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.

If you're in the UK and not yet resistered to vote for the General Election, we actively encourage you to do so, to participate in the democratic process.

Doctor Who revealed it's season big bad guy, and it's a BIG bad guy, one we haven't seen for around forty nine years, and they got the original actor to return to voice him at the age of 91.

In light of the announcement of the new Watchmen animation, let's petition for the release of the original

Comments

[dewinged]

Fairy Tail 100 year quest, the anime, starts July 7th, which is funny because that date has significance in the setting. I had read part of the manga back.in 2019, but RL happened and I lost track, so a bunch of this will be new to me. In a way, it'll be like catching up with old friends.

The last episode of Delicious In Dungeon aired last week, with an immediate announcement that a 2nd season is in development. Most people weren't that surprised, but in the States it aired on Netflix amd we've been conditioned to keep our guard up, so I was pleasantly surprised.

My Adventures With Superman is getting a season 3, announced last week. After this week's episode I think things are picking up.

Vox Machina season 3 drops in October.

There's a bunch of stuff coming out this year I've been waiting to see, though it makes me wary that next year will be a dry spell for content as a result.

[iamrman]

New Marvel trades on my list:

Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection: Lifetheft. Gotcha!
Avengers Masterworks Vol. 14. Steve Englehart really wants us to know how important Mantis is.
Captain America Epic Collection: Justice is Served. *PUM!* *SPAK!* Here comes the Scourge of the Underworld!
Guardians of the Galaxy by Jim Valentino Vol. 1. I have no idea if this series is well regarded or not. It was on sale any way, so I thought I would give it a go.
Guardians of the Galaxy by Abnett and Lanning: The Complete Collection Vol. 1. DnA revitalise a bunch of obscure space heroes. I mean, a talking raccoon?
Guardians of the Galaxy by Al Ewing. So many Guardians this week. It’s Al Ewing though. ‘Nuff said!
Luke Cage: Hero for Hire Masterworks Vol. 1. Sweet Christmas! Where’s the money, honey?!

It's been a while, but here are the new manga titles on my list:

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End. A little late to the party, but they had me at elves.
My Stepmother and Stepsisters Aren’t Wicked. Girl moves in with her stepfamily and they’re actually nice?
Welcome to Demon School! Iruma-kun. Boy accidentally enrols in a school for demons.

I enjoyed Clash at the Castle on Saturday. Most of the matches were pretty predictable, but I enjoyed them nonetheless.

Ubj nobhg gung eha-va ba gur ZpVagler/Cevrfg zngpu? V xarj PZ Chax jnf tbvat gb trg vaibyirq fbzrubj, ohg V qvqa'g guvax ur jbhyq qerff hc nf n ersrerr. V org ynfg avtug'f Enj jnf fcvpl.

[tripodeca113]

Well it was difficult reading the last chapters of the Terry Pratchett biography....

Oh look they've put out a casting call for live action Toph. Finally it's her chance to be ruined in live action.

The library had the first collection of Hellblazer.
"I stopped these bloody demons, but Thatcher won another blinking term in office!"
It introduced two new old friends of Constantine who both died in this volume. I suspect most of the recurring character introduced here got killed off.
Constantine seems more out of his depth than he did when Alan Moore was writing him. I suppose you could say that in Swamp Thing those were all situations he'd planned out and studied in advanced, while in his own title these are mostly situations he happens to stumble into.
so...Swamp Thing hijacked his body so he could get Abby pregnant......um.....

I didn't like the artstyle of the animated Watchmen movie, and I don't have high hopes for it because these films have been pretty artless.

Finished The Hobbit.
How can our heroes stopped Smaug????....oh a guy introduced four pages before shots him with his family's magic arrow....you could get away with that in 1937.

Oh boy! A $3 copy of the Call of Chtulu black and white short film from 2005...why does the back cover call Lovecraft the "Father of Gothic Horror"?
That's the wrong genre and he's at least 50 years too late (even if we assume they mean "guy who wrote several prominent examples of the genre" rather than "the guy who created the genre")

[onsokumaru]

Apparently Max is now available in France and it doesn't even have Stargirl nor Doom Patrol. What's the point then? I have no idea where to watch live action DC series anymore and I won't waste my time searching for "other" means than official streaming channels.
But I don't care anymore. Why? Because french Netflix added the 3d season of Young Justice. I'm only two episodes in and my mood is "you can keep your live action stuff, all I need is right here!)


France is definitely heading toward a far right government.
Some people still have hope for the "left" wing aliance, but it's already imploding (oh no, totally didn't see that coming)

We're going to hell, but at least in an entertaining way.
Since Macron the First (and hopefully the Last) set fire to the powder barrel:

*Eric Ciotti, president of the Republicains (right wing, almost far right but not totally) joined the totally far right movement. Republicains fired him, but he didn't accept it and he entrenched himself into the party' s HQ.

*Zemmour (leader of Reconquete, the far far right movement that is even worse than the traditional far right movement) was betrated by his partner, Marion Le Pen, who joined the traditional far right movement, RN (led by her aunt Marine and by Jordan Bardella, who married a Le Pen).
RN is basically a huge scam created by Jean-Marie Le Pen and his nazi pals (and I mean litteral nazis, not "you disagree with me" nazis). Its goal is to make the Le Pen family rich by using racism, conservatism and anti-immigration stance.

*LFI (the problematic party of the left alliance) is imploding. They did some old school stalinian purges against the executives who at some point opposed Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the Leader Maximo. They also appointed some antisemitic members as candidates for the elections.
At least, when the left will inevitably lose once again, they won't just blame the communist and socialist traitors and the medias. This time, they will also blame the "traitors" from the inside. Anything but questioning themselves, their ideas and their methods.

Ex-president François Hollande, who is one of the main culprits for allowing Macron to become president, is making a come back. A pyromaniac dressed as a fireman.

We also got a neo-nazi demo in the street, as well as an anti-far-right demo featuring an antisemitic anti-white group.

Meanwhile, Renaissance (right wing, pro rich, pro corruption, presidential party) is just pointing fingers left and right and hoping the others suck so much that everybody will forgett how they spent 7 years destroying the country.
Macron is litterally the disaster girl from the meme.

And the Olympic disaster is not even here yet!

It also came from Kindle Unlimited

[knight_moves]

Read some Shadowman, but it didn't grab me. Just bog-standard Chosen One/urban fantasy stuff. Doesn't help that Shadowman's logo is just so stupid to me. It's a little cartoon on his chest of a stick figure casting a shadow. Like, DUDE.

I also gave the first volume of Dead Letters a try. Guess I just wasn't in the mood for it. A big "God's gone missing" afterlife noir story with an amnesiac protagonist, everyone secretly working with everyone else behind the backs of everyone else, and really not much to the plot besides trying to keep track of who's betraying who at the moment. The "what if angels were dicks" plot point is just too stale for me; if I wanted to see Hellblazer reheated in the microwave, I'd watch Supernatural.

[llordllama]

I had the same problem with Pratchett's biog - knowing what was coming, was not fun. Kept putting off reading that last few chapters and then binged them late night all in one go. Very moving.

[deh_tommy]

Welp, it finally happened. Don’t know how I managed to avoid it for this long, but I finally caught COVID and it’s done a real number on me. It feels like every day I get a little better but at the same time a new symptom comes on. I’ve been cooped up in my room since Sunday, and while there’s a lot to keep me occupied, boy howdy do I miss health. And talking to somebody in-person without fear of contaminating them. I hope this doesn’t affect my brain too much, I’ve got more than enough problems as it is.

In more positive (heyooo) news, there’s a Nintendo Direct today! Here’s hoping for Metroid news.

[scorntx]

Trying not to say anything about British politics because I'll just get angry...
Well, angrier.


Some sort of bizarre mix up with the roofer, who apparently when he gave the initial estimate had only done it for half the roof. Which... I... yeah.
And funnily enough, the revised estimate for both sides of the roof is A Lot.
Which we don't have.


Took a trip to Manchester the other day. Interesting, but didn't get to see much of it between one thing and another.
(The trip back was... well, the train driver was a bit too enthusiastic about using the tannoy, which would've been fine if A: He had actually rehearsed what he wanted to say, or B: The damn thing hadn't been giving off ear-splitting feedback.
T'was a long train journey...)

That Doctor Who, huh?
Felt like it had a lot going on and yet not a lot either.
So we've got... at least three mysteries going on? Well, at least we got forward motion on one of them.
Might've laughed when I realised just who the villain was, which startled the cat something fierce.
Apparently Who fans were quick to rush to social media to spoil the surprise, although given things maybe they were also just trying to explain who this was and why you should be scared and / or surprised.

Speaking of, rewatched that Scream of the Shalka.
Fun stuff, even with the annnncient animation.
Would've been interesting to see more.

Apparently a rerelease of X-Men: The Gift came out last week. Couldn't find no sight of it anywhere. Hoping it's just that Marvel underestimated the enthusiasm of buyers and it's sold out, not that they arbitrarily cancelled it at the last minute. (mutters something about GOTG)
Instead, bought a copy of that JLA: Year One.
... I'm still not a fan of Mark Waid, and the impact of "hey, look, Hal Jordan and Barry Allen are alive and heroic!" isn't quite so impactful when they're both alive right now.
There's also some other Waid quirks which I'm not fond of.
But other than that, a good story.
(There's an interesting bit in the foreword where he mentions he wanted to have Ms. America fill in for Wonder Woman and her absence be explained by her - *sigh* - sacrificing herself.
And then a few years later we got Triumph.)

Also also: Apparently the planned Netflix Power Rangers series has been cancelled, for no readily apparent reason. But that's Netflix for you.

[deh_tommy]

Wait, is My Adventures with Superman Season 2 out now?

[dewinged]

It is!

[numeronone]

Wishing you a gentle recovery.

[skjam]

Hoping you feel better soon.

[skjam]

Dr. Who icon in honor of the return of my first Dr. Who villain.

Surgery went well, I am told. Trying to recover, hoping I run out of need for pain meds before I run out of pain meds. Other symptoms are...uncomfortable. At least I have a couple of days off work with full pay.

Marvel Puzzlequest's new feature character is Darkveil, who I'm not familiar with...probably from one of the Marvel Pride specials? Some interesting mechanics though. (And my opinion of characters in the comics doesn't help their utility in the game. I despise Carnage, but he's constantly in my rotation as a required character or to meet a daily goal.) I hope the next plot event will have chances for all these new characters to talk.

Over at my blog, I look at the Sancturary Arc of the CGI Saint Seiya series: https://www.skjam.com/2024/06/13/anime-review-saint-seiya-knights-of-the-zodiac-sanctuary-arc/

[numeronone]

Between the CGI and effects of today and the practical effects of the older era, I can't help but wonder what kids wll think of modern Doctor Who some 60 years from now.

Been getting into Iron Circus collections lately. I think they're one of the comics publishers I feel most excited by for years to come.

[zachbeacon]

I love what they've done with Jimmy so much.

"Mr White, the interns aren't listening to me"

Also...pretty much everything from the last couple episodes where his good days keep becoming disasters.



I do wish they'd slow down with the Batman love interests a bit. Vicki Vale makes a certain amount of sense as a foil to Perry and Lois but Fvyire Fg. Pybhq orsber Ynan Ynat be Ybev Ynzne vf penml. I fully expect Selena to steal some of "the green rock" for Talia soon.

[zachbeacon]

RE Iron Circus:

I've mostly just read the Poorcraft series ...which has added to my collection of comicbook cookbooks.

[metadronos]

Best wishes for a full and speedy recovery.

[zachbeacon]

Well, between a couple birthdays and Father's Day, I got to see some family last week. That was nice.

Beats sitting alone in my apartment waiting for the phone to ring or for something else to break*.

*My AC is broken again so I am dying.

[zachbeacon]

Get well soon. Hopefully it's the short-lived kind.

[leahandillyana]

The great coalition minimally won over far right polexit parties. I am silently freaking out inside over how close the win was. I do not understand Poles, the politics of the coalition government tend to be consistently very popular, yet people still go and vote far right despite them having the opposite policies.

I am still upset over the transphobia comic I posted about here recently. I do not understand how a member of a minority can be so hateful of a similar minority that the hate causes them to reject most of their own group and their art. Most of the iconic portrayals of lesbian love were created by artists who were either not cis lesbians or included sympathetic portrays of transgender people in their works!

Newest season of Black Butler was bad, like I expected. The whole intrigue could have been resolved in three episodes but was stretched out to ten.

[deh_tommy]

Well if I suddenly stop posting then at least you’ll know what happened to me, but I don’t feel like I’m dying so I’m sure I’ll be okay.

Re: It also came from Kindle Unlimited

[cainofdreaming]

Jack's replaced the shadow figure on his chest with a bone necklace and a jacket ensemble a while back.

[cyberghostface]

The Watchmen animation just kind of looks 'cheap'. Sort of like the animation on What If. I get that they want to copy the original art but I wouldn't mind if they just had someone like Bruce Timm animate it.

[zachbeacon]

I'm sure you'll be fine. Everyone in a position of power swears the pandemic has been over for a couple years.

[zachbeacon]

Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End.

Haven't read the manga but the anime is the only thing I've watched so far on my "free" Crunchyroll subscription. It feels like a lot of the popular seasonal anime just kind of vanishes from people's minds after a few months and I couldn't keep track of them if I tried but this one seems to have some staying power.