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pluckyredhead · 6 months

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Character Profile: Koryak

And so we come to the last (but never least, not in my heart) Lost Titans profile: Koryak! My terrible, damp boy.

Look at him pout! How I love him.

Koryak debuted in the 1994 Aquaman series. (Note: I'm not sure what his last name is - his mother's is never mentioned, and even though I sometimes tag him as "Koryak Curry," I don't think he would use Arthur's last name, especially since even Arthur didn't use that name very much at the time.)

As I've mentioned before, Arthur has had a lot of different origins, but in the post-Crisis era, which the only era Koryak appeared in, Arthur's mother was the queen of Atlantis, and his father was Atlan, an ancient Atlantean sorcerer who impregnated her in a dream. Arthur was abandoned at birth because of the infidelity/his blond hair, was raised by dolphins (yes), and briefly lived with a human man named Arthur Curry who taught him English and gave him a human name to borrow.

Then Arthur - still a teenager at this point - went to Alaska, where he immediately rescued a teenage girl named Kako from a polar bear. Kako and her family took Arthur in in gratitude, and he and Kako fell in love. (Kako's family is sometimes said to be Inuit, sometimes Inupiat.)

Anyway, Arthur and Kako lose their virginities to each other. IN THE SNOW, FOR SOME REASON:

This is such an infuriating racist, sexist trope (the WOC with the broken English throws herself at the white hero, logic be damned - why isn't she wearing anything under her coat??? - but of course she will never be his wife, or anything more than a footnote in his story).

Immediately after this, tragedy strikes Kako's family, Arthur is blamed (it's not his fault), and he's thrown out. He returns to the ocean, and eventually goes on to become Aquaman, king of Atlantis, etc.

Years later, he returns to Alaska for plot reasons not worth going into, and that's when he meets Koryak, THE MOST NINETIES BOY OF ALL:

The shirtlessness, the swords, the hair! Truly a man of his era. (Boy? I always assumed he was about 18 here, but a Secret Files issue claims he was 16.)

Koryak is not Arthur's biggest fan, but after Kako turns into a fire elemental because this is the DCU and these things happen, Koryak decides to go to Atlantis with Arthur. Or, well, technically the city was called Poseidonis at the time, which will be important later.

Anyway, the Poseidonians are a little wary of a stranger at first, until Koryak saves a child's life and suddenly they love him. Koryak, who didn't really fit in in Alaska, is basking under the attention, but it doesn't go over well with the current king, Thesily (Arthur had stepped down a while back for Reasons), who is wildly jealous of Arthur, and fears Arthur is looking to take his throne back and now comes complete with heir.

So Thesily leads Koryak into a side room and tries to stab him to death. Luckily, a sudden earthquake causes a pillar to topple over and trap Thesily. Koryak gloats and leaves him to die. What a brat! I adore him!

The earthquakes aren't stopping, and the people of Poseidonis want to flee. Arthur tells them not to because a prophecy said they should stay, but Koryak leads the Poseidonians out of the city and to their sister city, Tritonis, which is where the merpeople live. There, the Poseidonians immediately proceed to be huge assholes to the Tritonians, using up their resources and being racist to them. (Introducing Koryak, an indigenous man and literally the only character of color underwater at this point in time, and having him lead a bunch of racist colonizers was...maybe not Peter David's best choice.)

Anyway, Koryak decides to open up some forbidden tunnels because he feels like it, and they turn out to be forbidden because they were imprisoning Kordax, Arthur and Koryak's evil immortal blond lizard man ancestor. Naturally.

Arthur rolls up with his crew (his girlfriend, his dad, and Garth) and Koryak and Garth throw down. It doesn't go well for Koryak:

I LAUGH EVERY TIME.

Anyway, Arthur's side wins, Kordax is killed, the Tritonians are freed, and Arthur decides that to make it up to them, the Poseidonians are going to serve them as slaves indefinitely. That...seems like compounding human rights violations on top of human rights violations, but okay. Anyway Koryak volunteers to stay and serve the Tritonians as well, because he feels guilty about what he's done.

...for a little while. Then he gets bored and decides they should leave. The king of Tritonis is like "Says who?" and Garth shows up out of nowhere and is like "Says me" and the king's like "Oh shit, okay" and lets them go, leaving Koryak both grateful and resentful towards Garth. I am eating this up with a SPOON btw.

Koryak returns to Tritonis, where he immediately falls back into old habits of resenting his father. Vulko, an advisor of Arthur's who is currently mad at him, sees this and decides to use it as an opportunity to overthrow Arthur:

(The scar across his nose is from Kordax. Later artists forgot it and I wish they hadn't.)

Vulko and Koryak plot for like...a really long time without anything coming of it. Arthur knows perfectly well that it's happening but doesn't do anything about it, even though he could put a stop to it by simply, like...showing Koryak five minutes of positive attention, ever, in his life. Because it's really, really obvious that Koryak just needs positive reinforcement, and would be fully Team Arthur if Arthur would just give him a reason - at one point when Arthur briefly dies (he gets better), Koryak is willing to die to try to avenge him and save Garth and Dolphin from torture. He's not all bad! He's just drawn that way!

Anyway, Arthur comes back to life and Poseidonis decides to make him king again. Just as he's about to be crowned, GARTH tries to overthrow him and steal the throne - but that's just because Garth has been holding Arthur's magic trident and was possessed by him. Arthur overpowers him, and then tells him that he's not mad and in fact, he's proud of Garth for holding out as long as he did.

Then Koryak tries his hand:

And like...yes, Garth only tried to steal the throne because he was possessed and Koryak did it willingly, but Koryak also tried to help Arthur when Garth went rogue. Again, it is so, so clear that Koryak's loyalty was Arthur's for the asking, but Arthur never asked. Instead, he praised Garth for trying to overthrow him and then told Koryak to his face how much he sucked.

Arthur is at least merciful enough to commute the normal sentence for treason from death to banishment, and Koryak is kicked out of Atlantis. Arthur then literally never thinks about him for the next SEVEN YEARS. (Okay, Koryak shows up very briefly for three issues in 1999 and Arthur thinks about him while he's looking directly at him, and then forgets he exists again. But then, Arthur also repeatedly forgets about his own wife. Arthur is terrible.)

Anyway, seven years later, Arthur has also been banished from Atlantis, and is now living in Sub Diego, which is what happens when half of San Diego inexplicably falls into the ocean and a small percentage of the traumatized people discover they can breathe underwater. Koryak, meanwhile, has returned to Atlantis to fight with Garth some more:

Love this for them!

Koryak, btw, is arguing that the survivors of Sub Diego should be allowed to move to Atlantis, and Garth's like "Uhhh they wouldn't fit in" and Koryak's like "Wow, racist." Ahem. In general, Koryak during this period is a lot calmer and more mature than he used to be, and also a lot more willing to forgive Arthur for All the Bullshit:

Also, there's a joke that implies Koryak might be queer?

Literally that's the joke here: Koryak is talking about a guy named Malrey (half-shark, half-cop, and no I am not kidding), and Lorena, who has a crush on Koryak, is clocking that she may not have a chance. I don't know if this was just a throwaway gay joke, which happened all the time in 2005, or if it was going somewhere, but we'll never know. (For the record, even though Garth says Koryak has a crush on Lorena, that doesn't appear to be true, especially since Lorena is underage and Koryak is definitely an adult by now. I don't think we should take Garth's line there as anything but dismissive of Koryak's outreach to the Sub Diegoans. Also, back in the 90s, Koryak definitely had a crush on a minor character called Deep Blue, a.k.a. Debbie Perkins, but that never went anywhere, which is good because SHE WAS ARTHUR'S HALF-SISTER. (She and Arthur made out a bunch before they knew, because Arthur loves kissing girls his sons have crushes on. YIKES ALL AROUND.) (Also just kidding, Arthur doesn't pay enough attention to any of his kids to know who they have crushes on.))

Anyway. Back to the plot. Mera is very sick because of Evil Magic, and Garth decides to perform a massive spell to save her, and Koryak agrees to help. This spell attracts the attention of the Spectre, who was evil at the time, and he, uh...destroys Atlantis, killing Koryak, Garth, and almost everyone else. Arthur finally acknowledges that he was a shitty dad:

Immediately after this issue, the book's title changed from Aquaman to Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis. The main character is not the Arthur we know, but a new, younger Arthur, Arthur Joseph Curry, who turns out to be a cousin of our Arthur. His mentor is a guy called the Dweller in the Depths, who has a tentacle face like Davey Jones from the Pirates movies. It is eventually revealed that the Dweller is actually Regular Arthur, with traumatic amnesia. Why? Why does he have a tentacle face now? NEVER EXPLAINED.

Anyway, we also meet this guy:

Narwhal's character design is...suggestive, let's say? Also suggestive: Garth has also turned up alive, and like "Narwhal," he now has albinism and partial amnesia. And Narwhal knows the name "Orin," though he can't place it. (It's Arthur's Atlantean name.)

Anyway, Narwhal is sent to kill this "Orin":

Narwhal kills Arthur/Orin/the Dweller, but it doesn't bring him peace, because he still doesn't know who he is - and Orin did, at the last minute. He goes to Atlantis for answers, and Mera confirms it, at least for the reader:

...and that's the last issue of Sword of Atlantis. WOMP WOMP. All of the Aquaman characters disappeared until Blackest Night (when Arthur returned). Koryak never appeared again, and was retconned out with the New 52. Oh well, at least the narwhal tusk spear is pretty dope.

As of Infinite Frontier, the pre-52 universe has been pretty much restored, which should mean that Koryak is back in continuity...but DC is still keeping Arthur's New 52/Rebirth origin intact, which means he did not spend any of his teenage years in Alaska, which means Koryak was never conceived. So things could go either way - any writer who feels like bringing him back could do so easily, but they don't have to.

I call Koryak "my terrible boy" a lot, and he's undeniably pretty obnoxious: immature, bratty, petty, unforgiving, and, uh...awfully on board with murder, let's say? He is also extremely young when we first meet him, and is instantly slammed with trauma: his mother essentially dies, someone tries to murder him, he's physically and mentally violated by Kordax. I'll say again that the slightest bit of positive attention from Arthur probably could have changed his entire life, but he never got it. SO HE'S GONNA GET IT FROM ME INSTEAD.

Anyway, I love Koryak very, very much, and have already written fic about him. And I have another Koryak fic in the works for after The Lost Titans is published. And I will never stop whining at DC to bring him back. If Koryak has one fan (he does), it's me. But maybe now it's you, too?

#koryak #koryak curry #character profiles #aquasplaining #the lost titans #i write things

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garthofshayeris · 5 months

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Yoo! i read aquaman 1994 (amazing btw), and i have a question, are tadpole and minnow supposed to be arthur's term of endearment for garth or does he just like to tease him with them? It's cute af either way

I cannot recommend the 90s Aquaman stories enough. They miss on some things but overall it’s so amazing. I’m glad you liked it!!

You are correct with both answers. They are terms of endearment, and more accurately they are what Arthur called Garth because Garth did not have a name for about 20 years in his comic history. So Aquaman uses nicknames for him, usually Minnow and Tadpole, instead of A) coming up with a person name for him or B) calling him by his hero identity. Which I do think is cute and tbh I think Aqualad probably liked it a lot as a kid.

By the time of 1994, Garth DOES have a name, so Arthur is basically using childhood nicknames on him still during a time when Garth was trying to become more mature like his friends. So Arthur is teasing, but he’s also using established terms of endearment. It’s basically his dad calling him a cutesy nickname in public, and if you have some confidence issues with Garth does, it can probably be seen as pretty embarrassing.

I do agree it’s cute! But if you want to hear something fucked up; Arthur calls Garth “Minnow” in Death of a Prince right before trying to kill him and (indirectly) telling Garth he doesn’t consider him a son. ouch.

#aquaman #Arthur curry #garth of shayeris #aquaman meta

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haveyoureadthiscomic-poll · 6 months

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#aquaman #arthur curry #dc #dcu #dc comics #poll

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sheisadykewomon · 2 years

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Amber Heard: I spoke up against sexual violence — and faced our culture’s wrath. That has to change.

By Amber Heard

December 18, 2018

"I was exposed to abuse at a very young age. I knew certain things early on, without ever having to be told. I knew that men have the power — physically, socially and financially — and that a lot of institutions support that arrangement. I knew this long before I had the words to articulate it, and I bet you learned it young, too.

Like many women, I had been harassed and sexually assaulted by the time I was of college age. But I kept quiet — I did not expect filing complaints to bring justice. And I didn’t see myself as a victim.

Then two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out.

Friends and advisers told me I would never again work as an actress — that I would be blacklisted. A movie I was attached to recast my role. I had just shot a two-year campaign as the face of a global fashion brand, and the company dropped me. Questions arose as to whether I would be able to keep my role of Mera in the movies “Justice League” and “Aquaman.”

I had the rare vantage point of seeing, in real time, how institutions protect men accused of abuse.

Imagine a powerful man as a ship, like the Titanic. That ship is a huge enterprise. When it strikes an iceberg, there are a lot of people on board desperate to patch up holes — not because they believe in or even care about the ship, but because their own fates depend on the enterprise.

In recent years, the #MeToo movement has taught us about how power like this works, not just in Hollywood but in all kinds of institutions — workplaces, places of worship or simply in particular communities. In every walk of life, women are confronting these men who are buoyed by social, economic and cultural power. And these institutions are beginning to change.

We are in a transformative political moment. The president of our country has been accused by more than a dozen women of sexual misconduct, including assault and harassment. Outrage over his statements and behavior has energized a female-led opposition. #MeToo started a conversation about just how profoundly sexual violence affects women in every area of our lives. And last month, more women were elected to Congress than ever in our history, with a mandate to take women’s issues seriously. Women’s rage and determination to end sexual violence are turning into a political force.

We have an opening now to bolster and build institutions protective of women. For starters, Congress can reauthorize and strengthen the Violence Against Women Act. First passed in 1994, the act is one of the most effective pieces of legislation enacted to fight domestic violence and sexual assault. It creates support systems for people who report abuse, and provides funding for rape crisis centers, legal assistance programs and other critical services. It improves responses by law enforcement, and it prohibits discrimination against LGBTQ survivors. Funding for the act expired in September and has only been temporarily extended.

We should continue to fight sexual assault on college campuses, while simultaneously insisting on fair processes for adjudicating complaints. Last month, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos proposed changes to Title IX rules governing the treatment of sexual harassment and assault in schools. While some changes would make the process for handling complaints more fair, others would weaken protections for sexual assault survivors. For example, the new rules would require schools to investigate only the most extreme complaints, and then only when they are made to designated officials. Women on campuses already have trouble coming forward about sexual violence — why would we allow institutions to scale back supports?

I write this as a woman who had to change my phone number weekly because I was getting death threats. For months, I rarely left my apartment, and when I did, I was pursued by camera drones and photographers on foot, on motorcycles and in cars. Tabloid outlets that posted pictures of me spun them in a negative light. I felt as though I was on trial in the court of public opinion — and my life and livelihood depended on myriad judgments far beyond my control.

I want to ensure that women who come forward to talk about violence receive more support. We are electing representatives who know how deeply we care about these issues. We can work together to demand changes to laws and rules and social norms — and to right the imbalances that have shaped our lives."

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moidreform · 2 years

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Here’s the op-ed Amber Heard has to pay $350,000 for writing:

I was exposed to abuse at a very young age. I knew certain things early on, without ever having to be told. I knew that men have the power — physically, socially and financially — and that a lot of institutions support that arrangement. I knew this long before I had the words to articulate it, and I bet you learned it young, too.

Then two years ago, I became a public figure representing domestic abuse, and I felt the full force of our culture’s wrath for women who speak out.

I had the rare vantage point of seeing, in real time, how institutions protect men accused of abuse.

#depp vs heard #verdict #me too

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fancyfade · 5 months

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need male writers to understand that when they write female characters annoyed with being saved/insistent they don't need to be saved, it invalidates it if you know, the text actually treats it like they did need to be saved

aquaman #53

it's like "I acknowledged that there is often sexist writing around female characters... but i'm too much of a pussy to not be sexist myself, of course!"

#dc comics #fade reads dc comics #aquaman 1994 #mera

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elastijubilee · 4 months

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2024:

Beauty and the Beast (1946, French foreign language)

The Color Purple (2023)

Time Bandits (1981)

Mean Girls (2024)

Repulsion (1965)

The Uninvited (1944)

Rumble Fish (1983)

Alien (1979)

A Brighter Summer Day (1991, Taiwanese foreign language)

Tess (1979)

Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975)

Aliens (1986)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, I decided in 2019 to keep track of every movie I'd watched for the first time each year moving forward. This year has been my biggest year!

Movies I watched for the first time in 2023:

Glass Onion (2022)

X (2022)

Pearl (2022)

The Witch (2015)

Fright Night (2011)

The Lighthouse (2019)

Knock at the Cabin (2023)

The Northman (2022)

Hereditary (2018)

Midsommar (2019)

Men (2022)

Saint Maude (2020)

The Wolfman (1941)

Psycho (1960)

The Birds (1963)

Vertigo (1958)

Psycho (1998)

Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 (2023)

Suspiria (2018)

Rosemary's Baby (2014 made-for-tv 2-parter)

Poltergeist (2015)

Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)

ANOES 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

ANOES 4: The Dream Master (1988)

ANOES 5: The Dream Child (1989)

Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare (1991)

Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)

A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010)

Freddy vs. Jason (2003)

Friday the 13th (1980)

It Follows (2014)

The Flash (2023)

Oppenheimer (2023)

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2023)

The Little Mermaid (2023)

The Red Shoes (1948)

Rebel Without a Cause (1955)

The Blob (1988)

Paint (2023)

Mafia Mama (2023)

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Uncut Gems (2019)

The Green Knight (2019)

The Last Airbender (2010)

The Dark Crystal (1982)

The Fog (1980)

They Live (1988)

Office Space (1999)

Fifty Shades Freed (2018)

Teen Titans Go to the Movies (2018)

John Wick Ch. 1 (2014)

Super Mario Bros (2023)

Muppets From Space (1999)

Scream 6 (2023)

12 Monkeys (1995)

Bottoms (2023)

Five Nights at Freddy's (2023)

The Craft (1996, fully through)

I Married a Witch (1942)

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964, French foreign language)

Friday the 13th, Part 2 (1981)

Barbie (2023)

The Boy and the Heron (2023)

The Color Purple (1985)

Violent Night (2022)

The Stepford Wives (1975)

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2022:

Staten Island Summer (2015)

Nobody's Child (1986)

This is Spinal Tap (1984)

Shawn of the Dead (2004)

The Wiz (1978)

Phantom of the Paradise (1974)

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

Licorice Pizza (2021)

Fifty Shades of Gray (2015)

Fifty Shades Darker (2017)

Cyrano (2021)

The King and I (1956)

Carrie (2013)

Carrie (2002, made-for-tv)

The Batman (2022)

Firestarter (1984)

Frozen 2 (2019)

The Fury (1978)

Firestarter (2022)

The Rage: Carrie 2 (1999)

The Bob's Burgers Movie (2022)

The Deadzone (1983)

Sparring Partner (2022, short)

My Fair Lady (1964)

The Untouchables (1987)

Singin' in the Rain (1952)

The Black Phone (2022)

Barbarian (2022)

Nope (2022)

Flashdance (1983)

Crimes of the Heart (1987)

Don't Worry Darling (2022)

The Exorcist (1973)

Child's Play (1988)

Scream 3 (2003)

Scream 5 (2022)

The Fablemans (2022)

Halloween (1978)

Black Panther (2018)

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

Return to Oz (1985)

Newsies (1992)

National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985)

National Lampoon's Las Vegas Vacation (1997)

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2021:

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983)

Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017)

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019)

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

Dark Phoenix (2019)

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

The Wolverine (2013)

Logan (2017)

Deadpool (2016)

Deadpool 2 (2018)

Watchmen (2009)

Wonder Woman (2017)

Aquaman (2018)

Shazam! (2019)

X-Men: New Mutants (2020)

Cruella (2021)

Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021)

The Suicide Squad (2021)

Reminiscence (2021)

My Hero Academia: Heroes: Rising (2019)

My Hero Academia: Two Heroes (2018)

My Hero Academia: World Heroes' Mission (2021)

Dune (2021)

Poltergeist (1982)

The Babadook (2014)

A Silent Voice (2016)

Rockdog (2016)

Rockdog 2: Rock Around the Park (2021)

Lion King (2019)

Terminator (1984)

Hot Fuzz (2007)

West Side Story (2021)

Spiderman: Homecoming (2017)

Spiderman: Far From Home (2019)

Spiderman: No Way Home (2021)

Looper (2012)

Brick (2005)

Back to the Future Part II (1989)

Back to the Future Part III (1990)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2020:

Mr. Mom (1983)

Rosemary's Baby (1968)

Pretty Baby (1978)

Private Benjamin (1980)

The Color of Pomegranates (1969, foreign language)

Only Angels Have Wings (1939)

Cunningham (2020, documentary)

And Then We Danced (2019, Georgian foreign language)

The Young Girls of Rochetfort (1967, French foreign language)

Love on a Leash (2011)

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999, fully through)

Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (2002, fully through)

Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (2005)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)

Blazing Saddles (1974)

The Producers (1967)

Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog (2007)

Death Becomes Her (1992)

Captain Underpants (2017)

X-Men (2000, fully through)

X-Men 2 (2003)

Dust in the Wind (1986)

Phantasm (1978)

The Cabin in the Woods (2011)

Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)

I Eat Your Flesh (1971)

Serenity (2005)

Juice (2017, short, Indian foreign language)

Earth (1998, Indian foreign language)

Protocol (1984)

Voices Within: The Many Lives of Trudy Chase (1990, 4 hr full version)

Clue (1985)

Unleashed (2016)

Fright Night (1985)

Moll Flanders (1996, BBC 2-parter)

Parasite (2019)

Tucker and Dale vs. Evil (2010)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

2019:

Irreconcilable Differences (1984)

The Brady Bunch Movie (1995)

A Very Brady Sequel (1996)

Frozen Assets (1992)

Knives Out (2019)

Doctor Sleep (2019)

Santa Claus With Muscles (1996)

Jack Frost (1997, dog sh*t horror)

Home (?, Indian foreign language film)

The Greatest Showman (2017)

Pinjar (2003, Indian foreign language)

Interstellar (2014)

Shock and Censorship (1993)

The Witches of Eastwick (1987)

Beetlejuice (1988)

Gypsy (1962)

The Shape of Water (2017)

The Favorite (2018)

A Small Circle of Friends (1980)

A League of Their Own (1992)

Shock Treatment (1981)

Empire of the Sun (1987)

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michaeljoncarter · 10 months

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What are your alltime favorite comics? Or just comics that you would recommend? Especially stuff that someone new could pick up without too much back reading to understand? You don't have to answer this if you don't want to but I'm looking for recommendations to branch out from just Batman/Batfam and just thought I'd ask!

this is all just off the top of my head, so i'm probably leaving out some Classics on accident, but (in no particular order):

Aquaman: Andromeda

Green Lantern (1990) (from Emerald Twilight (#48) on)

Gotham by Midnight

The Man of Steel (1986)

The Death & Return of Superman (Death of Superman, Funeral for a Friend/World Without a Superman, and Reign of the Supermen)

Superman: Last Son (Action Comics #844 - 846, #851, Annual #11)

Superman: Brainiac (Action Comics #866 - 870) & The New Krypton Saga (concludes with War of the Supermen, which is for some reason not on that reading guide)

World's Finest (2009)

Green Arrow: Year One

Green Lantern/Green Arrow

Green Arrow (1988)

The New Teen Titans (1980), Tales of the Teen Titans, and The New Teen Titans (1984)

Outsiders (2003)

Arsenal (1998)

Titans (1999)

Titans (2008)

Deathstroke (2016)

Steel (1994)

Aquaman: Time & Tide

L.E.G.I.O.N.

R.E.B.E.L.S. (all good, but i especially love from #15 on for kory content)

Aquaman: Death of a Prince

Tempest (1996)

the whole war of light era of green lantern, which i have a bigass reading guide for, but Red Lanterns & Red Daughter of Krypton in particular

Convergence: The Titans

Convergence: Green Lantern/Parallax

Convergence: Green Lantern Corps

Valor (1992) (the first few issues kind of drag, but it picks up quick (after #10, specifically)! the D.O.A. arc is an all-time fave for sure, and Valor #19 might actually be my all-time favorite single comic book issue point blank period)

roy's titans era (New Titans #100 - 130)

The Trial of Superman & Reign of Doomsday (these have literally nothing to do with each other, but we're grouping them together because neither one of them is particularly good. i mean, they're not terrible or anything, but really, they're only faves because i'm a huge sucker for storylines that involve the entire superfam lol)

Superman: The Black Ring (this one is here just because i appreciate how incredibly HECTIC it is. lex 1v1s a gorilla in the middle of the jungle, meets death, becomes a space god, builds a lois sexbot that ends up having been possessed by brainiac the entire time. also slade is there for like 2 pages solely to lose his shit and run around screaming like a little girl. the best kind of comic book insanity. magnifique)

those 5 minutes pre-reboot where damian joined the titans in a way that wasn't annoying as hell (Teen Titans (2003) #88 - 91, Red Robin #20, Teen Titans (2003) #92)

Wonder Woman (1987) (post-crisis ww & superman are both all-time faves, but this is a much better standalone read because it's way more self-contained & not constantly jumping between 9 different titles. again, all good imo, but i'm much more partial to everything post-artemis's introduction in #90 <3)

Superboy (1994) (ngl, i didn't super love the majority of this book. there's a LOT of good for sure, but it is very 90s, and that's not always a good thing. it's not terrible (apart from the romance aspect), and i'd still recommend reading it for sure, but there was definitely a lot of skimming and skipping around when i read through. ~#59 is where i started to find myself skimming a lot less, so if you find yourself having a hard time getting into it, too, i'd say just start there, then go back & read the earlier issues later)

post-crisis superman in general (so good, but holy fuck is it a pain in the ass to read. there were 600 superman titles running at all times, and EVERY single arc bounced between damn near all of them. i really want to make a ridiculously long reading guide for it, too, one day, but for now, you can fight your way through using this with me, if you'd like)

i'm still just starting to break into legion comics myself, so i don't think i can really give good recs for them just yet. i'm really enjoying them so far, though, so it's worth a mention. if you enjoy just jumping right into the deep end with 0 context like i do, i just started the 90s legion halfway through via superboy & valor. no idea what the hell's going on or who anybody is half the time, but that's just part of the fun. it's like sink-or-swim style language immersion but for ridiculous comic book people who talk entirely in references i don't understand even a little

i started with the valor arc in Superboy (1994) #17 - 19, then the following the Future Tense arc, and i just kinda kept reading Legionnaires & Legion of Super-Heroes (1989) from there. also picked up The Legion (2001) with #25, where kon joins up, with zero context for anything that'd happened before in that. this is an objectively terrible way of doing things, but also very fun as long as you don't mind a learning curve

also special mentions for a couple single issues that have always stuck out to me for some reason:

Justice League of America (2006) #11 (feel the need to put like... a claustrophobia warning on this one lol? a very anxiety-inducing read! be warned!)

Superman #712 (krypto-centric issue post-kon's death in Infinite Crisis. makes me want to scream every time i think abt it <3)

and i know you probably meant dc, but tbh most of my All Time Faves are marvel, so i have to mention a few:

X-23 (there are like 3 different volumes, and they're all so incredibly 2000s. i love them all dearly)

Wolverine: Origins

Captain America (2005)

Winter Soldier: Winter Kills

Avengers/Invaders

Old Man Logan (2015) & (2016)

Black Widow (2010)

Marvels (1994)

The Torch (2008)

Gambit (2012)

Gambit & Bishop: Sons of the Atom

Rogue (2004) (not good. kind of objectively terrible, actually, but i love rogue and i love rogue & shiro's relationship AND i love the bisexual implications with blindspot, so… here we are. if you aren't a huge rogue fan already, you will almost certainly not enjoy this lol)

Dark Wolverine & Daken: Dark Wolverine (THE absolute fave. akihiro is what a good % of the batfandom thinks jason todd is/was. bisexual, evil, obsessed with his own father. check, check, and check with a weird, violently homoerotic relationship with the punisher the cherry on top. also marjorie liu stealth confirming johnny storm's bisexuality via putting him in an absurdly toxic relationship with akihiro for like 2 issues remains both incredibly iconic and absolutely hilarious to me. 10/10/10)

in terms of more recent comics, i've pretty much only been keeping up with marvel

Captain America: Sentinel of Liberty (2022) (pretty much everything else going on (esp everything with bucky) is kind of annoying, but it has my favorite steve characterization like… maybe ever)

New Mutants (2019) (yeah, everything about krakoa era x-men is just kind of inherently annoying, but this one came outta left field near the end there with some of my favorite writing for madelyne pryor in a while and the dani moonstar & madelyne pryor enemies-to-lovers arc i didn't know i needed but am now fully obsessed with)

Midnight Suns (2022) (love a good rag-tag team of characters who have no business being on a team together. substitute teacher blade is such a powerful concept, it immediately made this an all-timer for me, and logan being drawn approximately 4ft shorter than everyone around him cemented it as a 10/10)

aaand finally, i've also really been enjoying dynamite lately. Vampirella/Red Sonja (2019) is where i got onboard with them. you don't have to know jack about these characters or universe beforehand (i didn't!), and i really can't recommend it enough, especially if you're someone who loves stories with time travel and/or bisexual vampire women

this is so messy, and i'm definitely forgetting a lot here lol, but hopefully this helps & you find something you like! good luck & have fun!

#ask #anonymous #comic recs #yeehaw

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idkaguyorsomething · 4 months

Text

Shitty Superhero Tournament Rules and Bracket

Finally, ¡the tournament is about to begin! The bracket will be posted under the cut, but first let’s get some clarifications and rules out of the way:

The movies here have been selected (with two exceptions*) based on their Rotten Tomatoes movie scores and do not reflect my opinion of their quality. The tournament will be divided into six rounds.

Each movie will come with a quick summary of some of its highlights (or lowlights, depending on your point of view) but feel free to create and submit your own propaganda.

You may vote in any way you want, rooting for whatever gives you the most entertainment in a train wreck sort of way, the movie that’s the most incompetently made, a film you feel is actually really good, or however you want to interpret what the winner of a Shitty Superhero Movie Tournament entails.

Personal attacks/bigoted comments and propaganda WILL NOT BE TOLERATED. If you are here looking for an excuse to be racist/sexist/homophobic/anti-semitic/body-shaming/a dick to people trying to collect a paycheck under the corporate grindstone, fuck off. Just because these movies may be shitty doesn’t mean you should be.

If I make a factual error, feel free to correct me on it. Reblogs are encourage, ofc.

¡Have fun and be kind to each other!

THE BRACKET:

Superman III (1983) vs Green Lantern: First Flight (2009)

Fant4stic (2015) vs Ghost Rider (2007)

Black Adam (2022) vs Man-Thing (2005)

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020) vs Dick Tracy (1990)

Constantine (2005) vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) vs Morbius (2022)

The New Mutants (2020) vs Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021)

Catwoman (2004) vs Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)

The Return of Swamp Thing (1989) vs Batman and Harley Quinn (2017)

Elektra (2005) vs The Amazing Spider-Man (1977)

Howard the Duck (1986) vs The Incredible Hulk Returns (1988)

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) vs The Amazing Bulk (2010)

Man of Steel (2013) vs Spider-Man 3 (2007)

Blade II (2002) vs Captain America (1990)

Blade: Trinity (2004) vs The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

Batman Forever (1995) vs Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow (2008)

Supergirl (1984) vs Superman: Doomsday (2007)

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) vs Punisher: War Zone (2008)

Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023) vs The Fantastic Four (1994)

Justice League (2017) vs Tank Girl (1995)

Jonah Hex (2010) vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016)

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) vs Eternals (2021)

Daredevil (2003) vs Dark Phoenix (2019)

Steel (1997) vs Super Buddies (2013)

Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) vs Iron Man: Rise of the Technovore (2013)

Fantastic Four (2005) vs Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011)

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003) vs The Punisher (1989)

Suicide Squad (2016) vs Hellboy (2019)

Green Lantern (2011) vs The Flash (2023)

X-Men: Origins; Wolverine (2009) vs Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)

The Punisher (2004) vs Venom (2018)

Batman and Robin (1997) vs Superman/Batman: Apocalypse (2010)

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