#opinion
Ukraine>Will Smith Slap> School shooting
What’s the next distraction???
Funny how people quickly forget about these previous events
tell me what pisses you off when you’re reading fanfic. I’ll go first:
Idespise cross-fandom one shot compilations, and one shot compilations that use relationship tags that are not actually in the compilation.
What is the most Ariesthing an Aries placement has said to you?
What fictional character do you think best embodies Aries energy? ♈
“Tal vez no hay tal cosa como el destino. Tal vez son sólo las oportunidades que nos dan, y lo que hacemos con ellas.”
Remember ladies and gentlemen this generation loves performative activism without actually doing anything themselves or for others.
Scorpio, Leo, Aries, Virgo, Sagittarius & Capricorn
Lately being drunk has brought to my life many disappointments and trouble. My friend with benefits and I had been fighting a lot because of this problem.
The fact is that being with him is only pleasant and exciting when I’m drunk or when I get to smoke weed. But everytime this happens before, he tells me he doesn’t like me when I’m like this. He adds comments like: “You just look so stupid” “You become unbearable everytime you smoke or get drunk”.
The thing is that the last time we saw each other I was COMPLETELY drunk, after a meeting party with my school mates. I can’t remember what happened that night, but he is really upset. He doesn’t want to know anything about me or even hear my name.
Summer is coming and I’m starting my new life as a “proana” so I just have to wait to be skinny for him to come back right?
Been thinking of new avenues to pursue and video/a podcast has always something I’ve been interested in trying to start. What are y’all’s opinion on one for the blog?
Please let me know!
I’m not a big fan of Valentine’s Day, I never have been. Technically it is supposed to be a day to exchange tokens and affection. So if you have a significant other, great. Enjoy your day, but love them like you do every other day of the year. Sure, today may be a day that gives you reason to do something dramatic like buy an entire store’s worth of chocolates or an oversize teddy bear. But otherwise, you shouldn’t need one day to appreciate other people. If you are single, don’t get down about today. It is just another day of the year. Appreciate the people in your lives who love you, starting with your family and close friends. Like I said though, you should really appreciate these people every day.
Valentine’s day isn’t a problem for me because I am bitter or jealous of couples, because I’m not. I don’t like it because I find it obnoxious that it is one day out of the year designated to exchange affection. Do it everyday.
I want to expand AstronomyNerd into other social media platforms. Ideas are:
- Etsy (I do love to craft, it’d be astronomy related products!)
- Periscope
Or if you nerds use any other type of sites, let me know! What do you think I should expand to?
Katie is a character I really would have vibed with if I were still in high school. She’s a spunky aspiring filmmaker with a “lol random” sense of humor and chronic Nobody Gets Me syndrome. Which hey, might have been true. The film doesn’t show any of Katie’s friends before getting to college, so maybe she had zero friends in high school, but I digress.
Katie has one brother and two parents, none of which have red hair. The main conflict of the film is the progressive, redheaded Katie not getting along with or understanding her bearded traditional father, and suddenly I’m getting The Little Mermaid flashbacks. Not that that’s a bad thing.
So, how does she rank?
You can check out the full post here.
Livin’ like Neo
SUPER. HOT. SUPER. HOT. Hearing these words repeat ominously as I watched my glorious replay after completing a level in SUPERHOT gave me a strange sense of power and satisfaction. SUPERHOTmade me feel like an unstoppable badass by the end of its levels which were both challenging and interesting to play through. It’s too bad then that the game ends far too soon and never really…
Cities: Skylines Snowfall Review
Nothing burns like the cold
As winter comes to a close (and comes to a peak for some of us) Cities: Skylines’ Snowfallexpansion sets out to bring the wonder, beauty, and civil engineering struggles that come with the ice cold weather. This new DLC comes packed with new winter themed parks, monuments, and transportation options as well as new gameplay mechanics that complement the seasonal…
I’M STILL WEARING A MASK
Superman 2021
The beginning of the epilogue era for this blog - I promised I would do one last ‘State of the Union’ for Superman, and I actually took notes this year to make sure I wouldn’t miss anything substantial so I’d just as soon not let those go to waste. Which is good because otherwise something definitely would have gotten lost in the shuffle of what’s been on balance the best year for Superman since 1978.
Now, the qualifier there is 'best year for Superman since 1978’ would be 'above average!’ in Batman terms, but looking at the across-the-board success with a minimum of things going horrifically wrong (the only thing I recall landing with a total splat this year was Conner Kent’s inclusion in the Suicide Squad book and Injustice)? It truly feels like the powers that be shook their heads, opened their eyes, and remembered that Superman is not in fact by definition a cursed albatross, but rather a really big deal worth capitalizing on in a variety of ways to make a shitload of money. I suspect this is a matter of the new ownership going “…wait. We have Superman, and pretty recently he was a significantly lower priority than this guy?” Not that I’m inclined to salute the beneficence of corporate decisionmakers, but I’m glad the dominos at least fell in a good direction for once that seem to be setting up my favorite character for a vibrant, fascinating near future.
Comics
* The year kicked off with Future State, where for once Superman was the pretty clear winner of the line. Phillip Kennedy Johnson came out of the gate strong, Mark Russell and Steve Pugh reunited for Superman vs. Imperious Lex,Superman of MetropolisandSuperwoman, Kara Zor-El were both solid, Gene Yang kicked off his brief tenure in the line with Batman/Superman, and Dan Watters and Leila Del Duca’s Superman/Wonder Woman was for my money easily the best Jon Kent story to date.
* PKJ briefly took over both the primary Superman titles, remaining on Action Comics on a longterm basis; while news of his tenure was initially met with little excitement his work ultimately won over readers in a huge way, in no small part thanks to the unbelievable interior work of Daniel Sampere (who while leaving will soon be succeeded by the incredible Riccardo Federici) and the astounding variant covers of J. Totino Tedesco. Meanwhile Tom Taylor and Jon Timms launched the long expected Jon Kent Superman title as Son of Kal-El, which has varied significantly in critical response from issue to issue but grabbed mainstream headlines for having Jon be revealed as bi, making a queer Superman one of DC’s flagship characters. And acting as springboard for the new status quo was not only Grant Morrison’s return to the character but apparently truly final farewell to superhero comics (outside the occasional new installment of Klaus) in Superman & The Authority with Mikel Janin.
* In the 'family’ of assorted Superman titles were Tom King and Bilquis Evely’s gorgeous, melancholy Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, Gene Yang and Ivan Reis’ beautifully clever The Archive of Worlds arc on Batman/Superman, and Robert Venditti’s solid and fan-favorite work on Superman '78 with Wilfredo Torres and the newly-launched World of Krypton with Michael Avon Oeming. Also while it has yet to hit the states Superman’s secured a manga series in Superman vs. Meshi, a series of him flying around Japan trying different local cuisines, and I want it immediately.
* In the more 'prestige’ corner, Superman at long last received his own counterpart to Batman: Black and WhiteinSuperman: Red and Blue, which churned out a fistful of all-timer short stories; John Ridley, Giuseppe Camuncoli, and Alex Dos Diaz’s long-awaited The Other History Of The DC Universe used Superman as one of the main ongoing background figures, presenting him in a shockingly critical and nuanced light; Superman vs. Lobo marked Superman’s second time up under Black Label, to…mixed results.
* Superman held a presence in assorted team and event/Elseworlds titles such as Justice League,Infinite Frontier (which resulted in Brandon Thomas and Valentine De Landro’s spectacular President Superman story) and Justice League Incarnate,Event Leviathan: Checkmate,Justice League: Last Ride,Dark Knights of Steel,Justice League Infinity, and in a truly unexpected move made seemingly to delight me and me alone, RWBY/Justice League. Alongside all that, Lex Luthor is the anchoring figure of Tom King and Greg Smallwood’s The Human Target.
* On the analogue front, Utopian II headed up the hilariously timed Jupiter’s Legacy: Requiem, while Steve Orlando presented Prizefighter and the eponymous Patron in the excellent Commanders in CrisisandProject Patron.
Mass-Media
* While CW’s Supergirlconcluded this year with its sixth season, it had already given birth to its successor series in Superman & Lois, the first live-action show starring Clark Kent as Superman in over two decades, debuting to about as close to universal acclaim as any mass-media Superman project has received since at least Superman: The Animated Series if not in fact the original Christopher Reeve movies (though with behind-the-scenes controversies that mustn’t be ignored). Notably it found far greater ratings success in streaming and BBC rebroadcast than on the CW proper.
* After years of sustained and severe agitation on social media by fandom in the name of the 'Snyder Cut’ - received depending on who you ask as a united front in the name of a mistreated creator who had suffered horrific personal tragedy, a crazed and gleefully virulent broad harassment campaign, or indeed some of both columns - Warner Brothers announced it would allow Zack Snyder to complete editing and VFX work on his original vision of Justice League (before the infamous reshoots and substantial alterations by Joss Whedon seen in the 2017 release) as an HBO Max exclusive. Zack Snyder’s Justice League, ultimately running $70 million and a theatrically unthinkable four hours, was released to shockingly widespread approval including from many who had disdained the director’s previous work with the characters.
* Superman appeared in Fortnite, which according to people much more tuned-in than me as to what video games are actually popular these days is a Very Big Deal, so that’s cool. That suit’s grody as hell though.
* Idris Elba was the lead of The Suicide Squad as a Superman villain. Bloodsport of all dudes, but.
* An Injusticeanimated movie dropped, with Superman also appearing in Justice Society: World War II.
* The overtly Superman-inspired Invincibledebuted on Amazon Prime to massive success, immediately being renewed through season 3. Netflix’s somewhat similar project in Jupiter’s Legacy debuted to…less.
Comics Announcements
* After over a decade away from DC Comics as a result of internal politics Mark Waid is returning, with an ongoing Batman/Superman: World’s Finest title illustrated by Dan Mora, and a 3-issue large-format Black Label miniseries drawn by Bryan Hitch and inked by Kevin Nowlan acting as a sequel to Superman: Birthright and exploring a 'grown-up’ take on Superman’s refusal to kill.
* Scott Snyder revealed in a podcast interview that his eventual return to DC Comics is planned to include a Superman-led event book acting as a companion and thematic trilogy-capper to the Batman-centric Metaland Wonder Woman-focused Death Metal.
*Superman & Lois: Ignition by Collin Kelly, Jackson Lanzing, and Vasco Georgiev was placed in the running for DC’s controversial Round Robin contest, with the couple on an interstellar odyssey to survive a boobytrapped solar system. While as expected from the beginning the Robinstitle easily won the vote, the editors behind the project noted their intent that some of the other proposed titles could still ultimately be published, and with Kelly and Lanzing’s star rising with the upcoming Batman Beyond: Neo-Year miniseries hope remains that the title could see publication.
Mass-Media Announcements
* Famed author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates is scripting a new Superman movie produced by J.J. Abrams; apparently apart from the shared universe of DC films in the same fashion as The BatmanandJoker, it will reportedly star a Black Clark Kent and may be a period piece.
* Sasha Calle will be debuting as a new take on Supergirl in 2022’s The Flash.
* Michael B. Jordan will be executive producing and possibly starring in an HBO Max Val-Zod series written by Darnell Metayer and Josh Peters.
*My Adventures of Superman, an animated reinterpretation of the character’s early years focusing on Lois, Clark, and Jimmy as a trio apparently in a post-Steven Universe/Infinity Train vein, will debut on HBO Max and Cartoon Network in 2023 with an initial two-season order. Cartoonist Jake Wyatt and frequent DC animation director (as well as Voltron: The Legendary Defender,Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, and The Venture Bros.) Brendan Clogher will be co-executive producing with She-Ra head writer Josie Cambell producing, and with Jack Quaid and Alice Lee starring as Clark and Lois respectively.
*DC League of Super-Pets will debut theatrically in 2022, with Dwayne The Rock Johnson as Krypto and John Krasinski as Superman.
*Battle of the Super Sons will be DC’s first CG-animated DTV movie in 2022.
* There will be Superman and/or Lois Lane narrative podcasts on Spotify alongside the upcoming Batman Unburied.
* Superman will be one of the initial characters in the upcoming free-to-play fighter MultiVersus.
* Brian Bendis is writing for an HBO Max Legion of Super-Heroes adult animated series based on his reboot of the concept with Ryan Sook, presumably starring Jon Kent in the lead role.
Other items of note
* Tom Welling and Brandon Routh have both expressed interest in returning to (or in the former’s case donning for the first time) the cape in future projects, both actively pursuing the prospects with Welling and Michael Rosenbaum apparently pitching an animated Smallvillerevival.
*Lavender Jack cartoonist Dan Schkade shared his personal project David Lynch’s Superboy on Twitter.
* Karl Kerschl posted a Superman short story illustrated from a Scott Kurtz script shared 8 years earlier.
* Vladimir Nabokov’s unpublished 1942 Superman poem The Man of To-Morrow’s Lament was discovered.
* Lead developer Salvatrix revealed details and footage from the infamously cancelled Factor 5 PS3/Xbox 360-era Superman game codenamed 'Blue Steel’.
* Character designer Phil Bourassa shared several images from a scrapped Superman project starring an older Man of Tomorrow and several young new members of the Superman Family.
* Gabriel Hardman revealed pitch art from an unrealized Elseworlds Superman OGN.
* Giant Panda King, creators of the elaborate coffee table book fan project Gotham: 1919-1939, have expressed their intent to follow it up with Metropolis: 1925-1945.
*Ritesh Babu,Sean Dillon, and I each had work published on the subject of Grant Morrison’s Superman this year, with my piece including spectacular commissioned art by Max Kay. Elsewhere in the critical sphere ComicsXF published Zack Rabiroff’s essential Superman The Jew: History Of A People Through The World’s Greatest Hero.
*@khancrackers revealed on Twitter detailsandearly artwork for his planned Superman/Multiversityinspired TTRPG Up! Up! And Beyond!
* Ed Pinsent and Mark Robinson’s cult classic fancomic Silver Age Supermanwas finally reprinted nearly 30 years later.