you got katana in my medulla oblongata

yuletide past:
Nowhere Special by kormantic
Blazing Saddles | Bart/Jim | pg | 548 words
note: I never knew I wanted this until I was reading it. ♥

yuletide present:
está muerto; no está muerto by anon
The Losers | gen | ensemble | pg | 1070 words
note: my Yuletide gift. short, awesome, unapologetic badassery: it's *exactly* what I wanted.

just because:
Yadda Yadda by museofspeed
DC/Marvel | Nightwing/Deadpool | nc-17 | 1103 words
note: Dick and Wade have a really chatty fight. so fucking IC it kills me. if this doesn't make you laugh your sense of humor has probably been surgically removed.

The good: It looks like Dick and Jay are each getting their own title.

The bad: Putting Babs back in the mask is one of the dumbest things DC has done to date, and not just because Steph does not deserve this shit.

The ugly: If there's something worse than Judd Winick getting his hands on Selina Kyle, I can't think of it at the moment.

So. Mixed feelings about so much. I'm not going to stop buying Bat comics: I *can't*. And I don't think the reboot is going to make me *completely* unhappy. But there's so much that *is* going to make me unhappy, that I just...

I don't know. I don't know how to feel about any of it, really.

Short one-shot by Devin Grayson and Brian Stelfreeze, from Batman 80-pg Giant #1. ( I'm not a huge Devin fan, but this is an excellent example of what a dialogue-free comic should be. )

-yet another vanishing act. just call me annataz gnikcaerf.

-still alive. I guess. sort of. this is apparently not my year for good health.

-still reading comics. atm that's about all I'm doing. well, that and bitching about comics, but you know, goes without saying, although I'll say it anyway, amongst a lot of other things.

-like, I was right about Nicieza: he's making me dislike Tim Drake. I want him to go away. back to Marvel or something, I don't care as long as he gets off the Red Robin title.

-but Bryan Q. Miller can keep writing Batgirl until the cows come home or hell freezes over, whichever one comes last. dude, that guy? loves Steph at least as much as I do. ♥

-RtD sequel (working title In Winter) is in a holding pattern until my body stops giving me hell. still writing, but sporadically. my discipline is shot, along with my sleep schedule.

-War of the Green Lanterns. ugh. can we just *stop* with the events? I mean Flashpoint is coming up, and yeah, parts of it look cool, but I'm really, *really* tired of comics events. I just want some straight up in-title continuity. stories that belong in the titles I read; that's why I *buy* the damn things.

-which is why 'Tec Comics is presently making me happy. Jason is the brother of my heart and Bruce is my male alter ego, but Dick? ah god, Dick is my love, my adored one, my preciousssss, and Detective Comics is all about Dick, and also it's still got the heart and soul of Batman in it, the Gotham *detective* part that makes Batman Batman. all the other Bat titles have really lost the old feel. the essence of Batman has become so watered down thanks to Daniel and Morrison, and I think the editors have lost their grip on what *counts* in the main Bat titles. so thank god for Scott Snyder, and whoever gave him Detective. really, if you're not reading it, you're missing out. he's going to be working Gates of Gotham as well, and I've heard he's interested in writing Jay. jesus please yes.

I have a real problem with stories that attempt to make Bruce and Clark "omg, bffs from the cradle!" It's just too much, even for comics. And I say that as someone who owns (partially via my dad) all Batman and Detective comics from 1951 through 1989: there are some pretty ridiculous story lines in there.

This is why the Superman/Batman title sometimes makes me gag. Because sheesh.

detective comics 872
Jock's sketchy faces worked for Losers. They don't work for Dick Grayson and Babs Gordon, to say nothing of Tim Drake. Get a new artist pronto, DC, because seriously, no. Which sucks, because I am really liking Snyder's writing. He knows his readers, knows we want the Gotham detective, not this incorporated bs, and he's giving us what we want: Gotham crime-solving with Batfamily/Gordon interaction. ♥

teen titans 90
The ratio here is equal: bad/bad. TTs has never been more of a soap opera, and someone thinks it's a good idea to stick Rose and Damian together: what. Artwise, Scott's faces are too generic whitebread good-looking. She makes Kon look like a dumb but pretty jock, and for some reason, Cassie doesn't look quite right to me either. The only one she does really well is Bart, but then Bart has *always* been a pretty pretty princess, so her art suits him. The rest.... meh. Really close to dropping this title. -__-

the dark knight 1
Oh god, here we go with another "Bruce's lost loves, take five hundred and sixty three" story, and this one's been possibly sexually abused by her father, and definitely raped by Killer Croc. Fucking awesome. Not. Doesn't help that Williams' style is a lot like Jim Lee's: all the way through the issue I kept thinking, "Hey, ho, meet the new ASBAR." Ick. -__-

spidergirl 2
ANYA ANYA ANYA ANYA ANYA ANYA ANYA ANYA ANYA ANYA ANYA ANYA ANYA ANYA ANYA ANYA ANYA ANYA ANYA ANYA

...

Sorry, had to get that out of my system. Seriously, I could stare at her in costume all *day* and not get tired of her character design. But I have to say, I'm really not happy that they're going the "Induce Torment Via Death of Parent" route with my girl. That just sucks, and you know, My Parents Are Dead? So last fifty years. Dudes, Bruce has you guys covered, you don't need to do that to anyone else. It's too early in the series to make any lasting judgments, so I'm going to hold off for a while. But really not happy about the dead father thing. o_O


Tangentially related in a comics way: does anyone know where Amadeus Cho is hiding his incredibly awesome self these days? I lost track of him after PoP, and I *need* some Cho bad.

red robin 17
I see Cass Cain in an awesome new suit that suits her better than the Batgirl suit (though I still adore her as Batgirl), kicking butt with Tim Drake and giving me hope for future Cass in the Bat titles even if it won't be as Batgirl.

I also see two men -- a father and a son, if you like -- who love each other a whole hell of a lot even if they suck at expressing it, hugging after being separated for a year during which one of them was lost in the time stream and the other was desperately searching for a way to prove guy number one wasn't dead.

Fandom sees Cass Cain rejecting the Bat symbol. It sees Bruce Wayne's crotch saying hello to Tim Drake's crotch. Yes, darlings, those are two men embracing their emotions and each other, front to front, and they both have crotches. Believe me, it happens all the time.

ARE WE ALL TWELVE YEAR OLD BOYS HERE OR WHAT


green lantern 58, green lantern corps 52, emerald warriors 3
I see Carol Ferris being awesome and getting a life and pwning Hal Jordan's face; I see a young black girl saved from yet another tasteless, pointless potential rape scene by her own inner strength; I see Soranik Natu using constructs shaped like her physician's instruments to rescue a fascinating, endangered deep space creature from space poachers; I see Bleez (one of my fave Red Lanterns) joining the Arisia/Killowog/Gardner team-up of AWESOME, thereby making it even more awesome.

I also see three white-guy Lanterns (Jordan, Gardner and Rayner) with their own titles, and no sign of John Stewart, even though lip service has been paid to him sharing the main title with Hal. Right. Johns can kiss my ass, Jordan can drop dead again, and they can give the main title to Stewart, because he pwns both their pasty white asses. *grumble*

Fandom sees Jordan's, Gardner's and Rayner's manpain, and, apparently, tits.


superboy 1
Oh wow, I am blind to everything but Kon's awesomeness and my hopes for this promising new title. Also, Kon's friend who teaches frogs to OBEY HIS EVERY COMMAND and knows Kon is Superboy? ♥♥♥ Damn, I love science geeks, and I sense another new friendship coming on. Because I think Bart Allen and Simon Valentine together in the same vicinity would rock like a rocking thing. Kon needs to introduce them.

I also see what I consider to be a kind of cool continuity between Superboy and Robin's first teamup against Ivy and Metallo, and having Kon's first adventure in his new title involve Ivy. It feels like we've come back around, and for me, it's a good feeling.

No real idea what fandom sees (not enough feedback yet) but I'm betting the slashers see a depressing lack of Tim Drake as well as Kon and said science geek friend trapped in plant tentacles. As I said, not sure, but I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is.


Hmn, I need a Kon icon. Brb, digging through image files.

-It's October. Why do I feel like I have a summer cold? In other news, my sinuses just exploded. Ew.

-( Remember this, from way back in May? )

Anyway, I signed up for apocabigbang. I'm doomed.

the good stuff
Luckily for Emerald Warriors, Tomasi seems to have an unending supply of excellent crack. When you've got Guy Gardner, Arisia and Killowog teaming up to take on the unexplored sectors, you've either got the best kind of crazy or the worst. So far, so good.

the weird stuff
Anyone who can come up with tiny titans and Evil Lunch Lady Darkseid has to be taking something. Darkseid calling Kalibak "his special little guy", and frying Dr. Light's brain with a pic of K's mom is either pure genius or complete insanity. I'm not sure which one Franco qualifies for, but I think I'd like a hit of whatever he's on.

the oh my god, get this dumbass to the ER, he just OD'd stuff
Beechen, stop pretending you're Frank Miller. Please. You're just embarrassing yourself and the rest of us, and if it's even possible to write Dick Grayson in particular and Batman Beyond in general more OOC than you're managing? I don't want to know about it.


apologies to marcelo for ganking his schtick: it just works so well.