Mod Post: Off-Topic Tuesday

[icon_uk]

In the comments to these weekly posts (and only these posts), it's your chance to go as off topic as you like.

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 me.

In the UK, the furore over the Governments latest migrant policy was somewhat (and some cynical souls might think conveniently) derailed by a lot of people being stirred up over Gary Linneker, a noted sports commentator's comments about how bad he throught the scheme was and how the language used was reminscent of Germany in the 1930's. Now he does work for the BBC (and their highest paid star I believe) and they are supposed to be politically neutral, but the rules they have about that aren't usually applied to those who aren't already political commentators or new journalists, and he was neither, plus he was posting on his own Twitter account, not a BBC one. His suspension on Saturday led to pretty much the rest of the BBC's sports presenters walking out in sympathy, and he was reinstated this morning.

Since it's 3-14, that makes it Pi Day in America! (If April had 31 days, the rest of the world could enjoy a Pi Day too.)

The Oscars were a lot more entertaining than last year, with Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio winning best Aimated Feature, Brendan Frasier winning Best Actor and teveryone involved in "Everything, Everywhere, All at Once" basically taking home everything else. It was delightful to see Michelle Yeoh win Best Actress, Jamie Lee Curtis get Best Supporting Actress and Ke Huy Quan get best Supporting Actor (Honestly, if joy was a power source, you could have lit up a small city for a month off those three alone).

I'm thoroughly enjoying Picard Season 3, even if it is a bit more "Let's wallow in some nostalgia rather than try something new" that previous seasons, becasue I think they've earned it a little of that. And extra marks for Todd Kershaws performance as Captain Shaw who, whilst an absolute asshole throughout, managed to describe his experiences in a certain major even in Star Trek history with a raw horror and power that really sold the moment.

The live action version of The Little Mermaid has a proper trailer, with the first glimpse of Melissa McCarthy as Ursula and Javier Bardem as Triton.

There's also a new clip released from the Dungeons and Dragons movie... spot the surprise appearances! :D

Comments

[numeronone]

I'm really happy for everyone in EEAAO, especially because Key Huy Quan's role in the movie seemed to have a little meta flavour of "just look at my RANGE!" to it.

Conflicted about Brendan Fraser. He's a great performer, he deserves it...I just wish his comeback wasn't another "non-fat actor in a fatsuit for a role that's pretty much just fatphobia" job.

[starwolf_oakley]

How often is "non-fat actor in a fatsuit for a role that's pretty much just fatphobia" actually done?

More than I thought. It seems the most common version is "This character used to be fat and here are some flashbacks."
https://cafemom.com/entertainment/celebrities-wore-fat-suit

Colin Farrell as Oz/the Penguin in "The Batman."

[numeronone]

It happens WAY way more than just hiring a fat actor, whether or not the character in question is given their dignity and not made out to be a stereotype. (To say nothing of the number of "comedians" and "journalists" who put on fat suits so as to pretend to be fat in public and "find out what it's like".)

I'd say more, but cartoonist Barry Deutsch put it more succinctly:

[malurette]

Slowly but surely making my way through DS9's 1st season... what do you mean I have to wait until s2 to see Garak again?? *goes off to sulk in a corner*
'm usually not the kind of person to just skip the boring stuff--for fear of missing out--but starting to consider it now?

[zachbeacon]

Happy Pi Day.

Daylight Savings Time; when you’re annoyed that you woke up two hours before your alarm and realize it would have been three a week ago.

Had mom’s belated birthday dinner this weekend. She’s stuck with a boot for another month but seems to be doing pretty well.

Finally got around to doing my taxes and …oof. Well, at least I won’t spend most of the year wondering where my federal refund is like I did in 2020-2022.


Elon Musk sure is the worst, huh?

(I wrote that last sentance nearly a week ago in reference to a specific thing and by the time I post it people will likely think I’m talking about something else.)


Apparently Birdo’s addition to Mario cart came with a lot of empty spots indicating future characters. I have no thoughts on the new tracks because I haven’t gotten around to playing them.

Also wanted to drop a reminder that the 3DS and WiiU eshops close on March 27th. Xeodrifter was free on the 3DS as of yesterday though I haven’t checked today and it may not be true in other regions. I think my WiiU battery night be dying so finding a replacement should be “fun”.


Snap Unlocks:

Red Skull – I don’t have most of the cards that make him useful (Shuri, Sauron, Zero). I guess he’d pair well enough with Enchantress or Taskmaster. Really wish I had Venom so I could just feed him to the symbiote.

End of list.

I’m still playing but I’m trying to exercise some self-control and not open Collector’s Reserves until the Steampunk Variant Rush starts next week. Have I mentioned how much I love the Christmas Sweater Devil Dinosaur I got in the December event?

Bar Sinister continues to be my favorite location. I’ll freely admit Baron Mordo is not a very good card and it was only in my deck because I was farming boosters. However, four Mordos is just wonderful…though not as good as the similar results (they can’t play a third of their deck) that you get from four Cables (some cost) or four Yondus (cheaper).

Went from rank 20 to 55 in the first week of the season. It’s been easier because they’ve been jumping us five levels every time we go up a tier this season (if you hit 30, you skip to 35…so I really only went up 20 ranks and got 15 more as a bonus) but I still got stuck at around 37-38 for a long time even after swapping out my “booster farming” decks for ones with an actual strategy behind them.

(Am currently convinced that the “Gail” I played against last week was Gail Simone. I know she’s a much more avid gamer than I am even if I can’t recall her mentioning Snap specially. Normally a common first name indicates a bot but I don’t think bots usually retreat when you snap. If it was a bot then the Deadpool avatar and having Domino in the deck was a nice touch.)



I was expected to make the usual comment about the Oscars being out of touch and only awarding movies no one has seen but I loved exactly two new movies last year and the Everything Everywhere All At Once sweep makes up for the Glass Onion snub.

It’s weird to me that Disney is bringing the Netflix actors for Kingpin, Jessica Jones, and the Punisher into the new Daredevil show but not Karen or Foggy (or, if they are, they’re recasting like with Vanessa). I know we’ve gone extended periods (like the last 20 years) without Karen in the comics but Matt without Foggy just feels fundamentally wrong. On the bright side, maybe they can undo one of the bigger mistakes the Netflix show made and bring back Ben.

In hindsight it was a mistake to use the monkey paw to wish for more Moxxie spotlight episodes on Helluva Boss. My bad.

Urusei Yatsura is one of those Rumiko Takahashi creations that I’ve never been too familiar with but I just watched the first episode of the remake. I know Ranma 1/2 (which was an early introduction to both manga and anime for me) generally gets credited for creating the harem anime but I think Urusei Yatsura might have created the modern harem anime protagonist. That’s a roundabout way of saying I really want to see Ataru get punched in the face.

A new batch of Moon Girl episodes have been added to Disney+. Gurl qvq n zvaq-fjnc rcvfbqr jvgubhg zrffvat jvgu gur Vauhzna fghss.

I don’t want to oversell what is ultimately just a dumb parody movie but The Cheap Detective (1978) is a lot of fun. Peter “Columbo” Falk plays the detective and it has a very recognizable cast. The plot is a mashup of The Maltese Falcon (a movie I hate) and Casablanca (a movie I love).

[iamrman]

I was wondering why I leapt a bunch of levels in Snap.

[zachbeacon]

Yeah, I saw somewhere that they were tinkering a bit with the ranking.

No idea if its temporary or not.

Otherwise I’d have to assume the game has been periodically putting me in a trance and I blacked out … which actually doesn’t seem outside the realm of possibility.

[iamrman]

In other news, I finally got enough tokens to purchase Ghost Rider. I also got Patriot through a random unlock.

[zachbeacon]

"Ghost Rider"

Nothing like a turn four Infinaut.

"Patriot"

Not to be a broken record but you should get Mystique.

I know I don't see nearly as much Patriot as I used to but I just love that there's a card that suddenly makes cards like Misty Knight, Shocker, and Cyclops useful. Heck he's just about the only reason people use Ultron and he makes Doom (an already great card] even better.

[iamrman]

It turns out I do have Mystique. She is in my Wong deck.

I have Squirrel Girl, Ultron and Ka-Zar in my Patriot deck too.

[janegray]

Urusei Yatsura is one of those things that got super popular, thus got copied a billion times by lesser series that watered down what made it work because they didn't really get it.

Case in point: Ataru.

He's a horny bastard with very little morals.

He's *also* a Determinator who won't hesitate a second to cross the entire universe, go single-handedly against an entire army, and refuse to move a single inch even as they are pointing a gun at his face, if there is something important enough for him at stake.

He's also very smart. He uses that for entirely selfish purposes, but he's almost always the first one to figure out what's going on, unmask antagonists, and craft creative solution to defeat opponents that massively outgun him. And he has an almost superhuman pain tolerance and resilience.

The reason Lum's obsession with him is met with facepalms even in-universe is that he's a serial cheater who can't and won't keep it in his pants for five seconds. Even ignoring the part where Lum is a stalker and he owes her nothing, he never would have been faithful to Shinobu either. But if he *were* a good guy, he would legitimately be a decent catch.

So of course he spawned whole generations of "male protagonist who is inexplicably desired by the super hot heroine" who are completely mediocre.

With Ataru, you can go "okay, fine, I get why you like the guy who is thrown against a monster ten times his size and he just marches on out of spite and then actually wins." With his successors, it's just "but WHY??? He can't even wipe his own ass!"

[zachbeacon]

Probably not fair for me to form an opinion based on one episode but a lot of Rumiko Takahashi characters are flawed in understandable ways. I get why women (and men) where all over Ranma despite having the social skills that came from an upbringing where ... well, "raised by wolves" probably would have been preferable.

Ataru I just hated from the beginning.

If I end up sticking out out (not sure what the dub schedule is and subs are a bigger time investment) then maybe I'll see some of the redeeming qualities.

[thezmage]

I'm going to spend the next two weeks checking avidly for news about rereleases of the last two Professor Layton games because I don't want to spend $40 each on them but I don't want to miss them either.

I don't owe a lot in taxes (and I'm getting twice as much from the state as I owe to the IRS) but it's a little weird not to be getting a refund when to the best of my knowledge the circumstances haven't changed significantly.

I'm assuming that they haven't been able to get the actors back for those roles for some reason, much like how Colter isn't returning as Luke Cage despite being perfect for the role.

[zachbeacon]

I mean technically Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires' Conspiracy is on the Switch but I assume you mean the two before that. 3DS prices aren’t as bad as DS prices (really wish I’d bought Dragon Quest V a decade ago when it was $50 used but I thought it was too much at the time) but they’re heading that way.


I don’t owe a lot either but I usually do owe a bit in state (well, mostly county) and its generally more than offset by the federal refund. This year the federal refund isn’t exactly a windfall; it’s more a small trip to the grocery store. I’m wondering if part of it might be that I had two W-2s because my former employer got absorbed by their parent company.


Entertainment “Journalism” being what it is, I have to take everything with a grain of salt but it sounds like some of the actors were never asked. That’s a shame because I really liked both actors and obviously the Netflix people liked Deborah Ann Woll enough to shoehorn her into Punisher.

Actually, it’s the “Punisher” (and Jessica Jones) of it all that puzzles me.

The Punisher arc in Daredevil is about Frank killing the people responsible for ruining his life. Then the first season of Punisher is about Frank killing the people REALLY responsible for ruining his life. Then season two was about protecting a kid or something; its been ages since I watched it but my point is it wasn’t that interesting and half of it was retreading his DD story.

The first season of Jessica Jones was among Marvel’s best shows (Netflix or otherwise) but the second and third give me the sense that they didn’t really have a plan and felt obligated to make them based on the success of the first.

I really hope there’s a plan for those two beyond “hey, here’s a character people like”.

Meanwhile I feel like there are still stories to tell with the Netflix versions* of Foggy and Karen alongside DD.

*Or however close an approximation the MCU versions would be.

[scorntx]

They're bringing back Jessica as well?
Huh.

But no word on the return of Electric Nachos.

[zachbeacon]

No idea on Electric Nachos but I’d be fine with a do-over on her or Hellcat since I found both pretty disappointing (less due to casting than writing)

They aren’t the ones that NEED to be recast, though.

Oh, Danny. You deserved so much better.

[scorntx]

It's a shame, because Danny's appearance in Cage season 2 showed he could be tolerable.
(Though I think one of the problems - the many, many problems - was trying to make Iron Fist grim and serious when the very concept is kind of silly as-is.
And also Iron Fist's terrible writing. That didn't help.)

[zachbeacon]

You mean you didn't enjoy watching awful rich kids argue for two seasons?

Plot-wise...this show kept ending it's seasons by teasing the show I WANTED to see but never did.

S1: "Hey Danny, don't you have somewhere more important to be?"

S2: "Danny, if you're not going to take this seriously we'll give the powers to someone who will"

Casting-wise...I think expecting the whole package to start is a bit much. I'm fine with getting a skilled martial artist and giving him acting lessons. I'm also fine with getting a great actor and teaching him how to stage fight while stunt doubles do the heavy lifting. They did neither.


Also, if you're going to make an Iron Fist project then the absolute bare minimum I expect is for there to be a scene where a man gets into a fistfight with a dragon. If you aren't going to bother with that then what are you even doing?

(Yes, I DID enjoy Shang Chi)

[scorntx]

-If you aren't going to bother with that then what are you even doing?-

This. So much this.
I mean, that's kind of the whole freaking point of Iron Fist.

(And why, yes, Shang-Chi was a very good Iron Fist movie.)

[zachbeacon]

I went into Shang-Chi hoping for a do-over on Iron Fist but I meant "I want a quality martial arts thing" and didn't expect it to be so literal what with the magic punching, immortal fighters, hidden cities, and dragons.

I want to stress that this is NOT a complaint (though I get why it might be off-putting to some Master of Kung Fu purists).

[leahandillyana]

Things getting fucking worse. I don’t have any English sources on the news, but two appalling events happened one after another: Polish public radio doxxed a teenage victim of csa, leading to a wave of hatred and bulling by people across the country, culminating in the boy committing suicide. Furthermore, in a city where all the most shocking crimes happening in the country seem to take place, apparently a priest killed a diacon and then committed suicide in a particularly gruesome public way. My mother knew the apparent killer, and he seemed to be a good man. There’s an occupational strike of disabled people taking place in the parliament, and the strikers are treated like shit, no politician wants to talk with them regardless of the party, they are not given food or drinks and are not allowed to use the bath house of the parliament. Nobody cares for disabled people in the country, if you cannot work tough luck you will be given a starvation pay and it will be taken back when you start working. The system does everything not to help people in need. What the fuck is wrong with this country. Like, Poland is its own special kind of evil.

I am fed up with modern feminists. For a few years Poland has had a near total abortion ban with government constantly trying to make it a total ban. The government is refusing to fight domestic violence and is cooperating with catholic church in hiding church sexual violence crimes. But who is the enemy to Polish feminists? Trans women, sex workers and apparently manga industry! Like what the fuck is wrong with you. What the fuck. Particularly angered with the lesbian community, where lesbian separatism seems to be the most popular philosophy. “We have nothing in common with bi women or gay men,” the government hates you all equally, those divisions only serve those who want to ban you! WHAT THE FUCK GALS!

Normally the Oscars interest me less that yesteryear’s snow, but this year the Academy managed to piss me off thoroughly by giving the award to a documentary lionizing a neofascist – like, I don’t use the word lightly, I hate it when people call every right wing populist a fascist, but Navalny is a Russian ethnonationalist whose main beef with the current regime of Russia is that they don’t run things as effectively as they could have, and who would want to subjungate Russia’s neighbours to rebuilt the tsarist empire. It’s a spat in the face that the film won over A House Made of Splinters, a documentary about Lysychanskian orphans. Oscars have not been about artistic value for a very long time, and showcasing a fascist over victims of his country is… like WHAT THE FUCK. Supposed progressives keep angering me so much!

I want to talk about nice things for a change. I’ve been playing a lot recently. If you were curious about Love Nikki, now is a good time to start, as game mechanics were updated to allow for faster material collection. Japanese Magia Record server also introduced a new time travel story arc, allowing the players to meet two medieval Japanese magical girls and a very controversial ancient Egyptian magical girl – she’s pale as fuck, wears barely anything at all in her magical girl form, and her name is fucking Ebony! (So the things turned out not so nice...) I love the game, but her character is hands down the worst decision the game-verse made. In general Magia Record has a rather poor record with cultural appropriation. I’ve also watched Soulmate Adventure. It’s a nice donghua with unique background painting style, featuring two girls (sometimes accompanied by a boy) adventuring in a typical Chinese fantasy setting. It’s ok when you know the genre, but it’s rather light on plot. I liked the ship tease with the two leads. Read The Promised Neverland light novels. They are very good, wish some of the stories were made into OVAs/ONAs, especially Krone’s backstory and the one detailing how Musica and Sonju first met.

[tripodeca113]

Hooray! I found my keys!

My Cobra Kai book arrived. A decent if light behind the scenes guide (apparently the reason the show was on Youtube Red is because the creators pitched it there first, assuming they'd be rejected then use what they learnt to get another big internet streaming service to pick up the show).
Strangely while it does have behind the scenes pictures, a lot of them are just random screenshots from the show, including a blurry picture of a Ferris wheel that takes up two pages.

Considering writing an essay on how since Disney brought Star Wars the Empire's been portrayed and why that's odd.
Also apparently The Bad Batch is a good show now. That's nice.

Been watching more of Deep Space Nine season six. I've been introduced to my least favourite character.
"This is Vic Fontaine the 60's lounge singer. All the characters love him. He's a master at reading people. He's so cool. Everyone loves him. Don't you love him?"
And that's just the teaser. Thankfully after that the DVD froze, and I didn't have to watch anymore.

In other news Dukat's gone bonkers, but he's still a lot of fun to watch, expect when he's not. He killed SO many Bajorians.
Season six has a lot of strong episodes Waltz, Far Beyond The Stars, and In The Pale Moonlight. It also has Profit and Lace which is just.....ugh (hahahaa Quark learnt nothing and continues to sexually exploit his employees...urgh)

Started watching Batman The Animated Series. It has a lot of iconic moments. Robin isn't in it a whole lot.
Kevin Conroy and Adam West were two of the greats. We're so lucky we got to see them together.

[werehawk]

Grey Ghost was def my favorite episode.

[icon_uk]

Robin isn't in many of the early episodes deliberately, because they weren't sure he would work in the stories they were telling, but as time goes by he shows up more. Starting the series when Dick Grayson was at college meant they had a buil-in reason for his absence, which didn't seem contrived and could easily have him guest star if they wanted.

[iamrman]

Marvel Snap Unlocks.

Kingpin. Satisfying when using Magneto on the final turn actually works.

Absorbing Man. Put him in my Wong deck and in another deck with Titania, because couple goals.

Agatha Harkness. Got fed up of her hogging all the boosters, so replaces her with Giganto.

Black Widow Baby Variant. Put it in a deck for no other reason than it looked cute.

The Operation: Galactic Storm Epic Collection was on my list, but I decided against reading it again in the end. The Avengers get involved in a war between two races I hate/don't care about.

Other Epics/trades/new manga titles on my list:

Dinosaur Sanctuary Vol. 2 (Got to think of more Jurassic Park references!)

Excalibur Visionaries: Alan Davis Vol. 1 (Alan Davis Excalibur Best Excalibur!)

Fantastic Four Epic Collection: All In The Family (Johnny marries a woman who totally won't turn out to be a Skrull!)

Human Torch Masterworks Vol. 1 (Johnny's Silver Age adventures!)

Fairy Tail S Vol. 1

Iron Man Epic Collection: War Machine (Tony gets a rad new armour for the 90's!)

Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear Vol. 1

New Mutants Epic Collection: Curse of the Valkyries (I promised myself I wouldn't subject myself to Louise Simonson's New Mutants again, but I guess I must hate myself!)

Power Man and Iron Fist Epic Collection: Heroes for Hire (The bromance begins!)

Punisher Epic Collection: Return to Big Nothing (Some dude with guns fights Doctor Doom. No contest, right?)

Royals Vol. 1: Beyond Inhuman (I know it's fun to dump on the Inhumans, but it's by Al Ewing. It has to be good, right?)

So I’m a Spider, So What? Vol. 1

Thor Epic Collection: War of the Pantheons (Thor Vs. Serpentor, I mean Seth the God of Death!)

[scorntx]

Royals is...
... oh dear, this is proving difficult to type...
Well, it is Ewing. His take on Maximus is pretty good, and his Medusa is much more tolerable than the "total arsehole" of the DnA years or Mrs "Oh, you just want the Mutants to wipe us all out?!" of the Death Cloud years.
And by more tolerable basically meaning "not a complete arsehole".

Even if it is about the Inhumans, and the weird random romance in there, it's pretty good.
(... still upset about what happens to Blackmane, though.)

[iamrman]

Royals being halfway readable is all I want from a Ewing book, really.

[scorntx]

Oh, it's more than halfway, easily.

[zachbeacon]

I am jealous of your Fisk.

I wish the AI on Agatha and Captain Marvel wasn't so bad.

The baby variants are fun. Baby Doom is my go-to for him because it fits his temperament.


“The Operation: Galactic Storm Epic Collection was on my list, but I decided against reading it again in the end. The Avengers get involved in a war between two races I hate/don't care about.”

Yeah, I have an earlier printing of that one somewhere and never finished it either.


“Fantastic Four Epic Collection: All In The Family (Johnny marries a woman who totally won't turn out to be a Skrull!)”

That whole relationship bugs the heck out of me.

The alien shapeshifter thing is fine. Whatever, it’s a comic book.

Marrying “Alicia” when Johnny and Ben are practically brothers is a dick move but it isn’t the worst part either.

The worst part is that an early puppet master plot established that Alicia and Sue can easily be mistaken for each other if they wear a wig.

…so the Human Torch married someone who looks exactly like his sister.

I’ve ranted enough about CW Flash that I think everyone knows where I stand on the “not technically incest” trope.


“Human Torch Masterworks Vol. 1 (Johnny's Silver Age adventures!)”

Ah yes, when the celebrity with superpowers tried to convince himself he had a secret identity.

You know what? Johnny having some sort of selective face blindness and assuming everyone else does would explain a lot.

(it’d have to be REALLY selective, given how Namor entered the Silver Age)

[iamrman]

I guess I was lucky with the AI on Agatha. I won most of my matches with her until I got fed up of her hogging all the boosters and swapped her out for the Destroyer (Dracula bait).

[windleopard2]

I'm listening to some songs from the 2000s and early 2010s for a fun nostalgia trip. I particularly enjoyed "Lie About Us" by Avant and Nicole Scherzinger. I wonder what became of Cobra Starship.

I'll also be giving a presentation on Tomi Adeyemi to the kids at the book club I help coordinate this week.

I've started watching Kamen Rider Geats, my second Kamen Rider show. The first one I watched was Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, the US adaptation of Kamen Rider Ryuki. Does anyone else think they should give US Kamen Rider adaptations another shot or has that ship sailed?

[icon_uk]

The fact you refer to the 2010's as nostalgic, just makes me feel OLD....

[justsotired]

I didn't see any sign of Ursula in that trailer, did you mean to link this one?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpGo2_d3oYE

[dewinged]

The D&D clip looks fun, and the Displacer Beast is one of my favorite monsters. But after the crap WotC has pulled the last few years starting with 5e, I really don't want them to get more money.

[scorntx]

So in America a bank crashed, causing fears of another recession like in 2008.
There were anti-government protests in Israel, anti-Russian protests in Georgia, the war in Ukraine is still going on...
... but over here, everyone's talking about something a former footballer tweeted criticising the state.
Because if there is one thing the English love to do, it's argue disproportionately over something. (If there's another, it's to complain about everyone arguing about it.)
(sorry if that stuff up there isn't accurate. Can't tell what's going on in the rest of the world because the news really is just swamped with everyone talking about Lineker.)



Marvel have announced an Epic Collection all about Kid Loki.
Gosh, can't imagine what might be showing up on Disney+ the month that's coming out!

The thing I figured would happen to [CHARACTER] in The Bad Bad happened.
Well, not all of it.
But odds are the rest of it's gonna happen as well.

Marvel's Avengers Unlimited comics are bringing back the A-Next kids.
That's nice.

New LEGO Indiana Jones.
Can't imagine what's prompted that...
(Oh, and some more LEGO Jurassic Park.)

Apparently RTD is looking to bring Moffat back to Doctor Who.
Which I'm personally hoping really, really, really isn't true.

Over the last two years or so, discussion between a family member has been about how they are annoyed by pretty much every book they read, usually leading to some refrain of "why not try writing your own, then?" (with the expectation this would never happen).
So quite surprising to find them actually making a start on writing a book at the weekend.

[iamrman]

I am starting to think the Epic Collections might be starting to scrape the barrel a bit. I mean, New Avengers is getting an Epic.

[scorntx]

... Whut.

(But we already have collected editions of... buh... guh...
SCORNTX HAS ENCOUNTERED A FATAL ERROR.)

[iamrman]

The Clone Saga and The Crossing too. At least The Crossing has been out of print for a long time. For good reason? I don't know, I have never actually read The Crossing.

[zachbeacon]

Speaking as someone who liked the Clone Saga at the time (mostly) ...

Isn't this what "Complete Collections" are for? Seems weird that they're making Epics of easily available material when they should be skipping to the Post-CS/Pre-Reboot DeFalco run.

Or better yet, an 80s/90s Spider-Man comic that ISN'T Amazing. Its starting to feel like Marvel has some weird vendetta against Spectacular.

[iamrman]

There are several volumes of Spectacular Spider-Man available as Marvel Masterworks. It would be nice to have a collected edition of Web of Spider-Man that weren't part of crossovers.

[zachbeacon]

The long out of print Essentials cover less than half (up to 114) of Spectacular and the Masterworks cover half of that (up to 66). Most of the Post-Stern stuff only gets reprinted if it ties in with Amazing (Alien Costume Saga, Kraven’s Last Hunt, Cosmic Spidey/Acts of Vengeance, Maximum Carnage, Clone Saga, ect)

We’ve got one Tombstone trade from the Conway run. Isolated issues of the DeMatteis run get used for “Best of [Insert Villain Here]” collections but most of his run remains untouched. That other guy’s Death of Jean DeWolff story gets reprinted about once a decade (like in 2020’s Road to Venom trade).

That’s about it.

But you're right that its hard to find recent Web collections that include more than just that first issue (also in Road to Venom). I have Essentials covering the first 32 issues and past that it got hit even harder than Spectacular with Marvel's "we only collect crossovers" mentality.

I just happen to consider Spectacular the best Spider-Man book and I don't like how hard they've made it to fill holes in my collection.

The best thing about the Epic Collections is they hit issues that don't normally get collected because they aren't part of some famous storyline and I hate that Amazing is the ONLY Spider-Man comic getting this treatment.

[cainofdreaming]

This is kinda on topic, but... Marvel had a Murderworld mini. And the only one who seemed to care was Black Widow.

Why wasn't half the world jumping down Arcade's throat? Was Avengers Arena that far back in Marvel time?

[werehawk]

I read the first issue and hated it. They threw out names of characters in the title, but except for Black Widow, no one was in it. Why can't we go back to the good old days. when Murderworld was "fun"?

[deh_tommy]

I was not aware of the miniseries myself until recently, but the solicitations make it sound like the Avengers are specifically hunting him down this time rather than getting kidnapped and plopped in as is the usual case. Am I wrong in saying that?

[cainofdreaming]

From what I saw it was just Natasha by her lonesome.

Oh, and Hydra. But only to get their stolen stuff back.

[iamrman]

Some anime\manga and Marvel crossover ideas I forgot to share.

Misuzu with the Infinity Gauntlet and as a follow-up, Tomo Vs. Thanos.

Kate Pryde giving Kanna from Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid pats. Kate and Tohru would just be repeating the same joke from a previous commission.

Squirrel Girl and Saitama.

Nightctawler going to kiss Yor on the hand, moments from disaster.

Deadpool and Erza from Fairy Tail or Jessie from Pokemon, I can't decide which would be funnier.

[skjam]

The department I was transferred from last year is having staffing issues, so I have been asked to step in and take some of their calls in addition to my current department's. It's nice to be considered a reliable person who can handle crises, but I was rather looking forward to being done with busy season.

Watched The Raid 2: More Violence last night. More plot in that one than the first The Raid, but only to set up the violence.

Over at my blog, I look at the 1973 martial arts flick Blood Brothers, which is a bit heavier on the personal relationships than most chop-sockey of the time: https://www.skjam.com/2023/03/12/movie-review-blood-brothers-1973/

[cygnia]

TTRPG bundle being sold in support of trans rights in Florida.

https://itch.io/b/1753/ttrpgs-for-trans-rights-in-florida

[thezmage]

Contains, among other things, Thirsty Sword Lesbians and Wanderhome. I've also heard Lesbian Werewolf Crime Fighters is really good.

[cygnia]

I already have a copy of Killer Ratings, which is included as well. It's pretty fun too.

[mister_terrific]

Took our 2016 Jeep in for a check-up last week and the costs (brakes, new tires) was high enough we figured screw it, let's take that money and just buy a new one. We ended up with a bright blue Cherokee that, having just gotten hooked on Star Trek: Lower Decks, we immediately named "Tendi". It fits, trust me.

Tendi's taking a while to figure out; there are a LOT of bells and whistles to figure out. On the other hand, she automatically turns on the heated steering wheel and driver seats when it's cold out--which it has been--and that is NICE. The other thing I'm having to remember is the gas tank's on the passenger side now. :)

Comics: sigh. I WANT to like the JSA mini-series, but it just feels like such a slog. Johns just keeps throwing things in there and it just gets frustrating. Same with Stargirl: The Lost Children.

The Owl House finale, "Watching and Dreaming", is set for April 8. I've been watching the comments on Reddit with amusement. Who will die? Who will have a traumatic split in their relationship? It's almost as bad as the Amphibia prophets of doom.

[janegray]

Growing increasingly disillusioned with TOH.

It doesn't help that it's not humanly possible for me to give less of a shit about the Collector, and I'm salty that a character I find painfully boring is hogging the precious little screentime left.

[mister_terrific]

Well, I can understand how you feel, but I want to see how Dana & the crew wrap this up. I'm of two minds about the rush toward the end--on the one hand, there was so much more that was set aside, but on the other, I tend to get frustrated with filler episodes that are just "there", so the tighter storytelling is a plus for me.

I've never seen most of Amphibia's first season; had it not been for "True Colors", I would have skipped the entire series. I think I got five episodes in on Season One and was utterly bored with it. Sadly, this is probably the direction Disney is heading because they can show 'em in any order.

Because that's worked so well for Miraculous Ladybug. /s

[janegray]

I'm looking forward to a movie for the first time in a very, very long time. The Mario movie looks like a lot of fun and I can't wait to watch it.

I'm not exactly *excited* about the Little Mermaid movies, but I actually enjoyed a few la remakes (and even loved one better than the original animated movie: *THANK YOU* Jungle Book for acknowledging Mowgli's wolf family! I was always so salty that he didn't give a damn about the pack he grew up with). So I will watch and hopefully enjoy it.

"Everything, Everywhere, All at Once" has been in my backlog for a year, but everybody kept going on and on about how much it made them cry and I just wanted to watch something lighthearted....

[stubbleupdate]

EEAAO IS light-hearted. Or, it's silly. And it's sad. It's the first time in ages that I've properly cried at a move

We’re all useless alone. It’s a good thing you’re not alone. just broke me in a way that completely caught me by surprise

[deh_tommy]

I was okay with the remakes at first, but after Beauty and the Beast they’ve really taken a nosedive and they’ve gotten worse and worse with each subsequent release (although I haven’t seen Dumbo, people seem to be at least a bit more positive towards that one).

Everything Everywhere All At Once is pretty light-hearted. The crying comes from the emotional moments, not necessarily because they’re sad. But hype has been the death of a ton of movies before so I say temper your expectations.

[thezmage]

July 22nd is pi approximation day for those countries that put the day of the week first.

Watched Lockwood and Co. Very good, I really like it.

Scream 6 was good and suspenseful to the point where I almost googled whether certain characters survived multiple times, but the more I think about it the more I hate the ending. Vg jnfa'g fb zhpu gung gur xvyyref bayl znantrq gb xvyy bar crefba jub qvqa'g rira unir guerr yvarf cnfg gur svefg unys bs gur zbivr, ohg gurl oneryl znantrq gb vawher nalobql. Gjb punenpgref tbg obgu fgnoorq naq qebccrq bss n onypbal naq jnyxrq njnl nsgrejneqf (abg rira chg vagb na nzohynapr). Naq rirel fvatyr guvat Zvaql fnvq va gur ovt zrgn zbabybthr jnf jebat.

Also saw Puss In Boots The Last Wish this weekend. It was really good, and I teared up a few times.

The My Little Pony Friendship is Magic TTRPG came out today.

An expansion for the GI Joe Deck-Building Game (my favorite current board game) came out just now adding a Transformers crossover to the game. Played one game with my friend and we got just absolutely wrecked. Could not defeat either Shockwave or Soundwave and for some reason just rolled dogshit against the constructicons.

I've only just started it, but found an Irish horror podcast called Petrified that sounds good so far.

[coldfury]

I'm honestly gobsmacked that they snuck the D&D cartoon characters in as a reference like that.

Is the other party a reference I failed to catch as well, or just disposable mooks?

[thezmage]

I googled it and all I managed to find was a comment on a Kotaku post claiming that they were played by the cast of Critical Role

[icon_uk]

I did wonder if they were supposed to be based on the "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" toy figures from the 80's, Warduke and co, but I don't think so.

[cyberghostface]

Happy with most of the Oscar results.

Glad that Brendan Fraser won. The “fat suit” controversy kind of confuses me as there aren’t that many 500 pound actors who could have done the role. (I noticed Colin Farrell wore a fat suit for The Batman and that’s a role someone with that body type could have actually played. For some reason he gets a pass?)

I would have liked Turning Red to win Best Animated Picture but I’m happy for Guillermo de Toro.

I’m ecstatic that EEAAO won as much as it did. I was rooting for Stephanie Hsu but she was realistically never going to win with or without Jamie Lee Curtis so the complaints that ‘Curtis’ stole the award from her didn’t make much sense to me. If she had taken away her chance to be nominated then I would have been angry.

[super_fly]

https://twitter.com/AP/status/1635336654604091392

Associated Press made a somewhat horny tweet about Michelle Yeoh and Angela Basset locked in a long embrace, their bare muscle-bound arms wrapped around each other

And then deleted it, because they're cowards