i caught up to dc's absolute universe series

My summer vacation started this week. Every day has been sunny and hot. So as a self-proclaimed summer boy I spent most of my time inside my house reading comic books. 

If I read a superhero comic it's usually a finished series that people generally recommend, rather than an ongoing series. However I've seen a lot of positive talk about some of the current Absolute comics from DC and decided to take a look and be caught up with the Current Culture. 

Simply put, it's an alternate universe in which world is ruled by evil (tech and defense industry and governance ) and the characters have different backstories/roles than their usual portrayal, with the heroes being primarily underdogs in an unjust system. 

I have already read a good chunk of (Absolute) Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman and Batman, and wanted to catch up with them and then read Absolute Superman. But instead I did all that + caught up with all of the other Absolute comics. Because I have no self-control and now I want to write down my general impressions of each comic series (that have more than 2 issues available now): 

 

Absolute Flash 

Generally agreed to be the weakest entry, and I have to agree. The biggest issue is that there's very little plot progression in the first 12 issues, due to the bloated parallels of flashbacks and the current story. That is something most of the Absolute comics relied on (and I'm frankly getting sick of it) but Flash had the worst use of it, with an unsatisfying climax to sour the experience. There is a decent supporting cast to keep things interesting, and the issues after the first arc have been fairly solid. So hopefully there will be more intriguing (and well paced) development down the line, with all of the unanswered questions still laying around. 

Absolute Green Lantern 

Similar issues like Flash, but the story gets properly started at issue 6 instead of 12. I'm not sure if the power structure introduced is meant to be logically defined or just "vibes" or even a strange mix of the two. But beyond that it has some really good character drama and enjoyable villains. Anytime Hector Hammond is in a conversation it's bound to be a fun one. 

Absolute Superman 

I saw some comments calling this "overly angsty"/Linkin Park in terms of its character writing. I'm not sure if it's an attitude difference, or if reading the whole story in go that affects my perception, but I found the tone to be mostly sensible. At the very least, not out of the ordinary considering the darker setting of Absolute. And currently the story does have a bit more of an optimistic tone than the start. This one might also be the least subtle comic in terms of condemning corporations causing the problems of the world (a privatized military, lots of dunking on using AI for writing, and other things) and I'm frankly all here for it. Superman's cape is also special in this, in that it's a collection of crystal dust that he can manipulate and solidify. 

Absolute Batman 

Oh boy. Possibly the most ridiculous spectacle of the Absolute stories, and I love it. Batman is HUGE and his bat-symbol is HUGE and ITS AN AXE and the villains are FREAKY and the batmobile is a BIG DUMP TRUCK and and and. It goes for the absurd at times, but at very least it's some memorable stuff, with the "Abomination" arc being the most talked about story across the Absolute series for a very good reason. 

Also somewhat related: Daniel Warren Johnsson (an artist for an annual issue) drew Absolute Batman chocking an ICE agent and that was sick and also watching people on X lose their minds over it was hilarious. 

Absolute Wonder Woman Oh baby. I really love Dianna here, she's the most fleshed-out and likable hero across the Absolute series and her interactions with the characters and the world(s) around her is some good stuff. I also really like that she has a undead pegasus, much more interesting way of flight than the weird invisible jet plane thing. It's a very fun comic with solid stories and fantastical adventures. Surprisingly uplifting despite taking place in the Absolute universe and that Dianna was raised in hell. Great stuff. 

Absolute Martian Manhunter 

Oh ???. Easily the strangest of the bunch. And my favorite. I didn't talk about the art of the other comics (they are all very good, with WW and BM being the better ones imo) but this one stands out from the rest in a lot of ways. The simple and bold flat coloring makes it very recognizeable, and eases the reading of the very funky and layered page paneling that occur about twice per issue. Maritan Manhunter also gets the most radical change as a character, from being a shape-shifting green superman to..... a one-eyed brainwave? It's very abstract, but despite his rather strange design and existence, he's a very fun character and works great as the empath therapist to the FBI agent protagonist John Jones. If I have to get any of these comics in physical form, it's this one. And you know it's good when it was announced to be 6 issues but got expanded to 12 due to positive feedback.

I had a very good time reading all of these, warts and all (mostly), but now that I've caught up to them I'll read some manga I've meant to catch up or read for a while. First will be part 2 of Chainsaw man.

a mini tiny muay thai journey

The stars aligned. A couple of content creators I follow started talk about what it's like to participate in martial arts, Baki's new season came out recently, and I had pretty much finished moving so I had the head space for A New Activity. I got the brilliant idea of trying martial arts.
While my weight training does improve strength, it doesn't so much to the cardivascular health or flexibility. I figured training martial arts would be a good addition.
There is a gym nearby that teaches multiple martial arts and I picked Muay Thai because the idea of attacking with both punches, kicks, knees and elbows sounds cool as heck. And it be good for the body to be able to perform multiple movements. So I got myself a month long test period card.

I went to the introductory class and I could feel it.

The stars misaligned.

Apparently the person who was meant to hold coach the class didn't arrive for whatever reason so we got a substitute. And there wasn't much of anything I would call introduction. Mostly the likes of "do these punches and kicks" and not much on proper form for how to position yourself, how to block, how to approach someone in a fight or anything of the sort.
Didn't help that the gloves and leg guards that you could borrow were, as you might expect, Used.

I figured I could give the classes more chances since it was my first one. I booked another introductionary class next weekend, but it got cancelled a couple of days before it could happen.

Losing my patience, I went to a "all experiences" class that happened twice per week. Figured I should be able to get something out of it even with people who have trained far more than I have.

I have not felt so out of place in years.

I think I must have been the newest person in the room. The teachers threw around terminologies and concepts I have not heard about. I felt like a detriment to my sparring partner who had to explain to me what a teep is or how to grapple while wearing a mouthguard. The teachers did help out a little but they couldn't just focus on us.

That experience soured me a lot on the gym, and thinking trough it with some mild knee pain and a strained forearm (neither of which I have any idea how they happened), and realizing the monetary cost of getting another gym membership card, proper equipment that didn't smell like gym socks, and an activity that could be more of a detriment to my prefered activity (weight lifting) so I decided to quit at that point.

I suppose I can do the next best thing and start shadowboxing at home like a madman. Or some other activity. I do like the idea of knowing how to fight decently, but without doing the typical fight training I suppose. Which in of itself could be more of a mindset(blergh I hate that word) issue, but I don't want to Actually Fight, ya know.

Oh well, at least I did (somewhat) try so that gotta count for something.

lonely hitbox controller

 At some point while Guilty Gear Strive and Street Fighter 6 were fresh and new and cool, and I somehow deluded myself I'd put a lot of time into This One Hobby, I got myself an all-button controller primarily focused on fighting/arcade games.

The thing with fighting games however is that they update themselves relatively frequently, enough that if something else takes your focus, a new character could drop in and change the meta or whatever and you gotta know what their deal is.

It also doesn't help that my already existing hobbies took so much of my free time I couldn't be bothered with keeping it up for a while.

After I moved and properly put everything into place I figured I could give it a try again. Which I did. And it was mostly practicing how to play Sol Badguy for like 30 minutes and never opened a game again lol.

Now the controller is sitting on my desk, judging me for my lack of commitment. Not even commited to store it away, on the off-chance I get the motivation to be a Gamer Fighter. Until whatever I decide to do, it will sit there, collect dust, and dish out shame.

My iconic box with buttons

retromania retrospective, man...ia

Trough reasons I'm not gonna delve into, I ended up visiting a convention dedicated to nerdy retro stuff called "Retromania". It's got it all you'd expect: Old video games, Pokemon cards, physical movies, Pokemon cards, artist alleys, Pokemon cards, Pokemon games, Pokemon cards, a potion themed shop, Pokemon cards, toys of different kinds, even Pokemon, and, shockingly, Pokemon cards.

 

Did I mention Pokemon cards? I'm somewhat conflicted over the dominating presence of that. On one hand the franchise is over 30 years old so naturally it would count as a retro thing, and people (especially the kids) do love their Pokemon cards. On the other hand: good lord it seems to be an easy market for people to establish themselves and make money out of. The price of some of the cards I glanced over cost more than my monitors. As an outsider it feels like the card game trading market for Pokemon has gone way overboard. I think that all of the expensive modern cards do have cheaper and easily attainable alternatives for people who just want a card for play or they aren't too picky with their collection, but it's a bit ridicolous that some of these things can eat up at least 10% of most peoples monthly salaries. My own spending was fairly modest, got myself a Gameboy magnet by an artist who makes/sells a bunch of pins/stamps/magnets related to nerd media. And if there's anything I want, it's a magnet from a event/place I went to. I also got a Scissor model kit. I did not know they even made those for Pokemon. Of those that were available, pokemon love, and general Cool Toy Vibe, Scissor won with a solid competition of Metagross. 

Beyond that, it was pretty cool to see all the old consoles and games. Primarily the retro TV-consoles, since some were hooked up to CRT TVs and I saw some people playing them. It really does make a difference in how the games look and feel as they are played. I don't have a CRT TV or any old consoles besides a Game Boy Advance SP. Which, while neat, is replaceable with either modded consoles or just plain emulators. But the physical medium of a TV can't be digitally replicated. At least, not to the extent it's indistinguishable from what it's copying.

So overall I'd say it was pretty cool to visit, I also realized it was basically me poking a lil look into some fandoms I have barely any connection to. While I'm lightly entertained by the spectacle, I don't think I'd get much of it unless I actually did collect retro games/consoles.

a weeb (me) was in japan

I feel like every person who is at least mildly invested in art in some way wants to visit Japan. And we know that the Internet is full of those people, and therefore there are plenty of stories of people's trips to Japan. Well I made my visit in the beginning of April for two weeks.

It was a group tour, so all of the places and hotels were already booked for us for the most part. The tour focused on a lot of the Big Places, so we stayed in Tokyo for a few days (and had one day where we could roam around freely as we wanted), traveled to places with a clear view of Mt. Fuji, tourist-popular smaller cities, Kyoto for a couple of days, Nara, a couple of days in Osaka with a Hiroshima visit in between.

So the obvious benefit was that we did get to visit a lot of the well known locations, but due to the amount of travel and that a lot of these places are, and I can't stress this enough: H U G E, we never really had much time to truly absorb the surroundings. Even when we stayed in Tokyo for three days I still had trouble believing I even was in Japan, and that feeling didn't truly go away until the last few days.

One way that issue manifested was that I got myself a goshuin book (basically a calligraphy stamp obtainable from temples). While I did manage to squeeze in some time to get myself some goshuins, there were a handful of times where I couldn't get one due to time constraints/uncertainty when we had to leave. 

Still, I can't complain too much. It was truly a privilege, and fortunate, that I manage to afford the visit and that the weather was mostly really  good. We arrived during the cherry blossom season and most of the trees kept their pink coloring during our entire trip.

I have daily posts on my private instagram account where I go trough photos and events that happened. So I will keep it (......relatively) short with a dotted list about most of the areas.

General observations

• My IG algo completely changed within a day. Not that I complain though, I got served pretty good content.
• Dang they do have a lot of staff in nearly every place. And darn they are nice you.
• The otaku stores have a kind of "clean" feeling that really does make one say "yeah no my hobby is Cool, Actually". 
• The castles and temples we visited? Also Cool, Actually.
• Everyone was fashionable and/or hot???? What's going on here.
• Despite their cusine being well know for using soybeans and tofu, those are usually additions to the food rather than the main protein source. They really love their meat. Kinda annoying for a vegan like me, but a boys gotta eat somehow.
• Sakura trees really do make everything prettier.
• There's a baseball player named Shohei Ohtani (who may be the greatest to have ever existed, and he's just 31) and his face is all over a bunch of advertisements. My instagram feed pointed that out and I couldn't not see notice him.
• Convienience stores are everywhere and the fact that you can buy cheap food and booze (up to like 9% alcohol) confuses my Swedish Sensibilities (but I will gladly take advantage of that, also according to my Swedish Sensibilities).
• Tried Matcha Latte for the first time in japan. They were absolutely delicious. A bit weird with all of the Matcha flavored products though.
• Highball is not all that great tbh.
• I need a Taiko no Tatsujin arcade in my home yesterday
• Oh and a japanese toilet too.

Tokyo

• JESUS CHRIST TOKYO IS FUCKING HUGE
• Due to concerns of luggage space and home-space as well, I told myself I shouldn't impulse-buy any figures and only buy one after thinking it througly... so on my very first day I was in Mandarake in Shibuya and saw one, lone box on the floor along with other stuff. It was a figure of Satan from Shin Megami Tensei (the blue freaky one). Picked it immediately. It's still in the box. Looking forward to open it up.
• On our first evening we went to a local, small park where people were eating and drinking under the sakura trees. It was honestly one of my favorite moments of the trip.
• Walked pass a Maid café. They are real. They do exist.
• Young women standing with signs to pick up men are real and I don't feel good about it. Especially for the one I saw who was wearing white fur jacket, high heels and a full-body bikini covered in holes.
• On our last day in Tokyo, my brother and I went to a dart bar (we did not play darts) and had some chatting with the bartender, a local (who seemed to be baffled over why we would visit Osaka) and a couple of american students who we chatted with quite a lot, about work and education systems in our countries. Honestly quite fun!
• I did buy a japanese wallet (from Don Quixote) that I primarily used as a coin case, very useful.
• DID I MENTION HOW DAMN BIG TOKYO IS. BOTH THE SIZE OF THE CITY/AREA/WHATEVER YOU CALL IT BUT ALSO THE BUILDINGS. NO WONDER SO MANY PEOPLE LIVE THERE

Mt. Fuji

• It is honestly far more beautiful and grander in real life than what photos can capture. I get why it's such a big deal. We were also lucky that the weather was crystal clear so we could see the thing all day.
• We also visited Hakone Open Air Museum on our way. It was real cool. For some reason they also had an outdoor foot bath, which uses the natural (real hot) water from the mountains. Feet turned pinkish when we had to go.
• At the insistence of the hotel owners, they asked us to wear their kimonos for their traditional dinner, which was really cool. They also had a big onsen bath (indoor and outdoor). It was a bit of a hidden gem considering it was a bit out of nowhere in terms of its placement (we were right next to a golf range, and no good walking paths in the area at all). Even our bedroom was enormous.

Kyoto

• Kyoto is just overall a very beautiful city. It's got a good mix of traditional and modern architecture so there's a lot to enjoy, without being as overwhelmingly Big as Tokyo.
• Spotted a purple haired girl in Kyoto station singing the intro song of Neon Genesis Evangelion. Hell yeah.
• Stumbled upon a couple of posters for How Tourist Should Behave which was very funny, if unnecessary, for me, the only good tourist.

Osaka/Hiroshima

• We got to travel with Shinkansen trains. I was pleasantly surprised how comfortable and spacious they are.
• The peace memorial museum and park was as (understandibly) upsetting as it sounds like.
• We got to eat their local okonomiyaki, we had a really lively and fun host. He accompanied with a female staff member who was also very nice and helpful (and... v-very cute). And the food was very good and surprisingly filling.
• Dotonobori, famous for its cool river and funky restaurant mascot statues, is C R O W D E D during the evening. It's even worse than Shibuya in Tokyo.
• Umeda Sky Building was overall cooler than Tokyo Skytree, since the elevator lets you see the outside while it's going up. The building being a lot closer to the rest makes them it feel more closely connected, and the scale of the view hits harder because of it.
• Visited multiple branded stores (Ghibli, Pokemon Center, Capcom, Godzilla) and bought NOTHING so good on me for showing restraint, even if it got tested quite a bit .

Other

• Kenrouken garden was beautiful, especially with the sakura trees. We got to participate in a tea ceremony in a building in the garden. It was so epic.
• Nara was the coolest place: Nice deers (the crackers for feeding them ran out sadly) and the Todaiji temple was an amazing sight. Even got a goshuin from there!!

move it move it

I have not been very active with a bunch things during this month. As in: I, a self-proclaimed gym-rat, haven't been working out since february 1st. That's how you know some shit's been going on.

I caught a cold, helped someone with moving their furniture out, got a back-ache, caught a cold AGAIN, spent a day moving furniture out of my current apartment, and another day cleaning it.

So despite it being the shortest month of the year, it was one of my busiest in a long while. 

I still haven't moved into my new apartment due to renovation work, so I've been staying at my parents place for the time being. At least the worst part of moving is over (packing and getting stuff to a new place). So for the fun of it I'll list up all the things that went wrong in the otherwise successful move that took two trips to finish:

* Disassembling the desktop was a royal pain in the ass. Almost every part was connected with flat hooks that were put inside holes. Which meant it was difficult to tell how pieces were connected and which should be pulled out in which order.

Desktop? More like hecktop!!!!

* The bookshelf got nearly torn apart when we tried to twist it to make it easier to get it out, because we were holding it at vulnerable spots as we rotated it.

* The apartment had two, large and fast elevators. We used only one at first, but halfway into the first loading; the button for going to the first floor suddendly stopped working. We essentially had to call for an elevator, and if it was the broken one, send it to a different floor and press the elevator button again so it would get the other one.

* The door to the actual building didn't have any obvious way to keep it open and I'm pretty sure we might have ehm messed it up........ this is not the first time it's happened to it and I don't think it's gonna be the last either.

* The left side of the truck's running board was broken and disconnected from the stable(-ish) part.

* As we were ready for the second trip I realized I had lost the keys to the new apartment. Had a bit of a panick for a few minutes but eventually found it underneath the left side of the passenger seat.

It was sure a wednesday. But it's all done so now I'm enjoying the rest for that work + the cleaning for the day after.

nose, handshake emoji, eyes, bottom text: leaking

I have been sick since thursday, which I think is a result of couple of factors: consumption of food and bevarages of questionable quality (met some friends at a local pub) and people generally catching colds around this time. I got literally no sleep during the bedtime hours between wednesday and thursday, and I developed a headache and a cold soon after.  

Literally me fr

All of these things which influenced me to do a very wise decision: Instead of resting I'm gonna play a video game. Specifically Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name. Even though I told myself I would play Hollow Knight as the next game to give myself some break from the Yakuza/Like a Dragon games. 

But it has been a while since I played a game to begin with, and I've heard that this was a relatively short game so I could finish it by the weekend. 

One thing I was worried about with this game is the developers major problem with Refusing To Let Kiryu Go. Up until this point he's had, what, 4 games where the end is "This Is Kiryu's Last Story" and then follow it up again by picking his arc by straws just to have him do something, often at the expense of other characters. I groaned loudly when he made a sudden comeback in the middle of Y:LAD and stuck around for a while. And now he gets his own game as the sole protagonist. Again. Yippie. 

So with that pessimism addressed; LADG:TMWEHN is really good and has an absolutely fantastic ending. It works as a second/third/fourth attempt to do Kiryu's story right. There's a lot of rethreads but they've been repackaged to make the story better overall. Also the ending turned me into a sobbing mess. Which I haven't felt for any piece of media in Years, so that's gotta count for something.

The new gadget mechanic for the combat is a welcomed addition and it is really fun to pull gang of people with the Not Spider Man Web Shooter Metal String Watch and dashing around with the goofy jet shoes. 

 I'm so used to the games being from a different time period in terms of technology that I did a double take when I did a substory that revolves around a guy using Not ChatGPT as his dating guide, hilarity ensues. It does feel strange that the games have now reached the moderna contemporary period instnead of catching up 30 years of technological development. Rombas aren't that quirky anymore, it's AI time now, fuckers. 

Who needs an hour long youtube video about the dangers of ai chatbot when I have a japanese video game from late 2023 telling the same thing with (slightly) less insanity 

In the end the game turned out to be a really positive surprise, almost frustratingly so. Like "Oh, they still got it" kind of way. I don't know how well regarded the Majima spin-off and Infinite Wealth are (latter of which this game has a demo of, and the ending does feature Kiryu with his godawful haircut from Inifinite Wealth, ugh), but it did make me feel a bit more hopeful about playing those games. That being said my main frustration with Y:LAD was the game got really tedious to play in the last quarter, and it is in a different game genre than Name, so I'll see.

why

Until then though, I played maybe 15 minutes of Hollow Knight so I will finally get around the indie darling I should have gotten around to ages ago, I finally find out why his night is hollow.