your darkmode can't save you from me

Eve, the mother of sin, who held the world in her hands and was cursed for not knowing.

Eva, director of the task force, who now holds the world, and still must curse man to save it.

Damn I don't know where I was going with that, anyway here's a mating pair of extremely rare long-legged flies (Micropeza producta) who attracted the attention of a Phidippus apacheanus and things took a Turn (the Spider's Three-way)

Justice League of America #153

Well someone has to analyze everyone's Adam-assigned dogsonas, and let's face it, that person is me.

Langa - Husky. An incredibly athletic breed made for snow and long distance treks. It's just an extension of how we already knows Adam views Langa: an idealized example of pure athleticism. Also drawn in a renaissance-esque style to match the angel Langa frame.

Shadow - American Bulldog. I think. It could be any one of the bully breeds but also it's really funny that this dog doesn't seem to be at an official dog show and instead like. At a park. It's your classic big brute dog breed and not even a breed standard example at that.

Miya - Pomeranian. Adam sees Miya as small and yappy and just a cute little thing that does fun tricks. Almost but not quite synonymous with "purse dog".

Cherry - An Afghan hound and a poodle. Your stereotypical breeds that get all styled and dolled up. The fact that there's two examples might speak to the fact that Adam does actually know Cherry very well, but doesn't care about him enough to see him as anything other than a bimbo.

Joe - Great Dane. We had the bimbo dogs, and now we get the himbo dog. The stereotypical big dog. Surprisingly gentle, they're not known for herculean strength, just their frankly ridiculous size. Essentially, another complete write off on Adam's part.

Tadashi - Border Collie. My personal favorite of these. It's so painfully spot on it's hilarious. The eager-to-please working dog that needs a job so bad and will explode if it cannot do something helpful. Fast and agile and I like the fact that Adam relates his signature skateboard trick to the weave poles. Also that Miya and Tadashi are the only ones shown on an agility course because they have the most precision trick based styles.

his wiki states that he “would have been a clingy crybaby as a kid, something that factors into his desire to become a strong man in s.” the overly masculine s persona is then a sort of compensation, a way to take ownership of a masculine identity that never belonged to him but was positioned as the ideal for those of his gender. he knows he’s unable to occupy that space in his regular life, so he wears it as a costume at s, along with his literal costume & makeup, turning it up to 11, a gendered performance comparable to drag.

but imo there are more layers to it. the whole traditionally masculine thing, BÂTS-TOI SI T’ES UN HOMME, runs somewhat in contrast to shadow’s actual skating style, which consists moreso of his trademark dirty tricks (like the mini bombs used to trip other skaters, or the laser pointer used to temporarily blind them). so even his s persona has this internal duality going on: the fighter (which is traditionally masculine) vs. the trickster (which is associated more w androgyny & gender-bending).

there’s also a key aspect of traditional masculinity that shadow lacks: being shown to be desired by women. at s, you have joe, swoon-worthy & effortlessly masculine, surrounded by hordes of female fans giving him heart-eyes. cherry also has his own female groupies worshipping him, despite having a more sleek & androgynous presentation, he’s still framed as very much heterosexually desirable. in contrast, shadow’s fans are all men. & shadow/hiromi is further narratively emasculated by the object of his desire (his manager) choosing another man over him. so you have all these elements sort of chipping away at the idea that the shadow persona represents the pinnacle of traditional masculinity, or the polar opposite of who hiromi is.