Downtown Khazan: Ice Cold Utopia

[Dr Will Hatch]

Santa, please gift us with a Gravity Falls prequel about Stan commitng crimes in Columbia.

[bruceleegreyhulk]

[Len Ikari145]

That was a good trailer. It had a surreal, almost horror-movie vibe to it.

[Cthulhu_of_R'lyeh]

Not the Warren Ellis written "White-Suit Violent Psychopath, and defender of Children" Moon Knight; but I am quite glad they're learning hard into the multiple personality disorder.

[Nik Hasta]

That was a good trailer. It had a surreal, almost horror-movie vibe to it.

Eyyy, a London based hero.

Also, he's Oscar Isaac who is a fine actor.

And who's attempt at an English accent is... well, I mean it's better than a lot of other attempts I've heard but it's just a smidge too effected. Does slightly make me bristle in a "we have a ton of very fine English actors over here," kind of way but that's a small quibble.

The horror vibes are fun, I do like when superhero stuff goes in a more chunky genre direction. Incidentally, housemate and I watched New Mutants recently and, despite a lot of negative press, actually quite enjoyed it, largely because of the similar horror vibes it had.

[Dark Soul # 7]

The horror vibes are fun, I do like when superhero stuff goes in a more chunk genre direction. Incidentally, housemate and I watched New Mutants recently and, despite a lot of negative press, actually quite enjoyed it, largely because of the similar horror vibes it had.

Same here. I thought it did fun stuff with its smaller scope and foray into horror shenanigans.

[Nik Hasta]

Same here. I thought it did fun stuff with its smaller scope and foray into horror shenanigans.

Yeah, small cast, single location, kind of low stakes, no real "villain" per say rather the main enemy is the insecurities and trauma of the primary cast. A bit more psychodrama than superhero film.

Rough around the edges here and there though, I genuinely felt a bit bad for Anya Taylor-Joy (who is a fine actress) but she was given a lot of the worst lines of dialogue to work with which was a shame. But overall it was fun. I think with a little more time in the oven it could have been really good.

[Beadle]

Eyyy, a London based hero.

Also, he's Oscar Isaac who is a fine actor.

And who's attempt at an English accent is... well, I mean it's better than a lot of other attempts I've heard but it's just a smidge too effected. Does slightly make me bristle in a "we have a ton of very fine English actors over here," kind of way but that's a small quibble.

Three things I’ll address on this:
1. The accent isn’t great. It’s not as brutally terrible as most, but it’s still pretty bad.
2. That being said, given that the MCU is littered with Brits playing Americans or characters with American accents (e.g. Matt Murdock, Vision etc.), I’m not going to be disingenuous enough to complain about the opposite being true (if they… y’know… can do the accent).
3. In this case it’s irrelevant anyway. Marc Spector isn’t British. But one of his split personalities, Jake Lockley, is a London cabbie. So he’s an American who thinks he’s British. That could excuse the accent.

[Sharpandpointies]

My remaining cat was euthanized and cremated today. I feel like trash.

I missed this on the weekend; my computer died, and I'm just going through downtown now.

Really sorry to hear this, Len. I hope you're getting some good support.

[Sharpandpointies]

So I'm reading The Lazy Lord Masters the Sword. I figured it would just be the usual 'loser becomes superhero' stuff, but...

1. Surprising depth and growth in the characters;
2. Thirty chapters now of nothing but training, no running around saving the world;
3. Surprising amount of soul-searching;
4. Thus far, zero sexualization of any characters.

Is it anything hugely special? Not so much. Is it a fun read? I'm enjoying it.

[Sharpandpointies]

So, this manhwa continues to take me by surprise.

spoilers:

After the main character - Airen - finally becomes ridiculously powerful and skilled, he basically goes out on a demon-subjugation expedition with a bunch of pros, the other nobles, and so forth. The champion in charge of this thing is some highly skilled, powerful soldier (not some noble). Now, powerful dude is a little dubious of Airen at first, once he even HEARS about him (it takes one of the soldiers under the dude to repeat a rumor for this to happen), but when Airen kicks some serious demon rear in a fight, showing skills and abilities that are clearly supernatural and well-beyond the power of anyone else, soldier-dude says 'okay, I need to spar with this guy to see how good he is.' Not, it is important to note, to 'test himself against this noble'. Nope, it's to understand how good Airen is with regards to the demon-subjugation. <-- refreshing professionalism. But rather than FIGHT him, the captain says 'Okay, we don't have to fight. Just show me your best shot. Lay it on me, and I'll judge you from that.' <-- even more refreshing, considering the **** Aiden pulled off earlier. Then there's the usual power-up, imagery based on metaphors, thought balloons from the captain as he realizes he needs to really get serious to face this one shot. Contrary to expectations - which I should have guessed, given how this story has proceeded - the clash never happens. Someone comes running to see, carrying their soup, trips, and falls into the circle of people watching, spilling soup everywhere. This briefly stops the test from continuing. And rather than continue after that, the captain says 'Nope, that's enough. I've seen what I need to see, without even needing to cross swords with you. You can act independently in this task - you don't need to wait for orders, someone of your caliber should just be doing what you feel needs to be done.' That's it - no big clash, no 'rivalry' or anger from the captain anywhere, just acknowledgement of Aiden's skill and 'this is how it's going to affect our unit tactics in this task'.

end of spoilers

Was an interesting little bit. Approached and carried through in a different way than similar scenes in other manga I've read.

Edit: Amusingly, the scans have changed the title. It's now 'Reformation of the Deadbeat Noble'. ^_^

[Nik Hasta]

Three things I’ll address on this:
1. The accent isn’t great. It’s not as brutally terrible as most, but it’s still pretty bad.

He's trying though, it's got that effort feel to it.

2. That being said, given that the MCU is littered with Brits playing Americans or characters with American accents (e.g. Matt Murdock, Vision etc.), I’m not going to be disingenuous enough to complain about the opposite being true (if they… y’know… can do the accent).

True, but I would still prefer some level of British Isles representation outside of say Ikaris and Druig.

3. In this case it’s irrelevant anyway. Marc Spector isn’t British. But one of his split personalities, Jake Lockley, is a London cabbie. So he’s an American who thinks he’s British. That could excuse the accent.

A good thought.

[Postmania]

Microsoft is buying activision-blizzard, all hail our saviors/destroyers

[Sharpandpointies]

Oooo, boy. Are they actually doing MCU Moonknight as someone with actual Dissociative Identity Disorder?

.....

I'm sure that if they do, the writers will handle it with their usual tact and accuracy. O_o

[Nik Hasta]

Microsoft is buying activision-blizzard, all hail our saviors/destroyers

I, for one, have been hoping that most media IP would be controlled by an increasingly small list of mega-corporations in a bid to harvest as much money out of consumers as possible.

Though, apparently Microsoft has very good working environments so hopefully they can clean up Activision/Blizzard who have a terrible one.

Maybe fire Bobby Kotick as well, poisonous little leech.