[pavoptes]

I've been ruminating on this for at least a week and I don't know how to say it without coming off as a hater but like. I wanted so badly for that Wiccan series to be good! I'd been waiting so long for it! And it's just such a slog for me- I kept trying to remain hopeful but I was let down issue after issue.

Kennedy introduces some interesting ideas but clearly has no clue where he's going, and isn't terribly familiar with the lore he's meant to be drawing from. Portions of the plot feel like they were taken directly from those fake leaks about the Agatha show. It feels very contradictory to the story that Billy's other writers have been painstakingly setting up for years now. I don't think it's concrete enough to prevent future writers from steamrolling right over it. And honestly I wouldn't mind if they did! When Teddy got the spotlight a few years back, it was done very well, so Billy's turn really just feels like a huge disappointment in comparison.

....And maybe I'm wrong but I thought there was something deeply cool and interesting already being laid as groundwork:

- Ewing setting up the Mystery of the Marvel Universe to be akin to the ten realms of the Tree of Life (Sefirot) from Kabbalah, which is Jewish mysticism. Nice nod to Lee and Kirby's heritage.

- Oliveira specifically associating Billy and Tommy with the M'Kraan Crystal, the Nexus of All Realities housing the White Hot Room, which serves as Tiferet ("Beauty") on Ewing's map. That's the center of the Tree, representing the heart- fittingly, the Crystal is referred to as the "Jeweled Heart of the Multiverse". It's located directly below Keter ("Crown", represented on Ewing's map by the House of Ideas, where The One Above All resides.)

- Practitioners of Kabbalah are said to have a special relationship with God. The higher you get on the Tree, the closer you get to God (or The One Above All?) and the closer you get to understanding his inner workings. It's all about revealing the hidden knowledge of the world/cosmos and achieving connection.

- Steve Orlando establishes that a "Nexus Being" is an agent of the Queen of Nevers. Her realm also exists in the Mystery, sort of; it represents Da'at ("Knowledge"), the hidden eleventh realm that connects the others all together.

- Wanda is one of her Nexus Beings, and it's potentially very dangerous, cosmically, for these Nexus Beings to have biological children. For instance, it was said that the Scarlet Witch's offspring may have the power to shake the Multiverse itself and more. If it's because they would also be directly connected to the Mystery- as Billy and Tommy are being strongly hinted to be, given the implication that they created the house of Tiferet- that would easily explain why.

So I'm thinking this all lines up quite nicely and I want to see where it's going! But whatever.

[pavoptes]

I see some Venom readers are apparently having difficulty with the idea that "Eddie truly regrets his past actions and has grown as a person" and "Eddie horrifically traumatized MJ and she doesn't have to forgive him for it at any point ever" can both be true at the same time

[pavoptes]

I have to wonder if Wyatt Kennedy knows that the latest issue of WWW directly contradicts Al Ewing's canon, as established in Immortal Thor? And that, if push comes to shove, people are going to take Ewing's word over his? Because he's an established writer at Marvel, who writes major stories and has been working with these characters for 10 years now, and Kennedy's just a guest writer? Even leaving out Gillen and Oliveira.

Just. The thought process here baffles me. Why would you shoot yourself in the foot like that.

[pavoptes]

I appreciate the obvious shade here

[pavoptes]

As the current host of the Venom symbiote, MJ wants to make it EXTREMELY clear that she ships it with Not Eddie Brock lmao

That being said. I'm glad that this is getting addressed but concerned that Venom fans are too willing to overlook the fact that Venom was a Spider-Man villain. He broke his own moral code to deeply traumatize MJ (an innocent civilian) and beat Felicia within an inch of her life. That was an Objectively Evil Thing to do. From MJ's perspective, which is how this issue is written, why should she feel even a shred of sympathy for Eddie? Especially as a survivor of domestic abuse herself who actively chose not to continue that cycle? Why should she forgive Eddie when he's done absolutely nothing to personally earn that forgiveness from her? What could he possibly say to justify himself?

And I like Eddie, but it's been repeatedly shown that this wasn't a good era for his relationship with the symbiote - mutual pain and anger is not a base for anything good and stable! Even if it starts out well, it quickly turned codependent, even if it took a while before that toxicity made itself known. This was a whole thing. That's the significance of their re-bonding in recent years. That is them choosing to try again and give themselves a chance at a real relationship. MJ's just wondering out loud why the symbiote would want to try again with Eddie, if it already had established a good/healthy relationship with Flash that it was happy in. Which is not an unreasonable question. But she's also just asking because she personally sees no redeeming qualities in Eddie.

[pavoptes]

Okay so the entire Imperial event has just been a setup to reintroduce the Inhumans. I feel like there were better ways to do that

[pavoptes]

I don't know if I've seen this take yet but my (definitively) unpopular opinion is that - if we ARE going to give Tommy Shepherd a power up - time manipulation is by far the stupidest, most unoriginal way to do it. It is unbelievably boring. The entire Flash family already does that. Quicksilver had that for a bit. It's the go-to for any speedster.

It hardly makes any sense, given we can draw from canon that both Tommy and Pietro's speed is simply how their ancestral magic manifests, due to the High Evolutionary's experiments. Otherwise they would have abilities similar to Django Maximoff; relatively minor spellcasting. Illusions and object animation and stuff. So there's already a solid explanation for how their powers work!

We can absolutely sit down and think of a better power up than goddamn time manipulation. I can come up with several off the top of my head. Come on.

[pavoptes]

How am I supposed to take Imperial seriously when there are so many glaring plot holes which Hickman obviously doesn't view as plot holes.

Peter and Richard's dynamic here makes no sense given their shared history. Peter also has a (relatively) good relationship with his dad which, again, contradicts everything we've seen in previous canon. Ronan is somehow Supreme Accuser again, with no explanation, even though he's been dead for years and the Kree-Skrull Alliance very notably already HAS a Supreme Accuser and it isn't him- but she and pretty much every other prominent member of Teddy's court are missing. Billy's consistently depicted wearing a costume he hasn't used in over a decade. What is going on.

"A mysterious entity is manipulating the pieces on the gameboard" - yeah but half of these pieces weren't even on this board to begin with!! Where did they come from!!

[pavoptes]

You can tell that Eddie and the symbiote spoiled their sweet little baby rotten because Sleeper literally thinks it is incapable of making bad decisions/ doing anything wrong lmfao. We're too worried about Dylan all the time who the hell is going to actually start parenting this one...

And this has been a distinctive character trait of Sleeper's since First Host! But it being emphasized this much during this run makes me assume it's going to be (eventually) addressed as behavior that needs to be corrected, not encouraged.

[galiifreyrose]

THE ENTIRE WEST IS BEING PUT UP FOR SALE AND I AM BEGGING YOU TO CALL YOUR SENATORS

Trump’s budget bill has many, many things in it, but buried amongst it is the MILLIONS OF ACRES OF PUBLIC LAND FOR SALE.

This is the entirety of the Arizona state forests, the entire Cascades mountain range. Swathes of pristine desert around the national parks in Utah. On the doorstep of Jackson Hole.

THIS BILL IS BIG, BUT IT CAN BE AMENDED AND ABSOLUTELY MUST NOT PASS AS IS please.

If you have ever enjoyed the wilderness, we stand to lose it all forever.

CALLING your senators - NOT JUST IN THE WEST. ALL SENATORS, is CRUCIAL.

Outdoor alliance has a great resource for reaching out.

Public Lands For Sale: Outdoor Alliance Map Shows the Extent of Land on the Auction Block — Outdoor Alliance

The Senate’s spending package could offer up nearly 300 million acres of public lands for sale—a vast area that includes nearly 100,000 mile

I don’t have a huge following but please, everywhere I have ever loved, the forests I grew up playing in, the land I got married on, is all at risk and I am begging.

[pavoptes]

The idea of Billy basing his costume off of Wanda *and* Vision is weirdly hysterical to me because every good Young Avengers fan knows that he and Tommy are TOTAL mama's boys. Their costumes are both patterned off Wanda's early 2000s Scarlet Witch look, designed by Alan Davis. Billy also has a silver belt (as opposed to his mother's gold one), the red cape, sometimes a headpiece, and Wanda has even incorporated his starry ombre magic effect into her new look as a tribute to him. Mother-son costume coordination. Kate helped Tommy with his suit at a time where Pietro's signature color had been blue, so they went with orange accents and a darker shade of green specifically to combat the Quicksilver associations- but the base design is still entirely Scarlet Witch.

They love spending time with Wanda but their relationship with Vision is definitely more distant. Billy still keeps in touch with him but Tommy doesn't talk with him or about him at all; Vision doesn't really play a major role in either of their lives anymore and both twins seem fine with the way things are on that front. Billy waited until Vision felt comfortable enough to reach out to Billy on his own, Tommy has a lot of trust/attachment issues and prefers to stick with the Maximoff side of the family- if he DOES feel like talking to a Male Parental Figure, he'll go to Quicksilver or Magneto. Never Vision. Billy is not *as* biased against Vision but he will absolutely side with Wanda on everything and vehemently defend her. This is an essential part of both Billy and Tommy's characters: they're consistently tied for Number One Scarlet Witch Apologist.

[pavoptes]

^ Fun to note that this is double lampshaded in the first issue of Vision & Scarlet Witch- A) Vizh outright saying he wasn't particularly close to the twins post-resurrection but also B) they don't like being called William and Thomas, they like being called Billy and Tommy. Which is something that Vizh should have been aware of, if not for Point A.

[errorschacha]

FDA will limit Covid vaccines to people over 65 or at high risk of serious illness, leaders say

The FDA announced it will limit access to Covid-19 vaccines going forward to people 65 and older and others at high risk of serious illness

I hate these motherfuckers and I hate everybody whose actions contributed in any way whatsoever to how we got here. None of this bullshit needs to be happening and none of it would be if enough people had pulled their heads out of their asses on or before November 5, 2024.

[natandacat]

Hi I was healthy and able bodied and in my mid twenties when I got covid in 2022. As a direct result of ONE infection I am now a full time wheelchair user (power chair because I lack the strength to self propel) and I need daily home care. I was very unlucky but I am far from being an isolated case, millions of people have been disabled with Long Covid and it could be YOU bc each infection increases the risk of long term damage.

[asingingpenguin]

It's currently May 20th as I write this and there's still an open comment available for three days. If you want to feel like you're doing something (aside from calling your reps) this is something.

[us-enviro-comments]

Ok, here's my fastest and roughest lit review ever to make a template for this:

----------------------

I strongly oppose the FDA’s proposal to block Americans under the age of 65 from accessing booster vaccines to protect themselves from COVID-19. [This part is critical. State as clearly as possible what your stance is, right up front. Seriously, do not bury the lede and talk about something tangential like supporting rights to access healthcare or valuing science; get straight to the point, then explain why afterward].

[Then expand: Include supporting evidence and cite sources; your arguments could include any or all of the following:]

Complications from COVID-19 are serious and long-lasting, and have been shown to affect people of all ages. Ely et al., 2024 (“Long Covid Defined,” https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsb2408466) review the last 4 years of research and find that Long Covid “can affect children and adults, regardless of health, disability, or socioeconomic status, age, sex, sexual orientation, race, ethnic group, or geographic location.” Multiple studies have already supported this, showing that post-COVID-19 symptoms can have devastating impacts on the daily lives of young adults (ex: Mogensen et al., 2023 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-38315-2; Herrera et al., 2023 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-32939-0; Ripley-Gonzalez et al., 2023 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-42710-0)

Young and healthy people choose to vaccinate to protect the vulnerable people in their lives; vaccination across the community, especially children, is critical to protect those who are most susceptible (Anderson et al. 2018 https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciy142). Vaccine-powered protection is also critical for parents to protect their children from COVID infection, particularly when for children who are unable to be vaccinated or who are otherwise vulnerable (Hayek et al., 2022 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abm3087)

COVID booster shots have been shown to be effective already, and continued boosters are necessary to maintain protections against evolving strains of COVID (Embi et al., 2021 https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7044e3.htm?os=vb; Goldberg et al 2021 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2114228; Hall et al., 2021 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2111462; Voutouri et al 2023 https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2211132120#core-r4-1)

Include anecdotal evidence here as well – are you under the age of 65 and have been impacted by COVID? Does getting a COVID booster help to protect vulnerable loved ones? Have you seen or experienced the effects of long covid first hand? Explain why you care!

-----------------------------

A couple of notes: The comment opportunity linked here is a notice that the vaccines advisory committee will be holding a public hearing about this on Thursday the 22nd from 8:30am-4:30pm; the link will be posted here (https://www.fda.gov/advisory-committees) on the day. I’ll keep an eye out on the day of and share the link when it’s up. The hearing is open to the public; oral presentations from the public will be scheduled between approximately 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time on May 22, 2025. The submission period to request an oral presentation timeslot has closed.

Also, I read a sampling of the current (~6000) comments and there are a SHIT-TON of anti-vax comments; do not look at these links being passed around and think “oh everybody else has got this.” We need as vocal a response as possible to counteract these demons.

[pavoptes]

If I have one takeaway from NYX it's that I really do hate Lanzing & Kelly lmao. Like I've never read a good comic from them but specifically never let them write a person of color ever again.

That sounds mean out of context but more than anything I'm horrified by the way they've written Kamala Khan and equally horrified to learn that they're writing MORE Ms Marvel comics... get away from her

[pavoptes]

If Donny Cates is allowed to retcon entire storylines from Venom history then I should be allowed to do the same. Put me on the book and I can fix everything from 2018 onwards. Haven't exactly worked out how yet but rest assured I will channel comic book writers' long history of Not Caring About A Coherent Narrative. Worst case scenario Eddie's been in a coma and dreamed the whole thing from filtered bits of reality he gleans through people coming to talk to him.

Spider-Man would take longer to fix and I'd have to go back further but it can be done. We might have to kill off Peter for a bit so his supporting cast can be brought back in stronger roles used to smooth everything over but we'd bring him back eventually and it would ultimately be for a good cause

[pavoptes]

I'm sure that One World Under Doom is going to tackle this scenario from a more philosophical/ ethical approach- is it any less bad to have a Supreme Dictator take over if said dictator wields that seized power benevolently- but also. Free, top-quality healthcare and education being secured as unalienable human rights sounds REALLY GOOD RIGHT NOW...

[pavoptes]

So what I'm getting from the new All-New Venom is that Flash- who was left responsible for Dylan and Sleeper at the end of Venom War- asked MJ (and Paul) to take in Dylan while he and Sleeper do more symbiote stuff; presumably including trying to track down Eddie. And Dylan's pissed about being left behind.

Why am I so convinced that's how it went down? Because... MJ historically doesn't like Venom, which is clearly something Ewing remembers! And Peter knows that and tries to keep her out of symbiote nonsense! And Dylan would never go to her of his own accord! But she and Flash have also been best friends since college, she's someone he trusts immensely, she's familiar with the superhero side of things, and she's not going to hurt a kid or allow a kid to get hurt. Even if said kid is being an ass. Honestly she seems overall like the safest, most stable option.

[pavoptes]

The way that the thing that gives me hope for James Gunn's Superman doesn't have anything to do with the trailer and everything to do with Gunn talking about how he thought about scrapping the red trunks because they looked silly, but David Corenswet fought to keep them for that exact reason:

Yes. Exactly. 10 out of 10 response. I love when they understand the assignment.