Scarlet Witch, Polaris, and Rogue All By Tony Perna
Polaris By Jim Steranko (Very Class)
Pleased to see a piece acknowledging how far back Lorna goes as a character. š
Harley Quinn and Convergence: Harley Quinn #1 Thoughts
I just finished reading the first issue. For people that donāt know, this is some big event DCās doing where heroes from before New 52 get to come back for a couple issues, and thereās an implication in the story itself that DC will only choose one comic book to keep going.
Which is bullshit, but what can you say.
I need to stress this. Iām a fan of the real Harley Quinn, this one. I didnāt go out and buy everything Harley Quinn, but I read and enjoyed all of her ongoing series (except the last dozen or so) in the late 00s; the series was released from 2000 to 2004. I greatly enjoyed her presence in anything Batman-related. I hoped sheād be in a Nolan film, and while I didnāt like her costume in Arkham Asylum, I accepted it purely because it was a video game adaptation and the real Harley Quinn was still intact.
Then DC threw her away because they have no respect for her, and replaced her with a completely different character that they slapped the code name on despite that other character not even so much as using the harlequin theme.
Since New 52, I havenāt touched ANYTHING DC Comics unless it had the real Harley Quinn in it. I donāt watch DC cartoons anymore. I donāt read DC Comics anymore. I donāt see DC films. I avoided Dark Knight Rises specifically because of this.
So to finally see Harley Quinn again… I canāt quite say āIām thankfulā because I donāt feel like I should have to be thankful after DC Comics poured so much effort into trying to make everyone forget about the real Harley Quinn and replace her with the random non-Harley character that is New 52Ā āHarley.ā But I am definitely happy to see her again, which is why I bought this.
With that covered, onto my thoughts about Convergence: Harley Quinn #1.
It starts out great, and I get the feeling from the opening that Steve Pugh recognizes and understand how a lot of Harley Quinn fans feel about the past few years. Lots of hints at the beginning along the lines of how Harleyās taken for granted, followed by her showing her spunky, zany, off the wall self. The opening is an excellent revival of the character and everything she is and stands for.
Then we get into this dome situation, where sheās out of costume and seemingly almost recovered from the mental issues that led to her becoming Harley Quinn. This is where we see a more emotional human side to Harley, which is great too. All her insanity is playful, charming insanity without her causing bodily harm when sheās in this phase. Loopy is a good word for description. Thereās also the bits of good playful geeky girl Iāve missed for so long.
She chows down on chocolate. She downs coffee. She has hallucinations about little fish swimming around, and while she can be really rude, itās a fun and unintentional rudeness. Sheās got the naive wonder thing down. THIS is Harley Quinn, and Iāve missed her these past few years.
The only detail Iām not quite sure on how I feel about is linking her Harley Quinn madness so closely to Joker. We know heās the origin, but I feel like to imply her being Harley Quinn getting tied so close to the Joker implies she would need to ditch her harlequin theme in order to fully move past him. I wouldāve liked it a lot more if they used a face that looks like Harley Quinn instead of one that looks like Joker.
But, I can shrug it off by simply interpreting the Joker face to represent when Harley Quinn as Harley Quinn is cruelly violent, rather than the playful cool self she otherwise exhibits.
We see Poison Ivy and Catwoman in this too, which I think fans of Gotham Sirens and those specific characters greatly appreciate. The issue wraps up with Poison Ivy and Catwoman getting Harley Quinn suited up and back to her insane violent self.
It was a great issue, worth every page. Iām looking forward to the next one. As much as I would like for her to get to exist again like she should, DC Comics wants to suck lately, so I expect this is the last weāll see of her for another 10 years or so. Hopefully Iām wrong about that.
I stumbled across these headdresses for sale on etsy.
I thought it was really cool that both Polaris and Scarlet Witch have headdresses for sale by an Etsy store clearly devoted to these cosplay/character props.
I find the keywords also interesting. Lornaās has Magneto, but for some reason Wandaās has erotic?
Only a few reviews for Scarlet Witch and none for Polaris, but if you cosplay and donāt want to make your own headdress, maybe thisād be good for you. Most reviews are high.
This is a whole month late, but I didnāt think of making a post about it until now. Uncannyxmen.net had a whole month devoted to Polaris, where they updated articles and focused on developments for her. You can see some of it still in Latest Site Updates.
They also had the awesome logo below last month.
Men: If Orange is the New Black is so good with representation, why are all the men horrible?
Women: They’re not all horrible. Bennett’s nice. What more do you want?
Men: But he’s clueless and irresponsible! And that’s just ONE guy! How can you give me ONE decent male character in a slew of diverse female characters and call THAT representation?
Women:
Women:
Women:
Women:
Women:
Women:
Women: …must be tough.
The eyewitness who recorded the cellphone video that put a South Carolina police officer in jail on a murder charge just said that he is afraid for his life. Feidin Santana walks with security who is watching out for him right now ā something he is fairly low key about ā but in his first interview Wednesday, he said that even when he first told officers on the scene that he recorded the incident, he had the impression that he would be killed if he waited around.
āIāve seen that movie beforeā he said last night in an interview with NBC News.
So when the officers told him to āwait right hereā and they left to get other law enforcement officers, he took off and leaked the video through less formal channels.
Now, he says that he still believes his life is threatened by members of the police department. He walked the same route to work every day ā thatās when he saw and recorded the incident which led to the fatal shooting of Walter Scott. But now that has all changed. He explained in interviews yesterday that now he varies his route to work and does not go that same way any longer, in order to avoid assassination.
Santana told NBC News that āI felt that my life, with this information, might be in danger.ā
Once he left the scene after officers told him to stay put, he worried that perhaps he should just delete the footage ā as releasing it would put him in police crosshairs.
But after hearing the lies the police department announced about the incident, he decided he could not ā in good conscience ā remain silent.
āWhat if there was no video? What if there was no witness, or āheroā as I call him, to come forward?ā the Scott familyās lawyer, L. Chris Stewart, said to The Associated Press. āWe didnāt know he existed. He came out the blue.ā
I really, really hope he has protection.
Iām going to pray for him
Whereās his protection? Whereās his immunity? He did the right thing. He brought someone to justice for a murder they flat out lied about. Where is his eminent protection from the government???
Hereās presidential candidate and extreme reproductive rights opponent Rand Paul, mansplaining to a female reporter ā again.
via MicĀ
HE SHUSHES HER. HE FUCKING SHUSHES HER.
Oh, this election season is going to be sooooooooooooo special.
Heās a dickbag.
I think weāre going to have a LOT more people voting, and a lot more of those votes being democrat this time around. At this point, thereās really nothing in the republican party worth keeping.
The republican party only took over the legislative branch because of assumptions things would stay level combined with the democrat party doing absolutely nothing to make people think they should go vote for them. Thanks to that, I expect a lot of people to go out and vote even if they think it wonāt really count.
Another Disney/Marvel Rant About X-Men Treatment
I’ve said many, many times how I feel about Disney and Marvel’s treatment of the X-Men franchise as a result of their film rights scuffle with Fox. It’s stupid. It’s narrow-minded and short-sighted. It’s greedy and selfish, but at the same time they’re onlyĀ hurting themselves.
Disrespect sows disrespect. Treating the X-Men franchise horribly in the comics is not going to get X-Men fans to rise up against Fox and demand they make a deal favorable to Marvel. Fox doesn’t control the comics. Marvel does. Fans know it’s entirely within Marvel’s power to treat the franchise well in the comics, they just refuse to do so.
Why? Because they can’t make as much money off the X-Men franchise as they want to make.
THAT is the message Disney and Marvel are sending: that the only love they can ever and will ever have for the X-Men franchise is measured in dollars, not rich lore and fan devotion.
When you’re a company sending that message, you have failed the most basic test of what it means to run a company focused on creative IPs. That is the ONE thing you should never, ever do. The second you do something that makes consumers think you’re nothing but a soulless corporate entity that doesn’t value them in any way, you lose their respect. When you lose their respect, you lose their willingness to overlook mistakes. Mistakes build up, and before you know it, you’ve lost everything. They have no reason to trust you or what you put out anymore. Even genuine attempts to stop being terrible start to look like cheap ploys, because when has the company ever given reason not to expect otherwise?
I’m not even talking about cases like me. I’ll go out of my way to counteract a company’s intent if it’s blatantly disrespectful or malicious, but other people aren’t me. Other people may simply decide not to read female Thor despite its promise, not to get back at Marvel, but because they don’t trust Marvel anymore.
Today it’s all sunshine and rainbows, but what happens if Marvel licenses out female Thor to a video game company, they want the rights back, butĀ they can’t get them back? Will they try to ruin and bury female Thor in the comics too? Will they rewrite her as some vain power-mad bitch that hates men?
Why should we ever believe that is not a risk, no matter what Marvel says, if how they’re treating the X-Men and Fantastic Four franchises todayĀ as a result of Fox’s film rights ownership shows us very clearly that Marvel will ruin entire franchises in the comics just because they’re not making as much money as they want to make?
I’m not saying anything unusual here. All of this would be happening with or without me. I’m only stating very plainly where things are headed.
Right now is Marvel’s last chance to turn back before it’s too late. They had and ignored many chances already, but this is the end of the line. The forced retcon of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver out of being Magneto’s kids was that final warning.
This is my prediction: if Disney and Marvel do not shape up, then 2020 is when it’ll all come crashing down. Maybe sooner, but I’m going to give an optimistic projection. Everything is a slow bleed until that year for Marvel… while Fox will get all the fan interest Marvel willingly throws away.
salarta 