Epic Manga: JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL #20-21 (JLI 22)
Nov. 12th, 2025 07:17 am
In the film Apocalpyse Now, war is hell and hella confusing. There’s one clear objective centered on one person, but otherwise, most of the violence is almost random: the protagonists never get enough information to form a meaningful strategy. The second part of this arc, “Apokalips…Wow!!” is pretty much same.
Before that, though, we get an even more unlikely film reference, Ty Templeton tagging in on the finished art, and Manga Khan at his most ambitious and formidable.
( ''So I like SPEECHIFYING, do I? Well, I’ll GIVE MYSELF something to speechify about!'' )
Frankenstein (2025) (Film Review)
Nov. 12th, 2025 10:50 amThe short version: visually gorgeous (I expected no less from del Torro), well acted, but alas, it reminds me of nothing as much as a certain type of fanfiction - grovelfic, in lack of a better term - I used to find annoying back in the Highlander days, aka the ones where not only Cassandra is the true villalin but Methos was the fluffiest Horseman of the Apocalypse ever and Duncan profoundly apologizes. I mean, it's not that extreme, because Victor is something of an narcissistic jerk in the novel (though not only), and the Creature, who is my favourite character in it anyway, is very much the product of unearned abuse before he starts dealing out death and horror, but good lord. What Del Torro did in his version is really the type of fanfic that absolves the favored woobie (or do we say blorbo these days?) from any wrongdoing whatsoever, thereby unintentionally taking something crucial from what makes the character away, and shoves it upon the unfavourite. And that's before we get to "hat is the geography of this story anyway?" and "why got spoiler engaged to spoiler in the first place?" Mind you, if I had never ever read the novel, I suspect I might have loved the film, beccause as I said - terrific looks and good acting - but as it is, I have to consider the adaptation aspect, and here I have to say Penny Dreadful remains uncontested champion for best rendition of both the Creature (Caliban, just that there is no misunderstanding) and Victor Frankenstein in both their flaws and virtues and (Mary) Shelleyan themes. Runner up isn't this one, but the Branagh movie, which, yes, Kenneth Branagh in his slightly megalomaniac self indulgent Coppola phase, and he softens Victor's characterisation a bit (though not to the degree Del Torro softens the Creature's), but still, of all the adaptations I've seen, it probably sticks the most to the actual novel. (While Penny Dreadful's versions of the Creature and Frankenstein stick most the the spirit and characterisation.) (James Whale's two Frankenstein movies are their own artistic creations which while founding the pop culture idea of both the scientist and the creature are really their own independent things, sharing little but names and not even those at pars.)
( The spoilery version wonders whether everyone is telelporting at different plot points )
In conclusion: maybe do an original script the next time, del Torro? I really wonder whether the crazy geography and all the other technical issues would have mattered to me if I hadn't been comparing book and film, or whether I would allowed myself being swept away by the spectacle, and the characters as presented in the movie. But I do suspect some of the characterisation questions would still have remained.
( The spoilery version wonders whether everyone is telelporting at different plot points )
In conclusion: maybe do an original script the next time, del Torro? I really wonder whether the crazy geography and all the other technical issues would have mattered to me if I hadn't been comparing book and film, or whether I would allowed myself being swept away by the spectacle, and the characters as presented in the movie. But I do suspect some of the characterisation questions would still have remained.
Venom #250
Nov. 10th, 2025 09:28 pm
"Thank you!" scream a nation of YouTubers. "Thank you for putting food on my table!" No, no, the pleasure is mine. -- Al Ewing
( Read more... )
fic: the wings of our frail souls
Nov. 10th, 2025 06:57 pmNow that
crossworks authors have been revealed, I can share what I wrote! I wrote a Miss Fisher/Lord Peter crossover!
My first thought was of course that I should do some sort of casefic, but couldn't come up with a case. My second thought was to have Phryne and Mary meet up during the war--Phrynne drove ambulances, Mary was a nurse--but then I realized that that would make major changes to Mary's life, because I could not picture Mary crossing paths with Phryne in any noteworthy way and then living the same aimless post-war life Mary did. I certainly couldn't see her getting involved with either Goyles or Cathcart. And that would be very interesting, but a much longer story than I had the capacity to write. So instead, I had Phryne meet Peter during the war.
Title: the wings of our frail souls
Author: Beatrice_Otter
Fandoms: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (TV)/Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Written for: sinkauli in
crossworks 2025
Betaed by: Lirelyn
Author's note: Canon has Phryne serving in a French women's ambulance unit during the war. I have changed this to the FANY, the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, which was a British women's volunteer group, because their general approach to the First World War was very similar to Phryne's approach to life in general. The British Army didn't want them, so they went over anyway and convinced the Belgians and the French to let them drive. They seem to have a long tradition of doing whatever the hell they thought needed doing and ignoring or steamrolling men who got in their way.
At AO3. On Squidgeworld. On Pillowfort. On tumblr.
***
It was not, Phryne thought as she steered Josephine through the French countryside, that you could precisely call her job boring. There was a war on, and she was much nearer the front than she told her parents in her infrequent letters home. She was driving an ambulance between the French triage unit and the hospital, avoiding potholes as best she could. The men in the back of her bus moaned or swore at each one she hit. It was important work, one part in the chain that saved as many men as possible from the jaws of death. It was good work, and more meaningful than she'd thought it would be when she'd signed up for the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, desperate for anything that would get her out of London.
It was only that she'd driven this route so often she could do it in her sleep. The only change was the appearance of more potholes and ruts.
Josephine's engine—which had been running roughly—died with a horrible sound.
Phryne swore, fluently and filthily, in French, and popped out to open up Josephine's hood. "Shouldn't have even dared think it was boring." A short bit of poking around confirmed her fears.
( Another FANY ambulance pulled up next to hers—Gertie, by the sound of it. )
My first thought was of course that I should do some sort of casefic, but couldn't come up with a case. My second thought was to have Phryne and Mary meet up during the war--Phrynne drove ambulances, Mary was a nurse--but then I realized that that would make major changes to Mary's life, because I could not picture Mary crossing paths with Phryne in any noteworthy way and then living the same aimless post-war life Mary did. I certainly couldn't see her getting involved with either Goyles or Cathcart. And that would be very interesting, but a much longer story than I had the capacity to write. So instead, I had Phryne meet Peter during the war.
Title: the wings of our frail souls
Author: Beatrice_Otter
Fandoms: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (TV)/Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Written for: sinkauli in
Betaed by: Lirelyn
Author's note: Canon has Phryne serving in a French women's ambulance unit during the war. I have changed this to the FANY, the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, which was a British women's volunteer group, because their general approach to the First World War was very similar to Phryne's approach to life in general. The British Army didn't want them, so they went over anyway and convinced the Belgians and the French to let them drive. They seem to have a long tradition of doing whatever the hell they thought needed doing and ignoring or steamrolling men who got in their way.
At AO3. On Squidgeworld. On Pillowfort. On tumblr.
***
It was not, Phryne thought as she steered Josephine through the French countryside, that you could precisely call her job boring. There was a war on, and she was much nearer the front than she told her parents in her infrequent letters home. She was driving an ambulance between the French triage unit and the hospital, avoiding potholes as best she could. The men in the back of her bus moaned or swore at each one she hit. It was important work, one part in the chain that saved as many men as possible from the jaws of death. It was good work, and more meaningful than she'd thought it would be when she'd signed up for the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, desperate for anything that would get her out of London.
It was only that she'd driven this route so often she could do it in her sleep. The only change was the appearance of more potholes and ruts.
Josephine's engine—which had been running roughly—died with a horrible sound.
Phryne swore, fluently and filthily, in French, and popped out to open up Josephine's hood. "Shouldn't have even dared think it was boring." A short bit of poking around confirmed her fears.
( Another FANY ambulance pulled up next to hers—Gertie, by the sound of it. )
Re-Member the Titans!: JUSTICE LEAGUE INTERNATIONAL #19 (JLI 21/?)
Nov. 9th, 2025 10:15 pm
Last issue, we learned Guy’s personality operates on soap-opera-amnesia rules: a second blow to the head undoes the first. He has announced his return to assholery by paraphrasing Poltergeist II and throwing Lobo through a window.
Pluribus
Nov. 9th, 2025 01:03 pmPluribus is the new show Vince Gilligan created, and whose first two episodes premiered on Apple TV, with Rhea Seahorn as the main character. After her stunning performance as Kim Wexler in Better Call Saul, it seems Gilligan felt inspired, and no wonder. I still think her not winning any awards of what she did with Kim is one of the great injustices of tv world. Anyway: While the show is set in Albuquerque like Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul, it belongs to a quite different genre and in a way has Gilligan go back to his X-Files roots. With the stunning cinematography of BB/BCS, and some (based on those first two eps) great twists on the whole invasion/hive mind/zombie tropes and genre. Also, Gilligan's and his fellow artists ability to quickly create three dimensional feeling side characters with just a few minutes of screen time shines, and the way he can connect visceral emotion and horror on the one hand and black humour otoh.
( Spoilers are wondering just what saving humanity really means )
I'm really looking forward to seeing more of how the show continues to deal with those questions. Well done, Gilligan, I'm hooked!
****
In other news, having recently made a trip to Vienna, I posted a gigantic historically themed pic spam here!
( Spoilers are wondering just what saving humanity really means )
I'm really looking forward to seeing more of how the show continues to deal with those questions. Well done, Gilligan, I'm hooked!
****
In other news, having recently made a trip to Vienna, I posted a gigantic historically themed pic spam here!
Absolute Evil #1 - "Absolute Justice"
Nov. 8th, 2025 05:46 pm
Answers inside, along with some truly shocking moments that seem to have taken even superhero fans who've seen it all by surprise - so in the name of all that's holy (or unholy), try to avoid spoilers for this one, even though the task may seem impossible. -- Al Ewing
( Read more... )
JSA #13 - The Mighty Atom
Nov. 8th, 2025 07:16 pmI wish I could remember the specific source, but I saw a post about the JSA once describing them as "This is the Spectre, the literal embodiment of God's wrath. And this is Al. He's short and real mad about it."
Well, one page from this week's JSA 13 put me in mind of it...
(warning for use of a slur against little people)
( Read more... )
Well, one page from this week's JSA 13 put me in mind of it...
(warning for use of a slur against little people)
( Read more... )




