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.

Apologies, this has to be a short one due to time commitments, but will just say that in terms of over the top dramatics, absurd scripting and bad actors (in oh so many contexts), not even the most outrageous daytime soap opera can compete with the US right now, with special guest star monarchs and everything.

Comments

[numeronone]

Since supporting their Patreon, I've been redoubling my love for "Rude Tales of Magic", and can only recommend everyone do the same. It's not like other Actual Play casts, in that they have a giddy, infectiously joyous disdain for the rules of Dungeons and Dragons. And also they do gross things with fluids!

Icon, your final comment made me think of the 2019 CGI movie "The Queen's Corgi", i.e. "if we smush the British Monarchy with The Secret Life Of Pets, that equals money, right?". It features a caricature of Trump, voiced by Kirk Thornton aka Shadow the Hedgehog.

[zachbeacon]

They need to hire better actors.

[cainofdreaming]

Anyone else spending way too much time on Vampire Crawlers lately? Dang but they make an addictive game at that game studio.

[skjam]

More dental appointments this week.

Episode 28 "GIFT" of Digimon Beatbreak features a version of Harley Quinn and the Joker as the antagonists. In this version, you "birth" your Digimon from an AI device called a Sapotama as supposedly a glitch, and it reflects aspects of you as a person (often uncomfortable ones) so Jokermon was created by his young lady.

Over at my blog, I look at an obscure Bollywood movie (Mine is only the second review on Letterboxd) https://www.skjam.com/2026/04/27/movie-review-meera-1992/

[metadronos]

Maybe when the King addresses Congress, he should present an offer, from His Majesty's government, to buy back the United States. Whatever one may say about Starmer as a prime minister, at least he knows enough to stay out of wars his country can't win. And at least he doesn't post AI-generated images of himself as Jesus, then expect the public to believe he was simply portraying himself as a doctor.

[tripodeca113]

well it looks like people are selling bootleg copies of the Aang movie on Ebay.
And cinema's in Belarus are showing the movie in theaters in a complete disparaged for international copyright law.
Anyway they managed to track down the guy who leaked the movie and it looks like he's probably going to get fined, end up in jail for a few years, or both.

Doctor Who: Well Toot and Claw was okay, but I can't imagine it's anyone's favourite episode.
You know so far both episodes of this season have had a scene of the Doctor having to being helpless to save someone and having to run away while they die horribly. Though granted it did seem a bit more justified here since the werewolf killed all the people who didn't run away.
I don't think you could make this episode today. You'd have to be more critical of Queen Victoria and British imperialism.
wait a minute they beat the werewolf, but they just cut to the next day without addressing what happened to the rest of the evil monks who were surrounding the house and were ready to shoot anyone who tried to leave.

I found a copy of the Harley Quin comic by Stjepan Sejic. And I though to myself 'Yes he's the only man I trust to retell Mad Love'
And my goodness the man who writes those bondage comics didn't let me down.

Now a few years ago this second hand bookshop was selling Promethea: The 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition Book One (containing the first two volumes). I decided to get it but only after buying the stores copy of book three and five.
And some bastard goes and buys it before I could. (My only consolation is that I managed to get the store's only copy of volume three so they'd have to pay a lot more than $12 for the next volume.)
And so I order another copy of Promethea: The 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition Book One. It never arrives.
So I buy another copy of Promethea: The 20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition Book One. Several months later I receive an email telling me that it is behind schedule and offering to refund me.
I find some selling the first two volumes for $60, so I take the refund and use the money to buy that. It should arrive on Friday. yay!

[icon_uk]

Ah yes, "Toot and Claw", where we find out that the only thing scarier than a werewolf, is a werewolf with a kazoo. ;) *

Well, it set up Torchwood, so it has certain cachet amongst fans of Torchwood.

It's fun to hear Tennant using his natural accent, but I find these episodes a tough watch because I personally can't stand 10 and Rose in full "Smug cool kid because we know about the future" mode.

And I think they absolutely would make it today. The monarchy is not exactly as revered as once they were, even going back a mere 20 years. The more likely issue would addressing the monarchy being riddled with undercover predators, and somehow trying to make it more subtle than the reality.

*It was either that or make a flatulence joke and I thought I'd take the high road for once.... Oops.

Daredevil: Shadowland Thoughts

[thatnickguy]

I've been reading Daredevil: Shadowland for the first time. I'd picked up the omnibus on a great deal. The book is laid out by putting all the Daredevil and event related issues first, then all the ancillary tie-in issues after, plus the Daredevil mini-series that acts as a bridge between Diggle and Waid's runs.

I'm about halfway through, already finishing the main meat of the story, which was okay. I don't think it's terrible as I've seen some say, but it definitely pales in comparison to what came before and after it. I find the tie-ins almost entirely unnecessary. There's a fun one-shot where some ne'er-do-wells force innocent people to attend a funeral for Bullseye. But it all feels superfluous, like Moon Knight's 3-part miniseries that adds next to nothing. If Marvel ever does an Epic Collection, I can see them just doing the main issues and rightfully forget the tie-ins. Hell, even heroes appearing in the event itself are just sort of mostly there, like Shang-Chi. Iron Fist gets a big pivotal moment at the end to "cure" Matt, but there's little to no build-up around this. It's feels like a story that editorial dictated had to be bigger and include all the big street-level heroes.

Another point is when I approach a comic, especially DC and Marvel, I often think how it might be received by a casual reader. I've been reading comics for 30+ years, so even if I haven't necessarily read, say, the Siege event, I'm familiar enough with the story around it. So starting Shadowland, I'm at least tangentially aware that Norman Osborn leads the Dark Avengers and SHIELD. His involvement in this story is loose, at best, and Daredevil isn't involved in Siege itself, as far as I know. It's mostly just a set-up to have Bullseye, who was dressing up as Hawkeye at the time, go after Daredevil.

But assuming this was one of your first Daredevil books, as a relatively new reader, treating Shadowland as self-contained, it's funny how all that set up in the opening issue/chapter, Daredevil: The List, feels like the story will culminate in a fight between Matt Murdock (in one form or another) against Norman Osborn. But before Shadowland even starts, Osborn is taken out during the events of Siege. The Avengers reunited discuss what to do with the Shadowland structure built in Hell's Kitchen and Osborn has already been dealt with.

I wonder how confusing something like this would be for a brand new reader who thought the cover for this was neat or something and picked it up. There are no editor notes, at least in this collection, stating "Find out what happened to Norman Osborn in Siege!" or anything like that. It just assumes you're already up to speed. That's not even taking into account kicking off the story with Daredevil leading The Hand, which was a long set up in Brubaker's run, which ALSO requires a fair amount of explanation of the story and its players like White Tiger. Again, I'm familiar with it all because I've read Brubaker's run multiple times, but it's interesting to read it and try to understand how a brand new reader might receive a mess of a book like this.

[iamrman]

This week’s comics ramblings:

Deathlok. Gathering together all the cyborgs/androids sounds like a Gruenwald idea if I ever heard one. Thankfully, I love it when writers gather groups of characters around a theme. (See also, the Serpent Society and all the werewolves from the CapWolf story.)

Defenders. The mind swap shenanigans are resolved, but what happened to the deer that the Hulk befriended. Also, an alien is turning people into clowns for... reasons. Yes, Jack Norriss is still there refusing to leave and generally in the way. I never thought there would be anybody I disliked more than Nighthawk.

Excalibur. The British X-Men, even though only two of the team are actually British. The Warwolves are there, so there’s your customary body horror. Kitty doesn’t say a slur and the villains aren’t lusting over the heroines, so we haven’t gone full Claremont. Yet.

Fantastic Four: Heroes Return. Chris Claremont takes over the post-Onslaught Fantastic Four. How long will be until Sue gets mind-controlled? Also, the Technet and the Warwolves are there, because of course they are. Seriously, this is more like an X-Men book that just happens to feature the Fantastic Four.

The Flash. Nightwing and Starfire help Wally fight some hi-tech criminals. Wally refers to Dick and Kory as husband and wife, but I wasn’t aware that they had actually gotten married. I thought the ceremony was called off on account of the priest getting blown up. I gave up on the Titans after George Perez left, so I don’t know where this takes place continuity wise.

Ghost Rider: Danny Ketch. I have been enjoying the classic Ghost Rider series, so of course I was going to give the Danny Ketch version a go. I keep going on about how much I like 90’s nonsense, so there’s even more reason to give it a try.

[icon_uk]

The Mr&Mrs Wing-Fire issues of the Flash take place very shortly after the wedding that wasn't.

It seems to be due to editorial confusion, or someone trying to keep the surprise ending of that wedding a secret a little too well from other staff members.

Sadly it also gives us a glimpse of what we might have had DC's hottest power couple actually got hitched.

Also includes one of my favourite comments as Wally and Linda discuss Dick's approach to things

Linda: Is there such a word as "over-responsible"?
Wally: Yeah, it's tattooed on his forehead.