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 scans_daily. But please, no doomscrolling, for your own sake.

The US Supreme Court turned down a request to review the laws regarding gay marriage, leaving them untouched

A week after series of wins in elections across the country which left the US President furious, eight Democrats opted to break with the party to potentially end the current Governemnt shutdown by the end of the week, though it is unclear what gains were achieved by this decision.

The BBC is facing a LOT of scrutiny for broadcasting an extract from Trump's 6th Janaury speech in an editer format, without saying it had been edited, which led to two major resignations and the threat of a literal billion dollar lawsuit from Trump. Though those making the most fuss about it, might be showing biases of their own.

In the UK the first season of "The Celebrity Traitors" came to an end with some incredibly dramatic moments. There were some suggestions the result was fixed because "No noe could make decisions that bad"... which suggests those saying it had not been watching the rest of thr series because good LORD this bunch were SO bad at the game.

And to end on a fun note, after the recent theft from the Louvre in Paris, attention was drawn at the time to a dapperly dressed stranger in a stylish fedora who was seen on some camera's at the time. The identity of this mystery mas was the topic of much debate. In possibly THE most French solution to the enigma, it turns out it was.... a 15 year old schoolboy who just likes to dress in the chic style of old detectives. Bien joué, jeune homme. Bien joué

Comments

[iamrman]

This weeks comics ramblings:

Animal Man by Grant Morrison. This is the second time I have read this series. Perfectly enjoyable when it isn’t beating you over the head with its message. The scene with Morrison asking readers to support Peta hasn’t aged well. I liked all the meta stuff.

Black Lightning. I have had the trade collecting the first series for ages and have only just gotten around to reading it. I have also been reading Batman and the Outsiders, so I wanted to read Black Lightning’s solo series as well. I think we can all be thankful that DC didn’t go with their first idea and create a character called the Black Bomber. If you know, you know.

Blue Beetle: Jaime Reyes. No notes, we all know how awesome this series is. Jaime is a sweet boy and his supporting cast are all great. The first time I read this series, I never realised that the Peacemaker seen in this series is the famous one. It helped that I had never even heard of him at that point.

Captain America Epic Collection: Blood and Glory. Cap fights werewolves with the Worst Avenger. Druid is trying too hard with his new look. There is also an Infinity War tie-in. The Cap doppelganger bursts in as Cap is in the process of returning to normal, only to immediately get killed by its own shield. It is never referred to again. It was almost as if certain writers had no interest in getting involved with the latest round of Infinity Bullshit.

Defenders. A fun team-up with the Guardians of the Galaxy is rather let down by the presence of one Jack Norriss, aka The-Man-Who-Wouldn’t-Leave. Even Nighthawk is more tolerable than he is and everybody knows how much I dislike Nighthawk.

Doom Patrol by Grant Morrison. I would like to read the Rachel Pollack run, but need to reintroduce myself to the Morrison run first. The first time around, I stopped reading round about the time Morrison outed Monsieur Mallah and the Brain, only to immediately blow them up.

Hawkman by John Ostrander. So far, so 90’s. Also, Airstryke? BWA-HA-HAAA!! No, seriously. Google it and tell me he doesn’t look ridiculous.

[scorntx]

Even Doctor Strange gets fed up with Jack Norriss and just magics him to the floor while the Defenders go off to do stuff.
Gerber's humour (and just Gerber in general) can bit hit-n-miss, but that was pretty good.
And then there's the introduction of Starhawk. yay?


Love how the villain's plan in the WereCap doesn't actually need him to turn people into werewolves. It was just a thing he was doing that day.

I'm sure there's no connection between Gruenwald's dismissiveness of Infinity War and Starlin's own habit of using Quasar as a punching bag.
None whatsoever.

[iamrman]

Nighthawk tries to pay Norriss to go away, but he doesn't take the hint.

[cainofdreaming]

attention was drawn at the time to a dapperly dressed stranger in a stylish fedora who was seen on some camera's at the time.

And he had an umbrella too. How long did it take the conspiracy theorists to tie him to JFK shooting?

[tripodeca113]

the nightmare is finally over.
yes filming of the live action Avatar The Last Airbender show is done. They had a behind the scenes picture of the cast.
Soon to drum up interest they'll start giving interviews and we'll get actual information about the creative process behind this season. Like what the hell they meant by 'slightly more feminine Toph'.
A guy on Reddit also said that a guy on Twitter said that they'll show the trailer for season two in December! I see no reason to doubt this.

hooray! My bootleg SymBionic Titan DVD arrived. Say they even included the OK KO crossover where some of the case cameos.

I also saw an unofficial Moral Orel complete collection, which also includes the prequel special and the unfinished lost episode from season three. Good job!
but also according to the back cover season one is listed in airing order rather than the correct production order.
Also the last three episodes of season two appear to be missing. oh well it's not like anything important happened in those....

[leahandillyana]

Happy independence days for Cambodia, Angola, Poland and Palestine and happy World War I memorial day to many other countries. Poland banned dog leashing and fur farming, though the project to create a new national park protecting temperate wetlands was vetoed by the president seemingly purely out of spite. We also had UFO sightings across half of southern Poland last week. Fun times. I thought I was watching orbital bombardment or something and ready to die. I am always ready to die these days. My health is not improving and I resigned myself to getting worse. I am also more determined to read all my games, books and comics.
I continued my adventures in deranged media this week. It seems that it is now my thing, huh. If you want to read a series of short reviews of stories mostly focused on dark and disturbing sexuality, you can take a look at my blog post: https://www.pillowfort.social/posts/6849841
I wanted however to copy here my thoughts on Vivinos, as in my opinion she is an amazing artist who doesn't have any competitors in her favourite genre of yuri horror.
Vivinos is a Korean independent animator specializing in horror themed animated music videos centering on relationships between girl with more or less overt lesbian subtext. The videos, which can be viewed for example of Youtube, can be divided into two categories – independent and Alien Stage related. Vivinos’ independent videos have animated style closely resembling that of Sailor Moon’s 90s anime and feature several technological and cultural artifacts from that era. The visuals tend to be metaphorical, the order of scenes not in chronological order, and the point of view often being limited or intentionally warped or obscured so that the true events are only revealed later. Most of the videos read like animated creepypastas, but Pink Bitch Club miniseries parodies various genres and tropes of anime. Greatly recommended for animation, horror and yuri fans alike.
Vivinos’ most well known work is Alien Stage, a years spanning collaboration with other animators and musicians, presenting a world where humanity went extinct in the wild and the only remaining humans are being kept as pets by aliens – whose popular entertainment is the titular song competition where losing contestants are being eliminated on the spot in a very literal manner. In the first video, two girls in love perform a duet, but only one of them leaves the stage alive. The series, measuring about 45 minutes in total length, was recently finished and features some outstandingly beautiful animation and music as well emotionally devastating writing. The theme is somewhat deranged, but the presentation is very elegant. Highly recommended.

[blueprintstyles]

Saw Del Toro's Frankenstein, loved it! I never read the original book, now I just might.

[malurette]

Next Thursday'll mark the 10-year anniversary of the Paris Terror Attacks, and with all the shit that happened everywhere else in the whole world since, you'd think it was already longer?
On a very different and more positive note, next weekend Paris also hosts an Yaoi&Yuri fan convention.

[scorntx]

N7 Day had a sneaky update from Bioware about the next Mass Effect, which they're definitely working on.
Turns out it's got krogan.
Phew! Worried there for a second.

A trailer dropped for the DLC for Legends: Z-A.
... Mega Chimeco? ... a'right...
(Surprised we've not seen a Mega Hydreigon or Goodra or Kommo-O.)


Looking at upcoming release schedules, there sure seem to be a lot of X-Men Epic Collections coming out next year.
Can't imagine what that's all about...

Ooooh, Simonson's run on Thor!

Been thinking about looking at the Tamaki She-Hulk run, mainly just for research reasons.
But most of what I've seen of it (and Tamaki's writing for the Big Two in general) has left me feeling ambivalent at best.
... but academic as the local is pretty bad for any TPB that A: isn't about Batman, B: Was released more than six months ago.
Hey, shelf space is a premium! Got to save it for Eeevee plushies!

Re-reading Secret Wars (the 2015 one), and wow, Black Swan's a nothing character in it.
You could replace her with anything; a Doombot, Valeria (regular or that future one Hickman forgot about), a mop in a bucket or even just leave her out entirely and the story'd be the same.
Which is better than Terrax. Leave him out and nothing would be lost.

[iamrman]

Yesss, the Simonson Thor. I already have the omnibus, but still.

Ooh, Stern's Amazing Spider-Man is getting an Epic too. My favourite Juggernaut story and it isn’t even from an X-book.

[shakalooloo]

'Predator: Badlands' is really pretty damn good. It's simultaneously very different from the previous Predator films, but still nails the 'feel' of them.

[mastermahan]

They announced an upcoming DCU project: a fictional true crime show hosted by Jimmy Olsen! It's from the team behind American Vandal and the criminally underappreciated Players.

Oh, and first season is about Gorilla Grodd.

https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/dc-crime-hbo-max-american-vandal-gorilla-grodd-1236574395/

[ladymidath]

Summer has arrived, and it has been hot. I have been spending as much time at the beach as I can. I have been watching Hazbin Hotel, and damn, the second season is soooo good.
I have deliberately been avoiding the news lately, it has been filled with things about the Epstein files, and god, it is getting horrible. When I need a distraction, I have Welcome To Derry and The Amazing Digital Circus to keep me entertained.
I hope you all have a great week.