Failure

Dear Wal,

Guess what wonderfully fantastic thing I decided I was going to do today. I decided I was going to start writing for Script Frenzy, because somehow my brain had tricked me into believing that it was actually April 1st and not March 31st. I don't know how. It might be because I can never keep track of which months have 31 days and which ones have 230 days, I don't know. So I can't keep track of dates, so what? I never get my due dates for school screwed up. Well, I have once or twice, but it doesn't happen often. Anyway, that means that I turned in an assignment for an online class a day early, so at least I don't have to worry about that tomorrow.
I'm pumped about Script Frenzy, but let me warn my dear few readers that daily posts may not be quite so daily for the next month, judging by how badly I failed at keeping a NaNo journal last year. Script frenzy isn't going to be as difficult, I think, because writing a script is just so much less high maintenance than a prose novel, and I also have spring break slap in the middle of April. I've been writing my fanfiction as a script as some of you might already know, just to get through the roughest bits of the origin and to familiarize myself with writing a script-something I've never done before. It's fairly easy to think in glossy pages and dramatic battle scenes. Plus, doing Jason's thoughts is completely hysterical and entertaining. I don't have to awkwardly weave them into a stream of prose anymore, all I have to do is say there's a little bubble there and it works. It's such a relief. I don't have to grapple with describing the images in my mind and making them flow into one another, I can just cut from panel to panel. It's extremely satisfying.
Just you wait, I'll have some sort of crisis on my hands by the end of the week. I'm confident, but I know all too well what any prolonged stretch of writing does to my sanity. Anyway, I'm going to a kick off tomorrow to write and eat food with other scripting people. Wish me luck.

/endrant

The Great Cat Hunt

Dear Wal,

The cat has found a new hiding place. We spent twenty minutes looking for her this evening. Let me see, where shall I start? First, a tornado swept into my room from the phantom zone and threw dirty clothes and random crap that I had previously had perfectly organized all over creation, and then mysteriously disappeared without a trace other than the destruction left in it's wake. None of Krypton's most dangerous and devious, no traces of unique radiation, nothing. So this maze of crap in my room made it impossible to find anything at all, except of course for me because I magically knew exactly where the tornado had thrown everything.
She wasn't under the bed, or in any of the closets, or in the nice little hidy hole between my bed and my dresser , or under the red chair, or blending in with the rocking chair (she can look surprisingly like the upholstery when she wants to). It was terrifying. I could just see her, hidden away, plotting our demise at her claws and then on to the world. You know, I just saw a striking resemblance between Elliot and my cat. That's even more terrifying. So now I see her and Elliot plotting to take over the world from some spot in the depths of wonderful hiding places flooded with dust bunnies and old, lost socks.
I think our cat is secretly super. I'm serious. And I'm not talking from Krypton here, more like from planet just plain catawesome.


Neko's Powers:
1) Lead kitty. She becomes a blob of furry lead; 10x increase in mass in .003 seconds flat, and when you pick her up you feel the inevitable pull of gravity and then you look into her eyes and you realize how much she really, really, really, wants you to put her down and how much you really, really, really should before she gets tired of tolerating you.
2) Noodle kitty. She becomes a furry noodle of a cat-slipping from your grip no matter what fantastically unbeatable trap you've cornered her in. This also applies to her draping herself over objects. You'll just walk in on her sprawled over your nice clean shirt or your fuzzy sweater that just happens to attract cat hair like mad.
3) Death-glare. You can see the flames in her eyes. You can see yourself sucked into the dark, sharp knife that is her soul and tortured for eternity. You can see yourself dying a thousand deaths. It'd be terrifying if it wasn't so damned funny.
4) Cuteness. You can't resist. She's sooo soft...and sooo nice...and sooo sweet...you just want to love her to pieces. She doesn't even fight it tooth and claw anymore. She just leeeeeans away, and turns her burning glare on you while you kiss her furry belly.
5) Flight. She ends up in some of the weirdest places.

I'm glad she's no bigger than she is. She would rule us all, treat us as her slaves and force us to do her bidding. And we would have no choice, because, like Elliot, she would have our minds twisted around her claws, whether it be brainwashing, madness or terrorism, she would control us and rule us without mercy.
Where did we eventually find her? Don't know. She came out and surrendered (she may have lost the battle...but she may yet win the war). I snatched her before she could noodle kitty away from me and stuck her out into the night. She sits in the rafters of the barn, going bump in the dark to terrify poor Buzzy standing below her in his stall, and squashing spiders as she plots and plots her future reign.

She's really a great cat, honestly.

/endrant

P.S. You notice it's almost midnight. I lied about sleeping. Who needs sleep?!

Smallville Flow Chart

DC Multiverse

Dear Wal,

The DC multiverse has fascinated me since I started reading comics. The idea that a new universe is created for each option when someone encounters a choice in their life can apply in fantastic ways to comic books. What would a world where Jason Todd never died be like? Who would be Batman in a would where Bruce Wayne's parents weren't shot that night in the alley? Creatively, multiple universes have vast potential for great stories. I don't see why DC doesn't exploit this well of ideas just waiting to be tapped. Another thing I think should've been included in the relaunch was a relaunch of some kind of an Elseworlds title, only in it's own series.
At this old, dingy library I used to go to they had a whole shelf of trades. Yeah, an actual shelf. The place had a warm, private kind of feeling in the way you could always find an empty, quiet nook in some distant corner where you could sit and read and never see a soul no matter how many people were in the library. The place was huge. The books were mostly trashed from years of abuse, the furniture cheep and uncomfortable but hardy. Anyway, I went hunting for that shelf of trades one day and devoured everything on it, or at least everything I could stand in those early days of ignorance, and one of the books there was Infinite Crises. Now, I didn't have a clue what was going on or who any of those superpeople or these aliens were, but I was seriously hooked by the idea of parallel universes. That book is the one reason why I'm so enthralled with DC comics and find it nearly impossible to make my way into Marvel continuity. It doesn't make any sense according to the rules of parallel earths and fifth dimensions and everything else I've built for myself. Anybody know a good starting place?
I have no idea what state the DC multiverse is in now after the fated relaunch, but I like to think there's a parallel earth for every incarnation of our favorite heroes that doesn't fit into the regular continuity. In my own mind, there's this whole ordered universe that doesn't really exist in the comics but lays down the basis for how I see the DCU. As far as I'm concerned, Final Crisis never happened. I like to think that there's an easier world  out there somewhere where Bruce actually died and Dick became Batman permanently. Sure, I know what happened in that whole storyline and I've read most of it but that doesn't mean that I have to accept that it happened.
If you're wondering what spurred all this, I just finished reading Dues Ex Machina and it's got me thinking. The idea of holding a whole other world in my hands when I'm holding a comic book is completely fascinating.
Yeah..randomness. Oh well. Grant Morrison has me in a mood.

/endrant

Running Epic

Dear Wal,

I had a momentary lapse. Yesterday was a busy day. This week has been a busy week. I've started running again to get in shape for cross country next semester (yes, it takes me that long to get in shape) and balancing running with blog and Buzzy (my completely adorable TWH gelding) has been difficult. Anyway, I've decided that today I shall rant about running.
First Day
You can't breath. You can't think. Your legs feel like they are going to burst into flames and then fall off and die a horribly over-dramatic death. Indeed, you almost fall to the ground and die right then and there, writhing in pain and making unnatural wheezing sounds. You don't make it far. The first hill approaches and you just give up and walk. If you're brave (or stupid, depending) then you may make it more than a mile, but most of your concentration beyond that point will be focused on simply staying upright. Afterward, you sit staring blankly, watching with the gaze of someone who has seen death and won, and drink several gallons of water. The rest of your day goes like this: Food. Sleep.
Second Day
The soreness is debilitating. You can barely walk, and these crazy idiots want you to run? You spend twenty minutes warming up in the hope that it will help with the pain of your impending doom. Then you start running. At first, your legs scream in pain and refuse to cooperate, but you beat them into submission with your iron will and continue on. Your breathing comes a little easier, allowing you to focus on making your legs maintain at least a jog, they imply ninja skills you never knew they had to attempt to slip down to a walk when you aren't noticing. They quiet down for a while and go numb, until you hit that first hill again. Then they revert to their highly useless over-dramatic screaming, but you make it up the hill and a little father this time. You are tired but optimistic by the time you get back. You drink several gallons of water again. You may actually talk to someone. Food. Sleep.
Third Day
Your optimism was in vein. You thought yesterday's stiffness was bad, but now you realize you have never experienced real pain until this day. No amount of warming up can prepare you for the ordeal to come. You start running and this time the pain doesn't recede. You can see your grave ahead of you on the trail at the top of that ever-defiant hill. Then suddenly your muscles gather their courage and you manage to make it through with a minimal amount of mental beatings. The numbness comes, but slowly this time, and you may actually make it through the entire distance you were originally trying to run. You come away in even higher spirits, if not a little delirious from joy and pain. Water. Food. Sleep.
Fourth Day
The soreness isn't as bad today. You can actually walk. Problem is, no matter how many hours you slept last night, you're dead on your feet and you can barely keep your eyes open. Warm-up gets your blood flowing a little and your muscles actually cooperate when you start running, but you're too tired. Your mind wanders. Your breathing gets out of check, you find yourself running to fast or to slow, and then you reach that blasted hill. You know you can do it. You've done it two days in a row. The question today is do you really want to expend the energy and the willpower to make it up the hill? You still haven't decided by the time you reach the hill, and either you slow down with a feeling of utter disappointment in yourself and general despair or you manage to somehow power through it with some last reserve of fantastic strength you didn't know you had. Water. Food. Sleep.
Fifth Day
Your muscles have been enduring physical and verbal abuse from your iron will, and today you decide they need a break. You run the easy route, or maybe just take that hill at a slower pace. You make it all the way through the course without much protest from your muscles and with warmth in your heart that you've actually accomplished something, that despite the hardship you've suffered this past week you made it, you conquered like a boss. Alternately, you may end up running for a little bit and then realize that that wonderful, glorious reservoir of strength that you drew on yesterday is empty; bone dry with a tumbleweed to boot. You fail instantly and spend the rest of the course walking and in the depths of despair. Lets just say the following weekend isn't a good one.

The first week is over. I survived. Success.

/endrant

Forgetfulness

Dear Wal,

I'm so sorry, I missed a day. And you know why? It wasn't because I was having one of those days when I didn't want to write anything, or one of my many emotional crises of epic proportions, or a resurgence of old, grizzled procrastination; I forgot. And by the time I remembered it was already Saturday anyway, so...I decided to go to bed. I was playing minecraft, what can I say?
How can I forget something that has been so deeply ingrained into my daily routine these past few weeks, you ask? Not a clue. I'm so forgetful it's sad. I know I'm treading on thin ice when I start forgetting things like schoolwork and I've even had trouble recalling a few names of superheroes lately. Forgetfulness sucks, not unlike indecision. If we didn't forget things, then I the world would probably be a much better place because all those messes we've gotten into over forgetting something would never have happened, then again not being able to forget would probably drive half the population insane.
Anyway..this is going to be short because I've been completely thrown out of sync because I missed a day. Now I shall go dig some more big holes on minecraft and listen to Nightwish.

/endrant

Traits of Us in Our Fictional Characters

Dear Wal,

I come to you today with a post I wrote in the truck on the way to a session with my natural horsemanship instructor (my, that sounds incredibly official doesn't it?). It's very scribbled in my twirly cursive because of all the bumbling about the truck was doing. I'll do my best to translate.
Let's face it-we all see parts of ourselves in our fictional characters. Sometimes they can be grossly exaggerated, other times toned down until they're barely noticeable. Fiction can sometimes tell us more about ourselves than anything else. I've come to think of my work as a fantastically twisted dark mirror of myself in many ways, one of my reasons most of my writing is so deeply personal and I can barely let those closest to me read it, no matter how ridiculously brilliant or terrible it may be.
Bits of me tend to creep into my characters. Jason, for instance, from my Batman fanfic (those of you out here who understand what the implications of Jason, kudos to you) has my tendency to swing from perfectly happy to flying around in a boiling rage, only multiplied tenfold. Usually, he's very plucky and completely hilarious; he drives those around him nuts he annoys them so much, but then there are times he swings to the opposite side of the equation and broods in the depths of despair. At those moments he's violent and dangerous, usually that's when I call in Supes or some other super BFF of his to cheer him up. His arch nemesis I'll call Elliot here so I won't spoil anything if for anybody who might have skipped over to Batman: Shadows and read the pitiful scraped together tatters of a story I started. The revision is coming. Script frenzy is coming. Prepare to be wowed. Anyway, his nemesis is one of my greatest creations, the pride and joy of my madhouse of characters. Elliot's intelligence is borderline genius. He's merciless, cruel and with a morbid sense of humor to boot. No, I'm not talking about a slightly different version of the Joker. This man is no Joker. He's something else entirely, I would even dare say he's something more. He manipulates, tricks, guides tenderly his prey into a spiderweb of his grandly simple design, wrapping his secrets so thoroughly the poor fly doesn't even know when it's been ensnared until it's beyond too late, until the final blow has already been dealt. Jason only ever knows what Elliot wants him to know of the truth, partially because he really doesn't want to find out but mostly because Elliot has so fastidiously covered his tracks. It's one of the best plotlines concerning an archenemy I think I have ever written.
Back to the point. The major similarity between us is that we both get bored really easily, and then we start getting crazy ideas. While his are usually along the lines of What would happen if such and such were to mysteriously vanish? He is very much fascinated by the idea of tipping the first domino and seeing what monster the inevitable chain reaction morphs into. He may even take up a just cause once in a while because of some ridiculous idea that popped into his head when he was sitting on a porch in a rocking chair or wherever he happens to rest his musings. My ideas, however, usually culminate in some grand new story line or the rough sketch of a new character or some mad-cap endeavor like this blog. I think that I think through him to pose new challenges to the heroes of my fanfic, because one thing I know how to do and do well is topple a domino in my DC universe.
Now for the differences between me and these two crazies. Jason is very much controlled by his fear of his past, and his fear in general, it's not something he ever really conquers. I have conquered my fears, and I've worked my butt off doing so. Besides, one of them was never the fear of what might be hidden in my past. What, my parents are secretly vampires? Ew. It took me a long time to understand his fear because I had never felt that kind of fear, and it's hard to just leave it be and not help him overcome it. I understand it as a part of him, and I also have come to understand that his past isn't important. It doesn't matter in what he's doing as Batman in the here and now. Besides, it means that I don't have to fiddle with the complexities of trying to make the original Jason Todd's origin work with mine and actually come up with interesting details that actually make sense. I dislike writing origins. (Put a pen in that-expect a future rant.)
Sidenote: Hey guys! You know what's awesome for developing characters? Those 'I am' papers we've all done in eighth grade, only in the form of 'I am afraid of..' or 'I am not afraid'. Yes, Eminem is good for something. Knowing your character's fears can really tell you a lot about them and help you create a deeper character.
The most obvious reason between me and Elliot is that I'm not going around shooting people or enacting some vast scheme for the heck of it, but their is one detail of him that I have never understood about him that may not be apparent to readers for the reason that I never found a way to write it. He knows something about how the world works, how people think, that I can't grasp. It's his little secret, and he keeps it well hidden from me as he does some detail of something in my fanfic stories. I wrote a conversation between he and I once where he tried to explain to me what he knew that I didn't, although it was mostly about his origins, and it was completely fascinating. He didn't get his point across, sadly.
Sidenote: Another good technique for developing characters; write a conversation between you and your character. You may discover some interesting things about them, and it certainly makes dialog between them and other characters easier.

/endrant

P.S. Wow, that was long. You know, I didn't even use anything from my first draft. Not a word. Wrote all that completely from scratch. Hmmm.

World-Ruler Deathwish

Dear Wal,

I'm going to tell you a little story. I had the strangest dream last night. I was from another planet and I could fly, but it wasn't Krypton, but then I found out later that I was actually a clone of a being from another planet. Oh, the little references my subconscious conjures up. So I could fly, which was AWESOME, even though I don't really remember much of it. If I could have any superpower, it would be the power of flight. Who wouldn't want to be able to just step into the air and glide upward and around and wherever they wanted?
Back to the story. The entire earth had previously been taken over by these people, no idea who they were, in this epic huge battle that involved the entire JL and probably the rest of the DC heroes and Daredevil, because he creeps into my dreams in weird places. These people apparently weren't that bad to be ruled by, I mean I didn't see any oppressed peoples in chains trudging down highways or anything while I was flying around. I was just cruising with Green Lantern for no reason, one of those random superhero meetings that usually ends in a fatefully epic huge battle for the survival of the human species, and low and behold somehow we find out the new rulers of the Earth are going to nuke everything to all hell. Why? I have no idea.
We travel to Target and there we meet up with the head (who happened to be the principle from my school, don't ask) of some vastly important government agency within the planet-wide government. She takes us behind the pretzel counter to a secret door that leads into a lab where she has been hiding a battle-scared Martian Manhunter and Cyborg. J'on had this weird skin thing going on where he had turned white, I think he was really severely burned during the battle against the world-rulers. Cyborg had a massive scar on his face and some of his tech was perminantly messed up, but other than that he seemed okay. Cyborg tells us that he's working on a plan to disable all the missles before they launch via hacking into the world-ruler's system but it's going to take a while, and in the mean time Martian Manhunter shows us this plant thing we have to go get from Mars. It was odd-like the giant crab things (Mad Carpace, I think) from Lost Odessey in the Sea of Baus. Talk about obscure video game references. Anyway, it was breathing and it was squishy. Thus I dubbed it squishy plant. I sent GL off to get the squishy plant and staid behind, probably to try and help if Cyborg didn't manage to hack into the world-ruler's system in time.
I joined up with the Flash, and then all of a sudden all these huge black tanks came out of nowhere. There were thousands of them, covering every inch of the planet and running over anything and everything in their path. I don't remember any of them ever actually firing, thank God. The blast would've been tremendous. These tanks-when I say huge I mean huge. Something like 25' x 50' x 20'. This picture of them doesn't really do them justice, but I wanted to give you a general idea, plus I had a burst of inspiration.
They were terrifying. Some of them were pulling trailers with artillery and I think one was loaded with bars of gold, and there was only about a foot or two of space between them in their formation they were doing. I was flying really carefully and slightly panicking because I nearly got squashed between them a few times, but the Flash was just zipping along without a care in the world on the ground below me, which drove me nuts because I wasn't nearly as fast as he was. Not faster than a speeding bullet, sorry boys and girls.
We hijacked a tank, which was awesome, and drove it out of formation. A bunch of other tanks started chasing us, so we just plunged into the woods along one of those big open spaces they cut through forests for powerlines. Flash did something to the other tank's GPS so it couldn't track us, but it didn't do much good because we were crashing around and running over trees and making a cacophony of noise. We were pretty obvious and easy to trail, so three or four tanks were following us. Then I woke up with the vague impression that the world-ruler had nuked everything and GL hadn't gotten back in time. Or rather, knowing that there would be no way any of us could stop the world-ruler, Martian Manhunter had sent GL off for the plant because it could remove radiation and cure radiation sickness.
And that was my incredibly vivid, strange dream. Bats and Supes were never present, only in that little reference by my subconscious at the beginning of the dream, which isn't actually that odd. Compared to the massive amount of dreams I've had about superheroes without Bats and Supes, they've only ever been in a few. I think Supes has only been in one. Anyway, the black tanks really stuck in my head, for some bizarre reason, and I think they'll probably creep into a story of mine at some point.

/endrant

P.S. I'll add a picture of GL's weird costume later. If I can draw a human being that I'm satisfied with. That costume is now my design for my fanfiction.

Script Frenzy

Dear Wal,

April is fast approaching, like an inevitable avalanche of awesome or fail tumbling down Mnt. Everest while I run for my life. I feel it's presence, ever weighing on my soul, wherever I go. It's terrifying and exilerating all at once, but it doesn't have the same flavor of impending doom that Nano always brings to my mind. Somehow writing 100 pages of script in a month doesn't seem as challenging as the behemoth that is 50,000 words of novel.
Yes, I'm taking on the challenge, suiting up in cape and cowl for my first Script Frenzy ever. I'm pumped. I'm ecstatic. I'm rallying my JLA for battle done on the keyboard and my trusty notebook. I'll travel through time, beat the crap out of some good 'ole world domination seeking aliens and criminal masterminds, face those unexpected villains come blasting out of the past when I least expect it, and delve deep into mysteries whose truth is hidden within the dark, jealous heart of Gotham City. That's right boys and girls. That script I was talking about writing for my fanfiction? It's actually happening, at this very moment the wild center of imagination within my genius is flailing a grand epic of epic proportions into existence. It's going to be shocking. It's going to be awesome.
I warn those poor deprived souls who aren't experts in classic Batman (Knightfall, the Long Halloween, Under the Red Hood, TDKR, The Killing Joke) to stay away, for the irony of the parallel universe I've created will be wasted on you if you don't understand my fantastic distortions of the regular DCU.
Just wait, a month from now in the depths of a plot twist I hadn't quite expected that has just thrown my script to all hell I'll be wailing in despair. I'll be reading this post then, trying to reignite the fire that sent my writing centers flailing before April even touched the world.
I'm trying to get through the tedium of the origin story before April comes knocking, and then I'll launch full speed into the wondrous and terrible experience of smashing out a fully fledged story in a month. Needless to say, I can't wait.

/endrant

Minor Superheroes

Dear Wal,

So you may have noticed that J'on has been sneaking into my posts quite a bit lately. It's because I've found a new obsession in minor superheroes no one knows anything about. Let's face it-there are plenty of minor superheroes that are really pretty cool, they just haven't found their place to shine in their respective universes. J'on is one of them. When we think aliens and superheroes, we usually think of Superman or alien invaders come to take over the Earth for one devious purpose or other, not the Martian Manhunter.
He isn't a refugee sent from a dying planet to Earth as a child, he was actually born and raised on Mars so he retains his identity as a martian and thus his grief for his people. Even more than for Supes, Earth is his adopted home. Sadly, other than his DC Showcase the Martian Manhunter doesn't has never had an ongoing series. He's a core member of the Justice League, and in my favorite version of the mysterious and illusive JLA origin he pretty much only works with the JLA, but he has so much potential as a title character of his own series. I can see why he was cut out of the current JLA-he's not particularly popular, and he doesn't have the kind of intricate mythos the rest of the JLA has, but there's no reason he couldn't be given a chance with the New 52 to steal the show with his own series.
Animal Man is another of my favorite superheroes. I'm attracted to the ones who have stable relationships-and Buddy is actually married and has kids. I haven't read any Animal Man other than Morrison's work with the character, but I intend to read the relaunched series. I'm always up for a lesser-known character getting his or her own title. Firestorm also got his own new title, which I was excited about until I actually got to read the comics. I don't recommend them. Captain Atom is also another of my favorite minor DC heroes who I feel should get more attention. He guest stars in JLA stories occasionally, but other than that I haven't seen him that much. He plays a major roll in one of the JLA stories in my fanfiction. (hinthint: it's a pretty epic tale. One of the many reasons of awesome why you should keep up with the fanfic here.)
Now I generally put heroes into two categories-major heroes like Bats, Supes, Spidey etc. and minor heroes like J'on and Animal Man. There are a few that drift between the two categories, including Daredevil. He's popular enough to get his own movie, but not well known enough to be treated with dignity in that movie. He's had his own running title for years but (thankfully) he isn't popular enough to produce any spin-off characters, other than Elektra and Echo, who did have her own miniseries. By spin-off I'm talking the four Robins and counting, Batgirl/woman and whatever else. I don't keep up with the sidekicks/partners. They annoy me. Anyway, he always seems to walk the line between a really popular character and a character no one's ever heard of.

It seems to me that minor superhero characters tend to be treated with more respect in the comics, writers and artists have to do something extraordinary with those types of characters in order to get them noticed, there's Grant Morrison's Animal Man of course, and when Bendis revealed Daredevil's identity in his run on the comic. Minor superheroes are just too much fun. I enjoy pulling obscure references out of my hat that no one else gets. They also have a much more personal feel to them, whereas everyone has a basic knowledge of Bats and Spidey, very few people know who Booster Gold is.

/endrant

P.S. Anyone know of any cool minor Marvel heroes? Or heroes from other publishers? I'm game.

Sleep

Dear Wal,

Sleep is a very annoying but necessary thing. We need it to survive, for no apparent reason. Sleep deprivation can kill, and although your body feels recharged after sleep, brain activity in sleep is just as high as when you're awake. Dreams fill our sleep with bizarre images of other worlds, or freakishly twisted versions of our reality that can rang from embarrassing to just plane creepy. Our dreams can be our most sought after fantasies or our worst nightmares.
On days when I don't have to get up at six in the morning, I get ten+ hours of sleep every night. The summertime is a blessing for that reason: I can actually SLEEP. I wish school started later, I'm sure there would be a few Ds in our school that would be Cs or better with a few extra hours of sleep. I saw a piece on the news a while ago about a school that started at 9:30. I was so jealous. I don't have much of a sleep schedule- I'm up to 11 or later every night and then I occasionally crash at 7 when my body just can't take the abuse any longer. I wish I could go to bed earlier, I really do, but late at night is sometimes the only time I have to myself. This blog is also largely the reason why I haven't gotten much sleep lately, if you haven't noticed most of the posts were published at 10:30 or later. I've made it the first thing I do when I get home, however, so that maybe I'll get more sleep.

Another problem I have is that I end up staying up to all hours of the night reading. I love reading. I'll read anything I can get my hands on. You've probably seen my March reading list, I'm always reading something. A lot of the time I don't have any time to read other than in the deep of the night, and it gets me in trouble. On nights when I'm feeling stressed or emotional for no reason, I'll end up watching Smallville until late at night before finally surrendering to my better judgement and go to bed. I think I've only been up late once or twice because of schoolwork. I usually get most of my work done at school. I don't even bother to bring books home any more because I know I'll get greedy for personal time and not get anything done.
I've had some seriously strange dreams. Many of my best stories are based off of dreams. My fanfiction started with a dream about a Batman who wasn't quite Batman, as I've mentioned before, and so did my firt great endevor into the world of fiction: the Black Dog. The dream itself was a pretty typical 8-year-old nightmare, I was being chased by a clown and the Black Dog came out of nowhere to save me. That dream launched a six year struggle of epic proportions and a whole new part of my life. I don't miss those days. I thought I was going insane. Little did I know what the Black Dog would lead to.
Dreams are hard things to write about-because sometimes they can't be described with any language on Earth. Dreams are hard to draw as well. I've tried a few times, and while I have an aptitude for drawing the fantastic I can never seem to get the colors quite right. Neil Gaiman's Sandman is an interesting series about dreams. I warn you, though, the ending is absolutely devastating. I was grieving for months. I cried. I never cry over books. It was terrible.
I had a dream about a multi-dimensional world within the fabric of our universe (or at least that's the best way for me to describe it, it's still hard to grasp even after all this time) and it stuck in my head for months afterwards. I tried to write it down as a story for an English class, and I had a heck of a hard time trying to get it right. For one, I couldn't use the Black Dog as the main character because of the continuity I associate with him and because I'd ended his story a few months earlier and I didn't want to dig up his mangled corpse for another go. Let's just say that I didn't finish the story on time. It was a terrible experience, and even though the story ended up being fantastic I haven't even looked at it since. I couldn't get the dream right, but I did the best I could.
I'm going to go running now. Pray for me. I haven't run at all in six months.

/endrant

Today

Dear Wal,

I don't have anything to rant about today. Or at least, I have a bunch of things I could rant about but no muse with which to rant, so I shall tell thee about my day.
I took a math test today. No, I don't have school on Saturday. If I did, I think I might die. Five days a week is enough. Six days would be the end of me. Don't get me started on how badly daylight savings time screwed me up this week. Oh look, I just got myself started on it. I think I only got ten hours total sleep Monday through Wenesday, and then I proceeded to sleep most of Thursday. That's probably why I got sick. I'd been fighting something off, and then woke up Tuesday with a cold. So yeah. It's been interesting.
Back to the math test.
I took it for this school I'm trying to get into. The test was 30 questions in 25 minutes. Ouch. I don't think I did half the question before the time was up. They're trying to root out all us geniuses from the flock, I guess. I know I probably shouldn't worry because one; I took the test and it's over with, in the past, etc, and two; I probably wasn't meant to finish all the questions. But it still bugs me. I'm too OCD for my own good. Ah well I'll get over it.
Oh God, I just saw this terrible future. A future where this blog turns into my journal. Eeeeeeew.
But I haven't gotten to the best part yet.
I found the most amazing comics store. I was in heaven, total immersion. It was amazing. I got some Waid Flash comics, two of which I don't understand that well because I don't know much about Flash, except for that there are like six of him, but yeah. I also got a Nightwing comic, which I understood better because it was Batman related but mostly didn't understand. Puts me in my place as a relative noob to the world of DC comics. I read mostly trades, simply because individual issues aren't available where I live, and I keep up with a few X-men series on Comixology, but other than that I'm pretty noobish. It's very sad. I don't have trouble with anything Batman, however. No trouble at all.
I saw John Carter, and LOVED it. Maybe it's my currant all things Martian related craze, but it was a great movie.
So yeah, that was my day....the cold medicine is kicking in now. I need to go nighty-night. I promise, I will not allow my horrible vision of the future of this blog as a journal come to pass.

/endrant

Writing Habits

Dear Wal,

I write almost every day, whether it be on this blog, my fanfiction/western/action/fantasy, whatever. I'm always writing, and always reading. No matter how busy I am, I always find time to write. I think it's a good thing to have a good, solid writing habits. Now, for how I write when I write, there is no rhythm or reason to it what-so-ever. Sometimes I write on the computer, sometimes in a notebook, sometimes with a pen, sometimes with a pencil. It doesn't make much sense. I guess it speaks to how the interior of my mind functions; no semblance of a pattern, on the edge of insanity.

I really fell into the writing every day habit during Nanowrimo, when, I'm proud to say, I actually made it to 50,000 with my sci-fi novel. That was a long, hard battle, and the novel that came out the other side was complete crap. I scrapped it completely, and someday I'll rewrite it. After that I wrote Tom's origin, or tried to. I didn't have enough background to understand how the criminal element works, and he didn't have a good nemesis. As a result, that story's been tarnished in my mind and I haven't touched it for months, even though I know the story is fantastic except for just the one part that I screwed up. I hate it when that happens. I turned completely around after that and wrote a western that I still haven't finished, and now I'm back on the fanfiction again. Needless to say, I write a lot of different stuff.
I've noticed that I start to flail around 12,000 words. Before I had the will to plow through, I always got shut down around 12,000 words in Nanowrimo, and in my first novel I tried to write (it went through around 30 re-writes, and ended up being a short story about a page and a half) the same thing happened. I hate the middles of stories and transitions, even things as simple as between scenes. They drive me completely crazy. I started out writing my fanfiction in scenes, and I guess that trained me to cut out the transitions in between.
I get mired down the most when I'm writing on the computer, because I can go back and re-write a scene fifty times. I usually end up switching my notebook at that point, because I can't easily go back and re-do things, especially when writing with a pen. It helps me just get over it and keep on writing. Other times I'll screw up some tiny detail during a transition that multiplies itself in a massive problem when I'm writing on paper because I didn't fix it out of laziness or simply because I didn't notice it until it was a massive snarling monster on my paper. At those times, it helps to be able to switch to the computer and re-work a scene.
It's a very delicate balance.

Favorite Writing Materials

I have this thing with notebooks. I'm incredibly picky. If a notebook isn't right, I know after the first few pages. It's something in the feel of the pages, the weight of the book and the way it opens and lays on my lap/table. I like a notebook that has a flexible cover and a rigid spine with thick pages. For the most part, I don't do spiral bound notebooks. I don't know why, but they just don't sit right. However, one of my favorite notebook of all time, the notebook where it all began as I always say, is a spiral bound notebook. It's the notebook where I started my fanfiction. I haven't been able to find it's like anywhere, and the closest I can find is this brand of notebooks from Staples.
Another notebook of mine that I absolutely loved was also from Staples, and I haven't even been able to find anything similar. It's a plain black leatherbound notebook with creamy, thick pages. I wrote a huge chunk of fanfiction in that as well. It was a gift from my best friend, along with this pencil which has to be my favorite writing pencil of all time before I switched to these pens. Here's another of my favorite notebooks, again a gift from my best friend, that harbored the end of Tom's origin and it's sequel.

/endrant

March Reading List

I've decided to keep a monthly reading list. So, here goes.

Finished:
JLA: Rock of Ages
JLA: Strength in Numbers
Superman|Batman: Search for Kryptonite
Superman|Batman: Enemies Among Us
Animal Man: Origin of the Species
Watchmen
The Nightside Series: Paths Not Taken
Taming of the Shrew
Things Fall Apart
Superman|Batman: Absolute Power
Our Game
JLA: Justice For All
Animal Man: Dues Ex Machina

In progress:
The Weapon
1984

Sick Day

Dear Wal,

Today was a terrible day. I woke up this morning feeling like crap. I have a mild cold, and I was trying very hard to convince my parents that I had a fever, even though I didn't, but I managed to win their sympathy with my droopy eyelids and inability to form coherent speech. So, I fed the horses and went back to bed. I slept off and on, dreaming strange dreams of strange, fantastic things that I can't remember. All I remember is that they were really cool and involved superheroes. I think it was Jason, actually, which is weird because he doesn't spend much time in my dreams. I had this dream a year or so ago where Batman was literally a living shadow, and that's where my fanfiction idea originally came from, but other than that I haven't dreamed about him.
Anyway, I got up for like ten minutes to say goodbye to my niece and brother who were leaving to go camping/four-wheeling, and then promptly went back to bed. I officially got up at around 12:30 PM and then dragged through the next three hours through alternating bouts of hot and cold, before I went to my horse lesson. I had to actually go outside. It sucked, until I actually got on, and then I enjoyed myself. Needless to say, Buzzy has put me in a much better mood that I was in earlier today.

/endrant

DC The New 52

Dear Wal,

We all knew this was coming. As everyone else, I have my problems with the relaunch. Here goes.

Stuff I Don't Like

Why? Why was one of the most complex, interesting characters in the DC universe reversed? Oracle has always been one of my favorite characters, and a part of my Batman world since the beginning. Even more so than Batman, she uses her mind as a weapon and she has to find creative solutions around her disability. Plus, let's face it, Batgirl is a pointless character, introduced to make the Batfam even more complicated and overcrowded than it already is. Oracle functions much better on the Bat-team than Batgirl-she's always in the background, using her skills with computers to get information on the latest baddies or keep an eye on a crisis situation from a third point of view while Bruce and the rest get out there and kick some butt.
What does Barbara's return as Batgirl mean for Cass and Steph? Are we going to have yet another set of spin-off Batman vigilantes to go with Tim and Dick?

This costume, however awesome and sleek it is, doesn't speak king of the seas to me. I prefer the long blonde hair and the hook from the 90s because it reminds me of Poseidon. Yes, the Greek god. If you're going to be king of the seas, you may as well look the part.

I don't think that J'on should have been cut out of the Justice League. He's a minor superhero, the least popular on the team, but he has been in the JLA since it's inception. I'm talking post-crisis, even before Bats and Supes. He's one of the core members of the team, one of the original seven, and he should remain as such. His absence form the League makes me wonder, will we see him at all in this new, relaunched universe? I'm sure most fans won't miss him, considering he never really had his own series and the only place he ever really shined was in the League, but I sure will.









Stuff I Like

Despite J'on's absence, I'm glad the Justice League is starting completely over from scratch. A definite origin is a serious improvement over the contradictory stories in the pre-relaunch universe, and hopefully this time JLA continuity won't get quite so muddled. I like the costumes better as well (all save Aquaman's). Wonder Woman actually has pants! Although her costume still isn't quite as Amazonian as I would like, it's a definite improvement over the bathing suite.




Stuff I Wish Had Changed

I read up to R.I.P and stopped. I couldn't stand to go any further in the recent comics. At the time, I didn't like the idea of Dick as Batman, but now I realize that it wasn't just that. I know how Bruce died, zapped by Darkseid in Final Crisis, and I think Morrison couldn't have picked a worse 'death' for Bruce. Bats facing down Darkseid is always a good show, but in this case I think we could have done without. If you're going to kill Bruce, kill him, don't send him back in time and then on a ridiculous journey back to the future.
I haven't read Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne but I think I might just to see Bruce as a pirate.
Maybe Morrison was trying to bring back the spirit of the Silver Age comics-that was evident in R.I.P. and it worked extremely well in that book, but I still wish Final Crisis had never happened. Or at least, that Bruce had actually died, then we would've had Dick as Batman and one less robin.



Anyway, those are my grievances. Needless to say, even though I'm slightly ticked off by a few things, I'm excited to see where all this is headed.

/endrant

DC Film Universes

Dear Wal,

If you haven't heard/don't understand what DCAU is supposed to stand for-well, simply the best collection of superhero TV shows of all time. I've watched BTAS, Batman: The New Adventures, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, Batman Beyond and all the movies. I haven't seen the Superman stuff, simply because when I was watching all the shows listed above I wasn't into Superman. Or at least, I failed to see his good qualities through all the stupid ones. I haven't seen Static Shock or the Zeta Project either, but still the DCAU has to include some of my favorite shows of all time.

I'm not completely bias. I have seen the Marvel shows of that era-X-Men, Spiderman-but they just don't compare. Some of the newer Marvel material is much better-such as X-Men: Evolution and the famous and sadly cut-short The Spectacular Spiderman. Now, I liked X-Men a lot, Spiderman not so much, although it was nice to see Daredevil in animation. I've been waiting very impatiently for him to turn up on Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. I don't think he will, but one can always hope.
Anyway, to the point.

I saw Justice League: Doom today. I've read the original Tower of Babel story. I have to say I quite liked it, even though the previous movie Crisis on Two Earths was much better. Warner Bros. is building a new animated universe in this series of movies-Superman|Batman: Apocalypse, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths and Doom-and in Young Justice, possibly GL the animated series. I haven't seen that series, so I can't speak to whether or not it coincides with the movies/Young Justice. I would assume not, since the animation style is different and with the previous DCAU the animation was pretty similar throughout all the shows/movies.

I have to say I'm excited about the prospects for a future DCAU. The past few movies have taken the Justice League in a very different direction from how they were portrayed in the old show, cutting a lot of the drama of the old series and featuring them more as an efficient team. It feels very much like Grant Morrison's old JLA. I have to say though, I will miss the complex characters and the continuity of the old shows. I watched the JL & JLU mostly for Batman, but couldn't help being sucked in by all the characters. Still, it will be interesting to see how a new universe will play out. Will we see a new Batman series to put the bad dream of The Batman behind the DCAU? Will some other lesser-known characters of the DCU get a series?
I'd like to see Wonder Woman series, and even though I know this is never going to happen, a Martian Manhunter show. The Flash would also be great to see in his own series. Since we have Wally as Kid Flash and Berry as the Flash already established, the conditions are ripe for him to get his own series. Once again, I doubt it. DC has a plethora of characters whose potential hasn't bean recognized. Marvel has many great, well-known characters, but other than the JLA, Supes and Bats, DC doesn't really have any really popular characters. I think that could all be rememdied with a good animated series and a movie or two.

I don't go so much for DC live action movies, other than Nolan's Batman films. Honestly, I wouldn't know what to expect from a Flash or even a Wonder Woman live action movie. In the right hands, DC characters can really shine, but other times they just don't. Green Lantern is an example of that. The movie was alright, but not a good launching point for a live action universe. I loved the mention of Waller and Cadmus, I absolutely flipped when she strolled onto the screen, but other than that it seemed like a scrambled attempt to get something together to rival Marvel's universe  leading up to the Avengers. I have to say I'm PUMPED about that movie, even though I don't know much about the Avengers. I really don't know much about the Marvel universe at all. To me, a DC fan, it's highly disorganized and I really just don't understand it at all. Anyone know a good launching point into the Marvel universe? I tried the X-Men (really, really bad place to start) and the Avengers, and I've read a lot of Daredevil, but he doesn't get involved in the wider universe for the most part.
I'll rant about universes in comic books later...let's get back to film.

I don't know how I feel about a Justice League movie. DC heroes are even less realistic than Marvel heroes, and I don't think the JLA would work well in live action. I keep having these horrible images of spandex, or worse, leather. Eeeeeew. Naturally, this brings us around to the Smallville JL. I have to say I like Green Arrow's costume, but the rest of the characters seem too warped and out of place. I'm afraid of the influence that interpretation of the characters might have on a live action movie. Smallville is it's own universe, and it shouldn't influence anything else. I enjoy it, but I don't want it leaking out. Again, images of melodramatic Supes and leather, eeeeeeeeew.
Anyway, super excited for the animated universe, not so much for live action.

/end rant

P.S. Superhero Toonverse <--website devoted exclusively to Superheroes in animation.

Spelling

Dear Wal,

Since I'm on a writing speel for no aparant reason, I've decided to do a post about spelling. The next one is probably going to be about writing habits. That one's going to be long. In the spirit of this post, I've decided to leave all my spelling errors uncorrected. Because I'm awesome like that. And yes, for those of you whose spelling is also less than perfect I'll put the incorrect words in red.
I used to suck at spelling. I mean, really, really, really suck. I know we all have our terrible spelling stories. Computers make life so much easier. I don't have to worry about spelling, I can just right click and there's the corrected word in the drop-down menu. Most of the time. Sometimes I misspell things so horribly there's just now hope, and Chrome and Word just give up on me. Then I run to Google. If Google fails me, then I know I'm screwed.
I can't spell terridactal, apparant, dissapeared and a host of other words but for the most part I think my spelling isn't that bad. I taught myself how to spell necessary...in about a year. That was a long, hard battle. The English language is a pain for spelling, you just have to know the words in order to spell them. Sounding them out doesn't work. All those kindergarten (woah...I spelled that right?!) teachers you had? They lied. Try sounding out a word you can't spell. I guarantee (now..I had to think twice about that one) you that you'll spell them wrong.
I've heard legends of some mysterious phantom being known as phonics, but the last I heard of it was when I was too small to remember exactly what it is or how it's supposed to help. My dear mother is always ranting about how phonics is supposed to help spelling, however. Put a pen in that thought. I'll have to do some research (typo, oops...I should rant about that...) someday and rant. All these posts of mine, they produce so much fodder for future rants. It's quite useful.
I should whip out some really hard words here somewhere...gyre, philanthropist, convoluted, consentrate, quaf, inate, polution, platipus, pompus, parat, postulate, asinine, alkaline, erently, niether, nearly, neighborly, pillon, convenience, Afghanistan, Czechleslavokia, annnimonpia...
So maybe I'm a bad example. My spelling is actually not that bad, in this post anyway. I learned most of my spelling from Word and the internet. Memorizing spelling words never really worked for me in elementary school. I always sucked at spelling tests, heaven forbid I should have to do a spelling bee. I just take a sick kind of delight in beating the computer at pretty much anything. I get completely possessed in videogames to get good enough to beat the computer or at least get all the acheivements. I used to be obsessed with beating the computer at checkers, and chess. I never did. Not once. Not even at checkers. It was sad.
I imagine myself in an epic battle to the death against Word, and I have to spell as many words as possible right in order to win. I fiddle with words, sometimes changing them up to five times, just to prove that I made and effort and yes, I can try and spell things right sometimes. Sometimes I get lucky and hit a word on the first try, other times I have to bow to the Will of Word and click to the droop down menu of doom.
Oh, by the way: I can spell separate. Bet you can't.

/endrant

Indecision

Indecision

Dear Wal,

I couldn't decide what to rant about today. Thus, I shall rant about indecision. I had all these ideas; b-list superheroes, the new 52, rainy days, favorite writing utensils..you get the idea. I just couldn't decide. It was very sad. You see, when I started this blog I had all these great ideas, and now a week later they've all gone POOF. I need to write these things down, I have a notebook which I carry everywhere, but I guess I thought I would be able to remember these things or post them fast enough. Something along the lines of, "Surely a post every day will keep me busy." Nope.

Never assume anything when it comes to writing. Always write when it first pops into your head. Yeah, yeah, I know. But it always happens to me anyway.

Back to indecision, I'll rant about writing habits some other time. Indecision sucks. It really, really sucks. I used to agonize over decisions, especially the most tantalizing ones like whether or not I should ride my horse that day. My line of reasoning is usually something like this: Well it might rain today. It's sunny outside. I should ride. But there's a cloud. I'm tired. I don't want to. I won't have enough time to ride. It's getting dark. It really isn't that dark, actually. I should ride my horse. But I'm tired..and so on. And the more I reason and prove that I really should ride my horse, the worse the indecision gets until I've run myself in circles and I'm completely confused and on the brink of an emotional breakdown. By that time it usually is dark, or it actually is raining.

Indecision Spiral of Despair
1) Confrontation with decision. At first, you're pretty cool with picking one or the other of your options. There's usually one or the other you're leaning towards. Life seems simple at this stage.
2) Onslaught of indecision. You suddenly realize that there are better options that the one you like, or that maybe the one you want to pick is the wrong decision and you should pick the opposite decision in order to avoid impending disaster.
3) Guilt trip. You start beating yourself up because you can't decide and because you know you suck at making decisions, and you juts know you're going to pick the wrong one and the rest of your life is going to be transformed into a living hell because of it.
4) Procrastination. You don't want to think about it. You just can't stand the thought of actually picking something over something else.
5) Logic. You force yourself to think about it. You run your mind in circles convincing yourself of all the pros and cons of each choice until you're sure you've picked on, but then you realize there's something about you choice that isn't right and the whole process repeats.
6) Despair. You give up. You're tired of running in circles with logic and trying desperately to slouch out from under your guilt. At this stage, you really just don't care anymore. Just pick something. Anything. Then you try and pick something, and you may end up starting all over again at step 2 or you might actually just buckle down and pick something.
7) Relief. You've made your choice. Problem solved. No going back now. It's like a 10-ton weight has been lifted from your shoulders.
WARNING: This process can last anywhere from seconds to years.

Procrastination and Indecision

Procrastination is an ugly, wiley beast that comes in many forms. One of which can be indecision. You start putting off a decision by saying you can't decide or you don't know a solution to the problem, when you actually know plenty of answers to the decision but you just don't want to make it quite yet. You start trying to shunt the decision off on other people in order to get that beast of procrastination to leave you alone, but it only gets worse (see indecision spiral of despair above) and when you finally decide that you are going top decide on something goddangit, you suddenly find all these things you need to do. Feed the dog. Wash the car. Get groceries. Do schoolwork. Write a blog. The decision could be anything from a huge morale dilemma like "Are those aliens a threat or do they come in peace?" to which shirt you should wear that day.

Aliens are a bad example. The JLA usually just punches and asks questions later. They have every right to, very few alien invasions they've encountered have actually been peaceful. For an example of an invasion in comics that was just a simple misunderstanding, see Superman|Batman: Enemies Among Us. It has a nice ending.

Getting off subject again. I tend to do that a lot, if you haven't noticed by now. I'll probably rant about it some day. Maybe tomorrow. Or not. I don't want to think about it. But I can't let down my readers. But I don't really have any readers to let down, so it's okay right? I don't have any readers?!

I think I see the end of this post coming. Maybe. But surely I should talk about something else. This one isn't nearly as long as my Superman post. I should make it that long. But I don't want to ramble. But this blog is specifically for ranting, right? Shouldn't I be rambling? I don't want to short-change my readers with crappy posts. What am I kidding, I don't even have any readers. I should really finish this post. But I don't want to, it's not long enough, it's not 8:33, the sun isn't gree-



/end rant

P.S. The sun is green? No way!

Yep, it's green alright.

5 Ways to Make a Better Daredevil Movie

5 Ways to Make a Better Daredevil Movie

Dear Wal,

We all remember Daredevil, it’s like a nightmare that was actually half-decent but just terrible enough to leave a bad taste in your mind. Here are a few ideas of mine that I think would bring us a better adaption of Daredevil.

1) Don’t make Daredevil into Marvel’s Batman. Daredevil is not Batman. Daredevil is violent bordering psychotic and much more sensitive than Batman. He expresses his emotions and his weaknesses, whereas Batman is mostly internalized. However, even though Daredevil is an emotional apocalypse waiting to happen, he deserves better than his portrayal in the 2003 Daredevil.
2) Matt is a lawyer, and often his moral dilemmas are often about whether he has the right to act as judge, jury and executioner as Daredevil. Some of the best Daredevil tales center around Matt’s skills as a lawyer, think of the saga of the White Tiger in Bendis and Maleev’s run on the series. 

Daredevil: Cruel and Unusual

3) We all know Matt has a history with women, but the story shouldn’t focus too much on his lover, whether it be Karen, Elektra, Milla..etc. Especially if it’s an origin story. Daredevil’s lovelife should be a side to the overall plot. Too much of a spotlight on it and moviegoers might just run screaming from the theatre ripping their hair out.
4) Ditch the soundproof coffin. Seriously, people.
5) Take a plot from the comics and adapt it, change it as needed, pull scenes from other memorable storylines, whatever, just don’t make a direct adaption of a comic book storyline. That’s what worries me the most about rumors of an adaption of Daredevil: Born Again.

Not only is Born Again the wrong comic to adapt to the screen because of the continuity associated with it and a host of other reasons, criticism for a direct adaption of a comic, especially what is considered one of Miller’s best works on Daredevil, is bound to be ten times worse than for a movie with it’s own original plot.

Fanfiction

Fanfiction

Dear Wal,

I’m a proud supporter of fanfiction. Fanfiction can teach a writer everything from tips from another writer’s style to just simply keeping a plot from going all to hell. Emulating other writers is how we learn, taking elements of a story we like and making them into our own style. Plus it’s just too much fun to take your favorite characters and place them into your own stories, or take your own original characters and place them in your favorite stories.
I write Batman fanfiction (of course) some of which you can read here, and it’s one of my favorite things to write. I took the batman mythos and twisted it around into a parallel universe. I’m a big fan of the DC multiverse. Infinite Crisis was one of the first comics I read; one of the reasons I got so into DC comics was because I wanted to understand all the craziness happening in that book. I made my own parallel earth and my own Batman mythos.
In my stories, Bruce was shot the night his parents were killed. He ended up in a wheelchair, which meant he had to get over or at least learn to live with the death of his parents. I cast one of the robins as Batman (as much as I dislike them, they are good fodder for fanfiction) and added a new villain. His name is Tom Burdock, and his existence along with Bruce’s paralysis changes everything in my universe. He’s one of my favorite and best original characters I’ve created in my opinion, and it almost seems a waste to have him in just the fanfiction. I’ve built up a new and completely different character in my version of Batman and Tom doesn’t work nearly as well against any other hero I’ve invented for him before or since. He belongs in Gotham, as much as I’d like to make an original story out of him it just isn’t the same. I’ll probably find the Holmes to Tom’s Moriaty in fanfiction as well, considering writing Tom into a universe I was already familiar with helped me so much with developing Tom as a character. Even though I have my misgivings about writing him into superhero stories, sometimes I almost think it’s a waste of a great character, putting him in that universe was the best thing I could’ve done for him.
I thought about submitting my fanfiction to something like DC Anthology, but while I was browsing the site I read a few issues of some other Batman fanfiction and, well..it was basically Batman verses villains/heroes he would’ve never met in the regular DC universe. I was soarly disappointed. I haven’t found any Batman fanfiction so far where anyone has tried to do something original with the characters, but it’s superheroes. What else can I expect? Villain of the week formula has been the norm in comics for decades.
A friend of mine from school (see her deviantart page here) writes Dungeons and Dragons fanfiction, specifically fanfiction of the Dragonlance Chronicles. She has several original characters that interact with the characters from the series, but they very distinctly have their own history. We’ve both rambled about our fanfiction plots half a millions, and even though neither really has any idea what the other is talking about we can still relate through the genre of fanfiction itself. She did much the same thing with her main character as I did with Tom. Her name’s Karra. She’s a warrior, and her back story is incredibly extensive and complicated. I won’t recount it here, but it’s a tale of epic proportions. Her fanfic is really great by the way, I think she has the first few chapters uploaded on her deviantArt page, but she’s currently in the middle of completely overhauling her plot and revamping her characters. I’m also revamping, I decided this year I’m going to do Script Frenzy and, by golly, I’m going to write my Batman fanfiction as it should be; a comic book series. It’s going to be amazing. Expect the origin up soon on SHADOWS.
It’s stupid, I know, to think someday I can dredge up this old script and whip it into shape for an actual comic, but that’s what fanfiction is all about. Stupid dreams that may never come true, but amuse a writer’s troubled mind.
Here’s a great article about fanfiction.

/endrant

P.S. You know what’s funny. The acronym for my fanfic is BS.

Batman

Batman

Dear Wal,

As I said before, I’m a Batman person, and once again I’m guilty of jumping on the bandwagon. But could I not, after seeing The Dark Knight? Nolan did a masterful job of adapting Bats to the screen, and I’m as eager as the rest of the world to see the sequel, if a bit hesitant. Can what I largely consider to be the best superhero movie of all time be topped? Supersequels have a tendency to disappoint, but I’m getting off subject. Check out HISHE on TDK:

Batman. Well, why do I like Batman?

His detective skills are one of my favorite things about him-he always finds the answers. One of my major complaints about Superman was that he never seemed to have much of a plan, Batman’s always has a plan, a way to get out of any situation, he’s prepared for everything he can possibly think of. Some of the best Batman tales are ones that challenge his skills, push him to his limits and present him with situations he didn’t expect, like in Mark Waid's Tower of Babel when Talia steals his files on the Justice League and their weaknesses.

That’s another thing I love about him-he’s willing to take down anyone, hero or villian, in his way. I feel like though he always appears to tread the line, he’s always going to end up on the side of the good guys. If he didn’t, the DCU would’ve been under his thumb long ago. Just think of how Owlman in Grant Morrison’s Earth Two controls Gotham City with an iron hand. I haven’t come across any instances of him actually going bad other than that, like seriously falling over the edge. He’s been accused of plenty, manipulated and controlled to do something bad. If he does get mind controlled, he always manages to pull himself out of it before he does something he’ll regret. Feel free to comment if you know of an instance where this doesn’t happen, it would be fascinating to read a story where Batman goes bad.

I’m a sucker for tormented characters, and Bats is about as tormented as it gets. His parents were shot and killed, the Joker killed Jason and shot Barbara...the list goes on. Despite his cold exterior, he’s incredibly sentimental. It gives him a depth that Clark’s golden values just don’t have. One of the things about Smallville that annoyed me the most was that Clark was portrayed as too conflicted. Even though we all know ten years of Bruce gallivanting around in Europe learning kung fu and what-not would have been excruciating, at least Bruce as such a conflicted character would’ve worked better than Clark.

The villians...well, we all know about the Joker. He’s one of the best villians in comics, a perfect contrast to Batman. Some the best, darkest Batman tales center around the Joker as a villain, but he shouldn’t overshadow some of the other members of Batman’s rouge’s gallery. Tragic villians like Mr. Freeze work just as well against Batman as outright crazies like the Joker. Mr. Freeze is a villian I'd like to see more in comics. Let me say that again, in the comics, Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mr. Freeze in Batman and Robin scared me for life. Once again, I go for the more complex characters with depth. Freeze’s psychosis has a more believable cause than many of Batman’s other villains, his love for his dead/dying wife (I'm not sure...is she dead at this point in the continuity?) drives him to do what he does. I’ve only ever seen Freeze in BTAS (Batman: The Animated Series) and in Dave Lapham's Batman: City of Crime (one of my favorite comics, actually) and of course in Batman and Robin, and other than the last example I like what I’ve seen. Freeze's depiction in BTAS was brilliant, and solidified Freeze as one of my favorite villains.

Now, the Riddler to me has always seemed pretty lame..until I read Hush. That book was the first example I’ve seen of the riddle actually using his brains for something other than really stupid, easy riddles. He was the real villain of the story in Hush as far as I’m concerned, Hush himself was pretty disappointing. The final scene where Batman confronts the Riddler about his scheme is one of my favorites. I think he should be used more as a criminal mastermind type villain and less as a crazy waving a gold question mark and a cheesy death trap.

I’m going to do something completely uncharacteristic now. I’m going to complain about all the things I dislike or like slightly less about Batman. I told you I was obsessed, but I’m not blind. First of all, why does he have so many partners/sidekicks? There are what, four robins now, Huntress, Azreal (I know he died..but with the new 52 who knows how his story’s been contorted.), several batgirls, Catwoman, Spoiler..you get the idea. The best Batman stories in my opinion are the ones where he works alone and maybe calling on the Batfam for help in a few situations.

I understand the idea of him building an adopted family after having his childhood taken away from him, and I get that sometimes he does need a robin, but it’s just a little too over the top for me. For one, how does a robin relate in any possible way to a bat? How is a robin even supposed to be intimidating? I guess if I got to know the robins better that I might empathize a little more with them. I’m usually pretty good at reading up on a character I haven’t met before, but suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Don’t worry about continuity, trust me; I’ll understand pretty much anything that’s going on in a DC book.

Another thing that bugs me is the cape, it’s a great effect and I love when he swoops down on some unsuspecting goon with his cape spreading out behind him just as much as anyone, but it’s incredibly impractical. For a character like Superman, a cape doesn’t really matter that much because he’s invulnerable, but Batman’s human. Batman looks just as cool without a cape, just look at Terry’s costume in Batman Beyond. A cape is a serious hindrance, especially when it seems to spontaneously change length. In The Long Halloween, for example, there are a few panels where in the previous panel his cape was all the way to the floor and swirling as if it were alive, and then in the next panel it’s ankle length. I know it’s Tim Sale’s artwork, and he is one of my favorite artists, but I’m OCD and little details like that bother me. Don’t get me wrong, I love the effect his cape has, but I can’t quite suspend my disbelief in that respect. I don’t know, it’s kind of a pointless subject to rant about. Capes and superheroes just go together, especially in the DCU.

There are pros and cons to Supes and Bats, but you’ve got to love them. They’re two classic characters it’s impossible to resist.

/endrant

P.S. You know what’s funny. My rant about Batman wasn’t nearly as long as Superman’s. Hmmm.