Things I'm into: X-Men and Cable (and Deadpool)
I took a recent dive into the Cable side of the X-Men comics and I regret nothing.
I've been reading X-Men comics for nearly my entire life, starting with the Claremont version in the mid-80s. But I never actually had any interest in Cable, who was introduced around the time that my interest in superhero comics took a nosedive (the early to mid 90s were not a good time for comics) and started reading mostly indies and manga instead. I remember him as basically a walking testosterone fantasy in the form of a large slab of muscle with a giant gun, usually depicted via Rob Liefeld's special brand of art (muscles! pouches! tiny feet!).
So imagine my surprise to find out that this dude is pure fangirl catnip. He was raised to be a sort of savior/messiah by a cult 2000 years in the future (which is part of the reason - but only part of the reason - why one of his nicknames in the fandom is G.I. Jesus); he suffers from a "techno-organic virus" (don't ask) that forces him to constantly use his telekinesis to keep it from overwhelming and killing him (hence his default state is "in constant pain and exhausted"); throw in a highly conflicted relationship with his "we didn't meet until I was older than you because you sent me into the future to be raised by a cult" dad Cyclops, a snarky-affectionate bond with his arguably-best-friend Deadpool, and a loving-yet-difficult relationship with his adopted daughter Hope (who he raised in a post-apocalyptic wasteland while being pursued by a time-traveling killer; long story, but you haven't lived 'til you've seen Cable, who is basically 400 lbs of solid muscle and guns, running around with a baby strapped to his chest); plus, he's actually a genuinely sweet and surprisingly laid-back guy (when he's not going partial-supervillain and trying to take over the world with the best of intentions, and/or coming up with plans that involve his own death - seriously, I've been reading these comics for a week, and he's already died THREE TIMES), and a lot of the Cable-focused comics are really good, particularly the X-Men Messiah Complex/Second Coming storyline (this is the one that introduces Hope), and the entire run of Cable & Deadpool, which is both hilarious and adorable.
... so yeah. I'm having fun! And since he's been in almost everything Marvel puts out on the X-Men side of things since the early '90s (except when he's dead), there's plenty to read. If you haven't read any of his comics, the Cable & Deadpool series from the early '00s is actually a really good place to start (collected as Deadpool & Cable just to make things more difficult). It's funny, sweet, and both the writing and art are really solid. If you, like me, have a thing for gruff reluctant mentor/dad-figures and their adopted little girls, the Cable series from the late '00s has the Hope storyline (it starts in X-Men: Messiah Complex and finishes up in X-Men: Second Coming, but in between there's like 50 issues of solo Cable comics which are mainly focused on Cable and Hope running around in the desert while he raises her from a baby and teaches her to shoot big guns and survive in the wilderness, and various people they meet along the way.
A side note on that storyline: one thing I absolutely love about it is that there's not even a whiff of Mr. Mom-type, guys-can't-take-care-of-babies nonsense. He's actually good at it! The things he doesn't know are things you legit wouldn't know if you hadn't been around small babies (like the finer points of what to feed them), but he's completely dedicated to this kid from day one, he's competent at taking care of her, and he works his ass off making sure she's fed and protected and safe. It's great.
(The one thing I do kinda wish is that they hadn't made Hope yet another red-headed Jean Grey type. For one thing, since her costume is strongly reminiscent of Jean's, it makes her difficult to recognize in pictures. Making things even worse, there's an entire subplot in the Cable comics where he romances a woman who is ALSO a red-haired Jean Grey type and basically looks like a grown-up Hope. It's not that there's even a hint of anything inappropriate in the relationship that he and Hope have - they're completely adorable, and have turned into one of my favorite things in Marvel comics from the last decade - but c'mon, X-Men writers, there are more looks for women than "long red hair", y'know.)
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I've been reading X-Men comics for nearly my entire life, starting with the Claremont version in the mid-80s. But I never actually had any interest in Cable, who was introduced around the time that my interest in superhero comics took a nosedive (the early to mid 90s were not a good time for comics) and started reading mostly indies and manga instead. I remember him as basically a walking testosterone fantasy in the form of a large slab of muscle with a giant gun, usually depicted via Rob Liefeld's special brand of art (muscles! pouches! tiny feet!).
So imagine my surprise to find out that this dude is pure fangirl catnip. He was raised to be a sort of savior/messiah by a cult 2000 years in the future (which is part of the reason - but only part of the reason - why one of his nicknames in the fandom is G.I. Jesus); he suffers from a "techno-organic virus" (don't ask) that forces him to constantly use his telekinesis to keep it from overwhelming and killing him (hence his default state is "in constant pain and exhausted"); throw in a highly conflicted relationship with his "we didn't meet until I was older than you because you sent me into the future to be raised by a cult" dad Cyclops, a snarky-affectionate bond with his arguably-best-friend Deadpool, and a loving-yet-difficult relationship with his adopted daughter Hope (who he raised in a post-apocalyptic wasteland while being pursued by a time-traveling killer; long story, but you haven't lived 'til you've seen Cable, who is basically 400 lbs of solid muscle and guns, running around with a baby strapped to his chest); plus, he's actually a genuinely sweet and surprisingly laid-back guy (when he's not going partial-supervillain and trying to take over the world with the best of intentions, and/or coming up with plans that involve his own death - seriously, I've been reading these comics for a week, and he's already died THREE TIMES), and a lot of the Cable-focused comics are really good, particularly the X-Men Messiah Complex/Second Coming storyline (this is the one that introduces Hope), and the entire run of Cable & Deadpool, which is both hilarious and adorable.
... so yeah. I'm having fun! And since he's been in almost everything Marvel puts out on the X-Men side of things since the early '90s (except when he's dead), there's plenty to read. If you haven't read any of his comics, the Cable & Deadpool series from the early '00s is actually a really good place to start (collected as Deadpool & Cable just to make things more difficult). It's funny, sweet, and both the writing and art are really solid. If you, like me, have a thing for gruff reluctant mentor/dad-figures and their adopted little girls, the Cable series from the late '00s has the Hope storyline (it starts in X-Men: Messiah Complex and finishes up in X-Men: Second Coming, but in between there's like 50 issues of solo Cable comics which are mainly focused on Cable and Hope running around in the desert while he raises her from a baby and teaches her to shoot big guns and survive in the wilderness, and various people they meet along the way.
A side note on that storyline: one thing I absolutely love about it is that there's not even a whiff of Mr. Mom-type, guys-can't-take-care-of-babies nonsense. He's actually good at it! The things he doesn't know are things you legit wouldn't know if you hadn't been around small babies (like the finer points of what to feed them), but he's completely dedicated to this kid from day one, he's competent at taking care of her, and he works his ass off making sure she's fed and protected and safe. It's great.
(The one thing I do kinda wish is that they hadn't made Hope yet another red-headed Jean Grey type. For one thing, since her costume is strongly reminiscent of Jean's, it makes her difficult to recognize in pictures. Making things even worse, there's an entire subplot in the Cable comics where he romances a woman who is ALSO a red-haired Jean Grey type and basically looks like a grown-up Hope. It's not that there's even a hint of anything inappropriate in the relationship that he and Hope have - they're completely adorable, and have turned into one of my favorite things in Marvel comics from the last decade - but c'mon, X-Men writers, there are more looks for women than "long red hair", y'know.)
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Lackadaisy
Last night I finally got around to doing something I've been meaning to do for ages, which is reading through the archives of the Prohibition-era noirish webcomic Lackadaisy. I've probably set a world record for procrastinating on reading it, because I've been aware of it for almost the entire time the artist has been doing it (... it started in 2006), and in fact have been following her on Tumblr for the last couple of years because her art's really pretty and I wanted the reminder that I need to sit down and read this thing, since I figured it would be 100% my cup of tea.
And it really is. It's gorgeous, funny, bleak, and sharply characterized -- a lot more of all of these things than you'd realize from the first few pages, which are Looney-Tunes-esque hijinks with a hapless, incompetent bootlegger going through various mishaps trying to get a shipment of moonshine for the stylish boss he's got a crush on. (Just FYI, the characters are all cats, but you get used to that pretty quickly.)
And once the plot starts to kick in, it turns out that these aren't sanitized bootleggers; they're really awful people. We first meet one of the main characters drenched in blood and wielding a hatchet after coolly chopping up an informant to be fed to pigs. One of the characters can't climb stairs because his knees don't work; we later learn that this is because one of the other protagonists kneecapped him (probably in self-defense). One of the sweetest, nicest characters in the comic goes axe-crazy when threatened and backed against a wall, and the others actively encourage this despite the horrendous psychological toll it's clearly taking on him and the fact that he doesn't even want to be in the gang, because they're cash-strapped and need cheap muscle.
So basically it's not feel-good, edges-sanded-off noir, but it's also got that thing I fall for every time, with a broken group of people being each other's family and scrambling through the wreckage of their lives and the fallout from their own poor life choices trying to put something together that's better than what they had before. (Though in this case, it's more of a broken, dysfunctional family than a happy one.) I really loved all of them by the time I caught up with the newest updates, even the ones I didn't really like at first.
And the art's just gorgeous. I mean, look at this. Or this. Or here.
Being as it's noir, and there's also a hurtling-towards-disaster kind of feeling overall, I suspect that no one's going to come out well; I wouldn't be surprised if the whole thing ends in a blaze of glory shootout or something like that. I fully expect to have my heart ripped out by the end. But I loved it enough to go and pledge to the artist's Patreon just to see the behind-the-scenes bits and process art. I recommend it highly, especially if you like period stuff.
Once you've read the main story, definitely read the side comics and character bios too; they're hilarious.
The comic archive starts here.
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And it really is. It's gorgeous, funny, bleak, and sharply characterized -- a lot more of all of these things than you'd realize from the first few pages, which are Looney-Tunes-esque hijinks with a hapless, incompetent bootlegger going through various mishaps trying to get a shipment of moonshine for the stylish boss he's got a crush on. (Just FYI, the characters are all cats, but you get used to that pretty quickly.)
And once the plot starts to kick in, it turns out that these aren't sanitized bootleggers; they're really awful people. We first meet one of the main characters drenched in blood and wielding a hatchet after coolly chopping up an informant to be fed to pigs. One of the characters can't climb stairs because his knees don't work; we later learn that this is because one of the other protagonists kneecapped him (probably in self-defense). One of the sweetest, nicest characters in the comic goes axe-crazy when threatened and backed against a wall, and the others actively encourage this despite the horrendous psychological toll it's clearly taking on him and the fact that he doesn't even want to be in the gang, because they're cash-strapped and need cheap muscle.
So basically it's not feel-good, edges-sanded-off noir, but it's also got that thing I fall for every time, with a broken group of people being each other's family and scrambling through the wreckage of their lives and the fallout from their own poor life choices trying to put something together that's better than what they had before. (Though in this case, it's more of a broken, dysfunctional family than a happy one.) I really loved all of them by the time I caught up with the newest updates, even the ones I didn't really like at first.
And the art's just gorgeous. I mean, look at this. Or this. Or here.
Being as it's noir, and there's also a hurtling-towards-disaster kind of feeling overall, I suspect that no one's going to come out well; I wouldn't be surprised if the whole thing ends in a blaze of glory shootout or something like that. I fully expect to have my heart ripped out by the end. But I loved it enough to go and pledge to the artist's Patreon just to see the behind-the-scenes bits and process art. I recommend it highly, especially if you like period stuff.
Once you've read the main story, definitely read the side comics and character bios too; they're hilarious.
The comic archive starts here.
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I'm reading Archie comics again; how did this happen
So I picked up the first tpb of the Mark Waid/Fiona Staples Archie, and it's actually ... good?! In a very homagey kind of way -- having read a lot of these comics when I was a kid, I like how Waid is incorporating a lot of the old comics' tropes (such as the JD-on-Scrubs-style dips into fantasy, or the asides to the reader) and yet somehow manages to stay on the "cute and funny" side of the line instead of tipping over into "embarrassingly cheesy." I liked it enough to go ahead and get the second of the collected volumes as well. I think that was about all I can handle for awhile; I've reached my limit for semi-pointless teen love-triangle shenanigans for the time being -- especially knowing that it's unlikely to ever be resolved in any way, because it's Archie comics -- but I did have fun and I don't regret buying them. I particularly like the new take on Betty, who was always my favorite character back in the day, and is even more so now.
(They only have Staples for the first 3 issues, but the later artists are pretty good too.)
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(They only have Staples for the first 3 issues, but the later artists are pretty good too.)
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One more thing ...
... which is not actually about the movie. It's about the previews before the movie and the kids sitting next to me.
We were sitting next to a row of really young kids (grade school age). They were perfectly well-behaved throughout the movie -- I hardly even knew they were there. But one thing that got them excited was the preview for Batman v. Superman. Obviously they knew these characters well! They were chattering about it throughout the preview and at the end, I heard one of the kids -- a little girl, I think -- say firmly to the others, "This would never happen in real life because they're friends!"
You tell 'em, little kid.
(Also, we went to Avengers on a Saturday matinee and that movie, as long as it is, was FULL of captivated little kids. DC, why aren't you making kid-friendly movies? Your audience is RIGHT THERE!)
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We were sitting next to a row of really young kids (grade school age). They were perfectly well-behaved throughout the movie -- I hardly even knew they were there. But one thing that got them excited was the preview for Batman v. Superman. Obviously they knew these characters well! They were chattering about it throughout the preview and at the end, I heard one of the kids -- a little girl, I think -- say firmly to the others, "This would never happen in real life because they're friends!"
You tell 'em, little kid.
(Also, we went to Avengers on a Saturday matinee and that movie, as long as it is, was FULL of captivated little kids. DC, why aren't you making kid-friendly movies? Your audience is RIGHT THERE!)
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I am watching Daredevil 1x02 ...
.... and I have a comics-related squeeeeeee.
( Kinda spoilery - okay, now it got more spoilery as I added stuffCollapse )
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( Kinda spoilery - okay, now it got more spoilery as I added stuffCollapse )
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Saga #25
A couple of brief, vaguely spoilery comments on the new issue of Saga ...
( SpoilersCollapse )
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( SpoilersCollapse )
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A far more spoilery Saga post
This is nothing like a coherently thoughtful post, and more like disconnected thoughts that I had while reading the comic.
( Spoilers through the fourth GN, i.e. through Saga #24Collapse )
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( Spoilers through the fourth GN, i.e. through Saga #24Collapse )
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Saga (the - mostly - non-spoiler post)
I recced this on Tumblr but not here - I read Saga by Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples this past week (comic book series from Image, 4 graphic novels so far), and it is amazing. I think the last thing I read/watched that made me have this overwhelming I WANT TO REC THIS TO EVERYBODY urge was Orphan Black.
The caveat: It is very graphic (explicit sex/graphic violence). Despite this, I'm having trouble thinking off the top of my head of anything that might be specifically triggery for common triggers; there is a character who is a victim of childhood sexual abuse, but it's not dealt with in detail. However, be aware that this comic really doesn't pull punches and lots of awful things happen. Graphically.
Okay now, having said that: I really think this is one of the best comics I've ever read, and I have read a LOT of comics. The writing, plotting, dialogue, worldbuilding, and characterization is top-notch. The art is absolutely gorgeous. The world/universe is fantastically creative (I think of the various stuff I've read, it reminds me the most of Ian M. Banks's stuff, in its amazingly creative weirdness) and it runs the gamut from funny and sweet, to exciting, to heartbreaking and awful. I have a terrible suspicion that it's going to break my heart in the end, but I still think the ride will have been worth it.
I absolutely love the characters, and the way that, even though the actual plot of the comic is an action-packed thing about war and space battles and assassins, the whole thing is really about love and family at heart. All kinds of love. Romantic love is definitely a thing, but there's probably even more of an emphasis on the parent-child bond (birth children and adopted children; babies and grown-up children). There are siblings and families of circumstance and people uneasily teaming up for a common goal. The cast is so casually diverse that it's not even really a thing -- like, at one point there's a subplot involving three female characters off on a quest (four if you count the giant semi-sapient cat), none of them conventionally pretty white women, one canonically bisexual and one probably some sort of queer based on her androgynous gender presentation (this is what she looks like), and it's not even something I really thought about except in retrospect while writing this rec; it's just what the comic is.
Right now the four GNs contain all the story that's out so far, but there's a new issue coming out on Feb. 4, so I feel like I picked exactly the right time to jump on.
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The caveat: It is very graphic (explicit sex/graphic violence). Despite this, I'm having trouble thinking off the top of my head of anything that might be specifically triggery for common triggers; there is a character who is a victim of childhood sexual abuse, but it's not dealt with in detail. However, be aware that this comic really doesn't pull punches and lots of awful things happen. Graphically.
Okay now, having said that: I really think this is one of the best comics I've ever read, and I have read a LOT of comics. The writing, plotting, dialogue, worldbuilding, and characterization is top-notch. The art is absolutely gorgeous. The world/universe is fantastically creative (I think of the various stuff I've read, it reminds me the most of Ian M. Banks's stuff, in its amazingly creative weirdness) and it runs the gamut from funny and sweet, to exciting, to heartbreaking and awful. I have a terrible suspicion that it's going to break my heart in the end, but I still think the ride will have been worth it.
I absolutely love the characters, and the way that, even though the actual plot of the comic is an action-packed thing about war and space battles and assassins, the whole thing is really about love and family at heart. All kinds of love. Romantic love is definitely a thing, but there's probably even more of an emphasis on the parent-child bond (birth children and adopted children; babies and grown-up children). There are siblings and families of circumstance and people uneasily teaming up for a common goal. The cast is so casually diverse that it's not even really a thing -- like, at one point there's a subplot involving three female characters off on a quest (four if you count the giant semi-sapient cat), none of them conventionally pretty white women, one canonically bisexual and one probably some sort of queer based on her androgynous gender presentation (this is what she looks like), and it's not even something I really thought about except in retrospect while writing this rec; it's just what the comic is.
Right now the four GNs contain all the story that's out so far, but there's a new issue coming out on Feb. 4, so I feel like I picked exactly the right time to jump on.
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squeeeeee
It doesn't come out 'til next week, but there's a 5-page preview out now for Bucky Barnes: Winter Soldier #2. I am still absolutely adoring this comic (and it looks like the art is getting a little easier to follow compared to last issue).
Also, I'm pretty sure it manages not to joss the tag scene I wrote for the previous comic, so there's also that.
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Also, I'm pretty sure it manages not to joss the tag scene I wrote for the previous comic, so there's also that.
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Maundering on Kismet and general creative stuff
Not precisely part of the DVD commentary meme, but I was asked about Elaine (from Kismet) and her timeline in the comments to this Kismet page, so I got to ramble about the difference between the Elaine short stories vs. her appearances in the comic.
I think one thing that's been really interesting (and surprising) to me since I started up the webcomic again is how MUCH Kismet is lurking in my brain. I haven't actively worked on it since 2009, but it's pretty much all still there, in detail up to and including everyone's birthdates and the dates of important events (though some of it I have to work backward from the current date to remember) and, of course, an absolute shitload of detail on characterization, the current political situation, etc. The point, I guess, is that so far I haven't actually had to look up anything -- I've occasionally had my memory jogged on random bits of canon as I've been going through the old stuff (and I do have to look back at the Hunter's Moon pages to remember some of the minor visual details of the comic, like where the patches on Fleetwood's jacket are located), but it's really fascinating to me because it's all been buried in my brain so long and now that it's resurfacing, I don't feel as if I've lost any of it.
... as opposed to the often short-term way that I load information for fanfic when I'm in a fandom. I think this is maybe one of the key aspects of how my brain deals differently with my original worlds versus fan worlds, because while I'm actively reading/writing in a fandom, I have a tremendous amount of canon information front-loaded -- it is definitely all there, all the characterization stuff and the backstory and everything. But it starts to slip and get overwritten once I leave the fandom. I noticed towards the end of my time in SGA fandom, particularly, that I was failing at some of the canon details in the last couple of fics that I wrote for it. (Someone pointed out a detail in the comments to one of my very last SGA fics that made me realize I'd forgotten Rodney's lemon allergy. Um. Yeah.) I think I could still write for my old fandoms, but in most cases it'd be a struggle and I'd have to re-familiarize myself with canon first.
But the original worlds -- even the (absolutely ridiculous) fantasy-romance novel I wrote when I was a teenager is still all there, and without even looking at it, I bet I could sit down right now and write a conversation between any two of those characters that's still totally in character and has all their backstory intact, even though it's been 20 years since I wrote them or even thought about them. They still live in here.
Random link of the day: here is a nifty-looking comics anthology that is taking submissions on the theme of exploration, colonization and contact, if you are into that sort of thing!
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I think one thing that's been really interesting (and surprising) to me since I started up the webcomic again is how MUCH Kismet is lurking in my brain. I haven't actively worked on it since 2009, but it's pretty much all still there, in detail up to and including everyone's birthdates and the dates of important events (though some of it I have to work backward from the current date to remember) and, of course, an absolute shitload of detail on characterization, the current political situation, etc. The point, I guess, is that so far I haven't actually had to look up anything -- I've occasionally had my memory jogged on random bits of canon as I've been going through the old stuff (and I do have to look back at the Hunter's Moon pages to remember some of the minor visual details of the comic, like where the patches on Fleetwood's jacket are located), but it's really fascinating to me because it's all been buried in my brain so long and now that it's resurfacing, I don't feel as if I've lost any of it.
... as opposed to the often short-term way that I load information for fanfic when I'm in a fandom. I think this is maybe one of the key aspects of how my brain deals differently with my original worlds versus fan worlds, because while I'm actively reading/writing in a fandom, I have a tremendous amount of canon information front-loaded -- it is definitely all there, all the characterization stuff and the backstory and everything. But it starts to slip and get overwritten once I leave the fandom. I noticed towards the end of my time in SGA fandom, particularly, that I was failing at some of the canon details in the last couple of fics that I wrote for it. (Someone pointed out a detail in the comments to one of my very last SGA fics that made me realize I'd forgotten Rodney's lemon allergy. Um. Yeah.) I think I could still write for my old fandoms, but in most cases it'd be a struggle and I'd have to re-familiarize myself with canon first.
But the original worlds -- even the (absolutely ridiculous) fantasy-romance novel I wrote when I was a teenager is still all there, and without even looking at it, I bet I could sit down right now and write a conversation between any two of those characters that's still totally in character and has all their backstory intact, even though it's been 20 years since I wrote them or even thought about them. They still live in here.
Random link of the day: here is a nifty-looking comics anthology that is taking submissions on the theme of exploration, colonization and contact, if you are into that sort of thing!
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Comics and fandom stuff
I'm pleasantly surprised at how much I like the new Ales Kot/Marco Rudy Winter Soldier comic. I was kinda expecting to dislike it, or at least to be unhappy with the new direction of the character, and instead I love it and I'm really looking forward to the next issue. I think partly this is because it has a nice indy vibe -- the overall feel of the comic is much more like an indy sci-fi comic than a superhero comic; some of the reviews compared it to Heavy Metal which I think is also accurate -- but also, I was honestly expecting wall-to-wall angst, darkness and manpain, and instead it's entertaining and fun and even funny at times, with gorgeous (if confusing) art. I'm not familiar with Daisy Johnson as a character, but I like her a lot so far, and her dynamic with Bucky is a lot of fun.
Also, the comic pretty much had me when ( Spoilers, I guessCollapse )
My only real complaint is that I wish the art wasn't so hard to follow -- although I love the actual look of it. And it's complex enough that you have to go back and reread pages to pick up details you missed the first time, which is always a plus for me.
But yeah, ever since this was announced I've been thinking it was going to be very much not my cup of tea, and instead it very much is, so I'm really happy about that. (And now I need to track down some of the other comics with Daisy in them. THE COMICS RABBIT HOLE, IT JUST KEEPS GOING DOWN.)
In completely other news, Tim DeKay was cast on Agents of SHIELD ... playing Grant Ward's brother. *cries* Among other things, it means that the TDK tag on Tumblr is now full of AoS stuff from the Grant Ward side of the fandom, which I had been doing so well at avoiding. Thanks a bunch, casting gods.
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Also, the comic pretty much had me when ( Spoilers, I guessCollapse )
My only real complaint is that I wish the art wasn't so hard to follow -- although I love the actual look of it. And it's complex enough that you have to go back and reread pages to pick up details you missed the first time, which is always a plus for me.
But yeah, ever since this was announced I've been thinking it was going to be very much not my cup of tea, and instead it very much is, so I'm really happy about that. (And now I need to track down some of the other comics with Daisy in them. THE COMICS RABBIT HOLE, IT JUST KEEPS GOING DOWN.)
In completely other news, Tim DeKay was cast on Agents of SHIELD ... playing Grant Ward's brother. *cries* Among other things, it means that the TDK tag on Tumblr is now full of AoS stuff from the Grant Ward side of the fandom, which I had been doing so well at avoiding. Thanks a bunch, casting gods.
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(no subject)
I FINISHED MY NOVEL EDITS. This calls for a glass of wine and some relaxation. (I think I'll give it a final pass before sending it in the morning, but I am done, done, DONE! \o/)
And I keep meaning to make more posts about the comics I am reading lately, so I guess I will do a quick roundup on that topic. Some of what I've read in the last few weeks:
Black Widow #1-6 and #8 - Really great, with absolutely gorgeous art! ( Spoilers and speculationCollapse )
Winter Soldier: The Bitter March #1-5 - Not precisely good (especially the art, ugh) but a lot more fun than I was expecting, except for that WTF trainwreck of an ending. ( SpoilersCollapse )
Young Avengers vols 1-3 (the Gillen run) - I am SO glad that various people on my flist turned me onto this, because it's great and I love it! ( Mild spoilersCollapse )
New Invaders #1-5 - Not entirely my cup of tea, but not bad. ( Further comments, not really spoileryCollapse )
Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Avengers - Meh. I picked this up mostly to get to know the characters in advance of the movie, but it didn't really engage me much. I hope the movie is better. On the bright side, it has mini-origin stories for each character, so it does make a pretty good introduction for someone (like me) who has no familiarity with them at all. And Tony is in it. So there's that.
Lumberjanes #1-2 - It's a good comic but not really for me. I wanted to read it because it's drawn by Gingerhaze, of Nimona (if you are not reading Nimona you should check it out; it's great!), and is all about girls at summer camp having adventures. I think this would be a great comic to give to a kid in the grade-school-to-young-teen age range, and it has a lovely diverse array of female features and body types. But it didn't really engage me enough to keep reading it.
Comics I plan to try next: Saga (which I would actually have bought on my last comic-shop run, except they'd just sold out of volume 1), She-Hulk, and maybe the next volume of Daredevil.
I also appear to have tripped and ordered the Winter Soldier movie art book on Amazon as a birthday present to myself. Oops.
This entry is also posted at http://sholio.dreamwidth.org/96116… with
comments.
And I keep meaning to make more posts about the comics I am reading lately, so I guess I will do a quick roundup on that topic. Some of what I've read in the last few weeks:
Black Widow #1-6 and #8 - Really great, with absolutely gorgeous art! ( Spoilers and speculationCollapse )
Winter Soldier: The Bitter March #1-5 - Not precisely good (especially the art, ugh) but a lot more fun than I was expecting, except for that WTF trainwreck of an ending. ( SpoilersCollapse )
Young Avengers vols 1-3 (the Gillen run) - I am SO glad that various people on my flist turned me onto this, because it's great and I love it! ( Mild spoilersCollapse )
New Invaders #1-5 - Not entirely my cup of tea, but not bad. ( Further comments, not really spoileryCollapse )
Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Avengers - Meh. I picked this up mostly to get to know the characters in advance of the movie, but it didn't really engage me much. I hope the movie is better. On the bright side, it has mini-origin stories for each character, so it does make a pretty good introduction for someone (like me) who has no familiarity with them at all. And Tony is in it. So there's that.
Lumberjanes #1-2 - It's a good comic but not really for me. I wanted to read it because it's drawn by Gingerhaze, of Nimona (if you are not reading Nimona you should check it out; it's great!), and is all about girls at summer camp having adventures. I think this would be a great comic to give to a kid in the grade-school-to-young-teen age range, and it has a lovely diverse array of female features and body types. But it didn't really engage me enough to keep reading it.
Comics I plan to try next: Saga (which I would actually have bought on my last comic-shop run, except they'd just sold out of volume 1), She-Hulk, and maybe the next volume of Daredevil.
I also appear to have tripped and ordered the Winter Soldier movie art book on Amazon as a birthday present to myself. Oops.
This entry is also posted at http://sholio.dreamwidth.org/96116… with
Unexpectedly relevant to my interests
(Also posted on Tumblr)
I've been working my way through New Avengers lately. I admit that I started reading it mostly for Bucky (he's a team member during his Captain America phase) but I've really fallen for everyone; I have a longstanding love of Luke Cage dating back to the '80s, and everyone else is pretty great too. I really enjoy the characters, the domesticity, and the overall second-string-superheroes vibe of the team.
I picked up Siege: New Avengers the other day, and to my surprise and delight, got both Captain Americas and a little bit of Bucky-Steve h/c.
( A few scans under the cutCollapse )
In conclusion, who do I have to bribe at Marvel to get Steve in black commando gear in the next Captain America movie?
This entry is also posted at http://sholio.dreamwidth.org/95397… with
comments.
I've been working my way through New Avengers lately. I admit that I started reading it mostly for Bucky (he's a team member during his Captain America phase) but I've really fallen for everyone; I have a longstanding love of Luke Cage dating back to the '80s, and everyone else is pretty great too. I really enjoy the characters, the domesticity, and the overall second-string-superheroes vibe of the team.
I picked up Siege: New Avengers the other day, and to my surprise and delight, got both Captain Americas and a little bit of Bucky-Steve h/c.
( A few scans under the cutCollapse )
In conclusion, who do I have to bribe at Marvel to get Steve in black commando gear in the next Captain America movie?
This entry is also posted at http://sholio.dreamwidth.org/95397… with
Winter Soldier comics storyline versus the movie
I mentioned a bit earlier that I'd do a post comparing the movie and comics versions of the Winter Soldier storyline. And this is that post!
( Abundant spoilers, obviouslyCollapse )
This entry is also posted at http://sholio.dreamwidth.org/94884… with
comments.
( Abundant spoilers, obviouslyCollapse )
This entry is also posted at http://sholio.dreamwidth.org/94884… with
Just keep moving, nothing to see here
The Captain America comics, you guys.
I am losing the ability to can.
( CA comics spoilers and general squeeful flailtastic incoherency; you know what I'm like when I have a new shinyCollapse )
P.S. On a completely different note, there's a total lunar eclipse tonight! It's visible mostly from North America and will be at maximum eclipse for the next hour or so. If your skies are clear, look to the southeast; it is very red and cool. It looks like a moon on an alien planet.
This entry is also posted at http://sholio.dreamwidth.org/94724… with
comments.
I am losing the ability to can.
( CA comics spoilers and general squeeful flailtastic incoherency; you know what I'm like when I have a new shinyCollapse )
P.S. On a completely different note, there's a total lunar eclipse tonight! It's visible mostly from North America and will be at maximum eclipse for the next hour or so. If your skies are clear, look to the southeast; it is very red and cool. It looks like a moon on an alien planet.
This entry is also posted at http://sholio.dreamwidth.org/94724… with
*squeal of nerdly glee*
http://marvel.com/news/story/21476…
Marvel and Netflix are developing four new Marvel-themed miniseries to be broadcast as Netflix original series starting in 2015. Namely:
The two '80s Marvel comics that I was most addicted to as a kid were "X-Men" and "Power Man & Iron Fist". I have wanted live-actions versions of Luke and Danny (and Misty and Colleen, pleasepleaseplease) FOREVER, and one of the specific aspects of the comic I always really loved was that it was mostly about ordinary people and very low-powered superheroes/supervillains rather than dealing with the big world-saving stuff. I know this is still a long ways out, and it could fall through or the casting could suck or who knows, but it would be wonderful if this works out!
This entry is also posted at http://sholio.dreamwidth.org/92315… with
comments.
Marvel and Netflix are developing four new Marvel-themed miniseries to be broadcast as Netflix original series starting in 2015. Namely:
Led by a series focused on "Daredevil," followed by "Jessica Jones," "Iron Fist" and "Luke Cage," the epic will unfold over multiple years of original programming, taking Netflix members deep into the gritty world of heroes and villains of Hell's Kitchen, New York. Netflix has committed to a minimum of four, thirteen episodes series and a culminating Marvel's "The Defenders" mini-series event that reimagines a dream team of self-sacrificing, heroic characters.
The two '80s Marvel comics that I was most addicted to as a kid were "X-Men" and "Power Man & Iron Fist". I have wanted live-actions versions of Luke and Danny (and Misty and Colleen, pleasepleaseplease) FOREVER, and one of the specific aspects of the comic I always really loved was that it was mostly about ordinary people and very low-powered superheroes/supervillains rather than dealing with the big world-saving stuff. I know this is still a long ways out, and it could fall through or the casting could suck or who knows, but it would be wonderful if this works out!
This entry is also posted at http://sholio.dreamwidth.org/92315… with
Avatar comic: The Search
I picked up Part 1 of The Search today (the new A:tLA tie-in comic).
... these are canon, right? At least that's my understanding -- that they're being written with input from the original creators, and everything that happens is creator-sanctioned and canonical.
( Spoilers for part one of 'The Search'Collapse )
This entry is also posted at http://sholio.dreamwidth.org/88775… with
comments.
... these are canon, right? At least that's my understanding -- that they're being written with input from the original creators, and everything that happens is creator-sanctioned and canonical.
( Spoilers for part one of 'The Search'Collapse )
This entry is also posted at http://sholio.dreamwidth.org/88775… with
100 Things #6
100 Things: 100 favorite scenes from anything (books, movies, TV, fanfic, etc)
Scene #6: The final page-turn in "Transmetropolitan"
If you haven't read it, Transmetropolitan (Transmet for short) is a series of comics by Warren Ellis that is basically about a not-even-thinly-disguised version of Hunter S. Thompson in a dystopic sci-fi future. If you have a high tolerance for (very funny) vulgarity, if you appreciate (or at least can tolerate) political satire, if you like complicated and layered stories that can switch from hilarious to shockingly dark in the course of a single page, then you should at least check out the first book.
And if you haven't read it and plan to, unless you are a total spoiler aficionado, you REALLY should NOT read what's under the cut! In some ways, the whole series is building to the last issue and the last couple pages of that issue. It's still one of my favorite endings of anything ever, in part because it's so unexpected and yet so well set up by what went before.
( The last couple of pages of Transmet (there is also a very spoilery trigger warning under the cut)Collapse )
This entry is also posted at http://sholio.dreamwidth.org/82720… with
comments.
Scene #6: The final page-turn in "Transmetropolitan"
If you haven't read it, Transmetropolitan (Transmet for short) is a series of comics by Warren Ellis that is basically about a not-even-thinly-disguised version of Hunter S. Thompson in a dystopic sci-fi future. If you have a high tolerance for (very funny) vulgarity, if you appreciate (or at least can tolerate) political satire, if you like complicated and layered stories that can switch from hilarious to shockingly dark in the course of a single page, then you should at least check out the first book.
And if you haven't read it and plan to, unless you are a total spoiler aficionado, you REALLY should NOT read what's under the cut! In some ways, the whole series is building to the last issue and the last couple pages of that issue. It's still one of my favorite endings of anything ever, in part because it's so unexpected and yet so well set up by what went before.
( The last couple of pages of Transmet (there is also a very spoilery trigger warning under the cut)Collapse )
This entry is also posted at http://sholio.dreamwidth.org/82720… with
Spamming my flist today: Ex Machina fic recs
I'm still loving the comic Ex Machina (and desperately hoping that the ending doesn't totally fall flat and/or kill off a bunch of characters, since the last issue comes out later this month), but fanfic for it is really thin on the ground. On the off chance that anyone on my flist is interested (and for my own reference), here are a few I've found that I liked - no spoilers under the cut, though the stories themselves may contain light spoilers for earlier parts of the series.
( Four Ex Machina fic recs, gen and Mitchell/BradburyCollapse )
I need to remember to put this one on my request-for-Yuletide list, assuming that I don't hate it after finding out how it ends.
( Four Ex Machina fic recs, gen and Mitchell/BradburyCollapse )
I need to remember to put this one on my request-for-Yuletide list, assuming that I don't hate it after finding out how it ends.
Ex Machina
Hmm, I've tumbled for a new comic series -- Brian Vaughan & Tony Harris's Ex Machina. This is the first time I've been actively enthusiastic about a currently-running series from a mainstream US publisher since Transmetropolitan finished its run. (I really wanted to like Birds of Prey, but I just found the art actively offputting. Maybe I should try it again?)
So far, I've only read the first two books - "The First Hundred Days" and "Tag". Please don't spoiler me for later developments in the comments! I'll probably get the rest over the next couple of weeks. I'd like to get caught up while the series is currently running (I think it concludes with issue #50?).
( Spoilers for the first two booksCollapse )
Huh, I don't have a comics tag! Well, now I do.
So far, I've only read the first two books - "The First Hundred Days" and "Tag". Please don't spoiler me for later developments in the comments! I'll probably get the rest over the next couple of weeks. I'd like to get caught up while the series is currently running (I think it concludes with issue #50?).
( Spoilers for the first two booksCollapse )
Huh, I don't have a comics tag! Well, now I do.