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davidmann95 · 3 years

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Sooo… Superman and the Authority?

magnus-king123 asked: Your thoughts on Superman & the authority Give it to me...lol

Anonymous asked: Seeing Bezos take his little trip into space the same day Morrison puts out a Superman comic that touches on how far we’ve fallen from the days when we dreamed of utopian futures where everyone explored the stars was a big gut punch. Not used to Superman being topical in that way.

Anonymous asked: What'd you think of Superman and the Authority#1?

This is far beyond what I can fit in the normal weekly reviews, so taking this as my notes on the first six pages, with this and this as my major lead-in thoughts:

* Janin's such a perfect fit for Morrison - the scale, the power, the facial expressions selling the character work, the screwing around with the panel formatting as necessary to sell the effect, the numinous sense of things going on larger than you can fully perceive amidst the beauty and chaos. It's a shame he wasn't around 25 years ago to draw JLA, but I'll take him going with Morrison onto other future projects.

* His intro action sequence is such a great demonstration of why Black actually does have something to offer, and also how he's such a dumbass desperately needing Superman to save him from himself.

* While Jordie Bellaire didn't legit go with an entirely monochromatic palate the way early previews suggested, it's still an effect frequently and excellently deployed here. And glad to see Steve Wands carry into this from Blackstars since there's such an obvious carryover from its work with Superman.

* "Gentlemen. Ladies. Others." Great both because of the obvious - hey, Superman's nodding at me! - and because it's a phrasing that reinforces that this take on him (and let's be real Morrison) is old as hell.

* I'm mostly past caring about whether this is an alt-Earth Superman until it becomes indisputable one way or another, this and Action both rule so what does it really matter? But while there are still a couple signs in play suggesting some kind of division (the Action Comics #1036 cover, Midnighter up to time-travel shenanigans) the "lost in time" quote clearly thrown in after the fact to explain how he could have met Kennedy outside of 5G that wouldn't be necessary for an Elseworlds, the assorted gestures towards Superman's current status quo, the Kingdom Come symbol appearing in Action, and that Morrison would have had to completely rewrite the ending if this wasn't supposed to be 'the' version of Clark Kent going forward as was the intent when they first planned it all say to me that no, no fooling around, this is our guy going forward one way or another.

* Janin and Bellaire making the first version of the crystal Fortress ever that actually looks as cool as you want it to.

Anonymous asked: I like that Superman and The Authority is basically the anti-All-Star; instead of the laid back, immortal Superman who is supercharged, we have a stressed, ageing Superman whose tremendous powers are fading. The former will always be there to save us, but the latter is running out of time and needs to pull off a Hail Mary. Also, he mentions in his monologue to Black that he was "lost in time" when he met JFK, so maybe he is the main continuity Clark. Or he's the t-shirt Supes from Sideways.

* You're absolutely right - the power reversal is obvious and the ticking clock in play seemingly isn't for his own survival but everyone around him as he wakes up and realizes all the old icons grew complacent with the gains they'd made and he's not leaving behind the world he meant to. Both, however, are built on the idea of preparing the world to not need them anymore - it'll still have a Superman in his son, but that'll only work because of the others he empowers and inspires. The question is what happens to Clark if he's not going to live in the sun for 83000 years.

* Clark's 'exercise' here does more to sell me on the idea of Old Man Superman as a cool idea than however many decades of Earth 2 stuff.

* Intergang being noted alongside Darkseid and Doomsday speaks to how much Kirby informed Morrison's conception of Superman.

* This isn't exactly the most progressive in its disability politics but at least it makes clear Black's being a piece of shit about it.

* It's startling how much Clark can get away with saying stuff in here you'd never expect to come out of Superman's mouth. "I made an executive decision" "Privacy, really...?" "You have nowhere to go, Black. Nothing to live for." "There are few people in my life who I instinctively and viscerally dislike, and you've always been one of them." It only works because there's zero aggression behind it, he's just past the point of niceties and being totally frank while making clear none of these assessments preclude that he cares and is going to unconditionally do the right thing every time. He is absolutely, per Morrison, humanity's dad picking us up when we're too drunk to drive ourselves home.

* The story doesn't put a big flashing light over it, but it's not even a little bit subtle having the material threat of the issue be a ticking timebomb left by the carelessness and hubris of generations past.

* Manchester keeps trying to poke the bear and prove his hot takes about Superman and it's just not working. The front he put up under Kelley is gone after decades of defeats, and as Morrison understands what actually conceptually works about him as a rival to Superman underneath the aging nerd paranoia he's exposed as what he absolutely would be in 2021: a dude with a horrific terminal case of Twitter brainworms. I was PANICKED when I heard there was an 'offensive term' joke in this, I was braced for Morrison at their well-meaning worst, but it's such a goddamn perfect encapsulation of a very specific breed of Twitter leftist who uses their politics first and foremost as a cudgel and justification to label their abrasive, judgmental shittiness as self-righteousness (plus it's a killer payoff to a joke from way back in his original appearance). Cannot believe they pulled that off when they're so very, very open about basically not knowing how the internet works.

* @charlottefinn: Manchester Black using his telekinetic powers to force someone he hates to fave a problematic tweet so that he can screenshot it and start a dogpile

@intergalactic-zoo: “Once they cancel Bibbo, Superman won’t be *anyone’s* fav’rit anymore!”

* Friend noted this issue had to be fully the conversation because the whole premise stands on the house of cards of these two somehow working together, and with three 'silent' inset panels the creative team pulls off that turning point.

* So much of this feels on the surface like Morrison bringing back the All-Star vibes with Clark, but when he drops a "That's all you got?" in a brawl you realize what's underlining that bluntness and confidence in the face of failure is that deep down this is still the Action guy too. This dude ain't gonna get wrecked in his Fortress while the other guy chuckles about him being A SOFT WEE SCIENTIST'S SON!

* Bringing up Jor-El made me realize that Morrison already spelled out that this is the final threat to Superman, what he faces at the end of the road:

"Now it's your turn, Superman."

* A l'il Superman 2000/All-Star reference with the Phantom Zone map!

* There's so much intertextuality going on here even by Morrison standards - Change or Die with the old hero putting together a team of morally nebulous folks out to 'fix' everything, Flex Mentallo with the muscleman trying to redeem the punk, Doomsday Clock with the fate of the world hinging on whether Superman can get through to a meta stand-in for an idea of 'modern' comics cynicism, DKR and New Frontier and Kingdom Come and Multiversity and Seven Soldiers and What's So Funny and All-Star and Action and the last 5 years of monthly Superman comics and Authority and probably Jupiter's Legacy and Tom Strong - but none of that's needed. You could go in with the baseline pop cultural understanding of the character and not care about any of the inside baseball shit and get that this is a story about a leader of a generation that let down the people they made all their grand promises to as inertia and day-to-day demands and complacency let him be satisfied with the accomplishments they'd made long ago, looking at a new era and seeing the ways its own activists are dropping the ball. The only thing that fundamentally matters in a "you have to accept you're reading a superhero story" sense is that because he's Superman he's willing to own up to it and listen to people who might know better about some things and try to set things right while he and those who'll take his place still have a chance. And yes, the oldster looking back on their legacy with a skeptical eye and hoping for better from the next generation, hoping most of all that their little heir apparent can fulfill the promise inside of him instead of being a provocating little shitkicker, is obviously also autobiographical.

* The overlaying Kennedy reprisal is such a great visual of a sudden intrusive thought.

* The Kryptonite secret is the obvious "This is going to matter!" moment, but "He lied about his son" is a bit that doesn't connect to anything going on right now so maybe that's important here too? More significantly, the Justice League can't actually be the villains here but that Ultra-Humanite's crew are in an Earth-orbiting satellite makes pretty clear what's up.

* I've said before that between Superman, OMAC, and a New Gods-affiliated speedster this was going to use all of Morrison's favorite things. King Arthur playing a role isn't exactly dissuading me.

* Love the idea that all the antiheroes have their own community in the same way as the capes and tights crew. They definitely all privately think the rest are posers though and that they alone are Garth Ennis Punisher in a mob of Garth Ennis Wolverines.

* Manchester's fallen so far he's gone from trying to convince Superman to kill to convince him to dunk on people for their bad takes and Clark just doesn't get it. Official prediction of dialogue for upcoming issues:

"According to these bloody Fortress scans, the only thing that can restore your powers is an unfiltered hit of dopamine. Don't worry, Doctor Black has a few ideas."

"Hmm. Maybe I'll plant a nice tree?"

"...fuck you."

* Ok I already talked about how great the Fortress looks in here but LOVE this library.

* A pair of pages this seems like the right spot to discuss from Black's original appearance that underlines both his and Superman's inadequacies up to this point:

Responding to the problem of "the government and penal system are hopelessly corrupt" neither of them has any actual notion of what to do about it in spite of their respective posturing beyond how to handle individual outside actors - each is in their own way every bit as small-minded and reactionary as the other. Clark's coming around though, and he's holding out hope for the other guy.

* Superman: Have a lovely mineral water :) proper hydration is important :)

Manchester Black: *Is a dude who can get so mad he vomits and passes out. At water.*

* That last page is the one to beat for the year, and does more to put over the idea of this as an Authority book than that Midnighter and Apollo are literally going to show up. It also feels like Morrison tacitly acknowledging all the ways the premise could go or at least be received wrong - from Superman saying 'enough is enough' to who he's bringing into the fold to go about it - in the most beautifully on-the-nose fashion imaginable. Maybe they'll save us all! Or maybe they'll drown us in their vomit.

#Superman and The Authority #Superman #The Authority #Manchester Black #Grant Morrison #Mikel Janin #Jordie Bellaire #Steve Wands #Opinion

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badromancebullsquid · 3 years

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[IMAGE ID: Three photos of a traditional, uncoloured comic drawn in pencil, showing Scout and Pyro from Team Fortress 2. Scout, wearing shorts, a design-less t-shirt, his baseball hat, and a duffel bag with trans and nonbinary pride pins on the strap, is shown talking to Pyro. Pyro is wearing their studded, flame-patterned jacket, along with a light-coloured skirt going to their knees. In the first panel, they're both standing in front of a desk, and are viewed from behind. On the desk lies a piece of paper reading: "NEW PRONOUNS? 🔥/ SELF?" and on the bottom, it reads "BUY MILK LATER". Dialogue is as follows: SCOUT: So, these are the new pronouns? PYRO: Mm-hm... SCOUT: How do you say them? The next panel is a close up of Pyro's mask, with them looking anxious. They explain, before Scout butts in: PYRO: Um, well, they aren't really said-- SCOUT: Is it, like, 🔥 went to the store-- Pyro is shown looking shocked in the next panel, their mask's eyes widening. SCOUT: ...what? Next, the viewpoint is from behind Pyro, with Scout facing their front. Scout looks confused. PYRO: How did you SAY THAT. SCOUT: Uhh... 🔥 went to the store? The final panel shows Pyro, viewed from the shoulders up. The expression on their mask is blank, and a thought bubble above their head expresses their only thought, simply written out as "*dial-up internet noises*". END ID]

Theory: Scout TF2 can say emojis, verbally, out loud. This makes getting some of his team member’s pronouns a LOT easier.

(YES i know it’s 1972 but this concept is too good to throw away jsdhfs)

#tf2 #team fortress 2 #pyro tf2 #scout tf2 #team fortress fanart #my art #my image id #accessible art #also yes scout has pride pins :3 #reblogs appreciated #lmk if i should tag as long post!

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theewrites-tf2 · 6 years

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Alright everyone, Buckle Up

Time for an ULTIMATE TheeWrites RANT. (And yes, this is a long doozy down speculation/analyzation train, so hang on kiddies!) (Also Spoilers for the Comics, proceed with caution or scroll down for a few seconds without looking)

The star of this rant?

Bette Darling Mann

also known as the one TF2 character that has nothing on her Tumblr tag, So that’s why i’m gonna try and fill it up! DEAL WITH IT, I HAVE THOUGHTS/FEELS ABOUT THIS MYSTERY WOMAN!!!

Now, if you’ve been obsessed with everything Team Fortress related, and ESPECIALLY the comics, that name is gonna ring some bells, and buddy, it should! Bette Mann (née Darling) was the wife of Zepheniah Mann, mother of Blutarch, Redmond and Grey Mann. We, the audience of Valve comics, have never actually seen this woman except for this short panel:

In which, she is revealed to have died in childbirth with the Mann tripletsin 1822.

Tragic, in more then once sense. As the mother of the three men who would continue the Mann legacy for well over a century, start the Gravel Wars and start multiple chains of events that would lead to the events of the comics, one would think she would be more then just a passing character. A passing character, A writing ideology my eighth grade teacher insisted I keep this in mind, is a person that has little-to-no impact on any other characters.

And considering THIS was her husbands reaction to her tragic death:

We as an audience can simply class Mrs. Bette Darling Mann as nothing more than an unimpactful, passing charact-... WHY YES, HELLO!

WELL YOU CERTAINLY LOOK LIKE A HEARTBROKEN, DEVASTATED MAN UPON THE NEWS OF BETTE’S DEATH! LET’S CHAT WITH YOU ABOUT BETTE, MR BARNEBUS HALE AND SAXTON HALE’S GRANDFATHER!

Based on these duel reactions, I personally think we can toss away the idea that Bette Darling Mann was a throwaway character. Maybe in her husbands eyes, yes... BUT LOOK AT HALE! The man, who’s natural instinct to fight large felines is pasted down through generations, as well as his fearless adventuring nature, is absolutely, utterly DESTROYED in these two images. The look in his eyes, the way he clutches over his heart in the first image, like it just broke at the news... Meanwhile, Zephaniah honestly couldn’t care less, and I think this shows that the marriage between Bette Darling and Zephaniah Mann was absolutely loveless.

But what about Barnebus? Well, I think it’s clear, based on this reaction, that he, whether in the present or in the past, was absolutely in love with Bette. Of course, it’s COMPLETELY unknown if Bette actually returned these feelings, but at some point, there WAS something between the unknown Bette Darling and Barnebus Hale.

Of course, we can’t know for sure if anything came OUT of this past romance, So I guess we might as well shove this theory asid-

YES HELLO! WELCOME TO THE PARTY, MR CHARLES DARLING, WHO COINCIDENTALLY HAS THE SAME LAST NAME AS BETTE, WHOM SAXTON HALE, GRANDSON OF BARNEBUS HALE, HATES, AND WHO WAS A MENTOR TO SAID GRANDSON BEFORE YOUR FALLING OUT.

Oh, and how startling that when happen to do THIS:

YOU HAPPEN TO HAVE QUITE A BIT OF A RESEMBLANCE WITH BARNEBUS HALE. ALMOST LIKE, YOU TOO, ARE A DESCENDANT OF THE MAN.

Now, with this interesting bit of info, what could I possibly be suggesting?

Could I possibly be suggesting that, when she was younger and prior to her marriage with Zephaniah Mann, Miss Bette Darling was in some sort of romantic involvement with Barnebus Hale, to which possibly could’ve resulted in a illegitimate birth that Bette decided to hide the fathers identity and/or send the child away to live with her OWN father, who was curiously and for no real purpose, mentioned HERE and also in CHARLES DARLINGS PAGE, HERE . However, Barnebus knew this and kept his bastard close with his own legitimate family in the future, and possibly made his bastard with Bette Darling a mentor to his legitimate son, a Hale.

Of course, Charles Darling would not be the bastard, but possibly the son of the child between Barnebus Hale and Bette Darling, and therefore, being the grandchild of the Man who was given COMPLETE control of MannCo. as well as the grandchild of the wife of the ORIGINAL Mann who controlled/created MannCo., Charles Darling could technically have a higher claim than Saxton has at MannCo. now that all the other Mann’s are deceased, minus Olivia Mann.

But of course, that’s all just ‘speculation.’

However, since we’re speculating and analyzing Bette Darling Mann’s role and influence in the Team Fortress Lore...

Let’s go deeper into the Mann side of things.

...

In PART 2.

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runolllo-fanboygirl · 4 years

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Did you guys know I’m actually a big fan of Team Fortress 2.

It’s just that not being able to play the game anymore (because of the arm muscles problems) and the toxic and sexist part of fandom really killed my hype back then and I decided to stop interacting. Still, I’m always happy when the algorithms recommend me some videos or push some fanart on my dashboard... the RAW energy, the POWER and lunacy of the characters of TF2 is something I will always LOVE.

I recently heard of Soldier’s voice actor dying, took a look at some of the tributes and I got reminded that I never read the conclusion of the TF2 comics because it was not available at the moment...

Spoilers ahead, for TF Comics #6: "The Naked and the Dead"

Well the conclusion is still NOT out, but there was 1 “new” chapter that I didn’t read when they released, and what do you mEAN LUDWIG AND JEREMY DIED WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK-

Although, the emotions shows by the other mercs when they died, that was very worth it the pain... man I didn’t know I needed so much in my life, to see Mikhail fistfight someone to the death because they killed the doctor, "YOU KILLED MY FRIEND”. And Spy... disappointing BUT expected, he was a coward until the very end and even as Jeremy died he couldn’t show his real self to his son, even as he was saying those things and comforting him in his last few moments... still, disguise or not, he showed he cared and mourned and that’s a lot more than I ever thought we would get? Like holy shit he said he was proud of him, called him by name, called him SON... only for Jeremy to NOT ACTUALLY BE THAT DEAD AFTER ALL lmaooo the fucking face Spy makes hahaha Mundy be like “oh hey mate, kid is fine after all!” and Spy be like “Are you fuckinG SERIOUS I put mY eMOTIONS on dISPLAY-” ahahahahahha

The thing is, yes Mundy was the first one to die BUT WE DIDN’T KNOW, or at least I didn’t know, for the longest time I literally thought he only got like, a little more hurt than usual? hell when he got shot he was still standing in the last panel of that chapter (assisted by Tavish, but clearly NOT DEAD). It was not confirmed until the next comic was released like a year later? And as soon as they confirmed his death, Ludwig quickly got him back and breathing, so yes even if half of the other mercs + Pauling almost died, since Ludwig was very visibly pissed off by his new team and he had already saved Mundy anyway, we knew the other mercs would be fine because Ludwig was cleary about to rejoin his old team to help them...

...but then they killed Ludwig. And then Jeremy. Ok so the doctor is dead, he can’t revive himself and obviously can’t revive Jeremy, how are Valve going to fucking do this, or are they really killing off the medic and the scout, there is only 1 chapter left after all... I mean Ludwig went off after epically standing his ground, in close combat no less, against that mastodon of a man and after getting a few heartwarming moments with his old friends (well, as heartwarming as a moment can get when this mad science man), plus Mikhail getting real REAL sad and angry when Ludwig was shot to death before him after he failed to help him... that would be an honourable way to kill off Ludwig. So I was getting a lil nervous they would actually kill him for real lmao... AND THEN JEREMY DIES TOO AND I AM LIKE ASDF I had to stop reading for a moment to think.

Jeremy’s “death” scene didn’t have ANY building up to that moment, it wasn’t epic, it wasn’t a fair way to kill him off, unlike with Ludwig, heck we didn’t even watch Jeremy destroy those robots or get hurt, Mundy and Spy were having the most ridiculous of arguments when they happen to find the kid half death,and Spy’s disguise was stupid as fuck... and yet when Jeremy seems to be gone for real and Spy reverts to himself as he holds him, man oh man...

So anyway I thought, ok relax this can’t be it. Just because Mikhail said “you killed the doctor” it doesn’t mean he’s actually dead? Misha is shocked and enraged and too busy fighting the man in front of him and didn’t check the doctor. The doctor will be fine in the end, somehow. Misha can like, steal the immortality device from the guy he’s fighting and put it in Ludwig? And then Ludwig will get Jeremy all parched up and back from the dead too.

Anyway I didn’t KNOW what the fuck I was expecting other than for them to use the immortality device on either Ludwig or Jeremy. but I sure as all hell was not expecting the way they actually came back... Mister Ludwig has too much fucking power and can’t be stopped and I should had fucking known better. Scout is baby and I should had known better too, he’s too baby to die, he can baby his way out of heaven, like he does with everything. All of these men are so fucking ridiculous get them out of my face give me back my tears jerks.

Also when Spy revealed that Jeremy is really his son from when he was with his mom 27 years ago... what do you fucking mean Jeremy is 26-27 years old I truly thought he was kinda a kid like, very early 20s hahaha oh fuck now I see all the times he has been complaining about being treated like the baby of the team, he really meant it? Although, Jeremy did mention he has known Pauling for 6 years, probalby for the first team when he started working for her, which means he’s around 20 when the whole plot of Team Fortress 2 started and all the updates (the robots invasion etc.) have been happening through a few years. It makes sense since all the mercs seem to have known each other and Pauling for quite some time.

ALSO WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN SPY IS HIS ACTUAL BIOLOGICAL DAD HAHAHA I THOUGHT HE WAS JUST THE LOVER OF HIS MOM AND NOT HIS ACTUAL RUNNAWAY DAD and all the fucking team seems to know this lmao?? Even Jeremy himself seems to know, or at least to suspect it but it’s so fucking pissed at the thought of Spy being his mom’s lover, let alone to be his son, that his few functioning neurons are trying real hard to block those facts hahaha

Man these comics are just masterpieces. I would love to make comments about every single panel but ain’t nobody got time for that... still, I just really felt like mentioning, how much I love them, the energy they have, how fucking hilarious they are in that lunatic, unique and slightly crude sense of humour they have, and also please never forget that most of the RED mercs had to team up in groups of 2 to take 1 of the BLU veterans out and still got real hurt in the process, MEANWHILE PYRO TOOK 2 OF THE VETERANS ALONE AND THEY COULDN’T EVEN LAY A FINGER ON PYRO. The Pyro’s got too much fucking power too, and can’t be stopped, you already knew, but I felt the need to say it anyway.

#team fortress 2 #tf2 scout #tf2 medic #tf2 spy #tf2 heavy #tf2 sniper #tf2 pyro #tf2

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reminiscent-bells · 6 years

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best-ofs, 2017

putting in a break here, this is real long

best book I read: The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood

It seems trite to pick this in a year where every Tom, Dick, and Harry was comparing the Trump administration to Atwood’s novel and when Amazon was putting on a big-budget adaptation (which, for the record, I have not seen). The effect that this had on me, though, cannot be understated. Sad, wry, and all-too-familiar in places, this is a masterpiece that deserves to be up there with 1984 and the rest of the great nightmares.

honorable mention: The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, David Mitchell

I’m not much of a historical fiction person, but this masterfully wrought story of a Dutch clerk and a Japanese midwife in early-1800s Japan is well worth your time.

best comic: Batman, Volume 1: I Am Gotham, Tom King, Mikel Janin, et al.

King and his collaborators’ work on Batman since DC’s most recent relaunch seems to be on a trajectory to match or even surpass the Grant Morrison era in the pre-New 52 era, a reshuffling of the core cast that will pay huge dividends down the line (if DC actually makes a wise long-term decision for once, which, who knows). Despite his tendency to learn a little too hard on certain stylistic tics, I think King might be the best writer working in superhero comics today.

honorable mention: Detective Comics, Volume 1: Rise of the Batmen, James Tynion IV, Eddy Barrows, et al.

Yes, two Batman titles in one year is a bit of a cheat, but this is so fun that it’s hard to pick something else. Tynion turned up on a panel discussion on the great comics podcast Jay and Miles X-Plain the X-Men where he was introduced as the writer of “DC’s new X-Men title, Detective Comics”, which is exactly what this is - a team of misfits and outcasts cobbled together by a reticent, demanding mentor...who in this case is Batman. This is easy to miss out on with all the fireworks over King’s work, but give it a shot.

best comic (non-2017): MIND MGMT, Volume 2: The Futurist, Matt Kindt

Kindt’s work on the beginning of his psychic-X-Files saga MIND MGMT was good, but the second collection reveals it as a ship-in-a-bottle in the middle of a much weirder, wilder museum - there are few volume 2s that build on the success of the first as much as this one does.

honorable mention: BPRD, Volume 3: Plague of Frogs, Mike Mignola, Guy Davis, et al.

The first few collections of this series, following Hellboy’s teammates after he quits the secret BPRD organization, kind of flounder, but Davis and Mignola really hit their stride here with this sequel to an earlier Hellboy story that grows into a hybridization of Mignola’s earlier work and a Stephen King novel.

best movie: Blade Runner 2049

This also feels like kind of a cheat given my love for the original, but there was simply no other movie that had my gears turning after I walked out of the theater like this one did. The plot elements of this, of course, have been speculated on endlessly since Ridley Scott released the Final Cut of the original film, but My Guy Dennis Villeneuve manages to introduce enough new elements and uncertainty in the mix to keep you guessing - I found myself continually questioning what I really knew about anything that had happened or was happening. It was always going to be impossible to make a movie as good as Blade Runner, but Villeneuve came closer than anyone could dare.

honorable mention: Star Wars: The Last Jedi

I have my misgivings about the Finn and Poe portions of this, which feel like they mishandled the two more than a little, but the Rey/Luke Skywalker storyline is, as a whole, a barn-burner, building on both Rey and Luke’s characters in extremely satisfying ways. It was easy to imagine where they might go from Rey and Luke on the island at the end of The Force Awakens, but I don’t know if I imagined they’d go here, which is what makes this so great.

best album: I See You, The xx

I gave this a pretty casual listen on Spotify when it came out as I was kind of a marginal xx fan - I enjoyed their first album but didn’t really care for Coexist. I was totally blown away and listened to it all the way through several times (this is something I rarely, if ever, do with big pop/pop-ish releases). Virtually every track on here except for the extremely forgettable closer is perfectly performed and produced, from the playful, somewhat taunting “Dangerous” to the self-doubt-as-anthem “On Hold”. Should go down as their best album to date.

honorable mentions: Piety of Ashes, The Flashbulb / Sleep Well, Beast, The National

I couldn’t decide between these two, so here’s a twofer for you. Benn Jordan’s style as The Flashbulb has shifted along a spectrum of sweet spots between acoustic music and electronic music, and he seems to have somehow found the sweetest one yet in Piety of Ashes, which alternates between intimate material you might have expected on Arboreal or Love as a Dark Hallway (”Starlight”, “Goodbye Bastion”) and big, broad electronic pieces that feel like Jordan uncovered something he could always do that was just off-camera (”Hypothesis”, “As Water”).

When I first heard Sleep Well, Beast my comment to a coworker was “I only like some of it now, but I think I’ll like it more as time goes on”. This was a rare example of me actually showing some predictive ability, because this has really grown on me with time (maybe its intent as commentary on life in the Trump world as something to do with this). Highlights are the sad, sweet “Nobody Else Will Be There”, also-sad-and-sweet, but in a different way “Carin at the Liquor Store”, and the driving dark heart of the entire thing, “The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness”, which has been a constant play for me this fall/winter.

best TV show: Twin Peaks/Twin Peaks: The Return

A triumph for David Lynch and Mark Frost in every sense of the word. The era of “prestige TV” feels like a cheap trick by HBO, AMC, et al. to get us to watch the same old stuff with a slightly higher budget after 18 hours(!!!!!) in, around, and beyond (and I mean beyond) Lynch’s little town in the Pacific Northwest. Kyle MacLachlan deserves about 400 awards for his triple (quadruple?) role here.

honorable mention: Mr. Robot

I think Sam Esmail failed to stick the landing again (I wasn’t a fan of season 2), but the earlier parts of this season are maybe the highest highs the show has ever hit - Elliott and Mr. Robot fighting over his body in the bowels of the ECorp fortress from the end of season 2, Darlene struggling to extricate herself from the FBI, and the terrifying-yet-awe-inspiring scene of Angela laying out her plans to Mr. Robot as New York comes back to life at the end of the first episode. This isn’t always the best show, but boy, can it ever be good.

best video game: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

This is to video games as Lynch’s third season of Twin Peaks was to television: a throwing of the gauntlet to every competitor to dare and match this. Where other games would put physics puzzles in their own little sandboxes, BOTW applies its physics to just about everything and lets you see how far your tools can take you. Where other games would put everything on the map in perfectly zoomable, filterable control for you, BOTW challenges you to build the map yourself and actually get out there and explore. I’ve gone back to this in the harder Master Mode with the release of the last DLC, and there’s still nothing that can touch this. This is destined to be a touchstone for decades to come.

honorable mentions: The Talos Principle/Batman: The Telltale Series

The Talos Principle is everything I wanted The Witness to be that The Witness wasn’t: thoughtful without being heavy, clever without being impossible (well, mostly not impossible, there are a few of those puzzles I don’t think I could have cracked on my own). The writing is sharp as a tack, featuring a variety of philosophical discussions between your character and a whip-smart AI. A really excellent puzzler.

Batman: The Telltale Series marks yet another appearance of the Batman on this list, but what an appearance! Telltale throws out several sacred cows of the Batman behemoth, but instead of making something malformed and uninteresting, it feels like the freshest Batman has been in ages. I eagerly await every new episode of this, because I never know where they will go next.

best podcast: Important If True

This is yet another “feels like I cheated” entry, but the Idle Thumbs guys’ work on Important If True deserves to be recognized. They could have simply recycled the Robot News segments from Idle Thumbs for this, but instead they went for something much wilder, taking people’s advice on what wishes to ask for from a genie, going through breakdown procedures for old Chuck E. Cheese competitor restaurants, and speculating on a Jessica Fletcher vs. Jaws matchup (as in the shark). The most wildly funny podcast going now. Recommended episodes: “Fight Garbage With Garbage”, “Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins”, “A Wish Upon a Star”

honorable mention: Waypoint Radio

With the Idle Thumbs guys winding down to a monthly schedule (sorta), Vice’s Waypoint staff’s podcast has readily stepped into the hole left behind by the Thumbs for regular doses of industry coverage. It’s great to see Danielle Riendeau and Rob Zacny getting more exposure outside of the Thumbs ecosystem, and Austin Walker, Patrick Klepek, and Danika Harrod are this sort of perfect perpetual motion machine at the heart of everything. Recommended episodes: “The Orange Casket”, “R.I.P. A.I.M.”, “Someone Explain To Me The Alien Alloys Before I F'ing Explode”

#best-of #2017

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rhythmbastard · 6 years

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Ready Player One? BEGIN STATUS QUO SUNDAY!

READY PLAYER ONE HYPE! Whoa! Whooooa!! (That was a Crash Bandicoot meme) Look at all this EPIC gaming referencing! MY BODY IS READY! (That's a Nintendo meme) I wish I could live in Osiris with Parchibald and Girl even though 99% of society is decaying in slums! CHECK OUT THIS T-SHIRT YOU CAN BUY! CONSUME! Yeah, I'm doing that cynical thing where I harp on something popular to get clicks my way. And yes, it's passe at this point to hit Ready Player One for all the references and stuff. "But don't you do the same thing Mr. Makes Songs About Magic The Gathering and Overwatch and Shit?" Sort of? In the back of my mind, I have a philosophy of "Themes, Not Memes". Basically, I try to find a "hook" to the song. Why does this song exist? What am I doing besides "making a song about a thing"? Mostly what I try to do with my music about a subject is put context and meaning where there wouldn't be. Most of my Magic the Gathering songs are about putting you in a place with a particular mind frame: "We're pirates!" "Let's work together and fight the big scary monster!" "I'm Nicol Bolas and you're going to die but love it anyway!". There's a pitch you can follow along with. Even Axe Cop is written so that you can follow it, even if you don't know what Axe Cop is. With Status Quo Radio, it was a challenge to make 9 different songs that feel as different as how the Team Fortress 2 classes play. As life changed, and my politics became what they are today, so did the overall theme of the album into something different. YouTube Video Producer Peter Coffin has a term he uses a lot in his videos: "Cultivated Identity"- identity, who you are and how you see yourself, that has been derived from what is consumed. And when an identity is driven by what you consume, it can be "cultivated", or be reaped for profit by a retailer like ThinkGeek (quirky nerdiness) or Hot Topic (rebellion!) or a production company like Disney (your childhood!) or- well, given the news Disney's all we're gonna get. It's kind of how I feel about geek culture in general these days. It's not "Let's make this thing good", it's "Oh, ANOTHER thing to add on to the pile". Like, it's impossible to be into nerdy shit UNLESS you catch Game of Thrones, and 7 DC TV series, and are all caught up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, etc. Because of course you have to buy all this shit. It's "Geek Culture". Net Neutrality was repealed today and Disney, the foremost manipulator of copyright law (seriously, it extends the length of public domain anytime Mickey Mouse is due) bought Fox, and now owns like 50% of popular culture BUT HEY GUYS THE XENOMORPHS ARE DISNEY PRINCESSES NOW! So between that and being in between jobs, the world is feeling pretty barren right now. NEW SONG ON PATREON- "Be The Solution"! I decided to whip up a song for the new Unstable set because I wanted to sound like Devo. That AND "High Noon" are coming out AFTER Holiday Matsuri as a 2-for-1 deal because A. I want some encouragement to come out to my show this week at Holiday Matsuri and B.I'm running out of space on my Soundcloud. All my album tracks will be available, alongside my MtG songs, but some of the older, rougher stuff will be taken down to make room. Hardcore Nerdcore Punk (3:45 PM, Panel Room A) Crank your Holiday Matsuri up to 11 when Rhythm Bastard brings his mix of punk rock and fandom to the stage! You like video games? Comics? Card games? Come on down and open the pit up! Holmat Slam (5:00 PM, Panel Room A) Get ready to rumble in the hypest fake wrestling event Holiday Matsuri has ever seen! From the people who brought you AFO Rumble, Mizu-Mania, and Iwai-vor Series, comes Holmat Slam! Play some old N64 Wrestling games, and compete for the chance to win a championship belt! JAM OF THE WEEK: "Welcome To The Church Of Rock And Roll" <iframe width="400" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IeyKsWyhHG8" frameborder="0" gesture="media" allow="encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe> This is from the last album by Foxy Shazam you can consider good, and man that opening is a real attention getter. It's the musical number to a Rebellious Character that the Young Protagonist in a fantasy movie meets in the second act that draws him away from The Path, but our Young Protagnotist is Too Pure and Not Sure About This to stay in this Probably A Tavern for the rest of his days while The Bad Guy continues His Scheme Elsewhere. But when Young Protagonist tries to leave, he's stopped by Rebellious Charachter's Gang of Thugs but then the Young Protagonist gives a heartfelt speech about doing the right thing and- Wait, where was I going with this? Oh yeah, "Welcome To The Church Of Rock and Roll" is awesome. via Blogger http://ift.tt/2zdB8gV

#foxy shazam #holiday matsuri #politics #ready player one #status quo sunday

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davidmann95 · 4 years

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Comics this week (10/28/2020)?

Dark Nights: Death Metal: Rise of the New God: Not at all what was advertised, but that’s a good thing - that throwdown belongs in the main book. This instead sets up an interesting little oddball concept that acts here as a simple pseudo-DC-history-recap device and commentary on the larger storytelling going on in this event, but could go on to play a larger role. Not a ton of meat on the bone here, but I liked it.

Legion of Superheroes #10: There’s a big reveal panel here that channels the kind of Superman-related joy I’ve scarcely felt since All-Star, and in general this issue sets up a ton of interesting new avenues.

Action Comics #1026: Nothing to write home about, but there’s a neat format trick here - I thought it quite literally didn’t work due to some kind of miscommunication along the road to production, but flipping back through it was in fact pulled off successfully.

Wonder Woman #765: This ‘running gag’ and Wonder Woman’s borderline-indifference is incredibly uncomfortable at this point.

Justice League Dark #27: Okay I have *no* idea where the hell this is going from here, but I’m all about it.

Suicide Squad #10: I’m gonna need to see how this twist plays out in the last issue (beyond ‘Taylor wanted to use that character again’), but I’ll admit I look forward to rereading this as a whole after the next issue closes it out.

Batman: Three Jokers #3: I’ll go more in-depth later since several have asked about my overall thoughts on the series now that it’s done. For now, I’ll simply say that post-Doomsday Clock I’ve been convinced that beneath a patina of hackishness Geoff Johns and what he’s trying to say are sincerely pernicious. But guys...what...what if he really is just genuinely a dumb fucking idiot?

Anonymous said: I know you probably dropped that digital only “Superman Man of Tomorrow” book, I haven’t been following it too, but I just read #18 for some reason and I’m so glad I did! It’s entirely set inside what I believe is the coolest Fortress ever (with some great nods to the All-Star Fort Superman), and it’s a really solid adventure one-shot, I really recommend you read it, and if you do, please share your thoughts!

Anonymous said: Needed to pass this along but the latest issue of Superman: Man of Tomorrow by Brandon Thomas feels like something you would love even though it’s a one and done. It’s not Keatinge-tier but it perfectly captures that feel for the Fortress you talk about wanting and has Morse code eyeblinking between Superman and a flying shark.

Superman: Man of Tomorrow #18: I checked this out based on the recs above, and yeah, this one was a hoot! A consistently fun and clever Superman caper, far more than worth the $1.

The Immortal Hulk #39: HELL YEAH, by which I mean JESUS NO. Immortal Hulk is on that roll we love to fear again, baby.

X of Swords: Stasis: I don’t have the slightest clue what’s going on anymore.

Shang-Chi #2: Fun! I’d drop it if it were an ongoing, but this definitely has me onboard for the rest of the mini.

Fantastic Four: Antithesis #3: Not all I’d want from Adams’ crack at the team or probably Waid’s final Marvel project for the time being (if not ever?), but a decent time.

Giga #1: I just don’t seem to vibe with Paknadel the way a lot of folks seem to, and I couldn’t much follow what was happening here anyway.

The Department of Truth #2: Yes, it does indeed keep up the pace after that gangbusters opening. It’s also however a product of rotten timing: a character is introduced here who is if not deliberately Warren Ellis-esque definitely fits that mold, who is major enough that he was surely conceived of prior to the book’s announcement in June 2020, the same month as...well.

Blue In Green: An Image Comics horror OGN covering the days immediately following the funeral of a struggling musician’s mother by Ram V, Anand RK, John Pearson, Aditya Bidikar, Tom Muller, and Ryan Brewer. I want to talk about it as little as possible plotwise beyond that it deals with legacy, art, and sacrifice, but the stylistic vibe here feels like a massive evolution of Morrison and McKean’s Arkham Asylum, meshed with incredible poetic diction and a musty air of nostalgic regret. This is easily one of the most gripping and impressive projects to come out of the medium in 2020, and deserves any and all sales and accolades it manages.

Slaughterhouse-Five: This OGN actually came out several weeks ago, but I only just got around to reading Ryan North and Albert Monteys’ adaptation of the classic, and while my college memories of the source material are too vague to comment on this as an adaptation, this is a towering work in its own right and can’t be recommended highly enough.

#Week's Comics #Opinion

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