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Reading Meme
1. Politics?
Me: I won't vote for anyone over the age of 65.
GT: I'll extend that I won't vote for anyone over the age of 30, including me.
Hmmm...Maybe no one over the age of 45.
Enuf said. If I say more on this topic...it won't end well.
2. Reading Meme...
Just finished Un-Canny X-men #12 - 2018-2019 by Matthew Rosenberg and Salvadore Larroca...and they are kicking this out of the park. I'm loving this series. The art, the writing, the story, everything.
There's a nice blend of action, characterization, suspense, and theme...plus both dialogue and art further it.
This is my Cyclops and Wolverine. I've missed them. And the re-introduction of Havok, Illyana, Dani, Rahn, and Shan is inspired. We have the brother dynamic again.
Finally. (Note -- Wolverine still has the problem of 'over-exposure' and being slowly turned into a Marty Stu by Marvel over the years. Less is more when it comes to characters. But paired with Cyclops, he is toned down a notch or two. The work together well -- sort of similar to Spike and Angel actually. And, I have to say the fandom's reaction to them is about the same, you can like both, but you probably like one a smidgen or two better than the other. I'm weird, while I preferred Spike in the Buffy fandom, I prefer Scott/Cyclops in the X-men fandom. Why? I find Spike and Cyke the most human and relatable. Wolvie and Angel are too archetypal anti-hero Hercules style heroes for my taste. I say weird, because a lot of the Buffy/X-men fandom is the exact opposite, they love Spike and Wolvie and think they are alike, I only see superficial likenesses. What can I say? I've got my own unique perspective on the issue.)
In this issue? There's three really good scenes...
* Logan removing bullets from Scott's back and stitching him up. Scott confesses that he screwed up royally. He sees all the mistakes he made clearly now and how he did everything wrong and should never have been their leader. Logan's response is great -- "so what, am I suppose to tell you that your wrong and make you feel better about it? Because that's not happening." Scott -- "It doesn't matter. The X-men are dead." Logan:"Well, about that..."
Logan pushes Scott past the personal flogging, which Scott excels at more than anyone else -- and one of the reasons I love the character so frigging much. (I excel at personal flogging, also like Scott second guess myself constantly. He went through a brief period of arrogant certainty, partly due to Emma's influence, and partly due to being furious. But he appears to be past that now. To be fair, Wolverine went through it too -- except was a tad more self-righteous about it.)
And Logan is very good at telling people to get over it already. Logan doesn't like whining or personal flogging.
* Illyana taking Scott to Alex, who he finds and saves. Alex, in pain, apologizing to Scott for not dying instead, for failing him. (Remember Scott now has his younger self's memories from the time in which the younger group time traveled into the future -- so he knows what happened after he died, and he knows or has an idea what happened to Alex. He also knows how he failed and why.) It's a tender scene and well-written and drawn. The best thing about the X-men are the inter-relationships between the characters.
* Logan and Illyana's scene in which she wants to stay and fight, and Logan and Scott convince her to leave and portal everyone elsewhere. It's an echo of sorts of Scott and Alex's scene, where Alex also wants to play the martyr and stay and fight.
Scott snatches him out of harm's way.
In this issue as in the last, the villains are white men who are afraid of losing their power. The Saipan League, Purifiers and Reavers are the baddies in the first issue -- all metaphors for white nazi hate groups in the US, and in this issue, it's the government or "O.N.E" -- Marvel's standin for Homeland Security. Marvel has always commented on these issues in it's comics. Far more so than DC ever did.
It's also why I find the X-men so cathartic, the nasty white male hate-groups get decimated, or the nasty racist government covert ops group developed purely out of white male fear gets defeated. YAY team.
I can't wait for the next issue, which will drop in another two weeks. They come out every two weeks.
And I've renewed my long expired library card and discovered the pleasures of borrowing electronic books from the library. If I don't like it, I can return it without the guilt. YAY! Also it takes up no space. Plus so much cheaper.
Since I'm buying comics again -- they aren't really available at the library, although comixcology unlimited does provide free ones to borrow here and there.
I need to reduce costs somewhere.
Latest? Laura Kinsale's The Hidden Heart -- which isn't nearly as good as the sequel Shadow and the Heart which I bought and just finished. (I borrowed The Hidden Heart from the Library. It has a very small selection of Kinsale novels, however. I wonder if I can donate electronic books to the library? Probably not.)
Shadow and the Heart -- was written some time ago, so may annoy anyone who reads books with socio-political slant. It takes a lot to offend me. Okay, maybe not that much -- I couldn't make it through Gone with the Wind or a lot of pre-1960s sci-fi. This didn't bother me. And overall she does a good job depicting the Japanese and Native Hawaiians in the novel. They are well-rounded, and actually far brighter than the British aristocrats. American novelists don't tend to be...how to put this delicately? Sympathetic to the British Cast/Class System. They either romanticize it or criticize the hell out of it.
The Japanese in the book are depicted as being a bit overly superstitious and invested in legends, and ninja habits. But we really only see two of them, so...
I did like the ninja aspect. And I adored the wounded hero -- which is a serious trope of mine. Also the heroine was clever, if unexperienced. So I liked her as well. Kinsale is far better with characterization than most, and not quite as formulaic. Also her writing doesn't quite fall into the flowery lingo so many of them do. I find her to be a bit more nuanced.
But it is at the end of the day, a romance, so yes...we get the standard plot more or less, with all the adventure/intrigue coming to a head at the 90% mark. I really miss the novels of the 1980s, where it came a touch or two earlier.
3. Preferred Tropes in Stories
* Back from the Dead (I've no idea why, but I find it really interesting to see how people handle the return of someone they grieved and thought was dead...and really wasn't.)
* Amensia -- anything with memory loss fascinates me.
* Body Swap
* Telepathic Connection or Psychic Rapport
* Sibling relationships -- specifically Brother/Sister or Brother/Brother (I have unresolved issues with my younger brother -- so...)
* Aunt/Niece, Uncle/Nephew...where the relationship is between a sibling and the child of a sibling.
* Metamorphsis...changing into something else...
* Superheros
* Enemies to Friends to Lovers (prefer this to soul mates -- soul mates tends to annoy me. I like a relationship to be built over time.)
* Second Chance at Love
* Male is the Damsel, Female is the Hero or Gender Flips
* Wounded Heroes
* Characters that appear to be one thing on the surface, but are something else underneath.
* Social Justice Stories or Themes, where the social justice crusader wins
* Smart characters
Me: I won't vote for anyone over the age of 65.
GT: I'll extend that I won't vote for anyone over the age of 30, including me.
Hmmm...Maybe no one over the age of 45.
Enuf said. If I say more on this topic...it won't end well.
2. Reading Meme...
Just finished Un-Canny X-men #12 - 2018-2019 by Matthew Rosenberg and Salvadore Larroca...and they are kicking this out of the park. I'm loving this series. The art, the writing, the story, everything.
There's a nice blend of action, characterization, suspense, and theme...plus both dialogue and art further it.
This is my Cyclops and Wolverine. I've missed them. And the re-introduction of Havok, Illyana, Dani, Rahn, and Shan is inspired. We have the brother dynamic again.
Finally. (Note -- Wolverine still has the problem of 'over-exposure' and being slowly turned into a Marty Stu by Marvel over the years. Less is more when it comes to characters. But paired with Cyclops, he is toned down a notch or two. The work together well -- sort of similar to Spike and Angel actually. And, I have to say the fandom's reaction to them is about the same, you can like both, but you probably like one a smidgen or two better than the other. I'm weird, while I preferred Spike in the Buffy fandom, I prefer Scott/Cyclops in the X-men fandom. Why? I find Spike and Cyke the most human and relatable. Wolvie and Angel are too archetypal anti-hero Hercules style heroes for my taste. I say weird, because a lot of the Buffy/X-men fandom is the exact opposite, they love Spike and Wolvie and think they are alike, I only see superficial likenesses. What can I say? I've got my own unique perspective on the issue.)
In this issue? There's three really good scenes...
* Logan removing bullets from Scott's back and stitching him up. Scott confesses that he screwed up royally. He sees all the mistakes he made clearly now and how he did everything wrong and should never have been their leader. Logan's response is great -- "so what, am I suppose to tell you that your wrong and make you feel better about it? Because that's not happening." Scott -- "It doesn't matter. The X-men are dead." Logan:"Well, about that..."
Logan pushes Scott past the personal flogging, which Scott excels at more than anyone else -- and one of the reasons I love the character so frigging much. (I excel at personal flogging, also like Scott second guess myself constantly. He went through a brief period of arrogant certainty, partly due to Emma's influence, and partly due to being furious. But he appears to be past that now. To be fair, Wolverine went through it too -- except was a tad more self-righteous about it.)
And Logan is very good at telling people to get over it already. Logan doesn't like whining or personal flogging.
* Illyana taking Scott to Alex, who he finds and saves. Alex, in pain, apologizing to Scott for not dying instead, for failing him. (Remember Scott now has his younger self's memories from the time in which the younger group time traveled into the future -- so he knows what happened after he died, and he knows or has an idea what happened to Alex. He also knows how he failed and why.) It's a tender scene and well-written and drawn. The best thing about the X-men are the inter-relationships between the characters.
* Logan and Illyana's scene in which she wants to stay and fight, and Logan and Scott convince her to leave and portal everyone elsewhere. It's an echo of sorts of Scott and Alex's scene, where Alex also wants to play the martyr and stay and fight.
Scott snatches him out of harm's way.
In this issue as in the last, the villains are white men who are afraid of losing their power. The Saipan League, Purifiers and Reavers are the baddies in the first issue -- all metaphors for white nazi hate groups in the US, and in this issue, it's the government or "O.N.E" -- Marvel's standin for Homeland Security. Marvel has always commented on these issues in it's comics. Far more so than DC ever did.
It's also why I find the X-men so cathartic, the nasty white male hate-groups get decimated, or the nasty racist government covert ops group developed purely out of white male fear gets defeated. YAY team.
I can't wait for the next issue, which will drop in another two weeks. They come out every two weeks.
And I've renewed my long expired library card and discovered the pleasures of borrowing electronic books from the library. If I don't like it, I can return it without the guilt. YAY! Also it takes up no space. Plus so much cheaper.
Since I'm buying comics again -- they aren't really available at the library, although comixcology unlimited does provide free ones to borrow here and there.
I need to reduce costs somewhere.
Latest? Laura Kinsale's The Hidden Heart -- which isn't nearly as good as the sequel Shadow and the Heart which I bought and just finished. (I borrowed The Hidden Heart from the Library. It has a very small selection of Kinsale novels, however. I wonder if I can donate electronic books to the library? Probably not.)
Shadow and the Heart -- was written some time ago, so may annoy anyone who reads books with socio-political slant. It takes a lot to offend me. Okay, maybe not that much -- I couldn't make it through Gone with the Wind or a lot of pre-1960s sci-fi. This didn't bother me. And overall she does a good job depicting the Japanese and Native Hawaiians in the novel. They are well-rounded, and actually far brighter than the British aristocrats. American novelists don't tend to be...how to put this delicately? Sympathetic to the British Cast/Class System. They either romanticize it or criticize the hell out of it.
The Japanese in the book are depicted as being a bit overly superstitious and invested in legends, and ninja habits. But we really only see two of them, so...
I did like the ninja aspect. And I adored the wounded hero -- which is a serious trope of mine. Also the heroine was clever, if unexperienced. So I liked her as well. Kinsale is far better with characterization than most, and not quite as formulaic. Also her writing doesn't quite fall into the flowery lingo so many of them do. I find her to be a bit more nuanced.
But it is at the end of the day, a romance, so yes...we get the standard plot more or less, with all the adventure/intrigue coming to a head at the 90% mark. I really miss the novels of the 1980s, where it came a touch or two earlier.
3. Preferred Tropes in Stories
* Back from the Dead (I've no idea why, but I find it really interesting to see how people handle the return of someone they grieved and thought was dead...and really wasn't.)
* Amensia -- anything with memory loss fascinates me.
* Body Swap
* Telepathic Connection or Psychic Rapport
* Sibling relationships -- specifically Brother/Sister or Brother/Brother (I have unresolved issues with my younger brother -- so...)
* Aunt/Niece, Uncle/Nephew...where the relationship is between a sibling and the child of a sibling.
* Metamorphsis...changing into something else...
* Superheros
* Enemies to Friends to Lovers (prefer this to soul mates -- soul mates tends to annoy me. I like a relationship to be built over time.)
* Second Chance at Love
* Male is the Damsel, Female is the Hero or Gender Flips
* Wounded Heroes
* Characters that appear to be one thing on the surface, but are something else underneath.
* Social Justice Stories or Themes, where the social justice crusader wins
* Smart characters