Moontiger supremacy >>>>>>>

5. Show off one of your favorite pages/panels.

2. What's a comic you unexpectedly enjoyed?

joker vs. red hood. i liked it like... way, way more than i thought i would. i don't think i've liked a comic about jason this much since like... seeing red? it's pleasant to look at and genuinely enjoyable to read in the moment and fun to analyze looking back on. i don't want to get into specifics because it's such a recent release, but i liked it enough that i feel like i can recommend it, which is high praise.

so! really good! consider checking it out!

5. Show off one of your favorite pages/panels.

i had to choose a panel from vengeance of the moon knight (2024) issue #7. genuinely looking at it makes me want to tear up all over again. marcgreer supremacy #1 ship of all time. hang on let me go cry.

this is their reunion after marc's been dead for a pretty significant amount of time in universe, and like 9 months irl. vengeance of the moon knight itself is all about how he's impacted the people around him and how they respond to the grief of losing him, and it's so good, and when he comes back it's such a triumph, and i love greer & i love moon knight and everyone. everyone!!!! needs to read that comic right now.

anyway. check out greer's monologue.

This life. This life I lead, the world I live in. It's unfair, this life. Even in joy, there's pain. And the two are never in equal measure. In every victory, there's loss. So why do I do it? Why do I keep fighting? Because in all the pain, all the loss, I hope. I hope there's a moment. A moment that makes it all worth it.

STOP 😭😭😭

MARCGREER REUNION 🚨🚨🚨

I know this is a touchy subject, but some ships - or couples, if you prefer - aren't as "forced", "toxic", and "unhealthy" as most are quick to claim. That's not to say that all aren't; look no further than Hal Jordan x Carol Ferris, and the numerous breakups they've had, as an example. If they were genuinely healthy, they wouldn't be stuck in a revolving relationship like the writers have made them for over sixty years. And the reason they're so unhealthy is because of who they are as people: Carol is a workaholic pursuing her own career and maintaining her father's business, while Hal is juggling tons of responsibilities and longs for a woman he can have a family with to have some sense of stability and normalcy.

But in this post-modern world, I've seen the term "forced" applied to hundreds of couples that...weren't actually a bad idea. Heck, they were an actually great idea, but the problem lies in the execution.

Let me bring up my favorite of these pairings and explain 1 why I love them, and 2 how they could work.

Angel x X-23 (or DarkAngel, as I like calling them.)

All the haters, stop right now. Let me talk.

Just imagine, for one moment, these two characters outside of the mainstream comics with the age gap. Warren Worthington III, A.K.A. Angel, is heir to a large fortune and company. He probably had heard of or met Tony Stark every now and then at various charity events. He is handsome, a slightly above-average student, and has a head for handling the public and his inheritance. Could he be a massive flirt? Yes, but he was never anything but chivalrous in his dealing with women. He understood boundaries, understood that quite a few of his dates had emotional baggage, and never held/used it against them. He is a knight in shining armor, and as he flies above the world, he can see all the faults on Earth and, in spite of his background, resolves to make the world a better place.

And then we have Laura Kinney, A.K.A. X-23. A child assassin born into a branch of the Weapon X project, she was beaten and tortured into a weapon, though she never wanted that. The love and kindness she received, though it was hidden once she killed for the first time at age nine, eventually flowered and gave her the strength to choose not to kill a target. And while this resulted in an escape and murder of the Facility, and her mother's death at her own hands, Laura, knowing she had hundreds to thousands of innocent blood on her hands, still staggered up to fight the good fight and make amends for her actions.

Looking at these people, they're totally different. Warren is old money, while Laura is an orphan girl who never even knew what a family life looked like. Warren was above average by a bit, only truly excelling in fencing/swordsmanship, and Laura is a child prodigy who could collapse a government if her buyers wanted that. Warren knows social cues and how to navigate delicate interpersonal atmospheres, whereas Laura doesn't know how to start a simple introduction with one person. Warren was born to fly and soar above the world, yet he still dives down to save those caught in fires; meanwhile, Laura was born in a hellhole that taught her how to hunt, and now she uses the skills she was taught to track down evil and prevent it from happening to another innocent child.

They're polar opposites, and at first glance, you would assume they'd be incompatible.

However, these differences, when put together, would actually compliment each other.

Warren wants to do good in the world and has the means to do so, but lacks the hands on knowledge of how to accomplish such acts. Laura, who knows and has seen the scum of the Earth in person, can not only show him what he needs to do to improve the lives of bystanders, but can also learn what normalcy and love really is with him. And when needing to use words first, Warren can tactfully yet firmly set down some ground rules when dealing with the authorities or similar situations; likewise, Laura can in no uncertain terms state what enemies in dark alleyways can expect if they try anything stupid with her or Warren. Lastly, Warren acts as support and strike-and-retreat in a battle, whereas Laura can race through an entire room of highly trained combatants and lay them out flat/kill them. Their differing skill-sets for combat act as a yin-yang, allowing them to cover for each other and ensure the other is protected. And their personalities (when written properly as a Knight in Shining Armor and a recovering Emotionless Girl/Laser-Guided Tyke-Bomb) would actually benefit each other: Warren can gently pull back the layers of pain and abuse that Laura's suffered and patch the wounds, while Laura can keep him grounded to the Earth and give him emotional strength when he's weighed down by his duties and worried by what he isn't bringing to the X-Men.

This is how the two could be great when written correctly, and why I love them so much.

Which leads me to another ship that has potential:

Moon Knight x Echo.

While I feel Marc Spector is best handled in the MCU, and that Layla is the best wife/lover he's ever had, Echo/Maya Lopez shares a trait with her that is something he desperately needs:

She's grounded and emotionally prioritizes Marc Spector more than his separate identities.

Now, while I'm not a big fan of Marc being ret-conned into being DID (I have no issue with a heroic DID person, I merely wish it were used with a new character instead of a previously established character), Marc does however juggle three separate lives: a rich boy, a cabby man, and the avatar of an Egyptian deity. That's not easy, and can lead someone to insanity. What Marc needs is a woman who is not going anywhere, who will stay with him come hell or high water, and who will reach out to him when he's desperately trying to drown himself in guilt and shame for things that were ultimately out of his control. Layla, as I have said before, continuously reaches out to Marc and keeps him on the ground and focuses on him both from a romantic and pragmatic standpoint. She won't let him spiral into madness from his circus act, she won't let him fall into despair without a fight, and she'll come back for him no matter what.

Echo possesses many of these traits because, like Layla, she has a background that isn't glamorous, and required her to be practical rather than a silly, upbeat girl who would get her head beat in if she wasn't careful. For this, while I personally love Marclayla best, I can respect and encourage Marc getting together with Maya because she can offer that same stable, grounding force as Layla. It also is why I don't like Tigra/Greer Grant-Nelson with Marc. She's a good woman, and wouldn't mistreat him, but until she became a mother, Tigra was far too flighty and unrestrained for him. When you're juggling so many things and suppressing trauma, you don't need a boyfriend/girlfriend who is a life of the party type. You need someone to ground you, and only lately has Tigra herself become grounded enough to provide that same security and safety to Marc.

Its not as articulate as it could be, or as I'd hoped, but I hope this post made sense and put things into perspective for y'all. "Forced couples" is a term that weighs me down, and I hope this at least made you think..