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thevindicativevordan · 3 years

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On Mr. Mxyzptlk

This guy should be one of Superman's most serious threats, but he's typically just used as a nuisance. Feels like a real waste of potential here considering what he brings to the table.

Anonymous asked:

What makes Mister Mxyzptlk so fun?

Well let's start off with what works about Mxy currently. Mxy is one of Superman's oldest Rogues, created by Siegel and Shuster themselves. Superman doesn't have many foes who flat out lap him in the power department, but Mxy is one of those few. What use is Superman's physical power against a reality warper who can bend the cosmos to his will with a snap of the fingers? He's an enemy who can't be outpunched or outpowered, he has to be tricked, which means Superman needs to use his brains to win. Simply put he's a good Rogue for when you want to show that Superman doesn't solve everything by "punching harder" as detractors claim. The Fifth Dimension is also an interesting concept, a realm of imagination means it can be whatever you want it to be. A land of color and whimsical inhabitants, or a land of horror that breaks the mind of anyone who is unlucky enough to be brought there. In the right hands the Fifth Dimension can be one of the most fascinating and entertaining concepts within the DCU.

Often I've talked about the motivations and goals of many Superman Rogues being weak. Mxy however has a motivation and goal that actually is unique amongst the Superman Rogues: He just wants to fuck with Superman. That's it, not money, not power, not conquest, not pursuit of higher ideals, not even mere destruction. All he wants is to break Superman, to beat him in a spectacular fashion so that everyone will know what a chump Superman is. You know who else has that kind of relationship with their main hero? The Joker. Really amazed me that seemingly no one has made the connection between the two, given they have a very high profile story with both of them in it (Emperor Joker), and DC has explicitly marketed a few of Superman's villains as "Superman's Joker" in the past. Folks Superman's already got one, one who also has a famous story written in the 1980s by Alan Moore that made him a darker and more serious threat!

Whatever Happened To The Man of Tomorrow? shows the impact he can make when Mxy decides to stop fucking around and get serious. He's an absolutely terrifying threat that elevates the competence and threat level of the entire Rogues Gallery, and who forces Pre-Crisis Superman to resort to lethal force to defeat him. Mxy was the guy who broke Superman, broke him so bad he hung up the cape and retired. Writers still seemingly viewing him as the lame Silver Age hanger-on they can't get rid of even after that story baffles me. Alan Moore wrote him as a serious threat to Superman, why can't you guys obsess over THAT the way everyone obsesses over The Killing Joke?

As an ongoing threat, Mxy is perfect as he is. Part of him wants to obliterate Superman but the other part has so much fun matching wits with Supes that he wants the fighting to go on forever. A World Without Superman would be too boring for him, so he's torn between the desire to win and fear of whether victory would rob him of his source of entertainment. Being more powerful than Superman but incredibly petty makes him a good foil for Clark as well. While Superman is wholly on board with the "Great Power" mantra, Mxy has all the power in the world but doesn't give a damn about anyone besides himself. Without the moral compass instilled by the Kents, Superman could've easily ended up becoming something similar. An entity who feels no responsibility or compassion for "lesser" beings and only exploits them for his own amusement and pleasure.

So what doesn't work? Well for starters using Mxy only to do continuity cleanup or Silver Age retro stories is a huge mistake. There's so much potential with this character that I just don't think writers are seeing. Telling stories where Mxy causes some minor mischief that Superman undoes by tricking him into saying his name backwards is fine occasionally. I don't want Mxy to always have to be the serious threat Joker has to where NOTHING WILL EVER BE THE SAME every time he shows up. Flip side of that is that I DO want stories where Mxy is portrayed as being legitimately terrifying and dangerous. When you're dealing with an entity who can erase your kid, your wife, everyone and everything in your life, even you from existence on a whim, that's pretty damn scary.

Otherwise the big gripe I have is that I don't like the way he looks. For an imp from another dimension he just looks kind of boring. Superman has way too many bald villains (I was amused to see Bendis of all people poke fun at that fact). Granted Moore had that pay off in a great way with WHTTMOT but that's still his default look and I am just not impressed with it. Doesn't look cool enough or differentiate him enough to be a bald guy in a suit, especially when you have the perfect reason in-universe to redesign him: the way he looks in our dimension isn't at all what he really looks like. Think it's time to redesign him for a while, let's give Mxy a makeover.

What I'd Do With Mxyzptlk

Right so first off I want to take some influence from his son Vyndktvx when it comes to Mxy's design. Make him look more outwardly demonic, he is after all a demon from another dimension (that's what a 5-D imp IS, is it not?). Give him attributes like Vyn's multiple faces or arms to make him stand out more in a group shot of the Rogues, features like that go a long way to helping people remember him. Give him hair (a receding hairline is fine), horns, red skin, the whole works. In terms of Mxy's voice, I'd like someone to write him as if he were played by Michael J. Anderson doing a take on his Twin Peaks role (The Man From Another Place). Can't stop thinking about how that distorted voice that character had was achieved by

the actors recite their lines into a recorder, which then plays them backwards to the actors. The then learn this gibberish by heart and recite it again. For the aired series, this recording is then again played backwards

Talking backwards? Now tell me that doesn't sound like the perfect way to capture Mxy of all characters voice. Not sure anyone but Lynch could get anyone on board for that but I would sure love to see a VA try one day. In any event, Mxy shouldn't sound so human, he should sound weird and off, a creepy little monster who unsettles you with the way he talks due to it sounding so inhuman. When it comes to the actual plots I'd do or like to see done with him, I'll just quote the Superman 2000 pitch:

A Loki-ish prankster who uses people's lives as his game pieces. Mxy employs his awesome, five-dimensional reality-warping powers to trap Superman in dangerous, unreal scenarios... a high-stakes upgrade of the Elseworlds concept. No longer content to make buildings sprout wings, Mxy warps the facts of Superman's life in a sustained effort to test and break the Man of Steel's spirit (because the imp's fifth-dimensional intellect rightly understands that Superman's pure soul is his true power). Sometimes aware that he's been thrust into warped histories and sometimes not, Superman can only win these games by rising above the Mxyworlds' temptations to be less virtuous, less positive, less dedicated, less effective than we know he can be. Superman's own inner strength is the key to making Mxy disappear.

God that sounds like an amazing take on Mxy. Feel very confident that Mark Millar was the one who came up with that take, he did something similar with Mxy in Superman Adventures, and his Loki plotline in Ultimates 2 was basically exactly this. Loki changed reality so it looked like Thor was a lunatic instead of a Norse god, and it was only by staying true to himself that Thor was able to beat Loki. Imagine if Superman got a story like that with Mxy? Technically I suppose Superman Reborn was sort of a take on that, but being so mired in fixing continuity really prevents that from being a satisfying story in and of itself. At least that was the case for me anyway.

Way to write Mxy is to do an approach on Morrison's "super sanity" Joker: There's times where Mxy is a harmless prankster who is just here to cause mischief, there's times where he's a serious threat who really is poised to hurt people, and there's times where he's outright malevolent and terrifying, out to corrupt and destroy everything Superman cherishes. Last scenario threatens to repeat the events of WHTTMOT, and Clark has to push himself to his limit to find another way besides killing Mxy to beat him, because Mxy will engineer the end of all existence just to get Superman to break. Would love to see him as the mastermind who gathers all of Clark's Rogues together and makes another attempt at beating Superman by throwing everyone at him. Been too long since we've seen Superman "run the gauntlet" through all of his Rogues at once over the course of an arc, that would be a cool story to do with Mxy, something equivalent to his role in WHTTMOT and Riddler/Hush's role in Batman: Hush.

Final request, do more with the Fifth Dimension. Waid had a fun story where Superman travels there to troll Mxy the way Mxy always screws with him. Morrison and Snyder portrayed it as a whimsical place of fairy tales. Adding on to that I'd say it can be warm and comforting or cold and terrifying, reflecting the attitude of Mxy and his fellow imps. Perhaps Mxy forces Superman to aid him in order to prevent one of the more malevolent denizens of that realm from conquering it. Or the imps are so entertained by Mxy and Supes battles they want to imprison him there so he can duel Mxy forever. Or the realm is dying and the two have to figure out a way to save it lest everyone lost their ability to imagine. Make it a place that's literally limited only by imagination and you'll have a setting you can return to again and again.

Mxy is a very awesome character who just needs more love to really show why he's endured as a popular Superman Rogue. I'm not sure if he fits into the current Superman books plans (perhaps Waid will want to use him in his upcoming projects), but I hope that someone out there has a big story to tell that is focused on him. Really want people to see that he's not just a silly nuisance for Superman to swat, but something that can be downright terrifying and entertaining depending on the circumstance.

#superman #mr. mxyzptlk #dc comics

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a-crimson-lion · 4 years

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I Need To Stop Reading Into Things…😂

Yet again for @kiricookie .

[Check out this post first.]

So… we’re here again. Lord forgive me, I’m back on my bulls***.

Okay, jokes aside, I really should stop doing these things, but I am a stubborn individual. Plus, I wanna see how our notes compare, and try to have more civil discussions on the internet than I see on average. I’d reblog, but again, your post is already long as is (not incredibly long, but still), and I’d rather not occupy dashboard space more than I need to.

Alright, I think I’ve said my piece. Let’s talk about your post…

Oof. Starting right in the heart of the issue, really.

I am aware that Izuku is… incredibly likeable. I am aware that some of his issues, while perceived by some as noble, are heavily problematic and probably need to get sorted out before the boy gets a close audience with death. I am also aware that some of his habits are less than courteous in some circumstances, though like you said, Izuku has the benefit of having no malicious intent when it comes to these actions, even if they can come off as annoying.

Now, regarding Katsuki’s snail pace development… I get what you’re trying to say, but that doesn’t make it come off as any less frustrating...

As much as I want to believe that Katsuki’s upbringing in society is what’s stunted his growth so badly, I wish the narrative was more willing to show it. All we’ve gotten of Katsuki’s past are flashbacks from Izuku, remarks during the visit to the Bakugo household, and the “raised with violence” line from the Remedial Course arc. Now this understandably paints a pretty terrible picture, but uh… what has Katsuki done to try to fix it? How has Katsuki tried to demonstrate that his upbringing wasn’t justified? Why is he imitating the behaviors he supposedly despises, that supposedly keep him held back, instead of trying to find a workaround? I’ve only seen a few growth/redemption arcs of antagonistic characters, but even if the arcs took long, there was always an ultimate reason for doing so. And Katsuki doesn’t have that. At least, not yet.

It’s been implicitly established that Katsuki’s growth will be the mother of all slowburns. I’ve mentioned it in this old post of mine, but this is doing Katsuki no favors, at least for me. Now don’t get me wrong, I love myself a flawed character, but there’s only so much I can stomach before a flawed character becomes less “flawed” and more “asshole.” I personally believe that his true growth doesn’t get started until “Deku vs. Kacchan 2” (Episode 61), but if we really wanna consider that “Bakugo’s Start Line” (Episode 8) is his… well, start line, then that only makes it worse. Because again, his character arc is, as we’ve established, slow. But the fact that it’s slow enough for several other character arcs to transpire (Shoto, Tenya), as well as slow enough to allow “background characters” some significant development and return to relevancy (Eijiro, Hitoshi), I start wanting to stop holding my breath for his arc’s supposedly inevitable conclusion. Now I know you personally consider the suspense a positive, but it’s the opposite for me. I’d chalk it up to impatience, but again, MULTIPLE character arcs have transpired, and a few have been far more believably gradual compared to Katsuki’s.

While it is impressive that Katsuki was willing to pour out his feelings to Izuku, I’d like to argue that it wasn’t as… well, sentimental. Remember that society and Izuku’s peers before UA regarded him as the lowest of the low. The weakest, the most worthless. “The pebble in the path.” Considering that Katsuki lost the Training Exercise AND technically got outsmarted by Izuku, who was considered this until VERY RECENTLY, I’d imagine that’d be one hell of a blow to his ego. It is still significant that he’s willing to talk to Izuku about this, but it’s not exactly because he’s humbling himself. It’s because he’s begrudgingly admitting that he’s not the best, and it’s been well established that he HATES not being the absolute best. And I don’t know about you, but suddenly getting your high expectations crushed after years of nothing but “positive reinforcement” should not be made as big of a deal as it is here. I’m not saying to get over it, because you’ll never get over it, you have to live with it and learn from it, but don’t make it seem like it’s the end of the world and a half like Katsuki did in that scene. Plus, didn’t he essentially reaffirm that he was going to do what he planned to do from the start of his tenure at UA? I mean, good on him for his dedication, but you’d think the guy would want to take a step back and actually try to learn from others if they were so impressive.

Now, the DC Superhero franchise falls in and out from my radar at times, but I don’t think Katsuki and Batman are a good comparison for the point you're trying to make. Yes they both use violence, and yes they’re both intimidating, but for entirely different reasons. Batman uses fear tactics because he finds them efficient; I don’t know what they’re doing with his character nowadays, but from what I can gather in his earlier incarnations, Batman’s not out for blood. Vengeace, sure, but he doesn’t waste time getting there beating the snot out of his enemies. He takes care of them, sends them off, and keeps on trucking. Before they tried making him even more edgy, he didn’t kill and he kept away from firearms because he was well aware of any issues he had. He may not be a goodie two-shoes like most heroes, but he does show definitive empathy in some of his earlier incarnations. Remember, Batman was the kid who lost his parents to injustice. That was his entire reason for taking up the cowl, for becoming more than Bruce Wayne. In the Justice League Unlimited Episode “Epilogue,” he has the option to kill Ace, a teen villain with dangerously growing psychic powers. He doesn’t do that. He takes the seat next to Ace as she begins to die. He offers his support as Ace has to confront the terrifying realization that she is dying. He’s helping another scared kid, because he knows what it’s like.

That’s heroism. That’s Batman.

Katsuki’s motivations and actions aren’t as sympathetic. Him lashing out isn’t for anything strategical; early on in the series and even after his “Start Line,” up until the Endeavor Agency Arc, I believe, Katsuki’s sole motivations are victory and bloodlust. Even if it seems like he’s growing more chivalrous with his resolve, he backslides so many times back into the angry loudmouth trope its hard to want to keep hope, because if he can backslide multiple times before, what’s to stop him from backsliding again? It ruins the suspense for some people. And people are intimidated by Katsuki, but that’s because he’s borderline unhinged. I’d be scared s***less too if a pyrokinetic powerhouse was gunning on me with his eyes glowing like the fires of Hell as he radiated killing intent (an exaggeration, but still). I have yet to see Katsuki use this intimidation “tactic” of his beyond the fact that he appears to be enjoying it, either.

Alright, enough of that, let’s analyze that penultimate question: why hate Katsuki? If you asked me early on, I would say that yes, I don’t like him because he hurts Izuku. But as I’ve continued looking throughout the series, I now say that I don’t like him because, contrary to what he says, virtually everything is handed to him. Most of the time, its people mistaking his battle thirst as chivalrous determination, whether it be against a villain or just a standard opponent. He never tries to make himself any more “likeable,” and while Class 1-A is quick to call him out for this in the USJ Arc, by the Sports Festival they’re all flocking to him, and I have yet to understand any proper reasoning for this. It’s less like Katsuki proving there’s more to him than meets the eye and earning the respect of his peers, and more so that people latch on to the abstract concept of Katsuki’s coolness and strength, and he just begrudgingly tolerates them from there.

I mean, Eijiro was wholeheartedly against Katsuki’s actions during the Battle Trial, yet by the USJ the difference is night and day, and it doesn’t help that he’s interpreting Katsuki’s desire to beat up villains as “faith in his classmates.” Shoto was abused by Endeavor, so the fact that he can’t at least draw some comparisons between Katsuki and his sperm donor is slightly concerning, and while I want to chalk it up to his stunted social skills, I feel like Hori and/or his editors trying to shove in a friendship to increase their overall likeability (especially Katsuki’s) is more likely. Don’t even get me started on the hoops they jump through in the Joint Training Arc. Not even gonna touch that…

Okay, finally made it to the last paragraph. So, here’s something about me you may or may not like: I don’t like people dying, good or bad. Unless their actions are comparable to that of Satan, or at least close, then they shouldn’t get the axe. Why?

Because a dead person can’t change… and a dead person can’t suffer.

Believe me, even though I’ve fallen off the bandwagon a long time ago, I want Katsuki to change for the better. And he can’t do that if he’s dead. The manga’s most recent arc has been hella frustrating because of that, and no spoilers, but the two deaths that did occur did not leave me in high spirits. Hawks, Shigaraki, you both are on thin f***ing ice I swear. So no, lucky for you, I do NOT want to see Katsuki dead just because he happens to be an ass. What I wanna see is proper repercussions that go beyond being a villain hostage and having everyone else’s potential trauma downplayed for the sake of giving Katsuki more sympathy points.

Also, I’m well aware Katsuki’s death would absolutely ruin Izuku. I am also well aware that it is one of the few concrete facts I hate with nearly every fiber of my body. Not because of what it says about Izuku…

...but because I am sick and tired of Katsuki continuing to be the arrogant s*** he is, whether it be his genuine feelings or merely a front. I am sick of the fact that for as smart and aware that someone like him is, he still insists on trying to act like a badass when there is no need or overall expectation to do so. I am sick that he continues to decide to put himself and others in jeopardy, all for the purpose of maintaining his ego. I am sick that he gets all this support, all this help, and yet his development is still worse than a snail’s pace, and the narrative continues to keep letting him off with love taps and leaving him unfairly unprepared for the kill shot.

...maybe Katsuki deserves to get better. But is this really the best way to do it? Really?

Thanks for listening. Hope you got something from all of that.

-Crimson Lion (24 August 2020)

#bnha #boku no hero academia #mha #my hero academia #don't really know if these count as anti baku anymore. still tagging just in case.#anti bakugo #anti bakugou #character analysis #charater comparissons #character meta #meta #rant #response #Word Count: 1906 #...why do I keep doing this to myself? :'-D #yo kiricookie #while you're waiting to see heroes rising have this to tide you over #hope you enjoy it

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the-desolated-quill · 5 years

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Sonic Movie Does A U-Turn - Quill’s Scribbles

Okay, so I’m actually writing a whole other Scribble about the Sonic the Hedgehog movie and about live action/CGI hybrid movies in general, which I’m hoping to have finished by tomorrow, but some news has come out and I know for a fact people are going to use it as a stick to try and beat me with even though it’s completely irrelevant to what I have to say, so I’m going to talk about it now.

So live action Sonic the Hedgehog is hideous. That’s pretty much an objective fact. He looks like something that came out of Andy Serkis’ arse after he ate the mo-cap dots and gave himself a stomach bug. Well apparently the fan and critical backlash has been so extreme that the director Jeff Fowler has gone on Twitter and vowed to change the design.

Now this isn’t the first time a movie was changed in post production in response to audience feedback. After the critical failure of Batman V Superman, Warner Bros and DC hired an editing team that usually does movie trailers to recut the film Suicide Squad to make it more like Marvel, which of course resulted in the misogynistic technicolor shitshow we ended up with. (In other words, it’s exactly like a Marvel movie. OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH!!!! I’M SO EDGY!). But Sonic feels significant because of the amount of backlash and the sheer size of the change the filmmakers are now having to implement. We’re not talking editing scenes or doing CGI touch ups. We’re talking a full remodelling of a very prominent CGI character. That’s going to take quite a bit of money and overtime to complete before the November release date.

So this is good news I guess. We’re getting a live action Sonic that’s closer to the iconic design from the games. That’s all well and good... but only if it’s worth the extra effort and let’s be brutally honest, it really doesn’t seem like it.

Sonic The Hedgehog Of The Opera is really just one problem in a sea of problems. You’ve all seen the trailer, right? Yes Sonic The Hedgehog Of Notre Dame is hideous, but what about all the other shit in the trailer? The unfunny jokes? The generic premise? The cringeworthy music choice? Jim Carrey being an obnoxious tool? A Sonic redesign isn’t going to change that. Those bits are still bad. Honestly I think this film is dead on arrival and it’s not really worth the effort fixing Sonic at this point. You only get to make one first impression and this was it. This is without a doubt one of the worst trailers I think I’ve ever seen and everyone involved in this movie, who worked on this movie or are even associated with this movie should be incredibly embarrassed by this. And that’s including Tim Miller.

Yeah! The director of Deadpool is the executive producer of this film! Not only that, he approved the design! In an interview with IGN, he said:

"It would be weird and it would feel like he was running around nude if he was some sort of otter-like thing. It was always, for us, fur, and we never considered anything different. It's part of what integrates him into the real world and makes him a real creature."

Tim... he’s wearing running shoes. I think the boat has sailed on the realism front, don’t you?

Apparently Sega and Sonic Team weren’t too happy with the design, particularly the eyes, and that’s really the main thing about all this that’s confusing me. How the fuck did this design get approved? Did no one on the production team or at the executive level say ‘hang on a minute, this looks a bit iffy’? Did no one at least question why they were making such a drastic change to such an iconic design? What about Sega? Why didn’t they put their foot down when they saw the initial design? It’s not like they’re powerless. They’re co-producing this thing. Guys... what the hell happened?

Now there’s a bit of a conspiracy theory going around suggesting that this is all a marketing ploy. That the trailer and Sonic design was deliberately shit in order to drum up publicity. I can see why people think that, but I very much doubt that’s the case. For one thing, it’s one hell of a gamble releasing a trailer that’s deliberately shit just to get people talking. Like I said, you only get to make one first impression. Even if and when they reveal the revamped look, they’re going to have a heck of a job winning people over again, especially those who weren’t really sold on this film to begin with. But also it doesn’t change the fact that the studios are going to have to spend time and money redesigning Sonic and implement the new design into already completed footage. There’s no way any studio would waste that much time and money on a concept they didn’t think was saleable. And that’s really the source of this whole conspiracy, isn’t it? People understandably can’t wrap their heads around the idea that the filmmakers legitimately thought that this design was good. It’s simply mind-boggling that anyone would approve such an obviously bad design, and yet wonders never cease.

So there’s a chance Sonic might actually look like Sonic in a few months time. That’s nice. But it doesn’t matter if the film isn’t good and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have my doubts. Based on that trailer, this looks set to be this generation’s Super Mario Bros movie, which is a shame because out of all the movie adaptations of video games we’ve had, Sonic is the one with the most potential to succeed. I think the premise would translate so well to the big screen. If only the film was being made by competent filmmakers.

Sigh. I don’t know. Fingers crossed, eh?

#sonic the hedgehog #sonic the hedgehog movie #quill's scribbles

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thesarcasticramen · 5 years

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PROOF THAT TONY STARK HAS A HEART: IRONDAD EDITION

*inhales deeply* i don’t even know why i need to discuss this but here we go.

here are the basics that most of us are probably well-aware of now. the irondad and spiderson thing originated when tony stark recruits peter parker in captain america: civil war which also marks the second appearance of the latter since iron man 2.

setting aside the obvious liking i’ve taken to this relationship, i admit, tony’s recruitment with a (possibly then) fourteen-year old kid in a fight with highly-trained super-powered individuals in berlin without the knowledge of his legal guardian about the real matter—yes, we know she wouldn’t have let him because she’s an incredible mother to peter—because he blackmailed him into doing so is problematic. tony threatened the boy of disclosing his part-time vigilantism if he doesn’t reconsider his rejection of fighting alongside him. moreover, peter, as he had told steve during their duel and in the opening vlog of homecoming, wasn’t even in the know about the accords. it was a lapse of judgment on tony’s side that he didn’t shed some light on the conflict before dragging him into it. sure, peter has had his spidey powers then and tony wouldn’t have let something harmful befall on the teen on his watch and he knew that the other team isn’t really out for blood, but frankly, that wasn’t really one of tony’s best moments.

one detail we’ve all taken into account, aside from the fact that he already knows spider-man’s identity, is the suit tony had prepared for peter. tony stark is a genius, that is a universally-acknowledged truth, but even he took way more than several hours to create his own suit, design its features and run tests. this proves that tony stark had already been monitoring spider-man before civil war even took place, going out of his way to study the workings of the vigilante and upgrading his armor for more convenience, efficiency, and safety. after the fight, he relinquishes millions-worth of property to peter’s hands not just because it barely even scraped tony’s fortune, but to keep him safe and under his watch. the mentorship was bound to happen right from the start, tony has just been waiting for the right moment.

on spiderman: homecoming, peter receives radio silence from tony for the months that followed the events of civil war. peter is seen to be struggling to contain the excitement of participating in bigger things like the walmart parking lot fight instead of his usual fix of small crimes in queens and the disappointment of still not hearing a word from tony. people viewed this as another issue as tony left peter to fend for himself after using him to do his bidding. as a mentor should, it would’ve been better if tony did become more of a recurring presence in peter’s life and gave him actual lessons and training rather than just swooping in when the boy is on the brink of danger.

however, we see all kinds of features tony has put in the suit for the kid, as a fruit of all his past mistakes that he learned from. a parachute, a tracker, a heater—all of these things make peter extra protected. don’t even get me started on the training wheels protocol, the baby monitor protocol, and karen. of course, spider-man can do without all of those things (which i will be explaining later on, stay with me) but tony is doing his best to let peter spread his wings but not fly too close to the sun. “stay close to the ground” and “be a friendly-neighborhood spider-man” weren’t restrictions on peter, they were encouragement that looking out for the little guy matter as much as what the avengers do and those are going to help him work his way up and grow into a much wiser superhero.

“it’s not too early to start thinking about college”is also an important part of the aftermath of getting dunked in a lake. tony stressed on the significance of education, as any parent would, and even offered to pull on some strings and give a good word out for him. he knows peter is a genius and had so much potential so he wanted to make it flourish and not let it go to waste for the benefit of the boy and possibly of the world he’s going to change someday.

tidbits that are equally essential: tony makes sure peter is also under happy’s surveillance. tony knows about the churro lady and that he quit the band, he either reviews the reports that happy forwards to him or listens to happy rant about peter. either way, he cares enough to pay attention and remember that sort of information.

howard stark wasn’t “father of the year”. despite growing up with such a detached dad, tony didn’t want to end up treating peter, who wasn’t biologically his, by the way—i get that blood of the covenant is thicker than the water in the womb but it’s to give emphasis that tony cared for peter by choice—the same way howard treated him. he was “breaking the cycle of shame” by validating and praising peter’s achievements because he knew how it felt but just crave for that from the one person you want to hear it from.

in an excerpt from destiny arrives by liza palmer, the official paperback version of infinity war, peter had wanted tony’s approval since day one and that explains his reckless attempts of proving himself by going against tony’s warnings. what he fails to notice is, tony had been validating him since iron man 2. “nice work kid.” “you did a good job, stay down.” “great work in dc.”

now let’s get to the big yikes scene. first of all, tony stark was offended to think that peter thought he didn’t care. if stepping out of that suit (being actually there) looking pissed doesn’t already show that, then i don’t know what else would. see, he didn’t take the suit just because peter screwed the pooch and he thinks he is not capable of using it intelligently, he took the suit to teach him a lesson about responsibility. tony was once reliant on his iron man suits that he lost sight of how to stand up on his own two feet and he didn’t want peter to end up being the same. “if you’re nothing without the suit, then you shouldn’t have it.” tony wanted peter to learn that being a superhero is more than having a suit, it’s about the choices, the path, the actions, and the person, himself.

the “i was just trying to be like you.” “and i wanted you to be better.” dialogue made me draw a conclusion (this is just my personal opinion), the possible story behind the radio silence was because tony was scared peter would end up following his footsteps. he wanted peter to navigate super heroism on his own, with only the slightest guidance, to be able to figure out who he really was and to learn on how to build his own character and not replicate iron man and his failures. tony wanted peter to be peter, spider-man to be spider-man, because that’s what he needs to be and what he believes to be what the world and peter deserved to be, better. it’s why he set the parameters to the gray area: avoiding the things he would and wouldn’t do.

if people thought tony stopped peter from being spider-man by taking the suit away, wrong. peter chose that because he needed the time to rethink. in the end, he managed to push himself back up and be the bigger person, the hero. remember that scene wherein he can’t get out from under all those rubble and he almost gave up because he believed that he would never? recalling tony’s words made him reach an epiphany that his strength indeed does not come from his suit, but from himself. he was spider-man even before, with, our without the suit. and that, by the end of the day, is what all he needed to realize in order to triumph.

another issue i frown at is tony’s recruitment of peter to be one of the avengers at the end of homecoming. peter is still a kid after all and letting him be exposed to the media and to more accountability and bigger threats is just a no-no for me. thank goodness, peter turned that down, thinking it was a test. test or not, tony is proud of peter’s decision because it shows how much the kid has matured and actually listened to his concerns.

TOUGH LOVE, these words were uttered by tony stark, himself so need i really say more?

in the beginning of infinity war, tony was initiating the talk of having kids with pepper, a huge development that could possibly be influenced by the amount of peter parker he had become accustomed to. tony and peter’s relationship is seen to have evolved more. their dynamic and coordination is like that of a well-oiled machine. in the scene where peter was getting beamed up, we were introduced to the ironspider suit but he was sent home by tony. peter, however, still managed to hitch the ride to space.

“speaking of loyalty.” - peter parker to tony stark in avengers infinity war (2018). you mean, loyalty and worry? to say that tony was terrified to see peter aboard is the understatement of the century. tony pretty much lost his mind, not wanting to be the reason or the one responsible for peter not coming home to his aunt, just as he was scared when peter went down in the airport and in the ferry incident. tony didn’t have a single good memory in outer space and he certainly can’t put peter through the same thing. he didn’t want another loved one to be at risk all because of him and his conscience and heart absolutely cannot take that. but as much as it’s hard for him to accept it, tony didn’t have much of a choice but to knight peter as an avenger.

“what’s your plan?” tony put so much faith in peter’s wit, skills, and capabilities even back in civil war when they took down ant man and when he enlisted his help albeit everybody saying he was crazy to and he continues to do so when he entrusted the plan of freeing strange to peter and when he called for him during the removal of thanos’ gauntlet. again, belief and validation means a lot to a protege.

“what is he, your ward?” even stephen points out the obvious bond between the two.

“you shoot my guy and i’ll blast him. let’s go!”one of tony’s major priorities in the movie is protecting peter. according to accounts that have purchased destiny arrives, tony was depicted to have been going through an existential crisis throughout the whole endeavor over the possibility of losing peter, gnawing at his gut, coming into terms with how pepper always felt when he did something wherein he would only have a fifty-fifty chance of survival. he was also coming into terms with how much he cares for the boy.

i’m not going to delve deeper into THAT scene, and instead, present to you another excerpt from destiny arrives:

there is a reason why marvel repeatedly accentuates that the irondad and spiderson arc is a vital aspect of the emotional core of infinity war and endgame. in the new and latest teaser for endgame, tony is shown to be mournfully looking at a framed photo he had with peter, meaning that the two have spent time together beyond the scenes that we see them in and in the gap between movies. having kept that picture already speaks volumes about how much peter meant to tony. it was serving to be his reminder of what he was fighting for, not just to avenge the world, but for peter. that face is a face of a man who lost family.

and when i say “repeatedly”…

jeremy conrad’s tweet:

in a panel with the russo’s, a fan asked about what was going through tony’s mind when peter disintegrated before him, they answered, “like losing a child.”

robert downey jr.’s interview wherein his take on his character’s relationship with tom holland’s is “an attempt at modern parenting.”

…i mean, repeatedly. IRONDAD IS CANON.

before you all clamor about the lack of may parker in this post, i’d like to clarify that i absolutely adore that woman. there is no competition when it comes to being the most incredible parent and mother to peter. the love she has for her nephew cannot be measured and she raised him with all she had despite losing all who can support her in doing so. she deserves as much recognition and admiration as tony does. nonetheless, that doesn’t mean she can’t accept a little help from time to time especially in the spider-man department. richard and ben parker will always be peter’s dads, but that doesn’t mean he can’t have another father figure to look up to.

tony is not a perfect father figure. he has had his fair share of messing up trying to be and he probably thinks peter deserves someone better to fill in the role. but one thing is for sure, he loves peter and he’s doing everything in his power to be the best one he can be and the one that peter needs.

so to all those who put on a blind eye and deny that this relationship doesn’t exist,

let it sink in that tony stark had become more of a hero to peter parker

than he was in the suit.

iron man wasn't the one who believed in him

it was the man with the heart.

thanks for coming to my ted talk.

#marvel #marvel cinematic universe #marvel movies #captain america: civil war #spider man: homecoming #avengers #infinity war #endgame #tony stark #iron man #irondad #peter parker #spiderman #spiderson #spideyson #ironfam #robert downey jr.#tom holland #meta

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dndplus · 6 years

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In-Depth: Altering Combat

This is post is titled “In-Depth”, and it is done so because it talks about the aspects of combat and building encounters in D&D that are beyond your basic ‘understanding locales’ and KFC nonsense.

If you want the beginner’s post on Combat, go here:

Getting Started: Combat

That said, in my Getting Started post, I didn’t go into detail on certain aspects of running an encounter. This was intentional, as someone who’s just started should’t be concerning themselves with quite so much. But what about the rest of us? The people building encounters for players at level 3, or 5, or 9, or 14, or... you get the picture.

As per usual, I’m going to break this post down into certain key segments:

Experience, and Why You Shouldn’t Always Listen to the CR

Special Enemy Abilities

Moving The Goalposts: How to Make Parties of Particularly Deadly Player Characters Feel Their Weaknesses

One Big Foe

Depending on your level of experience, one (or all) of these bullets will jump out to you as things that have needed adjustment on your end. Here’s some tips and insight on how to manage all of these factors, starting with some advice to keep experience values from affecting how you structure encounters...

Experience, and Why You Shouldn’t Always Listen to the CR

I’m going to go ahead and start this post by saying that, in my opinion, no custom campaign should ever really bother with experience. This is a guideline (admittedly a useful one), but it can grossly limit a DM’s creativity and flexibility when building an encounter.

So, you can either assign experience values yourself based on the difficulty (because, yes, an encounter can be worth MORE experience than the CR suggests as well), or you can simply inform your players of when they’ve earned a level-up as your campaign’s story dictates. I’ll give some advice on this, but first, let’s talk about the why.

A vampire has a challenge rating of 13, and awards 10,000xp (split evenly among the group). It’s a difficult foe, with regenerative capabilities, Legendary Actions and Resistance, the added complication of Misty Escape, incredible story-centric skills (shapechange, charm, etc), and even the ability to summon minions.

It also only has 144 hit points (on average). In a straight up, no non-sense fight, you’d be downright shocked to see how low a level some parties of 4 can be when challenging a “dreaded” vampire and coming out on top.

So, what gives? Why 10,000xp for something that has such a strong chance of being outright blown up? Well first of all, a vampire has legendary resistance and legendary actions baked in because it’s meant to fight with others. The chaos of a packed battlefield is what makes a vampire the CR 13 menace it claims to be.

But that’s my point: A vampire is not a CR 13 creature when alone, not the way many dragons fit their CR when they are. For instance, an Adult White Dragon (also CR 13) has the same Legendary Resistance, Legendary Actions, much more HP, a higher Armor Class, a deadly breath weapon (12D8, save DC 19, YIKES!), and a far more powerful array of standard attacks. What’s more, dragons of this size have Frightful Presence, which severely ups the creature’s action economy (more about action economy in One Big Enemy later...)

At this point, the Adult White Dragon already seems stronger than a Vampire, but it pulls way, wayyyy ahead when you factor in its nightmarish 80ft Flying Speed. If this isn’t proof that you can’t always trust the CR rating of a creature, I don’t know what is.

So, how do we go about assigning level-ups in a way that keep us from worrying about the sudden deluge of experience an overrated monster offers? Simple! You forgo experience altogether! Some players like the illusion of experience, though. To accommodate this, plan out all of the adventures you wish to have spanning a “level” and then split up the experience rewards based on the difficulty of individual missions.

If your players understand and trust you enough to handle the level-ups without the bells and whistles, it’s up to you to plan their distribution. The best way to do this is to look at the greater adventure at play in your campaign and take stock of your villain. Your players should be strong enough to handle them when the times comes, but not so strong that they walk right over the poor sod. Use those benchmarks to create the ‘beginning’ and ‘end’ points of the level ups you need your players to get.

After that, use important encounters to space those level ups out. Here’s a few examples of events that are well suited to triggering a level up:

Defeating one of the villains most powerful minions. This one is obvious, and a classic. As an added bonus, it cements the feeling in your players that they’re getting closer to final confrontation.

The conclusion of an important meeting, or the coming of a particularly plot-important revelation. This one is a bit more complicated, but again fits well with the feeling of progression. Typically, this is best used when your players have gone through a lot of combat since their last level, but are lacking in some plot-significant baddie to mark the occasion.

Difficult Side Quests. Yeah, sometimes the players get dragged into something completely unrelated, but it’s nice for these to have weight and not feel like a waste of time. If you’re worried about your players going off and doing other stuff to the point that they’ll become too powerful, remember that you can fill the final boss encounter with additional minions to bring the difficulty up to par. Alternatively, you can use the story you’ve created to put a sense of urgency into the players, and also create consequences for their wandering. A necromancer threatening to ascend into a lich is a terribly frightening prospect, and makes the players feel like they’ve lost ground for running off to level up more before the final confrontation.

That’s really all there is to say about experience. It’s not a terribly detailed subject, but it’s one I want Game Masters to understand. CR, like everything else, is just a tool. Treating it as gospel will make balancing encounters that much more difficulty in the long run.

Special Enemy Abilities

I sincerely hope that this is a short subject, because it’s not a particularly complicated one. What’s it really about, though?

Well, sometimes that Specter enemy you’re throwing at your players was created as a result of something unique. The Monster Manual already gives us a ‘special’ version of the Specter in the Poltergeist, but that doesn’t always fit the flavor of your specter’s circumstances.

Let’s start with a few examples of why a creature might have special abilities:

A pact, blessing, or curse from some greater being.

The unique way in which it came to be.

Life in a locale not typical to its species.

Some detail specific to your setting.

There’s a lot more, but these should give you an idea of when to get creative.

In the instance of the specter, we’re going to combine 1 + 2, in which someone died at the hands of a particularly horrid and dark god. At this point, you have to ask yourself: how much stronger, or weaker (because yes, they can be weaker), is my ‘special’ creature?

So, our ultra horrible nightmarish entity has doomed a few pour souls to a particularly vile magically induced death. What comes of it? If the entity is supposed to be particularly powerful, then make the specters more powerful too.

We’ll start by upping the HD from a flat 5D8 to 5D8 + 20, which is a significant increase for any party that has trouble dealing with a Specter’s natural resistances.

It can’t just be more powerful though, can it? No, the rule of cool is important, and we want this new version to do something cool that will tip your players off to how unique it is, as well as match the dark entity that created them.

In this example, I’m using an evil god of my own design known as Goddenfeir. Without going into too much detail and boring you all to death, Goddenfeir is a god obsessed with the concept of complete nonexistence, and finds it unattainable. Wraiths, specters, and the like created by Goddenfeir carry this sense of oblivion deep within their being, and manifest abilities to go along with it. Here’s what I gave the specter:

Breath of Oblivion - Recharge 5-6, 15ft Cone. Targets caught in the breath must make a DC 12 Dexterity Saving Throw, suffering 5D6 Cold Damage on a failed save, or half as much on a successful one.

This is a frightening ability, especially when the prospect of multiple specters comes into play. In my own campaign, this was done to pump up Goddenfeir himself in a simple event that wasn’t meant to threaten the players that much, merely show them that he’s there, and that even something as harmless as a Specter (CR 1 normally) can potentially become very dangerous with his dark influence.

Moving The Goalposts: How to Make Parties of Particularly Deadly Player Characters Feel Their Weaknesses

Adding this category was very much so an afterthought, but it’s an important one: some player parties are just too damn good at killing things.

So how does a Dungeon Master kill-, er... challenge such a party? Simple: you move the goalposts. Not every encounter needs to come down to ‘killing the other guy’. Not every encounter needs to be combat, either. You could throw a puzzle at your players, or a particularly deadly trap (or a combination of the two!).

When you are looking for a way to give your oh-so-powerful band of murder-hobos a fight that will leave them quaking, you want to change the goal of the overall fight. Here’s some basic examples of how to do that, for you to use straight up or to inspire you to create one of your own:

Evacuation! A town is under attack, and its enemies are legion. Have your players brave the town and help the people trapped within escape, fighting through the endless hordes all the while. This can be easily done by enticing them with a great deal of gold for every person they save (and then making them increasingly difficult to get to, of course).

Trapped! Sometimes, the only play is to run away. Again, we have an endless horde situation, but this time your players are working against the clock (and their own limited resources) to secure a means of escape. Speaking of clocks...

Stall/Rush! Some parties are strong because they blow enemies up super fast. Some parties are strong because they’re just so damned resilient. Whichever the variety plaguing you, making a fast party take their time (such as with an enemy who’s invulnerable for a series of turns at the start of a fight) can be devastating. Likewise, forcing a slow party to get the job done fast (say, defeating a powered up Ogre Champion with the key to the lift of the collapsing mine they’re in).

This is a pretty bare-bones set of examples, but I think they demonstrate pretty well that a lot of parties are only really strong when the game is being played how they expect. Dungeons and Dragons isn’t just about killing the bad guy, though. Sometimes the evil player campaign requires taking someone alive, or the good player campaign needs the players to make an ally of an enemy. Whatever the demand, there’s always a way to move the goalposts and show your players they’re not as unstoppable as they think.

One Big Foe

I saved this for last specifically because it’s what reminded me to return to an combat in an In-Depth post. In the Getting Started: Combat post, I talked about KFC and how it shows us that quantity > quality when it comes to making an encounter more difficult.

But what about when when you want to hit your players with a proper, ginormous monster? Some monsters are already built for this, like Dragons and Beholders, as shown by the presence of Legendary Resistance and Legendary Actions. Legendary Actions, in particular, are there to help even out the action economy difference.

Action Economy

You have 5 players. They are each level 3, and you’ve called in a Hill Giant (CR 5) to pick a fight with them. With the ability to deal 36 damage in a couple of attacks, it’s pretty clear that a Hill Giant is a deadly foe. Surely it will-, wait, no, the players killed it in 2 rounds.

How? Your 5 players only had to average 10 damage each to deal 100 damage in two rounds, and the Hill Giant has a low Armor Class and an average HP of 105. The Hill Giant, if lucky, did 72 damage total. In all reality, it did much less, with several points of damage going over as a player fell unconscious, or 18 points vanishing into the abyss as your giant rolled a natural one or just outright missed. What’s more, no one in the party probably even bothered using a potion or other consumable, and next to no healing spells (if any) were used either.

This is where we even things out...

Legendary Actions

Hill Giants do not have legendary actions, and shouldn’t, but when one big enemy is alone, giving them legendary actions can help improve the threat they pose to the party without diluting the experience and adding more small enemies to back it up.

For a Hill Giant, we give it a pool of 2 Legendary Actions, which it takes at the end of a player’s turn, and is refreshed every time the Hill Giant’s turn ends. It’s Legendary Actions would then look something like this:

Move, 1 Action - The Hill Giant moves up to half it speed.

Club, 1 Actions - The Hill Giant swings its greatclub at a target..

Hurl, 2 Actions - The Hill Giant scoops up a rock from its pouch and hurls it at a distant target.

At this point, the Hill Giant is suddenly terrifying. 2-3 turns feels like an eternity when it gets two attacks on its turn, and up to 2 additional attacks through the use of Legendary Actions. We made it more mobile as well, a fact that will truly terrify the squishier members of the group who rely on keeping their distance.

In the end, though, a Hill Giant still only has so many hit points. The fight would have to go terribly, TERRIBLY wrong for 5 player characters to all die to this one Hill Giant.

It’s important to think about what you want your legendary actions to accomplish for a creature. I set the boundary of two attacks, an attack and half of its movement, or a single ranged attack, and then made the total legendary action uses match the pool of actions themselves.

Hopefully, this will improve your encounters when you try to throw a single, menacing beast up against your players, instead of it just turning into an ego boost for your players!

#D&D #D&D 5e #D&D&EE #Dungeons and Dragons #Dungeon Master #Combat #Altering an encounter #difficulty #DM #Gm #DM Tutorial #Dungeon Master Tutorial #Dungeon Master Guide #Tutorial #Experience #CR #Challenge Rating #Special Abilities #Victory Conditions

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arbitrarygreay · 7 years

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Towards a PoI S5 fix-it

My personal highlight for the MW POI comments this week was that seeing Flesh And Blood, and the lead up to, illuminated for me some potential S5 fix-its. First, I was inspired by this comment from mirandawmeyer, who reviewed PoI for After Ellen:

Incredibly, I actually forgot this happened! So I was genuinely surprised at the ending, and at the exposure of Fusco's background to Carter. In general, I think I forgot how many plot threads the first season stacks up, and how quickly. Elias, HR, Snow, Donnelly, John's backstory, Finch's backstory, the mysterious hacker...and that's not even counting the main threads of the main characters' relationships to each other! They really gave themselves a lot to work with so that almos5 any case of the week can nod to one or more of these threads, which makes the season feel dense and full and not "oh yeah, after 5 filler episodes, remember that long form plot thing?" (I cough in later-season Supernatural's direction.) It also means they have a lot of interesting places to go in Season 2, with a variety of possible configurations.

In contrast, by S4, the show doesn't have enough antagonists. Not enough threads were introduced to replace the elements they had resolved by the end of S3. You've got Samaritan, you've got the Brotherhood, and that's about it, because the Elias faction stopped being an antagonist. There's no more corruption faction, because government is all tied to Samaritan, so there's not as much of that tension of anyone getting betrayed/backstabbed at the worst possible moment. In S5, you have bargain bin Root (the Voice), you have bargain bin Vigilance, you have no crime/gang plot whatsoever, no exploration of the intersection of corrupt law enforcement with the new ASI world order, and then Beale is just wasted as the instance of intelligence agencies intrigue. At that point, since we see the team defeating minor Samaritan plots over and over again, that storyline runs the risk of the antagonist feeling more and more impotent. The Brotherhood storyline is resolved in the worst way (and we have no sense of escalation with them), Elias is de-fanged and his and Bruce's stuff in season five are extra impotent, and the government is such a nonentity that the episode where the freaking president is the number feels lackluster. Batman has always been defined by his opponents, which S1 strongly lived up to, and post-S4A did not. I understand Nolan was really riding the AI themes train at this point because of Westworld, but this rewatch reminded me of how powerful the show was in the first three seasons, with just the human element. In Flesh and Blood, you've got the FBI and CIA swirling around right alongside HR and Elias. Root Path has Root, Donnelly, HR, and Zoe Morgan all colliding. Samaritan never integrated with the other storylines, so you don't get this kind of amazing convergence effect. That isolation eventually hurt the characters and storylines for both the AI and Crime plots. Rewatching Flesh and Blood pointed to some of the mechanisms they could have employed to maintain the intensity and menace of Samaritan, which exists as the show's Big Bad for about as long as HR is. In S4, the interactions between Elias and the Brotherhood aren't nearly as complex as they were between Elias and the Dons, or Elias and HR, or HR and the FBI. In S4, the crime plot has no contact with the AI or government stuff. To compare, the government stuff with Control and such was good in S3. It also had promise, like the Brotherhood storyline, through MIA in S4. And then it, like the Brotherhood storyline, suffered an undignified death in the S4 finale. It's not necessarily about having more memorable characters for each faction, either. Donnelly is the only person we remember from the FBI faction. But he doesn't only exist to chase Reese, he also interacts with HR and Elias, along with how Carter and Fusco are intertwined into those storylines. S3 Greer feels extra nefarious whenever we discover his fingers in another pie, from Rylatech to Vigilance to Senator Garrison. But once he turns things over to Samaritan, we stop seeing that interaction of storylines, and it feels like the status quo is stagnant. So, potential fix-it to the lack of storyline interactions: The S4 opener has the Brotherhood trying to take over the mesh network, indicating that they're aware of how easily they are surveilled and their technological communications are compromised, and so are trying to subvert that. Imagine if they had been the surprise dubious allies with Team Machine against Samaritan, mirroring how Elias had been the surprise dubious ally against HR! Or an episode where the team have to work with Decima agents to escape a sticky crime situation! Low-key corrupt local government officials (which would replace HR as the corruption faction) have reasons to not want the Panopticon! (exploring how moves against pork and smoky backroom deals have in some ways worsened polarization and deadlock) A lot of people have taken issue with the dropped threads from S4 to S5, clamoring for a return of more recurring characters. I don't mind that so much, and proposed fix-its shouldn't necessarily bank on that trick, either, because scheduling actors is always an unavoidable issue. See, for example, Supergirl and Floriana Lima. Or the case of Morgan Le Fay in The Librarians. And with CBS mucking with the schedule, they couldn't lock down actors early on. The DC Thornhill team roster was probably an open slate to see just who they could get, and we have the guy Nolan's working with on Westworld and Amy Acker's husband. It's a miracle we got Harper back, or Lambert, for that matter. Just looking at who they did manage to bring back for .exe makes it pretty clear that the scheduling shaped S5 in a big way. Not just for recurring characters, but the ability to recur even S5 characters. Odds are that Beale's actor is in big demand, and only had the one episode's worth of time to film. Or would we rather that S5 had tried what The Defenders did with Sigourney Weaver? I think we got the better execution, for that. Another logistical concern is that the writers who pen the episode a recurring character appears in get paid every time that character appears, even if they no longer work for a show. Since most shows get a big writer turnover around season 3/4, the production may not want to play extra to people no longer in house, and the new writers want to introduce their own potentially recurring characters instead. An old recurring character showing up decreases the chance that any character they introduce that episode will become popular. I think that fix-its that only look at Watsonian writing choices and ignoring Doylist logistical concerns can be arrogant, ascribing an unfair quality judgement on canon. It would be like complaining that a Chopped challenge dish didn't use sashimi when the required special ingredient was chicken nuggets. So if the uniformity of the Samaritan arc made it stagnate, and we can't inject life through fan favorite characters, then the solution is to get to a place where we can introduce new characters without baggage. Burn/resolve the Samaritan storyline at the end of season 4, defeating the main part of the ASI. Then, open up S5 with new stuff, like with uncertainty about TM as an ASI monopoly, the difficulties of hunting down Samaritan remnants as a metaphor for terrorism (which still allows for Shaw simulation stuff), the opened-Pandora's-Box inevitability of another ASI rising. [Here be spoilers for the TV show Nikita!] When I think about it, it would be like compressing Nikita seasons 2-4. Finish off Samaritan in the back half of S4 (like Nikita S2 finished off Division), let the first front half of S5 be akin to Nikita S3, about their attempted reconciliation but inevitable cooption in power. However, the tone of the show is such that we don't want our protagonists in power for the last stretch, they should be betrayed at the halfway point, leading to a last arc where they're back to desperate underdog status, battling to a thrilling ending climax, a la Nikita S4. You can also look at Angel S5, Leverage S5 for various ways PoI could successfully soft-reset, without compromising their competence and look at the various ways Red Vs. Blue have finagled the titular crew back to a Blood-Gulch-like setting to see how to soft-reset without necessarily spending so much money on new sets. I kinda like the idea of the end of NuWho series 6, as well, where our team become a bit too notorious, and fake their deaths in order to stop the escalations with their opponents, and get back to the ground level of saving those that others consider irrelevant.

#person of interest #poi s5 #category: tv #4 #5 #nikita #leverage #angel the series #red vs. blue

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renaramblesaboutcomics · 7 years

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Wednesday Roundup 8.16.2017

Slightly overdue and quite possibly not at all aniticipated, I have at last finished the Wednesday Roundups and have come to give my usual reviews and ratings~

So let’s get into it

DC’s Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows, DC/IDW’s Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures, DC’s Batwoman, Image’s Descender, Marvel’s Generations: Wolverine & All-New Wolverine, DC’s Gotham City Garage, DC’s Justice League of America, DC’s Super Sons, DC’s Wonder Woman

Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows (2016-present) #10 Ryan Stegman, Nate Stockman

It’s amazing how, for close to ten years now, I have felt like Peter Parker -- as I knew him and grew up with him -- has been a shadow of himself in Marvel comics. The potential for his growth, the sense of personal responsibility, everything that I had felt him growing toward while I was an avid Spidey fan felt gone back when I stopped reading because I felt like the illusion had been purposefully broken.

Peter was never going to grow up, he was never going to move forward, and his lifetime of adventures were never going to have consequences that truly stayed and mattered.

Now, that’s a general disillusionment longterm comic fans all have to face some time, and it’s always going to be felt most severely on those that brought us into the business to begin with, but it’s one I always struggled the most with when it came to Spider-Man. Because the MC2 had sort of given me a “preview” to what his next steps could have been, and how his story could continue as a father and family man. I knew it enriched the parts of Peter I liked rather than took them away. Missing that in current iterations was dreadful.

But, amazingly, and wonderfully, Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your vows seems to provide for me what a decade of previous Spidey books could not. My Peter.

Story: Considering this is a one-and-done story, albeit one obviously leading up to the upcoming arc, it feels like it completely uses its pages and panels to their fullest with no wasted time and no sense of drag. Honestly, the fast pace in this issue is more reminiscent of classic pre-trade comics rather than the current lay of the land which seems more interested in first expanding and dragging stories out. And this manages to do it with three stories wrapped up by the end.

The main story is about Normie Osborn, his birthday, and what will be his driving motivations to become the next Green Goblin. It’s honestly heartbreaking to see the complexities of a completely bratty kid whose suffering ultimately stems from the anger and frustration of having lost his father at a young age and feeling completely alone and misunderstood because of it. As the main POV character, we honestly get to dig into his rottenness and his tragedy more than most new villains you usually see and I love that as simple as his motivations are, you can really get the sense that it’s believable for a kid to fall into these trappings through his inability to properly grieve. It sets him up to not only be the antithesis of Annie, as I’ve been imagining he would be, but a foil to Peter as well, and that’s pretty fascinating in a character I genuinely feared was going to be pretty one-note.

For the B story we have Peter and Annie May bonding on a father-daughter day. I think this is vital not only because we just came off a Mary Jane focused story but because it’s that relationship that ends up saving them in the end. I love how Peter’s both protective of Annie, but supportive and grateful of her in a way that’s both completely Peter and also the signs of a great parent who is not ashamed to be surpassed by his child and wants her to know when he’s proud. They’re absolutely adorable, and relateable, and I love that Peter has obviously taken after Aunt May and Uncle Ben when it comes to being a parent. Usually it’s seen as “cooler” or “more interesting” to have good guys/childhood heroes grow up to be bad parents even against their characterizations beforehand just because it’s edgy, and I’m just so grateful that Renew Your Vows hasn’t fallen into that.

The less expanded other subplot in the background is of the Lizard and his son desperately trying to get some sort of Oscorp chemical to save the son from... something. I may need to reread, but I’m fairly certain this will be set up in the future for a continuing storyline but it also works well here to emphasize the importance of parent-child bonds.

Art: I honestly have been really impressed with the art on this title from the start. It’s very agile and creative while also not stylized to the point of being cartoony. The colors find a nice balance between being bright and having a touch of grunge and texture to it. If you’ve been a fan of the art for the book beforehand, you’re going to keep being a fan because I know I am.

I also want to take a moment and applaud a book for doing the rare thing these days and maintaining its art style and individual character for ten issues. That may not seem like a whole lot, but nowadays it feels like such an accomplishment to just have an artist on two consecutive issues let alone a rotation of artists who at least attempt to adhere to the certain style of the book.

Characters & Dialogue: I went into Normie more above because he was so central to the plot of this issue, but it stands to be said again that I’m just genuinely floored by how well this comic does with making a layered and rounded villain out of what could have so easily been a stock Evil Child Genius version of Norman Osborn. I mean it was even in the name, and that impresses me so much. I like how there’s a sophistication to his dialogue, but also both his dialogue and running monologue are shorter sentences than you usually see with such educated words, which still makes it feel like the voice of a child. It was a neat little touch.

Peter also is just such a great character in this book. He gets less panel time than Normie, but in that time we see the layers of Peter. He’s protective, he’s funny, he’s supportive, and he’s quick to leap in head first. But while this Peter maintains all the fun of a younger Peter Parker (one that lets his daughter eat a disgusting amount of ice cream to be on her good side), there is a kindness and push toward empathy that seems more nuanced and matured to him than the Peter of old. His final words to Normie are both heartbreaking and full of pathos. He obviously regrets not being able to save his friend, but he’s also recognizing the signs of tragedy repeating itself in Harry’s young son. It’s a great, subtle moment.

Annie doesn’t get as much time as Normie or Peter, but we can see that her skills as a vigilante are advancing quite nicely, but her confidence is still stunted slightly. At least, it is around her father, who is of course her biggest inspiration and biggest hero. Even when she saves him, she is cautious to be excited about it, both because she’s concerned for him and also because she is concerned about making mistakes. Ultimately she’s adorable and full of sugar so I don’t think there’s anything not to love.

DC/IDW’s Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2016-2017) Matthew Manning, Jon Sommariva

Honestly I don’t know why I’m being rewarded lately with my favorite franchises getting amazing official crossovers, but I am, and I’m so happy about it. IDW and DC have been collaborating quite a bit for the past couple of years -- with IDW getting to release those original Mister Miracle omnibuses and now getting all these crossovers with arguably their biggest property to date and DC’s biggest property to date. Twice.

The thing is, I was a pretty big fan of the first Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crossover by Tynion and I wasn’t really all that sure what to expect with this new crossover and whether or not it’d repeat the same steps or if it’d be able to capture either the DCAU or the TMNT2012′s tones in the process of telling its story.

Fortunately, today’s all about me getting squarely handed my butt with these surprises!

Story: My concerns about this retreading the meet-and-greet storyline of Tynion’s crossover were pretty much immediately dashed thanks in no small part to Manning absolutely nailing the tones of the two cartoons right from the start. There’s monsters, there’s mayhem, there’s an actual mystery to solve (holy crap remember when Batman used to solve mysteries) and the badassness of the Shredder was on display without allowing him to make a cakewalk of the Rogues Gallery.

I just loved how everything was able to tie together with these two continuities so neatly, and how it made it just that much more interesting for the ultimate reveal of who was behind the whole even, even if it was hinted at from the very first issue. It was a great mystery story of following the clues until we got to the end.

Oh wait. No. It didn’t get to the end because the story wrapped up in issue five of this six issue series And I’ll be honest... this really baffles me to the point of almost taking me out of my praising mood.

Like... I’m not going to say that this was perfect at all until #6, but it was well paced, well choreographed, and it made full use of a huge cast of characters with lots of neat crossover potential satisfied nearly on every front -- we got Bats in NYC and we got Turtles in Gotham, we got respective villains in both. It was an incredibly solid, fun crossover that had a very satisfying conclusion. And then another issue.

Obviously they wanted to expand on this story more. The Gotham Rogues shined the most for the first five issues, really driving the plot on all sides, and then #6 had the Kraangs taking advantage of the previous mayhem to enact their own invasion of Gotham. And there were obviously a lot of years that passed in between -- obviously in Gotham since we moved from B:TAS to TNBA, but also the Turtles while eternally teenagers seemed a bit older, and I don’t think it was a mistake on Manning’s part that April or Karai or any of the other growing Hamato clan’s members didn’t come through the portal with them. With a series that is still very much airing, they just couldn’t risk too much continuity plot holes since who knows what’s happening next.

And I really get that, but if that’s the case, then perhaps the first storyline should have been 3/4 issues, and then allow this second storyline to have at least more than 1 issue. The way it stands now it seems more like a cruel epilogue teasing a future crossover continuation than an ending to what was otherwise a super solid and tightly written crossover.

Art: The art was fantastic. Seriously, not only were both of the very different animated series’ styles represented in the art, but it was still very much its own blend. Everything felt cohesive without being overly off model from the original designs... Okay Barbara had some pretty strange anatomy in a few panels. Or pages. More than a few. Look, we have to do something about boob sock costumes especially if she’s going to be standing right next to April -- who’s her size and not that much younger than her -- who proves that this artist has at least seen someone wearing a sport bra before.

But other than that, I really liked the art and I believed the colors REALLY popped. And I have to also thank this publication for having the common human decency of putting the covers between the issues which the collected version of Tynion’s crossover did not have in the least.

Characters & Dialogue: Obviously a crossover is going to boil down all characters to the characteristics fans identify them with the most both for recognizability and so that we have the fun of seeing favorite characters bouncing off each other through a crossover. What’s the Joker like with Shredder, what’s Raphael like on fear gas, what’s Batman’s exchanges with Leonardo like.

That’s the fun of a crossover and I don’t really expect noncanon crossover comics to dive into a character study and provide any type of growth throughout the issues. It’s good fun.

That being said... I’ve never been a huge fan of Don’s girl craziness in the TMNT 2012 series but could let it pass for his genuine affection for April that is beyond “oh wow a girl!!!”, they have a genuine relationship. But having him drooling over Barbara all the time just makes me annoyed.

And also means that we can add Donatello of the freakin’ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to the never ending list of characters in comics who have hooked up with or fallen in love with Barbara Gordon. Let the woman live, people.

Other than personal nitpicks, though, the characters are great and it felt like the best of what I love from both of these cartoons brought together.

DC’s Batwoman (2017-present) #6 Marguerite Bennett, James Tynion IV, Renato Arlem, Adriano Lucas

Oh, my long standing annoyances, will you ever allow me the peace of just enjoying a story instead of giving me a reflexive groan to the heavens each time I start reading tropes I don’t like. Like Bad End Future flash forwards where everything is fascist and terrible?

Maybe. Depends on how gay things are allowed to be. So let’s get into it -- can Marguerite Bennett’s ability to write almost anything to my liking, can she make a Same As It Never Was Future Tense The Savage Time Futures End 2099 Watchmen Current America that I’ll appreciate reading?

No. But the effort is incredibly commendable!

Story: As is probably gathered by my response here to begin with, I’m not easily won over by this “darkest timelines” filler stories be it in comics or movies or television episodes. It just rarely affects the current storyline of the characters, will be retconned or lead to huge plot holes in the future, or just in general has nothing particularly fun or interesting to say.

And I’ll be honest, current times just make me that much less interested in fascism being used in my escapist media. Like. Guys I just want to watch superheroes punch Nazis, not my lesbian Jewish superheroes help begin some sort of fascist totalitarian state with way too much Nazi imagery like good lord.

Anyway, there were things that I found interesting from the start. Kate seems to be trying to dismantle the system she is guilty of starting, Jason is... honestly he’s somehow the Dick Grayson of Batman Beyond 2.0 and working with Kate so that’s weird.

Somehow, beyond all common sense, Harvey Bullock is still alive?

I do like Renee as Commissioner but as sweet as it is to have older lesbians in a comic... *long suffering sigh* Look, I might be sensitive to this because I just watched Atomic Blonde or maybe because I’ve always been pretty uncomfortable with the treatment Renee has gotten compared to Kate but... There’s just something supremely off putting to me that a brown woman is portrayed as having the long standing unrequited love and can’t move on to find her own happiness and then dies for the tragedy of the white woman.

We really have to look at these patterns and start questioning things here.

Also Tim is evil Batman. Again. Stop doing that, Tim. I barely put up with it during “Titans Tomorrow”, and I don’t nearly have that much of a relationship with your current incarnation that I had with that Tim. Just saying. Watch your butt, Birdboy.

Art: The art is very good. There’s a few fun action splash pages, I thought the panels were organized and flowed really well, and best of all I really enjoyed the fact that Gotham actually had color to it for once.

Too many times artists seem to think that Gotham can only work in shades of gray, but I found the cityscapes a lot more interesting and popping with this style. So that’s encouraging that we may once again get a change in how Gotham looks.

Characters & Dialogue: Bennett is quickly becoming one of my favorite writers so far as characters go -- I’ve enjoyed almost all her work from both DC and Marvel and she maintains that here. I don’t know how much input Tynion has on the Batwoman scripts right now to earn that writing credit but being more familiar with Bennett’s work now I really felt this story was more hers than his.

That being said, and as strong as the characterization is, I’ve always felt that Bennett does have a tendency to write internal monologues from characters with this distant narration that feels cold and impersonal to the story being told. That works here, given the circumstances and how this is supposed to feel alien and unfamiliar to the Kate we have been reading in the previous issues. But I would argue that it’d work better if most of the internal monologuing and narration didn’t come off that way in other stories.

Image’s Descender (2015-present) #23 Jeff Lemire, Dustin Nguyen

Man is Image killing it with their creator owned line. It’s hard to imagine what sci-fi could really elevate the genre in comics more than the likes of Saga but it absolutely feels like Descender is aiming squarely for that spot, taking the more cerebral route of an AI or Blade Runner which is needed more in comics in a way that’s still approachable. But other than nerds like me, does it manage that approachability?

Couldn’t tell you since I am a nerd like me, so I’ll just lay out my perspective.

Story: It feels like for over 20 issues now we have been building to the point where all of these factions of characters would meet and their plots would begin to overlap, which makes it all the more just shocking that we’re at that point. It’s definitely a huge task given the sheer number of characters in the cast at this point, but I am also incredibly tempted to say that because we’re in the middle of this “chapter” (and yes I’m saying that a lot this week) you really feel the lack of a beginning or ending on this one. We have so many characters we’re following at one time that there’s not really any other way to tell this story but in fractions. And as enjoyable as that is, it means you either have to sacrifice POVs every couple of issues, or you have to drag out tension for each plot across multiple issues. And we’re doing the latter.

Now I don’t want that to come across as a condemnation, it’s just a fact of the way this story’s being told. And personally I don’t think that makes individual issues as rewarding as it is to read a whole chapter in succession. And yet, I can also say with confidence that what I do love about this story and how I’m hooked on finding out what happens next, I personally feel invested enough to buy per issue rather than wait for trade, at least for now. So perhaps I’m too analytical on this issue right now. After all, I’m not having difficulty remembering from issue to issue what each group’s plot is or what danger we left them off at the time before, and it’s usually when that begins to blur that I feel a comic is worth waiting until the trade.

Art: I am a huge fan of Dustin Nguyen, as always, but I’m once more burdened with the question in my own mind “is the water colors fitting for this harsh, slick, futuristic setting” and I just still can’t say that I feel that it is. It’s beautiful, and as someone who has been reading comics with Nguyen’s style since all the way back during the Winick run on Batman, it’s impressive how far his style has developed and how much he’s honed his craft. But that doesn’t mean that specifically the choice to make this a textured water color comic rather than a digital comic was the best aesthetic choice, and I know at this point I am beating a dead horse with that opinion, but it’s just what strikes me as so off putting each issue. Especially since we are in a science fiction story, taking place almost entirely in outer space, and yet the majority of backgrounds as well as space between panels is white. It’s just a real disconnect that I can’t tell yet if it’s being inventive or going to eventually have a symbolic meaning with the story.

Guess I’ll have to wait and see with everyone else!

Characters & Dialogue: Another difficulty with this kind of storytelling and seeing every character for a few pages each issue is that there’s not a whole lot of time to really advance characterization unless it’s over the span of a whole chapter. So I have to imagine that things that seem small in the moment -- Tim-21′s escape, the doctor saving Telsa, Effie telling the Nagoki what he “wanted to hear” will all have vast implications in the upcoming issues, but it’s not something I can dissect as it is now.

That being said, I really do love all these characters and I love how lovable they can be while still understanding how they can view each other as utter monsters due to their own pasts and motivations. It’s pretty amazing work on Lemire’s part.

Marvel’s Generations: Wolverine & All-New Wolverine (2017) #1 Tom Taylor, Ramon Rosanas

Somehow, someway it snuck up on me over the past year or so that Tom Taylor just has absolutely made my life better with his contribution to comics. Like, that’s a weird epiphany to have in the middle of a Wednesday night, but my friends on Discord with me last week got to witness it in real time. I love Taylor’s writing, and most importantly I love how he writes Laura, I love everything about her under his pen and I’m glad to have back-to-back weeks of his Wolverine.

This week... with a TWIST!

Story: So what’s happening in the Marvel universe right now? Couldn’t tell you. I imagine the timey wimey shit for Secret Empire has allowed for this crossover within a crossover within a summer event but I have no actual context other than I wanted to pick this, the Ms. Marvel, and the Spider-Man comics up. Because that’s how I role. I have wisely stuck to my guns throughout this summer and only read Marvel titles which, y’know, fucked off into space for a whole summer-long arc rather than stay around for Nazi Apology feat. Steve Rogers of Earth-whatever. I’ve been much happier for it!

The point is, we get a crossover with Wolverine and Wolverine. A Logan from before he knew Laura, and a Laura who... looks like she’s in her X-Force uniform for some reason? Uh. Again I’m completely going in blind on this one I have no context, but we’ll assume it’s a pre-All-New Wolverine in spite of titles because she doesn’t seem to have any problem murdering people and that’s like a whole Thing in All-New and I can’t imagine Taylor, who’s writing it, would like... forget that.

Anyway, it’s an excuse for a team up where Laura is helping Logan same Amiko from being kidnapped by the Hand and gives her some life advice while getting some much needed life advice of his own. And it’s as simple as that and yet not simple at all. Like most of Taylor’s stuff, the embrace of the general comic book premises belies a much deeper purpose that you can look for, and this is all about Laura and Logan’s relationship, or at least the relationship they both wish could have been. It’s closure in a way, for Laura to receive an open hug from a Logan that’s still very much her Logan, but is not yet as jaded as to not give her a much needed hug.

Oh, Logan. Whenever you eventually reincarnate yourself back into the main Marvel Universe as yourself and not a clone or another universe’s son or another universe’s angry grandpa or as another long lost son or as another clone or as a dying salamander, I hope you keep this message to heart.

Art: It’s wonderful. I mean the anatomy’s great, the colors are muted but still varied, there’s some real tone to Laura that some artists don’t give her enough of. I could nitpick a few things like costumes (woops already did) or that Logan didn’t meet my personal Hairy Enough for Wolverine requirement, but the main criticism I’m really going to have here is that this had a very simple panel structure for the majority of its pages which could use some more variation, especially for action scenes. But then again the best scenes weren’t action but were of the characters actually interacting so I think simple panels for simple things is more than appropriate.

Characters & Dialogue: I’ll be the first to admit that Logan’s not really my guy. I don’t go out of my way to read a lot of Wolverine where he’s not in a team book or a crossover or a team-up or another team book or another crossover or a tv show or another team book. And I have a lot of frustration with him in the majority of those. It’s kinda my thing with Bruce Wayne -- when I love him, I love him, when I don’t, I really don’t.

But, to me... this was good! It was maybe even great. Strangely dynamic for Logan and it was just overall interesting to see Logan written by Taylor and it not being from Laura’s perspective. I’m so used to his voice for Laura that the gruffer, less nonsense and more weary tone from Logan was surprising and fitting. And it made the final pages just that much more poignant.

And of course Taylor’s Laura is just my tastes to a T. So everything’s good by my account.

DC’s Gotham City Garage (2017-present) #1 Jackson Lanzing, Collin Kelly, Brian Ching

I had no idea this book was coming out. I had never seen advertisements for it. I had no idea what to expect. And what I got was Robo Cop meets Fury Road meets Road Warrior meets DC Bombshells. And maybe Blade Runner.

Given that this is a digital first and I wasn’t really sure what to expect and I still have... no idea where this could be going or what it’s based off of other than those statues that used to be sold by DC with everyone on motorbikes and the mentality of “hey people like Bombshells! Let’s try this statue collection too!” with apparently no memory of how that worked out for them with Ame-Comi Girls.

Did I mention this is trying to repeat the lightning in a bottle of Bombshells? I feel like that can’t... really be... overstated.

Story: uhhhhhh Well. This is tough to nail down because as a Digital First it’s very short and I also have no idea what’s going on so my judgments here are... lacking, let’s say. And I have nothing but questions. Like. Why is it in Gotham and fascists are Batman themed while Lex Luthor is in control. Why is Kara adopted by Jim Gordon. Why is there a picture of Barbara and Kara together but no mention of Babs in Kara’s monologues or so on. Why are humans robots and robots humans. Are humans robots at all. How did Jim know about Kara’s super powers if she’s never been in the sun before.

I k now I’m just listing questions but that’s basically everything that happened to me while I was reading and I just... have no answers to give you.

I just think we can all agree that Big Barda does, indeed, wear a mohawk just like she wears everything else: like a boss.

Art: It’s fine. I mean, digital comics are always a bit rougher around the edges due to their incredibly tight update schedules and I always try to account for that. And it’s a cute, inoffensive style that definitely is going to try to undercut the no doubt supremely scanty clothing of the... garage...girl...people. And I liked how dull and gray toned everything around Kara looked in the Garden while outside there was almost a sort of sepia tone but the real colors came in with the... garage....girl...people. But even then, there are little visual cues throughout, like Kara’s own colorful accents despite wearing “assimilated” clothing. No doubt that’s going to be gone soon when she joins the...

Again, I can’t express enough about how much I don’t know what’s going on.

Characters & Dialogue: We really only have Kara as a character right now and while she definitely has a voice, it’s not really one that I would say stands out in the crowd of YA character types. I’m not trying to be dismissive of that -- I actually think that Kara has always worked best as one of the Youths’ outlets in comics, but it’s basically just. Too early to really give my feel on things.

Basically I feel like I wasted everyone’s time with this review lol

DC’s Justice League of America (2016-present) Vol. 1 Steve Orlando, Ivan Reis, Andy MacDonald

I have some huge reservations about this title, but after really thoroughly enjoying the Road to Justice League of America Rebirth storyline that came before this, and loving the majority of the lineup as much as I did, I was ready to give this comic some time to really find its feet. Not to mention I’ve enjoyed Orlando’s work in the past. But now we have to see how well lofty expectations hold up.

Story: I’ll be honest with you, the most distracting part of this entire project is that Bruce is like... bankrolling 40 different superhero teams right now with none of them being the Outsiders and I find that shocking and unusual. Especially since there’s already a Justice League, Bruce seems to be making this particular team all about “second chances” and...Lobo’s on it.

But to my surprise, this was actually addressed by the story. Not answered by any means, but the characters for the most part seem very self-aware of the oddness of their team given Dinah and Frost’s conversation with each other on the subject. They allude to there must be some reason that Bruce has decided on the team that he has if he’s willing to go through all of this trouble.

Especially Lobo. Who is on a Justice League team. This is... Well it’s a thing, for sure.

Throughout this volume all of the cast gets major moments to shine, I felt like, and the relationships were explored to quite an extent, but this falls into the problem that so many other comic books from DC does too, and that is that no moment can be too great or grand... without Batman immediately showing you up, taking credit for the situation, or just completely dismissing it out of hand. Oh, classic Batdickery.

Art: I actually felt the art was very good under both main artists on this title. It’s very house standard, in that it’s very much trying to replicate the Jim Lee standard style that almost all the DC line was all but forced to produce at the start of the New52. But it’s still fun and I enjoy the costume designs for everyone, especially Vixen who seems to have my favorite costume I’ve seen on her yet.

Characters & Dialogue: This is a huge cast, so the ability to focus on any character... other than Batman, I’m sure for regulars to comics this is the furthest thing from a surprise. Still, there are some genuinely unexpected relationships, most of my favorites revolving around Ryan Choi.

Most of these characterizations aren’t going to be groundbreaking for any of the characters, but of course this is also the only place where you can get most of these characters anymore, which sucks especially if they’re some of your favorites. So there’s that.

DC’s Super Sons (2017-present) #7 Peter J. Tomasi, Jorge Jimenez, Alejandro Sanchez

The real question of the ages is, does there exist a title that is having more fun with its premise right now than Super Sons? And honestly, I don’t think the answer to that question is “yes” because Super Sons is a complete riot every issue and it continues to invite everyone along for the ride. It’s honestly really impressive.

This issue continues with Jon meeting Damian’s Teen Titans and getting his foot through the door for a real team up. And that’s exactly what the world needs.

Story: We have another mid-storyline issue here but once more we have one that knows how to make a single issue feel really encompassing. We have Jon joining the Titans, proving himself to everyone but Damian (who’s just a grouch and old and it’s hilarious that he looks like Old Man Bruce from Batman Beyond), and really beginning to finally fight back against some of Damian’s nastier moments.

It’s simple, but it works because of that simplicity and fun. The premise is easy to follow and I can easily see a new fan picking this issue up as their first comic and being engaged from start to finish.

And then we even get left on a cliffhanger that is beyond just “uh oh bad guys!” We just learned that Damian’s treatment of Jon and his insistence that they’re “training” is at least partially because Lois is behind it.

Mind. blown. Way to go, Maaaahhhhmmm!!

Art: I have absolutely fallen in love with Jorge Jimenez’s art on this series. It’s so unique and fun. I love how fantastic the colors work with the bright storytelling, the way action scenes really do seem diverse and varied. But most of all I love that it’s just so expressive for Damian and Jon, their adorable faces make a great range of emotion and look endlessly endearing.

Characters & Dialogue: This is mostly Jon-centric, though Damian gets some good moments too. And for Jon, what his character needs and has needed for a while now is confidence and a belief in himself. He wants praise from Damian and other superheroes, but even in the moments where he gets that, it’s clear that his father’s words about needing to help people are at the core of his real desires, and that’s what has carried him this far.

And while I do think that Damian’s prickliness is lovely and a trait which should never go away, it’s honestly really encouraging to know that, for at least this story arc, a good amount of his treatment toward Jon has been revealed to be because he feels responsible for Jon at Lois’ request, and I love that about Damian. It’s a similarly frustrating trait he shares with his father, I must say.

DC’s Wonder Woman (2016-present) #28 Shea Fontana, David Messina, Romulo Fajardo Jr.

Just as I wasn’t really hesitant to call out Rucka’s run on this title, I held nothing back in the last issue when it came to my reservations about the current storyline and whether or not Fontana’s voice would really capture the essence of what had made not only the previous run so great but had made Wonder Woman so great throughout it.

Reservations are gone because I’m officially on board with this run and feel like we have regained the momentum and understanding of Diana’s character that I had dearly missed, specifically her relationships and how much she treasures them to her literal fault. But let’s not give it all away.

Story: Like I’ve said many times before, the midsection of any ongoing storyline is going to be difficult because there’s this real lack of a beginning and ending to it most of the time, and one of the strengths that I praised Greg Rucka for in previous Roundups and reviews on this blog is his ability to know how to make a comic feel like a completed arc of its own while feeding into a greater narrative, which is something of a dying art even among the greats in comic book writing today. While I wouldn’t say there’s necessarily resolution in this issue, Fontana proves that she understands how to make a single issue story work.

Diana has a bounty on her head, something that doesn’t seem to really surprise or upset her that much, as it shouldn’t since not only is she Wonder Woman but she has a bit of a stubbornness to her that is a fairly defining feature. What drives Diana here and therefore the drama of this storyline is actually her guilt over how her presence can endanger others -- an interesting continuation of Steve’s worries back in Wonder Woman: Steve Trevor (2017) I reviewed earlier this year. Not only that, but she has a genuine guilt and fear that she will eventually survive the ones she loves most outside of Themyscira -- Steve, Etta, and assumedly all the other people she has come to cherish.

That’s a far more interesting perspective on Diana’s fears and character than almost any writer has tapped into before and it’s honestly kind of shocking that it’s taken so long for that source of internal conflict to be focused on as it is here.

There’s a lot of levity to subside the emotional turmoil, and of course great action in which both Diana and Etta get great moments. But as I said, as the middle of a story, there’s not really a solid end here so much as a TO BE CONTINUED sorta feel, as to be expected. But I loved the arc we got to see in drama being presented for Diana’s relationship with Etta, it coming out in the open, and them attempting to address it before being interrupted by bullets all within a single issue. Good good work!

Art: I was worried about the art for this run as much as I was about the writing but I am always pleasantly surprised to have my fears proven wrong. because this was some great art. I don’t think the artist worked well with Etta’s hair texture (or knew what to do with her hair in general) and there was at least one panel where the colorist.... unfortunately swapped color palettes on Etta and whitewashed her to Diana’s skin color. It’s stuff I’d hope they would look out for.

I do love the variations in body types and NOSES especially in this issue, though. I always look out for that in comic books, especially ones that feature lots of women and I was incredibly surprised by that. Though I wish so much that Diana would be allowed to have her curls again.

Of course, I’m biased in that account, though.

Characters & Dialogue: Since Diana and Etta’s characters drove the plot for most of this, there’s only a few little moments I want to cover that weren’t mentioned with the story summary. Diana’s compassionate and forgiving nature was consistent throughout -- her mourning of the doctor, her tenderness toward Etta, her fear of endangering others, and even her compassion for the hemophiliac sniper that almost gunned them down.

I love how badass Etta’s allowed to be in her current incarnation, I love that her grudges and anger are not only justified but aren’t minimized or looked down on by Diana even though it’s a huge difference in opinions between them. And I love the comfort she has around Diana and wants to do her best around her as well.

Also I want to thank Fontana for remembering that Diana is vegan, like I just about teared up because holy crap, she GETS it, she GETS Diana.

There was a surprising amount of variation this week, which I hadn’t really been expecting given that the majority were DC books to begin with. But picking favorites is fortunately not hard when you’ve got a Class-A contender in the ring punching my lights out with feels. So for my single issues of the week I have to go with Generations: Wolverine & All-New Wolverine

Between our two trades, I had the most un and joy from reading Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which would seemingly be for super obvious reasons.

But I thought all the comics were great this week and highly recommend you check them out! Of course I’d love to hear back from you – agree with me? Disagree? Think I missed any comics I should’ve picked up? I’d love to hear from you.

Before you go, however, I need to share that I am in a bit of a financial crunch for a multitude of reasons, not the least of which being the medical bills I’m paying for my dog, Eve, who experienced a catastrophic dog fight and underwent surgery just yesterday actually.

As such, I really would appreciate if you enjoy my content or are interested in helping me out, please check out either my Patreon or PayPal. Every bit helps and I couldn’t thank you enough for enjoying and supporting my content.

You could also support me by going to my main blog, @renaroo, where I’ll soon be listing prices and more for art and writing commissions.

RenaRoo Patreon

RenaRoo PayPal

#SPOILERS #Wednesday Spoilers #Rena Roundups #Amazing Spiderman: Renew Your Vows (2016 )#Batwoman (2017 )#Descender (2015 )#Super Sons (2017 )#Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2016 2017)#Marvel Generations #Generations: Wolverine & All New Wolverine (2017)#Justice League of America (2016 )#Gotham City Garage (2017 )

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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 7 years

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Shit I Hate #1: Killing Villains

I love movies. I love superhero movies in particular. These statements should be no surprise to anyone. But like everything I love, these things have a lot of elements that just grind my gears, so I’m making an infrequent series for me to detail my issues in depth. And what better issue to start with than one of my biggest pet peeves with the superhero genre: killing the villain.

Now, comic books have always had wonderful rogues galleries full of insane and creative foes for the heroes to fight; sure, Spider-Man is interesting on his own, but he’s even better when you set him up against someone like Green Goblin, Mysterio, Venom, or Kraven the Hunter. Heroes are only as cool as the villains they fight, basically. And comic book movies have always done a great job of bringing villains to the screen, be they obscure or beloved… the problem is, by film’s end, these villains are typically dead.

Now, this pisses me off for a great many reasons, the chief among them that killing off the rogues gallery tends to spit in the face of the comics; sure, people like Norman Osborn have died before, so him dying is perfectly fine, but when you kill characters like Doctor Octopus, Ronan the Accuser, and the fucking Joker of all people, there’s a big problem. This almost always leads to cases where villains who could have been interesting recurring foes get totally shafted as a best-case scenario (which is the case with characters like Ronan, Joker, Penguin in Batman Returns, Ultron, and so on), or worst case a villain who was boring or poorly developed is not allowed to improve since they are now dad, with Malekith being the worst offender in this regard.

Now, to show you how widespread this issue is, I’m going back to the big kickstarter of this trend, Tim Burton’s Batman, and showing all the major superhero films that did this between then and today. Obviously I’m only going to focus on films that kill a major rogue of one of the main hero.

Batman: Jack Nicholson’s Joker is killed off

Dick Tracy: Almost every antagonistic force in the film is dead by the end.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder dies at the end. I believe this keeps in line with the original comics, but at this point in the franchise Shredder was an established archenemy; it’s a very weird case.

Batman Returns: Penguin and Catwoman are both dead at film’s end, though Catwoman is ambiguous… though she may as well have been dead for all the later appearances she made.

Mask of the Phantasm: One of the few animated films that sort of fall into this, Joker’s fate is rather ambiguous. While he still shows up in the series, this movie almost seems like it’s in its own canon. Again, very weird case.

Batman Forever: Two-Face falls to his death, though Riddler lives; he’s totally insane at this point but it’s still something.

Batman & Robin: As more evidence that this isn’t a terrible movie, none of the major villains die; Ivy and Freeze are both alive and locked up by film’s end, as Batman would do in the comics. Hell, Clooney’s Batman is the only Batman that has not in any way been responsible for the death of one of his foes in some way.

Return of the Joker: Batman’s biggest foe comes back only to be completely erased forever. He dies twice over the course of this film.

X-Men: Magneto is one of the biggest names to avoid this, as he has consistently survived every movie he’s in. Toad and Sabretooth are not quite so lucky here.

Spider-Man: Green Goblin dies, though at least this is in line with the comics and he does impact the whole trilogy. Still counts though, as he was a major antagonist for a long while before his first ‘death.’

Daredevil: This one actually has both Kingpin and Bullseye live; in fact, it is one of the heroes, Elektra, who dies.

X2: X-Men United: Stryker does die in this, as does Lady Deathstrike.

Hellboy: Rasputin dies.

The Punisher: I really shouldn’t have to even list this, because with a guy like Punisher, no villain is coming out alive. This goes for War Zone later on down the line.

Spider-Man 2: Doc Ock is dead by film’s end. At least he didn’t posses Peter’s body.

Batman Begins: While Scarecrow is a notable aversion as he cameos in the following two films, the one DC villain best known for being immortal, Ra’s al-Ghul, dies at the end.

Superman Returns: Proving yet again that this film, while flawed, has the heart and spirit of

Superman right, Lex does not die in this film.

Fantastic Four: Doctor Doom doesn’t die, surprisingly.

X-Men: The Last Stand: Phoenix gets snikt’d by the end. Magneto, however, gets away.

Spider-Man 3: 2 out of 3 villains die, with only Sandman surviving; Venom and Harry Osborn are both dead at film’s end.

Ghost Rider: Blackheart dies, and I’m pretty sure a powerful demon like that doesn’t just die in the comics.

The Dark Knight: In a depressing twist, Joker lives, but Heath Ledger did not. Two-Face plays this straight yet again, dying with very little time to shine.

Iron Man: Interestingly, Iron Monger was originally going to be hinted to have lived. Perhaps he did, but right now everything points to dead.

The Incredible Hulk: Depressingly, every villain lives, but due to issues with distribution rights for Hulk, none of their plotlines have been followed up, meaning Abomination and Leader are in cinematic limbo.

The Spirit: The Octopus dies, which is the least of this film’s problems.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine: Deadpool dies, which is bad enough.

Iron Man 2: Whiplash is dead, but Justin Hammer is in jail. Yay. The lame villain lives.

Captain America: The First Avenger: Red Skull is maybe dead… though it’s not only ambiguous, but highly probable he’s still out there. For now, he’s presumed dead.

Thor: Loki is another notable aversion; he still hasn’t died after appearing in three major films.

X-Men: First Class: Not only does Sebastian Shaw die, but every single villain dies offscreen between this film and the next, which includes Emma Frost and Azazel.

The Amazing Spider-Man: The only thing this movie does right is letting the villain live.

The Avengers: Loki lives, as stated above.

The Dark Knight Rises: Bane and Talia are both dead by the end of the movie.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance: Blackout dies.

Iron Man 3: The Fake Mandarin dies.

Man of Steel: As is well known by now, Superman snaps Zod’s neck, and Zod’s pals don’t fare any better.

Thor: The Dark World: Malekith dies, wasting any potential he may have had.

The Wolverine: Viper and the Silver Samurai both die.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2: In this not-so-amazing sequel, Electro maybe dies. Goblin and Rhino live, however.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier: Arnim Zola may or may not be gone for good; it’s pretty likely he’s still out there, but again, gotta presume him dead. Pierce is definitely dead.

Guardians of the Galaxy: Ronan the Accuser dies.

X-Men: Days of Future Past: Trask doesn’t die, yet another reason this movie is amazing.

Ant-Man: Yellowjacket dies at the end.

Shitastic Fuck: In this turd, Gimp Doom dies.

Avengers: Age of Ultron: Ultron is killed in an ambiguous fashion. Klaw, however, is ok, if down by a hand. Strucker on the other hand… dead. And so is Quicksilver.

Deadpool: Ajax is dead.

Doctor Strange: Kaecilius is probably dead.

Batman v Superman: Luthor is sadly not dead, but Doomsday and KGBeast a re.

Suicide Squad: Enchantress gets killed in the end.

Captain America: Civil War: Zemo is thankfully alive at the end.

X-Men: Apocalypse: Apocalypse is blown apart in the end.

A LOT of these villains are dead, or if not, they never amount to anything ever again. It pisses me off that studios refuse to continuously utilize beloved foes, especially when it ends up going against a heroes code by letting the villain die or killing them themselves. It’s a trend I really hope dies off soon (ha ha).

#Shit I Hate #Supervillains #movies

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thevindicativevordan · 3 years

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On Supergirl

Figured I should put up my thoughts about Kara in the wake of her first film appearance being announced, and the final season of her TV show fast approaching. Short version is: Kara is very cool and DC needs to stop messing with her.

My Introduction to Kara

I was introduced to Kara the way most millennials/Gen Zers were I imagine, via the Loeb Superman/Batman arc which brought the traditional Kara Zor-El Supergirl take into Post-Crisis continuity, after years of DC attempting to have a “Supergirl” without violating the editorial mandate that Kal needed to be the literal “Last Son of Krypton” (an example of one of the dumb ways DC fucked Kara over). Story goes that one day Dan Didio was in line at the Superman ride at Six Flags (I love that ride even though it’s stolen my glasses every time I’ve ridden it, even when I left them in a locker!). The ride had signs that talked about various Superman characters. Didio was reading the entry for Supergirl where it talked about her not being Clark’s cousin but instead some weird merge of alien shapeshifter, angel, and human girl, and he realized how fucking stupid that was, and he went back to the office and told Loeb to bring Kara back.

Years later I would also be standing in line at the Six Flags Superman ride (probably at a different park location but who knows?) as a youngster and would read the new Supergirl sign that trumpeted that Superman had a cousin who shared all his powers, an update reflecting the new Loeb origin. I thought she sounded pretty cool, made a note to see if my library had any Supergirl stories next time I visited, then got on the Superman ride and promptly lost my glasses like an idiot because I wanted to take them off while I was riding and pretend I was changing from my “disguise” into Superman mid flight. My dad grounded me for this afterwards, but it gave me a funny story to tell at family get togethers and isn’t that what Six Flags is all about?

A month later (and with spiffy new glasses), my mom dropped me off at a new library next to where she worked, and they had one of the best Superman collections I’ve ever seen to this day. I was in heaven and while reading every Superman book I could find (I couldn’t check them out because I didn’t have a card, my mom’s card didn’t cover the area the library was in, and my mom wouldn’t have checked them out anyway since comics were “too violent”), I found the trade collecting Kara’s new origin. I read it and I thought both she and Superman were really cool, and Batman was a punk who had to beat Darkseid by cheating, the loser. Turner’s art to my young eyes was the best I had ever seen, and the panels got engraved into my brain.

I still get downright nostalgic whenever I see Turner Superman or Supergirl stuff. I also got my parents to rent the animated movie adaption of the Superman/Batman arc from Blockbuster (remember those?), and that sealed the deal. Seeing Kara hold her own against Darkseid convinced me she was as cool as her cousin. Next time my mom dropped me off at the library next to her workplace, I went looking for Supergirl stuff to read. I found the first volume of her new volume by Joe Kelly taking place after the Loeb arc and dove in.

It was... weird. 5 years later I might have enjoyed it but at the time I was majorly put off. Kara took a secret identity for a day and then ditched it because it was “stupid” and the kids bullied her. She was always getting into fights with Kal, and there was this weird plot that I couldn’t follow about how her dad had sent her to kill Kal, maybe or maybe not? Also she could grow crystals which I thought was dumb, and said she was stronger than her cousin which I couldn’t buy for a second given he looked like he was carved out of marble, and she looked like she relied on sunlight instead of food. I put the volume back on the shelf and kinda gave up on reading the character after that for a while.

I followed her via the DC wiki updates just like I did Superman, and everything I read seemed dumb and convoluted. She was split in two, moped around a lot, made out with an alternate version of her cousin, and basically just flopped about the same way the rest of the Superfamily did during the 00s. Nothing made me think I had made a mistake dropping Kara until I read the latest update to her wiki page.

I was super into what I was reading about the Busiek/Johns era of Superman online. Lex was back and making a big revenge scheme that involved all the other Rogues! Old Superman Rogues were getting revamped and made cool again! Johns reintroduced Brainiac and made him a big threat, with Kal and Kara teaming up to fight him! Busiek was revamping Prankster and telling big ambitious Superman stories! For the first time in a long while, the consensus on the Internet was that Superman was good again. My “home” library had zero Marvel books and no Superman or Batman books, all their DC stuff was Flash or Green Lantern, mainly written by Johns. Insane to think back on now. My hopes that because Johns was involved with Superman, Superman books would show up at my library were fulfilled. They started bringing in Busiek and Johns collections, and someone there also ordered Sterling Gates’ first volume of Supergirl, and I checked everything out since I was old enough to have my own library card, and my parents were worried more about the violent video games I was playing rather than comics.

I read everything and loved it. I also really liked Gates’ take on Kara. She was still an imperfect teenager but she wasn’t insufferably angsty or constantly fighting with Kal. She was going to give the secret identity another try and Lana had “adopted” her. It’s funny remembering how I enjoyed all that given my current thoughts on how Kara should work, but it was great at the time. I liked Gates introducing new foes for Kara, some classic Superman Rogues adapted for her like Bizzarogirl, others crafted specifically for her like Reactron. Gates’ basically rekindled my enjoyment of Kara the same way Busiek & Johns rekindled my enjoyment of Superman.

Of course it ended terribly like everything Superman-related seems to.

I’ve got a whole post I want to do about New Krypton and what came after. In short that is the most blatant example of “hitting the reset button” that I’ve ever seen. All the potential got wasted, and afterwards everything except Lex’s Action Comics stuff just didn’t appeal to me. Gates got booted off Kara for Nick Spencer who ended up leaving himself later, a promising Teen Titans line-up with Kara on it didn’t happen, and the last proper Pre-Flashpoint Superfamily story was a crappy team-up with Doomsday against Bigger Doomsday (thank God for Cornell’s final Luthor/Superman confrontation at least). When news of the reboot arrived, I was honestly happy. The Superline needed an enema.

Controversial opinion time: I liked New 52 Supergirl. It’s weird because a lot of the stuff I hated about Kelly’s run was here, and a lot of the stuff I loved about the Gates’ run was not. This was angry, moody, emotional Kara again, fighting with Kal and not fond of Earth. But I was in my teens at this point, and I didn’t want happy go-lucky Superman or Supergirl. I wanted my heroes angry, scared of the future, ready to go out there and smash some cars. Morrison’s Action Comics was 100% my jam (still is once I really understood the deeper meaning beneath the work) and this Kara felt like a natural fit for this universe. Plus we got Asrar on art and that guy made it damn pretty to look at, lots of cool science fiction stuff going on, even with the dumb H’el storyline.

I loved all the new Rogues Kara got. I loved her new Fortress under the ocean. I loved how traumatized she was by the loss of Krypton, that she wanted more than anything to go home, that her cousin was like a stranger to her since they had been apart for so long. I found all of that incredibly relatable. A lot of the New 52 Supergirl stories might have been schlock but it was my type of schlock damnit, and I enjoyed it!

I kept with her New 52 series all the way through the Red Daughter Saga (which I loved). As someone who grew up on Johns GL (since that was the only comics my home library had), seeing a Supercharacter join a Lantern Corp was the hypest thing ever. I loved the finale about Kara finally letting go of her anger and losing the ring while smashing her foe into the sun, it was incredibly cathartic for me as an angry teen myself. I finally stopped following her series sometime after since I was no longer enjoying the Superline or really DC as a whole. It wasn’t until I heard that New 52 Superman died and the “old” Superman was back, that I checked back into DC.

DC Rebirth & How I Think Kara Should Work

I did not enjoy Supergirl Rebirth, and I think I’ll talk about my problems with it alongside how I think Kara as a character should work since the two are related. A pet peeve of mine that has formed over the years is this: I don’t like it when Superfamily members get turned into Clark clones. Kon wearing glasses and going to Smallville High. Kara going to high school and being involved in journalism. Jon more or less being written as a copy of his dad personality-wise. I hate that kind of stuff because it’s boring. What’s the point of a Superfamily if everyone is just copying Clark? It also doesn’t fit the characters especially in Kara’s case. Why the hell does she want to be a journalist? Were there journalists on Krypton? I don’t remember ever seeing one! Shouldn’t she want to be, I dunno, a scientist? That seems to have been the El family tradition, wouldn’t she have been groomed for that?

This one-off by Shea is honestly the only acceptable outcome for Kara going into journalism for me. She realizes she’s just copying her cousin and switches to something she wants to do. So Orlando copying the show, which already basically turned Kara into an expy of her cousin, just did not appeal to me at all. What had worked for me under Gates way back when was not clicking for me this time. I wanted to see Kara embody the principles of the S-shield in a different way than her cousin did. So I really enjoyed when Rebirth ended and we moved into the Bendis era with Andrekyo relaunching the title as Kara in space.

Kara in space has always felt like a good fit for me. Unlike Kal I’ve come to believe that Kara really shouldn’t be all that fond of Earth. For him it’s home, but for her it’s just where she ended up after her real home got destroyed. I think Kara works well as a sort of nomad, occasionally making stops back home to Earth to check on her cousin, but otherwise? She’s more comfortable out in space than she could ever be on Earth. Out in space she can be Kryptonian (which is what she should think of herself as in contrast to Clark being torn between his Kryptonian biology and human upbringing, and Jon/Kon identifying as human), be her true self, not have to pretend to be human to fit in. Kara founding a moon refuge was one of the best ideas for her that I’ve seen, I would love if DC made her Future State refugee center on the moon canon. I’m excited for more Kara adventures in space with the upcoming Tom King story.

Also love that her and Krypto are getting tied together, if they don’t want to use Krypto in Superman’s stuff, let her have him! Bring on cosmic adventurer Supergirl!

Personality & Other Traits

Kara to me should be more hot-tempered than her cousin. All the Superfamily members should have a temper in my opinion, I see that as the “Deadly Sin” of Superman and his family. But while Kal is like a simmering pot that will explode if it’s left cooking for too long, Kara is like dynamite. Light her fuse at your own peril because she will go off on you.

I also like the idea of Kara being rash. Kal’s got a maturity that came from over a decade of having to live with Lex Luthor constantly getting away with all his evil schemes. He’s patient because he’s been forced to be. Kara? If you ask for her help she’ll give it, but beware because she doesn’t really care about the long term impacts of her decisions. She’s an invulnerable teenager after all.

Really liked that Venditti Annual where Kara got tutored in history by a reincarnation of Hawkman. Kara having a passion for history is a neat trait, would be nice to see her teach Kal or Jon some Kryptonian lore, or have her lead a Kryptonian holiday celebration for the Superfamily because she’s the only one who remembers how to do it.

Sexuality wise I know a lot of people ship Kara and Lena on account of the chemistry between the two in the show. I haven’t watched the show myself but I’m fine with making Kara bisexual, the Superfamily could use some LGBT+ rep, and Lena hasn’t done anything of worth as a villain, so undo that and throw the two together. If we’re letting Harley and Ivy get away with murder I think we can let Lena off the hook too, undo the Ultrawoman weirdness and put the two together. Could be fun seeing the two building that moon refuge together.

All in all I think Kara is a great character who is a stronger embodiment of the immigrant experience than even her cousin in some ways. I hope King does a good job with her, she’s treated better than her cousin on the film side, and that overall the 20s are a better decade for Supergirl than the 10s were.

#supergirl #superman #lena luthor #krypto #dc comics

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culturejunkies · 4 years

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Titans: So much wasted potential

By Kenshiro

Naturally, i expect this opinion of mine to be met with some angry reacts because we live in a world where opposing opinions are not welcome, but I can’t contain my utter frustration over what could’ve been an incredible experience from beginning to end. Of course, everyone’s mileage will very, and not everyone will have the same level of expectations, but DC’s Titans: Season Two ultimately fell short for me in all the predictable ways possible.

The season started off strong…and by start I do not mean the season opening episode. That episode actually belongs in Season One, so i’ll leave it there. I was very enthralled by the setup episode of Titans Season Two. I felt like the story beats they were setting up were finally pushing us in a direction that would get us to the Titans we all know from the comic book runs of legendary writer/artist George Perez and superstar writer Geoff Johns. Johns, who serves as Executive Producer on Titans, is one of my favorite comic writers of the last 20 years so I just knew his influence would lead us to some cool superhero action along with a tight narrative plot that would delve deeper into what makes the Titans a family.

Color me disappointed! This is not at all what I was expecting.

When the 4th episode came around, an episode delving into the team’s past, I was starting to notice a slight pattern that irked me a little. This season had a definite pacing problem that either arose from too many plot points to write for, too many characters needing attention or some combination in-between. Episodes would end on these GREAT cliffhangers (many of which oddly, had to do with Robin/Jason Todd needing to be rescued) and then the momentum would suddenly be stunted by them shifting focus to a flashback episode or focusing on a new/different character. It was jarring! Granted, binging the episodes back-to-back may help stifle some of that feeling, but Titans is a weekly streamed show, so it really hit every time it happened.

One of the only times we saw this in season and it was a damn flashback!

Can you call yourselves crime-fighters…if you never fight any crime?

This is probably the most irksome detail I noticed about this season. I was willing to give them a pass last season due to it being a rookie show trying to find its legs, but midway through this season I’d reached my breaking point!�� Titans exist in a world where it is fully established that the Titans are publicly recognized crime fighting vigilante teams. People know who they are, and supposedly what they are known for, which is fighting bad guys and saving the day. THIS SHOW HAS NONE OF THAT.

I can count 6 instances where the team gets together and fights crime or the bad guy. Starfire and Wonder Girl vs. Shimmer, Dove fighting the dudes in a garage meth lab, the old heads facing Dr. Light for the first time, another time against Dr. Light to take him down, the old Titans team defeating carjackers, and then one more time when Dick and Starfire teamed up to rescue Jason from Deathstroke. All of those instances happen within the first 4 proper episodes of the season. Perhaps I am expecting too much, but the season set up the young Titans in Titans Tower with Dick training them for “The Life”, but they never see any action in the field at all. Much of the crime-fighting takes place out of costume and/or in a flashback scene. This show is about a superhero crime-fighting team…why not show it? Probably because they’re too busy with my next gripe.

These People Are NOT Likeable. Like Not At ALL.

Run down the list of every character on the show, with the exception of probably Jericho, Starfire and Superboy since he’s mostly a blank slate, and you can find an almost irritating quality amongst all of them. Hank is an irredeemable asshole. Dick is a utterly complete idiot who seemingly learned ZERO from being with Batman for years, Donna is kind of a icy bitch, before and AFTER she slept with Aqualad, Dawn is a nice girl who puts up with the biggest asshole for some unknown reason and definitely deserves better. Tiger Boy…well he’s given nothing to do except maul people and be mostly annoying otherwise. Raven, who admittedly grew on me a little bit early on, has gone full-on brat mode as the season went on. It all starts up top though, and that’s Dick Grayson.

The prison subplot was a very out-of-character way to spark a Nightwing origin, and made even less sense on its surface.

He does some incredibly head-scratching, mind-numbingly dumb things over the course of this season and in the revelations of his past that make him pretty hard to cheer for. His characterization wavers from mopey erstwhile leader of a part-time special individuals babysitters club to a dude who makes some questionable decisions in the idiotic attempt to serve penance for past transgressions. They spend so much time bitching about things that never should’ve come about had they practiced even a smidgen of common sense that it takes you out of the enjoyment of the show. Its Season Two and it still feels like they are trying to find their legs in exactly what this show wants to be. That’s not a great sign in my book. Similar shows like Daredevil, Watchmen, The Punisher or even sister-show Doom Patrol don’t require this long to get to the heart of what it wants to be! Either get a new show runner or hire some much better writers!

It’s Not All Bad. I expected so much better though!

Esai Morales has been so unbelievably excellent as Slade Wilson/Deathstroke this season. I wasn’t too sure what to expect when he was cast, but dude has knocked it way out of the park in this season. All the story parts involving him, were great and I had hoped the show would focus on him as the focal point, but they couldn’t help but squeeze in the god-awful Cadmus Labs story line, something that honestly could’ve waited until next season. The subplot of Starfire’s destiny as crown Princess of Tameran was also intriguing. She was one of the best parts of Season One and Anna Diop, with better costuming in tow, killed it this season too. I’m very much looking forward to her plot line developing with Blackfire next season. Jason Todd really grew on me this season. The subplot of the budding romance of he and Rose Wilson was definitely a high-point…much more believable than any of the forced attempts for Raven and Gar. Don’t know what’ll shake out for next season, but watch it for that if you haven’t yet.

So while Titans started off pretty promising for me, ahead of the season finale tomorrow on DC Universe, ultimately I’m left feeling disappointed by the heights that were teased in earlier episodes. I’m hoping that Season Three proves to be the one we’ve always hoped the show would be, but right now, its not hitting the mark in fulfilling its lofty potential.

#DC Comics #DC Entertainment #DC Universe #Recap #Titans #TV

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the-desolated-quill · 5 years

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Luther 5x04 - Luther blog (So... now what?)

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. If you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

I’m extremely annoyed. Yes it’s because of the ending and no it’s not because Alice is dead. In fact that was the one bit I actually liked, believe it or not, but we’ll get to that later. For now let’s discuss the fifty eight minutes leading up to it.

So the hitman that killed Benny in the previous episode has kidnapped Alice and Mark, using them as a way to lure Luther to him. First up I’m irritated that Alice has once again been made the role of damsel in distress like she was in the Series 3 finale. I’m sorry, but she deserves better than that, thank you. Also, poor Mark North! His return in the previous episode was a pleasant surprise, but Neil Cross has done absolutely nothing with him. Paul McGann is brilliant as ever, of course, but he has no good material to work with. You could have replaced him with a lamp or a prize Yorkshire terrier and it wouldn’t have made a difference. What a waste of great talent!

Same goes for Wunmi Mosaku has DS Halliday. Over the course of this series, we’ve learned precisely nothing about her and she and Luther have never spent any significant amount of time with each other to truly bond. Her main role in the story seems to be to cover for Luther while he goes AWOL and to get killed by Alice so that it would give Luther something to be pissed off about in the last five minutes.

A lot of the problems in this series stems from Cross trying to juggle all of these plot points around like a one armed clown that has gotten too ambitious for their own good. The initial premise of a creepy murderer/sex fetishist and his scheming, malevolent wife has often been pushed to the side to make way for increasingly convoluted story threads that seem to be picked up and discarded more times than a TV series adaptation of Constantine. Even the whole hitman plot is resolved within the first fifteen minutes. Rather than doing what the hitman wants, Luther just goes to George Cornelius and the two of them just go and kill him. So what was the bloody point of any of that? (Of course this comes back into play later on, but we’ll come to that).

Anyway, with Vivian in police custody, Jeremy is now completely unshackled and free to hammer as many nails into as many corpses as he likes. Except he doesn’t do that. He instead plays ‘Happy Families.’ No, not like the card game. He instead kills the teacher who witnessed the murder in the first episode and from her house hires everyone from plumbers to escorts to come round so he can kill them and stick masks of his own face onto them. I swear this guy changes MOs like Warner Bros changes their DC movie schedule. I get that this is a power thing, but that’s not what was driving him initially. He was having these uncontrollable urges because of his job as a heart surgeon and was encouraged by his wife to kill people as a form of sexual release. It was never about displaying strength. It was about managing weakness. As creepy as ‘Happy Families’ is, it doesn’t really fit with what’s been established about him before. And when did he get the time to make masks of his own face?

Vivian on the other hand has been a really strong character throughout this series and I love how she’s outsmarted in the end. She of course has been entirely complicit with her husband’s actions, but is claiming she was merely a reluctant accomplice trying to rescue Jeremy, sticking to her story that she was trying to save the kidnapped woman from the previous episode, as opposed to disposing of her. However Luther picks up on the dynamics of their relationship and uses it to his advantage. Whereas Vivian wanted to keep the killings private for the sake of her career, Jeremy was always very public about his obsessions, allowing it to bleed into his work life. Turned out Jeremy had been keeping records of their crimes for years, written in code so that his wife wouldn’t realise what he was doing. This was such a satisfying moment and that dawning realisation on her face, that her husband had dropped her in the shit, was just absolutely priceless. Both Idris Elba and Hermione Norris were outstanding during this interrogating scene and Dr. Vivian Lake is without a doubt the highlight of Series 5.

So Vivian is convicted and Jeremy is captured, which leads to one last plot thread to take care of. Alice Morgan and George Cornelius. I have to say the final confrontation between Alice and Luther was extremely gripping, well written and exceptionally performed by Elba and, in particular, Ruth Wilson, with many callbacks to their first encounter in the first series. We see Alice grow increasingly desperate as she realises that she no longer has any control over Luther and as the scene goes on, you slowly realise that there was only one way this was going to end. With either one or both of them dying. Yes that was a surprise, seeing Alice fall to her death, but I felt it was good decision on Neil Cross’ part as it allowed their story to come full circle. It would have been a good ending not just for the series, but potentially the entire show itself. Luther ends the same way he began. Staring down a big hole with the body of his arch-nemesis lying at the bottom. Very poetic.

That’s how it should have ended... but then the last two minutes went and spoiled it.

Schenk finds out Benny is dead as well as discovering the body of the hitman. Naturally he assumes George Cornelius did it, so he goes to arrest him, only to then be presented of a photo of Luther holding a gun (bearing in mind that while Luther did shoot at the hitman, it was George that fired the killing shot). At which point he toddles off and arrests Luther for murder, even stripping off his tweed coat for symbolism’s sake, and our weary hero gets taken away in handcuffs. The end.

Okay. Let me explain why this pissed me off so much. First of all, this is the third time we’ve seen this happen. Luther being framed for a murder he didn’t commit. It’s just boring and unimaginative at this point. Second, it just feels incredibly forced, trying to build up hype for a Luther movie or a potential series 6, And third is what this does to Schenk.

Now I like Schenk. He’s a great character and Dermot Crowley has always given an extremely good performance. What makes Schenk stand out for me is how his character is presented in the context of the show. When we were first introduced to him in Series 1, he was the head of complaints investigating Luther, and Luther’s reaction to his first appearance spoke volumes. Luther has made many enemies within the police department during his career, but Schenk was the only one he was ever actually intimidated by. And the reason for this was because Schenk is a bloody good detective, and the show justifies this. In the first series finale, Schenk was the first one to realise something wasn’t quite right and realise that Ian Reed had framed Luther for Zoe’s murder. Also the dialogue between Luther and Schenk implied a kind of mutual respect between them that we’ve never really seen with any of the other coppers Luther has worked with. In other words, Schenk is not an idiot. He’s a great detective in his own right and, above all, he knows Luther. He knows him and respects him enough to give him the benefit of the doubt.

This episode feels like an utter betrayal of his character because in order for the final cliffhanger to work, Schenk has to be an idiot. What proof is there that Luther killed the hitman? A photo. There could be any number of reasons for that. The gun could have belonged to the hitman and he picked it up. It could have been self defence. And it doesn’t discount the fact that there’s CCTV footage of George Cornelius pulling a gun on the hitman. So doesn’t it seem more likely that george was the one that killed the hitman? Also Schenk knows Luther and knows this isn’t the first time he’s been framed for something like this. Surely he must know by now that Luther would never do such a thing. Okay, Halliday gets shot minutes after Schenk instructs her to bring Luther back for questioning, but considering he knows Alice Morgan is back and later finds her body lying at the bottom of a hole, doesn’t it seem more likely that Alice killed her and Luther attempted to make an arrest? (which is what actually happened). But surely the biggest giveaway should be that when Schenk does find Luther, he’s injured with several gun and knife wounds, again all pointing toward self defence.

Now look, I’m not saying Luther is squeaky clean, because obviously he fucking isn’t, but there’s more evidence to suggest Luther’s innocence than his guilt. In a court of law, guilt must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. There’s more doubt here than at a scientific conference hosted by Dr Oz. It’s just utterly moronic and it really pissed me off.

In a way Series 5 represents the best and worst aspects of the show. There’s some great ideas, great character moments and superb performances, but also an abundance of overly convoluted plotting, poor pacing and moments of utter stupidity, all culminating in a massive cock-tease cliffhanger that does more to annoy than entice. If Luther does come back for another series, I confess I won’t be in that much of a hurry to watch it after this.

#luther 5x04 #luther #idris elba #neil cross #bbc #review #spoilers

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theconservativebrief · 6 years

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Dan Nosowitz was scrolling through Instagram when he saw it: an ad for a cooking device whose sole function was to heat up raclette cheese.

“I had to click through because I had no idea what it actually was,” he explains. “Finding out that an algorithm believed I would be interested in a discount ‘traditional Swiss-style electric cheese melter’ is sort of comfortably bumbling. It’s like watching a Roomba bonk into a wall.”

Whether the humor inherent in the ad comes from the fact that the gadget is so oddly specific, or because raclette is an incredibly high-maintenance cheese and therefore hardly a common grocery item for most people, is difficult to say. What we do know, however, is that the complicated set of algorithms that serve targeted ads on social media are the most brutal, most incisive owns of our time.

In Nosowitz’s case, he figures he likely saw the raclette warmer because he’s a food writer who Amazon surely knows has previously browsed cooking tools on its site. That’s because Amazon, Facebook, Instagram, and the rest of the internet track your every keystroke and will then use your history to show you things they think will make them money. So it’s no wonder that it feels so deeply personal when we get targeted ads for, say, “dressy sweatpants,” colonoscopies, underwear whose selling point is that they are easy to take off, preparing for your own funeral, or, somehow the biggest attack of all: tickets to Jagged Little Pill: The Musical.

The simplest explanation for why targeted ads are so creepily intimate: Your phone, your computer, and the internet in general contain a gargantuan amount of information about you. Google, for instance, knows essentially every website you have ever gone to in your life, and thanks to geolocation can tell where you live, where you work, and where you’ve traveled and when. Credit card companies know what you buy, and the brands that sell those items can use that data to predict the things you’ll buy in the future — in Target’s case, it can tell that you’re pregnant before even your family knows.

There are ways to prevent at least some of this, but the more the internet entrenches itself in our lives, the more difficult and time-consuming it is to opt out. The consequences are, of course, potentially democracy-shattering. For our purposes here, however, the thing in danger of being shattered is our self-esteem.

Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, who has written a book on how the internet uses your data, has himself experienced the strangeness of being targeted by a Facebook ad for hair loss cream despite never having posted anything about balding.

“It was a little like being in a Seinfeld episode,” he explains. “I had never worried about my hair and always thought hair products were a total waste of money. And now I had to wonder, ‘Am I crazy? Should I actually be taking a product for hair loss?’” (He, however, ended up deducing that it was probably because two-thirds of men start losing their hair by the time they’re 35, and that the ad simply targeted all men around that age.)

I just got a Facebook ad for hair loss product. Are they using my pictures to figure out I am balding? I am pretty sure there is no other way, using my internet behavior, for them to know that.

— Seth Stephens-Davidowitz (@SethS_D) March 29, 2018

Facebook, undoubtedly the platform with the worst and most prolific targeted ads, said in a memo this April that while it allows companies to target their ads to users that fit a certain profile, it keeps users’ actual identities private from them.

But companies are able to target specific people by other means, namely through sending Facebook a list of emails, which Facebook can then use to find associated accounts. If you’ve ever bought anything from, say, Urban Outfitters, the brand could use the email you used to either make the purchase online or the one you gave at the checkout counter to specifically target you. And if you happened to be browsing Glossier.com, while still logged into Facebook, you might return to the social media app to find ads for Boy Brow.

Plus, the blog post doesn’t mention the fact that marketers can take advantage of your data that isn’t simply demographic — it theoretically could, for instance, reach users who seem to match a specific personality type or emotional state, thereby taking advantage of already vulnerable people. So ads for funeral preparations or musicals about mid-’90s female angst could be more than just a coincidence and instead referendums on your actual current mood.

The most horrific item I have ever seen in a targeted Facebook ad was a sweatshirt emblazoned with a bunch of Celtic knots that implied the superiority of having “Jennings blood.” Ignoring the possible white supremacist connotations, the ad was ironic mostly because you can buy the exact same sweatshirt replaced with literally any last name that sounds vaguely Irish and about a zillion other versions, too. “God made the strongest and named them Rubin,” reads one. “Never underestimate the power of a person with name’s Brooke,” shouts another, despite the fact that this sentence does not make sense.

It’s obvious why this specific ad showed up on my feed: Facebook knows that my last name is Jennings, and marketers can easily target users with such information. What’s more complicated is how the hell all those last names ended up on a sweatshirt.

To be clear, they didn’t. The reason so many T-shirts and sweatshirts with oddly specific phrases is because online clothing companies have tasked algorithms with the heavy lift of actually filling in the specifics and photoshopping those results onto digital images of clothing. The sweatshirts themselves don’t physically exist until you hit “purchase.”

Michael Fowler had been in the T-shirt business for 20 years before creating a simple computer code that would change his life in 2011. It took a common phrase, such as “Kiss Me, I’m a [blank],” compiled hundreds of thousands of words from digital dictionaries, created a list of phrase variations using those words, and then generated images of T-shirts with each phrase. According to The Hustle, Fowler’s company went from just 1,000 T-shirts that were designed by actual humans to more than 22 million code-generated ones. Through targeted Facebook ads, he was eventually able to sell 800 a day.

Unfortunately, his success was not the reason Fowler would make international headlines. Two years later his algorithm was responsible for shirts that read “Keep calm and rape a lot,” among other disturbing and misogynistic variations on the famous World War II slogan. Fowler said he had no knowledge of the items, and in fact, they’d been available for more than a year before anyone noticed. But even though he quickly deleted the offending shirts, his company still ended up folding.

Robot-written word salad T-shirts, however, have managed to become one of the internet’s purest inside jokes. On the subreddit r/TargetedShirts, members share the most egregious versions they come across, be they weirdly antagonistic (“Walk away, this forklift operator has anger issues and a serious dislike of stupid people”), uncomfortably sexual (“I don’t need therapy, I just need to get f#ed in public by fourteen werewolves”), birthday month-related (“Never underestimate an old man who is also an air force veteran and was born in November”), or utterly nonsensical (“Good girls go to heaven, January girl go hunting with Dean”).

The sub even has its own parody versions, like “These titties are protected by a skinny white guy in his mid-thirties who wears DC shoes, yells at me in public and is addicted to percs who was born in February,” or “Only heros with an IQ of 121, work as a pizza delivery driver, have 3 spoons of sugar in their coffee and love reptiles & mice, were born in March by C-section 2 weeks before their due date.”

Its founder, David Moreno, launched the subreddit just ten months ago, but it already has more than 40,000 subscribers. He explained to Vox that the first time he saw a targeted ad, back in 2011 or 2012, “it did fuck with my brain for a while because it had my last name and month of birth and at the time I didn’t realize what was going on.”

These days, however, the practice makes sense to him. “Funnily enough, I work in marketing, so while it might seem like a desperate strategy, it is actually a very good way to target a very specific group of people without spending too much cash,” he said.

The best versions, of course, are the ones seen in the wild. The sub is often populated by surreptitiously photographed people in the offending shirts, like this one, with comments that lightly roast the wearer. They’re the best because they are the saddest — the catalog of folks who were not only owned by the algorithm, but scammed by it.

That’s the other part of what it’s like to see a hyper-targeted ad for something incredibly on-brand: sometimes they read us more clearly than any actual humans. This is an inherently depressing thought, considering that this is sort of the job of the people we love and the society we live in. But the more intimate our phones and our data become in our lives, it might increasingly be the case.

The prevailing cynical attitude towards targeted ads — tweets that say things like, “i just got an ad for preparing for your own funeral, what are you trying to say to me youtube” — can sort of be compared to the FBI agent meme of the past year and a half or so. The idea is that every internet user has their own personal agent monitoring their behavior through their devices, but instead of this being incredibly creepy, the joke is that the agent acts as a friend or frustrated mentor to the subject.

me: (sitting back down on my bed with a bowl of chips ready to binge a new series) hey so what does “fbi” stand for anyway

fbi agent inside my computer: uh Faraway.. Buddy.. Insideyourcomputer

me: cool. so what do u wanna watch next

fbi agent: i heard grace and frankie is fun

— jonny sun (@jonnysun) February 1, 2018

A Mashable article earlier this year explored the surprising poignance of the meme: “The agent wants the best for their subject,” writes its author Chloe Bryan. “The narrator, conscious of how boring their life must be to observe, tries to entertain the FBI agent. They have pleasant conversations. They develop a forbidden friendship. They become quiet, lightly subversive allies.”

In both cases, we’re taking our deepest technological anxieties — that the internet stores and sells our data and that the government is spying on us — and turning them into lighthearted jokes. Which is fair! It’s a lot more fun to pretend Big Data is actually just there to dunk on our most embarrassing shopping habits instead of manipulating U.S. elections or contributing to the rising wealth of the world’s richest people.

Which means there will probably come a day when an ad on Instagram for an enormous cheese-warming gadget targeted specifically to a person using a complex set of his internet data will no longer be funny. But we may as well laugh while it still is.

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Original Source -> The joy and horror of targeted Facebook ads

via The Conservative Brief

#IFTTT #The Conservative Brief

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canvaswolfdoll · 6 years

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CanvasWatches: The Marvel Cinematic Universe

That’s right, I am reviewing the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe in a single, definitive essay! Why would I, a single, brave and foolhardy man dare tackle such a task?

Because I can’t actually be bothered to write about most of the films individually.

The usual reason I write these reviews is to shine a light on media that lacks a wide appeal and does something interesting with its storytelling. I want to write stories, and studying the works of others is a good way to do that.

Now, I like the Marvel Cinematic Universe quite a lot. There somethings I’d like to be done a little differently, and I do dislike how it’s becoming increasingly locked with continuity so you have to pretty much watch the whole thing as a 19-part film series, but it executes on its promises.

Point is, I watched Avengers: Infinity War after dedicating a significant amount of time catching up on the films.

I also realized that by ranking the films, you can get a good approximation on a person’s narrative preferences.

So I’ll give a quick blurb on the films before listing them.

So enough forwarding, let’s go through these films. Spoilers, obviously.

To be fair, there’s a rift part way through. I started my catch-up with The Winter Soldier, so it’s been years since I watched anything before that. I’ll mark the rift and preemptively admit that early films may deserve better than I give.

Iron Man

The film that started it all, much to everyone’s excitement. It’s probably the most conventional superhero film of the series, but it did it’s job very well.

The Incredible Hulk

The most forgettable film. Very little carried over from it, to the point that it might as well no longer be canon.

Iron Man 2

Starts putting the work into actually building the MCU, but the story itself is one of the weakest.

Thor

I actually really liked Thor. Seems to usually be considered one of the lesser films, but I liked the fish out of water narrative, Thor himself is very charismatic, and Loki remains one of the MCU’s better written villains.

It also begins to establish that Thor has the potential for strong comedy. Just takes them a while to finally realize the potential.

Really, my biggest gripe is the ‘Norse Magic is just highly advanced technology’ angle that poisoned magic for so long. I like fantasy, and I really like how Superhero universes throw genres into a blender to make a colorful Speculative Fiction smoothie. Let magic be magic!

Captain America: The First Avenger

The subtitle’s a bit egregious, but this is my favorite of the phase one films. Good period piece, good hero, and the Red Skull is a level of pulpy villain I want more of.

The Avengers

So I seem to be one of the few who think this film was just okay. A landmark of shared universe films, yes, but I found the story wanting. Just a bunch of set up to fight aliens in New York, but nothing I feel I could sink my teeth into. It’s fine.

Iron Man 3

Another unexciting film. Tony Stark keeps learning the same ‘be a better person’ lesson, and I’m tired of it.

The Mandarin Twist was killer, though. The sort of playing with lore the series needs to take advantage of. The films are… let’s call it a dusty slate. There’s a lot of toys to play with, and expectations for how to use them, but it’s a chance to take a deep breath and streamline things. Incidentally, racism is a great topic to iron out while we’re here.

Thor: The Dark World

Yeah, not even I can defend this one. I liked the set designs. But Christopher Eccleston is wasted.[1] The plot was muddy. Jane Foster[2] twisted the knife in the corpse of Asgard Magic.

I actually did want to give this movie a rewatch, but it wasn’t checked in to the library when I started the undertaking, and I recalled it being unimpressive in the theaters. Good opening fight scene, though.

The Rift (Oooh, scary)

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Not one of my favorites. Winter Soldier seems to be very well regarded, but both times I watched it, I found myself bored. It takes itself way too seriously for a Comic Book Movie, and it's very heavy on action scenes built around gun firing and punching that I don't enjoy.

The plot is built on a relatively subdued premise, questioning political corruption and monitoring the citizenry. There's also no grandiose villain.

Winter of Soldier fails to feel larger than life, and besides affirming Steve Rogers’ dedication to Bucky, it doesn't feel like it left much of an impact on the universe. So it falls short on my personal list.

Guardians of the Galaxy

Ah, finally, the movies are cutting loose. About time.

Guardians of the Galaxy is fun. Can't we just have fun? Yes. And we should.

Actual color design, fresh and exciting cast, fantastical setting, and actually making the bland villain work by having Ronan be essentially a force of nature instead of a person.

Also a soundtrack so distinctive it’s a calling card as good as Captain America’s shield. And it stands on its own legs, while all the previous films pretty much used the mounting lore as scaffolding.

And it’s just fun. It makes me smile and want to watch it again soon after watching.

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Sigh.

So, first viewing I couldn’t maintain focus. Second viewing, I could focus on Ultron’s scenes through the second act before it all goes blurry.

There’s too many characters. I’m not sure I can even give any reasonable summary of the plot. A bunch of dull, shakey cam fight scenes, the entire cast taken to their blandest characterization, and just… ugh.

Also, Ultron is supposed to be a Pym creation. He looks like a bug. This makes no sense.

The worst part is later films keep referring to the events of Age of Ultron like anyone could comprehend what happened.

I’m even putting it below The Dark World, because that one at least had some interesting visual and notable scenes.

Ant-Man

A superhero heist film.

Goofy characters and witty dialogue.

Fight scenes I enjoy.

I really like Ant-Man. It’s a good origin film, the heroes are all the right sort of dingy white to make them likeable and interesting.

And it finally helped me realize what I want from combat: visual clarity, inventive choreography, and originality.[3] Because of the gimmick of shrinking and growing, the camera needs to actually frame the scenes to show off scale. And playing with scale also makes the fights interesting, since you never fully know what will come into play and how.

Also, I just enjoy heist films. The more ridiculous the better.

Captain America: Civil War

Sorry, but I’m on team ‘This is Avengers 2.5’. But, in that light, still notably better than previous team up movies.

Yes, it’s mostly about Captain America and Iron Man, but just about everyone who appears gets their narratives progressed somewhat, the plot is clear once we get past discussing the Accords (which themselves are boring).

The only complaint I have is I feel they fired this particular plot a bit early. From my layman understanding of the original comics, one of the main thrusts of the Civil War was oversight, yes, but also maintaining secret identities, which, if they let the roster build up some (including more secret identities)[4] it would be much more easy to follow than ‘We can’t let what happened in Age of Ultron happen again!’ Because no one knows what happened in that movie.

Also, big points for not killing the Bad Guy. It should be a low bar, but I personally hate the tradition of villains dying for their crimes. It’s overdone, and limits the talent pool for later stories.

Doctor Strange

I liked this movie, but also don’t know if I have much to say. They’re finally letting Magic be Magic, which I am 100% down with. An element of Dark magic not being evil magic[5]

The bad guys were forgettable. The Good Guys fun. I’m waiting to see more, but there’s a lot of good will built up.

Should’ve cast more Asian actors, though.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

‘Well, you love the first one, does the second one exceed it?’

No. But that’s fine. There’s a few clumsy attempts to recapture lightning that don’t pan out, but it’s not particularly hindered by it. The absurdity and joyous joke-cracking continued, and the pathos that was introduced was earned.

It’s a good movie, a worthy successor to the first, but doesn’t quite beat the original on my personal list.

Spider-Man Homecoming

Title’s kind of on the nose, isn’t it Marvel?

Fun fact, I haven’t seen any of the Andrew Garfield films as my stance was ‘I’m voting with my wallet, and I want Spidey in the MCU.’ Now that that happened, the two The Amazing Spider-Man movies don’t matter anyways!

Tom Holland is perfect for the role, both in the suit and out as he manages to capture awkward youth at a level never before seen. The plot’s interesting (even though the big twist was spoiled for me),[6] the movie drips with charm, and it’s fun to see Marvel’s big money maker fight DC’s![7]

Homecoming does perpetuate the conflict with poor communication (Happy’s indifference is narratively justified, Iron Man’s not), but they also let the villain live at the end, so I guess it cancels out?

Good movie. I recommend it.

Thor: Ragnarok

I’m… okay with this film?

So the creative team finally figure out comedy is Thor’s strength and leaned into it, which I, of course, love. But the story also feels unfocused. Is it about Thor versus his family? Oh, wait, now he’s on an alien world in a coliseum. But there’s just one fight before he easily escapes. Hulk’s back, and Hulk himself is an actual character! But Hulk and Banner don’t have much effect on the plot once away from the Grand Master. And suddenly we’re back to the Asgard stuff.

Narratively, it works, but the stuff with Grand Master felt more like a diversion than actual meat. Still, they’ve shifted the tone of Thor films to that of Guardians of the Galaxy so I’m not upset.

Excited for whatever’s next, but Ragnarok didn’t pump me up like most people.

Still, hopefully the Earth-based movies catch on and lighten up.

Black Panther

I liked it, but also feel underqualified to discuss it. Saw it in theaters, so that was fun!

Lot of villain killing, though, which is a shame since Klaue was oddly affable. I want way more than we got of him!

There’s a lot of good storytelling through design and minor actions (I particularly love how Killmonger snapped his spear in half to make a shortspear). They did a good job of carefully modulating the mood with well placed jokes (especially with M’Baku, who took such joy in messing with unexpected guests).

It’s a good film for a hero that I don’t know much about, and I’m interested for more.

Avengers: Infinity War

Ah, finally, the big moment! Did they stick the landing?

Yes! Then they took another jump, so I’m waiting to see if they can finish the gymnastic routine.

At the very least, Infinity War has vastly exceeded the previous Avenger films. The universe is bigger now, and everyone’s involved and I could follow every plot point! So big applause for that.

I’ve got a couple nitpicks, of course. I wish they stuck with Thanos’s original motivation[8] just to continue to embrace the absurdities of comic storylines. The whole ‘we need to cut all populations in half’ doesn’t stand up to any thought (populations repleniish, you could’ve doubled resources, heck, turn it into a Long Earth situation, you stupid purple Homer Simpson).

But all the praise is (currently) right. It’s a good movie.

Admittedly, the scenes actually taking place on Earth weren’t as compelling as Thanos’s quest, Thor’s mission, or the Guardians meeting Tony Stark’s team, but that’s just a summary of the whole franchise. I enjoy it more when they go high concept and have fun.

They could’ve chosen the deaths better. It’s a mix of unfair (all but one of my Guardians had to go!?), and overly obvious with impermanence (Spider-Man can’t stay dead, Sony will riot).

Also, didn’t really feel much like a war.

The List

Final Standings from worst to best(based on my personal impressions)

The Incredible Hulk Avengers: Age of Ultron Thor: The Dark World Iron Man 2 Iron Man 3 Captain America: The Winter Soldier The Avengers Iron Man 1 Thor Captain America: Civil War Doctor Strange Black Panther Captain America: the First Avenger Thor: Ragnarok Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Spider-Man Homecoming Ant-Man Guardians of the Galaxy

Now, you may be asking ‘Where’s Infinity War?’

That’s a fair question. I’m holding off on ranking it because it’s obviously a Part One. Its story is currently incomplete, and there’s also the chance the next film will sour the first. It happens. But as it stands, it’d be Top 5, easy.

So, what can we divine about me from this ranking? I enjoy fun and high concepts. The more gritty and ‘real’ you try to make your story, or repeatedly spinning your wheels is a detriment. I’m also very much a character-first guy.

Maybe there’s something else you can interpret. Feel free to send me any feedback you’ve got. I enjoy thinking about my entertainment.

As for what’s coming up in the MCU? Well, the next film is a sequel to Ant-Man, my second favorite film, so that’s exciting. We’ve also got Captain Marvel, a character I know next to nothing about, which really excites me. It’ll be fun to get introduced to completely new lore, without my nerdy foreknowledge questioning choices.

Then there’s Infinity War part 2 (or whatever they’re going to call it). Now, personally, I want Thanos to be defeated by Squirrel Girl because I am a massive nerd. But I know that won’t happen. But Part One built up good faith the first two Avenger film squandered, so I’m anticipating it.

All in all, feels like the movies are moving into a good direction. I’m still trepidatious about the inter-film lore getting too entangled, but solving the Thanos situation is a good point to back off and just focus on telling good individual stories.

At least until they can bring in Dr. Doom. No one else would dare follow Thanos except DOOM!

Thanks for reading. Feel free to send me questions and comments, check out my various other works, and support my patreon. Help fund the extended Canvas Universe.

Kataal kataal.

[1] Not that he ever seems to like the jobs he takes. [2] Who also clearly wants a divorce from this franchise. She hasn’t been relevant… ever, really. [3] The final battle of Guardians of the Galaxy adds ‘clear goals’ to the list. Baddies want to touch the ground, good guys need to prevent that. Defined endstates. [4] My stance on this tropes has always been ‘Keep secret from the general public, but tell your dang Aunt, Peter.’ [5] I don’t talk about it much, but it’s one of my lesser irks. Why can’t Darkness be good, or at least a true neutral force. Night time’s nice. [6] Thanks Reddit. [7] Micheal Keaton’s great. [8] Let Thanos be in love with Death, you cowards!

#CanvasWatches #mcu #marvel #CanvasReviews

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martens-movie-reviews · 7 years

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Released: May 4, 2012 Running Time: 2 hours 23 minutes

“When Thor’s evil brother, Loki, gains access to the unlimited power of the energy cube called the Tesseract, Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D., initiates a superhero recruitment effort to defeat the unprecedented threat to Earth. Joining Fury’s “dream team” are Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, Thor, the Black Widow and Hawkeye.”

Marvel Cinematic Universe – Source – Marvel

You can find all of the reviews for the Marvel Cinematic Universe at the link here. At that link, you can also find the dates that the other reviews for the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be posted. My plan is to release one every single day, and because I’ve already reviewed Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 here, and Spider – Man: Homecoming here, they will not be included in the two weeks leading up to Thor Ragnarok.

As such, I will now move onto the actual review of the film, and I hope you enjoy!

Marvel’s The Avengers – Source: Paramount Pictures & Marvel Studios

Cast and Crew

This film was written and directed by Joss Whedon, while Zak Penn helped with writing the story with Whedon. Joss Whedon’s directorial work includes mostly television shows that includes ‘Buffy: The Vampire Slayer’, ‘FireFly’ and ‘Dollhouse’, and has since worked on He has since worked on ‘Much Ado About Nothing’, the sequel to this film, ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’, as well as took over directing for Zack Snyder after he left the project for personal reasons for DC’s ‘Justice League’ that will be released on November 17, 2017.

I’ve already mentioned Penn’s previous work when I included him the Incredible Hulk Review, along with his recent work that he has done. Joss Whedon’s previous work as a writer includes films such as ‘Toy Story’ in 1995, ‘Titan A.E’ in 2000 and ‘Atlantis: The Lost Empire’ in 2001. He also gained a huge fan following from writing television shows mentioned in the paragraph above. He has since worked on films mentioned above as well as some edits to the script ‘Justice League’.

From Left to Right: Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow, Chris Hemsworth as Thor Odinson, Chris Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America, Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton / Hawkeye, Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner / Hulk – Source: Marvel Studios & Paramount Pictures

The cast featured Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Stellan Skarsgård, Samuel L. Jackson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Paul Bettany, Alexis Denisof and Stan Lee.

Review

The music that was orchestrated by Alan Silvestri, who had previously worked on another MCU film ‘Captain America: The First Avenger’, was brilliantly put together and the theme for the Avengers is something that is a really epic song. The score for this movie really meshed together all of the different themes and scores from the previous films, rock for Stark, erratic and somewhat spooky for Banner, heroic and grandiose for Thor and heroic and inspiring for Rogers and made a really fantastic soundtrack for the film. He is currently composing the score for the next Avengers film ‘Avengers Infinity War’ which is set to be released on May 4, 2018, exactly 6 years to the day that this film came out.

The director of photography Seamus McGarvey, the man in charge of the cinematography of Marvel’s the Avengers was extremely well put together. Having to cram that much star power on one screen, and doing it properly was really great to see. The one shot spin shot of the entire team on the street in New York was another great sequence, that has become a staple in the MCU.

The Tesseract – Source: Marvel Studios & Paramount Pictures

The Chitauri in the MCU are very different than the Chitauri in the Comics, as displayed in the pictures below, in the comic books, they are shape shifting aliens that are able to take the physical appearance of their enemies after they have consumed them, while in the MCU, they are controlled by the hive mind, and were lent to Loki by the Other, in order to get the Tesseract to give to Thanos.

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The character of Loki is fantastic to use as the villain that brings all of the Avengers together. He has the personal connection with Thor, which would bring him back to Midgard, and kills Phil Coulson who was a fan favourite, a somewhat friend to Tony Stark and an admirer of Steve Rogers. As I’ve mentioned in the Thor Review, Tom Hiddleston brings such lovable, that it’s hard to hate almost any character that he plays, and he portrays Loki with such relish and charm that he’s probably having the time of his life playing dress up and pretend to be the God of Mischief.

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Iron Man in this film starts out as the defacto leader of the group, as he thinks of himself as the leader at all times, and questions what made his father so obsessed with Steve Rogers. He tries to annoy the Hulk because he’s extremely curious and wants to ‘see it in action’, and it has all become a big game to him at this point. It’s not until that he loses someone, Coulson, that he realizes that it’s real. By the climax of the film, he has learned that while he might have the biggest guns, he lets Steve takeover as leader, and looks to him to lead them in battle as he has done countless times before in WWII. It comes down to a point where he is willing to sacrifice himself to save the world, especially when he’s faced with the fact that aliens exists, and they want to kill them all.

Captain America in this film is still coming to terms with being around 70 years later, with almost all of his friends dead, and then finds out that there’s another bad guy that he has to deal with, and he gets back in his groove. He has a target and a mission, and takes charge. He is slowly becoming aware that his worldview of black and white is no longer applicable to the modern world, and that is something that is explored further in the sequel to his first film, ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’.

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Thor is on Midgard to get his brother and bring him home. Even though they might have had their differences, he believes that Loki is good, and everything can back to normal. When he realizes that that’s not the case, he gets involved in the rag tag group of ‘tiny’ superheros to foil his brothers plan.

Director of S.H.I.E.L.D Nick Fury had an idea, as mentioned during the post credit scene of Iron Man, as well as throughout the sequel Iron Man 2, that he can put together a team, that could defend the earth from their enemies. He puts together his group after he made the mistake of fooling around with the Tesseract, and accidently opens the door for Loki to come to earth. He is a great strategist, as he uses the untimely death of Coulson to bring the team together to face a common enemy, and in the end, his plan worked.

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When Marvel Studios decided to recast Bruce Banner, making it the third iteration of the character in a decade, it was met with some apprehension. It was quickly forgotten when Mark Ruffalo encapsulated the character so brilliantly. His portrayal of the mild mannered scientist / raging green monster was one of the highlights of the film. He showed a lot of chemistry with Robert Downey Jr., having previously worked with him in ‘Zodiac’, which was essential because they needed to have that give and take between the characters. He also performed some of the motion capture for the Hulk, and did a good job with it. While I wish we could have seen Norton come back for this film, and for people to remember that his film is part of the MCU, I’ve grown to really love Ruffalo’s interpretation of the character, and I can’t wait to see him and Thor get better acquainted in the upcoming movie.

Black Widow is the character that gets sent to bring in the Hulk, and even she thinks that that’s a bad move for her. Throughout the film, you see her learn that there is something in the world that scares her, and that’s the Hulk. She was terrified when he tested her in the cabins, she was even more so after Loki influenced him into changing during the attack on the Helicarrier. She is most at home on the battlefield, and takes on the Chitauri as if she’s been doing it forever. She once again proves that she’s a badass, and when the time comes for her to act under pressure, she can get the job done.

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Hawkeye was ultimately wasted in this film. Jeremy Renner is not given the right tools to bring justice to the character, and everyone knows that, Marvel knows that, the director knows that, as does the actor himself. He demonstrates his athletic and amazing skill with the Bow throughout the film, but it’s his intelligence that is on display for about 10 seconds at the beginning of the film that shows the potential for that character to do more. He is the one that manages to see that the Tesseract is a doorway, and that it opens on two sides, something that nobody else apparently thought of.

Maria Hill is awesome. Cobie Smulders does a good job with what little was given to her, and is the narrator at the beginning and end of the film. She’s a fierce agent that shows why Nick Fury would hold her in high regards.

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This will be my paragraph when I get to absolutely fanboy on this movie, because this was everything that I could have wanted from a comic book movie and more growing up. To see these characters team up together on the big screen, bringing the comics to life, all brilliantly acted, with the characters pretty much spot on, was something that blurred the lines between 10 year old me, and the 20 year old me that first saw this movie. Even today, when I watch this film I get little goosebumps and laugh just as much as I did then. It was something that could have gone wrong in so many way, if they screwed it up, but they didn’t and because of that, the MCU is one of the most trusted brands in movies in terms of quality and fun when going to the movie theatres. People go to the theatres either to be entertained, and to be able to share the experience with a room full of people that are all hopefully enjoying it with them, and the MCU films succeed at doing just that.

From Left to Right: Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Hawkeye, Thor, Black Widow – Source: Marvel Studios & Paramount Pictures

The storyline for Phase One of the MCU, and The Avengers in particular takes inspiration from the 2002 comic book run of The Ultimates, as displayed above in the pictures displaying the Chitauri being the villains for that first run. It features; the first time that Nick Fury was African American as mentioned during my Iron Man Review, even casting Samuel L. Jackson to play himself in a movie – Captain America being found frozen in the ice, still alive – Banner meeting with Fury instead of Natasha with armed backup nearby, before he became the Hulk – Iron Man being known for doing flybys to impress people – Thor vs Hulk – Banner’s Cage – the Helicarrier – The Chitauri being the villains – The entire team of the Avengers is included except for Wasp, Quicksilver & Scarlet Witch in this film.

They obviously changed a lot of stuff from the comics, but they did so in a way that made it better than the comic books, and brought back characters that we had fallen in love with, in this case Loki. As you can see below, are screenshots from the Ultimates storyline that I’ve mentioned in the paragraph above.

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When the Son of Coul was stabbed through the chest by Loki, it was the saddest point of the MCU thus far. I understood why they did that for the story elements that brings along, as I’ve mentioned in one of the paragraphs above, but I don’t understand why they never brought him back into the movies. I know the television show and the movies are not 100% connected, but you would think a fan favourite like Coulson would have been brought back into the movies in some way, just to see the look of horror and shock on Robert Downey Jr.’s face.

The Hulk vs Thor fight was fun and you can see that Thor is holding back some, and becomes especially evident when he tells him he doesn’t want to hurt him. One of the highlights of the fight was when Mjolnir was thrown at the Hulk, and he couldn’t lift it up and Thor grabs it with ease and hits him, as shown below. I have to mention the ‘revenge’ that the Hulk gets on Thor, when he just surprises him with a left punch to the face as shown in the gif below. It’s just a nice piece of comedy thrown into the battle that worked amazingly well with the tone of the film.

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This film featured many funny moments that were unexpected in its execution, but none of them stand out as much as when Hulk absolutely destroys Loki after he had yelled at the Hulk that he is a God. The ‘Puny God’ line was the line that I can still remember everyone in the packed theatre absolutely laughing their asses off during that exchange, and the beating that followed.

Hulk demolishes Loki – Puny God – Source: Marvel Studios & Paramount Pictures

One of the problems that a lot of people can agree on, is that they didn’t utilise the character of Hawkeye properly. They made him a brainwashed monkey that helped Loki, while not interacting with the team enough. I feel like they’ve made up for it a bit during the Age of Ultron film, actually giving Jeremy Renner something to do as an actor other than to look spaced out.

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Marvel’s The Avengers was the first MCU film to include multiple post credit sequences, pictured below, which included the Avengers all taking a break after the Battle of New York, to eat at the shawarma place that Tony had seen during the battle, and the Other telling Thanos that Planet Earth is protected, and that the inhabitants are better prepared than they would have thought, indicating that to go up against them, would be to court Death, leading to a shot of Thanos smiling at the idea.

Thanos is one of those characters that has been hinted at, and briefly glimpsed over the last 5 years, and it’s something that has made fans both extremely excited, as well as anxious. Thanos is arguably the greatest villain that the MCU could use for one of their movies, and they can’t afford to screw that character or the story up. we have seen so far two Infinity Stones that would one day go into the Infinity Gauntlet, in the Tesseract and the Mind Stone that is inside of the staff that Loki was using, which later ends up as the gem on Vision’s forehead. We will see what they do with Thanos in 2018, and I for one, can hardly wait.

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Overall, I feel that if it wasn’t for the charisma and absolute brilliance that Tom Hiddleston brings to the character of Loki, this movie would have been far worse. The army of minions all dying once the big ship was destroyed was lame, and copied Independence Day as well as other films. The usage of mind control to make Hawkeye and Selvig work for Loki, but then have Selvig create a loophole to be able to defeat the bad guys was kinda sad.

The movie gets as high of a score as it does because it was the first time that we saw a team up of this magnitude, and it was absolutely brilliant. As a fanboy, this surpassed my expectations and made me so happy that I literally walked out of the theatre, and bought a ticket for the following showing, making it the first time that I ever did that. I saw this movie 7 times in theatres in 2012, and I don’t regret it whatsoever. At the end of the day, I remember having given it a perfect 10/10 score when I first saw it, and every single time after that, however, it’s not a perfect film, as I’ve already went over some of the problems with the film that I had, and thus, I could not give it a 10. In the end, I would give this film a score of 9/10.

What did you think of the film? Are you excited for Thor Ragnarok? Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for reading,

Alex Martens

Marvel’s The Avengers Movie Review Released: May 4, 2012 Running Time: 2 hours 23 minutes "When Thor's evil brother, Loki, gains access to the unlimited power of the energy cube called the Tesseract, Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D., initiates a superhero recruitment effort to defeat the unprecedented threat to Earth.

#Comic Book Movie #MCU #Movie Review

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