X-Men 97 'Fire' - March 27

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about this week’s episode of X-Men 97 instead. Again, this episode works. Why?

Because unlike MCU, X-Men 97 do not try to relate to RL issues. Yes, mutants can easily stand for any RL minorities, and their struggles can be perceived as struggles of RL minorities, but that is optional. In the season’s 2-part starter, for example, this happened; this week’s episode, ‘Fire made flesh’, conversely, it did not. If in the previous two episodes, the titular characters fought against not just against their regular foes – the Sentinel robots and the F.O.H. goons – but also against newer faces, Carl Denti/X-cutioner and Dr. Valerie Cooper, here it is back to the tested and true foe, Nathaniel Essex/Mr. Sinister and his proxy, Madeline Pryor, aka the evil Jean Grey clone, aka the Goblin Queen.

…For me, anything or anyone associated with goblins should belong in the Spider-Man corner of the franchise, and, moreover, the moniker ‘Goblin Queen’ belongs, or belonged, to several different Marvel characters, not just Ms. MP, so no Spider-Man crossover here and now, no. Conversely, another new character introduced in this episode is Nathan Summers, Scott and not-Jean’s son, better known as mutant named Cable.

Now, Cable is a time-traveller himself, not unlike Bishop, and so his timeline is confusing on a basic level. (In addition, that is before we even try to figure his less canon appearances, such as the second live-action ‘Deadpool’ film, into the mix). Nor does he show any powers reminiscent of either Cyclops or Jean Grey, so usually he isn’t associated with them either. Ok, he is, but not on a family level – more like a general ally or a frenemy. (All mutant relationships are confusing). To have his backstory appear on the show in such a manner is certainly unexpected.

Finally, we got Forge. For me, Forge is mostly associated with the X-Men Evolution show, (also known as Earth-11052, apparently). There, he is depicted somewhat differently from his more canon appearances, with a different backstory; he is an ally of the X-Men of that universe, while here his relationship with them is more ambiguous. Therefore, to have him interact with Storm here the way that he did is also interesting – but that is what any X-Men franchise does: it stirs up interest in its’ audience, in a soap opera way.

No, seriously, at the end of the day, a part of any Marvel (or DC, etc.) franchise’s DNA is soap opera, and for X-Men, a franchise with a large default cast, this is doubly so. When your core team amounts to half-a-dozen characters at least, (and usually eight or more instead), then you don’t often need outsiders to stir up the pot – but the X-Men usually face other teams; in fact, my introduction to Mr. Sinister in this universe had him trap the X-men in Savage Land with their powers blocked, while his minions did their best to capture them. Wolverine, (with the help of Ka-Zur, I believe), saved the day regardless. Go team Wolverine, then. In this week’s episode, however, he isn’t as big a presence; however, since we see him haunting Morph in the episodes’ intro it means that the Goblin Queen setback probably won’t set him back too much. Moreover, since only Cyclops can truly hurt him with his optic blasts (so far), it means that he’ll probably be back with a new plan, so that’ll be interesting to see. (Mr. Sinister’s MO is about evolution, but he is a different villain from the High Evolutionary, BTW). Anything else?

Yes, the reference to Dante’s ‘Inferno’. People, Dante wrote an entire ‘Divine Comedy’, an entire trilogy devoted to the Christian afterlife. The Riordan-verse novel, ‘Sun and Star’, also draws upon the ‘Inferno’ third of it, but, again, Dante’s work is not just about Hell, but about the Purgatory and Heaven too. People should not ignore those works so much; I really should talk about those works too, but for now – this is it.

See you all soon, instead!

X-Men 97 - season premiere

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks; between my family, the cold I caught, and the confusing weather outside, I’m really feeling down in the dumps, so let’s not talk about reality, (especially since it doesn’t get better once I move past the personal), and talk about the release of the X-Men-97 series.

It works. It works, first, because it is not so much as a reboot or a remake of the original X-Men, but rather, a flat-on sequel to the series. Instead of inventing something actually new, the Disney/Marvel creative team behind this just took the old stories and promptly continued where they ended – Xavier is in space with his alien girlfriend (a princess/queen of the Shi’ar), the rest of the X-Men and Magneto down on Earth, trying to fit the mutants into the human society. No crossovers, no multiverse, no nothing, but mutants. Oh, and Sentinel robots too.

The latter make good opponents for the mutants, (and many other Marvel entities too, if you think about it): they’re big, strong, tough, powerful, emotionless, and completely artificial, so when they go down, no one cares, and it is a big score in the X-Men collective cap. One of the exceptions to this rule is Master Mold, (who appeared in the two-part premiere, but seriously diminished, so he does not matter right now), and Nimrod, (who does not appear in the premiere at all, and so he does not count right now either). Instead, it is their maker, Gyrich, who is one of the main foes of the X-Men, and he is unsympathetic, (even if not unreasonable).

Here is the thing. The scriptwriters did their best to equalize the world of X-Men (of these X-Men, the world of Marvel is very branching) with our world, the RL world… or at least the version of the RL world that the modern U.S. (and the rest of the West) are living in. Other countries – from Russia to North Korea, from Israel to, even, Ukraine – have their own opinions on them, but in general they are not inclined to share them in public, or to openly confront the U.S. – at least not yet.

…Oh, right, Iran. This country, or, at least, its’ proxies are doing precisely this – they’re confronting the U.S. in the Middle East, and may be fighting it to a standstill. After all, between Ukraine/RF, Israel/HAMAS, and its’ own internal issues (to name a few causes), even the U.S. is stretched thin enough as to not win anytime soon, and there is one more thing.

The lack of commitment. From the mess with the Donald’s arrest/impeachment, to the whatever that is going on between the U.S. and Ukraine, the current U.S. government, (2020-?) seems to lack the will to follow to the end. They always stop at the worst possible moment, or just do not start at all. For a while, (as an example), Ms. Halley could’ve been an alternative to the Donald… if the Democrats have helped her, helped build her up as an alternative to the Donald… but they didn’t, and now the elections 2024 will be Joe vs. Donald – the latest round. Did they actually want this? It seems like they do – but are they certain that Joe will be the last on the ground standing?..

Back to the X-Men 97? I.e., what do they get to do with this? Oh, they are the latest shift in the Disney/Marvel strategy to make money: the live-action MCU-verse is failing, so it is back to the drawn cartoons. They are not the only ones – Sony’s live-action movies, (including ‘Madame Web’), are failing (unless they are Tom Hardy’s ‘Venom’, of course), while their animated Miles Morales films have succeeded – and succeeded quite formidably, too. Clearly, there is more to Spider-verse than how it appears at first, and there is something to the Multiverse too, to do it correctly, (yes, MCU’s ‘Loki’, I am looking at you – from a prince of semi-darkness to hot mess! Ouch!)

X-Men 97, by contrast, do not do multiverse or any other characters from the other corners of the Marvel franchise: we got the X-Men, we got their basic archfoes the Friends of Humanity, (aka Marvel’s KKK), we got personal drama, (unlike baseline Spider-Man, baseline X-Men have a big core cast, so they don’t need outsiders all that much), and we got nostalgia played correctly, so yay X-Men, then! We even got a few references to Spider-Man and Venom, so extra kudos, right? …Right or wrong, X-Men 97 have started strongly and should continue to go strong; the fact that they have connected only partially to RL helps too…

This is it for now, however. See you all soon!

Sun and Star - March 12

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about Rick Riordan’s latest (last?) PJ novel, ‘Sun and Star’. In this particular novel, Nico and Will go to Tartarus to free… Iapetus/Bob the titan from Nyx, the embodiment of night. Fair enough, but… it is not entirely consistent with the series’ previous installments. In particular, when we last saw Iapetus/Bob, he was not just by himself, (and with Little Bob the calico/sabre-toothed cat), but also with a giant named Damascen, (or something similar). In this novel, the latter is absent.

Moreover, who else is absent? Jason Grace, that is who. Aye, he died in ‘The Trials of Apollo’ series, but that is not the point – most of action of ‘Sun and Star’ takes place in the Greco-Roman Underworld, after all. Jason could have appeared as a cameo, long or brief, nothing more, and that would have been the end, issue solved. Instead, he’s also a complete no-show, and what the readers are left is, are Nico’s ruminations as to how he’s dead, and Bianca’s dead, and Leo’s dead, and Nyx is making cacodemons out of Nico’s grief, and-

Wait a second. Leo did not die.

No, he had not, but Nico thought that he did, and for Nyx, that was good enough – she made a cacodemon out of that piece of grief all the same. However, never fear, gentle reader, but behold and lo – Nico will overcome Nyx’s negativity and make his cacodemons truly his!

Why? Besides the obvious, one of the themes in ‘Sun and Star’ is out with the old, in with the new, out with the stability, in with the change, nothing has to be eternal, everything and everyone can change. Again, not the worst message, but it comes out of the left field, just as the fact that Mr. Riordan had co-written the novel with another writer, something that he never did before, a fact that left at least some people wondering, just how much of Mr. Riordan is in ‘Sun and Star’?

Seriously, since ‘Magnus Chase’ and ‘Trials of Apollo’, Mr. Riordan’s writing regarding his universe was all over the place – if he began those two series by being all for progress and sexual minorities, by the time he wrote the final book of ‘Magnus Chase’, and the 3^rd-4^th books of ‘Apollo’, he was much more traditional and restrained in those areas; and in the final book of ‘Apollo’, he… was still restrained. In fact, some time after this, he wrote a short novella set in ancient Ireland, whose protagonist would eventually come to the U.S. in the future novel (still hadn’t happened), and who talked as to how since English came to Ireland, the original Irish language died as a poisoned tree did. Harsh, not at all like Mr. Riordan’s regular characters and their attitudes, and it makes one wonder if Mr. Riordan wasn’t having some RL experiences to affect his latest character’s attitude. What next?

Shel. She’s Piper’s new girlfriend. This can certainly work, but… is she also a demigod? Oh, both she and Piper are Native Americans, but Piper is also a demigoddess, a daughter of Aphrodite/Venus, and a hero of New Rome and of Olympus. Does Shel know about this? Considering that Nico and Will contacted both of them via Iris’ messages, (a rainbow), clearly Shel does. There are analogues of Muggles in Mr. Riordan’s world who know of the supernatural – the mortal parents of Percy and Annabeth, for example – so Shel could be one of them too, but we still do not know about her; for all we know, she’s a golem instead, made and gifted by Piper’s divine parent as a sex-toy to get over Jason that much faster. What is her backstory? Disney and Mr. Riordan, we would like to know!

…We already discussed the TV adaptation of ‘The Lightning Thief’ (into a TV series), and besides, ‘Sun and Star’ don’t have much in common with it – Percy and Annabeth make a brief cameo in the first chapters of the novel, but that is it. Instead, we got Dante’s ‘Inferno’ looming in the background as an inspiration for ‘Sun and Star’.

Sigh. Dante’s ‘Inferno’ is just one part of a trilogy of great literary works, but, sadly, somehow it is the best-known out of the three by far. Why is that so, one does not know, but that is the facts. In addition, discussing ‘the Divine Trilogy’ requires a separate discussion, and now is not the time; there is no time, because real life sucks. However, it can be said that when Mr. Riordan had Percy and Annabeth stuck in Tartarus in the fourth novel of the second quintet, Dante’s influence was much less. Guess that is his co-author’s doing, again. (Or not, because people, even authors, can change with time). Anything else?

No, not really. ‘Sun and Star’ isn’t a bad novel, but it doesn’t feel like a good one either; the two authors wrote in tandem quite professionally, but the end result is a one-shot, and not just because the novel is a standalone one; the relationship of Will and Nico is thrust in the face very, very prominently, and it can become overwhelming and obnoxious quickly enough if you’re in a wrong mood; that is the problem of the Democrats’ U.S. overall – but that is another story.

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