Endlings S2 premiere - May 14

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, but I am just beginning to master it. Maybe. Where were we?

Well, let us see. DDS2 is done and gone. The ‘Punisher: One Last Kill’ – ditto, and both left me feel… just as the new, second season of ‘Endlings’ left me feel – uninvolved. Pause.

Here is the thing. The A.I. is getting everywhere, short of YouTube and TV, and it is beginning to be felt. It is just a tool that ought to be mastered, and so it is – it is being mastered, but that means that, yes, the old crafts of painting, writing, etc., are being pushed out, but also the tense is important. The A.I. has not been mastered yet, so there are many crappy works out yet, or at least – soulless ones. DDS2, ‘One Last Kill’, and ‘Endlings’ S2 (so far), all feel like they were made with the use of A.I., perhaps masterfully, perhaps not, but also – soullessly. They hit all the right notes, but there is no music.

Of course, on the other hand, there is the individualism and the digitalism of the modern world. The first means that there is a market/audience for everyone, but it is a relatively small and select one – you need to know which notes to hit. It is a hit and miss game, and not everyone is winning.

The second means that it is easy to find what you are looking for online in general, and you can order it online too, rather than buy in a bookstore or wherever. The bookstores that I know in Toronto sell office supplies, tableware, and similar paraphernalia and not just books and magazines & newspapers anymore. They are trying to survive – just not as bookstores. Fair enough.

A special call out to the various RPGs – they are going especially digital especially fast, and the physical aspect of their franchises, such as books (rulebooks, modules, etc.) are fading. Well, they are a specialist luxury market, so is anyone surprised here? Given that the world economy itself is going through some tough times? I am not.

Where does this land the ‘Endlings’, S2? The S2 premiered with an episode about Japan’s wolves – they were specific subspecies the grey wolf species that lived only in Japan, and now one subspecies is gone for good, and the other… may or may not be surviving, in fact – people aren’t sure, and they may not be looking on purpose – some things are best left alone for everyone’s sake…

My point here, meanwhile, is that Ms. Suta and her cohorts just might have downloaded the wolf articles from Wikipedia, fed them to ChatGPT, and Ms. Suta just narrated the resulted, uh, result, in her trademark tone of voice. There were hardly even any theatrics that ‘Bizarre Beasts’ (BB) are famous for – this time, apparently, team BB had a contract to executive, an obligation to fulfill, a job to be paid for, and they are beginning to do it – the ‘wolf’ episode is just the premiere of S2. S1 of ‘Endlings’ had variety in it, as team BB authentically explored the themes of extinction, de-extinction, and conservation… with limited success, but they still did it… probably without the use of A.I. Now… I am not so sure; where BB will go with ‘Endlings’ S2 from here is an open question (besides the obvious). Since this is real life, however, it just might suck…

This is it for now – see you all soon!

Big cats and Daredevil - April 1

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks – I just lot quite a bit of important data; it is important to me, anyhow, so its’ loss is being felt. By me, but still.

What is next? ‘Daredevil’ S2 is proceeding apiece; yesterday, two episodes aired. Fancy that! Looks like MCU might be in a hurry to get through their latest show; I wonder why.

The ‘Supergirl-2026’ movie is a strong contender; so far, it shows itself to be a thorough adaptation of a Supergirl comic book arc, one that was a one-time rather than a part of a greater continuum. In this one, Supergirl is not as wholesome as she usually is, but perhaps her newfound heroics, newfound friend, and the need to save Krypto before the latter dies, will change her outlook. Given how DCEU/whatever already tried to introduce a Supergirl in the Ezra Miller ‘Flash’ film, I am thinking that the odds of it are quite good.

The trailer itself… it is what it is, apparently. The other characters are one-shot themselves, the odds of them dying by the end of the movie (antagonists), or just vanishing afterwards (protagonists) are quite high too; the creative team here brought Lobo along for the ride; the main man of the DC comics appeared in various DC-based media since Superman/Batman Animated Series of the 1990s, so by now he’s tested and relied upon, at least in a certain sense of word. He just might liven up the movie and make it into something more than a by the numbers antihero journey, where Kara becomes a hero, or at least begins to become one. Pause.

In S2 of ‘My Adventures with Superman’, Superman, Lois and Jimmy had to deal with a Kara/Supergirl who was manipulated by Brainiac into becoming an oblivious villain, and who remained one for a long time – and that was only a part of Brainiac’s greater plan. Put otherwise, Supergirl is known to be going dark in the DC multiverse by now, eh? This version of Supergirl is relatively mild still. What next?

Well, I wanted to speak about the upcoming (Christmas-2026) HP TV series, how people are wound up about it, and perhaps – even the racial issue.

…And then I looked at the Nat Geo Animals YouTube channel, and what did I beheld? An ‘episode’ where Mr. Boone Smith held a ‘sport competition’ between African lions, tigers, and cheetahs. Pause.

First, the monikers. Modern DNA analysis showed that the Asian lion is a part of the same lion subspecies that still lives in Western and Central Africa too. (The lions of Eastern and Southern Africa are the other subspecies). Tigers, on the other hand, are divided into two subspecies, with both the Bengal and the Siberian tigers being a part of the same – the mainland - subspecies, and the cheetahs are tentatively partitioned into several subspecies, one of which lives, or lived, in Middle Ease, or Asia, rather than in Africa. So, if the lion is the African lion, then so’s the cheetah, while the tiger is something of the odd one out.

From the genetic/biological/evolutionary p.o.v., however, the cheetah is the odd one out. From the human p.o.v., the big cats – the ‘roaring cats’ – are the oldest modern cats, (as opposed to Smilodon and other alternate models that are not around anymore), while the ‘newest’ models are the domestic cat and its’ immediate kin; the cheetahs are not close relatives of lions and tigers, but proportionally are closer to them than they’re to the housecats. However, lions do kill cheetahs when they can, while the tigers… they and the cheetahs live, or lived in different parts of Asia… where are we?

When Mr. Smith compared lions, tigers, and cheetahs, he compared two close relatives, and an outright outsider. Lions and tigers are not as closely related as they look, (the same under the skin), there branches are separate – one is lions, leopards, and jaguars, the same is tigers and snow leopards, and the third is clouded leopards. The cheetah is related to the puma and the jaguarondi instead; the latter looks like an anti-cheetah, but that is not the point – the point is that the comparison was flawed: the cheetah’s too different, the lion and the tiger – too similar to each other, so the show just was not too satisfying to watch. (The tigers won, BTW). What else?

For the moment – nothing. DD is still a technical masterpiece, but so are Ms. Haynes’ books, as I wrote before. They are enjoyable to read, but nothing more, and DD S2 is enjoyable to watch, but nothing more. The data that I lost… might be recovered, in part, but nothing more. Real life sucks, eh?

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

Medea and Daredevil S2 - March 25

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Several of my documents were lost and I cannot recover them, I almost missed the Daredevil S2 premiere, and people are bothering me about the latest Ms. Haynes novel – ‘No friend to this house’ – that I should read it. Let me start with that one.

Am I going to read ‘No friend’? Well, eventually, maybe. Again, the reason why I’m not the biggest fan of Ms. Haynes is because she’s not the radical firebrand she’s assumed to be, it’s quite the reverse, (usually).

What does Ms. Haynes do? She re-tells the Greek myths, both as fiction and not. As not-fiction, her works are one thing, but her fiction – it is what it is. The Greek myths had been public property for a long time now, and people in general know how they go – Perseus will defeat Medusa and marry Andromeda, Atalanta will kill the boar and lose the race because of the apples, Odysseus is going to get to Ithaca and save his house, etc. Those stories are read, known, remembered, de-facto etched in stone. They can be re-worked, of course… and then they become something else entirely.

Let us get back to A.I. When I experimented with it to write fiction, I quickly uncovered that the fiction it writes follows certain guidelines – couples are heterosexual (unless made otherwise), social strata fall into the strata of priests, aristocrats and peasants, (no workers or entrepreneurs unless made otherwise), characters choose to remain themselves than to change to please others (unless made otherwise)… Pause.

Here is the thing. If you are using A.I., you are free to use it or not. No one forces you to rely on A.I. alone, even if you are commissioned to write something, it is you who is commissioned, not the A.I. You are free to write your own things, not follow the A.I.’s guidelines if you do not want to. Fiction?

By now, there is plenty of fictional novels that feature Greek mythical characters, including the Argonauts. They do not claim to be ‘a mixture of dark tragedy and witty satire’ as Ms. Haynes’ take on them is, supposedly, is, but they were often quite derived from the original Greek myths, much more so than Ms. Haynes’ novels are; she just tries to add the feminist angle to the myths; as a rule, her female characters are positive (unless otherwise), while her male characters are negative, (unless otherwise). Nothing exactly radical here. Yet she is praised for her derivative works so much that I wonder if her political progressiveness is a neophyte’s zeal… or a masterful plan of playing the political progressivity system for personal gain… just as the system is beginning to break for real thanks to the Donald’s meddling… where were we?

In her non-fiction book of essays on the mortal women of Greek Myths, (‘Pandora’s Jar’, PJ), Ms. Haynes talks about Medea and Jason, comparing them to a modern divorcing couple, save for the murdering of the children. Therefore, I am betting that this is how she is depicting them in ‘No Friend’ – as a modern couple, (where the wife is smarter than the husband is, just not that much smarter), save for the murdering of the children. Therefore, I am willing to wait a few months until the excitement dies down, (such as it is), and then read about a modern divorce dressed in ancient Greek trappings, such as the murdering of the children. Ms. Haynes does not really try to justify Medea’s actions, she just re-tells them in her own language, maybe dumbed down for her audience, maybe not, and moves on. (To Penelope of Ithaca, but that is unimportant). What else?

The Daredevil S2 premiere. From the technical P.O.V., it is stunning, but the content… MCU itself had Matt Murdoch point out that the Sokovia protocols are dead in the ‘She-Hulk’ the series, so why is Fisk running NYC as if it is? The AVTF (or whatever they are abbreviated to), may be his personal army, but how is he getting away with it? During the Donald’s first 4 years, Marvel comics tried to reflect reality, but the Joe Biden became the 46^th U.S. president, Marvel comics and MCU had to redirect themselves or whatever, and now, unlike Thanos of MCU, the Donald is back and is causing the U.S. and the cause of democracy a lot of damage, and MCU is going for Fisk in NYC instead. Bravo! Innovative stuff here indeed! Real life sucks!

No, wait, that’s probably Tom Holland’s fourth Spider-Man movie, as it has the Punisher in it too. That deserves its’ own discussion, and we will have it some other time.

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

Thunderbolts - May 3

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. In part, it might be my doing – but I never denied it – so now let us talk about the new ‘Thunderbolts’ film instead.

First, it works. It works, because it mostly keeps away from politics, whether RL or MCU, and talks about the titular characters dealing, and defeating, their inner darkness, while managing the conflict with Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, or – ‘Don’t call me Val!’ Pause.

…Throughout SW, there was no mention of Val or the Thunderbolts, who are a bit of Marvel’s Suicide Squad, (run by DC instead). Moreover, the DCEU itself is being remade right now, so let us not talk about it, and get back to MCU and the ‘Thunderbolts’.

…Throughout SW, there was no mention of Val or the Thunderbolts, but now, in the post-SW MCU, there is no mention of the Skrulls, the She-Hulk, or the Marvels; MCU is pretending that all of the above haven’t existed, and the CA: BNA movie, the D: BA TV series, and now – the ‘Thunderbolts’ film confirm it; there’s a distinct feeling of ‘in with the new’ with all of them. Even the titular team is named not after the general ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross, aka the Red Hulk, but after some obscure piece of MCU in-verse trivia instead. Fun!

MCU’s Taskmaster/Taskmistress is dead – a pity – and there is no mention of Kate, even though she and Yelena had plenty of chemistry in ‘Hawkeye’. However, the market (and the political climate) directs, and with 4 years of a Republican president in charge of the U.S., Disney and its’ branches, including MCU, are changing. We have discussed it, when we talked about AAA, so let us not repeat ourselves. Anything else?

The special effects were impressive, another one of MCU characters that vanished was Rick Jones or whoever, who helped Natasha in her ‘Black Widow’ film; ah well. ScarJo is going to appear in the next JP reboot now, and it makes the ‘Black Widow’ film appear like a classical masterpiece. What else?

…Everett Ross, who appeared in both ‘Black Panther’ films, was also killed off in the SW; since he was ‘Don’t call me Val!’ ex-husband, this is somewhat important. Only not, since Val is flirting (sort of) with the Red Guardian (Alexei) already. Well, since the Thunderbolts (the characters) are forming some sort of a crazy family, (minus the dead Antonia), this is to be expected. Whether or not this will amount to anything is another story; for all we know, in the next film there will be no mention of the Thunderbolts’ team… just as there was no mention of Sam in the ‘Thunderbolts’ movie, not really, making Bucky’s appearance in CA: BNW kind of strange and unbalanced…

So, in conclusion: the ‘Thunderbolts’ work. They work as a movie, and in particular – as a standalone movie. However, Disney/MCU is a live action Marvel Comics Universe, which means that it all will be interconnected – in theory. In practice, as depicted by the now forgotten AoS, this might not be so. In AoS, the first 3 seasons were sufficiently tied, with ties to the greater MCU. From S4 onwards, however, this was not the case at all, and after the final, 6^th, or 7^th, season, no one is remembering AoS anymore; they didn’t even appear on the ‘What If?’ series, (aside from Coulson, who doesn’t quite count there). Put otherwise, quite regularly, MCU discards characters, plot lines, and more – there is no guarantee that the ‘Thunderbolts’ will be different.

This is it for now. See you all soon!

D:BA S1 finale - April 16

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. The debate about the CB wolves being or not being dire has become more subdued and out of the spotlight, but real life still sucks.

The S1 finale of D: BA is as dramatic and well-made, as one expects from Disney/MCU – quite good. Of course, there is the question as to how Fisk is getting away with a de-facto secession from the rest of the U.S., but who cares? The first season of D: BA is over, and the world is ready to move on.

Also, keep in mind, that CA: BNA film is showing events that are happening at the same time, so the greater U.S. government just might not be finding time to deal with Fisk and his Napoleonic complex or whatever, and the Kingpin/Mayor is bribing people like crazy to get away with it, and MCU wants its’ own version of Gotham, so there you have it, folks! Question answered!

In other news, meanwhile, a rebooted version of ‘Walking with Dinosaurs’ (WWD) is coming to you in 2025! The original WWD series is something of a classic by now, (and not only because it was released in 1999 either). The new WWD has some big shoes to fill – and the viewers will go Snowwhite-2025 on its’ ass if it fails.

Finally, back to PBS Nature show about the female empowerment and nature. Last week, the episode was actually done well – it balanced gender politics and wildlife protection… in the U.S., so what did the YouTube channel do? It downplays them in favour of a nature document about Africa. Maybe it was because of the entire dire wolf excitement, maybe not; this week, the show is about South America instead, and PBS Nature is not downplaying it at all. I wonder why…

…In addition The Weather Network is airing a rather nice documentary series about Canada, its’ provinces, and probably territories. It is quite fun to watch, and I advise you to do so – it certainly is better than just to argue about dire wolves…

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

D:BA and dire wolves - April 9

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, but then Colossal Biosciences Company threw dire wolves at us. Pause.

Initially, I intended to discuss the penultimate S1 Daredevil episode, which had Bullseye coming back, and Murdock (Daredevil) taking a bullet for Fisk (Kingpin) because of reasons? Apparently? Does anyone care about those two anymore anyhow? Dire wolves are more interesting than MCU, these days.

…Of course, these days, at least some news outlets discuss with an authentic feeling, who makes a better jam and/or spread – king Charles III of Great Britain or Megan Markle, his younger daughter-in-law. Seriously, and compared to this sort of news, MCU’s D: BA show is cutting-edge political drama or something along those lines. Nevertheless, what about the dire wolves?

…I am a sceptic when it came to CB’s claims. See, while the RL dire wolf (let us leave Westeros out of this, the topic is already quite confusing), is a true canine, (as opposed to a bear-dog, a bear, or any other kind of mammal carnivore), it also belonged to a completely different genus than the modern wolves do. However, so what?

See, even CB admits (sort of) that their dire wolves – Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi – are not exactly purebred dire wolves, more like grey wolf/dire wolf hybrids. Eh? The problem with that statement that in nature hybrids occur only between animals that share the same genus, albeit belonging to different species. Pause.

Let us try again. We are talking only about mammals here; in other animal groups, such as birds (say, songbirds), or amphibians (such as the tailed salamanders) the hybrid situation might be quite different, but along the mammals? Either it works or it does not.

See for yourselves. On one hand, we have horses and donkeys, whose hybrids are sterile and can’t really make a new species; big cats, whose hybrids aren’t sterile but can’t survive in the wild due to health-related reasons; and the two species of the gnu antelope, whose hybrid offspring also aren’t sterile but have plenty of health defects that they die quickly enough. Pause.

On other hand, we have the beluga and the narwhale whales, for example, or the better-known polar and grizzly brown bears, whose hybrid offspring are viable and are increasing in numbers. The wolf branch of the wild dog family, incidentally, is in this boat too, as the various coyote/grey wolf/domestic dog hybrids of eastern North America are growing more numerous and are establishing their own independent populations…

That said, those wild dogs are all in the Canis genus, while the extinct dire wolf is not, not anymore, at least not at the moment. In addition, if you look at the related animals that belong to different genera, they do not form hybrids – just look at rhinos or elephants, for example. African and Asian elephants do not hybridize, not even in captivity, unlike the big cats, and the black and white rhinos of Africa do not hybridize – unlike the feral domestic dogs and the Ethiopian wolf. The latter is a separate, albeit related, species to the grey wolf of the northern hemisphere – the term ‘wolf’ covers almost two dozen animal species, living and extinct, most of whom are related to each other (i.e. they’re canines), but some are not…

Where were we? Right, the DNA of the dire wolf isn’t in as a good a condition as that of the woolly mammoth is – what’s left of the dire wolf are mainly fossilized bones, teeth, and the like. Extracting DNA from them, even if the dire wolf was in the same genus as the grey wolf, doesn’t guarantee success; the fact that the surrogate mothers were domestic dogs, aka a third canine species, separate from the other two (I’m going with this theory), only complicated the situation: how did their pregnancies go? How did the births go? Did the mothers survive or not? However, no, all we get are sterilized reports of a success, and automatic reactions to those reports. Neither is a reliable source of information and so far no one outside of CB has much to go on. Still…

Remember Ms. Nicole from my last week’s entry? Or rant, whatever. As it was said, she was hired by CB, or something similar to make six videos about mass extinctions; so far, two of them were aired, but we talked about this; the point is that one would expect her to jump onto the dire wolf promotion bandwagon, because CB are her employers or something, but no. She is keeping mum about them instead and seems to have outright distanced herself from the CB. Does she know something about this that we do not? Maybe, maybe not, but I, for one, am sceptical of just what CB’s latest wolf pups are. Real life does suck, but sometimes it is less sucky and more complex and complicated instead…

This is it for now. See you all soon!

D:BA 'Art' - April 2

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us… still talk about it, in a manner of speaking. First, in regards to PBS Nature: if their first, rhino-based episode was a product placement without any product, their second episode, which talked about Madagascar’s lemurs was a complete opposite – it delivered. It talked about Madagascar and its’ rewilding programs, in terms of lemur return (to the wild), in general terms – such as the replanting of the bamboo that the lemurs eat (the episode was de-facto about the greater bamboo lemur), and also – about the wilderness education of the Madagascar people. There was very little aesthetics, plenty of authenticity, and the only unnecessary element, in a manner of speaking, was the gender issue – this online show is about women taking care of the wild, but taking care of the wild and humanity’s social gender politics do not really overlap…

Speaking of humanity’s (ok, the West’s) social gender politics? Let us mention Ms. Lindsey Nicole. I’m probably not the biggest fan of her – this driven and determined young woman wants to get ahead of her competition, and remain afloat; in particular, when Biden and the Democrats were in charge, she made a point of mentioning her alternative sexual orientation, (but nothing more, nothing concrete). Now that we got a ‘new’ U.S. president and his Republican political party, all of her mentions of her alternative sexual lifestyle are gone – LN wants to stay afloat… and she’s succeeding: just last week she launched into yet another online series, this one a collaboration with another YouTube channel, a series that deals with mass extinctions… it is essentially a re-telling of Animal Planet’s™ ‘Animal Armageddon’ series. You have to give LN her credit though – she is a great populizator, her aggressive ‘shock and awe’ delivery style works, and she is always open to collaborate with other people – she really wants to be successful, and so she is. Kudos and a shout-out to her.

In addition, what about this week’s D: BA episode, ‘Art’? It works about as well as you would expect it to work: this season’s mini-bad, Muse (a male villain) is dead already since the season is done in another couple of weeks, and on its’ own, D: BA works just fine. As a part of the greater MCU, however…

‘Mayor’ Wilson Fisk has introduced the Anti-Vigilante Task Force, or AVTF. Um. While we acknowledge its’ connections with some RL issues in the U.S., what about the Sokovia accords? In the ‘She-Hulk’, Matt himself says that they are done and gone, so shouldn’t AVTF be outdated or something? As the Kingpin, Fisk did not care about popular opinion, of course, at least not too much, but as a mayor of NYC, he should, and he is intelligent enough to recognize this fact.

Listen, in RL, analogues of AVTF, such as ICE, exist because people – some people, including some of the Americans, and quite a few of them – approve of them and their actions; numbers matter, and if enough people approve of them, these ‘analogues’ will stay and even flourish, and propaganda – especially the mild one delivered by Disney and its’ daughter organizations – won’t be enough to see them off.

…Not to mention that even internal American propaganda has its’ limits, as the outcome of the elections-2016 showed, for example. However, Disney and co. cannot learn, or do not want to learn and accept, or something. Since they do not, their promoted values do not stick, as the companies cannot change and adapt – it could cost them money in the end, and they do not want that. Much better just to do a token service and be done with it. The viewers and the public will not object too much – they can adapt, on the other hand, as demonstrated by Lindsey Nicole… Real life certainly can suck, and it does.

This is it for now – see you all soon!

D:BA SSS - March 19

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about D: BA once more?

Well, no, real life doesn’t always suck; for a couple of days now I’ve been seeing sharp-shinned hawks in my neighbourhood; of course, they can always be Cooper’s hawks instead, but I’m reasonably sure that they’re ‘sharpies’ instead, because of all the red color in their plumage – it is more in line with the sharp-shinned than with the Cooper’s hawks.

What are those avians doing? Hunting, of course – and primarily small birds, songbirds, it looks like, (as opposed to bigger birds, such as feral pigeons or ducks). First, I saw the hawk chase sparrows on a street corner: it came from down low to a tree, flushing the sparrows out – they promptly fled into a bush. The hawk came after them.

A sharp-shinned hawk is one of North America’s smaller hawks, but it is still larger than a sparrow; it could not get into the shrub, so it landed next to it and stuck its’ head and beak inside, trying to flush the sparrows out. It was not too successful, and the neighbourhood’s not-so-friendly Canada geese were not too thrilled by the raptor’s presence either: they promptly made a flanking manoeuver, and began to approach the hawk, hissing and flapping their wings.

The hawk looked at them, decided that it did not like the odds, and left, to the relief of both the sparrows and the local killdeer – they might be shorebirds, but any wet meadow is fine in their books, especially in spring. The Age of Dinosaurs is officially over, my foot!..

And later this week I saw another (or the same?) sharp-shinned hawk in the part. This time, the bird was hunting high in the treetops, but though it is the second half of March, the trees are still bare of leaves, and so the hawk was exposed, and the local songbirds, squirrels (both grey and red species), and chipmunks were avoiding it, easily enough. The local mallard ducks, on the other hand, were just ignoring it, and vice versa. Both events were interesting to see, and so the real life does not always suck; (the Norway rat that was lying dead on a road as roadkill would probably disagree, however. I wonder how long is will remain there, as it is a public road and all. Oh dear, maybe a turkey vulture will pop up too, as it is a big rat, dead or not).

As for D: BA, well, first a reply to all of you who pointed out that ‘YFNSM’ (remember it?) tried to racially diversify its’ characters; of all the main cast, only Peter and his aunt are Anglo-American, the rest tend of P.O.C.s, or else foreign immigrants to the U.S. instead. Pause.

In the current socio-political climate, you think that the U.S. mainstream culture needs more depiction of predominantly Afro-American street gangs in NYC, cartoons or not? In addition, oh, here comes an Anglo-American Spider-Man and handles them easy peasy! Oh, and the Osborns, (who are often Spider-Man’s greatest foes) are Afro-American too now! Hooray! The Green Goblin is going to be actually a different color, cough!

…Well, ok, ‘YFNSM’ might try to do something similar to what Disney did to Will Smith in its’ ‘Aladdin’ remake – make the Green Goblin a different color entirely. Given that Will Smith looked wrong in that purple-indigo shade and that Disney quickly had him walking around in his real appearance, probably not. The Osborns are going to be Afro-American, the Green Goblin – his signature color, and etc. Can we have more Miles Morales Spider-Man films instead?

No, of course not – onto D: BA. In this week’s episode, we get re-introduced to Frank Castle the vigilante, (as opposed to Richard Castle the writer), who claims that he didn’t kill Hector Ayala the White Tiger. We also get to meet Angela Del Toro, who is probably the next White Tiger. The catch here is that Netflix tried to introduce her already in one of the Jessica Jones episodes, but because that show was swept under the rug, (and JJ herself as well), guess that Disney/MCU is rebooting Ms. Del Toro as someone else, not a P.I. as she was intended to be on the ‘Defenders’ shows. What next?

A bunch of new and re-introduced secondary characters, some of whom are actually original, but so far D: BA seems to be going with the reinvention of the White Tiger as its’ main new engine for now – the other heavy hitters, such as the Punisher, Daredevil, and the Kingpin are already established. So far, the show is not bad to watch, and given that MCU aims to entertain first, and everything else second, this is what it planned to do with D: BA all along.

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

D:BA 'Hollow' - March 11

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Now, let us talk about D: BA, as we should have earlier last week, but because real life sucks, see above, let us talk about the current PBS Nature special series, of women and nature.

In the season’s premiere, we meet Ms. Doma, (that is her name, I checked), and her relationship with the greater one-horned rhinos. Technically, they are also called the Indian rhinos, but because this episode takes place In Nepal, which is not India, let us call them greater one-horned rhinos instead. There are also lesser one-horned rhinos, a different species, but more on them below.

First, what this relatively short (about 20 minutes long) video was about? Hence the reason behind my anger – it is not about anything in specific, it does not commit.

…Oh, on a certain level it does – it is a product placement. The aesthetics and other visuals are beautiful, the people are obviously aware that they’re being filmed and took care of coming across attractive and appealing, especially the female majority of the cast – they’re not stunningly beautiful, but they are appealing, well-groomed, clearly have spent time (and have time to spend) on their appearance, contradicting the episode’s narration that Nepal isn’t a very forward nation, that women are still being oppressed there. Since we never see any oppression, you either take the narration at its’ face worth, or not at all.

What do we see? Foreign people, especially of the female gender, presented appealingly. Foreign locations, presented also in a positive way. Foreign animals in their natural habitat… or rather brief clips of various animals, doing their thing, oblivious to humans around them.

This is something of a point, as Ms. Doma’s mother was killed in a rhino attack – presumably. In the modern world of fake news and what else have you, this is what happened, or it might not have. In any case, this event is a), treated by showing more beautiful imagery on screen, and b), so what? This is real life, not Marvel, DC, or what else have you; the mother died because of a rhino attack, so the daughter became a wildlife tour guide because of it? Seriously, at least Peter Parker’s superhero origin story makes more sense than this!

In real life, the tour industry is nothing to sneeze at; I worked for a tour company behind the scenes, and there is serious effort and money involved in running one; for Ms. Doma to work in a tour company means that she makes money, and she has a lot of important social connections – i.e., her family isn’t struggling, and they’re upper middle class on the average. Pause.

What all of the above has to do with wildlife of our planet? Nothing, because the episode was about Ms. Doma and whatever impact she’s making on the Nepalese society – more women are getting hired as wildlife tour guides, for example. That is commendable, but what about the rhinos?

Nothing and that is a point. A large segment is dedicated to people teaching others how to handle an encounter with a rhino, but what does Ms. Doma’s gender identity has to do with it?

Again, nothing, and this is the same point. In a 20-minute special, PBS Nature could have talked about Ms. Doma’s biography, how she rose from humble roots to become a person of importance; they could’ve talked about Nepal, how it is moving forwards, to become a more gender-equal, more Western country; they could’ve talked about the Nepalese wildlife, and how it interacts with humans (and with each other), but no. They tried to mix it all together and came up with nothing because they did not stick to anything.

By contrast, Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom series talked, and talk, only about wildlife; their episodes run for about 24-25 minutes, not that much longer than what PBS Nature has, but because they follow only one narrative, they have no problem in getting their message across. What next?

Um, in last week’s episode of D: BA, White Tiger was killed - that is it. The Fisks run NYC, but the Kingpin was doing that in the Marvel Comics for a while now, so nothing new here. What is notable is the absence of Echo – remember her? She fought the Kingpin and won, (sort of), but no mention of her or her friends or of Kazy and the tracksuit mafia in this show. Just as CA: BNA movie, this series is resetting MCU to Disney’s new standards and socio-political landmarks; Echo may be back, but right now? Apparently not.

Back to Nepal and its’ rhinos? The greater one-horned rhino is the biggest Asian rhino and might be the second biggest rhino in the world, even more so than the African black rhinoceros. However, there are important differences between the two rhino groups. (It should be noted that while the rhinos are all related to each other, they are not as close relates as donkeys and horses are, for comparison, so they do not hybridize unlike the latter). No, not the number of the horns – there is one Asian rhino species that also has two, but rather everything else.

The African rhinos are terrestrial animals that come to water only to drink. The white rhino is a grazer; it has a wide square upper lip and a low-set head for easier grass reach and consumption. The black rhino is a browser; it has a hook-shaped upper lip and a high-set head for easier foliage reach and consumption. It is smaller, more lightweight and mobile than the white rhino is, and when the two species clash, the black rhino loses. The point is that the two African species coexist with each other on the open savannah/scrubland and evolved visible physical differences to avoid competing with each other.

On the other hand, the Asian rhinos (the last three species) all live in dense tropical jungle, in marshland, on floodplains, and come into water regularly enough – they are almost semi-aquatic, more like the hippos than like their African cousins, in fact. Consequently, all of them are built similarly – large, bulky bodies with thick armor; though the greater one-horned rhino does overshadow the other two rhino species – but the ranges of the species in question do not overlap, due to population crashes of all of them. Moreover, Whether one horn or two, Asian rhinos’ horns are smaller than the African rhinos horns are, while their teeth are bigger and more tusk-like – they tend to bite humans instead of goring them, as the African rhinos do. The Asian rhinos are herbivores, they do not eat meat, but neither do they specialise as the African rhinos in either grass or leaves – they eat everything, and their teeth, lips, heads and necks, are not as specialised as the African rhinos are.

All rhinoceros species are in danger however, and all of their ranges are shrinking. People are trying to change this, but while the two African rhino species are getting better, (perhaps), the three Asian species – not so much, so it is important for us to protect them – and if that and social gender politics can’t be balanced, then maybe they should be treated separately instead.

For now, then, this is it. See you all soon.

D:BA, Season premiere - March 5

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the premiere of D: BA instead. Holy gazongas, Batman – it’s ‘YFNSM’, just for an older audience!

Work with me, people: if ‘X-Men ‘97’ were all about nostalgia, Easter eggs, and exposition, (and almost always the titular heroes were fighting a faceless mob of opponents rather than someone specific), then ‘YFNSM’ was all about exposition and depiction – unlike the 90s Spider-Man series, the titular character of this show was constantly exposed to new foes; ‘YFNSM’ was all about new depiction of old characters – something of a reboot, put otherwise; the later seasons of AoS did something similar… In addition, D: BA is doing the same thing – so far, it is mostly rebooting the old characters… though it does introduce some new ones.

One of the more important ones is Mrs. Fisk, aka Wilson’s wife. In the 90s cartoon (Earth-92131, if anyone cares), she was mostly an episodic character; she would divorce Fisk in time, and because Fisk loved her, he let her get away with it too. Earth-92131 is worth mentioning both because it depicted the Fisk son, (a criminal but nowhere near the Kingpin’s levels of danger), and it had Spider-Man team-up with Daredevil in order to clear-up his name (both as himself and as Peter) and to put the abovementioned son into jail. Somehow, for a cartoon, it did a good job of depicting Fisk’s levels of danger better than the life-action series do.

The other important character is Josie – she runs the bar where Daredevil and co. hangout. Admittedly, I am mentioning only because I remember her from the original Daredevil and Electra films (Earth-701306), and believe that she deserves recognition, simply because she is alive and Foggy’s dead.

Foggy is Daredevil’s (ok, Matt’s) legal partner. I was never particularly fond of MCU’s take on him, how they depicted him, (the abovementioned Earth-701306 did a better job, I feel), and now, he is dead. In Marvel-verse, few characters stay dead for long, though in MCU death tends to be final, but I am still holding my fingers crossed. Anything else?

Yes, we are introduced to some new characters, such as a White Tiger, (various characters held this moniker in the Marvel world, some via an amulet of power, others not), but for the moment, D: BA is trying to find its’ feet and it does a good job – just not too different from ‘YFNSM’, surface differences aside. Will it succeed or not is still an open question.

For now though, this is it. So far, I am re-watching TBBT, and it is not bad, though it is not good – but this is a story for another time. See you all soon!

'Echo' - Jan 11

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about MCU’s ‘Echo’ series instead. Normally, we would talk about one episode after another, but since Disney/MCU have done something different this time, and released all of the episodes in one swoop, let us do the same thing and talk about the entire miniseries at once too.

For a start, ‘Echo’ was good. It was a miniseries about the journey of the titular heroine, first as a villain, and second as an (anti)-hero. We saw Echo build herself up, then tear herself down, (the ‘Hawkeye’ miniseries), and finally rebuild herself from the ground level once more. The acting was done perfectly, and the plot (as well as the character) development went down smoothly. So, what is there to criticize?

Nothing, but it can be pointed out that Disney/MCU is trying to do something similar to Echo’s (the character’s) journey in the miniseries; they’re trying to rebuild themselves, and they’re trying to incorporate Native Americans, among other minorities, to do that. First, there is Kahhori from the 2^nd season of ‘What if?’, so let us talk about that.

In the ‘What if?’ episode 2x06 we have something different from MCU’s regular fare: we get an alternate history universe, where the Spaniards clash with the Mohawks. Now, contrary to popular cliché, the Spaniards did not just colonize Latin America, (including Mexico), but they did come into what would become U.S. territory: they did so in the southwest, (and it was a part of Mexico rather than the U.S. for a while), as well as in the southeast, (i.e. Florida, which was also Spanish for a while), but the Mohawks weren’t a part of it. Historically, the Mohawk people lived in New England, (the New York State, to be precise), as well as in the Canadian province of Ontario. The Spaniards never came there, but the English and the French did. Pause.

Now, having the Native Americans fighting, well, Anglo-Americans, (or Franco-Americans), would be not just politically incorrect, but outright unacceptable by the modern American/Western mass media. Seriously, can you imagine Native Americans, powered by alien/magical/other artefacts, or not, taking down London, Paris, or Washington D.C. for that matter? Especially in the modern Western media where cultural integration and goodwill among people are the concepts of the day? No, you can’t, and not even U.S.’ political enemies cannot. (Though North Korea is somewhat dicey, admittedly). Hence, we had the Spaniards instead, and the Native Americans overwhelming its’ capital of Madrid. Hey, Alternate History rocks, baby, you want some good AH – read the late, great Eric Flint’s ‘1630s’ book series, otherwise you’re stuck with Disney and MCU!..

Now, Kahhori does appear in ‘What if?’ S2 finale, but the fact that she is Native American does not play a big role in that, so let us switch onto ‘Echo’, where her voice actress plays the role of Bonnie, who is a friend of Echo/Maya. Disney/MCU went out to make it clear that the two roles/characters are separate, and so Kahhori will not appear in MCU, at least not in the short term, so there is that. Without Kahhori and her superpowers, what is the Native Americans’ role in MCU?

Why, the same as it is for the other racial/social/other minorities – their ‘uniqueness’ is just ‘window dressing’. I.e., a character’s, well, characteristics have to play a role, preferably an important role, in the show/movie/novel, etc., because otherwise, they will be forgotten by the audience instead. Ms. Cox’s, and by extension, Maya Lopez’s prosthetic leg plays a notable part in ‘Echo’, and so it has become one of the defining traits of the titular heroine. However, it has nothing to do with her Native American origins – Maya got it in a car accident, the same one that would cost her her mom. Since Echo is an ‘artificial’ character, who was invented for a while now, she rose with the occasion, rather than fell with it. Wilson Fisk helped.

Now, Wilson Fisk first appeared in MCU’s Netflix series, especially ones connected to Daredevil and the Punisher. They were not unofficial apocrypha, unlike AoS, but they were ignored by MCU and vice versa. There were several shows about ‘the Defenders of New York’, but they were eventually all subsumed back into Disney/MCU, without a trace. ‘Echo’ attempts to fill in the niche, with the help of ‘Hawkeye’, (the show). ‘Hawkeye’ itself was a different show from ‘Echo’, but it did reintroduce Wilson Fisk/Kingpin to the MCU. However!

In the Netflix series’, Wilson Fisk was depicted… actually very much like the cartoon version from the 1990s ‘Spider-Man’ cartoon series: a baseline human, who, however, was Spider-Man’s biggest opponent through both brains and brawn. In one story arc, Wilson Fisk and his son, (yes, he had a wife and a son, it is canon), actually framed both Peter Parker and Spider-Man, cough, so Spider-Man had to team-up with Matt Murdoch and Daredevil to fix this. (Fisk’s son went to jail as a bottom line). In MCU, Fisk did not clash with Spider-Man, though Daredevil did do a cameo in the ‘No Way Home’ movie, but since Spider-Man’s own status in MCU is somewhat vague, we might as well skip and go straight to the ‘She-Hulk’.

Only not, as ‘She-Hulk’ was more of a failure than a success, and right now, it is being ignored by MCU, as is the ‘Ms. Marvel’ miniseries. Even if it was not a failure, it is still very different from ‘Echo’, and so the two shows probably will not connect anytime soon, especially since Daredevil’s role in ‘Echo’ is mostly of a cameo – for now. Since Wilson Fisk survived his latest encounter with his stepdaughter/protégé, this can change. Will Fisk change, however? MCU, in fact, is not big on redemption for villains, let alone corruption for heroes, so it is unlikely. Stranger things have happened, however, and right now Disney/MCU itself is trying to change into something different from what it was, so we will have to wait and see instead.

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

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!

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.

The Gifted: eneMy - Jan 1

And so, we have finally made it to 2019. It was tough, those last few weeks/days/months etc., but we have reached a new year. Yay! No, really – yay. Let us see now what greets us.

Well, many new movies/TV series/online series and etc. ‘Runaways’ S2 has premiered on Hulu, but we’ll have to see if we’ll be able to see them on TV because of real life reasons. Talk about ‘the Gifted’ in its place?

Well, we can always talk about the upcoming S2 of ‘the Punisher’ instead – on Netflix. With ‘the Defenders’ being down, (save for JJ), it is up to Frank Castle to carry the Marvel for Netflix. It also further complicates the Disney-Netflix Marvel relationship, and as it was said back in 2018, until it is resolved, it is unlikely that Daredevil or any of his immediate cohorts will appear in MCU because otherwise? There might be real life conflicts and even lawsuits. Disney already got issues with SW, it does not really need problems with MCU, especially now that it finally got its’ act together with FOX – and yes, this brings us to ‘the Gifted’.

In this week’s episode – ‘eneMy’ – the Mutant Underground has technically teamed-up with the Inner Circle to rescue John/Thunderbird. In reality it were just Andy and Lorna returning to their old families and friends to, well, rescue John, even though Lauren is still upset in regards to Andy’s initial defection, and Lorna & Marcos’ relationship is still a mess. Of course, in ‘eneMy’ they actually work together to take down the Purifiers, but so do the Strucker siblings, alongside Clarice/Blink…who appears to be more skillful with her powers than how she initially looked. Go her, though odds are that this hidden knowledge will somehow cause trouble for the Mutant Underground in the future.

That is actually a worthwhile point to mention – ‘the Gifted’ really doesn’t do internal conflicts all that well; the new/old/renewed conflict between Andy and Lauren Strucker feels decisively contrived and forced; the script just doesn’t come naturally here; neither it does when the Strucker parents calm Lauren down in their car: the acting feels just thin here; the actors are being just actors, not their characters, as they usually are on the show.

As the script, so the visual effects – a large chunk of ‘eneMy’ was executed in sepia tones of some sort. Were they supposed to add to the atmosphere, to make it more dramatic and intense? It did not really work, it looked strange rather than oppressive, so yes, when they vanished, the viewers did feel relived, just for the wrong reasons than the show’s crew and cast were going for.

Back to the plot? Jace has gone full Sith here, torturing John with psychological warfare and eventually trying to kill him by shooting him full of lead. Hopefully, John will survive, as there is no indication that ‘the Gifted’ are bringing in a replacement character for him. Again, however, the show will set new conflicts for him and Clarice, because this is how ‘the Gifted’ appear to run in S2. It is doubtful that it is a good strategy, as the numbers of the show went up and down and all over the place, and the December hiatus did more harm than good for them, as such hiatuses often are. Ah well, it is still a good reason to enjoy the ride until it is over and the lady sings.

Yes, AoS is coming back for S6 in summer 2019, but so far, the information is sparse, and the shots of Daisy being a blonde-haired woman now are not encouraging either. AoS has driven itself into a tangled knot and while it had tried to untangle itself, true, it did not really work: the show got stuck with the character of Deke Shaw, who is even less popular than Kasius and Sinara had been, and they were villains, plus the titular agents have established themselves as a bunch unsympathetic gits…but that is another story. ‘The Gifted’ is doing something different: it took an original narrative and is now trying to diversify it with a bunch of contrived conflicts that make the show less derived and more drawn-out instead; plus…

Plus ‘the Gifted’ is more like AC than AoS; it still has a tightly knit, relatively small main cast with which it works: ‘eneMy’ brought them all together, albeit on different sides; Jace is still the odd man out, as he usually is. No Inner Circle, no new kids, no nothing. (Also, Andy did not go over to the Inner Circle because of their money and power as Lauren claimed on this episode – he left because he felt that he could do better over there instead, as did Lorna – now we will just have to see if he and Lorna made the right choice). Sadly, for ‘the Gifted’ this sometimes borders on ridiculous, again, and the show tries to do something about it – in 2018, for example, we’ve seen Marcos trying to contact other Mutant Underground members, but all in vain: everyone else became afraid of what the Inner Circle had Lorna and Andy set in motion to do something about it. That said, it would be nice to see more new mutant faces; instead, ‘eneMy’ barely acknowledged the chaos unleashed by the Inner Circle, Andy and Lorna and was all about John’s rescue instead. That is justifiable, but the way that John had rammed the Purifiers’ track back in 2018…not the smartest move either, not even by him; (the fact that it felt almost like DW the combat simulation part hadn't helped the episode either - it was that contrived). Anything else?

Ted of the Purifiers’ isn’t dead, Andy and Lorna are back with the Inner Circle, (if Reeva and the others even realized that they were gone – hopefully this issue will be addressed in the next episodes), Jace continues his holy/unholy war and descent into the dark side, and the Strucker siblings are setting forth to have a confrontation of their own. Sigh. ‘The Gifted’ tried to give them character development back in 2018, but instead they keep coming back to being full Lannister. Let us just hope that they will resolve their issues before S2 of ‘the Gifted’ is finished and we all can move on…somewhere. New, that is.

Well, so far, this is it. See you all soon!

The Gifted: gaMe changer - Dec 4

The obligatory disclaimer: sometimes real life sucks, and sometimes it does not. Yay, really. Now onto ‘the Gifted’.

…This week’s episode was called the ‘gaMe changer’, and it certainly lived up to its’ name. The Inner Circle has destroyed the control center for the mutants’ control collars, and now many mutants are free. With the ‘regular’ society already inflamed and divided on the mutant issue, Reeva’s plan for taking over USA is beginning to take shape and it is a workable one, too. Whether she will be able to keep the United States once she captures them, is another story, and, moreover, one that we will get to see later, after the winter break, (technically speaking). For now, more new mutant characters will be appearing on the show; whether they will stay, or go, as Rebecca did, is another story.

…Rebecca got killed off in this week’s episode, incidentally. Judging by S1, no return from the dead for her; ‘the Gifted’ are not like AoS in that fashion. (With AC, there is not enough material to make a statement). This brings us to Daredevil, or rather – to ‘Daredevil’, who got cancelled at the end of last month.

Is this noteworthy? Well, yes – ‘Reverie’ might have also gotten cancelled during November 2018, (albeit in the beginning, rather than the end), but ‘Daredevil’ lasted longer – for 3 seasons rather than 1, and it was much more exciting, proportionally speaking, than ‘Reverie’ had been. ‘Reverie’ was not a bad show, but it was very heavily influenced by AoS on one hand, and kind of… not exactly insipid, but certainly lackluster on the other. ‘Reverie’ got cancelled with a whimper; the exit of ‘Daredevil’ was more noticeable.

Yes, in part this is because ‘Iron Fist’ and ‘Luke Cage’ were cancelled earlier in November 2018 too; with only JJ still up for grabs on one hand, and with ‘The Defenders’ proper being the weakest of Marvel/Netflix shows, things aren’t looking up for the Defenders team. However, that is acceptable: right now, the most popular theory is that with Disney establishing its’ own version of Netflix/Amazon/Hulu/etc., and as such, it is no longer too interested in cooperating with Netflix proper. (And maybe its’ counterparts as well).

Of course, until Netflix’s copyright for the Defenders’ team run out, Disney will have to tread carefully here, to prevent any conflicts back in the real world. It is already in a bad place regarding its’ other takeover, of SW, so it does not really need to add any of its’ Marvel properties into the mix. With Sony, (regarding its’ universe of Marvel characters or Earth-TRN688), making its’ boundaries clear and established, it might be Netflix’s turn next – or it and Disney might do something completely different, who knows?..

Back to ‘the Gifted’? So far, it is still going strong, with the ‘gaMe changer’ trying to go for something epic, as the Inner Circle releases captured and subdued mutants, the rest of the Strucker family destroying anti-mutant research, and John, from the Mutant Underground, getting captured by Jace and his Purifiers.

Well, technically, the Purifiers’ are not Jace’s, but are more of a free-ranging secret society, like the Freemasons or the Illuminati, but Jace is shown to be taking charge of them lately. Again, it is a question of just how big the Purifiers are, as a movement, but we’ll probably see more of them in the future episodes; right now, John got captured by probably no more than three or four of them, including Jace. Of course, John’s strategy had been to run at their jeep and hold it in place, until he got exhausted, but John has been in a bad place lately, as he and Clarice constantly fought lately, and Marcos was more of a comic relief than anything else.

Pause. This brings us to the fact that by now episodes of ‘the Gifted’ got somewhat, well, disassembled into separate plotlines; Jace capturing John at the end of ‘gaMe changer’ is really the first sign that they are coming together again, and maybe we’ll get something more along the lines of ‘the Gifted’ S1 in the next episode…

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

Daredevil S3 - Oct 23

The changes come and changes go, in real life they suck, but you can adapt and try something new, just because you do not want to go crazy or worse. On TV, on the other hand…well, ‘Iron Fist’ was cancelled, as we knew even before ‘Daredevil’ S3 was released, and now, it seems, ‘Luke Cage’ is as well.

Still, there are some differences between ‘Iron Fist’ and ‘Luke Cage’ – while theories about the former continue to abound, (most consider the fact that it wasn’t making enough money to be the key fact here), with ‘Luke Cage’ it is more straightforward – differences between Netflix, the crew, and co. It shows too – ‘Iron Fist’ ended with some sort of a resolution, at least; ‘Luke Cage’ – in mid-swing, (so to speak), just as the Deadly Nightshade or whoever was rising to challenge Luke in her turn. Ouch. What next?

‘Daredevil’ S3 has arrived last week, we got introduced to this version of Bullseye, and it was interesting. At least at some point the team of ‘Daredevil’ made Bullseye to be the antithesis of the titular hero – guess Matt really needed it. Of course, with ‘Iron Fist’ and ‘Luke Cage’ gone, ‘the Defenders’ appear to be even less unlikely than they did after ‘Jessica Jones’ S2, where no mention of them really appeared; well, now with the cancellations, they may be the next to follow. Anything else?

‘The Gifted’ may or may not air tonight, due to the World Game (or whatever) it is called – real life sucks, see above. The Americans, of course, and especially their current president are still one-step ahead from the rest of us, in regards to ‘the migrant caravan’ or whatever. In the U.K., on the other hand, no actual evidence of Russian temperance was found, meaning yeah, that all of those cries of ‘Wolf! Wolf!’ were a fabled lie. How will the U.K. get out of this revelation? Ask the wading birds, such as the avocets, in the swamp – they will tell you how!

(Yes, I watched the ‘Miss Peregrine’ movie online. Miss Avocet was not a bad character, but the avocet is a wading bird, built almost like a mini-heron or stork. Rather than short and plump, Miss Avocet should have been tall and skinny instead, but who cares? She was just an episodic character anyhow, and regardless of her appearance? She was still neurotic).

Anything else? Frankly, no. Real life still sucks, and while you can try to manage it, sometimes you just cannot. Of course, on TV, things are not always so rosy either, as ‘Daredevil’ S3, (featuring no mention of ‘Jessica Jones’, ‘Luke Cage’, or ‘Iron Fist’) can attest. Still, let us wish Matt and co. the best of luck and move on.

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

FH: Nuxia - Oct 14

Firstly, real life sucks. It sucks in different ways, and for those people who died during hurricane Michael it sucks worst of all, because of obvious reasons, but for the rest of us? We got all sorts of issues, each of our own, and they are not very pleasant, because change usually always hurts – someone. On one of the sides, at least…and very often they are unavoidable. You can try to figure out ways to soften the blow, but as often as not they do not work, especially if you do not want to make things worse and to break the criminal code of your country. On the other hand, maybe you do, on both counts – in which case, good luck to you, you are a greater and/or braver person than I am…

What next? Leaving my life/real life aside, (the mess with/in the Saudi Arabia is growing nastier by the day), we got, well, ‘Iron Fist’. The show got cancelled. The end. Moreover, no one really knows why. With P: NW a while back, at least, you got the entire ‘Impossible Pictures’ getting cancelled/annulled by BBC because reasons. Considering that ‘Impossible Pictures’ was good, this was a bad decision by BBC; certainly after the not-very-impressive ‘Walking with Dinosaurs’ movie, they didn’t try anything new with dinosaurs any time lately…

Back to ‘Iron Fist’? We don’t know, again, as why Netflix ended the series; ‘Daredevil’ is coming back for S3 later this month, ‘Jessica Jones’ and ‘Punisher’ seem to be returning too, ‘Luke Cage’ is up for grabs…

Maybe it is just the matter of money – there is just not enough of it to allow Netflix keep all of their Marvel shows…at least for now. Apparently, they made a statement that ‘the immortal Iron Fist never dies’ or something similar. What does that mean I have no idea.

On that note, let us get to FH. Earlier this week they released the Nuxia, one of the new characters. In real life, Nuxia is a genus of plants that grow in Africa, Middle East, and on some islands in the Indian Ocean, meaning that this word does not have anything in common with China or the rest of the Far East region of Asia…

Now, I must admit, I was genuinely surprised – I have never heard of these plants…and given the sparse information about them, I am guessing that this is because these are some of the more obscure plants, not much known to people outside of professional botany, such as myself. Ergo, let us not stay with Nuxia proper for now, and move onto her signature weapons – the hook swords.

They were shown in DW, S1, as one of the weapons of the Shaolin monk, (who is also featured in FH – or will be, soon enough, properly). As it was mentioned before, that episode – ‘Shaolin monk vs. Maori warrior’ – was one of the more bizarre/lopsided episodes: the hook swords were the only Shaolin weapon that were better/scored higher than their Maori counterparts did, and they were the one who won the day for the Shaolin monk via points – they scored higher than any other weapon on that episode, Shaolin or Maori. Why, how so – the field-test of the hook swords was not that impressive, honestly – remained unknown, though on that episode follow-up, none of the team Maori showed up. Again, we do not know what went behind the scenes of that episode, but something certainly did, though it did not affect DH at that time…

Back to FH? Why not. Nuxia uses her twin hook swords very efficiently, and ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ should be mentioned here too – we’re talking the original TV cartoon series, not the travesty of the movie that Mr. Night Shamalayan did: one of its’ recurring characters, Jet, also used twin hook swords very efficiently, making himself stand out of the crowd, (since he wasn’t a ‘bender’, by the way). So, I guess – go twin hook swords!

Anything else? No, not really. Nuxia does appear to be an interesting character, and FH is clearly upgrading and redesigning itself, doing its’ best to make itself even better, so good luck to them. Ergo, as for us – see you all soon! (Hopefully).