01 July, 2012

so keep your head up, keep your love

What did I just watch? Creeper stalkers? Endermen that fight back and steal chests? Air kraken?

Wait, air kraken? So it's not just a CaleCraft phenomenon!

Somehow that relates to this, which is the opening of an anime that's very nearly too weird to describe, but I'll make the attempt: it envisions a world where the elder gods are aliens, and one of them--Nyarlathotep, to be specific--decides to transform into a silver-haired high-school student to protect a high school boy.

I'm not kidding, that seems to be what it is. It's been a small but pervasive part of Japanese culture, in that it's appeared in manga, anime, and light novel formats, and is at least partially based on the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game.

Ooookay. Moving on...It seems glaringly apparent, now, that Marvel has decided to make the X-Men villains. Now, sure, they're supposedly possessed--en masse--by the Phoenix Force (the same sort of nebulous world-destroying entity that turned Jean Grey into Dark Phoenix), but that doesn't explain the weird changes in costume.

For instance, the Sub-Mariner--Prince Namor--went from this:

(from the media album, a cover of the Sub-Mariner comic)

(which made sense for a mostly sea-dwelling superhero) to this:

(from the media album; the so-called "Phoenix Five")

which...makes no sense for the character.

From left to right on the above (Prince Namor is on the far left) picture: the Sub-Mariner, Husk, Cyclops, Emma Frost, and Colossus. So, we have Namor in red and black scaled tights, black winged boots that belt around the thighs, opera-length latex gloves (and bwuh, Marvel? Why fetish gloves?!?), and gold spaulders (bet those would be hell to swim in). We have Husk, one of the more disturbing of the new crop of X-Men due to her ability to tear off her surface skin to reveal metal, stone, or differently-organized skin underneath, wearing smoking red, riveted spaulders, seemingly studded black opera-length gloves, black studded thigh-high boots, and a kicky little miniskirt in red--plus carrying a flaming sword. We have Scott Summers in pretty much Nightwing's costume, but in red and black--and with added, wholly ridiculous-looking, red thong (who's also carrying Captain America's impossibly damaged shield, and Thor's hammer, which also makes no sense). We've got Emma Frost in gold and white, when gold has never been one of her colors, either (though weirdly, she's actually wearing more in her new outfit than she does usually). And finally, we have Colossus with gold touches over his metallic form, but wearing red and black boots and gauntlets, and what can only be described as a loosely belted red toga. What the hell, Marvel?

[Late insert from the Editrix: I'm wrong! While Marvel.com has nothing on this, Scans Daily had it incorrect, and the one I identified as Husk is actually Majik, the younger sister of Colossus.]

So what's happening now with the Marketplace JIRA? Glad you asked. I have a picture:

(from the bizarre album)


For anyone following along at home, in mid-June I noticed the description had changed:

(from the bizarre album)

And now it seems to have changed again. Here's what I want to know:

  • First and foremost, why are people changing the description? 
  • Second, how are they changing the description? 
  • Third, is this expected behavior or a recent change? 
  • Fourth, is this part of the bug also affecting the Marketplace itself? 
  • And finally, fifth, how does someone change the description back to the original for this particular bug? Does anyone know? 

Because people updating their comments on that JIRA, and changing the official filing description of that JIRA, should not be the same thing.

4 comments:

MichaelK said...

That Lovecraft anime is the best thing ever. If you don't make a Tumblr post of it I am.

Also, pfffft Marvel has no damn idea what they're doing, and hasn't in forever.

Emilly Orr said...

I'd make a Tumblr post if I'd ever seen it. But it's now on the list for anime we have to track down and watch.

Here's the sad thing--the Marvel movie crew knows exactly what they're doing--so why doesn't the comic branch?

Anonymous said...

I wonder if that is not Husk, but a reappearance of Magik


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magik_%28comics%29

Marvel is now inventing stuff by throwing it up on the wall to see what sticks.

Warping a legend....just to see who they can pull into reading by offending.

Emilly Orr said...

Actually, that would make more sense, considering she's Piotr's sister, and has been involved in Colossus-centered storylines before.

So now I'm weirdly more interested, because all the initial research I did on the story told me that was Husk, who...well, neither Husk or Magik make sense holding a huge sword on fire, but...hmm.

*goes off for more research*

I've got a three day headache and it's all in my head

It's the 30th of March. One day before Ostara. And there's been a lot of...well. Conversations like the one below. [18:43] Emil...