Permanent Brainrot

Hi 👋 Here’s tags and stuff

I love comics, been reading them since middle school. They are probably my favorite storytelling medium of all time. Love DC, too—was basically raised on shows like JLU and Young Justice—but until very recently I’d read barely any DC comics. Funny how that works out.

So now I’m reading a lot of comics for the first time! And I have thoughts! Most of my posts are just panels from whatever I’m currently reading, along with my reactions. You can find posts like these under #liveblogging. They are largely incoherent. Please enjoy.

#liveblogging posts are usually also tagged with the series and issue the panel is from. For example, the panel above is from Superboy #12. So I’ll tag this post #superboy 12. If you want to know what comic something is from but you don’t see the series and issue number in the tags, you can ask me in the replies too :) I’m always happy to help :)

Sometimes the little comic book goblin in my brain gets real loud and I go on a whole ramble about some very specific DC thing I can’t stop thinking about. You can find these under #brainrot yapfest. If you’re just here for short posts and comic reactions, feel free to filter out this tag. Seriously, I won’t mind. I won’t even be able to tell! Curate your online experience queen, chase your bliss.

My laptop broke recently and I lost all my desktop wallpapers, so lately I’ve been having fun editing some new ones! Most of them are YJ98 panels. You can find them at #yap edits.

I also collect trading cards! Sometimes I’ll post my DC cards with the tag #cards cards cards :), but usually I keep the card stuff over on my collecting blog @kitschycabin.

My one request for you interacting with this blog: please read the room. Sometimes I criticize the stuff I read—I am a big believer in the idea that you can love a piece of art and also acknowledge its flaws. If I have a take you disagree with, feel free to—in a civil and polite manner—disagree with me. I like discussing the stuff I like. I like hearing other people’s interpretations of stories I love. As long as you don’t call me an idiot or a slur or something, I’ll probably enjoy having a friendly debate with you—especially on a post where I’m very clearly already in an analytical mood.

On the other hand, if I am making a very positive post about how much I love a character/series, and then you come in my replies to talk about what “shit taste” I have and how much you hate that character/series, I will block you so fast your tits will spin. There is a time and a place for discourse and someone just expressing their enjoyment of something you don’t like is not it.

Again, if I seem in the mood for a debate, go for it. If you’re having trouble reading my tone, feel free to ask, or just start up a convo. If you’ve misread the room, I’ll let you know, no hard feelings. Just please don’t insult me as a person because of my opinions on a fictional story about big beefy men in spandex punching people. That’s just an asshole move. Don’t be an asshole.

What are you reading right now?

I wasn’t reading many comics for a while (no particular reason, the hyperfixation just naturally rose and fell). I recently got into it again with the manga City by Keiichi Arawi—very cute, it’s like Charlie Brown but with broke lesbian college students. The anime is wonderful as well, I highly recommend it. I haven’t really been liveblogging this because it’s not DC, but we’ll see if that changes.

On a related note: I usually read a whole bunch of comics in one sitting and then dump them in the queue to be shared over the next week or so. That’s why sometimes #liveblogging posts will make it seem like I took four days to read one issue or something.

What have you read already?

Mostly for my own convenience, here’s an incomplete list of self contained arcs/mini series that I’ve read in their entirety:

Young Justice - I recently finished YJ 1998. It is, quite possibly, the best comic series I’ve ever read. 55 issues of scooby doo hijinks, timeless social commentary, and perfectly executed emotional gut punches. It is a love letter to platonic love. It is a beautiful reflection on what it means to be a hero, in the real world and in the DC universe. You should all read it and cry.

The Death and Return of Superman - 1992 storyline on Clark’s death and subsequent resurrection. A collaboration between a ton of different creators, Death and Return is masterfully written, beautifully illustrated, and introduces Steel (John Henry Irons) and Superboy (Kon-El) for the first time ever. Highly reccomend, absolute must read for any Kon fans especially.

Batman: Under The Red Hood - 2005 storyline on Jason’s return to Gotham as The Red Hood. Honestly, if you’ve seen the 2010 movie, you’ve read the comic. It changes a few key elements, but for the most part it’s just a streamlined version of the original story. Vibes wise at least, it’s a very faithful adaptation—a lot of the dialogue is ripped straight from the comic. They’re both fantastic, but if you’re looking for a slightly less brutal version of Jason and Bruce’s final confrontation, I’d say stick to the movie.

Oracle: Year One - Born of Hope - One of 3 mini-stories that make up The Batman Chronicles #5. Published 1996, narrated by Barbara as she rebuilds her life after becoming paralyzed. It’s very short, but I’m putting it here anyway, because it’s great. I wrote a whole post about it here.

Nightwing: Year One - Published in 2005, a 6 issue arc from Chuck Dixon’s Nightwing run. Contains a very asshole-ish portrayal of Bruce, a new, extremely stupid reason as to why Dick was fired from Robin, erases some pretty interesting Jason lore, and in general makes everyone except Dick look like The Worst. This, in my humble opinion, also results in an extremely boring, Mary Sue-esque depiction of Dick himself. In general I like to pretend this arc doesn’t exist, but it is notable for being the origin Dick calling Jason “Little Wing.” If you’d like a cute, Dixon-free version of Jason and Dick’s first meeting, try Batman #416.

Birds of Prey (1999) - I’ve read a good chunk of Dixon’s BoP run. It’s very enjoyable but I’m taking a break from it because as fun as it can be, sometimes Dixon’s writing makes me want to punch a wall, so. But I love Barbara, I love Dinah, and the art is gorgeous, so I’ll definitely go back to it at some point.

Can I send you fic recs?

Why, I’m so glad you asked, random stranger! Of course you can! Right now I am actually physically vibrating with the need for Cissie/Anita and Cissie/Cassie YJ fanfics because there’s not nearly enough of them. I love these lesbians, your honor. So if you have any of those, feel free to hop into my asks and chuck an ao3 link directly at my head.

Words are from Young Justice (1998) #32 (which I realized after I made this edit is actually before Slobo, so this is a Lobo quote, but Slobo’s literally a clone of him so like. Shut up it works. I’m declaring it still works.)

And I’ve searched forever but I can’t find where the drawing is from—somewhere in Young Justice, for sure, but even with multiple reverse image searches I haven’t been able to find which issue. Lemme know if you know!

From Young Justice (1998) #27:

Source for this one is Young Justice (1998) #27, during the fabled baseball arc:

Original panel from Young Justice (1998) #29, one of my all time favorite Greta moments:

Also, source is this panel from Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughn and Cliff Chiang, I’m unfortunately unsure of exactly which issue but I believe it’s near the end: