“That relationship between Doom and Valeria is maybe one of the best in comics. It’s so unusual and almost impossible. The idea that your hated villain would be the goddaughter to your child seems ridiculous, but it works because, Doom, for all of his many faults, he does have this weird, twisted sense of honor. I love that he will be Emperor Doom, but also still wants to be Uncle Doom to this young woman. They’re both pulling each other in different directions, kind of towards each other. It’s so operatic and big, but it makes sense emotionally.” — Ryan North
( Scans under the cut... )
Last time out, Billy confronted the Weird, who looks like the corpse of his father making a o_O face.
Billy’s mom notices he’s gone from the backyard, but it’s the Eighties, so she assumes he’s just roaming around the neighborhood. Or maybe she assumes a supervillain kidnapped him, just to put a capper on the week of her husband’s death and his corpse getting vaporized. She’s not doing okay!
( This WOULD have been around the time Skyhook was kidnapping kids in Metropolis. Stranger danger! )
( Read more... )
I wasn’t sure whether to include this one, or quite where to put it. It’s from mid-1988, but it includes a mostly earlier lineup of Justice Leaguers. And it has a droll, JLI-ish sense of humor, but in the end, the JLI and Superman are secondary players. The Weird is the hero of his own life, and that life attains more meaning from its brevity.
( If only we could say the same for his 152-page STORY. This abbreviated form may be a better reading experience. )
Not much Lesla fanservice this issue, but we do get a Superfamily Thanksgiving spread.
( Read more... )
I totally fell off the wagon with these. I have been reading, just...keep missing Wednesday somehow. (I had to think really hard about whether it was Wednesday again). Also I've been reading a lot of books that I just wasn't excited about (and some I DNFed or kind of wish I'd DNFed.) But I am brought back by the need to talk about this awesome book I read:
Finder by Suzanne Palmer
Palmer also wrote The Secret Life of Bots, which I loved. This Finder series I originally passed over because I thought "a space repo man named Fergus Ferguson tries to steal back a spaceship in an old mining colony made of hollowed-out asteroids and various large tin cans" was going to be more absurd than I usually enjoy. Oh boy, I could NOT have been more wrong. 5-star book, A+ characterization and wonderful worldbuilding, totally.
The more I thought about what was working in this book, the more I was really, really impressed with how (despite Fergus' terrible name) this book took its characters so seriously. Like...ALL the characters, from Fergus to the side characters to random folks Fergus met for a page or less. Everyone had understandable goals and motivations which changed realistically as the plot unfolded and they reacted to events as much as Fergus did. This led to very wonderfully ALIVE-feeling settings. The asteroid colony and Mars both felt filled with peoples' hopes and dreams and tragedies. Somehow this author made the politics of this collection of asteroids and tin cans feel messy and realistic and interesting.
I was also super impressed by how this author dealt with the really rather high amount of randomness in the plot. Fergus is a thief. He's doing a heist, scheming some schemes, and things go ass-up fairly early on. He's realistically forced many, many times to make a bad plan, just because it'll make SOMETHING change and then he can reassess. This could very easily have felt capricious and slapstick and unearned (a pet peeve of mine in some books), but it did NOT, because of the wonderful CHARACTERIZATION. Fergus spent the whole book understandably stressed about everything, convinced that he was going to get himself and everyone he cared about killed. He felt the GRAVITY of all this unplanned chaos, and passed that tension on to the reader, while moving forward anyway in the smartest way he could come up with (and he is SMART! It's a whole plot point that he several times amazes people with his knowledge because the first thing he does is READ THE ENTIRETY OF THE ASTEROID INTERNET so he knows what's what. A protagonist! Actually looking shit up rather than winging it! <3 <3!) Yes, he was lucky, and yes, he had some help from many quarters, but it somehow all made sense and held together without feeling random.
Also, the science felt like it held. There was a lot of dealing with zero- and low-G and crawling around on the outside of asteroids and habitats, and it felt realistic without being overwhelming. Which was just icing on the great characterization and smart-plot cake.
Also there was no extraneous romance, which is also a plus for me.
I immediately needed to track down everything in this series, after reading this.
A++, do recommend.
In the film Apocalpyse Now, war is hell and hella confusing. There’s one clear objective centered on one person, but otherwise, most of the violence is almost random: the protagonists never get enough information to form a meaningful strategy. The second part of this arc, “Apokalips…Wow!!” is pretty much same.
Before that, though, we get an even more unlikely film reference, Ty Templeton tagging in on the finished art, and Manga Khan at his most ambitious and formidable.
( ''So I like SPEECHIFYING, do I? Well, I’ll GIVE MYSELF something to speechify about!'' )
Talk about non-comics stuff, thread derail, and just generally chat among yourselves.
The intent of these posts is to chat and have some fun and, sure, vent a little as required. Reasoned debate is fine, as always, but if you have to ask if something is going over the line, think carefully before posting please.
Normal board rules about conduct and behaviour still apply, of course.
It's been suggested that, if discussing spoilers for recent media events, it might be advisable to consider using the rot13 method to prevent other members seeing spoilers in passing.
The world situation is the world situation. If you're following the news, you know it as much as I do, if you're not, then there are better sources than scans_daily. But please, no doomscrolling, for your own sake.
The US Supreme Court turned down a request to review the laws regarding gay marriage, leaving them untouched
A week after series of wins in elections across the country which left the US President furious, eight Democrats opted to break with the party to potentially end the current Governemnt shutdown by the end of the week, though it is unclear what gains were achieved by this decision.
The BBC is facing a LOT of scrutiny for broadcasting an extract from Trump's 6th Janaury speech in an editer format, without saying it had been edited, which led to two major resignations and the threat of a literal billion dollar lawsuit from Trump. Though those making the most fuss about it, might be showing biases of their own.
In the UK the first season of "The Celebrity Traitors" came to an end with some incredibly dramatic moments. There were some suggestions the result was fixed because "No noe could make decisions that bad"... which suggests those saying it had not been watching the rest of thr series because good LORD this bunch were SO bad at the game.
And to end on a fun note, after the recent theft from the Louvre in Paris, attention was drawn at the time to a dapperly dressed stranger in a stylish fedora who was seen on some camera's at the time. The identity of this mystery mas was the topic of much debate. In possibly THE most French solution to the enigma, it turns out it was.... a 15 year old schoolboy who just likes to dress in the chic style of old detectives. Bien joué, jeune homme. Bien joué
"Thank you!" scream a nation of YouTubers. "Thank you for putting food on my table!" No, no, the pleasure is mine. -- Al Ewing
( Read more... )
Last issue, we learned Guy’s personality operates on soap-opera-amnesia rules: a second blow to the head undoes the first. He has announced his return to assholery by paraphrasing Poltergeist II and throwing Lobo through a window.
Page Summary
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scans_daily :: One World Under Doom #8 [+0] - scans_daily :: This Kid Is Going to Need a League of THERAPISTS: THE WEIRD #2 (JLI 24) [+1]
- scans_daily :: Batman #162: A Family Divided Again [+10]
- scans_daily :: Rio by Doug Wildey [+4]
- scans_daily :: Not The Daniel Radcliffe Movie: THE WEIRD #1 (JLI 23) [+7]
- scans_daily :: Supergirl #7 [+7]
- scans_daily :: DC-Marvel: Captain Marvel/Thor [+23]
- What We Weading Wednesday [+4]
- scans_daily :: Marvel: Black, White & Blood and Guts #2 [+4]
- scans_daily :: 1776 #1 [+12]
- scans_daily :: Epic Manga: JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL #20-21 (JLI 22) [+21]
- scans_daily :: The Ultimates #16 [+11]
- scans_daily :: DC K.O's One Shot Comics Of Different IP Characters Confirm [+7]
- scans_daily :: Quick Stops: Volume 3 #2 MallRats The Later Years Of Brodie Bruce [+3]
- scans_daily :: Spirits of Violence #2 [+4]
- scans_daily :: Mod Post: Off-Topic Tuesday [+12]
- scans_daily :: Venom #250 [+9]
- scans_daily :: Spider-Man '94 #2 [+7]
- scans_daily :: The Umbrella Academy: Plan B #3 [+0]
- scans_daily :: Re-Member the Titans!: JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL #19 (JLI 21/?) [+13]
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