beccaelizabeth's dreamwidth journal

Thu, 21 May 2026 08:02:28 GMT

It is funny listening to the Big Finish chatty bits where an actor says they're surprised the stories have gone on so long already
and it is a recording from about twenty years ago
and their next episode is out next month.

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8 Charley C'rizz

Thu, 21 May 2026 04:47:16 GMT

I have been relistening to the 8th Doctor adventures from the beginning, and C'Rizz gets more interesting this way than I remember. He has an arc going on, stuff about being Eutermesan and also being strange for a Eutermesan. Stuff about being a chameleon who picks up personality from those around him. It's interesting in theory, but I don't know how well the practice is going, since it mostly seems to result in him being grumpy and inconsistent.

Also absolutely terrible things keep happening to him, including being tortured, caged, put on display, and treated like he's subhuman whereever he goes. And that seems like it should be an interesting angsty storyline. But. It also seems like Charley and the Doctor don't notice? And to be fair the Doctor is getting tortured at least as much as C'Rizz, and also having one of those stretches of story where he doesn't go long without losing his memory again, so it seems relatively reasonable for him to be distracted. But it means C'rizz is having a terrible time as almost a seperate track of story, and dealing with it alone.

I was comparing this in my head to how Hex gets treated, and Big Finish really do put the guys through it, but Hex is with people who both notice and care.

The story is not treating C'rizz equally or dealing well with stories that keep landing on racial discrimination but not calling it that.

It's also a story arc about mental illness but aside from one character of the episode calling him a schizo (not a kind reference or a sympathetic character) the story isn't exactly foregrounding it. Dealing with it *well* seems like a lot to hope for.

Next episode up is Absolution, and C'rizz will be all done until this set of Sontar stories now coming out, as far as I can tell.

I do not remember Absolution.

Shall see how that goes.

ETA: Absolution did not work for me at all. It was actually boring. ( Read more... )

Either I was sleepier than I thought and slept through the bits that made it a good story or that was a rubbish ending.
/ETA

... in other news this on screen keyboard is driving me spare, I absolutely cannot figure out why it keeps bringing the start menu up. it seems to statistically correlate with trying to type words beginning with o but typing around the o on purpose does nothing. Invisible function for the lose???

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Mon, 18 May 2026 23:01:03 GMT

Today I had a nice walk to the library and back
where the tiny child rhyme group were singing
zoom zoom zoom we're going to the moon.

... my brain is still singing it many hours and a sleep later...

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Mon, 18 May 2026 02:58:56 GMT

My sleep watch keeps thinking I am doing okay at sleep, but the individual sleeps are only up to four hours, so I disagree.

I am at anxiety level
if I find the perfectly perfect thing to buy it will Fix Everything
but luckily I can recognise this and just end up collecting So Many Pictures.

... there are some *gorgeous* walking sticks on etsy, including ones with Dragons, but they start at £100 and I very rarely need a stick.

There are also A Lot of things listed as walking sticks that will in the details tell you they are Decorative. This is because the handles are made of rubbish and putting your weight on them is No. But buying from the walking stick places that give you a weight listing for the stick means the only fancy bits are patterns and colors, not carvings. Minimal dragonlike features.

I am reasonably certain that buying a wizard staff will solve precisely none of my problems, and yet.

In other news tumblr changed the layout slightly and I was confronted with the number of posts in my Drafts, which I seem to have been treating as write only storage. So now there are considerably fewer Drafts but my queue hovers nearly full.
... which is a lot of queue.

Turns out I had three or four copies of my favourite Ethan posts scheduled at various times, because whenever it comes up I put it forwards three months and post it again, but that got a bit cluttered. So I put them all in October and sorted it down to one copy of each. Which is still quite a lot. It'll be longer than usual before they come back round but it'll be a well curated month.

Tumblr calendar takes up so much queue space.

I need sleep. The sort that happens all in a row and leaves you actually rested. *sigh*

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Thu, 14 May 2026 02:23:53 GMT

👋
This week I have finally got sorted out a computer task I was not managing to do for literal years. There's a few fiddly details to fix but basically I have the new computers set up and running, which was getting a bit urgent with the odd behaviour of the older computer.
Unfortunately that means I'm now on windows 11 instead of 10. All the emojis look Bad, including the one I sign my name with sometimes, which is annoying. The keyboards are slightly different including the on screen keyboard. I can't figure out how to stop it suggesting things. It keeps popping up a menu when I'm trying to type and I haven't figured out why yet. It is more than usually pants.
And it keeps trying to search things that are not my computer, thus making it less useful than any previous computer.

But it works, so, yaay ish?

... I can't fit all my files in this littler computer even though they all fit on the older version that said it was the same size. The audio shall have to go on another device. I guess Windows is just eating all the space.

So, typos will be more, typing is more annoying, I keep finding new settings to turn off, and I have nothing interesting to say Anyway.

I have been relistening to 8 and Charley and C'rizz audios. I have little memory of these, it has been a long time since I first listened, and I suspect I mostly listened on the bus on the way to or from college which is a less detailed focused listening experience. They are quite good and Charley is less annoying than I remember. The arc stories keep ending just when I am about done with them. I'd probably like them even better if I didn't listen while I had a headache but headache days are boring.

The last Torchwood monthly adventure is due out soon. I am appropriately apprehensive after the publicity they've been doing. As is everyone on the tag on tumblr. I think I shall have to listen close to when it comes out or read all about it anyway. I hope they do the good horror and not the annoying wreckage. Tricky balance.

... this keyboard is most annoying. It keeps telling me what to type and I cannot figure out why it keeps going back down or giving me the menu from the little window button in the corner underneath it. blah.

🖖🌞
see that doesn't look like llap sunshine on this version of windows at all it is all blobby.

... gifs? I have a keyboard that offers me gifs???
well that is just wrong.

okay, I shall go do something else. probably involving more Doctor Who.

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Mon, 11 May 2026 00:53:11 GMT

This evening's dream involved
getting swallowed by a hellmouth
(teeth teeth so many teeth)
with the Legends, so Ray, Nate and John were there, but everyone got split up
until I was just sticking with John
but gradually becoming less and less sure he was in fact actual John
which, in Hell, could be seriously Consequential.

Hell was a lot more like a going out of business sale in a department store than Dante wrote it
but it was otherwise pretty themey by floor.

The basement was cold and flooded
and I stopped the lift before we got drowned
but then had to decide
stay with and support (probably) John
or leave (that) him
and either way gamble with belonging down there.

I woke up thinking I should reread the Inferno

... but possibly the Niven version...

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Fri, 08 May 2026 00:39:04 GMT

I have been relistening through 8 and Charley starting from the beginning, though I don't have Stones of Venice or Invaders from Mars loaded on the device I'm using so I skipped those for now. ... getting out of bed to grab a CD or use my other computer seemed like Effort. And I'd listened to Minuet in Hell a while ago and did not feel the need to do so again.
Storm Warning is good, Sword of Orion is pretty good, Chimes of Midnight is tedious and annoying and I don't get why it's so popular.
Seasons of Fear did a good ending from a redemption point of view but the paradox of it all is a lot.
Embrace the Darkness was proper creepy and doing audio correctly, and I like the resolution.
Time of the Daleks likes Shakespeare more than I do, and yet does nothing with him. Also just saying that none of the time travel should work doesn't make it less irritating. Even if time travel through mirrors is perfectly acceptable in other episodes so I suppose I also might not have minded if they didn't keep saying it doesn't work.
Neverland is in the right place because I was getting *really* fed up with Charley being inexplicable magic.
Zagreus did at least make a sufficiency of sense on this relisten, but I still can't actually like it.
Scherzo is a level of messed up about dying for each other that makes me vaguely worried about the author, even before you get to the cannibalism, and while it uses audio correctly in many respects, with the terror of not having any sense but hearing, it makes itself full of bad noises deliberately uncomfortable to listen to, so I would on the whole rather not. I understand many people like it and find it the right kind of messed up shippy. I just make wrinkly forehead when I think about it and consider it horror all the way down.

So today I relistened to Creed of the Kromon.
... I see a lot of posts on tumblr pass by referencing
the author's very specific ...interests
and the level of body horror applied to Charley as a means of getting her to breed
after mind control talking her into eating until she can't move
is just
uncomfortable
on more than one level.

It is a bit more dark than I expect from Doctor Who.

I can see why this story had several of its story elements but it also only had two women and the other existed to get fridged by her husband. So I think probably someone should have poked it with a stick a bit more. And maybe done something different instead.

I don't know if I'll keep listening these tonight but they're definitely solid audios even if they are over twenty years old now.

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I finished reading Hellblazer Omnibus Delano volume one

Tue, 05 May 2026 16:36:34 GMT

This title is *deeply* weird about reproduction.
Elementals, seals, and shelled eggs?
John's life is far weirder...

... I interrupted that thought with wondering if this story is why they thought of making Zari dragon girl...

ANYway

I am not convinced the ending was as cool as the art for it, but that was a solid story arc.

Also the chatty papers in the back that I read some of made some statements about John as he was planned :
that he has no power of his own, just knows a guy who does,
and that all his ghosts are symptoms, not actual hauntings at all.

Constantine 2014 made some very different choices there, like JLDark before it.

I like Constantine best when he is a guy dealing with both mental illness and an awareness there are problems there are dangers a lot of people don't want to acknowledge are real. It's relatable. He is going through hell and it is sometimes not his biggest problem. See also the bit on and then off the train.

The story from the annual about the old king and Ravenscar was odd but did push the interpretation back to dark on all that girl power stuff.

... also, still weird about reproduction.

The issue of Sandman landed very oddly in the middle of all that, and not only because the art put him back in his old clothes. More like it's an odd moment to have his nightmares resolved by some big spooky Power. It's a story arc about fear, and he's getting his fears held back by Morpheus? Odd. Not a particularly good journey for John. Doesn't give us much about Morpheus. Very messy though.

Sometimes the crossovers make things more themey and satisfying, sometimes I'm not so sure.
They do beat heck out of the JLDark crossover noise situation.

ANYway, I shall probably come back to this later, if I can resist unwrapping the next volume
but since I already let myself get distracted from ever eating lunch because comics was right there
I shall leave that a few days and attend to basic maintenance a bit...

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Hellblazer is uncomfortable and fascinating

Tue, 05 May 2026 12:54:59 GMT

I woke up still pondering Hellblazer but not in a nightmare way, more cultural studies theory stuff.

I still feel that Legends of Tomorrow visits other time zones to play in them, tell the audience how much every other year sucks, and then go home. There's a tension where 'sometimes we screw things up for the better' so in a local way an individual might have their life on a better track, but systemically they remain trapped in all the usual. Hellblazer is specifically rooted in the usual, and the escapes people indulge in are to different mindsets, not different conditions. And that's usually the source of their next problem.

The adaptations keep changing the meanings both by keeping things the same and by stripping the specificity of the context. Timeline drift changes things. Because it is difficult to retell the same story when the world moves on.
( Read more... )

I am going to go get lunch and then read more Hellblazer.

Going back to Legends in between issues would be a mood lifter but it's an i creasingly weird contrast.

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More Hellblazer Delano Omnibus, Newcastle to the Sandman issue

Mon, 04 May 2026 23:50:59 GMT

I stopped reading for the day because I reached the Sandman issue and went blergh in my head at the author, then realised it was past 11pm.
... I have been reading horror comics all evening. I am sure this was an excellent idea that shall have no adverse consequences whatsoever...

I read Newcastle, the original telling of the whole Incident.
In a Mature Readers horror comic it goes darker and more explicit than in any other medium I've seen, including the 18 rated one. ( Read more... )

I am enjoying this omnibus and kind of relieved I find it Quality reading after all these years.

The character on the TV is related to this guy but... whenever the story gets revisited it gets tidied up for a wider audience, and I'm glad the original is going to be around in high quality.

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Sun, 03 May 2026 17:51:15 GMT

Today I tried some builds for Wrath but remain baffled by how they're supposed to work and pretty sure some of them don't work any more. I mean the last one I tried shouldn't have worked but apparently enough patches ago it let you stack CHA bonuses on your AC, which is silly.

I have honestly been playing mostly spellcaster main characters for so long that AC is an mystery I know not of
which probably explains why they keep dying a lot
but works fine all the way up to Core.

Unfair builds seem to involve choosing a myth and building backwards, and if you're just not willing to play any of the evil myths then there's veeeeeery few builds on the internet that I have found. Azata that wins seems tp be right out. Lich is highly recommended. Blech.

I also relistened Doctor Who Seasons of Fear.
I liked the plot with Grayle well enough, but I'm less enthusiastic about the arc plot with Charley.
The Doctor saves lives all the time, focusing on this one specific time it breaks the universe seems... like Charley gets special rules just for her, but the no fun way.

It's still Doctor Who though so it's more interesting than most of the things I am failing to stay focused on.

Not a very focused day.

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Sat, 02 May 2026 22:06:58 GMT

Today I was bored and restless so I started another game of Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous.
On Unfair difficulty.
... actually I got to the meeting with Lann and realised it was only on Core so I started over again but eventually it was Unfair.

... I am using some builds I found on the internet and am very dubious about, but that isn't even the problem yet. The problem is I only just got to Neathholm and they're 2nd level, so I couldn't adjust anything before that anyway, and I just don't see how anyone survives that far without being stubborn and grim about reloading.

I know how to play this game! Core was going splendidly! I can remember how to fight Earth elementals even if it took a dozen tries to implement it (clue: don't get hit). I just do not see how it is anything but random numbers getting us all the way through first level.

Probably I need to build the Knight Commander completely differently but if you need to be a full level 20 caster later (yes) then you need to start as a caster getting their butt kicked now (very) and I did not figure out how to do any damage at all yet. We seem to spend a lot of time only hitting on a 20, or at best a 16. Starter characters be so squishy.
... also I should stat my characters better, KC cannot live by mental stats alone.

In short I spent I don't know how long today playing at a difficulty level I do not find fun and do not intend to go back to tomorrow.
... but others find it a solved problem so it is frustrating...

Anyone suggesting that I could stand to have a second or even third game that I play at least sometimes are not wrong.
But I want to play This One Only Different, and there are so many adventure paths I know that is so close to achievable goals...

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BFA Torchwood: Everyone's Dead on Floor Three

Fri, 01 May 2026 20:10:06 GMT

https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/torchwood-everyone-s-dead-on-floor-3-3214

This was a solid 5 stars out of 5. The content warnings are well earned for something that never leaves the office. It starts out so ordinary and petty and then drops the year on you hard. It's like opening a box to find it full of jeweled beetles eating through everything, including a layer of bones. Everyone is so vividly and specifically detailed, even the dead ones. And even when I was sure something awful was going to happen it had me gripped on exactly which awful when.

This is really really good work.

And the only regular Torchwood character in it is an audio exclusive, Norton Folgate again. Who is someone you can plausibly show doing nearly anything as long as it's twisty so he's very useful to have around. But the Torchwood range covers the whole Torchwood historical era and dips in to so many lives we don't have a canon framework for so they can do anything. I've seen people complain about that because they want to revisit the characters from the first two seasons on TV but I think it's one of the great strengths of the range.

Though I can see how it is difficult to market something on the strength that you never know what you're going to get.

If you want to listen an audio where you start off thinking the corpses are going to be the horror and then learn, this audio is absolutely recommended.

... if you want a nice adventure where something gets won and it all packs neatly in a blue box in the end you want one of the other ranges...

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I know there are lots of advice lists for a go bag but fewer for a go another planet bag

Fri, 01 May 2026 17:31:16 GMT

Having one of those days when I can't quite settle to anything.

So I read the internet,
and then listened to like 3/4 of Sword of Orion (8 and Charley Big Finish)
before getting distracted by the internet again.

I have the feeling there secretly is something I want to do but it is Hiding so instead I have just about managed to eat a food and drink a ribena.

Maybe I want to write?

I keep putting characters all in the same place but then it turns into I Packed My Bag And In It I Put, like my mediocre nightmares of endless packing where the fire alarms go off but I keep trying to put enough stuff in a bag instead of leaving. I keep having to wake up and take mental inventory of which things I could just go to a supermarket and buy instead so I should not need to pack them. But no, boring packing again. Only when it is characters you have to worry about if you're secretly going on a one way trip through an interdimensional castle... as you do... and then you have to pack for EVERYthing.

Adventure can start when I have calculated a year's supply of loo roll and how much salt I can fit in a shopping trolley if the supermarket has it or potentially if we hit all the supermarkets in walking distance.

This is not massively helpful.

I keep trying to remind myself Conjob manages with whatever he's got in his pockets ie usually a lighter and a pack of silk cut.

... TV Constantine 2014 gave him an entire house full of arcane artefacts, like JLDark gave him the House of Mystery or Secrets, and it bothers me. That's a whole different arcane archetype. That's the arcane equivalent of those old lady puppets in Labyrinth with the backpacks bigger than they are. And then the story doesn't allow any of it to ever make a difference anyway. He collects it all, he tries it in the middle of the story, he gets his arse kicked until he goes back to the comics original level of desperate measures. That's a very different story. They have accidentally made him subject to
futile packing
also.

The other way to think of it is to wonder what adventures I would be adequately equipped for if they were to arrive at my door right now
but that sort of thinking leads to wishlist full of survivalist stuff and military surplus gear with all the pockets.

Like I would still interrupt the adventuring to pack
but that would be the explanation for like
the first thirty years.

... the more I ponder this the less enthused I am...

Captain Jack Harkness manages with whatever is on him because what is on him is a wrist strap that works at the speed of the plot. Same with the Doctor and the sonic screwdriver that is straight up casting force wall these days. So that keeps the adventure moving but it moves ever further away from stuff you can guess or aspire to.

... says someone reading about magic...

I have tagged this plot bunnies but that is a lie. It is only a bunny like the ones they show greyhounds. Energizer bunny of out of reach same same.

I shall go... finish Sword of Orion I guess.

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Hellblazer except it's mostly Swamp Thing

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 18:26:25 GMT

I have been reading horror comics all day. I need to remember to stop and do something else more often or it all just gets grimy to think on. Very strong stuff in these stories, skillfully done.

A lot of this first omnibus is Swamp Thing, covering stories I'd seen summarised elsewhere, and now I have read it, it is all so much darker and nastier than the summaries had conveyed to me. ( Read more... )

As far as I can tell from skimming the contents page the Swamp Thing stuff is over now, so, onwards to Hellblazer, and Newcastle.

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Hellblazer from the beginning

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 12:42:46 GMT

I read three more issues of Hellblazer, including
Waiting for the Man (scarier and makes more sense on paper, the TV version made the girls older and lost the logic)
the one with the yuppie soul traders
and the one where the ghosts come back from 'nam to treat their home town the way they treated the 'enemy'

The more demony it is the less scary it is. ( Read more... )

One other funny thing said so far: John explicitly says "I'm not a masochist"
along with saying "all that messing about with rotten corpses and pain stuff is just to impress the marks".

... aside from directly contradicting Justice League Dark, that first bit is news to a *lot* of people.

Actually it is interesting that New 52 put on a lot of the old school set dressing that Hellblazer clearly and deliberately discarded. It's like they're making the iconic version, trenchcoat edition, not... John.

And in that particular instance it's difficult to see how that's meant to make him more mass market.

Still, good stuff to read so far.

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Legends of Tomorrow: Beebo and Constantine

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 15:57:28 GMT

I finished watching Crisis on Earth X, which has all 4 parts in this box set, probably because the rest of the season makes little sense without them. I hate hate hate what they did to Martin, that was unnecessary and part of a bad pattern.

Leo is great, and it was probably fun to be flirty like that.

Legends tonal range is as ever pretty broad. The episode they're most grieving Martin is the episode we meet Beebo and have to deal with Beebo Day miracles. And then they turn around and do a Constantine in an asylum episode with bonus near lobotomy, but try to end it funny? And it basically works.

I did like Sara asking "Are we really this damaged"
because it is John and the answer is more yes than Legends is yet prepared to imagine.

I still don't like the way mental health care in these stories is depicted as a threat or a joke. Actually helpful is never one of the options. And yet people do need the help.

It's really dark watching Nora choose like that.

Strong story though.

I shall watch more later but I don't want to whoosh through them all at once.

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Torchwood: The Flawless Man

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 21:49:10 GMT

Big Finish audios, which I am behind on because we're about to reach the end of the range and I don't want to run out forever.

But this is a solid horror story.

And another one where if Andy ends it knowing for sure if it was ever Torchwood business he's doing better than the audience I feel.

I saw a review somewhere that suggested there's no point doing another [scary thing in this audio] when the same range has done [scary thing in a completely different audio]
which is a bit like complaining there's more than one cyberman story
but also

this audio is actually about
messing about with your mates when you're a teenager
and something happens
that means the whole rest of your life is about that.

The horror is not just the monster, it's the people trying to cope with the the horror of their lives, in different ways.

which is like the core thesis of horror, obviously.

So it's more like ( Read more... )

I thought it was well done.

Andy is always interesting because he's only ever on the edge of understanding things, knowing things can go Torchwood wrong but entirely able to admit that's all he knows about much of it.

And there were other characters introduced where we don't already know if they survive through 2020, so that keeps the tension up.

Solid story well told.

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Hellblazer

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 16:47:22 GMT

I started reading the Hellblazer omnibus, Delano 1, so starting at the beginning.
(I used to have a very tatty Hellblazer 2 I acquired when it was wrapped in the cover for Hellblazer 1. Gave it to my brother to sell many years ago. Wouldn't bet on it being readable by now anyways.)

I can tell already this is going to be a different reading experience to Justice League Dark. I've read the equivalent of two issues and I am going to pause and ponder.

Also it isn't just comics as an artform I'm fed up of, the art and layout in these serrve the story in enriching ways I can spend time thinking about. None of that endless empty motion I got annoyed with, new horrors crammed in every panel. As they should be given the genre.

The story is Hunger & A Feast of Friends, and the TV show covered these in one episode. ( Read more... )

The compare contrast with the TV is interesting but the comics are already good.

Going to think on them more.

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Sat, 25 Apr 2026 22:30:55 GMT

Today I listened to a Big Finish Sarah Jane Smith adventure (very early and not Sarah Jane Adventures related at all, not terrible but not very good yet)

and watched three episodes of Legends of Tomorrow.

I had forgotten how much I hate Crisis on Earth X.
I stopped it after the first few minutes and tried to persuade myself to skip it but I am not a skipping episodes person so I went back after food and had another go.
The compare contrast on all the wedding stuff with all the Nazi AU stuff must have seemed like a good idea at the time but I do not see how.

There are good fun moments in the wedding stuff, like Alex and Sara, or Mick sort of in general.
There is the usual overstuffed irrelevance feeling of a crossover.
And then there's the garbage tier idea.

So. Not liking that.

And I've only watched the first episode of the Legends bit of the crossover, so I know there is worse to go.

Ugh.

I like the episodes that aren't the garbage crossover.

But I have moved on a bit in which characters I can stay focused on so a lot of me is waiting for Constantine to show up. And I like the others, I like Mick a lot, but I'm just a bit overly focused at the moment.

... I have three more comics omnibus editions to read and I want to reread Justice League Dark just the good bits version and I want to rewatch Constantine 2014 and mostly I want the version in my head to have any canon at all, but obviously I'd have to actually type that one, and I know that version is basically a new trenchcoat, just not quite new enough to even pretend the serial numbers never belonged.

Ah well, might turn into writing eventually.

In other news I tried a new food today but it tasted like tomato cardboard so I don't think I'll bother again. Vegetable lasagne but to get a vegan version it also has no gluten. The vegetables it used were not ideal.

Exciting life I lead.

Is pretty okay.

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I realise no one reading this is into particularly messed up wizard polycules in the New 52 DC but

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 22:04:25 GMT

The thing with Nick Necro is most of the issues have him be a bit boring about John stealing Zatanna
but then that one issue
has him torturing John by putting cigarettes out on his chest ( Read more... )

He is so messed up and that one issue changes the meaning on ALL of it.

Lovely stuff
that might make me buy more comics
if I just ignore how little I liked, oh, about 3/4 of the other stuff I read.

I want to keep this particular messed up dynamic and run into another canon with it.

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Comics are immensely frustrating and this reboot was odd

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 20:40:05 GMT

I have finished reading 1600 pages of Justice League Dark omnibus
and it is possible all the bits I really *like*
are in New 52 Constantine #12.

There's other bits that are good, but for a book that makes a big deal of John and Zatanna's grand tragic doomed love, they barely spend any time on page together, they're just motivated by losing each other a lot.

Nick Necro remains a shiny bit of twisted interesting in a magic soulmates story
that I want to take away from this New 52 nonsense and run away with to keep.

I read 1600 pages, at least 300 of them were annoying rubbish, quite a lot of the rest was fine until you expect it to pay anything off and instead it drops everything to do another story, and all of it is annoying because New 52.

I can only give it 3.5 stars as a whole, but, I am glad to have read all of it, even if the end result is knowing which characters I'd like to see story about.

... this omnibus gives me very little story about anyone, it's so full of Doing Things instead.
It's nice when the art gets an excuse to go all trippy and cosmic and remind you there's no FX budget limit here, but, it keeps on being frustrating storytelling to me.

Like I was liking it when the story built up to John covered in blood having taken the knowledge of all magic into his head declaring he would take over the world
but then the story zigged sideways and just plonked a new ending in out of nowhere
and I still want to see where actual John would go with that, or what Zatanna would have to say about any world he'd build.

And a perpetually frustrating bit is the suspicion it could make more sense if even more individual comics were all lined up for reading with this lot, but 1600 pages bringing together Justice League Dark, some select Constantine, and I don't know how many crossover Events comics, is already rather a lot.

... I am a bit tempted to go buy more Constantine though. I'm sure it would be frustrating too but there would be interesting bits.

I am still unconvinced this particular version of John Constantine should share the name though.

I'm taking Nick Necro and running back to the pool of Good Bits instead.

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Now I am delighted

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 16:31:13 GMT

Justice League Dark omnibus improved:
By page 1229ish we get an issue of Constantine where Nick and John kiss and Nick refers to John as 'Blood brother or lover' in the context of ( Read more... ) This after spending a while putting cigarettes out on John as part of a cunning plan to power up his magic.

I thought for the first thousand pages that fanfic was making way more of that up.

This is delightful and messy and I want to read all of it and then start again with a better idea of what to skip.

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Fri, 24 Apr 2026 13:47:31 GMT

I think I'm up to page 1200 in this Justice League Dark omnibus
and the religion stuff is... a lot, but interesting enough.

I am glad to be reading though
because Nick Necro is back
and it is deliciously fucked up shippy again.
( Read more... )

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I know this was from a while ago but it is not tempting me to try and pick up comics again

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 15:49:07 GMT

I am above page 750 in the Justice League Dark omnibus I am reading
and very few of them in this quarter were worth my time.

I don't think it's just me being out of practice reading comics, it really is meaning mash.
They spend about two frames on any given strand of story and then try to make of it a tapestry.

There's no emotion here, just endless motion.
Hollowed out parts that could be characters if you took them to doll repair shops.

I don't even know if it would make more sense with a different selection of issues.
I don't think making sense is something it is particularly devoted to.

And the general feeling of intro outro being all it will ever do continues.
I know they were rewriting their world but it keeps reframing everything and then not giving us anything to put in the new picture.

There isn't a lot of John Constantine or Zatanna in this even if you pick relevant bits out
and I am starting to understand why the fanfic I read only seems to refer to like a half dozen issues
because those ones had a bit of story and some feeling attached.

I am a grumpy person today.

Also, trying to read this ridiculously heavy thing keeps squashing me to the point of feeling sick.

I do not however think that is the primary reason I'm getting bored and annoyed here.

It was however potentially funny earlier on in this reading, when John went somewhere he can neither lie nor shut up. They said the most shallow and obvious things that way, but it's a fun idea.

Also they used John's nightmares to make him obviously extremely informed and scheming, which is interesting.

And it gave him a little explainer box when he went to steal someone else's magic, which actually undermines the amount of writing they've put in to making him seem dodgy, but his motivation for the day was, magic nearly ate him so he doesn't want to leave other people to be messed around by it. Kind of works but every time they flatten him out they leave bits behind. Magic nearly ate him yet he keeps reaching for more magic, can't leave that out.

Zatanna demonstrated she was a hero who would save the innocent rather than attack the guilty, then became miss not appearing in this book.

So, bit boring.

Maybe it'll get over the stupid crossover stuff soon and have a story again?

ETA at 8pm: It did indeed get back to actual story. Turns out the bit I got entirely bored of was three hundred pages of 'Trinity War'. Now it's back to being actually Justice League Dark and Constantine issues it has a finite number of characters. Still mostly John though. Or this universe of John anyway. I kind of like the bit where he held an artefact that makes people evil and he was mostly just depressed since he's seen it all before. I like this bit with the Nightmare Nurse curing him. I pretty much dislike how what is named as a team book is so emphatic about him being the main character. And I keep on having to stop and be annoyed that the evil he's confronting is all this DCU multiverse stuff with the magic macguffins and big costumed whatsits instead of actual grounded at least a smidge political stuff. But then there was one issue where it kind of attempted to link it back to that? Domestic violence and homelessness actually got into the story, instead of just Darkseid and a house made of nightmares.

Basically there's bits that make the animated stories make a lot more sense, and bits where it is telling solid story, and bits that I want to harvest for useable parts.

But they're playing a very different game than the other media or versions of John and it's reminding me of all the reasons I don't read many comics.

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