a turquoise flower

Oh look what's back. And to think, if only I was disciplined and did one each day, I'd probably be half-way done by now.


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from: Astonishing X-Men #50

This is only a two-page cameo by Natasha in this book, nothing big, but well I was quite surprised by it and it felt like a great little nod to Wolverine's past days as an Avenger and that Natasha Romanov is one BAMF.

Also it's a funny moment, with Warbird's outsider moment bringing in some relief from this wild goose chase the characters seem embroiled in. (And for me, it sort of brings down the utter...scariness of the character, for lack of a better word. Warbird is a warrior woman from an alien planet; she's a character who loves combat and is not afraid to slice off heads of her enemies. Yep...she really did that. But this moment sort of shows that she's just in a strange land and still getting used to it and that she's not always ragey and combative, sword at the ready. I dunno; despite not knowing her very well, I already like her.)

Meme hosted by the Broke and the Bookish

so this meme asked for the top ten sites that aren't about *books* - comics aren't books though so I'm not really cheating. Right? I don't know. I do my own thing.

1. Tumblr: I feel like tumblr is the amalgamation of EVERY SITE ever on the Internet (and this list). But with more graphics and less annoying changes. I am on there way more than I need to be.
2. iFanboy: where I go for the majority of comics news; they also have nifty top 5 lists too and I can't resist lists (example: Top 5 Deaths of Jonathan Kent).
3. Archive of Our Own: this is the fan fiction site I left Fanfiction.net for (god FF.Net totally irritated me there for a few years with all of their changes and having to post anything new was such a hassle)
4. Comixology: so getting into comics is a bit daunting, getting into digital comics is EVEN more daunting, but I think sites like these facilitate that exchange.
5. Marvel: besides just being a great online encyclopedia of Marvel characters, the blog posts are worth a read as well.
6. DCComics: I really like their Preview Mondays and they've started doing creator profiles that are awesome - full list of creator portraits.
7. Comic Book Resources: while I get most of my comics news from iFanboy a lot of the time, the reason I really like CBR is they have previews of awesome comics that are due out that Wednesday or whatnot (um, I should say I am not all that enamored of its forums and stay away from them - and pretty much anything else with a lot of comments - but they do have awesome reviews and columns and blog posts like 'The Ten Cruelest Things Joss Whedon Has Done To His Characters').
8. Wil Wheaton's blog: so in my obsession-that-came-out-of-nowhere-and-punched-me-in-the-face phase of watching Eureka and seeing Wil Wheaton as the ass-holey Dr. Parrish (...I hope he won't always be cast in tv shows as the jerk character, I really, really hope), I somehow became a fan of his and then made my way over to his blog? Who the hell knows how these things happen. This post was especially awesome. (He also has some posts talking about the comics he's into at the moment which are relevant to me.)
9. Aria's Ink: the truly awesomest Sailor Moon site that's still alive and kicking (you have no idea how many awesome SM sites are long gone). And is SOOO awesome. I am not be as active there as I once was and I kind of feel sad about that, but you sometimes move away from your childhood interests and that's okay.
10. Twitter: gosh, Twitter is like the website that excuses you from talking about yourself nonstop about what you had for lunch; sure it's also practical for following famous people and authors and creators of awesome things, but it's mostly about ourselves, come on, who are we kidding.

From: Avengers: The Children's Crusade #9
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AND - because I feel you need this scene too-


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EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Seriously, that is all need be said.

(Also, this won't be the only time the Young Avengers appear on this list, so of course I will talk more about them later.)

So yesterday I went to the comic store for Free Comic Book Day. I got a bag of goodies including a sample where Captain America & Thor team-up, an Amazing Spider-Man comic, another team up comic between Young Justice and Batman, a Green Lantern comic, and an Archie comic featuring Betty and Veronica and Sonic The HedgeHog. I only read the Captain American & Thor, Amazing Spider-Man, and Archie comics, will probably get to the others sometime soon. Archie comics as a whole don't interest me and this free comic read more for like little kids, but I loved the Amazing Spider-Man and Cap & Thor comics. HOLY MOLY is all I can say. (But I'm naturally a Spider-Man fan so it was a guarantee I'd like it and the Cap & Thor comic I only gave it a try because there was a post for it at scans_daily and I realized what I've been missing by not reading it. SO MUCH GOODNESS IN SO FEW PAGES!! Half the fun of reading comics is having other people to talk about it with, because again, SO MUCH GOODNESS and it needs to be shared. SO PLEASE PLEASE GIVE COMICS A TRY. I hardly know anybody in RL who is into comics - or on here either - and that is a shame because, trust me, COMICS ARE AWESOME, COMICS ARE THE BEST. I know they don't have "literary" merit like classic novels like War & Peace, Pride & Prejudice, Life of PI, and numerous others but that doesn't mean their stories aren't as good as some that are found in those "literary" books.)

And then after getting my free comics, I brought Young Avengers & Runaways: Civil War, all four issues of the crossover between the YA and the Runaways. I believe I already talked some about how freakin' awesome Runaways comics are and I knew there was a crossover between them and the YA - which is another awesome comic about teenagers but one I don't have in my collection currently and have only seen certain scans of and not the whole thing so I wanted to refrain from talking about it until I start reading it from the beginning - and knew I had to get it.

And then I found out my local comic store also carries current issues of X-Factor (!!!!!!!). So, as a late birthday present for myself, I brought:
#200
#203
#207
#208
#209
#211
#215
#216

(I definitely want to complete my meager collection of X-Factor comics so will definitely go back and try to find the ones I'm missing - unfortunately these were all the ones I could find at the store - well these and some others like issues #38-#45, but I didn't know what these issues were about so I held off on buying them for now.)

I had already read these issues online before but albeit illegally. So am now supporting the artists and writers who work on them because that'd be the right thing to do (and I totally know I'd get my money's worth because I had already previewed them and liked them, but that's not the major point here). *nods*

Look at me, supporting Peter David and other awesome comic artists and writers by buying their comics! Which everyone should do if it's feasible.

(It was weird the comic store didn't have X-Factor #217 as it was published a month ago; I really wanted this current issue. I hope they get it soon and that it's just a case of it being delayed getting here and not something HORRIBLE. BECAUSE THERE'S A CAMEO BY SPIDER-MAN. SPIDER-MAN AND X-FACTOR!!!! WHY WOULD ANYONE BE SURPRISED I'M A FANGIRL?!! Oh and there's a cameo by Black Cat too who's awesome but who I haven't read too much about but MAINLY IT'S PETERRRRRRR!!! WHO HAS MY HEART!! And issue #218 came out sometime in the last week of April so am thinking will have to wait a while to get that issue too. :(( Pooey. I don't think I'm ever gonna be ready to read it though because it looks like they might kill off one of the main characters - GUIDO!!!!!!!! HOW COULD THEY DO THIS TO YOU?!!! ARE YOU REALLY GONNA DIEEEEE??? YOU CAN'T???!! MAN, I NEED THIS ISSUE LIKE YESTERDAY!@! And I really want to find out why there are people trying to kill Jameson. I mean, there's no mystery that Jameson has enemies, but still...exciting stuff.)

So after blowing about $36 on comics, I thought I didn't have any more money left so I thought I couldn't get the book I was hoping to get by now. (It was Meg Cabot's Abandon. Ah well, maybe next month.) But I did find some twenty dollar bills at the bottom of my bag after I got home so I definitely could've brought it right then and there and I'm kicking myself now for not buying it. Ah, well, I guess I get some points for exercising some control.

Awesome people at scans_daily at Dreamwidth have already scanned some awesome pictures from the free comic sample of Amazing Spider-Man: here and Cap & Thor: here with cameos from Merlin & King Arthur. Wheeeeeeeeee!

~*~

Oh, and for my birthday, I got a lot of awesome things including two new pairs of shoes from my parents, some money from my brother, and a lovely fanart piece of John and Rodney by the lovely and awesome ribbon_purple. :D So yeah, I didn't technically celebrate it as I was freaking out about an English presentation I had to do that fell exactly on my birthday and I'm buried now in studying for finals that start tomorrow. But it was a lovely way to enter my 20th year of being alive (20 freakin' years old!!!!! Man it's scaring writing that.)

~*~

So yesterday was filled with a lot of excitement and fangirly squeals and me huggling my new, shiny comics even though I should've been studying. Although, remind me to never wear high-heeled shoes again. Because, while they're awesome and adorable and make me about two inches taller, they kill my feet when I have to go traipsing all over the city for extended periods of time. (They weren't killing me on my way to the comic store, just on my way back home so there was that small miracle. Ugh, why must you adorable shoes betray me so??) *still massaging her poor toesies and her battered ankles 24 hours later* Man, the things I endure for my comics obsession...