Post Mordor

@postmordor.bsky.social

2250 Followers 128 Following

He/Him. Comics and Scrounge fanatic. Profile picture commissioned from @keizama.bsky.social: https://bsky.app/profile/keizama.bsky.social/post/3miuyvhid6225 Check out Revisitation by @revisitation.bsky.social: https://thesolarpool.weebly.com/revisitation

Spider-Man visits a crime scene where a store-owner couple have been killed. He prepares to take out his camera. From Spider-Man versus Wolverine. Story by Christopher Priest, art by Mark Bright (pencils) and Al Williamson (inks), colors by Petra Scotose, and letters by Bill Oakley.
Spider-Man fights the Hobgoblin in his lair. From “The Amazing Spider-Man” #250. Story by Roger Stern, artwork by John Romita Jr. and Klaus Johnson, colors by C. Scheele, and lettering by Joe Rosen.
The New Fantastic Four by Paolo Rivera, featuring Spidey, Hulk, Logan, and Ghost Rider. The most random but fun combination of a team. Source: https://blog.paolorivera.com/2011/04/wacky-reference-wednesdays-no-145.html
“I’ve never had a situation like this before where I’ve had the chance to return to a character that another writer has come in and made major changes to, and make no mistake, this is a major change. It’s more than just a costume.” [...] “When Tom [DeFalco] originally pitched Spider-Girl way back when, his original idea was for her to just wear Pete’s costume, and I was the one—because I didn’t think it looked all that great—went looking for an alternative and landed on Ben Reilly’s costume. So anything else I say may be a bit self-congratulatory. I didn’t want to use it to begin with, so no, I wouldn’t have returned to it. “Sal Buscema one time said that when he saw the Ben Reilly costume the first time, he thought it looked more feminine than masculine, so it didn’t surprise him at all that it worked on the female figure. So that was kind of cool to find out when he joined us shortly after my run on the book began.” “People who followed May through her two series and the back-ups weren’t waiting on her to ‘grow up.’ They weren’t waiting on her to have this change of attitude or this change of life where was going to ‘rate her father's costume.’ Her journey of self-discovery was very personal and was not a constant reflection of her father. I think it struck people who actually read the character as an inorganic move because no one was waiting on her to make this transition into Spider-Woman, certainly not at 16. “When you think about it realistically, and I realize that’s a silly word to use in a conversation like this, it’s one thing to decide to call yourself something else, but unless you have cards printed up or a Facebook page, you’re going to be telling people one person at a time. So that’s something Tom and I discussed and played with in the course of this thing. She’s not going to buy TV time to announce it. Maybe we can satisfy everybody and she can be like Prince, and start going by a spider symbol.”
“That fire in which the whole world is living now,” she added, “that whole fire was lit by George W. Bush. As a man, he may be insignificant – but I absolutely deem him a war criminal. Compared to Trump, of course, he's just a cute little chicken. But it always works that way; whenever something worse arrives, people forget the bad things that came before.”
“U.S. bombing inflicted a large number of casualties during the Laotian Civil War. The U.S. dropped over 2 million tons on Laos between 1964 and 1973, making Laos the most heavily bombed country in history relative to the size of its population. The U.S. State Department's analysis has determined that about 30% of all bombs dropped on Laos failed to detonate. Unexploded ordnance remains dangerous to persons coming in contact, purposefully or accidentally, with bombs. According to a nationwide survey by Laotian government, casualties from explosive ordnance, mostly from U.S. bombing, during the civil war period between 1964 and 1975, are estimated at 30,000, while casualties since the end of the war from unexploded ordnance are estimated at 20,000. They estimate a total of 50,000 casualties from explosive ordnance, including 29,522 killed and 21,048 injured.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_activities_in_Laos
Interviewer: OK… a couple of questions about that poison. The Dark Knight’s Frank Miller, who I think you fell out with… Alan Moore: He’s one of the reasons I’m embarrassed to be connected with the comics industry. Interviewer: There is one year, 1986, when he releases Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, you release Watchmen, and it changes comics for ever. He’s now worth $45m. Alan Moore: I’m aware of this. Comics are a wonderful medium but the industry is corrupt. One of the reasons I disowned that work is because it is owned by DC Comics. They can give it to any writer. There was a TV series called Watchmen and my only connection with that was receiving a parcel with a powder blue barbecue apron bearing the hydrogen symbol and a letter that began, “Mr. Moore, I am one of the bastards currently destroying Watchmen…” I wrote back a brief letter, saying that this work has been stolen from me so, as far as I’m concerned, it is unauthorised.
A section on the Wikipedia page about the Linux kernel, showing a list of internal and external conflicts that have arisen throughout the years among the developers. One of the items goes as follows: “In June 2012, Torvalds made it very clear that he did not agree with NVIDIA releasing its drivers as closed.” A hyperlink is included in the portion of the sentence that goes “he did agree” which shows a preview of the Middle Finger page. Linus Torvalds famously spoke “NVIDIA fuck you” while sticking out the finger at a public conference years ago to express his frustration.
Headline: The comic book industry is too reliant on older characters like Batman, Spider-Man, and the Transformers, and it’s holding us back says Robert Kirkman. Sub-headline: Robert Kirkman says the original sin of the comic book industry is its inability to move on from characters created generations ago.
A 3D render of Daredevil from the cancelled video game “Marvel 2099 : One Nation Under Doom”. Unlike traditional depictions of the character where he’s usually wearing an all red suit, this version is all grey, save for the red logo on his right chest pec and his glowing red eyes. His batons are also blood red, making for a rather demonic figure. It’s possible the grayscale design could be explained as the model being unfinished, but this is only speculation.
A news article headline that reads as follows: “Trump to Nominate Doctor Who Has Publicly Supported Vaccines as C.D.C. Director”
“I don’t see any justification for corporations to lose copyright of a character. Corporations do a much better job of maintaining the quality and integrity of characters. Public domain essentially waters down characters so much that they lose what made them vital and they fade away.”
A partial transcript of a conversation between Stan Lee, Will Eisner, Gil Kane, John Goldwater, and others from 1971, sourced from The Comics Journal: https://www.tcj.com/our-publisher-responds/ Stan Lee: “I would say that the comic book market is the worst market that there is on the face of the earth for creative talent, and the reasons are numberless and legion. I have had many talented people ask me how to get into the comic book business. If they were talented enough, the first answer I would give them is, why would you want to get into the comic book business? Because even if you succeed, even if you reach what might be considered the pinnacle of success in comics, you will be less successful, less secure, and less effective than if you are just an average practitioner of your art in television, radio, movies, or what have you. It is a business in which the creator, as was mentioned before, owns nothing of his creation. The publisher owns it… … Unfortunately, in the comic field, the artist, the writer, and the editor, if you will, are the most helpless people in the world.”
Transcript: Knowing what was to come, I encouraged expansion. It was the best method to ensure Cybertron would thrive. As I told Prima, if we were blessed by the light of reason and the gift of immortality—should not the rest of the galaxy be similarly blessed? Pax Cybertronia.
Screenshot of the video results section on YouTube showing the 2007 Transformers film with the incorrect thumbnail that presents it as the second movie.
Screenshot of the Integrity capsule splashdown for the NASA Artemis II mission.
A scene from Old Man Logan Vol. 1, written by Jeff Lemier, showing the first time Logan met Maureen in the post-apocalypse. Maureen and a group of survivors had been surviving in a bunker.
Every time I read or hear anyone call Israel’s colonizing, segregating, and murdering Palestinians a “conflict,” I wonder: Do the people writing or speaking like this downplay other genocides as well? For example, do they call it “the Cambodian conflict”? “The Turkish–Armenian conflict”? “The European–African slavery conflict”? (“The Nazi–Jews conflict”!?) When Verbal Caution Shields Physical Attack While there is such a thing as a conflict, the term can do grave injustice when used “cautiously”: Whenever a people is being systematically exploited, segregated, and murdered, that’s not a conflict—it’s exploitation, segregation, murder, and, in the case of Cambodia, Armenia, and Palestine, genocide. Labeling genocides “conflicts” seems to be sold as an application of intellectual standards, as the cautious waiting for additional data. It’s not: It’s moral cowardice—it’s intellectual whitewashing that sides with the genocidal party.
The same flashback scene from the IDW Optimus Prime comic book series (issue 25). The blacksmith is looking at Orion Pax just as he begins developing into a material form through a looking glass or lens of some sort that is provided by Scrounge’s alternative form. Written by John Barber Art by Kei Zama Colors by Josh Burcham Letters by Tom B. Long
A scene from the IDW Optimus Prime comic book series (issue 25), taking place in a flashback sequence when Optimus Prime was just born on Cybertron. The “newborn” Optimus, then known as Orion Pax, sees how two people were present when he was born: a big, menacing brute who serves as a blacksmith and a small, innocuous and yellow guy named Scrounge, who was acting as the blacksmith’s tool equipment. The blacksmith smacks Scrounge and tells him to get out of his way as he is of no use anymore. Orion looks at these first opening moments of his life with fright and disgust. A transcript of the scene, from Optimus’ inner monologue about the moment he was born and what he saw: “What we first experience, what we first witness? Even if we do not remember—perhaps these moments drive us.” Written by John Barber Art by Kei Zama Colors by Josh Burcham Letters by Tom B. Long
Finalized concept art design for Arcee by Ben Procter for the live action 2007 Transformers movie.
Non-serious concept art by Ben Procter for the live action 2007 Transformers film, featuring a Decepticon called “Fumi Gator” who leaks out sewage gas in the middle of the street on top of a manhole cover while people are running and screaming away.
The left is not the left... political compasses are ephemeral, and left/right denominations make sense in the context of quickly describing where one stands in a political setting, nothing more. You cannot 'be' the left, and the 'left' does not do anything. People do things. The left did not 'used' to be the left, and there is nothing we can do to make the left the left. Political projects are each unique and have a unique set of successes and failures. They can be inspired by each other and studious of theory, but they are not theory. They are groups of people coming together to do things. they have various contradictions and conflicts, and what they do consists of various processes. What matters from here on out is what has always mattered. Not what you think, not what you've read, not what you consider yourself, not the org you're a part of. What matters is the answer to one very simple question: What are you doing? Studying only matters insofar as it can help you understand what you are doing. It can help you understand histories of places you're in, it can help you understand how the financial system works and doesn't work, it can help you understand the people you interact with regularly. It can help you in so many ways. But it only matters if you are doing something. You have to think about what you do on a daily basis. Are you feeding anyone? Are you helping anyone's literacy? Are you inspiring anyone? Are you bringing people together? Are you agitating anyone? Are you obstructing anyone? What is it that you are doing? When we talk about the Left and talk about ideology and talk about people that annoy us online and offline, we can easily fool ourselves into thinking that this alone is the “doing”. But talking without doing, and without being conscious of what you're doing, is just feeding spectacle.
I think today when you look at the work of writers like Tom King, there is a messy but important conversation to be had about the dissonance between his love for Alan Moore and his past as a CIA officer. And in his comics, namely things like The Omega Men and Strange Adventures, when he interrogates the idea of the doomed cyclical nature of revolutions, when he comes down on Adam Strange as a white person’s imposition on another sovereign nation, there’s a lot of baggage we have to sort through. In my opinion, most of King's stuff is very good work and worth the effort, but its messy nonetheless. However, when we simply recycle the trappings, when we just do Vertigo books as an aesthetic and not a statement of intent and artistic perspective, then we’ve lost the forest for the trees. In that realm, I’m looking at a majority of what Marvel publishes, Tom Taylor’s mercifully short stint writing John Constantine, and basically everything Geoff Johns or Scott Snyder have done since DC Rebirth. When we problematize the metaphor of the superhero and express him as a function of American Culture that parallels the nation’s history and status in the world, there’s something ripe there worth taking about, particularly for outsiders. When we just simplify it down to a “vibe” with more of the same class of American Super Fan writing for the books, you just get mediocre echoes of more interesting (and more important) work.
What made Miracleman/Marvelman work so well in its original context was the developing British artistic voices entering comics at the time. As the British invasion found expression in works like Morrison on Animal Man or Gaiman on Sandman, we saw a revitalization of the American “superhero” concept from the perspective of people living in a dying empire. Famously, the Ian Fleming James Bond novels have a similar framing: the adventures of Bond come packaged with real time observations of the evolving idea of conservatism in the UK and the loss of real power on the global stage, being replaced by America. Thus, the American superhero comics in the hands of these British writers, some of whom were radical, leftist, anti-imperialists like Alan Moore, were questioning the “superhero” as a legitimate body of power. If the empire is in collapse, and if the writers of these books were facing it in real time, then the chance to take the American Superhero and force him to come face to face with the realization of his own inevitable collapse, as well as taking a hard look at the implications of the power dynamics they reinforce, is a valuable, outside perspective. However, as American Superhero comics continued, the trappings of these kinds of stories, the politically aware but cynical and grounded approach to the Superhero, became more an aesthetic and less a narrative self-reflection. As American writers take the perspective of British writers, they often forget to infuse their own situatedness inside the heart of the American empire into the story.
Regardless, what I’m getting at here is that the 2019 Transformers series is—when you step back a moment—insanely divorced from the actual premise of Transformers. It feels like it faithfully recreates and expands upon every single aspect of Transformers lore except for the fact that they turn into cars and stuff. Really, why do these characters convert at all? Even the story’s initial examination of this idea, with Rubble choosing an alt-mode, is swept under the rug at the earliest possible opportunity. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t harp on this too much, because you just have to accept it as part-and-parcel with the War for Cybertron premise. Unfortunately, this has been the default state of Transformers fiction for years, it feels: all these signifiers removed from their intended context, now milling around in a vacuum, impenetrable to all but established fans. Rather than being central to the story, the transformation cog is reduced to a vestigial organ. Source: https://tfwikicommunity.wordpress.com/2022/07/01/idw-2-the-review/
Another betrayed expectation, of course, is that the war will eventually move to Earth, as stated on the very first page of the series. It appears to have always been the plan for someone other than Ruckley to tell that story, and indeed I can’t imagine the ending of the book was meaningfully different to how it was originally outlined. With Skybound picking up the license, it is of course theoretically plausible that they would take advantage of the open status quo left at the end of this series (which probably-coincidentally resembles that seen at the start of 1986’s The Transformers: The Movie) to tell a more-conventional Earth-based story. I do however think this is vanishingly unlikely. Rather, it’ll just be a total reboot more in line with, say, Dreamwave’s early-2002 reboot—in other words, my friends and I are bracing ourselves for this to be an abominable comic. The Game of Thrones of Transformers, if you will. Certainly this will be the case if Robert Kirkman personally pens the book, god forbid. I’m trying to lower your expectations as much as possible here, can you tell? Source: https://tfwikicommunity.wordpress.com/2022/07/01/idw-2-the-review/
Sraxus executing a pair of poor homeless Cybertronians, then proceeding to rip off Scrounge’s special arm. From The Transformers #17.
Prowl scolding Grimlock for using their spaceship to crash into Unicron.
Optimus and Prowl in their final moment together.
A scene from the Marvel Transformers comic (issue 75 of the U.S. series, or issues 319 to 322 of the UK series) where Optimus Prime makes the ultimate sacrifice by using the power of the Matrix, which contains the essence of his creator god Primus, against Primus’ evil opposite: Unicron. Three wide panels are stacked on top of each other vertically. The first panel shows Optimus as he flies into space holding the Matrix above his head, which emits a bright ray of light. The second panel in the middle shows Optimus entering the mouth of Unicron, his trajectory being marked by a white streak of light. The third panel shows Unicron as he becomes engulfed by the same white light from the power of the Matrix. Full transcript of the scene: Optimus: “Today we end a battle begun eons ago. I thought you created us to die Primus—to perish in your place. But now I understand. You created us to carry on after you are gone! You must die Primus—so that all might live!” Unicron: “Nooo! Noooo! It burns! White white white! I am filled with life—terrible, wonderful life! Thoughts! Fears! Doubts! Pain! Love! Death! Too much... “ Credits: Written by Simon Furman, art by Geoff Senior, colors by Nel Yomtov, and lettering by Rick Parker.
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As part of the book Star Wars Archives: Episodes I-III: 1999–2005, author Paul Duncan interviewed George Lucas. During this interview, George talked more about his plans for the sequel trilogy. Paul Duncan: What about the stormtroopers? They look robotic, but they’re not. George Lucas: How do you know what they are? Paul Duncan: Did you have a different idea of what they were? George Lucas: Yeah, they started out as clones. Once all the clones were killed, the Empire picked up recruits, like militia. They fought, but they weren’t very good at what they did. Paul Duncan: That’s why they kept missing. George Lucas: That’s why they kept missing. Then after the Rebels won, there were no more stormtroopers in my version of the third trilogy. I had planned for the first trilogy to be about the father, the second trilogy to be about the son, and the third trilogy to be about the daughter and the grandchildren. Episode VII, VIII, and IX would take ideas from what happened after the Iraq War. “Okay, you fought the war, you killed everybody, now what are you going to do?” Rebuilding afterwards is harder than starting a rebellion or fighting the war. When you win the war and you disband the opposing army, what do they do? The stormtroopers would be like Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist fighters that joined ISIS and kept on fighting. The stormtroopers refuse to give up when the Republic win. They want to be stormtroopers forever, so they go to a far corner of the galaxy, start their own country and their own rebellion.
Let’s see... [Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye] is Lost in space; it’s Star Trek meets Dark Star, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson; it’s Justice League International as re-imagined by Stephen Moffat; it’s Arrested Development with alt modes. It’s—it’s—look, it’s a bunch of mechanoids fighting and bickering, right, and haven’t you always wanted to see that?
The Autobot Gears and his pal Spider-Man (wearing his black suit) as they storm into a Decepticon base.
Straxus looking all tired and sad.
Starshine the Spaceknight (who was once a human from Earth), talking to ROM the Spaceknight (who was once a human from Galador) about living in a better world in peace. ROM is distraught and disillusioned with himself, because much like Earth he knows his home world wasn’t perfect, yet he continued to paint a portrait of it to others like Starshine as a perfect utopia. But Starshine reassures him that he needs not to agonize himself over this, acknowledging that there are no utopias and there are no perfect people. From ROM: Spaceknight #48. Written by Bill Mantlo, art by Sal Buscema (layouts) & Akine Garvey (embellishment), colors by Ben Sean, and letters by Janice Chiang.
Screenshot of the download page on GlobalComix for both volumes of The Transformers Compendium by Skybound Entertainment.
The Transformers #73 pinup by Paul Kupperberg. Optimus Prime and Megatron are fighting in front of the World Trade Center, where the Twin Towers hover over them ahead. Optimus’ head is obscured by the folding point of the two sides of the book.
Soundwave testing out a realvision device under Ratbat’s orders.
Blaster reunites with the other disgruntled Autobots who are tired of Grimlock’s horrible leadership and vouch for him to lead, to which he reminds them to focus on their primary duty in fending off the Decepticons and protecting the vulnerable, and to worry about picking a new Autobot leader later.
After pursuing Blaster, who still escapes his tail, Grimlock decides to condemn a group of kids who helped Blaster to death, but secretly revealing this is a false intention in order to lure Blaster to come save them.
Grimlock with both arms raised high as he charges his poor Autobot followers to prepare looking for Blaster.
Grimlock prepares to have Blaster put into what is essentially an electric chair for deserting his post. Not exactly the way of the Autobots and a far cry from Grimlock’s more merciful predecessor.
Sentinel Prime, from the 2019 Transformers comic book series (issue #25) by IDW, explaining why military expansion and interference is a bad idea. Full panel transcript: “The universe is not ours alone. It belongs just as much to other sentients, and to those of us not yet forged. If we make other civilizations fear us, the will act, as they have before. If we uncur debts, our successors will pay them.” Written by Brian Ruckley, art by Anna Malkova, colors by Joana Lafuente, and lettering by Jake M. Wood.
“The Hills Have Eyes” on a Twin Peaks intro backdrop.
Venom threatening to suffocate a security prison guard if he doesn’t disable the alarms so that he can escape.
Thunderwing: “Interesting. I almost FELT that.”
The first memo, dated June 29, 1995, comes from Todd Dezago. In a nutshell, Todd proposed that we announce a storyline called "The Death of the Clone," which would get all of fandom thinking that Peter (still believed to be the clone) was going to either die of clone degeneration or get killed by some super-villain. As the suspense builds to a dramatic peak, Ben Reilly is the one who gets the clone degeneration and melts away, revealing that Peter was the real deal all along. An interesting fake-out, isn't it? Sort of like the way Alfred Hitchcock made audiences think that Janet Leigh's character was going to be the main character in Psycho, only to kill her off within the first third of the film. But wait, there's more. As Peter copes with both the sudden restoration of his identity and the loss of the closest thing he's ever had to a brother, the pregnant Mary Jane also develops clone degeneration and melts away! Mary Jane was a clone, too! It turns out that the Jackal captured the real Mary Jane years earlier and kept her in suspended animation for all that time! She and Peter were never married! As Todd wrote, "No baby! Peter's single! No clone! Disoriented MJ has to readjust! We play down the tragedy of Peter losing his family by having a 'new' Mary Jane around... (Peter) will feel responsible in that she lost five years of her life and was drawn into it all because he was Spider-Man!" I honestly don't remember what my reaction to Todd's memo was back then, but considering how wacky some of the later ideas were, this one is pretty reasonable to me. Hell, I'm wondering now why we didn't pursue this any further! I kind of like it, actually. It's simple, it's clean, and it accomplishes everything it needs to. It's not a perfect solution, but then again, neither was the one we ended up using for real. And this one has that extra twist of Mary Jane having been a clone since 1975. I mean, who would've seen that coming?
A panel from Flash Comics #1, showing the first costumed appearance of Hawkman. Above is a caption that says “The Hawkman - Peril of the night”
Spider-Man and his daughter Spider-Girl standing on a rooftop corner. Behind them is a plume of smoke followed by a pitch black night sky with the full moon encircled around Spider-Girl’s head.
Venom versus Spider-Man, as drawn by Mark Bagley in The Amazing Spider-Man #374.
I was in high school when reruns of the canceled Original Series started getting traction, and my good friend Don was utterly devoted to the show. This was before home video recording was possible, so when an episode was coming on Don would place a portable cassette recorder next to the TV speaker and record the sound, hitting the pause button during commercials. He would then carefully write on the cassette case the name of the episode and the date he recorded it. Eventually he was able to record the entire series, and stored the cassettes in shoeboxes under his bed. Whenever I could I joined him for these sessions, which he conducted with great solemnity. Just before the show came on he would light a couple of joints and hand me one, and throughout the episode we toked in companionable silence, paying less and less attention to what was happening on the screen, or to the fact that the commercials were now being recorded along with the show.
A page from Spider-Girl Annual #1, pencilled by Pat Olliffe and inked by Sal Buscema. On the top panel, Mayday quickly makes her escape from a group of people and in the bottom panel she appears again as Spider-Girl.
Screenshot of the digital store page for “The Transformers Compendium” on GlobalComix, showing volumes 1 and 2. Volume 1 is priced at $3.99, while Volume 2 is $64.99.
Screenshot of a video on a personalized YouTube homepage titled “i love transformers” by user @ZammyZlaughterzz. The thumbnail shows them holding a Megatron figurine.
Carnage on the cover of “The Dark Book”
Spider-Man swinging by in a dark morning, with a building corner on the forefront.
I *like* pride washing. I *like* that stores had to put out rainbow merch and bend the knee to my civil and human rights, and our status as the reason they can stay in business. Anyone who hates that is deeply suspect to me.