![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
iamrman) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
scans_daily2025-09-25 10:29 am
Writer: Len Wein
Pencils: Sal Buscema
Inks: Dan Green
I do not like the Squadron Supreme. That’s it. No snarky commentary here.
( Read more... )
marycatelli) wrote in books2025-09-24 09:22 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
su_herald_feed) wrote2025-09-25 12:19 am~~Earshot~~
The Sunnydale Herald is looking for at least one new editor. Contributing to the Herald is a great way to get your Buffy on! Find out more here.
fancyflautist) wrote in su_herald2025-09-24 08:19 pm~~Earshot~~
The Sunnydale Herald is looking for at least one new editor. Contributing to the Herald is a great way to get your Buffy on! Find out more here.
laughing_tree) wrote in scans_daily2025-09-24 05:05 pm
settiai) wrote2025-09-24 04:40 pm
wwdn_feed) wrote2025-09-24 07:31 pmYesterday, I mentioned on Bluesky that I’d heard this guy suggest a way to break the doomscrolling Ouroboros we all seem to be stuck in right now: when the urge to resume doomscrolling hits (our brains asking for dopamine), make a choice to be creative instead. Satisfy the brain’s desire for dopamine by making something, instead of chasing that hit from the Internet. It takes a little bit of time, and requires mindfulness, but he says it worked for him.
So I’ve been doing that for a few days, and I have noticed a measurable decrease in my stress and agitation. Instead of looking at the news and hoping for The Headline, I’ve been writing down story ideas, working on this thing I needed to turn in at the end of last year, and playing around with the design of my website.1 And that’s been surprisingly fun and satisfying2! It’s amusing to me, how difficult it was to find a simple theme that just recreated what I was able to do in the Before Times, and I’m not 100% satisfied with it, but the sense memory associated with “tinkering with my blog” has taken me back to a time that wasn’t necessarily happier, or better, or anything like that — I remember how hard it was for me and my family in those day — but it does take me back to moments when I felt like I was making something that mattered3. There was so much fun to be had back then, when we all generally agreed that Nazis were bad and behaved accordingly.
While I was under the hood of my blog, I came across a rather large drafts folder, with a few dozen incomplete posts that I abandoned for one reason or another. One of them, which I posted yesterday, was actually a repost from earlier this year (I’d forgotten that I put the unpublished part of my post into a different post, and now I’ve created a timeloop paradox. Sorry about that), which some of you helpfully pointed out to me.
When I was looking at the unpublished stuff, I found things that were last edited 12 years ago, and almost every year, since. I saw a clear picture of who and where I was in my life then (not always great), and I understood why I didn’t post them. But there were some others that I thought were kinda nice, and I must have talked myself out of posting them for some reason.
I am going to be the person I needed then, and supportively tell my past self that it’s absolutely good enough, he’s good enough, and here is a lovely thing he wrote a long time ago:
Pushing myself through this heavy membrane that separates me from the rest of the world, feeling it stretch and stretch and refuse to break long after it should have.
Then, all of a sudden, it snaps and I’m through it and I’m breathing again and I can feel the air and the world.
And I’m not as tired. Or maybe I’m tired, but I’m tired like a person is tired, because just moving forward is like one of those dreams where you go as hard as you can just taking one step and then another and it feels like you aren’t getting anywhere.
I’m trying my best. I’m doing my best. I know it’s all I can do, and I tell people that when you do your best you should feel proud of yourself no matter what the result but motherfucker that’s hard to do when gravity feels stronger wherever I am than where I’m not.
So I make myself do stuff. I make myself get out and run, and I hurt my leg again and it’s so unfair and I cry and I feel stupid and I just want to give up but I’m not going to. I’m not going to let it win.
I walk a little bit and my leg starts to work that cramp out on its own and pretty soon I can run again. I can’t run as fast as I want to but at least I can run. It’s a bigger victory than it should be but it’s also very small. But it’s something and I need it so I take it.
I’m tired and I don’t want to go anywhere but I press against that goddamn membrane as hard as I can and I go to my friend’s house and I play games and I try real hard not to let them know how bad I feel because we should all just have fun.
And we have fun, and it feels good to be around my friends, and for a little while I forget to feel bad.
I get home and make myself write a story. It isn’t the story I want to write, but it’s a story that I need to write, and it helps me get out some stuff and I remember why I’m a writer.
Me from the past, that’s really sweet and I’m happy for you to embrace the part of you that is a capital-W Writer. I don’t know why you thought you shouldn’t post that — maybe you wanted to say more, or felt too vulnerable — but it’s enough, and so are you. I am standing on your shoulders, doing my best, just like you were. It gets better, buddy, and I need you to know that.
I love you.
︎︎︎iamrman) wrote in scans_daily2025-09-24 08:43 pmWriter: Mark Gruenwald
Pencils: Rik Levins
Inks: Danny Bulanadi
Cap and Paladin have been captured by Superia, who plans on turning them into women.
( Read more... )
iamrman) wrote in scans_daily2025-09-24 02:30 pmWriter: Doug Moench
Pencils and inks: Klaus Janson
While Alfred tries to save the seriously injured Bruce, Tim thinks back to a previous adventure.
( Read more... )
globalvoices_human_feed) wrote2025-09-24 11:30 amAmong the streaming platforms facing fines are Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Prime Video and Mubi
Originally published on Global Voices
Image by Arzu Geybullayeva, created using Canva Pro.
Turkey is celebrating 2025 as the “Year of the Family.” It is against this backdrop that, on September 18, the country's regulatory watchdog Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) issued fines to several large streaming platforms — including Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Prime Video and Mubi — for violating family values.
The films that prompted the measure were “Cobalt Blue” (Netflix); “Those About to Die” (Prime Video); “Benedetta” (Mubi); “All of Us Strangers” (Disney+); and “Looking: the Movie” (HBO Max), all of which were removed from streaming platforms in Turkey. RTÜK claims that these films “promote homosexuality,” “disregard family values,” and “conflict with the shared values of society.”
Rights defenders say these measures are part of a broader crackdown on LGBTQ+ visibility in Turkey. Since 2015, Istanbul Pride has been routinely banned, with police dispersing demonstrators using tear gas and detentions. Public officials have increasingly framed LGBTQ+ identities as a “threat to family values,” echoing the language used by RTÜK in its rulings against streaming platforms.
One member of the RTÜK Council, Tuncay Keser, criticised the decision: “While the institution of the family is almost daily undermined in daytime programs for the sake of ratings, RTÜK’s claim of ‘protecting society’ through smart-labeled fictional content on encrypted, subscription-based platforms, which adults access by paying a fee, represents a serious contradiction and double standard.”
This is the not the first time that RTÜK has fined streaming platforms. In 2023, Netflix, Prime, Disney+, Mubi, Bein, and Blu TV were fined for allegedly promoting homosexuality and undermining moral values in Turkey. At the time, Keser told VoA in an interview, “RTÜK has no duty to impose a family model on adults. By setting the agenda through daily political debates, the entire media is being intimidated.”
In 2022, RTÜK launched a probe into Netflix's animated “Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous” series. “We are determined not to allow content that may negatively impact our children and youth and that disregard our values,” tweeted Ebubekir Sahin, the head of RTÜK at the time. The show reportedly featured LGBTQ+ characters.
In December 2021, another film on Netflix was subject to fines. According to RTÜK, “More the Merrier” was “based on a fiction in which homosexuality, incest relationships, and swinging are intensely experienced.” The platform was ordered to remove the film from streaming in Turkey.
In May that same year, Spotify was ordered to remove “inappropriate content” from its site. By 2022, the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation against the platform on the grounds that it was featuring playlists “insulting religious values and state officials.” The issue, however, was not so much the songs as the names of the playlists, as Spotify's rules extend rights to users creating playlists without the platform’s approval or oversight.
The power vested in RTÜK to oversee digital streaming platforms stems from a 2018 regulatory change, adopted in 2019, which empowered the agency to impose administrative measures including warnings, suspension of programming, temporary broadcast bans, revocation of broadcasting licenses and, in the most recent case, fines. At the time, prominent Turkish experts on freedom of expression noted the dangers of the decision to extend censorship across all platforms in a country where censorship was already common.
By 2023, RTÜK imposed broadcasting licenses — not typically required of pro-government online outlets — upon the digital media platforms of DW, Euronews and VoA; when they refused to comply, their platforms were blocked in Turkey. One organisation contested RTÜK's broad powers regarding licensing, but lost the case on the grounds that such powers did not allegedly constitute a restriction on freedom of the media. By 2024, RTÜK announced that programs on YouTube which produce news must also obtain broadcasting licenses.
RTÜK’s actions also extend to local broadcasters. In a December 2024 report, the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA) calculated that the watchdog imposed USD 4.5 million worth of fines between January 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024, issuing 1,357 broadcast suspensions during the same period. According to the report, fines were applied to media critical of the government, but also to topics ranging from religious sects, social issues, Kurdish issues, and LGBTQ+ content. Even street interviews have not been spared.
Turkish artists have also come under the microscope. In September, the popular girl band Manifest was investigated over their concert outfits. On September 6, after their concert in Istanbul, the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office launched a probe on the grounds the singers were engaged in “obscene behavior” and “exhibitionism” through their dance and performance.
Presidential Chief Advisor Oktay Saral went as far as to accuse the singers of being “immoral, shameless, indecent creatures,” and called for prosecution in order to “prevent them from ever engaging in this exhibitionism again.” As a result of the investigations, the singers were placed under a travel ban and have to regularly check in at the police station.
Women’s rights advocates warn that such interventions reinforce a wider rollback on gender equality. Turkey’s 2021 withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention — a landmark treaty to combat violence against women — marked a turning point. Since then, feminist organizations and campaigners have faced smear campaigns, investigations, and growing restrictions on public demonstrations.
Meanwhile, domestic violence remains a persistent crisis. According to We Will Stop Femicide, at least 394 women were murdered in Turkey in 2024, most of them by partners or relatives. In the first six months of 2025, 136 women were victims of femicide, while 145 died under suspicious circumstances.
Around the time that Manifest was being investigated, popular singer and song writer Mabel Matiz had his recently released song blocked on streaming platforms over what the Family and Social Services Ministry claimed was a threat to “public order and general health,” and “contrary to the traditions and customs of Turkish family.” According to reporting by Bianet, the incident marked “the first time authorities have formally requested a court to block access to a specific song.”
Matiz has faced criticism in the past. In 2022, he released a love song on the last day of Pride month that featured a same-sex love story. RTÜK’s response was swift, calling music television channels and threatening them with heavy consequences if they released the song.
In January 2022, the iconic singer/songwriter Sezen Aksu was also targeted by the media watchdog, which warned television channels not to broadcast her song “It is a Wonderful Thing to Live,” on the grounds it degraded religious values thanks to a sentence in the song that read, “Give my regards to the ignorant Eve and Adam.” Aksu responded with a song called “The Hunter,” in which one verse read, “You cannot kill me, I have my voice, my music, and work. When I say, I, I am everyone.”
Obscenity charges have also been previously used against online content creators. In December 2023, Gizem Bağdaçiçek, a creator of adult content, was detained on obscenity charges. In November 2023, another TikTok content creator was detained on similar charges; they were both subsequently released.
In January 2024, similar measures were taken against another online content producer, with prosecutors citing “semi-naked” images as the reason for the detention. The content creator was arrested on charges of “facilitating the publication of obscene content.” Most online adult content has been blocked in Turkey.
Just six months later, in July 2025, model and activist Melisa Aydınalp was detained after posting a performance in which she criticized state-imposed policies about normal birth. She was accused of alleged public indecency and promotion of obscene content, but was released after one night at the police station due to lack of evidence, and placed under a travel ban.
According to Article 226 of Turkey's Penal Code, the distribution of obscene content via media is prohibited and punishable by a prison sentence. Yet, there is no clear definition of what obscenity means. According to Keser, RTÜK “has no duty” imposing a “family model on adults.”
The censorship of LGBTQ+ expression, artistic performances, and women’s voices reflects not only moral policing, but also a broader strategy of silencing dissent. By framing diverse identities and critical art as “obscenity,” the authorities consolidate control over public life, narrowing the space for free expression in Turkey.
globalvoices_gender_feed) wrote2025-09-24 11:30 amAmong the streaming platforms facing fines are Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Prime Video and Mubi
Originally published on Global Voices
Image by Arzu Geybullayeva, created using Canva Pro.
Turkey is celebrating 2025 as the “Year of the Family.” It is against this backdrop that, on September 18, the country's regulatory watchdog Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) issued fines to several large streaming platforms — including Netflix, Disney+, HBO Max, Prime Video and Mubi — for violating family values.
The films that prompted the measure were “Cobalt Blue” (Netflix); “Those About to Die” (Prime Video); “Benedetta” (Mubi); “All of Us Strangers” (Disney+); and “Looking: the Movie” (HBO Max), all of which were removed from streaming platforms in Turkey. RTÜK claims that these films “promote homosexuality,” “disregard family values,” and “conflict with the shared values of society.”
Rights defenders say these measures are part of a broader crackdown on LGBTQ+ visibility in Turkey. Since 2015, Istanbul Pride has been routinely banned, with police dispersing demonstrators using tear gas and detentions. Public officials have increasingly framed LGBTQ+ identities as a “threat to family values,” echoing the language used by RTÜK in its rulings against streaming platforms.
One member of the RTÜK Council, Tuncay Keser, criticised the decision: “While the institution of the family is almost daily undermined in daytime programs for the sake of ratings, RTÜK’s claim of ‘protecting society’ through smart-labeled fictional content on encrypted, subscription-based platforms, which adults access by paying a fee, represents a serious contradiction and double standard.”
This is the not the first time that RTÜK has fined streaming platforms. In 2023, Netflix, Prime, Disney+, Mubi, Bein, and Blu TV were fined for allegedly promoting homosexuality and undermining moral values in Turkey. At the time, Keser told VoA in an interview, “RTÜK has no duty to impose a family model on adults. By setting the agenda through daily political debates, the entire media is being intimidated.”
In 2022, RTÜK launched a probe into Netflix's animated “Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous” series. “We are determined not to allow content that may negatively impact our children and youth and that disregard our values,” tweeted Ebubekir Sahin, the head of RTÜK at the time. The show reportedly featured LGBTQ+ characters.
In December 2021, another film on Netflix was subject to fines. According to RTÜK, “More the Merrier” was “based on a fiction in which homosexuality, incest relationships, and swinging are intensely experienced.” The platform was ordered to remove the film from streaming in Turkey.
In May that same year, Spotify was ordered to remove “inappropriate content” from its site. By 2022, the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation against the platform on the grounds that it was featuring playlists “insulting religious values and state officials.” The issue, however, was not so much the songs as the names of the playlists, as Spotify's rules extend rights to users creating playlists without the platform’s approval or oversight.
The power vested in RTÜK to oversee digital streaming platforms stems from a 2018 regulatory change, adopted in 2019, which empowered the agency to impose administrative measures including warnings, suspension of programming, temporary broadcast bans, revocation of broadcasting licenses and, in the most recent case, fines. At the time, prominent Turkish experts on freedom of expression noted the dangers of the decision to extend censorship across all platforms in a country where censorship was already common.
By 2023, RTÜK imposed broadcasting licenses — not typically required of pro-government online outlets — upon the digital media platforms of DW, Euronews and VoA; when they refused to comply, their platforms were blocked in Turkey. One organisation contested RTÜK's broad powers regarding licensing, but lost the case on the grounds that such powers did not allegedly constitute a restriction on freedom of the media. By 2024, RTÜK announced that programs on YouTube which produce news must also obtain broadcasting licenses.
RTÜK’s actions also extend to local broadcasters. In a December 2024 report, the Media and Law Studies Association (MLSA) calculated that the watchdog imposed USD 4.5 million worth of fines between January 1, 2023 and June 30, 2024, issuing 1,357 broadcast suspensions during the same period. According to the report, fines were applied to media critical of the government, but also to topics ranging from religious sects, social issues, Kurdish issues, and LGBTQ+ content. Even street interviews have not been spared.
Turkish artists have also come under the microscope. In September, the popular girl band Manifest was investigated over their concert outfits. On September 6, after their concert in Istanbul, the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office launched a probe on the grounds the singers were engaged in “obscene behavior” and “exhibitionism” through their dance and performance.
Presidential Chief Advisor Oktay Saral went as far as to accuse the singers of being “immoral, shameless, indecent creatures,” and called for prosecution in order to “prevent them from ever engaging in this exhibitionism again.” As a result of the investigations, the singers were placed under a travel ban and have to regularly check in at the police station.
Women’s rights advocates warn that such interventions reinforce a wider rollback on gender equality. Turkey’s 2021 withdrawal from the Istanbul Convention — a landmark treaty to combat violence against women — marked a turning point. Since then, feminist organizations and campaigners have faced smear campaigns, investigations, and growing restrictions on public demonstrations.
Meanwhile, domestic violence remains a persistent crisis. According to We Will Stop Femicide, at least 394 women were murdered in Turkey in 2024, most of them by partners or relatives. In the first six months of 2025, 136 women were victims of femicide, while 145 died under suspicious circumstances.
Around the time that Manifest was being investigated, popular singer and song writer Mabel Matiz had his recently released song blocked on streaming platforms over what the Family and Social Services Ministry claimed was a threat to “public order and general health,” and “contrary to the traditions and customs of Turkish family.” According to reporting by Bianet, the incident marked “the first time authorities have formally requested a court to block access to a specific song.”
Matiz has faced criticism in the past. In 2022, he released a love song on the last day of Pride month that featured a same-sex love story. RTÜK’s response was swift, calling music television channels and threatening them with heavy consequences if they released the song.
In January 2022, the iconic singer/songwriter Sezen Aksu was also targeted by the media watchdog, which warned television channels not to broadcast her song “It is a Wonderful Thing to Live,” on the grounds it degraded religious values thanks to a sentence in the song that read, “Give my regards to the ignorant Eve and Adam.” Aksu responded with a song called “The Hunter,” in which one verse read, “You cannot kill me, I have my voice, my music, and work. When I say, I, I am everyone.”
Obscenity charges have also been previously used against online content creators. In December 2023, Gizem Bağdaçiçek, a creator of adult content, was detained on obscenity charges. In November 2023, another TikTok content creator was detained on similar charges; they were both subsequently released.
In January 2024, similar measures were taken against another online content producer, with prosecutors citing “semi-naked” images as the reason for the detention. The content creator was arrested on charges of “facilitating the publication of obscene content.” Most online adult content has been blocked in Turkey.
Just six months later, in July 2025, model and activist Melisa Aydınalp was detained after posting a performance in which she criticized state-imposed policies about normal birth. She was accused of alleged public indecency and promotion of obscene content, but was released after one night at the police station due to lack of evidence, and placed under a travel ban.
According to Article 226 of Turkey's Penal Code, the distribution of obscene content via media is prohibited and punishable by a prison sentence. Yet, there is no clear definition of what obscenity means. According to Keser, RTÜK “has no duty” imposing a “family model on adults.”
The censorship of LGBTQ+ expression, artistic performances, and women’s voices reflects not only moral policing, but also a broader strategy of silencing dissent. By framing diverse identities and critical art as “obscenity,” the authorities consolidate control over public life, narrowing the space for free expression in Turkey.
iamrman) wrote in scans_daily2025-09-24 12:30 pmWriters: Scott Peterson and Kelley Puckett
Pencils: Damion Scott
Inks: Robert Campanella
Batgirl tries to find the man who scrambled her abilities.
( Read more... )
tcampbell1000) wrote in scans_daily2025-09-23 08:31 pm
iamrman) wrote in scans_daily2025-09-24 10:30 amWriter: Gerry Conway
Pencils: John Romita, Sr.
Inks: Tony Mortellaro and Jim Starlin
The origin of Hammerhead!
( Read more... )
