Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Ergo, let us look at what is going on in MCU, and here things are not much better either – DC has struck! (Warning – spoilers ahead. If you care – do not read, if you do not – do).
Let me elaborate: whereas WV has dominated the American
news, (especially the entertainment section, now that the Donald is no longer
the POTUS and cannot compete with them fairly), TFATWS, on the other wing, has
to compete with the Snyder cut of the Justice League, (which is apparently much
more coherent and collected and composed differently from the Whedon version),
as well as from the upcoming remake of the ‘Suicide Squad’.
…Personally, I reckon that the original ‘Squad’ movie
worked, but this isn’t about workable movies, it’s about remaking its’ brand:
DC has already remade the animated versions of Superman and Batman (plus the
Martian Manhunter and several other characters, big and small), now it is time
of the animated Wonder Woman, the
Justice Society, the Flash and etc.… as well as of their live-action
counterparts, (cough, ‘Superman and Lois’, cough). Team DC/Warner
Brothers/HBO/etc. are not strong enough, or just unwilling, or whatever, to
challenge the Disney/MCU juggernaut directly…but they are fighting it
regardless. They are also putting a dump on the elder Whedon-man, but fuck him –
after the mess that he had turned the AoS into, I am in no hurry to defend him –
the man made his bed, let him lie in it, and the rest of his clan as well.
That said, the mutation of AoS, the unexpected and unwanted
one, into a seven-season giant, had caused some ripples in the greater MCU as
well. WV has demonstrated a complete lack of S.H.I.E.L.D. on one hand, (seriously,
the current version of S.W.O.R.D. is just S.H.I.E.L.D. in a different package,
cough), while on the other…
Apparently, one of the removed scenes had been Ralph teaming
up with Monica, Darcy and Jimmy to capture a demon that Agatha’s rabbit Senor
Scratchy transformed into. This event would have allowed Ralph to properly
integrate into MCU and become something more than just a dick joke, (pun
intended). However, it seems that a certain RL actor wasn’t very interested in
this, and so his character got increasingly downgraded from the episode 1x06
onwards – as ‘Dark Phoenix 2019’ showed, the integration of FX into Disney/MCU didn’t
occur too painlessly, and some bad feelings still linger on… Where are we?
…Right, while the WV – especially the last two episodes – suffered
from some revision, (in a bad way, not unlike what AoS had in the second half
of S2), TFATWS… does not appear to be, at least not at the moment. Instead,
what we have are two teams – one is the titular characters, and the other is
the new guys – J.W. aka the ‘new captain America’ and his main man Battlestar.
Yes, the racial dynamics is inverted in the new team, but I
have no idea what does that mean. Yes, TFATWS is big on depicting racial
dynamics within the U.S. – last week, it was Sam and Sarah’s big misadventure
in the bank – apparently, with Tony Stark gone, the Avengers’ financial
security is gone with him – and this time it is the cops’ harassing Sam because
they think that he has harassed the Buck… and they’re white too.
I live in Canada, and the first time I saw an Afro-American
person being arrested was in the U.S., (in the city of Buffalo, which is in the
New York state, FYI), but the cops who arrested him were also Afro-Americans,
and the detained man didn’t appear to be suffering too badly, so yes, here I am
calling out Disney, MCU, and the rest of Hollywood on their racial BS because
that is what it is, and given just how messed up the U.S. still is after the
Donald’s 4-year tenure, does it really need Disney/MCU stirring the pot?
Probably not, but TFATWS still has another 4 episodes left in it, so this is
what’ll get – a modern social commentary set in a superhero universe, where
super-soldiers whale at each other on top of moving trucks and what else have
you. Bravo! How very woke of you, Disney & MCU! MAGA, MAGA!
But that aside, what did ‘The Star-Spangled Man’ have? It
set up J.W. as the new ‘wrong’ captain America, it showed that the
Flag-Smashers are not as evil as they appear to be, (maybe), and that there is
another power group/player to the game, one that may or may not be Helmut Zemo,
who is returning to TFATWS proper in the next episode. Not a wealth of
information to go on, but then again, TFATWS is all about racial inequality, mental
trauma, (PTSD), and action, as far as MCU incarnations go. That is fair enough,
but not enough to go on.
Therefore, for now this is it. See you all soon instead!
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