In news that is both awesome and probably terrible, WB/DC is talking about making a Nightwing movie.

If it's not two hours of dick jokes and gratuitous ass shots while Dick gets tied up and escapes repeatedly, preferably with strategically placed rips to his clothing, then I don't even want to know.

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Orphan Black: The Scandal of Altruism
( spoilersCollapse )

There was a lot going on here, and I'm not sure it all makes sense, but I feel that way about all of OB, so... here's a good layout of the various players in the various levels of conspiracy. I don't think it's any more coherent than X-Files ever was, but hopefully it will end before it collapses under its own weight, and really, I'm watching for the clones and their various friends and family, not for the plot. *hands*

Speaking of clones, I was discussing The Clone Wars with two entirely different people last night, and in addition to encouraging silveronthethree to possibly write some AU fic, I still have the same two major questions I have always had, which are:

1. Who in their right minds sends a 14 year old to war? (let alone puts her in command of troops!)

and

2. Who thinks having a 20 year old with impulse control issues supervise her is a good idea? (I mean, okay, Obi-Wan is there a lot of the time, and he is nominally an adult, but it's not like he's not pulling reckless stunts all the time either. He's just better at talking other people around in the aftermath.)

And girlinthetrilby was like, "well, the same sort of people who elect a 14yo as planetary ruler," which is a whole 'nother WTF!

I mean, I love the show and I love Ahsoka and her relationship with Anakin (and I do think it was a good thing for both of them despite how things turned out), but that is a super dodgy way to raise children entrusted to you, especially in a supposedly more enlightened/more advanced society. I am just saying.

Anyway! Here are some other links of interest:

= Living Dead Boy: Jason Todd vs. The Culture That Killed (And Resurrected) Him, an interesting look at the second Robin, why he existed in the first place, why he was killed off, and why he was eventually resurrected (though it doesn't really go into why no one at DC aside from Judd Winick seems to know what to do with him; apparently he's "evil" again in rebirth? Which. The whole thing sounds like a big mess, so I'm gonna wait to see what it does with my faves. At least Wally is no longer written out of existence?).

= Markus & McFeely clarify their statements about Bucky. Apparently they were asked about that interview where they said Bucky should be punished for the things he did while he was brainwashed and had been tortured for 70 years and stripped of agency, and their response was: ( spoilers for Civil WarCollapse ) So that seems more in line with what actually happens in the movies and also how the character is portrayed than their original flip response that he shouldn't be eating fruit salads with Steve after all the people he killed as the Winter Soldier.

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I left about 15 minutes early this morning and just took the 6 - the fastest, most direct way to get to work, even if I hate it - because the MTA's vague yet foreboding emails ("Trains may skip stops or they may run as regularly scheduled. We just don't know. Listen for announcements.") made me a little concerned (I was going to skip the crosstown bus anyway, because they're running the 72nd St bus as well as the 79th St bus over the 79th St Transverse through the park, and also Madison Avenue is shut down in the 70s? Or something?). I was here SO EARLY. Even with stopping at an all new, all different, still terribly slow Starbucks on the way. Hopefully getting home will be just as trouble-free.

***

The Mets' magic number is THREE. AMAZIN'. (Can I just admit that the apostrophe in AMAZIN'S makes me crazy? I know it's correct(ish) because the nickname is a shortened form of "The Amazin' Mets," aka the 1969 Mets, so it's technically not using the apostrophe to make a plural, but every time I see it in the paper it makes me cringe.)

Plus, the Giants actually held on to win against Washington! I went to bed when they were still leading by two TDs but there was like 3 minutes left, so it could have ended poorly yet again, but luckily it didn't.

Also, the Rangers were playing Boston in a preseason game and Hank looked pretty good from what little I saw.

My theory of sports is that when there is too much going on, I watch the most important/meaningful game if there's a conflict. So if the Rangers are making a Cup run, I don't watch April-May baseball when the games are on at the same time, I watch the Rangers; if the Mets are in a pennant race (or whatever), I'll choose them over the Giants on a September Sunday (or Thursday); and if the Giants are playing a big game in December or January, I'll watch them over the Rangers if they're on at the same time. (I...don't care about basketball? And also the Knicks are terrible. Which makes things a little easier.)

Frequently, having a winning hockey or football team makes up for having a losing baseball team. It's something to look forward to, anyway. (My hockey watching spikes after football is over but before baseball starts.) It's when all your teams are terrible that sports is sad year 'round, and yet I do it to myself anyway.

***

In other news, I've never made an eligibility evidence post before, but the yuletide rules about related fandoms are confusing me, and since two of my requests look like they may be too big (Check, Please! and Raven Cycle), I want to have other things to request available!

So should I post about We Are Robin and Gotham Academy? The former doesn't even have a tag on AO3 or a category on FF.net (there are three complete stories tagged "Duke Thomas" on AO3 and none tagged "Riko Sheridan" or "Isabella Ortiz"), and the latter has five complete stories on AO3, only 4 of which are over 1000 words, and no category on FF.net (can you even search by character on FF.net? I don't know).

While there are some crossover cameos from ineligible characters (Alfred Pennyworth, Jim Gordon, Barbara Gordon for We Are Robin (though it looks like Damian may appear in a later issue), and Bruce and Damian Wayne in Gotham Academy), that's exactly what they are - cameos.

Tell me, o wise flist of mine, should I take a chance and nom without making an evidence post, or should I suck it up and do the work, especially since these two comics are clearly eligible despite being related to Batman?

eta: AV Club is on my wavelength today: Grayson, We Are Robin, and the exciting evolution of Batman’s sidekicks.

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It's the two year anniversary of my mother's death. I'm sad. I miss her. I dream about her a lot.

Also, RIP Yogi Berra. As he once said, "Always go to other people's funerals. Otherwise they won't go to yours."

***

I watched The Muppets last night, but I didn't think it was very good. It didn't make me laugh hardly at all. It seemed more mean-spirited than it should be (outside of Waldorf and Statler) and also didn't seem to have the same anarchic glee that anything could happen at any moment (and I'm not the only one who thought so). I want less of whatever that was and more moments where it's possible someone will get hit by a flying fish or get shot out of a cannon.

***

Books!

What I've just finished
The Oracle Glass by Judith Merkle Riley, which I liked but didn't love. I found the setting fascinating and horrific, and the book a compelling read, but I didn't love Genevieve as much as I thought I would. I don't know. I did have to keep reminding myself that she was very young.

Batman: The Court of Owls by Scott Snyder et al. Overall, I enjoyed it, because I love stories where the whole Batfamily and various allies have to pull together to save Gotham from some nefarious and far-reaching plot, but I think it suffers in a number of ways:

( I guess this is all spoilers, if anyone caresCollapse )

3. Also, and this came up in the latest issue of Grayson, which I read on the subway this morning: the reboot appears to have no idea how to fit Tim into the Batfamily. I haven't read any of the reboot books that center on him (are there any? Teen Titans looked dreadful and unless they've fixed it*, I refuse to accept the reboot version of Superboy), but he's negligible in Court of Owls, which was surprising to me, given that I thought the Drakes were a leading family in Gotham. He shows up in a couple of panels, but he barely speaks and has no major interactions with anyone that I can recall. Jason, Damian, and Barbara all get some moment of character development with the Talons (and obviously the impact on Bruce, Dick, and Alfred is central to the story) but Tim is nowhere in that (unless I missed something). And that seemed really weird. Though I guess it is a large cast of characters to juggle.

*Given that they seem to have revamped Starfire to make her more like the old version (or the animated version) of the character, or at least like a version people liked, this is something that could have happened.

And then in today's issue of Grayson, the story wants to play on his and Dick's relationship but it seems to me that he and Dick don't have the close brotherly relationship they do pre-reboot, so it relies on readers' attachment to that pre-reboot version to work.

( spoilerCollapse )

It also wants to play on some of the Dick and Babs stuff that happened pre-reboot - ( spoilerCollapse ) and that's just not...you don't get to demand that we pretend all this stuff never happened because you want to streamline the continuity, and then try to piggyback an emotional climax of your story onto something you previously discarded.

And the thing is, I am all for picking and choosing what things from canon you want to integrate into your stories, especially in comics where there's so much history, but I feel like once you've made that overall editorial choice, it's cheap to be like, "but no! this thing still happened because I need you to feel something now that relies on it!"

I don't even know if that makes sense, but that's how it came across to me, with both Tim and Babs.

( spoiler for something I *did* likeCollapse )

I, um, maybe have a surfeit of Batfeelings.

And I already talked about the other comics I read over the weekend.

What I'm reading now
Half-Resurrection Blues (Bone Street Rumba #1) by Daniel José Older, which I read about the first four pages of on the subway this morning, so I have nothing to say about it yet, except it's set in NYC and was well-reviewed by spectralbovine.

What I'm reading next
As always, it is a mystery.

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For those of you observing Yom Kippur, I hope you have an easy fast. <3

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In preparation for yuletide, today I read the first three issues of We Are Robin, which I liked, though ( spoilersCollapse ) So I'm interested in reading more, especially if Damian, the official Robin, actually shows up, because I'm also interested in knowing how Bruce is going to react. (Also, Dick, Jason and Tim. I'd say Steph but they still haven't recognized that she was a Robin. Pfft.)

I also read Gotham Academy. ♥MAPS♥ Oh my gosh, you guys, it's so much fun. If you are interested in a Gotham-set gothic boarding school comic about excellent teen (and pre-teen in Maps' case) girl detectives, plus the boys who tag along with them (1 ( spoilerCollapse ), 1 juvenile delinquent, and 1 tennis prodigy, plus Damian Wayne for one awesome one-shot issue where Maps and Damian make the best team ever), this is the book for you.

Olive is a Wayne-scholarship student at Gotham Academy, which has all sorts of spooky goings on from ghosts to mysterious fires to underground tunnels and it's also tied to a lot of Gotham history via the Waynes, the Cobblepots, and other first families of the city.

The book opens when Olive is asked to be a mentor to new student Mia "Maps" Mizoguchi, who happens to be her hot tennis-playing (ex?-)boyfriend's little sister.

Maps is ADORABLE AND AMAZING. There's artwork of her as Robin, and she SO TOTALLY should be Robin. She's already working the detective skills and she's fearless.

There's also Pomeline Fritch, who appears to be a stereotypical mean girl, but ends up being really into the occult and thus a resource for Olive and Maps to tap.

The three of them are the main characters, and there are some boys in supporting roles, but they're less interesting.

( spoilersCollapse )

Anyway, it's a lot of fun and I totally recommend it. Plus on the rare occasions he cameos, Bruce is really pretty. (I thought he was Dick at first.)

Also, if you're looking for an age-appropriate comic for 10-12-year-olds, this would certainly fit the bill along with Ms. Marvel.

Now, onto Grayson vol. 1. (That's not for yuletide. I just need some Dick...Grayson in my life. That sentence almost got away from me. But don't we all need a little Dick...Grayson in our lives?)

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To Get a Dirty Job Done (The Redheaded Woman Remix)
DCU; Dick/Steph; adult; 1,880 words
Dick and Steph go undercover at a masked ball and things get a little hot and heavy.

Remix of Redheads Have More Fun by amathela. Title from Springsteen. Pre-reboot. Thanks to Nichole & Laura for turning it around so quickly. Or read it at AO3.

( It takes a redheaded woman / To get a dirty job doneCollapse )

~*~

Feedback is always appreciated.

~*~

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December 11: heatherlayne_n asked me to talk about Tony Stark.

I'm limiting this to movieverse Tony, because no one needs to witness my vitriolic rant about 616!Tony ever again (far too many of you have been subjected to it in person, and I'm sorry you had to see me like that). I don't spend a lot of time thinking about Tony, so I have no grand unified theory of Tony Stark, so I'm just going to ramble on a bit about him.

I really loved the first Iron Man. I came out of it so pleased to find a superhero who was excited about what he could do as a hero, rather than seeing it as some terrible tragic burden (I recall comparing it to The Dark Knight, which came out that summer as well - I have never rewatched TDK, but I've watched Iron Man a number of times). I like that about Tony. That he has a sense of fun in what he's doing - that he's excited not just by the tech he's able to create and implement, but also by the idea of actually saving people.

I like that Tony's gotten a complete arc in the movies - we see him as douchebag rich guy playboy before Afghanistan, we see his trials as a hostage, and how deeply it marks him and how much Yinsen means to him, the one father figure who didn't betray him (though he did lie, I like to think Tony's forgiven Yinsen for that, even as he lives with his own survivor's guilt), we see him realize the value of the people closest to him - Pepper, Rhodey and even Happy - and also how his life of privileged rich white guy not giving a fuck had a serious and damaging impact on the world.

We see him try to deal with his daddy issues - not just Howard (which therapy would surely help with a lot, mostly because I subscribe to the Howard was cold, withholding, and neglectful but not physically abusive theory, and by the time you're in your forties you should know enough about life to be dealing with that shit in therapy not in the bottom of a bottle of scotch) but also Stane (tied with Pierce for the scariest - and most effective - MCU villain, imo) (so many of Tony's issues with SHIELD and Fury tie back to his problems with his father figures; I wish we knew anything at all about Maria Stark and whether she was a counterbalance to or a reinforcement of Howard's behavior). I really like that at least one prior-to-Yinsen father figure was a good influence - otherwise, I doubt Tony would have named and modeled JARVIS after him.

I like that in all three of Tony's movies, Pepper dispatches the main villain (Stane, Hammer, Aldrich) while Tony is otherwise occupied. I love Tony/Pepper and have since the first movie, because they are two people with complementary baggage, and I find myself completely uninterested in a Tony without a Pepper. To me, they go together like scotch and soda. (I also like Pepper and Rhodey more than I like Tony - I enjoy him in small doses, but his narcissism can be wearing.) I love that he made her a terrible "I'm dying" omelet and that he can't remember that she's allergic to strawberries, but she's willing to support his quest to become a better person - not for her, she knows better than that - but for himself.

I like that he reached out to Bruce, though I also think he didn't really think through what the differences between Bruce's hero's journey and his own. It's not that I don't think Tony can be empathetic, but I do think, like many of us, he has a hard time seeing beyond the blinders of his privilege. (I also really liked all the mirror imagery we got of Tony and Bruce in the Avengers; I think their relationship was one of the most successful parts of the movie.)

I like that by the end of Iron Man 3 we see him a much better place, both mentally and physically (and that's why I'm not really excited about Age of Ultron and Cap 3 centering on his issues again; let someone else take the spotlight now. I mean, I get why financially it makes sense for Marvel, but narratively speaking, even Avengers should have been Thor's show emotionally, rather than Tony's, and I don't know how interested I am in another round of "Tony no!" when there are so many other, more interesting stories (Natasha, Steve, Bucky, Sam) to tell.)

Otoh, if they wanted to make a Tony/Pepper drink martinis and solve murders while bantering and looking fabulous movie, like a modern day Nick and Nora Charles, that I'd be interested in watching.

Speaking of (former) billionaire playboy superheroes...

Arrow: The Climb
( spoilersCollapse )

Given that the first half of this season was kind of unfocused and less good than the show is capable of being, they did a great job of hooking me back in for the second half.

This is kind of when I miss the old LJ fannish culture the most, because it used to be that after one of my shows aired, I could hop on LJ and read a million⁺ reaction posts, but now for Arrow and Flash, it's basically me and vonniek, with occasional others chiming in. Sigh. I can't go on Tumblr at work, so that's right out. I just read the AV Club comments and feel nostalgic for when that kind of conversation would happen here.

⁺hyperbole!

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Work was really busy again yesterday, so I ended up crashing at 9:30 and not even making it to Elementary. I hope my DVR recorded it.

I did watch a few more Clone Wars episodes, though. I should note I'm watching in chronological order rather than the order they aired, and last night I watched the Seven Samurai homage (ha, I love those pirate guys; they are awful people but so entertaining [I also loved Cad Bane, though - now there's a bad guy with style]) and the two Godzilla episodes, which were surprisingly upsetting to me, ( spoilers, I guess, if anyone caresCollapse )

I watch this show - and for the most part, I enjoy it - but I don't understand HOW IT TOOK SO LONG FOR THEM TO FIGURE OUT HE WAS EVIL. Like, Anakin's kind of a dumbass so I wouldn't expect him to figure it out, but surely Yoda and Mace Windu and Padme are smarter than that (notice I didn't say Obi-Wan, because he's kind of a dumbass too, though not as much of one as Anakin is).

Also, for all that the force can do, they don't seem to use it consistently, even in terms of sensing other people.

Also also, both Obi-Wan and Anakin are *terrible* at teaching. In one episode, Ahsoka's like, "I'm going to get vengeance on that guy for beating me last time!" and Anakin's like, "Yeah, okay! Go get 'em!" NO WONDER YOU WENT TO THE DARK SIDE, DUMBASS. I feel kind of bad for him, too, though, because I'm guessing Obi-Wan wasn't particularly good with him, either, in terms of ethics etc. (I am feeling shades of Batman and his Robins here - like, Bruce never had to outline why killing bad guys is bad for Dick - Dick (and later, Tim) was raised with a firm moral center. Jason, otoh, had some basis for morality - he only stole to support himself and his mother, he shared what he stole with other kids when he was living on the street, he protected the small and the weak [his major non-Bruce/non-Joker triggers are people hurting women and children] - but not a more sophisticated understanding of why killing the bad guys was wrong in their circumstances, and Bruce failed to give him that understanding before he died, because Bruce chose to believe that Jason was a carbon copy of Dick instead of his own person; this is also why Dick was a much better Batman for Damian to Robin under.

I also was thinking more this morning about how Bruce surrounds himself with Robins, who are for the most part, bright where he is dark (obv. with Dick and Damian this is reversed, and Tim was a Robin who needed a Robin, and Steph and Kon and Bart played that role for him sometimes personality-wise), and he's good friends with Superman and Wonder Woman, two major symbols of hope, and in JLU he admires the way Wally deals with his Rogues and manages to have a 'normal' life not bogged down in brooding in the rain on gargoyles or being a withholding dad to most of his kids, and that's one of the things I like about how they've set up the DC TV universe with Barry playing that role some for Oliver (I mean, it's also Felicity's role, and to a lesser extent, Diggle's), who also really needs it sometimes. #forever crying over robins dot tumblr dot com)

ANYWAY. END ROBINS TANGENT.

If you enjoy heartfelt but terrible mentoring and padawans who may or may not end up on the dark side (since Ahsoka is never mentioned or seen in the movies, I'm hoping she survives in hiding; I don't think I could take Anakin killing her during his attack on the temple, or any of the clones turning on her via Order 66, but I also don't want her to turn, though then I have to wonder, much like with the characters now in Rebels, where the hell she is during the original trilogy), and you don't mind the awful names, you might enjoy Clone Wars. Of course, I'm only a few episodes into season 2, so my opinions might change (also, I either ff or skip episodes the internet tells me are heavy on the Jar Jar Binks. There've only been three so far, I think.)

***

December talking meme ahoy!

December 5: sholio asked about my thoughts on the MCU Bucky & Steve relationship vs. the 616 version?

I love 616!Steve and Bucky, and I ship them there too (and also always as an OT3 with Natasha, absolutely ignoring the end of Widow Hunt, of course), and I especially love how much of Steve's modern day personality is shaped by his loss of Bucky [and I love that in A:EMH they also play with this in that episode where he's like, "The world needs Bucky too!"], but it makes me sad that they are almost never together in the present day.

During the war, I love that Bucky is the brash, impulsive one, and Steve is the planner who creates a strategy before he wades in (though he does also love throwing himself off aircraft without a parachute so score one for multiverse character continuity), and I really love Brubaker's retcon of him as the Invaders' black ops guy, who did all the things nobody could be allowed to see Captain America do.

I do think sometimes people try to play up their age difference, but while 20/16 is something of a gap (though less so during wartime, especially when Bucky was raised on a military base and trained by the SAS), by the time Bucky turns 20 (shortly before he "dies" iirc), they've spent four years together in shockingly tight conditions, so I don't have a problem shipping them then, either. *hands*

If you want a full-on concentrated blast of 616!Steve's BUCKY FEELS, read Mark Waid's Captain America: Man Out of Time. THEY'LL BE HOBOES TOGETHER. STEVE DOESN'T CARE. The ending totally made me cry.

But I think giving Steve and Bucky that lifelong womb-to-tomb/cradle-to-grave friendship (I may have just earwormed myself with the Jet song from West Side Story) in the movies was the smartest, bestest thing they could have done. Because it gives you time to know skinny, pre-serum Steve, and how he interacts with the world, and it lets you see how he interacts with Bucky, which gives you a reason to like Bucky (he protects this mouthy little jerk and sets him up on dates, and sees through his bullshit, and lets Steve rain on his last night before he ships out), so then you understand why Steve goes AWOL to save him (and 400 other guys, but mostly him).

I love that it gives us that role reversal I've mentioned but never expanded on in other posts about my shipping preferences - that previously Steve was the one who was prickly and unsociable, or at least anxious in social situations, and Bucky was the smooth operator, and then suddenly Steve is in high demand as both a soldier and a dance partner, and Bucky's a squirrelly POW who ducked out of his medical exam and would probably prefer to be discharged but can't leave while Steve's still running around getting himself shot at.

Here we see Steve as the brash impulsive one who leads with his fists, and Bucky as the cooler, more strategic head, who wades in after him to clean up his fights. Even once Steve is Captain America, Bucky has his back (whether we'll see him be terrible at plans and also interested in jumping out of airplanes without a parachute post-Winter Soldier remains to be seen). Steve is the strategic planner, but Bucky (and to be fair, probably Dugan as well) is his tactical guy, which is what a sergeant does. Bucky makes the things Steve plans (for Steve values of planning, anyway) happen.

But I guess that was a lot of talking around the real subject which is that in the comics, Steve gets Bucky to remember him by using the cosmic cube and distorting the whole fabric of reality to make him remember, which is nice and all, but in the movie, Steve gets Bucky to remember him by 1. saying his name, and 2. calling on their shared history ("till the end of the line"), and I guess 3. by being willing to let the Winter Soldier kill him just so he doesn't have to kill/lose Bucky again.

If you ship them - and I walked out of First Avenger shipping them and still don't understand how the pairing didn't explode then (I mean, honestly fandom, if you can't keep a ship going when one half of it is "dead," you're not trying hard enough; Steve went from "I don't like bullies" to "I'm wiping HYDRA off the map." IJS) - that was like winning the Stanley Cup and the Triple Crown all at once. I mean, Bucky not only doesn't kill Steve, he SAVES him. He might not know who he is yet, and he doesn't know who Steve is yet, but he saves him.

So, you know, if I have to choose, make mine movieverse.

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SHIELD ( spoilersCollapse )

In other comics news, apparently now that his secret identity has been revealed, Dick Grayson is going to become a super spy. I don't even know, you guys. (I mean, if it's public now that Dick Grayson is Nightwing, isn't it SUPER OBVIOUS that Bruce Wayne is Batman? IJS)

First off, I'm so glad he's not dead. That would have been three out of four post-reboot Robins dead (I still say a big FUCK YOU, STEPH WAS ROBIN to DC, but whatever) and for real, I think Alfred might have had to beat the everliving crap out of Bruce for that, even if Dick came back fairly quickly.

Secondly, I don't have a problem with the gun, which seems to be a sticking point for a lot of people, but even though I guess it was erased by the reboot, OFFICER GRAYSON was still a thing, and Dick carried a gun then, too. (The comics did not explore this nearly as much as they should have, though. IJS) Otoh, he looks way more Jason-y there, so. I don't even know. Also, I'm not sure how having your face and name revealed will make you a good super spy. And Dick's disguises are notoriously hilariterrible. This is a dude who went undercover in the mob AS HIMSELF. So while he's probably got a ton of tradecraft in some ways, I just don't see it working out well for him. (Also, I feel like the shades of gray morality that spies live in will be tougher for him to handle, but who knows?)

Thirdly, I kind of laugh at the Winter Soldier-y-ness of it all (well, Dick and Bucky are the prototypical plucky boy hostages sidekicks, but didn't we already do that with Jason? though to be fair, I think Red Hood and Winter Soldier happened kind of simultaneously in the comics, just as both Steve and Bruce were unstuck in time at around the same time with Dick and Bucky stepping into their respective cowls [I still want that story! How do you step into your mentor's shoes when it was never ever what you wanted to be doing?]; while Jason/Bucky seems like the obvious parallel, I do love the Dick/Bucky parallels as well), but if it allows for easier MCU/DCU crossovers, I'm good with that. We already know Dick loves redheads, but I feel a rash of Natasha Loves Dick jokes breaking out already. *cough*

Mostly, though, I once again feel the need to say #DC LOOK AT YOUR LIFE. LOOK AT YOUR CHOICES.

***

What I'm reading Wednesday:

What I've just finished

Catastrophe 1914: Europe Goes to War by Max Hastings, which suffered (for me) from being just about 1914 rather than the whole war. *hands* It was really long for a book that only covered one year, and it was probably a little too much about various battles etc. and not quite enough about the personalities involved, though there was some of that too.

What I'm reading now

The First World War by Hew Strachan, which is quite a bit shorter for all that it does cover the whole war, and quite a bit drier in tone. While I appreciate that the pictures are probably interesting in a hard copy, they're completely unreadable in ebook form, and the book suffers quite a lot (imo) from a sad lack of maps. I NEED MAPS, PEOPLE. If I want them of fictional places - and I do - then I want them eleventy million times MORE of real places. Otoh, I've already learned a ton of stuff I didn't know about what was happening in the Europeans' African colonies during the war. I didn't even realize there was related fighting in Africa at the time, but there was!

What I'm reading next

I dunno. Maybe I will dip back into fiction for a while. Who knows?

***

Today's poem:

the loneliness of the long-distance lover

another phone call. the distance becomes
blue smoke rising from an ashtray; static

crackling like familiar songs on vinyl; the
delicate smell of mandarins. tangible and

elusive. how inadequate hands can be –
fingers slice through air as if it were mere

gas, not a tangle of unused words. and you
hold your breath, don't ask. i hear silence

intensify, before you blurt out my name –
jack-in-a-box sick of confinement, its lid

kept shut too long. this is how you make
love to me. this is what i have learned to

mould into a dream of happiness, late at
night when sleep won't come: your lips

on mine, your palm a perfect fit for my
pale winter cheek, an answer to every

question, and no morning without the
reward of another night. i want to be a

secret whispered in your ear, the smoke
that stings your eyes, a tear on your face.

unlearn the magic, pleads reason; my
voice says nothing. my heart beats out

whatever rhythm yours dictates, tries to
x out every single thought does not bear

your name. darling, i breathe across time
zones. darling. all my words melt into one.

~Michaela A. Gabriel

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+ RIP Peter O'Toole.

+ I have 1100 words on my yuletide story and could conceivably end it in a couple paragraphs if the rest of what I have in mind fails to come together. I hope it does, though, given the number of research tabs I have open right now. Sigh.

+ Oh my god, the Giants are embarrassing themselves. Well, the offense is. The defense is doing pretty well, but it doesn't matter if they don't score any points. *facepalm*

+ 12/15: Fictional character you'd most like to be BFFs with, and favorite fictional character who you wouldn't want to be BFFs with, and why? for imwalde

Huh. My first thought was Lorelai Gilmore, but she might pall on close acquaintance. Then I thought of Veronica Mars, because she is a loyal friend who will also help you get revenge if you end up in need of it, though getting into her circle of trust would be difficult. Maybe Cordelia Chase? If she weren't dead? As an adult, though, not during her queen of Sunnydale stage (though I still love her then). Giles? Giles could be the answer. Or Hermione Granger. I feel like Hermione and I would have a lot in common, except for the part where my ambition levels are on par with Ron's rather than hers, so I'm not sure she'd have time to be friends. Huh. Same with Donna Moss, though maybe once she's out of the White House. CJ Cregg is also a possibility, though she might be too busy doing her philanthropy and raising her kids. Steve Rogers would be an amazing best friend (ask Sam and Bucky) but I'm not sure I could live up to his expectations and that would just make me sad. So I'm going to say Stephanie Brown. Because even with her double life, I feel like she would be a good friend to hang out with and offer a shoulder to cry on, and you could always just go to the diner and have waffles, which is basically my social life at the moment anyway.

+ Yesterday I finally uploaded a Christmas icon and changed my DW layout to a more holiday-y type of thing, though I don't like that it doesn't provide comment counts on the post recap in the sidebar. One of the things I dislike about Tumblr is that I don't care how my Tumblr looks to other people, I care how my dash looks to me, and I can't change that and that's unfortunate.

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I woke up this morning with the odd desire to read a story about Jason courting Steph by killing Black Mask (and assorted others) and leaving the bodies on her doorstep, the way a cat might leave dead mice for its person. Steph, naturally, is taken aback by this and is all, "Dude, this is not only creepy and horrifying, it's just wrong." And Jason's like, "Dead Robins have to stick together." Eventually there are makeouts. And maybe Jason stops cutting the heads off drug dealers and slinging them around in duffel bags.

*hands*

The heart wants what it wants.

(The heart also wants Jason/Dick/Kory. And Jason/Dick/Babs. And Jason/Dick/Steph. And Jason/Dick/Donna. Basically I want Jason and Dick to have a lot of threesomes with awesome ladies.

And I still want the stern headmaster/naughty schoolgirl Bruce/Steph roleplay. Because seriously, did you see Steph in that schoolgirl uniform?)

I am also still hopeful someone will write the story where the Winter Soldier is bought by the League of Assassins rather than Lukin, and Natasha has to steal him back from Talia al'Ghul, with whom she no doubt has a very complicated past. Jason should also be involved. And then somehow Steve and Damian show up (possibly I have been influenced by quipquipquip's adorable Penpal Adventures, where Steve and Damian strike up a correspondence, mainly by drawing cats for each other. *hands*).

And also the Steve Rogers/Zinda Blake and Steve Rogers/Diana of Themiscyra stories. (Steve/Diana is probably my crossover OTP, though I do like the idea of Steve and Zinda enjoying each other's company.)

I also still want the story where Tim Drake is shocked and appalled at how awful the Young Avengers are at things like strategy and organization, and Kate Bishop is just like, "Tim Drake? That nerdy kid from band camp? He's Red Robin?" While Billy and Teddy try to help Tim ask Kon out. Possibly this should be narrated by Tommy, with bonus epic facepalming by Eli, because Tommy would find all of this HILARIOUS.

And seeing Spider-man just made me want to write the Ultimate Peter wakes up in the DCU fic EVEN MORE (I think I might title it 'You can just visit, but I plan to stay.') And also Peter and Dick eating chili dogs on rooftops. And Peter and Jaime being nerdy bug superheroes together. (I know I said I didn't want fic, but I guess I lied a little? I guess the stories I want are not really stories I expect fandom to produce? Maybe for yuletide? I mean, after getting The Epic Bro-ventures of Paco & Kon last year, anything could happen, right? I JUST HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS ABOUT PETER PARKER, OKAY? [and how he and Steve should be nerds and maybe have makeouts together. hilariously, I already ship him with Johnny Storm.] I might go see the movie again tomorrow or Saturday.)

Speaking of movies, yesterday, fleurdeleo and I were supposed to see Magic Mike - well, she was basically strong-arming me into it, because I don't care what people and the reviews say, I feel like it's a huge exercise in humiliation squick and I don't want to pay $14 for the privilege (especially when I could see Spidey or Avengers or Brave again instead) - but she canceled and we ended up just going out for a beer and a burger, which I much preferred. (That was plan C. The movie was Plan B. Plan A never came together, sadly. Maybe next year.)

Lastly, in addition to being the Fourth of July, yesterday was also Steve Rogers' birthday, so I posted a story:

Our Carnival Life (at AO3)
Avengers (2012); Steve/Bucky; pg; 1,880 words
Bucky is the best gift he's ever gotten, every time.

I've seen people arguing on the internet over what year Steve was born (fans arguing about canon on the internet? Shocking!), and it doesn't come up in this story, but for movieverse, I like the 1918 date, mostly because it shows up in the movie (though I suppose he could have been lying about that as well as being from Jersey? But it doesn't seem like Steve would lie more than he had to on his application), and also it makes sense with his line that his father was killed in WWI ("mustard gas"). That means the latest he could be born in the movieverse is 1919 (or, you know, his mom engaged in some hanky panky. *hands* I suppose anything is possible.). I'm not saying that's hard and fast, but when people make it later than that - in movieverse fic - I'm always like, but his dad died in WWI... It's not a deal-breaker, but it does throw me out of the story for a moment.

Also, and this is not in the movie but it's in the timeline in the Avengers art book, so gray canon, I guess - he was Captain America for 3 years. So even if you devote one year to the USO War Bonds tour, that still gives him about two years with Bucky and the Commandos. (I think Steve's "death" is only a few weeks after Bucky's, in the movie, which also probably explains a lot about why he didn't even try to punch out.)

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Possibly the greatest image from any comic in history:

( from Tiny Titans #45Collapse )

BEST THING EVER: Y/MFY?

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- Somehow, until last night, I totally missed that the Hippo on AtLA is a take-off on George "The Animal" Steele. I guess I was too, uh, bowled over by the Boulder to recognize him.

- Is it me, or is it getting really hard to tell the long side from the short side of fitted sheets these days? It took me about ten minutes last night to get the sheet put on the bed correctly, because I couldn't tell which way it was supposed to go.

- Also, I got all new pillows, which I'm ambivalent about. The old ones were old and kind of gross, so I guess it's good, but I feel like I'm never going to get pillows that feel exactly right ever again. Sigh. My life, so hard.

- Here are some songs I associate with members of the Batfamily. Normally I would write a whole lot of blah blah blah to go with this, and also quote lyrics, but meh, I am not feeling it today. Have some songs:

Jason:
A Place to Hide - White Lies
Change (In the House of Flies) - Deftones
Unsatisfied - The Replacements
Bastards of Young - the Replacements

Dick (and his relationships):
Backwards Walk - Frightened Rabbit

Steph:
Rocks and Water - Deb Talan

Tim:
Creep - Radiohead

Robins:
Wonder of Birds - Innocence Mission

Babs:
Hidden Camera Show - Tom McRae
Really, I feel like this is the whole Batfamily, but since I apparently do not have a copy of Redheaded Woman, I put it here.

Cass:
Song My Friends Taught Me - Laura Veirs

Bruce:
Your Silent Face - New Order

Helena:
Six Underground - Sneaker Pimps

- Also, swatkat has a great post on how Jaime Reyes is the anti-Batman, in terms of manpain. Which is probably the main reason I love him so much. ♥JAIME♥

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It was grey and damp and a little chilly out today, a big change from our recent heatwave. I met up with fleurdeleo to drop some stuff off at Housing Works (I finally got rid of a bunch of shoes and boots that either pinch my toes or give me blisters), and then to lunch. I had a really good burger. Then I came home and took a nap, which seemed like a good idea at the time, but in reality has left me sluggish and headachy. Bah. Also, I dreamt that Batman found a baby in a shoebox on the steps of Gotham Cathedral in the rain. IDEK. I might have to write fic, even though the comics did a great job with it (see icon).

Yesterday, I saw the eye doctor and I'm getting new contacts, which is good, since the ones I have now are really old. She was like, yeah, we don't recommend those anymore. And I got a new pair of non-prescription sunglasses, since my favorite pair broke and I can't find any of the crappy cheap pairs I've accumulated over the years.

A few days ago, mousapelli gave me five things to talk about:

1. sangria!

We often drink this beverage when we go out together! It is very tasty. Actually, it's the only way, along with mulling, that I find red wine drinkable. I have tried your merlots and your cabernets and your petite syrahs, and it all tastes like musty basement to me. Sometimes it's a dry musty basement and sometimes it's a fruity one, but the musty basement taste is a constant. I know, I fail as an adult human being. But my grandfather used to make wine in the basement of the house I grew up in, and even though he died when I was six and nobody ever did it again, there was this one room down there that reeked of red wine for ages, and I just can't get away from the association. But the fruit chases the musty basement taste away! remarkable!

Sangria is lovely. I like it red or white or pink. I like it with guava and mango and passion fruit or with apples and oranges and strawberries, with peaches and grapes, with whatever combination of fruit and wine and, occasionally, fizzy soda, you decide to put in it. So delicious!

2. any Robin of your choosing

Robins! ♥ I actually find it upsetting when people say Jason wasn't fit to be Robin, that he was too angry and violent, because I think it's bullshit. If you look at the time he was actually Robin, instead of the umpteen flashbacks after he was killed (or after he came back), you can see that yeah, he's more of a brawler than Dick, but he also had a very different upbringing and had to fend for himself instead of being a beloved only child of happily married parents. And he really loved being Robin and he was good at it, and it's not his fault that every single adult in his life failed him horribly. There's a lot of revisionist history surrounding him, and I don't even mean the original retcon of his origins or how he came back, but of his time as Robin so that the writers could be like, "see! He was always bad! He was destined for a bad end because he was a bad kid!" And that's some serious bullshit.

His book is one of the only things I'm happy about with this reboot business, because I really hope they allow him to progress beyond "Daddy doesn't love me so I'm gonna kill some bad guys to prove I'm a better Batman than he is!" I also hope they allow him to learn that Bruce did try to kill the Joker after he died, and that everyone was really broken up by his death, because I don't think he knows that, and I think that would go a long way towards helping him deal with what happened to him and how he ended up where he is.

♥JASON♥

3. the best thing you baked recently

It's been a while since I baked something new, but these vanilla bean scones were fantastic. All my co-workers thought so, too. *g* I highly recommend them.

4. Alexander

Oh, megalomaniacal world conqueror of my heart! I love his lifelong relationship with Hephaistion, and I love AU stories where they don't die young and actually get to enjoy the empire he built.

5. characters who will not do what you tell them

Bwah! I am beset with them! They do not want to have sex when I want them to, but they are totally willing to strip down and fuck when I'm trying to write gen. They keep secrets that derail storylines into things I was not expecting, and then clam up when I need to know how to get back on track again. They are so contrary! it's frustrating sometimes and exciting sometimes.

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