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Bialya With Extra Cheese: JLQ #5-8 (JLI 83)

The Global Guardians were only the third most popular “GG” in the JLI era, after Guy Gardner and General Glory. But they merited at least a little attention after all their buildup. Assistant editor Kevin Dooley slid into the writing role for these four stories with Andy Smith on pencils, though it’s hard to believe the same people wrote and drew all four of them. Even by JLI standards, they’re quite varied in tone.

( Almost as much as Sumaan Harjavti’s skin and hair are from appearance to appearance. )

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Storm: Earth's Mightiest Mutant #3

I need you all to understand how batshit crazy the ongoing Storm comic is.

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Being Jewish in a Catholic family update

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Superman Unlimited #12: Red Herring Reunion

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Absolute Batman #19

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Meet the Absolute Robin's - Absolute Batman #19

How to kill my interest in Absolute Robin's in one panel

I confess I've only been glancing at the Absolute Batman title, it's just.. not to my tastes. If you're enjoying it, then more power to you, but not for me.

However, me also being me, I was interested to see what they'd do with the concept of Robin.

So how does the latest issue introduce the concept? With one panel they poured cold water over me.

( Oh no... not HIM )

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The Walking Dead Deluxe #134

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Mod Post: Off-Topic Tuesday

In the comments to these weekly posts (and only these posts), it's your chance to go as off topic as you like.

Talk about non-comics stuff, thread derail, and just generally chat among yourselves.

The intent of these posts is to chat and have some fun and, sure, vent a little as required. Reasoned debate is fine, as always, but if you have to ask if something is going over the line, think carefully before posting please.

Normal board rules about conduct and behaviour still apply, of course.

It's been suggested that, if discussing spoilers for recent media events, it might be advisable to consider using the rot13 method to prevent other members seeing spoilers in passing.

The world situation is the world situation. If you're following the news, you know it as much as I do, if you're not, then there are better sources than scans_daily. But please, no doomscrolling, for your own sake.

Artemis II arrived safely back to Earth, though apparently Mission Contgrol chose not to all put on ape masks

The beloved internet meme "Neil Banging out the Tunes" celebrated it's 20th Anniversary

And speaking of rats doing improbable things (without the charm of the above) POTUS47 managed a remarkable week even by his usual, unbelieveably low, standards. Trying to save face when his chaotic Iran War went horrendously badly, to the extent he's now blockading a blockade that only exists because he set in motion the events which caused it in the first place. Milirary historians will be documenting this one for years.

Suffice it to say that when you manage to post an AI image so offensive that your own Christian Nationalist supporters come out on the side of the POPE in an argument (even momentarily), you HAVE to know you've buggered things up.

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Batman: Secrets #5

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Bialya With Seeds in the Center: JLE #30, JLA #55 (JLI 82)

JLE Giffen-Jones-Robertson, JLA Giffen-DeMatteis-Wozniak.

Storytelling is as much about what you don’t include as what you do. Giffen and company were often inspired in terms of what they left out or minimized. This appealed to a smart audience who could fill in the blanks.

But sometimes you leave too many blanks. Sometimes you cross the line between making your reader an enthusiastic participant in the storyline and making them wonder why they’re doing all your work for you.

___ ______ ________ ______ _______, and that’s why this final Queen Bee of Bialya storyline leaves too many blanks. ( ____________ __ __ ____ _____ ____ ___ _____ _______ __ ____ ___ __, ___ ______ ___ _______ ____ _____ ________ __ ____ ____ ____ ___ __ _________, _______ __ _ _____ ________ ___ _____ ____ __ ___ ______! ___ _________ ___ _____ ___ ____ ______… )

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Gail Simone presents April 'Pool's Day

Yeah, I only bought this because of that variant cover (by Mike Spicer). But hey, the interior isn't bad!

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Batman: Secrets #4

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The case of the missing notifications

I keep forgetting to post about this: we've been troubleshooting the "missing notifications" problem for the past few days. (Well, I say "we", really I mean Mark and Robby; I'm just the amanuensis.) It's been one of those annoying loops of "find a logical explanation for what could be causing the problem, fix that thing, observe that the problem gets better for some people but doesn't go away completely, go back to step one and start again", sigh.

Mark is hauling out the heavy debugging ordinance to try to find the root cause. Once he's done building all the extra logging tools he needs, he'll comment to this entry. After he does, if you find a comment that should have gone to your inbox and sent an email notification but didn't, leave him a link to the comment that should have sent the notification, as long as the comment itself was made after Mark says he's collecting them. (I'd wait and post this after he gets the debug code in but I need to go to sleep and he's not sure how long it will take!)

We're sorry about the hassle! Irregular/sporadic issues like this are really hard to troubleshoot because it's impossible to know if they're fixed or if they're just not happening while you're looking. With luck, this will give us enough information to figure out the root cause for real this time.

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Batman: Secrets #3

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Boss Battle: JLE #29, JLA #54 (JLI 81)

Max’s replacement looks ready to make Peter Gyrich look like Edwin Jarvis. But maybe he won’t be so ba--

( Never mind, he just held a three-hour efficiency meeting and spiked the donuts with Scarecrow fear toxin ‘‘to instill respect.’’ )

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Batman: Secrets #2

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Batman: Secrets #1

"The Dark Knight faces off against his most villainous adversary — The Joker — in this 5-issue miniseries written and illustrated by Sam Kieth (SCRATCH, The Maxx)! Kieth weaves a dark tale of violence and mayhem, and how heroes are treated by the media and viewed by the public. As Batman and The Joker face off, their confrontation is inadvertently caught on film — and Gotham's protector appears to be pummeling Joker without mercy, much to the delight of the frenzied press! Plus, a secret from young Bruce Wayne's past is revealed!" -- DC

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Vigilantes’ Vigil: JUSTICE LEAGUE AMERICA ANNUAL #5, JLA #53 (JLI 80)

The time sequence between these two is a little ambiguous, but best I can tell, JLA Annual #5 comes first.

When last we left the League, J’Onn and Fire were screaming at Guy, Guy was depressed and pushing Ice away, Beetle was depressed and injured, General Glory was ineffective, and Max just had to top everyone else by getting shot. ( Rich people always make it all about THEM, don’t they? )

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Graphic Novel Favorites From My Recent Reading

After years of struggling to read new-to-me fiction, I’ve recently entered a phase of reading graphic novels and comics and I’ve been reading so much! (It helps that I accidentally got into a comics-based fandom via stress-reading fic late last year.) It’s only April yet I have already read more books this year than I have in any year since 2020, it's truly wild. I haven’t had this much fun reading in ages!

I wanted to share some of the things I’ve been enjoying, so I thought I’d write a rec list. I find graphic novels easier to focus on when I’m stressed than prose novels, and I also love getting to see so much art. I’ve been mostly reading MG and YA works – it feels like there is a lot going on in that space right now! Plus it’s a space where there tend to be many stories focused on friendship, which I really enjoy. I’ve also been choosing more lighthearted things to read. The world is stressful and I can’t deal with stressful reading at the moment.

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Alias: Red Band #1

"What a thrill it is to write Jessica Jones. The original Bendis and Gaydos run is legendary, the Kelly Thompson and Mattia de Iulis books are amazing, and Jessica is on TV again. It is the Year of Jessica Jones for the 25th year in a row, let's go. It's not often you get to witness the birth of an iconic character in your lifetime, and it's even rarer when you get to write them too. She's relentless, sharp, and sarcastic as hell, three things we all need in 2001 and 2026. All love to Bendis and Gaydos; they really snapped with Jessica Jones." -- Sam Humphries

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