Miguel's is wrong about how Canon works and here is why

I STILL can't get over how this guy says this entire thing, and SOMEHOW, doesn't realize of the glaring hole in his logic.

Now, if you are familiar with my blog, you had probably seen this post before; I had written about this in different essays, however I realized I don't have THE post dedicated exclusively to why Miguel is wrong about this, especially since a few arguments are different places, so I decided to do one for simplicity sake. I will include some small things that may be new, but really don't add much in the big scheme of things.

If you aren't familiar with my content and you think Miguel is right, I invite to read this post, and if by the end you still think he is right and I am in the wrong, please reblog with your arguments. I love discussing these things.

Let's go!

I hate to do this but someone reblogged one of my posts and I scrolled down their tl, hoping to mutual, and saw this mess:

Do people actually somehow watch the show and not see every single moment where Katara blushes or plays with her hair around Aang, gets shy at the thought of kissing Aang, is clearly attracted to him in Book 3, gets jealous of any girl that’s also attracted to him.

Or Aang comforting Katara several times: hugging her in the Serpent’s Pass and validating her feelings to the point she cried, comforting her when Jet died and getting the whole group to hug her, telling her how she inspires people and gives them hope, literally tells her she’s a hero??

Aang and Katara literally having several disagreements, Aang’s perception of Katara changing over the three seasons, him agreeing with every single idea she had to flat out rejecting her advice, then wrongly blowing up at her after zuko and the rest were flat out racist to him?? Aang telling her to confront the man that killed her mother after she rejected his advice??

Mind you Katara can barely tell Aang likes her back until season 3 and clearly shows feelings for him way before he starts initiating romantic acts with her after TWO seasons of her touching, kissing him on the cheek and hugging him unprompted 💀 not to mention “forces non-romantic feelings on her” when she is the one that said he was her family after a week of knowing him?? what does that even meannnnn

And I’m supposed to believe that these people actually watched the show, paying attention to… KATARA?

But do white people understand that Lucas and Max started dating only nineteen years after interracial marriage became legal in all fifty states.

Do white people understand that from 1980-1995 black suicide rates increased 233%? And if we compare that today it’s raised 60% from 2018-2020? And yet Lucas tried to talk to Max about her mental health. This is a huge taboo in the black community even today. Meaning that literally canonically his parents would have never discussed it with him.

Do white people understand that a black kid playing basketball (or any sport) was the only way out of any situation? Poverty? Wanting to go to college, etc?

Do white people know that in 1986 it was the first national MLK day?

Do white people know that that’s the year Oprah started? And we all can agree the Mom’s definitely could have bonded over that. But no. Y’all know nothing. Because The Duffer Brothers give you nothing, and then y’all make shit up in your heads.

Lucas didn’t separate from his friends, they all chose to separate from each other and Lucas made it clear from the beginning basketball was important to him and the party didn’t show up to one single game, and then used his black sister in his place. Let’s also not forget the racism Lucas has dealt with in past seasons.

You cannot run your mouth about something you know nothing about because people pick on your favorite characters. This is not a post for “picking” on Lucas. This is a genuine post about the fucking racism that y’all perpetuate and then wonder why you get cussed out on the internet or only have white friends.

“He is so fullcolor“

This coloring practice is driving me crazy

I had no internet for two weeks and it was the best thing in the world, damnnnn

god. drives me crazy how the condition of the token non-white character who never gets their own storyline outside of supporting the white characters around them is that they completely unintentionally embody the isolation of being a poc in a majority white environment. always so distanced from everyone else, no matter what. the audience doesn't look twice at you other than to register you're different from everyone else. the writers don't pay you any mind outside the purpose you serve to the rest of the cast. you're only ever seen as half the character that the rest of them are. you're never given the space to express their same depth of emotion. and it's not that you don't have it, just that they won't give you the precious screentime to do it in, and you'll never connect with the other characters properly because of it. always a step out of time, just because they'll never let you take up enough space to catch up. you're never alone but you're always lonely. and you'll still stick around. there's no one else you'd rather be with in this shithole town, and you love them, you do. but you'll never be one of them.

Natasha Liu Bordizzo as Sabine Wren  AHSOKA, 1.01

Don't send this person hate, but I just wanted to post this for an example for y'all. Please don't come on my blog with bullshit, I swear y'all have nothing better to do.

It's literally proven in history and present time, anything that black people do to uplift themselves, to make spaces for themselves, y'all ✋🏻 people try to take that away from us. Because you don't want us to be happy, you don't want us to have our own, YOU DON'T WANT US TO THRIVE!

They fact that y'all attack black authors on this platform for voicing they only write for black people, so bad that some even leave. (Let's take the BPF for instance. That won't even the space for ✋🏻 and y'all made people leave OUR OWN SHIT!) So please miss me with the bullshit.

The audacity that ✋🏻 have is beyond entitlement, and just like the person who commented this bullshit, many of you are in need of a therapists. ❤️

I don’t know why some white people ( not all of them) get so bent out of shape when black writers only write for black women and men. They have a plethora of written works solely for them,but God forbid you write for black people and black people only it’s “well if the roles were reversed”. Well newsflash the roles are reversed!!! That’s the main reason why black writers started make their own spaces for black readers.

Crazy how the one escape from reality that for the longest time solely those that lack melanin got to enjoy with no issues get so butthurt cause us black folks are sick of replacing words in stories were the reader “blushes bright red” or “he runs his fingers through her hair” knowing damn well we got a bonnet on and our cheeks never get red like a fuckin’ tomato.

That shit is for the birds 🙄 go cry to ya mama about it or simply b-b-BLOCK black writers instead of being some entitled asshat.

Heavy on the b-b-BLOCK black writers if what we do makes them so distraught

White writers don't need to explicitly say "I only write for white people" cause it's literally clear many only do based on the content of their work. Which is why Black spaces where the writing is exclusive to Black people even exist? "You guys would try to cancel that person" uh... no. We would just write our own shit. Which is what's being done now. Until I see white readers asking white writers why they only write for white people, all of these opinions are null and damn void. Literally go cry about it somewhere else. Go sit in a corner and ask yourself why Black writers writing for Black people bothers your spirit...

An Alternative Part II by rayleo02

Micheal and Book <3  

for starshaker for the @startrekwintergiftexchange ! :))

Sorry for the delay, I kind of went on an odussey with this piece but it’s finally here and I hope you like it! ^^ 

(Under the cut I included the 4 discarded sketches as a bonus :’D)

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ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT

Long-Term Long Covid - by Eric Topol

Star Trek: Lower Decks paying homage to the movies every season.

I want them to be a couple

but I also don't

but I think they should be one

but I think they'd break up

but remain good friends you know what I mean?

And Gwen (somewhat) catching up with Miles' height when they're older has been a favourite idea of mine lately

Devil’s Reign #1-6 (Cover art by Marco Checchettto)

On Steel

Given he's made his second live action appearance in 20 years, I thought now was a good time to talk about one of my favorite top 5 Superfamily members: John Henry Irons a.k.a. Steel.

Don't get me wrong, his niece Natasha Irons is cool as well, but John is by far my favorite holder of the mantle, and it all goes back to Reign of the Supermen, to no one's surprise I'm sure. Reign was one of the first Superman stories I read, along with Morrison JLA, and I was enchanted by the exploits of the four replacement Supermen. As a kid I liked Steel the most, the Eradicator was too murderous, the Cyborg looked creepy (I totally thought he was going to be evil because he looked like a Terminator), and the Superboy was kind of cool but also an easily manipulated idiot. Steel was the only one who felt to me like he was really trying to *be* Superman in terms of how he acted. He was working to save people because it was the right thing to do, he refused to kill, he wasn't in the hero business for money or glory. Plus he wore a badass suit of power armor and smashed bad guys with a hammer, which was the coolest way to fight crime ever to my young mind, and a great way to summarize what makes Steel so great.

The Appeal of Steel

Steel is SuperIron Man with a warhammer. At his most basic level, even if you know nothing else about the character, he looks cool. He's got the iconography of Superman, the cape, the S-shield, even has some metallic trunks in a few depictions, while also drawing on what makes Iron Man so cool: the power armor that lets you do anything you can imagine, that lets a normal human play on Superman's level. He's clearly a genius to have been able to build the armor, so you get a member of the Superfamily who is more well known for their brains than their powers, which makes him a useful addition for that alone.

But his strengths as a character in terms of what he brings to the table go far deeper than just the surface. Irons has an interesting background as a weapons designer, something that held true for both his Post Crisis and his New 52 incarnations. While similar to Tony Stark, Irons was not the CEO or head of the groups he worked for, so his realization of the horror he's enabled is moreso that of a cog in the machine rebelling, rather than the top man forced to reconcile with the privileged existence they've led (he's more similar to Milestone's Hardware in terms of background). Yet that he did build weapons at one point shows that Irons morals weren't always up to par, which gives him room for growth and change in a way the other Superfamily members typically aren't allowed.

Steel is also a great example of how Superman inspires the DCU's citizens. We hear a lot about how "important" Superman is, how "inspirational" he is to other heroes and the citizens he protects, and as a huge Superman fanboy myself, this can sometimes come off as masturbatory. Irons is a good way to explore the human perspective on Superman, and actually show how people are inspired by Supes. Irons builds his suit because of how much Superman means to Metropolis, himself, and to the world, and Irons wants to make sure that doesn't die with Clark. He embodies Superman's attributes better than Clark's clone during Reign! He shows that what makes Superman Superman isn't the powers or the alien heritage, it's the compassion and the desire to help your fellow man. That's something any human can embody and practice in their day to day lives, and Irons proves that.

Finally it needs to be said: Irons also brings diversity to the Superfamily. Clark, Jon, Kara, Kon, and Karen (if you consider Power Girl part of the Superfamily) are all white. John, Natasha, and Kenan aren't, which means they bring storytelling opportunities that others can't be used to tell. They get to share in the Superman mantle and explore what that means. I must admit that I am a little worried as to what will happen to Steel in a world where they're potentially making Clark black on the film side, but Superman & Lois reintroducing Irons to the general audience will hopefully ensure that he sticks around.

His Romance with Lana Lang

Christopher Priest once wrote about his approach to the character:

"For all the wonderful notices we've gotten for BLACK PANTHER, I actually think STEEL was better, funnier, and more wryly cynical. And nobody noticed. I mean nobody read this book, not even the bosses at DC, which is, I suppose, how we got away with this, our mean-spirited de-construction of the Superman mythos."

With that in mind I wanted to talk about how much I loved the New 52 hooking Irons and Lang up.

The man who tried to fill in for Superman, and primarily sees Clark through his legendary image and heroic career, dating the woman who was Superman's first love and who primarily views Superman through the memories of her childhood best friend and boyfriend Clark Kent is fucking brilliant. Both John and Lana are incredibly similar in multiple aspects, so I totally buy why they'd be interested in each other, but also different enough that you can see where there'd be some natural tension and drama in their relationship. While not "mean-spirited" I totally think a Priest style deconstruction of the iconic Clois relationship would work perfectly here. The relationship shouldn't be "doomed", but it absolutely should be a harder road to reach marriage (if DC would ever allow that) than what Clark and Lois went through, and it allows you to examine that relationship in interesting ways.

My take on the difference between John and his "LL" and Clark and his "LL" is that the basic dynamic should be reversed. John's the cynical urban one and Lana is the kid from nowhere who shows up in the big city and adjusts to living there, the reverse of Clark and Lois. Similar to how Clark and Lois are both reporters, the New 52 making Lana an engineer goes a long way to helping justify why she and John might have feelings for each other: they already share interests! Add in that both of them are defined by their interactions with Superman, and it totally makes sense why after meeting each other they would find they have a lot in commoIf I was able to write their relationship from scratch, I'd really try to play up their different outlooks on heroism. For John, being Steel is a way to atone for his weapons designer past, a chance to do some good, and a way to help others. For Irons being a hero is costly and dangerous, and he struggles with whether or not this is the right path for him. For Lana, superheroism is all about the excitement and adventure of being a hero. She left Smallville like Clark, so Lana must have some desire to see the outside world, and I think playing up her wanderlust gives her an interesting character attribute that contrasts well with Steel's desire to stay in Metropolis. Lana should be very encouraging of John being Steel, in part because she believes in the good he can accomplish, and in part because she regrets not choosing to go with Clark and support him in his quest to be Superman. John and Lana co-leading Steelworks, a company invested in building a better future for the poorer areas of Metropolis like Suicide Slum, would also be a source of stories.

Ultimately I would like to see John and Lana get married in the mainline comics. I think that relationship is great for the both of them, and neither of their previous relationships feel as full of potential as being together. Lana's marriage to Pete Ross was just awful, her openly lusting after Clark and trying to cheat on her husband just made her utterly unlikeable. I did enjoy Amanda Quick from Priest's run as John's dysfunction Lois, but I think Lana can fill that same role just as easily, and since she's an iconic Supermythos character in her own right I think she can fill it better.

His Relationship with Natasha

Natasha should be the Rocket to John's Icon. She's her uncle's biggest fan and can't wait to be a superhero. Where John might wrestle with whether or not being a hero is really allowing him to reach his full potential, Natasha doesn't understand how he can even ask the question. Of course one man can make a huge difference, hello, has he SEEN all the times superheroes have saved reality? There's nothing more impactful than being a superhero! She's the one who gets John to loosen up and enjoy the awesome feeling of smashing evildoers with his hammer, of how cool it is to iterate on new improvements to his power armor. I think Natasha should have her own identity separate from her uncle. I've heard a few suggestions for names, "Alloy", "Anvil", I personally like the name "Silversmith" since that's an "S" name that goes well with her abilities and with her color scheme.

His Relationship With Superman

In terms of day to day, can we stop having the goddamn Batman be the one Clark goes to for tech advice? I get your average DC writer treats all the non-Batman ongoings as mere auditions to their real dream to write their epic Batman story where Joker gases Gotham and Batman wrestles with whether he should kill him or not for the 100th fucking time, but how about we stop bringing Batman into the Superbooks, and use Steel instead? He's the goddamn supergenuis of the family, USE HIM. No more Batman, let Irons be the guy Clark and all the other Superfamily members go to for bioscans, tech analysis, or anything else science related they can't handle themselves.

I definitely think Irons is the one guy Clark trusts enough to share his Kryptonian tech, or any other dangerous technology he's acquired and stored in the Fortress, with. I really loved the Tesseract Fortress from back in the day, since Clark is back to his arctic getaway, I say let John have a "Fortress of Steel" Tesseract in the Steelworks sub-basement that he's able to create using alien tech from Clark's Fortress.

What I'd Do With Steel

I think the best use for Steel is to lean into his nature as SuperIron Man: Make him the corporate hero of Metropolis, the "good billionaire" who uses his wealth as well as his tech to help. Clark can never be one of the rich and elite, it's not in his nature nor in his interest, but I think John absolutely can walk in those circles. He would be a newcomer, an "interloper", having to fight against the old money elite who don't want him meddling in their affairs.

The pitch is this: John is feeling pretty damn good at the moment. His relationship with Lana is going well at the moment, and he's starting to think she might be the girl he'll marry. Together they run Steelworks, a tech company co-owned by the two of them that seeks to build technology to improve life in Metropolis and across the world. Steelworks is rising in the financial sector, thanks to it securing a contract from the City of Metropolis to deal with the monsters created by Lexcorp dumping chemical runoff into the bay. John and Lana built a mecha capable of defeating the monsters that crawl out of the bay and threaten the city, and they've used that success to tackle a new problem: gentrification of Suicide Slum.

With Lexcorp's decline in power, other megacorps are making a move to establish a foothold in Metropolis, and they're targeting Suicide Slum as their entry point. John is using Steelworks to defend the residents, he's even built a brand new top of the line hospital for the area the Steelheart Medical Center. Only one problem: the mayor's office has installed some guy named Dr. Villain as the administrator, instead of Iron's choice of Dr. Amanda Quick who is vice admin instead, and Steel suspects sabotage on behalf of one of his megacorp competitors pulling strings to get this guy installed and drive the hospital into the ground.

At the same time there are rumors of Suicide Slum residents disappearing from their homes thanks to CADMUS being reestablished somewhere underneath Metropolis. Whispers in the underworld say Superman's tech expert before John, Dr. Emil Hamilton a.k.a. Ruin has seized control, and is experimenting on residents for God knows what reason. Hamilton is jealous of Irons for "stealing" his role and Irons worries it's only a matter of time before Ruin attacks Steelworks.

As if that wasn't all bad enough, Natasha has started college and insists on interning at Steelworks. Between her hacking the mecha and badgering her uncle about when he'll let her join her in the superhero business, Irons is at his wits end with her.

Oh and did we mention someone put a $50 million dollar bounty on Steel's head, and some freak named Skorpio has shown up to collect? John's going to need his hammer to handle this freak if he wants to survive long enough to reign in Natasha, coordinate with Quick to keep Villain in check, and take Lana out on a date.

The whole run would see Irons go from the most opulent penthouses and boardrooms to the darkest, poorest corners of Metropolis. Irons would get involved with politics, Clark may never endorse a candidate for mayor but I see no reason why Irons can't, and his campaigning for a pro-poor mayor would really anger the elite. He'd have to face down the old money and fend off attempts to have his company bought out by the new.

It will probably never happen but that's my pitch. I really do hope we get some more Steel content somewhere. He was front and center on the Supermythos promo for Infinite Frontier:

So I have to assume some kind of mini or something is in the pipeline for him. I imagine he will be part of that Superfamily event that's coming in Sept, and that he'll hopefully get a mini coming out of that. I want DC to strike while the iron is hot, the S&L show just helped reintroduce him to a wider audience, take advantage of that! Steel is too awesome a character to just be left on the sidelines for that long.

The Spider Target By Dan Martins, a character designer and illustrator

GLORY GRANT voiced by Ayo Edebiri ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #9 - "Spun Out II" (2023)

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #42 - “Book of Fate” (2022)