What are you reading in 2025?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I dunno. I've never seen it as edgy, I always think it's embarrassing and cringe. I mean, it's the lowest possible hanging fruit. It's not an interesting question.

You don't think Homelander or Omni-Man are interesting characters? They're only not Superman to the extent required for legal purposes, but I think the Viltrumites (as seen in the TV version of Invincible; I can't vouch for the comic, which I gather was a little clumsier in its writing) are a much better take on evil Kryptonians than DC has ever managed.

The argument between father and son at the end of the first season of Invincible was a great discussion, IMO, about Superman and better than most writers have managed over the years. And I don't think it would be possible without an evil Superman involved.

And while the book/franchise eventually turned to crap, I think the early issues of Stormwatch/The Authority by Ellis was interesting and exciting before it became way too pro forma.

 

[overgeeked]

You don't think Homelander or Omni-Man are interesting characters?

Not in the slightest. They’re us with godlike powers. I already know exactly what we do with even the slightest molecule of power. I don’t need or want yet another comic book story about “regular people with powers” or “like us but with Superman’s power.” Again, I already know how that ends.

Superman is interesting because he’s morally superior to the overwhelmingly vast majority of humanity. He’s interesting because he’s a superhero. Take that away and the one interesting thing about him vanishes. Without the hero, without the morality, he’s just another jerkass on a power trip. The real world is overflowing with them. And they’re not interesting at all. Utterly boring. Mundane even.

They're only not Superman to the extent required for legal purposes, but I think the Viltrumites (as seen in the TV version of Invincible; I can't vouch for the comic, which I gather was a little clumsier in its writing) are a much better take on evil Kryptonians than DC has ever managed.

The argument between father and son at the end of the first season of Invincible was a great discussion, IMO, about Superman and better than most writers have managed over the years. And I don't think it would be possible without an evil Superman involved.

Right. But we’ve had those for decades. Bizarro or whatever color Kryptonite turns Supes evil or Zod or mind control or…or…I’ve already seen dozens of variations on that theme. It’s just boring at this point.

 

[jian]

To be fair to The Power Fantasy, there are escalating reasons over 30 years of backstory about why the Six are pretty hardened about murder and loss of life, but narratively they don’t have to be there. Gillen put them there so that the first time we see Heavy and Etienne interact, Heavy is threatening to murder Texas and Etienne agrees to murder a rather smaller number of people (about two dozen) so that he won’t. That is as edgelord and tiresome as hell.

For the record, I don’t think Homelander is an interesting character - he’s marginally more engaging on TV thanks to Anthony Starr’s acting chops, but at the end of the day he’s just another brutal fascist murderer who happens to not need guns to kill. So is Omni-man, but the marginally interesting thing about him is that we don’t know that when we first meet him, and he at least tries (and honestly mostly fails) to become a better person when given the chance.

 

[Autumnal]

I find Etienne fascinating because of his moral position as a self-aware sociopath who genuine wants to do least harm and is aware of his mental limitations
. That’s genuinely…if not unique, very close to it. Heavy is much more typical. And not all of the six are willin’ for killin’ at all. They are also interesting to me. (Also, their world provides them all reasons to fear losing control, but with different senses of what being in control means. I find that fascinating, too.)

 

[jian]

I find Etienne fascinating because of his moral position as a self-aware sociopath who genuine wants to do least harm and is aware of his mental limitations
. That’s genuinely…if not unique, very close to it. Heavy is much more typical. And not all of the six are willin’ for killin’ at all. They are also interesting to me. (Also, their world provides them all reasons to fear losing control, but with different senses of what being in control means. I find that fascinating, too.)

Etienne doesn’t actually know

Spoiler

whether he’s a sociopath or indeed has any other personality disorder - he’s been omnipathic so long that he cannot relate normally to other people since he’s in their heads constantly. That’s what he knows about himself - he cannot trust his moral instincts so he relies on ever more convoluted ethical rationalisations. Except, of course, doing so is entirely about justifying his atrophied moral instincts - he can murder people but tell himself it’s the right thing to do.

It’s sophomoric and extremely typical of Gillen’s writing - he’s written almost a dozen such characters, there’s at least one in most things he writes. It’s a tiresome cop-out and I’d rather he actually tried to write about morality and ethics.

 

[overgeeked]

For the record, I don’t think Homelander is an interesting character…at the end of the day he’s just another brutal fascist murderer who happens to not need guns to kill. So is Omni-man

Exactly. He’s a super-powered Nazi in spandex pajamas. That’s the opposite of interesting. A face to punch at best. Nothing more.

 

[Maxperson]

Sourcery is definitely one of my least favourite in the series, and I would recommend skipping it (too late now).

No, in fact he is least annoying in Last Continent. But all the Rincewind stories tend towards "whacky comedy". The other discworld stories are rather more subtle (and usually have something to say about the real world).

I liked Rincewind in the Silver Horde as well. One of my favorite books from Pratchett.

Normally I dislike real world issues in my entertainment, but Pratchett is the one exception, because of his genius in weaving it into a comedy story. My favorite of those kinds of books is Small Gods.

 

[Maxperson]

I'm currently slow reading Storm and Truth, the latest Sanderson book in The Stormlight Archive.

 

[jian]

Exactly. He’s a super-powered Nazi in spandex pajamas. That’s the opposite of interesting. A face to punch at best. Nothing more.

One could argue that Omni-Man is more interesting because he’s basically a SS sleeper agent for a fascist intergalactic empire who begins to question his indoctrination. But sadly Kirkman isn’t a good enough writer to take that anywhere interesting - and seems to approve of imperialism anyway - so at best he’s a waste of a good concept, much like Mark himself.

 

[Nellisir]

I've been thinking of running a basic campaign/series of loosely-related adventures sometime soon. I haven't DMed for years, but the itch has been building. I'm reading the new core books to refresh my "gaming" memory of the rules (I've basically kept up, but not in practice), and also reading through piles of adventures to figure out what I'm going to adapt. Edition doesn't make much of a difference to me, particularly at low levels - one more or less goblin here or there, really - but I'd like to have a framework to start from. The Black Wyrm of Brandonford is the clear winner, but I've got a bunch more to mix in. It's getting fun.