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football whine [27 Jun 2004|10:30pm] [ mood | resigned ] [ music | Czech Republic vs. Denmark ] During major football tournaments I really feel for Hermione among her Quidditch obsessed friends. I mean, I don't know anyone who's really interested in football and still it's the first and rather dominant topic of conversation these days, since of course everybody follows the European Cup. I don't know weather there's an equivalent in the US, but you can't escape football here during these events. Like last Monday (when it was worse than now since Germany hadn't lost yet) I had dinner with my family for my sister's birthday, and we were in this Indian restaurant and obviously the first topic was football, because the restaurant was empty as a little bit later the game would start and there was no tv in the restaurant. And of course the streets were much emptier than usual as well, not as much as when Germany plays, but empty enough. You can hear the drop in traffic noise during the games. And to my surprise the others had followed the games, and were talking football for some time. Gah. Mind you, in general my family is about as much interested in sports as I am, with maybe my dad being slightly more interested, and yet there they were, talking about football. Then again, right now I'm listening to the game Denmark vs. Czech Republic, so I won't be totally lost tomorrow, when people will talk about this game. It's not that I care in particular, though I like the Danish team ever since their surprise win 1992 which was kind of endearing, though it looks quite bad for them right now, but it's tiresome not to be able to participate in half of the conversations for weeks. So some general idea of what was going on is useful. At least the German team didn't get to the quarter finals so there's not quite as much fan mayhem. It's not even the people who think football is more important than anything else that get to me, I mean, I get fans, even extreme ones. It's that things just rearrange themselves around football even for non-fans. Because people schedule things so that there's no conflict with the games, so that they're home early enough, or in a pub early enough to be able to watch etc. and I mentioned already how small talk inevitably gravitates towards football these days. Well at least it's two years still to the World Cup nightmare which will take place in Germany 2006, when there will be really no escape. At least with Quidditch you'd have people flying on broomsticks, a high injury risk with all those bludgers and such, and a fast pace with all those balls, and action in three dimensions. I think I'd take Quidditch over football any day, unfortunately I'm stuck with the latter as the focus sport. I guess the good thing is that you can commiserate instantly with people everywhere, unlike the Americans who are stuck with the weird American games like American football that almost nobody else cares about. Sigh. post comment

[20 Jun 2004|03:39am] [ mood | annoyed ] So, still being bored and listless I, as notorious AU junkie, found myself looking for Harry Potter AUs tonight. And clearly it's a shame that in all those sorting hat quizzes I'm never sorted into Gryffindor, for I am (apparently) fearless and lacking in common sense, and thus browsing ff.net without guidance. And there I found this summary: Unicorn Child by Felinity AU What if Voldemort had killed Lily and James Potter but only attacked Harry 3 years later? At the age of 4, after defeating Voldemort, Harry is alone and scared and runs away. He is taken in by a herd of unicorns. Will he ever return to "his kind" again? which improved my mood greatly (and I hope the neighbors don't mind loud laughter in the middle of the night too much). I haven't tried the story, since unicorns really aren't my thing, so for all I know it's a great story if you dig unicorns. I mean, it got nearly a thousand comments for its seven chapters, so apparently it works for its readership, and I have enough peculiar kinks myself to get that-- and yet. Taken in by unicorns. *giggle* post comment

Batman: Death and the Maidens [14 Jun 2004|11:58pm] I've just read Batman: Death and the Maidens #9 (written by Greg Rucka, art by Klaus Janson) and ( spoilers... ) post comment

a HP fanfic question, well two actually [08 Jun 2004|10:49pm] I'm still nearly devoid of any sort of motivation/drive to do anything (more so than usual, even), which in turn has led me to reading quite a bit of Harry Potter fanfic, because there are far more longer HP fics I haven't read than in DCU fandom, like, several magnitudes more. Some of which were rather scary and not in a good way (as I'm not only reading by rec, feeling sometimes adventurous and search on my own), but that's beside the point. I've of course come across a fair number of WIPs, and I'm not bemoaning the fact that so many stories are WIPs (I don't mind), what I was surprised to find was, that several times now I started reading a WIP at schnoogle, and it had like twelve chapters, and was recently updated (as in the last couple of days), but following author links and such I find out the same story at ff.net is already in its 20th chapter or something, but not finished there, either. The chapters aren't different in length, nor seem to differ in revision status, though I didn't compare whether I find more typos. And frankly this confuses me. I like the ff.net page formatting even less than the one at the fictionalley sections, so I'd prefer not to read there, but apparently I can't count on authors posting their story chapters at the same time at the different sites. Is that a common and accepted practice in HP? Personally I find it a bit annoying, because I have to do even more work to find all of a WIP, if I start reading at one archive and have to check others to make sure to catch all installments currently out there. At first I thought it was an isolated incident with just one story, but it isn't. My second question is, are there any good "Harry was sorted into Slytherin." AUs? When I started looking for that kind of AU I had assumed it had to be one of the standard scenarios for AUs of the "what if?" variety, as fandoms with obvious watershed moments have, and that surely there must be some good among the lot, but I didn't have much luck. The stories I found where either utterly bizarre and deviating from canon in far more than just the sorting -- there seem to be whole strange and fearsome "turned-evil-by-orphanages" and "Snape-as-Harry's-father" (wtf?) subgenres in HP fanfic -- or the stories were a thinly disguised Ron-bashing fest (like this one). I mostly enjoyed Two Households, Both Alike In Dignity, by Mad Martha, even if at the beginning it's more like an exposition-like summary than a story, and it was interesting in that Harry doesn't like it in Slytherin, though personally I think even if he still had problems with Snape and Draco, he would like the qualities of his house a bit more after being sorted there. Slytherin Pride, by Rhysenn was an intriguing enough start, unfortunately it's only four chapters so far, and a note on the author's page indicates it's likely to stay unfinished. There can't just be one and a half okay stories along this AU premise, so which ones did I miss? (And please, no scenarios with ludicrous orphanages turning Harry into Tom Riddle, and Snape as Harry's father scenarios only if the story makes some kind of sense and doesn't involve elves or mysterious mage councils -- sorry, I'm a bit traumatized still from spending a bit of time searching for such AUs on my own.) post comment

question about feedback etiquette for WIPs [24 May 2004|11:52pm] I've just read this HP WIP (no the one with the "ma'am" all over the place btw), which hasn't been updated since October or so. Something I knew when I started reading. I really have no problem with reading WIPs, even ones with infrequent updates, those not likely to be ever finished, or abandoned ones. As those who've seen one of my (frequently lengthy) list posts on this subject on FCA-L or elsewhere probably already know. I like reading WIPs, and whether or not they get finished, as long as like what's posted I'm okay with having read whatever is shared. I usually remember enough to follow a story even if installments are months apart (I blame that on following infrequently published indie comics for years *g*), unless it's written in odd chunks with rewrites of previous sections and stuff being posted out of order. Though if the installments are posted too far apart I might forget about having followed a particular WIP, unless it's posted to my flist or I'm on an update list. Which is not to say that I don't like stories better if they're finished eventually, but the finished/unfinished status just isn't that crucial to me. That said, I liked this WIP quite a lot (in case you're interested, it was "The Mirror of Maybe" by Midnight Blue), and considered sending feedback to the author. My first impulse was to write back that I liked it, point out a couple of the things that I enjoyed in particular, and then ask whether it's still active, because then I'd check the story from time to time. Then I remembered seeing posts how some authors find it obnoxious behavior to be asked whether they are still working on a WIP, especially if they're stalled and/or abandoned it. So I wondered whether I should maybe rather omit the part asking about future installments, or maybe not write at all. Considering that there apparently is a list for this story with over 4100 subscribers (and just how large is HP fandom anyway?) the author probably already gets enough emails nagging her about when (if?) the next installment is going to be posted. I could just join the other 1050 people on the update announcement list (the larger list is aparently for discussion too), and assume that the fact that the update list is still open implies that the WIP has not been abandoned (I assume that authors would close lists dedicated to WIPs if they truly abandon them), so that it's actually worth joining an update list. So when you write feedback to a WIP that hasn't been updated in a while, but not visibly abandoned, is it better to avoid the topic of potential future installments (and the related areas in feedback, like what you think will happen based on the story so far etc.) entirely? Or is it only obnoxious if the feedback doesn't just ask about it, but makes the kind of rude writing demands to continue that you sometimes see? post comment

*grumble* [23 May 2004|09:23pm] I'm really not that picky about British vs. American English in Harry Potter fanfic (a lot of the time I don't even notice, it's not like I could always tell for sure which words belong to which variety), but right now I'm reading a story that I would enjoy quite a lot if Harry wasn't addressing his female teachers as "Ma'am" all the time, which to me sounds really American, and I don't recall it being used in the books at all. I don't have copies of the books at hand (I just borrowed them from my sister when I read them), so I could be wrong, but I don't think so. "Ma'am" to address teachers and such is American, right? post comment

new Marvel comics I got this week... [23 May 2004|02:58am] Somehow less intimidating than tackling the huge DC pile... ( Amazing Spider-Man #507, Daredevil #60, Excalibur #1 ) post comment

thoughts on Batman/Huntress: Cry For Blood [17 May 2004|11:41pm] After reading about Huntress, I've now read the 2000 retcon of her origin story myself, Batman/Huntress: Cry For Blood (written by Greg Rucka, pencils and inks by Rick Burchett, except in #5 and #6 which have inks by Terry Beatty), and overall I liked the story. I was of course spoiled by reading summaries, but I have to say that from just knowing Huntress from guest appearances in BOP and such, and the Nightwing/Huntress series, I wouldn't have expected her to act like this. Even having read summaries, the end still had something of a sucker punch effect on me. I mean, she doesn't do it herself, but she arranges for Santo Cassamento, the man who ordered her family to be wiped out and also her biological father, to be killed, because she wants revenge, because "blood cries for blood." She asks her uncle Tomaso Panessa for a favor, and while we don't hear her words then (I guess mostly so that it'll hit you harder as a reader later on), it becomes clear that she asks him to kill Santo, and tells him where he'll be able to find him, or something to that effect. Then she arranges it so that Santo has to be at that drug shipment personally, by beating up on his goons, meets Santo outside, letting him believe that he's still blackmailing her with his knowledge of her identity, calmly takes off her vigilante garb after he went inside, and stands by outside while he is murdered, not swayed in the least by the Question/Vic's pleas to stop it either. She also placed an anonymous tip so that Tomaso will go to jail. And as her final act we see her throwing her crucifix down into the water by the pier (which, as far as I can see doesn't reappear in her guest appearances in Batman and Detective after this series, even though she still wears her old costume, not the current one). I think what hit me, is how she takes off her costume before standing by his murder, as if she somehow doesn't want her vigilante persona tainted by this revenge killing she arranged. It was a really powerful scene, but it changed my view of her. Unrelated to the Huntress stuff, what's up with Tim and Barbara in this series? Here Barbara knows Tim's identity, when she didn't in BOP #19 which was published the same month as #2 of this series. It's not so much that I have a problem with her knowing, I mean, in a way it's kind of weird that we were supposed to believe she didn't in BOP #19, despite things like Tim's rescue from NML, which should have made the connection between Robin and Tim quite obvious to Oracle, I think. It just doesn't fit. post comment

Mafia families in Gotham [17 May 2004|02:08am] Has anyone been able to make sense of all the mafia families that pop up in the Batman books? I mean, in Huntress' backstory it's made sound like the "Five Families" had divided Gotham among them. Those five families were the Bertinellis, the Berettis, the Galantes, the Inzerillos, and the Cassamentos. In the gang wars during the prohibition the Bertinellis came out on top. The Cassamentos had been their rivals, supported by the Inzerillos, but the latter changed sides. Anyway, later the Panessas arrived, but the Bertinellis didn't want to share with a sixth family, not even when Franco Bertinelli, Huntress' father married Maria Panessa. Then came the Palm Sunday massacre, orchestrated by the Cassamentos(?). In its aftermath the Galantes were on top, the Panessas were in, once again Five Families. So how do the Falcones (from Year One and Long Halloween/Dark Victory) and the Maronis (Two-Face's origin, e.g. in Batman Annual #14, also Long Halloween/Dark Victory) fit in? Both of those play fairly important roles in the early career of the trio of Batman, Gordon, and Dent, so it's not like they could be discarded, and they don't just appear in LH/DV which could be disregarded as apocryphal in the details. And assuming Anthony Zucco (the one responsible for Dick's parents' death) was some kind of lower level mob, to which family did he belong? Of course in addition to the Mafia there's some other organized crime in Gotham too (the Lucky Hand Triad, the Escabedo Cartel, the Odessa Mob, the Burnley Town Massive...), though some of that is confined to certain neighborhoods. But clearly the Maroni and the Falcone families are supposed to be mafia. And how does Malfetti fit in? (in case you lost track that is the mob boss from the Nightwing/Huntress series) Do I even want to know if there are any more? Do we get diagrams at some point? Sigh. post comment

Marvel Knights Spider-Man #2 [17 May 2004|12:29am] I've read Marvel Knights Spider-Man #2 (written by Mark Millar, pencils by Terry Dodson, inks by Rachel Dodson) and... ( cut for the spoiler phobic, because it's very recent ) post comment

*headdesk* [12 May 2004|09:57pm] So, I'm kind of researching the main Batverse characters I don't know very well, because I (intermittently a.k.a. the crazy person in that corner over there, banging her head against the wall) am still in the middle of my Batverse summary draft. Though unfortunately not "in the middle" as in "half done" yet. (And just what was I thinking, when writing that seemed like the thing to do?!?) And I have a question for the Huntress fans. As I understand it there are at least two post-Crisis origin stories for her. One from the 1989 Huntress series, and a different version from the Batman/Huntress: Cry For Blood mini-series by Rucka from 19922000. I have read neither myself, just summaries, so it's hard for me to evaluate stuff. Anyway, they contradict each other. In version one (from 1989), she's kidnapped and molested with six by the Smiling Man who's employed by a rival crime family, and her family is murdered while she is in college by an assassin called Omerta. As a result of that she leaves for Sicily to train to become the Huntress. In Rucka's origin story her parents are murdered when she's very young, and she's sent to Sicily for protection. There she learns martial arts, the crossbow handling and such, finds out eventually that her family is mafia, starts to despise them and decides to fight crime. I guess Rucka's version is the one that's in continuity right now, at least I've seen that version referred to in comics I read. The entries in the official DC SF&O are a bit vague and non-committal, like the BOP SF&O only says that her parents were killed "in her youth" which could fit both versions. And besides the dating of her parents murder, I'm wondering whether bits of the kidnapping and molestation are still canon? Help? ETA: I misread something, somewhere and Batman/Huntress Cry For Blood is actually from 2000 not 1992, making one version post-, the other pre-ZH, so that explains the change. post comment

Everwood: The Day Is Done [11 May 2004|01:50pm] ( spoilers for 2x22 The Day Is Done ) post comment

A Lonely Place of Dying [11 May 2004|12:13pm] I adore A Lonely Place of Dying for many reasons, for example it has some of my all time favorite Batman art. I adore the art because it uses art for storytelling to its full effect. A while ago, in this post to scans_daily I posted examples for panel transitions, covers, and intercuts I really like, but another awesome effect is how we see events from Tim's viewpoint, without knowing who Tim is, and that he stalks Batman and Nightwing only because he wants the best for them. It's incredibly creepy to see with the eyes of a stalker, to watch Batman from a distance with cameras and binoculars, to browse through a scrapbook with all those photos, something which is made even creepier because it's put inbetween the intimate scene of Alfred caring for the injured Bruce, so that even the snapshots and clippings we see get an intimate quality. For a long time we only see his hands, holding binoculars, and cameras as he spies on Batman, watches Kory and the other Titans, rifling through photos and articles, opening the door to Dick's apartment even... And it gets to me every time. I know it is Tim, I know it's not an enemy stalking them, uncovering their identities, and still it gets to me, because even knowing it's Tim and seeing through the "stalker's" eyes I still somehow identify with the "prey," I think, even as I reread it. post comment

my brain hurts [11 May 2004|03:21am] [ mood | excited ] So, the events in that fateful night when Dick Grayson's parents die, and young Tim Drake watches, what do you think happened wrt Batman's appearance on the scene? In the scenario that Tim tells to explain how he made the connection between Dick Grayson and Robin, the two key pieces are the quadruple somersault and Tim witnessing Batman swoop down into the ring and examine the ropes. That's how it happens in Year Three (1989), how Tim tells it to Dick in A Lonely Place of Dying (1989). In all later versions, I've found, as well as in the Secret Origins #13 (1987) that was published earlier, Batman doesn't swoop into the arena in full spotlight, but investigates later. In Robin #0 (1994) in the brief flashback panel we only see Bruce Wayne at the circus, and Dick says that he didn't even believe in Batman until he was shown the cave, though we can probably disregard that as incongruent with all other versions. In Robin Annual #4 (1995) Batman first runs into Dick Grayson later the same night, outside, when he investigates and Dick eavesdrops. In Dark Victory (2000) it's not impossible that Dick runs into Batman later that night, as we don't see those events, but their first conversation seems to take place after Bruce Wayne took Dick in, but anyway only Bruce Wayne is shown in the scene of the Graysons death as onlooker. In LotDK #100 (1997) we see Bruce Wayne more or less discreetly remove evidence from the scene without any disguise, besides feigning clumsiness, and change into the Batman costume in his car, and encounter Dick later that night during the investigation. Besides all the other differences (like whether Zucco dies from an heart attack, whether the ringmaster is involved and eaten by lions, etc etc), the thing with whether or not Batman appeared in the circus arena stands out, because it's central to Tim's explanation how he discovers Robin's identity. OTOH it makes more sense that Batman doesn't swoop into the arena with several hundred onlookers just to take a look at the rope and possibly comfort Dick. So -- what's your vote for the most likely scenario? Was Batman in the limelight that night or not? post comment

the Robin oath... [10 May 2004|10:24pm] [ mood | relaxed ] Do we see somewhere what the full current version of the oath that Dick has sworn is? I've seen scans of that panel from Golden Age comics where Dick swears an oath by candle light, that (what we see of it) goes "And swear that we two will fight together against crime and corruption and never swerve from the path of righteousness!" And in Gotham Knights #11 when Dick quotes that oath to snap Bruce out of his autohypnosis, he quotes it as "to fight crime and corruption and never swerve from the path of justice" which is close enough, I guess. However, when Batman refers to the oath for example in Robin Year One, he makes it sound as if there was a section about absolute, and unquestioning obedience included: Batman: "You once swore an oath to me. If you put that costume on, you'll honor those words to the letter and never again question my orders." Dick: "Even if it means watching you die?" Batman: "Yes. Without hesitation." Now it might be just me, but that sounds as if the oath has undergone some major revisions or at least expansions from the original one, which didn't have anything in it about obedience without hesitation, not just as if they had the lecture about following orders before. Visually the candle light oath scene is referenced at the very end of Dark Victory, for example, but we don't see the words there. So do we see this new and improved oath in full somewhere? post comment

random thought after re-reading Robin: Year One [09 May 2004|07:22pm] I've reread Robin: Year One, the mini-series, not the 1995 annual, and now I'm wondering whether Bruce even reported Dick Grayson missing after he ran away, and what Child Protection Services had to say about that (if anything). Okay, so Bruce has covered up the near-fatal beating, by bringing him to Leslie rather than a hospital, but at some point it must have aroused suspicion that Dick is absent from school. Even if he went back briefly after recovering from his injuries and running away, someone ought to ask questions, no? I mean, Dick is what, twelve? Thirteen? Of course it's not unlikely that Gotham's other authorities are just as corrupt as the police was especially early in Batman's career, and Bruce Wayne simply paid them not to ask any questions, about what happened to that gypsy circus kid he took in, and nobody really cared. And maybe he bought the school a new computer lab, or something. post comment

[09 May 2004|04:15pm] Does anybody know what happened to the Robin resource site extremerobin.com? Did it move? Vanish? It was a cool site, and I visited it not that long ago. The only trace I could find was an old version still around at its former geocities address. It always makes me sad when good resource sites vanish. post comment

young Bruce Wayne [07 May 2004|03:30pm] So crazy person that I am, I am kind of trying to write a first draft of a comic Batverse overview for crack_van, because the Batverse really deserves to be pimped. A lot. So while I'm valiantly struggling to come up with ways not to make the character backgrounds and storyline descriptions ridiculously long, and possibly with footnotes *facepalms* -- lots of footnotes explaining alternate versions, because I'm irrationally afraid to be kicked in the head by people reading it, whose favorite version of the pivotal character past moment is a different one -- I'm rereading bits and pieces, and I'm reminded all over again of why I love the characters so much. For example young Bruce Wayne. I mean, he's one traumatized little kid, and copes with the loss of his parents in a scary way, but he is also just awesome. He makes the decision not to let something like his parents death happen to someone else ever again in night of the murder, and in a way it's really a thought that an eight year old would have, like, it's not an especially realistic goal or anything. It's not a grown up thought of helping victims of crime, or reducing crime, or saving as many lives as possible -- possible doesn't figure into it. He swears on the grave of his parents that it'll never happen again. But the dedication and drive the loss of his parents start within him, in a way I admire that, because it's not resigned but defiant even against impossible odds. And he keeps that goal, and his oath in mind even as an adolescent and adult, he never revises his goal into something achievable. I think he's a great person for that. I mean, as far as my reactions to the death of close relatives like my mother or my grandparents go, it just resulted in me being depressed, and kind of fatalistic about death happening, it's not like I decided to dedicate my life to rid the world of cancer or anything. And okay violent death is of course different, but I never got the impression that it was about vengeance for Bruce, or about that particular mugger. I really admire how he takes his pain and transforms it into a force for something positive. Even though his way is probably not the "sanest" one to deal with death, after that night's events he is at least never passive or a victim again. I mean, in many depictions of the murder and it's aftermath, you can see the moment he makes this decision, when his look turns from that of a scared kid, into the look of someone determined and scary, like this one from Year One, or in the one from the Zero Hour Batman issue, I linked to above. He is still afraid of course, but it doesn't paralyze him anymore. He faces his fear and uses it. I also truly envy his focus-- not exactly in that I would want to be that extreme myself, but-- it may be kind of scary, that he's so single-minded, yeah, but once he's certain of his goal he works to achieve it, and does so with all he has. First he molds himself exactly into what he wants to be, both body and mind, then later he transforms his home into the perfect base for his mission, his company into the machinery to generate the technology and immense funds he needs, but he doesn't just fight as Batman, at the same time on the Bruce Wayne side of his war against crime he uses Wayne Enterprises to generate wealth and jobs for Gotham, is a philanthropist who gives money to charities, all to transform Gotham. Um, I think, I don't really have a point, except that I adore the ingenuity of Bruce's whole setup. post comment

Superman #204 [01 May 2004|11:15pm] I've read Superman #204 (written by Brian Azzarello, pencils by Jim Lee, inks by Scott Williams), and I liked it. Okay, it is a bit of trick to start telling your story starting at the end to hook readers so that they wonder what brought the characters there, and Azzarello does it both on the level of this issue, with not revealing for quite some time what the monumental event Superman and the priest were both referring to was (I know I'm kind of vague, but I don't want to spoil), and for the cliffhanger, because we still don't know what Superman did exactly, and I guess the tension will be kept up for a bit in that fashion. But the trick with the narrative structure totally worked. I'm thoroughly hooked. The art is very much eye candy, the way Superman is often backlit with lots of shadows gives him a great look, and Lee has the iconic poses down pat. Gorgeous. So naturally I couldn't resist and have icons for your enjoyment, the usual rules apply, comment if you claim one, say if you're willing to share, otherwise the icon belongs to the first person to claim it, and of course you can modify them in any way you want: ( twenty Superman icons from #204, posted over at my LJ) post comment

the mind boggles [01 May 2004|12:13pm] One of the recent posts to the FCA-L list amused me greatly. Well, amused in that slightly cranky way you get amused at weird mailing list posts by people who are, or come across as clueless. It said something like "Hi, I just joined and want some advice on an AAR fanfic. Thanks." and contained a link. I mean, who would seriously expect that this kind of post leads to good replies? Not only have I (and I bet a good portion of the list) no idea what "AAR" is -- a series, movie, book, what? -- the poster also says nothing about what kind of "advice" they're looking for, nor anything about the story, except that it is "lengthy." And the poster expects what exactly? That you join, post a link without saying anything, and a review/beta committee, interested in whatever fandom that acronym stands for, will magically appear to help with your story? post comment

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