elephant drawing.

I just saw a gif of an elephant drawing (an outline of an elephant!) on an easel. That's interesting, because it shows an elephant doing representational art through the language of outline, which I wouldn't expect. Is this for real, or some kind of trick? I'm thinking it's a trick.

Not that elephants aren't capable of that, I just think of outlining as a constructed human visual language.

Oh good, I got to the end

I've been wondering if I should stop going further up and further in through the Susan Pevensie tag on AO3. Well, I just hit the last page of the tag! This is pre-movie Susanfic:

Queen of Narnia, by kaydeefalls, is from 2005.

Imaginary Menagerie, by unoriginal_liz, is even older.

Growing Up by sheldrake ships Caspian and Lucy a wee bit, and deals with both Lucy and Susan in England.

All different, all good.

OK, I'm done. I can go back to the first page, maybe see if that Methos-in-Narnia fic has added a bunch of chapters....

Artemis called Requiem

I think Artemis called Requiem is my favorite superhero. Artemis, the onetime Wonder Woman with the absurdly long hair.

I used to say my favorite superhero and my favorite supervillain were both Doctor Zero from the Shadowline Saga. Although there may have been a long stretch where if I were honest with myself I would admit I liked Magneto (the Claremont/Bolton version) better. And he's a well-known example of someone who is both.

But no, these days it's Artie. And it is almost totally because of Artemis: Requiem.

This is a character who really came into her own after she died.

(She died when she and her sister Diana--technically they're not biological sisters, but they are consistently called sisters in the text; go with it--had to defeat the thing that used to be Asquith Randolph. Diana was the star of that book, so Artemis was killed off to put Diana back in the Wonder Woman suit.)

Artemis went to Hell; and was taken in marriage (I would've said "concubine," the text says "wife." Marriage.) by a major Devil. Dalkriig-Hath was one of the Thirteen Princes of Hell, we are told. This is backstory for her series, quickly exposited when her sister Diana comes looking for her.

Then she leaves Hell with an unconscious Diana on her back. Surreally crawls out of her own grave, carrying an unconscious Wonder Woman.

A bunch of weirdness happens, I'm gonna skip to the last issue.

Spoilers, if you care: ( Read more... )

Later writers haven't always known what to do with Artie.
I think Gail Simone was one of the worst, writing Artie as depressed and suicidal. e_e
Byrne did OK with her, I guess. That's where her relationships with Cassie and Mike Schorr come from. (Not sexual relationships, ficcers! Well, maybe Mike.)
Jimenez sympathized with Artemis, I think. He wrote her as pretty disgusted with the chain of events that led to her getting beaten to death, and I think he was responsible for promoting her to one of the leaders of the Amazons.
Rucka and Johnson cut her hair off, because they hate good things.

I've seen fans refer to her as the evil Wonder Woman or something like that. Way to miss the point.

Artie was cold, sometimes arrogant, and due to her exceedingly weird life experiences, bizarre. But she's driven by a hero's pursuit of justice. And she had that crazy visual design.

And somehow Artemis: Requiem--which I think is generally hated as eye-bleeding 1990's excess, drawn by a young Ed Benes riffing on Mike Deodato riffing on Jim Lee--this crazy throwaway series with superheroes never heard of before or since and a very...particular...view of the afterlife--this little series wormed its way into my heart.

"Are you saying God raised you from the dead?"
"No...I did it myself!" (big smile).