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charliejrogers · 3 years

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Yes, God, Yes

Full disclosure: I not only attended a Catholic high school, but I specifically attended a Kairos retreat, the exact retreat which the characters from 2020’s Yes, God, Yes attend. In the film, they call it “Kirkos,” but everything about “Kirkos” is the same as my (and seemingly every) Kairos. So let me clear up a few things for those of you who saw this film and thought, “This shit at this movie retreat can’t be what they do in real life.” Yes, Kairos leaders really do collect your phone and watch upon arrival to the retreat center since you are now on “God’s time ”(kairos comes from the Greek word καιρός which literally means “God’s time”). Yes, you are forced into small groups with your other classmates and feel this weird pressure to have a sad life story to share. Yes, small group leaders start to play music while they tell their own story AND pass out the lyrics as if these song lyrics are real deep poetry. One of my retreat leaders, for example, handed out sheets of the lyrics to Florence + The Machine’s “Shake it Off.” Now, I LIKE Florence + The Machine, but even still the lyrics to that song are nothing special. And, most of all, yes, those who come back from Kairos do tend to act a little cultish. At our school it was referred to as having a “Kai high,” a feeling in time when everyone just wants to be friends yet those people only exclusively hang out with one another.

In defense of Kairos retreats, at their very best, they offer adolescents at a critical time in their development the opportunity to reflect on their lives thus far, evaluate if they are living out the values their parents and community have instilled in them, and give them a safe space to work through conflicts, apologize, and try to be better people. At their worst, it’s a self-congratulatory experience where people act morally superior to others without really doing anything substantial… or even worse it’s a period of time where adolescents might unearth and talk about really hard topics like suicide, depression, etc. for the first time… and yet are given no real guidance on how to handle those emotions outside of this four day experience!

All this said, this is not a review of Kairos retreat. It is, indeed, a film review. I just wanted to make clear my biases etc. before talking about it since the retreat does more than provide the setting for the majority of Yes, God, Yes: the retreat’s four-day thematic structure doubles as the film’s plot structure. Just as in real life, our protagonist does a lot of questioning about her life and her faith during her first day, does some “crying” during the second as people, “accepting/trusting” the third, and then “living out” the lessons she learned on the fourth day and beyond! The difference is that in real life, teens are supposed to do these things in regard to their faith... or protagonist across those four days has a genuine sexual awakening.

In fact it’s exactly the desire to suppress her sexuality that prompts our protagonist to go on the retreat in the first place. Because our protagonist, Alice (played by Stranger Things’ Natalia Dyer), has just discovered something about herself that is hard to put out of her mind: she likes sex! Or, more specifically, likes masturbating. Alice is, from what we can tell in the prologue, a pretty by-the-books Catholic teen. She follows the rules, goes to Church with her Dad every Sunday, and os pretty sexually naïve… sheltered as we used to describe kids. Someone starts a rumor that Alice “tossed” a boy’s “salad” at a party and the rumor spreads like wildfire. Even the teachers know about it, and she loses her status as a gift bearer for the school’s weekly Mass. Of course, Alice doesn’t even know what “tossing salad” means (nor truthfully did I… but the movie seems to anticipate this by providing a definition to the audience at the very beginning of the film.)

All Alice knows is that she likes arm hair… like LIKES arm hair, something she discovers when she’s on an AOL chat room and someone sends her porn. That’s right, this is a film set in the early ‘00s, so if you hold any nostalgia for that time, get ready to have your fill from the era’s cheesy pop ballads to giant brick phones, to the fact that America (while starting to be so) wasn’t so health conscious that’s it not crazy to believe a teenage girl would just come home from school and snack on frosting and a giant bowl of Cheetoh’s Puffs. The nostalgia is not quite as in your face as in Captain Marvel, but it’s certainly more of a focus than it was in Lady Bird.

Yeah, you knew the comparison was coming. Let’s just be clear, this is by no means trying to be the next Lady Bird. This movie knows it’s pretty frivolous to begin with. Still, it’s hard to avoid comparison with the last big movie about a Catholic girl coming of age in the early 2000s. What I learned in watching this movie compared to Lady Bird or even Boyhood is that merely recreating aspects of my former life does not a good movie make. While I loved the fact that part of watching Lady Bird was getting to see someone shine a light on how ridiculous high school theater could be, that was never the point of the movie. Here, meanwhile, a significant purpose of the film is to highlight the fact that, yes, Kairos retreats are weird and the Church sucks. While I found myself nodding my head in agreement with what I was seeing on screen… it wasn’t exactly enjoyment as much as thinking, “yup, this is what a Kairos retreat is.” Furthermore, I feel like there are aspects of Kairos that would be great for skewering and I love the parts they absolutely nail: the cultish nature of the retreat and the pressure to frame your life in a sad way… but they ultimately take a route of criticism that is too easy and frankly is not a focus of most Kairos retreats… the focus on shaming one’s sexuality and the innate hypocrisy that behavior inevitably reveals.

If there’s a villain in this film, it’s probably the retreat leader and school priest Fr. Murphy (Timothy Simons), who gives in to rumors of Alice’s sexual impropriety as much as any schoolyard bully. No one in this whole film, from Fr. Murphy, to the head of Alice’s bunkhouse, to her small group leader, to even her best friend, takes Alice’s spiritual journey seriously, as they all assume Alice is not taking the retreat seriously as she seems to be avoiding talking about her recent, rumorous activity. Of course, there’s a bit of #MeToo hypocrisy here in that the male with whom Alice is said to have been engaged with enjoys none of the backlash that she has been dealing with. And to that degree it’s a satisfying movie in that Alice gets to dish out a little #MeToo revenge.

Still, even with all things conspiring against her, Alice retains her good spirit throughout the film… as well as her determination to further explore her sexuality. On the one hand, it’s a little unrealistic the risks she takes in trying to learn more about her body, but on the other hand teenagers and young adults are friggin’ weird when it comes to figuring out themselves. Ultimately she is emboldened in this take once she finds out that all those people who are out to get her to confess her “sins” are sinners in much the same way.

Probably the best scene comes at the end of Alice’s third day of the retreat when she runs away from the retreat center and walks into a lesbian bar where she hears the story of someone who used to be Catholic and is now not. More important than anything she could learn at the retreat, this Iowa girl learns that some normal people… just don’t have a religion. For some people this world, its pleasures, its pains, is more than enough. Alice doesn’t become a full-blown hedonist after this, but she is opened up to realize there’s more to life than Catholic guilt.

Perhaps to make this good message ring out, the film as a whole, despite some absurdist elements, feels like it’s meant to be a somewhat accurate reflection of reality. I wish the writer/director, Karen Maine had tried for a slightly more absurdist approach or taken out the absurdity altogether. She already makes the Catholic high school authority more caricature than character, and the plot at timesis almost silly. Therefore, the tone of the movie just sorta feels off throughout. Just about the only thing keeping this movie grounded is a great performance by Dyer who portrays a genuine sexual awakening very faithfully, capturing the mix of confusion, guilt, and excitement all at once. Even when Alice does something downright stupid, Dyer’s performance engenders our trust from the start, and we are always on her side. I wish I could have liked this movie more as it really does accurately portray some aspects of a Kairos retreat and is about as close as I think I’ll get to having it portrayed in a major film, but ultimately by not treating the Church authority with the same amount of nuance paid to Dyer’s Alice and her sexual awakening, the film ends up being an enjoyable, if one-noted, experience. Come to make fun of Catholics, stay for Dyer’s performance.

**7/8 (Two and seven-eighths out of four stars)

#yes god yes #natalia dyer #karen maine #yesgodyes

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quintessence-sentimentalist · 5 years

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quintessence-sentimentalist Takes on 30 Days of W.i.t.c.h.versary!: Week Three

Week Three already! Days 15 through 21 below the cut!

Day 15 Something that needs a quick fix

Ahaha, well, some 99.9% of things that need fixing with this series can’t be completed quickly, so let me just go with the simplest thing that comes to mind:

The uniform color errors.

In both the comic and cartoon, there are color swaps between the top and bottom, with Irma being the most frequent offender (frankly, I only remember Cornelia’s top being purple on the cover of one of the final Ludmoore arc issues, and maaaaaaaybe Hay Lin got a color swap once too, so basically it was all with Irma). I don’t know if it’s because she and Will might look a little similar in black-and-white or something and that’s why there was confusion over whose top is which color (although if that’s the case then why didn’t it happen to Will too?), but it just kept happening throughout the series. It’s even wrong on the official promo art/opening sequence end card for the animated series.

So yeah. Easiest fix I can think of is to please check which color goes where before inking them in.

Day 16 Something that needs an overhaul

I’m just going to spin the wheel here...

Better executed romantic break-ups/avoidance of shitty break-ups altogether. Consistent lore. All the arcs New Power and beyond. New Power Matt. That one self-indulgent what-if I had about leaving Medina, McTiennan, and Sylla’s memories intact and they basically become the girls’ non-magical mentors and trusted adult figures who help them balance their lives between Guardianship and just being normal girls.

Uh... I can’t choose.

I’ve talked at length about and reimagined a lot of these before (and will do so again, for sure), and those I haven’t people have discussed much more eloquently than I can. And I’m sure I’m still missing some, so I’m not going to get too deep into this and save that all for inevitable rambles later on.

Day 17 Something that needs to be revisited

The Astral Drops, hands down. Why bother sending them off to live new lives of their own, while pointedly leaving them with magical tattoos that will light up when Kandrakar must call on them, if you’re not going to loop back around to that? Honestly, this is something that should have slid back into the narrative in at least some way before things wrapped up.

Day 18 Something that needs more love from the fandom

It’s going to be too predictable if I start chanting “animated series Matt and Will/Matt” (but really, they do deserve all the love), so let’s go for a different angle this time.

Oh... well, I guess since I was already at it, maybe the animated series itself?

Alright, look: I was a comics purist for a solid eight years. I watched the show in full and enjoyed particular (largely season 2) parts, but I still had the frequent complaint that it wasn’t a faithful adaptation and didn’t watch it again for years even when I regularly reread the comics.

But then the English translations of the comic ended, and I was left without any real new material. A couple years later, I was about to go off to college and came across something that reminded me of the cartoon (more on that later on), and I figured what the hell.

It’s still not a perfect or even great adaptation of the comics, and sometimes I still struggle with getting through the first season, but going back to the animated series as a young adult - after years of distance from it and easing up on my rigid stance on comics-only - helped me gain a newfound appreciation for it. The animated series did some things I liked better than in the comics. It had a badass theme song. From a fan creator perspective, I found the cartoon universe a little bit more malleable and full of possibilities than with the comics, partially because it unexpectedly got cut short.

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t necessarily have impeccable taste when it comes to media (I have a guilty pleasure for short-lived and long-forgotten early 00s sci-fi action shows. I unabashedly enjoyed the live-action Birds of Prey series, and that’s even more wildly inaccurate a comic adaptation than the W.i.t.c.h. cartoon). Still, I think about some other animated series that are based on beloved comics/manga but not direct adaptations, and some of those are considered just as good or even better than the originals (and potentially subsequent accurate adaptations). I feel like at the very least, the W.i.t.c.h. animated series could be a guilty pleasure, or even enjoyable AU adventures of the girls as they are in the comics.

Day 19 Something small but unforgettable

Nothing was immediately coming to mind, but then it hit me. I love that the animated series changed the name of Will’s power to quintessence in the second season.

In the comics, her powers were a bit of a nebulous space, while the others’ were clearly defined elements. I remember it being called “energy” or “absolute energy,” which... while not wrong, it’s just such a broad term, and frankly is missing some pizzazz to it. It wasn’t even a consistent name, since oftentimes Will just called out for the Heart, and then with New Power it became “the power to unite them” or something (uh... what?). I just think it’s weird to have one of your main characters without a clearly defined - or simply named - ability, unless it’s intentionally vague to allow for various deus ex machinas from the Heart, with Will serving solely as the conduit.

And that’s kind of what happened with the first season too, where Will was honestly only able to activate the Guardians and close portals and had no inherent offensive ability. So season 2 was great in the respect that they actually gave her a power, but then there was that name!

Seriously, quintessence. Even before you really know what it is, it’s a pretty kickass name, right?? It definitely has the mystical quality to it, and the fact that it literally translates as fifth essence/element makes it just too good. Guys, there’s a reason why it’s in my username.

(Well, that and the fact that seeing the word and its definition again after many years reminded me that I should rewatch the animated series, and that was what kicked off my spiral back into W.i.t.c.h. fandom. It did tie into the “sentimentalist” aspect in the end.)

Day 20 Something you’d always come back to

Hmm, I’m a little unclear on the prompt for this one, whether it means something I’ll reread/rewatch, or some idea from the series that just sticks with me. I’m going go with the first interpretation, which I guess also ties in with the second.

Hardly a surprise at this point, but I regularly rewatch the most pivotal episodes of the Shagon arc - those being L is for Loser, M is for Mercy, and S is for Self. I just love seeing Shagon in the forefront as a villain, and how Will knows how to deal with Nerissa in some respect at this point (staying suspicious - maybe a little bit too much - and learning to out-strategize the ex-Keeper), but goes absolutely ballistic and loses her calculating edge whenever she’s facing Shagon on his own. He knows exactly how to needle into her vulnerabilities, and the two of them engaging in emotional warfare is just so good. Watching these always gets me wondering how the fallout from this arc would have gone had we had more time and the series had a different tone (maybe more along the lines of Young Justice, to borrow a different Weisman show), because I’m firmly of the mind that Matt would have some lingering trauma from the experience (which he’s had to put aside to take on a new role and deal with everything else that came after he was freed) and I would have loved to see that play out.

As for the comics, though, I like to loop back around to the girls’ potential futures from issue 50. Their careers just fit them all so well, and the way their designs and friendship evolved into adulthood just felt right to me. They’re all grown up and more sophisticated now, but they don’t simply look like a slightly older version of their Guardian forms, and manage to maintain a semblance of their styles from their young teen days. And even though they’re no longer active Guardians and are busy with their own lives (sometimes in various other places), thus not being in each others’ back pockets anymore, you can tell their bond is holding just as firmly as it was forged back in the day. I vastly prefer this glimpse into the future over the one we’re shown in the post-New Power era, so I like to use it at least as a basis for when I imagine the girls post-Guardianship.

Day 21 A memorable architectural design

I do love the design of Sheffield Institute. It’s just so elaborate and wildly different than what you’d normally see for a high school, at least from my view and experience. It certainly looks like a place with a rich history, and honestly I think it’s a great parallel to Kandrakar and the castles of Meridian and Arkhanta - not quite as regal or mystical, but still a structure with some elegance.

#30daysofwitchversary #30 days of witchversary #w.i.t.c.h.#quintessence-sentimentalist rambles

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makeste · 5 years

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BnHA Chapter 158: Deku VS Overhaul ~Conclusion~

Previously on BNHA: Eri escaped Overhaul and leaped into Deku’s waiting arms. Before Overhaul could grab them, Deku instinctively activated 100% OFA in his legs and leaped to safety on the surface. Back in the Pit of Despair, Nighteye told the others he’d seen Deku’s death in a vision, and he believes they can’t do anything to stop it. Up on the street level, Deku marveled at how all of his wounds were suddenly healed up. But then he collapsed in pain feeling like his body was being “pulled apart from the inside.” Overhaul reappeared, having merged himself with a new minion, and explained that Eri’s quirk gives her the power to “rewind” humans, reverting them back to a previous state. Depending on how she uses it, she can even rewind them back to nothingness. He made it out to be some cursed thing, but Deku was all “8D” and realized he was carrying a full-HP-restored-and-all-status-ailments-cured healer who was currently using her quirk uncontrollably, unable to turn it off. So he literally fucking strapped her to his back with Mirio’s cape, and activated 100% One for All Full Cowl.

Today on BnHA: We say goodbye to volume 17 and usher in the new era of volume 18. Overhaul monologues a bunch about quirks and mutations and disease and blah blah blah. He says brats like Deku can’t appreciate Eri’s value and the power of her quirk. Meanwhile Togawice watch from a safe distance, and Ochako floats Nighteye up to get him some medical help. Overhaul has more flashbacks about how the Comatose Boss (back before he was comatose) told him to stop selling quirk drugs and not to stray from the right path. Of course, as we all know, he didn’t listen, wanting to restore the yakuza to their former glory by starting a drug war and supplying both sides. It’s arguably implied here that Overhaul may be the one who put the Comatose Boss in his coma, but Horikoshi is very vague about it. At any rate, back in the present day Overhaul continues to rant at Deku, but Deku has fucking All Might power now, and he just. Beats the everloving shit out of him. Like, it takes about four pages. Holy shit. And just like that, this battle is finally over.

(As always, all comments not marked with an ETA are my unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter. I’ve read up through chapter 187 now, so any ETAs will reflect that.)

WE’RE DONE WITH THE PREVIOUS VOLUME OH MY GOD. WE’RE ON TO A NEW VOLUME. A NEW VOLUME WHICH WILL FINALLY INCLUDE A NEW FUCKING ARC AT LONG LAST. SOMEBODY HOLD ME

IF KACCHAN ISN’T ON THE CHARACTER PAGE, I WILL FUCKING FLY TO JAPAN AND FIND OUT WHERE HORIKOSHI IS KEEPING MY BOY HOSTAGE AND SAVE HIM MYSELF

HERE WE GOOOO

ooooohhhhh

(ETA: I recall reading in an interview somewhere that Horikoshi usually colors the volume covers in Photoshop, but for this one he felt like doing something different and so he colored it by hand and very much enjoyed it. it looks good!)

somehow I wasn’t picturing this weird mutant Overhaul creature to be red. somehow it makes him look even more like a Zelda boss

100% OFA Deku looks so cool! and his OFA lightning has turned yellow just like All Might’s oh gosh

“a bright future” OH GOD YES PLEASE

THIS TITLE PAGE IS GIVING ME ALL THE FEELS??

NIGHTEYE YOU REALLY ARE GOING TO FUCKING DIE AREN’T YOU. FUCK

MIRIOOOOOO

FUCK THIS STUPID PAGE AND ITS “BACK IN THE GOOD OLD DAYS BEFORE ALL THE HORRIBLE THINGS HAPPENED” VIBE

(ETA: I HATE IT EVEN MORE NOW!! looking back on it now is giving me the headcanon that Mirio is actually sitting on the bench alone, sometime after this arc, and that’s actually Nighteye’s spirit sitting there, watching over him. I have no idea why my subconscious would choose to come up with a background story for this page that makes me want to cry even more.)

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[LEAPS OUT OF MY CHAIR AND POUNDS MY FIST ONTO MY DESK IN TRIUMPH]

(AND I REALLY DID YOU GUYS, AND THEN I THUMPED MY FIST ON MY DESK SEVERAL MORE TIMES FOR GOOD MEASURE!!!)

BAKUGOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

AND SHOUTO! AND INASA OH MY GOD, WHAT A PLEASANT SURPRISE. ARE WE FINALLY GOING TO SEE THEIR SPECIAL TRAINING??

(ETA: I love this volume)

AND SEIJI. MR. MEATBALL. SO YOU’RE STILL AROUND. YOU DIDN’T MAKE IT PAST THE FIRST ROUND, SO I’M VERY SURPRISED THEY APPARENTLY ALLOWED YOU TO TAKE THE SPECIAL TRAINING COURSE. BUT I GUESS WE’LL FIND OUT ALL ABOUT THAT

(ETA: Seiji sure has a lot of spare time on his hands huh)

WELL GUESS WHAT, OVERHAUL, THIS ONE PAGE HAS GIVEN ME THE POWER NEEDED TO DEFEAT YOU AND YOUR STUPID ARC ONCE AND FOR ALL. LET’S DO THIS. FOR KACCHAN AND SHOUTO. THE FORGOTTEN CHARACTERS

wow this opening panel is talking about the possible origin of quirks as a fucking virus spread by rats. like if the fucking bubonic plague gave you superpowers

oh no

I did not ask for an Overhaul flashback and I don’t care about him. go ahead and flesh him out if you must, but no amount of backstory can satisfactorily explain why he’s such a fucking creep

Tongue!Overhaul says that neither Deku nor Eri understand the value of Eri’s power

idk man, Deku’s already making some damn good use of it barely two seconds after discovering that it exists

so he’s explaining that her quirk can be used to rewind the mutation that brought quirks about

how come the version Tamaki got shot with only did this temporarily, though? does this mean the effect is eventually going to wear off on Deku and he’ll collapse with every last one of his bones shattered and probably die immediately omg

also would it then be possible to undo what happened to Mirio? or does the quirk not work on itself? goddammit

and in theory this could potentially even be used for creepy necromancy purposes. ohhhh man

(ETA: and also I’m telling you, the more I think about it, the more I’m becoming convinced that this is the quirk which will eventually bring All for One back to power. eventually someone is going to make the mistake of letting AFO come into contact with Overhaul over in Tartarus, and once that happens, things are going to go downhill fast.)

ironically, this actually seems like the most narrow-minded view of Eri’s quirk possible. most people would look at Eri’s quirk and immediately identify it as a healing quirk. the fact that he turned it into a destructive quirk tells you all you need to know about the kind of person he is right there

also, those buildings he’s casually smashing just so happen to have people in them omg

why would they not have evacuated by this point. there was a fight going on between a dragon and a giant villain for a full 20 minutes. for that matter, you’d think that local heroes would have eventually stepped in at some point. that’s plenty of time for backup to have arrived, and it should have been abundantly clear by that point that they needed it. so much about this doesn’t make any damn sense smh

(ETA: I think later on they confirm that there were only a handful of civilian injuries, though, and they were only light scratches and stuff. but all that means is that they got lucky goddammit.)

wowwwww Overhaul. wow

I’ll take “most ironic things villains have ever said” for $500, Alex

LOL

AND SO OVERHAUL WAS KICKED INTO SPACE, NEVER TO BE HEARD FROM AGAIN. NOTHING OF VALUE LOST, ETC

Deku’s thinking to himself that Eri’s power is getting stronger and that she doesn’t know how to stop it. “just like the first time I used One for All”

he’s thinking that she basically has her foot stuck on the gas pedal

OH HEY YOU GUYS

is he “Deku” now? no more Izuku-kun or -chan or whatever?

as for Mr. Compress, he got squished by Ryuukyuu and melted

Ochako’s floating up to the surface with Nighteye in tow. and they were smart enough to avoid removing the spike in his stomach so he doesn’t instantly bleed out

does Nighteye even still have his left arm omg

now we’re flashing back again to the old boss chewing out Overhaul for getting into a fight with some dude and laying him out in critical condition

the boss thinks Overhaul is going behind his back and undertaking some secret venture in the drug business

he says he told Overhaul not to get involved with those drugs. I think that was the flashback we saw some chapters earlier

and he’s again telling him “you must not stray from my path”

why am I starting to get the feeling that the boss never actually got “sick” and that was Overhaul’s doing as well...?

oh my god is he talking to Kurono here

I feel like this is the only person who could plausibly be shipped with him. it doesn’t hurt that at this point he’s literally the last Precept standing

Overhaul’s determined to restore the family back to its former glory

oh here we go. finally the complete master plan

so first they flood the streets with some of the “incomplete products” they have on hand that can temporarily erase quirks

and once people have gotten a taste of that they’ll all be clamoring to purchase the completed product from them at sky-high prices

!!!!!!

SO YOU’RE TELLING ME MIRIO’S QUIRK CAN BE RESTORED OH MY GOD. THERE IS HOPE!

did they actually start to work on that particular serum yet?

anyways, because the boss isn’t A COMPLETE MONSTER, he’s immediately telling him no

you know, this is one of those instances where the time-honored mob tradition of doing away with a troublesome family member before they get even more troublesome would not have gone amiss. just sayin’. in hindsight he probably wishes he had

instead he just told him “if you’re going to disobey our way of thinking then you should just leave”

Overhaul says all he wants to do is repay the boss for taking him in

then why don’t you start by, I don’t know, FUCKING LISTENING TO HIM oh my god

but instead he went behind his back, continued torturing the innocent little girl, and proceeded with his plan

(ETA: okay, so! after much discussion, I have come to agree with the people saying that this scene...

...which I initially took to be Overhaul relenting, followed by the transition from the flashback back to the present, is in fact actually Overhaul making the decision to take his boss out of commission. the fade to black and the startled look on the boss’s face are intended to show that Something Bad is about to happen. and the next panel after that is just Overhaul thinking about how he owes a great debt to the boss, and that if they proceed with his plan, they can restore the family. “look forward to it, Pop.” so yeah, that does make sense.

what still annoys me though is that they don’t explicitly confirm it, even though it’s arguably the key moment in terms of Overhaul’s development into a villain. the series has no problem showing Eri’s torture in way more detail than anyone ever needed or asked for, and yet this key scene merely gets hinted at. it’s basically the thing all of these flashbacks are leading up to, and then they just... don’t show it.

there is one possible reason I can think of for this, which is that this scene is from Overhaul’s perspective, and because he wants to continue thinking of himself as the loyal son who’s doing this all for the sake of his father figure, it makes sense that he would censor his own recollection of the incident in order to further convince himself that it was all for the best. but while that explains the vagueness, there are still tons of other ways Horikoshi as the author could have confirmed it for us. for instance he could have showed it from Kurono’s perspective instead. or hell, just confirm it with a simple line of dialogue if you have to. but narratively, I think the decision to leave it inconclusive hurts the story by robbing us of the coolest, most dramatic and defining moment of Overhaul’s past.

so idk, I’m still not the biggest fan of this scene. for me, it comes tantalizingly close to being the kind of super dark twist I was hoping for, but then fails to stick the landing. so I’m hoping the anime can improve on this a little bit.)

so now we’re back in the present, and there are a few panels of Overhaul screaming that everyone else is missing the bigger picture, and he’s trying to destroy this world (the word “world” being in quotation marks, so I assume he means society, not the actual world), and that the “fake heroes” who are fixated on their tiny notions of justice need to stay out of his way

boy this is getting tiresome. it’s like someone combined Stain and Overhaul and created... Worse Overhaul

but he really doesn’t stand a chance against a 100% Deku, I think

well, we just had three huge pages of Deku beating the shit out of Overhaul. what do you guys think. climax? are we done at last?

oh my god you guys

;________; WE DID IT

(ETA: this is the quickest Final Battle a 40+ chapter arc has ever had. I’m not complaining, mind. good god am I not complaining)

so Deku punched Nighteye’s vision in the face?? apparently?

I mean, there didn’t even seem to be any point where he was even remotely in danger of dying. so either there’s something coming up, or Nighteye really screwed up on that one

either way it’s not like I mind? holy shit. we’re done? we’re really done?? ARE WE MOVING ON FROM THIS ARC

oh my god you guys. hey google play “We Are the Champions”

hang in there Kacchan and Shouto. we’re coming, lads

no bonus, this volume is pretty skimpy on the omake content honestly. but hey guys, tomorrow our favorite villain with too many hands makes his own long-awaited reappearance! google, when you’re done with this song, get ready to play some AC/DC next. we’re about to embark on the Highway to Hell, baby.

#bnha #boku no hero academia #overhaul (bnha)#midoriya izuku #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #makeste reads bnha #okay you guys #just letting you know right now my manga-reading progress is about to take another hit for the next few days #because I just got a subbed copy of bnha two heroes #so I'm gonna be watching that #and I'll be liveblogging it as well so it's gonna take a while #but oh my god I'm so excited

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permian-tropos · 5 years

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Very enn ess eff doubleyou opinions on Brendol Hux (not really)

I still think he would have been killer as a villain who idealizes the Jedi and actively wants to restore them to power, in doing so demonstrates what was wrong with that particular institution. Could also have been a fantastic way to explain Luke’s disillusionment, if he realized the similarities between the late Jedi Order and the First Order. Could also have been a fantastic way to explain Ben’s turn to evil, if instead of his reasons being ?????? they’d be that he could at least claim that the First Order was the true successor of the Jedi and that Anakin Skywalker wanted him to pick up the mantle of his redemption arc, by sacrificing his loved ones to rebuild the Order that Vader destroyed in refusing to let go. Aka the version of the Jedi Order that abducted kids and raised slave armies to maintain centralized authority over the galaxy.

Like here’s the take: Brendol Hux sets up Arkanis Academy, not just to practice scouting out kids’ force potential even after Jedi techniques for that became forbidden knowledge, but to scout out kids with potential who could be internal threats in his new Order. His famous lesson he wants everyone to witness is about a young animal being killed by a predator because it wasn’t rigorously trained to avoid danger. This seems to ideologically clash with “it’s good to let kids go all Lord of the Flies on each other because survival of the fittest” or “people need to be tested against a gauntlet of danger” which is what you get from Rax.

Suppose the kernel of truth was actually in the “protect children with absolute control” moral, and though it seems incompatible with the setup of the Commandant’s Cadets, those cadets were actually being flushed out as youngling-killers. Their victims could be seen as necessary sacrifices (who got bad grades anyway so pshhh) to gather this small group of lil murderers that Brendol then has an extremely close eye on and the technology to brainwash into absolute obedience to him (Project Unity).

Basically -- he could be trying to “well if I were the Jedi Council I would have prevented the events of RotS by” [insert extremely immoral and smug overthought nerdlord plan]. And that plan is to incorporate the Jedi’s apparent weaknesses, the Sith and the clone troopers, into the Jedi system. The Jedi and clone troopers become merged into one, with the new stormtrooper program, and Brendol runs controlled opposition by figuring out which cadets would go full Sith if given the chance and containing them.

His academy is working in tandem with the Inquisitorius who are also trying to identify potential Force users for their purposes, but Brendol has his own ambitions that ultimately go against the established power of the Empire, which is why Tarkin, a close confidante of the Emperor who is allowed to boss the Inquisitors about (pretty much allowed to try to boss Vader about, really), suspects Brendol is up to no good. But Brendol gets away from close scrutiny long enough [insert Armitage’s mom is a rogue Inquisitor who protects him headcanon] for the Empire to fall and for him to scoot off to another corner of the galaxy to try all this wacko shit out for real.

The truth that Brendol is actually pro-Jedi, twistedly loyal to the kickass space wizard warriors he admired when he served under them in the Clone Wars, would definitely warrant him being described as a crazy person by Snoke.

The way he crashlands on Parnassos to recruit could be seen as remarkably Jedi-esque, since we see Qui-Gon showing up a poor planet to encourage a nine year old slave into a life-threatening race to raise money to buy ship parts, promising the boy a future with the Jedi while leaving the boy’s loving mother in slavery, instead of, like, doing anything besides that.

The final piece of proof? Not only is the only specific interaction between Brendol and Armitage that we know about a conversation where Brendol talks about the Jedi (his favorite topic), but elsewhere Brendol quotes the “coarse and rough and irritating” line about sand. He’s a prequel memer, and this makes it possible that he unironically stans the prequel-era Jedi.

#brendol hux #my post

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aion-rsa · 5 years

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New DC Universe Timeline Revealed

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The history of the DC Universe will become much more clear, as a comprehensive new timeline has been revealed.

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There are big changes coming to the DC Universe. That shouldn’t come as a surprise, as DC continuity is always in flux, something recently illustrated in the pages of Doomsday Clock, which introduced the concept of a “metaverse” that allows for events of the past to shift as new stories are told. But still, superhero history can be tricky to navigate, and DC Comics is looking to clarify it all with a new timeline.

Comic book time is a historically fluid affair, operating on a “sliding scale” that allows characters to age only at the pace necessary for the story (if at all), and very few characters are tied to specific dates in history. DC Comics continuity has generally avoided “fixing” its characters to particular points of the past, with notable exceptions for those who were necessarily of their era, like various Western heroes (Jonah Hex, Bat Lash) or the Justice Society of America, whose early adventures take place between approximately 1939 and 1950. It was generally considered that the “modern age” of DC superheroes was roughly a decade old, and everything else moved around the timeline accordingly. But with the post-Flashpoint reboot of the entire DC Universe in 2011, the traditional Justice Society were removed from the “main” DC Earth in favor of a new timeline in which superheroes had only existed for the last five years.

Since 2016’s Rebirth relaunch of the entire DC line and in the pages of The Flash, Doomsday Clock, and Justice League, the original JSA have started to reappear in the DCU, once again establishing that superheroes have been around since at least the 1940s. To further solidify this reclaimed continuity, DC is creating a comprehensive timeline of major events in DCU history, the first of its kind in roughly a decade, and apparently the most significant continuity-shaping effort since 1994’s continuity altering Zero Hour event.

“When we launched the New 52 there was a lot of great excitement that came along with that,” Dan Didio told the DC Nation panel at NYCC. “For us, it helped validate a lot of things we knew. There’s a large fanbase that loves our characters and they were looking to come in at a place where they were interesting, exciting, and new and fresh. But what might have slipped up was that while we started everything brand new, when we started getting deeper in, we didn’t spend the same amount of time as we did at the start to figure out what worked into continuity and what didn’t.”

Two key complaints about the New 52 era were the loss of legacy characters like Wally West, and the question of what “happened” in the newly compressed timeline and what didn’t. Issues of legacy (and hints about the timeline) were addressed in 2016’s DC Universe: Rebirth special, and Didio told the NYCC crowd they’re ready to solve the rest.

“We know that what’s important about comics is that immersive sense of what the world is, what’s going on, and how it all works together,” Didio said. “When we see things happening in film and television where they’re building universes, and if we’re not doing it in comics, the place that inspired them, then we seem like we’re failing. So we’re starting to figure out how the DC line works a little bit better now.”

This doesn’t mean that yet another reboot of DC Comics continuity is in the cards. Instead, it sounds like DC will continue their tradition of simply revealing new elements of history or slightly reshuffling chronology as needed, without the need for a New 52-style hard reset. In the wake of Rebirth, DC revealed that Wally West had a career with Barry Allen, a past with Dick Grayson, and a history with the Titans, all of which (including the main era of the Titans itself) had merely been forgotten. Recent events in the pages of Doomsday Clock and Justice League have reintroduced the Justice Society both to continuity and in their original era, while in the pages of Superman, the Legion of Super-Heroes (albeit a rebooted version, to be fair) made their return.

“The whole idea here right now is from our standpoint we are trying to organize our stories in a way that makes cohesive sense from beginning to end, from the start of DC Comics to today,” Didio said. “This timeline will build a continuity that makes sense across all our characters, showing when they were first introduced, how they interact with each other in one big story that will be the basis for all DC Comics for the future...What you see right now is a story that will be consistent, because ultimately, when you guys get all upset or concerned about reboots and restarts, those things occur because the stories stop making sense and the continuity basically slows down our storytelling and nothing’s being done at the same style or pace.”

To keep things on track, DC continuity has been split into “generations.” An intricate spreadsheet was flashed on the NYCC screens that identified four generations of DC storytelling, and hinted at what’s to come.

Perhaps the biggest reveal was that Generation 1 begins not with Superman, but with Wonder Woman. “When Wonder Woman arrives in the United States, that starts our storytelling,” Didio said, before joking, “Oh wait, I don’t remember reading that.”

It’s true. Diana has never been considered the starting point for DC superheroes, with that honor traditionally going to either Superman or the JSA. But making Wonder Woman DC’s first major costumed hero makes sense, especially given the success of the first Wonder Woman movie, which placed her first appearance during World War I. From the spreadsheet shown on the screen, the Justice Society would form shortly after (and recent events in Justice League place their formation in 1940, roughly around the time of their first publication). Generation 1 appears to end with the disbanding of the Justice Society, but it was tough to get a good look.

“The start of the second generation is the advent of the modern age of heroes, when Superman first appears,” Didio said, before joking “wait a minute, I don’t remember reading that either!” Whatever DC has planned, it seems like key moments in DC history will be explored once this full timeline is revealed.

Generation 2 also looks like it includes the formation of the Justice League, the discovery of the multiverse, the rise of Robin, Batgirl, and the Teen Titans, and all the way through Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Generation 3 appears to include the post-Crisis years, including massive, status quo changing events of the ‘90s and early 2000s like the death of Jason Todd in Death in the Family, the Death of Superman, Grant Morrison’s JLA run, and others, before ending with Flashpoint.

Generation 4 encompasses the current era of DC storytelling, roughly Rebirth to now, including recent events like Dark Nights: Metal, Doomsday Clock, and Year of the Villain.

This isn’t comprehensive and is only what I could spot at a distance on the screens. And it should be made clear that these “generations” aren’t tied to the eras in which their stories were published. In other words, even though Generation 3 includes stories published between 1986 and 2011, the events themselves almost certainly all took place within the last 5-10 years of DC Comics time. The “sliding scale” of comics time will apply to everything other than the characters and events (such as the formation of the JSA) that they feel are essential to their era.

During other interviews at New York Comic Con, I tried to get notable DC creators to spill some details about the timeline. They were understandably and diplomatically vague.

Joshua Williamson, the architect of the Flash’s past and future since 2016, had this to say when asked if he had considered the new timeline when crafting The Flash: Year One, “ I think next year you'll see where things start to line up, and there's things that will tie back into The Flash: Year One that you'll see were left behind on purpose,” Williamson says. “There were little clues in there, these little clues I've been planting in the book for a long time, so you'll see it will all add up eventually.”

Recently, Justice League even reintroduced the Will Payton version of Starman, not as a contemporary hero, but one who was first active in the late 1980s and early 1990s. In other words, roughly the period when he was first published in a comic series by Roger Stern and Tom Lyle. Justice League, written by Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV, has been re-establishing the very rules and core concepts of the DC Universe from the outset, and hints of DC’s new timeline can be found there.

“The biggest thing that we can say is we're right in the midst of the biggest story that we've told, and all of the threads that we've been playing with the start of Dark Nights: Metal are starting to converge and hit in this really, really big way,” Tynion says. “We have lots more answers to a lot of these questions that we really can't get into. We want people speculating, we want people wondering what we're building and all of that, because we're building something that I think long-term fans of the DC Universe and new fans of the DC Universe are going to be thrilled by. The stories that we're telling are some of the most exciting work that I've done since joining DC Comics eight years ago. It's freaking amazing working with Scott and bringing it all to life.”

We’ll have more from Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, and Joshua Williamson about their corners of the DC Universe in the coming days.

(Thanks to Jim Dandy for helping me keep all this straight!)

Mike Cecchini is the Editor in Chief of Den of Geek. You can read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @wayoutstuff.

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!

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Oct 8, 2019

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shenmeizhuang-blog · 7 years

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10 + 11 questions tag

Great thanks and acknowledgments to @letsflytoasiarenata and @belladonna2017 for sending me questions! So, here goes:

A. Always post the rules. Answer the questions then write (10 or 11?) new ones.

B. Tag 11 people and link them to the post. Tell the person who tagged you that you’ve answered their questions.

My questions:

Favorite villain or antagonist.

Favorite character trope/archetype.

Least favorite character trope/archetype.

Least favorite drama trope.

Name a character that you initially disliked but came to love.

Favorite multi-season drama?

Favorite example of trope dissection/dispellation.

Favorite time travel drama.

Choose a period drama, sageuk, or wuxia that you would like to time travel to.

Historical event/time period/historical figure(s) that you want to see a show explore.

Name a show with the best (most intensive yet reasonable/plausible) plot twists.

Favourite historical period in sageuks/wuxia?

This question made me ponder for a bit, since because the center stage of most wuxias is jianghu, or the pugilistic world, largely defined as “a sub-society isolated from mainstream or governmental law”, henceforth most wuxias largely feel timeless, with no specific historical dynasty or time period adhered to the story. Granted, there are some fusions centered around court politics that acknowledge the pugilistic world and combine certain wuxia elements – Nirvana in Fire (fictionalized Northern and Southern Dynasties) rather heavily features wuxia elements, and The Glory of Tang Dynasty (Tang Dynasty) more minimally, but also somewhat.

I suppose it’s a moot point, since upcoming xianxia wuxia Martial Universe is set in the “culturally vibrant Spring & Autumn Era”, but essentially – generally I actually don’t care about what time period a wuxia is set in.

Now, if we’re talking about a historical period in general, I’ve noticed that dramas I’ve enjoyed have tended to take place in the Qing Dynasty (not to mention Manchurian blood runs throughout my veins) – it feels like an appropriate mix of various different ethnic influences, from Mongolian and Manchurian to Han to even some Western influence. (In theory, I would imagine myself enjoying non-spy Republican dramas, but I actually have not.)

As for sageuks, I have only seen one thus far – set in Goryeo. I didn’t enjoy that drama, but the costuming was pretty.

Which story/book/show you would like to see adapted in South Korea/China/Japan?

I tend to stray away from remakes, and I tend to not read source novels until after a drama release, largely to avoid disappointment and comparisons (e.g., even reading The Rankings of Lang Ya Hall in preparation for Nirvana in Fire made the latter slightly disappointing).

But personally, I want a faithful adaptation The Concubine’s Daughter is Poisonous, featuring full-on leg-decapitation, time travel/reincarnation, and bloody revenge. (So, no, The Princess Weiyoung did not do.)

Drama that you watched for your fave and he/she owes you after what you’ve endured for her/him? :D

Swordsman, the Yumama-fication of Jin Young’s The Smiling, Proud Wanderer. But even with Wallace Huo and Joe Chen’s sizzling chemistry, I simply was unable to complete the show.

More strictly, I somehow completed (or, more like FF-ed in frustration) The Imperial Doctress and The Journey of Flower despite the character-butchering, torture, and sheer WTF-ery of said shows. Thanks, Wallace Huo. :D

I would also complain about Love Me If You Dare, since I think I hung on more for its popularity more than anything, and IMO it sort of went haywire, but it wasn’t *as bad* for me as the ones mentioned above. I have similar sentiments about Perfect Couple.

Drama that still haunts you?

Do you not see me still suffering from Glory of Tang Dynasty withdrawal? (To be fair, ~ 2 weeks isn’t particularly long, so who knows?)

The Journey of Flower left a rather brutal impression. The Legend of Zhen Huan, Nirvana in Fire, and Bu Bu Jing Xin are definitely shows that will stick with me for a very long time.

Most stylish drama character in your opinion?

(I have a tendency to think of dramas that I’m currently perusing or obsessing over, so a lot of my answers will definitely feel very GOTD-centric. Just a warning.)

It turns out a lot of my files got cleared out these days, including a bunch of precious caps. But here’s a very nice video on Bilibili featuring Li Chu’s (42, apparently) outfits.

Drama that you didn’t expect you will enjoy?

Medical Examiner Dr. Qin, since I rarely ever watch crime procedurals, but I honestly adore the show so much.

Boss And Me, since it seemed to be your typical chaebol-ordinary girl set-up (and it is, but the way they explore and develop ShanTeng feels very heart-warming and much more realistic than expected. <3)

Favourite drama OST’s lyrics?

I’m a fickle, undecisive person, so I actually don’t know which drama OST is my favorite. Here are the lyrics for: Three Inches of Heaven (Bu Bu Jing Xin) and White-Haired Lament (Sound of the Desert). Recently, though, I’ve been drowning myself in 霍尊’s 素颜 (The Glory of Tang Dynasty). Here are my awkwardly translated lyrics:

你是春的使节让残雪融解

You are the ambassador of spring, thawing the last residues of snow

染成青黛的天等着细雨停歇

Bleeding into the indigo skies, waiting for the drizzle to cease

你素颜裹着云烟

You, bare-faced, swath the misty clounds

诗意了远方湿润了心间

[Made] afar poetic; softened the heart

闭上眼姹紫嫣红都不觉甜

Closed eyes; even the most spectacular colors lack indulgence

只为你的容颜

Only for your appearance

豁然间春光如恋

At sudden enlightenment, the spring scenery exudes amour

渲染了你的出现

Romanticizing your emergence

最留恋不是云巅

The [things] most reluctant to part are not the clouds atop the summit

是千万里朝颜和暮雪

But the flowers and twilight snow thousands of miles apart

梦回间春光流泻

Revisiting in dreams, the spring scenery spills out

归去在落花时节

Returning to the season of falling petals

待离别青空绵绵

Until parting; the clarity remains unbroken

你会成山水间��一点如烟

You will become that point between the water and the mountains; as mist

The most memorable quote from a drama?

为何你还要贬我来抬他？

Why would you still belittle me to elevate him?

[One of the many things I love, love about The Glory of Tang Dynasty is the occasional bits of meta they incorporate into the show, sometimes even to dispel certain tropes – especially when comparing characters, most commonly male leads who always seem to be presented as foils of each other, this is always something to keep in mind.]

One thing that you appreciate the most in dramas?

Events occurring at totally coincidentally (un)-perfect timing.

Slow burn or love at first sight OTP dynamic?

It actually depends. Both are acceptable if executed properly. The childhood trope disguised as “love at first sight” tends to annoy me.

Favourite remake/adaptation?

Lotus Lantern (2005), adapted from traditional Chinese folklore.

If you could change one thing about one drama, what would it be?

I just … somehow, fix Jingyao’s arc in Glory of Tang Dynasty. (I don’t know exactly how – since they actually did explore some interesting things and consequences with her character rarely ever shown in period C-dramas ever, I slightly feel inclined to forgive the show for … *coughs*. But for starters, she should really learn to say no to drugging people.)

Who is a popular actor that you can’t seem to get into?

Li Yifeng. (Not that I’ve ever made an active effort to like him or anything – Chusen simply did not particularly work for me.)

What’s a popular drama that you didn’t like/dropped?

Prince of Lan Ling, The Princess Weiyoung, General And I, Ice Fantasy, The Imperial Doctress, The Journey of Flower, Legend of MiYue, The Legend of Chusen, Empress of China, The Four

Underrated favourite drama?

The Glory Of Tang Dynasty! ‘Tis the sad life when no English subs exist.

An actor/actress you wish would do dramas more often?

Zhou Xun and Chen Kun!

A guilty pleasure drama?

Love O2O. Cute fluffiness + pretty people + strong OTP + RPG = very enjoyable escapism.

What drama would you say has the best ending?

Nirvana in Fire.

Wu Xin: The Monster Killer – a lot of people were unsatisfied with its melancholy conclusion (re: there’s a Season 2, guys!), but personally it actually worked for me, appropriately concluding the entirety as if it were simply a 20-episode show. Since Season 2 does take place in a rather different setting, with, Wu Xin aside, a different set of characters, I thought it nicely ended the Season 1 arc.

If you could crossover two (or more) dramas, what would they be?

This! This is actually a very creative question – kudos to whoever came up with this. Earlier @yansanniang and I were discussing a GOTD x Legend of Zhen Huan cross-over – sort of, where An Qingxu, his medicinal abilities, and his emotional instability decided to go shake things up at Yongzheng’s court. The other day I was thinking about how things might go down if Empress Zhang decided to invite a certain 麒麟才子 with a penchant for ruining birthday parties to her own birthday party, hoping to gain his help to aid her with her own ambitions…

Who is a female character that the fandom hated, but you loved?

Hua Qian Gu. I agree, there were times where she felt overly childish and overbearing (I believe it was equal parts frustration and even hatred at her AND BZH), and I find it difficult to watch someone who literally refused to change, but ultimately she still won me over.

What’s your favourite fictional found family?

Dr. Qin Medical Examiner’s Qin Ming, Da Bao, and Lin Tao. In my mind they’re a family. :))

Tagging: @swordsandparasols @yansanniang @itsjustveryludicrous @alakoba @renewedmotionforjudgment @loquatly @cdramaddict @whimsyfulwanderings @seventh-fantasy @dangermousie @thedazzlingdarkness

#okay but some of the stuff in the lyrics weren't even in the dictionary T_T #and as an ABC with no 文化...*cringes*#there's a reason #lack of time aside #i don't sub things

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theconservativebrief · 6 years

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Since Steven Spielberg’s 1975 film Jaws first ushered in the era of the summer blockbuster 41 years ago, sharks have been among summer cinema’s favorite perennial villains. They rank right up there with the alien from Alien and Sadako from The Ring in terms of habitually recurring evil forces with a single-minded purpose: to destroy everything in their path.

There’s something so elemental and irresistible about the shark movie that over the course of the past few decades, it has become one of Hollywood’s most well-trodden paths to terror. The genre now spans a wide range of films, from classics like Jaws and Deep Blue Sea (yes, Deep Blue Sea is a classic) to serious indie projects like The Reef to sillier D-movie affairs like the Sharknado, Mega Shark, and Shark Attack franchises. And if you’re among its many fans, you know that the only thing that can cure shark movie fever is more shark movies.

A friendly shark chomp from The Last Shark (1981).

Lucky for you, there’s always another shark movie on the way. The genre’s newest man-eating — or in this case, Jason Statham-eating — entry swims into movie theaters this weekend, with the opening of the tongue-in-cheek mega-shark movie The Meg — just days before the sixth and final installment in the Sharknado franchise arrives with Sharknado 6: It’s About Time.

The poster for Shark Exorcist (2015), in which a Satan-worshiping nun summons a demon to inhabit the body of a great white.

But why sharks? Ordinarily, the prospect of watching Statham try to survive an oceanic disaster scenario would be only a so-so draw for moviegoers. But if you throw in a battle to the death against a giant megalodon — the huge prehistoric shark which has, in recent years, outsized the great white shark in terms of appeal — then obviously, we’re hooked.

In real life, sharks are mainly non-aggressive creatures who barely resemble the evil killing machines they morph into onscreen. They’re anything but an unstoppable force — humans kill a staggering 100 million sharks each year, or 11,000 sharks every single hour, a jaw-dropping statistic that mainly results from the high demand for shark fin soup in some parts of the world. You’re statistically more likely to die from a lightning strike or a toppling vending machine than from a shark attack.

So why are we so fascinated by shark movies, even though they barely represent reality and their plots tend to be incredibly repetitive?

Oh, there are so many reasons.

This scene from Shark Attack 3: Megalodon (2002) has become an internet-meme mainstay.

You may believe sharks are limited to the sea, but you are wrong.

Thanks to the magic of cinema and the relative ease with which a shark fin can be CGI’d to pop out of something and move ominously toward the viewer, we don’t just have sea sharks. We also have sand sharks. Avalanche sharks. Sharks in a sharknado! Sharks in a sharkcano. (That one really happened.) Sharks in a blizzardnado! Sharks on land! Sharks in shark lake. Sharks in swamps. Sharks in the bayou. Sharks in apartments! Sharks at Sea World! Sharks on the Jersey Shore. Sharks at the Golden Gate Bridge! Sharks at the supermarket! Sharks in Japan. Sharks in bathtubs and puddles. Even sharks in the sky.

Just your routine apartment shark, as seen in My Super-Ex Girlfriend (2006).

Megalodon takes out the Golden Gate Bridge in Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus (2009). A shark takes to the skies in Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus.

Much like the 2006 Samuel L. Jackson film Snakes on a Plane relied on the surprise factor of slithering reptiles wreaking havoc at 30,000 feet, a crucial component of shark movies is sharks’ seemingly inherent knack for appearing where and when you least expect them: Just where are the sharks going to be lurking today?

Spoiler alert: They are everywhere.

If you don’t think your average shark is a super genius hell-bent on avenging the atrocities perpetuated against its species by the human race, you’ve never watched Jaws 3-D (mama shark seeks revenge against SeaWorld for killing her baby), Jaws 4: The Revenge (shark seeks revenge against Lorraine Gary’s character Ellen Brody, ostensibly for killing its shark family but more broadly for the sad and rapid demise of the entire Jaws franchise), Mega Shark Versus Crocosaurus (shark seeks revenge on Jaleel White for Jaleel White’s entire acting career), or Deep Blue Sea (shark seeks revenge against scientists for experimenting on it).

To wit: Please enjoy the following GIF from Deep Blue Sea, in which a shark holds a stretcher-bound Stellan Skarsgård captive underwater so that it can throw him against an underwater window in order to spite his grieving girlfriend:

Deep Blue Sea (1999). Yep. That happened.

I mean, come on, who among us hasn’t wanted to throw Stellan Skarsgård against a window? Bring on the shark uprising!

The shark can do what no other villainous horror movie creature really can: In addition to engaging in epic bite-offs against other creatures, it can combine with those other creatures to create animalia supervillains. Sure, Hollywood will invent a demonic vampire here and there, but you can’t really give a demonic vampire tentacles. That’s simply not the case with a shark. In the world of shark movies, if you create an undead demon sharktopus, that’s just the first act.

Would you like your shark with one head or two? How about three? Would you like an actual prehistoric mega shark? How about a giant robot shark?

Spidey-shark concept illustration by Calene Luczo

Few, if any, animals have enjoyed such creative big-screen depictions as the noble shark. There are demonic sharks! Sharks with tentacles! Zombie sharks! This shark-horse! Ghost sharks! A shark that walks on land! And coming later in 2017, there will be flying sharks controlled by Nazi zombies!

In other words, if part of the fun of any shark movie is rooted in the nervous anticipation of where and when a dangerous shark might appear, a significant number of shark movies up the ante by combining their shark threats with other things. Not only does this approach allow the sharks to travel farther and kill harder, it ensures an endless supply of shark movies, because Hollywood will never run out of shark-based combination hazards. Killer koala shark from Down Under? Done.

Shark movies can be as minimalist or as full-scale as you want or need them to be.

As Blake Lively illustrated in 2016’s The Shallows, shark movies can be a one-woman-versus-one-shark show where the shark is a threatening but largely implied presence. They can involve just two people facing off against a small but deadly herd of sharks (47 Meters Down, Open Water), a tiny ensemble of stranded swimmers trying to avoid getting picked off one by one (The Reef), or a full-scale cast with big-budget shark action like Shark Night 3-D or Dark Tide.

The giant shark from last year’s The Shallows wasn’t even huge by shark movie comparisons. Javier Zarracina

And one of the best things about shark films, regardless of their scope, is that shark size has no correlation to shark excellence — as anyone who actually saw Shark Night 3-D or Dark Tide can attest. The bigger shark doesn’t always have the better bite. In fact, films like Open Water and The Reef can succeed without showing any sharks at all. Believing they’re there is all that matters.

On the other end of the spectrum, the first appearance of a shark — it’s always bigger than you were expecting, no matter the film — never gets old:

Jaws (1975).

This is a pretty obvious reason, but it remains the most compelling of all. Stories pitting man against the terrors of the deep have always been a mainstay of human folklore, from the biblical fable of Jonah and the whale to nautical tales of the great kraken, from Moby Dick to The Old Man and the Sea to Lovecraft’s tentacle monster Cthulhu to Disney’s Pinocchio.

Super Shark (2011).

Each of these narratives involves great sea creatures that provide opportunities for heroes to face their fears, come to terms with their humanity, and, you know, be manly men who fish and hunt and conquer the wilderness.

But as formidable opponents, many of these sea creatures lack a significant, shall we say, bite. Giant squid generally stay too far below the surface to really pose a viable threat to humans. Even a big swordfish is no match for a skilled modern fisherman — and the swordfish wouldn’t want to eat you anyway. As for whales, the bigger they are, the more peaceful and harmless they seem to be. Even the ones with teeth are passive and don’t really want to hurt you (unless they’ve been subjected to lifelong animal cruelty).

Sharks, by contrast, are big. They have teeth — sometimes really big, really sharp teeth! They come into the shallow parts of the ocean where humans like to swim and play. Because they are drawn to loud noises and activity in the water, it’s possible, if not probable, that they could be lurking in the water where your loved ones are splashing around. They’re durable and intimidating, and even though in real life sharks are almost never aggressive toward humans, the biggest ones have the power and the potential to chomp you in two.

The Last Shark.

In sum: Like all man-versus-nature tropes, man-versus-shark movies — and man-versus-sharks-versus-other-creatures movies — can reveal important truths about human nature and serve as fascinating, in-depth character studies. Unlike most other man-versus-nature tropes, they do it with a side of terrifying, razor-sharp teeth.

Sharks combine mankind’s desire to conquer nature with its fear of and fascination with the mysteries of the ocean. Even in this modern age, when we’ve been able to plumb the depths of the seas, we still know surprisingly little about sharks. Jaws’ famous description of a shark’s “cold, dead eyes, like a doll’s eyes” in the film’s USS Indianapolis monologue (which was based on the real sinking of a US World War II Navy ship and subsequent shark attacks on its sailors) is still a testament to how unknowable they are.

In essence, in fiction if not in real life, sharks are the perfect scary force of nature: an ever-present threat waiting to happen, in a deep blue setting that humans are still learning to navigate.

But when all is said and done? As with all great horror movie villains, ultimately we’re always rooting for the shark.

Original Source -> Why we love shark movies

via The Conservative Brief

#IFTTT #The Conservative Brief

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comic-watch · 6 years

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The landmark issue of Action Comics, featuring stories from A list talent important to Superman’s past, present and future! Big Blue has changed lives for 8 decades, and likely will until the end of time. Here’s to the last son of Krypton!

Title: Action Comics #1000 Credits:

Publisher: DC Comics

What You Need to Know:

The man needs no introduction, The Last Son of Krypton, The Man of Tomorrow, The Man of Steel, Superman! For 80 years Superman has been one of the most famous fictional characters in the world, the epitome of superhuman perfection, Superman is gifted with a slew of superpowers and the moral high standing to use them for good!

It goes without saying that this massive landmark is a once in a lifetime moment, and we at Comic Watch decided to do the review as a collaboration, each review will be credited to the writer, enjoy!

REVIEW BY: Cody White

Action Comics #1000 – “For the City That Has Everything” Release Date: April 18th, 2018 Writer: Dan Jurgens Artist: Dan Jurgens Inker: Norm Rapmund Colors: HI-FI Letters: Rob Leigh Based on the DC Comics Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster Let me lead off with the fact that Dan Jurgen’s Superman is my generation’s Superman. When I think about Superman stories from my childhood and adolescence, nine times out of ten Jurgens was behind those tales. Reading “For the City That Has Everything” was like bumping into a friend you hadn’t seen for years and picking up right where you left off. I realize that Jurgens has been writing Superman books of late, but in this kick-off story to the Action Comics anniversary, there is something embedded in the writing that makes me feel like a kid again, in the best way possible.

The story begins with an unsynchronized narrative. Clark is off having an adventure in space while Lois and Jon dominate the textual narrative. It is revealed that Clark is stalling his arrival to a Superman Day celebration by fighting off a Khundian invasion.

Why would Clark be so actively avoiding the celebration? Because that is the type of hero he is—modest, humble, human. As Clark watches story after story of not only his own heroism but his ability to inspire the people of Metropolis to become their own heroes, he continues to catch fading glimpses of crisis impending, only to be “mistaken.” As the joke plays out, it turns out the Justice League and other heroes are handling the invasion and purposely hiding it from Clark to make him attend the celebration. The moment that Clark realizes that something is amiss, he does what he always does—up, up, and away to handle the threat. When he is clued into the plot, he returns to enjoy his celebration.

Among the testimonials is an extended story about a young criminal caught in a cycle of imprisonment and poverty that felt particularly noteworthy as a beautiful example of what the spirit of Superman represents (panels below).

As for the gesture by the other heroes, I can’t help but be reminded of another Dan Jurgens story from the early 1990s. Superman #76 was the fourth chapter in the “Funeral for a Friend” story-arc that immediately followed Superman’s death. In this issue, many members of the Justice League grieve his death by gathering to read his fan mail. Many of the letters feature requests or thanks, things like rebuilding a home that was destroyed by Doomsday and the like (I wish I had the issue in front of me right now, but I’m also glad because it makes me cry every time I read it, and I’m not in the mood to cry right now). The essence of the issue is that in order to fill the bright red go-go boots Superman left behind, only the entire League banding together could even make the attempt. But still, they tried, because that is what Superman does: he inspires us to be our best selves.

Rating: 9/10

Final Thought: Tried to avoid getting emotional. Failed.

REVIEW BY: Rob Fisher

Writer: Peter J. Tomasi Artist: Patrick Gleason Colorist: Alejandro Sanchez Publisher: DC Comics What You Need to Know:

On the way home from his nightly patrol, Superman is whisked away by Vandal Savage and finds himself in the villain’s underground layer, where the “immortal” reveals his clever plan.

Savage has weaponized Hypertime and has trapped Superman in a never-ending loop of yesterdays. By taking him outside history, Vandal has neutralized the Man of Steel.

What You Will Find Out: Told by Clark after the fact, the story follows the Man of Steel trying to escape Vandal Savage. The immortal has strapped Superman to a device that would destroy him by using Hypertime. His goal is to undue Clark by removing him from all that he holds dear and trapping him in the past.

As the machine is activated Superman finds himself transported into the body of his 1940s self. He is exhilarated as he relishes the pure simplicity of saving people in need. He thrills to the chatter of submachine guns. Fighting in World War II, he is seduced by the simple morality of good and evil.

Suddenly, he recognizes that longing for a simpler time is merely a distraction for the Golden Age is actually a trap. As he battles across a multitude of past realities, he finds the strength to fight his way back to the present.

What Just Happened:

“Never-Ending Battle” shows Superman finding a path back home. As he fights his way to the present, he jumps into various unfamiliar versions of himself.

The entire tale is a look back at the long history of Superman. From stopping trains to facing alien tyrants, the story is full of nostalgia for any fan of the Man of Steel.

Rating: 8.5/10

Final Thought:

The highlight of the story is the artwork. Patrick Gleason’s illustrating is fantastic. The only problem is the long voice-over. Up until the final page of the story, the Man of Steel himself is the only one talking! It’s all good – it just gets a little long.

Although this story may not be as exciting as some of the others in the issue, it’s a great tribute to Superman and his entire 80 years publication history.

REVIEW BY: John Jack

Title: An Enemy Within Writer: Marv Wolfman Art: Curt Swan Inks: Butch Guice & Kurt Schaffenberger Color: Hi-fi Letters: Rob Leigh

What You’ll Find Out:

We open on Police Captain Maggie Sawyer handling a hostage situation while Superman is in Japan fighting Braniac’s drones, a school principal is holding his students hostage with a gun. A voiceover informs us Superman is aware, but busy with the robots. Luckily he has faith in the people of earth being good.

The principal seems dazed, speaking strangely, he mentions sounds and Superman tunes in to discover a hidden frequency, Braniac’s drones are connected to this hostage situation! The police are forced to act, and the principal is hit before Superman can stop the signal, luckily they’re rubber bullets, and he’ll be fine, Superman stops the signal a second later. Thanks to human compassion, the man didn’t end his days in front of that school.

What Just Happened?

Thought this story was pretty cool, I’m a big fan of the Curt Swan era of Superman (mid 60’s through the late 70’s) and it was nice to see a “new” story by the artist, who died 20 years ago. That said, I don’t think I care for this retooling old art and sketches to make new stories attributed to long-dead creators trend, which was also employed in a certain recent Captain America issue as well.

The story does carry a bit of emotional gravitas, which is nice, I like the idea of Superman being confident in Sawyer to do the right thing, and it’s always nice to read a story highlighting his background cast. Rating: 8/10

Final Thought:

Decent story, hard to say where it rates, in concept the very existence bothers me, but nostalgia makes it hard. I guess I’ll call it forgivable, for now.

REVIEW BY: John Jack

Title: The Car Writer: Geoff Johns & Richard Donner Art: Olivier Coipel Colors: Alexandro Sanchez Letters: Nick Napolitano

What You’ll Find Out:

We open on a mechanic working on a smashed car, which is strangely familiar looking… They ask the customer what he could’ve hit to destroy the car in such a way, he responds that he hit a man wearing red underwear, who then hung him off a telephone pole. They tell him to lay off the sauce, he asks for a ride and they tell him to walk.

As the mans walks dejectedly down the road, he looks up and sees a bird, then a plane, then Superman! Superman asks the man if he should’ve hung him higher, he tells him he has two choices in life, to fix the problems in his life, or to give up, the choice is his. The story ends with The man standing next to his fixed car, apparently having turned his life around, although technically he’s breaking the law in the last panel!

What Just Happened?

This is the story that I liked the best, great message, interesting subject matter, and a phenomenal rendering of the golden age Superman’s look. The art in this story is among the best in the book, I love it!

Rating: 10/10

Final Thought: If the entire book was like this, it would be perfection, but the perfect comic doesn’t exist, probably.

REVIEW BY: Austin Braun

REVIEW: Action Comics #1000 (The Fifth Season) What happens when Superman and his mortal enemy, Lex Luthor, end up in a room together. Sometimes they fight, sometimes they talk but they almost never see eye to eye. Witness the complex relationship between one of comics oldest rivalries within the pivotal issue of Action Comics #1000!

Action Comics #1000 Author: Scott Snyder Artists: Rafael Albuquerque Colors: Dave McCaig Letters: Tom Napolitano Publisher: DC Comics What You Need to Know:

Everyone who is anyone in the DC universe knows who Lex Luthor is right? And we as readers of DC Comics also know quite a bit about him even if he isn’t our favorite villain. He’s a genius, a philanthropist, a business icon… But most importantly he is Superman’s arch enemy!

What You’ll Find Out:

In this five-page story by Scott Snyder, we see the depth of Superman and Luthor’s relationship. We begin with the dark raw art from Albuquerque as Lex phases in from the darkness. Lex looks calm and collective as Superman enters looking frustrated with him. Superman asks him why he is here when we learn that Lex and Superman are standing in the Smallville Planetarium. Lex has stolen two cosmic items that when used properly together could erase a strip of time right from existence. Lex excuses this theory by stating he is simply using the items for stargazing. Everyone knows that this isn’t the truth as Lex goes on to talk about the past relationship he had with the Planetarium. He talks of the few weeks between Winter and Spring that Smallville calls its “Fifth Season”. He explains that due to the randomness of the weather during this time his parents were more abusive and this is where he found solace. Lex wanted a savior from the gods so he took a laser he created as a project and went to send a message the to heavens. He reminds himself that he had even made a mistake when sending the message…

Lex had forgotten to heat the Nitrogen and said he had just gotten lucky when he sent the message. The reader finds out that Clark had actually heated up the Nitrogen with his heat vision right prior to sending it off. This just shows that Lex had a savior the whole time, but always sought to destroy him instead of giving gratitude towards him. The two stand there looking at the story of the universe pass them by as Lex admits he had retrieved the items in order to kill Superman. Superman admits he knew that all along and goes to say something else as Lex succeeds in his mission and wipes the memory of Superman from existence mid-sentence.

What Just Happened? This incredible study of Superman and Lex Luthor’s relationship was an amazing addition to an already amazing issue all about the first and best superhero. This is actually the only Lex-centric story within all AC #1000 and for good reason. Through the years the two have met and fought hundreds if not thousands of times… but this time all they do is talk. They talk about the past and what its connection with the present is. Scott does an amazing job humanizing Luthor and at one point you almost want to believe he is truly just there to stargaze.

Albuquerque and McCaig’s raw art fits perfectly with this story. The thick line work from Albuquerque made this part of the issue as dark as necessary for the events going on and no matter how sad the Tom King story may have been… the thought of Lex succeeding in this mission would make any Superman fan cry. Even with no action, the cosmic story happening in the background made for some stunning scenery. Superman had a very authentic look to him that reminded me of his post-crisis look which makes sense seeing as how we see many different variations of the character through the stories in AC #1000.

Rating: 9.5/10

Final Thoughts:

Although this story was a little confusing… Snyder really knocked this five-page short out of the park. From Lex’s calm demeanor to the fact that Clark actually saved Lex as a child, Snyder and Albuquerque made this the highlight of AC #1000 for me personally as Lex and Superman have always been one my favorite rivalries in comics. Definitely, check this story out if you are a fan of Snyder and his gloomy presence… or if you just want to read a short but awesome Superman/Lex Luthor story

REVIEW BY: Ross Hutchinson

Writer Tom King and artist Clay Mann bring us a solitary and winsome moment in the future of the man of steel at the end of earth’s days.

ACTION COMICS #1000 (Of Tomorrow) Authors: Tom King Artists: Clay Mann Inkers: Clay Mann Colors: Jordie Bellaire Letters: John Workman Publisher: DC Comics

What You Need to Know:

Superman has come on what has become a regular pilgrimage to the abandoned and dying planet that was once humanity’s home to pay respects and remember the adoptive parents that raised him and in no small way helped shaped the man he grew up to be.

What You’ll Find Out:

As the Earth is in its final death throws Superman talks to his long-dead adoptive parents letting them know what life is like now so far in the future, that there is still always someone to help, there are still wars and that Lois is still alive even 4 billion years after earth has been abandoned, kept alive by something called the eternity formula. He goes on to explain that Jon (Jonathan Kent) has grown up to be someone that the last full-blooded Kryptonian is proud of all while the earth continues to break and crack apart around him.

It is to be his final visit as we find out the earth will soon be obliterated under the pressure of the dying sun and that even though he could alter the dying planets fate he has chosen not to and that this is his last visit to the planet that was his adopted home and he has made the journey to say a final goodbye. there is a nice philosophical moment where he voices out loud that maybe he has wasted his time visiting the dying planet over the millenia and recounts how Pa Kent once told him that science, myth, and religion are all the same and that we are all just stardust waiting to be reclaimed by the universe… he carves a small statue, of himself as boy with the two loving human beings that guided him and shaped him, out of earth he has compressed to diamond, shaped with his heat vision and places it on the ground next to a plaque he has made in memorium of them and bids them farewell and thank you as he heads up up and away from the Earth for the last time.

What Just Happened?

Tom King confirms his status once again as ]one of the best writers in comics today by writing a monologue piece for the man of steel that is powerful, poignant and poetic right down to the odd stutter of grief in Superman’s soliloquy. The melancholy of the moment is perfectly accentuated by Mann’s understated art style. The fact that we see a Superman that does not appear to have aged and seems to still be in his physical peak more than 4 billion years in the future seems to answer the question of whether Superman is immortal or not in the affirmative.

Rating: 8/10 Final Thoughts:

A worthy vignette in the legacy of the Man of Steel and though it is a wistful piece, it also carries an underlying sense of hope and sense of continuity that the Superman will always be there to protect his larger adopted family of humanity long after the earth has breathed its last.

REVIEW BY: Cody White

Action Comics #1000 – “Faster than a Speeding Bullet” Release Date: April 18th, 2018 Writer: Brad Meltzer Artist: John Cassaday Colors: Laura Martin Letters: Chris Euopoulos Based on the DC Comics Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster “Faster than a Speeding Bullet” manages to take a mere five pages to capture the spirit of Superman in one of the most clear-cut and concise ways I’ve read in nearly thirty years of reading the character.

In the story, Superman speeds to a hostage situation with the “scariest villain of all” – a desperate man with three strikes and nothing to lose. As the man holds the gun to a young woman’s head, Kal runs down the situation in his head only to realize that, even with all his myriad powers, the laws of math and physics are against him. He will not make it to the scene in time to stop the bullet.

At that moment, dear readers, we see what makes a man a Superman. He does not panic. He does not despair. He doesn’t even push harder, because he’s always pushing as hard as he can. No, he merely continues on, ever forward, and hopes for the best. And then it hits him. The young woman, held at gunpoint, facing certain death, fights back. She buys the fraction of a second necessary for Superman to arrive and save the day.

At the heart of many Superman debates over the ages lies the notion that Superman, for all his strength and abilities, is detrimental to the human race because he supplies too wide a safety net. The citizens of Metropolis are frequently argued to be more haphazard than others because they are confident that Superman will deliver them unto salvation. Meltzer, a consummate humanist if ever I’ve seen one, turns the argument on its head, showing Lila as taking control of her own life. She has an agency of her own, unlike the typical characterization of the citizens of Metropolis, and in the final voiceover sequence, Lois points to this agency as the essence of hope that keeps Superman on the mission.

Also of note in this beautiful tale is the use of a cinematic style of artistic narrative that John Cassaday provides. In many ways, this story is a micro-scale narrative that highlights a few moments in the life of Kal, yet the deployment of “wide-screen” panels and splash pages by the former film student from Texas creates a sense of gravitas, of grandiosity. Cassaday’s rhythm helps to elevate Meltzer’s humanism, and together the pair (along Martin and Euopoulos, who should not be neglected for their roles in creating this masterpiece) manage to raise the minutia of the every day in the life of Superman into a celebration of human spirit and the importance of living in the present.

Rating: 10/10

Final Thought:

I suspected when it was announced that the combination of Meltzer and Cassaday would be a perfect pairing, and I was not let down. I can only hope that powers that be at DC take notice because the potential for future team-ups between what I consider two top-talent individuals is simply too good to pass up.

Final, Final Thought: (See Below)

Final Rating: 9.5/10

Final, Final Thought: (See Below)

Phenomenal milestone in the history of the Man of Steel, I’m touched that I was a part of it, and the more I think about it the happier I am, here’s to Superman, I hope he goes another thousand issues, if I’m still alive in 2098 when it happens I’ll probably review it then too. Joking. Anyway, a huge thanks to everyone who worked to make this article, and the hundreds of creators involved in the hero over the years.

Join our Age of Social Media Network consisting of X-Men, Marvel, DC, Superhero and Action Movies, Anime, Indie Comics, and numerous fan pages. Interested in becoming a member? Join us by clicking here and pick your favorite group!

Action Comics #1000 Timeless, that's what comes to mind when I consider the man of steel, no matter what era of comics you like, there's a Superman for you! This was an incredible milestone, here's to another 8 decades! #iamawatcher The landmark issue of Action Comics, featuring stories from A list talent important to Superman's past, present and future!

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aion-rsa · 7 years

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INTERVIEW: Marc Guggenheim Will Keep X-Men Gold ‘Light and Fun’

For the past several years, Marvel Comics’ X-Men have had their hands full combating large-scale threats to mutantkind’s very existence. When you’re battling those kinds of existential crises, it can be hard to focus on making the world a better place for the humans that fear and hate you. So the X-Men have frequently had to distance themselves from or temporarily set aside the dream of their founder Charles Xavier; proving that man and mutants can co-exist by using their powers to protect and defend the world.

That all changes this April with the launch of the “ResurrXion” line of books, including the new twice-monthly ongoing series “X-Men Gold,” by writer Marc Guggenheim — the executive producer of The CW’s “Arrow” and “DC’s Legends of Tomorrow,” and a comic book writer who made his Marvel debut back in 2006 with the “Civil War” arc of “Wolverine” — and artist Ardian Syaf, formerly of DC Comics titles including “Superman.” “X-Men Gold” finds Kitty Pryde returning to the team she grew up with, now as the group’s leader, as she works to mutantkind into an all-new age of high-profile superheroics.

CBR spoke with Guggenheim about the book’s direction and keeping things “relatively light and fun” (at least at first, Kitty’s leadership position, the initial threats his X-Men will face and how they’ll interact more with the larger Marvel Universe than they have in quite some time. Plus, CBR has the first look at the covers to May’s “X-Men Gold” #3 and #4, both by Syaf.

EXCLUSIVE: “X-Men Gold” #3 cover by Ardian Syaf.

CBR: Marc, looking at the line up for “X-Men Gold,” Kitty Pryde is on a team with her former best friend in Rachel Grey, an older version of a father figure from her youth in Old Man Logan, an ex-boyfriend in Colossus, and two close friends she pretty much grew up with in Nightcrawler and Storm. So at first glance it seems in terms of team dynamic this would be a nice homecoming for her, but is that necessarily the case?

Marc Guggenheim: It is. It’s certainly complicated particularly with respect to Peter, and some of my favorite moments from the first issue relate to their history together, but overall it’s a very empowering homecoming. Kitty is the “kid who made good.” She’s the apprentice who’s returning to become the master.

This relates to my goal of keeping the book — for the time being at least — relatively light and fun. The complexities that arise from the composition of the team aren’t dark and hand wringing-y. They’re meant to be really fun. If I can get you at least chuckling once an issue, that would be wonderful.

So, if you’ll pardon a bad joke, they’re the X-Men and not the Angst-Men?

Exactly. I think the X-Men have always had a certain amount of angst, but the thing that I’m trying to calibrate with “Gold” is not making the angst the driving force of the stories. I kind of feel like for the longest time — and I’m really using “E For Extinction” as the sort of jumping off point — that the X-Men have had a lot of angst, which was appropriate because ever since “E For Extinction,” the X-Men have been sort of fighting for their very existence, always facing some version of extinction.

I think one of the great things about ResurrXion — and one of the reasons it’s so aptly titled — is that the X-Men coming out of “IvX” have a new lease on life. The existential threats that they were facing have been tabled for the time being and that’s allowing the X-Men to look to the future in a way that they haven’t been able to in a very long time. We hit this point pretty hard in X-Men Prime.

Kitty Pryde is returning to the X-Men in a leadership role. What made you want to cast her in this position?

It started with a great love of Kitty. My first X-Men issue that I read was #139, which was the “Welcome to the X-Men, Kitty Pryde – Hope You Survive the Experience” issue. From the moment I was offered the gig, I knew I wanted to return Kitty to the team if the character was available. But then, the more I thought about it, the more I realized there was an opportunity to do more than scratch a nostalgic itch. I realized I had the chance to tell a very classic story: the story of the apprentice who becomes the master. To me, her becoming the leader of the team was the ultimate realization of that arc.

When I pitched it, I wasn’t so sure how people at Marvel would respond, and to my delight, that was the thing about my take that excited and energized everyone the most. It certainly energized me because it’s been a lot of fun to write Kitty as someone calling the shots. She’s really proving on the job that she’s learned a lot over her many years of being a member of the X-Men.

EXCLUSIVE: “X-Men Gold” #4 cover by Ardian Syaf

Is she going to feel some of the weight and darkness that some of the other prominent X-Men leaders have wrestled with like Cyclops and Storm?

Eventually I would love to get to that point. I’m intentionally avoiding that right now because, like I said, I tonally want to start the book off on a lighter and more hopeful note.

But you’re right: It is true that Storm and Cyclops have have met with very challenging moral ends. It’s something we’ll definitely be dealing a bit with when it comes to Storm, but it’s more on Storm’s side of the equation than on Kitty’s. It would be really nice to cast that particular shadow on Kitty eventually, but before I cast shadows, I want to get some sunlight in there.

Another interesting dynamic that occurred to while looking at your line up is you have two characters that hail from nightmarish possible futures in Old Man Logan and Rachel Grey. What’s it like bouncing those two characters off of each other?

I’ve got an idea for a really cool scene between Logan and Rachel, but the right moment to have that scene hasn’t happened yet. The scene I have in mind does speak directly to the fact they both come from futures that just happen to both be lousy. What is it about the future that in any iteration, it always looks crappy? I want to get a little meta (but not too meta) about it, but I haven’t had a chance to fit that in just yet.

Superheroics will be an essential part of “X-Men Gold,” but what about the training of the next generation of mutants? Will that be a part of your book as well?

Yeah, it happens in the background because the book is very much focused on the active X-Men. What I think is very critical about the X-Men’s new status quo is that the mansion is full with students, so the X-Men still have to be teachers as well as heroes. They have to continue to training the next generation of mutants.

So, yes, the younger X-Men will very much be a part of the book. In fact, the students have moments in each of the issues I’ve written so far. At the same time, it’s a little bit of a balancing act, because I want to maintain the focus on our core X-Men.

“X-Men Gold” #1 cover by Ardian Syaf

I think balancing between your core cast and all the fan-favorite supporting characters that are part of their world is sort of the main struggle for any X-Men writer. Because even the mutant characters that might be considered C-list by some are other readers’ favorites. So how has it been balancing all of those things?

I always try very hard to keep some space for non-action moments. I think when you’re able to spend time just with the characters it gives you opportunities to interact more with the students and more with the fan favorite characters.

At the same time, different stories are going to lend themselves to different kinds of characters. So while we’ll always have our core group, Kitty is smart: If she needs a particular power or skill set from other mutants she has no compunctions against bringing them into the field. For example, Rockslide and Armor will help the team in issue #3.

What’s your sense of the X-Men’s rogues’ gallery? Is “X-Men Gold” a book where we’ll see classic foes? New villains? Or both?

I would say both. The first arc features a new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. One might think, “Jeez, another Brotherhood of Evil Mutants?” But hopefully I’ve come up with a twist that makes this Brotherhood different from all the other ones that came before it. That team will feature some familiar faces and some new characters.

There are a lot of different things I’m trying to balance in the book. One of them is having new characters and adding new toys to the toy box, while at the same time bringing back characters that people know and love. The Brotherhood is a good example of doing a mixture of those two things.

For me, one of the most interesting aspects about the Brotherhood is the word evil is in their name. A lot of villains see themselves as the heroes of their own story. So to have “evil” as part of their group moniker suggests you’re dealing with a group that wants to take ownership of that word and embrace it. Is that true with this group?

Yeah they really should be called, the Brotherhood of Self-Aware Mutants. No, the truth is in this particular instance the “evil” is very intentionally included. There’s a secret to the team that connects directly to the reason for the word “evil” being in the group’s name.

Ardian Syaf’s art has a feel and flavor that reminds me of some of the past heroic eras of the X-Men. So it seems like he’d be a good fit for what you want to do here. What’s it like working with him?

I’ve got to give all the credit in the world to [Marvel editor] Dan Ketchum. I said to him that putting Ardian on this book was the best bit of casting; of matching an artist to a book.

I think Ardian’s style tells you everything you need to know about what the book’s mission statement is. His art is new and fresh, but it also harkens back to John Byrne and Jim Lee. There’s even a bit of Arthur Adams in there. So his style is very modern, but it also speaks to an aesthetic that draws on the influence of the ’80s and the ’90s.

Ardian Syaf’s cover for March’s “X-Men” one-shot, written by Marc Guggenheim, illustrated by Ken Lashley and setting the stage for much of the “Resurrxion” status quo.

Any further hints and teases you can leave us with about the tone, scope, and scale of your initial stories?

Because we’re double-shipping I’m keeping the arcs pretty short. They’ll be about three to four issues long. I’m really excited about that actually, because it’s made the issues themselves very dense. We’re not really doing any sort of decompression here. We’re telling very tightly compacted and constructed stories, and I’m trying very hard to make sure that each issue has a handful of moments that make that issue really, really special. There’s no sort of filler issues. I want to make sure that with each issue everyone is getting a lot of bang for their buck; that in those 20 pages there’s a lot of great stuff going on.

That structure is also a lot of fun. We’re going to tell a Brotherhood of Evil Mutants story in the first arc and there’s going to be a brand new kind of threat in the second arc. You’re not going to have to wait six months to get a different story. You’ll be getting stories on a much more regular and consistent basis, which I think harkens back to the feel of reading these books back in the ’80s.

In recent years it tends to be very easy to have the X-Men exist in almost their own corner of the Marvel Universe. Will we see some of the larger outside MU trappings in “X-Men Gold?” Will groups like say, S.H.I.E.L.D. or the Avengers, pop up from time to time?

Yes. The whole raison d’etre of the book and the team is that throughout the X-Men’s history they’ve sort of segregated themselves. They were either up in Westchester, or they were on Utopia, or they were in Genosha, or Limbo. They were never in the middle of the action; they always segregated themselves from humankind. What’s so great about Kitty’s plan is that she wants to put the X-Men front and center. They’re going to have relationships and interactions with humans. That’s the only way they’re going to combat the prejudice against mutants. The only way you fight ignorance is with knowledge and interaction.

So, yes, the X-Men are going to be smack-dab in the middle of New York, and as we all know there’s a lot of superheroes and stuff going on in New York. We will be seeing S.H.I.E.L.D. As people who read my last comic know [Marvel’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” comic book], I have a great affection for S.H.I.E.L.D. We’ll also be seeing other superheroes as time goes on.

We’ll be crossing paths with some big things happening in the Marvel Universe, as well. That’s really important to what we’re trying to do with “X-Men Gold.” The big mission statement of the book and the team is that the X-Men are interacting with the rest of the Marvel Universe in a way that they really haven’t in a long time.

“X-Men Gold” #1 is scheduled for release on April 5, with “X-Men Gold” #2 following two weeks later.

The post INTERVIEW: Marc Guggenheim Will Keep X-Men Gold ‘Light and Fun’ appeared first on CBR.com.

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