I'm enjoying the spooky set up and a lot of my favourite horror is very much like that. A great job of setting up the scene and the feeling of impending horror that the House is wrapped up in. I'm really looking forward to how this mystery plays out. I really liked the characterisation of John at the end too. "Don't know." SAME JOHN! 😁
@Roman The biggest praise I can give is how satisfying an experience reading volume one of Hellblazer as one complete story has been. I feel like I know John and Chas, and as someone who hasn't read any Hellblazer comics it's really an awesome thing to experience. Like I said on Discord, your prose is so descriptive and engaging; for such chunky passages you don't waste a single word. I'm loving the setup for volume two so far, can't wait to see what the House has in store for John and [SPOILER].
@John Table I don't think I've ever been in one of these with you before, always nice to see a fresh face! Great first post, love the sense of community you're building between Luke and Harlem. Keen to see what kind of crime noir yarn you've got cooking. Byrd would've loved this, RIP.
@Captain Uni Awesome intro. I loved the transition from dream to reality, the little snippets from Frenchie, Marlene, etc. I'm excited to see your take on the Lemire run's premise and how Marc reckons with his past. MORE!!!!!!!
@Stormyx At risk of repeating myself, another awesome intro. Fantastic use of description and metaphor, you paint a vivid picture of Emma's headspace as she grapples with her actions. I look forward to finding out the exact circumstances of what went down, how things ended between her and Scott, and what Krakoa has in store for Emma and the world at large.
@Lord Wraith Superman #2 is another winner. I'm very curious about your take on Lex and what plans he and Lexa have in store; I'm even more curious about your Krypton. The tiny insights we get via the mention of Clark's space odyssey and the machinations of his suit just add fuel to the fire. Love the way Clark aims to minimize collateral damage, an excellent bit of characterization via action and worldbuilding with his suit.
@Stormyx At risk of repeating myself, another awesome intro. Fantastic use of description and metaphor, you paint a vivid picture of Emma's headspace as she grapples with her actions. I look forward to finding out the exact circumstances of what went down, how things ended between her and Scott, and what Krakoa has in store for Emma and the world at large.
Thank you for taking the time to leave such lovely comments (:
I really enjoyed writing this intro to Emma even if I did reach into some of the dark, bad places. I really wanted to start her arc off by highlighting some of the ugly, manipulative, and complex layers of her so I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Your opener for Sif has definitely glued me to her narrative as she finds herself a stranger in a strange land. The opening bit itself is particularly well written and your prose actually seems to leap out when in the first-person narrative, which is impressive as someone who's enjoyed quite a few of your past runs. And as you went into her recent fleeting memories of Asgard itself, I suddenly found myself able to envision the version from the MCU vividly as Sif/Diana melded with it as if she were always there, always part of it. What this will mean for her integration into Midgard and Earth is anyone's guess, but I really like the implication so far that she could be as seamless a fit here as there. Looking forward to more.
As everyone knows if they read my app, I'm a big fan of this Superman you've crafted as started in the last game. With this iteration and its two posts written by you so far, you've effectively translated what was a well-crafted first draft into an experimental second with a hint of some new twists and a more rounded, seasoned portrait of who Clark is as The Man of Steel. You've embraced the idea of Superman as a protector, and with the sunstone tech and the Absolute cape, it seeds the idea that this version will be a force to be reckoned with. I can only imagine how cool it'll be to see more of the rogues' gallery rear their heads and how this Superman will inspire the rest of the established PC heroes.
As I've said before, I haven't finished the last run yet, which is essential to your current run - so I can't speak to what Vol. 2 is just yet. What I can do is talk about my experience with Vol. 1 so far, which is five posts as of tonight. What sticks out to me first is that scene in the opening post of John's routine, of watching him sadly, pitifully trying to shake off the cobwebs of the night before and trying to get through what seems to be a miserable existence of haunted grief for his missing sister and a slew of bad habits that have rendered him nearly a ghost at nineteen. From there, add to that your portrayal of a dingy, cockroach-stricken vision of Liverpool where rose-colored memories are about the nicest thing anyone could probably say about the area, where the downtrodden and the suffering make their existence out of pain just about as fucked as John's, and it's a wonder that a character like Chas can enter proceedings and not feel immediately tainted by what feels like a world that's seperated in it's own little corner of Hell. The scene of John seeing Cheryl in a stranger's house, wandering in to confirm suspicions, seeing more visions of endless hallways and being carried out in the midst of chaos he unintentionally made - I found it a perfect metaphor for where he'd found his rock bottom of a life, and it gets the biggest clap I could muster for someone writing a comic book character on an internet forum. Another moment that got that reaction from me was when Chas lost his stoic resolve to beat the living fuck out of the dealer who casually insulted Cheryl. Those moments of human frailty in a story that's undoubtedly leading up to something other (it's called Hellblazer, after all) are what's going to keep me reading this until I've reached the present. This is class act stuff, the kind of writing we would all aspire to meet if we were lucky.
Bastard. Just when I think you're out of the superhero fiction side of things for good, just when I fully believe you've left us behind for greener pastures and a "life", you come back into a character you have a long, storied history with and write a post that firmly establishes that you've never lost it, like you never left. The Pops part of the post definitely reminded me alot of the underrated Netflix show, but the switch into near hardboiled noir the moment that Luke left the shop and stepped out onto Harlem's streets left me giddy with anticipation for the story to come. Bastard!
I've been a fan of your characters ever since Chow Yun Castle in the original UOU, and you've only seemed to grow by leaps and bounds since then with your numerous approaches to The Question. But for whatever reason, even when considering your most recent short-lived run, Moon Knight feels like the character that you were always meant to write. Whether that's just timing in regards to your continual growth as a writer and Marc just found you in the moment, or he was waiting for you to really delve into him and form an attachment, I don't know. But it works so well. As a fan of Moony since I was a teenager, you've not only already given justice to his many voices - both internal and external - but you've made the rather ballsy decision to take a recent, beloved run on and reshape it as your own, and the results so far are pitch perfect to making it feel like you made it from scratch. The scene with the patients and Dr. Emmet in art therapy was something that I legitimately thought 'I wish I could write a scene like that' with, and I feel like this is only the tip of the iceberg. If you let it, this run is gonna take you far. From one anointed brother of Khonshu to another, I can feel it.
This. This is what I was hoping for whenever you last applied for Ollie in the ill-fated UOU: Resistance. A deeply personal feeling tribute to a favorite character that reads as authentic to the spirit of Green Arrow as anything I've read in the official comics, up there with the likes of Smith and especially the recent Chris Condon run. That's what I got here, and what I expected. What I didn't expect was a small glimpse into a larger superhero world that felt equal parts Denny O'Neil's early Batman and a page out of Astro City, where Green Arrow and Speedy feel like actual giants that walked the Earth at a time before this current crop came to be. Loved seeing Roy and Mia be the opener before, but the adventurousness of the flashback is what had me hooked and grinning from ear-to-ear by the end. It was said elsewhere, too, but your voice for Ollie really evoked JLU and I can't freaking wait to see more. Hell, I can't wait to interact with him, just to compare notes with a G.A. who's got quite a few years on Bruce in this reality.
Fuck. That's what I was thinking over and over while reading that first scene between Emma and Scott. The reaction being in response to the fact that your prose not only portrays movement and action, it commands visceral feeling and emotion. So much so that I felt like I was intruding on a deeply private moment as Emma fought desperately to conceal the manic everything that was threatening to undo her rageful scorn towards a man that was already looking to approach an incredibly tense situation in the wrong way. It was honestly a relief to get to her more tranquil self in the present of Krakoa, and doubly so in the second post, with her and Storm performing in a game of human chess as she outlined her plans for the Gala. You've presented an entire world here with the narrative of the mutants' long-fought need for equality being basically won, but the characterization of Emma herself remains the standout, and I am blown over by it so far. Definitely one of my favorite parts of the RP's first week of content.
There's alot to be said for taking ground that's been tread upon hundreds of times in so many different ways and getting it to feel fresh and new. That's what we get with this dramatization of Banner's accident, the one that we all know will transform him into something meaner and greener. And there's alot to mine from that, from Banner's confrontation with General Ross to his interaction with Betty, to Talbot's useless ass. It's all interesting as setup for things to come, but what really got me for a headspin is when you transitioned into Bruce's post-accident... experience? Hallucination? Divine intervention? And shit went insanely freaky, fast. The images that you managed to conjure up in combination with the first experience of, at least what is implied to be, Devil Hulk evoked alot of nightmarish, otherworldly ideas that you wouldn't typically associate with Bruce moments after getting pelted with enough Gamma to end an existence. I absolutely loved it, the transition feeling as though it's threatening us with a perilous journey that the Hulk should be for it's protagonist.