Friday 17 March 2017

Jessica Jones: Alias Book 2 (#11-15)


"We're two consenting adult peoples..." - Jessica Jones

Time to rejoin the beautiful disaster that is Jessica Jones.  Once she was a superhero called "Jewel" but gave it up as she felt she didn't really fit in with the costumed set and for reasons yet to be elaborated upon too.  She has superstrength and can fly, badly, but now she runs her own private investigations firm called "Alias Investigations" with her as the sole PI employed there.  But she keeps getting jobs that bring her back into the sphere of superhero influence.  In book one she helped foil an attempt to embarrass the President of the US via getting Captain America accused of murder.  She then got caught up in world of a delusional man who believed himself to be Rick Jones.  She is also suffering herself from severe PTSD which viewers of her TV show will know the reason for but readers of the books will have to wait until book four to find out about.  The writer is Brian Michael Bendis, now a controversial figure at Marvel, but back at the start of the noughties his work on street level characters like Jessica Jones and Daredevil gained him a lot of praise.  Michael Gaydos is on art duties, his use of repeating panels to match Bendis's rythmic dialogue give the comic an almost Warhol-like quality.  If you are wondering where issue ten is, it's been moved to the next volume and will be covered then, never fear.  Now for another trip into the dysfunctional world of Jessica Jones.

Jessica is in cheerful mood, driving her car and singing along loudly with the radio.  She passes a huge sign which reads "Rebecca Please Come Home. We Love You" and the road takes her into the small town of Lago, just by New York.  She misses her turning and has to get out to ask directions. She takes in her surroundings as mutters that it's "like I tripped and fell inro 1978". A local policeman spots her and gives her directions knowing who she is and why she is there, they flirt with each other then Jessica goes to the home of Katherine Cross, it her neice Rebecca who has gone missing and Jessica is there to find her.
Jessica meets the sheriff.
She tells Katherine that it was unhelpful telling the local newspaper she was coming to investigate, "I'm your private investigator, 'private' being the operative word." Now the whole town has been alerted to her prescence and her neice's abductor might have got spooked.  Rebecca's mother comes down the stairs and asks Jessica if she'll really be able to find her?

Rebecca's mother then takes her through the last time she saw her.   She left her at home to play bingo at church the might before, when she got home her husband Frank was passed out in his chair and she went to bed without checking on her daughter. Then later that day she got a call from the school pricipal who said Rebecca hadn't shown up for school that day.  So she doesn't know exactly when she went missing.

Jessica asks her if she thinks her husband had something to do with it.  She admits that she doesn't trust him and doesn't even like him anymore, Rebecca's disappearance has opened her eyes to that.  She says he goes to "whores" and that he's seen him leering at Rebecca, "he was such a jackass about it.  Couldn't even pretend not to." Jessica asks if Rebecca said anything about it.  The mother says no, then Jessica asks if Rebecca had any trouble at school.  Her mother says she'd been "mouthing off" at teachers and she knows Rebecca hated the jocks.  Jessica asks for a recent photo and gets one of Rebecca looking pretty Goth.
Rebecca Cross.
Jessica contemplates the photo and says "nothing like this has ever happened here in this town, has it?"  Katherine says no.  Jessica lays out who she is going to see and they negociate her payment then Jessica goes to where Rebecca's father Frank is. He says to Jessica, "come on in, bitch."  He moans about his wife asking Jessica "she tell you I fucked the kid?"  Jessica calmly says she'd like to come in and discuss this civilly.

He goes into a rant, he says he won't help her put him in jail. He says he was proud of his daughter, he had prayed she be better and smarter than everyone, "that she'd be able to go farther than us."  He could see that was happening and that he was "so happy that she was going to make it".   He tells Jessica she is free to search the house and his wife is "evil for using this to punish me".  He wanders off, Jessica tells him not to leave town.  "Where'm I gonna go?" he says bitterly.

She goes up to Rebecca's room which is a mess.  She finds some notebooks on her dresser and an empty box where she kept her pot. The flirty cop appears in the doorway, she asks if he knows who the local pot dealer is, but the cop doesn't know.  She asks to take the books back to her hotel, they are full of arty collages. "Might be clues.  Messages. Might be nothing.  Either way... the victim speaks." she tells him.
Searching for clues.
They leave the house and he asks if if she has superpowers which Jessica says yes to.  She asks if that will be a problem and he says "not if you behave yourself".  Then Jessica leaves to speak to someone at her school.  She asks the teacher who meets with her if she knew what cliques she was in or who her friends were.  The teacher doesn't know and opens Rebecca's locker for her.  As Jessica searches a student comes up and tells her she is looking on the wrong side of the door.  Jessica inspects the front and sees a very faint trace of the word "Die." The student goes on to tell her "what do you expect?  She was a mutant."

Jessica questions the girl more closely, "when you say mutant you mean Homo Superior?" She also asks if they ever say Rebecca use her powers, no one did, but Rebecca told several people she was one.  Jessica's patient questioning reveals Rebecca told a football player and cheerleader and the rumour then spread from there and when questioned didn't deny it. "Being a mutant is like being gay or Jewish... you don't want to pretend you are if you're not, right?" says the girl.  Jessica leaves to find Freddy the football player to aks him directly.

She goes to the football field and finds Freddy why the other players letch at her.  Jessica confirms that Rebecca told him she was a mutant but he never saw her use her powers.   He says he asked her out, but she said her mutant powers would kill him if they had sex. He asks if Jessica is the "mutant police" and that it's not illegal to "bang mutants is it?" Jessica rolls her eyes and returns to her car.
No luck with the jock.
Then a woman called Patrice Pugawa catches up with her and says she runs the local newspaper.  Jessica says she isn't going to give her updates on her investigation because she doesn't want whoever has Rebecca to know how she is getting along in her investigation and drives off but not before the reporter hints she might want to go to church on saturday. Later she is reading Rebecca's collage books and having a drink with the cop in the local bar.  Then Rebecca's dad comes in and drunkenly abuses Jessica but the cop calms him down.

Later Jessica and the cop have a tipsy clinch in the carpark, "mmmm you gonna fuck me, sheriff?" says Jessica and climbs on a car bonnet.  Initially he is wary because he thinks he might hurt her, "not unlessh you want me to.." slurs Jessica.  He decides to risk it and they start to have sex.  We then get a two page dream sequence done in a bright "traditional" style with her as Jewel flying past Thor, then she sees Rebecca watching her from a window and wakes up.
Even Jessica's dreams guilt trip her.
She wakes up in a jail cell.  The sheriff put her there to sleep off the booze much to her outrage. "I certainly wasn't going to have you stay in my house" he says letting her out.  She gives him a hearty "fuck you" and leaves.  Remembering what the newspaper woman said, Jessica goes into the church and finds the minister rehearsing a speech.  It's not a very edifying one, it's all about how mutants are an abomination that man not God created they are not in the bible and are not worthy of love.  He notices Jessica and says he can never tell if his voice reaches the back.

Jessica: "I hear you just fine."

The minister said he is doing a topical sermon, that people like to see an immediate parallel to their lives and scripture.   He realises she is the PI and a "super hero person". Jessica says she is not a super hero.  The minister says it's a shame about Rebecca although she has never come to church as far as he knows.

She starts to leave then says she be "pissed at myself for ever if I don't say this".  She tears into him for his prejudiced veiws, he stands by his words, "mutants are quite clearly an abomination bought on by mans greed". He insist nature tells him that it is so even though a pissed Jessica tells him how wrong and irresponsible his words are.  "You're more than welcome to disagree" he responds.

Jessica: "I... I... I... think this thing you're doing here is about the single most disgusting thing I have ever seen in my life... You're preaching hate!  Like some back water shit-kicking hick."

He denies that is the case, but she goes on to say that if she finds out his preaching has contributed the the disappearance of Rebecca Cross... she doesn't finish her thoughts.  The minister asks why would it, Jessica tells him Rebecca was a mutant as she stalks out.
Not a great start to her day.
She goes and tries to compose herself in the diner's bathroom as she is very upset over everything that's occured so far since waking up in a cell, repeating "fuck you" over and over.  She looks around and sees some grafitti that says "Jesus was a mutant".  She walks out and bumps into the sheriff who tries to apologise to her, she walks away as he tries to explain himself to her.  She chews him out then leaves to carry on looking for Rebecca.

Then Scott Lang phones her up saying Carol Danvers gave him Jessica's number.  "Carol you goddamn bitch" thinks Jessica as she listens.  She tells him she is busy on a case right now, he asks where she is.  "In Hell" she responds.  She asks if he is Ant-Man, he says not anymore and "for that story, you're actually going to have to go out with me". 

We then cut to Jessica in the newspaper's office and she talks with Patrice who runs it.  She is sharing some mail which compares mutants to coloureds. "

Jessica: "Coloureds?  What fucking planet am I on?  What year is this?"

Patrice tells her she just wanted to give her an idea of the way people think in the town, mostly good people... she doesn't finish her sentence.  Jessica apologies for blowing her off the day before.  Patrice says she is just trying to help, she wants all this to be over.
More small town bigotry.
Patrice then says she assumes she's visited "our first Unity church of hypocrisy and racism."  Jessica says she has and nearly punched the guy.  Patrice says he's a "fucking asshole" and she's tried to talk to him about his rhetoric to no avail. Sadly the town loves him and the church will be packed tommorrow.  Jessica asks if she thinks he had anything to do with Rebecca's disappearance.  Patrice says not directly but he preaches a bullshit "tabloid version of reality"  He's giving people an excuse to act on their worst instincts.

Patrice tells her that a couple of years ago a kid fell out of a treehouse and by a fluke had no broken bones or cust.  A week later he was found beaten nearly to death with beer bottles.  The family up and left in the night and the kid died alone in hospital.  So "this shit" with Rebecca was bound to happen.

Jessica says Rebecca might be a mutant but Patrice states firmly that she isn't.  All her investigations have lead her to the fact the kids at Rebecca's school are full of shit.  Jessica mulls this over then says Rebecca wasn't a mutant but was telling people she was.  She goes onto say that when she was at school she told people she made out with Simon Le Bon one vacation, "teenage girls."

Then she shows Patrice Rebecca's collage books.  Patrice is impressed by them saying it's almost worse to think of something awful happening to someone with talent, "she definitely had a thing for the dark side of icons."  Jessica says she still needs to talk properly to Rebecca's father.  Patrice notes that half the town thinks he did it. Jessica asks her what she thinks and Patrice says that probably one of her classmates raped her and threw her in the lake because they thought she was a mutant.
Jessica finds Rebecca's dad.
Patrice contemplates the collages some more and wonders if there is a hidden clue to what might have happened to Rebecca in them.   She wishes Rebecca's parents had trusted her more, but Jessica says they probably didn't want to be reminded of what has happened.  "But it's news" says Patrice.  Jessica leaves and goes to Jessica's home to speak with Frank.  She finds him sitting dead in his chair with his throat slashed while the news plays out a plotline which was going on in Bendis's run on Daredevil - a debate on the unmasking of Matt Murdock.  As his body is taken away Jessica watches, smoking pensively.  A kid rides up on a bicycle, she eyeballs him then says "Kid.  Where is she?"

We then cut to Rebecca in a New York club speaking to the clientele about the whole Daredevil/Matt Murdock thing that is in the news.  She speaks of her love for him "this beautiful man who clearly defines something undefinable" then she reads out a poem dedicated to him as Jessica looks on.   After the poetry reading Rebecca kisses her cute girlfriend.  Then Jessica intervenes and drags her away as her girlfriend calls her a "cuntwipe".
Rebecca and girlfriend safe in New York.
Jessica kicks the bouncer in the nuts and gets Rebecca into her car. Jessic then goes on a four page unbroken rant about why she left the small town. To sum up she hates the "racist shithellhole" she was living in.  She wanted to get away to a place she could express herself.  She doesn't care about proms or "the fucking mall".  One day it all got too much and she got the bus out of there.

Rebecca: "It was like I was in a coma and now I wasn't.  Because I could kiss whoever I want.  I could talk about whatever I want.  I could express myself without someone making fun of me or asking what's wrong with me."

And once Jessica is gone, she'll leave again because she is in love.  She refuses to "bide her time" until she is eighteen.  Life is too short to live in that town surrounded by "fucking assholes".

Her mother is a lying bitch, her father is a weak man, she doesn't give a shit about what they think.   She's already realises there is "so, so, so much more to life".  She knows her neighbour Kenny, the only person there she cares about, told Jessica where she was.  But she wishes she hadn't told him where she was going so she'd be thought of as dead in a ditch " and I wouldn't have to deal with this drama".  She turns to Jessica and says "you know I'm right".

Then Matt Murdock calls Jessica and asks to see her next morning and this excites Rebecca as they reach the town, driving past the huge sign saying "Rebecca, Please Come Home.  We Love You".  Once they reach her house the find her aunt being arrested for the murder of her father. Jessica pulls up and realises what she's bought Rebecca home to.
Welcome home!
Rebecca steps out of the car and demands to know why her aunt is being arrested.  Her mother slaps her so hard she knocks off Rebecca's shades.  "It's all your fault, you selfish whore!" she shouts at her.  Rebecca starts crying saying to Jessica why didn't she tell her that her dad was dead, Jessica lamely says she thought she might be responsible.  Rebecca runs away and her mother screams after her, "that's right! Run away again! See who you kill next time!"

Jessica finds Rebecca sitting in the church belfry.  She reassures her that she didn't kill her father.  Rebecca asks how she found her, Jessica says she read her diary and knew she liked to get stoned up there.  Jessica then tells her she is really talented and tells her a friend told her "nothing makes a writer... liked a fucked up childhood".

Rebecca: "What the fuck kind of superhero are you?  Why is the world like this?"

Jessica asks her if she wants her to take her back to her girlfriend.  Later the sheriff finds her.  Jessica tells him her girlfriend had come here looking for Rebecca and both have left.  He hands over her cheque.  Jessica is surprised the mother paid her.  The sheriff says he "kinda made her."
Case closed.
He tells her the sister was drunk and when Rebecca's father mouthed off to him she "wigged out and stabbed him".  She's confessed so the rest is paperwork.  Jessica hands over Rebecca's collage books so he can pass them onto her mother.  The sheriff tells her to take care and Jessica wishes him well before driving off. In the car she phones Scott Lang telling him she had a bad day and could she keep him company as she drives home, which he agrees to.  And that brings this arc to a close.

We close out this volume with a one-shot about Jessica Jones relationships with two of the men in her life.  It begins with her and Luke "Power Man" Cage standing guard outside Matt Murdock's office.  Luke flirts with a woman who goes inside and when Jessica queries why he let her in he says it's because she's Black Widow in a disguise.

He then asks Jessica if they are talking now?  She doesn't respond so he demands to know why she took the job if she is so pissed at him.  He then says she fucked him, "you pounced on me, you physically grabbed me..."  Jessica says this is an inappropriate place to have this conversation.  Then mutters she was drunk.  Luke says she fucked him then came by his place and nearly destroyed his life.  And she should have thanked him for being there when she needed him.

Jessica asks who he was with when she came by.  Luke asks if she wants to be his girlfriend. "What? No!" shouts Jessica, and he says it's none of her business then.  Jessica says she wouldn't have hit on him if she knew he was a "cape chaser".  Luke laughs at it, but Jessica says she thinks it's gross.  He responds:

Luke: "If I was a lawyer, I probably would end up fucking a lot of lawyers.  But being in our profession... I am probably going to end up fucking a lot of people... in our profession".

He then says he's trying to be her friend and she apologises.  He says next thing she'll say is he fucked Iron Fist, and does she want to know why they call him that? Jessica says she heard that joke and they both smile.
Jessica and Luke Cage on guard duty.
Jessica then asks Luke is she thinks Matt Murdock really is Daredevil. Luke say definitely.  Jessica says then he likely heard this conversation, then Black Widow comes out muttering to herself.  Luke then invites Jessica to dinner, but she says she already has a date tonight.

We then jump forwards tp the evening where Scott Lang is waiting for her.  She is late and apologises profusely, she says her job is "fucking crazy" body guarding Matt Murdock.  Scott asks if he really is Daredevil, and Jessica asks if it matters because the tabloids have no right to be all up in his business. 

A waitress comes up to take their drink orders. Jessica asks for a double vodka on the rocks, but Scott interuppts and says, "how about you don't."  Taken aback Jessica says, "I'm sorry?" Scott says he was hoping they could not get drunk tonight.  So they order coke and a sprite.  Scott says Carol filled her in on Jessica's tendency to get hammered then be mad at herself afterwards.  He hoped they could stay sober and "have a nice, real, genuine conversation".

Jessica is silent and Scott says she is mad at him, but she says she is just stunned. He apologises for overstepping and says she can drink of she wants.  "No, we can do it your way" she says.  They start chatting and Jessica confesses she checked him out and found out he was in prison.  He says he was young and did something "unspeakably stupid."  But he left a better person and never went back.
Jessica and Scott flirt over soft drinks.
She says she didn't want to put him on the spot, but he says he understands his life has taken detours he never envisioned.  She says she was trying to be an intruiging smartass and it backfired.  He tells her he's also divorced.  She says she likes that, "divorced men are the best boyfriends.  Eager to please.  Tonnes of shit to prove.".   They sit in silence for a moment then Scott wonders why Carol thought they would be a good match.

Jessica says he looks like someone Carol would sleep with.  She goes onto say Carol has specific requirements for a guy n both looks and occupation. If a guy doesn't look the way she has imagined a boyfriend of hers should look, "it's not going to happen".  But Carol didn't asks him out herself because he'd been in prison.  Jessica says she doesn't care that's just what's "rolling around in Carol's head."

Jessica says she's bummed Scott out with the prison thing, she was trying to compliment him. "Well, you should try and do better than that" says Scott. "You're a very patient and curious man" she responds.  He was nice to her on the phone the other day and he's "tolerating" this conversation.  He says he "hypnotised" by this conversation. He has no idea what she'll say next.

Jessica says he has a daughter right? He says she is his "reason for everything". Jessica thinks she might be a good mum.  He then says he's fascinated by her job as a PI, but she says it's not as glamorous as everyone thinks.  Scott worries that everything he is saying to her sounds fake, in their line of work "costumes and adventures" it's hard to meet people to trust.

Jessica says he's the first person in ten years who hasn't asked why she isn't a superhero anymore.  He says she's the first person in ten years who hasn't asked him why he was a superhero.  Then he starts to ask why she isn't a superhere, she interupts him saying "Ha!  I knew you were going to do that!" Then both of them look out of the restaurant window, Spider-man, The Human Torch and Doctor Octopus are fighting.
This happens all the time in Marvel's New York.
Jessica asks if he wants to go help, but Scott says he hasn't bought his Ant-Man stuff. She doesn't want to help and they both consult their menus.  She says she's not mad about the drink anymore.  He laughs saying he knew she was mad about that.  She says it was rude, but "I guess I needed someone to do that for me."  They contemplate their menus somemore as fighting continues outside.  "I don't think our waitress is coming back" says Jessica, and that closes out this second volume.

More excellent stuff from Bendis and Gaydos.  The Rebecca Cross arc really struck a chord with me.  I grew up in a small town and went to school with stupid, boring, ignorant people.  I used to dream of running away, but never did because unlike Rebecca I have a very close relationship with my mum and sisters.  Still, I felt like I didn't belong, that there had to be more to life and when I realised I was gay aged 18 I knew if I could just hold on and get to university life would become so much better, which it very much did. This might also be the first time mutants are used to symbol gay people and not blacks during the civil rights era.  Mind you I always felt comparing mutants to any oppressed people is a bit strange because despite what UKIP might believe us gays don't have the ability to control the weather.  I was really glad when Rebecca was able to leave again with her girlfriend and be free of the stifling conformity of where she grew up.  The date issue is also a nice piece of work, just two people chatting and flirting, building characterisation and setting up Jessica with two eligible men to romance.  Overall we get more insight into just how self destructive Jessica can be when booze and sex intermingle for her and still leaves the reader wondering how she got like this and just why she stopped the superheroics.  Bendis is teasing out a plotline that will pay off in the final volume, so only one more before we get to that, although viewers of her excellent TV series will know the answer already...

48 comments:

  1. Yay! Someone remembered Cassie ( http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Cassandra_Lang_%28Earth-616%29 ) for half a sentence.


    Yep, that happens in Marvel's New York all the time. Up to most supers only caring if nobody else is there and the bystanders occasionally throwing bricks at the nuisance.


    Also I'm so glad I'm not the only one for whom the mutant metaphor doesn't work that well.

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  2. I lack your extensive knowledge of the MU but didn't Cassie take over as Ant person when Scott died and then got killed herself?

    I wonder if you can get insurance to cover superhero damage to your property if you live in either the MU or DCU?

    And yeah the Mutants = Oppressed people has never worked because alas although I wish it to be true, no ability to endanger to world. Unless you believe some of the more extreme US televangelists :D

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  3. @varalys

    "didn't Cassie take over as Ant person when Scott died and then got killed herself?"

    Yep. She was in the Young Avengers (under the codename Stature) then got killed in the Children's Crusade event, theeeen she was resurrected in Axis (yet another event) by Doctor Doom. I think she was last seen in her father's book (yeah, he didn't stay dead either, but I don't know how that happened) last year which ended with them going superheroing as father daughter team (Ant-Man and Stinger!). :)

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  4. Ah comic books and death, I think my favourite way of bringing someone back from the dead was Renee Montoya. Shown as being dead in the first issue of the New 52 Batwoman, stayed dead for the whole run of the New 52, when it switched to the DCYou she was back in Gotham with the excuse being she was actually in Seattle all that time.

    I like the idea of a parent and child out supeheroing together, strikes me you could get a lot of dramatic mileage out of that.

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  5. "I like the idea of a parent and child out supeheroing together, strikes me you could get a lot of dramatic mileage out of that."

    That Ant-Man book ended there so we didn't get to see much of them.

    Apparently (I don't read that series) the current "Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows" has a premise like that though. It's also an AU with all the pros and cons of that. ^^; People did accuse it of trying to capitalize on the apparent success off the Rebirth Superman (married, has a kid). Which is probably not wrong... but also probably not the only reason as 1) "Renew your vows" started as a fairly successful Secret Wars (2015) mini, and 2) Spider-Man AUs seem to be relatively profitable as Marvel keeps making a lot of them (MC2 Spider-Girl (before they killed the line), Spider-Gwen, arguably Spider-Man 2099, and so forth).

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  6. Ah you've reminded me, I meant to ask you if Spider-Gwen is worth picking up? I'm always on the lookout for new female superheroes to read, but the Spider franchise is probably one I know least about. I value your opinion, so should I check out the first trade?

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  7. I'll repeat my earlier praise for thus series in general. Luckily both of you (and hopefully the lurkers) will know what I mean by 'seinfeld isn't funny'.

    I think that's the case with mutation as sexuality. I first came across that in the x men film "have you tried not being a mutant' but it's interesting to see its earliest origin. I can see why that's the vibe nowadays but I do think the original civil rights metaphor worked better. It's a common theme of oppression that the targets are looked down upon in the public rhetoric but secretly feared. So Jews are untermensch but also clever and actually run the world and black people are paradoxically lazy and ignorant but powerful and strong. I view the earliest mutant stories through the prism of movements like the black panthers. The establishment suddenly realised that black people weren't just going to lie back and take it anymore; and that genuinely scared people.

    With the current story I liked the bit about 'nobody pretends...' I could see a motivation to why someone would. I could easily imagine some bullied Muslim kid finally turning round and saying "actually I *am* in ISIS, so you'd better watch out".

    Hmm, I wonder how long before we see mutation as religious minority allegory?

    But I especially liked this story cos it was so real world. No superhero elements beyond Rebecca's fantasising. I liked how the normal lives against a background of supes was picked up and dealt with in the one shot too. The 'ah well, just another day, let's ignore and order'. That juxtaposition between the 'normal' world and the world of supes seems to be this comics's USP and it does it so well.

    The lawyers dating lawyers thing made me laugh too for reasons I won't put you off your dinner with.

    And can I just say, whilst your writing is always excellent, you've really surpassed yourself on this one. This is London Review of Books standard. You should be ill more often if this is the result!

    I am a bit disappointed you can't control the weather though. You sure about that? Not even a bit of drizzle?

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  8. I only read some issues of Spider-Gwen so my opinion might not worth much. ^^;

    To me it seemed visually interesting, but the writing sort of mediocre... than again it's also an AU where everybody is a different gender, race, age, moral-alignment, etc. (Think: Matt Murdock lawyer of the Kingpin, Reed Richards as a black teen... still a genius though) so there is a lot to like. ^^;

    Also I think Spider-Gwen might be one of the series that has a 0th trade. (Marvel did this for series which either only had one trade worth of stuff pre-Secret Wars or spun-off from a Secret Wars mini.)

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  9. @Malitia: That does sound interesting... I quite like AU stuff being a DC nerd they have many universes where things are nearly the same but quite different so I might pick up that 0th trade now, thanks for letting me know there is a number 0th one :)

    @Alan: Funnily enough I a comic blog I used to frequent which has now had all its comments wiped had a African American regular poster who absolutely hated the whole "Xavier is MLK Jr and Magneto is Malcolm X" thing because it implied radical black activists were criminal psychopaths bent on genocide.

    Now I wish I could weaponise my gayness, I'd be Fabulous. I'd fire rainbows out my hands and have sexy lady groupies. *goes into a reverie*

    I very much like the "street level" heroes of Marvel, I've been enjoying the TV shows based on them much more than any of the flashy superhero movies or the DC shows. I just finished season one of Daredevil and it was superb, I have Luke Cage lined up to watch next, and of course Jessica Jones series got me motivated to buy this series.

    I might have included the lawyers quote just for you ;) Some comics really do make it easy to write about and like I said I identified a lot with Rebecca and thought it was cool that Jessica had seen enough of her situation to offer to take her back. Actually I think I might have told the dismal morons of Buxton Girls School that I was a mutant like you say, just to shake people up.

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  10. Yep. It is: https://www.amazon.com/Spider-Gwen-Vol-0-Most-Wanted/dp/0785197737

    I so wish they would stop doing this. 0th trades are annoying. :/ Also after I Googled I stand corrected the mini doesn't have to be SW so:

    "Marvel did this for series which either only had one trade worth of stuff pre-Secret Wars or spun-off from a mini"

    ...

    and once (to my knowledge) to collect previous encounters of the title characters, damn you special snowflake "Spider-Man/Deadpool"! :D

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  11. Cool, not expensive on Amazon.co.uk so I shall treat myself. And most likely it'll end up on here, for I am always as I say on the look-out for cool female heroines and turning one of the most notorious examples of "Fridging" into a kickass hero really appeals somehow.

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  12. I can see why people could find that portrayal objectionable. Mind you, I'm quite sympathetic to Magneto's philosophy. I'm pretty on board with fighting back. Stories are always better when the 'baddie' has a point. I was just about to mention some parallels with the Palmach and Haganah (cos discussions on the Internet about Israel always end well) but then I remembered Magneto's back story; so perhaps I'm not being as original as I thought. On a semi related note you know my obsession with ju-jitsu suffragettes. Listened to a really interesting lecture the other day about Jewish suffragettes. Going to plagiarise I mean 'adapt' it into something for that 'history of Krav' group I'm involved with.

    I still want to do that thing about modern school life. But your experience makes me want to have a fantasy sequence where someone being bullied uses 'weaponised gayness' (love that phrase).

    Malitia's reference to ant people has now got me skipping round the house singing "So unplug the jukebox and do us all a favour..."

    (and thank you for the lawyers thing :-))

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  13. Hmm... Apparently vol 0 includes the "Edge of the Spider-Verse" one-shot she first appeared in. I don't know if that'll make things easier or harder to understand. O.o

    Spider-Verse was a crossover Marvel intended to spin-off Silk (Cindy Moon, Asian-American spider-person) from, but Spider-Gwen pretty much stole the spotlight. So both got ongoings after it ended.

    And Silk readers seem to have some irrational a hatred towards Spider-Gwen fans ever since. Fandoms are weird. :/

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  14. Well Magneto has been known to go off the rails and do things like march the population of New York into gas ovens (it was totally him Marvel, I don't believe your retcons!). Actually I've never seen it ever properly addressed why mutants suffer prejudice in the Marvelverse, what difference is there from getting your powers from a gene, than being bitten by a radio-active spider, or exposed to gamma rays, or injected with super soldier serum, or getting your power from mysterious artefacts and so on.

    That said the only run of X-Men I own in full is Grant Morrison's and I liked the fact he gave us mutants who were a bit crap, stands to reason not everyone is going to come up trumps in the superpowered lottery and Xavier's school have a special class for the more "difficult" students, my sister works with EBD kids although she doesn't radicalise them like Magneto did.

    @Malitia: I'll be fine, wikipedia is always my friend when picking up some trades that include crossover material.

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  15. Well, at least it opens with the Mary Janes rehearsing their hit single "Face it Tiger!". (Gwen is their drummer.) :D

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  16. OK that sounds way awesome! Hopefully it'll get to me quick, last couple of things I picked up off Amazon sellers have reached me in two days.

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  17. "she doesn't radicalise them like Magneto did."

    Well that's what she's telling OFSTED anyway.

    I first thought about the the mutation thing when reading Strontium Dog. Even then I couldn't see why people would be bothered by mutants but not aliens. Funnily enough that became a plot point in Futurama.

    I think though it represents a real world phenomenon. We're more freaked out by 'inherent' deviation from the norm than that resulting from external causes. Congenital blindness icky - eye patches cool. Birthmarks off putting - duelling scars sexy. I think it's a eugenics thing. A change at a genetic level is a threat to the bloodline. If it's a negative impact then it's a threat to the species. If it's a positive change its even harder to accept. It's the awareness that there's an evolutionary leap in humans and non mutants are now an irrelevant dead end.

    I can never fly and I can't ensure my kids can, not from my DNA anyway. So my genetic contribution is now worthless. I can however take a super serum or annoy a radioactive spider. And if I can do that then it means such action is perfectly reasonable for 'normal' folks like me. Therefore people who have done that are by extrapolation also normal folks like me and therefore not 'others' like those creepy mutants with their 'flawed' genetic defects.

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  18. The song got defictionalized by a band:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo1AO8WHUlM

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  19. @Alan: I think my sis has enough on her plate making sure they pass GCSE English!

    Interestingly in the DCU 99% of Earth superheroes have genetic superpowers, something called the "meta-gene" exists in every human but doesn't activate except very rarely under great duress which births a new supe. So no prejudice from normies. There was a big crossover event in the late 80's where a rogue alien scientist fired a gene-bomb over Earth that disabled every superhuman which left just a motley gang of aliens and androids to find him and get the cure.

    @Malitia: Hah, nice!

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  20. I was thinking a bit more about the lawyers quote. One thing I considered is whether it was relevant Luke had been bodyguarding Matt Murdoch and there was something going on there. Almost certainly not, but that's the thing now. Thanks to you I'm always looking for subtext :-)

    Of course I don't see myself as a lawyer. I'm just a bloke who does a bit of lawyering. That's an important distinction for me. To go totally on a tangent, there's a quote "There are no judges, just men who judge". Would you believe that was the inspiration for those Sam and Ralph cartoons? The ones where the sheepdog and wolf batter the crap out of each other but are best mates out of work hours.

    Of course if it transpires Black Widow has a thing for lawyers I'd be willing to change my attitude. I like Jessica though. She reminds me of some of my more chaotic friends. The ones where we end up having long chats about their latest catastrophic relationships. I do think it's a bit sketchy of Luke to be hitting on her. It's always a dilemma when friends are looking for a bit of affection but it seems like he's taking advantage. My rule is, if someone is just annoyed and wants a bit of "Well it's his loss" back on the horse fooling around that's fine, but if someone's feeling hurt and unlovable then that's really caddish.

    It's a testament to the writing here though that the characters and situations seem so real and relatable. Weirdly that even extends to how Jessica dresses. That vest and jeans combo is quite familiar to me. I even imagine it's one of those stretchy ones with the narrow vertical ribs that you get from Littlewoods.

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  21. Heh, I'm sure there is plenty of fanfic out there pairing up two of the Marvel U's biggest man-whores, but alas nothing official. It's quite cool how Bendis synced this up with his other writing gig at the time which was Daredevil. There you get Jessica and Luke making a guest appearance doing their bodyguarding in an issue while the whole tabloid frenzy about him being outed as daredevil is going on. Daredevil and Black Widow.. I'm not sure 100% if they have done the sexy time thing, they seem to spend more time as best buds going out on the town punching people.

    Now I admit Luke is being a bit of a cad, I guess I'm reading this with the hindsight of someone who knows things end well between him and Jess and it just looks like snarky verbal sparring. But yeah, he is being a bit insensitive though she hasn't really told him the extent of her emotional issues.

    I'm glad her TV series has kept her in sloppy casual gear. Honestly I don't understand why more supes don't wear normal clothes instead of a spandex outfit you'd be worried you'd pop a titty out of when you threw a punch!

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  22. Jessica does seem so completely real to me. I imagine she's a fan of the floordrobe approach to clothes. She'll have that one pair of jeans she loves because they're really comfy and she thinks they're quite flattering. She's probably frustrated that she didn't pick another pair up when she had the opportunity as they'll now be wearing a bit thin in places. She probably subscribes to the theory you shouldn't wash jeans so she possibly gets a bit whiffy close up if they haven't been aired for a while; but nothing objectionable. She likes those vests cos they're practical. Sometimes she gets a bit narked if she's got a paunch or muffintop going on but that's her cue to work out. She eats reasonably healthy but she's always got a bottle of wine handy. She's not one for dieting but she will have a ciggie as an alternative to a snack if she feels peckish. That's my take on her anyway. Although that could be influenced by a couple of real life friends :-)

    I'm glad things work out for her. It's funny how quickly she's grown on me. I guess that's the combination of general realism in the characterisation and the personal familiarity with people like the characters.

    And yeah, the practicalities of fighting clothes. Ironically spandex is probably easier to fight in than jeans. But I know what you mean about the worry of keeping your decolletage where it should be. I'm surprised at the popularity of strapless tops amongst superheroines. Maybe they're just closet exhibitionists?

    "Oops I did it again"

    *coquettish smile*

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  23. You know substitute jeans for skater shorts and you pretty much have my wardrobe most of the year round. She definitely a great character here although I've sort of come to her in reverse having first "met" her when she was finally at peace with herself, so it's been interesting seeing her initial series. I can see why she was absorbed into the mainstream Marvel U after this all to short run ended, she really made her mark and with this and Daredevil I can see why Brian Michael Bendis rose so quickly in the Marvel heirarchy even though his style doesn't always suit the long underwear types like it does people like Jessica, Luke and Matt Murdock. Also I am stealing the word "floordrobe" although strictly speaking my clothes are piled on top of my boxes of vinyl records as I have no working record player at this time. Put them in the cupboard? But it's full already with important... junk.

    I can't remember if you said you'd seen Deadpool, but in the final battle the curvy villainous woman Colossus is battling does accidentally have a boob escape. Piotr, being a gentleman, immediately averts his gaze which earns him a punch when she has rearranged herself. Love that film.

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  24. I once helped (ie sat there chatting) whilst a girlfriend finally decided to tidy up her floordrobe. It was like Time Team with undies. You could actually see the layer where thongs came into fashion.

    I'm not sure what skater shorts are. Notwithstanding I'm very down with the kids. When we finalise your superhero costume though we'll have to make sure to incorporate them.

    Still haven't seen Deadpool. On my list though. I'm quite good at 'switching off' my male gaze when I'm sparring so I've mainly managed to avoid being distracted by the sexy. A few people have taken advantage of me going "Eek, sorry" and pausing when I've accidentally grabbed somewhere inappropriate though. I am more than happy to switch back on if a girl approaches me though. Heh, I've just remembered an occasion when a mate told me that a particularly gorgeous lass had asked if I was single. That certainly got my attention.

    "Yeah. So I told her you were between boyfriends"

    Git.

    But when that was cleared up she got very good at taking advantage of her ability to put me in things like leg scissors knowing she'd be able to choke me out before I remembered I should probably be trying to escape.

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  25. Skater shorts are just those knee length shorts with pockets on them made of thick material to allow for landing in a heap. I've never skateboarded in my life but I like the look.

    Deadpool I highly recommend, my favourite superhero movie. It stands on it's own, you don't need to have seen a million other movies to enjoy it. Warning, loses of swearing and it's much more violent than the MCU films It's just about avoids an 18 rating).

    Ah the perilds of sparring with a beautiful woman. We had quite a few cute girls in my JKD class but I kept getting partnered up with the bouncers. We didn't do a lot of grappling but wew did do the choke out move, our teacher wanted us women to learn how to take out a potential rapist if her was sat on our chest. Empowering.

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  26. About things working out for Jessica...

    Did I mention that Bendis is currently writing a Jessica Jones series? Actually Marvel got the full Alias creative team back together for it.

    I've no clue how good or bad it is (not reading it)... the premise seems a bit more fantastical than Alias' was (I spoiler it if anybody wants me to).

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  27. Nooooo, don't spoiler it! I'm excited to read it now you've told me about it. I've only followed Jessica sporadically through her post Alias career so I'd be super interested in how life is for her now.

    You know as a DC lifer it's amazing how Marvel are the ones taking all my money right now. Very poor show DC.

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  28. Now I've got that Avril Lavine song in my head. A mate's daughter is a proper skater girl. It's scary watching the videos. She's just turned 15 and when you see some of the stunts she does you can't see her getting to 16. She'll probably be appearing in one of those wince inducing YouTube videos soon. Ah, the immortality of youth. She is very good though.

    I've seen clips from Deadpool and it looks great. I have no problem with swearing so long as it's well done. You ever see Malcolm Tucker in Thick of It? He was brilliant. They had a special swearing consultant on the script team. He earned his fee. Malcolm also did that wonderfully confused description of Star Wars.

    "The gay hairdresser. He's got a pedal bin pal and fucked his sister...Lego! They're all made out of Lego"

    I could write reams about the empowering effects of self defence. You know I'm almost evangelical about it. But it's interesting how keen girls are to learn. Not just for the practicalities but just that general being a badass. Like I've mentioned, in class I switch off. Otherwise it wouldn't be comfortable for the women, especially as you do have to get into some quite intimate positions so they need to know you're just being 'professional'. But if you're just training up someone you've already got a bit of a frisson with then it's wonderful flirty fun. Also adds something to relationships. Nothing sexier than being with a girl who can kill you (well, try).

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  29. Considering how scarred up my arms and legs are from my days of mountain biking round the Peak District (the one good thing about living in Buxton) it's probably a good thing skateboards hadn't quite made it to the UK when I was a kid. Although the worst injury I ever got was actually stunt sledging when I was nine and broke my left collarbone. Whoops.

    Yeah I loved The Thick of It, I have to watch my language now because my nephew is at that sponge age where every word he hears that he doesn't know will instantly get repeated and added to his vocabulary.

    You're right about self defence being empowering, my JKD class was pretty evenly split between men and women and lots of various ages represented. When you find yourself flat on your back with a strange man sitting on your chest it's vital you both feel at ease. Our teacher was brilliant though, he was trained my Dan Inosanto and was super laid back. Also he demonstrated the One Inch Punch which as a Bruce fanatic made me squee. Ah if only my back hadn't betrayed me, although I do still remember a lot of the movesets he drilled into us.

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  30. I actually had a skateboard as a really young kid. It was wood, had rollerskate wheels and a picture of Stingray (the submarine) on it. Then there was a craze in the late 70s. Had a fibreglass board with those cool vinyl wheels. I was never any good though. I remember a skateboard book that said "whatever happens, skateboarding is here to stay!" Nope, although it's now come back again it seems.

    Scars are great though. There's reminders that memories are real and each one tells a story. I love mine. Sledging is a great way to pick up injuries. There was a particular steep hill in Bradford that was popular and ambulances used to literally wait at the bottom of it. On the rare occasions it snows here we just tie tractor tyres to the back of our trucks and go bombing round the fields.

    The one inch punch is amazing when someone knows how to do it. I've been on the receiving end of the palm strike version a few times and it's freaky how much power people can pack behind it. I don't really have the speed for it. As I'm sure you're aware it's K=1/2 m v^2 so speed is the key ;-) I can strike quite hard but that's because I'm quite heavy, so it's about throwing my hip in (as opposed to throwing my back out, which I'm also good at)

    I do get a really good feeling when a girl gets good at fighting. You obviously have to overcome those initial inhibitions, on both sides, about using violence and also feeling comfortable in some of the scenarios. But once that's done we go all in. It's a philosophy of ours that techniques are worthless unless they work for the smallest person against the biggest. Now obviously there's all issues around size etc in competition, but it is different in self defence. I could go on about that for hours. But one thing we do is to start off with the girls in the most vulnerable positions either on the ground or stand up chokes etc. They then have 10 seconds to escape. Eventually as they improve we step up to full resistance. And it's fantastic that they can still do it. Even if it does get my nose broke every now and then.

    Funnily enough media can be a great teaching tool. People will watch something then ask "What could she have done there?" Mind you I saw some Agents of Shield thing recently. Some catsuited kung fu bunny did loads of spectacular but unrealistic wire-fu stuff to take put a horde of bad guys. But then the chief villain subdued her with some chokehold that's one of the simplest things to get out of. Hmm, maybe there's an idea for an article there.

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  31. I'd be interested in your thoughts on this if you ever get time.

    http://lionskravmaga.com/2015/02/feministsvsselfdefensers/

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  32. I'll read that article later this evening as I am afraid to say I am engrossed in a CSI videogame.

    I don't think the skateboarding craze made it to Glossop, mind you I destroyed two scooters and my Chipper doing stunts down the nearby grassy hill. My family didn't have a lot of cash so I was given a hand-me-down "girls" bike as a punishment and much to my chagrin it survived for several years until I wrapped it round the fence that ran down our road in Buxton and bent it in half. Heh. I've been knocked out three times in my life and all three times it was attempting ridiculous stunts on a plastic sledge.

    I never had a problem overcoming inhibitions about using violence. Much of my years in therapy have been helping me control my severe rage issues. I've built up iron self control but every minute of every day I feel it roiling and bubbling under all the layers, so being able to channel it constructively was actually physically relieving to me. Another reason I miss not being able to take lessons anymore.

    I do admit I tut a bit sometimes at stuff like Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. But it is supposed to be entertainment I guess. One reason I like the Daredevil TV show (and comic) is that the fighting is a bit more grounded and they actually show how badly injured you would get taking the amount of punishment dished out in return.

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  33. I had to take some deprived college kids round court a recently (I'm your proverbial working class kid made good so the bar always drag me out when they want to plug the inclusivity thing). I introduced them to a nice police lady. She really hated CSI, cos it gave the impression they were the ones that solved all the crimes. As I'm sure you know over here they're called SOCO. The actual labs have been privatised now. In real life the turnaround times are somewhat longer. They do have some amazing cool stuff though. I went to a demo of a system where you fed in all the details about serial crimes and it showed on a map where the perp lived. At the moment it's just set up for London and it takes ages to feed the info in, so they only use it for murders and rapes. It's pretty Judge Dredd though. I also met the guys who used dialect analysis to catch Wearside Jack (the Ripper hoaxer). They were able to tell where I'd been born, when I'd moved, what education I'd had etc just by listening to me. There's some brilliant stuff out there. I keep up with it so I'm 'forensically aware' in case I ever decide to take up a life of crime.

    I love hearing about all your scrapes and shenanigans. You remind me of me. I spent so much time at the local infirmary I was on first name terms with the doctors. I was never athletic as a kid; just reckless.

    And you know I love your berserker tendencies. Like I say, I hope I'm not being trite or patronising, I just think you were born out of your time. I can see why you like Sonja. You're pretty much a reincarnation. I hope we can get to do a bit of sparring. I'm sure we can show each other a few tricks. I only know a little about JKD but I love Bruce. Like all 70s kids he's my number one hero. A true warrior monk.

    "Be the teacup"

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  34. Oh I'm well aware CSI was a bit of a fantasy, we always used to have a "drinking game" (we'd eat a Haribo instead) when they did things like pick up evidence without gloves and so on. Have you ever seen The Wire, I enjoyed it when they visited Baltimore's CSI lab which turned out to be staffed by one very backlogged scientist and there evidence had all be buggered up because a temp had mislabelled all the blood samples the previous summer. Wonder if that was more true-to-life....

    I've always wanted to chat with a dialogue analysis. Have spent all but four years of my life in the North West, but my mum was upper middle class boarding school educated so I picked up her RP accent and because I watch all US TV I tend to pronouce a lot of words like the Americans do now much to the annoyance of my family :D

    As for being a Berserker, you know those apocalyptic fantasies that show up every now and then being mocked on WHTM. Well I have no practical skills but with a sword and hopefully a shotgun I'd happily defend the women's community from marauding bands of Red Pillocks. Probably why I enjoy Fallout so much, you put down roots and can be good or bad. I'm usually a good guy but occasionally I blow up a town in return for a fancier apartment...

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  35. Real labs here tend to have huge backlogs (although they obviously prioritise some cases) but they do seem to be very well run. In my 20 year career the only time we've ever found a misanalysis was in relation to interpreting the data from a digital tachograph. And that's a pretty niche thing. For stuff like DNA and fingerprints they're always spot on. It's more the interpretation of their findings that's the issue. And they refuse to interpret their own work as a matter of policy (and technically they're not allowed to, it's a rules of evidence thing) so they don't come to court a lot.

    One trope that does amuse me is fingerprint analysis always has a computer running through loads of photos. That's one area where real life is well ahead of the game. The police have little pocket scanners now and the result instantly pops up (well, assuming they can get a phone signal).

    'Chain of custody' is taken very seriously. I once had to collect a knife from the police for our own expert analysis. They gave me a load of evidence bags and pro forma statements so we could keep track of it. Even though we'd be the ones challenging?! Of course in typical form that was a day they'd set metal detectors up at the tube station.

    "Now before I open my bag you need to know, this isn't what it looks like..."

    (Some day I'll tell you how wearing my pupil master's jacket, not knowing he had a frikkin 'sheeps foot knife' in there, nearly got me shot at court)

    There's a guilty pleasure 80s movie Phoenix the Warrior (aka She-Wolves of the Wasteland). Be right up your street. Machete wielding amazons in a post apocalyptic landscape. No flashy apartments I'm afraid. There's a derelict building that could be an excellent do-er upper opportunity for you though. Get a few rugs, lick of paint here and there...

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  36. Very very off topic... but with issue #7 Marvel cancelled* the new Great Lakes Avengers title. I so hate them sometimes. :(

    * That's next month's. Marvel doesn't exactly tend to tell people they'll cancel something... that would be nice and fair, just stops soliciting the title (one month - worrying; two months - cancelled).

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  37. Boo. Squirrels Assemble!!!

    That's probably my fault though because I expressed an interest. Thats usually the kiss of death. Same with books. As soon as I start reading a series the author dies. I get asked to read Jeffrey Archer a lot.

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  38. Something from t'other blog that might interest you:

    @Alan: Rebellion (current publishers of 2000AD) picked up the Action archive last year, it’s possible they might produce new material as well as reprints – Al Ewing said at their 40th Anniversary convention that he’d like to write Kids Rule OK : http://www.2000adonline.com/post/727

    And Titan Comics are publishing an updated Hookjaw just now, although I’ve heard mixed reviews of that.

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  39. "Al Ewing said at their 40th Anniversary convention that he’d like to write Kids Rule OK"

    Well, at least I'm interested in everything written by Al Ewing. :3

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  40. It'll be interesting to see what happens if he does take up the story. This is the infamous cover that got the comic banned:

    http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_uZMPVFAFJD8/Se9h35bHdkI/AAAAAAAADSU/OKjs44596OU/s320/cover+1.jpg

    The strip itself was incredibly violent. Lots of people getting boots to the face. More than that though was the concern over the premise. Kids killing authority figures like judges and teachers; and very much being celebrated for it. This was the era of punk after all. But I honestly don't know whether it would still have the power to shock now or whether it will just seem quite twee.

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  41. I'm more familiar with his Marvel work*, but Ewing is the guy who gave Zombo ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombo_%28comics%29 ) to the world so no stranger to violence and gore, or black comedy, so I'm sure he can work with that premise. :)

    * That's mostly a lot of having fun with continuity weirdness and American comicbook tropes (his latest U.S.Avengers issue was a whole crossover event in 22 pages).

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  42. I might have to add "you smell of (x) and I'm the deodorant" to my list of phrases I hope to use one day.

    I wonder if Ewing might be a bit too clever for KROK. That's not a criticism of him. I've very much enjoyed what I've seen of his work. But he writes with a lot of depth and he seems quite post modern. The original strip was very visceral and simplistic. It was a product of that stripped down punk vibe. There was no subtlety. That of course suited the times.

    Still I should stop being such a fogie. He had shown himself to be very respectful of the underlying premise of legacy work (like Dredd) so it will be interesting to see his take on it. And it's not like anyone has any emotional investment in the original anyway (that would sort of negate the whole point which was basically very nihilistic)

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  43. I might have to add "you smell of (x) and I'm the deodorant" to my list of phrases I hope to use one day.

    I wonder if Ewing might be a bit too clever for KROK. That's not a criticism of him. I've very much enjoyed what I've seen of his work. But he writes with a lot of depth and he seems quite post modern. The original strip was very visceral and simplistic. It was a product of that stripped down punk vibe. There was no subtlety. That of course suited the times.

    Still I should stop being such a fogie. He had shown himself to be very respectful of the underlying premise of legacy work (like Dredd) so it will be interesting to see his take on it. And it's not like anyone has any emotional investment in the original anyway (that would sort of negate the whole point which was basically very nihilistic)

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  45. You under the weather again? :-(

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  46. Yeah, been hit by vile sinus headaches - early hayfever. It's let up a bit now and I am very slowly working on the next blog post for this month when I can tolerate looking at a screen. Gah I hate my wreck of a body some times. It's been warm and wet and I can't take antihistamines or sinus medicine because they react badly with my normal meds >_<

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  47. I first read that as 'nile virus'!

    But so sorry to hear that. You just take your time and get better. Thinking of you.

    (solidarity email sent)

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  48. Cheers, actually I have mostly been sleeping all the time actually. I never seem to find a happy medium between insomnia or binge sleeping. Ah well. Though luckily I get my hayfever over and done with usually by the end of April so I don't suffer all through summer.

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