#issue 42

[gravedangerahead]

I love 01 (one) drama queen

He knows how to brood with style, he knows how to be literally a pathetic wet cat. Please turn into an actual cat again, I'm begging you

I cannot emphasize enough that we haven't even seen the relationship or the woman this is about, we just go straight to the brooding and the ⭐️DRAMA💫

#drama dream if you will #the sandman #sandman comics #dream of the endless #morpheus #issue 42 #he has barely showed up for a few issues now I missed him #merv pumpkinhead

[dailydccomics]

and i support him

#garth #tempest #dc comics #garth of shayeris #dc #aquafam #aquaman vol 5 #issue 42 #comics

[borrelia]

ougghAugghgouguh???

well sonic is cutes for a panel :)

#weird octopus... #fleetway sonic #myaa #issue 42

[thanksjro]

More Than Meets the Eye #42 — The Return of Cybertron’s Waifu

Gee, Swerve, you sure are chatty today. Logorrhea acting up, bud? I’m sure it’s fine, though, nothing to worry about. Certainly not a desperate cry for attention since you’ve been demoted to tertiary cast to make room for newer characters. I’m sure you’ll be perfectly healthy and happy the next time we see you! Okay, we’ve got to go check in on the weird dance-party zombies now. See you later, Swerve!

Nautica and Skids are still on the Vis Vitalis, and boy howdy are they having a time. Not a “barnacle zombie” sort of time, a “private dance party” time. Skids dips Nautica (I think. All the friggin’ kibble is getting in the way of seeing any hand that might be on her back) as he comments on how good of a dancer she is. Nautica deflects, saying that she’s been too shy to really do much dancing prior to this, and it’s not like the Lost Light has many opportunities to break the boogie out between universe-ending crises.

Skids really just went in and flirted with someone without knowing their gender. What a Bicon.

It turns out that Nautica’s home planet of Caminus has a major focus and prioritization of the arts. Firestar flourished in that environment, seeing as she’s an acrobat, actor, and dancer, while Nautica was more of an outcast, what with her being a quantum mechanic. Needless to say, she was pretty eager to go when Windblade called on her to help with the Metroplex thing.

Nautica then reveals that the only reason she’s besties with Firestar is because over on Caminus, if you’re a loner past a certain age, you’re labeled as a social outcast. The actual term used is “persona non grata” but I’m assuming it’s not being used in the legal sense. At least, I fucking hope not. Firestar didn’t have a bestie at the time either, so, perhaps as an act of desperation, she nabbed Nautica, the biggest nerd on the planet who also didn’t have friends. Nautica, not wanting to commit social suicide, rolled with it, despite not totally loving Firestar’s personality.

Wow, Skids is divorced? Never would’ve pegged him as the sort to tie himself down in the first place, but damn.

On Caminus, platonic divorce is seen as the worst thing you can do to a person, and it’s highly encouraged that you work it out instead. Considering that it’s socially unacceptable to be single beyond 10 mega-cycles after your creation, there must be a swarm of folks in loveless friendships over there.

Actually, let me look up how long a mega-cycle is in IDW2005—

Oh, you can’t be serious. No wonder Nautica is miserable in her queerplatonic relationship.

While Nautica’s been explaining the shitshow that is Caminus, Skids has had himself a little sit, and seems to be slowly losing consciousness. Nautica notices this, and straddles the man before she notices the barnacle zombies surrounding them.

Because Skids is very weak right now, it’s up to Nautica to save the day. She readies for fisticuffs, getting promptly clocked in the face for her troubles. The sight of a woman being harmed causes Skids to pass out, and the two are quickly swarmed.

Over in the morgue, Nightbeat and Getaway are still dealing with their own collection of barnacle zombies. Nightbeat’s trying to work through what the fuck is going on, and Getaway gets snippy with him while avoiding getting smooched by a zombie. Nightbeat tries to return the snark, but gets his tit slashed while he’s distracted.

While he’s knocked on his ass, Nightbeat works out that the barnacle zombies were using Countdown as an incubator, and took just a little too much from the guy, thus killing him. This is also the fate that awaits anyone infested with these nasty little things. Better watch out, Getaway.

A rocket blast gets one of the zombies behind Nightbeat, and we finally see where Ravage got to. Ravage had torn into the morgue to try to get away from whatever was setting off his attention deflectors, but they had stopped pinging once the barnacle zombies had been revealed through the power of Nautica’s magic wrench. Here’s a quick rundown of how this works, pulled from last issue.

So whatever’s going on with these barnacle zombies works on the same principle as Ravage’s cloaking.

Getaway would very much like to get away from all the zombies, but Nightbeat needs to look at that famous corpse again, this time with the wrench light properly on it. As expected, it’s covered in barnacles.

Over in the Medibay, Minimus, First Aid, and Velocity are being assailed by the zombies as well, though Velocity seems perfectly capable of putting up a fight, as she fastball-specials a chunk of medical equipment that’s half her size into the throng of creatures. Firestar and Skystriker walk in to see what all the hubbub is about, only for Skystriker to immediately be torn to two. Also, everyone keeps calling him Skystalker, who is a completely different guy with the same color scheme. Looks like someone pulled an oopsie during the editing process.

They have First Aid check the vitals on Skystriker’s lengthways-ed body, as if he doesn’t have enough bullshit going on with Ratchet having run off to go get plowed by a 30-foot tall weeaboo. Luckily for First Aid, and everyone else, the hero of all hours has finally gathered the strength to do what must be done.

Ladies and gentlemen, please give a round of applause to… him.

Nobody does it like you, babe.

As they’re escaping, Velocity notices that the barnacle zombies are having some sort of reaction to Thunderclash. A manifestation of lust, perhaps, for the most beautiful Cybertronian? No time for theorizing, we must flee.

Back on the dance floor, Nautica’s crawled out from under the pile of zombies to stick her fingers into an electrical socket, electrocuting them all and allowing her and Skids to escape. The Vis Vitalis might need a visit from an electrician to make sure all the wiring’s up to date, that seems like quite the surge.

Firestar and Velocity run in at this point, while the fellas seem to have opted to drive. Nautica and Velocity catch up real quick, while Minimus tries to shut the door manually, seeing as Nautica’s power outlet trick likely blew the power. First Aid tries to rouse Skids to help, but honestly, considering how fucking strong Minimus is, I think we could probably let Skids take his nap.

Nightbeat and Getaway speed through the gap, Ravage riding on Nightbeat’s back. Between this and Cyclonus tucking Tailgate into his pilot’s seat, I’m beginning to think that letting someone sit in your driver’s seat is a lot more intimate than one might think at first blush. Earth must have taken some getting used to.

Or maybe a lot of getting used to.

Nightbeat waves the wrench around to check folks for barnacles, while giving everyone an earful on his working theory on what the hell is going on. He thinks that the barnacle zombies are a sort of super-chameleon species, that can become completely undetectable for the purposes of feeding on their hosts.

Then Velocity remembers a sentence structure issue so slight that I’m sure Minimus briefly considered marrying her on the spot for it, and we find out that Firestar is a fucking liar. She’s not the first officer of the Vis Vitalis at all, and she certainly didn’t save this ship from certain doom— in fact, it was the opposite that happened! After Nautica, Chromia, and Windblade fucked off into space for Metroplex reasons, Firestar, Velocity and the rest went to go look for them. They crashed into an asteroid and their pilot died on impact, necessitating Thunderclash come save the day.

Skids wakes up briefly for this news, and also probably because Nightbeat just shone a bright-ass light in his face looking for barnacles. Needless to say, Skids has them in spades. Now we just need to find out why exactly only certain folks are getting infested with parasites.

Now, what do Getaway, Skids, Thunderclash, a star athlete, a military general, and the star actor pilot from Firestar’s crew have in common? If you said “being hot”, that’s… actually not that far off.

Personality ticks are native to the planet of Marasma, which is where Firestar got her hair dye from. They snuck onto the ship and latched onto the pilot, who was one of the greatest actors of her time, which is why she immediately expired when the crash happened. Then they got ahold of Thunderclash when he came to the rescue, because he is the most beautiful, wonderful, charismatic, giving, kind, stunning, generous and understanding creature to ever grace the galaxy with his presence. This is why he had such a slow decline into near-death, despite his spark injury being fixed. His spark injury that was fixed by one of the personality ticks themselves!

I don’t think that tick was licensed, but let’s roll with it for the sake of getting to keep Thunderclash around.

Still, knowing how all this happened doesn’t automatically fix the issue, as Getaway and Skids are still dying, and god knows how Thunderclash is faring, considering that his paint job was already pretty sepia-toned at the start of this arc. Minimus tells everyone to shut up, his mustache turning into an arrow briefly, before he gets pummeled by the door exploding open. The personality ticks are here for blood.

Velocity goes into attack mode while Firestar cowers in the corner. Nightbeat gets his tits slashed again. Nautica makes a bomb out of innermost energon and Firestar’s hair. All this, and the ticks are still coming. Then the bad bitch that Firestar wishes she was walks in and all is well.

Later on, we’re over on the Lost Light giving blood donations to all the guys who had ticks. Magnus, now back in his armor, because I guess the ticks would’ve gone for it if he’d worn it over to the pre-wake, is discussing just what the hell happened with Nightbeat. Nightbeat, ever a lover of the reveal, explains his thought process for what could stop the personality ticks. However, it turns out that Nightbeat isn’t the only man with a brain on this ship, as Rodimus and Megatron were called by none other than Skater. You might remember Skater as the guy who got his tit honked in the previous issue. He, along with fellow faceless friends Flex and Borer, figured everything out and got a solution rolling.

Now that the ticks aren’t chewing on his spark anymore, Thunderclash is set to make a full recovery, and could actually join the Lost Light, now that he no longer needs the Vis Vitalis to live. Ultra Magnus is excited by this prospect, but who wouldn’t be? It’s fucking Thunderclash. Damn shame about the map he made being destroyed by all the post-party ruckus, though.

Over in the shuttle bay, Firestar and Nautica are saying their goodbyes. Firestar is ready to get the hell out of dodge, considering she saw a man get torn in half and had to retire her pride in the same day. Firestar then says that they should consider seeing other people, because she realized how backwards she had everything this whole time; the one who’s got catching up to do is her, not Nautica.

Nautica, knowing how this will go, considering Firestar is the only one headed back to Caminus, refuses, saying that their relationship is just fine, and there’s no reason to destroy Firestar’s social standing over being completely different people. They hug, and the Vis Vitalis shoots off for home.

… I sure hope they discussed that with Thunderclash before just running off, he looked pretty unconscious in that last scene.

That night, at Swerve’s, it’s time for EarthDance, featuring a playlist that I refuse to believe Blaster of all people would approve.

Tailgate makes a request for a secret song. Bluestreak is serving out of a bottle with what might be a Decepticon insignia on it, which has some strange connotations. Everyone is dancing like a fucking lunatic, and I don’t mean that in a good way. Riptide might be playing “Fuck, Marry, Kill” with Ravage, not realizing that one of the options he’s provided him with is his own son.

Tailgate walks up to Cyclonus and asks him to dance. Cyclonus, once again, refuses, stating that it would be embarrassing. Tailgate, pulling from the shit Getaway said earlier, mutters about always being embarrassing to Cyclonus. Cyclonus catches at least some of this, but Tailgate refuses to elaborate, and you know damn well by this point that Cyclonus ain’t gonna clear the air because talking about feelings is for pussies, or something.

It’s at this point that the song Tailgate requested comes on; it’s Cyclonus’s favorite Earth song, “The Power of Love” by Huey Lewis and the News.

Here’s a fun thing to do: in a separate tab, pull up “Power of Love” by Huey Lewis and the News, and stare at this specific image of Cyclonus:

Ridiculous.

Cyclonus, my dude, what the fuck is your arc even doing? You’re a rich old man with a massive sword and a love for a single 80’s power ballad, but you won’t dance and if anyone were to point out how down bad you are for your roommate you’d probably stab them. You are a fucking mess, and I love you for that.

Cyclonus, having realized that he might have fucked up, looks for Tailgate, but alas, too little too late. Getaway has claimed the marshmallow’s dance, swinging him like he’s about to slam the little guy into a wall.

Velocity reveals herself to have stayed with the Lost Light, entering to her own theme music, and Firestar is revealed to have gotten one last jab in at Nautica.

At the bar, Skids congratulates Swerve on an awesome party, and Swerve has a little smile to himself at a job well done. What a great ending to this rollercoaster of an arc! Cheers all around!

…God fucking dammit, Swerve, you’re not slick. I saw the music lineup, you did this on purpose.

#transformers #MTMTE #issue 42 #Hannzreads #text post #long post #overthinking about robots #comic script writing

[calyroco]

#lmao #black science #y'know what? this redeems the story for any gripes I had with it before. only temporarily tho #issue 42

[sinvulkt]

#who the hell is professor zoom #and what’s his obsession with Henry #why does he give so many ’ex lover’ vibes #The flash #barry allen #dc #comic spoilers #the flash comics #comic panels #the flash 2011 #issue 42 #brian buccellato #francis manapul

[murasaki-kageyama]

[Number], 18, 22, 19, 20

Seven “😐😑” faces

Well, at least they’re all in the same class!

#damian desmond #anya forger #becky blackbell #issue 42 #spy x family manga #henry henderson

[2001hz]

Paris Hilton for FHM magazine issue n°42 (2004)

#paris hilton #fhm magazine #issue #n°42 #2004 #photography #y2k #y2k aesthetic

[thegoldenreport]

SUBJECT BURIAL

How did you sleep last night?

Did you doze off on the couch?

Were you watching television?

Which channel was it?

How do you feel now?

…

Think about whether any of these questions bring up a sensation of panic. If your breath quickens or if you start to sweat. If you start to see flashbacks, flickers of seemingly unrelated images. 

You may have been victim to a psychic attack.  

No. You’re not the only one.

You are not alone.

To our knowledge, it went like this:

You are positioned in front of a television screen. Maybe you came home late from work and wanted to numb your mind. Maybe you just like your government issued TV. Maybe you were watching the news.

After some time, at around 4:37 am, the screen begins to stutter and glitch. The audio distorts and becomes choppy. In the middle of all this static noise, a manifest eye opens. Inside the eye, there is a symbol.

One vertical line with a semi-circle positioned in the middle. Above it three dots in a triangular shape. Below it, two small horizontal lines slashed through. This displays for only a moment before the screen cuts to black.

And then, a message:

Thank you for being such a valued viewer!

This is an invitation from Channel 7.

Please stand by.

There is no chance to accept or deny. Only the screen that swirls into a blue vortex and glows brighter, filling your vision, swallowing your body…

When you open your eyes, you find yourself in a board room or community center or school cafeteria. It is hard to tell the difference. Hard to say if you’ve been here before. In front of the tables, you see a stage fit with an antique telephone on an alabaster pedestal. There is a clock on the wall, but it’s hands remain motionless.

Broken.

You are seated at a table. One of many tables, color coded and numbered. Perhaps your color is red and your number is 7. Perhaps it corresponds to the channel you were watching, while slumped in your couch. Perhaps that is the channel who also invited you here.

Of course there are others who appear in the room. Materialize at a table, lifting their heads, vision sweeping the desolate grey room, thoughts all…scrambled and hazey.

And still others arrive, though they are not like you. They walk in through the set of yellow double doors to the far left. They do not dress like the waking world. Fabric that hangs off their bodies in impossible angles. They file in, take a seat with the color that corresponds to their outfits. 

Green for Channel 4. 

Red for Channel 7.

Blue for Channel 3.

Purple for Channel 1.

Orange for Channel 5.

Black for Channel 6.

Yellow for Channel 2.

They control the broadcast. They only exist behind the static. They are the curators. 

And once ever five years, they like to throw a soiree in celebration of the best in mental disruption and self importance shown throughout the cable system. And of the waking world, a lucky few get to experience it live and in person.

Should we really call you lucky?

They talked amongst themselves, whispering gossip about the blank faced viewers. Eyeing them here and there. Some tried to strike up conversation, with loud, metallic voices that only served to shake the viewers into a shrunken silence.

Channel 2. Bright, lavish, gaudy Channel 2 hosted this year’s event. They always host this event. Something within them will not allow another to take that role. And they do have the most viewership. 

The master of ceremonies, a small woman in a sharp, pale yellow, cube-like gown, steps on to the stage and welcomes everyone. The next words out of her mouth was that there has been a delay in food. And so the entertainment would start early: collectively re-enacting scenes from a late 2000’s surrealist sitcom called SUBJECT BURIAL.

A lot of people were fine with this. A lot of people were not. Channel 5 turned their viewers into spiders and sent them to attack Channel 2. All while Channel 4 was smuggling cider out of the kitchen. And Channel 3, upset that fighting was already happening so soon, levitated the spiders into an air vent, claiming that Channel 2 was just “doing their best”. Channel 6, who managed to reel in zero viewers for this event, opted to simply vanish into thin air, citing “what was the point anyway?”.

Channel 7, adamant to complete the sitcom that aired on their channel back then in the first place, snapped their fingers. The viewers from their table immediately morphed into the iconic sitcom characters, both in personality and in appearance.

CARA: a twenty year old newt who is learning how to hypnotize people with her guitar.

TRYS: a robot made out of junkyard metal who came to life when a group of teenagers spilled grape soda on his remains.

RIPLEY: a mad scientist who is best friends with Cara and designs interdimensionally powered instruments.

DRAM: a virtual war pilot who wants to exploit Cara’s abilities for her own absurd benefit.

SCUBE: ghost of a man who fell asleep in his submarine and never woke up, right hand assistant to Dram.

A flabbergasted Channel 2 handed out scripts. The changed viewers didn’t seem to need them, balled them up and threw them at Channel 5. They acted out each scene with no restraint, because that’s who they were now. Flailing their arms. Donning goggles made of glass and speaking in riddles. The curators of Channel 7 left their table and sat cross legged below the stage. Watching. Laughing. Reminiscing.

Losing themselves in a rose gold past.

The only ones really paying attention.

And then the food eventually did come out.

And maybe your channel stayed for that.

Maybe they didn’t.

And maybe they returned you to your original form.

Maybe they didn’t.

Either way, we’d love to hear about your experience. One of our staff members was taken. He is entirely made of metal now.

He does not remember his real name.

Do you remember yours?

#subject burial #issue 42 #the golden report #original #surreal #writing #weird #dark #unreality

[strangerathecinema]

when that one early 2000's weird thriller-mystery show about a plane crash has me crying my eyes out, screaming out loud, jumping out of my seat, and violently reacting to small details every single epsiode without fail

#yes this is about lost #i love those traumatized adults with daddy issues so much #lost #lost tv show #jack shephard #kate austen #sawyer ford #hugo reyes #sayid jarrah #desmond hume #john locke #charlie pace #lost abc #4 8 15 16 23 42

[horsewizardart]

heck of a game huh

#mlp #pinkie pie #rainbow dash #peanuts #designs inspired by andy price’s peanuts tribute in issue 42 of the mlp comics #horsewizardart

[laufire]

I don't ship them because tbh I see cass as a lesbian, but she and superboy should've become best friends specifically so bruce could die mad about it.

#read batgirl issues 41-42 yesterday and i'm coming after him with a hammer #gonna be breaking sooooo many of his bones #also clark i hope after you get your bearings you're less spineless #talking to the void #my thoughts #dc #dc thoughts #dc comics #cassandra cain #kon el #bruce wayne #bat clan

[punkeropercyjackson]

*Shoves this into faces of people who say Jason's into incest dynamics,that Percy viewed Nico in a romantic light and/or that Punkflower's a pr*ship because Hobie's canonically 19 as the creator of The Anomalies(DC x Pjo x Spiderverse)*

#first one's a panel from red hood and the outlaws issue 42 second's an expert from battle of the labyrith and third's from an official book #so they're all canon-no ifs or buts!!!the only debatable one is hobie because 18 can count as 'slightly older' than 15 but 20 dosen't ENUFF #the anomalies #jason todd #percy jackson #hobie brown #anti batcest #antipercico #punkflower #nico di angelo #miles morales #nico and percy #bruce wayne #battinson supremacy #dick grayson #tim drake #cassandra cain #duke thomas #damian wayne #stephanie brown #talia al-ghul #anti slade wilson #antisladejay #batfam #pjo #atsv #spiderman #antiproship #trans/autistic/bi/aroace headcanons #summerposting

[movedtodykedvonte]

So confused where fandom/fic writers got this interpretation that Miles does stupid shit that doesn’t make sense or barely works out in the end or puts his friends in unnecessary danger all the time. Like in both movies the others simply underestimate him and don’t understand what Miles is doing cause he thinks like Miles, not like your everyday Spiderman. He uses his Venom Strike to throw Kingpin in the ITSV movie and literally saves Gwen and Peter because they went into battle less than ready. Then had the entire plan to lure the Spiders in ATSV, yet I keep seeing him written like he doesn’t think or gets his friends in trouble even when he understands the danger. Most of the time his different thinking has helped or led people to fix personal issues.

The first movie alone pretty much sets in stone that the exact opposite of what he wants is others to get hurt by his actions, inactions or the actions of others and trying to live up to that belief and the expectations it carries. Across the Spider-verse hammers it home with how he constantly tries to save people because that’s what he should do, rather than listen to some theory that is clearly not absolute at best and outright wrong at worst. Every fic has him being the one to cause issues and not fix them when his planning and actions literally helped save Gayatri and her father.  (c’mon we know the glitching was the spot)

Yeah, I get making him stubborn or strong willed cause he doesn’t listen all the time but usually it’s for a good and valid reason, if he listened every time he was told not to, guess how many of our beloved characters would be dead?

#cause all the times he acts rash are because hes being lied to misled or not treated like he is gonna have to be spiderman and is spiderman #first gwen with the entirety of spider society and why he couldn't come then talked over by Miguel and blamed for what he couldn't possibly #control not to mention the shoddy nature of miguels entire theory #cause if it was true 1610b earth 42 and mayday wouldnt have happened or would collaspe casue miles was never supposed to be spiderman #so many things would be going wrong if it was true #miles is pretty level headed most of the time and quick he outsmarted the guy who made the trans dimension tech for crying outloaud #he simply doesnt tell his exact plan he does it and its up to others to figure it out cause why would he narrate his plan to them #he litteraly tells miguel he just doesnt know what miles is doing in response to miguel thinking hes just running blindly even Peter & Gwen #are suprised cause the whole point of miles story is others thinking they know it and underestimating him #him being dumb and rash and naive in fics just isnt a good source of conflict especially if its post ATSV and BTSV #he is constantly stating he doesnt need to prove himself as spiderman to anyone but himself soemthing he realizes in ITSVs climax #he already knows he spiderman and be damned if hes gonna try to prove it to someone who wanted his dad to die like yall treat him like he #learned nothing Miguel made more issues by not listening to Miles about the spot like he wants to wait for him to get stronger so Miles dad #will die think about that and say Miles is rash and doesn;t think again he isnt inexperienced or naive anymore save that for Pavitr who jinx #himself and has only been spiderman for 6 goddamn months #miles morales #across the spiderverse #atsv #spiderverse #atsv spoilers #spiderman #mini rant over im actually going to sleep now

[roaring-at-the-sky]

wally and linda are the best couple btw. they met because wally turned into a man-porcupine monster hybrid thing and became a cryptid, and then linda gets possessed by a irish ghost wizard after busting a cult of enlightenment created by rudy west in a get rich quick scheme.

why are they like that

#dc #wally west #linda park #wallylinda #panels from The Flash (1987) Issue 42 #can you tell im rereading v2 lmao

[akascow]

sobbing at this teenie tiny wittle morpheus

hes just baby

bonus wittle delirium

#this is from issue 42 btw #dream the endless #the sandman #the sandman comics #delirium the endless