Hawkeye, 'Christmas' - Dec 22

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks - just ask Noth, who’s been declared a sex offender throughout the week, and everyone else is dropping him like hot shite. I can’t say that I blame them- team Carrie can’t afford to go against the flow: already their core base is fracturing because of AJLT take on their characters, and unlike SW they don’t have Disney to back them up; any more pressure, and they will become just 3 more washed-up actresses instead with AJLT being the albatross on their collective necks.

Ditto for RR - he got involved with Peloton, not with Noth, and he has his own problems, as the ‘Red Notice’ film turned out into a 200 million USD flop. So, let’s go to the greener pastures of ‘Hawkeye’.

…Actually, I’d rather not, since it’s not much of an improvement; sadly, JWD’s latest Input is a poster of Owen being harassed by an Atrociraptor- the franchise stopped making dinosaur hybrids and is just reimagining them from the get-go. Still better than ‘Hawkeye’.

Where to begin? Fisk’s big return was a joke - he didn’t do much and was killed-off by Lopez - supposedly, but still. It’s rather underwhelming, but then again, the conclusion of Maya’s story arc was underwhelming- she killed Kazi without much of a fight, and then just turned on to her uncle/surrogate father with nary a struggle. Not impressive character development, let me tell you; not to mention that Fisk cannot die - he is just too important for the Marvel universe.

Getting back to Ronin… Clint burned the suit; so much for my prediction that Maya will be the next Ronin, just as Kate is the next Hawkeye. As I said before, the entire Maya story arc appears to be rushed through here, so maybe we won’t see an Echo mini-series after all, authenticity and equal opportunity or not. Instead, we got a hint that Laura might have been a Mockingbird…only MCU already has/had a Mockingbird- Bobbi Morse; already there are people upset about this decision, and Disney doesn’t like controversies after the SW mess… so odds of the watch vanishing now that the ‘Hawkeye’ mini-series are done aren’t bad.

And yes, AoS has started it by ‘spoilers’ - in the series’ last season they’ve explored the multiverse, sort of, thanks to the Chronicons, but this sort of backwards-engineering in ‘Hawkeye’ still stings.

Finally, The fact that ‘Hawkeye’ is done has also left a bad taste in my mouth - it itself feels rushed, you know? At least Clint had the good taste to bring Kate to his family’s home for further mentoring, thus tying into the ‘Endgame’ epilogue, but still…I expected fewer cliffhangers… and Yelena’s resolution… well…

This brings us back to transitions. ‘Hawkeye’ has followed this theme - the mantle has passed from Clint to Kate, (even though in 'Endgame' it was implied that it would be Clint and Laura's own biological daughter instead - ouch!), we got an update on Yelena, and maybe Echo will reappear in the future. However, the rushed story arcs and the unnecessary twists - it was Elinor all along, etc. - have rather ruined the impact. Still better than real life, though.

This is it for now; see you all soon.

Spider-Man, 'No Way Home' - Dec 17

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the latest Spider-Man movie instead.

…I mean, sure, it isn’t as straightforward, for example, the discovery of a brand new millipede specie in RL is really exciting, while the new JWD posters are something else: on the first, we have Claire stuck in a swamp, driven there by a therezinosaurus; again, I’ve no idea what a therezinosaurus would do in a swamp, plus the entire poster is too reminiscent of the ones done for the first film in the Jumanji reboot; and now we have the second poster, where Owen has lassoed a Parasaurolophus instead. A Parasaurolophus was a hadrosaur (duck-billed) dinosaur that lived during the Cretaceous around the inland sea of the prehistoric North America, in a time, and a place, that was pretty much opposite to the boreal forest in which Chris had lassoed it on the poster, so clearly, the world of the JWD movie has a lot of issues to work out – by people, by dinosaurs, by both, and by anyone else. And the latest (Tom Holland) Spider-Man movie?

…And the latest (Tom Holland) Spider-Man movie is something else. When we talked about the ‘Ronin’ episode of ‘Hawkeye’, I said that ‘Hawkeye’ has becoming nothing more than by the numbers Marvel TV series, whereas ‘No Way Home’ has become a by the numbers… Sony Spider-Man movie.

No, seriously, the advantage of MCU over its’ competitors was that it had a greater picture, so to speak: every film was a step on the path to… the ‘Endgame’. No, seriously the ‘Endgame’ film was the endgame to the first three phases of MCU; just consider them the bigger and more derived cousins to the three seasons of a typical Disney property, and you’ll be set. Now, however, MCU is moving – has moved – onto Phase 4, and out of Disney’s comfort zone, so no wonder that it is meandering all over the place – and then it came back to Sony. Their previous collaboration with each other – the ‘Far From Home’ film – resulted in Sony and Disney/MCU fighting, and the latter was forced to retreat, and now…

…And now, we got another Sony & Disney/MCU collaboration on Spider-Man, and it is something else from what I have predicted. I predicted that it is going to launch the concept of the multiverse in the Disney/MCU universe for real, now that the previous Disney+ Marvel TV series have teased it – ‘Loki’ began to explore it – and so it had. By the final scene, where we see Dr. Strange encounter Wanda Maximoff after the events of WV, dismiss the events in Westview easily enough, and talk to her about exploring the multiverse for real: ‘No Way Home’ was a glorified pre-run instead.

It was also a reboot of the Sony Spider-Man universe, as we got to see Norman Osborn/the Green Goblin stab ‘his’ Spider-Man rather than be impaled by his glider before everyone was able to go home; Electro from the ‘second’ Spider-Man universe also got redesigned; and so on. Given that Sony is continuing its’ own Spider-Verse, (the upcoming Morbius film, etc.) this does bring possibilities – but not to MCU. Instead, in case of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man, he lost everyone and almost everything, and is clear to start from a clean slate. MCU is done with the Web-Head, so the odds of him having to deal with threats from only ‘his’ universe are fairly good.

In addition, there are signs that MCU has moved onto from Spider-Man: I am talking about ‘Hawkeye’, who has no mention of Wall-Crawler at all: seriously, you have adventures in a Marvel-verse NYC and no mention of the Spider-Man? That is just wrong. But that is also real life business politics: Sony, (including Spider-Man), and Disney/MCU are done with each on this level, and so Spider-Man got send out of MCU with a big fanfare, Sony got to demonstrate its’ past and present Spider-Man properties in a more tasteful way of HBO’s ‘Space Jam 2’ film, which has little in common with the original movie, and is worse than the original ‘Space Jam’ had been, which is just sad. Where were we?

Oh yeah, with the realization that ‘No Way Home’ was just a side-quest, an ejection from the otherwise slim and streamlined MCU phase 4, (no sarcasm intended). ‘What if?’ might be ‘What if?’, but it is apocrypha for a reason; there we saw situations that could have happened in MCU, but did not… just because. And even so, the end result of ‘What if?’ S1 was a variant of ‘Endgame’, a mix of the first and the last ‘Avengers’ films – nothing more. Disney/MCU always returns to its’ comfort zone… Pause.

Ah yes, the Daredevil (Charlie Cox) cameo. Now that the agreement between Disney/MCU & Netflix has ended, MCU is cautiously (re)-introducing the ‘Defenders’ characters, starting with the Kingpin and his archenemy Daredevil…apparently. What will come out of that we will have to see…

Therefore, for now, this is it. See you all soon!

Hawkeye, 'Ronin' - Dec 15

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let’s talk about’Hawkeye’ instead. We’ve reached the penultimate episode, and where we are?

On one hand, Clint has confessed to Maya, admitting that he had killed her father, but also claiming that he was set-up by her father’s boss, (probably the Kingpin), so that makes it all ok… or not, ‘cause Maya’s father is still dead, and Clint isn’t off the hook entirely yet.

Speaking of the Kingpin? Kate’s family seems to be in cahoots with him, and so Luke and Leia (Skywalker) tell Kate “hi”. Fisk also appears to be the power behind contessa Val, so no Hydra either, most likely. Of course, this brings us not just to ‘Black Widow’, but also to Sam&Bucky, whose former enemy John Walker was also recruited by the good contessa; is Fisk trying to fill the void left by Hydra? That’s atypical for him in the comics, (and also Netflix’s ‘Defenders’), but MCU has played fast and loose with Marvel canon before, so no surprises here.

Coming back to the Bishops, their turnaround isn’t surprising either- in the comics, Kate’s mother was a villain, so ‘Hawkeye’ is just building on that. I.e., ‘Ronin’s’ action sequences were superb, and the dialogue/plot progression were better than in ‘Partners’, but it is still a by the numbers live action adaptation of the comics with its’ mostly black and white morality; plus…

…Plus we know that Echo/Maya Lopez will join the roster of Marvel heroes that have their own live action TV series and/or films, so we know that she will turn white hat eventually- Disney/MCU has shot itself in the foot there as well, and without unpredictable twists and turns ‘Hawkeye’ is - see above. Anything else?

No, not really. I, for one, have enjoyed watching ‘Ronin’; it was a good episode to watch, but nothing more- ‘Hawkeye’ is delivering, but its’ delivery is still rather predictable, if not outright lacklustre.

Therefore, this is it for now - see you all soon!

And Just Like That - Dec 14

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, and I am still unsure about the reviews of the last two ‘Hawkeye’ episodes, (let alone anything else, cough), so while I have the chance, let us talk about something different, (genre speaking). Let us talk, however briefly, about ‘And Just Like That’.

This particular mini-series – so far, there’s only 1 season, with 8 episodes, and two of them were aired already – is a reboot of the much earlier ‘Sex and the city’, and that is already a problem. Why? Well, let us rewind a few years back, in real life, to the ‘Gilmore Girls’ reboot, called ‘Gilmore Girls: A Year in Life’, or something like that. Not unlike SATC, this seemed to be a solid hit, since the GG series had had a secure fan following back in the heyday, but instead…

…But instead, it was discovered that the entire GG franchise has not aged well, and that keeping in mind that its’ characters/actors kept their actual ages out of focus. They had plenty of problems – such as the fact that Rory seems to have become an entitled brat, her mom, Lorelei, isn’t too far from an average Karen, and that the entire four-part revival is a mix of ASP’s original epilogue, (never aired), and the conclusion of the original series’ S7, and the two main components didn’t mix well… The result is that the GG fandom has sunk back into slumber, having been briefly woken in a manner of a hibernating bear, and not unlike a prematurely awoken hibernating bear, the result was more negative than positive, but what about AJLT?

Why, it is the same problem, as GG – the material didn’t age well, nostalgia alone isn’t enough to placate or to satisfy all of the critics or the audience members, and so instead of having an easy journey, team AJLT is dealing with an increasingly dissatisfied and fracturing fan base, which may – or may not – pull the entire franchise down under instead. This has happened before, just look at the SW Sequel trilogy or at AoS, but unlike them, AJLT does not have Disney’s gold parachute to keep on going; instead…

…Instead it has an albatross of its’ own, one that GG did not have – the fight, (such as it is), between SJP and Ms. Cattrail. Everyone is downplaying it, but the fight did happen, and as such, SATC’s character Samantha is not in AJLT at all; since she was one out of the big four, her absence is really glaring, and the way it was handled on screen? It was just pitiful, Ms. Cattrail’s fans are outraged, (and they are not in the wrong), and so are her character’s. What was that about a fracturing fan base that we were talking about?

And then came the death of Mr. Big, (played by Mr. Noth) – and it hit… team Peloton right in the balls. I have been half-following Peloton through the years – first it was their ‘Peloton family’ ad misadventure, one where a husband gave his wife a gift – a Peloton cycle, (or something like that) – and she was happy. Supposedly. Instead, the actress fungled the role, (sort of), and everyone began to compare the ad to a ‘Black Mirror’ episode and things like that; the company’s stock tumbled.

In swooped Ryan Reynolds, who gave ‘the Peloton wife’ a new role – one that promoted his own personal brand of booze, and the woman made a fortune. Nothing like that happened to her male counterpart, but hey, that is the modern values; you either roll with them, as RR does, and you prosper, or you don’t, as Chloe Bennet hasn’t, and you don’t prosper.

…No, this is not about AoS, not entirely. Earlier this year, Ms. Bennet made it clear, that she was not a part of the Live-Action Powerpuff girl remake, nor was she going to return as Daisy Johnson/Quake in the upcoming Marvel ‘Secret Invasion’ franchise, and Disney/MCU were looking for someone else to play the latter character. Considering that Chloe Bennett was THE actress to play Daisy, this is strange and weird, in a sad and disappointing sort of way. My only theory is that Chloe didn’t go with the flow; while working at Disney/MCU, which is increasingly about representing the various social, racial, sexual and other minorities in the American society, Chloe Bennett… well, identified herself as Bennett, rather than as Wong, (seriously, look at her Wiki page), and didn’t look, or behave, very Asian-American – and we got the message that Disney/MCU were looking for a female Asian-American to play Daisy Johnson/Quake… ouch!

Of course, AoS has also the honor of being Disney/MCU’s subtlest failure: among other things, it was supposed to introduce several new heroes to MCU, including Deathlok and Mockingbird, with the latter being important as being Hawkeye’s ex. There were rumors of Mockingbird, (in MCU, she’s Bobbi Morse), coming to Hawkeye…I mean, ‘Hawkeye’, but those rumors were quickly squashed: apparently, AoS and all that is associated with it can stand buried and gone, (or as Britney Spears has told Diane Sawyer, ‘she can kiss my white ass’). What is left?

Ah yes, AJLT and the Peloton. After the Peloton family misadventure… and another misadventure – apparently, another Peloton ad made some children believe that the Peloton exercise bikes were indoor jungle gyms or something; some children, not surprisingly, got hurt and the company suffered; well, this time, after Peloton got associated with AJLT in a big bad way, Peloton was ready: they contacted RR, and he quickly made them a new ad, one were a very much alive Mr. Big is enjoying himself with his Peloton instructor, (played by a RL Peloton personality), and that’s it, really. Peloton had had enough with being the butt of the business world, and is striking back; AJLT is not likely to suffer from this fallout, but the fact that they have killed-off another major character may. Even GG didn’t go that far – Richard Gilmore died because his actor died for real – but then again, AJLT is just getting started, maybe it’ll be able to shake-off its’ lackluster – to put it mildly – beginning and shine for real. I am not rooting for it, though – the original series were fun enough, but the movies not so much and the cast was proportionally younger and more vibrant back then as well due to the obvious reasons…

Well, this is it for now; see you all soon.

Hawkeye, 'Partners' - Dec 8

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, but I was able to squeeze out some time to write down this, so let us go straight into escapism.

First – ‘Hawkeye’ episode 1x04, ‘Partners’. So far, there is no sign of the Kingpin, though since Charlie Cox’s Daredevil is returning to MCU, hope is kindling. Whether or not this reboot will be connected to ‘Hawkeye’ is another story.

Let me elaborate. MCU tries to be a complex, combined universe; it is trying to gain an advantage over team DC, when the latter had created its own world out of ‘Arrow’, ‘Flash’, ‘LoT’ and ‘Supergirl’. However, whereas DC tried to restrict itself to just those four TV series, (‘Black Lightning’, ‘Batwoman’, and so on were more distant), MCU is trying to make a much more tangled web, given how all of those Marvel TV shows are coming to Disney+ in the future.

…However, as Netflix’s take on the ‘Defenders’ franchise showed, to make a shared universe is harder than how it looks; the TV shows that made this franchise up were quite different from each other, and not necessarily in the good way, so there’s no sign that Disney/MCU will have it better: so far, the various Marvel TV shows were treated separately from each other – but yes, Yelena Belova, I’m looking at you.

Yes, Natasha Romanoff’s baby sister has appeared in ‘Hawkeye’ at last, as she took the titular character – I mean, Barton – on for size, but Barton was able to stand his ground and even send her packing, but given that she’s Natasha’s replacement, (even before ScarJo had her feud with Disney/MCU, cough), this certainly isn’t the last time that we’ve seen her. What next?

Well, the other Hawkeye, Kate Bishop, was also able to stand up to Maya Lopez/Echo and even get the best of her. Given that in ‘Echoes’ Barton was unable to defeat Maya, this is certainly important. But-?

But here is the thing. The action aspect of ‘Hawkeye’ is great and so far, it is the motor of the series; whenever there is a lull in the action, the show has problems: the discussion that the titular characters had with Ms. Bishop and William was painful to watch, for example. It did serve a purpose, as Ms. Bishop then made some sort of a mysterious phone call… and what do we know about her, and her deceased first husband, anyhow? Nothing in MCU, but in the comics Kate’s mother did work with that version of Madame Masque; MCU had its’ Madame Masque in the character of Agnes Cully, but that was in the past, a different villain can assume that name easily. (Not to mention that Agent Carter and her cohorts defeated Agnes). Where were we?

Ah yes, the mysterious phone call. So far, the fans have enjoyed wondering just how Kingpin was going to fit – to re-fit, pardon me – into MCU. Much was talked about how Echo was his stepdaughter in the comics, and in MCU, she had a mysterious, unseen, ‘Uncle’. Sadly, it is never confirmed that that man was Fisk, not to mention that ‘Hawkeye’ already had an uncle – William’s uncle Armand, who died off camera in unknown circumstances, while William himself owns a company that launders money from the Tracksuit Mafia, which is led by Maya and Kazi. Oh dear, I fear that we are going to have another red herring on our hands…unless Ms. Bishop is calling Fisk for real. Now what?

Well, aside from the fact that Clint Barton tried to dissolve his relationship with Kate Bishop – ha-ha, he thinks that it is up to him – we got a new look at a new dinosaur from the upcoming JWD movie, and it is the therezinosaurus. In RL, it was the biggest of plant-eating theropods, (i.e. the dinosaurs that were usually carnivores instead), and it looked…well, people know how it looked/looks – just look in the deviant-art website, for example; it looked either like a cross between a giant ground sloth and a goose, or like a prosauropod dinosaur instead.

Here is the thing: as far as the dinosaurs go, there is the ornithischians, the bird-hipped dinosaurs, such as the Stegosaurus and the Triceratops, and the saurischians, or the lizard-hipped dinosaurs. The dinosaur carnivores – Tyrannosaurus, Velociraptor, Archaeopteryx and so on – belonged to that group, but so did such herbivores as the Apatosaurus: the sauropods, and their prosauropod cousins.

 For a good long while scientists assumed that the sauropods such as the Apatosaurus have evolved from the prosauropods, but now the two dino types are considered to be sister groups instead. What does that entail for paleontology I do not know, but what I do know that some of the prosauropods moved on two legs rather than four, and their forelimbs had rather impressive claws – such as the Plateosaurus, one of the last, and the biggest, of prosauropods. It was still an herbivore, just as the other prosauropod and sauropod dinosaurs were, but so was Therezinosaurus and its’ relatives, which physically were similar to Plateosaurus and the like. I.e., yes, Therezinosaurus and co. were the dinosaur analogues of the giant panda, carnivores, which switched to a purely plant-eating way of life, but the thing is that the lizard-hipped dinosaurs have evolved something similar way back in the Triassic, (Therezinosaurus and the rest lived during the late Cretaceous instead), so it isn’t too unexpected, actually. Nature tends to recycle its’ ideas, and while Therezinosaurus was unusual, there was precedent for this type of dinosaur and dinosaur body plan as well.

As for the Therezinosaurus’ role in the upcoming JWD movie… I really cannot tell. So far, we only know that it might have chased Claire into a swamp… or it may be just a promo poster instead. It is hard to tell, and since this is a cloned Therezinosaurus, and not a member of the prologue, it may not really matter.

…Yes, this may be crude, but at the end of the day? The prologue of JWD was yet another attempt at authenticity in fiction, just as the fact that the actress who plays Maya Lopez in ‘Hawkeye’ is disabled in RL. No offence, but RL and silver screen are not directly connected, and though I have enjoyed Maya’s interactions, cough, with the titular characters, that is because her actress is naturally talented, not because of disabilities, RL or otherwise. The silver screen and RL are not equal to each other, and neither are they in direct symbiosis to each other, as the elections of 2016 showed everybody. Not that the elections-2020 were much better, but that is another story.

For now, though, this is it. See all of you – eventually!

Hawkeye, 'Echoes' - Dec 1

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so after this week’s, my blog entries will be more irregular than before, so you’ve been warned, and apologized for, in advance. Now onto the episode 1x03 of ‘Hawkeye’?

…Well, there isn’t much to go on about here and now; this week’s episode main entry was Echo slash Maya Lopez; in the Marvel comics, she was the adopted daughter of Wilson Fisk slash Kingpin, but since the latter’s defeat in Netflix’s ‘Daredevil’ series, the man was a no show in MCU, so here she was given a different backstory instead, one that is Wilson Fisk free. Pity, since Kingpin’s reappearance in MCU would have been interesting, but not really surprising, as MCU really prefers things neat and avoids anything uncomfortable, especially in RL.

For example, take a look at the AoS: in the initial seasons, especially the second and the third, the titular characters had to battle two threats – Hydra, and later on the InHumans and their ‘pureblood’ alien superiors. Initially, the show dealt with them ‘separately’ – one mini-story arc would deal with Hydra, the next with the InHumans, and so on. Eventually, of course, the two plotlines blurred into one – and this is what is happening on ‘Hawkeye’: we got two plotlines blurring into one: Maya Lopez and her Tracksuit Mafia, and William the Swordsman, or whatever his moniker is.

Pause. While we’re on the subject of Marvel, I have to admit that I disagree with the decision to combine the ‘M.O.D.O.K.’ and ‘Hit-Monkey’ cartoon series into one universe – aka Earth-1226; as I said before, the two shows are different enough for this decision to be wrong, and moreover, what do they have in common aside from the basic and the obvious? That Hulu made both of them? Then should not Hulu’s ‘Runaways’ series be added as well? I daresay that these three Marvel shows are different enough to be similar, so there is that-

Sorry. We were talking about ‘Hawkeye’ instead. Sadly, aside from Maya/Echo’s official entry into MCU, (she’s getting her own TV series… for the moment), there’s nothing new to talk about – this episode was action-packed, otherwise: Kate and Clint escaped from Maya-Echo and her tracksuit bros…they ran into William the Swordsman, who’s about to fight with Hawkeye…the end. Where were we?

Ah yes, the issue of MCU’s comfort. AoS has been swept under the rug because it has evolved slash devolved into an unwieldy monstrosity that did not fit into MCU at all in the end, while ‘Daredevil’ and co. fared the same fate because Marvel was ‘sharing’ them with Netflix, and Disney/Marvel/MCU does not like to share. Yes, Phase 4 is introducing the multiverse, more or less, but it certainly took its’ time, and its’ heaviest hitter – the upcoming Spider-Man movie, ‘No Way Home’ – is being made because the Spider-Man franchise is passing from Disney/Marvel/MCU onto Sony, and this way some sort of a compromise was made, in a form of a grand movie: this way, Disney/Marvel/MCU, gets (still gets) a piece of Spidey, and so does Sony and its’ Sony Universe of Marvel Characters, (plus a nice send-of gift in regards to its’ Spidey franchise). ‘Hawkeye’ doesn’t get that; in fact, we have Clint and Kate running around NYC and no sign of Marvel’s Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man, even though he is THE hero when it comes Marvel’s NYC, you know? Disney/MCU hates lawsuits; it hates losing money, (it loves to make money), but it hates lawsuits even more, and so it would rather share than sue… usually, but regularly. So what?

So now we got a ‘standard’, ‘paint-by-numbers’, ‘Hawkeye’ mini-series, since by now the rumors are that it’ll end after 6 episodes are swirling. Well, fair enough. Clint Barton/Hawkeye was the most underwhelming of all the Avengers; the most underappreciated, but also the most underwhelming, and rightly so. This episode reminded why that is so; there is style and flash, but little substance, and this combo carries only so far. So, onto the JW: D prologue?

Eh, by now the internet has recognized and admitted that not only a T-Rex vs. Giganotosaurus face-off in RL would’ve been impossible, but the entire dino mockumentary portion of the prologue was a pastiche: we got Cretaceous ceratopsians and ankylosaurs, we got Jurassic brachiosaurs, we got an Oviraptor-type dinosaur that is stealing eggs – an incorrect and outdated stereotype – and both Jurassic & Cretaceous pterosaurs to list only the obvious. The JP/JW franchise may be more realistic in its’ depictions of dinosaurs, but little else.

Well, this is it for now. Everyone, enjoy your first day of the official winter in the Northern Hemisphere. I will see you all… eventually.

Hawkeye, series premiere - Nov 25

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about ‘Hawkeye’ instead.

…Ok, this is actually not such a good idea, since the show itself has quite some issues going on for itself, with most prominent being the supposedly clever double entendre, (or whatever it is called), as the show’s title is the legitimate moniker for both Clint and Kate, and now the duo have to cooperate with each other, (technically speaking), in order to- but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Let us begin again. The problem of ‘Hawkeye’ is that both Clint and Kate each have their own issues, and they do not like to share. Kate wants to find herself, and hates her up and coming stepfather; Clint wants to spend time with his family, but cannot – because of the tracksuit mafia. And-?

And it has been a running gag for a while now that Clint is the least of all the Avengers; the ‘Endgame’ film and the penultimate episode of the ‘What If?’ s1 tried to change this perception, but not enough, and right now, his opponents are a group of criminals, organized or not, completely mundane, not very competent, and not very intimidating – clearly members of the shallow end of the MCU pool. The fact that Clint has not whipped them yet is not a mark in his favor either.

On the other hand we got Kate, who wants to be like the Avengers – perhaps even an Avenger herself – and, possibly, to avenge her late true father, who died during the battle of NYC in 2012. Sadly, because she is a young and unexperienced vigilante, so far she is underperforming herself, and the fact that her nemesis – so far – is her stepfather is also underwhelming; good thing that Kate’s attitude, charm, and charisma compensate for that lack in spades.

…Of course, the same can be said of Barton, albeit to a lesser extent, but the fact is that by the TV series’ standards, ‘Hawkeye’ delivers a much more balanced and equal act than ‘WandaVision’ did. No offence to the team WV, but in that TV show, Wanda had the lion’s share of the plot development, while Vision developed an identity crisis instead, and by now, there’s no Wanda & Vision, since the show’s Vision was either a construct that Wanda made from her memories with magic… or a completely different synthezoid who has no relationship with Wanda whatsoever, and had actually almost killed her at one point… Where were we?

Right, the transitions. MCU’s Phase 4 is all about them; for example, in the already-mentioned ‘WandaVision’, the titular characters transitioned from a couple into complete strangers, starting their entire relationship – professional, familial, and otherwise – anew. In ‘Black Widow’, the titular title passed from Natasha to Yelena. And in ‘Hawkeye’, the plan is something similar – the titular title will pass from Clint to Kate, especially since the latter is willing and almost ready already. So, what else?

Aside from the issues of underwhelming and duality, (not quite necessary)… no, not quite. The issue of duality is quite necessary, it permeates the first two episodes of ‘Hawkeye’ at least: on one hand, we have Kate, her issues with her new stepfamily, and also the stepfamily’s own issues, (just who did kill Armand III?). On the other, we got the tracksuit mafia, who, clearly, are not a part of that process, but instead seem to be working for, or with, Maya Lopez instead.

The latter was only introduced in the episode’s 1x02 finale, but she’s an important character in the Marvel comics already, and since she wears the title of Ronin, (cough), in one of Marvel’s video games, the odds of her being a rival to Kate’s claim of being the next Hawkeye, are good enough.

Of course, though both ‘Hawkeye’ and ‘Ronin’ were Clint Barton’s alter-egos, they’re also quite different from each other, so maybe Maya and Kate will learn to get along – but for now Kate and Clint should survive the tracksuit mafia and etc. Given how Hawkeye was underplayed among the Avengers that is not very encouraging, actually. What else?

Well, there is also the ‘Encanto’ film that also came out this week. It is the latest Disney movie, and it is underwhelming; less ‘CATS-2019’ and more ‘Doolittle-2020’ done right. As it is the rule with the Disney animated films, there is no villain per se, (as there are in MCU or SW movies), rather the film’s main character (and her family, to a lesser extent), and so the result is… a musical. Yes, Lin-Manuel Miranda, I am looking at you. ‘In the heights’, the movie version, was simply overwhelming, with such qualities as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ not applicable to it; that was an epic movie, and ‘Encanto’ attempts to do a liter version of it. The result are overwhelming musical numbers set in an underwhelming, by the numbers, Disney animated movie. With a lack of an antagonist, and with a less extended message than the one in ‘Frozen 2’, ‘Encanto’ leans into more flash than substance easily; it does have a message – about family and family values – but it tends to get buried under all the glitz and glammer of Disney’s animation instead. Anything else?

Yes, the first 5 and a half minutes of the ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’ movie. Whereas Disney has apparently removed most of the concept of ‘conflict’ from its’ animated movies, this film has not, however this conflict is changed – rather than humans, (or other sentient beings), so far we got dinosaur vs. dinosaur, (though dinosaur vs. human conflict is close second). Indeed, given what we have seen in all of the previous films of the franchise, there will be some conflict between humans regardless, so it will be interesting to watch…but that is a story for another time.

For now, though, this is it. See you all soon!

Hit-Monkey - Nov 17

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, (though lately it seems to be evening out, admittedly), so let us talk about Marvel’s Hit-Monkey series that had come out today, (Nov 17, 2021). What can be said about it?

It is actually a tough one to describe. On one hand, the combined Marvel team seems to be more withdrawn about it than it did about its’ M.O.D.O.K. cartoon, though it must be pointed out that the two cartoon series are very different on practically every level; M.O.D.O.K. was all about the universe, if not the multiverse, while Hit-Monkey is more restrained, with strong overtones not just of Deadpool, but also of the Kill Bill franchise, (which is owned neither by MCU nor by Disney, thank God). More precisely, whereas M.O.D.O.K. tried to encompass everything but the kitchen sink, ignoring the fact that most of it just unnecessarily cluttered the main story line – the titular character’s attempts to balance out his job and his family life, cough – Hit-Monkey doesn’t do that; it is actually about the titular character avenging his monkey tribe, while meeting all sorts of new people – such as Fat Cobra and Lady Bullseye – in the process of doing this. …Yes, it is an overly simplified synopsis, but it still works; while MCU seems to be getting into the multiverse aspect of itself, Hit-Monkey, well, does not – it got plenty of drama as it is. Of course, WV and TFAAWS did as well, not to mention the ‘Black Widow’ movie, (and I have my doubts about the upcoming ‘Hawkeye’ series too), but, again, this might be a part of the MCU Phase 4 plan.

Let us elaborate. The first three phases were about ‘the sacred timeline’, to use a quote from ‘Loki’, (the show, not its’ titular character). That is good, but in the same show, we saw Sylvie killing off He-Who-Remains, who was one of the Kangs, and so ‘the sacred timeline’ is now just ‘one face in the crowd’ instead. ‘Loki’ also had another Kang taking over the TVA now that HWR is gone, (for the foreseeable future), and so the TVA aren’t about to interfere once Spider-Man, (the Tom Holland version) and Dr. Strange cast the spell that we saw in the trailers – one that was supposed to change the reality…but because Peter Parker began to lose his nerve at the last minute, everything has went wrong, and the latest trailer showed us, among other things, the multiverse of madness beginning to manifest, and Dr. Strange being caught in the middle of it as well. Now what?

Well, firstly, this movie is going to be about Spider-Man, as he tries to save a lot of people at once, while Dr. Strange – well, this version of Dr. Strange, as opposed to the one that we’ve met in the episode 1x04 of ‘What If?’ – is trying to actually repair the damage by returning everything to the status-quo, i.e. how it was before the spell was cast; as the latest trailer shows, the good doctor apparently fails. Back to Spider-Man?

Well, aside from MJ doing the swan done as done by Gwen Stacy in the ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ movie series, (Earth-120703, if anyone cares), there’s the fact that maybe not all of the villains will go after Spider-Man at once; Dr. Octopus in particular seems to have a change of heart, (while Electro appears to have been re-designed instead). It will be interesting to see as to how Peter will deal with all of this, (to say nothing of MJ, you know?).

This, in turn, brings us to the ‘Venom’ films as well as the upcoming ‘Morbius’ movie – by now, the fans are wondering, just what is going on with them? The trailer for ‘Morbius’ in particular seems to be incorporating elements from all three Spider-Man franchises – and it does. Odds are that after the dust of ‘No Way Home’ settles, the world of this Spider-Man and his cohorts will be transferred from MCU to the ‘Sony Universe of Marvel Characters’, which is an entirely different situation and a universe as well. There, Peter Parker, (in whichever incarnation of his), and his friends, (the ones that will survive, anyhow), will try to make their new lives, with no way of returning home, (since the relationship between Sony and Disney/MCU isn’t all that friendly still), while Dr. Strange will have his own hands full, (as depicted in his own upcoming ‘multiverse of madness’ movie, remember?). Moreover, this sort of a situation will fit well into the MCU’s Phase 4 theme of transitions; even the upcoming ‘Hawkeye’ series fit into this theme, as the titular…title will pass from Clint to Kate. Is there anything else?

Ah yes, getting back to Hit-Monkey, this particular Hulu series doesn’t fit MCU’s phase 4 at all, and we’re not talking about the depiction styles either. Then again, ever since the Helstrom series, Hulu’s Marvel shows and series tended not to be part of MCU at all, so Hit-Monkey’s ‘nonconformism’ is not too surprising either, to be honest. It is still fun to watch though, but that opinion is subjective…

Well, this is it for now. See you all soon.

Eternals - Nov 10

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, those last few weeks had been taxing, therefore let us talk about the latest Marvel movie, the ‘Eternals’ (2021), instead.

Where to begin with them? With ‘Shang-Chi and the legend of the 10 rings’, of course. Both movies are simply different, but both differ from the rest of the Phase 4 MCU, (so far), by being not transitioning, (as the ‘Black Widow’ film was, for example), but introductory, they introduced the titular characters (and a few others) from – a blank slate. Yes, this was how the Iron Man, Thor, and the rest of the initial characters got their start, but the situation back then was different, even by the standards of the MCU mechanics.

…Does this state of affairs relate to the mixed reception that the ‘Eternals’ got from the critics and the audience? Good question. The movie itself is not very different from the standard MCU fare, though the difference is that the Eternals, the Celestials and the Deviants are not usually associated with the Avengers in the Marvel comics; in fact, I remember that when the Marvel comics restarted the Avengers sometime before the COVID-19 outbreak, they actually killed-off the Eternals because of reasons… Well, actually, because the Celestials went insane and had their own civil war instead, and part of the fallout was that the Avengers’ new HQ became a corpse of the one of the Celestials – and now look at MCU, where Earth now has a frozen Celestial stuck in it for real. What is that point?

…The point is that the ‘Eternals’ have not deviated all that much from the Marvel comic baseline, no more so than the ‘What if?’ cartoon series have, no matter what the critics say, or Ms. Chloe Zhao, who made the movie says. Yes, the ‘Eternals’ have social minorities – there’s a gay InHuman, and a deaf one – and there’s a sex on the beach scene – but, uh, what is the point?

…Oh, that this is a milestone for the Marvel movies, whose lack of a variety got rather obvious by now and then there is the entire sex on the beach situation? How wonderful, Disney/MCU is first in Hollywood to reach those milestones and to come out ahead in connecting with the little people in the real world. Yay!..

However, seriously, at the end of the line, there are two types of movies and co. – fiction and non-fiction. Movies, just as TV series, comics, books, and etc. can be either one or another, and the ‘Eternals’ are clearly fictional. Of course, so was ‘Nomadland’ and the rest of Ms. Zhao’s films, so what is exactly the difference between the ‘Eternals’ and the rest of her films?

Well, Captain Obvious points out that the ‘Eternals’ are her MCU debut, and that while the rest of her works were realistic, the ‘Eternals’ are not. Everything else is a matter of taste, opinion and prejudice, something that the reviews and critiques of the ‘Eternals’ have shown. Some people claim that Ms. Zhao have sold-out to Disney/MCU, others deny it, but the fact is that she did get paid for the ‘Eternals’, and a good amount of money – but that is between her and her employers, may her professional relationship with them be of a better sort than what ScarJo has had. Anything else?

To – regretfully – beat a dead horse, let’s get back to AoS, for the ‘Eternals’ are a movie that would’ve benefitted better by being a TV series that the AoS had been, i.e. – a soap opera that disguises itself as an action flick. Sersi – don’t confuse her with GoT’s Cersei, please – is rather reminiscent of Chloe Bennet’s Daisy/Quake, while her main man Ikaris has traits of both MCU’s Grant Ward, (currently deceased), and of Marvel Comics’ Hyperion, (I don’t know his current status, admittedly). Indeed, Ikaris seems to be reminiscent of both DC’s Superman and of the Homelander from ‘The Boys’ Franchise. So what?

So nothing – this only shows that despite their pedigree, the ‘Eternals’ are still a MCU movie, however atypical one at this stage. The movie’s details might be (mostly) unique to it, but the basis is still the same, nothing more. Ms. Zhao’s movie-making skills are unquestionable, and so she delivered once again, creating a very enjoyable spectacle – and the fact that she was able to multitask, i.e. create an enjoyable movie that also checks all of the ‘correct’ politically progressive marks only reinforces her formidability. That is all. Feel free to enjoy the ‘Eternals’ if you like Disney/MCU movies, and if you do not – then no. That is the bottom line.

In addition, this is also it, for now. See you all soon.

What if, S1 finale - October 6

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, and I cannot wait for today to be over for all sorts of reasons; as such, given that I have neither the time nor the inclination to wax poetic about the S1 conclusion of ‘What if?’ let me try to be brief instead.

The S1 finale is rather rushed; I do not know what ‘What if?’ was going for here; maybe it was some sort of a 4^th wall breakthrough, but in this case, they should have gone for a better medium than what is essentially a cartoon series, whose finale had been spoiled since the teaser trailer if not before. Marvel multiverse has plenty of stories, no doubt, but the audience of ‘team Marvel’ had been quite aware of them for a while; unlike the ‘Star Wars: Visions’ anthology, which authentically brought something new to the table due to a variety of factors, Marvel’s ‘What if?’ brought essentially some tried and true ideas to the table, nothing that hadn’t been encountered by Marvel fans before, albeit in different mediums, but still. The S1 finale assembled merely a different set of Avengers – pardon me, Guardians – but somehow they have reminded me of yet another Marvel team-up: Netflix’s ‘Defenders’. Whereas AoS was honestly bad, and ‘InHumans’ insipid, Marvel’s ‘Defenders’ were simply lackluster; a condition made worse by their heterogeneous nature: all 4 series, (plus ‘Punisher’ made the fifth), were different from each other, and when the ‘Defenders’ tried to combine all of them, (minus the Punisher) into a single show, it failed. What next?

‘What if?’ S1 finale was not a variant of the ‘Defenders’, no, but it was also lackluster: it was evident, (just as in case of the ‘Defenders’), just how everything and everyone would go so there were no twists and turns. Individual episodes were predictable enough, but in this case… Uatu threw a variant Gamora into the mix as an extra, and – period. That is it, and even the ‘Gamora killing Thanos’ case isn’t too unique – Marvel comics already did it… in one of the last pre-COVID-19 plot arcs. Yay.

…Well, the fact that ‘What if?’ had not killed the variant Zola and Killmonger off is different, though it is reminiscent of how the 1990’s Spider-Man cartoon had had its’ Captain Rogers and the Red Skull trapped in some timeless void in an eternal struggle. Here we have something similar; and has the variant Dr. Strange become Uatu’s jailer? Seriously, what are the ramifications of Uatu breaking his oath, and are there any ramifications for Uatu? That is not answered; instead, we get ‘What if?’ transformed from an anthology of independent stories – think SW: Visions for comparison – into another ‘Avengers’ variant, which is something that we’ve seen before… unlike the second ‘Venom’ film that we have also recently discussed, and which has actually brought something new to its’ audiences, (however limited or flawed it might be, yes, but still), hence its’ success and ‘What if?’-s not so much. Disney/MCU stopped taking risks after the fall of the SW Sequel Trilogy – but that is another story.

For now, though, this is it instead. See you all soon!

Venom 2 - October 5

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sometimes sucks really badly; this morning of mine’s was a certain proof of that!.. In other news, ‘Venom 2: Let there be Carnage’ was out last week, so let us talk about it instead, while Uatu is busy being Nick Fury to Ultra-Vision’s Loki. What about it?

The initial ‘Venom’ film was a separate beast from the rest of MCU, and so’s ‘Venom 2’… mostly. At the end of the film, there’re not so subtle signs that Venom – and ‘Venom’ – are coming to MCU after all; guess Sony has brokered its’ peace with MCU & Disney… So what?

Good question: ‘Venom 2’ in many ways is a re-mastered first film; the main difference between Carnage, (the movie version), and Riot, (the symbiote from the first film), is that Riot was lawful evil, and had a greater plan – to bring the rest of their race down to Earth so that the latter would be conquered – while Carnage was chaotic evil instead and just went on a murderous killing spree, as he usually does in all of the universes, (though in the 1990s’ cartoon series he joined baron Mordo instead to free Dormamu – but that is neither here nor there). Of course, Venom has to stop him anyhow, or else Carnage will kill him (and everyone else), but the point is that in both Tom Hardy movies Venom is an anti-hero, or rather a hero despite his baser nature: he has to stop the other symbiotes or else he’s doomed just as the rest of Earth is. (Uatu may have other opinions, but so far, he and Venom have never communicated with each other); i.e., there is little character development between those two movies, and there is actually some regress, seeing how Eddie has lost Anne again to the good doctor, (after winning her back at the end of the first film), but don’t fear! She is still the other person that Venom can bond with without killing them instead, (as he did both in this film and in the first one). Seriously, people, just have an orgy – it would be right up in Venom’s alley!..

…However, unlike AoS, where the recycling of ideas has turned MCU’s S.H.I.E.L.D. so toxic that now none of its characters – aside from some Coulson cameos – have re-appeared in either ‘What if?’ or anywhere else in the phase 4 MCU – the Venom franchise actually made it work. Why? Because unlike AoS, the Venom franchise does not attempt to go deep; it is actually is quite shallow, just as the titular character is. I.e., Venom is formidable, but he is not prone to self-contemplation or anything like that; Tom Hardy’s other character of the film – Eddie Brock – attempts to, sort of, but that is not enough: for a powerful alien monster, Venom is rather child-like in some ways, which make him lovable to the audience, sort of. Pause.

Let us try again. All movies are products that aim to be bought by the audience, (both literally and metaphorically), but whereas Disney seeks to make its’ MCU movies, (and also SW films, but let us ignore them right now), something meaningful and insightful and deep, (though nowhere as deep as ‘Dune-2021’ was, thank God), Sony – when it came to the ‘Venom’ franchise – did not. Both ‘Venom’ and ‘Venom 2’ aimed solely to entertain via a shock and awe approach, nothing more, nothing less. As the ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ movie showed, the (American) audiences are tired of ‘deep and meaningful’ movies, and are quite ready for something that is completely different, such as ‘Let there be Carnage’ film. It doesn’t offer any deep truths, any deep meanings, any subtle and/or hidden depths, but rather it wears its’ heart on its’ sleeve: what you see is what you get… which is basically a horror monster movie, quite appropriate for the month of Halloween, and also excellently made by Mr. Serkis from the technical side of things; so naturally, people have enjoyed watching it, and will enjoy to watch it for weeks to come.

For now, though, this is it. See you all soon – probably with the S1 conclusion of ‘What if?’.

What if, 'Ultron' - Sep 29

Obligatory disclaimer: real life is tricky; it is autumn in Ontario, Canada now, and all of the American toads and garter snakes and the rest of the cold-blooded animals are beginning to go to their winter hibernation sites; whereas the local songbirds – i.e., the American robin and the like – are flying down south, to the U.S., and beyond. Winter is only coming, it is not yet here, but the wildlife is getting the heck out of dodge already. As such, I often genuinely wonder as to how the world of ASOIAF would function – 10 years summer, 10 years winter and the such like? The local animals would find it to be murder, hence why GM never cared about them in his novels, dragons and dire wolves aside – but we digress.

This week, Marvel’s ‘What if?’ S1 has reached its’ penultimate episode, which has Ultron killing everyone, except for Natasha ‘Black Widow’ Romanoff and Armin Zola. Seriously, that is a character worth saving? Bloody Zola? Yes, obviously, the concept of ‘what if’ does imply from the start that here be unknown people with known names, but still? Zola?

…Zola aside, we got what? Further confirmation that the Thanos from ‘the sacred timeline’ was either especially tough, or especially lucky, or its’ Avengers were an especially measly bunch instead. Way back when, it took them two movies to actually defeat the grape goliath, and here in ‘What if?’, in the other timelines, various characters defeat him hither and yon. Puts a different perspective on all of those Infinity Stones found in the TVA, you know!

As for the episode itself, well… Yes, it is bad that Ultron won and killed everyone, to put it lightly, but we have already seen a variant of that, back in the episode 1x04, when that version of Dr. Strange did pretty much the same thing – and now he is back, as the Watcher has contacted him for help.

It should be noted that the Watcher had not shown initiative here; instead, it was the Ultron-Vision who attacked the Watcher, causing him to flee and start to assemble his own team, (though, notably, he has not contacted Zola or Romanoff yet), in order to save the multiverse and himself. Guess the TVA is going to be replaced after all, by the new mega-avengers, or else Ultron is going to kill the Marvel multiverse instead. This has happened before, actually, albeit by Deadpool rather than Ultron, but as we have seen, ‘What if?’ presents only the Avengers-associated characters so far, and Deadpool isn’t one of them; if you’re going to argue that the GotG aren’t exactly Avengers’ themselves, well, ‘What if?’ has them associated with T’Challa instead, and that hero began to be associated with the Avengers since the CA: CW film… unlike Shang-Chi, who never was, and so this movie of his is his first true appearance in the MCU, period. Where were we?

Ah yes, the Marvel comic arc called appropriately ‘Ultron Forever’, in which the titular character took over Earth, Asgard, and the rest, and only the brave yet ruthless Doombot stood in his way, so he assembled a team of Avengers from several time periods in Marvel history, and together the team defeated ‘the All-Father Ultron’ and brokered peace between the Doombot and the new free world… Where were we?

Oh yeah, ‘What if?’ aimed to shock and awe as much as anything, but the problem is that just as with many other TV series, (MCU or not), the shock and awe wear off quite quickly, and we’re left… with a TV show in this case, one whose S1 is coming to an end next week anyhow, and whose final expression – so far – is more positive than negative. Yay, really!

…However, for now, this is it. See you all soon!

What if, 'Thor' - Sep 22

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life, sometimes, can be… weird: earlier this week I have encountered a real life rat in the broad daylight, and it was a big one: about the size of a small groundhog, (aka a woodchuck), and just as massive. Some sources of mine claim that it was a male rat, (a Norway rat, for classification’s sake), since the females of the species are smaller and slimmer than the males are, but that is redundant; the point is that I saw a real live rat, in broad daylight, and that isn’t something that has happened to me before, not ever, and probably won’t happen to me again either, (not in a long while, anyhow), and this sort of thing makes life rather tolerable to live, at least some of the times… Where were we?

My rat-related rant aside, this week’s episode of ‘What if?’ was the comedy episode; in it, we got to meet Thor who did not grow up alongside Loki, as the latter was returned to Laufey in this particular universe. Fair enough, an AU is an AU, and it does not have to be relatable to the main timeline either, but where does it leave us?

…Well, with variant Ultrons up the proverbial wazoos, if you want to be literal, but also – in the finishing stretch; let me elaborate. So far, ‘What if?’ was a rather restrained show for a cartoon: it took a single premise and ran with it – sometimes wildly, sometimes not so much, but always within the framework laid down by the mainline Disney/MCU, meaning that this season of ‘What if?’ is about the Avengers and no one else, though, admittedly, this ‘limited’ cast was big enough for the episodes – so far – each to have a different set of main characters; secondary characters are a different story, but they’re secondary for a reason… what else?

…A crossover episode, or rather episodes, as the odds of ‘What if?’ S1 ending on a double-episode finale are good, plus it would give the showrunners of ‘What if?’ to show the audiences how the MCU multiverse can handle this sort of an emergency without the TVA, (cough, ‘Loki’, cough), fixing it prematurely, but now we may have multidimensional Avengers assembling, so yay, here we go! What is left?

Nothing, I must admit. ‘What if?’ has begun on a mixed note: a tame job that pretends to be wild, and it remains as such; there are no Agents, (because AoS evolved into a hot mess), no InHumans, (because that show was insipidly bad so now its’ core concept was probably reworked in the ‘Eternals’ movie, cough), no Defends or X-Men or Fantastic Four because of copyright issues, no outsiders period. Fair enough and so far ‘What if?’ does deliver what it has intended to deliver – an entertaining pageant and a spectacle. That is not bad, but by now, seven episodes into the S1 – we are almost at a season’s finale, people! – the aforementioned people are getting rather tired of ‘What if?’, especially with such new gems as ‘Hawkeye’ and ‘Hit-Monkey’ are appearing on the horizon, to say nothing of the Eternals and what not. People are getting tired of ‘What if?’ for the moment, the show is losing steam, and I, for one, was, and am, and will be, more interested in the wild/feral Norway rat that I’ve encountered earlier this week than about the show, (at the moment), but that’s just me. I have been known to be weird after all.

Therefore, for now, this is it. See you all soon, instead!

What if, 'Killmonger' - Sep 15

Disclaimer: real life sucks, so let’s talk about one of its’ aspects first, instead, before returning to MCU. Where are we?

Ah yes, the YouTube. On this occasion, I watched a video called ‘Black Mamba vs. Viper’, where the victory was awarded to the black mamba, and I have to say that I disagree with it.

What is wrong with this match? For a start, the term ‘viper’ is an umbrella term: it covers the ‘true’ vipers, (such as the adder of Europe and the gaboon viper of Africa), the pit vipers, and also their immediate relatives – but that is unimportant, actually.

What is important is that the black mamba is an elaphid snake: its’ fangs are short and fixed, immobile – and its venom is a neurotoxin, it attacks the nervous system first. The fangs of the vipers – all of them – are much longer and fold when the snake closes its’ mouth – and their venom is a hemotoxin, it attacks the blood vessels first. Again, that is not important, but…

…But what is important is that snakes are scaly, rather than furry or feathery, unlike how birds and mammals are. As a result, when two snakes fight each other, they need to pierce scales, rather than fur or feathers, and scales can be tougher to pierce. The king cobra, which hunts and eats other snakes – hey, it is a living – is a cousin of the black mamba, (though do not ask me how close – apparently, the king cobra is not a ‘true’ cobra, whatever that implies beyond scientific classification), meaning that its’ fangs are relatively short and fixed and its’ venom is a neurotoxin… see above. However, it isn’t just much bigger and stronger than a black mamba – the king cobra is the biggest modern venomous snake, period, according to the official science – but it also has extra thick scales, in case its’ prey tries to counterattack with its’ own venomous bite… Put otherwise, the king cobra is a snake-hunting specialist and the black mamba isn’t, and when fighting a viper – any viper – it has to deal with an opponent whose scales might be thicker and tougher than its’ own, and whose fangs are certainly longer and sharper than the black mamba’s own… I am not saying that the black mamba cannot win this fight; I am just saying that the odds are stacked against it, that is all. Now onto the MCU?

Well yes, though given how Erik Killmonger – or N’Jadoka – has behaved in this week’s episode – we are not done with snakes. See, the way that the teaser trailer for this week’s episode was set up made us – well, me, for one – think that he might become a hero in this AU. Conversely, he became a villain, a manipulator and a blackguard, has killed quite a few people, some of whom were, or could’ve been, quite important to MCU, and have become king of Wakanda at the end, (though the episode ends with some optimism, more reminiscent of the ep 1x03 than the ep 1x04, for comparison). I am going with Shakespeare’s Richard III.

Let me elaborate. When it comes to ‘Black Panther’ the franchise and its’ corner of the Marvel universe(s), the themes of kings, kingdoms and kingships come up regularly, for all of the obvious reasons. The previous example was the 1x02 episode of ‘What if?’ which featured T’Challa as the Star-Lord, yes, but also as some sort of an outlaw king, a ‘white’ king, a fair and a just king and so on. Killmonger, conversely, is T’Challa’s direct opposite, something that this week’s episode of ‘What if?’ showed loud and clear, and that’s not a problem, but…

…But having already talked about the ‘Black Panther’ film recently in regards to the ‘Shang-Chi’ film, I got to re-digging some of my old files about the former film, and among them I found some articles that pointed out specifically that Killmonger was the villain of the movie, pure and simple, and not some conflicted anti-hero, cough. Now, this week – Sep 15, 2021 – we got a ‘What if?’ Killmonger episode, which confirms that no matter what the world, Killmonger is always a villain, and Tony Stark – for a different example – is not.

…Yes, this is a dig at the fact that there are plenty of people who are still sore at Tony, or at captain Rogers, in regards to MCU’s take on the Civil War plotline. There are also enough people who are still sore at Ward at the role he played in MCU’s AoS, especially the S1, when the effect was the strongest. Well, to put it bluntly, Killmonger was much more successful and ruthless than Ward ever was, period, so take that, critics!.. And also accept predeterminism, I guess.

No, seriously, the un- or intended other side of this week’s ‘What if?’ episode is that nature beats nurture, so to speak. Again, to use that particular contrast, but by befriended Stark, Killmonger got himself the opportunities that - anyone in S.H.I.E.L.D., ok, fine – would have dreamed about, (cough, the FitzSimmons, cough). And how does Killmonger repay Stark for all of those opportunities? With monstrous ingratitude, to put it lightly. Whereas T’Challa tries to think of everybody, and tries to make the world a better place for everyone, Killmonger cares only about himself, and the world can go screw itself for all that he cares. Fair enough, though the ‘Black Panther’ movie had that message rather muddled, and that version of Killmonger is dead anyhow, right?..

Is there anything left? Ah yes, the Hawkeye trailer that came out yesterday, (Sep 14, 2021). So far, it does a good job of capturing the Hawkeye spirit – I am talking about both Barton and Bishop – one that is serious, formidable, yet also a goofball on occasion, with some humor at least. (The Hawkeye version from the Ultimates comics lacked humor completely).  Here, we see the Avengers’ underdog finally getting his time to shine, and I’m not talking about ‘Rogers: the musical’ either. The bon mot here is that MCU is finally moving forwards from Thanos’ snap/Blip and its’ aftereffects for good… at least until Kang the Conqueror comes forth… conquering. Given that the current Avengers’ status is either ‘in transit’ or ‘undetermined’ I honestly hope that Kang will take his sweet time getting to MCU… and he probably will, as the ‘Loki’ S1 finale revealed that he has an entire multiverse for taking…and he already took over the TVA – but we digress. The point is that unlike the ‘Shang-Chi’ film, the ‘Hawkeye’ series fit well with the rest of the MCU Phase 4 – it is a transition story as Barton passes the moniker of Hawkeye from himself onto Kate Bishop.

As for everything else… oh brother. Apparently, the main villains of ‘Hawkeye’ – so far – are the tracksuit mafia, some sort of a Russian mafia variant. Oh, good Lord – now is so the time to annoy the Russians further. Not. As the U.S. has demonstrated to the rest of the world, it isn’t the shining nation on the hill that it claimed to be, and while RF’s president Putin is a staunchly anti-American man, it is just as true that for years – maybe even a couple of decades – the U.S. could’ve forced the RF to replace him with anyone else, really, like Mikhail Khodorkovsky but not necessarily, who would’ve kept the RF pro-American. Instead, the U.S. seemed to be perfectly content with Putin until 2014, when it all ended, and now they are trying to put the genie back into the bottle, only not. Biden agreed that Putin is a murderer – and then he promptly had official talks with him later the same year, (2021). Seriously, people make up your mind – either Putin is a killer and his regime is a direct affront to the American democracy, in which case any friendly discussion with him is impossible, or he isn’t, and his regime isn’t, and in that case, calling him a ‘killer’ or anything is just rude and wrong and pointless.

…As a matter of fact, MCU – and by MCU, I mean AoS – tried to do something about Russia before the ‘Black Widow’ film did. To wit, seasons 3 through 5 featured a yahoo called Anton Ivanov, who was a pitiful imitation of Ward, and who never amounted to anything because AoS just couldn’t figure out what to do with him – the man died forgotten and unlamented for, a Watchdog Alpha or not – and now MCU is returning once more to mother Russia in the characters of the Russian mafia. Sigh. Odds of them being as generic as Dreykov was in the ‘Black Widow’ movie ae quite high, hence why I am going to finish my rant for the moment, but I am not impressed, though that, of course, is irrelevant…

For now, though this is it. See you all soon!

What If, 'Zombies' - Sep 8

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about MCU once again. This time, we are back with the ‘What if?’ series, and now we got zombies.

Pause. To be more specific, zombies have a long and established career slash history in the Marvel world by now; there’s a separate comic world inhabited by the zombiefied Marvel heroes and villains, but, again, this is a separate world from the mainstream comic one – and the same can be said about the MCU take on it. Uatu the Watcher shows us different worlds from the main MCU one, and this one just happens to be infected with zombies. Fun.

Again, pre-‘Loki’, the TVA would’ve appeared in such a world and tried to fix it, at least, lest things get as bad as they did in this week’s episode when the world got nearly overrun by zombies – or maybe it actually did.

To elaborate, again, the zombies in Marvel™ are much more than just shuffling mindless corpses: at the very least, they have bestial cunning as well as reflexes, and at worst, they’re as intelligent as they were in life – and much more ruthless, usually. …In D&D, there is a monster called a ghoul or a ghast, which is based on a monster from the Arabic mythology, a ghoul or a ghul, which is something intermediate between a basic zombie and a basic vampire: it has intelligence, just as the latter does, and is much quicker and tougher than a zombie is, but otherwise? It looks more like an animated corpse, or a zombie, than a vampire, who often comes across as suave and sophisticated… at least at first. Once the fangs are out, it is all different, but still… Where were we?

Right, this week’s episode of ‘What if?’. It obviously draws upon the previous Marvel Zombies’ incarnations, though it also tries to be original by making its’ cast go all over the places and phases; there’s a non-evil (supposedly) Sharon Carter in the mix, for example, but, again, all of this mix and match comes from the Avengers’ corner of the Marvel universe; there’s no sign of mutants or of the Defenders, off the top of one’s head. There are no agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. either; Coulson’s appearance in the episode 1x03 was more of a cameo than of anything more specific; what next?

A shout-out back to ‘Shang-Chi’ in regards to mix and match in regards to the racial question: Disney/MCU appears to try to have their cake and to eat it too: in AoS, they played around with interracial relationships, (Coulson and May as the most obvious example), but somehow nothing corporeal came out of it; the best was WASP and WASP, (think the FitzSimmons), and POC and POC, (Mack and Yo-Yo). In the ‘Defenders’ franchise, there were almost no interracial relationships: WASP Jessica was with the WASP Murdoch, while Mack – who was a POC – was with a different one: progressive indeed! Is this early 21^st century or the 20^th? …Of course, the ‘Defenders’ franchise also had the ‘Iron Fist’, whose main relationship was an interracial one, but it was done very clumsily, and out of the entire Defenders’ crew, the ‘Iron Fist’ went down first – but we digressed.

…On the other hand, ‘Zombies’ does work hard to keep us focused; for an episode that is all about zombies and excitement, it feels like the biggest letdown yet: it may be an ‘Apocalypse’-based episode, but somehow the tone is all over the place, and the shout-out to ‘WandaVision’ didn’t help either, though an evil zombie Wanda was a good villain. That said, I left feeling the episode not shaken or awed, but almost bored, since it is obvious by now how the story will end: the good guys always win, even if a horde of Thanos’ zombies will arrive from space as a final twist. Sigh. When Ward was revealed as a Hydra agent back in AoS’ S1, that was a twist. This was something else, and nowhere as good, leaving the audience wish either for the blank despair of 1x04, or for the cautious optimism of 1x03. 1x05 constantly careens between the two, and leaves the audience with dissatisfaction instead. Sad, but that is real life for you. It sucks.

For now though, this is it. See you all soon!

 

Shang-Chi - Sep 7

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of 10 Rings’ movie instead. Where does it stand, exactly?

Why, at Marvel™, of course, sharing team Marvel’s™ standard brand of excellence! …Unfortunately, given that we are at Marvel’s Phase 4 by now, that is not enough, on its’ own – but let us elaborate.

Until ‘Shang-Chi’ rolled in, so far, all of Marvel’s Phase 4 was all about transition: Wanda and Vision have drifted apart, (putting it lightly), Bucky and Sam have become a duo, Loki has become a duo with Sylvie, and has become a proper hero rather than a selfish berk, and the title of Black Widow passed from Natasha to Yelena. Anything else? Oh yes, PP and Dr. SS, (different one from the ‘What If?’ episode 1x04, I believe), are about to embark on a magical journey of self-discovery, or at least PP does; I am not so sure about the good doctor… So, where does it leave Shang-Chi?

Kind of shoehorned into the same mould, technically speaking. Throughout the bigger part of the film, Shang-Chi travelled both literally and spiritually, both through the external world and inside of his own mind, trying to figure out as to who he really was, until he succeeded, (at least, by the movie’s conclusion). That’s not bad, but the problem is that the movie itself wasn’t a transition per se, as the ‘Black Widow’ film was, (and even that had problems…aside from ScarJo fighting Disney/MCU afterwards, cough), but rather it’s an introductory movie, not unlike the initial ‘Black Panther’ film, (another one is coming out soon enough). The ‘Black Panther’ movie had introduced Africa, (and Afro-Americans), to MCU. Now, ‘Shang-Chi’ is doing the same thing with Far East Asia, (and also its’ native people). Again, not a bad idea, but…

…But even ‘Black Panther’ had problems with its’ message, as we’ve discussed it way back when. ‘Shang-Chi’ has the same problem, and if you’ll say that its’ cast and crew went extra distance to avoid the clichés, I’ll respond that they’re inevitable, because Shang-Chi himself was a cliché – an Asian, or an Asian-American martial artist, who is trying to become ‘A Good Guy™’ person and escape his father’s shadow. The issue of Fu Manchu was mentioned repeatedly as ‘Shang-Chi’ was coming to the silver screens, so let’s not chew on it too much, but, again, Fu Manchu’s villainy worked because he was a cliché, by the Western standards anyhow – an alien, a foreigner, who isn’t, mmm, Caucasian, but who is intelligent, and rich, and formidable all the same. ‘Shang-Chi’ the movie tries to avoid that cliché by taking place – in a large part – outside of a real world altogether, but rather in the magical place of To-La…or inside Shang-Chi’s mind…or on a different plane of existence altogether…you get the drift. Not such a bad idea, but unfortunately a large part of Disney/MCU’s strength is its’ realism; the latter often tried to reference real life events and people, (especially in the first phases), and once ‘Shang-Chi’ moved away from that state of affairs, it floundered. ‘Black Panther’ didn’t go in that direction, BTW – indeed, the movie was about Wakanda ending its’ isolation, and instead becoming a part of the greater MCU world, ‘thanks’ to Killmonger and his actions – there’s nothing like that in ‘Shang-Chi’; rather, Wu Xenxu’s crime organization remains a world apart from the rest of MCU, and so’s the village of To La. ‘Black Panther’ destroyed, (well, started the process of), isolation; ‘Shang-Chi’ did none of that.

This brings us to the second big difference between ‘Black Panther’ and ‘Shang-Chi’ – the matter of ethnicity, or of race. ‘Black Panther’ was all about Africa; ‘Shang-Chi’ – about Asia, or more precisely, it is all about the Far East. Yes, it is a Western term, but since we are still living in a predominantly Western world, that is the term we are going to use. Therefore, what about it?

This is the latest attempt of the Western cinematography to break into the Far Eastern cinemas and etc. There were ‘Crazy Rich Asians’, ‘Mulan-2020’, ‘Raya and the Last Dragon’ to name a few, and now there is also ‘Shang-Chi’. The West does not care about the African mass media market and culture so much, in part, because the latter are so underdeveloped when compared to the U.S., but it cares about the Far Eastern version because of communism and the Far Eastern culture in general – neither of these factors are too friendly towards the West. ‘Mulan-2020’ in particular have brought those differences to the fore, and the West, embodies by Disney, folded first. Disney/MCU (+SW, etc.), may pretend to be fair, progressive, politically correct and so on, but the bottom line is all about the dollar. Given how much of the latter ‘Shang-Chi’ has brought to Disney/MCU, it obvious works, though maybe the heroic Black Widow ScarJo will do something about that with her lawsuit. Anything else?

…Just that even the ‘Black Panther’ film had some token characters of a different color, cough, that were actually important to the film; ‘Shang-Chi’ – not so much. As a result, the movie again suffers, becoming less of a movie and more of a propaganda piece…whose message is a lie, on top of everything else, and everyone is aware of it, more or less cognizantly. U.S. in general seems to have problems in this department; it seems to rely too heavily on its’ media to shape its’ own story, and it does not work. It didn’t work back in the elections-2016, and it doesn’t work now: no ‘FBI: International’ or ‘NCIS: Hawaii’ TV series will hide the fact that the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan with its’ tail between its’ legs, no so much an eagle or a lion, but rather whipped toy dog, but we digress.

No, no really. When ‘Black Panther’ was made and released, the U.S. still considered itself to be on top of the world, and most of the world played along, (cough, RF’s conquering of the Crimean peninsula in 2014, cough). Now, ‘Shang-Chi’ is playing in the world where the former statement is clearly false, and the rest of the world has to admit it. (Alternatively, it was the one doing the forced admitting). How will this affect ‘Shang-Chi’ and the rest of MCU? I have no idea, but out of the two movies, I have still enjoyed ‘Black Panther’ better.

…This is it for now; see you all soon!

What If, 'Dr. Strange' - Sep 1

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks: the U.S. and the rest of the West are officially done with Afghanistan, and the Taliban has taken over it just as officially. Hooray. Biden had no intention of continuing this ‘forever war’ – fine, but it doesn’t change the fact that during the last 20 years, USA completely failed to build a proper Western country in Afghanistan, so let’s talk about this week’s episode of ‘What if?’ instead.

Sadly, this week’s episode seems to be offering more of the same; in the last week’s episode, five out of six initial Avengers died, but the rest of the world moved on; this week, however, Dr. Strange destroyed everyone and everything in his grief instead, and-

Let us try to talk about this one character across. First, in AoS, Grant Douglas Ward lost John Garrett, and more importantly, Kara Palamas, just as Dr. Strange lost Christine Palmer in this week’s ‘What if?’ episode. Unlike Dr. Strange, Ward went to extract his revenge – well, first he went completely insane, in a sad, but dangerous way – by killing…well, mostly Ms. Price, Coulson’s girlfriend of the month, and also exposing Melinda’s (ex?) husband Andrew as an InHuman called Lash…but that is another story. The point is that as far as Ward was concerned, Coulson’s S.H.I.E.L.D. owed him a karmic debt, and he resolved it by flipping it over, by dying – and joining Palamas in the Underworld – and by tipping S.H.I.E.L.D.’s karmic cup over, and leaving them dealing with Hive, who almost executed Grant’s revenge on a far bigger scale than Grant ever could. Dr. Strange, on the other hand, did not work the system as Grant did, he did not join Palmer in the afterlife as Ward did with Kara, but rather he tried to resurrect her, which went against the flow of existence in this particular universe – but this brings us to Wanda.

In WV, Wanda did not accept Vision’s death all that well, and by using her powers, she took over a town in New Jersey (of all states), and through the power of her mind, (augmented and empowered in part by the Mind Stone of Thanos’, cough), she rewrote that corner of MCU, brought back Vision, and did plenty of other things – but they were obviously only temporary, and so Wanda had to let go of her past and move on – or else she would’ve gone insane, (or even died), and Vision would still be lost to her; at least, at the WV’s finale, Wanda is moving on… in some direction, and she might yet be able to recover their twins, and moreover – there’s a new Vision in the MCU, so who knows? Maybe the two of them will be able to work it out. Of course, the fact that the new Vision looks like a hybrid between GoT’s Night King and KKK’s mascot doesn’t help things, but that’s on Disney/MCU’s conscience, so where are we?

Yes, that unlike Wanda, this Steven did not release his grief, but rather let it use him to destroy his universe – MCU’s grief metaphor in reverse. I am impressed, really, but the fact that this universe’s Ancient One states that Christine’s Palmer’s death was destined to be rather rubs me wrong: it’s reminiscent of predeterminism – that some things are just meant to be, and no one can do anything about it… and that just goes against Protestantism and the rest of all things Western, you know?

Let us try again. In AoS, S.H.I.E.L.D. stood for democracy, just as Hydra stood for tyranny, so whereas in Hydra compliance was rewarded, in S.H.I.E.L.D. initiative and taking charge of one’s own life and future were – and they were shown to be superior to Hydra’s blind obedience. So far so good, but then the second half of S2 introduced the InHumans, whose life motto was ‘what will be, will be’ instead. It isn’t exactly Hydra’s ‘compliance will be rewarded’ motto, but there were enough similarities, superficial or not, for S.H.I.E.L.D. to become confused, and to start treating the InHumans incorrectly, (Skye’s inexperience in these matters didn’t help any), and the result was the bloodbath on the Iliad, (a S.H.I.E.L.D. battleship of the Navy sort), and things became even worse from then on, until the S3 finale – Ward almost didn’t make things worse, but when he did… see above. The point here is that Lincoln paid the ultimate price in AoS’ S3, but he did it because of predeterminism, among other things, and because of it, he never became fully at home in S.H.I.E.L.D.- pause.

Getting back to ‘What if?’, Dr. Strange gets into trouble and destroys everyone and everything because he actually refuses to bow down into inevitable, and tries everything he can to change his and Charlotte’s destinies, and as a result, the world ends. Maybe he should have moved on, true, but the way this episode have handled it? It is too reminiscent as to what has happened in RL Afghanistan, where instead of building a proper Western society, of meritocracy, of self-advancement, and self-worth, and what else have you, the Americans failed, and Afghanistan remained an Eastern country, where people are prepared to bow to inevitable and to die for their beliefs – whether it’s Islam, or democracy, or whatever – but not to kill for them. There’s a difference…and besides, a good deal of Afghanis would rather run away anyways and live a better life elsewhere, away from Afghanistan – what were the Americans and the Europeans doing over there, anyhow? Clearly not building a different nation with a new system of values as the Soviets tried in the 20^th century, or even subduing them in servitude, as the Brits did in the 19^th. But hey – Disney/MCU is trying to be educational here and now about the nature of grief, (seriously the laurels of ‘Inside Out’ success just cannot be let go here?), funded by the taxpayers’ dime, while inadvertently promoting the values of predeterminism here. How patriotic and clever! Do they want to replicate the ‘success’ of AoS in the ‘What if?’ If so, full speed to them to go ahead! Not.

…Well, this is it for now anyhow. ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings’ is officially coming out this Friday, so we’ll talk about it either this week or the next. See you all soon!