I totally needed a new tumblr, yes.
► TUMBLR:
→ Okay, shut up. Shut up. I have a new tumblr that's actually going to be my default one (such as it is) where I can post memes and, like, follow people and stuff. EVERYONE SHOULD TELL ME THEIR TUMBLR NAMES AGAIN. Or else add me so I can add you back. :D
► FARMVILLE:
→ Oh, my goooooood. This farm is amazing. I could never do it myself, I have too much crap I need to keep out on the farm, but I still look at this with stars in my eyes. And seething envy. Lots and lots of seething envy.
→ This forest/platform/river design is why I keep giving consideration to trying the blue hay bales trick. Sometimes it looks so awesome!
→ I've seen the tunnels done before, but it never gets old, that is one gorgeous farm. I envy it so much, but... there's no sheep pen, no pig pen, no pub, etc. So it's not really a workable farm at all. But still. Envyyyyy.
► COMICS:
→ Sighhhh, I really need more comic friends because I need to shaaaaare my thoughts! And read other people's thoughts! Not just comic reviews! Even if there are a gajillion of them! You guyssss, Marvel's been kind of good again lately~~!
→ This post came across my dash the other day, which is a sort of primer post about how to get into the various Bat-mythos and I appreciate it very much! But I sort of look at that list and think that there's no way those comics would have hooked me in. They're probably good for explaining the background of Bruce's character, but, honestly, Bruce is boring by himself! And then I realized, yeah, this is why there are no good primers because everyone disagrees on everything when it comes to where a person should start reading.
And then I said to Siobhan, "Personally, I think vol 3 of JLA is a much better starting place for people to get into DC. ....shit, now I want to reread JLA to see if it really does hold up."
THIS ALWAYS HAPPENS. I ALWAYS END UP DOING THIS TO MYSELF.
It's not enough that I decided, oh, I checked out during Morrison's run on New X-Men (and have never been a regular reader since) because I hated it even at the time, but I want to be fair to it. Instead of reading it every month like I did back then, I'll read it all in a rush at once! Maybe it'll be more tolerable that way!
IT'S KIND OF REALLY NOT. IT'S STILL JUST AS ENRAGING AS EVER.
But I want to be fair to it! When I bitch about it, I want to be fully, 100% informed. This is why I'm rereading Austen's run on Uncanny again as well. Because, dammit, if I'm going to bitch about him being the second most enraging X-author ever (wait, or is it third? I can never tell how I feel about Joss on the X-Men), I should actually read it! Even if Lorna does make a wedding dress out of forks. The problem, of course, is that I actually know more about Alex and Lorna now (which I didn't back when those issues were first coming out), so it'll probably be doubly enraging.
However, I am reading PAD's run on the original X-Force and a;slkdjfaljk I know he's lost the magic these days and his wank is on display for everyone to see, but he really was excellent back then! PIETRO AND LORNA. ON THE SAME TEEEEAAAMMMM. I need it, okay! Especially since Morrison did that issue where the X-Men went to find Lorna on Genosha after the bombing and Pietro came along and there was ZERO INTERACTION THERE. Fuck you, Morrison.
→ Anway, so, I read Second Coming (which is a bunch of issues I'm not going to list, but I believe in ran through Uncanny, Legacy, X-Force, and something else) and there'll be spoilers for all of that. This is really half about the state of the X-Men at that point in time, but also really spoilery, so.
So, it starts out with X-Force going to extreme measures when they get a line on Hope and Cable, while the rest of the X-Men are wondering WTF is going on, did they just casually kill people? Almost immediately, there's a shitstorm brewing, which made it more interesting than all of Nation X in, like, one issue. I'm kind of disappointed that that never really got addressed, that Scott knew about the team, that X-Force was doing some shady things to protect people, but, well. Given all the shit that goes down in this storyline, I can understand it.
I didn't think they'd be so brutal about all of this! There were some really awesome moments--Rogue vs Bastion in X-Force #26 was definitely one of the highlights for me. I'm not entirely sure how her powers work now, can she just call them up whenever she wants now, so long as she's touched them since Hope wiped her clean? Or does she have to have touched them recently? I think it was Legacy where she was fighting Moonstone (as the Dark Avengers' Miss Marvel) and the implication was that she had basically used up all her juice in one last big shot as she flipped a tank on her? But I don't recall Rogue having recently touched the other mutants' powers that she borrowed in that fight? Yet, when she was going off to fight Emplate in Legacy, she had all the kids touch her to absorb their powers--why do that if she had access to the A-listers' powers? She only really needed Trance's there? Idk, I'm not sure they've really hammered that out yet? I'll have to reread the issues where she gains control over her powers again.
ANYWAY. I'm getting off track. Second Coming also killed off Kurt pretty early on and Kurt has never been my favorite, okay? He wasn't around that much when I first got into the comics, nobody really seems to have known what to do with him in the last few years, etc. But when he died saving Hope? SO MUCH SADNESS. I was devestated by his death! T___T And I would shake it off, but Logan's reaction was especially gut-wrenching, having just fought with Kurt (about being part of X-Force and Kurt wondering WTF they were doing) and then Kurt died with them on those terms. The close-up on Logan's claws was especially heartbreaking.
I would also just shake it off because nobody stays dead in comics, especially with Bastion taking on a three-fingered appearance after Kurt's death, but... Quesada has been rather firm on the "dead means dead" thing. It's not impossible for the characters to come back, we all know Jean will be back eventually (they just don't want to rush the storyline and I do agree with that, even as much as I miss her), it's just that it takes a lot longer for it to happen. I think Kurt will be back one day, but it won't be for years and years.
I want to bitch about it, too. To say that it was pointless since it wasn't really even about him, but I actually think it contributes something important to Second Coming and the whole struggle for survival that the X-Men are going through. I've been reading these issues quickly, much more quickly than they were originally published, because I've been out of touch for so long, but there's a very palpable sense of the X-Men being backed further and further into a corner. The tension is constantly ratcheting up. Hope is important--important enough to warrent Kurt's death, then later Nathan's death, too--because Wanda's "no more mutants" spell hasn't been undone. It's been years since that happened and it's still not undone. They're still struggling with it.
The constant upheaval the X-Men have been going through works for me here, because they've taken so many hits and they can never quite get their feet back under them before the next hit comes. And I feel like Marvel has kept that in mind, that the events they've been going through have had proper consequences. There is an air of tension to everything I read now. There's a complexity and yet internal consistency that I didn't think comics were capable of anymore. It's not perfect, they still stumble along the way, but I've actually felt like they're telling solid, good stories again.
I laughed when I read an issue of X-Force and the back had SIX PAGES of summary about the events since House of M--House of M! which happened probably only five or six years ago!--because so much shit has gone down and it was kind of hilarious how much backstory you needed. But I also appreciate that I've been interested in almost every big event they've had going on. I appreciate that they truly feel like they're all building on each other. (Except for Messiah War. That was just pure filler.)
Second Coming builds on everything that's come before it, you feel the weight of it in the events. That's why Kurt's death saddened me and I would totally undo it if I could, but I respect it. Because I feel like Marvel has earned that.
I feel like they've earned a lot of things, because they're not trying too hard to sell me on Hope being the messiah of the mutant race--this storyline was also about everyone questioning if she was really worth all of this. The trust people have in Scott has always had cracks in the foundation (at least in the last few years, ever since he turned into a massive dickhole and Jean died), but it's further eroding here. Even he is forcing himself to believe because Hope has to be worth it. I think this is all going to come to a head at some point... but what that means, I don't know. Will Scott stay as leader? Will someone else take up the role? Personally, I would like to see it come to a head around the time Jean came back and put Jean at the head of the mutants and make her their leader. But, watch, it'll probably be Warren or Hank instead. .....not that I would mind Hank. Hank as the mutants' defacto leader would be rife with potential.
I want to believe that X-Factor saying fuck off to Scott, Hank saying fuck off to Scott, the fight between Dani and Hope in this storyline (and the anger at Cable), all of this is leading somewhere, that it won't just get dropped in favor of, say, a storyline about vampires.
However, I will give Second Coming this--it's the first time that I've felt for Scott in a long time. When he has to order X-Force to head into the future that Bastion is connected to, in order to stop the Sentinels from coming in, he says, "I just killed X-Force. I just killed my son." I actually felt sympathy for him. And, holy hell, my heart broke when he couldn't even give Nathan's eulogy without collapsing onto the coffin. I wish we had more introspection from Scott that wasn't all about him being a badass (which is less badass and more dickbag) and we saw more moments of him being human and isolated and wondering if he's doing the right thing and seeing that each loss takes something away from him. It would go a long way.
I'm going to miss Cable, too. I couldn't bother with his solo book, but that was Marvel's fault, not the character's. Nothing of importance was ever going to happen in that book, it was always going to be in the bigger titles. All it was about was Cable running from Bishop while trying to raise Hope as safely as he could--there's potential there, maybe with a better author or a better artist (I'm sorry, but Olivetti just is not my cup of tea at all) and there was just no way it was going to be interesting, even with the momentum the characters gained from Messiah Complex.
I'm going to miss Cable because those issues were so boring (at least what I read of them) when the character was full of so much potential--when he leads X-Force into the future that Bastion connected to, it was kind of an awesome little reunion. I was grumpy at the lack of Cable/Dom in all of this, but! "All right, then here's the plan--we kill our way from here to there. We kill our way inside. And we don't come out until the future is razed and the past is saved. No matter what." CABLE AND X-FORCE. WINNING COMBINATION. I wish there'd been more of that!
But then, in order to get the others back, Nathan had to use the full scope of his powers (why did they not send Nate in there then? or is he not around anymore? I haven't seen mention of him in ages) which meant that he had to let out the T-O virus that he'd been holding back, which overtook him in less than a minute. Enough time to get the others back, enough time to smile at Hope one last time before he exploded. And, fuck, I was bawwww'ing all over the place.
I want to be ticked about Nathan's death, but I can't deny that I felt Second Coming had earned it and that he was being kind of wasted outside of these crossovers. With Hope back in the present, her journey needed to change, and what was Cable's role then? I felt like it had a point/the event had earned it, so I can't crab too much about it. Even if I'm really going to miss him.
However, there were some moments that I felt missed the mark. I get what X-Force #27 was doing with so many pages without dialogue, with just Mike Choi's gorgeous artwork showing the chaotic battle. And it was certainly gorgeous! But I felt it threw off the pacing to spend half an issue with nothing but fight scenes, not even a little dialogue. It just kind of fell a little flat for me.
I also appreciated seeing characters like Thor and Iron Man showing up to try to get through Bastion's sphere, but... seriously. Part of the plan was that Bastion took out the X-Men's teleporters so that they couldn't get out. And Thor and Iron Man would take a few days to hammer their way through it. So, uh, why did no one get Cloak or Wiccan on the phone? Seriously.
But it also had me really warming up to Hope even further. Having never really read the latest Cable series, I didn't know much about her beyond the idea that she represented. Seeing her grieve for Nathan, seeing her tell Scott (when he tries to reach out to her after Nathan's death), "If you put that hand on me, I swear to god you'll lose it." made me love her. Her eulogy for Nathan (when Scott was too overcome to continue) was perfect. I'm a little wary of Generation Hope because I don't care about new mutants being created and I'm more invested in Hope's role in the future, not her past, but I'm willing to read just about anything for her right now.
I'm glad that we got to see more of Hank and Scott's conversation where Hank left, telling Scott you need tanks and bombs and guns and more soldiers, the way you think these days. You don't need me. I felt Hank's parting words were a little off, but he's so angry right now, that I think I can buy it. And I did enjoy the afterwards with Hank off doing his own thing and running into Molly from Runaways and discussing what extinction meant for their speices. I also enjoyed Hope being examined by Reed Richards and Franklin sneaks in to talk to her, where they have a moment of connection about how they're both in a position where the grown-ups are always looking at them to do something. I gave less of a crap about Scott and Steve Rogers, though.
I also enjoyed Magneto and Hope's conversation, given that they met in the med bay earlier when she first came in and Nathan tried to warn her away from him. I absolutely loved the conversation with Logan and Ororo about Kurt, about two friends who have known each other for ages who miss another old friend. How Logan says, "If I had to it all over again, I'd kill more of them. Because maybe if I had killed more of them, Kurt would still be alive." Jesus, Kyle and Yost. How do you keep doing this to me? Ororo's quiet strength and calm in those scenes was amazing, too. And then there was NAMOR PLAYING BASKETBALL. NAMOR IS A JOY FOREVER.
→ Okay, shut up. Shut up. I have a new tumblr that's actually going to be my default one (such as it is) where I can post memes and, like, follow people and stuff. EVERYONE SHOULD TELL ME THEIR TUMBLR NAMES AGAIN. Or else add me so I can add you back. :D
► FARMVILLE:
→ Oh, my goooooood. This farm is amazing. I could never do it myself, I have too much crap I need to keep out on the farm, but I still look at this with stars in my eyes. And seething envy. Lots and lots of seething envy.
→ This forest/platform/river design is why I keep giving consideration to trying the blue hay bales trick. Sometimes it looks so awesome!
→ I've seen the tunnels done before, but it never gets old, that is one gorgeous farm. I envy it so much, but... there's no sheep pen, no pig pen, no pub, etc. So it's not really a workable farm at all. But still. Envyyyyy.
► COMICS:
→ Sighhhh, I really need more comic friends because I need to shaaaaare my thoughts! And read other people's thoughts! Not just comic reviews! Even if there are a gajillion of them! You guyssss, Marvel's been kind of good again lately~~!
→ This post came across my dash the other day, which is a sort of primer post about how to get into the various Bat-mythos and I appreciate it very much! But I sort of look at that list and think that there's no way those comics would have hooked me in. They're probably good for explaining the background of Bruce's character, but, honestly, Bruce is boring by himself! And then I realized, yeah, this is why there are no good primers because everyone disagrees on everything when it comes to where a person should start reading.
And then I said to Siobhan, "Personally, I think vol 3 of JLA is a much better starting place for people to get into DC. ....shit, now I want to reread JLA to see if it really does hold up."
THIS ALWAYS HAPPENS. I ALWAYS END UP DOING THIS TO MYSELF.
It's not enough that I decided, oh, I checked out during Morrison's run on New X-Men (and have never been a regular reader since) because I hated it even at the time, but I want to be fair to it. Instead of reading it every month like I did back then, I'll read it all in a rush at once! Maybe it'll be more tolerable that way!
IT'S KIND OF REALLY NOT. IT'S STILL JUST AS ENRAGING AS EVER.
But I want to be fair to it! When I bitch about it, I want to be fully, 100% informed. This is why I'm rereading Austen's run on Uncanny again as well. Because, dammit, if I'm going to bitch about him being the second most enraging X-author ever (wait, or is it third? I can never tell how I feel about Joss on the X-Men), I should actually read it! Even if Lorna does make a wedding dress out of forks. The problem, of course, is that I actually know more about Alex and Lorna now (which I didn't back when those issues were first coming out), so it'll probably be doubly enraging.
However, I am reading PAD's run on the original X-Force and a;slkdjfaljk I know he's lost the magic these days and his wank is on display for everyone to see, but he really was excellent back then! PIETRO AND LORNA. ON THE SAME TEEEEAAAMMMM. I need it, okay! Especially since Morrison did that issue where the X-Men went to find Lorna on Genosha after the bombing and Pietro came along and there was ZERO INTERACTION THERE. Fuck you, Morrison.
→ Anway, so, I read Second Coming (which is a bunch of issues I'm not going to list, but I believe in ran through Uncanny, Legacy, X-Force, and something else) and there'll be spoilers for all of that. This is really half about the state of the X-Men at that point in time, but also really spoilery, so.
So, it starts out with X-Force going to extreme measures when they get a line on Hope and Cable, while the rest of the X-Men are wondering WTF is going on, did they just casually kill people? Almost immediately, there's a shitstorm brewing, which made it more interesting than all of Nation X in, like, one issue. I'm kind of disappointed that that never really got addressed, that Scott knew about the team, that X-Force was doing some shady things to protect people, but, well. Given all the shit that goes down in this storyline, I can understand it.
I didn't think they'd be so brutal about all of this! There were some really awesome moments--Rogue vs Bastion in X-Force #26 was definitely one of the highlights for me. I'm not entirely sure how her powers work now, can she just call them up whenever she wants now, so long as she's touched them since Hope wiped her clean? Or does she have to have touched them recently? I think it was Legacy where she was fighting Moonstone (as the Dark Avengers' Miss Marvel) and the implication was that she had basically used up all her juice in one last big shot as she flipped a tank on her? But I don't recall Rogue having recently touched the other mutants' powers that she borrowed in that fight? Yet, when she was going off to fight Emplate in Legacy, she had all the kids touch her to absorb their powers--why do that if she had access to the A-listers' powers? She only really needed Trance's there? Idk, I'm not sure they've really hammered that out yet? I'll have to reread the issues where she gains control over her powers again.
ANYWAY. I'm getting off track. Second Coming also killed off Kurt pretty early on and Kurt has never been my favorite, okay? He wasn't around that much when I first got into the comics, nobody really seems to have known what to do with him in the last few years, etc. But when he died saving Hope? SO MUCH SADNESS. I was devestated by his death! T___T And I would shake it off, but Logan's reaction was especially gut-wrenching, having just fought with Kurt (about being part of X-Force and Kurt wondering WTF they were doing) and then Kurt died with them on those terms. The close-up on Logan's claws was especially heartbreaking.
I would also just shake it off because nobody stays dead in comics, especially with Bastion taking on a three-fingered appearance after Kurt's death, but... Quesada has been rather firm on the "dead means dead" thing. It's not impossible for the characters to come back, we all know Jean will be back eventually (they just don't want to rush the storyline and I do agree with that, even as much as I miss her), it's just that it takes a lot longer for it to happen. I think Kurt will be back one day, but it won't be for years and years.
I want to bitch about it, too. To say that it was pointless since it wasn't really even about him, but I actually think it contributes something important to Second Coming and the whole struggle for survival that the X-Men are going through. I've been reading these issues quickly, much more quickly than they were originally published, because I've been out of touch for so long, but there's a very palpable sense of the X-Men being backed further and further into a corner. The tension is constantly ratcheting up. Hope is important--important enough to warrent Kurt's death, then later Nathan's death, too--because Wanda's "no more mutants" spell hasn't been undone. It's been years since that happened and it's still not undone. They're still struggling with it.
The constant upheaval the X-Men have been going through works for me here, because they've taken so many hits and they can never quite get their feet back under them before the next hit comes. And I feel like Marvel has kept that in mind, that the events they've been going through have had proper consequences. There is an air of tension to everything I read now. There's a complexity and yet internal consistency that I didn't think comics were capable of anymore. It's not perfect, they still stumble along the way, but I've actually felt like they're telling solid, good stories again.
I laughed when I read an issue of X-Force and the back had SIX PAGES of summary about the events since House of M--House of M! which happened probably only five or six years ago!--because so much shit has gone down and it was kind of hilarious how much backstory you needed. But I also appreciate that I've been interested in almost every big event they've had going on. I appreciate that they truly feel like they're all building on each other. (Except for Messiah War. That was just pure filler.)
Second Coming builds on everything that's come before it, you feel the weight of it in the events. That's why Kurt's death saddened me and I would totally undo it if I could, but I respect it. Because I feel like Marvel has earned that.
I feel like they've earned a lot of things, because they're not trying too hard to sell me on Hope being the messiah of the mutant race--this storyline was also about everyone questioning if she was really worth all of this. The trust people have in Scott has always had cracks in the foundation (at least in the last few years, ever since he turned into a massive dickhole and Jean died), but it's further eroding here. Even he is forcing himself to believe because Hope has to be worth it. I think this is all going to come to a head at some point... but what that means, I don't know. Will Scott stay as leader? Will someone else take up the role? Personally, I would like to see it come to a head around the time Jean came back and put Jean at the head of the mutants and make her their leader. But, watch, it'll probably be Warren or Hank instead. .....not that I would mind Hank. Hank as the mutants' defacto leader would be rife with potential.
I want to believe that X-Factor saying fuck off to Scott, Hank saying fuck off to Scott, the fight between Dani and Hope in this storyline (and the anger at Cable), all of this is leading somewhere, that it won't just get dropped in favor of, say, a storyline about vampires.
However, I will give Second Coming this--it's the first time that I've felt for Scott in a long time. When he has to order X-Force to head into the future that Bastion is connected to, in order to stop the Sentinels from coming in, he says, "I just killed X-Force. I just killed my son." I actually felt sympathy for him. And, holy hell, my heart broke when he couldn't even give Nathan's eulogy without collapsing onto the coffin. I wish we had more introspection from Scott that wasn't all about him being a badass (which is less badass and more dickbag) and we saw more moments of him being human and isolated and wondering if he's doing the right thing and seeing that each loss takes something away from him. It would go a long way.
I'm going to miss Cable, too. I couldn't bother with his solo book, but that was Marvel's fault, not the character's. Nothing of importance was ever going to happen in that book, it was always going to be in the bigger titles. All it was about was Cable running from Bishop while trying to raise Hope as safely as he could--there's potential there, maybe with a better author or a better artist (I'm sorry, but Olivetti just is not my cup of tea at all) and there was just no way it was going to be interesting, even with the momentum the characters gained from Messiah Complex.
I'm going to miss Cable because those issues were so boring (at least what I read of them) when the character was full of so much potential--when he leads X-Force into the future that Bastion connected to, it was kind of an awesome little reunion. I was grumpy at the lack of Cable/Dom in all of this, but! "All right, then here's the plan--we kill our way from here to there. We kill our way inside. And we don't come out until the future is razed and the past is saved. No matter what." CABLE AND X-FORCE. WINNING COMBINATION. I wish there'd been more of that!
But then, in order to get the others back, Nathan had to use the full scope of his powers (why did they not send Nate in there then? or is he not around anymore? I haven't seen mention of him in ages) which meant that he had to let out the T-O virus that he'd been holding back, which overtook him in less than a minute. Enough time to get the others back, enough time to smile at Hope one last time before he exploded. And, fuck, I was bawwww'ing all over the place.
I want to be ticked about Nathan's death, but I can't deny that I felt Second Coming had earned it and that he was being kind of wasted outside of these crossovers. With Hope back in the present, her journey needed to change, and what was Cable's role then? I felt like it had a point/the event had earned it, so I can't crab too much about it. Even if I'm really going to miss him.
However, there were some moments that I felt missed the mark. I get what X-Force #27 was doing with so many pages without dialogue, with just Mike Choi's gorgeous artwork showing the chaotic battle. And it was certainly gorgeous! But I felt it threw off the pacing to spend half an issue with nothing but fight scenes, not even a little dialogue. It just kind of fell a little flat for me.
I also appreciated seeing characters like Thor and Iron Man showing up to try to get through Bastion's sphere, but... seriously. Part of the plan was that Bastion took out the X-Men's teleporters so that they couldn't get out. And Thor and Iron Man would take a few days to hammer their way through it. So, uh, why did no one get Cloak or Wiccan on the phone? Seriously.
But it also had me really warming up to Hope even further. Having never really read the latest Cable series, I didn't know much about her beyond the idea that she represented. Seeing her grieve for Nathan, seeing her tell Scott (when he tries to reach out to her after Nathan's death), "If you put that hand on me, I swear to god you'll lose it." made me love her. Her eulogy for Nathan (when Scott was too overcome to continue) was perfect. I'm a little wary of Generation Hope because I don't care about new mutants being created and I'm more invested in Hope's role in the future, not her past, but I'm willing to read just about anything for her right now.
I'm glad that we got to see more of Hank and Scott's conversation where Hank left, telling Scott you need tanks and bombs and guns and more soldiers, the way you think these days. You don't need me. I felt Hank's parting words were a little off, but he's so angry right now, that I think I can buy it. And I did enjoy the afterwards with Hank off doing his own thing and running into Molly from Runaways and discussing what extinction meant for their speices. I also enjoyed Hope being examined by Reed Richards and Franklin sneaks in to talk to her, where they have a moment of connection about how they're both in a position where the grown-ups are always looking at them to do something. I gave less of a crap about Scott and Steve Rogers, though.
I also enjoyed Magneto and Hope's conversation, given that they met in the med bay earlier when she first came in and Nathan tried to warn her away from him. I absolutely loved the conversation with Logan and Ororo about Kurt, about two friends who have known each other for ages who miss another old friend. How Logan says, "If I had to it all over again, I'd kill more of them. Because maybe if I had killed more of them, Kurt would still be alive." Jesus, Kyle and Yost. How do you keep doing this to me? Ororo's quiet strength and calm in those scenes was amazing, too. And then there was NAMOR PLAYING BASKETBALL. NAMOR IS A JOY FOREVER.