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 country which has 4% of the world's population, but 46% of the handguns, had two major mass shootings over the weekend (and at least five more since then, brining the total to over 250 this year alone). A President who has made a career out of attacking immigrants went so far as to say that White Supremacy was not a good thing but don't expect any changes in gun control, a former President who didn't mention any names, urged people to reject language from any of their leaders that feeds hatred or normalises racism.

Police in Japan have released 10 names of the staff at Kyoto Animation who died in the recent arson attack. Chances are, if you're an anime fan, you'll have seen some of these people's work.

Between the UK, Hong Kon, North korea and the rest, any attempt to describe the current political stateleaves me in a really foul mood, so instead, and after the sad outlook of the first two entries this week, I'm linking to a ten hour youtube video of restful wave sounds and beautiful shorelines. You're welcome.

Germany's Fiona Kolbinger has beaten more than 200 men to become the first woman to win the Transcontinental Race, cycling more than 2,485 miles across Europe in just over 10 days.

I've watched the first episode of "Pennyworth", the new series about the world's second most famous butler (Sorry, but Jeeves is still number one) before he worked for the Wayne family. It's... unexpectedly odd.

I suppose their London is to real London as Gotham City is to New York, in a very stylised and clearly somewhat alternate reality (The fashions are a strange mix of decades. There are zeppelins, and people in stocks for petty crimes on the street) oh, and a Fascist organisation wanting to take over the country (no change there then), and former SAS soldier Alfred Pennyworth caught up in it all. Jack Bannon is no Sean Pertwee, but he's a plausible ex-soldier and I'm interested to see where this goes. Paloma Faith steals the show as the wonderfully workaday sadist Bet Sykes.

The trailer for Season 2 of "Titans" dropped this morning. I wish I could be more interested in it than I think I am, but if it keeps up the relentless violence I'm pretty much done with it, despite liking some of the new characters being introduced (And though I know the villain revealed at the end is an obvious one for Titans, I wish they had maybe gone for someone else, someone not as overexposed as this one is... I mean would the Fearsome Five be too much to hope for?)

Marv Wolfman will write the Arrow episode of the Crisis on Infinite Earths TV "event". Kevin Conroy is also confirmed to appear during the CoIe crossover as an "older Bruce Wayne in the future"... OOOH! Batman Beyond perhaps?)

The next batch of She-Ra episodes arrived (I'm not sure 6 episodes counts as a season) and did some very nice character work, with Adora getting a clue about her past, Cat-Ra being a fascinatingly flawed character who keeps sabotaging ANYONE'S chance of happiness (especially her own) through her jealous obsessions, Scorpia being her delightful self, Hordak getting a sort of sad backstory and he and the even more socially clueless Entrapta maybe starting to see something in the other they can relate to. That's a LOT in six episodes...

English versions of Ladybug episodes; Gamer 2.0, Puppeteer 2 and Party Crasher arrived on Netflix in the US (I think) and confirm that whilst Cat and Ladybug are good for each other, I really can't see Marinette and Adrien being healthy, at least until Marinette gets over her stalkerish tendencies.

Who were the Amazons? (golden age wonder woman)

[glaurung]

The ancient Greeks had a serious fetish for Amazons. Early on, the Greeks invented myths about strong women like Atalanta. Then, as their trade network expanded, they heard of these scary Scythian peoples who lived on the east shore of the Black Sea. Scythians were feared by all their non-nomadic neighbours because of their prowess in battle (cavalry with bows and arrows trumps footsoldiers with swords and spears), and because, unnervingly for the deeply sexist Greeks, their armies consisted of both men and women. The Greeks glommed onto these warrior women, big time. I'll leave the psychoanalysis of why they found stories of warrior women so compelling that they made them the subject of endless poems and scenes on pottery, to those more qualified. ( more blather about the real amazons )

Which brings us to Olive Byrne, Elizabeth Holloway Marston, and William Marston, who, under the pen name Charles Moulton, together created the character Wonder Woman. The three of them were feminists of the old (as in 19th century) school. They deemed women different from men in ways that made them better suited to rule the household and the nation. Therefore women deserved to be given political power so that they could steer the nations of the world onto the correct course. They wanted to write comic book propaganda that would teach girls that they were powerful and worthy to run things, and teach boys that they would all be happier and better off if they allowed their sisters and (later on) girl friends to have power over them.

They needed their heroine to be an outsider, so she could show the reader how wrong and foolish American sex roles were. So, they dusted off those myths about warrior women in ancient Greece and made Wonder Woman an Amazon. Which brings me, finally, to the scans: ( Warning, bad mythology next 500 meters )

Venom #13.1 was the second part of Circle of Four.

[thanekos]

The first'd been the beginning.

The second was a continuance.

Hell, thanks to Mephisto's son Blackheart, had come to Earth.

Hell, thanks to Johnny Blaze's use of an acquired relic, was confined to Las Vegas.

Doctor Strange and Daimon Hellstrom considered the problem outside the city.

Inside the city, Johnny Blaze kept the problem at bay, riding against a centrifuge that would pull Earth down to Hell when it stopped.

Inside Blackheart's stronghold, four heroes - Venom, the Red Hulk, X-23, and the Ghost Rider - faced their Antitheses.

( Their battle went out the window, resuming on the ground below. )