst Stephen King adaptations still have a little of King's magic in them. They're inherently somewhat watchable because his stories are always engaging and his style is always so integral to the story. It's hard to make a film from his work that doesn't have his flare. However, it's always disappointing to sit through these adaptations and see where they went wrong, and where that magic can't manage to carry the shitty execution.

"Needful Things" isn't as awful as it could be, but it's closer to bad than to the classic it could have been.

#StephenKing #StephenKingMarathon #needful things

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undertheknightwing · 2 years

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tonight's episode wasn't as emotionally damaging as I was expecting but lets go:

-why is Siol and Noj scratched out of the photo?? Did Ally kill them?? Is that why he wants to kill her. Will she go for Lois and Jon on our earth too?

-Is the cat bizarro Krypto since an opposite of a dog would be a cat? I wanna see more of him, he's just babie eating his cereal

-call me an crazy all you want but DAMN I'm here for villain Anderson. I saw the potential he had as a villain when he was introduced and I'm glad they're going with an antagonist route with him at least for now

-Candice just continues to make my blood boil. "My plan" what the fuck she planned this shit?? Now she's manipulating Jon like Teagan but so much worse. Someone get Jonathan a boyfriend asap because his taste in women is shit. And that come out to my car line?? shut up shut up he's fifteen you creep, thank god Jordan interrupted. Yuck Candice is the personification of red flags.

honestly if Clark and Lois were actually involved in Jon's life outside of football maybe they could have put a stop to all of this before it even started. Yeah all of this is Jon's fault, not saying it isn't because it is but if his parents were keeping a closer eye on the people he's hanging out with and what those people are doing they could have at least tried to step in before it got to this point as parents should instead of letting him do whatever with hopes "he'll do the right thing" yeahh no, he's fifteen, he won't do the right thing. He's not twenty, he still needs parental supervision.

-I'm just gonna *scoops up all of Jon's heat vision scenes* take these, thank you very much.

-Is the x-k is making Jon an asshole? yes. Does he still regret what he does and apologize afterwards, also yes. I hope he meant it when he said he'll stop and if Lois tears into him next week, he probably will. But then that'll mean Jon's story will more than likely be over and he'll go back to standing in the background :/

-and speaking of Lois tearing into Jon next week, I am going to cry when Jon cries. It's a promise, I absolutely will. I'm emotionally attached to this polar bear boy and if he's sad, I'm sad.

Can't wait to see calm and collected Clark team up with his chaotic brother to spite Anderson, Jon have an emotional breakdown, and hopefully figure how the hell Superboy exists! I'm so ready for next week!-- so ready..

#superman and lois

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thattimdrakeguy · 3 years

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I agree snyder isn't pretentious. He does however really want to do his own thing, which can lead to trouble when working with established characters. and he's not great at knowing how to keep audiences watching cause they're enjoying it rather than just confused. and as a director working with established characters, those are kinda important things? an important skill in film directing, is knowing when to cut stuff out. simplify the story. he doesn't do that.

I think that's a completely fair criticism.

While not pretentious, he is a bit stuck on himself and his own interests to the point where people not enjoying his takes on mainstream characters isn't very shocking.

Like I really enjoyed BvS personally. It's an extremely bleak movie, but something about it I just like.

But at the same time, that movie needed a whole revision to simplify it really badly. You got Lois off doing something with the bullet, Clark just looks at TVs sad for a chunk of the movie while being like "THE NEWS NEEDS TO KNOW ABOUT THIS BAT GUY THAT'S BEEN AROUND FOR 20 YEARS AND BEEN TALKED ABOUT", while Batman actually does interesting things.

And it goes back and forth so much that I think it sort of takes people out of it

Have Clark and Lois both try to find out about the bullet or something, to relate to Luthor. Cause Luthor feels barely connected to Superman sometimes cause it's so one-sided that their confrontation doesn't have the heat that it probably should've. Maybe Luthor did something to make it look like Bruce Wayne sent the terrorists bullets. Giving Superman more of a reason for them to fight instead of it literally just happening cause he couldn’t have been bothered to explain what was happening more cause he got ticked off by him.

A lot of great scenes individually in the actual movie, but put together still have something missing. That interconnectedness that filled like an actual story going on, rather than a bunch of scenes put together that are kind of related.

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multiverseforger · 3 years

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In November 2013, Marvel Comics announced that Kamala Khan, a teenage American Muslim from Jersey City, New Jersey, would take over the comic book series Ms. Marvel beginning in February 2014. The series, written by G. Willow Wilson and drawn by Adrian Alphona, marked the first time a Muslim character headlined a book at Marvel Comics.[2] However, Noelene Clark of the Los Angeles Times noted that Khan is not the first Muslim character in comic books, which include Simon Baz, Dust and M.[3] The conception of Kamala Khan came about during a conversation between Marvel editors Sana Amanat and Stephen Wacker. Amanat said, "I was telling him [Wacker] some crazy anecdote about my childhood, growing up as a Muslim American. He found it hilarious." The pair then told Wilson about the concept and Wilson became eager to jump aboard the project.[4] Amanat said that the series came from a "desire to explore the Muslim-American diaspora from an authentic perspective."[5]

Artist Jamie McKelvie based Khan's design on his redesign of Carol Danvers as Captain Marvel and on Dave Cockrum's design of the original Ms. Marvel.[6] Amanat requested that the design "reflected the Captain Marvel legacy, and also her story and her background."[7] Amanat stated that Khan's costume was influenced by the shalwar kameez. They wanted the costume to represent her cultural identity, but did not want her to wear a hijab,[8] because the majority of teenage Pakistani-American girls do not wear one.[9] Amanat also stated that they wanted the character to look "less like a sex siren" to appeal to a more vocal female readership.[8]

Marvel knew that they wanted a young Muslim girl, but stated that she could be from any place of origin and have any background. Wilson initially considered making her an Arab girl from Dearborn, Michigan but ultimately chose to create a Desi girl from Jersey City.[10] Jersey City, which sits across the Hudson River from Manhattan, has been referred to as New York City's "Sixth borough".[11][12][13] It therefore forms an important part of Khan's identity and the narrative journey of her character since most of Marvel Comics' stories are set in Manhattan. Wilson explains, "A huge aspect of Ms. Marvel is being a 'second string hero' in the 'second string city' and having to struggle out of the pathos and emotion that can give a person."[14]

The series not only explores Khan's conflicts with supervillains but also explores conflicts with Khan's home and religious duties. Wilson, a convert to Islam, said "This is not evangelism. It was really important for me to portray Kamala as someone who is struggling with her faith." Wilson continued, "Her brother is extremely conservative, her mom is paranoid that she's going to touch a boy and get pregnant, and her father wants her to concentrate on her studies and become a doctor."[4] Amanat added,

As much as Islam is a part of Kamala's identity, this book isn't preaching about religion or the Islamic faith in particular. It's about what happens when you struggle with the labels imposed on you, and how that forms your sense of self. It's a struggle we've all faced in one form or another, and isn't just particular to Kamala because she's Muslim. Her religion is just one aspect of the many ways she defines herself.[2]

First appearance of Kamala Khan from Captain Marvel #14 (August 2013) by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Scott Hepburn

In the series, Khan takes the name Ms. Marvel from Carol Danvers, who now goes by the alias Captain Marvel. Captain Marvel writer Kelly Sue DeConnick revealed that Khan actually made a brief appearance in Captain Marvel #14 (August 2013) saying, "Kamala is in the background of a scene in Captain Marvel 14 ... She is very deliberately placed in a position where she sees Carol protecting civilians from Yon-Rogg."[15] According to Wilson, Khan idolizes Carol so when Khan acquires superhuman abilities, she emulates Danvers.[14] "Captain Marvel represents an ideal that Kamala pines for. She's strong, beautiful and doesn't have any of the baggage of being Pakistani and 'different,'"[4] Wilson explained. "Khan is a big comic book fan and after she discovers her superhuman power – being a polymorph and able to lengthen her arms and legs and change her shape – she takes on the name of Ms. Marvel," Amanat elaborated.[16] Khan is one of several characters who discover that they have Inhuman heritage following the "Inhumanity" storyline, in which the Terrigen Mists are released throughout the world and activate dormant Inhuman cells.[17]

In the series' first story arc, Khan faces off against Mr. Edison / the Inventor, an amalgam of man and bird. Wilson created the Inventor to be Khan's first arch rival in order to mirror Khan's own complexity. Wilson characterizes the Inventor, and the overall visual look of the opening story arc as "kooky and almost Miyazaki-esque at times", owing to the art style of illustrator Adrian Alphona, which balances the drama of the threats which Khan faces with the humor of Alphona's "tongue in cheek sight gags." During the storyline, Khan also teams-up with the X-Man Wolverine against the Inventor. Because Wolverine is dealing with the loss of his healing factor during this time, Khan is placed in the position of having to shoulder much of the responsibilities, as Wilson felt this was a role reversal that would subvert reader expectations that Wolverine would take the lead in such a team-up.[18]

At the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con International, writer Dan Slott announced that Khan would team-up with Spider-Man beginning in The Amazing Spider-Man #7 (October 2014) during the "Spider-Verse" storyline. Slott characterized Khan "the closest character to classic Peter Parker,"[19] explaining, "She's a teenage superhero, juggling her life, making mistakes, trying to do everything right."[20]

Beginning in June 2015, Ms. Marvel tied into the "Secret Wars" crossover event with the "Last Days" storyline, which details Khan's account of the end of the Marvel Universe. Wilson explained, "In the 'Last Days' story arc, Kamala has to grapple with the end of everything she knows, and discover what it means to be a hero when your whole world is on the line."[21] In the storyline, Khan rushes to deal with the threat in Manhattan. However, Wilson revealed, "She will face a very personal enemy as the chaos in Manhattan spills over into Jersey City, and she will be forced to make some very difficult choices. There will also be a very special guest appearance by a superhero Kamala—and the fans—have been waiting to meet for a long time."[22]

In March 2015, Marvel announced that Khan will join the Avengers in All-New All-Different Avengers FCBD (May 2015) by writer Mark Waid and artists Adam Kubert and Mahmud Asrar, which takes place in the aftermath of "Secret Wars".[23] A second volume of Ms. Marvel starring Khan by Wilson, Alphona and Takeshi Miyazawa is also debuted following "Secret Wars" as part of Marvel's All-New, All-Different Marvel initiative.[24] Amanat said,

By the time this new launch comes around, it will have been almost two years since the premiere of Ms. Marvel—and boy, has Kamala Khan been through a lot since then. She's been slowly coming into her own, dealing with the challenges of navigating adulthood and being a super hero. But her training is over now and it's time for the big leagues; the question is can she handle it? ... As much as Kamala has a right to be there—it's still a bit of a culture shock. Dreaming of being an Avenger and then suddenly being one is a lot to take on for someone of her age. So, she'll be a little awestruck, a little overly ambitious.[25]

In March 2016, Marvel announced that Ms. Marvel would tie into the "Civil War II" storyline by releasing a promotional image illustrating a rift between Khan and Danvers.[26] "While "Civil War II" may have initiated this rift, we've known for some time that Kamala would eventually need to separate herself from her idols. Her journey centers around self-discovery and identity, and a part of that exploration includes separating yourself from those you put on pedestals. The rift between Carol and Kamala doesn't really have to do with right and wrong. It has to do with growing up and realizing that you perceive the world differently from even the ones you love," Amanat elaborated.[27]

In July, Marvel announced that Khan will join the Champions, a team of teenage superheroes who split off from the Avengers following the conclusion of "Civil War II". The team, featured in a series by writer Mark Waid and artist Humberto Ramos, consists of Khan, Spider-Man (Miles Morales), Nova (Sam Alexander), Hulk (Amadeus Cho), Viv Vision, and a teenage version of Cyclops. Waid said, "The first three are the kids who quit the Avengers proper. That was an easy get. Those three, in and of themselves, form a nice little subteam. Their dynamic is great. They all show up in each other's books, and even though they have their arguments and stress points, clearly they're good together."[28]

In August, Khan made an appearance in Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #10 by writers Amy Reeder and Brandon Montclare. In the issue, Khan acts as a mentor to Moon Girl (Lunella Lafayette) who is also a young Inhuman that suddenly came into her powers. Amanat stated that Khan sees much of herself in Lafayette and by teaching her, Khan learns much about herself.[27]

In November, Marvel announced that Khan will join a new incarnation of the Secret Warriors in a series by writer Matthew Rosenberg and artist Javier Garron that debuted in May 2017. The team, formed in the wake of the "Inhumans vs X-Men" storyline, also includes Quake, Karnak, Moon Girl, and Devil Dinosaur. Rosenberg stated that there is some conflict and friction amongst the team members explaining, "Ms. Marvel and Quake are really fighting for the soul of the team in a lot of ways, while Moon Girl will continue to really do her own thing. They will all be tested and challenged, they are superheroes after all, but they are going to do things their way."[29]

In March 2017, Marvel announced that Khan would team-up with Danvers in a one-shot issue of the limited anthology series, Generations by Wilson and Paolo Villanelle. Wilson stated that the issue would explore Danvers' and Khan's mentor–student relationship, but "at its heart, [it] is about growing up, and a big part of growing up is discovering that your idols have feet of clay – and forgiving them for their flaws as you gain an adult understanding of your own."[30]

In December, Ms. Marvel began the "Teenage Wasteland" story arc, as part of the Marvel Legacy relaunch. Wilson said, "Since the events of 'Civil War II', there's been friction between Kamala and her mentor, Captain Marvel. In this arc, we're exploring how complicated legacies can be when they're passed from generation to generation ... She's questioning a lot about herself and her mission. Her friends end up stepping into some very important—and unexpected—roles. So in a sense, the arc is really about a bunch of chronically under-estimated teenagers who pull together to fight evil."[31]

Ms. Marvel #31, the 50th issue of Ms. Marvel featuring Khan was released in June 2018. To mark the occasion, Marvel brought in additional collaborators for the issue including writers: G. Willow Wilson, Saladin Ahmed, Rainbow Rowell, and Hasan Minhaj; and artists: Nico Leon, Bob Quinn, Gustavo Duarte, and Elmo Bondoc.[32]

Beginning in March 2019, Khan headlined a new series titled, The Magnificent Ms. Marvel, written by Ahmed and illustrated by Minkyu Jung. Wilson stated that she had been planning her departure from the series for over a year, stating that she originally anticipated that the series would only last for ten issues and was excited by the fact that she had written 60 issues. Ahmed said the new series will have much wider scope, "while still maintaining that intimate tone that people have loved about it."[33]

In July 2020, Marvel announced that Khan would star in an original graphic novel, published in conjunction with Scholastic and aimed at younger readers. The book will be written by author Nadia Shammas. An illustrator has not yet been named.[34

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forestlingincorporated · 4 years

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Since it seems like some people haven't actually read the origonal Death in the Family, and with the animated movie maybe coming out in the fall, I thought I'd make a quick friendly fandom PSA on what happened in the comic.

So we open with Batman and Robin tracking down pornographers... I'm assuming child pornography, cause I don't think regular pornography was a crime in 1988. Jason is reckless and rough with the criminals, and this is notably after Jason's already maybe-maybe-not pushed an abuser/cocaine trader off a roof. Bruce has a Concern.

So then Bruce's like "maybe I made a mistake and Jay should take a break from being Robin because he's clearly still traumatised" like a hypocrite. Jason does NOT handle this well.

Careful Bruce, that sounds a lot like therapy you're suggesting.

So, Jason goes for a walk to blow off steam and finds himself at his old Crime Alley apartment where he lived with his mom and (sometimes) his dad.

This is Mrs. Walker. She was Jason's neighbor and a friend of his mom. She saved a bunch of the Todd's personal papers when their shit got auctioned off. She sees Jason stop by the apartment and gives him the box.

Meanwhile, Bruce's is handling a case involving the Joker, but nobody cares about the details on that... yet.

Jason goes through the box and finds his birth certificate. But what's this! He can't read his mother's name due to water damage, but that sure looks like an S!

Could it be Catherine Todd isn't his birth mother? (Yes.) Could it be his real mother is... Superman? (No.)

So, Jason's SAD Catherine's not his "real" mom, but then he's happy because that means he might not be an orphan anymore.

So, he finds his dad's old adress book and finds three women with names begining with S: Sharmin Rosen, Shiva Woosan, and Dr. Sheila Haywood. Can I just say? Goddamn, being a low-level Two-Face henchman introduces you to some Interesting people. And Jason gets it in his head that he's going to Find His Birth Mom.

He goes overseas to do just that. Bruce goes overseas on a lead with his Joker case, which happens to put him an Jason in the same spot. Jason "Are You My Mother?"s Sharmin and Shiva. Sharmin says she's never had a baby in Gotham, Shiva says she's never had children - which has notably been retconned, since Cassandra Cain is a few months older than Jason, but wouldn't be invented for several more years.

"Are YOU my mother?!"

So Jason finds Sheila Haywood, who - surprise, surprise - is his bio mom. But oh no, the plot! Remember how there's a Joker plot happening? Well...

So Jason sees the Joker and runs off to tell Bruce who's like "stay put, the plot is happening and I don't want you facing Joker alone." And Jason's like "okay, sure, but..."

Notably, Jason DOESN'T go after the Joker alone. All he tries to do is get his mom to safety, and makes the mistake of telling her he's Robin. And what does Sheila do with this information?

Turns her biological child over to a known violent criminal. And pulls a gun on him.

This is the part most people know. Joker beats Jason with a crow bar (Sheila pretends like it's not happening...) and then she asks him what they're going to do when BATMAN finds out, because she just had to open her big mouth. So Joker decides he can't leave evidence because the Bat only goes "nova" when he's positive someone is guilty, so he and his goons tie Sheila up and leave her and Jason to be exploded.

Jason wakes up and despite being BETRAYED by his birth mom, he still tries to save her. I refuse to say she redeems herself, but she does TRY to rescue both of them, but the door is locked and they get exploded anyway.

This would later be retconned as Deadman possessing Sheila's body, so yeah, Sheila is a huge piece of shit and doesn't even get her one redeeming thing.

When Batman arrives, it should be noted that all he knows is what a dying Sheila tells him, which isn't much. Mostly that the Joker did it and that she doesn't deserve a good, kind child like Jason. BRUCE DOES NOT KNOW JASON DIDN'T INTENTIONALLY CONFRONT THE JOKER. This fact will effect the way he interacts with his children for, oh, the rest of his goddamn life. Bruce's waffling between "Jason was reckless and it got him killed" and "it's all my fault" begins the minute the warehouse explodes, when in reality the only people at fault are the Joker and Shiela Haywood... and, like, those two goons with the Joker, but fuck 'em, I'm pretty sure they dont have names and I think they die via Joker gas or something.

So then there's this whole plot where everyone thinks Bruce wants to kill the Joker, and they don't want him to because Joker is *checks notes* the ambassador of Iran? So he's got diplomatic immunity?

...I'm not gonna touch that.

Anyway, so Superman gets involved. Shit goes down. A helicopter blows up. Bruce begs Clark to find Joker's body in the water, but they imply they can't. As ya do.

And so that's death in the family. Some aspects of it didn't age well from the late 80s to now, but it's overall a really solid story with some very good scenes between Jason and Bruce and I hope the adaptation does it justice and improves on it.

#Batman #Jason Todd #Bruce Wayne #Sheila Haywood #Red Hood #Robin #death in the family

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