deerstalker

Written by: Appei Porbeni In Latonya Pennington’s article, White Men Don’t Own Nerd Culture, And I’m Not Stealing It, she sums up in a nutshell what’s been happening for ages within geek culture – white men act as gatekeepers to anything even slightly nerd related and then shriek like wounded vultures when anyone they deem [...]

The post Discovering Other Ethnicities: White Nerds Shocked to Find that the Real Alien Invasion They Fear Is Actually Of Other Humans appeared first on Black Girl Nerds.

Writer: Priest / Artist: Paul Pelletier / DC Comics

The conclusion to “The Lazarus Contract” finishes up and leaves some mixed feelings in its wake. While most people (myself included) have become increasingly pessimistic about crossover events of any kind, the extremely quick and sometimes incoherent wrap of of the story felt rushed. This story, which was very interesting in its premise, could’ve used another issue to fully flesh some things out, especially in the wrap up. What the issue does well is demonstrate that Deathstroke, as the most meticulous and plodding strategist out there (outside of Batman, of course), has a weak spot where he will undoubtedly become reckless and throw everything into a frenzy.

The story hinges on Deathstroke’s attempt to save Grant; this is established at the beginning of the book, showing the possible life Grant could’ve had. Deathstroke’s failure to realize he will have difficulty willing everything to happen as he favors.

The other teams are much more involved in this book with varying results. It does make the conflict feel larger with them involved, but as they aren’t as sharply drawn in this story as Deathstroke, it’s easy for the interest to fall off when Deathstroke isn’t present. Even while some high drama is happening within the teams.

Resolution, quick as it was, does have some big stakes as each the Teen Titans, Titans, and Deathstroke all signify big changes moving forward. Some that may change the fundamental understanding of the characters we know.

The art works well throughout the book, managing a lot of different characters and still giving them variance, though not as detailed as one might hope. The art at times falls victim to the pacing, as there were times where I felt like I might have skipped panels in the story.

Unfortunately, the lasting legacy of “The Lazarus Contract” may be how it affects everyone after the story as opposed to within it. It was fun seeing Deathstroke using the speedforce and certainly had some great moments along the way, but ultimately, the conclusion served as a means to the stories the books have planned moving forward. Which is a shame, because this could’ve been great.

6.8 Escapes from the Inescapable out of 10

Reading “The Lazarus Contract”? Find BNP’s other reviews of the crossover series here.

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If you are a rubber stamper, you are probably familiar with the wonder of embossing powder! It’s a powder that you apply to a stamped (or wet) surface, and then heat with an embossing gun to melt it into a pretty, shiny finish. You’re probably familiar with how to use embossing powder for cards, but have you ever thought about all the other ways to use embossing powder?

Over at eBay*, I have written a guide for 7 Creative Ways to Use Embossing Powder. My favorite idea is to dip plain office brads in embossing powder to create decorative enameled brads. (*I wrote that article as part of a paid collaboration with eBay.)

Do you have any good ideas for how to use embossing powder creatively?

So that happened.

We’ve been singing the praises of Into the Badlands all season, but man, that death was disappointing. I’ll keep the spoiler about which character(s) met their ultimate demise until after the jump. Just know that it has made me reevaluate how I feel about this show.

I’ll get the recap portion out of the way, quickly. Sunny makes his way to Quinn’s hideout, but makes a pit stop at the old Armadillo fort to get his Season One motorcycle and Clipper costume. Lydia tries to warn Quinn’s men about the explosives, but they’re well aware and don’t care. Cracks start to form in Waldo’s allegiance to Widow. Bajie is stuck in Widow’s prison cell, studying her Azran journal. Tilda is his cellmate and is also alive. M.K. calls Widow out on her bullshit, and refuses to be her tool.

Odessa breaks Tilda out of prison and Tilda convinces her to get Bajie out as well. They’re about to be stopped by a male butterfly when Waldo intervenes and sets them free.

Meanwhile, Sunny finds Lydia in the woods and saves her from Quinn’s goons. Finally, the moment has arrived. Sunny makes his way inside West Avalon, only to be met by a firing squad armed with flaming arrows.

Sunny survives the initial assault but is knocked out when Quinn explodes one of his bombs and knocks a wall on to him. Sunny is clearly outgunned, outmanned, outnumbered, outplanned. But before he can make an all out stand, he’s gonna need a right hand man.

With Bajie’s help, they are able to take out all of Quinn’s men and much blood is spilled before we get the scene we’ve been waiting ten episodes for. Sunny and Veil are finally reunited and share a passionate, showstopping kiss, punctuated by the swelling score and sweeping camera moves.

Of course, happy endings don’t last forever. As Sunny and Veil escape to retrieve Henry from Quinn’s clutches, Bajie stays behind to take out one last Quinn goon. In the process, Bajie, embarrassingly, gets gutted by a pair of scissors and bleeds out in one of Quinn’s barber chairs. It’s all good though because Bajie somehow survives, steals Sunny’s bike, and drives to a mysterious satellite station where he’s able to use the Azran compass and journal to… I dunno exactly? It’s a very Lost-esque end to the season.

Meanwhile, Sunny has one final showdown with Quinn, and it’s a doozy of a fight. Several killing blows are landed, but Quinn stubbornly stays on his feet.

Sunny finally takes Quinn out once and for all and is reunited with his son (for the first time). Of course, Sunny never made sure Quinn was dead, so he’s able to somehow hop to his feet and hold Veil at knife sai point. Sunny has to choose between Henry and Veil.

Now, a couple episodes back, when they introduced #TilDessa, I was worried that Badlands would fall into a familiar trope of introducing gay characters only to eventually kill them off. Last week’s swerve with Tilda, and by extension Odessa, seemed to confirm that expectation. So it was a relief that both characters not only survived, but were able to end the season quite literally riding off into the sunset. The problem is that I was so preoccupied with that trope that I didn’t see that the writers were going to employ a trope that was just as awful — though Laura kind of called it on the latest episode of Hard NOC Life.

Rather than make Sunny choose between her or their son, Veil takes Quinn’s hand and impales herself (and Quinn) with his blade. Unlike every other frickin’ cast member on the show, Veil does not survive the stabbing. Even though Bajie, Quinn, and Tilda all seem to be able to hop right back up after similar blows. Perhaps their magical whiteness protects them?

And here’s where I feel sort of betrayed by the show. All season, we’ve been showering it with praise for its progressiveness and commitment to diversity. We’ve noted how the showrunners — Al Gough and Miles Millar — were responsive to criticisms of season one by employing even more characters of color, especially women like The Master and Baron Chau — in Season Two. The show has amassed a lot of goodwill in diverse internet fan communities like ours and others.

So to have Madeleine Mantock removed from the show like this is a real slap in the face to the fans. Especially when the Veil/Sunny romance is one of the biggest draws of the show. And especially because the genre trope of killing off the black female love interest to further the hero’s journey is beneath a show like Into the Badlands. Women (and especially Black women) aren’t plot devices!