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.

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.

[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.

[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]

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.

[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.

[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]

Nintendo Direct thoughts

Not covering everything because there’s a lot for this “dead” system. Just some highlights.

(Still no Silksong)

Mario & Luigi: Brothership (November 7, 2024) – The Switch sure did get a lot of Mario RPGs, huh? A little worried because the studio that made the pervious M&L games is gone and people do not seem happy with the direction Paper Mario went in after a while.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition (July 18, 2024) – Remember when Amiibo Tap: Nintendo’s Greatest Bits was a free(ish) game on the Wii U?

Nintendo Switch Sports (Summer 2024) – Basketball will be added as a free update.

Disney Illusion Island and Among Us are getting free updates today.

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD (January 16, 2025) – I don’t care about this one but I’m sure others do.

Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake (November 14, 2024) – Okay, cool…we have a date…unlike DQ XII. Now if only they’d verify that it is getting released outside of Japan because it has been years and I’m still waiting for DQ X Offline.

Dragon Quest I & II HD-2D Remake (2025) – See above comment.

Funko Fusion (September 13, 2024) – Like actual Funko Pops, I assume this game will just spontaneously generate in our homes at some point. At least it doesn’t seem to be a “toys to life” thing … but it feels like it would have been if it came out a few years ago.

Nintendo Online Expansion pack is getting some new games today but no news on the base pack.

Phantom Brave; The Lost Hero (2025) – I guess PB is a franchise now?

Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics (2024) – I was going to say I didn’t know this series HAD seven games but it looks like they’re padding it out with things like X-Men: Children of the Atom and a Punisher beat-em-up. Probably of a lot of interest to people here.

Super Mario Party Jamboree (October 17, 2024) – A third Switch Mario Party. I hope people like this one at least as well as the second one because the first one was really unpopular.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (September 26, 2024) – New top-down Zelda in the style of the 2019 Link’s Awakening remake with a world map that reminds me of Breath of the Wild…and you play as Zelda. Yes, please!

(I mostly ran out of steam here. Sorry if I missed a thing that you care about)

Ace Attorney Investigations Collection (September 6, 2024) – I’m unclear on how this is different from all the other AA collections but I guess at least one of the games is new (to the west).

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond (2025) – Hang on, deh_tommy …you have something to live for!

(I wonder if Amazon will honor my seven-year-old preorder price)

Edit: Various listings indicate the Dragon Quest HD-2D games will see the light of day outside of Japan and will have physical copies in some regions.

[thezmage]

Well, looks like the Hack/Slash card game crowdfunding campaign is going to fail. Only 13 hours left and $1000 short

[super_fly]

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

I'm very happy that this is what I thought it would be.
I'd also like to petition for an animation of Watchmen Babies: V For Vacation.

[mister_terrific]

My wife and I went up to Indiana to check on her father, who's been in a nursing home since March. It was about as bad as we expected. It's reached a point now where it's a question of what finally finishes him off--kidney failure, swallowing problems leading to pneumonia, or something we don't know about. The BIL who's been managing his care insisted on letting a specialist friend review the medical records, I guess in the faint hope that some sort of short-term fix will be found (hint: it won't). Failing that, we're going to look at hospice care. Honestly, I'll be surprised if he makes it to August. It's so sad.

The BIL in question is also being an asshole about dealing with his older brother (long-standing issues). He was SUPPOSED to join us for a meal and discussion about things that need resolving, but oh no--his daughter was in town for Father's Day and he HAD to spend the entire day with her. Lucky him, he got to see more of his daughter than I did mine because I was supporting my wife. Yes, I'm slightly pissed, why do you ask?

We got an estimate back from the insurance company for the damage done to our house back in the Midwest. Whoa. It's completely covered except for a deductible, so I gotta make some calls today and get things rolling. Apparently a LOT of people in that area got hammered--two inches of hail, man!

That said, I never thought I'd be so grateful to be back in the land of heat and humidity!

[ladymidath]

I love the Dalek voting ad. I did not know about the new Watchmen animation, I will have to watch out for that. (No pun intended.) I saw the final of Doctor Who, it's great they brought the original voice actor back.
I am loving the latest The Boys season and I am glad it is going to go for another season.
Still pissed off about not being able to see the new episodes of Below Deck though.