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!
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