The Wolverine - Review

Intro

My family and I went to see The Wolverine last night. Due to the concessions taking a really long time and us having to drive from Katy Mills Mall to Edwards Marq'E, we missed the first few minutes of the movie. However, that did not strip me of any enjoyment of the movie. My spoiler-free review is this:

It's awesome. It's exactly what I wanted in a Wolverine movie. It's action-packed, has a suitable amount of emotion, and an interesting plot.

SPOILER WARNING

If you have not seen The Wolverine, please leave the blog and come back later. Also, if you have not seen X-Men, X2: X-Men United, or X-Men: The Last Stand, please leave the blog and return later. The Wolverine is set after these movies take place. There will be spoilers in my review because I don't feel I can properly discuss a movie without discussing all of it. There might also be some spoilers for various comics.

The Wolverine - Review

In my spoiler-free review, I might have mentioned that I really enjoyed this movie. I actually think that might be an understatement. The Wolverine ticked all the little boxes I have for comic book movies. I loved the characters. I loved the setting. I loved the story progression. I loved that there were surprises. I loved the emotional moments. I loved the action. I wish I had the money to go see The Wolverine over and over. I have a feeling this will be one of those movies I go to over and over once I get it on DVD.

I say all of this because I don't want there to be any illusions that this will be a less-than-glowing review. I've heard from several people that the critics were less-than-impressed with The Wolverine. I personally haven't read any reviews. I'm also not going to rant about how ridiculous movie critics are, because that's neither here nor there. All I know is: I'm a fan and this movie might as well have been made for me.

The first and most expansive thing I want to talk about is the inclusion of Famke Janssen as Jean Grey. I was initially really surprised to see her. I initially said "What the fuck? Aren't you dead?" to myself, out loud. However, I ended up really liking her inclusion. I also have two theories about what Jean is in terms of this movie.

First Theory: Jean Grey is Logan's subconscious. This works because she voices thoughts to Logan that he probably wouldn't think about if they were coming from anyone else. Our subconscious tends to do that to us. It also works because Jean shows up when Logan is perhaps thinking about things and needing either reassurance or a sounding board. Jean shows up in Logan's dreams and when he's lost a lot of blood and is hallucinating her. She also shows up wearing white lingerie. This is incredibly true to Logan in the comics. I'm thinking specifically of Phoenix: Endsong here, when Logan sees The Phoenix and remarks on how she's naked, thinking she's an illusion. Logan's subconscious would also know that Logan wants to die and is therefore coaxing him to actually do so, whereas Logan's conscious mind is railing against that. The same applies to his "hero" thing.

Second Theory: Logan is seeing a manifestation of The Phoenix. In movie-verse cannon, The Phoenix is Jean Grey's subconscious that was locked away by Professor Xavier and then set free in X-Men: The Last Stand. This theory came to me because I found it plausible that, given Jean and The Phoenix's powers, The Phoenix could have latched herself onto Logan's mind when he killed her. She spends a good chunk of her screen-time coaxing Logan to die. That fit with the vengeful aspect of The Phoenix's character.

Either way, that particular question is left up to the audience. I prefer to think it was Logan's subconscious manifesting an image of Jean rather than The Phoenix. I was also really struck by the whiteness of the room there at the end. It reminded me of the White Room at the end of Phoenix: Endsong, which then lends some credence to my Phoenix theory... but meh.

Next on my list of things to talk about is The Silver Samurai. I spent a good chunk of the movie wondering who would end up wearing the armor. I'm pretty sure both Shingen and Harada have taken up The Silver Samurai mantle in the comics, but I wasn't sure so... I was really surprised when the suit turned out to be a) a glorified Iron Man suit and b) the elder Yashida ended up being inside it. I'm not sure exactly how I feel about that, but it was interesting. I'm also not really sure how the suit drilling into Wolverine's claws transferred his powers from Logan to Yashida, but I'm willing to overlook that because it was weirdly cool.

The weird power-transfer also allowed Mariko to show her badass-ness. I really, really liked Mariko in this movie. I thought she was brilliantly portrayed and acted. It was really easy to see why Logan would fall in love with her.

I also really enjoyed the modern day re-imagining of Yukio. Yukio was a character I didn't really have much experience with in the comics. I know who she is, but other than that it was rather blurry. I liked that Yukio was able to pull off both the badass and emotional scenes believably. She fast became my second favorite character in The Wolverine next to Logan.

Finally, we come to the "villains" of the piece. I don't really have much to say about the Yakuza. They were rather generic. I did think the fight on the top of the train was ridiculous, but the aftermath was funny. I didn't really like Noburo at all. He was really disposable and I'm glad Logan went and chucked him off the balcony. I thought Shingen was an asshole. I'm glad he ended up dead, thought the fight scenes between him and Yukio and then him and Logan were fun.

I thought it was interesting that Harada ended up having an entire clan of ninja at his command. I would have liked to have more character development with him, but that would have completely killed the movie. I'm also not sure where I stand with Viper. Her powers were interesting, though I fail to see how being a snake makes you immune to all toxins/poisons. The scenes where she pulls off her skin were gross. That kind of thing makes me itchy and generally grossed-out so... yeah... I thought Viper was suitably evil. Not too over the top and not too disposable.

As for the storyline, it was suitably interesting. I liked seeing Logan not able to heal as fast as normal, though that didn't seem to slow him down much. Also not sure about the little robot on his heart thing... that made next to no sense to me. As far as I know, Logan's powers aren't seated in his heart. It was an interesting concept. I also liked that he's essentially relegated to bone claws now instead of the Adamantium.

Speaking of which, the end-credits scene was awesome. I'm really excited for X-Men: Days of Future Past and that little scene made me even more excited. I actually did my excited/happy dance in my seat and my little sister thought I might be having a seizure, if that tells you anything.

But anyway... overall, I very much enjoyed The Wolverine. It made me excited and happy. Fuck the critics, they know nothing.

Love ya, Jessie.

X-Men: First Class, Again... I Think... - repost

Originally Posted: September 12, 2011

I went and bought the X-Men: First Class DVD today. And then I watched it. This was my second time seeing it, and I still love it. All of it. I don't think any future viewings are going to be chopped up into my favorite scenes. Each scene is engaging in it's own right, as well as adding to the overall movie. The other X-Men movies... not so much. I tend to skip through the movies to the fun scenes.

Other than that, my day has been pretty much playing games on Neopets. They've got this thing called "Scores Galore" going on all weekend. This means that instead of being able to get Neopoints for three scores, you get Neopoints for five. I've been using the extra neopoints generated to buy items for my stamp album and my plushie collection.

Love ya, Jessie.

500 Miles, Hellfire 2: Parts 1-5 Reviewed

Happy New Year! Welcome to the Year of the Apocalypse! (Not that I actually believe in that, mind)

Sorry... couldn't resist the Pinkie Pie...

But anyway, welcome to 2012, and hopefully a full year of blogs from me. To start us off this year, I have another 500 Miles review! It's the first 5 chapter of Hellfire 2. And yes, I am trying to cut down on the summary... which tends to get super-detailed. So... here we go!

500 Miles - Hellfire 2, Parts 1-5  by Princess Alexandria

     We pick up with Raven's story immediately after Demise has left Raven's body. It's slightly disconcerting that Raven doesn't trust Mystique at this point, because Demise clearly did. However, it does make all sorts of sense considering what Raven has been through. Raven starts her "witness protection" thing as a bartender in New Orleans, Louisiana. Doesn't last too long, only the first chapter. And it was probably a good thing Raven ran into Logan on her way out of town instead of one of the other X-Men who came with him. He understands her need to be away from the X-Men without much explanation on her part and lets her go on her way.

     I really love Mystique's more careful interaction with Raven this next time around as Raven's switching identities. This chunk of chapters reveals that this Marvel Universe is crossed-over with the CSI universe... which I didn't notice the first time through.

     We meet Lois, who runs the Kitten Ranch borthel Raven now works in; and Drahke and Jewel, two of the prostitutes that Raven interact with on a regular basis. Personally, I love Drahke. She kind of reminds me of Mystique... confortable and teasing Mystique... and we find out that Drahke is a Mutant who can breathe fire. There's also some interaction with a teenaged boy named Terrance, who lives near Raven. His father's an asshole and mistreats his son... mostly because Terrance is gay.

     It's revealed that Drahke works for Lady Heather (of CSI fame) at her BDSM club. Raven gets some lessons in what the Dom-Sub relationship should be like over the course of her painting both Drahke and Lady Heather.

     Timeline-wise, we're around the time Mystique is working for X-Factor, which we find out on a hint from Irene. Also, Men in Black apparently just opened in theaters. This puts us around 1997, if we're following our world's timeline. Did you notice I have an obsession with timelines?

     The chunk of chapters ends with Raven leaving town, taking a newly Mutated Terrance with her. there's some time that's gone by between their original move to California and the end of the chapter... Raven had a little bout with alcohol and drugs... and a suicide attempt around a Christmas somewhere in there. Irene has passed away by the end of this chapter, which made me cry. And Raven has followed Mystique, with help from Irene, onto a cruise ship in order to comfort the grieving shifter.

Character Spolight: Lady Heather!

     Didn't think I'd be doing another of these, did ya? Well, Lady Heather is possibly my favorite recurring character from CSI so... yeah...

     Lady Heather is a professional dominatrix who runs an S&M club. She originally appears in Season 2 of CSI (the Las Vegas one) when a murder occured at the club. She and Grissom are attracted to each other and she and Catherine have a talk about their daughters. Heather later appears in Seasons 3, 6, 7, 9, and 11. Her character evolves over these time periods, moving in response to her daughter, Zoe, and later, her granddaughter, Allison.

     Somewhere along the line, Heather gives up her club and ends up as a sex therapist. And... that's all they wrote. Delving too much into her character would spoil things, so I'm not going there. Suffice to say, in 500 Miles, Heather helps Raven in several ways, least of which coming to terms with what happened to her in the Hellfire Club and getting herself back.

Housekeeping

As usual, the links to various important sources are in the section headers. Links to previous chapter reviews are on the "Reviewed" page accessed through the header. For those reading this on the Blogger site, this header is on the main website... or you can attempt to use the link bubble-rotating-thingy in the sidebar. I highly roccomend that you read 500 Miles and everything else I've reviewed or am reviewing. Alexandria has some new chapters to Adrift in a Room of Mirrors up and new Twilight fanfiction called Tossing Stones up.

Over the break, I've been busy watching lots of Stargate, Dollhouse, and cross-stitching ornaments... which didn't get done... I've also done some art that will have shown up on my DeviantArt page. I hope to return to regular posts now that the holidays are over.

Love ya, Jessie.

500 Miles, Hellfire 1: Chapters 1-5 Review

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and didn't get trampled on Black Friday. I was on the computer all day Thursday and then did yard work Friday, so no shopping for me. On the bright side, I started back into 500 Miles and here's what I have for you:

500 Miles, Hellfire 1 by Princess Alexandria

     We're back with Demise again and she ends up inside an X-Man named Raven. Raven was, at the point in which Demise ends up taking over, infiltrating the Hellfire Club... or attempting to, at any rate. She's caught by Emma Frost (at the time, The White Queen) and Tessa (known more recently in the Marvel Universe as Sage), Sebastian Shaw's Personal Assistant.

     I got a good way into the first chapter of Hellfire, rereading-wise, and stalled. I really, really tried to reread it, really I did. However, knowing what goes on during these chapters puts a gigantic dent in the rereading process. It's very well written, it's a good idea to read it the first time through -- which I did -- and it's a very good idea to keep an open mind while doing so.

     The Hellfire Club and what goes on behind the scenes are never really looked at too closely in the comics. Alexandria makes the not-so-nice leap (hop, actually) into the BDSM realm of Hellfire back-room dealings. Seeing as it is cannon within the 616-Universe that the Hellfire Club does have some strip-club-ness goings on (see the Deadly Genesis arc/trade to see what I'm talking about), the hop to full-blown S&M parties isn't a stretch by any means.

     that said, this is the part I'm skipping. Basically, Demise and Raven get thrown into this during the Hellfire Club's Christmas parties. At some point, Selene gets a hold of Demise and Raven, and Emma Frost is able to pull Demise out of Raven's mind but is unable to protect Raven like this. Raven is raped by Selene and Selene's cronies before the X-Men finally show up to rescue Raven. (How's that for not rereading this part?) And that calls an end to chapter 5.

     Also during this part, we find out about Raven and Tessa's time at Xavier's away from the other X-Men. They're trained as spies, kept away from the X-Men, and then used as leverage against each other. That's how Tessa explains her reasons for staying at the Hellfire Club despite all the things that were going on. Xavier keeping Raven, and eventually putting her on an X-Man team, were used as blackmail to keep Tessa in line.

     All of this is burned indelibly on my mind, probably why I can remember so much detail after all this time. These first five chapters of Hellfire had me cringing this time. I had to take frequent breaks from reading even the first chapter. Again, it's because of the material and not the actual writing. Seriously, if you're reading 500 Miles for the first time, read through these chapters. Keep in mind that these chapters are NOT meant for children. And hey, if you decide you can't take it, I've given you the chapter where it stops being all... S&M-y.

     Alexandria, because I know you'll read this:   I did like it the first time.

That's all I've got tonight. Sorry this is taking so long, but like I said in the review... well, you read it so... there you are.

Love ya, Jessie.

500 Miles, Complications 2

I'm back from the weekend, and hopefully I'll actually make sense as I type up my notes on this next section of 500 Miles chapters. I've been cross-stitching some ornaments for my little sister, so that's been taking up a lot of time in the last few days.

500 Miles, Complications 2 by Princess Alexandria

     This section's Christy does not have a nickname/codename, so she's just Christy. This version of Christy has an adverse reaction to having been taken over by Demise. She has a hard time coping initially and it does not help that Miss Astrid Bloom has decided to continue acting like a bitchy jealous girlfriend. As it turns out, Christy discovers that Demise has apparently left behind some sort of mental imprint, mainly expressed in the form of Psychology knowledge. Christy's perturbed by this and at the thought of what else Demise may have inadvertently left behind. Interesting little side note: Bright Eyes having problems with flying has carried over into Complications Christy. Well... it's more of a shared trait, but there you are.

     After Christy leaves Emma Frost and Astrid, Alexandria has sub-divided the chapters into time-line sections. So we're now at 9 months after New York. Michelle's being a right bitch to Christy. Did I mention how much I hate this woman? There's a small discussion on parallels between Nazi's and the Anti-Mutant movement. Michelle is revealed to be a bit of a bigot. BIG SURPRISE.

     1 year after New York: Christy finds Michelle and Michelle's lover in her bed. Michelle is summarily thrown out. A short time later, Christy calls Steven (one of Demise's tutor-ees) looking for Emma. The pair get talking about business and end up starting one together.

     6 years after New York: Nothing much happened at the two-year mark so we're just skipping over it here. The name of Christy, Steven, and this guy named Phil's business is revealed to be called Altered Realities. During this chunk of chapter, Emma and Christy seem to be invading each others' dreams. Christy uses "dream" Emma as a sounding board, since Emma just seems to be sitting around doing nothing. Marvel Universe time-line-wise, we're about the time Emma places herself in a coma to cope with losing her Hellions. Only, Christy doesn't know that. After one of their dream conversations, Christy is attacked by someone she fired and gets incredibly worried about it. The night of the attack, Emma reveals that she's waking up and Christy feels incredibly alone after that.

     7 years after New York: Christy has become famous due to an interview she gave. She and Emma are reunited at a conference, which was quite interesting. Christy starts to reveal information about Emma's life that she technically shouldn't have known. She and Emma explore this and the reason Christy retains some of Demise's knowledge. Emma had forgotten pretty much everything that went on in her head during her coma-time, and so gets that out of Christy's head. A few months after the conference... or was it weeks? ... Christy isinvited to visit Emma's school and gets to mean Generation X. This part's actually quite funny because Jubilee is trying to get information about Emma out of Christy. This plan, of course, dies a horribly funny death. Emma and Christy explore more about Demise's left-behind knowledge and how Emma's powers work in relation to Christy's.

     8 years after New York: Moira McTaggert dies and Sean Cassidy leaves Emma's school. Christy is invited to fill the gap he leaves and does. She and Emma later have a conversation about who gets to go to Mutant School and who doesn't. I quite liked this discussion because it always seems like those with basically useless powers get left out of the X-Men universe. Also, it brings to light that Charles Xavier may be poaching those with "useful" or "powerful" powers for the X-Men. It's not right and I very much hate it.

     Then, of course, we get a development in another Emma/Christy couple. It was sweet, but very protracted, which was cool.

Housekeeping

     Okay so... I had a look at the website stats over the weekend and I saw that there was something called a bounce-rate. I have no idea what that is, but if it is what I think it is, then Webs in being annoying. I've got a secondary blog-site on Blogger, which you can find HERE. It's basically this, without the rest of the website.

     This next hunk of chapters for 500 miles is... interesting. I haven't reread certain parts of it since... probably never. I did read them to begin with, but they make me somewhat uncomfortable. I'm going to have a go at rereading them this time, but it might take me longer than usual... just a warning.

     Last thing, remember that the links to the chapters reviewed and author's page are in the section headings.

Love ya, Jessie.

500 Miles, Complications 1

Okay, first off, I really, really love comments. I wish I had some comments. Like, here, on the actual blog. And yes, I'm begging, because I love you. Also, a big thank you to those who contacted me letting me know you read the long reviews. I love you more than everyone else... Joking... I'm joking... but seriously, thank you. Now on to the review!

500 Miles, Complications I by Princess Alexandria

     And we're back to following Demise around! Yay! This time, Demise lands in New York, but it's a New York around the time when Emma Frost is 18, in college, and anti-mutant hysteria is just starting up. Demise also lands in the body of her 21 year old counterpart, who is on vacation with her then-partner Michelle. Demise, needless to say, is not happy about this. Turns out, Michelle had cheated on and left Demise prior to Demise actually becoming Demise... if that makes any sense... Demise and Christy also have no contact with Emma and therefore have to bascially leave Michelle in order to find Emma.

     During the getting away from Michelle part and the finding Emma part, we get the internal turmoil Demise still feels over the way her relationship with Michelle went. We also get some more hints of Mystique's influence on Demise.

     After finding the teen-Emma, Demise has to sit around and recharge her powers. During which time, we get to see exactly how Demise would act when drugged... which is kind of funny, but mostly heartbreaking. While drunk and drugged, Demise divulges to the teenage-Emma just how much she loves and misses her Emma. And then there's the Emma character development! Well, not so much of development, really, but pre-Hellfire Club and whatnot. It's basically the beginnings of teacher-Emma. She's caring and holds her own in regards to taking care of the drunk and drugged Demise... which I loved.

     After the drinking and drugs incident, Demise ends up tutoring some of the students in Philosophy and realises how much she misses teaching. There's also a bit of time-travel-y stuff in how Demise has decided to write some notebooks for Complications-Christy and for Emma on their doubles lives. Things like avoiding the death of the Hellions and what Michelle ends up doing to Christy. Emma, of course, vows to not read hers, preferring to live her life the way she wants to live it -- showing off that unshakable stubbornness in the process.

     Near the end of our brief time with Demise, we get a bit of one of my favorite things about her: her protectiveness/vindictiveness. She plants drugs and gay porn on a guy who was harassing Emma. It's a small thing, but it's awesome to see. And again, something I completely forgot about until I was reading it. I thought the porn was a nice touch.

Astrid Bloom

     So, this post's unknown character-person is Miss Astrid Bloom, who we met in this chapter, but I didn't mention... partially because I don't like her and partially because she isn't really that important in the long-run... Oops ... that's kind of a spoiler...

     Anyway, Astrid was a college friend of Emma Frost's. She taught Emma the ins and outs of telepathy while at the same time trying to manipulate Emma. Astrid's main goal was to turn Emma against males and non-mutants... which, if you ask me, is a big pile of lesbian subtext. Emma basically gets a big hunk of Astrid's telepathic knowledge from being trapped, by Astrid, in Astrid's head. Good going there, chicka. Emma came out the more powerful of the two, especially with the gained-knowledge, and left Astrid comatose. See, not so much of a spoiler, after all.

Housekeeping

     Just a reminder that the links to the first chapter of the section, author's profile, and character Wiki page are the section headings. The color is not there for pretty-ness. Also, you may have noticed I went a bit emoticon crazy today... yeah... I'm in a mood.

Love ya, Jessie.

500 Miles, Ruins 1... and Possibly some other stuff

500 Miles, Ruins 1 by Princess Alexandria

     The very first chunk of chapters for 500 Miles takes place in an alternate 616-universe. Timeline-wise, it's directly after, possibly during, when Xorn turns out to be Magneto who decides to destroy Manhattan on a whim. This means that Jean Grey/Summers is dead... again... and Emma Frost is in a relationship with Scott Summers.

     Things start off with Christy from the Prologue landing inside herself from this particular universe, who was on vacation. We get a display of just how twisted Christy can be and just how heroic when she fends off some Mutant-hating jerks and then saves Phobe Cuckoo's life. And then Christy wakes up in the X-Mansion's infirmary and has to explain to the X-Men who she is and why she's there. Predictably, this leads to lots of raised eyebrows and me disliking some people right off the bat. Christy takes a job-ish sort of position as Emma's Personal Assistant while recharging her "batteries" and figuring out how to separate from her alter-self. We end this section with Christy separating and calling Scythe into being and then leaving.

     My overall feeling I came away with after these chapters was Scott Summers hatred. He's soooo not right for Emma and she shouldn't even be trying to build a relationship with him. The note I jotted down goes like this: Scott really annoys me to begin with and his interruptions of telepathic converstaions does not help with that image. (End note) I also had problems with how he treated Emma, not just in the sense of having been with telepaths for most of his adult life, but also in how he just sort of decides to shirk in his responsibilities. Christy was right in thinking that, as co-headmaster, Scott should be doing some of the work instead of running the X-Men and standing around chatting.

     The next section of chapters: Ruins 2, will focus on Christy's alter-ego from the "Ruins" universe. That review will probably be more than just this summary and Scott-bashing... probably. But really, at this point, there's not much to say about Christy from the Prologue... who I will now be referring to as Prologue-Christy, to make things easier. She's secure in who she is and who she is isn't properly explained yet anyway... not much to comment on.

The Other Stuff Section!

I went to the Texas Renaissance Festival yesterday. I had loads of fun. I also got a new unicorn necklace/charm. And today I'm really sore from all the walking around and bag-holding. But that's all I've got for you today.

Love ya, Jessie.

Not Myself

Okay so, you know how I said on Monday that I was gonna take the weekends off? Well... I kinda lied. That, and I promised to do this review a while ago... and then didn't. And now it's stuck in my head and I forgot to post yesterday so... you get a blog post today! Don't you feel special?

Not Myself by Princess Alexandria
     I can't remember exactly when I read this fic for the first time. Must have been sometime in high school because I wasn't on my Dad's super-old laptop -- the thing had a black/gray background with white letters/foreground things and Paint was all black and white, that's how old this thing was. It also didn't all fit on one floppy disk. Yes, I said floppy disk. I used to take some with me to school and grab fanfiction off the school computers during study hall. But anyway... I love, love, love, love this story. I've read it at least three or four times, which is kind of a lot considering how long it is.
     Not Myself is a Marvel Universe fanfiction featuring the X-Men. It's about one of Princess Alexandria's original characters, Christy Taylor. Remember this name, it's important. It also features a few others: Annie, Jessi, Erik, and Jon. Don't be afraid of the whole "OC" thing. It's definitely not bad this time. In fact, Christy's written so well that she goes on to spawn two sequel-ish things (if you count Adrift in a Room of Mirrors as all one story and not the four that are actually in it).
      The first batch of chapters are kind of a rough start for Christy due to some things revealed later in the story. She takes in the wayward Annie Thompson and things springboard from there. Christy becomes a sort of den mother for, not only Annie, but also Erik, Jessie, and Jon. Each of the characters are well grounded and don't stink of cliches the way a lot of OCs out there do.
     The inclusion of the X-Men doesn't happen until a few chapters in, but it's quite obvious to anyone familiar with the comics that the story is set in the Marvel Universe. The X-Men themselves are completely in-character, which is more than you could probably say about some of the comics they appear in. Emma Frost and Mystique are particularly well realized and feature heavily. Emma as Christy's lover-interest and Mystique as her teacher.
     The kids to eventually end up going to Xavier's Institute for Higher Learning and Christy gets more interaction with the X-Men proper during this phase. And I say kids, but they're all in college... I think... so... not really kids, but not really not either. And... this is really hard to do without spoiling things, seeing as I know this story backward and forward... so I think I'm calling SPOILERS from here on out.

THE SPOILERY PART - for both the story and the comics
     Christy, as it turns out, has powers. Didn't you think she would? As well as having a very, very strong mental shield, Christy is also a defacto shapeshifter and can "feed" on death energy. And she's not super-powerful, unless you count the ability to travel dimensions, which she doesn't do often, if ever at all. Christy also didn't know she was a shapeshifter so that's where Mystique comes in.
     Mystique is portrayed very sympathetically, and if I hadn't loved her before the start of this story, I definitely would have by the end of it. She's just too awesome. So Mystique teaches and befriends Christy despite being blackmailed by Xavier. Also, her handler, Shortpack, is funny.
     The Christy/Emma relationship was a joy to "watch" develop. I won't tell you exactly how that happens because it's much better served by Princess Alexandria's writing than mine. Also "watching" Annie's relationship with the Stepford Cuckoos is fun. I came to really love these characters. They're so under-served by the comics. It also made losing Sophie in the main universe worse.

Sum-Up
     I think I've pretty much reviewed that in one big gush. But really, I think Not Myself is one of the best fanfictions to ever come across my notice. It's really well written once it gets going and I think you'll really enjoy it, especially if you're a fan of the X-Men. Oh, and one thing I may have forgotten to mention, this story does contain a couple of lesbian relationships. If this bothers you, I suggest you run away quickly.

Love ya, Jessie

PS: As usual, links to the story and author's pages are up there where the story title and author are given. And for those of you who aren't reading my main blog or visiting the actual website, I've added a new Kira avi to my Gaiaonline Journal... which you can find via my website on the Links page. Happy reading!

Driving and Wolverine

Originally Posted: August 5, 2011

Although technically I think he's "The Wolverine"... but everyone just calls him Wolverine so...


Anyway... driving. Lots and lots of turns and almost hitting cars... and the trailer/pallet thing someone had parked in the street. How hard is it to park either in your garage or in your driveway? Leave the street free for the moving cars, thanks. Basically, I need practice.


I was up until 4 AM again today... NOT happy. But while I was not sleeping, I reread some of this book called The Wolverine Files. I highly reccomend it, even if you're not the biggest Wolverine fan. It's basically Wolverine's S.H.I.E.L.D. file... and Nick Fury's comments to various people writing the file are quite funny. The best part is at the end, in which Nick Fury yells at everyone involved in writing the file for not knowing what's going on with Wolverine. And that's not a spoiler seeing as everything in the book is about past Wolverine stuff.


Each "chapter" of the book is a different portion of the file. There are sections on Wolverine's varied war encounters, women in his life, enemies, and affiliates. The book includes pictures from various comics so that you know who they're talking about. Definitely a must-read for X-Men and Wolverine fans.