Mod Post: Off-Topic Tuesday

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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.

It appears that a deal has been offered to the Writer's Guild which the WGA seems enthusiastic about, and will recommend to their membership. The strike may be over soon, though the actors are still out and WGA sill support them.

The boss of Spotify has said he has no plans to ban all AI music from the site, though he will if it is an unauthorised copy of existing performers voices. Which leaves all sorts of questions open, of course.

Veteran actor David McCallum has died, aged 90. Known to multiple generations as Russian agent Ilya Kuryakin in "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.", the mysterious agent fighting the chaotic forces of Time as Steel in "Sapphire & Steel", or as Medical Examiner Donald "Ducky" Mallard on NCIS, as well as voicing (the not-exactly sublte nod to a Time Lord role he never played) Professor Paradox on "Ben 10" amongst other voice roles.

And speaking of Time Lords, a new trailer dropped for the 60th Anniversary specials, and Neil Patrick Harris' role has been confirmed as gur Gblznxre (Gurl'ir qebccrq gur "Pryrfgvny" ovg cbffvoyl nf vg unf hasbeghangr enpvfg pbaabgngvbaf.

The Osiris-Rex spacecraft has suuccessfully returned nine ounces of material from the Bennu asteroid to Earth! I'm still not sure naming your spacecraft after the god of the dead is exactly encouraging for those who remember "The Andromeda Strain", but it's an amazing achievment.

Comments

[leahandillyana]

No sure what to say. I feel very tired all the time and work is becoming more and more difficult and slow for me. Especially Thursday and Friday were macabre. Resting doesn’t help at all. I may share some of my opinions and observations unrelated to any current events.
Western readers often refuse to engage with Japanese works due to them having commonly the tropes of ‘bury your gays’, ‘gay villain’ and ‘queerbaiting’ (though I prefer to refer to most instances as queer subtext, but it seems that Western fandoms do not differentiate between the two). I do not have problems with those tropes, but I think it may be due to the differences of how they are employed in Japanese versus American popculture:
-Japanese works tend to be interested in what makes the villain villainous, with the baddies being at least somebody you’d want to understand and maybe wish that they turned out different in different circumstances, and often somebody you’d obsess and lust over, somebody the creators want you to obsess and lust over to sell more merch. In popular culture I’ve seen this approach to baddies only in She-Ra reboot and Nimona, both by the same creator.
-Japanese works often has the themes of tragedy. For ‘bury your gays’ trope, it means that while queer characters die, a lot of non-queer characters die to. Clearest cases are Rose of Versailles, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Black Butler or Madoka Magica. Furthermore, queer deaths tend to be portrayed as tragedies and the characters are mourned if time limits allows the story to mourn them. This from my experiences is rare in American popculture. There’s definitely some subtext of homophobia with the common presence of the trope, but it’s a different flavour of implied homophobia than in Western cases.
-Finally, the queerbaiting/subtext. I think the Japanese cases are VERY different from what is considedred queerbaiting in the West. I see most cases as the creators WANTING the characters to be perceived as gay and attracted to each other, but saying it outright would have hurt the series due to homophobia on society’s part rather than the author’s. What’s more, Japanese culture is a very indirect one, with a lot of meaning being conveyed between the words in general, so in this context queer subtext coexists alongside a lot of other subtextual meanings, making it much less singled out. Once again, it’s a different flavour of implied homophobia than similar trope in the West.
A good example of a series that has all three tropes is Seraph of the End. It’s not a good series, at best it’s a cliche-riddled shounen with good art, but it’s also one of the queerest non-BL/GL manga series I’ve read. If you read it, you can get a good understanding of how different and more respectful to the subject matter those tropes read in Japanese fiction.
I’ve asked my international leftist commrades what they think about book bans like the ones happening right now in the USA, and I was actually provided with legitimate left wing positions that support book bans. On the other hand, I also learned that opposing book bans is a pretty common far right position. That said, the commrades I talked with do not live in the USA, and most are living in Europe, where the local context is that far right texts are often banned and logically far right groups want to have them unbanned. Your point of view depends on where you sit, it seems.
Said commrades also tend to often be... ugh. I know that it's a rhetorical figure, but a colleague from a queer group saying "I wish all gay artists and writers were hanged publicly" in response to her perception of there being much more m/m art than f/f art is crossing the line by a long way, don't you think? I am often uncomfortable with the group but say nothing because I'm self-conscious of my autism and how often makes me misinterpret social cues, as well as various priviledges in comparison to my commrades, but holy shit, how can you say it and think you are the good guy here. Holy shit.
In happier news, Magia Record is currently having a crossover with Lycoris Recoil, a recent girls with guns (and a caffe) anime with very strong yuri subtext. It's a good series when you like those things, and only when. I'm grinding to earn enough currency to get both main characters. I already have Takina, and she is among the best characters in the game and my best dark character. Everything about this crossover is perfect.

[onsokumaru]

The same far right people are ok for banning other kind of books, like anything with homosexuality.
I see 3 categories of books bans, two of them being mostly enforced by the left, and one by the right.

A) Content that is directly advocating violence and persecution, like Mein Kampf or radical religious stuff. For understandable reasons, they don't fall under the protection of free speech in several countries.
B) Content with racist or homophobic stereotypes, often product of their time, like Tintin au Congo or Jungle Taitei. It's often the left too that is pro-ban here.
C) Content that could "corrupt" our precious children. Books with LGBT content, positive descriptions of wizardy, blasphemy or nudity. It's mostly the right that is pro-ban although in some cases the left may enforce it too.

Personnaly, I kinda agree with the "A" category. Being french and "old school" universalist left, I guess I'm a product of my time and my environment. But I have some doubts. Banning this kind of crap worked before the internet, but now it's probably very easy to find online, and it can benefit from a "the books THEY don't want you to read" propaganda. Still, the fact they are banned still makes it harder to make money out of it, or at least so I hope.

I'm definitely against the "B" kind of ban, as well as against any kind of censorship or modification. If there is problematic content, the books should be published with notes giving context and explaining why it's bad.
Anyway I find hypocritical to ban any of those books before banning the major religious books, which, depending how one interprets them, may fall into the "A" category. (I heard there is an american who, as a protest againts the right banning some books, managed to remove the Bible from school library because of its violent and pornographic content. Unfortunately, the ban was undone, but I hope people will keep trying.)

People who want to enforce the "C" ban can eat my ass. With the expection of reasonable age restrictions for explicit violent or sexual content. Like, don't put Invincible or Oglaf in an elementary school library, obviously.

[leahandillyana]

Thank you for the long reply :)

[iamrman]

New manga titles on my list:

Does it Count if You Lose Your Virginity to an Android? Woman orders a robot maid online. Whoops, it’s a sexbot!

I Don’t Know Which Is Love. After her high school love confession gets rejected, young woman swears to get a girlfriend in college. Whoops, now she has a harem!

I’m In Love With the Villainess. Girl gets isekai'd in to her favourite dating sim, but instead of choosing one of the male options, sets her sights on the villainess.

Laid-Back Camp. Chill adventures of a high school Outdoor Activities Group.

A Side Character's Love Story. Young woman who is a supporting character in her own life tries to find the courage to confess her love to a colleague and finally become the protagonist she has always wanted to be.

Marvel Epics on my list:

Fantastic Four Epic Collection: All in the Family. Johnny gets married. I sure hope the bride doesn’t end up being an alien or something.

Incredible Hulk Epic Collection: The Lone and Level Sands. The conclusion to You-Know-Who’s Hulk run ends in a fridging.

Nothing really to report regardimg Marvel Snap again. I spent tokens on Ravonna, only to geet the variant from a Spotlight Cache soon afterwards.

The only other variant of note is the Cerebro blueprints variant.

[tripodeca113]

went to a second-hand book shop. Ended up getting Beasts of Burden, four volumes of Sandman Mystery Theatre (one volume even had a receipt from 2006) and the first three volumes of 100 Bullets.
I didn't get: Mister X and the Sandman comics by Bill Willingham ( I don't want to read a miniseries about Thessaly, I will never forgive her for what happened to Wanda).

watched more Legend of Korra. Unalaq confuses me. He has two wildly different goals; subjugate the South, AND usher in 10000 years of darkness. At this stage he doesn't seem to gain anything from attempting his first goal, and in fact it alienates Korra, who he cannot succeed without.
Thankfully for him, Korra is okay with Unalaq putting her people under military occupation, having their city blockaded, and replacing all their leaders for incredibly flimsy reasons....umm..

so more Enterprise:

Silent Enemy: Hoshi gave up a promising academic career to answer the space phone and be Archer's glorified errand boy. This time (while the ship is under constant attack by unknown alien forces) her job is to find out Reed's favourite food. jesus

Dear Doctor: A worryingly pro-genocide episode.
Well Phlox is a monster. He refuses to cure a disease based on a fundamentally misunderstanding of how evolution works, and a gross lack of any kind of ethics.
And Archer supports his choice. the death of millions are on your hands you prick.

Shadows of P'Jem: "Oh no. Archer and T'Pol have been tied together. Now they have to get up-close and personal to free themselves, I sure hope they don't fall over and T'Pol's boobs land in Archer's face." oh fuck off Enterprise

Shuttlepod One: Reed and Tucker get drunk and talk about T'Pol's ass.
I understand hope in the face of adversity, but man Tucker seems like an idiot here. Their stuck in shuttle drifting in deep space and the best they can hope for is that someone finds their frozen corpses within a decade, and he doesn't seem to grasp the simple fact that space is really big.

Acquisition: oh god another Ferengi episode.
So in this episode a group of Ferengi attack the ship, loot various items and plan to sell the crew into slavery. And at the end Archer just lets them go.
Well he does put the Ferengi played by Jeffery Combs in charge, but while he mostly did grunt work, and seemed comedically inept, he remained completely loyal to his captain and was always 100% behind the "sell the women into slavery plan" .

Oasis: In a shocking twist it turns out their ripping off a Deep Space Nine episode. That must have been why they got Rene Auberjonois.

Detained: "Interment camps are bad". An obvious statement, but this was more politically charged than I expected from an Enterprise episode.
And we finally got some world-building about the Suliban. I still have no idea what the Bad Suliban's goals and motivations are, but it looks their actions have resulted in their people being demonized by the rest of the galaxy, who unfairly lump them all in with a dangerous extremist group.
Archer comes off pretty well in this episode, expect for a moment early on where after he's been detained on flimsy charges, he's angry that a Sulbian made his child join a terrorist group, because he didn't realize that their innocent people also being held here on flimsy charges.

oh look a new trailer for Yakuza 8. Looks exciting, and has old characters returning. Including someone we haven't seen since 2009.

[thezmage]

I haven't watched Enterprise, was Dear Doctor the one I heard summarized as "Archer thinks up the Prime Directive and immediately decides it's inviolate?"

[tripodeca113]

probably, unless Archer condones genocide more than once.

[scorntx]

It's impressive how the BBC can release a trailer for Doctor Who, with less than two months to go, and still not give any actual release date.
Impressive and actually quite irritating now.
Starting to feel like if someone asked them, they'd deny either Doctor Who or November itself even existed.

Looks good, though. Whenever it's showing up.


After thinking that due to one thing and another thing it would be an easy week for spending, managed to end up spending more than three times my usual budget...
Whoops.

Found a bookshop which was selling both Rise of Kyoshi novels, but on account of that budgeting had to resist the urge.
Still, at least I know they're actually sold in this country, and where to look for them.
(stops to stare wistfully into the distance)

Also managed to fill the gap in me Pokémon collection, getting the last chapters of Platinum.
(It, ah, having been a while since I read the last volume and therefore had forgotten where the storyline left off.)

On the Minifig hunt, have managed to get Lucky the Pizza Dog, and his sidekick Kate.
Lucky gets his own separate thing because of the way the fig is designed.
Oh, and STORM. (name rendered in all-caps out of respect for her animated self's hamminess.)
But the hunt for Moon Knight continues.

Meanwhile, a whole slew of announcements for the next part of Transformers: Legacy. Woo!
A Tigerhawk! A Tidal Wave! A Magmatron! A tiny Energon Megatron! Chase from Rescue Bots? Tasmania Kid (or Snarl if you want)?
And some new guys, who are a mix of the Inhumanoids, the Rock Lords, and that living rock planet from that one episode of Headmasters.
That's an impressive Frankenstein's Creature of deep cuts. A Frankencut.
(And probably about the deepest cut put to a main toyline release yet. Or at least right up there.)

[iamrman]

But does the Storm minifig yell at nature?

[dewinged]

The 90s X-Men revival animated series coming up better by chock full of Storm's Dramatic Speeches (tm) when she uses her powers or I am seriously going to throw hands.

[iamrman]

Let's not forget Scott and Jean yelling each other's names.

[scorntx]

Or Jean trying to use her mighty telepathic powers!... and then immediately going "Aaaagh!" and fainting.
(still, the original series already covered the Phoenix, so hopefully we won't have to deal with any of that nonsense.
... hmm, wonder what that ominous rumbling sound was...)

[skjam]

I'm having noises made about a promotion again, but this has happened before. There's always some niggling nonsense that makes it not just yet.

Trying to get a couple more movies in before Netflix shuts down the DVD service. I can only hope they really do send out the next few on my queue on the last day.

Marvel Puzzlequest: Chase character is Carnage!Miles. Ugh.

Over at my blog, it's Sixties science fiction with dated politics: https://www.skjam.com/2023/09/24/book-review-time-gladiator/

[zachbeacon]

Just a PSA for my fellow Americans that free Covid tests are back…
https://special.usps.com/testkits
I assume this is a novelty for anyone living in a civilized country.
[Lengthy expletive-filled rant about the American Healthcare System redacted in the name of good taste]
Yeah, things are going great. How are you all?


Modern Doctor Who is getting a 13-season box set in November for less than $200. I think I’m going to pass because I already have the Tennant stuff but I figured it would be worth mentioning because I don’t know how limited this “limited edition” will be and I know there are a lot of Who fans here.

Also, there’s a $150 70s Columbo box set coming that would be really tempting if I had money right now.


It isn’t remotely surprising but it looks like the Rightstuf store will be absorbed into the Crunchyroll store in October. They date back to the mail-order days and thus predate Amazon (and they’re significantly less likely to destroy/lose your order). RIP most anime/manga sales.

(I am frankly shocked Funimation still exists in any capacity after they got bought out by Crunchyroll/Sony)

At least Sentaifilmworks has a couple good sales a year on the handful of anime they’ve managed to pry from the monopoly.

(Actually, I’m typing this bit on Saturday and Sentai and Rightstuf are both having sales on a lot of Sentai products and a lot of the deals on the Sentai site are a lot better)

(And, as of Monday, both sales have ended and Rightstuf has a 15% discount with lots of exclusions…which falls short of their usual. Actually, I think Rightstuf has had the same “daily deal” for over a week.)


TV
I watched Mutant Mayhem and I’m still not sure how I feel about it. There’s a lot I like and a lot I don’t. I will say the art style looks a lot less like Spider-Verse in motion than when you just see promo art. I think the mutants look great in this art style but half the humans look like horrible nightmare monsters.

(Really could have done without the reoccurring vomit “joke” though.)

With last week’s Archer I found myself wondering several times over the course of the series; just how long is this mission taking?

I didn’t hate the Futurama midseason finale but it does sort of feel like they took an idea from last week’s anthology and padded it out to a full episode.

Comics
Cosmoknights volume 2 – More lesbian mech gladiators. The cliffhanger from the previous volume didn’t go in the direction I thought it would.

Superman #2 – Honestly kind of disappointing given how interesting the new status quo from the first issue was. Reducing the Parasite to a zombie outbreak just seems uninspired.

Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #13 – Probably a mistake to start an arc that won’t end before my DCI subscription does but I just love this comic so much. The Jimmy/Batman feud starts here (not that Jimmy knows it).

Titans featuring Son of Superman #102 …er, I mean “Nightwing #102” – Babs gets all of two panels. The dog gets one (but she’s actually plot-relevant). Dick’s sister continues to be MIA.

Flash #795 – I looked away for two seconds and Barry took over this comic. I’d be ticked if not for the cliffhanger (and I hadn’t already seen scans of future issues).

(And because I decided it was a shame that I only listen to the Defenders half of the Titan Up the Defense podcast …)

Brave and the Bold #54 – The easy joke is that most adults don’t write teens well and Bob Haney writes them like he was born as a fully-formed adult who has only had the concept described to him. Garth was great in this issue and it’s easy to see why the ladies love him; he hid the teens from the villain and then saved the town from a flood. Dick singlehandedly beat the villain. Wally might as well not have been there; his main contribution to the plot was building a tower really fast and – considering that’s what the villain wanted – I guess everyone was lucky it wasn’t a doomsday weapon. I was surprised there was no Donna or Roy; I guess this is an Avengers or Defenders situation where we just collectively pretend Captain America and the Silver Surfer were there all along.

Brave and the Bold #60 – This story is nuts. The town of Midville makes local teen, Tommy Holmes, mayor for a day. This isn’t some sort of cute ceremonial thing either; he has his own teen government complete with teen cops. I’m a little unclear on how Tommy gained this position since almost everyone in town (the notable exception being his awesome girlfriend, Judy) seems ready to murder him the second things go wrong because his dad is some sort of mad scientist that broke out of jail recently. When giant body parts attack the town, Tommy gets on his radio and calls for help from the Teen Titans*. Then the teens (super and civilian) fight back in ways that include lassoing a giant floating hand and dragging it behind them like a parade float and playing The Beatles music really loud at a giant ear. Then Tommy’s dad shows up, explains that his cellmate stole his work, and helps the kids beat the mad science threat with even more mad science. Despite a scene where Wally trips and falls in the mud while chasing giant feet, Kid Flash is a lot more useful here and saves the lives of both Robin and the villain.

*I’ve decided to skip over any Donna-related questions I have because it isn’t worth the headache. Robin knew to invite her. Somehow. Still, it’s a good thing he reached out to her because she was easily the most effective of the group.

Showcase #59 – This one was pretty underwhelming. It’s a pretty standard story that could generously be called a “mystery”. It really reinforces my thoughts on Bob Haney writing teens because the celebrities introduced here are really … something. The Teen Titans assuming famous people they like couldn’t possibly have done anything wrong is concerning due to some unfortunate real-world implications.

Sometimes I forget how much Silver Age comics (especially DC) swing between being wonderfully insane and being a chore to read.


Snap
Unlocks
Billy Tan Hood Variant – From “Avast Ye, Admiral!” Bundle; basically, a Token Tuesday bundle with a mystery variant and some credits for a little extra gold. That’s how I have to rationalize it because otherwise I spent 1600 gold on a 700 gold Hood variant.

MODOK Pixel Variant – From Conquest shop. Well, I can’t exactly complain about a MODOK Variant being ugly. Mission accomplished, Snap Team.

Max Grecke Vision Variant – From free Season Pass. I like it.

Odin Conquest Variant – Yeah, normally I don’t get the monthly Conquest card until the absolute last minute but – between being stuck at around 85 in ranked and trying to farm boosters in Conquest this weekend – I had a LOT of medals.

As the meta has become more hostile to Nimrod decks, I’ve returned to experimenting with Discard. I hope Swordsman and Hellcow get a redesign because they seem increasingly out of place among the targeted discard cards. Its nice having some control over what you discard even if the swings aren’t as wide as they can be with Hellcow or MODOK. Of course, any deck relying on Ghost Rider or Hela for resurrections still has an element of randomness in what comes back and where its placed respectively. On the bright side, anything brought back in the last turn is immune to Alioth…assuming it doesn’t kill GR or Hela before they reveal. Still, it is hard to snap with confidence when neither you nor you opponent knows what’s going where in the last turn.

(Also, it occurred to me that I probably have to switch back to some version of MODOK/Hela anyway because Mobius week is going to be really bad for Swarm and Stature … though unintentionally helpful for Sif/Death.)

I also spent the weekend with a revised version of a deck I’d used in the past. While I have yet to earn an Infinity ticket with it, the Angela/Kraven deck has improved a lot now that I’ve swapped Nightcrawler out for Jeff.

Thoughts on weekend missions:
Between the measly 200 token “rebait” and her just not being that interesting, I think I’m going to pass on Ravonna Renslayer for now.
If I had spent ten bucks on a season pass then I’d be ticked that the Loki mission reward was 150 credits instead of gold. I’m guessing this is either a mistake or an overcorrection for last week having two gold missions (which was probably also a mistake).
I like that the third mission isn’t character specific (and doesn’t even require victory). I’m a little disappointed the reward is credits again but I get why they wouldn’t want to give away gold on something that’s essentially just a weekly mission with a few extra steps (play 25 ongoing instead of 20). Also, any “ongoing” mission is an excuse to play Super-Skrull.

More and more, I find I have a surplus of credits at this point (did you know there’s a 10K limit?) and I've stopped grabbing them as my Collection Level increases. I guess I COULD have a ton of combined splits of America, Sunspot, ect or *shudder* go back to the confusion of not upgrading cards one at a time but – since I haven’t had a ton of luck in farming boosters lately – I’m a little tempted to break my rule and open Collector’s Reserves until I get something that I have 160+ boosters for. Really hope there’s no second upgrade mission in the last week of the season.

(Remember late last year when they said they’d let people target specific boosters and then just didn’t do that?)

Speaking of promises Second Diner may or may not keep, they’re talking about adding a cooldown to emotes in a future update so maybe we can all go back to liking Ms. Marvel in a few months.

[iamrman]

You willingly read Silver Age Teen Titans? You have my sympathies.

[zachbeacon]

I don't think I'll be continuing into the actual TT series. At least not any time soon. This is a comic that has to be read in small doses.

(Also I looked it up and Roy doesn't show up until issue #4 and doesn't join until issue #19 so its going to take forever for the "original" team to form)

[cainofdreaming]

I'm liking Ravonna in my Mister Negative deck. Helps with the cards that you get before playing Negative.

[thezmage]

Haven't gotten around to Archer or Futurama yet. Probably tonight.

Mutant Mayhem, other than the overly long vomit joke, was another one of those movies that I felt was ultimately good and fun but had a few choices that just feel more and more wrong the more I think of them. The change to where their martial arts abilities came from stretches my disbelief even more than a rat learning kung fu did, and that ending just fundamentally changed so much about the franchise that it's hard to picture the resulting series and the sequel being satisfying.

[zachbeacon]

When you say “ending” do you mean in what it means for their relationship to humanity or what it means for their relationship the other mutants?

Because the first could be interesting but it also feels very …not the Ninja Turtles.

If you’re talking about the second then I think they sabotaged themselves with all the stunt casting. There’s no way most of the voice actors are coming back for a TV spinoff.

[thezmage]

Both, really. Like you said, could be interesting but very not the Ninja Turtles. V zrna gur ghegyrf tbvat gb fpubby NAQ univat n ubhfrubyq shyy bs sryybj zhgnagf gb or sevraqf jvgu is just... a lot of changes to the TMNT franchise that I could maybe see for a series finale

I kinda assume they've either got contracts that keep those voice actors around or they've got cheaper replacements ready to go.

[obsidianwolf]

I find myself wondering since mutant mayhem never tore up the box office if it was really responsible for the big toy sales or if having quality figures for so cheap was the reason.I mean comparing the ten bucks Mutant Mayhem figures to say a ten dollar transformer or other franchise toy shows a really big quality difference and after all that billion in sales happened before the film really came out.

I also agree about the videos being the source of the learning. Though on the rat learning martial arts thing I always personally hand waved it as that just being how splinter remembered it. I always liked to think that when an animal first mutated they got near perfect recall of their life up to that point(To explain why they seemed to be able to learn to talk insantly they heard humans talk in their pre mutated existence and it didn't apply to the turtles cause they were infants who hadn't lived long) for a while. So Splinter suddenly remembered watching Yoshi train constantly and learned from his memories of him. Maybe Yoshi used to joke about his pet practicing martial arts too possibly because of Splinter being more active when he was training because of the excitement. Then as time passed the memories blurred together a bit and it became "I learned as rat"

[onsokumaru]

I actually enjoyed Ravonna who allowed me to play Rhane again.
I found that my old Zabu/Darkhawk/Sentry/Viper deck is still effective. It helped me climb back in the 80s and get that Odin variant.

I think I'll now try to build a deck to counter Xavier, because I've got hit quite often with that Wave/Xavier combo. Mobius may be an answer.

Recent variants
*usual pixel crap, do'nt even remember which ones
*Hood noir: good but not great
*Superior Octopus: one of my faves
*Arthur Addams Shang Chi: a good one, like all Shang Hi cards.
(Still, it's irritating that there is not a single old school Schang Chi variant. Same way Yellow Jacket Hank, comics Ghost or Patriot Eli are still missing.)

[lego_joker]

For extra credit: did you read Darwyn Cooke's Retraux telling of Dick and Wally's first team-up? I think it's in all recent editions of The New Frontier.

[zachbeacon]

From the NF Special? Yeah, I read that when it came out* but I appreciate the reminder that it exists. I should probably give it another look.

*I think I’ve read most of what he’s done for DC other than Twilight Children (no judgement, just never got around to it), Before Watchmen (some judgement there), and maybe some stuff too obscure for the Graphic Ink collection.

Actually, because I started reading comics in the early 90s and spent most of that decade as a Marvel Zombie, Devin Grayson’s was the first Titans run to really grab me and that really leaned a lot on the “original” five.

I'm kind of curious where Dick and Wally being best friends actually came from. Waid? Dixon? Wally is kind of a jerk in the Wolfman stuff I've read so I doubt its that.

Edit: Okay, just reread the New Frontier Special. The Robin and Kid Flash story was great but it really gets overshadowed by one of my favorite Batman/Superman fights...and topless Wonder Woman.

[forestcatdreams]

Re: USA "healthcare:"

I read your comment while I literally have a medical bill for something I'm not supposed to be getting charged for in front of me. All this because Anthem Healthkeepers Plus insurance is retroactively refusing to pay something that they are 100% on the hook for. The charge is from over half a year ago. And all this after they recently refused to pay for $1000 of medical charges that they absolutely do cover. This is complete bullshit. I'm probably just going to cancel my Anthem HP insurance and stick with my backup free state Medicaid plan because American insurance is a criminal racket. This year I've paid more for healthcare with insurance than in the past decade without it. No wonder Anthem's getting sued.

(You didn't have to rant because I did it for you. Teamwork!)

Re: RightStuf:

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO :(

I was waiting for a decent RightStuf fall sale to stock up on a manga series I want. If I buy it from Amazon, the books are very likely to arrive bent and torn. Just my freaking luck. :/

A lot of people on Anime News Network are recommending Robert's Anime Corner Store, which has an interface straight out of late 1990s/early 2000s Anime Web Turnpike and Geocities, but has been around for decades and is supposed to be legit. I'm still not sure where my new home for buying anime merch will be. I doubt the merged Crunchyroll store will live up to RightStuf's legacy. That was already made clear when the merger caused RightStuf to remove their adult listings a while back. I'm not even generally into adult content, and I can still see what a bad move that is for fandom in general, not just anime and manga.

[zachbeacon]

RE Healthcare: I’m pretty sure I have you beat. Not that it’s a competition. A sane country wouldn’t let this happen to either of us.

Basically, the Anesthesiologist says Smart Health (insurance) denied their claim for a little over $1.7K (which was more than the actual surgeon charged my insurance)

Obviously, I was panicking as I was unable to reach a human being and was reading horror stories about out-of-network healthcare providers lurking around in-network hospitals.

When I finally reached Smart Health I was told that they didn’t so much deny the claim as tell the healthcare provider to resubmit it with corrected information (apparently they didn’t note which arm was worked on).

So now I’m trying to get the Anesthesiologist to go bother my insurance and leave me out of it.

None of this showed up on any of the bills or statements I’d been sent in recent months. I only became aware of a problem when I started getting automated billing TEXTS from the Anesthesiologist’s employer. I assumed the first was some sort of scam until they kept coming and I looked into it some more.

On the one hand (pun not intended), what does it really matter which arm? Also, Smart Health should already know because of all the other documentation and dragging their feet just seems unnecessary.

On the other hand, what kind of fly by night operation sends bills by text? Did they submit the claim written on a napkin?



RE: Rightstuf: Yeah, I don’t think anyone who was paying attention is surprised but I’m really going to miss those Discotek sales. Also, Rightstuf had great customer service.

Thanks for the store recommendation; I’ll look into it when I have money again

[malurette]

Aw shucks I had to switch back from DS9 (s2) to TNG (s7) because I reached the "Maquis" episodes and learned that I somehow missed previous context on that? and that even if the parallel series happen at the same time there are fixed points you have to mind and you can't watch them in any order you want? bah.
(Good thing that I still watched The Wire anyway.)

[blueprintstyles]

Heels was canceled :( I really liked that show, that had a strong follow up season and ended an an EXTREME cliffhanger. Really hoping another service picks it up.

[dewinged]

I don't have access to Starz, so I never got to see it, but it looked like something I'd have liked.

That said, I'm really sorry you lost a show you liked. My sympathies. I hope another service grabs it so can enjoy more. :(

[mister_terrific]

I am (embarrassedly) eagerly awaiting free time today to read the final volume of "Interviews with Monster Girls". Seeing as I have a boatload of phone calls to make as we prepare to move...oh, let's be honest. I'll MAKE time to read it. :)

Had an interesting thing happen yesterday (in the worst possible meaning for "interesting"). About ten years ago I was diagnosed with an acoustic neuroma on my right side--basically, it's a small growth/tumor that sits on the auditory nerve and really screws up your hearing and balance as it grows. Took two procedures to kill "Skippy" off, but as a consequence I have to get regular MRIs to make sure Skippy is still dead. I'm up to one every two years, and I'm due.

Except...a) my neurosurgeon retired, and his replacement left, so I have a new person I've never met...and b) because I'm retired, I'm on my wife's insurance plan (which is still very very good), and things get reviewed.

My MRI for next week was deemed "not covered". But what got me was, buried deep in the letter explaining this, it was noted that the request was reviewed...not by a neurosurgeon, but by an OB/GYN. Yeah. Still trying to wrap my head around that one.

So a few more phone calls to get this resolved, and on to "Monster Girls"!

EDIT: Called the doctor's office and the MRI was approved yesterday. Yaaaaay.

[informationgeek]

Back with my Fables reviews for a big one!

Fables #60-63 & 65-69: The Good Prince

Things have not been good for Flycatcher. After turning back into and out of a frog, he had to come to face up to the truth. His family died horribly, tragically many years ago in front of him. While in no way his fault, he needs to make up for trying to deny and ignore this fact. He needs to make amends for his actions and to do that, he must follow the visions in his head and go on a quest that’ll push him down a long, heavy quest of redemption.

It’s been awhile since we had an epic scale arc like this one, since at least The Homelands, if not March of the Wooden Soldiers. Spanning nine issues, one above the latter story mentioned, this tale is long, winding, heavy, character-focused, dramatic, and yet in the very end, hopeful and warm. This is a story about one character rising up to a hard challenge and frankly, it’s Fables at its finest.

The Good Prince is a fulfilling story in much the way as March of the Wooden Soldiers was. Not a single page feels wasted, every issue used for all its worth. None of Flycatcher’s story feels padded or dragged out, moving at a brisk pace that keeps things going. There are, admittedly, times when I do feel things aren’t properly explained or a bit glossed over early on, but once he gets on his journey, it’s so engaging watching his struggle and how he tackles each issue that comes up. I was fully invested with each twist and turn the story took, resulting in an ending that left me smiling and in a happy mood. In a way, it’s like reading an actual fairy tale. Go figure in a series called Fables to have something played more straight.

Mixing in with Flycatcher’s journey and the founding of Haven is all the stuff happening in Fabletown. For better and for worse, war is coming and revelations are coming out. Characters are making their moves and getting into position. While Flycatcher’s story is a tale of heroism and a labrous journey, what happens with everyone else is a slow, tension building burn. It’s a completely different mood, but one that compliments the more optimistic, fantasy main plot. Both are balanced just right, giving you just enough of each in every issue

The plot and writing of it is all good, very good. The character writing is also good. I love the direction taken with Flycatcher, having him step away from his humble, janitorial role back into the true king he was. All the character bits and minor growth are great here. One moment I especially like is with the Emperor as he talks with Geppetto, showing a bit more nuance and logic in him than you might think. All the writing in these parts are solid as always

A really underrated part I like about this arc is how well it uses the established lore and history of the series. It pulls back far and wide for its characters and history, tying them all together in satisfying and clever ways. Some characters come back and are given more purpose, old lore is recontextualized or flipped on its head, and minor, offhanded moments from the past are built upon. I love it when a series does this kind of thing and does it so well.

Of course, the arc isn’t flawless. There are minor moments and parts that I don’t think worked as well as they should. Like stated before, I do think it’s a bit vague at times with Flycatcher’s journey and it getting started. I think the visions and hearing voices should’ve been implied more or built up sooner. The magic powers Flycatcher has are a bit much towards the end with just how he seems to be able to do certain things. The more religious theming can be as subtle as a hammer to the face, even if it does work.

I also spy some of Willingham’s politics seeping in. It’s not as bad as past events thankfully due to it being only in one panel instead of stopping the story for a speech. However, the implications put into Totenkinder’s powers and where she gets them from are eyebrow raising. It’s not explicitly stated, but given the history of the writer, you can tell what he implies and its kind of stupid.

One other thing and it’s more of a missed opportunity with the arc itself. Flycatcher going down the Witching Well and bringing all of these ghosts back to life, sort of, in this new home of Haven is pretty good. Again, bringing back old characters to give them more depth was a great idea and opens up more opportunities, like Honest Jon and Bluebeard. Two of the characters that came back were Posey and Dun, two of the original Three Little Pigs and the villains of the second arc.

During the arc, Bluebeard and Shere Khan attempt to overthrow/plan to overthrow Flycatcher and are thrown out of Haven. Flycatcher remarks on being disappointed by them and hoping that villains could change their ways. And here’s the thing: Posey and Dun do. They join Haven and remain perfectly loyal from start to finish, since we see them at the very end in a group shot. I wish that could’ve been addressed more, showing these two villains redeem themselves and maybe address their past mistakes. It would’ve been a great moment that fit the themes of this arc extremely well. Not a huge issue, but again, a missed opportunity I felt.

Mark Buckingham continues drawing the series and as always, he’s great. It’s interesting reading this series all at once, seeing his style evolve, change, switch things up, and more. He’s definitely settled into a particular way of laying out the comic with his standard borders along the horizontal edges of the pages, giving the series a more storybook-esque feel. Given Flycatcher’s story, it fits very well I find. I do miss Buckingham experimenting more, but he’s got into a good groove and found the right look for the comic overall. Can’t really complain when his character & world design, action, and visuals are still stellar.

The Good Prince is more than good. It’s fantastic. This is one of the finest arcs Fables has produced yet. It makes use of all nine of its issues to tell an epic tale of heroism and redemption, while slowly beating the drum of an inevitable war that is coming. It’s not without its faults, but the quality of the writing and art drown them all out. Storylines like these are what make me happy to be such a fan of the series.

Next time, back to Jack of Fables for that Halloween one-shot I was going to talk about sooner but skipped and probably more!

[thezmage]

The Nosleep Podcast just announced that they're abandoning the season pass system for a subscription service. Which would be fine except for the price increase. If you've been buying season passes to date that's an increase of 50% for the lowest tier, but in exchange for more money you get less content (The Old Time Radio bonus episodes as well as the SP exclusive Halloween and Christmas bonus episodes). If you want those missing episodes, there's a $10 tier where you pay three times as much to get them plus an extra one hour a month.

The $10 tier also gets you access to all the previous season pass episodes, which makes it an absolutely fantastic deal if you don't already have them. But for those of us that do it's an absolute dogshit deal.

And personally I probably would have signed on to at least the early tier if they just admitted they were raising prices instead of trying to sell it as "an exciting opportunity" we shouldn't miss out on, but as it is the whole thing just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

But if you've never had a season pass before and want to try it, I absolutely recommend trying the $10 tier.

[cainofdreaming]

Osiris-Rex sounds more like it might bring back some Goa'uld parasites.

[ladymidath]

I am sad to hear that David McCallum passed away as I grew up watching him in Man From U.N.C.L.E and quite a few movies. Also, Michael Gambon passed away as well. Steve and I went away from a few days so I have not really had a chance to read or watch anything, but we are back now so hopefully I will be able to catch up.