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chairdriver

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Posts posted by chairdriver

  2. Posted

    I'm not talking about Superman's motivations, though. I'm talking about Lex's. They are crap. He could have a valid philosophical reason for wanting to destroy Superman but instead he's just a megalomaniac. It's so black and white.

     

    He's always just been a megalomaniac in oldDC, but presumably will be written to have some sort of reason to have a vendetta against Superman, otherwise I agree it will just be "..."/bad writing for the sake of nostalgia. The first issue hints that he's xenophobic (ie hate/scared of aliens) but then, I doubt Morrison would do that, since it's essentially a repeat of New X-Men, where the villain is ultimately irrational and annoying tension between mutant and human.

     

    I just enjoyed that it felt stunning / was well-written megalomania.

     

    I don't mean literally shatter worlds (although I'm sure that can/will happen). I meant it as a demonstration of Superman's powers, at the very least relative to normal people; even though he isn't as strong as he used to be he is still pretty limitless. And he's not deconstructing Capitalism in any sense of the word. He's busting bad guys and saving innocents (until the next bad guy takes his place and the next lot of people need saving). Honestly, if you can actually point to any instance where he is doing any deconstructing that'd be grand. That's why it's puerile, it doesn't understand the world we live in. Hardly a surprise, most people are happy with their own assumptions.

     

    He's not even left wing, he's a totalitarian. Judging people according to the law, but where do these laws come from? Where does he stand on marijuana? Does he bust people in some states and not in others? Bribery is an accepted part of many cultures, what's he going to do to them? Enforce what he thinks is right? The American Way?

     

    As for structural violence, he should start by throwing Rupert Murdoch (Or his DC equivalent) into the phantom zone for the racist, sexist, homophobic, normative bullshit that he emits and normalises. If Superman was a persona more akin to Lady Gaga, then he could subvert structural violence. At the least he should go on a Pride march. Or raise the profile of disabled bodies (Honestly, the politics of superheroes should have raised this point already...probably has done with Barbara Gordon, but only to the reader, not the DC universe). Or take on a myriad different causes. But no. He punches bad guys and saves innocents, and like I said only until the the next bad guy takes his place and the next lot of people need saving.

     

    Superman doesn't promote the left wing because never attempts to understand anything. He never asks questions. He just does. Faster than a speeding bullet.

     

    You make good points. It's pretty hard to say anything meaningful / make predictions on the back of one issue, but I do feel (given Morrison actually thinks about what he's writing, and isn't American) the series will be a very different take on Superman, in that it won't just rehash "Truth, Justice and the American way!" &c.

  3. Posted

    (Basically what Action Comics' Lex failed miserably to get across. Honestly, I might have been more believable and sincere if Lex's little speech hadn't come from a multi-billionaire megalomaniac. Lex gave this speech and all I could think was that the ultra rich of this world are just as much a parasite as any Superman. OMG, Action Comics was SOOOO pathetic. Honestly, you've got your leftist leanings, 'defend the poor' but COME ON!!, that shit is so superficial AND puerile when you have the power to shatter worlds. What about the structural violence?)

     

    Wasn't that the point, that Lex embodies Superman's point about the rich living under a different set of rules?

     

    What do you mean power to shatter worlds? In the sense the military have bombs, or in Superman's case? If the latter, it seemed he didn't really have power to shatter worlds, he seemed quite depowered in comparison to his normal appearances. (Presumably the story will transpire that he gets stronger and stronger, and finds it harder and harder to stay true to his leftist ideals.) Anyway, I don't think it's that puerile to partake in the deconstruction of capitalism -- it's one of the hurdles the western world should really get round to jumping, given this recession is pretty much now a depression -- especially since he's actually doing things that could have a lasting effect, rather than just talking about stuff (which can be puerile). Scaring within an inch of his life a CEO who buys child labour is as legitimate a "superhero" act than fighting aliens is. [i'm not really sure what you're getting at by superficial? If you have superpowers it's superficial to care about the millions of Americans living in poverty / the child labourers being exploited?]

     

    What about what structural violence? Do you mean that in relation to AC, or MoW?

    I just have minimal time for war stories, especially American ones. Multiple reasons why, the most fundamental being I just don't want to read a comic where most characters are likely/bound to be unimaginative machoistic dicks who beat up queer people at high school.

  4. Posted

    Read Stormwatch. I enjoyed. Felt like so many why-would-we-explain?? things going on at once. I love communicating with cities as a power. Feels so Morrison-esque.

     

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    Men Of War is good/well written, but I hate that genre of thing, so I'm over it.

     

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    Men Of War is good/well written, but I hate that genre of thing, so I'm over it.

     

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    Animal Man. Yes.

     

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    The art. Yes.

     

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    Animal Man. Yes.

     

    beyonce_2.gif

     

    The art. Yes.

  5. Posted

    Read Justice League International #1. Ironically probably the most obtusely American thing I've read. The dialogue was clunky and bad, relying on cliché and stereotype. The whole thing felt flat. The first few pages had me genuinely saying "What the fuck is this?", just because it felt the most ill-contrived and uninspiring thing. It felt like it was being aimed at 14/15 year olds. And I hate having Batman in it, makes him feel cheaper than need be.

  9. Posted

    The concept of being worried you have no friends is a bit absurd, espeically since at uni/college you are an atom, amongst a sea of other atoms, and there's really no stigma of being a loner, because there's not really the same role-call-completeness there is at school -- for all everyone else knows, you could have thousands of friends they've never met. You have a degree of mystique at any given moment.

     

    So it comes down to whether you're comfortable in yourself being "friendless". Obviously it's pragmatically beneficial to have friends, so you can go to bars/clubs without looking weird, but actually, in an atmosphere where everyone is new and unfamiliar, people go out their way to talk to you -- as long as you're just a normal person who doesn't shut themselves up in a library, you'll without a doubt make friends.

     

    That said, the majority of friends I met in the first few weeks of uni are completely chaff. Not spoken to most of them for a year and a half. Only started meeting the treasures when I started doing interesting stuff like going to talks on feminism and queer theory.

     

    Yoü'll be fine.

     

     

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    Been reading up on things about relativity theory and quantum theory and string theory and information and lots of physics-y things, some of which I'll be studying next year. Really excited to get back to uni and just live in the library/gym all term.

  10. Posted

    Just read the entirety of Morrison's New X-Men run. Stunning. Great.

     

    The ending was great. As incongruous as Britney's foray into dubstep. So much happening at once, so much to take in. Really felt dystopaic, and the logical conclusion to the themes explored in the previous arc.

     

    Just so many inspired developments and innovative decisions made on Morrison's part. Really well written too. I cried a bit wee at the riot section. I kinda hated Magneto -- felt really overdramatic, and a bit shit, and a bit like "I genuinely did prefer you when you were hiding".

     

    Very great. Very worth it.

  15. Posted

    Went to buy a suit today, at Slaters (a relatively nice suit shop place / it's not that nice. Quite cheap, my suit was £75), and rocked up with my mother, and purposefully avoided eye contact with an oldguy shop assistant, so as to be served by the young guy also working there.

     

    Turns out he's kinda cute. Cute in the sense a kitten is cute (not this American cute business. Well, a wee bit of that, but not I'm-on-the-football-team-and-I'm-6-foot-3-and-I'm-probably-likely-to-rape-someone-when-I'm-drunk-at-some-point-in-my-life cute.). He has nice hair, and is smartly dressed. He smiles a lot, and I smile a lot back because we obviously fancy each other. He measures my waist, kinda squatting/getting down on his knees, and there's a fleeting moment of consciousness in both of us such that if this were a film, someone external would see this moment and misconstrue it as him giving me a blowjob. Then, very soft spoken, whilst he's measuring my neck, says "Yeah, you're the exact same size as me. We could wear each other's clothes." Which is the most weird-as-fuck thing to say, but it was fine, because he kinda said it very nervously, almost as if it were a serious proposition but he didn't really have the confidence to deliver it assertively, which he followed with an extremely cute nervous laugh.

     

    So, I deliberate to the fullest extent properly over my choice of suit. I make him go fetch a shirt and shoes I can try on, so as to see the suit in all its contextual glory. He ferrets about quite meekly, doing such things, fetching the second suit I tried on because I had forgotten what it looked like &c. At one point he leads me away to the back of the shop which is deserted, and if it were a porno or sitcom, we'd start making out furiously. Instead, I ask him, looking in the mirror, whether the back of the suit is supposed to go up to. In answer of this, he demonstrates ON MY BUM, where. I was kinda shocked by his audacity. Pretty much felt me up, in his own workplace. But it was all doused in a certain shyness, which normally I'd be like "Bitch, please" to, but in this occasion was really into.

     

    So yeah, eventually bought this suit, giving my details such that I could collect it after the hem of the trousers have been taken down. AND I WISH MY MUM HADN'T BEEN THERE, because it was too awkward to say "Here's my mobile number instead, call me later on", which would have been the absolute perfect thing to do in that situation, and it would have been romantic and spontaneous and I'd be a massive person and I'd be loving life, but instead, now I'm just at home, and I'm boyless, and he doesn't know how to contact me.

     

    BUT, all is not lost. The ball is in my court. I know where he works. I could have to buy a shirt for all he knows. I could have to buy cufflinks. He could have to point out which underwear would suit me most. So, of course, blatantly going to go back to this shop, and find out when he's next working, then go and say "We're going out for drinks. When suits?"

     

    AND WHY COULDN'T THIS HAVE HAPPENED AT THE START OF THE SUMMER HOLIDAYS? I hate.

     

    (And my mum said, having left the shop: "That boy was nice. Very smiley". I replied: "Yeah, because he fancied me". Then my sister almost got run over by a car, so the conversation was cut short.)

  16. Posted

    Read X-Men Generation Hope #10. Everything. My complete favourite thing. Such a self-contained thing, a voyage of Idie's character, embodying the whole essence of X-Men comics: If you are attacked and oppressed, you have to fight back. Sometimes you have to become a murderer.

     

    I cried at the bit with Rachel Summers talking about being a Hound.

  18. Posted

    Read JLA #1. It was good, it was fine. Nothing to get too excited about. I'm interested to see what happens next. I finally understand why/how there's different comics of the same character. Presumably the multiple Batman comics will each tell us tales of different points in his life, and they'll eventually all interweave into a stunning thing (if done well).

    I'm not that big a fan of Jim Lee's art, to be honest. It's too plain-Jane 8/10. Fine to the point of boring.

  19. Posted

    I feel like I'm too sexed out, and kinda just need a spell where I only go on dates. But the problem is I find there's very few people I emotionally/romantically/empathically connect with. The only person I've ever loved has been unrequited, and I still crai all too many tears about this fact.

    There are people I'm very close to / I like / are amazing, but I'd never dream of being romantically involved with (in the conventional sense). It's hard to find the balance of sexuality and personality in a person. Like, I've shared some amazing fantastic experiences with James, and I pretty much idolize him, and he's one of the 5 people I actively follow on Twitter (as in, go to his profile to see his tweets), and he's the best and everyone else is nothing, but I can never ever imagine being in a "normal" sexual relationship. I don't particularly find him attractive for a start, but mostly it'd just feel.. unfitting somehow. shutup.

     

    Basically, I want to meet a guy in Tescos, who has a twinkle in his eye, and for us to go on a couple of dates, and for us to love the feeling, then for him to drive me to a weekend retreat in the hills with a gram of MDMA, and just have loads of great sex / great fun. He doesn't even need to be that attractive, this's the thing, just someone I can connect with and love the feeling.

     

    [silicone, Saline, Poison etc. FREE BIT]

  22. Posted

    Read X-Force: Angels and Demons. I enjoyed. The art was stunning.

     

    I liked the Archangel wing thing being not a mutation. Makes sense, considering he *was* a horseman of Apocalypse, been tested on, and it's never dwelt upon.

     

    Kinda *shrug* as a series, left me with not much, but I enjoyed whilst reading.

  25. Posted

    I'm really enjoying Tori Amos' new song. It's kinda weird, because it's really well composed but I wouldn't call it impressive, but I just enjoy hearing it. Listened to it about 10 times over 2 days.

     

    It just feels really like she's doing it because she likes writing music. There's no attempt to be commercial or relevant. The video is so low budget too, I love. The directness of her playing piano, in the studio in her house (?), she's there, deal with. Her hair and face are so lol too.

     

    Just quite pleasant. And I'm interested to see how it fits into the songcycle of the album (It's a concept album, based around the deterioration of a relationship).

     

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