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.

So, we have a new variant of COVID to think about (and which we will hear endlessly about for weeks); Omicron (one of the more impressive sounding Greek letters, even if it's not used much in popular culture).

France is elevating Josephine Baker to the Pantheon for her work on civil rights and aiding the Resistnce during WWII.

The UK is poised to consider cephalpods and crustaceans (So octopi, squid, lobsters and crabs etc) as sentient beings.

Doctor Who: Flux gave us episode 5, which was a bit "setting things up for the finale" heavy and not as strong as the Weeping Angels episode, but did give us some nice world building for UNIT, and overall did what it set out to do I think. I also did like Yaz, Dan and Professor Jericho travelling the globe even if we did get told a lot more than we were shown, but their visit to Nepal was perhaps the funniest scene in a long, long time.

And a Happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate it!

Comments

[zachbeacon]

I hope the holidays in the last week went well for those who celebrated them. I sure don’t miss working Black Friday retail.

I’ve been taking advantage of the increased time in the car and the kitchen to finally listen to Fabian Nicieza’s Suburban Dicks. I really enjoyed it.

I’ve also been catching up on the My Hero Academia manga. Well, “catching up” is misleading because I’m only reading the collections, I’m am only around chapter 270 as I type this, and they’re currently well into the 300s as I type this. The villain-centric volumes got really tedious until Hawks showed up as a spy. Speaking of spies – and please don’t correct me if later events change this – they seem to have completely abandoned the UA traitor plot with a throwaway line; I was so sure it was Present Mic.

Anyway, I hope you’re all keeping Santa Eri in your hearts this holiday season.

[onsokumaru]

Merry New Year! Trick or treats!
I personnaly loved the My Villain Academia part very much, and Twice is one of my faves. But at the same time I am absolutely unable to root for people who were ok with murdering dozen of teenagers.

[leahandillyana]

There was an old cartoon about a ‘compromise’ between those who want to kill everyone and those who want to kill nobody being ‘we kill kill some people but not all of them’. Well, this just happened in Poland. There’s a new law, unsure if it’s in power or a bill to be voted on, that will add mandatory weekly couple therapy sessions for six month for couples wanting a divorce. It’s supposed to be a ‘compromise’ between those who want to ban divorce and those who want the law to stay as it is. I believe it will make people very reluctant to marry, especially poor people relying on government money. Furthermore, there’s a new law demanding a registry of every pregnancy – a law that has an equivalent only in North Korea. As a reminder, abortion is banned in Poland, with punishment for both the (formerly) pregnant people and the people performing it. The registry’s function is to better trace possible illegal abortions. Every miscarriage will start an inquiry whether a crime of termination was committed. Today, a bill equaling abortion with murder is being voted in the parliament, with the doctors facing a possibility of life in prison – and possibly a death penalty if it’s reintroduced as the government wishes. Meanwhile, there are no limits or other means of fighting the pandemic because the government found out that antivaxxers and conspiracy theorists are easy to sway in its favour. The governing party now has over 66% popular support (which, “curiously”, is also the percentage of unvaccinated adult Poles), allowing them to change the constitution any way they wish after the next election if it stays that high. Perhaps this country deserves to perish of covid. In a slightly more amusing news, Polish ambassador to Germany was dismissed after it was brought to light that he was a secret agent during the communist period. Given the fact that the man is barely in his 50s, he must have joined shortly after his 18th birthday when it was already obvious that the system was falling. Before leaving he made a speech in which he dissed Germany and its diplomacy, to the point of causing a major diplomatic scandal.
I’m glad I gave up on Gen:Lock, as the most recent episode had a lot, uh, controversial decisions. Normally any of those events wouldn’t be enough for me to drop a story, but them all in one episode combined with the fact that the series starts to resemble Game of Thrones season 10, another series produced by HBO, makes me lose any hope for the series. I honestly feel bad for Rooster Teeth now. They had no say in this season, yet the story will forever be linked to them in minds of audience. RT is already in bad financial situation, but at this point I worry the studio may tank. I’m also surprised, because other than those controversial decisions near the end the episode was almost good! It was written by Kristle Peluso, the writer of all of High Guardian Spice and the only episode of Onyx Equinox that was mostly cute. I know she can write well, these couldn’t be her decisions, but now fans will remember her for destroying Gen:Lock. I feel bad for her too.
As for other things, I love Shinning Nikki so much. Every time the story updates I feel so excited for what will happen. On the other hand, I feel no excitement for Magia Record updates, though I trust the writers to deliver much more than the crew of Gen:Lock. To elaborate, recently the game added a new chapter to its main story filled to the brim with shocking revelations. The insane villain from the first arc might have been brainwashed by a supernatural entity! The entity in question was accidentally created by one of the heroines! The magical system established by the girls to free themselves from the control of the main villain is now in the hands of said villain! A group of heroic characters join a cult preaching megical girl supremacy! Two redeemed villainesses apparently commit double suicide with a boom! Yet still, this manages to not break the story. There’s still place to finish this in a mostly logical manner. I know the creators can do it because they already wrote a satisfying story and there are no execs with rubbish taste breathing over their necks.
While you theoretically could make something decent out of Gen:Lock as it is, I am certain that the managers of HBO Max don’t want to have an arc in which a dead character is revived from an older copy (Krakoa style) with their most recent memories and character development gone, providing angst for both the character and their significant other, and they don’t want for a character to realize they have gone to far and are responsible for the death of the person they didn’t want to admit they cared for. If this was an anime, that would be how the story would likely go, but no, the execs want the next Game of Thrones, so everybody will just die and be awful. I’ve observed that American media don’t like dealing with emotions even where it would be the most fitting to do so.
For American comics, this month I’ve read:
• Wonder Woman – all the issues following the Future State event. They are good for a filler storyline and the art is gorgeous, but the story is not that deep and we don’t really learn anything new about Diana or her world.
• DC vs Vampires – overall disappointing, but I will read on to see if some of my guesses are right.
• The Gardener – a nice backstory for the titular character, but the issue is actually a revision of Poison Ivy’s backstory, making it more consistent with her modern character interpretation. Gorgeous art.
• Green Lantern – I love the characters, and I love that the story this issue was a detective investigation.
• Nubia – this issue revealed the main conflict of the series, but also killed off a few recurring characters :(
• Robin – a great issue, all manga all the time. It’s logical for the story to end soon, but I wish it was longer. We didn’t learn anything about the new characters other than Flatline.
• I’m looking forward to reading Batfam-related annuals and more of Wonder Girl.
There’s going to be a new Tokyo Mew Mew anime, but surprisingly it will adapt none of the manga sequels – neither the short story in which the new villains were quickly subdued by the power of love nor the new stories in which the new Mews are a group of pretty boys. Ok but why. Nonetheless, it will be a memory trip for older magical girls fans, completing the holy trinity of series that got a distant sequels or reboots after Sailor Moon and Lyrical Nanoha. Tokyo Mew Mew was one of the last magical girl series aimed at preteen girls, as shortly after it finished airing there was a cultural split of magical girl series into stories for little girls and stories for mature audiences – neither of them carrying the charm the genre originally had.
Yuuki Yuuna and Muv Luv made me sad as I watched the most recent episodes. :(
Off topic, people are making fun of a supposely cringe social media profile saying more or less this:
"I'm a bisexual demi-girl dedicating my time to activisim and writing about feminism, sex-ed, and various social justice issues. Unmarried and childree by choice." And like, for me this is a normal profile. I don't get the joke at all. People say "I don't understand half the words XD" but there are like two words a random person might not understand and the meaning of one of them is clear from the context.

[tinygaylaura]

"Off topic, people are making fun of a supposely cringe social media profile saying more or less this:
"I'm a bisexual demi-girl dedicating my time to activisim and writing about feminism, sex-ed, and various social justice issues. Unmarried and childree by choice." And like, for me this is a normal profile. I don't get the joke at all. People say "I don't understand half the words XD" but there are like two words a random person might not understand and the meaning of one of them is clear from the context."

It's like when people complain "Oh the SJW's are going to make the next Batman be played by a disabled Gay Jewish man" to which my answer would be why the hell not? Disabled gay Jewish Latino men exist, they aren't some magical being that the Terrifying Woke Social Justice Warriors made up. Why shouldn't any character be all of those things?

What people really mean when they say things like this are "I think being white cisgender heterosexual and male and only thinking the thoughts and having the opinions I consider "Normal" is the default and everything else is just Weird and Ridiculous"

[tripodeca113]

Deep Space Nine season one

Emissary: The finest CGI television in 1993 could offer.

Now Sisko is perhaps the dreamiest captain. He's a widower and trying his best as a single father. It's these emotional variability and softness, that are the vital ingredient.

So, his wife died in Best of Both Worlds. Maybe Starfleet should rethink letting crews' family on board.

Picard tells Sisko that his jobs to help the Bajorans rebuild after the Cassandran occupation, and oversee potential membership into the Federation. But he's also not supposed to violate the Prime Directive, which seems to prohibit any kind of aid. Of course, that's the fundamentalist interpretation, and writers can have it mean whatever they want.

We meet Quark here. The guy who played him, also did Ferengii #3 back in The Last Outpost. There's a DVD extra where he recounts that, then has an incredibly awkward pause while he tries to think of something positive to say.

Also the women have proper bras, rather than whatever they were wearing on The Next Generation.

Past Prologue: Kira realised that one of her old comrades, is that bad kind of terrorist. Garak tries desperately to get Bashir to wear something fashionable.

A Man Alone: O'Brien's marriage is on the frits. Less importantly someone gets murdered.

Babel: No one appreciates O'Brien. Quark keeps his business open in face of quarantine restrictions.

Captive Pursuit: The Federation makes first contact with the Gamma Quadrant. Their a bunch of dicks.
Quarke is revealed to be a sexual predator (I sure hope they never mention this again)

Q-Less: It's not great but Q's in it.
He also lies about the Delta Quadrant being an interesting place.
Dax: Sisko tries to stop Dax facing the consequence of past actions, by using a manipulative legal defence.

So, this episode raises the question of whether a Trill can be punished for the actions of a previous host. Well passed on how they were portrayed in previous episodes, I'd say the answer is yes. There seems to be a pretty strong continuity between hosts, but I could be missing something.

Move Along Home: Nog teaches Jack about sex. Quark is left in charge of overseeing first contact.

I can't believe the hit movie Jumanji, ripped off this episode.

There comes a time in every Star Trek series, where the actors realise, they're going to have to do some stupid shit. In this case it was playing hopscotch and reciting a poem.

The Nagus: We learn that Quark uses his holodeck for sex, and an old wrinkly Ferengi lives out Quark's top five sexual fantasies. Please writers stop!

Finished Inside No 9, season six. Not the shows strongest, but better than season five.

I've finally worked out why I don't enjoy contemporary Doctor Who. The Master and the Doctor, lack the vital undercurrent of homoeroticism which is a key part of their relationship.

Well, it looks like the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender show is happening. Thankfully I don't believe in live action remakes, or internet streaming services, so I should be okay.

Huh, that's weird the local library system seems to have removed/lost its copies of the first three volumes of Powers. And this also removes it from you online checkout history. That's slightly unnerving.

You know it would be nice to own my own copies of The Sandman. Let's just see how much they...huh. Well guess I'll just steal them from the university.
Yes, that'll be fun, trying to work out how to get them out, and then the guilt can haunt me.

Read Trinity (the one from 2003). It was okay. Oddly they seemed to imply that Amazons don't like getting tied up. I guess there's a difference between being captured by a supervillain and some fun bondage.

Ah more Beastar. I really applaud the writer for the constant string of disturbing stuff, they come up with.

I finished Star Wars Squadrons. It had some neat situations and set pieces, even if the ending was kind of abrupt.
So they portray the Empire as committing various atrocities and war crimes, as well as being prone to squabbling and infighting. It just bugged me how diverse they were. It was odd when one of them told me about his husband. The implications of all this are troubling.

[cricharddavies]

So, his wife died in Best of Both Worlds. Maybe Starfleet should rethink letting crews' family on board.

Good news, they do ... admittedly AFTER an absurd number of Galaxy-class ships have been lost with all hands.

[dewinged]

MOTU: Revelation kept getting more bananas as the episodes went on, and I loved every minute of it. They also pulled the trigger on one canon plot thread none of the other animated adaptations ever followed through on, so they get major points for that.

Possible Silverhawks revival.. I would give an eye to be on the writing team. Take some of the quirks of the original and take them read seriously, and it could get deep and twisted.

Wheel of Time continues to be very entertaining. I don't mind most of the changes, and covering a lot of ground in a short time. I keep want to shout at reviewers questioning something "Don't worry, it's a plot point that will come up later!"

[werehawk]

Not happy about Perrins marriage though. Classic fridging plus I think will affect a future (no spoilers by naming) relationship. But after last episode I was think I see how they plan to have that shake out.

[malurette]

I'm making my way throught Star Trek TNG, more slowly than tripodeca113.
Man, did O'Brien's in The Wounded hit close to home: "It's not you I hate [] it's what I've become because of you". Yup I'll keep blaming the gangsters that utterly ruined my immediate neighbourhood over the past 18 months for my slow loss of sanity and empathy, and only them.

[iamrman]

I am clearly an idiot because it never occurred to me to buy single issues from Comixology. Any way, I have been binging on various DC comics. Mostly toe-ins to old events such as Invasion and Underworld Unleashed.

One thing that amused me most about the Flash tie-in to Invasion was Wally going to Cuba and Fidel Castro throwing him a birthday party. New Teen Titans Wally would have shat his pants at the mere thought of helping the Commies!

In Marvel news, I have just read the third volume of the Complete Clone Saga. It wasn't half bad. Okay, I didn't care about most of the villains. I know the subplot about Judas Traveller popping up and being all cryptic and mysterious doesn't go anywhere, so that's no great loss.

I will say that I'm not a fan of the art on the Spectacular Spider-Man issues. Bill Sienkiewicz's finishes do not mix well with Sal Buscema's breakdowns. Our Pal Sal is one of my favourite comics artists, so it is a real disappointment to see his work rendered an almost incomprehensible mess.

[goodbyebird]

Highly recommend checking out Arcane on Netflix. Great story, excellent animations, zero knowledge of League of Legends required.

Also doing this :D

Come join us for all things Wheel of Time at tar_valon!
✨ book club starting this December ✨

[scorntx]

Can't help but think "The Omicron Variant" sounds like the sort of book you'd find in an airport bookstore. (Do airports have bookstores anymore?)

But serious talk, think England maybe needed a kick in the crotch, ass and head over complacency about safety, because... fuck's sake.
Last time went shopping pretty much no-one was wearing masks or even trying to keep their distance from one another.
Rrrrrrr.


There was a sparrow-hawk in the garden the other day, taking part in (and judging from the looks of it, winning) a vigorous game of Pass The Pigeon.

Bought that X-Men: Epic Collection about Magneto.
Despite its claims, there was not as much Magneto as advertised.
There was more Sauron than Magneto. (Indulging in that ol' Claremont standby, people being turned into things! Lot of people being turned into things in this one.)
And Kitty's hideous self-made outfit. Maybe not her finest sartorial moment, but maybe her glamest.
And there's also Avengers Annual 10, introducing... Rogue! She's an evil little teenaged monster, and I'm kind of enjoying it.
(also addressing how Avengers #200 was a steaming pile of horse-shite and everyone involved should have been ashamed of themselves.)
But gosh there is a lot of Claremont quirks. Like Storm's... slightly weird jealousy over Kitty being friends with Stevie Hunter. That ain't normal, 'ro.
And sometimes there isn't. Storm's amazingly chill about Doctor Doom turning her into a statue which then drives her evil and insane.
I do like how Cyclops tries to hide who he is from Magneto, and then Magneto's just "yeah, I know it's you."
Scott and Al Forrester just finding outfits on not-Ryleh... raises yet more questions about what Magneto does in his spare time.
Kitty accidentally erasing ALL of Xavier's files on Magneto because she forgot her fantastic powers destroy computers. Stupid Kitty.


Flux was fun. Yaz gets to do something. And the Doctor just happened to make a recording of herself for Yaz in case something happened. Aww.
Finally, an explanation for Random Tunnel Guy (yes, I know he has a name).
Bit odd introducing Kate in the penultimate episode, because goodness knows there wasn't enough plot threads going as was. But still, Kate.
Now here's hoping Chibnall sticks the landing this time.

[iamrman]

That monstrosity with the rollerskates is precisely why Kittyshould never design her own clothes.

If you thought the Kitty's friendship with Stprm was weird here, just wait until Kitty freaks out because Ororo got a haircut!

[deh_tommy]

Oh thank fudge this is here, I’ve had nowhere else to gush over Encanto. That’s not technically Disney’s best per se and maybe I only like that as much as I do because of the back-to-back disappointments of Ralph Breaks the Internet/Frozen II/Raya and the Last Dragon, but I adore the characters and the locales and the colours and the animation and AHHH that’s just so pleasant, there’s something so nice about seeing something so relatively low-key but no less emotionally moving, especially from something like Disney (the animation studio, not as a corporation as a whole).

I’ve been thinking about getting into He-Man/She-Ra proper (or is the correct term Masters of the Universe?). Where should I start? The Filmation stuff? The movie? The 2002 cartoon? The Dreamworks/Netflix show? The other 2021 He-Man? Is Revelations as bad as people make that out to be or is that just another Gamergate/Comicsgate scenario à la the reaction to The Last Jedi or The Last of Us Part II? Do I need to be familiar with He-Man at all to enjoy Revelations? Is there anything about He-Man I need to know before I watch She-Ra or vice versa? Do either of them ever show up in the others’ shows?

[janegray]

Revelations (the show) is not bad at all. It does have plenty of issues (and I'm extremely annoyed by the backlash that paints you as a misogynist if you dislike Teela), but overall it's more than decent. The story has its highlights (Lynn and Orko in particular are awesome), and the animation is gorgeous.

That said, the Revelations comics suck. I'm genuinely baffled that they apparently have the same writers as the much, much better show.

[numeronone]

Congratulations to Barbados for becoming a republic and rejecting the sovereignity of the (still living???) monarch of the British Empire. Soon may said Empire completely diminish.

[lilacsigil]

Yes, Barbados is an inspiration to the rest of us still yoked to the Queen.

[cygnia]

Finished binging Cowboy Bebop. Gotta agree with the hubby: Great visuals, great acting, but writing that was all over the place. They stumbled on the last episode of the season with a character more Macguffin than an actual person.

Still, we'd watch a 2nd season if there is one.

Next up: Hawkeye

[llordllama]

We had snow, glorious, exciting and magical - possibly because it only lasted about 24hrs in each case rather than weeks on end. Not that frequent an occurrence in the Midlands, hence the thrill! However, because we're dealing with 'flockdown' (avian flu restrictions for bird keepers) - our hens weren't allowed to come out and frolic in it. Actually, I think they're happier keeping inside and warmer.

Not been the finest of weeks as Mrs Llama managed to reverse down our drive into the neighbour's cleaner's car. Partly because she was blinded by low winter sun, but mainly because she was waving to our elderly neighbour and his cleaner in a friendly fashion. Whoops.

I'm not even going to touch Who this week - other than to mention I felt like a long lie down with a coherent narrative afterwards.

Continuing on with my Witcher re-watch and finding the time-skips make a lot more sense this time round. Clearly I wasn't paying close enough attention on my first viewing.

[malurette]

Oh, forgot I had something nice to say!

I got to see an avant-première of Princesse Dragon by Ankama Animation
(nv_sr_srsg_0)
and that was incredible! I was a bit wary of the studio at first (they did Dofus, Wakfu and a Mutafukaz adaptation so this is way out of their usual gig) but wow the movie was surprisingly pretty and good in a ghibli-esque way. Official release date is December 15th but I'm not sure yet in which other countries--I'm staying tuned for an international release.

[janegray]

The bad: my notebook has died.
The good: it died one week before black friday, so I was able to get a replacement at a good price.

[onsokumaru]

I didn't know much about Josephine Baker besides her being both a resistant and an artist.
Recently learnt that she adopted 12 kids from different parts of the world, lived with them in a castle and nicknamed her family the "Rainbow Tribe". And the first question my brain asked was: what are their super powers?

[tinygaylaura]

Happy Hanukkah! :)

The news about the change in the law regarding some forms of sealife makes me hope that the deeply disturbing practice of boiling lobsters alive will be ended.

Been watching Discovery and the new He-Man show and enoying both of them a whole lot so far. Also been watching the new cartoon by one of the creators who worked on Gravity Falls "Inside Job" which has been entertainingly deranged. It's like a cross between Rick and Morty and Archer

Loved the new Doctor Who episode as well. So satisfying to see Yaz get to do more and it's very cool to see the Sontarans treated as a proper threat for the first time since The Invasion of Time (Someone: What about the Two Doctors...

Me: WHAT ABOUT THE TWO DOCTORS)

Who could have guessed someone who calls himself The Grand Serpent would turn out to be so evil? I bet everyone from his old empire was absolutely floored by that revelation

Loved seeing Kate Stewart and UNIT again and next episode looks like it might be the best finale of the Chibnall era so far if he pulls it off

The way Tecteun was killed off did feel slightly rushed tho and felt like it had the common problem of a lot of very dramatic build up and then a very quick pay off that feels a bit like "Wait is that it"

As silly as some of the RTD and Moffat finales were they did always have a big sense of spectacle when the villain/villains were foiled

[zachbeacon]

I mean, Inside Job is WAY smarter than Rick and Morty.

I do love that it's a universe where every conspiracy is real ... except the FlatEarthers are still idiots.

[melplayspersonal]

I saw Encanto and I loved it! Great characters, songs, visuals, story - I highly recommend it to everyone, and I listened to "Surface Pressure" for over an hour after I left the theater. If I HAD to nitpick, I'd say I didn't like the ending, but to go further would be spoilers.

I also watched tick tick... boom! over the weekend on Netflix. While I enjoyed the songs and appreciated the clear love for broadway put into this... the whole character arc of Jonathon going IF I DON'T ACCOMPLISH MY LIFE'S DREAM BY THIRTY MY ENTIRE LIFE IS MEANINGLESS is a bit of... a side-eye when I'm 33. (Yes, it's all cruelly ironic since he died at 35, but HE didn't know it was going to happen.) Not saying it's bad, just not something I'd watch again, although I'm glad I saw it at least once.

Had to explain "cringe culture" to my mother, and almost had to explain "omegaverse" to a friend, and boy let me tell you, I'd rather do the former than the latter again a hundred times over.

[tinygaylaura]

*Lindsay Ellis voice* GET SET TO GET WET

[thezmage]

So what happened to that whole "boycotting Netflix for firing the trans employees that complained about Chapelle's special" thing? Did they correct themselves or did people just forget about it?

[zachbeacon]

Aren't people constantly calling for a Netflix boycott over something? I think Cuties was the last one before this. Or was it something about Israel?

I assume people rarely follow through with this kind of thing.

..which is a shame because the world would be a better place if the people Tweeting #CancelFacebook all the time actually deleted their accounts and inspired others to do so too.

[laughing_tree]

So I've been watching the latest season of Young Justice and enjoying it but something occurs to me:

Why hasn't the show received any flack for using a white actress to voice the half-Vietnamese Artemis? When the show started, people really didn't care about this thing as much, but these days they absolutely do -- to the point where a bunch of white voice actors in the industry have quit their roles as characters of color -- so it's weird how this case nobody cares about.

[zachbeacon]

I know that's the direction things are going but I always got the sense that people already playing a character tended to be grandfathered in.

Though I read recently that Alyson Court implied she wouldn't be voicing Jubilee in the X-Men revival.

[remial]

I just finished the book Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots. Main character starts out as a temp for supervillains, until she is injured on the job by THE big name superhero, which basically makes her radioactive ebola to the villain community as she tries to heal from the injury. She ends up getting hired by THE big supervillain to access various information systems and find something to do with them, so she starts attacking the heroes in ways they don't see coming.

Think of it as The Boys for the information age, without Garth Ennis being, well, Garth Ennis.

I can not recommend it highly enough.

[zachbeacon]

*adds to wishlist*

Just curious, have you read Henchgirl by Kristen Gudsnuk? It's a comic that starts in a similar place but really goes off the rails (in a good way) in the end.

[lordy_co]

Still looking for a therapist.

Watched 3 old movies this week. The first was X, a sci-fi movie from 1963, about a scientist who acquires X-ray vision from some special golden eyedrops. Pretty entertaining, but nothing special, imo;

The second was the infamous Sleepaway Camp. I already knew the twist so it was a bit amusing to see my friends' reactions to it, but otherwise it was a waste of time.

Last but definetely not least, I finally watched Onibaba, a Japanese movie from 1964. I've known about this movie for about a decade, but never got around to watch it until this sunday. It's very, very good. Doesn't shy away from nudity or violence but never feels exploitative, and the third act is absolutely haunting. The plot is about two women (an older lady and her daughter-in-law) who kill soldiers to sell their armour and weapons in feudal japan. Their life is not easy, but it gets more complicated when a friend from their son/husband comes back to tell them he's passed away, and then decides to stick around.

On a closing note, I've read Jason Aaron's Heroes Reborn. All of it (depression does weird things to your head, doesn't it?). It was enjoyable. The main series had some fun riffs on the Justice League, and I enjoyed trying to figure out which DC characters each Marvel character was "playing" in the tie-ins. It also featured some super-on-super violence, which I also quite like.

[thezmage]

I liked Aaron's Heroes Reborn, even though it had basically no story to justify it's event status

Spoilers for Batman Annual, Robin Annual, Nightwing Annual, Wonder Woman Annual!

[leahandillyana]

Read some annuals (here's the encryption tool I used: https://www.online-toolz.com/tools/text-encryption-decryption.php):
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

[deh_tommy]

Aw dang, is velacron gone? I feel guilty, they probably wouldn’t have gone off like that if I never poked the figurative beehive of the Rittenhouse debacle.

[iamrman]

I have been having a lot of fun on Discord. It all stemmed from a throwaway comment from the latest Batfamily Adventures webcomic. Bruce asks Alfred to save him a good seat at Vass's ballet recital because he is fed up of Margie from the PTA always getting good seats. This then led to Margie being reimagined into an utter Karen and Bruce being petty and inviting his Justice League buddies to school fundraisers just to get at her.

The consensus is that invited Wonder Woman (bisexual feminist) is the nuclear option.

[ladymidath]

I finally got to see Venom Let There Be Carnage and I loved it. I am really looking forward to the new Spiderman movie and Morbius who was always one of my fave Marvel characters. I think Jared Leto will be good in this.
I binge-watched the live-action Cowboy Bebop and wow isn't it getting hate. I can see why though, I am a huge fan of the original anime and I have the mangas as well. I have to be honest though, I didn't hate it but there were some changes that didn't make sense to me. I won't say what as I don't want to go into spoiler territory.
We are getting hit with the new Covid variant and our planned holiday doesn't look like it is going to happen. I guess we will have to wait and see.
I have also been watching the new Doctor Who and I still don't know how I feel about it. I guess I still miss David Tennant.
We are having a very cool wet Spring so I have been at home doing a lot more reading which is always my happy place. I am enjoying the Nordic noir stories. I managed to get Stephen King's latest novels, Billy Summer and Later, they were pretty good.
I am just hoping that this latest Covid strain won't be worse than Delta.