#apoth

[rei-ismyname]

Magneto's Angels

In Fallen Angels the main characters are gathering for the final boss fight when Magneto senses dramatic shit is happening. He gives a 5.5/10 Magneto speech and declares he's on board.

Kinda. He doesn't actually go with them, but he had been practicing this plane trick for a while. Satisfied that he looked cool, he wishes them luck in his own way and goes home.

[msbraddock]

‘Fly’ - Fallen Angels #6 

[comicwaren]

From Fallen Angels Vol. 2 #006, “Conclusion”

Art by Szymon Kudranski and Frank D’Armata

Written by Bryan Hill

[ty-talks-comics]

Best of Marvel: Week of November 13th, 2019

Best of this Week: Fallen Angels #1 - Bryan Hill, Szymon Kudranski, Frank D’Armata and Joe Sabino

She is a butterfly.

Kwannon had been living in silent darkness for almost thirty years, trapped inside of her mind  while Betsy Braddock occupied her body (Uncanny X-Men #256, 1989). That changed in Hunt for Wolverine: Mystery in Madripoor #4 (2018) when Betsy psychically reconstructed her original body, allowing Kwannon to reclaim hers and make sporadic appearances in Matthew Rosenberg’s Uncanny X-Men (2018/2019), mostly serving as Wolverine’s back-up. Of course, things have changed significantly since then and now.

This book opens with a young girl standing on a train while Kwannon narrates in the background. It’s mostly vague as Kwannon refers to a mysterious “she” that she hoped was happy and free during the time that she was locked in her own body. The little girl puts on some sort of tech apparatus on her head which, upon activation, causes her eyes to turn blck as she begins to tear through the pedestrians on the train. It’s savage as she rips a handrail out of place and starts beating people with it. Eventually, she makes it to the train operator’s room, knocks him out and derails the train. Presumably everyone is killed in the horrific accident and the only word on her lips before it happens: Apoth.

Kwannon, now choosing to go by Psylocke as she sees her former name as a shackle to a horrible life of torment and pain, is meditating and enjoying the peace of Krakoa. The first panels are set up very well with many close up shots to Psylocke basking in nature, even pricking her finger and bleeding on a flower to show that blood can even bring new life as it blooms. Frank D’Armata makes excellent use of color as the flower and a butterfly appear purple, Psylocke’s signature color. It’s beautiful, especially as we get to a beautiful shot of Psylocke, in peace, floating as purple butterflies swarm around her.

That peace is soon interrupted as she’s bombarded with a psychic attack by an unknown entity telling her that she has to kill a God, she has to kill Apoth. After the vision, she goes to visit Magneto, still “mourning” the death of Charles Xavier (X-Force #1, 2019). She tells him what she saw and requests to leave Krakoa to investigate. Initially, he denies her request, citing the most recent attack that left Xavier dead as the reason no one is able to leave the island. She responds in fury, trying to assure him that what she saw wasn’t just a dream. 

These pages are strange as they also utilize a bunch of close-ups, focusing on their mouths. It gives the conversation a close and shadowy feel as they’re also shrouded in heavy inks. Magneto urges her to see Mister Sinister, saying that he might find her visions interesting. When she questions him about this, he explains that his grief over Xavier’s death makes him forget conversations (wink, wink, nudge, nudge). She then goes to visit the Evil Eccentric, who also doesn’t seem interested until Psylocke talks about her experience being trapped, showing her ferocity when he asks her how she’d kill Betsy if she could. Satisfied with her answer, he helps her out and asks that she gathers a team.

We then cut to X-23 and Kid Cable (I will never refer to him as just Cable) as they stand around one of the many fires made in celebration of peace and safety. Kid Cable sees Laura not enjoying her time and asks her how she likes to dance, then they have a small fight that Laura wins. She comments that she doesn’t feel anything because everything on Krakoa is safe and “safety sucks.” I like this characterization of Laura so much better than what she had been doing with her plucky, child sidekick, Gabby. It reminds me of both her time in X-Force and the beginning of All New, All Different Marvel when she was ultra violent and reckless. Psylocke tries to recruit the both of them, but Laura convinces her that Kid Cable deserves the peace that Krakoa provides and the two leave the island together.

The pair travel to Tokyo and meet a former contact of Kwannon’s. She informs them of a new designer drug created by Apoth called Overclock that seems to affect people's mind states, causing them to murder others while the drug is killing them as they get super high. As Psylocke and X-23 watch the video of the train accident, Psylocke has a flashback to her days as a Hand assassin and we earn that she had a daughter that was taken from her. Her daughter was given a tattoo of a butterfly, same as the girl in the train derailment. Whether or not this is her daughter is unknown to us, but it is a possibility. 

The video sends Psylocke into a rage and she demands answers, grabbing the woman and threatening her with mind scrambling via psyblade. When the woman refuses and says that Apoth will kill her, Psylocke plunges her psychic dagger into her mind as Laura takes out her guards. The best things about these pages are that they’re all coated in a tint of purple, alluding to the fact that this somehow all ties back to Psylocke/Kwannon somehow. There are threads here that only she can follow because of her ruthlessness and it all feels so very personal.

Psylocke rips the information from her contact’s mind and travels to the location that she found. There, she encounters a shack full of children under the influence of Overclock and Apoth has taken one of them to speak through. The rest of the children die while he warns Psylocke and X-23 to return to the safety and seclusion of Krakoa while he evolves the world. Apoth seems like an interesting villain as he mentions how hard it is to kill children and yet does it anyway. He claims that what he’s doing is evolving humanity and the person who gave Psylocke the vision referred to him as a new God. What is his power and how is he able to control people’s bodies and create such a deadly and advanced drug?

If I were to have any complaints, it would have to be that sometimes the inks are so dark and prevalent that they can start to feel overbearing. There are a lot of good colors used and D’Armata’s signature style is there, they can sometimes feel drowned out by Kudranski’s inks. When they work together, they produce amazing panels, but when they don’t, they produce odd looking shapes and poses. One in particular after Laura is given the knowledge about Psylocke’s daughter and then she’s hunched over like Quasimodo, that’s more so for Kudranski’s posing, but that darkness doesn’t help.

This first issue of Fallen Angels was very interesting to say the very least. I love the idea of getting to know a new and reformed Kwannon as Psylocke given she hasn’t been a character of her own since the 80s and that small time she was resurrected in the mid-2000s. She seems focused and yet still maintains the deadly edge that served her so well as an assassin. I also like that she doesn’t want to be reminded of her time in the darkness, even dismissing Betsy when she presumably wants to talk about everything between them. I don’t know if its anger or contentment with her new life that lets her walk away from Betsy, but it kinda feels liberating in a way.

I’m actually very excited to see where things go from here, so far I love Psylocke's new direction as she seems to be slowly turning into a teacher for people like X-23 and Kid Cable. Throughout the book there had been flashbacks showing Psylocke's past and the abuse she went through to become one of the Hands deadliest assassins, so it's very likely she'll be similar but better to those two. She will turn them into butterflies. The most perfect versions of themselves.

[lumin0usfox]

*tries not to cry, tries not to cry, I’m not crying >: VV!!!* Okay first off, @frostplay for being so absurdly, peevishly, and frustratingly kind and patient with this piece. Not only for a very heartfelt post (you are so so so so welcome✨) but also for commissioning me to draw this sad bean, this wilting sunflower, Apotheosis from @the_dark_jack_series if you’re a fan of rotg and or guardians of childhood, please check this out, not only has @frostplay (yeah that’s right I’m at-ing you) done so much for this fandom through YouTube and cosplay, he’s writing a spin off series! Go check it out, even if your not into it, it’s a good read. Apotheosis(he has been dubbed the sunflower >: V) is one such character from the series and a personal favorite of mine. I could go on and on about character development and symbolism ( gosh I could do this all day) but I’m going to try to keep this short. Here we have Apoth, slowly reverting back to his former state. The thought of who he was looming, like a shadow in the water. Normally I am not one to draw darker subjects, or at least post them ; )), but it’s important to remember. To remember the darker moments, as they make the good ones all the more worthwhile. Thank you again @frostplay for those wonderful words, and I look forward to working with you now and on more guardians projects to come. ✨💕🖤 ~Stay tuned and stay luminous everyone 💡 🦊 ! #rotgmatters #painttoolsai #rotg #rotgfanart #riseoftheguardiansjackfrost #riseoftheguardians #thedarkjackseries #apoth #sunflower #dark #icicles #dearfellowtraveler #inspiration #oc #commissionwork #commission! #jackfrost❄️ #frostplay #heybilljoyce #dreamworksanimation #*screeees of joy* #someone give this child a hot cocoa #emilyjane #photoshopart #guardiansofchildhood #💕🌻🌙 https://www.instagram.com/p/ByyUWm8JY7U/?igshid=1euodcbh2k8kp

[visionboard-ryukyu]

[whatchudrinkin]

A Dream in a Bottle

Tucked away in the woods near Bend, Oregon is a tiny brewery in a garage known as the Ale Apothecary. There is no tasting room; there are no bar stools. Just barrels and bottles of beer, all brewed with just two kinds of malt and Cascade hops. It’s a simple set up, but it makes complicated beer.

The brewery is the brainchild of Paul Arney. He comes from a family of pharmacists, thus the brewery name, but has been brewing professionally since the mid nineties. Each of his beers are mashed, fermented, and conditioned in oak barrels. He utilizes a house strain of Lactobacillus and leaves much the fermentation up to nature. Wild yeast pervades the entire Ale Apothecary line.

Sahalie is the brewery’s flagship beer, named for the brewer’s daughter. It’s fermented in a variety of oak barrels for a full year before being dry hopped and bottled to naturally carbonate. The end result is over nine percent alcohol and almost impossible to describe.

I mean, I guess you could say it’s like a Lambic. It’s sour, a little funky, dry, etc. But it’s more than that. It’s hoppy in a way you would never find in a Gueuze and not nearly as acidic. It’s very soft, more fluffy than fizzy, less sharp than shapely. 

Sahalie is tangy like a key lime. No, like golden raspberries. With a playful bite of acid balanced by wheaty malt. Those late hops add a nice earthiness that plays well with the wild yeast. Sahalie inviting and comfortable, gently lulling me into dreams of burbling mountain spring water and warm sun filtered through fir boughs.

[comicwaren]

From Fallen Angels Vol. 2 #005, “Sensei”

Art by Szymon Kudranski and Frank D’Armata

Written by Bryan Hill