Gotham City Sirens #25

[aeka]

The beginning of the end, and it's on alright.


First Ivy goes after Harley with the intention of strangling her to death for her betrayal. But even Ivy surprises herself.









Only one more issue left before the big reboot...

Comments

[shadowpsykie]

hmmm i must admit... though this series has been VERY hit and miss... these last two issues look... kinda good....

also.... is that a Giant Screaming head...?

[aeka]

You mean at the entrance of Arkham Asylum? Then yes! Yes it is!

[shadowpsykie]

ooh pretty icon...
back on topic... that's... that's not conducive to HEALING....

[aeka]

Thanks! (was just keeping the wtf! icon train going)

I thought that too when I read this issue. I guess this was Arkham's way of saying "inexplicable horrors await once you enter!"

...which is sadly not too far from true.

[shadowpsykie]

yeah... no wonder Harley went bonkers.... you go in there expecting that?

i mean the Patch Adams thing works for Gynos.... not so much shrinks.... (not being sexist, it was funny, Robin Willams needs to do more dramadey)

[icon_uk]

Have to say, whilst I'm sure the real Dr Adams is a remarkable man, I wanted to punch Robin Williams so hard for being such a completely annoying, egotistical jerk for much of that movie it almost frightened me.

I feel a little better knowing that apparently even the real Dr Adams didn't like the movie

[shadowpsykie]

though is that his fault or the writers' fault... because i thought he was okay.... (though in retrospect i do agree he did come off as egotistical in the movie... i think i overlooked it because the other doctors just seemed so... mind numbingly cold)

But i LOVED him in What dreams may come :D

[icon_uk]

I was getting more of a rather literal Lovercraftian take on In the mouth of Madness

[shadowpsykie]

you know... i should really read lovecraft...

[aaron_bourque]

Enh. His writing doesn't hold up to today's standards. He's okay at descriptions when he bothers with them but too many of his stories end up with "unspeakable eldritch beings that should not be looked upon lest they DRIVE YOU MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD."

His concepts are cool and all, but his stories themselves leave a bit to be desired.

[darkknightjrk]

Not to mention the stilted dialogue and the INSANE amounts of xenophobia.

[arilou_skiff]

Put it like this: Lovecraft was considered off the rockers racist in HIS day.

[proteus_lives]

99% of today's horror writers wish they had HPL's talent.

[nezchan]

I've tried to read Lovecraft. The very volume icon_uk links to, in fact. And to be honest, I was a bit underwhelmed. Not tremendously scary, and the prose is more...quaint than anything. I like the worldbuilding, but his writing really doesn't pull me in.

The one exception that I have read was The Colour Out Of Space, which I read in a general short story compilation some years ago. Great mood-building, creeping horror and an ultimately undefined threat that didn't lose his mystique.

[shadowpsykie]

hmmm this sounds some what disappointing... i might stick to King... though i might check out color out of space....

[proteus_lives]

Don't let the haters send you off.

Modern North American horror (King, who pulled more then one concept from HPL) would be vastly different without Lovecraft.

[clutzycricket]

Eh, you can probably find a copy in the library cheap. Flawed works can be interesting.

Dracula is truly screwed up, for example. (Plus the issues in it around women... no, wait, those influenced modern horror too.) Doesn't mean that the opening isn't amazing, and radically shaped vampires in media. So is Sherlock Holmes, which got awful in spots towards the end, not to mention the timeline wreckage. Even if you believe at least one of the stories wasn't written by Doyle. (Mazerin Stone, which... yeah, I can buy that someone else did that.)

I still love them to bits. Lots of people do. They're considered major classics.

[kenwyn89]

I quite liked Dracula from what I remember. With period books context definitely needs to be considered and forgiven if appropriate (we've had the vote less than a hundred years after all).

Well, Arthur Conan Doyle started infamously and ironically becoming fascinated with spiritualists and fairies. And he disliked Holmes by the end of it all. I love Sherlock Holmes, and you are so right that the flaws make it more fascinating, but for me it's the friendship in the novels he he

I quite like Dracula (The Book) but..

[steverodgers5]

The one thing that annoys me about Dracula now, is that I can't read it without thinking of what happened when they made the film Bram Stokers's Dracula in what the 80es..90es? As despite it looking like the book, (even SOME of the cast were good choices, ) it was absolutely nothing like the book, and almost diametrically opposed to it in terms of the themes involved.
I remember Dracula being relentlessly evil in the book, and using the victorian sexual repression of woman to aid his nefarious seductions, and yet the film tried to paint him out as some sort of misunderstood, tragic romantic hero ala Beauty and the Beast! WTF?!?

I mean no pun intended, but that monstrosity of a film, by using the author's name in the title, must have had him turning in his grave!
And yet they'll probably be a whole generation who'll assume that it was an authentic retelling of the book. Francis Ford Coppola should have been almost been sued for misrepresenting the book, IMHO! ;)

Re: I quite like Dracula (The Book) but..

[clutzycricket]

*shrugs* Agreed. The main casting I had an issue with was Keanu Reeves, until I realized that could be partially on purpose. (Though Johnny Depp as Harker might have been interesting.)

...On the other hand, did you read that sequel done by Stoker's descendant? He apparently adored the movies. Might be why. *wince* I'd say looking at TVTropes would explain it, but timesuck!

Re: I quite like Dracula (The Book) but..

[steverodgers5]

I've not read it. But I may check it out some day. Though maybe not at TVtropes, because that site really does scare me:-
TIME HAS NO MEANING THERE!! ;)

[sinorhizobium]

I've actually found that I'm more of a fan of the Lovecraft mythos/universe itself than I am of his actual work...I read The Call of Cthulhu expecting to be blown away and found that it was 'okay'. I was much more impressed by The Rats in the Walls, myself. What I really love is to read anthologies containing short stories set in the mythos world or somehow involving the mythos. :)

[clutzycricket]

I think they do exist... Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes has some goooood ones, as does Gaslight Grotesque, if I remember rightly. Plus the obvious Study in Emerald. (Sherlock Holmes and Lovecraft is one of the more popular varieties of Supernatural Holmes, much to my... not annoyance, but variety would be nice.)

The sci-fi.fantasy section at a bookstore should have some antholgies. Lovecraft Unbound is one. I also remember an anthology that had the Wolf Man in Innsmouth by Gaiman, and I swear Carrie Vaughn or someone similar did a story. *pauses* No Carrie Vaughn, but the Wolf Man is in Shadows over Innsmouth.

...Sorry, I'm a bit overfond of research.

[clutzycricket]

Eep, sorry! I misread your comment to read "what I'd really love to read".

Sleepytimes now.

[sinorhizobium]

LOL no worries! Thanks for the suggestions though! :)

[icon_uk]

Agreed, I loved the "Shadows over Baker Street" collection for example.

[golden_orange]

Is anything about Arkham conducive to healing, really?

[biod]

Nooope.