Post Mordor

@postmordor

He/Him. Comics and Scrounge fanatic. Profile picture commissioned from @keizama.bsky.social: Check out Revisitation by @revisitation.bsky.social:

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Post Mordor@postmordor· 3d

This reminds me of a very underrated story from Spider-Man Family #2, where Spider-Man faces off against Venom. Peter starts getting really aggressive because Eddie made it personal and too close to home for him, and he’s tired of it. I believe this is what made the early days of Venom so great.

Venom confronts Spider-Man over a slimey business man who once sent a death threat to him and his ex-wife, as he reinforces his intention to kill him.

Spidey reminds Venom of his hypocrisy, as he made things personal when he threatened Spidey’s family. Venom charges right at him to start the fight.

Spidey then violently smashes Venom’s head into a mirror, expressing the desire to end this threat to his family once and for all.

Post Mordor@postmordor· 14d

The closest the comics ever got to that kind of work was in this moment.

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.

Post Mordor@postmordor· 24d

I agree, but to me their most memorable battle was with the classic suit from ASM 250.

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.

Post Mordor@postmordor· Jul 20

If you see this, reskeet with a sentai team that is not Power Rangers or Super Sentai.

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

Post Mordor@postmordor· Jun 19

A few weeks back I found another obscure web page featuring Ron Frenz talking about Spider-Girl, and I enjoyed reading his behind-the-scenes story about the choice to have Mayday use Ben Rielly’s suit. web.archive.org/web/20201108...

“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.”

Post Mordor@postmordor· Jun 19

I saw the recent obituary post for Marjane Satrapi over at The Comics Journal website, and I felt so much vindication when reading her words about that horrible piece of human garbage. I hope some day in the far future he’ll be remembered for being one of the worst figures of the 21st Century.

“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.”

Post Mordor@postmordor· May 4

Amazing how these kinds of atrocities were never brought up in history class.

“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

Post Mordor@postmordor· May 4

observer.co.uk/culture/inte...

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.

Post Mordor@postmordor· May 1

Haha, whoever was the one to put this into the Linux kernel page on Wikipedia is awesome.

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.

Post Mordor@postmordor· Apr 30

Says the guy literally publishing Transformers and G.I. Joe comics, and who’s currently looking for buyers to make a animated series based on it. I agree corporate IP in comics and other mediums suffocates newer art, but this has to be the worst guy you could choose to highlight this problem.

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.

Post Mordor@postmordor· Apr 26

Today I found out that there was a cancelled Marvel 2099 video game which never saw the light of day. It was going to be a 2D side-scroller but with 3D characters. These are the 3D model renders I found from the developer’s old website using the Wayback Machine. They look absolutely terrifying.

A 3D render of Captain America (presumably) from the cancelled video game “Marvel 2099 : One Nation Under Doom”. This version sports what looks to be a gun holster on his right thigh, and his face is completely masked with the traditional American flag colors. The empty dark eye sockets in his mask and his red shoulder pads makes for a foreboding-looking figure.

A 3D render of the Hulk from the cancelled video game “Marvel 2099 : One Nation Under Doom”. Almost similar to more traditional renditions of the jade green hulking monstrosity, but this one comes with long sharp nails on the hands and feet, brown pants which look ripped apart, a sharp toothy snarl, red eyes, and frizzled hair on the back of his scalp.

Post Mordor@postmordor· Apr 19

Got a good laugh from this. Credit to Alan Jacobs for the image: social.ayjay.org/2026/04/17/t...

A news article headline that reads as follows:

“Trump to Nominate Doctor Who Has Publicly Supported Vaccines as C.D.C. Director”

Post Mordor@postmordor· Apr 19

The person I was quoting has blocked me (fair enough), but in case anyone needs context here’s a screenshot of what was said:

“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.”

Post Mordor@postmordor· Apr 19

By the way, Stan Lee once said this back in 1971.

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.”

Post Mordor@postmordor· Apr 19

Re-reading the Shockwave/Onyx Prime twist reveal again. Barber definitely knew what he was doing here. Cybertron is a metaphor for modern American empire; the running theme about spreading innately good “values” of freedom, liberty, and whatnot is a misleading smokescreen for expansion and control.

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.

Post Mordor@postmordor· Apr 11

Very funny that they still have the wrong thumbnail for the 2007 film on YouTube. Note that this only shows in the side view below a video and not when you open the video itself.

Screenshot of the video results section on YouTube showing the 2007 Transformers film with the incorrect thumbnail that presents it as the second movie.

Post Mordor@postmordor· Apr 11

Yay! Welcome back Artemis II!

Screenshot of the Integrity capsule splashdown for the NASA Artemis II mission.

Post Mordor@postmordor· Apr 9

Shout-out to Jeff Lemire for taking the same woman Mark Millar would fridge in Old Man Logan and giving her an important role in Logan’s life with a backstory of her own to make her way more than just a damsel but as someone with her own shit to sort through. Maureen is the best.

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.

Maureen and Logan have a sit-down talk after Logan reveals his claws to her for the first time.

Post Mordor@postmordor· Mar 30

Jens on using the term “conflict,” and calling out what it really is. meiert.com/blog/conflict/

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.

Post Mordor@postmordor· Mar 28

Headcanon: my theory as to what exactly Scrounge might’ve transformed into at this point in time was some sort of drilling equipment. He has been shown at various points in the franchise to have a drilling vehicle as his alt-mode, even within the same continuity!

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

Character model of Scrounge for the Transformers: Animated cartoon. The head design was made by Greg Sepelak. Scrounge’s head was designed by the show’s lead character designer and art director Derrick J. Wyatt. On the top Scrounge’s head and on his shoulders and feet are drills.

A page from the IDW Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye comic series, issue 37. The scene shows Scrounge with a similar appearance to the Transformers: Animated character model of the same character.

Written by James Roberts
Art by Alex Milne
Colors by Joana Lafuente
Letters by Tom B. Long

Post Mordor@postmordor· Mar 28

I am reminded (again) that the reason Optimus Prime cares for the weak and defenseless in the IDW comics was from seeing a small yellow guy who was there when he was born getting smacked by a big jerk.

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

Post Mordor@postmordor· Mar 28

Not-so-fun fact: The *were* plans to include Arcee in the first film, with existing concept art. But she got scrapped because of sexist ignorance by the writers/producers who thought they would’ve had to explain why female robots exist... alongside a cast of male robots.

Finalized concept art design for Arcee by Ben Procter for the live action 2007 Transformers movie.

Post Mordor@postmordor· Mar 28

Everyone remembers the Transformers 2007 movie concept art for the toilet Decepticon “Gump” but there was another joke concept art for “Fumi Gator” and good Lord this looks gross.

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.

Post Mordor@postmordor· Mar 24

A very reveletory post over at Elliot Sang’s patreon about political compasses, feeding the spectacle, and taking action. www.patreon.com/posts/left-i...

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.

Post Mordor@postmordor· Mar 23

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.

Post Mordor@postmordor· Mar 23

Thinking about this analysis on what made the British invasion’s impact on superhero comics work in the 20th Century, as we’re currently observing American empire continue to crumble in the 21st Century.

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.

Post Mordor@postmordor· Mar 21

This reveals an interesting conundrum when writing for an IP toy brand that’s constantly rebooted. At some point when you get all of these expanded themes and background lore you start to wonder why it has anything to do with the brand name or why it wasn’t its own thing. Saying this as an IDW2 fan.

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/

Post Mordor@postmordor· Mar 21

This is really funny in hindsight.

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/

Post Mordor@postmordor· Mar 19

Slightly related: I could’ve sworn somebody from Skybound mentioned in a promotional interview during the Kickstarter campaign about fixing Straxus’ colors in the Marvel series, but that doesn’t seem to be the case on my end.

Sraxus executing a pair of poor homeless Cybertronians, then proceeding to rip off Scrounge’s special arm. From The Transformers #17.

Straxus fighting the autobot Blaster on top of the space bridge. From The Transformers #18.

Post Mordor@postmordor· Mar 15

Whenever I think about Prowl’s nasty attitude towards Grimlock, I’m reminded of those random background fish from SpongeBob who would aggressively ridicule some of the main cast of characters out of nowhere for comedic effect. This Prowl is very much a whiny prick.