WHY CRUEL WORLD

Dear Wal, 

I officially hate DC comics.Why?For a variety of reasons.They were already on thin ice with me because of the undoing of Oracle and the taking of Martian Manhunter out of the JLA, and the JLA’s origin in general. Darkseid is not the right villain for the JLA to first encounter in a story. I mean, the guy is pretty much the comic book equivalent of Hades only ten times worse and combined with your worst nightmares. He’s a freaking god, he’s not a good first villain! He's meant for when the League is more seasoned and has defeated other formidable villains…slightly less formidable that Darkseid, of course. You know, invading aliens, Brainiac, beings from the fifth dimension, take your pick. My personal favorite origin of the JLA is the animated series version, where J'on comes to Earth to warn Earth of a coming invasion by an alien force (pseudo White Martians) that destroyed Marz, and the JLA ends up banding together to defeat the threat.
Now, I can deal with a little fiddling with my favorite characters. Honestly, I can deal with a lot of fiddling. I’ll read or watch anything DC related, no matter how terrible. I always manage to see the good in most DC comics. I can live with Oracle becoming Batgirl if it was done right, I can live with J’on being on a different super team if the team was ridiculously awesome, I can live with Darkseid being horribly misplaced simply because it’s the JLA, but I can’t live with not having access to the comic books themselves.Let me explain.DC took all their comics off the Kindle Fire, right after I finally got one and finally had access to any comic book I could possibly think of. JUST THE KINDLE FIRE. WHY? WHY? WHY? I have no other way to access DC comics. There are no comic book stores around where I live, and I can't buy the comics directly through Comixology. The Kindle Fire was the only way for me to access comics. They took my freedom away. No, they didn't just take it away: they ground it up and stomped it out and burned it before throwing the ashes into the sun.I don’t understand why they keep doing things like this. The New 52 is all about appealing to new readers, right? How can you appeal to new readers if you insist on selling through failing comic book stores? (Sadly, the comic book store is going the way of the dinosaur these days.) Stores are in limited supply anyway. The nearest comics store where I live is about an hour’s drive away. Digital comics is the only real option to carry comics into the future. (THE FUUUTUUUURE O:)I know there are other tablets besides the Fire, but at the moment I don’t care! I finally had a way to access comics without having to drive an hour away or pay overpriced prices for comics on Amazon itself and now it’s gone. I still have all of Marvel and Dynamite, though. Both of which show no signs of making any bird-brained DC moves.Another thing that has always annoyed me (and this doesn’t have to do with DC so much as Warner Brothers) is that you can’t watch any of the DCAU shows on Netflix, or Amazon Prime, or anything. You have to get them on DVD if you want to watch them. I haven’t been able to find any channels that show BTAS or JL anymore. I can deal with that. But this thing with the Kindle is about the last straw.If I wasn’t so addicted to the characters, I would totally boycott DC right now. But I can’t give up my precious Batman and JLA. Oh, and I just re-discovered the Question as well. Sigh. It never ends.At least I still have Daredevil, who’s actually looking up for once. Good old Daredevil.
 /endrant

P.S. The discovering that the DC comic store not working on my Kindle was actually permanent ruined my entire day. I called Watson up specifically to wail in despair.  

First Day of School

Dear Wal,

Yesterday was my first day of school. It started out pretty well. I got up really early so I could chill out and watch GMM and have time to wake up. I didn't sleep very well, though, or very long. I was too busy being worried, I guess. Anyway, I spent most of the morning being distracted by the DCAU while trying to work on an English project that was supposed to be due that day. I was almost finished with it-I only had a few chapters left to read in my book-but luckily my teacher extended the deadline because there were some people who didn't even know that there was a summer reading assignment. Fun stuff. Thankfully, it's an online class so I don't have to deal with all the drama that usually surrounds English class.
Then I went to Biology class, which wasn't very eventful. Austin and I finished about twenty minutes before everyone else, so we sat and made faces at each other across the table. He kept trying to steal my pen. We were really, really bored. I kept wanting to play with my pencil but putting it down because that sort of thing annoys Watson. (She wasn't in my class-but she has me trained anyway.)
After that I had lunch. Lots of fruits and vegetables, as usual. I tend to get cramps while running if I'm not careful about what I eat during the day. It took me about a month to figure this out. After lunch I finished my biology homework and German homework (yes, I'm taking German IV-this may or may not be a mistake.) and continued working on my English project. I finished it..and then started goofing off. I was pretty much brain dead at this point. Hence the creation of this and yesterday's post. Anyway.
After that we who have to ride the bus went over to the highschool. We ride the bus to the highschool, and then have to wait until the highschool gets out before we can go get on the bus again and ride home. Some of us have to change buses three or four times in order to get home. It can get pretty insane.
We sat in the cafeteria (I lead all the clueless freshmen through the highschool, Austin kept trying to get them lost) and played Uno until it was time to leave. Then I lead the freshmen back to where the buses were, and left for the cross country bus. I had a really good run that day (I ran four miles) but my knee started to hurt after a while. It's got me all freaked out. I don't know what I'm going to do if I have to quit cross country. I've become addicted.
Overall, it was a pretty good day as far as first days go. Tuesday really sucked, though. I was really tired all day. I need to start going to bed earlier....like that's ever going to happen.

/endrant

First Meet of the Year

Dear Wal,

On Saturday I went and did something most people would consider incredibly stupid. I went and ran a 5K race against 50 or 60 other girls. There was lots of traffic. I thought for the longest time while I was running that I wasn't going to make it all the way, and I really wanted to make it to the end. I hate having to stop and walk when I run, because I know that once I do, I'm done. I don't have anything left after that point, and I'm never able to drag myself back from the shame of having to give up because it was too hard, too hot, too painful: whatever it happens to be. So, I just keep running. And that's exactly what I did during this meet. I just kept running, and it was awesome.
First of all, I passed a bunch of people, which I never used to be able to do. It used to be that I was always dead last in every race I ran. I really sucked. It was depressing. I didn't improve very much because it was so depressing. This year, however, I've been running all summer so I'm more than prepared to race this year. I'm feeling much better about my speed, too. I ran the 5K this weekend in 32 minutes, a modest time for most cross country runners, but an absolutely amazing time for me. It was awesome.
I had to get up at about six in order to go to the meet-it was brutal. Six in the morning on a Saturday, not my favorite thing to do. I was grouchy the whole ride over to the place where we were running. When Jonathon (another runner on my team) got on the bus he moaned: "Why is the world up this early!" I think that pretty much sums it up. I had a really long time to wait for my race because it was last, and thankfully I had the wisdom to bring my history book so I would have something to read. I got a lot of weird looks. Most kids run cross country as an escape from having to do schoolwork in the evening. I'm a book worm, and besides I can't just sit and do nothing for three hours. It drives me crazy having to sit still and do nothing for more than ten minutes.
Anyway, I had a great time, even though Watson couldn't come because of an injury. (She thinks she pulled a muscle.) I don't know that many people on the team, because they all go to the highschool and I go to the Early College, but I had fun anyway.

/endrant

P.S. No pictures again because Dad takes a while to process them. I'll have to update this with pictures soon. Oh, and I sat on a banana peel.

Fence Update

Dear Wal,

Yesterday morning I went out to make sure the fence was working, because Buzzy got out again (of course). And of course, it wasn't working. I knew everything on the fence end of the circuit was working fine because I had been over it about sixty times. However, I hadn’t even looked at the charger’s end of the circuit. When I checked it, I discovered why it wasn’t working.

Both wires, the ground and the wire that’s supposed to electrify the fence, were connected to the ground. Everything was corroded nearly off of its connections, and to top it all off the wire leading from the charger to the fence had broken. I attempted to fix all of this, but then promptly gave up when I got to the part where I had to splice the wire. I can fix electric fence, but I can’t splice a normal insulated wire. It’s sad. I know how to now, at least.

Anyway, once Dad got home we went out and fixed all of the problems I mentioned above and made it so all the wiring and such wouldn’t get wet. The problem was, once we set all this up we discovered that the lightning arrestor wasn’t working either. It had been blown out. Probably in one of the numerous storms we’ve had over the summer.

So, now we have to get a new lighting arrestor and then I have to go around the circumference of the fence and make sure nothing is touching it/everything is a complete circuit. It’s actually kind of satisfying-in a cleaning-the-house kind of way. You’re proud of it when you’re done, but you still hate it.

I realize that for some people this is all gibberish. Let me explain.

The ‘ground’ I spoke of before is a wire that runs to a metal post that’s sunk into the ground. This is what keeps your wiring and your charger safe. The charge goes out from the charger, through the fence and into the ground before dissipating harmlessly into the earth. Another wire goes from the charger to the fence, and on that wire you have the lightning arrestor. It’s this funny looking thing that blows out like a fuse when the fence get’s hit by lightning, so that your charger doesn’t explode. And trust me, it will explode. From the other end of the arrestor goes the wire that connects to the fence.

You have to make sure however many strands of wire you have on your fence-two or three usually-are all connected to the wire from the charger. Then you have to make sure that the strands of fence aren’t touching the post/have sticks laying on them/have things growing on them or else your fence will ‘ground out.’ Meaning that the charge will go into the ground and not around your fence and into the ground next to the charger like you want it too. This is very scientific stuff.

/endrant

P.S. I’m a fencing nerd. D8

My Horse is Like a Toddler

Dear Wal,

Let me explain. It's impossible for him to concentrate on anything for more than thirty seconds, and he's deathly afraid of the weirdest things. Not as weird as some of the things Montana is afraid of (large, brightly colored objects) but still exceedingly strange. He is also wickedly smart. Take the fence.
Now let me preface this by saying that yesterday we had a huge crisis over him in the fence. He's too smart for it. He knows that he can just push through it. We have electric fence, exceptionally flimsy electric fence, and we also live in the middle of a thickly wooded forest. So the fence doesn't always work, even when you maintain it (which doesn't happen very often because it's such a huge pain) sometimes it just doesn't work. Anyway, Buzzy has discovered that the fence is flimsy and that even if it shocks him he can just keep going through it and it will break and no longer shock him. There was a very long process before we got to this point.
First, he got out a few times in a place where the line on the fence was just a wire that was pretty hard to see. I figured he just didn't see it and hit it full speed by accident (the fence wasn't working at this point), so I put up a visible cord on it so he could see it. Then he took that down too. At this point I knew he was doing this on purpose. This happened over about a week. I didn't want to have to go around and wack down all the things growing on the fence and fiddle and fiddle until it worked, because that takes at least a day, sometimes two. So, I just kept fixing it when he got out. I figured out that he wouldn't bother the stuff that was tight, so I did that to the place where he was getting out. A day or two passed. Then he got out again. By this point, school had come around and I was at my wit's end about what to do. I had to spend a day or two at school waiting for my textbooks to arrive for my college classes, and the situation detiorated. Parents became frustrated. Explosion followed...while Watson was over at my house. Talk about bad timing.
I even repaired the fence so that the part where he kept getting out was electrified, and there was still a huge argument, totally avoidable on both sides. I won't go into details. The electified part of the fence didn't even stop Buzzy. He still went through it. I don't know what to do. All I can think of is that the fence wasn't working when I thought it actually was. Next time I'll touch it myself and see...I kinda chickened out the first time.
Also, this time around I'm going to try and work on Buzzy psychologically. I know from his personality that he needs a job, he needs entertainment. So I'm going to try to ride him almost every day. Another thing that I've noticed is that he gets out around feeding time. I think I'm feeding them too late. I usually feed them around 8:30 in the evening. Probably too late. So I have to get them fed before cross country practice. I don't know how the whole riding and feeding business is going to work out when practice moves up to 4:30 instead of 6:00. Preferably, running is the last thing I like to do in the day, because I'm about dead by the end of it.
Anyway, I'm going to try and keep him entertained and child-proof everything. I have to make sure all plastic and tools and things are out of the way or else they will end up stomped around in his stall or knocked over. Sometimes I find his halter laying in his stall (it hangs right next to his door). What he does is he grabs it and twirls it around.
So as you can see, my horse is a pest. But he's very cute.

/endrant

Batman Fanfiction Continued Again

Dear Wal,

I promise this is the end. I realize I have been bombarding people with Batman related stuff..but, sadly, this is my life. Batman, horses and writing alternating is basically a fact of my existence. Also, yesterday’s post was the first post I presented to the public of google +, so that’s going to be an interesting experience. (I write these posts the day before I post them-so that’s why I’m saying it’s going to be an interesting experience. By the way, I got online today to find that it wasn't interesting at all. It was rather boring.) Anyway, I haven’t talked about the villains yet. Because I’m me and I like to mess with stuff, they aren’t the same as they are in the DCU. I haven’t me-ified all of them, but I have done some things with the first few that show up in Jason’s story.

The Scarecrow

I tried to make him cooler than he is in the comics…because, let’s face it. Scarecrow can be pretty lame. (I don’t know-maybe I just haven’t read the right comics. Suggestions?) Scarecrow in the DCU is a psychiatrist named Jonathon Crane who goes crazy and goes after Batman with fear gas. Because, when anyone goes crazy in Gotham City, they instantly dress up in a costume and go after Batman. It’s a law of the universe.

Anyway, I tried to make him better. It didn’t work to well. Let’s just say he’s still a work in progress. The first thing I did to make him better was re-name him Scream (and now I realize there are what, four of those movies?) because it’s a lot scarier that Scarecrow. Scarecrows are things you would be afraid of as a small child.  Then I took the little scene in The Dark Knight where Scarecrow was selling his fear drug as an actual drug on the street and expanded it. So in my world Crane came up with his fear gas and then promptly became Carmine Falcone before he went crazy and became a supervillian. As I said before, he’s a work in progress. At this point, his costume consists of a trench coat. It’s depressing.

The Joker

There is no Joker in my universe. (DUN DUN DUUUUUUN!) This operates on the logic that there isn’t much point to a Joker without Bruce Wayne as Batman. Think of Terry from Batman Beyond. It doesn’t work as well when Batman is hilarious and bouncy. Bruce just can’t take a joke-let’s face it. As Superman said in Public Enemies in reference to Bruce’s lack of a sense of humor: Do us all a favor and buy one.

But you see, Jason has to have some sort of arch nemesis. So I did some fiddling with the major differences that spawned all the other changes in my universe. As you should understand by this point, Batman didn’t exist to stop people like Scream/Scarecrow when they showed up, so the city fell into decay and spawned the supervillian crime wave. Oh, the irony. (Why is it ironic? Because in the comics there’s always been a theory that Batman’s appearance was what created the Joker and all the other supervillains. When you think about it, it makes sense.) That, basically, changes the entire story.

The second big difference is that there’s an extra character that isn’t in the DCU. A character of my own design. This character used to be Tom, until I took the leap of pulling him out of this fanfiction and putting him into his own story. Alright, Joker origin time. He was originally this guy called the Red Hood, and he got into a battle against Batman in Ace Chemicals. He ran out onto a walkway and became tangled in his cape, and fell over the railing into a vet of toxic waste. Batman wasn’t fast enough to catch him. And of course, no one knew who the Red Hood was (because…well, he wore a red hood) so no one knows who the Joker is. Ignore Tim Burton’s version. It’s wrong.

In my world there was a Red Hood, but when he was battling Batman (Jason Todd Batman-gosh, this is complicated) in Ace Chemicals he was shot by this cop before he fell in the toxic waste. Now, I know in the normal DCU that wouldn’t stop him from coming back to life and becoming the Joker. In my world you get superpowers/mutations if you fall in toxic waste, but if you get shot and then you fall into toxic waste, you’re dead. It’s a law of the universe people. Anyway, the cop who shot the Red Hood is my extra character. Somehow he is going to be involved with Jason’s arch nemesis. I haven’t decided yet.

Mister Freeze

I’ve always felt bad for Mister Freeze. I came to know of Mister Freeze through Batman: The Animated Series. A very good way to be introduced to Mister Freeze, by the way. He was a molecular biologist named Victor Fries who specialized in cryogenics, and his wife-Nora-had this terminal disease (it’s not really specified) so he froze her to keep her alive until he could find a cure. But everything goes wrong and there’s an accident (of course) in which he’s mutated so that he can’t survive outside of a special suite in anything but sub-zero temperatures. His wife is eventually shattered by the mob.

In the animated series, he’s a very tragic character. I’ve always felt bad for him. A victim of circumstance. So, naturally I made his life better. His wife survived her terminal disease due to a treatment developed by Wayne Enterprises (because, since Bruce wasn’t off becoming a ninja he actually had time to set up programs for that sort of thing) and they lived happily ever after. Victor Fries retired his molecular biology stuff and became a professor at Gotham University, where Jason happened to be going at the time.

Eventually something even more tragic does happen to him, and he becomes Mister Freeze, but I haven’t figured out what yet. There are so many gaps in this story that I haven’t decided/figured out yet. It’s sad.

Catwoman

Now, we all know about Catwoman. Catwoman-Selina Kyle, master thief. I think I may have messed up her character a little. Lack of research, what can I say. I need to explain Jason’s origin before I go on to her first, because otherwise this won’t make any sense. Just roll with it.

Jason is basically a science experiment-he can shapeshift, he has nightvision and telepathy. Woot. What happened was, he was in the process of stealing a tire off of as-yet-undecided supervillain’s car when the car’s owner showed up and got an idea. So, the supervillain took Jason and did experiments/ had experiments done on him to give him superpowers and teach him awesome martial arts/detective skills and things. He’s like Jason Bourne/Wolverine. I used the same experimentation concept for Catwoman. She’s actually a cat woman, or woman cat. Whatever. Everything else about her is essentially the same.

….And that’s pretty much it. I can’t believe I finally got to the end of this explanation.

/endrant

Batman Fanfiction Continued

Dear Wal,

Hopefully I will be able to finish explaining my parallel universe in this post and not have to write a third installment. Otherwise, this is going to be a very long three days for you poor readers. I have worked hard on this universe, and it has many levels of parallel-ness, hence why it's taking so long to explain. Not only that, but I also have to explain the original material. Well, I don't have to. But how else will anyone understand?

Anyway, I'm going to continue telling you about my little herd of superheroes. Alright, to start this off I have to tell you I used to despise sidekicks, with all my heart. Robin used to drive me nuts, I only learned stuff stuff about Robin because otherwise I wouldn't understand what was happening in the comics. Seriously, it gets confusing otherwise. I decided in my parallel universe there wasn't going to be a Robin, so instead I made up another vigilante character who's actually his own hero. His superhero identity is Falcon (not talking about the one with red wings and a pet bird) and his real name is Tommy Elliot. Now, who is Tommy Elliot in the normal DC universe, you might ask, because he has to be someone important.

In the DCU, Tommy Elliot is a childhood friend of Bruce who decided to get revenge on Bruce because he had the life Tommy never got. He tried to kill his parents as a child by cutting the breaklines in their car so he would inherit his father's money. His father died, but Thomas Wayne was able to save his mother. (Thomas Wayne was a doctor.) However, Tommy's mom goes crazy and drives him nuts for the rest of his childhood. She tries to cut him out of the will, and he kills her before she can make a new will. At this point he's pretty fed up with his life, and decides to go after Bruce because he's jealous of Bruce's parents dying and him having his parent's money, his freedom etc. Which is funny, because Bruce's life sucks. So, naturally, he takes up the identity of Hush and goes up against Batman. Of course, he loses.

I decided to try and resurrect him (same way I did Jason) and make him more realistic (which I didn't do with Jason)...I mean, a kid cutting the break lines of his parents car? Instead, I made it so he shot his dad (because his dad was a gambler and a drunk; he gambled a good bit of the family fortune away) to protect his mother. Because his dad went into a flying rage and almost killed his mom. And then after that his mom went crazy and he was tempted to kill her but didn’t. I think it makes for a better character. Hush (from the DCU) was unbalanced to me. I mean, a kid who’s smart enough to cut the brake lines of his parent’s car in order to shift the blame from him grows up to be an adult completely possessed by revenge who has to employ (SPOILER ALERT!) the Riddler in order to get his revenge. His brains must have decayed as he aged.

Anyway, Tommy ended up being Jason’s roommate in college (Tommy in my world is younger than he is in the DCU) and he found out Jason was Batman because Jason hit the wrong button on his speed dial.

Now I have to tell you about my JLA. For one thing, the whole world knows that Superman and Clark Kent are one and the same. He went out on his first day as Superman, and when he came to work the next morning with his glasses on everyone just recognized him. Not only does this make more sense, it makes for some interesting storytelling. What would a Superman who could literally never escape the public eye be like? (Well, there’s the Fortress of Solitude, but you get the idea.)

Next, there’s Green Arrow, or rather Green Hood in my world. In my story, the Green Arrow died, leaving his daughter to take up his mantle. I haven’t done Green Arrow research yet, so I don’t know exactly who Hood is going to be yet. Anyway, the first JLA story of mine is told entirely from her point of view. For once, the minor superhero gets to tell the story.

Then we have the Martian Manhunter, who’s one of my favorite characters in the DCU. He’s a Martian, what’s not to love? I need to do some research for him as well, but he plays a much bigger part in the JLA than he does in most of the comics I’ve read. It’s more like the way the animated TV show was set up, where his character actually has depth. Other than some costume changes, his character is pretty much the same in my world. I haven’t done enough research to do anything creative with him yet. However, I did actually give the JLA an origin.

For some reason, pre-new 52 DC comics didn’t have a definite origin for the JLA. (New 52-the most recent reboot of DC comics.) They actually did an origin for the new 52, but I don’t like it. For one thing, Martian Manhunter isn’t in the JLA anymore, which I don’t appreciate, and having Darkseid as a first threat to face is complete crap. (Darkseid is basically the equivalent of Hades in the DCU.) I’ll rant about that another day.

I used the animated show’s origin (because I came up with this before the new 52) because I’m very fond of that show, but changed it a bit. Instead of Mars being dead when J’on (J’on J'onzz-Martian Manhunter’s real name) came to Earth, it was still fighting against the White Martians and they’re trying to keep the White Martians from reaching Earth and trying to destroy it.

In the DCU, there are White Martians and Green Martians. The White Martians are the evil warrior race of Martians and the Green Martians are the ‘civilized’ Martians.

Anyway, they do this because they knew Earth didn’t have very advanced technology yet (i.e. force fields, plasma weapons etc.). Damage control, in other words. Plus, this is basically the very last thing they can do to stop-or at least delay-the White Martians. As you can see, there is a lot more going on here than just an alien invasion. The Martian Manhunter ends up having to play ambassador between Mars and Earth, and then the JLA goes off to save Earth and Mars in an epic battle in space. Well, most probably an epic battle in space. I haven’t made up my mind yet.

I’m going to cut this off now. This is going to end up being three parts long.

/endrant

P.S. Sorry I haven't posted in three days. Been very, very busy. 

Batman Fanfiction

Dear Wal,

Since I seem to be on a streak of Batman themed posts, why not top it all off with the best? It's finally time to reveal why I tout my Batman fanfic as being completely, ridiculously awesome. First some Batman lore, because otherwise you won't understand what in the world I’m talking about. You just won’t. I’ve experienced this before, many times. Anyway.

Everyone knows Batman was created when Bruce Wayne’s parents were shot before his eyes one dark night in the heart of Gotham City. If you don’t, then you’ve just been educated. If it wasn’t for that night, Batman would not exist. It’s upon this principle that my entire fanfiction hinges. Because, in my parallel universe, Bruce Wayne isn’t Batman. He isn’t Batman not because his parents weren’t shot that night (that would be too kind >D), it’s because he was shot too. Don’t worry, he isn’t dead. He’s paralyzed. (I’m evil, I know.) Now, I didn’t just make this up from my mind. This is a reference to a certain Killing Joke.

The Killing Joke is a book written by Alan Moore, where the Joker shoots Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) to get at Jim Gordon. She ends up in a wheelchair and becomes Oracle, basically totally awesome tech support for Batman. In my world, Oracle basically came first, because Bruce couldn’t go out and fight crime as Batman. How is this possible you ask? Oracle is essentially Batman’s super computer version of Wikipedia. She can use her tech to find out whatever Batman needs to know in his crime fighting, so he doesn’t have to run back to the Batcave every time he needs to google something. Plus, she’s a hacker and a genius with computers. Need a computer virus to take out the massive evil computer network being used by Brainiac to take over the world? No problem!

So, since there isn’t any Batman in my world at this point in the story, Bruce Wayne is Oracle for the police. And the police don’t fail at life in my story. They actually win sometimes. Now you may ask, where does this leave Barbara Gordon in this strange parallel world of yours? Barbara Gordon is police commissioner of Gotham City, after her father Jim Gordon, who died in the line of duty. Don’t ask me how he died, I don’t know. All I know was that it was in the line of duty. Presumably it was partially because Batman wasn’t there to save him. Barbara Gordon as Commissioner is much better than Barbara Gordon as Batgirl.

Onward. My world does have a Batman, and-as we’ve now established-he isn’t Bruce Wayne. He’s one of the Robins, and he’s not the one you might think he is. You notice I say ‘Not the ONE’ suggesting that there is more than one. There is. Four of them to be exact (not counting TDKReturns and other non-continuity stories).

Dick Grayson

Dick Grayson as Nightwing

He was an acrobat in a circus. He belonged to a family of acrobats, actually. And they were all murdered before his eyes. Someone tampered with the lines during a performance where they were doing flips and things without a net, and his whole family ended up falling to their deaths except him. Bruce Wayne happened to be in the audience, and took Dick under his wing in order to prevent him from ending up like Bruce. Don’t worry, I don’t understand it either. Anyway, Dick Grayson became Robin and then became Nightwing after that. Nightwing is cooler than Robin.

Jason Todd dies

Jason Todd

He was a street kid living in Park Row, and eventually became Robin after Batman caught him stealing tires off the batmobile. His mother was a drug addict, and his father was a Two-Face thug. He wasn’t Robin for very long. He was a pretty sucky Robin. Anyway, the Joker killed him. And then he was resurrected by Ras al Ghul and became the Red Hood. He turned evil. It was bad.

Tim Drake as Red Robin

Tim Drake

He’s the son of Jack Janet Drake, another rich family like the Waynes. He figured out who Batman and Robin (Dick Greyson Robin) were. He also noted how violently out of control Batman was after Jason died, and decided to do something about it. In this way he eventually became Robin. (The “Batman needs a robin” reasoning comes from Tim.) His father and his girlfriend died (one of the batgirls-although I understand she came back to life somehow, CON-TI-NU-I-TY!) This was after he became Robin, for a change. And eventually became Red Robin. I dislike Red Robin. How unoriginal can you get? At least Dick did something creative.

Damien Wayne as Robin

Damien Wayne

And this brings us to the present. Damien is actually Bruce’s son, in a very sort of convoluted fashion. Talia al Ghul stole Bruce’s DNA and genetically engineered a child with his DNA and her DNA. Then she trained him to be an evil ninja assassin and showed up with him one day. He became Robin because there really wasn’t anything else for him to do. It was either that, or go out into Gotham on his own and murder people. He’s pretty dark. He’s also very short.

There you go people. That’s the basic run down of the Robins. All the parts that’re important to my parallel universe, in any case. (Things get complicated after Damien. You don’t want to know.) So, who is my Batman? He’s not Dick or Tim or Damien (Damien doesn’t even exist in this universe), he’s Jason Todd. I’m going out on a limb here, because for the most part in DC parallel universe stories (at least the ones I’ve encountered) Dick Greyson is the only Robin mentioned or used in the story. Jason Todd is usually just ‘the Robin that died.’

I decided to try to resurrect his character so he wasn’t evil. This was around the time that I saw Batman: the Red Hood the movie. That first scene killed me. And I knew what the plot of the movie was already. Anyway, Jason Todd is my Batman. And that isn’t all. He’s a wise-cracking, swashbuckling (NOT silver age style, people) Batman. At one point (day before yesterday-I changed things) he had powers but then I changed my mind. I’m still working the kinks out. Anyway, he’s all the Robins combined into a Batman. He has awesome fighting skills and acrobatic skills and deductive skills and just plain awesome. Bruce is his oracle/mentor person. Sort of like Terry McGinnis off of Batman Beyond. 

However, I haven’t left Dick and Tim out of my universe either. Dick became a master thief, because he fell in with the mob after his family was killed (because Bruce wasn’t there to help him) and went straight to the Nightwing stage. Tim Drake figured out who Nightwing was and decided to try to bring him back to the good side of the force. Batman runs into them eventually, I haven’t figured that out yet.

Now you’re familiar with most of my Bat-fam. 

I think I might turn this into two parts because it’s becoming so long. I’m not finished yet. Not even close.

/endrant

P.S. There was something I was supposed to add at the end of this post. I thought of it last night and decided to remember it by thinking "Terry needs to ______." However, I can't remember what he needed to do now.

Arkham City Sequel/Prequel

Dear Wal,

I've heard the rumors about a silver age themed prequel, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. Let me educate you in the silver age era of Batman comics. It produced things like this:

Yeah. It was bad. Trust me, you don't want to know. I don't think I have to explain all the reasons why a campy Batman game would not go over well, even to casual Batfans (if there is such a thing). It just wouldn't work. Now, elements from the silver age redone and modernized can work. Case in point: Batman R.I.P. By elements of the silver age, I mean Batman vs. aliens or giant bugs and Ace the Bat-Hound or Batman going to a planet where humans get powers like Superman (Batman of Earth X). Basically as weird and bizarre as you can possibly conceive of.
In R.I.P (you've heard me talk about this book before, I'm sure) Grant Morrison (he's a freaking genius) used the Zur-En-Arrh Batman (Batman of Earth X I mentioned earlier) as a sort of back up personality if Bruce was ever pushed over the edge. And boy, was he. Anyway, Zur-En-Arrh is from the silver age. The idea of the other Batman inspired superheroes from around the world in R.I.P.'s prequel the Black Glove is another idea from the silver age. The Black Glove (as a group of villains) itself is very silver age-esc, especially the twist at the end of R.I.P. with Thomas Wayne. I won't spoil it.
Anyway, it depends on whether the prequel is going to be truly set in the silver age, where Batman is campy and horrible, or if it's going to take a storyline from the silver age and then modernize it. Arkam-ize it. I need to get to the point of this post. Here is what I want out of an Arkham City sequel. Enough of this prequel nonsense.
First of all, there were so many awesome leads into possible future plots for a sequel. Hush in the identity theft sidemission, Azreal's prophecy, the Red Hood (since we can be reasonably sure that Jason did die in the Arkham-verse), Black Mask escaping, all kinds of stuff. It could set up for another incredible game, this time in the actual Gotham City.

Free Roam
I know Arkham City was fairly free roam style play, but there were still limits and old Gotham seemed very small. Not that it wasn't awesome. But I've always, in City and Asylum, looked out at actual Gotham in longing. I want to be able to run around in Gotham or drive the batmobile or the batwing. Like Lego Batman 2 but better. Also, I want to be able to go in at least a majority of the buildings, not just one or two like in Arkham City.The ones you can't go in, you should at least be able to see in through the windows

They could do some really great things with this-famous landmarks of Gotham from movies, TV, the comics. It would be cool if you could fight the glow-in-the-dark mob from Batman Forever.

Side Missions

More side missions! I enjoyed being able to do other stuff after the actual storyline was over. It was like reading a one-shot comic after the huge summer-long epic story arc. Only, I wasn’t reading it, I was actually in it. Best part of the Arkham games. Anyway. More side missions and more detective work to go with the size of the city, and more opportunities to stop random crime. Sort of like the quests and things on Skyrim. (That’s the kind of thing I’m thinking of for these two things.) Not on that huge of a scale, since it’s just one city, but still.

Multiplayer

This is my one major complaint from the two Arkham games. They were both one player. Now, I understand Batman is supposed to be a solo act (Which, when you think about it, is really funny because I’m pretty sure he has the biggest group of sidekicks/associates in superhero comics.) but I can’t show off the awesomeness of the Arkham games to people unless they actually play it, and then it’s no fun because then I’m just sitting there watching them. In other words, I want to be able to drag Watson around Gotham City with me. We would have way too much fun.

Riddler Trophies

I love the Riddler trophies/puzzles/riddles. They provide hours of (sometimes extremely frustrating) entertainment after you've finished the story line of the game. The Riddler rooms in City were a great expansion from Asylum. Maybe the same idea could be applied to a third game, where instead of rooms there were mazes or something, and more puzzle solving involved in getting the trophies. 

Tools

My only complaint with these games as far as tools go is that you don't have any exploding batarangs! They were always my favorite took from the animated series and the Justice League show. I think City pretty much covers every tool or category of tool Batman uses in the comics (except for the really wonky one-time-use tools). 

Combat System

I thought the special moves on City would be hard for me to learn, but I actually figured them out fairly quickly. It's a very simple system to learn. The tools are still a bit of a problem for me, though. So maybe there could be an easier way to use them in combat (although, I don't know what else you could do; pretty much every button on the controller is already taken up). 

Plot

 I would just be happy if they tied up the Hush plot at the end of City. I spazzed out from excitement when he showed up as Bruce Wayne’s double. It would also be cool to have the Riddler step as a serious threat, as he did in Hush in the comics, and end up to be the one behind everything all along. That was the best reveal ever.

Maybe the Riddler could be doing his same old thing with his trophies and puzzles and riddles (it would be cool if the Riddler rooms were expanded into, say, Riddler mazes or something) and you think; “Oh, this is just like Arkham City only expanded. I got it.” And then, WHAM, it comes out of nowhere that the Riddler was behind it all along. The Riddler has so much potential for awesome, but he always ends up being depicted as silly and cheesy.

/endrant

P.S. Didn't post yesterday because the internet was being annoying. I could barely get blogger to load, let alone the editor. I was going on such a long streak of posts too.

Batman Video Game Adventures

Dear Wal,

I have had many adventures in Batman games. I now own Arkham City, Arkham Asylum, Lego Batman and Lego Batman 2 for the xbox. I've played through Arkham Asylum at least five times (I was obsessed with that game), I nearly finished Lego Batman before I got bored, I've finished everything but the stealth challenges on Arkham City, and I got Lego Batman 2 like three days ago soo... I've had lots of Batman adventures on the xbox. My parents have spent a lot of time watching me play these games. It's usually an extremely entertaining experience.
I played Lego Batman in my noob days, so I didn't get as much out of it as I did the other games, but it was hilarious. Batman as a lego. A cute, adorable lego Batman who can't talk. Let's just say, I had way too much fun. And I fell into toxic waste. A lot. And I got really confused on most if not all of the puzzles. I tend to understand very complicated things completely and then completely miss the really simple things. Anyway. Lego Batman, gotta love it. Now when I went on to play Lego Batman 2, I still sucked at puzzles. Really badly. But Superman helped. It always helps to be invulnerable.  Well, almost invulnerable. Let me just say this about Lego Batman 2: I loved it. It completely tops the first game. You can fly! There's an actual city! Loved it. I had way too much fun watching Batman complain about being flown around (He's always doing that.) and yeah. Getting off subject. Am I? There wasn't much of a subject in the first place. It's after midnight people, give me a break. Anyway.
Puzzles are hard. There was this one puzzle in Ace Chemicals that took me about thirty minutes to figure out. You had to use Robin's hazard suit thing to suck up the right colors of toxic waste and shoot it at the same colored pipes. Simple enough, right? Wrong. First of all, I accidentally ice breathed two pools of toxic waste into water. I didn't even know you could do that. And then once I found the other pools of toxic waste (Apparently you're supposed to ice breath the other ones. Who knew.) I shot the wrong color waste into the wrong pipe. Then I ran around for twenty minutes trying to figure out how to open the pipes again. Batman kept getting in the lava and dying. I griped at him but he still did it. Anyway. I finally figured out how to open the pipes and very carefully shot the right color toxic waste into the matching pipe.
Another thing I kept doing was I kept trying to use my Arkham City controls to do things. Like countering the goons when they punch you, using the triggers to use batarangs/birdangs and trying to use detective mode. I kept wishing for detective mode.  It would have been so much easier if the bits of the puzzles I needed to be able to work were highlighted in orange.
There were others I just couldn't figure out. I miss the most obvious things, like the grapple on the spinny-electricuty thing in the truck. That took me about fifteen minutes and like seventy tries of gliding across that gap (BTW you can't do that) to figure out. Once I did it was a piece of cake. To try and alleviate all the trouble I have with these puzzles, I have developed a system. Explode all the things. Try all the suits. Fly Superman around everywhere to find things. Check and double check and triple check for grapples and grapple handles (or whatever they're called). I ran around for forever in the level where the Batcave was invaded by Lex and the Joker because I didn't see the grapple handle. There were so many weird glitches. i don't even know.
Superman kept getting stuck, just frozen in mid-air, while I was chasing the giant Joker bot (the first time). Oh, by the way, I can't believe Batman had to call in the JLA just for a giant robot, and that I didn't even get to play Martian Manhunter. He's an essential part of the JLA! He doesn't just run the Watchtower! Who else on the team is a telepath? Nobody! Ugh. Anyway. Glitches. I had to replay the level where you chase the Lex plane across the city because after I destroyed the helicopters as Superman the next part of the level (where you go under the wing of the plane to take out the engine) wouldn't load for some reason. And then there were all the times the characters got stuck on handles or grapples or balancing on things. It gets pretty confusing when you have three-four superheroes running around behind you getting stuck on things.
Oh and you know what else I did, like a fool? On the first chase through the city (following behind Joker in his boat with the Batwing) I thought you had to spazz-tap in order to make the gun shoot faster, I didn't know you could just hold down the button. So by the end of the level my hand was dead. It was sad. Thankfully I figured this out during the next chase. I over-complicate things so much.
Onward to Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. I have to say I did a lot worse in Asylum than I did in City. I got lost so many times. All of the buildings are labyrinthine mazes, the elevator shaft in Intensive Treatment was particularly confusing for me. It usually took three tries for me to get to the right place from that shaft. The actual story I didn't have too much trouble with, but searching for Riddler trophies was a huge pain. It took me ages just to find my way into a lot of the buildings. There was this one time-I think it was probably the first time I played through the game-when I had to go back to the Batcave after escaping from Croc and I didn't realize I could just go through the sewers to do so, so I went all the way back up to the surface and tried to use the first entrance. It was blocked by Poison Ivy's plants. I literally spent two hours just trying to find the Batcave. I'm such an idiot sometimes.
I didn't have any navigational issues in Arkham City at all. The map was easy, the buildings not as labrynthine this time around, and when you're up in the actual city it isn't hard to navigate at all. Not just because of the giant Batsignal in sky marking where you need to go, but also because there are landmarks. Lots of landmarks. It's not hard to form a mental map of Arkham City. But the first Riddler room I had no end of trouble with. I didn't have any problems finding it, I just couldn't figure out how to get into it. I didn't realize that you could just walk up to the big green question make and press A and then Batman would bust in. I just stood there with detective mode on and stared at the question mark, looking for any cables or terminals or anything. I mean, it's the Riddler. You can't just walk in. Turns out you can. I finally had to look it up on the internet. How sad is that?
One time, Watson was over at my house. She was laying on the couch watching me play Arkham City, and I was playing on game plus. Game plus isn't really that hard, especially if you get good at the combat challenges before you go and play it. Anyway, I had to sneak back into the steel mill to go fight Joker, which meant I had to get past about a million snipers. I hate snipers. I hate being shot at. It always scares the crap out of me. So of course, I was gliding along praying that the snipers wouldn't see me, and one shot at me. He didn't even hit me. And I nearly fell out of my chair with a terrified squeak. Watson busted out laughing.
I later glide kicked the guy that shot at me. DON'T SHOOT AT ME FOOL.
Just a side note before I end this excessively long post, something I noticed that was different in City from Asylum. The freeflow was much smoother and easier to use. In Asylum I couldn't get freeflow to work to save my life. In City I became a master. I even went back and played Asylum after I beat most of the combat challenges on City and found it still to be sticky. Has anyone noticed this?
Wow. This is pitiful. All I ever play are Batman games.

/endrant

P.S. INJUSTICE IS COMING! I can't describe to you how excited I am about this.

My 200 Year Plan

Dear Wal,

First of all, you need to view this in order to understand:

Now that you're properly prepared, I'll tell you my 200 year plan.
---------------
By the time I'm 65 I will have (in no particular order):
1. Invented the warp drive
2. Completed and published my Batman fanfiction as an official DC Elseworlds (Or whatever they call it these days) book
3. Completed and published Tom's science fiction story
4. Completed and published Araucania (fantasy story)
5. Invented a way to instantly transmit my thoughts to typing
6. Been to space
7. Competed in a national championship with Buzzy (...when he's still young)
8. Achieved a 5K time under 30 minutes
9. Gotten a Ph.D. in physics
10. Be able to draw decent superhero comics
11. Still be obsessed with superheroes

These are my life goals people! Anyway.

65-75
Train and take a walking horse to the Olympics (Because by this point there will be gaited horses in the Olympics, oh yes!)

75-85
Explore the galaxy on a spaceship powered by my warp drive

85-90
Return home and take a break...by moving to Montana and riding horses every day :D

90-100
Learn dressage on a trotting horse

100-130 
Invent a flight suit that's light and easy to use (like an antigravity suit or something)

130-150
Live on Mars

150-160
Build a full-scale replica of the Watchtower and start a community in it (superhero nerds only)

160-200
Live peacefully in my Watchtower and write lots of things and ride horses (because, of course, the Watchtower will have it's own stable and perfecting flat, GIGANTIC arena with lots of mirrors) and occasionally take my spaceship to visit the aliens I met on my voyage through the galaxy

200
Die a peaceful death surrounded by friends and family
---------------
And there you have it.

/endrant

The Function in Fanfiction

Dear Wal,

The title rhymes. Ha.
Yesterday I had a revelation...again. My Torchwood fanfic took a turn that wasn't nasty, for once. Usually my stories will turn nasty before they straighten themselves out. Not this time. This time, my fanfiction ramblings with Tom finally straightened themselves out. So, let me explain some things first. Who is Tom? Here comes the reveal, people.
Tom is the infamous Elliot.
I have chosen to reveal this piece of information because Tom has extricated himself from my Batman fanfic. Yes. This is Jason's famed nemesis. Tom Burdock is his name, and he is awesome. Point blank awesome. He has his own story now, and that's why I decided to take him out of my Batman fanfic. Because there was no way the two could coexist in my mind with two versions of Tom. The doubling just doesn't work. I learned this with another story of mine from a long time ago. Story for another day.
So, to solve that problem I took Tom out of that fanfiction but then that left me with another problem. Tom is also in my Torchwood fanfiction. Through events in that fanfiction, his character changes in a way that makes it possible for him to progress in his own story without these events happening in that story. The problem is, those characters aren't mine. That world isn't mine. This may not seem like a problem to some of you, but it is. You see, not only does this cause another doubling in my head if I try to separate the two, it leaves me with the problem of getting Tom back to that point he needs to be in order for his story to progress. Now I come to the point of this point. Why fanfiction is useful. I have talked briefly about fanfiction before, but I didn't really detail why it was so useful. I think it was one of those filler posts I just sort of threw up to have something to post. Anyway.
Fanfiction is useful as a shell, a place to develop an idea or a character or even a world. You take the bits you need to fill in around your idea, and then write the two together. Using someone else's world in your story is like a crutch. It helps your character (in this case, anyway) heal and develop into a whole. Your character, in a way, outgrows the universe you've put him in. Then you get the mess of having the character develop his own story outside of the fanfiction. My friend Watson has this character who has gone through this process. She started out in Watson's favorite fantasy series, and then grew into her own unique story. Several stories, actually. You can read all about that here.
This process happened to Tom. He started out as a villain in my first story, my first real villain, and then he became a villain in my Batman fanfiction and he started to gain dimension. The question of why he was evil started to come up more and more often. He started to gain a back story. There was something in his past for which he had this unfathomable regret, and for a while I just assumed it was all the horrible stuff he put Jason through, and then I figured out that it didn't have anything to do with Jason at all. His wife died...was killed. I don't want to spoil it.
So then after that I put him into his own story. I tried to write his back story-the moment that created him, essentially-in a different world from Gotham City. Really, all I did was change the name of the city and take the original elements of my Batman fanfiction universe and put them into an original world. Anyway, that story failed pretty badly. The source of the problem was actually his wife's killer. I got the identity of the killer waaaay wrong. (I realized this the other day and completely freaked out that I had never noticed this before. Honestly, I have no idea how I messed that up so badly.) I booted that story and started another. Which I rescued from middle age, and then suddenly stopped for no reason. There just wasn't anything else to write.
Now I know why.
It was because, if Tom kept going the way he was (He eventually destroys the world in that story...well, if I ever finish it he destroys the world.) he would have destroyed the entire universe. The entire multiverse, even. Yes, there are parallel universes. So I had to do something, or else he would leave the collective multiverse in ashes. He is perfectly capable of it, trust me. He ended up in my Torchwood fanfic because I got bored. I made up a gap in my story where Tom could slip away to happy Torchwood adventures (the fact that Torchwood is happy land for Tom should tell you something about my story) and then when he came back to my original story he was a different person, who could now go save the multiverse. Problem. How do I get him to that point without the fan fiction? I had been thinking about this for a long time, and then last night I figured it out. Some of the Torchwood characters started not acting like themselves, and then I realized they were becoming new characters.
At that point in the story they were in an original world I made up in my multiverse, so naturally I just made up a new character. So then my problem was solved. Mostly. Anyway, that's my fanfiction story for you.

/endrant

P.S. Added the link to Watson's post. :D

Happy Daredevil!

Dear Wal,

What a relief. The poor guy. He finally gets a break. Let me give you the run down of his life since Frank Miller (Isn't there always a life after Frank Miller?). First of all let me tell you that Daredevil came before TDKReturns in the Miller timeline. The reason I got into Daredevil is because of Miller. I was like: "Hey. This is the Batman dude. I bet this is good." And it was. Anyway.

Elektra 'dies'

First of all, in his origin he was blinded by radioactive waste trying to save a blind man from being hit by a truck (the irony). Then his dad, who is this wrestler, gets killed because he won't throw a fight when Matt was in the audience. So then Matt became Daredevil to hunt down the guy who killed his father, the Fixer, and the poor guy died of a heart attack while Daredevil was chasing him. One of the few moments of justice in Matt's life. Daredevil fell in love with a deadly assassin, Elektra. I haven't read any of those books, because I'm not a big fan of Elektra, but anyway. Bullseye killed her. And then she came back (or wasn't dead at all) and tried to kill Daredevil. Then, after that, Daredevil's next girlfriend Karen Page got hooked on drugs and gave away his secret identity to the Kingpin (sort of indirectly. She told a guy that told a guy that told the Kingpin) for drugs. Which wrecks Matt's life to no end. And then Bullseye kills her. His next girlfriend is this girl who is deaf, but she has the ability to mimic anything she sees perfectly. They really clicked. There was this hysterical scene where they went to see a movie, and she explained all the scenes without sound and he explained the scenes where she couldn't lip-read what the characters were saying. Anyway. The Kingpin turns her against Daredevil, saying that he was the one who killed her father (when really it was the Kingpin who killed her father) and she tries to kill him. Then of course she finds out Matt Murdock and Daredevil are one and the same and ends up leaving him.
The Kingpin knows who Daredevil is, and knows for this entire scope of time until this detective figures out who Daredevil is as well, and this info passes on to someone else in the Kingpin's organization. This guy deposes  (there really is no other way to put it-the scene where he was 'murdered' forever sticks in my mind. Bendis-read it, it's good.) the Kingpin. The new guy is all like: "WHY DIDN'T THE KINGPIN USE THIS? RARARARA!" And the guy passes it on to the press. So Matt's life get's turns up-side-down again. He's harassed by the press, attacked by all manner of super villains, and loses his practice as a lawyer. In the midst of all this, he falls in love with a blind woman named Milla (he saves her from getting hit with a truck. The irony.) and they eventually get married. Then one of his enemies Mr. Fear drives her insane, and because of legal issues he isn't allowed to see her. Then he gets possessed by a demon and nearly looses it. (Well, he nearly looses it a lot.) All of his girlfriends either die or try to kill him or both. It's depressing. Daredevil comics post-Miller are depressing. He never wins. He always survives, but he never wins. Good doesn't prevail. The poor guy. His life started out sucking anyway, but it just didn't get any better.
Waid changed all that.
Mark Waid is one of my favorite writers in comics, and-as far as I'm concerned-one of the greatest. His run on JLA includes some of my favorite books, and of course there's Kingdom Come (Must read, people). His style is to take a character or group of characters and take them in a completely different direction from anything that's been done before with those characters (Batman pwning the League in Tower of Babel). He did just that with Daredevil. Matt is actually cheerful, more the "grinnin' in the face of hell" attitude of the pre-Miller comics. He actually wins a few fights. There's humor but not too much humor-it's very well balanced. He keeps a positive attitude while still being cautious. Who knows how long this will last, but I'm happy. His life is looking up. I say this, and then something horrible will happen to him.

Not only is Daredevil actually cheerful, these comics by far show the best representation of Matt's senses I have ever seen. Usually, it's just a panel or two of Matt's radar sense and a ton of captions. In this book, Rivera and Martin actually make a visual representation of his senses. It's brilliant. It would be confusing to someone new to comics-but for me it's just brilliant. I'm re-hooked on Daredevil comics now.

/endrant

P.S. My reviews suck. I know.

P.P.S. I realize I don't know the complete Daredevil cannon. Forgive me. I believe I've covered the main horrible things that have happened to him. Woop, continuity!

Joint July-August Reading List

Because I forgot to post the July list. Woops.

July

Read:

Doctor Who: Magic of the Angels (Eh.)
Doctor Who: Hunter's Moon (Disaproved.)
Superman For All Seasons (Aproved.)
1984 (APROVED.)

August

Read:
Batman: Venom (Aproved.)
Daredevil (Waid) Volume 1 (APROVED.)


In Progress:
The Catcher in the Rye
The Weapon (Perpetually.)
Doctor Who: Peacemaker

Note: 
I have this new system now. I always say: "Kathryn Aproved." regarding something I've read/watched/played. The "Eh." is for books/games/whatever that were okay but not particularly memorable. I do this because I suck at reviewing things, and I'm lazy.

The Comic Book Reader's Eye

Dear Wal,

When you read comic books, you learn to notice things. Missing a bubble somewhere, or a person in the background, can spell disaster for understanding what's happening in the following pages. Good comic book artists, in my opinion, are ones that you can go back and see something new every time. Stories-whether it's comics or novels-for me have always been about the details. You can do so much with details. Although, if you're not careful you can get sucked into a horrible pit of despair regarding details. Anyway. Getting off subject here.
Noticing all the details can sometimes drive you crazy, but mostly it's extremely entertaining. You spot all the little references (like the guy dressed like the Shadow in TDKRises...you see I've found a solution to my TDKR problem) and then you can tell people about them. Whether they understand what you're talking about or not. It's the best thing ever. It's annoying when you have to explain what you're talking about, though. Like the blimps in Arkham City. Don't get me started on all the stuff in Arkham City.  BTAS (Batman: The Animated Series. Watch it.) references make me happy. I've noticed this trend (of noticing small things) with other things as well, besides comics. My friend Watson loves D&D stuff. Half the time I don't have a clue what she's talking about. I try. I really do. I have learned things. We have educated each other in two things that are not related what-so-ever but are still awesome. We once tried a crossover. It was terrible. Never try that. It will inevitably fail. Crossovers must be done between stories of the same genre. Anyway.

Blimps :D

Having this attention to detail can be a curse and a blessing. It took be about twenty minutes to explain to my mother the significance of the blimps on Arkham City. She always thought you had to go up in them for something. That would have been cool, though. Another thing to add to my list of things to be in an Arkham City sequel. Blimp battle scene. Oh yes. Total BTAS flashback. Gaah, I'm doing the thing again. (The thing where I randomly go off on something Batman related. I spend most of my life doing that. This post is turning into a huge ramble.) Another thing I spotted in Arkham City was the Stacked Deck. I totally wanted to go in and see if Ace was in there. Sadly, you can't. They should have at least had a scene where you had to go in and bust up the bar for information. Best way to find information ever. Vigilante characters always have to bust up a bar. Anyway. I keep doing this.
Noticing things is fun. If I had superhero nerd friends, I would show off to them by pointing out references. But sadly I don't have superhero nerd friends. I need to go meet some people. It's sad. I live in the middle of nowhere.

Announcing: The Adventures of Aqubat and Friends

Dear Wal,

First of all.
I think I'm going to cry.
I CAN'T FIND THE EQUESTRIAN OLYMPICS ANYWHERE! WHYYYYY CRUEL WORLD! WHYYYYY!
Okay. I'm done now.
Who is Aquabat? This is a very long, amusing story. Watson came to school one day with this Aqualad (Young Justice Aqualad) toy from Wendy's. She had a Kid Flash toy. She later brought me a Batman toy, which I was extremely pleased with. (His cape goes up when you press the bat on his chest. It's adorable.) And these two sort of lived on my desk for a while. Fungus sits next to me, so of course he would play with them constantly. Usually it was flying Batman around making rrrrrrrrrmmmm noises and making him fight Aqualad. Aqualad always lost. We eventually developed a theory to explain this.

From left to right: Aquabat, Batman & Minibat

Anyway, after that I added a robotic T-Rex and a little T-Rex hatching out of an egg to my desk. Aqualad was always getting stomped by the big T-Rex and/or eaten by the little one. Somehow Aqualad ended up with an eraser for a fist. Finally one day we got into some conversation-I don't even remember what it was-and ended up dubbing Aqualad Aquabat. I made him a cape out of a piece of paper. After that it was always Batman who got eaten/stomped, and Aquabat rode the big dino. This brings us to the aforementioned theory. Batman always won because he had the cape. Then Aqualad got a cape, and he started winning. (Actually, it was more along the lines of them being really hard to put in the dino's mouths when they had capes. And plus Aquabat fit perfectly on the dino.)
Then Adam brought this little blue ball to school one day and gave it to me. Inside it was a tiny version of Batman. He was instantly dubbed Minibat. He fits in the mouth of the big T-Rex perfectly so that he looks like a tongue. What can I say, we get bored. Over a period of a few months, Aquabat acquired a wizard hat (Made out of a maliable eraser.) and a staff (Made out of a straightened out paper clip.). Then he became Aquabat the Wizard of Justice.
And that's where Aquabat came from. Now that you know the story, I can finally get to the main subject of this post which is that I've decided to make a comic strip out of Aquabat. It's probably going to be terrible, but it's going to be funny anyway. There are gangster dinos. Aquatic gangster dinos.
I warn you, I suck at drawing people. Even cartoony people. (I haven't exactly decided what style this is going to be drawn in...)

/endrant

P.S. Been doing...German...all day...going to...die...

P.P.S. I wrote this on Thursday. Stuff has been insane. German III ended on Friday. Then I started getting a rash from the medicine I was taking for the poison ivy. But I found the equestrian olympics.