u/SebasChua

Completing Dr Borous' personal quest unexpectedly moved me.

Up until this point, he was the most obnoxious and silly scientist in the Think Tank to me. Borous' hams it up and rejects any responsibility in spreading pain and suffering through his creations (e.g. the Cazadores, Nightstalkers and Cyberdogs).

Then you go through his recreation of high school in X-8 and...he's such a loser. He was a grown man when he designed that test facility and conceived of the K-9 project. It's been over two centuries and he's still hung up about his chain-smoking high school crush and high school bully. It really makes you think he deserved to be stuffed into a locker. You kill his giant robot dog named "Gabe" and it's silly too. It's just a scaled-up in-game model of a normal K-9 dog and it blows up after a joke countdown by the Think Tank when you kill it.

But if you interact with "Gabe" and go to Higgs Village to Borous' house and retrieve Gabe's dog bowl, you can confront Borous with it.

The slow build up to Borous being overwhelmed with guilt moved me. Gabe loved him like only man's best friend could. That mutt was there for him, offering the sad, lonely, nerdy kid Borous was with all his love, day after day through all the bullying and rejection Borous went through in those formative years. Borous loved him and Gabe loved him back.

In return, Borous put that dog through hell. Poisoned his food with chems, maimed him with cybernetics, transformed a sweet dog into a killing monster to realize his K-9 project. But Gabe still wagged his tail whenever he was with Borous. Even when the mad scientist had him flayed out on a operating table, lovingly replacing his innards with steel in the basement of his home.

The guilt Borous felt when he realizes he's hurt in the most extreme ways the one thing in his life that truly, deeply loves him with no strings attached...and that Gabe still loves him despite the torture Borous put him through...who hasn't truly and deeply wounded a loved one with careless thoughts or actions, only for them to respond with even more love instead?

Ironic juxtapositions and Atomic-Age absurdism sit side-by-side in Old World Blues, comedy contrasting with scientific horror to bring out the thrill of experiencing emotional highs and lows. Under all the wacky '50s SCIENCE hi-jinks, Old World Blues is a story about what it means to be human. To re-connect with your humanity and melt a stony heart thought permanently hardened by calamity and callousness. If war never changes, then men must change. How? Perhaps by re-discovering what it means to be human and what it means to connect to others...

This DLC is Fallout pure-cut from Fallout 1 and Fallout 2. I love it and it pains me that we'll likely never get this kind of Fallout again (for a long time at least).

Tl;dr Dr. Borous and his stupid dog made me tear up and for that I'm shooting up the whole Think Tank. Wanna join me?

The Longbow Killer likely could not have known Connor was Oliver's child if Oliver hid it that well from the world.

But from Connor's perspective, an armed fiend tried to kill his father's friend. He defended her, and then proceeded to attack them because of their reputation as a billionaire killer and his father turned up mysteriously dead.

The Longbow Killer didn't even try anything else except to kill a young man who got the short-end of the stick in his short life. Absolute Superman, Wonder Woman and even Batman would have tried talking things out first. They even try to justify their actions by saying there's no more room for grace and mercy.

To me, it's evidence that the Longbow Killer is a zealot. They are right and their cause is just. Anyone that doesn't get out of their way is automatically against them. Which means they'd kill anyone.

It seems the Longbow Killer subscribes to, "If you kill [x], and keep killing [x], it stands to reason you'll run out of [x]." But who gets to determine who's [x] here? The Longbow Killer?

What if he were up against an organisation like the Robins? Grimm is definitely evil and so likely is Slade, but what about the the Robins themselves? He'd kill them just for getting in his way. They're not bad guys. They just think (and we're tricked into thinking) they're on the right side. Like the Longbow Killer. Shouldn't they get a chance? Not to mention that killing good people is bad for the soul. But that doesn't seem to matter to the Longbow Killer.

Plus, the Absolute Universe bends towards evil. It produces Jubal Slades by the hundreds and upholds corrupt systems to keep them and the people they oppress in place. One person alone cannot take down such a body of stratified power. It requires a team, an opposition that can create and sustain an alternate and better system of justice and law. (And to kill a Dark God to boot lmao)

They're not even a vigilante. The Longbow Killer is just that: a fancy moniker for a serial and sadistic murderer. They'd flood Star City with blood but it won't purify it. And once they run up against real opposition, like say Hammond calling in a favor like how Cale did with Grimm, they'd just turn into another slab of meat the Hawkman just tenderized.

This makes me really interested in the story moving forward, and what it'll say about finding true justice in a broken world. If Dinah intends to get real justice for Oliver and the kids that were experimented upon, she won't get it through the Longbow Killer's way.

Long post ahead! Enjoy the cute rat girl eating candy as a bonus!

(I will be skipping the art of Kaina of the Great Snow Sea as the art was done by Itoe Takemoto. Nihei did write it though, so I will talk about that.)

Kodansha has been promoting Tower Dungeon as from the acclaimed mangaka behind Knights of Sidonia and Blame! and Tsutomu Nihei's first heroic fantasy work. So I thought it would be interesting to take a look back on Nihei's work and reflect on why. Because Nihei certainly did some reflecting when creating Tower Dungeon.

Two things have remained consistent in Nihei's artstyle: his incredible detailing and his use of visual contrast.

Most manga are published in black and white and Nihei took full advantage of this. His early works have shadowy, black masses punctuated by white or the spaces between the black, while his middle era is inverted, lightly and detailed sketches punctuated by black mass. In his current era, he shows more control over his use of black and white, increasing or decreasing one or the other to fit the mood or impression he's going for. In all eras, his work has remained detailed and it has only increased with time.

I like to classify his works into 4 phases:

1️⃣ Blame!-esque (Blame! - Biomega) Nihei's artstyle is rough and dark, sometimes hard to make out or interpret. Characters are utterly dwarfed by the landscapes they inhabit. The artwork hence massively impacts mood and emotion. Story telling is minimal and sometimes non-linear and is left up to readers' inference. It is sometimes interrupted by dialogue to frame our understanding or provide hints.

2️⃣ The Sidonia Transition (SoK) The lines and delineation between black and white become clearer and clearer. The focus of the art transitions from the setting swallowing characters to both parties interacting on more equal footing with each other. Sometimes the focus is just on the characters themselves. Story-telling becomes linear and increases in scope and complexity. Less and less black is used, while sketch lines increase in number and complexity.

3️⃣ Shadow of Sidonia Era (Aposimz - Kaina) White becomes the predominant color. With increasing visual line complexity and decreasing use of color contrast, the art sometimes becomes hard to make out or interpret. Story-telling is largely linear and detailed, but follows many different parties and groups, causing confusion.

4️⃣ Post-Tower Dungeon (Tower Dungeon) Black returns to the palette while line complexity remains strong. Bolder illustrations return. While the art sometimes becomes hard to make out or interpret, it remains strong and distinct in identity, reminiscent of early-Sidonia art. Story-telling is linear and begins simple but begins building complexity with multiple groups being introduced and followed.

Hirohiko Araki (most famous for JoJo's Bizzare Adventures and an accomplished mangaka for over 4 decades) argued that a good managaka needs to be three things: a good artist, a good story teller and a good manager.

Nihei has been a good artist from the start and has evolved to become even better. While his storytelling abilities were weaker at the start of his career, they have improved over the course of his work. However, he has had conflicts with his management have impacted his work from Sidonia till present. His growth is no better exemplified than with his character art and writing.

In Blame!, he had a relatively small cast of characters and few of them were human. His exaggerations of shape and form therefore helped him create a memorable cast of characters without his lack of skill at drawing human faces impeding him.

This strategy loses mileage in Abara and Biomega. Their protagonists for example are still memorable in form (Black Gauna and sick bike respectively) but forgettable in face or personality.

Nihei addresses this issue by introducing a classic shounen-style plot and protagonist in Sidonia. Killy didn't have much of a personality or backstory, remaing stoic and expressionless. Nagate meanwhile is very expressive, is involved in a "hero with a destiny" plot and has harem-hijinks with a cast of friends and potential romantic love interests.

Therein lies the contrast between Nihei's previous two famous works. Blame! became an underground cult classic due to the strength of its art and vibes-based story being obscured by a vaguer and atypical presentation. Sidonia became a small-time hit due to its cosmic horror and post-human themes and plot giving an otherwise stock-shounen harem foundation a stand-out identity.

This is also where Nihei begins a struggle between the identity of his art and his branding. Sidonia got popular and Blame! was already acclaimed but "under promoted". So Kodansha wants to release "Master" editions of his work for sale. Nihei does new covers for his old work, with his new art style.

That's already a little weird because a a new fan will recognise this new art as Nihei and open the book and be surprised by the old artstyle and story type. But that's promotion for you (and it may even be a pleasant surprise).

But his editors also encourage Nihei to put more of his female characters on the covers, to draw them with more pronounced figures. Because that draws eyes and hence potential sales. Proven strategies. Mainstream tactics.

Nihei isn't about that. But he struggles to find an alternative because he's not strong at drawing humans, women especially. See the cast of Sidonia. While the men have some facial variation, the women have little facial variation and are mostly differentiated by chest, hair and accessories. The only 3 other women that are unique are either constantly wearing a mask, is a gigantic alien-human hybrid or is actually a bear. Literally half the cast are clones, in part perhaps to explain away their sameness in design.

So he makes the changes and finishes the covers, but is unhappy about his (lack of) ability to do something about it.

At the same time, Kodansha is sensing that Nihei could turn into a consistent series maker for them. First Blame! then Sidonia. And they've supported him since 1997! As a business, they want to leverage on his potential and collect back their dues. Conversely, Nihei has been supported by them for his whole career, turning from architecture and construction to drawing manga.

Hence, when he starts Aposimz, he's under pressure to produce another success. So he looks back and tries to combine the things that him successful.

Aposimz seems like a ship ala Sidonia and is labyrinthine like Blame's megastructure. It has knights like Sidonia too, but they look like Abara's Black Gauna. There's an affliction that turns you into a body horror zombie puppet like Biomega. But add in the cold snow and kingdoms and it has a unique identity. Right?

But the pieces aren't welding nice together. Character motivations aren't very clear. It's hard to tell characters apart or who's whom to who. And the story of knights, princesses, romance and kingdoms is rubbing roughly against the themes of apocalypse amidst the freezing post-human cyber-industrial body horror.

So how does Nihei deal with this stumble? He takes a break and (literally) goes back to the drawing board.

Nihei writes Kaina, building his skills at storytelling. At the same time, he pauses publishing manga to focus on his art again. He goes and learns how to better draw faces and different body types.

He doesn't try something different but instead leans further into what makes him good and unique. Want to use knights, princesses and kingdoms? Sure, just make them fuelled by magic instead of advanced science! Want zombies and people that control them for their own ends (necromancers)? Sure, just make them corpses piloted by parasites. In fact let's make all the monsters uncanny for the body horror! Nihei essentially leaned from one trope to another; shounen to fantasy but both times did it his own way. This time, he's created his own world of dungeons and dragons.

Compare Sidonia's cast to Tower Dungeon's cast. Each character has a unique role, appearance and character. For example, though Yuva and Aridella are both knights, they are different. Aridella carries a round shield versus Yuva's triangular one. He wears chain under thick cloth while she wears full plate. Each character has their own reason for entering the dungeon and their own skills and abilities they bring to the table. Their own personalities, distinct and rubbing off each other in different ways. Nihei even graduated from drawing bear people to drawing mice people! (And also his version of cat people too, lmao.)

By tracing Nihei's body of work, you can track how he's grown and evolved as a mangaka in all three aspects of art, storytelling and management. It's been a long and exciting journey to say the least.

Many people like to say Blame! is Nihei's magnum opus. For a long time I thought so too. Which is a pity (and a sort of cruelty?): How does it feel for your fans to call the first story you ever created when you were the most inexperienced, your best piece of work?

I'm so glad that Tower Dungeon is turning out to be one of Nihei's best work yet. Not only by itself but also as a testament to the growth and changes he's undergone in his nearly 3 decades as a mangaka. It's too soon to say whether Tower Dungeon will be his next best piece, but it's already become a hit.

To circle back, that's why Kodansha promoting Tower Dungeon as from the acclaimed mangaka behind Knights of Sidonia and Blame! and Tsutomu Nihei's first heroic fantasy work is so appropriate to me. Not only does it get the largest two groups of his fans into the door with a new exciting series and lays out its setting in one go, it also summarises his journey with two of his biggest milestones (hopefully soon joined by Tower Dungeon as a third!).

"Is Tower Dungeon better than Blame?" That's vague in intent and inquisition, ultimately a matter of preference and is in my opinion the wrong question to ask. The better question to me is, "Will Nihei stop at Tower Dungeon?"

My answer is no. Like its protagonists, I believe Nihei will continue to ascend the heights of his chosen tower to climb and will continue to until he has saved his princess or met his match. And even when he does, he'll probably just continue on back to space.

O

Thanks for reading this long post! I hope you enjoyed it and it brought some meaning to you. Enjoy the bonus image of a cute rat girl eating candy! Who knew Nihei would one day draw something so cute?

My theory is that Grimm got Crane to deal with the Court of Owls (since y'know, a scarecrow is used to drive away birds. See the crows on the top panel of Issue #1?).

So Crane manipulated Chill with his Dread Toxin to kill Thomas Wayne, concealing the assassination of the husband of then leading Talon Martha Wayne using a mass shooting.

Chill is dismissed as just another mass shooter who thankfully was stopped from killing kids (unlike other school shootings) by Thomas Wayne. He dies a hero (when he in fact was just "collateral damage" in Grimm's fight with the Court) protecting the kids, so it's not so "tragic" after all. Hence, the incident is sensationalised but then "concludes" rather neatly, allowing it to be shortly forgotten amongst the other mass shootings.

But Martha Wayne gets the message. Thomas didn't make it. Bruce might be next. After all, they were both there at the zoo that day. So she quits the Court and the Owls get run out of Gotham. A perfectly covered up assassination that achieves the set objectives.

Ergo, the whole incident is one big joke: played personally against Martha Wayne by the Joker, with Crane as his assistant to set-up the punchline, all done up to the tune and topic of all survivors of preventable, needless mass shootings. The joke of course being that this little bird and her flock though they could "fight the good fight" to change the world but sorry you can't. It's business as usual in Darkseid's universe. Barely out of the ordinary. No laughing matter at all.

But then fast forward over a decade later. Turns out Martha's son is causing some big trouble. A vigilante type. No biggie, he's dime-a-dozen in this universe...

Except, he didn't take Black Mask's money. Except, he wasn't broken and cowed by Bane. Now he's taken both of them down and come out stronger than ever before. Oops.

So Joker's looking at all the footage he's got of the "Batman's" escapades. And he laughs. Cuz it's a joke on him: a perfectly normal assassination he's ordered like any other has spilled out into unforseen consequences.

But that's fine too. If he couldn't buy or break the Batman, he'll just play him instead. Get Crane to deal with him. Like mother, like son. Create a literal "strawman" with Project Batman. Trick him into thinking his whole life was a lie, a set-up. Psychologically fence him in and isolate him from his allies using paranoia. Then, when he's all alone, they can deliver the punch-line: he's just a rat with wings. And rats get exterminated. Bruce Wayne has been "pranked" - thinking he was a "hero" while being set up to be a villain to be taken down in someone else's story (the Robins in this case).

After "Batman" falls, the world will continue to spin. The rich will continue to get richer, the poor will get poorer. Everyone will be in their place and kept in place by the universe's moral gravity. Forever and ever, amen.

So Joker continues watching all the footage he's getting of the "Batman's" escapades. And laughs until he's choking it out, his mouth a maw of gaping teeth. Because then the joke will be on this "Batman" for falling for it. For the fantasy/joke that anyone can change the world. He's fallen for the "just world fallacy". Classic joke.

Can't wait to read the end of the Strawman Arc. The Absolute Universe has been the best thing DC has created for a while now and I'm really hoping they can stick the landing.

It's been so cool to see that the overlap between the Absolute series so far has been so purposeful.

Firstly, the only issue you have to read out of series order so far has been Absolute Evil, which makes it so much less confusing to follow. And the ramifications from it (e.g. the Omega Particle, Joker and Cale teaming up leading to the Wonder Woman and Batman crossover etc) are organic and character-driven and not just lore drops.

Secondly, I love how the series share imagery and concepts, but use them for their own ends. It really gives the sense that they are all in the same universe, affected by Darkseid, but have their own identities. For example, the Stillpoint (an antonym for a "Flashpoint") has a black hole in its centre, visually mirroring the eclipse that covers the light of OA. Or how Eobard emerges from a portal, like the Face of Steel from the eclipse. Even here with the Omega Particle, Absolute Flash explores it from the scientific perspective while Abolsute Evil emphasises on its moral dimension.

All to say that the Absolute Universe has been a blast, this is how you revive and boost off a new series and I hope all the creators can stick the landing and not get stuck in the "return to status quo" pattern of comics.