The BSS Q&A Thread: It's Time For Arkhamaniacs

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > BSS: Bisexual Super Son > The BSS Q&A Thread: It's Time For Arkhamaniacs

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muscles like this!: Jan 17, 2005

A discussion on a podcast made me wonder, are there any X-Men who have a supportive non-mutant family?

# ? Jul 1, 2022 17:29

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# ? May 7, 2024 20:59

I AM GRANDO: Aug 20, 2006

muscles like this! posted:

A discussion on a podcast made me wonder, are there any X-Men who have a supportive non-mutant family?

In the Claremont era, Jean Grey. And they put up with a lot. I don�t even know if they find out when she comes back from the dead.

# ? Jul 1, 2022 17:35

Dawgstar: Jul 15, 2017

I AM GRANDO posted:

In the Claremont era, Jean Grey. And they put up with a lot. I don�t even know if they find out when she comes back from the dead.

I think they do after Inferno where they had been turned into demons by Pryor and were restored. They sort of took in Rachel when they wanted to. Of course then the Shi'ar mass murdered the entire Grey bloodline so oh well, but before that one of them got turned into part of the Phalanx.

# ? Jul 1, 2022 17:39

TwoPair: Mar 28, 2010; Pandamn It Feels Good To Be A Gangsta; Grimey Drawer

muscles like this! posted:

A discussion on a podcast made me wonder, are there any X-Men who have a supportive non-mutant family?

I'm pretty sure Iceman's parents are okay. There was a mini a few years back where I think Bobby's dad had a hard time accepting he was gay (ironic, considering how so many writers have used mutants as a gay metaphor) but eventually by the end I think they were okay again (though it's been a while, maybe I'm misremembering)

# ? Jul 1, 2022 18:00

site: Apr 6, 2007; Trans pride, Worldwide
Bitch

Jonathan the wolverine is very supportive of Gabby

# ? Jul 1, 2022 18:07

How Wonderful!: Jul 18, 2006; I only have excellent ideas

TwoPair posted:

I'm pretty sure Iceman's parents are okay. There was a mini a few years back where I think Bobby's dad had a hard time accepting he was gay (ironic, considering how so many writers have used mutants as a gay metaphor) but eventually by the end I think they were okay again (though it's been a while, maybe I'm misremembering)

Writers vacillate. Bobby's dad is either a guy who is a huge bigot (he makes a huge weird fuss over Bobby dating an Asian woman in late Simonson X-Factor, he has a hard time with the mutant thing, gets really passive aggressive at certain points with Bobby's queerness) or a guy gradually getting over being a bigot and mending bridges (Lobdell leans into this towards the end of his Uncanny, where Bobby's dad gets hospitalized by anti-mutant fanatics). It's a moot point now because he died recently, having refused to take Krakoan drugs-- this would be in the recent Luciano Vecchio Iceman comic.

# ? Jul 1, 2022 19:21

Dawgstar: Jul 15, 2017

I believe Beast's parents were supportive, giving a boost to nature over nurture.

# ? Jul 1, 2022 21:02

Selachian: Oct 9, 2012

Endless Mike posted:

Here's a story about it. Spoilers, obviously, if you care about spoilers for a 20 year old children's novel series.

K. A. Applegate's letter to readers who were unhappy at how the series ended was discussed on The Book Barn a little while ago, and it's worth reading.

Applegate posted:

Dear Animorphs Readers:

Quite a number of people seem to be annoyed by the final chapter in the Animorphs story. There are a lot of complaints that I let Rachel die. That I let Visser Three/One live. That Cassie and Jake broke up. That Tobias seems to have been reduced to unexpressed grief. That there was no grand, final fight-to-end-all-fights. That there was no happy celebration. And everyone is mad about the cliffhanger ending.

So I thought I'd respond.

Animorphs was always a war story. Wars don't end happily. Not ever. Often relationships that were central during war, dissolve during peace. Some people who were brave and fearless in war are unable to handle peace, feel disconnected and confused. Other times people in war make the move to peace very easily. Always people die in wars. And always people are left shattered by the loss of loved ones.

That's what happens, so that's what I wrote. Jake and Cassie were in love during the war, and end up going their seperate ways afterward. Jake, who was so brave and capable during the war is adrift during the peace. Marco and Ax, on the other hand, move easily past the war and even manage to use their experience to good effect. Rachel dies, and Tobias will never get over it. That doesn't by any means cover everything that happens in a war, but it's a start.

Here's what doesn't happen in war: there are no wondrous, climactic battles that leave the good guys standing tall and the bad guys lying in the dirt. Life isn't a World Wrestling Federation Smackdown. Even the people who win a war, who survive and come out the other side with the conviction that they have done something brave and necessary, don't do a lot of celebrating. There's very little chanting of 'we're number one' among people who've personally experienced war.

I'm just a writer, and my main goal was always to entertain. But I've never let Animorphs turn into just another painless video game version of war, and I wasn't going to do it at the end. I've spent 60 books telling a strange, fanciful war story, sometimes very seriously, sometimes more tongue-in-cheek. I've written a lot of action and a lot of humor and a lot of sheer nonsense. But I have also, again and again, challenged readers to think about what they were reading. To think about the right and wrong, not just the who-beat-who. And to tell you the truth I'm a little shocked that so many readers seemed to believe I'd wrap it all up with a lot of high-fiving and backslapping. Wars very often end, sad to say, just as ours did: with a nearly seamless transition to another war.

So, you don't like the way our little fictional war came out? You don't like Rachel dead and Tobias shattered and Jake guilt-ridden? You don't like that one war simply led to another? Fine. Pretty soon you'll all be of voting age, and of draft age. So when someone proposes a war, remember that even the most necessary wars, even the rare wars where the lines of good and evil are clear and clean, end with a lot of people dead, a lot of people crippled, and a lot of orphans, widows and grieving parents.

If you're mad at me because that's what you have to take away from Animorphs, too bad. I couldn't have written it any other way and remained true to the respect I have always felt for Animorphs readers.

K.A. Applegate

# ? Jul 1, 2022 23:33

Vandar: Sep 14, 2007; Isn't That Right, Chairman?

I honestly question if the people who complained about the ending even read the books. The series ending in any kind of happy way would be completely against the entire rest of the series.

# ? Jul 1, 2022 23:54

site: Apr 6, 2007; Trans pride, Worldwide
Bitch

I've vaguely heard about the animorphs ending before. Did Applegate have family who died in wars or is she just with it

# ? Jul 2, 2022 00:02

Air Skwirl: May 13, 2007; Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed shitposting.

She would have been a teenager when a bunch of teenage and young adult boys were being drafted for Vietnam.

# ? Jul 2, 2022 00:19

Vandar: Sep 14, 2007; Isn't That Right, Chairman?

Hey remember when the Animorphs added a new member to the team like halfway through the series and he went completely loving evil so they had to trap him in rat form and leave him abandoned on an island?

Good times.

# ? Jul 2, 2022 02:21

FilthyImp: Sep 30, 2002; Anime Deviant

Remember the Animop that was like "gently caress I'll just live as an eagle"

# ? Jul 2, 2022 03:18

Kingtheninja: Jul 29, 2004; "You're the best looking guy here."

Jesus christ that authors post sort of makes me curious about reading animorphs.

# ? Jul 2, 2022 12:28

Jordan7hm: Feb 17, 2011; Lipstick Apathy

Kingtheninja posted:

Jesus christ that authors post sort of makes me curious about reading animorphs.

Same. Those covers always turned me off the series (plus being a bit older than the target demo), but if I can find the books for cheap I think I�ll give it a shot.

# ? Jul 2, 2022 13:06

Inkspot: Dec 3, 2013; I believe I have
an appointment.
Mr. Goongala?

Animorphs is legit, but you have to take the poo poo with the sweet. For every story about establishing a Hork-Bajir refugee camp, there's one about how oatmeal makes Yeerks go crazy.

# ? Jul 2, 2022 13:33

Vandar: Sep 14, 2007; Isn't That Right, Chairman?

Inkspot posted:

Animorphs is legit, but you have to take the poo poo with the sweet. For every story about establishing a Hork-Bajir refugee camp, there's one about how oatmeal makes Yeerks go crazy.

Considering how dark the book before it ended up, I appreciated the lighter tone of the oatmeal one.

# ? Jul 2, 2022 18:22

Fritzler: Sep 5, 2007

Kingtheninja posted:

Jesus christ that authors post sort of makes me curious about reading animorphs.

Jordan7hm posted:

Same. Those covers always turned me off the series (plus being a bit older than the target demo), but if I can find the books for cheap I think I�ll give it a shot.

Animorphs own. There is a Let's Read thread in the Book Barn. We just finished book 44 (although there are some extra books in there too).

# ? Jul 3, 2022 03:13

ImpAtom: May 24, 2007

Vandar posted:

Hey remember when the Animorphs added a new member to the team like halfway through the series and he went completely loving evil so they had to trap him in rat form and leave him abandoned on an island?

Good times.

Even better he comes back to try to kill Rachel and it ends with the strong implication she flat out murdered him to stop that from happening again.

# ? Jul 13, 2022 16:12

ToxicFrog: Apr 26, 2008

site posted:

I've vaguely heard about the animorphs ending before. Did Applegate have family who died in wars or is she just with it

Don't know for sure, but given that she was born in the 1950s, her parents' generation would have WW2 fresh in their minds and she would have grown up during Vietnam. Seems pretty likely.

Whether she had personal experience of the consequences of war or not, KAA goes extremely hard to a degree unusual for YA, which I did not appreciate when I originally read it. The quality can be pretty uneven over the series, especially the ghostwritten volumes, but the actual content pulls no punches.

She also ended up unintentionally writing a character with strong trans subtext back in the 90s, years before her own daughter would come out as trans, and her reaction to being told that was "I didn't intentionally write the books that way but I'm glad people find them relatable".

Vandar posted:

Considering how dark the book before it ended up, I appreciated the lighter tone of the oatmeal one.

I mean, "instant oatmeal is a drug to yeerks, how wacky!" sounds light-hearted on its face, but the actual affects are addiction and permanent brain damage, and since it removes the kandrona dependency it means any yeerk sufficiently dosed with it is no longer combat effective but there's also no way to remove them from their host ever, who is now stuck with an insane yeerk in their head until one of them dies of old age, with only occasional moments of control and lucidity (and if the oatmeal is removed, the yerk will suffer constant withdrawal symptoms -- which bleed over into the host -- but dies slowly, if at all). They have a whole debate about the ethics of doing what basically amounts to chemical warfare that will leave a whole bunch of yeerks and their hosts perma-hosed even once the war is over!

ToxicFrog fucked around with this message at 20:40 on Jul 13, 2022

# ? Jul 13, 2022 20:33

DivineCoffeeBinge: Mar 3, 2011; Spider-Man's Amazing Construction Company

So I decided to sit down and do a reread of ALPHA FLIGHT v1 earlier, and I just came across the bit in the backup feature of issue #3, the 'origin of Alpha Flight' bit.

And it has Heather MacDonald proposing to James Hudson when she was seventeen. Because, see, she fell in love with him the moment she saw him.

And that makes me remember Colossus and Kitty Pryde, and those 'before the FF' stories Byrne did where Susan Storm has already set her mind on marrying Reed when she was just a teenager, and it makes me ask...

...does John Byrne have a problem?

(That's rhetorical, he has a bunch of 'em, but you get what I'm saying)

# ? Jul 21, 2022 01:33

Happy Hippo: Aug 8, 2004; The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Batman's Shameful Secret > BSS Derailed Thread: Spider-Island

Like many male artists, he has/had no idea how relationships work

# ? Jul 21, 2022 11:51

Cornwind Evil: Dec 14, 2004; The undisputed world champion of wrestling effortposting

Happy Hippo posted:

Like many male artists, he has/had no idea how relationships work

Nor power imbalances, because he's always been on the benefiting side.

# ? Jul 28, 2022 20:31

KayTee: May 5, 2012; Whachoodoin?

At the risk of making a prat out of myself I half remembered something the other day.

I am under the impression that there is a superlady out there who was given an enhanced spine or similar to help her cope with her supperassetts.

Is this a legit thing or am I half-remembering a joke someone made?

Im leaning towards the latter but I can't put anything past comics.

# ? Jul 31, 2022 13:49

Napoleon Nelson: Nov 8, 2012

KayTee posted:

At the risk of making a prat out of myself I half remembered something the other day.

I am under the impression that there is a superlady out there who was given an enhanced spine or similar to help her cope with her supperassetts.

Is this a legit thing or am I half-remembering a joke someone made?

Im leaning towards the latter but I can't put anything past comics.

I remember reading some panels posted here a long time ago where a character talked about how she needed a cyber spine and legs to deal with the weight and power of the cyber arm she got after losing her own. But I don't think that's the same thing you're talking about.

# ? Jul 31, 2022 14:48

Big Bad Voodoo Lou: Jan 1, 2006

Napoleon Nelson posted:

I remember reading some panels posted here a long time ago where a character talked about how she needed a cyber spine and legs to deal with the weight and power of the cyber arm she got after losing her own. But I don't think that's the same thing you're talking about.

Was that from Warren Ellis' Global Frequency? I remember a one-issue story about a cyborg woman whose entire body needed to be enhanced through multiple painful and dangerous surgeries, just to control her arm -- very different from most of the other cyborgs in comics, who seem to walk around with cybernetic arms like it's no big deal.

# ? Jul 31, 2022 19:09

ToxicFrog: Apr 26, 2008

Big Bad Voodoo Lou posted:

Was that from Warren Ellis' Global Frequency? I remember a one-issue story about a cyborg woman whose entire body needed to be enhanced through multiple painful and dangerous surgeries, just to control her arm -- very different from most of the other cyborgs in comics, who seem to walk around with cybernetic arms like it's no big deal.

Global Frequency #2, "Big Wheel".

# ? Jul 31, 2022 20:12

FilthyImp: Sep 30, 2002; Anime Deviant

That's always the Hard Science thing where someone goes "that cyber-arm lifting a car would cause their spine to compress/chest to cave in/shoulder to wrench itself from bone!"

# ? Jul 31, 2022 20:54

Dawgstar: Jul 15, 2017

FilthyImp posted:

That's always the Hard Science thing where someone goes "that cyber-arm lifting a car would cause their spine to compress/chest to cave in/shoulder to wrench itself from bone!"

It even shows up now and then in Marvel. In Misty Knight's OHOTMU entry it talks about while technically her cybernetic arm has super strength she can't really life superhumanly heavy things with it, so it's just for grip strength. Whether they kept to this or it was just Mark Gruenwald overthinking things I can't say.

# ? Jul 31, 2022 21:09

Beerdeer: Apr 25, 2006; Frank Herbert's Dude

Who is this Corsair-looking guy on the left? This is from the Kamandi Challenge book.

# ? Aug 1, 2022 04:36

Mr Hootington: Jul 24, 2008; I'M HAVING A HOOT EATING CORNETTE THE LONG WAY

Beerdeer posted:

Who is this Corsair-looking guy on the left? This is from the Kamandi Challenge book.

Donovan Flint of the Star Hunters.

# ? Aug 1, 2022 04:58

Uthor: Jul 9, 2006; Gummy Bear Heaven ... It's where I go when the world is too mean.

Can someone remind me how The Boys ends? My issues are at my parents' house. I tried looking it up, but all I find is spoilers for the TV show.

I remember Billy the Butcher turning on the rest of the team, but not why.

# ? Aug 7, 2022 14:33

Dawgstar: Jul 15, 2017

Uthor posted:

Can someone remind me how The Boys ends? My issues are at my parents' house. I tried looking it up, but all I find is spoilers for the TV show.

I remember Billy the Butcher turning on the rest of the team, but not why.

As things come to a head Black Noir kills Homelander and then Butcher kills Noir. Then Butcher tries to release a version of the compound that'll kill anyone with superhero DNA, murdering everybody on the team but Hughie to do it in the process, but Hughie was able to stop it and kill Butcher.

# ? Aug 7, 2022 14:38

Uthor: Jul 9, 2006; Gummy Bear Heaven ... It's where I go when the world is too mean.

Thanks. 👍

# ? Aug 7, 2022 14:55

bessantj: Jul 27, 2004

What are people's opinions on the X-Cutioner's Song crossover?

# ? Aug 16, 2022 00:38

DivineCoffeeBinge: Mar 3, 2011; Spider-Man's Amazing Construction Company

bessantj posted:

What are people's opinions on the X-Cutioner's Song crossover?

It... certainly is a crossover

I always forget, is this the one where there was an issue of X-Factor in which not one single member of X-Factor appeared?

# ? Aug 16, 2022 02:36

How Wonderful!: Jul 18, 2006; I only have excellent ideas

DivineCoffeeBinge posted:

It... certainly is a crossover

I always forget, is this the one where there was an issue of X-Factor in which not one single member of X-Factor appeared?

This is something that I used to hear pretty often, which is wild, because as far as I know X-Cutioner's Song has pretty consistently been in print and is pretty easily available online. The truth is that no, there isn't an X-Factor tie-in to X-Cutioner's Song in which no members of X-Factor appear, although they are definitely relegated to supporting cast in #85 and #86. My hunch is that the more plausible (and less easily disproven) claim that Peter David was frustrated with having to put his own plots on the back-burner for three issues contributed to his decision to leave the book just got blown up by years of online comic fan hyperbole.

# ? Aug 16, 2022 03:37

Madkal: Feb 11, 2008; I believe in all the ways that they say you can lose your body; Fallen Rib

It has some awesome Jae Lee before he was the Jae Lee art.

# ? Aug 16, 2022 03:58

Mr Hootington: Jul 24, 2008; I'M HAVING A HOOT EATING CORNETTE THE LONG WAY

Madkal posted:

It has some awesome Jae Lee before he was the Jae Lee art.

Went to Google his art and lmao

# ? Aug 16, 2022 04:25

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# ? May 7, 2024 20:59

DivineCoffeeBinge: Mar 3, 2011; Spider-Man's Amazing Construction Company

How Wonderful! posted:

This is something that I used to hear pretty often, which is wild, because as far as I know X-Cutioner's Song has pretty consistently been in print and is pretty easily available online. The truth is that no, there isn't an X-Factor tie-in to X-Cutioner's Song in which no members of X-Factor appear, although they are definitely relegated to supporting cast in #85 and #86. My hunch is that the more plausible (and less easily disproven) claim that Peter David was frustrated with having to put his own plots on the back-burner for three issues contributed to his decision to leave the book just got blown up by years of online comic fan hyperbole.

No, yeah, I went back and checked and I wasn't correct - X-Factor does, indeed, appear in issue #85, briefly. Well, a couple of their members. The vast majority of the issue revolves around three dudes who aren't in X-Factor, but they do at least appear.

# ? Aug 16, 2022 04:39

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > BSS: Bisexual Super Son > The BSS Q&A Thread: It's Time For Arkhamaniacs

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