#Im both very excited but also TERRIFED posting this

[ind1c0lite]

(Basic context is that AU of Duel Desinties where the phantom impersonates Phoenix to get him found guilty of Clay's murder, I talk more under the cut abt it jkhlj)

-Basically meant to be a parallel to turnabout trump, cause if you can have ONE boss get found guilty of murder, why not a second one?

-OK basically: everything in DD happens normally until like- a day before clays murder, Phoenix gets yoinked by the phantom somehow (he is still alive, just being held captive), Phantom is still Fulbright, but they've decided to be silly goofy (target Phoenix and get him found guilty of murder, escape police custody and then murder phoenix and make it seem like Phoenix accidentally died while on the run, thats why they didn't kill phoenix right away unlike the real Fulbright) there is an imposter amo-

-I dont have the logistics as to how this affects solving Metis's murder, and how it effects what evidence is used n whatnot and turnabout for tomorrow as a whole, so im just going nuts HGJKHLJ

-Originally I was actually imagining this taking place during turnabout for tomorrow and I wanted that case to be apollo v klavier instead of phoenix and edgeworth and thats why klav is in here instead of Simon (I decided that Simon got badly injured and couldn't stand in court for the retrial, so klavier was asked to step in)

-The courtroom bombing still happens the same way it does normally, but Apollo decides to take up the case again instead of taking a leave, instead of like, you know, healing from the traumatic event that just happened, turnabout countdown still happens as well

-Apollo and Athena do not find out about the phantom's existence until well after this trial, so they have no idea that Phoenix could've possibly been replaced, though simon, after hearing about the trial, might be suspicious about whether or not that was the real Phoenix

-The Phantom had been not only keeping an eye on Simon for a while, but was also stalking Phoenix and Edgeworth after they both started looking into UR-1, so they were able to impersonate phoenix so well that not even his own daughter thought that anything was up (though while Trucy did find him a *little* bit off, but she figured that it might've been the bombing that caused him to act ever so slightly weird, so she didn't pay much mind to it until she heard about his confession in court and realized it might've been because he possibly, ya know, killed someone)

-it's pretty much just switching Athena being framed for murder with Phoenix, and instead of the trial ending on a cliffhanger, it continues on (probably with Klavier insisting on it) ending with soloman being found innocent and Phoenix being declared guilty

-There's a couple days inbetween the end of the cosmic turnabout and the start of turnabout for tomorrow, so Athena, Apollo and Trucy all get a little bit to process the fact that "oh god my boss/my dad killed someone" (simons execution date is pushed back a bit in this au) and they probably get to talk with Klavier and eventually a lil bit with Simon after he gets out

-Im not sure how it all winds down in turnabout for tomorrow (Phoenix escaping and being at large is basically the perfect cover for the phantom to resume being fulbright for that trial) but they do eventually realize that the phoenix who confessed wasn't the real one and now there's a search on going to find out where the real one is being held captive, hes fineeee just ready to take a week long nap and a good vacation (along with every other waa member)

-I dont have anything else to add on rn but if you want to add something or just throw in a scenario feel free to!! this idea has been bouncing around my head for like a month now and Im very happy to finally show yall it

#ace attorney #ace attorney dual destinies #apollo justice #athena cykes #klavier gavin #phoenix wright #copycat au #indys art #apollo faints like- 0.5 seconds after the verdict is called which is very understandable #Apollo and Athenas horrible no good very bad court trial #and klavier isn't fairing any better tbh HJGKHL #no one is doing well at all and it gets worse before it gets better hjgkhl #Im both very excited but also TERRIFED posting this #I rarely try to actually write actual serious dialogue for characters cause im not a writer-so im hoping it's like- halfway decent HGJKH #I may be anxious as hell but Im going to be very brave and post this instead of- not doing that HJGKHL #I also tried to push myself a bit with this one so I included more panels to work on and coloured it #I like how it came out though!! #I hope u enjoy <3 #also if something doesn't make sense blame it on the fact that I wrote the caption and these tags at like 2:30 am

[matrose]

books i finished on vacation!! (long post!)

matrix, lauren groff. i made a post about this already! i liked it better than many other books on this list so it actually rose in my favor. nice book!

cat‘s eye and lady oracle, margaret atwood. im putting these together because i read them in quick succession and they felt so incredibly similar. both main characters were bullied by three girls in childhood grew up in the aftermath of ww2 and are now telling this story in their present day as adults with flashbacks to their childhood and how they got to this point. both MCs are artists (one a painter one a writer). and i disliked both MCs though cat‘s eye was a bit worse… it was interesting to read definitely but the internalized misogyny was a bit too much for me and the world always felt so bleak and evil and depressing. always closing in. its interesting and atwood is very good at writing it! but i personally didnt enjoy it very much. lady oracle was a bit better, there was more adventure and just the tiniest bit less of cat’s eye’s constant self-pity. but very very similar overall. very peeved with the protagonist of cat‘s eye saying how she felt there was an obligation to be a lesbian within the feninist movement and how she felt guilty for being ultra heterosexual that was annoying :/ eh. not for me

the archaeology of darkness, marion dowd. finally finished this one!!! such a good read!!! i definitely recommend it if youre just slightly interested in archaeology, you do not need any special knowledge to understand and enjoy this one. love it

the silence of the girls, pat barker. follows briseis' perspective during the happenings of the illiad. i liked her as a main character a lot, the book did not shy away to portray the horrors the women of these times mustve experienced but the dialogue was. way, way too modern and also just. not that good at times. felt SO out of place, so casual. weird italicizations..hm. and the overuse of modern language! there was tons and it took me out of the moment it just felt kind of weird…

elektra, jennifer saint. wanted to read another retelling of a greek myth with a focus on women that might provide better stuff. i really liked cassandras parts and the characterization of helen. the conflict between electra and clytemnestra was fascinating with the oscillating perspectives especially. i dont know enough about the source material here to judge on accuracy but it was nice! dialogue was better too

ariadne, jennifer saint. i liked this one as well! once again i know little about the source material, only the basic story, but i enjoyed it as well. the timeline was a bit wobbly at times and it sometimes went too slow or too fast i felt

piranesi, susanna clarke. finally finally got around to reading this. im so happy. i love this book. i cant yet express everything i feel about it but i loved it like i thought i would. im happy! i felt very at home in this book. i want to buy a physical copy!

reread: she who became the sun, shelley parker-chan. wonderful book still! highly recommend it. very excited for the next book in this series!!!

an unkindness of ghosts, rivers solomon. rivers solomon is great at worldbuilding and a terrific author. this was their first book & i was at times i bit lost timeline wise, the pacing was a bit frantic, but i loved the characters so much and had a lot of fun reading it ❤️ though i did like the deep a bit more (you should read both)

#also two years after starting ive finished the first book of a song ofice and fire in audiobook format…while walking:)

[theonyxpath]

This week we’re releasing the core rulebook for Dystopia Rising: Evolution into both stores (the traditionally printed version) and on DriveThruRPG with the PDF and physical book PoD versions.

When Mighty Matt McElroy brought up the idea of talking to the DR folks, the only thing I knew about Dystopia Rising was that a fair number of people I knew with good gaming taste enjoyed getting dressed up in Mad Max style gear and heading out to its live action events. I did see a ton of DR players at several Mid Winter Conventions leading up to sitting down with Michael and Ashley, so I had an inkling of the setting, at least.

Talking with them, and subsequently taking a deep dive into the already existing material made me impressed by what they had accomplished, and pretty sure that we could create an evocative TTRPG version. My big concern with any new game is whether we’ll be retreading ground we’re already covering, and while we had touched on post-apocalyptic milieus, we had not yet gone all in.

The chance to work with a post-apocalyptic setting, and then to adapt the Storypath System, which was just in its infancy when we decided to use it, combined for a very exciting project on both the setting and system levels. The final result, which you’ll be able to get on Wednesday, delivers both those things, and combines them, in ways we had only hoped to achieve when we first decided to make the game.

Eddy, as developer, was able to take the base Storypath System and, as we had hoped with the System, tweak it and add in elements like scavenging/building rules to better portray the setting.

Scion Companion art by Andrea Payne

So, the question has come up as to whether this post-apocalyptic opus is appropriate to offer right now. Certainly, a lot of folks are feeling like they are living in a plague movie right now, and I’d certainly understand not wanting to be reminded of that.

One of my thoughts about DR:E since first reading Eddy’s text, is how the setting demonstrates the adaptability of humanity in the face of seismic changes to civilization and society. DR:E isn’t set during the fall of society, but after humanity (in a wider definition of that term) has begun rebuilding. Which in its own way is a positive message that we can use in challenging times, like now.

Plus, there a a lot of different zombies to fight!

Along the same lines, as the rebuilding of communities is very important in the game, so are the live-action communities that have been built have been the key to DR’s success all these years. We like art imitating life imitating art, so in the interest of the tabletopDR:E‘s community we’ll be opening its Community Content site next month.

Now, as a bit of an aside, we’re not sure how many stores are actually going to be able to order this, get it, and then sell it. If they have an online store component, and you’ve been buying from them that way, please let them know that their store can get copies from Studio2 and IPR. And if you don’t have a store option right now, you too can direct order.

They Came From Beneath the Sea! art by Brian LeBlanc

How Are We Doing?

A question we share with old friends, co-workers, family far more now, and with good cause. We asked our developers, in two “town hall” group meetings last week, this very thing.

Mostly, our creators are doing okay, with varying degrees of focus from day to day (hour to hour?) on their projects. So far, two of our creators have been diagnosed with Covid 19, and so far they are doing okay. We also fielded some concerned questions as to the state of Onyx Path these days.

So far, so good. Like I’ve mentioned these last few weeks, our variety of sales channels have helped us, and we’re still rolling along with our projects even while being responsive to the challenges in the lives of our creators.

And in this taxing time, it is also tax time.

In terms of the work that we’re not just still doing but are really excited about, here’s an interview with Dixie, Neall Raemonn Price, and Monica Speca talking about Exalted Essence, a pretty innovative and important project that they continue to pull together. Lots of new details from the book in this interview: http://thestorytold.libsyn.com/exalted-essence-dev-team-interview

Let The Streets Run Red art by Michael Gaydos

Finally, as a personal example of finding ways to find the fun while being shut-in, this Easter I created an Easter Bunny scenario for the Gloomhaven boardgame for my kids, and their characters chased him through maps of the city streets, dodging the Easter Eggs he was blocking their way with. Each egg they picked up corresponded to a plastic egg with prizes inside I was hiding under the game table!

It was fun, plus I got an even better appreciation for how the designers set up and balanced Gloomhaven. Which I’ll consider as we review our own games, but it’s worth noting that info came through a diversion. Sometimes that’s what we need; we need to come at things indirectly. Even moreso when under stress.

Here’s hoping we’re providing you folks with a similar break, and a similar chance to explore new ideas…not to mention our:

Many Worlds, One Path!

Blurbs!

Kickstarter!

We’ve cancelled the Legendlore Kickstarter for the time being. While we wait for that happy day, here’s a fantastic Legendlore interview with developer Steffie de Vaan, hosted over at High Level Games! https://www.highlevelgames.ca/blog/legendlore-rpg-from-onyx-path-publishing-an-interview-with-steffie-de-vaan

We’ll get Legendlore back on KS as soon as we can, and meanwhile we are building the M20 Technocracy Reloaded Kickstarter!

Onyx Path Media!

This Friday is the Onyx Pathcast‘s 100th full episode! Huge congrats to Dixie Cochran, Eddy Webb, and Matthew Dawkins! Here’s to another 100!

This week, the Terrific Trio present a brand-new episode of Scion Actual Play! So if you’ve ever wondered how Scion plays – this is your chance to hear it in all its glory!

As always, this Friday’s Onyx Pathcast will be on Podbean or your favorite podcast venue! https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

As we mentioned last week, Virtual Horror Con took place raising lots of money for charity! If you haven’t already, do check out their website https://www.gehennagaming.com/, and if you missed some of their actual plays of our games, please check them out here:

CofD Mortals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdPfkI0FLFk

Trinity Continuum: Æon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7masQukyjQ

Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13UtpbAFAfk

And here’s Gehenna Gaming’s Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/gehennagaming

If you’re self-isolating or locked down, you can always tune in to our games this week. A few of our usual hosts are having breaks due to the situation in the world right now, but we’ve got plenty coming over the next few days, including V5, Scion, Pugmire, Changeling: The Lost, Changeling: The Dreaming, Mage: The Awakening, Scarred Lands, and a Dark ErasWerewolf: The Forsaken chronicle!

There are also several shows not yet on the schedule that are revving up to fill in for those who need a break right now, so please check out our Twitch channel during the week and keep an eye on Onyx Path social media for announcements of new programming!

This week you should really check out the new Scion game we’ve got going on our channel. You can subscribe to our channel over on twitch.tv/theonyxpath to catch up with any episodes you missed!

Come take a look at our YouTube channel, youtube.com/user/theonyxpath, where you can find a whole load of videos of actual plays, dissections of our games, and more, including:

Trinity Continuum – Aberrant: Community Service: https://youtu.be/51-Y_Diaefg

Changeling: The Lost – Littlebrook Reunion: https://youtu.be/uysogPwNFOM

Vampire: The Masquerade: Blood City – Chicago by Night: https://youtu.be/MKoMRxi9x0w

And still more Trinity Continuum – Aberrant: Community Service: https://youtu.be/5SXY7Q-Z80M

Do subscribe to our channel and click the bell icon if you want to be notified whenever new news videos and uploads come online!

Have you checked out the Botch Pit‘s gaming transcripts? Have a look on their clean, beautiful website, and check this one out for a Chronicles of Darkness game: http://thebotchpit.com/new-england-by-night-season-1-session-01-im-not-making-anyone-a-supernatural-yet-transcript/

https://ift.tt/3b89G4W

More new Occultists Anonymous for all you Mage: The Awakening fans:

Episode 96: Other Mages With the dark gift of a vampire’s patronage looming over their heads, the cabal seek out the names and identities of mages they think are appropriate sacrifices to the vampires’ bloodlust.https://youtu.be/3m0-va-JvdM

Episode 97: Short Straight The cabal gathers together their collected grimoires in one place, checking for further magical resonance and consult the ghost of a dead mage for further information.https://youtu.be/fjG2wPalY-s

Here’s the Story Told Podcast with an excellent interview with Dixie Cochran, Neall Raemonn Price, and Monica Speca on the subject of Exalted Essence: http://thestorytold.libsyn.com/exalted-essence-dev-team-interview

Garblag Games have commenced a new series of Mage: The Ascension, which has got off to a rocking start right here: https://youtu.be/yN47_NjYxtA

And if you loved V5 Chicago by Night, tune in to Junie von Esch’s channel to watch her group play through some Vampire: https://www.twitch.tv/junie_von_esch

Roll the Role continue with their Scarred Lands Gauntlet of Spiragos actual play! Roll the Role is a fantastic show, so please do give them a look: https://www.twitch.tv/rolltherole

And the bizarrely named Scabby Rooster continue their actual play of Scion, right here on their Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/scabbyrooster

One of Matthew’s personal favourites, Devil’s Luck Gaming, continues their Werewolf: The Forsaken chronicle over here: https://www.twitch.tv/DevilsLuckGaming Please do give them a follow!

Please check these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games! We’d love to feature you!

Electronic Gaming!

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is awesome! (Seriously, you need to roll 100 dice for Exalted? This app has you covered.)

Update: the devs are working on the updates for the roller in both Android and iOS; here is the rundown from them:

1) Redo the UI for system for Android. It will look the same as the current design. My goal is to have something ready by Saturday to send out to the Facebook users, asking them if this fixes the issues. This will be a beta type thing. This will break several of the fancy dice.

2) If the above worked out and the android users give all the clear, we’ll redo the graphics system to fix the fancy dice that got broken. We’ll do another Android beta through Facebook. This might take up to two weeks, as my schedule allows.

3) If everything worked well, we’ll release to Android for real at that point.

4) Port all of the existing stuff to iOS and release on that.

On Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue from which you bought it. Reviews really, really help us get folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these latest fiction books:

Our Sales Partners!

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost Second Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scarred Lands (Pathfinder) books are also on sale at Studio2, and they have the 5e version, supplements, and dice as well!: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/scarred-lands

Scion 2e books and other products are available now at Studio2: https://studio2publishing.com/blogs/new-releases/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin-now-available-at-your-local-retailer-or-online

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

And you can order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e at the same link! And now Scion Origin and Scion Hero and Trinity Continuum Core and Trinity Continuum: Aeon are available to order!

Deluxe Exalted 3rd Edition continues its fantastic sale at IPR, soon to be joined by Game-Line Bundles! Check them out!

As always, you can find Onyx Path’s titles at DriveThruRPG.com!

On Sale This Week!

This week the Dystopia Rising: Evolution core book will be available in PDF and PoD versions on DriveThruRPG on Wednesday, and the physical traditionally printed books will be available in stores via Studio2 and IPR!

No one knows how long it’s been since the world was blasted with nuclear radiation and became infested with the undead. The survivors of the Fall were the first strain of deviation of the human condition and were able to make it through the rapidly spreading epidemic. Finding a community of decent size in this world is rare; finding one that has any concept of equality or morality is rarer still.

Oh, and people have the unnerving ability to come back from the dead, regrown from the very virus that destroyed the world.

Some highlights of Dystopia Rising: Evolutioninclude:

Rules for creating characters for 24 different Strains, variations on humanity that survived the Fall. 

Details on the powers of faith and psionics.

Advice on running action-adventure stories, webs of personal intrigue, and procedural investigations.

Dozens of antagonists, including a variety of zombies and raiders to use in your series.

Welcome to the Evolution!

We’re also offering the Dystopia Rising: Evolution Gaming Screen on Weds!

Conventions!

Though dates are subject to change due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, here’s our current list of upcoming conventions:

UKGames Expo: https://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/

GenCon: https://www.gencon.com/

Tabletop Scotland: https://tabletopscotland.co.uk/

Gamehole Con: https://www.gameholecon.com/

PAX Unplugged: https://unplugged.paxsite.com/

And now, the new project status updates!

Development Status from Eddy Webb! (Projects in bold have changed status since last week.):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep.)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

Under Alien Suns (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Mission Statements (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Adversaries of the Righteous (Exalted 3rd Edition)

The Clades Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

The Devoted Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

Saints and Monsters (Scion 2nd Edition)

M20 Rich Bastard’s Guide To Magick (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)

Wild Hunt (Scion 2nd Edition)

Dead Man’s Rust (Scarred Lands)

V5 The Faithful Undead (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

V5 Trails of Ash and Bone (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

V5 Forbidden Religions (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Redlines

Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Hundred Devil’s Night Parade (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Adventure! core (Trinity Continuum: Adventure!)

Contagion Chronicle Ready-Made Characters (Chronicles of Darkness)

Novas Worldwide (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Exalted Essence Edition (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Second Draft

Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Assassins (Trinity Continuum Core)

The Book of Endless Death (Mummy: The Curse 2e)

N!ternational Wrestling Entertainment (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Development

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

TC: Aberrant Reference Screen (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (They Came From!)

Manuscript Approval

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

Post-Approval Development

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Editing

Terra Firma (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Lunars Novella (Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Buried Bones: Creating in the Realms of Pugmire (Realms of Pugmire)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Player’s Guide to the Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Contagion Chronicle Jumpstart (Chronicles of Darkness)

TC: Aberrant Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum)

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

LARP Rules (Scion 2nd Edition)

One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e)

Post-Editing Development

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

W20 Shattered Dreams Gift Cards (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Hunter: The Vigil 2e core (Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

Titanomachy (Scion 2nd Edition)

Pirates of Pugmire KS-Added Adventure (Realms of Pugmire)

Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Indexing

Art Direction from Mike Chaney!

In Art Direction

Scion Titanomachy – Wrapping up contracting.

Tales of Aquatic Terror – Contracted.

TC Aeon Terra Firma – Most of the art is in, maybe all of it.

V5 Let the Streets Run Red – Tweaking some art re: WW art approvals.

Cavaliers of Mars: City of the Towered Tombs

WoD Ghost Hunters

Aberrant – Contacting and contracting – wrapping up half-pagers and portraits.

Pugmire Adventure 

Hunter: The Vigil 2e

Mummy 2

Deviant – Rolling along.

Legendlore – Kickstarter on hiatus.

Technocracy Reloaded (KS) – Art and graphics ready to go.

Cults of the Blood God – Rolling along.

In Layout

Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad

Contagion Chronicle

Vigil Watch

Duke Rollo Book

Proofing

Trinity Aeon Jumpstart 

Pirates of Pugmire 

TCFBTS Heroic Land Dwellers – Inputting proofing comments.

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate – Awaiting 2nd proof notes.

Scion Companion – Tweaking art re: proofing notes.

At Press

TC Distant Worlds

Night Horrors : Nameless and Accursed – Awaiting Errata.

Dark Eras 2 – PoD proof shipping.

VtR Spilled Blood – PoD proof shipping.

Dystopia Rising: Evolution – On Sale this Wednesday!

DR:E Screen & Booklet – On Sale this Wednesday!

DR:E Helnau’s Guide to Wasteland Beasties

Geist 2e Screen

TCFBTS Screen and Booklet

They Came from Beneath the Sea! – Reviewing Indexing.

Geist 2e Anthology – PoD proof ordered.

C:tL 2e Oak, Ash, & Thorn – Awaiting Errata.

Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

Happy Birthday! to the 5th Doctor: in 1951 Peter Davison was born. He’s looking at me right now from my 2020 Doctor Who calendar, as April is the month he appears in this year. Must have been a tough assignment following Tom Baker after the 4th Doctor had been burned into people’s minds for 8 years. Yet, for many, Davison’s Doctor is Their Doctor, which is the way it should be – so kudos to him for creating another version and era of the classic character!

#Onyx Path Publishing

[themangaguide]

The suggestion of obtaining

Lengthy live badass!!

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Our primary character is simply a truly uneven master with some dark keys. There's no grace, given that, as NPC, he takes into consideration all others apart from these near to him. The battles are disorderly as well as exciting, as in numerous Xianxia. No-drop-secondary personalities, the major character usually revolves around. In addition, it includes a little pc gaming component, using the suggestion of obtaining pets as well as develop as mentioned listed below.

In love side, the main char is simply a freak, nonetheless, it is kinda funny. He enjoys to tease women, whatever their placement and also is enjoyable. Girls all have an unique individuality (delighted chaotic queen, magical and smart beauty, web content and also suches as to laugh, ...), along with their connection, isn't dull. This can be a real hareem, in addition to the women around him take this idea (in some type of where polygamy is normal). The MC additionally try to reveal his understanding as well as capacity to his fans/siblings, to develop them powerful adequate to guard themselves and likewise to aid in the combating (even when amongst is "one-of-a-kind treatment" incentives both events). I like this because it is a little of the special viewpoint, as well as is mostly enjoyable- but I really do identify there is a whole lot to dislike to tell the truth. Our significant trouble promptly was utilizing the MC, however he largely calms down to an 'just in some cases exceptionally silly' edition (of the 'kindhearted' moron) at some point.

The great things in this read manga is: - Frequently funny - Fairly good concentrate on personality growth. Both major character as well as side personalities - Has some fascinating ideas on mobilizing, as well as (very indirectly) the personality of company/freewill. The negative in im a neet and my elder sister is perverted manga:. - MC is definitely a jerk with lot of money as well as does not want to be read through, as well as he is overpowered. Very 'Gary Stu experience'. - There's a great deal of similar 'descriptions' that are in fact bragging choices. You should certainly be okay with being advised:. -- How terrific his accomplishments and also games are. -- How impressive the main char's devices is (in addition to the device of his summons). - 'He developed whatever'. An additional point is the main character is important to rediscovering/finding methods to do a great deal of things' background. Everyone around him has actually already been trying to get rid of issues for generations as well as he waltzes over' it in and 'brows through. Continuously. A number of it is 'great' due to the fact that he obtains 'shed info' or perhaps a 'solution teacher', and so on- however, the truth he's kinda GOD ... well, absolutely OVERPOWERED. If you're brand-new to this type of manga online then I suggest this. Try, you will not be let down. Other details can be accessed at https://joaniekurtzer5998.wixsite.com/mangaandcomics/post/j6pn9sfpb5ja7v4pf42u1647564943

[recentanimenews]

Manga the Week of 11/18/20

SEAN: The weekend of Anime NYC, and I am… not in a hotel room in New York City. Boo. Still, there will be virtual con, I’m sure.

No debuts for J-Novel Club, but we do see The Combat Baker and Automaton Waitress 9, Holmes of Kyoto 2, Mapping 2, The Master of Ragnarok & Blesser of Einherjar 13, Seirei Gensouki 12, and Sorcerous Stabber Orphen 9.

Kaiten Books has a 3rd volume of Loner Life in Another World.

Kodansha also has no print debuts, but we do have a fair amount of print, assuming no last-minute delays. There’s Cardcaptor Sakura Collector’s Edition 6 and also Clear Card 8. We also get Granblue Fantasy 7, Living-Room Matsunaga-san 5, Saiyuki 3, and The Seven Deadly Sins 40.

MICHELLE: I need to catch up on Living-Room Matsunaga-san.

ASH: I still need to start reading Living-Room Matsunaga-san!

SEAN: Digitally there is a debut. Dr. Ramune -Mysterious Disease Specialist- (Kai Byoui Ramune) is about a sort of modern-day, more casual Black Jack and his bizarre supernatural-tinged patients. It sounds like a gag manga, but is apparently deeper than it looks. It runs in Shonen Sirius.

ASH: I’m curious about this one, though I don’t read much digitally.

SEAN: Also digitally: Dolly Kill Kill 8, GE: Good Ending 11, Heroine for Hire 3, Hop Step Sing! 2, Kakushigoto 9, Shaman King: Red Crimson 3, The Writer and His Housekeeper 2, and Yozakura Quartet 26.

Seven Seas has an early digital light novel debut: Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs. This time it’s a male office worker who dies and gets reincarnated in an otome game… as a schlub NPC. But he does recall the game’s events. Can he make his life better?

In print, there are two debuts. The Hidden Dungeon Only I Can Enter has a manga, and this is the first volume of that. It’s pleasantly dumb.

What the Font?! – A Manga Guide to Western Typeface has, aside from a terrific title, an “educational” feel to it. Expect anthropomorphic personifications.

ASH: I’m actually really excited for this one.

ANNA: Oh, me too!

SEAN: Also from Seven Seas: Cosmo Familia 3 (the final volume), Mushoku Tensei: Roxy Gets Serious 4, New Game! 10, Precarious Woman Executive Miss Black General 5, Saint Seiya: Saintia Sho 11, and Sarazanmai 2.

ASH: Whoops, still need to get around to Sarazanmai 1!

Square Enix has, not a manga or novel, but Final Fantasy VII Poster Collection. It’s Tifa-tastic and Aerith-riffic.

Vertical gives us the 8th and final volume of Arakawa Under the Bridge. There’s also Blood on the Tracks 3 and Go with the Clouds, North-by-Northwest 4.

MICHELLE: The first volume of Blood on the Tracks was enjoyably ominous.That’s another one I need to catch up on.

SEAN: It’s a very Rumiko Takahashi week at Viz. Not only do we get Urusei Yatsura’s 8th omnibus (introducing Ryuunosuke, the precursor to Ranma Saotome), but also debut Mermaid Saga in omnibus form! This is decidedly NOT a comedy, and shows off how good Takahashi was at horror and suspense.

MICHELLE: I have the single volumes of this, but have never read it!

ASH: I love Mermaid Saga so much that I’m double-dipping for the new edition.

ANNA: I think I read a tiny bit of it back in the day but I’m excited for the new edition too.

MELINDA: I probably need to finally read this.

SEAN: There’s also Beastars 9, Hell’s Paradise Jigokuraku 5, and Tokyo Ghoul:re Illustrations: zakki, an artbook.

MICHELLE: I’m so far behind on Beastars and Hell’s Paradise already!

ASH: I’m a few volumes behind myself, but have been liking both series so far.

SEAN: And then there’s Yen, and they have a lot, even with the normal “date shifts”. First we get the novels.

There are three debuts, though one doesn’t count. A Certain Magical Index SS 1 is hardly unknown to readers, but it is nice to see, especially as I whined at Yen when it did not come out (as it did in Japan) between Books 13 and 14. It’s a short-story collection, and introduces the reader to Hamazura… assuming they haven’t read Index 15-22 already.

The Place Promised in Our Early Days is another Makoto Shinkai adaptation… in fact, it’s of his first major film.

MELINDA: I usually like these adaptations, though I haven’t watched this movie in a long while. Might be nice to revisit.

SEAN: The big debut is Unnamed Memory, an extremely popular light novel series. A Crown Prince with a curse has to visit the strongest witch in the world to break it. Destiny ensues.

ASH: It does look as though it may have some potential.

SEAN: Yen On also has a LOT of ongoing series. 86 ~Eighty-Six~ 6, The Dirty Way to Destroy the Goddess’s Heroes 5, Do You Love Your Mom and Her Two-Hit Multi-Target Attacks? 7, The Hero Is Overpowered but Overly Cautious 5, I’m a Behemoth, an S-Ranked Monster, but Mistaken for a Cat, I Live as an Elf Girl’s Pet 2, Last Round Arthurs 3, Magical Girl Raising Project 10, Rascal Does Not Dream 3, So I’m a Spider, So What? 10, and World’s Strongest Rearguard: Labyrinth Country’s Novice Seeker 4.

And that’s just novels. For manga, there are five debuts. Mieruko-chan is a comedy from Monthly Comic Alive about a girl who can see terrifying ghosts and monsters… and does her level best to ignore them.

Sadako at the End of the World (Shuumatsu no Sadako-san) is a one-shot manga from Comic Gene about the girl from Ring ending up in a post-apocalyptic world where her presence is far more welcome.

ASH: Okay, both of these sound like something I should check out.

MELINDA: Same here.

SEAN: Star Wars: Rebels is the manga adaptation of the popular series, and comes from LINE Corporation.

The White Cat’s Revenge as Plotted from the Dragon King’s Lap is the manga adaptation of a light novel we’ve seen from J-Novel Heart. A girl with the worst luck ends up reincarnated in another world… sadly, the source of that bad luck is here as well. Can she escape and live freely? This runs in Kadokawa’s FLOS Comic.

Lastly, A Witch’s Love at the End of the World (Sekai no Owari to Majo no Koi) (no relation to Sadako’s title) is a yuri series from ASCII Mediaworks’ Comic IT. It… honestly reads sort of like a Japanese version of The Owl House. Which I’m fine with.

There’s also Eclair Orange, the latest in that yuri anthology, IM: Great Priest Imhotep 5, Keito Koume Illustrations Spice & Wolf (an artbook), Shibuya Goldfish 8, and Yoshi no Zuikara 2.

MICHELLE: I had no idea there was yet another Eclair on the way!

SEAN: I’m exhausted, how about you?

By: Sean Gaffney

#Anime #News #Manga Bookshelf

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Critics assemble: our writers pick their favorite superhero films

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Critics assemble: our writers pick their favorite superhero films

Batman v Superman v Captain America v all of the X-Men. Which cape-wearing, civilian-saving adventures are worth cheering?

Given the repetitive influx of superhero films in recent years, youd be forgiven for wanting very little to do with anything involving a cape, a mask and a post-credits teaser for a long time. But wait, the R-rated Wolverine sequel Logan hits cinemas this week and critics agree that its worth getting over yourself for.

Many are saying it will join the ranks of the all-time greats but what else should be on this list? Here are seven of the best from Guardian writers.

The Incredibles

Photograph: HO/Reuters

Was 2004 the superheroes annus mirabilis? That was when Marvel Studios initiated its ambitious plan to self-finance its movies, buy back the rights to characters such as Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk, and begin the 21st-century wave of superhero films, hugely popular with the public, but often patronised and dismissed the way westerns used to be.

But something else happened in 2004: the release of Pixars glorious animated superhero homage The Incredibles. Thats a film which doesnt fit easily into the superhero fanbase-constituency, and is part of neither the Marvel nor DC tribe (unless you count the fact that Pixar, like Marvel, is part of Disney). And Im conscious that in calling it a homage I may even now be denying it full superhero-film status. But a brilliant superhero film is what it is riffing on the X-Men and Fantastic Four with superb characters, a great supervillain, a terrific story and a sharp satiric theme on the subject of excellence, and the nature of risk, jeopardy and the state.

Mr Incredible (voiced by Craig T Nelson) is a lantern-jawed, barrel-chested superhero who plies his trade in the 1940s, the superheroes postwar first-generation comic book heyday. He is fighting alongside his fiancee, Elastigirl (Holly Hunter). When a member of the public sues him for preventing his suicide, it triggers a legal nightmare forcing the government to outlaw superheroism and to relocate supers to other cities with new identities and bland normality. Twenty years later, he and Elastigirl have suburban lives and he works in insurance a nightmarish perversion of his former calling. They have two kids whose superpowers they have to conceal at school. But then a new villain emerges with a secret connection to the Incredibles past, forcing them to reclaim their vocation and their destiny.

It is rightly celebrated for the superhero costumire, Edna Mode, voiced by the director and writer, Brad Bird, who thinks that capes are a bad idea and is passionately committed to her contemporary vision: I never look back, darling; it distracts from the now. There is a wonderful passage on the phenomenon of supervillains monologuing huge third-act set-piece speeches in which the villains talk about themselves and their awful vision.

Actually, in 2017, the non-talky streamlined all-action superhero film is pretty much against both capes and monologuing and also against Edna Modes injunction against looking back. Superhero films love origin myths, elaborate retro sequences from the past and all-around ancestor worship.

But as it happens, and incredible as it may sound, The Incredibles has a brilliant action sequence, as exciting as anything in any live-action superhero film or action film. Elastigirl and the two kids are flying in their plane to an island from which the errant Mr Incredible has sent a distress signal. Then she is attacked by rockets. The subsequent chase scene and midair explosion are absolutely nail-biting.

It is witty, smart, visually ravishing, and its generic insights are celebratory, not derisive. What a great superhero film. PB

Batman

Photograph: Allstar/Warner Bros/Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar

I have to be honest: I am not the worlds biggest superhero movie fan. Put another way, when they took off in the late 80s, I thought they were a fad that would blow over in a few years; more fool me. In fact, the elevation to ever-prolonging ubiquity is one of the great mysteries of contemporary cinema: how this genre, that for years was considered only good for doltish teens, and treated with equivalent lack of respect, has steadily evolved into the mainstay of the global film industry. Be that as it may, I prefer the funny, candy-coloured type of superhero movie (Spider-Man, Thor, Deadpool) rather than the furrowed-brow earnestathons (Batman Begins, Captain America, Man of Steel) Ive never seen a superhero movie weighty or nuanced enough to justify the heavy-duty treatment.

But as films as opposed to moving comic-books superhero movies tend to fall down pretty hard. There are great sequences, brilliant set pieces, very nice shots but they rarely hold together, still less allowing actual narrative subtlety to intrude on the scene-shifting. The first and still, by my reckoning, only time that a superhero movie seemed way ahead of everything else was the first Tim Burton Batman, from 1989. A tour de force of design, cinematography, and cinematic texture, it was light years ahead of (the nevertheless highly enjoyable) Superman films that had blazed the superhero trail in the 1970s and 80s. Burtons brilliance was to make everything else look redundant and in many ways, nothing has changed since. AP

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Photograph: Moviestore/Rex

Heres a conspiracy theory: someone at the Academy purposefully shuffled those envelopes to detract from the much bigger scandal earlier in the evening: the snubbing of Garry Shandling in this years Oscars In Memoriam montage. I hope my choice of the Marvel movie in which he cameos as a sinister Hydra disciple will go some way to righting this wrong.

Shandlings 15-second appearance in this sequel to the first film featuring the weed who becomes the most fantastic hunk is one of my chief reasons for picking it; the other is its literally the only superhero movie I can ever really remember enjoying.

This is obviously a personal deficit, but perhaps it is, actually, a better superhero movie than most? There are terrific action sequences, for a start: that initial heist, fuelled with sexual tension between the Cap and the Black Widow, plus the most wonderful punch-up in a lift. Plus, vegetables to accompany all that meat and beef: a properly thought-provoking investigation of the morals of surveillance and the ethics of vigilantism in a democratically accountable society.

But perhaps what really clinched it for me as an Avengers movie I could get along with was the relative dearth of Robert Downey Jr. The more you can minimise this man, the more I shall like any movie. CS

Thor: The Dark World

Photograph: Allstar/Marvel Studios/Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar

Many are hailing Logan for stretching the boundaries of what a superhero movie can be. Its dramatic, fervid, and realistic in its violence. But lets not do away with whats core to comics culture: deep, dank nerdery that ought not be allowed to see daylight.

I love comic books rich in lore and steeped in mythos, swirling in and out of realms with names impossible to spell. Thor: The Dark World stuffs two handfuls of delicious dorkiness into its maw, one rich in fantasy, the other in science fiction. Is the Asgardian bio-bed a quantum field generator or a Soul Forge? The answer, of course, is that it is both.

Thor: The Dark World has portals and Kronan Rock Men and invisible spaceships and a ray that can curl you up into a singularity and zap you into another dimension. A liquid totem called the Aether is almost in Malekith the Dark Elfs nefarious grasp, just in time for the quinquennial cosmic event known as the Convergence. Oh, God, I need to stop typing and grab my asthma inhaler, this sort of talk gets me all worked up.

In the middle of all this, theres the bickering romance between the sharp and sweet doctor played by Natalie Portman and her hunky blonde blue-eyed spaceman, Thor. When they reunite during a battle, the first thing she does is yell at him for never calling. When they visit Thors realm, Dr Foster quickly bonds with Thors mother. They may as well be eating intergalactic coffee cake. And there are still some who say mixed marriages cant work?!?

Thor: The Dark World is a rush of Absolute Comics mainlined direct to my amygdala, with a profound purity that few other modern superhero movies allow themselves. It is Worthy. JH

The Dark Knight

Photograph: Allstar/Warner Bros

While Batman Begins was a refreshingly coherent, mature and dark-hued film about the Caped Crusader (a relief after the eye-punishing gaudy excess of Batman & Robin), it was far from a masterpiece.

There was a major villain problem (a somewhat gimmicky last act switcheroo that didnt quite have the required impact) and a major Katie Holmes problem (needs no explanation) and as a result, it was a promising franchise-restarter but not the home run we might have hoped for. Three years later, Christopher Nolan returned, lessons learned and homework done, with a sequel that rose far above its generic peers and, despite the creation of the hero-packed DC and Marvel universes since, it easily remains unsurpassed.

The Dark Knight moves like a fiendish thriller, one that confidently pushes the boundaries of the superhero genre in a way that comic book fans may be familiar with but which for cinema-goers such as myself was a revelation. Its a breathtakingly brutal film, packed with staggering PG-13 violence and a bleak worldview thats unrelenting, grounding fantastical characters and situations in a world that, for once, is depressingly easy to relate to.

That villain problem? Easily fixed. The casting of Heath Ledger in the role of the Joker might have been initially unpopular with fans, who couldnt envision his leading man looks buried under cartoonish makeup, but his performance was dynamite, an Oscar-winning fireball of anger and anarchy. That Katie Holmes problem? Replaced. Maggie Gyllenhaal added depth and a genuine emotional connection which led to the shocking finale carrying even greater weight. Its one of the rare examples of a superhero film where each devastating act of violence or aggression has a lasting impact. In Nolans Gotham City, life and death both mean something.

It might be to blame for the dreary drudgery thats bogged down many ensuing superhero adventures but it remains a ruthlessly entertaining example of just how daring and necessary the genre can be. BL

Watchmen

Photograph: Clay Enos/Photo by Clay Enos

It may be difficult to credit given Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice recently picked up a gaggle of Razzies, but Zack Snyder was once seen as the coming man of comic book movies. His 2009 adaptation of Alan Moores sprawling graphic novel about an alternative 1980s in which Nixon remains in power and superheroes are real remains a high point of the film-makers career and proof that given a decent script, he is capable of producing eye-popping cinema beyond that of most his contemporaries.

The bravura opening montage, set to the strains of Bob Dylans The Times They Are A Changin, is unequalled in comic book movies. The casting is impeccable: Jackie Earl Haley has never been better than as the hardboiled, morally immovable vigilante Rorschach, a gurning, spitting man out of time whose psychological torment is written on his face whether wearing that famous mask or not. Patrick Wilson is wonderfully understated as the taciturn Nite Owl, a superhero who looks like an accountant with middle-aged spread, while Jeffrey Dean Morgan is perfect as the leering, sneering, cigar-smoking alpha male scumbag the Comedian, a role which surely won him the part of the villain Negan in The Walking Dead.

Naysayers argue that Watchmen is too close to its source material, bar a sensibly altered denouement. But Moores story is so epic in scale and splendid in its unexpectedly detailed rendering of the inner psyches of costumed crimefighters that Snyder was really only required to add visual flare. If there is a Citizen Kane of superhero movies, this is indisputably it. BC

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Photograph: Allstar/20th Century Fox

The best thing about this time traveling entry into the vast annals of X-Men history is the absolute disregard Bryan Singer had for newcomers. If you hadnt been paying attention to his line of mutant entertainment over the last decade or so, youd feel a bit like Kyle Reese being spat out into 1984 with no clothes and no idea what was happening. That slightly manic pace, which feels like its borrowed from a daytime soap opera, plus the period costume and references to Vietnam, Nixon and the height of 70s cold war paranoia made this a strangely daring superhero film.

Instead of something that tried to set out the basic idea of what the X-Men were and what they were all about a concept most grandmothers could probably grasp by now this just got straight into the internal machinations of a group that makes the EU look harmonious. Of course, the old themes of good and evil doing battle, and overcoming personal demons (in this case addiction for Professor X) are there, but it was delivered in a knowingly strange way. You could even argue the hectic feel and funny but slightly smug lines set the stage for the least superhero-y superhero of them all, Deadpool. Singer knew fans were au fait with the concept of time travel, and would love to see Magneto and Professor X as their younger selves, so he threw it all into a blender and Days of Future Past came out like a perfectly mixed bit of superhero bechamel. LB

Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us

[landofskydiv]

Mid-America Apartment Communities’ (MAA) CEO Eric Bolton on Q1 2018 Results – Earnings Call Transcript

Mid-America Apartment Communities, Inc. (NYSE:MAA) Q1 2018 Earnings Conference Call May 3, 2018 10:00 AM ET

Executives

Tim Argo – SVP & Director of Finance

Eric Bolton – Chairman, President & CEO

Thomas Grimes – EVP & COO

Albert Campbell – EVP & CFO

Analysts

Nicholas Joseph – Citigroup

Austin Wurschmidt – KeyBanc Capital Markets

Robert Stevenson – Janney Montgomery Scott

Dennis McGill – Zelman & Associates

Trent Trujillo – UBS Investment Bank

Andrew Babin – Robert W. Baird & Co.

Omotayo Okusanya – Jefferies

John Pawlowski – Green Street Advisors

Wesley Golladay – RBC Capital Markets

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the MAA First Quarter 2018 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded today, May 3, 2018.

I will now turn the conference over to Tim Argo, Senior Vice President of Finance for MAA.

Tim Argo

Thank you, Savannah, and good morning. This is Tim Argo, Senior Vice President of Finance for MAA. With me are Eric Bolton, our CEO; Al Campbell, our CFO; and Tom Grimes, our COO. Before we begin with our prepared comments this morning, I would like to point out that as part of the discussion, company management will be making forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially from our projections. We encourage you to refer to the forward-looking statements section in yesterday’s earnings release and our 34-Act filings with the SEC, which describe risk factors that may impact future results. These reports, along with the copy of today’s prepared comments and an audio copy of this morning’s call will be available on our website.

During this call, we will also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. Reconciliations to comparable GAAP measures can be found in our earnings release and supplemental financial data.

I’ll now turn the call over to Eric.

Eric Bolton

Thanks, Tim, and good morning. First quarter results were slightly ahead of our expectation and reflect the continued solid demand for apartment housing across our markets. Occupancy is high, and rent growth on renewing leases is strong. However, elevated levels of new supply continue to weigh on our ability to drive rent growth on leases written for new residents. We expect the supply pressures will persist through most of this year, with trends moderating in 2019. But as we enter this busy summer leasing season, we are encouraged, with the number of trends that we are capturing, and continue to believe that revenue trends have bottomed out for the cycle. Our expectations, moving forward, are supported by favorable trends in several key variables. These include the continued strong job growth and demand for our apartment housing across our markets; our high occupancy levels; the strong performance being captured on renewal lease pricing; the improving pricing trends within the legacy Post portfolio; and finally, the continued strong performance on same-store operating expenses and continued improvement in operating margins. While supply pressures will remain evident in several of our markets for the next few quarters, continued favorable results in these key areas support belief, our belief, that we should see incremental improvement in NOI, moving forward, with better momentum in 2019 and supply pressures moderate.

Resident turnover remains very low at 49.6% on a running 12-month basis. This is despite continued healthy growth in renewal lease pricing of 5.5% during the first quarter. This level of strong pricing performance in the face of higher new supply is a testament to not only the continued healthy demand for apartment housing in our markets, but is also a very positive statement about the quality of service provided by our on-site associates, and I really appreciate their efforts.

The leasing pressures associated with higher levels of new development continue to mostly impact the higher rent properties in more urban-oriented submarkets within the portfolio. However, it’s worth noting that the overall blended rent growth on leases signed in the first quarter within the more urban-oriented legacy Post portfolio did improve by 190 basis points, as compared to the first quarter of last year. As new supply pressures moderate, we believe the opportunity within the legacy Post portfolio for accelerated rent growth, as a result of both the execution of our revenue management practices and a meaningful redevelopment opportunities in the portfolio, will support much improved performance trends.

As noted in the earnings release, our progress associated with managing operating expenses continue to drive strong results. Tom will cover more details in his comments, but we have been pleased with the early results within the legacy Post portfolio, as our various operating practices are fully implemented. And the efficiencies associated with our larger scale are making a positive impact on overall portfolio operating margins. Over the course of the summer, we expect to wrap up the work associated with the back-office and systems integration associated with our merger with Post. As we continue to refine and capture the benefits associated with having both portfolios on the same operating platform as well as accelerate the unit interior redevelopment effort, the value accretion that we’ve previously outlined within the Post — for the Post merger is something we continue to feel confident about.

As noted in our earnings release, during April, we closed on a property acquisition located in Denver. This off-market acquisition of this newly developed property was negotiated late last year, with the closing subject to the completion of the construction of Phase 1 of the project. The property is located adjacent to a recently approved new light rail station that will connect to downtown Denver, and located adjacent to high-end restaurant and retail shopping venues. This is a high-quality property in a terrific location that is a great addition to our Denver portfolio. We expect to get underway with the Phase 2 expansion of the property later this year.

We continue to see heavy deal flow with our underwriting and transaction volume, reaching a 5-year high for the typically slower first quarter of the year. I continue to believe that as we work further into the cycle of new property deliveries, the capacity and optionality surrounding our balance sheet, along with our proven execution capabilities will yield increasing opportunity for our earnings-accretive external growth.

In summary, we like to start to the year, and continue to believe 2018 will play out along the lines we expected. Demand remains high. Resident retention is strong, and rent trends looked to have stabilized. We’re excited to be nearing completion of the final steps in fully integrating all operating and reporting activities of the legacy MAA and Post portfolios, and we remain very enthused about the long-term value proposition surrounding the merger. I appreciate all the hard work that our team has done over the past year in stabilizing our platform, and we look forward to the opportunity in front of us with the important summer leasing season.

That’s all I have in the way of prepared comments, and I’ll now turn the call over to Tom.

Thomas Grimes

Thank you, Eric, and good morning, everyone. Our operating performance came in as expected. Revenues for the first quarter were 1.8% over prior year, with 96.3 average daily occupancy and 1.4% effective rent growth. Expenses increased just 1.6% over the prior year, and NOI increased by 1.9%.

Looking at revenue drivers by portfolio in the first quarter, as compared to the prior year, a legacy MAA portfolio generated revenue growth of 2.3% with 96.4 average daily occupancy and effective rent growth of 1.8%. The legacy Post portfolio had 0.4% revenue growth, with 95.8% average daily occupancy and 0.2% effective rent growth.

Supply has been elevated in our markets for several quarters. Despite the supply headwinds, we saw the blended lease-over-lease performance of the combined company grow by 1.6% in the first quarter, which is 40 basis points higher than the same time last year. This is primarily driven — this is primarily the result of new lease pricing on the Post portfolio, which improved by a significant 260 basis points in the first quarter from the same time last year. This is further supported by improving monthly trends during the quarter. Blended pricing growth for the overall same-store portfolio on January was 0.7%; February, 1.8%; and March, 2.2%.

Expense performance continues to be a bright spot for both portfolios. While improvements in revenue management practices are just now showing up in pricing, our programs to more aggressively manage operating expenses have shown more immediate results. Overall expenses within the same-store portfolio were up just 1.6%. This includes the $900,000 of winter storm related cost incurred during the quarter. Adjusting for storm cost, our expense increased less than 1%.

Total expenses on the Post portfolio during the quarter were down 2.2%. That was driven by reductions in personnel cost, repair and maintenance expenses as well as property and casualty insurance. As a result, the first quarter operating margin of the Post portfolio improved another 90 basis points. This is on top of the 130 basis point improvement we made in first quarter of last year. We still have room to run with our expense management programs on the legacy Post portfolio, and expect continued progress in 2018.

Our operating disciplines are now fully in place, and at current run rate, the savings will continue. April results show the benefit of our consolidated platform and momentum. Overall same-store average daily occupancy in April was 96.2%, which is 10 basis points higher than the prior year. This is driven by a 50 basis point year-over-year improvement in the legacy Post portfolio. Overall, the same-store April blended lease-over-lease rates were up 2.9%, which is 90 basis points better than blended rents in April last year. Our 60-day exposure, which represents all vacant units and notices for a 60-day period, is a low 8.3% and in line with prior year.

The supply picture is well documented. Dallas and Austin are facing the most pressure. In 2018, we expect 22,000 deliveries for Dallas, and in Austin, we expect 8,400 deliveries. We’re encouraged that job growth has remained strong in both markets. Dallas job growth was at 2.5% in 2017, and expected to increase to 2.6%. Austin job growth was 3.3% in 2017, and expected to remain robust again at 3.3% in 2018. These growth trends are strong, and well ahead of nationwide trends.

All elevated supply levels have pressured rent growth in several of our markets. We’re seeing good growth in a number of markets, Phoenix, Richmond, Orlando and Jacksonville stood out from the group. Our focus on customer service and retention is paying dividends. Move-outs by our current residents continue to remain low. Move-outs for our overall same-store portfolio were down 2.3% for the quarter. Move-outs to home-buying were down 3%, and move-outs to home-renting were essentially flat with last year. Home renting remains an insignificant cost for turnover and accounts for less than 6% of our move-outs.

On a rolling 12-month basis, turnover dropped to a historic low of 49.6%. The steady decrease in turnover was achieved while increasing renewal rents by 5.5%. Momentum is building on the redevelopment program across the legacy Post portfolio. In 2017, we completed renovation on 1,700 units. We’ve completed an additional 560 in the first quarter, and expect to complete 3,000 units this year. On average, we are spending $9,400 in getting the rent increase to this 11% more than a comparable non-redeveloped unit. As a reminder, we’ve identified a total of 13,000 Post units that have compelling redevelopment opportunity.

For the total portfolio, in 2018, we expect to complete over 8,000 interior unit upgrades. On the legacy MAA portfolio, we continue to have a robust redevelopment pipeline of 10,000 to 12,000 units. On a combined basis with the legacy Post portfolio, our total redevelopment pipeline now stands in the neighborhood of 25,000 units.

As you can tell from the release, our active lease-up communities are performing well in Houston, Post at Afton Oaks, stabilized in the first quarter, as expected. Our remaining pipeline of lease-up properties, the Denton II, Post South Lamar II, Post Midtown, Post River North and Acklen West End are all on track to stabilize on schedule. We have begun leasing Post Centennial Park in Atlanta.

2017 was a year of significant change for our organization. We started 2017 with 2 completely operating platforms and teams. We’re pleased with the bulk of the integration work. The Post portfolio is behind now us. We have started 2018 with a much more aligned and cohesive operating platform and team. Results are progressing as expected. We look forward to continuing to capture value-creation opportunities on both the revenue and expense sides of the equation, as we finalize full integration activities in 2018. Al?

Albert Campbell

Thank you, Tom, and good morning, everyone. I’ll provide some additional commentary on the company’s first quarter earnings performance, balance sheet activity, and then finally, on guidance for the remainder of 2018. Net income available for common shareholders was $0.42 per diluted common share for the quarter. FFO for the quarter was $1.44 per share, which was $0.01 per share above the midpoint of our guidance. First quarter performance included $0.02 per share of noncash expense from the valuation of the embedded derivative related to the deferred shares issued in the Post merger, and this was not included in our original guidance.

Same-store performance, G&A expense and interest expense were all slightly better than expected, and combined to produce the out-performance for the first quarter. During the first quarter, we did not acquire any communities. We did, however, close on the disposition of 2 land parcels acquired in the Colonial merger for $5.9 million in total proceeds. These sales produced net gains of about $200,000 recorded during the quarter.

As Eric mentioned, in April, we closed on the acquisition of Saint 36, a 374-unit, high-end community located in Denver. The acquisition included a land parcel to develop an additional 79 units as part of the Phase 2 expansion, which we expect to begin later in 2018. Including the Phase 2 expansion, the total investment is expected to be approximately $128 million.

Following quarter end, we also closed on a disposition of an additional land parcel located in Las Vegas for total proceeds of $9.5 million, which will produce a $2.8 million gain that will be recognized during the second quarter.

Also, during the first quarter, we completed construction of one of our development communities, Post River North, located in Denver. The community was complete on plan with a total investment of $88.2 million and is expected to be stabilized in early 2019 at a 6.4% NOI yield. We currently have 2 communities remaining under construction with a total projected cost of $125.8 million, of which all but $24.4 million was funded as of quarter end.

Including Post River North, our lease-up portfolio now contains 5 communities, totaling 1,509 units. Average occupancy for the group was 56.1% at quarter end. We expect 4 lease communities to stabilize in the second half of this year, and the remaining community to stabilize in the first half of 2019 at an overall average stabilized NOI yield of 6.4%, which will ultimately produce over $21 million of NOI.

Our balance sheet remains in great shape. During the first quarter, we paid off an additional $38 million of secured debt, pushing our unencumbered NOI to over 85%. We also executed $300 million of forward interest rate hedges to secure future bond financings projected for later this year.

At quarter end, our leverage is determined by our bond covenants, was only 33.1%, while our net debt-to-recurring-EBITDA was just over 5x. We also had almost $600 million of combined cash and borrowing capacity under our unsecured credit facility at quarter end.

Finally, we are maintaining and confirming our outstanding guidance for all major components of our forecast, including net income, FFO, AFFO, same-store performance and transaction volumes. In summary, net income per diluted common share is projected to be $1.78 to $2.08 for the full year 2018. FFO is projected to be $5.85 to $6.15 per share or $6 per share at the midpoint, which includes $0.08 per share of projected final merger and integration cost related to Post merger. AFFO is projected to be $5.24 to $5.54 per share or $5.39 midpoint. For the second quarter, FFO is projected to be $1.43 to $1.53 per share or $1.48 per share at the midpoint.

While we expect the continued volatility related to the valuation of the deferred shares acquired with the Post merger, our projections do not include any further valuation adjustments over the remainder of the year, as these adjustments are both noncash and impossible to predict. We remain on track to capture the full $20 million of overhead synergies related to the Post merger as well as other NOI and earnings opportunities outlined with the merger, which are reflected in our current guidance this year.

That’s all we have in the way of prepared comments. So Savannah, we’ll now turn the call back over to you for questions.

Question-and-Answer Session

Operator

[Operator Instructions]. We can take our first question from Nick Joseph with Citi.

Nicholas Joseph

You did 1.8% same-store revenue growth in the first quarter and full year guidance is for 2% at the midpoint. And I know you’ve talked about an acceleration throughout the year, so I just want to get a sense of the pace, how do you expect it to trend? And do you expect 4Q same-store revenue at the high end of full year guidance around 2.2%?

Albert Campbell

Nick, this is Al. I will say, in general, as we’ve talked about before, what — forecast is built on this year is really a few major components. Occupancy remaining strong at 96% through the year, certainly, through the back part of the year. Renewal pricing being consistent, 5%, 5.5%, and then new lease pricing being the key to that performance over the back half of the year. We have discussed that we do expect new lease pricing to be above prior year, and that will drive blended pricing — I think for the remainder of the year, what we would expect to see was some more in the 70, 80 basis points range to capture our guidance at the midpoint. I’ll tell you, though, in the first quarter of the year, we’ve captured 40% — 40 basis points improvement over the prior year, as Tom mentioned. And April, actually, was much better than that at 90 basis points. And so we feel very good about the trend and the prospects, and so far what we lined up and outlined for guidance, we’re right on track.

Nicholas Joseph

But then from a same-store year-over-year basis by the end of the year, you should be towards the top end of the guidance [indiscernible] acceleration.

Albert Campbell

That’s right. [indiscernible] The revenue — good point. The revenue based on that would build, as we went through second quarter, would still be on the lower end. It would grow in the third and fourth more significantly.

Nicholas Joseph

And then just wanted to get your view on the Houston market. We saw same-store revenue growth in the first quarter. Actually, a little lower year-over-year than what we saw in the fourth quarter, so just what you’re seeing there today?

Thomas Grimes

Yes, and Nick, it’s Tom. Last year, we ran with high occupancy and negative rent growth. As you know, the hurricane changed that a bit, and it takes time for the revised pricing to be replaced on each unit. So just to give you a flavor for what’s coming, April blended rents in Houston were up 7.5%, and we think revenues will continue to fall. We just need that repricing to get on through the system.

Operator

And we can go next to Austin Wurschmidt with KeyBanc Capital Markets.

Austin Wurschmidt

As it relates to supply, you guys have laid out a table in your investor deck that showed quarterly supply growth by market and indicated some fairly significant decreases by quarter. I was just curious, one, do you still think that that’s the case that we should see it ratchet down, I guess, each quarter throughout the year? Or have you seen some of that pushed, I guess, later into the year? And then second, do you think you’re already feeling the impact from some of that supply, as properties tend to lease prior to completion?

Eric Bolton

Yes, I mean, the answer to your question is yes. We do think that some of the supply based on the most recent and updated information we have appears to be slipping a little bit later into the year. And yes, you’re right, we do begin to see some of the pressure on, particularly, as I’ve mentioned, the new lease pricing prior to the actual deliveries of the unit, as pre-leasing activity starts up. But I will tell you that the slippage, if you will, of some of the supply until later in the year in some respects is not such a worrisome thing in the sense that it’s slipping into the more robust time of the year for leasing anyway. What was really a problem last year, is we saw slippage take place in the third quarter with deliveries that we thought would happen in the third quarter move into the fourth quarter, which of course is the worst leasing quarter of the year. So moving some of the Q1 deliveries into Q2, Q3 is not such a bad thing, given that leasing activity is more robust. Having said that, I also want to quickly mention, while the revision that we’re seeing on supply being pushed out a little bit is accompanied by also a higher job growth forecast than what we started the year with, we’ve seen job growth pick up on a blended basis about 40 basis points more than we expected starting this year. So while the supplies picture is moving around a little bit in terms of timing, we’re encouraged with continued healthy demand and job growth taking place, which I think is going to be helpful.

Austin Wurschmidt

Any particular markets where — that job growth? Or the big drivers of the improved job growth outlook?

Tim Argo

Yes, Austin. This is Tim. I mean, I’m really seeing Austin and Dallas push up which is — they’ve been drivers now for a few years, and they just continue to be job engines that will be helpful as our — obviously, 2 of our larger markets.

Austin Wurschmidt

All right. And then as far as expenses, clearly, another quarter of expense savings from Post, and really kept expense levels low. As revenue ratchet higher through the year, should we think about expenses also ratcheting a little bit higher? Or do you think that maybe the initial outlook is a little bit conservative and that you’re finding continued opportunity to keep that kind of towards the lower end of the range on the full year guide?

Albert Campbell

Austin, this is Al. I would say we feel good about the guidance that we have for full year for expenses, which is 1.5% to 2.5%. Now with the first quarter at 1.6%, that would tell you that what we’re expecting on the remaining 3 quarters is somewhere around 2%, maybe a little up north of 2%, blended for the back half of the year. I think that’s what would we expect overall.

Eric Bolton

If something else obviously, some of the early wins we were getting on the expense side began showing up early in the last half of last year. So the comps, the comparisons to prior year get a little tougher as we get towards the back half of the year. The absolute savings continues, but the comps just get a little bit hard, which will of course affect year-over-year results.

Austin Wurschmidt

I appreciate that. And then just last one for me, on the $128 million total investment on the Denver deal, can you give us the breakout between Phase 1 and Phase 2 as well as what the going in yield on that deal was, and then what you ultimately expect it will be on stabilization?

Eric Bolton

Well, the Phase 1 was something approaching $94 million.

Albert Campbell

It’s $104 million.

Eric Bolton

$104 million, and the balance is what we expect to spend…

Albert Campbell

$148 million overall.

Eric Bolton

Yes, what we expect to spend on Phase 2. The stabilized yield that we expect to get out of this project is upper-5 range, as it gets — Phase 2 gets fully built out and leased up. So we, as I mentioned in my comments, it’s an incredible location. And we think that as we continue to build out our Denver presence, we think this is going to be a great addition. But we expect to be in the upper-5 range on the stabilized NOI yield on this deal over the next couple of years or so.

Austin Wurschmidt

So does that put Phase 2 at north of a 6% yield on a stand-alone basis?

Albert Campbell

Yes. The Phase 2 is a smaller 79 unit, as you can — you can do the math on that, which will be a very efficient addition because it will use most of the amenities and things from Phase 1 obviously.

Eric Bolton

And the Phase 1 was about 68% occupied when we bought it, so that’ll give you an indication of sort of the initial yield.

Operator

And we can go next to Rob Stephenson with Janney.

Robert Stevenson

Other than this Phase 2 on the newly-acquired asset, what other land are you controlling these days for future development? And how much of that you’re thinking is going to start within the next 12-or-so months?

Eric Bolton

We have parcels already that we own in Fort Worth, in McKinney, North Dallas, satellite city in North Dallas, McKinney, Texas, and we have a site in Cherry Creek submarket in Denver. We would expect potentially to be underway with all of that very late this year, maybe a little bit. The Cherry Creek site may slip into early next year, but we’re still working to predevelopment on those 3 opportunities. We also control opportunities, another opportunity, and also, we have a phase 3 opportunity in Raleigh, North Carolina with an existing property that we will likely pull the trigger on later this year. In addition to that, we have another site in Denver that we are working that we have on the contract. And we also have a site in Orlando that we are working on.

Robert Stevenson

Okay. I mean, from a timing standpoint, I mean, it sounds like that most of this is going to wind up being either late ’18 or ’19 starts, which means that, basically, I would imagine then that there’s basically the expectation to little to no deliveries at all in ’19, is that correct?

Eric Bolton

That’s correct.

Robert Stevenson

Okay. And then, Tom, any markets that — you’re 1/3 of the way through the year now that you’re seeing might be a little bit stronger, a little bit weaker than you guys were initially expecting?

Thomas Grimes

Yes. Honestly, Rob, not out of the shoot. I mean, we expected headwinds in Dallas and Austin and those are there. But we’re pleased with the job growth there and then very pleased with places like Phoenix and Orlando right now.

Robert Stevenson

Okay. And then, Al, one last one for you. In terms of the hard cost on unit turnover, what are you guys spending these days?

Albert Campbell

I think it’s around $1,000 per unit with — $1,000, $1,200, all on things depending on whether you replace carpet or not. That’s a big factor in there. I think that pushes it at the high end if you replace carpet. You do that every 5 years or so, and so I think that’s roughly what we would say today.

Robert Stevenson

Okay. And given the reduced level of turnover, are you able to do that with the existing Mid-America staff? Or you’re having to bring in outside contractors to do that?

Eric Bolton

And that’s one of the key things that has helped us with the Post portfolio is we’re handling close to 80% of those turns in-house, meaning, sort of paint and carpet cleaning. The carpet installation and replacement, the capital item that Al mentioned, we contract that out. By comparison, Post really use contract labor for the overwhelming majority of their paint and carpet cleans.

Operator

And we can go next to Dennis McGill with Zelman & Associates.

Dennis McGill

First question, can you give a couple of steps around new leases? I think you had said the Post new leases were up 260 bps year-over-year. Can you just fill in the holes as far as what new lease was for the overall portfolio, and then maybe the pieces and then how that trended versus 1Q ’17?

Thomas Grimes

Yes, sure. New lease rates were, for the first quarter, combined same-store, new lease was negative 2.3, renewal, 5.5; blended, 1.6. And then for April, new lease rates are 10 basis points positive. Renewals are 5.6, and blended, 2.9. And then just on roughly on a blended basis, to save some math, but I’ll go into detail if you want it, first quarter was up 40 basis points versus last year on blended, and April is up 90 basis points.

Dennis McGill

Got it. And then I guess the only question within that, so Post new leases, I think you said were up 260 basis points year-over-year.

Thomas Grimes

That’s correct.

Dennis McGill

What did the legacy MAA do in the first quarter on new?

Thomas Grimes

Legacy MAA on blended — you said new lease rates?

Dennis McGill

Right.

Thomas Grimes

Bear with me just a second. MAA new lease rates were about flat for the quarter.

Dennis McGill

Perfect. Second question, you know that the operating platforms will be finalized on the synergy later this year. Where will we see the most obvious benefits once that’s done either expense-wise or revenue-wise?

Eric Bolton

Well, I will tell you, it gets a little hard to point to specific things. Generally, a lot of the expense savings that we hope to get as a result of just renegotiating a lot of contracts and services for various services and supplies and products that we use, and that really wasn’t so much a function of the systems conversion and consolidation effort, if you will. I will tell you, on the revenue side is where I think the opportunity comes from in terms of where the opportunity is as a result of putting both companies on the same platform. We, frankly, just get more efficient in how we manage the company. Right now, our regional leadership and — are working with two different systems and having to look at two different sets of reports, and our LRO or revenue management system is not as fully optimized because of having to, if you will, still interface with two versions of our property management software.

So there’s lot of inefficiencies, frankly, that we have in terms of just how we manage the business by having the portfolios on 2 different systems. And I think as a consequence, and we’re about halfway through the conversion process at this point. We’ll wrap up here in another 90 days or so. And I think it ultimately just gets to a point where we have more efficiency now. The other thing that comes from this is, frankly, with the new system, we’re introducing a little bit more robust activity as it relates to sort of web-based activities as a new consolidated web platform that is being finalized, and so it’s a lot of things. A lot of them are subtle. But in aggregate, we think it just creates a lot more ability to bring intensity to the things that we really want to focus on as opposed to a lot of focus on putting systems together. We sort of are able to, if you will, get back to work in a much more intense fashion as a consequence of the merger.

Albert Campbell

I might just add to that too if the question is what is remaining to capture from those opportunities. Then one of the things we’ve talked about is the redevelopment. Remember, we’re capping that over three years or so, and the plan this year to capture 1/3 of that. So it will take several years to roll that off to see that portfolio opportunity out at the pace we’re doing this. So there are several things that will keep providing opportunity for us in the future.

Dennis McGill

And when you flip the switch in 90 days or so, and you’re on the same platform, how long will it take you after that to get to a stabilized, fully efficient run rate on the revenue management?

Eric Bolton

I think it’s happening. I think it will be instant, frankly. I think it happens. What remaining little inefficiencies we have sort of dissipates as a consequence of finally being on the same system.

Thomas Grimes

And Dennis, Dennis, what I would tell you is, I think most of the benefit of the revenue management system on the Post portfolio, we’re really beginning to capture that now, and you’re seeing that in the new lease rates, and just be streamline reporting and quicker reacting.

Dennis McGill

Okay, great. And then just last question, Eric, you talked to turnover being at historic lows, and we’re seeing that not just across the multi-family space, but pretty much all of housing. Any thoughts from your perspective how much of that is changing consumer behavior versus not having anywhere to go because of inventory constraint?

Eric Bolton

I think that a lot of it is a change in behavior. I think that we certainly continue to see average age, average income continue to move up — within our resident portfolio over the last couple of years. We continue to see the percentage of female versus male continue to move up as a consequence of the last two or three years with the trend. Certainly, the ability to go out and buy a starter home is more challenging, and I’m sure that factors into it to some degree. But I think — I continue to believe that a lot of it is more social, and more about just our behavior patterns of our resident profile as much as it is anything.

Thomas Grimes

And Dennis, we’ve seen our single rate go up about 1 percentage point, which indicates supporting sort of Eric’s point, we’re not seeing people get married and sort of be backlogged in the unit in some way, shape or form, assuming that a married couple is more likely to buy a house than single.

Operator

And we can go next to Nick Yulico with UBS.

Trent Trujillo

This is Trent Trujillo, on with Nick. I just wanted to circle back. I appreciate all the comments that you had on supply. Just wanted to circle back on that topic both. So given peak supply across your market, you said in first quarter, plus some slippage that maybe you’re experiencing it right now, can you speak to the level of concessions you’re seeing across some of your larger urban market of, perhaps, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and D.C., and how that’s trended since the start of the year?

Eric Bolton

Sure, Trent. And I’ll just move well through it with Atlanta and going down at concessions. It’s really about submarket in Atlanta. We’ve got 1 to 2 months free in Buckhead and Midtown. There are pockets of 1-month free, depending on specific lease-up places, like Roswell Road in 285 or the perimeter, has a little bit of pressure with 1 month outside the perimeter. Concessions are really pretty rare there. In Austin, we’ve got — we see sort of 1 month in Cedar Park, which is north area and in South Austin. The tightest part is — or the most pressured is sort of that South Congress Lamar corridor, and we’re seeing 6 weeks to 2 months there. That’s pretty similar with what we saw earlier. And then in — and in Dallas, we’re seeing 1 to 2 months in Frisco, Plano and Richardson. Uptown is running close to 6 weeks, which is actually slightly better than what we saw previously. It was running closer to 2 months. And uptown supply is about 2,000 units, which is about — we expect that in ’18, which is about what it was in ’17.

Trent Trujillo

And perhaps, regarding acquisitions, how competitive is the transaction market, and can you speak to the amount of deals you’re currently considering? I think earlier, Rob had mentioned something about the land sites that you were looking at. But I think, last quarter, you mentioned you had quite a few acquisition deals under review, but just the 1 closed in the Denver market after quarter end, so any commentary on that would be helpful.

Eric Bolton

Yes. I mean, the transaction market is incredibly competitive. We, as I mentioned in my call comments, we — I mean, the number of deals that we underwrote in the first quarter is the highest we’ve had in over 5 years in the first quarter, which is typically a very slow quarter for deal activity. So we continue to see a lot of volume. But we’ve seen cap rates, if anything, over the last 6 months move down a little bit. I mean, routinely, you’re in 4.5 to 4.75 range in some of the bigger markets, and you’re low 5 — 5 to 5.25, and perhaps, some of the smaller markets has more capital, and continues to weigh into some of these more, if you will, non-coastal markets or more secondary markets. So it’s incredibly competitive. And we continue to remain active in the market, but believe that based on the hurdles and the disciplines that we’re holding ourselves accountable for in terms of any capital deployment that — where the pricing is right now, it’s just hard to really justify some of the pricing that we see happening. And so we’re going to remain patient, frankly, as we think that — as we get a little later into the cycle. I think later this year, supply trends being what they are, that the opportunities may get a little bit more favorable, but it’s pretty competitive right now.

Operator

And we can go next to Drew Babin with Baird.

Andrew Babin

Question on the improvement and new lease pricing year-over-year within the legacy Post portfolio. Would you say that this is directly attributable to the ROI CapEx on some of these units you’ve acquired? And I guess, can you speak to how you’re pricing those units relative to new supply in places like Uptown, Dallas, Atlanta and Austin?

Thomas Grimes

Drew, we haven’t done enough of that CapEx to really move the number. This is really a direct reflection of where pricing was last year when we were just getting started on the merger and supply was picking up. And our ability to get — last year, we were really on 2 different pricing systems completely. We were just beginning to push renewals up, and we were adapting to the portfolio. So I would tell you, the uptick is significant in terms of just us learning the portfolio and getting our practices and habits in systems in place. And then sorry, what was the second part of your question, Drew?

Andrew Babin

I guess just there’s more of these renovated units come to market maybe in the peak leasing season. I guess, what’s the pricing strategy relative to the new supply in these markets? Is there a certain kind of gap relative to where the new supply is delivering as far as the rent goal that you’re targeting to sort of your value proposition relative to the benefit from it?

Thomas Grimes

That’s what we’re so excited about the Post portfolio on is — Post did a really, really fine job of picking locations that stood the test of time. So essentially, what you’ve got is we have mid-rise product that was 8 to 10 years old, let’s say. And we’re being shaded out by high rises that are looking for $3 a foot. So we’re able to upgrade the unit, great bones, well-developed property, and we’re able to stay even with the upgrade in units $200 to $500 less than new lease pricing. It’s a real sweet spot for us.

Andrew Babin

That’s really helpful. And lastly, Al, just a question on the balance sheet, unsecured bond pricing right now for 10 years, if you could kind of give maybe the spread economics there, and then whether MAA would consider doing anything with a duration of over 10 years, given kind of a flat yield curve?

Albert Campbell

Yes, Drew, that’s a good point. I mean, both the underlying treasury rates, 10-year rates has gone up recently, and the spreads have gone up a little bit in the bond market. But 10-year bond, if we do once a day, it’d probably be around 4.3 to 4.5 range, something like at. But keep in mind, as I mentioned, we’ve done $300 million of hedges in preparation for some financing this year. So when and if we do a deal this year, we’ll be a little bit lower than that, I would say. And so that’s — and what was the second question, second part of that?

Andrew Babin

30-year.

Albert Campbell

Oh absolutely, no question. And one of the things we’ve talked about before is we’ve worked very hard our balance sheet over the last few years. Now we’re at a point we’ve got a lot of public bonds outstanding on liquidity. We think we’re ready to go to potentially a 30-year market at some point. And one of the things that we are looking to do to continue to strengthen our balance sheet is push our duration or maturities out. That’s a specific target for us over the next few years, Drew. So can’t tell you when we would do that. Obviously, we’re going to work tactically when the market gives us that opportunity, but we do expect to seek that kind of activity over the next year or two.

Operator

And we can go next to Tayo Okusanya with Jefferies.

Omotayo Okusanya

A couple of questions for me. First of all, you are quickly increasing your exposure to the overall Denver market. Just curious how big you expect to get in Denver over the next few years, and why you’re kind of exclusively focusing on that market?

Eric Bolton

Well, we’ve been looking at the Denver market for, frankly, the last several years. We continue to believe that the growth dynamics there are very compelling. I think that there’s just a lot of good things associated with — I think the next 10 years likely that occur in Denver from a job growth perspective and migration and household demand for that market. Some of the West Coast markets continue to become prohibitively expensive to live in. We think that the markets like Denver, Phoenix, continue to find favor with a lot of households and employers as well. As a result of the merger we did with Post, you may recall, they actually had a development project already underway there, and so that really gave us the toehold into the Denver market that we’ve been working to find for several years. And then as a consequence of now spending more time in the market, we are — we went out and created an off-market opportunity on the Sync36 acquisition that we looked at.

As I mentioned, we also have another site in the Cherry Creek submarket, very compelling and high-end submarket there, just a little bit southeast of downtown that Post had already on balance sheet that we’re working on. So we’re going to continue to — and then we’ve got another site that we’re working that we recently have been working for the past year or so sort of tie-up. So it’s just a very slow methodical process that we’re continuing to work through, both in terms of development as well as acquisition. And we’ll be patient as we look to build out our presence in the Denver market, but we very much like the growth dynamics in that market, and continue to feel that it’s a good fit for us.

Omotayo Okusanya

So that’s helpful. The second question is for Al. Just kind of going back to same-store effect, again, really good quarter holding those costs down. But kind of going forward, I guess, with where your guidance is, could you just talk a little bit kind of category-by-category where you still think you might be able to hold cost down? I know this quarter, in particular, was repairs and maintenance, and even property tax is only up 2.6%. But I’m curious for the rest of the year, how do you see that mix that will keep you within that low guidance range?

Albert Campbell

Yes. I think for the rest of the year, you’ll definitely continue to see repair and maintenance be a good performer for us, Tayo. You’ll probably see personnel be in line what it is now. Repair and maintenance continues to show favorability, as we’re capturing more of the Post opportunity. I think taxes, real estate taxes, will be pretty consistent. It was 2.6 for Q1, but there are some timing of the prior year appeal finalization. So 4% for the full year on that is about the right picture. And then I think we will say marketing expenses will be low, long term, in the lower end of, not negative, but low 0 to 1% kind of range. And so I think those are the key drivers of it, as you look at the back half of the year. The insurance renewal that we have last year is providing a lot of opportunity. In the first half of the year, we do renew in July, July 1 this year. We have an increase projected, so that’s a little bit of a wildcard. We feel like our increase that we’re having there is correct, but that’s yet to be determined.

Operator

And we can go next to John Pawlowski with Green Street Advisors.

John Pawlowski

Eric, on the capital plan for 2018, I guess what specifically would you need to see to begin ramping dispositions? I understand you’ve done a lot of capital recycling in the past, but what would we need to change on the ground to pivot this position strategy?

Eric Bolton

Well, I think that, as you alluded to, I mean, we’ve worked a lot over the last 5 years, both as a consequence of capital recycling and 2 fairly significant M&A events that have really gotten the position of the portfolio more or less where we want it. I think that we’ve got the balance and the diversification. We shrunk, reduced, if you will, the number of markets that we’re in pretty significantly as a consequence of — we think created a little bit more efficiency in terms of how we were able to operate the portfolio. So I think that it’s a long way of saying we sort of like where we are right now. I think the opportunity to then ramp-up recycling of capital by selling more assets really comes back to the opportunity to match or to fund or match — fund the capital we pull out of those dispositions and into something that is attractive and would offer an improvement, if you will, in our long-term earnings growth rate over what we’re selling. And we’re having a hard time finding new deployment opportunities right now that are particularly compelling in terms of pricing. And so as a consequence, we think the right thing to do at the moment is to continue to clip the earnings coupons that we have coming out of a lot of the investments that we have today, keep our earnings coverage strong, keep the balance sheet strong, keep the optionality in place.

And I think that we’re at a point where, obviously, there’s just a wall of capital out there that is continuing to chase multi-family real estate. I don’t think it will always be this way, but I think that we’re going to continue to be patient with the optionality that we have right now. And I think just selling a bunch of assets and using the proceeds in a compelling way right now is not a good environment for that right now. So we’re — and obviously, it’s a good time to be a seller, but finding an attractive use of the capital without really creating earnings pressure associated with that is difficult to pull off right now.

John Pawlowski

Yes. But in certain markets, your comments about how competitive the bid is, and you’re sitting in the bidding tent for acquisitions, not willing to underwrite the growth on certain deals that people are. So I guess, why not sell the dream to somebody else with comparable assets in your own portfolio? And balance sheet is in good shape, but build a war chest for another day, sell that dream today.

Eric Bolton

Well, we think we’ve got a pretty big war chest right now. And I think that giving up earnings right now doesn’t seem to be particularly compelling for us. We think that the right thing to do right now is continue to enjoy the earnings that we’re getting from the portfolio. We’ve put the organization through a significant amount of earnings dilution over the last 5 years, recycling over — well over $1 billion of capital from high-yielding to low-yielding assets. Longer-term earnings growth rate is better as a consequence of these new assets. But we put the organization to a significant dilutive event, both in terms of the recycling that we’ve done through the merger with Colonial, and more recently, through the merger with Post. We have deleveraged the balance sheet massively over the last 5 years. So we’ve done a lot of dilution, if you will, earnings dilution over the last 5 years in order to position the company, we think, for a better future earnings growth profile, and a lot of that has been accomplished right now. So we don’t see a big need to do more of it right now. We think, frankly, the thing for us to do over the next few years is to harvest the earnings out all the stuff that we’ve done for the last 5 years, and that’s really where our focus is.

John Pawlowski

Okay. Last one for me, in terms of submarket supply backdrop, on the margin, you look forward to 2019 and 2020, do you expect supply to start laying on the legacy MAA footprint more than the Post footprint?

Eric Bolton

No, not really. I think that we continue to see that, frankly, what development does get done today. And I think I’ve seen the reason why this is going to change anytime given the significant rise in construction cost and significant rise in land cost. The only thing it pencils right now is to build a pretty high-end, very high-rent kind of product. It’s the only way you can make it work. And so I don’t think there’s any reason to see that those conditions are going to change in such a fashion that all of a sudden, you’re going to see a wave of modest — more modest fleet price product starting to be built out. I just don’t see that happening.

Operator

And we can go next to Wes Golladay with RBC Capital Markets.

Wesley Golladay

I just want to go back to the questions on concession. On average, for the entire year, do you expect concessions to be less of an issue this year? I know you got hit last year, particularly in the fourth quarter, and that really hurt the guidance. But how should we look at the progression of concessions and new lease spread?

Thomas Grimes

Yes, I want to take concessions. Well, new lease rates, I would expect on a net effect base, to continue to build on the pattern that they have for the first 4 months of the year. And then concessions, I would not expect. It really ramped up in the fourth quarter of last year, and we just don’t see anything indicating that that’s going to happen again this year.

Wesley Golladay

Okay. And I don’t know if you have the data handy, but do you have the new lease spread last year in the fourth quarter?

Thomas Grimes

No, I do not have it at my fingertips. We can follow back up with you on that, Wes. But it is a number we’re looking forward to comparing to.

Operator

And it appears we have no further questions at this time. I can go ahead and turn it back over to you, Eric, and the team for any additional or closing remarks.

Eric Bolton

Okay. Well, thanks, everyone, for joining us this morning. And I guess we look forward to seeing everyone in NAREIT in a few weeks, so thank you.

Operator

And this does conclude today’s call. Thank you, everyone, for your participation. You may disconnect at any time, and have a great day.

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The post Mid-America Apartment Communities’ (MAA) CEO Eric Bolton on Q1 2018 Results – Earnings Call Transcript appeared first on L. SKYDIVE.

Read More At: http://www.landofskydiv.org/mid-america-apartment-communities-maa-ceo-eric-bolton-on-q1-2018-results-earnings-call-transcript/

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Sharing Region statistics is optionally available, however, it is able to also be Live so that when a consumer shares the information with a chum, the pal can watch the person’s motion for up to 60 minutes.

Messenger became as soon as part of the center Facebook phone app, but the business enterprise broke it out as a separate app in 2014 and has due to the fact that invested in common changes to build a provider awesome from the big social network.

Google Maps stated ultimate week that it changed into adding a comparable Live feature, an attempt to enhance engagement on a product of growing strategic importance to that corporation.

The near proximity of the bulletins tells Fb “that we are running at the proper things,” Chudnovsky stated.

Facebook Messenger

Unlike the chat pane on the Facebook internet site, with Fb Messenger pretty a good deal all of your buddies who have the app hooked up are on-line and to be had at all times. No want to test for a green dot. Thanks to pushing notifications, simply check for a cellular iPhone icon subsequent to their call. In case you and your friends all have the brand new app, you’ll save on textual content messaging prices.

In case you don’t need to be troubled with immediate notifications, the Messenger app shall we you switch your indicators from immediately to “off for 1 hour” or “off until eight:00 am” for a digest style notification.

Fb Messenger Before sending a message you can permit your Location inside the message. simply take a look at the little envelope triangle to show it to the blue color. Meaning now everybody will get the message with your GPS Vicinity attached. Whilst your obtain a message inside the Fb Messenger app that consists of a little pin icon, it manner that man or woman has disclosed their Area to you. Tap the message and a map opens up to show the exact address. Tap the View Full Map hyperlink for a Complete sized map in which you could pan around. The blue Location arrow within the message area may be very small as well and near the ship button, making it a really vulnerable to errors, if you have large arms. Usual this GPS Vicinity statistics can be wonderful for finding your peeps around metropolis even as you chat with them.

you can also attach an image to your messages inside the app. Pick out from either Take photograph or Choose an image and you will be able to add an attachment to your messages. Films are not supported right now. ship messages to more than one pass to start a set chat.

Facebook Messenger Sooner or later, all of the messages, attachments and Location data you have inside the Facebook Messenger iPhone app all display up on the Fb website as properly, so you can see them in real time.

There’s no Facebook Messenger app for the iPad, as There’s but no Facebook app for the iPad, even though it is rumored to be the way. Having a standalone messaging app for Fb may also seem a chunk redundant, and I sincerely desire this feature changed into just brought to the prevailing Fb iPhone app. however Usual that is an excellent app and works speedily. So, take hold of the new Fb Messenger iPhone app and make yourself extra handy to the world.

Why Use Fb Messenger for your iPhone

In case you are using iPhone then you might be acquainted with the Facebook Messenger app. The first-rate element is this app is designed that will help you interact along with your friends from exclusive structures across your Fb profile. There are a few exciting things that this app brings you. Now the question is that if this app is really worth downloading.

Getting Started

You’ll want to download and installation the app and get Started out by means of the use of your Fb credentials or simply by using entering your cell phone range. this is quite like-minded with iPhone 4S in addition to iPhone 5C. In case you are the usage of your smartphone wide variety then you will get a confirmation SMS on your iPhone, this is if you have already used your cellphone wide variety to your Facebook profile. if you have no longer provided your smartphone range you’ll be requested to go into it within the due method. As soon as you’re carried out, the UI welcomes you with the Facebook blue and white theme.

Now, you will be able to see your recent conversations so one can be displayed in a chronological manner and the unread messages may be highlighted in formidable. Use swipe characteristic to delete, mark unsolicited mail or archive a verbal exchange. you could even swipe to mute a communique thread and this will help you silence notifications for a particular thread for as long as you need or in reality until you undo your movement. The handiest thing which you do now not get is the capability to block a consumer, for that you’ll nonetheless want to log into your Fb account.

The high-quality issue approximately this messaging app is that you will understand Whilst your message is study or When another user is typing a response. The UI is interactive and responsive with animations which are terrific. you’ve got the alternatives of including pics, 15 seconds audio and video, locations even a huge thumbs-up. For adding a video, Tap and keep the send button and for sending photo Tap the send button.

Organization charts are just like any other chats in your messenger thread that might consist of more humans from your listing. you can put off yourself from the Organization or mute it In case you find it irksome. One greater element to the word is that the admin of the Group has no unique privilege; any person can add or put off some other consumer.

you will adore it for its international IM sense this is much like Google Hangouts. you may also Select to reveal your self-available or invisible.

Extra Functions

In case you are wondering that you handiest get to apply texting then you definitely are incorrect. you’ve got the capacity to apply stickers for your messages that come along with this app. If you are hungry for extra, then you can download from the inbuilt marketplace.

With this app, you will be capable of make IP calls to another consumer. But, be prepared for delays that observe call connectivity even after approval from both the customers. Although, the call excellent is tremendous with high-quality audio pleasant.

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Critics assemble: our writers pick their favorite superhero films

Batman v Superman v Captain America v all of the X-Men. Which cape-wearing, civilian-saving adventures are worth cheering?

Given the repetitive influx of superhero films in recent years, youd be forgiven for wanting very little to do with anything involving a cape, a mask and a post-credits teaser for a long time. But wait, the R-rated Wolverine sequel Logan hits cinemas this week and critics agree that its worth getting over yourself for.

Many are saying it will join the ranks of the all-time greats but what else should be on this list? Here are seven of the best from Guardian writers.

The Incredibles

Photograph: HO/Reuters

Was 2004 the superheroes annus mirabilis? That was when Marvel Studios initiated its ambitious plan to self-finance its movies, buy back the rights to characters such as Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk, and begin the 21st-century wave of superhero films, hugely popular with the public, but often patronised and dismissed the way westerns used to be.

But something else happened in 2004: the release of Pixars glorious animated superhero homage The Incredibles. Thats a film which doesnt fit easily into the superhero fanbase-constituency, and is part of neither the Marvel nor DC tribe (unless you count the fact that Pixar, like Marvel, is part of Disney). And Im conscious that in calling it a homage I may even now be denying it full superhero-film status. But a brilliant superhero film is what it is riffing on the X-Men and Fantastic Four with superb characters, a great supervillain, a terrific story and a sharp satiric theme on the subject of excellence, and the nature of risk, jeopardy and the state.

Mr Incredible (voiced by Craig T Nelson) is a lantern-jawed, barrel-chested superhero who plies his trade in the 1940s, the superheroes postwar first-generation comic book heyday. He is fighting alongside his fiancee, Elastigirl (Holly Hunter). When a member of the public sues him for preventing his suicide, it triggers a legal nightmare forcing the government to outlaw superheroism and to relocate supers to other cities with new identities and bland normality. Twenty years later, he and Elastigirl have suburban lives and he works in insurance a nightmarish perversion of his former calling. They have two kids whose superpowers they have to conceal at school. But then a new villain emerges with a secret connection to the Incredibles past, forcing them to reclaim their vocation and their destiny.

It is rightly celebrated for the superhero costumire, Edna Mode, voiced by the director and writer, Brad Bird, who thinks that capes are a bad idea and is passionately committed to her contemporary vision: I never look back, darling; it distracts from the now. There is a wonderful passage on the phenomenon of supervillains monologuing huge third-act set-piece speeches in which the villains talk about themselves and their awful vision.

Actually, in 2017, the non-talky streamlined all-action superhero film is pretty much against both capes and monologuing and also against Edna Modes injunction against looking back. Superhero films love origin myths, elaborate retro sequences from the past and all-around ancestor worship.

But as it happens, and incredible as it may sound, The Incredibles has a brilliant action sequence, as exciting as anything in any live-action superhero film or action film. Elastigirl and the two kids are flying in their plane to an island from which the errant Mr Incredible has sent a distress signal. Then she is attacked by rockets. The subsequent chase scene and midair explosion are absolutely nail-biting.

It is witty, smart, visually ravishing, and its generic insights are celebratory, not derisive. What a great superhero film. PB

Batman

Photograph: Allstar/Warner Bros/Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar

I have to be honest: I am not the worlds biggest superhero movie fan. Put another way, when they took off in the late 80s, I thought they were a fad that would blow over in a few years; more fool me. In fact, the elevation to ever-prolonging ubiquity is one of the great mysteries of contemporary cinema: how this genre, that for years was considered only good for doltish teens, and treated with equivalent lack of respect, has steadily evolved into the mainstay of the global film industry. Be that as it may, I prefer the funny, candy-coloured type of superhero movie (Spider-Man, Thor, Deadpool) rather than the furrowed-brow earnestathons (Batman Begins, Captain America, Man of Steel) Ive never seen a superhero movie weighty or nuanced enough to justify the heavy-duty treatment.

But as films as opposed to moving comic-books superhero movies tend to fall down pretty hard. There are great sequences, brilliant set pieces, very nice shots but they rarely hold together, still less allowing actual narrative subtlety to intrude on the scene-shifting. The first and still, by my reckoning, only time that a superhero movie seemed way ahead of everything else was the first Tim Burton Batman, from 1989. A tour de force of design, cinematography, and cinematic texture, it was light years ahead of (the nevertheless highly enjoyable) Superman films that had blazed the superhero trail in the 1970s and 80s. Burtons brilliance was to make everything else look redundant and in many ways, nothing has changed since. AP

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Photograph: Moviestore/Rex

Heres a conspiracy theory: someone at the Academy purposefully shuffled those envelopes to detract from the much bigger scandal earlier in the evening: the snubbing of Garry Shandling in this years Oscars In Memoriam montage. I hope my choice of the Marvel movie in which he cameos as a sinister Hydra disciple will go some way to righting this wrong.

Shandlings 15-second appearance in this sequel to the first film featuring the weed who becomes the most fantastic hunk is one of my chief reasons for picking it; the other is its literally the only superhero movie I can ever really remember enjoying.

This is obviously a personal deficit, but perhaps it is, actually, a better superhero movie than most? There are terrific action sequences, for a start: that initial heist, fuelled with sexual tension between the Cap and the Black Widow, plus the most wonderful punch-up in a lift. Plus, vegetables to accompany all that meat and beef: a properly thought-provoking investigation of the morals of surveillance and the ethics of vigilantism in a democratically accountable society.

But perhaps what really clinched it for me as an Avengers movie I could get along with was the relative dearth of Robert Downey Jr. The more you can minimise this man, the more I shall like any movie. CS

Thor: The Dark World

Photograph: Allstar/Marvel Studios/Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar

Many are hailing Logan for stretching the boundaries of what a superhero movie can be. Its dramatic, fervid, and realistic in its violence. But lets not do away with whats core to comics culture: deep, dank nerdery that ought not be allowed to see daylight.

I love comic books rich in lore and steeped in mythos, swirling in and out of realms with names impossible to spell. Thor: The Dark World stuffs two handfuls of delicious dorkiness into its maw, one rich in fantasy, the other in science fiction. Is the Asgardian bio-bed a quantum field generator or a Soul Forge? The answer, of course, is that it is both.

Thor: The Dark World has portals and Kronan Rock Men and invisible spaceships and a ray that can curl you up into a singularity and zap you into another dimension. A liquid totem called the Aether is almost in Malekith the Dark Elfs nefarious grasp, just in time for the quinquennial cosmic event known as the Convergence. Oh, God, I need to stop typing and grab my asthma inhaler, this sort of talk gets me all worked up.

In the middle of all this, theres the bickering romance between the sharp and sweet doctor played by Natalie Portman and her hunky blonde blue-eyed spaceman, Thor. When they reunite during a battle, the first thing she does is yell at him for never calling. When they visit Thors realm, Dr Foster quickly bonds with Thors mother. They may as well be eating intergalactic coffee cake. And there are still some who say mixed marriages cant work?!?

Thor: The Dark World is a rush of Absolute Comics mainlined direct to my amygdala, with a profound purity that few other modern superhero movies allow themselves. It is Worthy. JH

The Dark Knight

Photograph: Allstar/Warner Bros

While Batman Begins was a refreshingly coherent, mature and dark-hued film about the Caped Crusader (a relief after the eye-punishing gaudy excess of Batman & Robin), it was far from a masterpiece.

There was a major villain problem (a somewhat gimmicky last act switcheroo that didnt quite have the required impact) and a major Katie Holmes problem (needs no explanation) and as a result, it was a promising franchise-restarter but not the home run we might have hoped for. Three years later, Christopher Nolan returned, lessons learned and homework done, with a sequel that rose far above its generic peers and, despite the creation of the hero-packed DC and Marvel universes since, it easily remains unsurpassed.

The Dark Knight moves like a fiendish thriller, one that confidently pushes the boundaries of the superhero genre in a way that comic book fans may be familiar with but which for cinema-goers such as myself was a revelation. Its a breathtakingly brutal film, packed with staggering PG-13 violence and a bleak worldview thats unrelenting, grounding fantastical characters and situations in a world that, for once, is depressingly easy to relate to.

That villain problem? Easily fixed. The casting of Heath Ledger in the role of the Joker might have been initially unpopular with fans, who couldnt envision his leading man looks buried under cartoonish makeup, but his performance was dynamite, an Oscar-winning fireball of anger and anarchy. That Katie Holmes problem? Replaced. Maggie Gyllenhaal added depth and a genuine emotional connection which led to the shocking finale carrying even greater weight. Its one of the rare examples of a superhero film where each devastating act of violence or aggression has a lasting impact. In Nolans Gotham City, life and death both mean something.

It might be to blame for the dreary drudgery thats bogged down many ensuing superhero adventures but it remains a ruthlessly entertaining example of just how daring and necessary the genre can be. BL

Watchmen

Photograph: Clay Enos/Photo by Clay Enos

It may be difficult to credit given Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice recently picked up a gaggle of Razzies, but Zack Snyder was once seen as the coming man of comic book movies. His 2009 adaptation of Alan Moores sprawling graphic novel about an alternative 1980s in which Nixon remains in power and superheroes are real remains a high point of the film-makers career and proof that given a decent script, he is capable of producing eye-popping cinema beyond that of most his contemporaries.

The bravura opening montage, set to the strains of Bob Dylans The Times They Are A Changin, is unequalled in comic book movies. The casting is impeccable: Jackie Earl Haley has never been better than as the hardboiled, morally immovable vigilante Rorschach, a gurning, spitting man out of time whose psychological torment is written on his face whether wearing that famous mask or not. Patrick Wilson is wonderfully understated as the taciturn Nite Owl, a superhero who looks like an accountant with middle-aged spread, while Jeffrey Dean Morgan is perfect as the leering, sneering, cigar-smoking alpha male scumbag the Comedian, a role which surely won him the part of the villain Negan in The Walking Dead.

Naysayers argue that Watchmen is too close to its source material, bar a sensibly altered denouement. But Moores story is so epic in scale and splendid in its unexpectedly detailed rendering of the inner psyches of costumed crimefighters that Snyder was really only required to add visual flare. If there is a Citizen Kane of superhero movies, this is indisputably it. BC

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Photograph: Allstar/20th Century Fox

The best thing about this time traveling entry into the vast annals of X-Men history is the absolute disregard Bryan Singer had for newcomers. If you hadnt been paying attention to his line of mutant entertainment over the last decade or so, youd feel a bit like Kyle Reese being spat out into 1984 with no clothes and no idea what was happening. That slightly manic pace, which feels like its borrowed from a daytime soap opera, plus the period costume and references to Vietnam, Nixon and the height of 70s cold war paranoia made this a strangely daring superhero film.

Instead of something that tried to set out the basic idea of what the X-Men were and what they were all about a concept most grandmothers could probably grasp by now this just got straight into the internal machinations of a group that makes the EU look harmonious. Of course, the old themes of good and evil doing battle, and overcoming personal demons (in this case addiction for Professor X) are there, but it was delivered in a knowingly strange way. You could even argue the hectic feel and funny but slightly smug lines set the stage for the least superhero-y superhero of them all, Deadpool. Singer knew fans were au fait with the concept of time travel, and would love to see Magneto and Professor X as their younger selves, so he threw it all into a blender and Days of Future Past came out like a perfectly mixed bit of superhero bechamel. LB

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