Archiving my Twitter, Facebook and other social network activity
I was already numb to any interest in reading Heroes in Crisis. Having read the list of confirmed deaths in the first issue alone, I’ve changed my decision from “maybe pick up the trade if reviews are good” to “nope.”
I’m tired of any character who isn’t currently headlining a book being one editorial decision away from cannon fodder.
And I’m tired of comics repeating story beats just to repeat them without looking at what made them work (or not) in the first place.
I found this old post I wrote on how Marvel or DC would have milked Lord of the Rings as an “event” comic book, with tie-ins, spin-offs, and character spotlights…
…and realized it’s not that far off from what the Hobbit movies actually *did*.
What If…Lord of the Rings had been an “Event” Comic?
Daytripper is amazing.
I quite liked the original Elfquest.
Fun Home is really good.
Planetary is a fascinating exploration of superhero/scifi tropes, but works best if you know the references.
Transmetropolitan is really good, but not everyone’s cup of tea.
Sandman is epic, but start w/the 2nd collection & go back for part 1 if you like it. It took 8 issues for the series to find its voice. So while the first collection establishes the setting and characters, it’s a very different tone from the rest of the series.
Astro City is a great reimagining of superheroes, hopeful & standing on its own.
Oh, and Hark! A Vagrant! is a lot of fun also, especially if you like literary and historical humor. It’s a collection of unrelated comic strips rather than an ongoing story.
I’ve started listening to the Graphic Audio adaptation of 52, and I can’t get over Booster Gold’s totally surfer accent, dude.
In Final Crisis, the Anti-Life Equation is able to compel the surrender of free will. Those who have submitted spout slogans about how it justifies anything, how it’s so much easier than the struggles of life and love.
It’s insidious, because in some ways it *is* easier to offload tough decisions to a schedule, a policy, a leader, etc. The brain likes taking shortcuts around cognitive load. But people want to be *able* to make choices when they want to.
#amreading #comics #psychology
Another interesting thing about Final Crisis is how much damage Darkseid does just by existing. He doesn’t do any traditional super villain things in the entire story. No battles, no plotting. He just sits on his throne, yaking advantage of a battle he already won, imposing his will on an entire planet. He spends most of the story sitting on an underground bunker, but his presence presses down on the whole world.
#amreading #comics
Because this year wasn’t weird enough already, the upcoming Christmas special from DC #Comics is the “DC Nuclear Winter Special,” featuring post-apocalyptic holiday tales. 😕
I’ve got an old “Weird Al” song running through my head now.
And a need for an emoji based on a certain Jackie Chan meme.
http://smashpages.net/2018/08/17/dc-comics-goes-nuclear-this-christmas/
#reintroductions #introductions Hello, my name is Kelson. I’m a computer programmer in the #LosAngeles area. I like #scifi, #fantasy & #comics (behind on a lot, keeping up w/ #TheFlash, Saga & #JessicaJones). I tend to talk about #webdevelopment and #tech, and I still have a #blog.
I also talk about #books at [edit: @KelsonReads@Bookwyrm.social ] & post scenic #photography at @kelsonv
I caught up on Flash War and its aftermath. I feel like it could have been epic, but ultimately was just a way to break up the Flash family and set up the new Forces.
That’s a problem I’m having with DC Comics lately: Stories don’t feel like they start from the characters and new threats picking up where the previous story left off, they feel like they’re working backward from where everything needs to be to set up the next story and finding a way to get there.
It’s been like that for a while. It was a problem with Flash: Rebirth, with Countdown, with Full Throttle. I sort of feel like the early New 52 escaped the problem and built more organically, at least some of the books I was reading. But those kept getting cancelled.
If you compare Final Crisis to Metal, they’re both similar in structure: cosmic threat turns earth into a nightmare between panels, the heroes seek help from the multiverse to restore the world. But Final Crisis *finishes.* Metal sets up the alloys, the Challengers & Hawks, the crack in the Source Wall. It’s more like COIE in the way it works hard to set things up for the coming year(s) of stories.
Caught up on some Marvel/DC #comics this week:
#JessicaJones got a nice send-off. Need to find time to watch season 2 of the show, looking forward to the comic returning after break.
#TheFlash still feels like they’re shaking things up every few issues just to shake things up, but it’s beginning to look like they might be going somewhere with it.
Dropping Titans. It had potential, but the team depends on character dynamics, and they’ve run those into the ground.
#introductions time! I’m an LA-area programmer, #scifi / #comics / #fantasy fan & hobbyist photographer. I’ve been @kelsonv for a while, but I keep meaning to look for a more specific instance for fandom-related discussions. It looks like this might be it?
Watching #iZombie, #TheFlash & #TheMagicians, way behind on a bunch of other shows. Favorite comics ATM are #Saga & #AstroCity.
In the middle of re-reading all of #LesMiserables, currently on the chapters introducing Marius.
It’s weird how it hides the instance name…my other accounts are on mastodon.social (my main one) and photog.social (my photography). Maybe I should’ve picked different usernames as well just for clarity?
I can’t remember two things about New 52 Wally West:
1. Did they confirm his mother died in Forever Evil, or is she still presumed dead?
2. He didn’t know Daniel was his father. Did he think Rudy was? So before classic Wally vanished, did they think they were half-brothers?
—
Wally I has history w/the Titans & Iris in this timeline from before Kadabra grabbed him. Wally II doesn’t remember him, but if he thought Rudy was his dad, they would’ve at least known of each other as half brothers, not cousins, even if he lived w/his mom.
—
I imagine naming Rudy might’ve been a convenient fiction since Daniel was so young, but it would still have made for awkward family interactions, since Rudy was married and already had a kid. It really makes me wonder what arrangements were made among the Wests & Wally’s mom.
Also: Wally 2 was really upset that his father never acknowledged him as his son. But Daniel visited him. If he grew up thinking Rudy was his dad, but never met Wally 1, he must’ve felt abandoned by his dad.
—
Looked it up: DCU Rebirth established the 2 Wallys had never met. Flash #9, they meet both masked & unmasked, but Wally 1 didn’t give his name. Also Wally 2 learns Daniel was his dad. Sins of the Father established Daniel was around, just pretending to be his uncle…and in The Lazarus Contract, Wally 2 learns who Wally 1 is. So that brings us to the Flash Annual status where both Wallys & Barry know who they all are.
But I still wonder about the West family dynamics.
I stopped when I got to #20, but didn’t see Wally 2 confronting Iris about her hiding Daniel’s relationship to him. It probably happened after he argued with Barry, but I didn’t see it.
Unspoken: how much did race factor into Wally 2 never meeting the West side of his family?
Finally reread Saucer Country & read Saucer State. Weird to look at the 2012 story in the context of 2016, and the ways reality of 2016-2017 influenced the sequel.
And dammit, I was not expecting a cliffhanger ending!
So DC decided it wasn’t already mining enough of Alan Moore’s ideas this year?
J.H. WILLIAMS III Responds to PROMETHEA Joining JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA
— Newsarama
DC using Promethea bugs me more than them using Tom Strong.
Partly, Promethea is the only ABC comic I read through to the end, so it matters to me more.
Partly it’s the same as Watchmen: the series was *a story*, not episodes driven by a story engine.
That said, the *concept* of Promethea *is* a story engine, which could have life and relevance beyond her original series – especially now.
But I don’t think she’ll achieve that as a guest star / supporting character in Justice League.
And having already alienated Alan Moore, you’d think they’d at least *say something* to JH Williams III about it.
So I noticed Mastodon’s been trending again & figured I’d take another look. I don’t need another time sink, but I figured it might be worth jumping in this time. Now to replicate just the good parts of that other network…
I should probably figure out what I want to talk about here before I try to figure out who to follow, huh? I mean, I’ll probably end up cross-posting photos & blogging (yes, I still blog), but other than that, do I want to talk about…tech? politics? comics? sci-fi/fantasy? I don’t think anyone I know IRL is here, so it’s a matter of topics for now.
—
Actually, what *is* the etiquette for cross-posting here?
—
So, the 5-7 interests meme (this feels like early 2000s LJ): #comics #scifi #space #computers #science #art #photography
—
Hmm, looks like I may want to check out wandering.shop for scifi/fantasy and photog.social for photography…
—
OK, so I’ve set up @kelsonv@photog.social for photography posting. I’ll probably keep this one for other stuff.
Photo taken at: Stan Lee’s Los Angeles Comic Con
Whitney Frost cosplay (Agent Carter villain, based on Madame Masque) at #lacomiccon over the weekend.
(Cropped version on Flickr)
Oh my god, dude I love this. It’s like a plot out of the silver age.
[Yeah, the Silver Age was definitely the inspiration for this story! There are plenty of winks and nods to it throughout the story, not the least of which is the dedication to John Broome. –Lia]
I really appreciate Morrison’s work on Flash and JLA because for him, bringing back the Silver Age didn’t mean just bringing back specific characters, it meant bringing back the creativity, the wild and madcap ideas, the storytelling sense that anything is possible.
Photo taken at: Long Beach Comic Expo
Photo taken at: Long Beach Comic Expo
A little light reading. #Deadpool #cosplay #longbeachcomiccon2015 #longbeachcomiccon #comics #marvelcomics #lbcc2015