Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Therefore, let us look at the latest episode of TFATWS, the ‘Power Broker’, to check on the titular characters… yeah, they are not doing so hot either. Where to begin?
Unlike WV, which was centered all around the town of
Westview and nowhere else, not really, (cough, S.W.O.R.D. and Skrulls, cough),
TFATWS is something of a globe-trotting adventure: in the first half of the
mini-series alone, we’ve been not just to the U.S., but also to north Africa,
to Europe, (Germany and now Riga, the capital city of Latvia), and also to
Asia, via the fictional state of Madripoor. Pause.
Yes, people are very excited about the last one, since
Madripoor is usually associated with the X-Men and the other mutants’ of the
Marvel comic universe. However, just because it had finally appeared in MCU does
not mean that the mutants themselves are going to follow suit – Disney/MCU has
a plan, and it does not include the appearance of the X-Men and the other
mutants for a long while – at least officially. Unofficially, I do not know –
maybe Sharon Carter is a secret mutant who works for Mr. Sinister or someone
like that, but until it is officially revealed, all we can do is speculate, and
that is not enough.
Sharon Carter… yeah. If Batroc is shaping to be MCU’s answer
to the Box Ghost at best, then Sharon Carter is one of those jack-of-all-trade
characters, the one who is constantly reshaped to fill whatever plot hole MCU
needs to fill-in next. She used to be Steve Rogers’ love interest, but then
Steve went back to Peggy Carter once the latter’s titular series got abruptly
ended post S2, (a pity), in a non-too-obvious MCU reboot. Yes, Daniel Sousa
went from AC, to AoS, where he ended up being Daisy Johnson/Quake’s love
interest, but AoS itself has ended, and where are they now? Supposedly being
S.H.I.E.L.D.’s alien ambassadors, whatever that means, but we’re already
getting well into MCU’s Phase 4, and S.H.I.E.L.D. itself is nowhere in sight –
or is it? Sharon Carter herself was an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. in MCU, so now
that she is back, and with her own agenda, it may be that S.H.I.E.L.D. is
returning to mainstream MCU after all.
Or not, it is too early to tell. The main focus of TFATWS remain
the titular characters, as well as baron Zemo. The latter is clearly a bad man,
but is he a villain? Yes, MCU tried - tries to make its’ villains sympathetic,
and the results are mixed: the early seasons of AoS were bad, while in WV
Agnes/Agatha Harkness is more of an obstacle or an upstart rival than an enemy,
(as John Garrett had been to the team Bus, for example), and that probably left
at least some fans wondering – was Wanda the villain all along after all?
Spoiler alert – she was, but we digress.
Well, not really – he is still a self-centered, entitled,
rich jerk, who has shot Sam and Bucky’s latest lead, Dr. Nagel, in order to
remain useful to them for longer. On one hand, you cannot blame him – he probably
does not want to go back to prison, (though with the Wakanda on his tail this
situation may change), on the other, Sam and Bucky should remember, that when
you dine with the devil, you should use the long spoon, and if you do not, then
it is on you.
The Power Broker themselves… yes, that’s still vague, so we
really ought to move onto J.W., his main man Battlestar, and the iKarli, but
first – a big shout-out to Disney/MCU on their hypocrisy! In the first two
episodes, they involved scenes showing Sam getting harassed by the
Anglo-American authorities because he is an Afro-American instead, but here
comes the episode 1x03, and we got none of that at all – even Sarah Wilson’s
cameo in this episode is more of a cameo than anything else. Fair enough, but
this doesn’t support my theory that the social commentary in TFATWS is just to
pad the runtime, nothing more, and when it isn’t actually necessary to pad the
runtime, (here we had Sharon Carter’s expose to do that), it is being
discarded. Thank you, Disney/MCU, for being true to yourself! (Cough,
Mulan-2020 controversy, cough).
Back to TFATWS and MCU proper, we finally got J.W. and Karli
Morgenthau. J.W. behaves just as the U.S. itself did in the late 90s and the
early 2000s, when they were on the rise and did not believe that they needed
anyone’s help to establish their ‘global village’, aka ‘Pax Americana’ – and then
there were Iraq, Egypt, and, most importantly, Libya – and the American global
presence began to decrease, (as it does even now), and now the U.S. is changing
their tune, because of the RF, yes, but especially because of China. Listen,
the U.S. hate to admit it, but without allies, they are not so tough, and so they
are looking for allies to go against the RF if necessary, but also – against China
too. Yes, RF is tricky, because Putin seems to have an authentic crazy yen
against the U.S., but he is not eternal, you know? The U.S. can still afford to
wait.
Getting back to TFATWS proper, we still should discuss Karli
and her Flag-Smashers, only there is also a limited amount of things to say.
Karli seems to be shaping into yet another ‘sympathetic villain’, what with her
innocent face, idealistic values, and what not, only a good deal of damage that
occurs around her occurs because of her. Her Robin Hood to Power Broker’s
prince John may be more of anti-hero thing than that of a proper villain, but
her bombing of the GRC office is fully on her. She is horrified by that? Fine,
but that on its’ own isn’t enough – she has to do something more concrete to
show that she doesn’t want to be typecast into a villain role – only odds are
is that she is going to be instead. Karli Morgenthau is a stand-in for the good
old-fashioned European revolutionary, not so much a Communist or a Nazi, but
more of a generic anarchist, who gave rise and gave way for the former two,
(among others), and who tends to implement terrorist practices just for their
own sake rather than to drive a goal forth. Now what?
Well, it is anyone’s idea, actually, as the storyline
apparently needed an insertion of Wakanda’s elements to move itself forwards.
Zemo may die in the TFATWS plot arc, yes, but odds are that he will stick
around at least for a better part of the Phase 4 to be its’ token
villain/anti-hero, (he does it better than Karli at this moment, actually). I
also admit that I did not see this coming, Bucky Barnes’ remark about him being
the White Wolf regardless. It will be interesting to see as to how this all
goes in the next episode…
For now though, this is it. See you all soon!
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