Paj!

TBF, the very first openly gay superhero, Northstar (from/in Alpha Flight at the time, but a mutant so joined and is in the X-Men) has never had it be a 'defining trait' in the comics. It comes up every now and again, but in positive ways. Same with the other gay characters I can think of. And women are represented better than they have been in the past (what a blanket statement...) a little. Obviously it's not the 60's anymore. Virtually all female heroes are portrayed as attractive, but then so are all men. Then there's cases like Hulk, who is obviously such an exaggeration and monsterous version of masculinity it becomes scary/horrific, but then She-Hulk is usually depicted as just a an incredibly sexy female body-builder. She is however often written very well and is considered to be a bit of a statement of owning who she is/female independance/strength as a character...she can transform back to normal appearance but prefers to appear taller and bulkier than most men. That's all fine and dandy, but there's something to be questioned as much as there to be praised in the fact she's a 7ft sex godess, green or not. (( I want to investigate all this PC/feminism/etc stuff because there's so many pluses/negatives on either side of every debate. )) (( Forgot Mystique, openly in a lesbian (though not that word used at the time) relationship with another woman, an old woman at that, both 'villainess' - but really just activists with extreme views in some cases - , both raising an adopted daughter. Mystique, a mutant with the power to appear as anyone she wishes, literally to blend in, chooses not to because she shouldn't have to. The best character. This was in the 80's too. )) Like, is it sexualising and depowering to have Wonder Woman, a superpowerful female ambassador for peace in underwear, when she looks more commanding and authoritative in trousers? But isn't that just our perception of trousers entailing more authority and pants being underwear? 'Wearing the trousers' and all that. Or is it depowering to put her in trousers - are trousers a symbol of male/patriarchal/societal oppression and force, when she could wear pants and be in full control of her sexuality and body? Women have had to cover up for centuries (and still in many places in the world), or they were seen as harlots, whores etc. Is it not more expowering for her to exert her own control of her body? But then women fought to be ABLE to wear trousers, when they had to wear dresses before, at the 'command' of the patriarchy, and thus they were always sexualised by their dress. Is wearing less showing her vulnerability and being sexually suggestive in a submissive way, or is it showng her absolute confidence and dominance? But as a fictional character, she can, and has been/is drawn and depicted as appealing to the average male's sexual fantasies of a woman. What is it was reversed? That looks gay. Or like some feminist propaganda or something, maybe. So really it all does come to the perception of things by the general public/most the reader demographic. I don't know what to think/where I stand/what to do.

Wow. Can't believe they buckled with that one. The trousers were great, really gave her an authoritative feel (make of that what you will no.2)...the pants just, for me, cast her back as 'sexyfemaleheroine'. Ugh.

Yep, really very few black characters of much 'importance' in the two big companies comics atm. Storm, one of the first major black superheroes but also the first black woman to have any role of any importance in comics is barely registering in X-Men atm. Black Panther is the only other black Marvel character who is supposed to be 'important' in universe but I don't think he's doing much either. And Storm is lumped off with him as well. Make of that what you will. Oh Luke Cage too I suppose. Cyborg is being put into the Justice League (see Happenstance's sig/av) come September, which I think they even said was to get some minority characters into the spotlight but like...why is that a bad thing? I don't get it. When it comes at the cost of a good story, or ruins stories or something yeah, maybe. But it won't hurt the 99% white comic universes. Basically this is a good thing. But also it's such a non-thing to have a crazy reaction about.

...confusing. I might one day read the original story. I liked a lot of the adventures Ben had as Spidey, I was sad to see him go. But I liked a lot of 90s Spidey post-Ben too. Until the AWFUL John Byrne/Howard Machie issues (when MJ was 'dead'). Then JMS took over and it shot up in quality, before becoming kinda mediocre again. Then I stopped reading. [/un-asked for history of my Spidey reading] I want to read the Operation Zero Tolerance arc/s of X-Men too, I stopped reading in the 90's/00's for that whole arc, for some reason.

Do they include all the Ben Reilly issues? There were tonnes of them. I never read the actual thrust of the Clone Saga, I came in (into comics actually) when Ben was already Spidey.

Good, and obviously I would have loved Quitely to have done Planet X, but I already love Jiminez being the 'one who kills Jean Grey'. :awesome:

While my anti-'those brand clothes' stance has severly lessened in recent months (I even technically own a Jack Wills hoodie - though it was my sisters, but actually a man's hoodie, and I figured it was better to have than to throw out), I still cringe a little when I see people/adults in Jack Wills. But you work at Hollister don't you? Makes sense/I understand the wearing of if you're working there. Today I bought a jacket/blazer for £40 from TK Maxx. Some designer caller Feraud. Meant to be £250 apparently. It's nice. I need nice clothes that don't make me look fat because they're too big.

Have something X-Men-related now I've moved onto Batman. They're my two essentials in life. -- Reading through New X-Men atm, read it through (except the last arc which I've NEVER read, but it's a future thing so I was dealing, even though it told truths) probs about 4 times in full before. God, Igor Kordey's stuff is shit. Like..not in a "I don't like this" way - it's BAD. SUCH a rush job. His BIG pages of a single thing are ok, he's taken his time (like that opening page of an issue where it's Lilandra's drooling face, and that infamous crotchtastic one of 'Auntie Emma' conselling Scott. But his normal panels look poorly drawn, with the colourist having to sometimes finish off lines in costumes with just colour...ugh. Kordey seems to ink his own stuff too on the series, guess Marvel were saving major money with him...bet a different inker could've tidied it up. UGH. Imagine if Quitely could have done it all *dreams*. ALTHOUGH (you all know I'm a Quitely fanboy so this is a big moment) - I'm not sure how epic Planet X would have seemed under his pen. Jiminez I think is probably the perfect artist for that arc, Quitely might not have been as suited (to convey the same feeling). Love Bachalo's bits too obviously. [/New X-Men art rant]

I thought it was great and just really enjoyable. Better than Thor and Iron Man II (and I probably prefer it to 1 but haven't seen 1 in so long I couldn't say), but obviously they're all enjoyable. I loved, absolutely bloody fucking vagina cock penis wound LOVED the war bonds explanation for him getting into the fighting AND the costume. That was a stroke of genius and I want to make love to whoever thought of it. Brilliant brilliant BRILLIANT. I assuemd they'd have to invent the costume in a shitty/typical way but this was unexpected and just so so good a decision. LOVED all the nods to Avengers and Marvel stuff. Hey Arnim Zola, I've heard of you. Hey obvious arc reactor coming from the cosmic cube/hydra. OMG

Seeing this at 8.30 tonight, poingnantly in 3-D, despite the majority of showings being in 2-D (which I approve of, it was the opposite for Thor, at least at Odeon). I'm in for the 3-D lol, not seen a 3-D film since Alice in Wonderland. Looking foward to it after hearing reviews.

I'd rather that than they try and make him out of cgi...

THE THIRD NIGHT IS DONE Previously/Day: The logical woman walked towards the diminutive figure to use her power beneficially, but her power wouldn’t work as she got close. -- Now/Night: Spiral…Spiral..Spiral -- “Oh enough of that ‘Spiral†shit already!†The crystalline man surfs down the halls at breakneck speed, as his target does the same, blades swirling. Upon impact his opponent would surely shatter him completely, but they don’t get a chance, before a blast of ice renders them motionless. The crystalline man laughs and slides away. -- In the nearby mess hall, there was a melee of sorts, though much of the combat was taking place on the astral plane. A girl is tricked into thinking her target is the woman using stolen mental abilities. A man circles overhead. Said mental abilities overpower an Asian woman in the room, whose own targets are no longer her own. The woman passing by is suddenly possessed, and changes her own course, green energy circling her as she runs. However, she trips over the diminutive figure clutching her dress, and when she tries to strike, she finds she can no longer call upon her abilities. -- The Asian woman is observed by a leather-clad woman, who leaves, satisfied. Walking back to her quarters, she bumps into a different Asian woman. “Shit!†shouts the leather-clad woman, leaping out of the way before the Asian woman, suddenly armoured, strikes with a focused fist. “You tried this before, sweetie – you failed! Tell whoever’s in charge you won’t have any luck getting rid of me!†laughed the leather-clad woman. She ran through the hallways, pushing others out of the way, as her attacker gave swift chase. The leather-clad woman really didn’t know how she was going to get out of this a second time. She could talk all she liked, but without a plan… “AGH!†came a cry from behind her. She turned and saw that her attacker had slipped on a patch of ice. “Seriously? Again?†she smirked. “Well that’s lucky..or..unlucky…depends on how you look at it.â€, and with that she made her escape through the laundry chute. Her attacker, in a furious rage, lifted herself from the floor and sent out a vicious psychic attack. However, having lost precisely where her prey was after slipping, the attack landed on the nearest person. Bad luck. His crystalline head exploded, and thousands of sparkling shards of ice rained down on his killer. His killer now looked different and once more wondered why she keeps finding herself in horrific situations with no memory of how she got there. -- Chairdriver is dead. He was a founding X-Man, Iceman.

Generally until everyone gets their shit together. 48 MAXIMUM, ideally 24. I have everyone's actions now and will proceed with the write-up in a sec.

It is epic. (And I don't like using that word) I have a thing for overlapping vocals singing different things so when the 'Please don't be in love...' bits are underneath the big finale of the song it completes me. Also the title track and Dear John are faves of mine. My least played is Never Grow Up and Innocent, but I've come to appreciate them more now.

^ Speak Now is one of my albums of 2010. I absolutely love it. Haters to the left. Enchanted, Haunted, Better Than Revenge, Mine, Story of Us... <3

Good. September will be a big month. Bjork and Laura Marling's new albums, Lars Von Trier's Melancholia is in cinemas, DC relaunch their entire line of comics, it's my birthday, back at uni...yesss. Anyway. Music. Yes. Bjork. Yes.

This remix is beating me into submission. I liked the original song a lot, but this remix won't stop clubbing me to death.

I was never into wargames really. Got massively into Heroclix when the Warhammer craze at school had passed, but that was cause it was about Superheroes. It's a fantastic game. When Warhammer was a craze at school no one actually knew how to play. We just made up rules. I had two boxes of Dark Eleves Wytches (or whatever they were called). One pack I painted (with my dad, to do it well, since so many people at school had horribly painted ones) red and purple, another white and black. I traded them with a friend for his copy of Pokemon Blue.

My sister and I have a 'joke London accent' where we just say 'Mac-Donolws!' (meant to be a London accent...) at each other. Hates it, but loves it for the joke factor. I never thought about that before - would Homophobia not just be fear of the same/things that are the same?

This song makes me feel like a beautiful black woman who knows how to get what she wants in relationships and life. Better than the Young Money original, fakt.

Only watched the Spider-Island review (might start reading that), but you reminded me I'm 10 issues behind with Walking Dead.

I say 'Cringe!' but in a knowing way. As in, the joke is that I'm saying it, when it's a bit naff to do so. And saying it when it's not even a 'cringey' situation etc etc. I don't mind taking words like that to make fun/light of, like I do with cringe.

My comic collection is mainly just tonnes of the UK collector's editions I used to get, and they're all stuffed into my cupboard. My trades are now spilling out of the one shelf allocated to them in my unit, but I'll just take over the self above, it's fine. My room is currently in a state of changing around/never truly moved into it before I left for uni. My comics (i.e floppies) aren't taking up space yet, but will do soon, if I keep buying idividual issues, which I plan to.

It would make more sense combined with that big omnibus thing of all the 1st issues too.

I never bothered to learn what snaking was properly or how to do it. Maybe that's why I could never unlock Dry Bowser. I love the bikes. The bikes felt more exhilerating to ride on, for some reason. Shame they're gone.