Psychology meets philosophy with a cynical twist. What makes humans tick? Deep dives into consciousness, character psychology, and human nature through cartoons and sharp analysis.
The Button is a DC Rebirth graphic novel, written by Tom King. The Rebirth series follows the new 52 timeline. I recommend it, straight up. The story follows two alluring archetypes of the comicbook world, Batman and The Flash, who are investigating a strange anomaly; the smiley face Watchmen button, recovered from a wall in the Batcave!
Two detective types who dress up to fight crime. One is super-human and the other is a resourceful, well disciplined sociopath with a sense of justice. It works! I never liked tje treadmill to be honest but this version of The Flash is the best and the artwork is a belter! Time travel and alternate universes have been done many times, but doing it well is what matters.
We always compare one superhero to another, Batman and The Flash in combat would end terribly quickly—no human human can randomly defend against such speed! On the other hand, who cares? Batman comics are much better and that is where it counts! The Flash and Batman both have fantastic suites, especially in this graphic novel. Fans often like superheroes to be muscular hard men in costumes with a mask, with beautiful females scantily clad with a whip and a bursting cleavage and short skirt.
Hades and Hermes have been transcoded into modern comic book writing. The annoying thing here is that my favourite character would be extremely hard pressed and would have to prepare way in advance to stand a chance in any altercation with most meta humans, especially The Flash, Superman or Cyborg, but also Aquaman and Wonder woman. It always comes down to the smashy smashy doesn't it? Well, it shouldn't be the case because the stories are more than that these days. This is a detective story gone mad.
The mutual respect of both men is in their blah blah blah, shared purpose, and a bit of banter! Great. We know and expect the comradery and chemistry, which, I MUST say, is better than that dog awful flash flick where they ruined Keatons Batman. In this, both men bring their own investigative skillset to the story: a rush of comic book enthusiasts ordered this the very micro-second it was officially released purely and only, one hundred percent to see the blue Manhattan chap and the unfolding of the Doomsday Clock story. Ha! It was just a teaser! The watchmen never appeared and everyone was like:
'Well, 'I'm sure they said we'd see the watchmen crossover, ah well. . . it was a cool run, yeah a really cool run!'
'But it was a crossover! It featured the badge, that pin, that the comedian wore and we made a few other references, but it was really a Flash and Batman crossover: Bat-bloke Brucie and his speedy mate, Baz. Sorry.'
The New 52 eight graphic novel Flash set, was written by Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato. Of course, it had it's fair share of praise and criticism, but I enjoyed most of them like satisfying relieving dump of an evening—it makes you feel lighter. The art style stands out because of Manapul and Bucellato; it wasn't amazing.
It reminded me of that bloody television show: It started out promising and I was pulled in, and it began flirting with some comic themes! Honestly, everything really was hunky-dory, until Mark Hamil rocked up, the yellow bloke returned and it gradually degraded into one of the cringiest comic-to-television disappointments I've ever seen! They destroyed Flashpoint; then the Flash movie did exactly the same. Ezra Miller doesn't even slightly resemble comic-book Barry!
Anyway, the later Manapul & Buccellato storylines fumbled with the ball a bit, but it is no where near as bad as that televised monstrosity! That being said, for some unknown reason, I enjoyed those cheesey bad guys, The Rogues. I shouldn't have, but I did. They are god awful character designs that are so far removed from a criminal you would think they were designed by the most elite pampered person in the world who has never watched the news. Either way, these characters did fit in quite well with the spin off, the Forever Evil story which ran later.
Yes, some of these storylines are well written and quite detailed. It would've been enjoyable to see more of Barry Allen's crime scene work and street level investigation, this stuff compliments his justice league collegue the Batman. His down-to-earth-level of superhero work is more raw and more believable than the far fetched tomfoolery of psychic gorilla's, weather rod wielding villainy and that type of tongue in cheek narrative you might find yourself forgiving as you read. However, it slightly connects to the dark world of Watchmen.
You might like Francis Manapuls Flash. As reading goes, I recommend pretending Flashpoint is the first book, read it, and then, I would pretend the New 52 Justice League is the second book. That's before I'd start the first four or five graphic novels of the Manapul New 52 set. Once accustomed with those, I recommend exploring the first few of The Flash Rebirth volumes and conclude with Batman/Flash The Button.
Barry Allen has his issues and a strange life, but he certainly isn't a very complex character—he's just the readers guide. Yeah, not just a protagonist. Not many Flash publications have immersed me into the main characters rich history nor put me into his life. The books have, on the other hand, taken me into his situations and conflict, I reinforce what I said: The Flash feels like a guide and pretty level headed, shallow, ready salted person I cannot resonate with much.
If we ignore the shortcomings, he is great in the comic book Justice League. However, The New 52, Flash graphic novel set is a series that has its ups and downs. The concept of a speedster is a tricky one to wrestle with, given how unrealistically powerful this meta human must be.
With him on the team they should never lose a fight—he's faster than light. I have to ignore the physics if I want to enjoy Flash stories. This is when we see writers act like apologetics by dulling down superhero powers to more acceptable.
While the over all idea of The Flash is definitely not perfect, there's no denying that he's also a character worth developing properly in his own right. Batman had a scowling Michael Keaton, the brutish Ben Atflick and the husky voiced Christian Bale; all brilliant in their own way!
Barry Allen in print, is blonde haired and blue eyed, an athletic looking man. He's quite level headed given his forensic science interests and he works as a CSI to vindicate his father. Ezra Miller and John Wesley Shipp didn't come close to The Barry Allen found in our graphic novels, except, maybe for Grant Gustin. What do you think?
It's about time I wrote a little something about a graphic novel that made waves, not only in my life, but also in the entire comic book world back in the day. Obviously it's Watchmen. I built that up pointlessly didn't I? If you're not familiar with the graphic novel or the comic book genre, here's a brief overview: Watchmen was written by a wizard called Alan Moore, the legend behind swamp thing, V for Vendetta and From Hell, a beautiful read! It was illustrated by Dave Gibbons, who did Rogue Trooper and The Originals. Watchmen was originally published in 1986 and has since become iconic.
When I was a child Watchmen would have been way too advanced for me. They looked the part, but I would never have considered them as 'proper superheroes' like Spiderman or Captain America. It's a pleasure to digest a mature themed comic book world. Trying to scrape some sort of enjoyment from modern comics when you reach your forties is like thumbing across into the meaty bits only to find it's all soft. You might try to convince yourself it's working, by appeals to the nostalgia of youth, but that never compensates for the intelligent stimulating goodies you need!
Just in case you did not know, be warned, the Watchmen universe is cynical, dark, political and very gritty. The setting of a story following a group of retired group of superheroes, whose interests unite them once again to investigate the murder of one of their own! Along the way, they uncover a conspiracy that threatens to destroy the world as they know it. A great premise and it flows well.
Watchmen Noir is only one of the many versions of Watchmen graphic novels on the market. 'Before Watchmen' came out, a prequel set of comics that telling the origins and backstories—the reviews weren't great. I never bothered to collect them. In general many spin-offs detract from a very well made original story. Sad.
Watchmen Noir is a lovely hardcover, black and white edition, that does retain the very noir detective feel it wants. The story was a pleasure to initially read. However, without colour, I got confused once or twice with minor visual references to the plot. Watchmen is a page turner, the intrigue saturates its many characters; combine that with the heavy hardcover format, it brings substance everytime you hold its hard-edged spine.
The film version closely recreates numerous iconic images and panels from the graphic novel, but it goes its own way with other areas such as its different ending, slightly different characters but the graphic novel holds it's own with that dark atmosphere and feeling of threat.
I was so excited with the big HBO Watchmen Show they announced years ago. All the right words like 'critically acclaimed' were said so I watched it and I was totally confused. It was supposed to be a sequel to the original comic, no, I can't accept nothing but the doomsday clock as the sequal to the original comic. As always, the comic was a hundred times better! As I said: a spin-off that detracted.
Doomsday clock was the cherry on this cake. It was great to see the Flash, Batman and Superman, part of something with the likes of Dr Manhattan, Rorschach and Ozymandias. I am biased, a fan.
If you want start enjoying graphic novels then I do – as you might have noticed – recommend reading Watchmen. It's a decent starting point, if you like it, try DC rebirth or DC Black Label. If that's not your thing, explore non-superhero stuff like Preacher, Transmetropolitan, Maus or Sandman.
What’s the difference between aninvisible, intelligent, non-material, non-verifiable presence, and an invisible, intelligent, non-material, non-verifiable presence that has decided to pop out for a bit of fresh air? Nothing, they are indistinguishable to us.
Identify the Problem
There could be something beyond our human scope, but no human could detect this type of presence anyway, right? People do aimlessly debate the claims of such invisible, undetectable, non-material presences until the cows come home—there’s no proof, they’re undetectable! Undetectable, indeed; until the gifted or the ordained claim to see the presences, which nullifies what the spirit is supposed to be! Any analytical atheist would agree, that the simplest explanation is most likely the case, as with Ockham's Razor. Why bother trying to communicate with an empty room?
Taking The Jungian Perspective
What authority has set the invisible, intelligent, non-material, non-verifiable presence, 'breed standard'? The answer needs no mentioning. This spirit in the room resonates with Carl Jungs archetypes of both the Shadow and the Anima/Animus, the latter emerges in dreams, visions, or inner experiences influencing perceptions, taking on an almost 'other' quality. Similarly, the Shadow is repressed within all of us, we have our own. A dark influencing force, almost ghostly or paranormal that also provides that sense of 'other' that we can't fully explain. Now, we should consider what paranormal activity everyday people have claimed to have experienced.
Anecdotal Reports
People have been experiencing strange presences, ghosts, elves and poltergeists (that we often call the paranormal now) since the dawn of history—in doing so, suggests these presences cannot be invisible, intelligent, non-material, and non-verifiable. Only a week ago, my boy said the rocking chair started rocking by itself, so he filmed it. The kitchen is a tad odd during the evenings; we have no idea why things have unnaturaly fallen off the kitchen surface or what makes noise in there.
The Mechanics Behind The Moans
In other parts of the house, family members have seen strange shadow people, and shadow insects, that bear no religious or spiritual significance to anything. As well as that, we’ve noticed unexpected smells of tobacco and aftershave—we don’t smoke. I won't get into the ghost stories told by the extended family about their houses. Many of us tend to rationalise a creepy incident away as an over active imagination or we ignore it, because these things don't follow logic. My point is; any moaning ghost will need a voice box to moan, just as our rocking chair poltergeist will require both energy and matter to rock it—the breed standard is all wrong!
Science and the Paranormal
The absence of scientific evidence for a spirit signifies very little; every culture across the globe has its own criteria for what their spooks are supposed to be, a djinn, a fetch, a banshee, poltergeist or a dybbuk—Japan and China have countless types of ghosts!
Phenomenal Relativity of Interpretation
When dogmas emerge, people start to expect their spirits to behave like a class X, Y or Z, but the paranormal isn’t like that, it’s defined as unexpected, not predictable or explainable. There is no stream of constant paranormal evidence that science can readily study. You can’t do it. These weird happenings aren't timetabled like the number nine bus. It's similar to ball lightning or England winning the world cup.
How We See Things
Stephen Hawking could not see his black holes; a problem with detectability existed for him. Perhaps a similar situation exists with spirits; you see, in the end, Hawking saw the gravitational effect of a black hole moving the cosmic bodies that surrounded them, maybe occultists do something similar with presences? Like the cosmic community, many people have been affected by unseen forces of a paranormal kind.
Any discrepancies between an invisible, intelligent, non-material, non-verifiable presence, and one that has buggered off somewhere, comes down to choice; self trickery, possibly a deliberate decision to join a collective of believers.
To Wrap it Up
Now, on the other hand: what is the difference between an invisible, intelligent, non-material, non-verifiable presence, and a direct experience of an unexplained phenomena shared with a co-worker? Witness accounts often involve seeing, hearing, smelling, as well as feeling presences or ghosts, a physicalism, which not always invisible, can they hold a substantial presence. The spirit in the room is the most compelling character of all!
I can't remember what I was doing the last time I was called a 'simp' by my teenage boy; it definitely had something to do with me helping my better half. I wasn't really taken aback by the cheeky bugger, given his sense of humour. Who cares, I thought, I was being called an NPC or one of those sims from that domestic simulation game, The Sims? Well, I had it all wrong and, days later I found myself lecturing the poor chap about the shortcomings of incels and the malignant narcissism of that Andrew-S*dding-Tate bloke who beats women or something? Admittedly, I was quite impassioned and I criticised him just for entertaining that horsesh*t in the first place.
Of course, I felt guilty for overly stressing my displeasure. I failed to give him his due credit for not being pulled into it; he was just curious, because he found their views stupid.
A spectrum of misogyny exists across social media, it marginalises women, transgender people, slams homosexuality, basically everything except this cult logic of being a 'real' manly man. The weak herds of unique sheep follow. A social contagion of this kind will never be good us.
Anyway, looking at the insult: 'a simp' is internet slang, hurled at submissive men who offer so-called 'excessive' affection to women—usually a wife or partner in hope of obtaining sexual favours! It comes from simple/simpleton. These 'macho men' well on the misogyny spectrum, call any guy a 'simp' for not embodying the idealism of the superior sex. Yes, it really is that simple, or is it?
Certain men fit this definition well. For instance, imagine all the sons and daughters who have faced being fleeced out of their inheritance by their fathers gold-digging fiancé. These things happen, it's a true story. Frustrated as any offspring would be in these powerless scenarios; patriarchal ignorance always plays the key role in this notion of a simp.
The best of us make mistakes, our smartest can be deceived, even Andrew Tate himself. However, in my own family, there are weak men. Not all guy's can be strong. Steven, my brother in law—I shall call him this for privacy reasons—is dominated by his wife. He works a full week plus overtime; groggy unchanged toddlers are thrown at him the second he walks through his front door, his dinner is never cooked, and the house is always a shambles. This 'simp' is expected to cook, clean and look after the children, while his wife enjoys her leisurely pursuits. Now, it's an observed truth that all couples find their own areas of dominance and submission, it's natural. My better half is like a practical genius with DIY, and to be honest, I have no idea what I bring to the table!
kids'll buy into this internet dogma, just as they lapped up dubstep!
However, Steven, is burning out. His partner is visibly parasitising off of him, and to his own disservice, he allows it. Even after she committed adultery and told him about it, he apologised to her! Sharpened his carnal skillset between the sheets, wined and dined the woman, and then, he let her sod of to Magaluf with her friends. We were all baffled, because he is so desperate to keep the horrible woman—anathema to any 'alphas' out there. It continues to this day; she was found out again! covertly dating while he babysat for her. Trying out the word 'simp' to describe the men in this blog feels wrong, regardless of how accurate it might appear by definition.
Omar Moran would also be called a simp, he has been married all of my life. A spirited man, unique, enjoys his tomfoolery, somewhat highly strung, hardly a rocket scientist, but not an ignoramus. Above all, he means well and, he's just like Steven with his wife. Jill his partner permanently forbade him from attending church. Omar is known as being, 'under-the-thumb' but it goes further than this. His wife, Jill, always has the final say. This dialogue is based on something I witnessed at a friends house:
Omar Moran: I do fancy some chips from the chippy, I'm starving!
Mick: And me, come on, we'll walk over and fetch some.
Omar Moran: Yeah, kebab meat and chips'll do nicely. What you having, Jill? (asking his other half)
Jill Moran: I'm okay, not very hungry.
OmarMoran: Oh, uh, I think I'll leave it then, you know, Jill's not having anything, so uh. . .
Mick: What?! But, I thought, you, er said you fancied. . . aren't you hungry anymore?
It's a given fact, alpha types who bully women are mentally weak; submission is a strength, and the submissive allow people to be dominant, I suppose. A line exists between the doormat and the gentleman. However, it's up to every one of us to challenge this stupid reasoning that attacks the dynamics of relationships.
It's a different kettle of fish when your partner's a psycho!
Since his apology for asking a boy to suck his tongue, the Dalai Lama's reputation has taken a hit. I'm not plunging into the ugly talk of paedophile accusation, as such; I don't think there's enough evidence. More to the point, I can't help but wonder about this man's dedication, his meditating and years of reflecting on Buddha wisdom before finding Satori and eventual awakening.
It looks like I'm sprucing him up, but, what I'm saying, is—to be enlightened on earth, is to be a very insightful mind living among regular people. Okay, there's always been a contrast between the illuminated and common folk across any myriad of religious culture. However, the ultimate goal of the Buddhist is Moksha, the liberation from death and reincarnation. Now, what I find sad—but, at the same time quite interesting—is that when the illuminated mind of the Sage is touched by dementia, it shows us that nothing is sacred. It's almost paradoxical; mindfulness at the minds decline.
Of course, cognitive and neurological issues, can affect anyone, but senility seems especially insulting to our western construal of the Buddhist ethos. The Buddhist teachings on non-self, suffering, but also impermanence, hold relevance in the face of such cognitive endings. The Buddhist calling for resilience of the mind over the physical body and it's mental desires, might offer some consolation. I am reluctant to hurl this unique sheep or any of his fellow grass munchers onto the paedophile pyre just yet. Yes, I clearly speculate The Dalai Lama is diminishing, but also, I'm saying he isn't morally perfect either; in three interviews he made questionable comments about women, and three times he publically apologised for them.
I still don't see an Epstein or a Gary Glitter in this man, however, the Dalai Lama did acknowledge that he knew child abuse was happening in Buddhism; is it really fair to compare him to what the Pope is to the Catholics, given the difference in position, culture and structure? I doubt it, but I do know that I make the same unconscious assertions with Joe Bidens senility, regardless of his politics or his accolades.
The image is still in my mind. A tongue sucking request made to a boy in a room of people—no one rushed to intervene! Those four walls full with modern Buddhism itself, which; let's face it, let both the religion and that poor boy down. Idolised men get away with way too much; I'm nodding toward the many scandalous clergy cover ups. After Saville and the BBC we have hardly moved on. Don't get me wrong, we everyday people call out pedophilia quite admirably, disgust at it, and righteously oppose it! Many of us might share the same feelings of frustration and discomfort when watching YouTube videos showing children pullaway from Joe Biden, for example. Why aren't the top brass prioritising the safeguarding of children? Maybe paedo-ring blackmailers still exist in high places?
Tongue sucking is bizarre. However, personally, neurocognitive deteriorated will cause a person to exhibit uncharacteristic and unwanted behaviours. I recall visiting my grandad, he was a mild mannered gentleman and everyone loved his respectable sense of what's proper. He always wore a shirt and tie. It was unbelievable to learn of his violence to female staff and shouting at other residents in his nursing home—he dragged an elderly woman out of bed! This wasn't the grandad I knew and loved. As the Alzheimer gradually took him, we watched him respond to hallucinations and tell us his peculiar recollections of his day. We wanted him to pass away because he was being eaten alive. We couldn't mourn him, it was like we had been mourning him with every visit. If my grandad or your grandparent could act this way, then so could some holy man.
I want to make a comparison. There're no previous convictions nor any evidence that suggested Prince Andrew was guilty of child molestation, but in their droves people accuse him. He lied, fair enough, association with Epstein, that photo and the damning story; yes, it all smeared him, but that stuff isn't primary evidence, unlike what was used to prosecute Rolf Harris. That being said, a rigorous investigation into The Dalai Lama and his entourage for historical offenses would be a great idea.
I know I'm being biased here; fully aware there is no evidence of senility, but as we have seen, neither was this just innocence and playfulness. Their circle may have legitimate incentives to retain The Dalai Lama's health information from the public. I do, however, concede, that my speculation is a stroll down conspiracy theory street. There has to be a strong message in this story, no matter who you are: never peer pressure kids into doing pervy things!
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