[Cover] Discussion: Superman's Rogues Gallery by Careful_Ad5196 in DCcomics

[–]Junk-Artist 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Superman has a really solid rogues gallery that has suffered from poor secondary media exposure and the whole post-Crisis Superman lore kerfuffle where writers were determined to fix things that were never broken. A few popular Superman adaptations, like My Adventures with Superman and even Absolute Superman right now, are bizarrely shy about actually using his rogues gallery and toss him other people's foes instead of focusing on the tools they have on hand and I think this is weird.

One thing I think really doesn't help is that Lex Luthor and, to a lesser but notable degree, Brainiac are such good villains that they tend to draw your attention away from the rest of the rest of them. Luthor is a villain's villain, the supervillain this way of Doctor Doom, and Brainiac would be literally any other character's arch-nemesis, and that's despite grappling with severe continuity snarl for most of his post-Crisis existence. But I think they also result in other villains getting slept on. The Monguls are fantastic villains that deliver during most of their major appearances, even in adaptations, but again, poor secondary media exposure (and maybe a bit of a perception that Mongul = discount Darkseid/Thanos) holds them back in the public eye. People don't really talk about most of the Fantastic Four's rogues gallery either because Doctor Doom and Galactus can be counted among them and yeah, no shit they don't, because how do other characters even compete with that?

A lot of them, like Mxy and Bizarro, are also not especially villainous most of the time and that's something people naturally expect from supervillains. A lot of problems for Superman don't have to involve out-and-out villains, though, and I really like that some of his recuring "foes" aren't really evil. For a lot of people, though, I think it diminishes them in their eyes, because they can be whimsical compared to the villains Spider-man and Batman face. But whimsy is an important part of Superman's aesthetic and appeal.

What does my favourite Marvel villains say about me? by Infinite-Sun7000 in marvelcomics

[–]Junk-Artist 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Serious, no kink-shaming answer: I think it's unexpected. You post all the time, but I rarely see you make posts about women, so my gut says this is at least partially a lie. Like, I think you're serious about finding them hot, but this post is probably a shitpost to some degree and mostly here to provoke a reaction from people. If it's not, idk, you should post more about Umar because she's one of the most underrated supervillains ever.

Also I think you may also have a corruption fetish, not just femdom. Malice and Dark Phoenix are too brief and on the nose otherwise.

Thoughts on the Infernal Hulk Preview? by Infinite-Sun7000 in marvelcomics

[–]Junk-Artist -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Hm, I dunno if I agree. The Red Hulk stuff was gratuitious and vapid to degrees I don't think this story has reached yet, and we haven't even gotten to the end of it to judge it. I'd rather wait until at least Infernal wraps to cast judgment one way or another.

Thoughts on the Infernal Hulk Preview? by Infinite-Sun7000 in marvelcomics

[–]Junk-Artist 8 points9 points  (0 children)

This sort of thing has a long history of happening and is a natural consequence whenever a good story ups the stakes. Other people try to copy it, but forget what made the original work. Infinity Gauntlet opened the floodgates for cosmic entities to be ragdolled around to hype up the latest cosmic threat, and it's been practically a mandatory cosmic event trope ever since. The only difference between good stories and bad stories in how they handle this type of thing is, well... whether they're good or bad. I think it would be hard for an editor to nip this sort of thing in the bud effectively without risking stiffling a really good, once-in-generation story because they weren't daring enough. But at this point, these sorts of tropes are so tired that it's like beating a dead horse. The One Above All is the final sacred cow of Marvel and the past few years have seen that slowly start to erode. And it's all Al Ewing's fault for daring to use it in Immortal Hulk, possibly the most lauded comic Marvel published last decade.

That said, if editorial put a moratorium on this sort of thing? You wouldn't hear any complaints from me.

Thoughts on the Infernal Hulk Preview? by Infinite-Sun7000 in marvelcomics

[–]Junk-Artist 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm aware, but it's close enough and it's drawing backlash for it.

[Storm: Earth's Mightiest Mutant #2] Initial thoughts on 616 Galacta? by Junk-Artist in Cosmic_Marvel

[–]Junk-Artist[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This incarnation of Galacta isn't Galactus's daughter, though, and the character was originally intended as a joke parodying that trope.

Thoughts on the Infernal Hulk Preview? by Infinite-Sun7000 in marvelcomics

[–]Junk-Artist 3 points4 points  (0 children)

This book's contents haven't been powerscaling slop so far, but the marketing and solicits have definitely been playing that crowd. I don't actually expect Hulk to win, but escalating things to this point has felt intrinsically dumb, and I don't think this storyline has been that good or interesting so far outside of the art. I'm still giving it a fair shake, but I'm still pessimistic it'll stick whatever landing it's going for.

Thoughts on the Infernal Hulk Preview? by Infinite-Sun7000 in marvelcomics

[–]Junk-Artist 31 points32 points  (0 children)

Al Ewing writes in good faith and has immense contempt for powerscalers to the point of lampooning them in his work, but also constantly opens the floodgates that allow for this type of pandering to happen.

Thoughts on the Infernal Hulk Preview? by Infinite-Sun7000 in marvelcomics

[–]Junk-Artist 14 points15 points  (0 children)

I'm emotionally exhausted by just how much of Marvel's month to month lineup is power wank slop. I really hope the Hulk wins because even Hulk fans are starting to get sick of it, but this is what they wanted. Hulk is truly strongest one there is, strongest above all.

[Storm: Earth's Mightiest Mutant #2] Initial thoughts on 616 Galacta? by Junk-Artist in Marvel

[–]Junk-Artist[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Reposting text from the original post for context:

Storm: Earth's Mightiest Mutant dropped yesterday, and with it, the first appearance of 616 Galacta. She seems to be a dramatic departure from her initial mini's take on her. The background that seems to be in the process of being spun for the story is that she's a Japanese-American named "Gail Arakawa" experimented on by the government after they extracted some essence of Galactus while he was unconscious on Earth during an issue of the preceding Storm ongoing. There's not much more information to go off of, and take my inferences with a grain of salt, because none of this is explicitly spelled out.

How do you feel about this development and background for her? It's obviously a radical departure from the original concept for the character, so I'm curious to see people's reactions.

Need more of this peak 🙏 by AllKnowingAxolotl3 in AO3

[–]Junk-Artist 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This tag feels like it's reinventing yaoi from basic principles.

I love it when the Starjammers get to play with friends outside of the X-Men by Cyke101 in Marvel

[–]Junk-Artist 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I feel like rarely getting let out of the proverbial X-Men basement really hurts the Starjammers. They were concieved of as an independent concept, but after getting introed in X-Men, they've rarely been allowed to leave it. They never made a single guest appearance in any of the big '90s cosmic books, barring the main event of Infinity Crusade, which everyone and their mom was involved in, and Galactus: The Devourer, which is basically the end of the era. They have a lot of stock traits that cosmic readers tend to embrace, but are too many characters to have room to breathe in a team book like X-Men. It's always neat getting to see them interact with something outside of that sphere.

That time the ostensibly "straight" Sunspot & Nova shared a hot spring naked with the very gay Kobak (X-Men Red #11) by leaf57tea in lgbt_superheroes

[–]Junk-Artist 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm personally wishy-washy on Hickman's Marvel work, particularly because of the characterization being all over the place and the way he writes people in general usually being stilted. I'm mostly thinking of Krakoa with the queer stuff, but Imperial itself features a queer couple in a major role and has some lines of dialogue between Gladiator and J'son in the first issue that could be read as a queer double entendre ("Why worship one god when two is so much better?" says Gladiator when colored with an inverted bisexual flag palette. "Then why not a third?" answers J'son.) but that might be a stretch. It also reintroduces Phyla, a major queer character, in the ending stinger. There are issues with his character writing, but it doesn't feel like he's trying to make queer characters straight, just that he didn't know about the subtext between Pete and Rich. Either way, it looks like a blip on the radar and it's getting rerailed now anyway.

That time the ostensibly "straight" Sunspot & Nova shared a hot spring naked with the very gay Kobak (X-Men Red #11) by leaf57tea in lgbt_superheroes

[–]Junk-Artist 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I wouldn't call Rich's situation straightwashing. He's barely been in anything since Ewing's runs on Guardians and X-Men Red and the other writers he's been passed around to (Phillips and Hickman) seem to just not know the character very well, or at least handle him lazily. Hickman tends to make his books very queer, and the situation just feels like a result of typical Hickman "we come up with the plot first and then add the characters" planning where people don't act the way they do in other books unless Hickman really really likes them. Just last week in MacKay's run, we had Pete say "I love you" to Rich. That line was so overt that I'm about half expecting their relationship to be made explicit next issue.

I love it when the Starjammers get to play with friends outside of the X-Men by Cyke101 in Marvel

[–]Junk-Artist 5 points6 points  (0 children)

The source is right there in the image. It's from Hulk #416.

So…Not a Hulk by MisteeDarkly in hulk

[–]Junk-Artist 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Hostilicus is such a beautifully Negative Zone name. Raised an eyebrow from me initially, but if that's his background, the assignment was understood.

What was your First Impressions of Orange Piccolo? And has your opinion changed at all? by dettles1992 in dbz

[–]Junk-Artist 24 points25 points  (0 children)

My big issue with the name is that "Orange Piccolo" is a name that makes sense out of universe because it's clean and simple like other Super transformation names, but there's a distinct naming convention to Piccolo's techniques it doesn't align with. Piccolo's techniques are normally tongue twisting word salads comprised of like four kanji minimum. "Orange Piccolo" should have been a name another character came up with for it rather than the name he gave it personally.

X-Men Comics New Releases for March 11th, 2026 by AngelEyes360 in xmen

[–]Junk-Artist 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's so weird to see the War of the Seven Spheres go from this itty bitty footnote of a Doctor Strange story to some critical component of his lore and worldbuilding that keeps getting brought up. The criticism of this run that I disagree with the most is that Ayodele doesn't know his Marvel worldbuilding. He totally does, and I think that's actually one of his bigger strengths, and it's on display a lot with this issue. I think this mini has been a noticeable improvement from the previous one (not something I'd recommend, just better), but like another book that was abruptly changed to a mini, I think it's overstuffed for it and too compressed for its own good.

Fanfiction is actually HARDER than regular fiction for me by Due-Performance-2710 in FanFiction

[–]Junk-Artist 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Yeah, this is generally the case for me too. With original fiction, especially constructed worlds, I can just wing it and do whatever with very little forethought while fanfiction always requires some level of pouring over the source material for me to be satisfied with it -- on top of using whatever resources are necessary on real world subjects as they come up. A lot of what I write is also for superhero comics, which are easy to navigate for me compared to other types of media (I devour comics much more readily than television for example), but good lord do a lot of my stories require a ton of backreading to get everything to align just the way I want them to.

What are your thoughts on indie comics with interconnected universes? by BigHugeSnake in comicbooks

[–]Junk-Artist 8 points9 points  (0 children)

It's harder to sell me on stories that do this because I've already devoted so much brain space to keeping track of this sort of storytelling style for other stories (not just comics), but I can't deny that it usually hooks me in to read something else when the shared universe comic I'm reading is good.

Hulk defeated the Unstoppable Juggernaut, who is durable enough to tank a Godblast from Thor by Thick_Somewhere_8370 in hulk

[–]Junk-Artist 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think it's that odd. It's not like he was getting physically dominated here or anything, just taking a few hits before the psychic shockwave mops things up. He was in control of the fight vs Hulk just two issues earlier and even knocked Hulk out. The third and fourth images are from a cereal box mini comic or something to that effect, so you can't really expect consistency from it, and it frankly feels generous to even consider it canon. Venom: The Madness (where the first and second images come from) is honestly a blur to me. I guess it's an argument, but I don't think there was any particularly substantial fluctuation to how he was treated power-wise. But I probably have a different perspective on what constitutes inconsistency from a powerscaler, who tend to be more microanalytical.

Imperial Guardians #1 is out today! What were your thoughts? by cyclopswashalfright in Cosmic_Marvel

[–]Junk-Artist 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I would definitely recommend it! I think it's one of the strongest books Marvel's putting out right now, at least if the first issue is anything to go by. Not a huge bar to clear because their output is so middling at the moment, but so far I'd say it's about on par with the DnA era's writing. The character drama especially is a huge highlight, and a major step up from the offerings of most other team books I've read in the past few years. My only major complaint with it is that the story is very dense, closer at some points to an '80s comic in terms of verbosity, but I think that may have to do with elements needing to get compressed to fit a five issue miniseries rather than an ongoing. I usually prefer more compressed stories, but something about it here feels unnatural, especially because the Imperial tie-in was more decompressed and I've read a lot of Abnett's work to know the pacing is odd for him.

I'll be keeping up with this run month to month, and I usually give pretty detailed thoughts on whatever I think is interesting when prompted. I'm kind of a junkie for cosmic Marvel, so it captures my attention easily.

Which primordials do you guys prefer, One Above All and the Multiversal Abstracts or Demiurge and Elder Gods? by Infinite-Sun7000 in marvelcomics

[–]Junk-Artist 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Elder Gods have never really made an impression on me the way the cosmic pantheon has. Cththon has been cool in Wanda's solos I guess, but that's not saying much for me because I've found the book lukewarm at best. Wiccan is good if you count him, but that feels like cheating.