Anyway, under a cut cuz the images are fucking massive pngs.  And please ignore the inevitable CSS fail – I can’t be assed to fix that.

Unsurprisingly, I was among them, as well as being crazy enough to demand a time machine (@Navarr helpfully provided a time loop machine, thus adding even more fandom to my already fandom full twitter feed).

So.

Yeah.

Trailer good Nikki happyyyy.  I mean, whoa, ‘splosions and War Machine and Pepper makin’ out with the helmet omg!  The last one on the list was surprisingly hot – I predict that the Tony/Pepper LJ comm is gunna explode with ficlets about that kiss and their exchange – “Go get ‘em boss” “You complete me!” – so deliciously shippy.  I’d hope that that would make the T/P die hards stop freaking out over potential Tony/Natasha but, well, that’d be a pipe dream and I’m not all that naive when it comes to fandom and shipping.

Honestly, a Tony/Natasha/Pepper triangle could be pretty fun!  Of course, I’m a die hard Sam/Jack shipper who thought that the Sam/Pete subplot of season eight of SG-1 was pretty damn awesome.  Will the fantards ever learn that the first ship, in mainstream entertainment, is always (to the best of my knowledge – obviously there are going to be exceptions, but those are too rare to be concerned about) the canon one?  So there’s a few hiccups on the road to true love – who cares?  It’s insanely entertaining!

Also, there are explosions and preeeeetty whips (even if Trav is right about the ground hitting != very exciting whip work) and Tony in a Formula 1 car and dancing Iron Girls and eeeeee!

Is it May 7th yet?!

On a non movie related note, I’ve finally got around to finishing the first season of Iron Man: Armoured Adventures.  Despite the iffy animation, the occasional omg that was SO BAD line (but that can be forgiven because all kids shows, no matter how good, have terrible lines like that.  Plus, they lampshade a lot of the cliche dialogue) and Tony & Co as sixteen year old kids, the show is actually really good.  It is very well written with nicely paced episodes and well rounded characters.  It’s actually quite fascinating that they decided to go the route of the Mandarin being one of Tony’s closest friends and making him a good, if misguided, guy.  All the main villains are like that, to tell you the truth.  The Living Laser ends up giving his life to save Tony’s (and it wasn’t done ham handedly), Madame Masque is one screwed up girl (she ends up clean slated to her pre-Masque days, however, so I suppose a lot of character development just went down the drain.  Y’know, just like what Fraction has probably done in IIM), Obadiah Stane didn’t kill Howard…

Yeah.

Good stuff.

And, to think, apart from the kid!Tony aspect, my most (mentally) complained about aspect of the show was the fact that the Mandarin was only after the five Makluan Rings not the ten there are in comic canon.  But the end of the season finale?  Ohhh yeah, it’s all about Gene realising that he only has half of the Rings, which has the unfortunate side effect of his power lust and poor self esteem tricking him into believing that he would have worth if he got the other half and, thus, abandoning thoughts of giving up the Rings and rebuilding his friendship with Tony.

But enough about the villains.

Tony is actually pretty Tony-ish for a kids show that wouldn’t approve of his boozing, womanising ways.  He’s still an impulsive, stubborn, arrogant git with a bit of a god complex.  It’s pretty easy to see his rage, guilt and lack of self worth leading him to the bottle in the near future and, while he’s mostly oblivious to women at the moment, they’re already beginning to fawn over him and it won’t be long until he starts using his charm on them.

Pepper is, quite frankly, annoying but with just enough moments of awesome to keep you from completely hating her.  She’s absolutely nothing like the controlled woman in the comics – she’s bouncy, hyper and gabs a mile a minute, quite possibly due to an overly large daily sugar intake.  Yet, those same traits are found in comic!Pepper – both think fast, are kinda bossy and are able to send a dozen texts in under a minute.  They’re also both intensely loyal with a strong moral integrity.

As for Rhodey… well, I haven’t been following War Machine and he doesn’t exactly show up in IIM all that often.  In the cartoon, he’s the calm, level headed one in charge of the base of operations.  He’s initially reluctant to fly the suit (and ends up crashing with enough velocity to create a massive crater), but he does eventually claim the War Machine armour as his own.  He’s a good problem solver and, while not as intuitive as Tony, can think his way out of problems in a clear and logical manner.  Pepper, on the other hand, is more manipulative and generally functions as crowd control and deals with the masses.

Happy?  Happy’s a total idiot with mad skills at piloting the suit.  He’s actually pretty damn funny for the dumb jock stereotype.

BUT, yes, long story short?  Good characters, good long term story arc and good individual episodes.  omg, I can’t wait for the next season!  Gene is unveiled as the Mandarin after Tony and Rhodey reveal themselves as Iron Man and the newly created superhero, War Machine so, yes, angst overload!  Oh, and Gene’s step dad blew up Tony’s lab so they’re down to two suits – the backpack suit (yes, the show puts in as many references to the comics as possible) and the War Machine armour.

Also, Fin Fang Foom was there.  Yay dragons!

*fangirly flail*

Travis and I have decided that we’re going to read a few comics with female leads and analyse how they are portrayed.  Okay, that is fine and good and all, but I’m already spending upwards seventy bucks a month on comics (actually, according to my bank statement, I’ve spent 120 bucks on comics the past four weeks.  But I also bought a box, at least one tpb and seven back issues in those weeks – if you factor those out, it is about 60-75 bucks) and, get this, I’m freaking unemployed and just bought a car in the beginning of September.  Oh, and I have about 2.5 grand in tuition due by the end of January.  And I need to buy gas.

And, yet, I’ve decided to pick up four more titles for the express purpose of poking holes at (or praising) the portrayal of women in comics.

All this because I think that Invincible Iron Man’s Pepper Potts is a terrible character since, well, she has no character.  Despite the awesomesauce of the suit and the electromagnet, Pepper herself is pretty annoying.  First she freaks out when Tony saves her from death-by-skyscraper by putting an electromagnet in her chest (‘oh noes, it’s STARK TECH.  That is BAD because it is WEAPONS and stuff’.  But it ends up not being Stark tech so Pepper is okay with it since it is nonviolent.  Uh, hullo?  She’s been working for a weapons manufacturing company for how many years now?  And, recently, Tony made her the CEO of said company and her only freak out was over the mess he left for her), then she has a stint at being pretty awesome and kick ass (though everything she does is defined by Tony which, to a certain extent, is acceptable since she’s a secondary character) and now she’s freaking out because Tony can become undead (not a zombie undead – wrong universe, despite the existence of Deadpool’s zombie head) since, omg, Happy didn’t have that choice…. and she’s the one who begged Tony to pull the plug on Happy.

Yeah.  Kinda flip-floppy there.  Pepper is just a vehicle to tell a story, not a character in her own right.

Also in IIM, Natasha is kinda just… there (probably for the boobs factor and the lesbian subtext between her and Maria) and Maria went from being cool and kickass to a psycho bitch to a recovering psycho bitch… and for no real reason.  Did we even find out what was on that hard drive she went through all of that effort to steal?  If we did, it must not have been all that exciting of news since I don’t remember it.

Of course, this was also prompted, in part, by the SGU sexism drama – personally, I feel that there is no sexism in the show.  Yes, Chloe is annoying and whiny and too quick to jump into bed with people but that isn’t sexist.  If it was, I’d know a lot of women who are somehow sexist just by existing!  Sure, Cloe is pretty stupid, I’m not arguing with that (I’m not a fan of her myself), but she isn’t sexist.

And calling the Stargate writers sexist?  Even more stupid – how can a group of people who made two shows with strong, kickass female leads be sexist?  And SGU has TJ, who is shaping up to be pretty damn awesome, and Wray, who is potentially kickass and awesome but, sadly, doesn’t have enough screen time.

So, yeah, long story short?  I’m going to be reading three more comics and using that mostly random selection to judge how women are portrayed in American comics.  The four comics we’re going to be reading?  Batgirl (because we were both reading it anyway), Wonder Woman (because she is the female superhero), Black Widow and Marvel Girls (because it is a miniseries and, thus, easier on the wallet as well as having an utterly ridiculous name) and Empowered (because I’ve been meaning to read it and the wiki article sounds like Empowered is a believable character).

We shall see how it goes.

There’s a lot of reasons why I feel that, personally, I desperately need a buffer when (if, at this rate) I start a webcomic.  At the same time, I’m well aware of the fact that buffers won’t work for other people/types of comics and I’m aware of when other people should have a buffer but, for various reasons, don’t.

I suppose I should start with why I feel that most comics (actually, pretty much all comics except for ones satirising current events) need a buffer.

It’s actually a very simple reason, really.  Buffers exist to protect you when life happens.  Ever had a 24 hour flu and spent the morning intimately acquainted with the toilet bowl and the afternoon passed out delirious on your bed?  Or maybe you’ve had your ISP decided that you no longer deserve internet and you spend an hour on the phone trying to get it working again and you’re just too frustrated to draw (and have too many missed tweets to catch up on).  Or perhaps just a really long day and all you want to do is just collapse and sleep for the next twelve hours but, gosh darn it, you’ve got that comic to draw.  If you had a buffer none of this would be a problem.  And it’s not like you have to make up the bit of the buffer you lost the next day or anything.  Nobody but you sees how large your buffer is and, thus, you can take your time building it back up.  Devote an extra hour every day to your comic until you bring your buffer up to a comfortable level.  You should not be stressing over something that your audience doesn’t see and shouldn’t even care about.

Of course, there’s also the secondary purpose of a buffer – to cover vacation time.  Sure, you can run guest strips or silly little doodles but, you know what?  Nine times out of ten that looks incredibly unprofessional and I won’t check your website until you come back.  If you’re in this game for money, well, you just lost out on advertising cash for however many days.  If you’re not?  There’s a chance that, after your holiday is up, your more casual readers will have forgotten to check your comic entirely.  Nobody wants a decrease in viewership.

The thing I find that people don’t understand about buffers is that working with a buffer is not like working without one.  You do not need to have a page done by  x  time on x date.  You do not need to rush and make a sloppy page to meet a deadline.  And you most certainly do not have to have a constant number of pages in it.  It’s flexible.  That’s the entire point of it.  It is like having an assignment done a few days in advance instead of completing it the night, or even hours, before it is due.  That has always been discouraged in school because you can always tell the difference between an essay written the night before and one that was finished at a more leisurely pace.  Do you want your comic to have a rushed look to it?  Working on your pages days, weeks or even months in advance means that you can take your time with them.  It means that if you just can’t draw anything decent one day, it’s okay.  You can work on it tomorrow.  It means that you don’t have to do one page from start to finish.  Instead, if you get into the pencilling groove, you can pencil until you don’t want to see another pencil ever again.

On the other hand, if you’re someone who can consistently turn out quality comics the night before and never get sick or have extenuating circumstances, sure, go ahead.  Or perhaps you’re someone who cannot work at all unless they have the pressure of a deadline bearing down on them.  I can understand people like that – I’m very similar until I get into a routine.  (That’s actually the reason why I participate in the NaNo – it has a deadline and should, hopefully, get me into a routine of regular writing.  It did not work last year, but, dammit, it is going to work this year!)  But, hey, if the time comes that you do get sick… well, damn, guess you should have had a few extra strips saved up, hmm?

As for why I need a buffer?  I’m a crap artist.  I can write and write and write and rarely get blocked (if it is my own stories and characters.  Fanfic is a different story altogether) but when I have bad art days… I have really bad art days.  Nothing works.  The problem is that I’ll have one really good art day and then a week of producing nothing but shit.  It’s why I rarely, if ever, post anything to dA.  I just have nothing worthwhile to show.  So, yeah, I need a buffer simply so that on the days I can’t pencil anything, I either have stuff ready for inking or colouring or I don’t have to worry about it and can try again tomorrow.

That’s the primary reason.  The secondary reason is that I’m a university student with an unpredictable schedule and, well, the finals weeks shouldn’t be spent working on a comic.  Plus, if I get a part time job, I’ll only be able to work in bits in pieces here and there.  It’s just less stressful to have a buffer and, thus, not having to worry about producing x number of pages in a really busy week.  Especially if the next week is going to be really slow.  Also, in the summers I can theoretically build up a massive buffer because work takes up less time than school (plus work).

Long story short?  Nine times out of ten the excuses to not have a buffer are just that; excuses.  Just shut up and make one because I do think less of a person for posting late updates (or missing them altogether).  Yes, yes, I know I’m getting it for free and I shouldn’t bitch and blah blah blah but, y’know what guys?  When I hand in assignments late, I lose points.  There’s no excuse for poor planning.  For those of you that your webcomic is your job?  Yeah.  I have no respect for your punctuality (and, a lot of time, for you).  Thanks for showing up late for work again.

I am, however, resisting the temptation to read the other comics I bought by writing this blog entry.  So far, it is working.

But back to Iron Man.

Wow, is it possible to have two storylines that are more different than the current one in Invincible Iron Man and Iron Man: Armor Wars?  IIM’s has been running for god-knows-how-long now, is angstytastic, vaguely melodramatic and, all and all, a rather heavy storyline.  Don’t get me wrong – I love it to pieces.  I’m always one for some drama, especially the relationship-heavy drama of IIM #16.  Armor Wars, on the other hand, is light, cheerful story – funny, happy and full of the necessary buttwhoopage.  (Even if it is Tony’s butt getting whooped, or almost whooped, a lot.)

Allow me one obnoxious fangirl moment about IIM #16 (yes, I tricked you into seeing this under a cut or by permalink) – eeee Tony chooses death over betraying Pepper!  Shipper me is happy!  Of course, shipper me was happy when Tony slept with Maria a few issues back (and with Maya however long ago that was) – with Tony, I pretty much ship anything.  But I especially ship Tony/Pepper.

Okay, fluff aside, let’s get into the good stuff.  I like how they’re doing the concurrent storylines here.  Very well balanced – whenever they switch between Maria and Tony (or between Maria, Tony and Pepper a few issues ago), I’m pissed because I want to see more but, at the same time, happy at whatever is going on on the page now.  Very nice – I’m usually completely annoyed by concurrent storylines and always tend to skim one so that I can get to the good stuff.  I think, in this case, it’s because 64% of the book is for Tony, Pepper and Whitney, 32% for Natasha and Maria and Osborn gets himself a single page of unhappiness.  Sucker.

And now I’m going to complain about stuff because that’s what I do best.  In this case, I’m going to bitch about Tony’s ‘proprietary’ Western Digital Caviar hard drive.  Last I checked, Tony didn’t own that company.  And WD is one of the bigger hard drive manufacturers – in fact, all the hard drives in the computer-I’m-building-as-soon-as-I-get-home are WD drives.  (And one of them is even a Caviar.  The other is a VelociRaptor but that’s aside the point.)  The point is, any bloody computer out there can read a SATA drive.  Unless, of course, it’s bloody ancient and all.

Okay, okay, so the sticker may have been slapped on there to disguise the fact that it’s a super awesome Stark tech drive and maybe it isn’t SATA.  But then, pray tell, would the crazy guy in a itty bitty room be able to tell Natasha that from a picture of the label on her iPhone?

Apparently nobody working on this title knows anything about computers.

And now for Armor Wars.

Oh man, this miniseries is win!  I think Pepper threatening a reporter with her bright green stiletto sealed the deal for me.  I’m all for Pepper kicking ass.  And Tony’s little thwack on Trump’s head was great too and, well, the entire comic.  (A stapler?  Seriously?)  For complaints… well, I haven’t got any.  That’s new.

I also thought it would be interesting to point out the similarities between the two titles – both of them involve the Crimson Dynamo in some way, shape or form, both involve Pepper kicking ass and both have an incapacitated Tony – IIM has Tony with suits but not the brainpower to use them, Armor Wars has Tony with the brains but no suits.

Interestingly enough, both stories have allusions to the movieverse – the preview of IIM #17′s cover is a pretty obvious reference to the movie what with the suit laying in pieces in the Afghanistan (I assume) desert and Tony walking off in a wife beater.  For Armor Wars, it seems to be more of a blend of the movieverse and the comicverse – Tony’s living in LA (in a mansion on a cliff overlooking the ocean with similar architecture as the movie’s mansion) and has recently stopped the production of weapons.  There’s no Stane in sight and Tony referenced how his weapons were sold to people with bad intentions.  It’s not movieverse entirely, however.  Rhodey’s not AF, Tony has a whole slew of suits and he’s operating under the “Iron Man is my bodyguard” facade.

Anyway, I think I’ve rambled on about Iron Man enough for this week.  Time to read Wednesday Comics!