Community Spotlight (February 1-February 8)

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder”

Never has that quote been more applicable than in relation to this thread. You've missed reading it, I've missed making it, but it's finally back. You know the deal, here’s another week of blogs, fan-fics, artist show-offs, battles, RPG, and reviews, from all around the Vine. It was a very busy week, except for Battles (direct your complaints to Vance Astro and god_spawn ;) ) so let’s see what happened on the Vine this past week shall we...

Razz Note: As I have told many people, my schedule is too busy at the moment for a lot of community stuff like the spotlight. Thus Xanni helped put this together (and by helped I mean did the whole thing.) If you are interested in directly contributing in the future let me know.

Dear Diary (Blogs)

Without a doubt the most impressive blog of the week belonged to Strider92, who examines and really breaks down women in comics and addresses various popular talking points.

herrweis questions whether DC fans need to move on, stop living in the past, and give the New 52 more of a chance. From the look of things, he might be alone. Sampsman takes us back in time to February 1988 and points out what a great year it was for comic covers. Dud317 looks at the recent death rumors surrounding Batman 17, and gives his reasons why the Clown Prince of crime can't die... Yet. And BatWatch breaks down what's wrong with Birds Of Prey, hard to disagree with much of anything he says. This title deserves so much more.

With the current events going on, Nightwing4 wonders which comic characters would be pro or against stricter gun laws, unsurprisingly Punisher is mentioned. Can you tell which side he might be on?

There's been a lot of news about the Marvel movie universe recently, in great detail ArtisticNeedham lays out his what his vision and plan would be. Complete with various movies and main roster choices for them all. There's a lot of good ideas given by him.

Buckshot's finding the newest version of Thor's character worth following, and analyzes how even though he's the god of Thunder, one of Odin's sons is really down to Asgard and a good guy.

Draw Me Like One of Your French Girls (Artist Show-Off)

Being voted best community artist of 2012 didn't go to the head of RamsIllustrations. Here he's showing off his own interpretation of a Wolverine headshot, he calls it just practice so we'll all be in for a real treat once it is finalized.

JesterretseJ put up some really high quality pieces this week, quite a bit of variety too.

Newcomer SarahPerryman details how she (with help from her husband!) improved her coloring style, clearly the practice has paid off.

Going a different route, Manbehindthewires goes into great detail and a step by step process of putting together the Iron Man Mark VII toy Model. Hurry up and finish!

Everyone is a Critic (Reviews)

etragedy has begun to review all twelve issues of The Kents, and while I only linked to the first issue be sure to check the other seven he has gotten to so far!

The newest issue of Wonder Woman has turned Dark Noldor into a fan, check out his review to see his thoughts on it.

Better late than never, Xanni15 reviews the first issues of The Walking Dead and 28 Days Later.

johnkmccubbin91 is keeping an open mind but still isn't feeling the Superior Spider-Man. This opinion appears to be shared by many other Viners.

drreneninja couldn't have been more impressed by the latest New 52 issue of Green Arrow.

Issue 4 of Avengers was a letdown according to broo1232, but they have nothing but confidence in the series as a whole.

My Better is Better than Your Better (Fan-Fic)

Sometimes we all need a little help when it comes to writing dialogue, if so check out xxxddd's discussion and pick up some tips or maybe add a few of your own.

joshmightbe continues to show why he's one of the Vine's top writers, adding to his thrilling story of Marvel Iron Age: Hardy and Creed with part 33 and part 34.

CaptainLantern76 delivers the long awaited chapter 2 in his Jurassic Park: Terror on Site C story. I don't know about any of you but the setting of this fan-fic is very interesting and full of potential. His character dialogue is spot on.

Decoy Elite takes a break from trolling Mercy_ to post a rather interesting fan-fic.

Take Cover, RPG Incoming! (RPG)

President Obama not only faces opposition throughout his own country, but even here on the Vine as Premonition is trying to impeach him. Let your voice (and those of all your alts) be heard and vote!

If you need help finding the right name for a character or have some interesting names others could use, .Ajax. has covered with his thread. Mean while Storm_Phobia's curious what tattoos your characters have, and where they might be located. _Son_of_War_ is really bringing it with Gods and Kings, watch your back RPGers as Future Conquerors reppin' Russia and Clara Mass has stated that everyone might be a target of her plans, and for all of those locations without a thread there's Surkit's Locale: Anonymous to assist your character till they find their destination.

Finally for the 26th time in 5 years (let that sink in for a moment), two of the greats go at it again when Sha meets Feral Nova. There's some top notch dialogue going on so be sure to check it out and see how it's done.

For Glory And Honor! (Battles)

One of Marvel's prep masters runs a gauntlet created by jashro44.

CadenceV2's controversial battle featuring what he sees as "second Tier" geniuses is full of interesting debates.

Elsewhere Around the Vine

Let's be real for a second. We could all stand to improve our eating habits, and RazzaTazz's Eating-Well thread was a sight for sore eyes. Exchanging food recipes or just helping each other eat better is a welcome change from religious debates and respect threads (aka spam threads).

PhoenixoftheTides posted a cool article with tips on how to improve your debating skills on the internet. It's an interesting read that could benefit everyone and improve debates around the site. TheAcidSkull take a short break from editing Hulk's wiki page to review Samsara, RedheadedAtrocitus proves that not all gingers are evil (just joking) by showing off his meeting with Wolverine co-creator Len Wein, and lastly sora_thekey is back with another roundtable user discussion focusing on Disney's acqusition of Lucasfilm and even includes a corny JediXMan joke!

Hey @CaptainLantern76 you made the community spotlight! Congrats!

Makes me smile to see me in the spotlight again!

Good to see it back :D

If I can be of any help in the future I would be happy to do so.

Great to see this coming back!! ^_^

@Strider92@herrweis@Sampsman@Dud317@BatWatch@Nightwing4@ArtisticNeedham@Buckshot@RamsIllustrations@JesterretseJ@SarahPerryman@Manbehindthewires@etragedy@Dark Noldor@johnkmccubbin91@drreneninja@broo1232@xxxddd@joshmightbe@CaptainLantern76@Decoy Elite@Premonition@.Ajax.@Storm_Phobia@_Son_of_War_@Future Conquerors@Surkit@Feral Nova@Ziccarra_Liafador@jashro44@CadenceV2@RazzaTazz@PhoenixoftheTides@TheAcidSkull@RedheadedAtrocitus@sora_thekey

Just in case any of them missed it.

It was a great week. :]

Really great feature! I'm glad this was called to my attention and I'll make sure to keep an eye out for more. :D

YAY it's back! :D

I missed this.

@Xanni15: Whoa thanks for the call out I had missed this!

Some nice very nice stuff here (and thanks for the mention @RazzaTazz !)

@Strider92 said:

@Xanni15: Whoa thanks for the call out I had missed this!

Some nice very nice stuff here (and thanks for the mention @RazzaTazz !)

Same here! thanks to both of you! :)

Picked up an HD camera today, so will get right back to improving/finishing the blog! :)

@RazzaTazz said:

“ and lastly sora_thekey is back with another roundtable user discussion focusing on Disney's acqusition of Lucasfilm and even includes a corny JediXMan joke!

Thanks for the Spotlight!

@Xanni15: Thanks for letting me know. This is great. I would have never known without you telling me.

I hope everyone checks out my ideas for the Marvel movie universe, and I hope you like it.

@Xanni15: Thanks for the heads up.

Also, I edited the first paragraph in my blog post. Added to it some. I wouldn't have said anything but if it's been mentioned I guess people do care to some degree.

Thanks, and good job everyone!

First week of registering here and it is just getting cooler :)

Thanks for the feature!

If you noticed anything funny about my English I apologize in advance...not my first language.

Whoa. I made a Spot Light along with @jashro44 :) Sweet.

I really love this...and as I'm relatively new, it's not so much "back" as "here" for me ^_^

I will look forward to this from now on.

Nice Community Spotlight @RazzaTazz ! Keep up the great work and hope to be seeing these every week beginning with this relaunch of the thread (Feb. 1-8). I'm also an avid critic and release reviews weekly, depending on my free-time, etc and believe I do a good job on them considering how I get great feedbacks and recommendation counts even with my minimum followers. Feel free to follow, as I'll follow you to keep updated with your 'Community Spotlight". Hope to see one of my future reviews up on this thread sometime soon! Again, keep up the great work and check out my newest reviews up on my page:

Click here to check out my Aquaman #3 'Arthur Goes Hawaiian!' Review!

Click here to check out my review on TMNT's mini-series, 'The Secret History of the Foot Clan' issue #2

Click here to check out my review on the 'Indestructible Hulk #3'

@RazzaTazz: O_O our battle was mentioned? Wait people outside of the RP community check this out!? >_> wow... no pressure... now I HAVE to post today! lol Thanks for the mention :D

@Xanni15: and I almost forgot lol thanks for the heads up! ^_^

@Xanni15: @Icarusflies: Why have I been called here? Did I do something wrong?

@xxxddd: No, you were probably part of the community spotlight. :)

Look for your name in the OP

@Icarusflies: Ah, I see.

I'm glad I'm making a difference on the vine:)

@Xanni15: @CadenceV2: Thank you both for calling me out. I actually didn't know comicvine did these sort of threads. A lot of interesting stuff in the OP.

@jashro44: The thread has been on a hiatus for a few weeks, but it's back so keep an eye out and try to get on it again. ;)

@Xanni15:I will definitely try to keep an eye on it.

Yes!! Thank you!

Thanks for the mention, always appreciated

You're welcome, everyone. :]

Nice to see the Community Spotlight back. Thank you for all your hard work, Razza and Xanni.

@lykopis said:

I hope it's because of the backlog that the spotlights of last week weren't nominated by the community at large (although awesome job - each one was well worth the singling out.) Kinda felt that's what made the original one worth our while since otherwise it would subjective to the tastes of whoever is running the weekly highlight (kind of like the unnecessary commentabout threads supposedly focusing on religion and calling respect threads spam).

Just saw this, and I was looking over the spotlight for the future (trying to do it again), so I hope you don't mind me replying. :]

You felt it was unnecessary because everyone knew that respect threads were spam, or because you don't believe they are? Even the mods believed they were, according to the few I have asked about them. They were uncessary, especially when a PM, wall post, or any other method would be more efficient and not further bog down the forum. And I would hope it'd be obvious the amount of religious debates that occur, though many seem to get locked for some reason. Hmm...

As for any claims of me being biased, anyone could have assisted Razz, yet clearly no one did and no one has since I did this one. Obviously nobody else cared enough to put in the time to search the site, not when it's easier to complain. :P

@lykopis said:

I don't mind at all -- completely forgot about this since it's been a while but I am more than happy to discuss this.

Good. :]

@lykopis said:

I myself don't particularly enjoy respect threads but then again, there are a lot of threads that I don't enjoy --- threads about who is the best debater in the battle forums -- threads made about movies which have no purpose outside of just discussing a movie that has yet to be released and all the spoilers therein. As for religious debates or any other threads being locked down -- your point is? I see many threads being locked because of being superfluous or duplicates of another. However --- this is where is gets nifty. No one needs to enter a thread if they don't want to. Problem solved. Here's another thing --- what someone considers a bogging down of forums could be a great interest to others. How about we see how popular those threads are before they are considered "spam".

It has nothing to do with my disdain for respect threads, though it's obviously I don't care for them. It's easy or in your words "nifty" to say "Don't enter a thread if you don't like it" but that's not the point, they shouldn't have been around in the first place. I also don't think how popular a thread is indicative of anything, especially considering some of the biggest threads on the entire site are generally considered spam threads.

@lykopis said:

Are you a moderator? Do you know what makes the efficient or not? You can have an opinion and you can express it to moderators (to which you have and as you claim,. a few have agreed with you) but having you express your opinion in a thread made to celebrate the GOOD threads in CV comes off a bit heavy-handed. I would prefer someone who undertakes a feel-good thread have the feel-good attitude when presenting it.

Why ask rhetorical questions you have no interest in receiving an answer for? If you're going to call me a liar there's really no point, it's just basic respect. I'm not calling you a liar or attacking you, even in a backhanded way. I've had a few people comment that they enjoyed the lightheartedness of the thread, and the few jokes I made, but you can call me a liar again since I won't share the PM's. It was a minor comment that only yourself had an issue with, and only yourself blew up.

@lykopis said:

You are biased. Razz had this thread set up with the intention of putting out notable contributions and is a moderator for this site who has experience in most of the forums. Her opinion as to what should be pointed out carries a lot more weight than you and furthermore, she actively sought out the input from the community which was a big part of why this idea was so great.

So, there you go. Razz didn't ask for anyone to help in a public way and as for you offering -- that's great. Wonderful even because I really enjoyed this while it was up and running. But if all it's going to be is a weekly run-down of what you determine is worth highlighting -- then no thank you.

:P

It was a spur of the moment thing, there was no time to post a nomination thread, then the next day post the actual thread. I'm not sure if you followed the ones in the past but they really didn't get too many nominations on average, at least not of late. I get it you like Razz (and who doesn't?) and have some gripe with me, not only in this thread but elsewhere, but there's no call to post what you did. Why didn't you PM me or comment on my wall if your intention was to actually help? Razz also had to personally select contributions throughout the site when nobody nominated them, but that's cool because you think she's capable of it, which she is but still. It was one spotlight.

Obviously Razz didn't ask for help, never claimed she did, however she put a note in the OP that anyone looking to help should contact her and that presumably got crickets. I saw a thread that was awesome and that some people loved, wasting away. Again, who else at least attempted something? Not you. I'm going to do this thread again, a nomination thread of course, unless someone else steps up so you might end up being more perturbed, although I hope not. :]

*sidesteps debate*

So, uh... this was cool... six weeks ago...

...hopefully it can happen more frequently, regardless of who's organizing/nominating? I mean the best art or best covers or whatever things are also somewhat subjective, but they still highlight stuff I'd usually miss.

@akbogert said:

*sidesteps debate*

So, uh... this was cool... six weeks ago...

...hopefully it can happen more frequently, regardless of who's organizing/nominating? I mean the best art or best covers or whatever things are also somewhat subjective, but they still highlight stuff I'd usually miss.

I personally want it to have a community input. But that is just me :P

@Pyrogram:

*Community member gives input: community members should have input.*

:P

@akbogert said:

@Pyrogram:

*Community member gives input: community members should have input.*

:P

Is that not the whole point of the argument above 0_0

and...

;P

@Pyrogram: Hahaha.

I'm indifferent. I sincerely doubt anyone will nominate my blogs because they're too ranty. And if they did get nominated, I'd have a whole bunch of people to argue with. Haha.

@Pyrogram said:

@akbogert said:

*sidesteps debate*

So, uh... this was cool... six weeks ago...

...hopefully it can happen more frequently, regardless of who's organizing/nominating? I mean the best art or best covers or whatever things are also somewhat subjective, but they still highlight stuff I'd usually miss.

I personally want it to have a community input. But that is just me :P

I agree, to me community input alongside from objective site wide appreciate was the best bit.

@SC: *shakes hand* agreed. :P

@akbogert: And thats a good thing xD...Yes :D