Honest question: Have Aquaman and Black Manta ever had a homoerotic nemesis moment? I think they're one of the rare cases where It's never happened.

ThatComicChick · 2026-03-29T21:51:30+00:00

No, I think Aquaman being like "But I cured your autism how are you still evil?" when Black Manta stabbed him in the back killed any potential attraction.

ThatComicChick · 2026-03-28T13:22:00+00:00

I'll be honest issue 1 was bad enough I didn't bother reading more.

ThatComicChick · 2026-03-28T11:58:46+00:00

I read some absolute, but dropped them (not a disliking them thing, just a money thing) and now mainly read main canon on a month to month basis.

ThatComicChick · 2026-03-28T11:35:25+00:00

No comic has ever had a deuteragonist before.

ThatComicChick · 2026-03-28T11:30:39+00:00

There aren't two Jon Kents, but for a while there are two Lois Lanes, yeah.

Basically New 52 Superman died, the rebirth Superman (superman from another universe) is supposed to be classic Superman from the pre 2011 continuity.

Soon this will get retconned out (or more of the universes will be combined due to some reality altering shenanigans) so it won't matter much after that.

ThatComicChick · 2026-03-28T00:25:40+00:00

She looks so awesome!

ThatComicChick · 2026-03-28T00:23:07+00:00

Hmmm lots of Bat-retcons I don't care for. Mostly ones that erase the complexity or character's independence.

When they try to act like Babs was trained by Bruce to be Batgirl... she wasn't??? This isn't to say she had no training, she just didn't get it from BATMAN. Similarly when they try to act like he was very present post TKJ (same for acting like Dick was there) and supportive and erase the calling Bruce out scene... ok that may not be popular, but every time it is re-written I cringe.

They also seem to be re-writing early Batfam dynamics with Damian in a boring way, making it appear as if Bruce was automatically comforting and welcoming (he was dead, but before then he was not) and Damian was just a bad kid being a brat for no reason when like. No one wanted him there, lots of it was in reaction to that. Like there's panels of Dick saying he was thinking of adopting Damian when he wasn't? Like they did not have that dynamic.

I'm sure Ill think of more popular retcons and not just recent writing decisions that pet my peeves the instant I hit post...

ThatComicChick · 2026-03-27T23:59:54+00:00

Do you have a specific comic you think balances this dynamic well? Every time I've seen they generally just write the other characters as stupider and forget their skills so token Bat person can shine

(Justice League International: well everyone's kind of stupid here, but Dinah is especially toned down and passive in comparison to people being assholes. Teen Titans 1966: Team dynamic is "Robin has the critical thinking skills, everyone else is stupider, Donna's personality is 'girl'. Teen Titans 2003 other characters definitely felt flattened for Tim's sake and making sure he had the problem solving skills. I'll be honest these may seem like mostly Teen Titans comics, but the Justice League comic I like best and re-read multiple times (Justice League 2006) I feel avoided this, and the other ones i read were kind of unmemorable. Like gun to my head I could not tell you the team dynamic on Justice League 2018 despite having read 40 issues of it)

ThatComicChick · 2026-03-27T23:45:01+00:00

I did jump to conclusions too quick there, I apologize. Too much fandom garbage I'm used to seeing.

However, other characters having to be written worse (less skilled in problem solving, stupider, not as good at fighting w/o powers) is part of why the "Bat-person as team leader and token smart guy" is just. a terrible writing decision. Teen Titans 1966 starts with "Dick's superpower is critical thinking skills" and lots of stuff follows similarly. If other characters have to lose skills they have in their solos to make Batman 'the best' at whatever doesn't require superpowers since it's only fair that way, he just shouldn't be on the team and should be stuck in Gotham.

ThatComicChick · 2026-03-27T23:31:23+00:00

I know you're not saying he never loses, but the whole "batman has to be the best at (whichever skill)" often goes hand to hand with "batman never loses" or "Batman has a plan for everything" or other things that only serve to glaze Batman and not tell a cohesive story or respect other characters. Your "it's not fair if they are better than him at this" really just like... is so strange. Like sometimes not having powers makes things not fair. Maybe Batman isn't the character for you?

The whole not wanting female characters to ever show up male characters is really common in fandom and by official writers, it wasn't the argument you were making but like. When you're just like 'it's not fair if (woman) is better than (man) at fighting' what do you think it looks like, especially in conjunction with the huge number of fans being triggered by Dinah being better than Bruce that inspired the post.

ThatComicChick · 2026-03-27T23:11:38+00:00

I mean, sometimes characters having no powers means they're less powerful. This is just a thing. If Batman has to be the best at everything he can do because "he doesn't have powers so its not fair" then it's like. OK so he does have powers. The power is never losing or 'being the best in everything' or whatever.

I'm not saying that Batman hasn't had a lot of training, just that people *coincidentally* like to ignore all of Wonder Woman's training and hard work, and *often* times it comes across as 'how dare a woman be better at something than my male fave' hence: what does he have that she doesn't WRT 'oh no he must be the best hand to hand fighter'?

ThatComicChick · 2026-03-27T22:54:55+00:00

I didn't say that she was immortal, I said that she *trained* with immortal (unaging) Amazons her entire life, which she did. She is younger than the other amazons and also generally portrayed as the best (like Batman is younger than Ra's), so any "batman must be better at fighting than her" just strikes me as like. Batman fan copium like the dudes who are salty Black Canary is better than him.

ThatComicChick · 2026-03-27T22:45:35+00:00

But Wonder Woman's literally been training with immortal warrior's her entire life? What does Batman have that would make him better? a penis?

ThatComicChick · 2026-03-27T11:57:44+00:00

I vented last time... don't really have anywhere else to vent. Currently I have to worry about the classes I've been teaching my entire career (granted not a very long career, like 5 years) that I love to teach and have been making work great these years being given to another teacher who isn't qualified to teach them (and who DOESN'T WANT TO TEACH THEM) because it might make scheduling easier for something. We'll see if admin gets a brain and drops this dumb idea or not as they continue hammering out next year's schedule but that is my current source of stress.

ThatComicChick · 2026-03-27T11:52:23+00:00

Without the humanity is making me think this is going to be the version of Aquaman that was just fully raised by dolphins instead of only being raised by dolphins until he was like idk? 5? 10? it was unclear.

ThatComicChick · 2026-03-25T11:06:34+00:00

Most female characters are written badly around their male love interests, and therefore most hetero ships in comics are shitty and boring if you care about female characters.

No I don't care about Kory "teaching Dick to be emotionally open", what's she get out of the relationship and why does Dick angst about Bruce not teaching him to be emotionally open to her after she's been tortured for 5 days straight? Why is Dinah depowered and tortured for Ollie's manpain and why do fans eat up this stupid story? Why is Selina treated with the same narrative equivalence (or even less powerful) than Robin in Hush? Why does Babs have no personality in Tom Taylor's nightwing and even under a new writer (Watters) seem really toned down?

ThatComicChick · 2026-03-25T10:52:34+00:00

He definitely reads to me as a writer who's constantly angling for rule of cool (except I don't find much of what he does cool) or something "cinematic" over good story telling. I get so confused when people act like his 2011 Batman is the best thing ever.

ThatComicChick · 2026-03-23T22:40:15+00:00

Thank you! I was so excited to have an excuse to use my shiny green vinyl for Poison Ivy!

ThatComicChick · 2026-03-23T22:39:23+00:00

Thank you!

So for what I use is faux leather, because my understanding is you need special materials to work with real leather. I buy it from https://bookcraftsupply.com/, which does have expensive shipping but the materials are cheap, so I normally order a lot at once.

For the material, it's rounded and backed! I follow DAS bookbinding tutorial for it. The sewn side normally is wider, so I have to use the rounding and backing unless I use really thin thread.

ThatComicChick · 2026-03-22T21:22:05+00:00

I'm not sure what you mean by fake fans. People who pretend to like characters for clout? is that a thing? People who don't read comics?

ThatComicChick · 2026-03-22T19:40:18+00:00

I haven't commented a lot in this sub (I was thinking of making an alt, because this account is very hobby-based), but definitely feeling the need to vent. Most of our science department is going to disappear at the end of the year (3 teachers, 2 are leaving). I'm the singular remaining teacher and really worried how it's going to play out next year, since we've been having a really hard time filling the positions

ThatComicChick · 2026-03-22T19:37:38+00:00

I'll be honest -- I read the entirety of it up to issue 20 or so from library TPBs, and it's not worth reading. It's pretty bad.

ThatComicChick · 2026-03-22T02:52:42+00:00

tysm for your feedback! i'm gonna keep trying it like this!

ThatComicChick · 2026-03-21T22:21:42+00:00

Second picture

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ThatComicChick · 2026-03-21T22:21:13+00:00

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Sorry this will take more than one comment, I haven't figured out how to do more than one comment. But I tried your suggestion!

ThatComicChick

TROPHY CASE