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( Femslash by PairingCollapse )


( Gen Fic by Main CharacterCollapse )

Title: Tattered Remains, Part II
Fandom: DCU (Pre-New52)
Rating: PG
Author: @_Valerie_Renee
Illustrator: Krystal Beisick
Characters: Renee Montoya, Black Canary, Two Face, Huntress/Helena Bertinelli
Summary: It seems Two Face has lured Renee back to Gotham, but Renee realizes she has other business with her former hometown.  Click here to catch up on Part I.

Click the image to read the full comic!

So!  This issue officially started the second arc of the book. I feel like, for as long as we waited for it to come, I can't believe we're already six issues in.

Under the cut is my (spoilery) review, including my feelings on Amy Reeder taking over art duties, the risky new storytelling style, and also I admit that I'm officially jealous of Kate Kane's sex life.

( Review, and Kate's pretty face under here!Collapse )

... but I did want to say I'm officially loving the DCnU Birds of Prey.  Originally we had decided not to read it, because the loss of Oracle (and the entire team unit) just hurt too much, but goddammit, the people working on the book had other plans.  When I first read Issue #1 I refused to buy it but instead read my brother's copy.  I don't know, I just felt that strongly about missing my old Birds.  Anyway, he has continued to buy it, but I just now snagged 2-4 from him to catch up.  Everyone wants to know if I love Starling.  Fuckin' of course I do!  She's awesome.  Still, something about her wildness makes me miss reserved, controlled, contemplative Oracle more than ever.  

So now I'm stuck about what to do about Issue #5.  Should I just buy it or continue to borrow? I was thinking maybe I'll wait until the next arc starts--at that point, I'll need replacements for Blackhawks (which I am really into) and my Huntress mini (which I am very disappointed with).

Sadly, the girlfriend is still refusing to read along in BoP, so I have no one to talk to about this!  So I get to put my feelings here, lol.  I hope Batgirl doesn't stay on the team.  This team has a very edgy "big-grey-area" feel to them, and bats are typically very "black-and-white."  One of my biggest surprises is how much I'm loving the portrayal of Ivy.  Never in a million years would I have thought of her on this team.  But with this group, it works...for now.  I've always loved the character: especially when she's very serious and dark and passionate.  And goddamn, she's powerful and fierce!Dinah and Ev ... let's just say I'll never ship them.  (Okay, never say never, as I'm totally eating my words when it comes to Kate/Maggie)  But still.  I like their friendship, and I'm very curious about Canary, because her layers are being peeled back tantalizingly slowly.  Anyway, I'm on Tumblr and I never heed spoiler warnings, so I know Ev's already got a partially filled dance card.  Katana, they have to work a little harder to get me to care about her.  Because right now I don't at all.

So yeah. There you have it. I'm joining the masses that didn't think they'd like this, didn't think they'd read it, but are somehow loving it anyway.

Finally, something fannish!

I've been wanting to do a very quick overview of what I'm still reading out of the New 52, which, to be honest, isn't much.  I know I ended the first month with a list of what I'd read, and a shortened list of what I would continue buying, but here we are in month three, and I'm exactly where I predicted I'd be--down to reading only Batwoman, Justice League Dark, and Huntress.   (We're still buying more than just these three titles, but I haven't had any time for/interest in the rest.  That may change.) 

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Three titles, that's it! Right now, I feel like I'm so on the fringes of this fandom, because there's so much other stuff going on that I don't care about.  But I have a lot of other stuff filling my time, too.

• On the plane home last week I started writing a Renee/Daria fic!!! I don't know when I'll get to work on it again, but this is long overdue.
• I know I'm like the last person in the world to jump on this boat, but I'm finally watching Arrested Development.  I don't know why it took so long, but of course I love it!
• I juuuust started Alan Moore's Top Ten.  I'm really only a few pages in, so I can't even give a primary judgment, but whenever Krystal suggests something, I usually like it.

Other than that, my adventures in cooking and accompanying lifestyle blog has been taking up most of my free time.  Also, I'm working on a plan to stay relatively sane through this holiday season that starts (oh look at that!) this week.

This week we as a household picked up five titles, and I read four of them--all but Superman. Honestly, after Action Comics, Superboy, and Supergirl, I was a little Super-family'd out. I may still give it a peruse, but the girlfriend was less than enthused about it, so...

Oh, and In non-DC related news, I finally started reading Queen and Country! It's taking me a while to get fully bought into it. Plus, we started with like, Book Five I think. I'll give it a proper review when I'm done reading it.

( All-Star WesternCollapse )
( BlackhawksCollapse )
( Justice League DarkCollapse )
( VoodooCollapse )

So the final verdict:
What we bought month one versus what we're buying month two (which starts today!)

Action Comics
Batgirl
Suicide Squad - it gets one more chance
Superboy - Erica decided she didn't like it enough
Batwoman
Wonder Woman - willing to trade-wait
Supergirl
Red Hood and the Outlaws
Superman
Justice League Dark
Blackhawks
All-Star Western
Voodoo - gets one more chance

New stuff added:
Huntress - out today!

This past week was one heck of a mixed bag in terms of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Let's just say I ended up liking some things that I didn't expect to, and the ones I was counting on really let me down. Cut for spoilers and as a courtesy to those who, maybe rightfully, want nothing to do with this reboot.

( Wonder WomanCollapse )

( Red Hood & the OutlawsCollapse )

( Birds of PreyCollapse )

( SupergirlCollapse )

( Also Worth a MentionCollapse )

Last Wednesday the only three titles I pulled were Suicide Squad, Superboy, and of course, finally, Batwoman.  All together, a much better batch than last week.  Here's some quick bullet points of what worked for me and what didn't, and my verdicts for next month's issues.  Also, a common emerging thread in all three seems to still be--Continuity Confusion.  No one said comics was an easy medium to follow!

Suicide Squad

What I liked:

• It doesn't hold back.  Still nursing my Secret Six addiction, it was fun to see the book open with the members of the team getting tortured, and although you know they're in tremendous pain, they act like it's no big thing.
• Bits of backstory.  I'm coming into this only knowing about half the team, so I'm happy for the introduction to the rest of them
• Harley's voice.  She's the darker version of Harley, which I guess should be expected with this team, and I think I'm going to like her.
• Savant!  Short-lived as it was, we got to see Savant.
• King Shark. I'll admit, I was super pissed when I found out that he was one of the few S6 members making the jump.  But throughout this issue, as they're torturing him for info, all he can think about is getting someone close enough to eat them.  I don't really expect to continue liking him, but for this issue, it was pretty damn funny.

What I didn't like:

• Michelle Obama.  Oh wait, that's supposed to be Amanda Waller? Really.  Really?  Obviously, story always matters to me more than the art, which is why I said I didn't give a shit about how they dressed Harley.  The come on, this is The Wall.  It's just not the same. I expect this to give me some serious cognitive dissonance.
• Continuity questions??   This seems like it could directly follow the end of S6, presuming they all went to jail.  But then, how did Savant end up in Jail, if he'd been working for the BoP at the time?  And if the rest of the Six were in jail, do you really expect me to believe that Scandal and Bane and Knockout really wouldn't make it through a torture test? IDK, maybe the rest of them escaped.  But still.

Overall, I am curious enough to pick this up again next month.  No serious long-term commitment yet.  But it did pique my interest.

Superboy

What I liked:

• The story reminded me a lot of Resident Evil.  Seriously!  This corporation is a lot like Umbrella, and the superboy prototype (assumed to be one of many) is like Project Alice.  So it had my attention right away.
• Rose.  I've never before read anything in this line, so this is my first exposure to Rose, who I can already tell kicks ass.

What I didn't like:

• The red-haired girl with glasses? She makes me miss Oracle so bad.  I mean, I really like her character, but when I look at her, I can't stop seeing Babs.  Then I'm thinking about Babs, and missing her, then I'm not paying attention to the comic anymore, and I have to go back and try again.

This was more the Girlfriend's choice, and I know she wants to continue with it, so I'll read it next month too.  It may take me a little longer to get totally sold on this one.

Batwoman

What I liked:

• EVERYTHING.
• No seriously, I feel like this team would have to work really hard to dissappoint me.  Kate's voice, from the very first panel she was in, they nailed it:  "That was creepier than expected."  Perfect! (You know, I can also see Renee saying that line. Funny...)
• La Llorna, great villian for Batwoman.  I'm really excited to see her finally moving beyond the Religion of Crime for a bit.
• That Inevitable Renee Scene:  I really don't think it could have been handled more perfectly.  Soft and touching, and so ambiguous--I feel like everyone got something different out of it.  I interpreted it as: yes, there's still feelings there, but Kate knows she needs to move on from that, and she's working hard to close that chapter, for now.  The most important thing that came out of this scene, to me anyway, was the fact that she addressed the fact that she dated Renee, and Maggie knows and is okay with it.  I guess this would have mattered more in the old continuity, where Renee and Maggie were close, and that would have been a sticky situation, dating an old friend's ex.  In this continuity, it's unclear how close Maggie and Renee ever were.  Maggie was certainly never her boss.
• Kate/Maggie--I definitely feel a bit more chemistry between them now.  I don't know what changed, maybe because both of them aren't trying so damn hard?  But for now, I'm interested to see where this goes.  Can't wait  to see Maggie with Batwoman again!  Oh, Kate, you love to play with that fire, don't you?
• Bette.  People are really torn on this, but I'm so glad they're getting rid of Flamebird.  I lvoe that Kate's making her earn her place.  I love her Military bossiness.  I think it's a real kink for her, and she doesn't have a lot of outlet for it in her life.  But she's serious when she says she has Bette's best interest at heart.  I cannot wait to see what she becomes!

What I didn't like:

• De-aging Maggie, of course.  But even that didn't bother me as much as I expected it to!  Kate asking her if she wanted to do "beers and a band"  showed that there's still a pretty real generational gap between them.
• Batman at the end.  Didn't that already happen at the end of Issue #0?  Isn't that what lead to her being a part of Batman Inc.?  Or are we just forgetting that that ever happened?  Because I'm totally willing to do that.

Overall SO EXCITED to have Kate back in my life.  I already can't wait for next month.

Tattered Remains, a web-based fan-comic drawn and
coloured by the fabulous Krystal Beisick; written by me.

We hope everyone enjoys this!

No, this doesn't have anything to do with the DcnU--this is a preview of the web-based fan comic that Krystal (forgetthatkiss) and I have been working on for...well, quite some time now!

In this comic, we'll see Renee returning to Gotham.  She has a lot of unfinished business in this town, and she may not be the only one who needs closure.  Special appearances will include Huntress,some other Birds you may be familiar with, and a couple other Gotham regulars.

We're set to go live sometime next week!

Well! Yesterday we braved what seems to be the End Times on the American east coast to finally go grab some comics. We got Batgirl #1 and Action Comics #1, and I'll give my opinions on both at the end of this entry.

But first let's talk business. Renee may or not be the Question in the DCnU, but she's definitely going back to the GCPD. My thoughts on this are mixed. Yes, if I'm very honest with myself, I like Detective Renee better than Question Renee. Probably because that's where the depth of her character development lies, and also because I still haven't found a book I love more than Gotham Central, but I loved her journey to becoming the Question, her struggles with it, the whole Mark of Cain thing, all of it. I guess I'm saying if Renee got a major role somewhere, and it was true to her character, I'd eat it up. No matter what hat she was wearing.

What I don't get is everyone saying that "no one can write her but Greg [Rucka]." Yeah, he developed her from a very minor character to the amazing, flawed, multi-layered person we know now. And yeah, most of her appearances since he's left have had major characterization issues (and waaay too many Question puns). But I refuse to believe that someone who loves and wants to use this character can't sit down, read what's been written, and find her voice. I'm not saying copy Rucka's style. But damn, if I can do it for fanfic, you can't tell me paid comic writers "can't handle Renee." They're just not trying, because they're too busy relegating her back to the bit parts she had fifteen years ago. "Freeze, scum!" "Jeesh, *you're* filling out the paperwork on this one, Harv."

[Deep breath] Okay feelings on comics! (Not super spoilery, but behind cuts anyway as a courtesy)

( Batgirl #1Collapse )


( Action Comics #1Collapse )

Today is that last official day of the DCU.  Tomorrow, DCnU starts, and essentially reboots several of the things I've come to love most about DC Comics: the Secret Six, Steph as Batgirl, Dick as Batman, Babs as Oracle, the Birds of Prey as the Birds of Prey.

But, as a new(ish) comics fan, I promised to give this reboot a try.  Even try some things I never read before because I didn't know where to start. So, after thinking about it for over a month, reading all the speculation, taking recommendations from friends, I've come up with my official pull list for September.  Keep in mind, it may seem puny, but before the re-boot, I was only pulling two comics on a monthly basis. And since S6 ended, I haven't bought anything. I'm officially ready to read comics again!

OK, the spam here on LJ is really starting to get to me.  I guess, in the grand scheme of things, I don't get that much.   But I get enough.  LJ does a pretty good job of ID'ing it and putting it in a suspicious folder, but what I don't understand is, why are these comments allowed to show up, if they're marked as "probably definitely spam" from the getgo?

I have my journal set up so that anons can comment (mostly b/c I post fic here), but it has to be screened by me before it's visible.  So for awhile, my problem was anon spam, which I would have screened even if LJ didn't.  It was mostly links to places to get a bigger penis, or it was in Russian, but also with a link.  Then I think LJ started making anon commenters use a Captcha thingy, so then the fake accounts started.  Still Russian or English writing, still with a link, still marked as "probably spam".

Ok, as obnoxious as it is, I get it.  You have a product that you want to push, you've heard about this thing called viral marketing, you're trying it out, whatever. I'm going to ignore you, but I'm sure for every thousand people that do as I do, you probably get a dozen or so hits on your site, and that makes it worth it. 

What I don't get is this: the spam I've been getting lately is total nonsense. Check it out:



Whatever the original message was, it was obviously popped into a translator, and not a very good one.  But still.  I think it's essentially saying, "You are so right, you hit a lot of good points that people don't always think about. People should take cues from you.  I'll be back to see what other awesome things you have to say."

Nice sentiment, right?  Great ego stroke, someone thinks I'm right about everything!  Except this was left on one of my fics, so in context, it makes no sense.  Spam.  But WTF is the point of this piece of Spam?  No links, no ads,  no fucking point to this at all.  I don't understand.  For some reason this one pisses me off so much more than any ad for a sex drug or flea medication, or Russian writing that I can't understand.  WHAT is the POINT of this kind of thing, spammers?  What could you possibly be getting out of this?

As much as I'm curious, it actually scares me, a lot.  I'm a really smart person.  But there are people out there that are a hell of a lot smarter than me, especially when it comes to technology.  What if it's some kind of new hacking technique?  There must be a purpose. And I'll probably never know.

Welp, I've sufficiently freaked myself out for the day.

Ahhh, I haven't had a full day to sit around and be nothing but nerdy and fannish for close to two months!  Work's been busy, and with a wedding looming I can't really say no to the overtime, but I was really in need of a day off.  And it just happened to coincide with the due date for femslash11 stories, so it was a nerdy day indeed.  Okay, fic recs then!

 

• Whys and why nots - This is a Resident Evil fic written for me by the amazingly talented seriousfic.  It includes some Alice/Rain, some Alice/Claire, and also pretty much everything I ever asked for in a fic.  After reading this, I totally get why people love fic exchanges.
   
• The Moment's Worth It - DCU fic written for someone else, also by seriousfic. The pairing here is Renee/Babs, one of my not-so-secret faves, and it's so in character for both of them it hurts. In a good way.
   
• What Happens in Bangkok (can change your life forever) - This ones by me, written for turnonmyheels.  DCU Fic, the pairing is Dinah/Helena, which was new for me, but a ton of fun to write.
   
• Obviously, this is by no means a comprehensive list of the good shit, because the fandoms I'm into are fairly limited. But there is a ton of good stuff out there, check out the masterlist for yourself (warning, it's probably not complete yet, as people have until midnight to finish posting).

Ok, back to real life, wedding planning, work, and the like.  I promise I'll check in more often though!  Stuff I need to talk about soon: I started watching Damages and holy shit.  Its like the show was written just for me.  Also on deck, my wimpy Septmeber DC pull list, and some predictions.  Because speculation is fun.

Ugh.

I've been laying kinda low on Tumblr lately, as far as posting anyway, because the comics community over there is just having one heart attack over another about the reboot (relaunch?)  I've agreed with a lot of the concerns, especially the ones regarding Babs, Steph, the Secret Six, the lack of Huntress (which has been rectified), and the over-sexualization of some of the female characters--particularly Catwoman. 

But, for the most part, I'm trying to take a wait-and-see attitude.  Steph has a part in the DCnU, and although I will miss her Batgirl title like crazy, I'm glad she'll be around! I'm actually more excited to see Huntress in her own mini than as a part of a big team. I still have my doubts about liking the "new" Babs!girl, but I'm willing to try it. 

But this week is SDCC, so we've been getting a lot of news, and the two that were jumping out at me today were "Lian Harper never existed" and "Steph was never a Robin" in the DCnU.  Tumblr is freaking out.  I .... don't necessarily see these as bad things!  Considering how Steph was treated as Robin--in character, by the writers, and by a majority of the non-Tumblr comics fandom--wouldn't you rather retcon that part of her life? You know, the part where she was "killed off" to advance Batman's story and angst?  

And Lian, I was barely into comics when Lian was killed.  But I remember the reaction. And how much fans hated everything that happened to Roy in the aftermath.  I definitely think we're better off without that storyline!  Keep in mind, if they're starting from a point where Lian never existed,  that's an opportunity for her to exist once more.  And wouldn't having Lian alive in the new continuity be better than having her dead in the old one?

I'm just saying, we don't know what all they have planned.  They might surprise us.  I don't think picking apart every little thing every creator says about every character is a constructive activity.  No, I don't think everything is gonna be hunky-dory; I'm sure some things will be awful and fail miserably, but there's a bright side to that, too!  I heard  a rumor that DC has over 20 back-up titles in the drawing board to replace anything that fails.  They'll keep going until they get it right.