Comics! (I wasn't dead, I was reinstalling my Operating System & Vidding)

[beccatoria]

OH HEY THERE INTERWEBS. So I haven't been around much lately partly because I have been vidding like a crazy person to try and get a vid done in time to procrastinate and then panic about whether or not I want to submit it to WisCon (but don't worry, I've decided to - if I can stop fiddling with it), and partly because some software in my OS broke during an update and instead of trying fix it I decided to upgrade to the newly released long-term support version because I thought, hey, my OS is years old now. This is the new long-term support version that focuses on stability and stuff. Now's the time! So I painstakingly backed stuff up, prepared, etc., and at first I was very pleased. The main issue I had to fix last time (stuff with my audio drivers) sorted itself out immediately on installation. I was so happy. Then I discovered it had shipped with a glaring problem for people with integrated Intel graphics cards whereby the eyecandy shiny desktop animations cause endless crashes and I'm having to use the boring 2D oldskool desktop with no fancy dock or desktop cube or multiple wallpapers or anything. *plays tiny violin* I'm mostly pissed about this because having investigated I know exactly what the problem is. I need the newest build of mesa, which they just need to pull over to Ubuntu and spin out as an update for people like me, but even though this has been identified for weeks no one has bothered doing it yet. I am...disappoint. And considering installing a virtualbox so I can experiment with compiling it myself, since it seems...super complicated to compile. :/

SO ANYWAY THAT'S ME.

In the meantime, have some thoughts on comics - spoilarz obvs:

1) Swamp Thing. Damn, Swamp Thing, you're...really good. Like good enough I now want to go back and see if I can get the Alan Moore run from my library in order to see who the hell this Anton Arcane dude is. Abby's dad, right? Speaking of Abby, I just...*flails* that was awesome. I love how this comic keeps setting itself up to do something faily then totally flipping it back around. Like, oh, great, her brother is the Avatar of the Rot, oh no wait, it's her after all! Oh, but that means she turns into an angsty monster queen Alec will probably have to kill or depower, hoshit no it doesn't, baby! And just...the art is gorgeous, the world is rich, it's creepy and compelling and Romantic (thematically, hence capitalisation) as hell. It really is just excellent right now.

2) Earth 2. I was originally really excited for this, then increasingly nervous as information became available, talking about the Earth 2 Trinity and how EVERYONE WAS DEAD JIM. I was...pretty irked at fridged Lois, fridged Amazons, etc. Honesty, having read it though, given that EVERYONE REALLY IS DEAD JIM, I'm sort of fine with that. There's a difference between killing Lois as a means to create drama and a darker, angstier Superman and killing Lois as (okay yes backstory to) part of the same story where you're killing Superman a couple pages in to create drama for the world you're building. Sure, I'm disappointed that I won't get to see kickass Superman/Lois scenes or non-sad-making Amazons in that comic, but it does neatly clear the way for a new cast instead of yet moar Trinity stuff. Cus honestly, how many Batmans do we need? So I'm way more all right with it than I thought I'd be. It's about everyone dying not about fridging people so the Trinity can become ultra violent and angsty like I was worried about.

Plus the final full-page image, when taken with the caption is hilarious. Possibly unintentionally. The Flash, lolz.

Plus the art is just spectacular. Nicola Scott needs to draw my life.

3) Worlds' Finest. Okay, potentially controversial opinion time. I'm...not really a huge fan of George Perez's artwork. I get that he's been around forever and is really important and stuff but I just...it's not a style I love. Or that I hate, I just...it's there. But I did enjoy this comic. I'm a little concerned they'll play out Karen's relationship with Michael as totally mercenary rather than more complex than that, but not overly given she is supposed to be heroic, and I'm interested to find out more about their missing five years, and what the hell will happen now Karen's resolved to start publicly tearing up the place...

Again, there's controversy in this one, namely the clarified death of the original Helena Bertinelli. I don't blame people for being upset about that. Quite honestly, given that I didn't think her imminent return was in any way likely because there was another Helena going around as the Huntress who was already using that name as an alias, I actually take a slightly different message from this. Before, there was every reason to believe that "Helena Bertinelli" never even existed and was only ever an alias used by Helena Wayne, making it weirdly coincidental for her to ever show up. Now we know that she did in fact exist as a real person. And given her head isn't shown on a pike, and all we hear is a wistful second-hand tale of how she died, I would actually argue that it's a lot easier to bring her back. It's as simple as suggesting she faked her death and went into witness protection for blabbing on her family's mafia ties.

That said, I don't think that's likely to happen any time soon, and as someone who recently discovered a love of Helena Bertinelli, I'm comfortable saying the loss of her sucks and I understand why people with a more longstanding devotion to her are devastated. I just don't think this additional piece of information is any kind of additional nail in the coffin - as I said, in some ways it actually makes it easier since it cements the fact she was a real, existing person at one point. Which is more than we can say for poor Donna Troy.

4) The Manhattan Projects. Okay so, I got the first one on the recommendation of my local comic shop dude, and I was...well, intrigued I guess. Bascially I see what the art is trying to do but I'm not in love with it and I kind of felt the "wacky weird science" undercut the darker, stranger future that was being hinted at through the interstitial excerpts from "The Recorded Feynman". But, I was also intrigued by the story - again something I felt was undercut by the overly atomic-steampunk-comic-book weirdscience of the background world - of Oppenheimer, on whom the first issue focused. That was a foreboding, troubling tale and I was...fascinated to see how it interwove with the emergent future of those textual glimpses in "Recorded".

So issue two comes out and while the weirdscience is toned down to slightly more acceptable levels, there's really nothing about Oppenheimer. The interstitials continue to be intriguing, but instead I'm stuck with a fictionalised Richard Feynman as protagonist, and dude's basically an egotistical milquetoast jerkface I could care less about and the story is suddenly not about the physics!horror impossible!future of infinitely branching Oppenheimers ushering in a weird, new era, but rather about how in the alternaworld asshole nazi scientists and asshole american scientists both want an ends-justifies-the-means future of shiny tech and space travel and honestly it just starts to feel ironically ("ironically"?) jingoistic in a way I feel isn't all that original.

Both are stories that tease a future that is strange and frightening, compelling, but ultimately - as far as we can tell - morally neutral, but quite possibly created due to horrors wrought in the present. This is interesting. But...it was far more intriguing in the first issue than the second.

I'll keep reading but I'm no longer as intrigued.

5) Saga, on the other hand, is straight up totally freaking awesome ot the point I don't even wanna talk about it, I just want the NEXT ONE. Somehow it's this fantastic dark/light scifantasy world where the ~horrors of war~ exist hand in hand with the Rocketship Forest which might actually just be a Rocketship Forest.

Comments

[emmiere.livejournal.com]

Hey awesome, I haven't followed any of these, but since tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day at one local place at least, it's good to have potential things to get in addition to. :)

Plus the art is just spectacular. Nicola Scott needs to draw my life.


Nicola Scott was *all* I needed to know right now.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

FCBD! I totally forgot about that, but I'm not sure if my LCS is doing it. Might have to try Forbidden Planet.

And omgs, yes, I'm so relived I didn't feel awkward about reading it because Nicola Scott. And it's some of the best stuff I've seen from her, she's fantastic. <3

As to the rest, let me know what you think if you pick anything up. Saga's a good pick perhaps since it's only up to issue #2.

[goodbyebird]

I have the first two issues of Saga about, so I'll read them sooner or later. I do like bulking up with a few more issues so i can sink my teeth in, but I've heard some pretty good things all over the place, I may not be able to wait.

Also plans to start in on Animal Man, but gah I haven't even read the latest Batwoman yet! Mass Effect swallowed all my spare time! And then it made me kill a certain someone D: and frustrated me with my lack of conversation options with EDI(where I would be torn between ach that is WRONG and but this could have disastrous consequences, be more specific woman!), but did not at all let me down with the ending.

Oh, there's a icon request fest up. You can submit caps/scans/covers or whatnot and distract me from how everybody is all about The Avengers and everything hurts and I'm just trying not to click their damn cut-tags.

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Oh god yes, that perennial problem; read now or read when you don't feel like you're watching a tv series five minutes at a time. The first issue of Saga is double-sized and really feels like a proper chunk of worldbuilding/backstory and story though.

I've read Animal Man - it's good but gross. I mean, appropriately gross given it's a dark, creepy horror story, but...be prepared to be seriously creeped out is what I'm saying.

MASS EFFECT!

Dude, it is probably a bit sad how relieved I am that the ending did not let you down. But probably not as sad as all the hate it receives makes me. I...genuinely liked it. It's awesome that you played the games, though - I want to know ALL YOUR THOUGHTS on ALL OF IT RIGHT NOW. :p

Also EDI. God I love her. I know what you mean about the dialogue options. ME3 in general had a lot fewer "middle of the road" dialogue options. I imagine the practical reason is just that they had to code so many more variations on what was going on based on previous choices in previous games they didn't have space, but it was a bit of a shame. That said, I was always like, "Yes, EDI, whatever you want, EDI. I FOR ONE WELCOME YOU AS MY NEW ROBOT OVERLORD." Probably I should have been more critical of some of her statements but I just wanted to draw sparkly hearts around her forever.

(See also my reaction to the final choice: kill EDI? lolznowayinhell. What were those other two again?)

ALSO WHUT ICON REQUESTS?! Okay yeah I may have to go play in that link. Need to put some thought into what I request though. GAH SO MANY IDEAS. And I always feel like such a talent thief since I can't icon for crap. ;) All hail the gift culture of the interwebs. ♥

[goodbyebird]

That's good to know :D

And gross is a ok by me. You pretty much can't gross me out. Unless it's something navel-related. Oh my god I just made myself uncomfortable by writing "naval-related". Grosssss.

Dude, it is probably a bit sad how relieved I am that the ending did not let you down.

I had an imaginary land community comment meme conversation going in my head while clearing the tables earlier. Do not talk to me about sad.

But holy hell why so many complaints, internet?? How did they think it was going to end? I didn't find I wanted more conclusions to the game, but conversation options? Hells yeah. Like, HAI COMPUTER DOUCHE, YOU'RE THE ONE KILLING PEOPLE. AND YOU KILL PEOPLE BECAUSE TECHNOLOGY HAS GONE TOO FAR AND THE MACHINES WILL, UM, KILL PEOPLE. I think they need to clear their logics cache or something :/ Also, Geth are awesome when you - yes, yoooou - are not hacking them and turning them into, well, into you.

And then I wanted there to be more eyerolling. Because goddamn that makes no sense. Also, all the chatting with the Smoking Man. Just let me shoot him already. On sight.

With EDI, I was also HAI BE MY ROBOT OVERLORD :D because even though that was a dangerous thing to say(this being where I wanted nuances dammit!) the other option is just plain WRONG. If people don't want stuff making their own decisions and living their own lives, DO NOT MAKE SENTIENT MACHINES FFS. I mean, if someone creates a kid and then kills him when he fails to follow an order or keeps him chained in the basement, guess what, we call the cops on their asses. Same thing goes for machines; if they're sentient, they get to have free will, you douche. It really did feel like a bit of a bail out that we didn't get to do more with EDI especially since technology and all that has such a prominent place in the games. Also, a let down to see the fanservicey route they were taking her in. Like, I could have tried to encourage all kinds of bad behavior from her, but she still would have wound up resting her shoulder ever so gently on Joker's shoulder. The stuff with Legion in ME2 was much more interesting. Man, just give me an interesting AI discussing the Bible with befuddled ex-FBI agents developing their own sense of morality and self any day *wistful sigh*

And yes, Machines live on foreverrrr :D I honestly don't see myself changing the end decision. I did try to go back and start in on the first game to do all the side missions but using a different character design with a different name and personality, I wound up with a complete disconnect due to her having the same voice. Like, my brain would get all worked up and go IMPOSTER! So I think I'll have to do the second play-through with a male character. but that means I get to hit on Tali, no? Because I wanted to talk with her more. Sucks how conversation options dried up when you weren't aiming for people's pants region.

Oh, and did Miranda die in your version? I kept wondering if she survived if you gave her Alliance Resources. I mean, she asked me and I said no because HAI she used to be Cerberus' highly trusted employee, and when I asked her what she wanted the resources for she wouldn't say. So I said no.

Last thing, this time I did bang my assistant. No fishes were hurt in the making of this bang. *g*

And I always feel like such a talent thief since I can't icon for crap. ;) All hail the gift culture of the interwebs.

ahaha yes you talent thief who contributes tons of fucking awesome vids and meta absolutely nothing. I'm trying to get the comm going, but most people don't seem interested(that includes the people in the poll that said yes we are, liarrrs), and when new people make posts to the community nobody comments and they all go away *sadface*

I did post a request for Angel & Faith(torn between that and Batwoman, so naturally I think of you tee hee), where I by pure chance included a scan with Drusilla and a shirt-less Angel. Am I going to explain what's going on there? NOPE. You gotta read the comics and see, suckas! *walks away whistling*

[beccatoria.livejournal.com]

Hahahaa, see cus I'm one of the five people on the internet who actually thinks it makes perfect sense if you're a bajillion year old AI with no concern other than the preservation of organic life as a whole rather than any individual example of it, but possibly because of things I was bringing to my experience from elsewhere in my...mad dash through scifi fandom? Cus like, from the time Legion started going on about building that Dyson Sphere and how he had no idea what the Geth's future would be because they would become intelligent on a level currently inconceivable to them, so how could they possibly know what their new priorities and desires would be, I was like HOMGZ TECHNOLOGICAL SINGULARITY (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity)!

So the Catalyst is sort of...doing the equivalent of wandering around in the 40s killing off nuclear physicists to prevent the creation of the atom bomb because it's convinced that the risk of the inevitable cold war turning out differently is too great. And I didn't agree with his solution, but I understood it, so my Shepard went into that green shaft of light because she thought it was the best way to put an end to the cycle and save everyone, but also because she thought it was a genuinely better solution to the increasingly dangerous and delicate subject of synthetic/organic relations than simply hoping for the best, when she'd seen far too many times when it almost tipped over into disaster, and seen too much damage from the times it did, and just doesn't have enough faith that every time we walk to the brink of devastation, someone levelheaded will be there to walk it back. Too many...children playing with nukes.

But...my interpretation aside, I'm surprised at everyone's reactions because I don't think it matters. Sure, I saw him as a character with a legitimate concern and a terrible solution, but if I saw him as a character with an illegitimate concern, then he simply becomes a different type of villain - the one who has become the very thing he sought to prevent - by preventing more advanced synthetic life from threatening organic life, he has become the largest synthetic threat to organic life due to twisted machine logic. And so...if he has a point or if he's batshit insane, it's a different story but it's still one that works, and it absolutely SHOULD be up to our individual Shepards whether or not we agree with his points?

*throws up hands*

I rant, I rant. Sorry! ;)

Regarding replaying, my second "alternate choices" Shepard is a dude cus I figured I'd do something different. Honestly, the voice actor is, in my opinion, pretty dire. Which is weird because I later found out he does lots of other minor characters in the games and those I've all enjoyed! But as Shepard? Eesh.

Miranda did survive for me! I think I gave her the resources even though I felt a bit iffy about it. I think her dying can also depend on whether you warn her about Kai Leng and what you say to her dad at the end and what choices you choose there. I actually think in future I'm gonna let her die for Teh Drama though, cus I'm callous that way. ;)

Also: TRAYNOR. God I love her. I didn't bang her, but I thoroughly respect your choice. I saw a hilarious clip on YouTube where she says something about refusing to feed your fish! I need to play at least once where I do romance her if only to get that comment! XD

Re: Thieving, :p okay, fine, but I still get to admire iconists. And regarding your lower comment, I have made ONE icon and I honestly can't remember how I did it! Hopefully it will never need to happen again thanks to stuff like this iconfest!

Re: LJ/DW - gah I know, LJ in general is dying and I feel I'm not helping but at the same time it distresses me deeply. I have nothing comforting to offer except *hugs* and this clip of Traynor talking about her toothbrush (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLzXqnq7FOM).

[goodbyebird]

And you made this so you can totally icon!