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

Today marks the Chinese New Year, so Happy New Year of the Fire Horse!

It's also Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day if you prefer, so enjoy!

Toy Fair 2026 took place in New York, with nostalgia being mined to a level I don't think I've never seen before. Licences getting figures include the 1977 Battlestar Galactica, the original Duck Tales and even the 80's Tigersharks cartoon (Think Thundercats, but more watery).

Credit to Hasbro though, for announcing their 40th Anniversary celebration of The Transformers: The Movie by announcing their apology tour! :)

Sentai's first successor: "Gavan Infinity", a new take on Space Sheriff Gavan has debuted and... he's very shiny, isn't he?

Legendary screen actor Robert Duvall passed at 95 and better known for his TV work actor James Van Der Beek passed at 48, and I overlooked mentioning Catherine O'Hara's passing a couple of weeks back, but she more than earned an honourable mention.

I'd completely missed that there were a couple of trailers out for "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" Season 2: The first, and the final

Also, as I type this the news is coming in that Jesse Jackson, one of the original Civil Rights champions of the 60's has passed away at the age of 84.

But not to end on a down note, the first kākāpō chick in four years hatched on Valentines Day, the first of hopefully many to arrive this year to help bolster a critically endangered species. (Kākāpō only breed ever 2 to 4 years, and there are only 236 left, so it's a long slog for the poor things)

Comments

[iamrman]

This week’s comics ramblings:

Green Arrow. I very much prefer the Mike Grell version to what came before. The character is no longer preaching about whatever the Very Special Issue's theme is that month. Maybe I let the Dennis O’Neil/Neal Adams version of the character colour my opinion.

Green Lantern by Geoff Johns. Right in the middle of the war with Sinestro and his band of edgelords. Oh, God. I keep forgetting about Superboy Prime. Didn’t he go through a heel-face turn recently? Is there any reason I should care?

Guardians of the Galaxy. Re-reading the Valentino run from the 90’s. I love Tazerface, he is ridiculous. The art is still very 90’s, but I love that nonsense. Yes, even early X-Force.

Hawkeye/Solo Avengers/Avengers Spotlight. The series is actually called Solo Avengers, but Hawkeye gets his name on the Epic Collection. Maybe Marvel didn’t think he could sustain an ongoing series on his own and padded it out with the solo adventures of other Avengers?

Huntress. The Post-Crisis Helene Bertinelli version. I always knew her as an off-again-on-again member of the Bat-family, but had never actually read the series that reintroduced the character. Her appearance in Justice League International encouraged me to check it out.

For those of you who are fellow Big Meaty Men enjoyers, here are my present champions going in to Halloween Havoc, my October PLE in WWE 2K25:

World Heavyweight Champion: Jeff Hardy

Intercontinental Champion: Wade Barrett

World Tag Team Champions: The Dudley Boyz

Raw Women’s Champion: Roxanne Perez
Women’s Intercontinental Champion: Ivy Nile
WWE Champion: Kurt Angle
United States Champion: Aleister Black
WWE Tag Team Champions: The Rock and Mankind
Smackdown Women’s Champion: Chelsea Green
Women’s United States Champion: Wendy Choo
Women’s Tag Team Champions: Bayley and Mercedes Mone

Chelsea Green was the Money in the Bank winner and cashed-in right after Summerslam. Finn Balor is the Men’s Money in the Bank winner, but is yet to cash-in.

[thanekos]

DC's upcoming side of Superman/Spider-Man promises a fun use of the character: Christopher Priest and Daniel Sampere show us a time when Superboy Prime (who reads all the comics!) decided to visit Spider-Man right after he got the black suit..

[tripodeca113]

At the end of last year I ended up being let go from my job because the people I work for didn't get the contract they were hoping for. They did forward my information to the people who actually ended up getting it.
Now I currently work for one of them, though I am technically on the books with the other ones, but I haven't actually worked for them because I don't want to work at 4AM of scheduling issues.
Despite that they um....paid me about $1300 for work I haven't done....(and they specified in the on-boarding material you had to scan a QR code with the app they made you download in order to clock on otherwise they wouldn't pay you. so good work guys....)
On one hand I don't really want to fix this 'problem', but I do really on the jobseeker payment which requires me to report my income, and I think the government will probably notice the extra money I'm getting at some-point and will not take kindly to this sort of thing.
So it's a shame the people at the company haven't responded to any of my emails yet...

To celebrate Saint Valentine's feast day the book store had a 20% off sale.
I got the following:
Top 10 Compendium (I've had an urge to read all of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, but that was the first comic by Alan Moore I ever read it kind of feels like I'll be closing the book on him forever, so I'd get his other stuff finished first. Well I'll probably give Lost Girls a miss...)
Hitman Omnibus volume one (You know I haven't actually read any of Garth Ennis' work before other than that one Star Wars comic he did. As I understand it like his brethren Mark Millar he he can write good stuff and edgy garbage. I believe Hitman will have strong characterization and tight plotting but with some bits that have aged badly)
80's Suicide Squad volume one
Catwoman Her Sister's Keeper (this miniseries introduced her sister. In the Ed Brubaker run she would be tortured into insanity by Black Mask, and then years later in Gotham City Siren's she would be turned into a villain by an evil angel which wasn't resolved by the time the New 52 happened)
Blackhawks Blood and Iron: (Some times you see something interesting and so you get it. And I guess I also liked the character's appearance in Sandman Mystery Theater)

[thanekos]

" The Apology Tour " is a fun enough joke, but at the same time it lends an undeserved dignity to Ruined FOREVER complaints.

[full_metal_ox]

Today also (in some time zones) begins Ramadan.

[icon_uk]

Thank you for the reminder

Darn it, I even made a note somewhere to mention that, because there was an article at the weekend about how rare it was for Lent and Ramadan to start quite so close together.

[malurette]

Tumblr just kindly informed me that Una McCormack is putting out on AO3 the last of her DS9 book she can't publish officially. Which. On the one hand violates the "if you know a published author's pseudonym on AO3, no you don't" fan principle. Should I even repost that. Could there be repercussions for her? I hope not.
On the other hand is cool as hell??! I need to tell everyone and then my brain might just stop working here and now aaaaaaa

[scorntx]

Think the newest TF I'm excited about is that pink Hot Rod.
(Yeah, sure. "Magenta". Whatever you need to call it.)


Did you know that Star Wars book about Finn and Jannah has been out for, like, months apparently?
Haven't seen any sign of it in the local bookshops. Or even the non-local ones.
Hmm.

LEGO sets for The Mandalorian & Grogu are already being advertised.
New Razor Crest. Like the old Razor Crest except with a crazy yellow stripe! Woo! Never know what they're gonna do next!
(ooh, Zeb.)

Ultimate X-Men ended... yep, pretty much how I thought it would.
Didn't bother answering any questions and instead focused on some random new kid.
"Well, now that the first arc is over, time to- oh, bugger, sorry. Series is over."
What an odd series this was.
One last time, still not convinced this wasn't just a pitch that got stapled on to the NUU in a meeting.

Meanwhile, Ultimate Spider-Man ends this week.
Mixed feelings about this series.
... I think Hickman can write pretty well. It's just he's one of those writers who often lets his habits and quirks get away from him.
So we get a Spider-Man series where a good chunk of the time Peter is second (or even third) banana to his own supporting cast.
Speaking of his writing styles, it's hard to predict what Hickman might do, but I'mma guess there'll be at least one rambling, pseudo-philosophical speech in there, taking up space that could've been used for other things.
Not holding out realistic hope poor Harry's getting to the end of this intact.
(I think the oddest thing of this whole run was changing it so Peter's parents lived till he was fifteen... and then doing nothing with that. It's like... why change that detail if it apparently had no impact on anything?)


Decided to buy that Byrne FF Epic Collection.
Back to basics! And Sue gets a hideous haircu- no, wait, only for a few issues. Phew.
"So it weren't indicative of you undergoin' character growth or nuthin'?"
"Nope. Stupid haircut."
Quicksilver goes to ask the Fantastic Four for help because all the Inhumans are dying. And because it's Quicksilver, can't stop going on about how he hates those awful humans so damn much and it's all probably their fault and they've probably killed the Inhumans while he was gone.
... uh, Pietro... oh, never mind. Life's too short.
(It's a mad world when Medusa isn't the most racist person in the room.)
Johnny's attempts at going anywhere with Frankie fumble when she gets a swimsuit permaglued to her... somehow, leading to the almost certainly intentional cliffhanger scene of Frankie taking off her clothes in front of Johnny, and him being startled. Ha! You thought Johnny was alarmed 'cuz he's seeing someone nekkid. Not in a Jim Shooter comic, you ain't! Not even by implication!

Johnny goes in to absolute despair because Frankie takes a job with Galactus, when this time she could've been The One For Him.
... all things considered, with how cas Frankie is about the prospect of wiping out entire races to feed her new boss, maaaaaybe Johnny dodged a bullet there.
And stepped right into the Lyja of fire.

And Doom reclaims control of Latveria by totally murdering the new guy.
But it's okay because we like Doom.

[iamrman]

I can't help but suspect the Professor Horton who was Frankie's step-father(?) might also be a Space Phantom. Byrne used Horton again in his West Coast Avengers to dispel rumours that the Vision is made from the remains of the Golden Age Human Torch and he turned out to be a Space Phantom.

[scorntx]

Unnecessarily convoluted shenanigans to prevent someone doing the deed does sound like a Space Phantom.
Though given Johnny's love life, why would they bother?

[zachbeacon]

Just in case you missed it last time, the almost* complete Discworld bundle is back...

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/terry-pratchetts-discworld-harpercollins-encore-2026-books?hmb_source=&hmb_medium=product_tile&hmb_campaign=mosaic_section_1_layout_index_1_layout_type_threes_tile_index_2_c_terrypratchettsdiscworldharpercollinsencore2026_bookbundle

*The two missing books are....

The Last Hero - Never got a digital release

Raising Steam - Final Moist book and penultimate book in the series overall. I have no idea why this was excluded but the bundle is worth it even if you have to buy this one separately.

[super_fly]

"Unavailable in your area" welp, nothing new there.

[thezmage]

Apparently Brad Meltzer is writing the Marvel side of the Spider-man/Superman crossover, which I find as disappointing as I do every time he gets hired by the Big Two after Identity Crisis.

So happy I can cry.

[sisterofbloomerjunior]

Well, Mom's now residing in a hospice. Going to be odd yet nice to not have to wake up in the middle of the night. Quite a bit of items to sort through - monitors and other equipment, unused adult diapers and other supplies, having to ask a lawyer quite a few questions, getting in contact with the bank and other places - so I'll be posting even less over here.

Re: So happy I can cry.

[deh_tommy]

I’m sorry, I hope everything will be okay for the two of you.

Re: So happy I can cry.

[sisterofbloomerjunior]

Thank you.

[ladymidath]

I finally bought Hellblazer John Constantine Dead In America and I am currently reading Lost by the same author of Wicked and Confessions Of An Ugly Stepsister, Gregory Maguire. This is the first thing of his I have read and I am really enjoying it.
I have had some medical stuff going on so I have not had much time for anything else. I have also watched the series Deadwax, I highly recommend it to anyone who likes a good horror mystery.
I hope everyone has a great week.