The Unholy Dragon
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Posts posted by The Unholy Dragon
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On 6/14/2024 at 5:44 PM, odessasteps said:
I was more thinking of giving Jim multiple marriages and introducing a son and making him a heel (serial killer?)
Most of that was just Frank Miller. He introduced James Jr. and Jim cheating on his first wife with Essen in Year One and DKR had Essen as Jim's wife/ex-wife (can't remember which offhand). It was also because of the absence of Babs in his run that they retconned her into being his adopted daughter rather than his biological one. Because Barbara is the interesting one with the Batgirl stuff, most subsequent writers ignored James Jr.'s existence, leading to Scott Snyder thinking of an angle to explain why he just kind of disappeared and tying it to the themes of Dick as Batman.
It's all a bit of a ride but it's really just two creators making specific story choices that ended up with wider repercussions, with all of it coming back to Year One in one way or another.-
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On 6/2/2024 at 3:01 PM, blitzkrieg said:
As a 90's Tim Drake fan, it's kinda funny to me that for almost a decade and a half DC hasn't been able to figure out what to call or how to dress Tim.
Ironically, I think they had basically nailed it. Going back to Robin and the suit he had the last few years was basically perfect. But once again we are given an abomination.
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X-Men Wedding Special is a fun denouement to the Mystique/Destiny stuff in Immortal.
It also has one of the more interesting back matter bits, with a publication history of the relationship including notes on what Claremont intended vs. what he could do around the comics code. And an interview with Claremont that includes the wild detail that he had Destiny/Mystique as Holmes/Adler because his grandparents were personal friends with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. -
So a lot of spicy news about the X-Men dropped this week owing primarily to an exit interview on the X-Books done by outgoing group editor Jordan White with AIPT, but also supplemented by Tom Brevoort on his Substack.
Firstly, this may be conjecture, but White being shuffled off the line suddenly with a different direction of books already getting preliminary announcements and the way Brevoort talks about his work in general makes me wonder if there isn't some heat there. It's all been professional and not a bad word...strictly. But it's very sudden and when talking about his upcoming approach, Brevoort has been very critical of White's approach (saying things like there weren't enough solo books and teams felt thrown together in a fashion he called "Fake books" for example). It makes me wonder if there's a bigger story and if it'll ever be told.
The higher level takeaway overall is that the Krakoan Age was ended because Disney wants the X-Men in a closer alignment with upcoming media stuff. Between this and Ms. Marvel being made a mutant apparently at Feige's request (misquoted as him saying to kill her, but that was apparently just editorial's decision for the process) it kind of feels like the age where the comics could just do their own thing and not be frequently reshuffled to look more like the movies might be over.
But we also got clarifications on some things that Hickman got cut off from and why:
- He wanted to use Namor in a significant way, as foreshadowed in HoXPoX. This got scuttled because Aaron wanted him for Avengers and Namor is primarily assigned to the Avengers office.
- He had big plans for Franklin Richards and both he and White were excited for them, but the FF office and (unspoken, but implicit) Slott decided to retcon him out of being a mutant and despite the best modern FF writer and White disagreeing, it again came down to whose office they belonged to for veto power.- New Mutants as a whole went off the rails, leading to a Foreshadowing cover never paying off. That would have been focused on Sam and Roberto having space adventures culminating in Roberto becoming the lover of acting Empress Deathbird and functionally taking the throne. This all got dumped because they didn't expect the book to sell well enough to justify Hickman's time or salary, so it got passed off and ended up cancelled before he could swing back around to do any of those plot points. White actually cited this as the one that bums him out the most because it was the one Hickman was most excited to write and he didn't get to.
- Kitty couldn't phase through the Krakoan portals because her power disrupts tech. It was never meant as a big mystery which is sort of why it was never really explained.
The Q&A is a multi part thing so I imagine more is to come. -
Been all in on audiobooks lately due to both time constraints and honestly my eyesight having some issues. Curse you age and genetics!
Knocked out Thirteen Storeys and then Family Business, both by Jonathan Sims. I was already a fan of his work in The Magnus Archives, but writing a serialized horror podcast is very different structurally from a novel. Thankfully, he's been more than up to the challenge. Both were superb, easily among my favourite horror reads of the last decade. The biggest issue I'm having is that I want more novel stuff from him and he doesn't even have a third announced yet. -
Just read Blood Hunt #1 (retailer privilege, I've actually had it since last week but didn't have time to check it out until now)
It very much feels like the Marvel version of a Geoff Johns event. I figured out the twist real early on and the last few pages really belabor the point, but it all lines up. Gonna be interested to see what the logic is behind the call. There's a lot of characters who seem to be dead by the end of issue #1 that either aren't permanent because come on or that we know are going to be turned because solicits. It is what it is.
It's gonna be an interesting litmus test for Jed MacKay as a bigger scale player. It's already kind of exposing some things I find sort of eye roll worthy but mileage may vary on it. More good than bad for sure though and it feels so massive that I'm genuinely unsure how it's gonna resolve, so that's a plus.
No idea what the Red Band differences are, also, but I can speculate based on how some moments were framed. -
This show is really demonstrating for me how much the recency bias and general tastes of the modern IWC crowd make me feel like a sourpuss.
Mostly I liked the show and to my shock, I loved Ospreay vs. Danielson (I expected to like it, but I generally really don't like Will's work so it felt like there was a ceiling) and I came out feeling good about the show overall.
But seeing people calling Will/Bryan a contender for best in anything past the night just feels so bizarre to me that I feel like the Old Man Yells at Cloud meme. I don't even know if it's a top 5 match in the past month or so for me, though if it's not it's probably like #6. And people coming out of it calling Will the best in the world as if he wasn't handheld by the literal best wrestler ever also feels to me like people who cannot actually engage with wrestling beyond the loudest possible declarative work.
The whole thing makes me feel worse about a match I genuinely loved because I do not love it to the same extent as others and the gap makes me feel as though the type of wrestling I do really love will only get sparser as a generation of wrestlers and fans oriented toward flash and aesthetics over substance continue to drive the focal points of the industry away from narratively stronger work.
It's me becoming an old wrestling curmudgeon in real time.
Show was mostly good though, and at least the bad stuff (Jericho, the Bucks) was funny so there's something.
Credit to Okada and Pac for having a real restrained banger too. Loved Roddy/Kyle as well. Roddy still probably Kyle's best opponent overall.
Fun show and to their credit, one that is absolutely built and sold for their audience to reaffirm that commitment after some trying months.-
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On 4/18/2024 at 10:38 AM, madl said:
Wind-down of the X-Men books seems unnecessarily convoluted. Too much sturm und drang (turmoil) for my liking. It doesn’t really feel like we’re heading anywhere fresh or interesting either. The developments with Xavier seem out of the blue and aren’t having much impact on me because there’s probably zero chance they stick for very long. Nothing I’ve heard about the reset interests me yet, so I am probably out on the X-books for awhile. Simone writing X-Men might be good, but I’m very much wait-and-see on that. I kinda want her to be on the book more than an arc or two before I jump in.
i didn’t love the Krakoa era, but it’s still mind-boggling Hickman seemingly got pushed aside for writers like Gerry Dugan. I kinda wish Hickman had been allowed to stick closer to his original pitch for the books and had been allowed to finish as he wanted. House/Powers of X were fascinating, but I lost interest quick once Hickman became more of a creative director and they started interweaving the books. Had practically no interest in X-Men titles not written by Hickman. Gillen & Ewing did interesting work after Hickman left, but had same issues. Anyway, would much prefer to see both those guys on other projects. Gillen’s new creator-owned book will probably be interesting.
Hickman didn't get pushed aside. By his own account, he decided that his plan should be shifted to allow for a longer run there but that he didn't want to stick around for that. It was all voluntary on his part. You can argue if it was the right call, but it was 100% up to Hickman.
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19 hours ago, Kang said:
I think he meant the new universe will be more important over the old DC Earth 0 universe.
I read a clarification that makes sense which is that it'll be its own universe, but unlike the original Ultimate Universe, it's going to be factored into the current multiverse from the jump and there may be some play between them early on rather than that being an endgame thing. Seems likely Absolute Power will dovetail into the launch somehow.
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You're not really missing much with TV since the way the ad breaks are cut makes it super difficult for match narratives to not be butchered. A lot of the time you do just as well with TikTok highlight clips, honestly.
It's one thing I'm really hoping the Netflix era fixes, but there's absolutely ways to structure the TV product as is which they just aren't doing anymore.-
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I think the idea of an Ultimate DC is a good one but especially at a time where they're doing a ton of self contained Black Label stuff, I don't really see the appeal unless they're going wide with it.
THAT SAIDBleeding Cool also says this is going to be in the main canon? And more about doing greater amounts of creative freedom within the mainline universe? Which uh. I'm not exactly sure how to square that, but I'm interested in seeing what it looks like.
At this point it's a case of not putting the cart before the horse and waiting to see what the announcement looks like, I guess. -
On 4/14/2024 at 2:55 PM, Kang said:
Mark Millar wants to do Public Domain Superman
Please let him fuck up the Public Domain elements and become the litmus test case for it. Please it would be so funny.
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Can't ask for much more than 85, but another real pioneer of the industry gone.
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Akebono passed away. Heart failure, following 7 years of dealing with it on a chronic level.
Real bummer. He was only 54. Real great fixture of 2000s Puro especially.-
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Honestly this really showed that Thatcher is one of the best in the world.
Dude worked an absolute belter at Bloodsport, drove from Philly to NJ, minimum 90 minutes, shows up with welts from the former match still visible, and absolutely knocks it out with another incredible match in which he looked as if he was totally fresh.
Just unreal stuff.-
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Can't imagine there's gonna be a better wrestling show this year.
Not just for the peaks, though there were plenty of extremely impressive ones, but also for the sheer variety and range. Nearly every match was totally different from the ones around it and there was a real variety of wrestling styles and genres represented.
Last couple matches just absolutely tore it down as well.
Fantastic stuff. A real fitting tribute. Loved it.-
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19 hours ago, odessasteps said:
If you think WB will be ligitious, The Mouse is there to say hold my beer
It's less that I think WBD will be more litigious than the Mouse and more that I think the DC characters that hit PD first have more of their recognizable elements locked at first which will make them more open to it.
But someone is gonna do circle shield Cap too early and it'll be a whole thing, yeah. -
Bloodsport ruled. They probably should have stopped after Shayna/Masha because that really felt like the main event in every way, but you know.
Nic Nemeth doing a Greco Roman bit was so fun and a good contrast to Speedball. Baby Regal looked great. Thatcher and Axel had a heater while the Astronauts and MiSu had a lot of fun with a casual night.
Just a real fun, breezy show.-
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Where it gets weird is that it's going to be the first case where characters have really been continually published with new works on a large scale by the copyright holder through the entire duration of their existence in the way they have. And unlike Mickey Mouse, who's fairly loose in terms of characterization, there are a LOT of very specific derivative traits that won't be clear until much, much later. Also there will be cases where stuff unlocks in different countries at different times but the US is usually, but not always, last so it tends to be the one seen as the all clear.
But also, trademark law still applies. You might see something like we already get with Thor where "Superman" becomes "DC's Superman" legally but all the same tenets apply, where every use will need to have a ready argument for how a use is both excluding any protected elements to the character (not using anything added by DC from 1939-present, add a year each year) and also not infringing upon any of their trademarks (which is to say, using the character in a way designed to have him be mistaken for DC's version).It's going to be VERY sticky and I think there's going to be a lot of really ugly lawsuit smackdowns in the first few years as people realize the gap between how they think it works and how it actually works.
What will probably be the first real preview is the Shadow's earliest stuff going PD next year. Especially given that the initial year of Shadow radio stuff has VERY few of the bigger elements that people would consider recognizable and Conde Nast are exceptionally aggressive with the IP.-
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Dang, I really thought he did. I must have conflated the bits about his nieces and nephews. Well then, I rescind some of the stuff around that bit.
I stand by saying that trying to get revenge on the people you feel wronged you on the way out because you can't deal with the consequences of your own behaviours still deeply sucks. And of course, the reactionaries are already using it as fuel to do an anti-bullying crusade focused on bullying the people named in the note.
It's just a mess. -
On 3/30/2024 at 10:19 AM, Kang said:
Another decade and he enters the public domain. Looking forward to seeing multiple more interpretations of Batman.
It's gonna be real fascinating to see how those early public domain years go for the bigger superheroes with Batman, Superman, Captain Marvel, the JSA, and Captain America all coming up together in a three year window...but only the earliest versions. So they're going to have to be real specific in terms of which elements they use and how. Like DC would have to be REAL careful about bringing Cap to the present since the frozen in ice thing would be locked for another 20 years, for example.
Going to be a real wild first few years while people play chicken over which derivative elements they can get away with and which they can't.-
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I'm real fortunate in that the Greater Toronto Area has a really robust comic shop selection, with double digits in Toronto proper and nearly every surrounding city/town having at least one local store. But I know a lot of of the local shop owners/managers and standard attrition remains the ongoing concern with things always driving slowly downwards until something spikes interest again.
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I hate a lot about this situation.
I hate that a lot of people are using Piskor's suicide to argue that the women he tried to groom should have just stayed silent and that the idea that calling people out on their bad behaviour will make you somehow responsible for their deaths will keep more victims of bad behaviour silent.
It's also just so selfish. A ton of creators have misconduct allegations and are still doing just fine creating stuff and/or coasting on royalties. Warren Ellis abused over 100 women and femme nonbinary folks and people are still glazing his work and the impact it had on them. I'm not saying this as a good thing. It sucks that there's real limited consequences for being a piece of shit in the business. But as long as your stuff still sells, there's nothing stopping you from working in comics unless you catch Gerard Jones style charges.
Dude didn't have charges coming his way. He could have kept making comics and likely his perennial stuff would have kept making him money. But he couldn't stand the idea that the image of him as a cool artist was tainted or that he might have to do work that isn't just the kind of comics stuff he liked, so he's leaving his kids worse off because he was more concerned with his public image as an artist than he was about the well being of his children. He left a note that's basically just a sad bit for revenge, trying to deny all responsibility or wrongdoing with real paper thin excuses while trying to get some kind of revenge on the people who actually held him accountable. It was a petty, vindictive, selfish piece of work on his way out.
I have all the sympathy for his friends and family who are having to deal with all of this, but nothing but contempt for the dude himself.-
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On 3/29/2024 at 4:17 PM, Kang said:
Jim Lee knows of thebGolden Age characters and version's hitting the public domain in the next decade. They will just continue on publishing their versions and derivatives they still own.
People are making a big deal of it, but it's largely pretty moot given it's not just characters, but traits don't unlock until the equivalent anniversary year. So for the first few years of Superman in Public Domain, for example, no one can write him flying. And it'll be decades still before anyone else can use Braniac or whatever. While the general concept of the characters will be able to start turning up, it'll take a while before they start really feeling like the contemporary versions.
That said, I'm genuinely jazzed by the idea of Captain America being retconned into the JSA in about ten years.-
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Marvel Comics - 2024
in READING & WRITING
Posted
I suspect this is a wider issue. If Tom Brevoort is to be believed, basically every Marvel editor and a few creators were trying to figure out how to get rid of the marriage more or less as soon as it happened. A lot of younger creators seem to love the marriage and want to restore it, but you'd need an overall editorial overhaul to get there and tbh for Marvel as a whole to want something closer to Spider-Verse Peter rather than MCU Peter.
Honestly, writing a run whose late game twist depends on editorial changing their minds about a hard line edict is always a fast lane drive to failure. The sort of successes in that regard all involve either pitching an upside that editors buy into (Jason Todd/Bucky revivals) making a case that you have a good finger on the pulse of the audience and the benefits outweigh the risks (Snyder/Tomasi one-two punch of bringing back Steph/Cass in the New 52 and getting them back to Batgirl status, Tim back to Robin) or just straight up sneaking stuff past the editorial team (Meghan Fitzmartin canonizing Tim being bi and putting him in a relationship with Bernard) rather than just starting stuff and expecting they'll back down because the endgame wants it.
That said, the current editorial push to seemingly do the most annoying kind of bait and switch with Peter and MJ is especially infuriating.
X-Terminators rules.
Blood Hunt has been a hoot, but I'm once again disappointed that Marvel pulled a Shadowland on me with regard to the villain.