Avengers comics - July 20

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, and MCU has taken a breather for 5 weeks – thanks God. Why?

Because MM, in particular, had been an uninspiring mess! MCU’s Phase 4 is about transitions and introductions…but it has stopped working in ‘Thor 4’, ‘cause Disney/MCU want to retain TW in their roster, and the latter didn’t want to work with the ‘Thor’ franchise unless CH remains Thor – so it was NP who got removed out of MCU for good instead. Well, not her, but her character – Dr. Jane ‘the mighty Thor’ Foster. Fun! However, never was it said that Disney/MCU would not step over their principles if they can achieve greater financial success! What next?

…So, in the absence of MCU, I tried to read some Marvel comics – especially the Avengers’ storyline, and it is the same old song, albeit done in different tune: initially, the Avengers had their own plotline, as they teamed-up with several other heroes to protect Earth from various beings, (who were being puppet-mastered by Mephisto). Eventually, that degraded into collections of one-shots, and cameos, and filler arcs, all of which clearly showed that Marvel themselves do not really know what to do with this version of the Avengers anymore, or why should it keep them.

Here, though, is an especial shout-out to the ghost rider, (the Robbie Reyes version). In the beginning, he became a ‘proper’ Avenger, (as opposed to a more vigilante type of crime fighter), with a burgeoning relationship with Captain Carol ‘Marvel’ Danvers. Why? Because he was about to get his own series in MCU, at that time. This did not happen, so by the time that the Moon Knight Story arc came along, Robbie got sidelined completely, and Carol teamed/coupled-up with Tony ‘Iron Man’ Stark instead, (complete with a fostered baby, who is more of a political statement, but that is another story).

Why the Moon Knight? Because he did get his own series at MCU, so his character did get some redesigning in the Marvel comics. Fun! However, this story arc had nothing to do with him anymore; rather it was all about the Phoenix.

…When the current Avenger incarnation began, Wolverine was the Phoenix, (do not ask, I do not know – or care about – the details). Then, abruptly, Wolverine was not the Phoenix anymore, and began to lead his own, ‘Savage’ Avengers, against a wizard named Kulan Gath (or something along those lines). Now there is no mention either of the Savage Avengers or of the wizard in question…and the Phoenix force resides in Maya ‘Echo’ Lopez instead.

Yes, that Maya, who starred in the ‘Hawkeye’ TV series, and who is about to get her own series, apparently. Therefore, now she is the new Phoenix in the comics, and Robbie is flirting with her, while Carol is with Stark, (see above). Frankly, the current Avengers should have their own soap opera by now, with Mephisto playing the main villain, which would be more appropriate for them… Where were we?

Ah yes, with the epiphany that while Disney/MCU have some idea of where they should go now that the Infinity Saga is over, but they are quite willing to diverge from it because of money, then Marvel comics don’t even have that, and just follow – vaguely – Disney/MCU’s lead. Yay for them, really. Sometimes, I authentically hate not only the real life, but everything else as well.

However, for the moment, this is it. See you all soon, instead!

 

 

AoS 7x09 - June 24

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. So, let us get to AoS and talk about it, now that I am back home and all. Where are we with them?

On one hand, this week’s episode was one of the best, as the Team Time Bus had to deal with a brand new situation that’d never come up on AoS beforehand: they were caught in a time storm/time vortex/time loop and had to work as a team even as time and space were running out. Since there is still four episodes left until the series’ finale, they made it, of course, with Enoch self-sacrificing himself to save the rest of the team. Because obviously his character is not coming back to MCU, his death actually meant something, unlike the demise of Phil Coulson LMD#2, who was back and functioning by this episode. Yay! MCU’s AoS actually managed to have a meaningful death of a positive character for a change. In addition, now that a major recurring character is out of the picture for good, maybe we will get Fitz back, ‘cause in real life? The AoS’ budget could not have both Fitz and Enoch on set full time. Ouch!

On the other side, there are some repetition still: the rebooted Nathaniel Malick and Kora, cough, are so the rebooted Ward and Kara Palamas – sort of. Sadly, it seems that the AoS’ corner of MCU tends to burn bridges with the ex-members of its’ cast, so no Ward or Palamas or Raina; instead, we got Gordon and Jiaying, and I’ve no idea what it cost MCU/AoS to have those two actors return to the plot. Daisy is supposed to be reunited with her mother – that is Jiaying – in the next week’s episode, and since back in the S2 finale Jiaying proved to be very much a villain, it’ll be interesting to see how team AoS have handled this in their last reboot… because it is one. (Cough, Li, cough). (Idea reboots alongside idea recycling and repetition were/are major problems of AoS).

Finally, there is Daisy and Daniel Sousa – apparently, they are an official couple on the show. Big whoop. Timing is everything – when Daisy and Lincoln kissed in the S3 mid-season finale, that meant something because the show was continuing, and no one knew that Lincoln would be killed-off at the end of S3, and mentioned only briefly when Daisy met Robbie Reyes, (MCU’s Ghost Rider), as part of the Quake/Ghost Rider story arc.

…Sadly, MCU’s plans for the Ghost Rider fell through, his show got cancelled, Mr. Luna’s career is currently on hiatus post his 2019 appearance in the latest ‘Terminator’ film, and also in ‘Hala’, and so, instead, we had the AoS’ S6, which had very strong elements of the ‘Ghost Rider’ franchise – and at the AoS episode 6x13 the show got rebooted once again, this time with the Chronocons. …Only, there were no Chronocons in the latest two AoS episode, and instead all of the focus was on Nathaniel and Kora as the antagonists, with nary a word about Hive too. Maybe the Chronocons are gone? In which case, how will team AoS write themselves out of this corner, or will they go down the GoT’s road – blatant plotholes, blatantly unrepentant? We will just have to wait and see.

…And as for Daniel and Daisy… well, they do leave Deke hanging in the air: yes, he has restarted S.H.I.E.L.D. – sort of – in the 1980s, but now what? Ever since his appearance in AoS’ S5, Deke and Daisy had been matched up together, however, clumsily, but now Daisy is with Sousa instead. Not that it matters, but Deke is now a loose end, plot-wise, and he did not stay dead either. What is next?

Hard to say, actually. This week’s AoS episode had truly been a storm, and an enjoyable one, but it is still an AoS episode, and therefore flawed, and next week the team Time Bus is returning to the 1980s, meaning that they will be back to their ‘regularly scheduled’ plot lines, ha-ha. We will just have to wait and see as to what will happen next.

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

Ocean's 8 and co. - Nov 28

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, which is why I went forth and watched what else but ‘Ocean’s 8’. Why? Because I already re-watched ‘Charlie’s Angels 2000’ once, and don’t want to do it again – somehow, whenever I watched CA2000 it feels exhausted as shite, as if an experienced hooker tried to be an innocent virgin instead; the movie did it very convincingly, but it was still only an act; CA2003 was… a template that Elizabeth Banks built her own CA2019 movie; no one has called her out on it officially, but it can be noted that she very quickly turned tail and stopped bitching after the initial salvo. So, where does ‘Ocean’s 8’ fit into this?

Very much right there next to CA2019. Just as CA2019 has borrowed heavily from its’ 2003 predecessor, so O8 was very much a rip-off of the original O11 film, though out of the two, O8 was more derived than CA2019, because of the gender flip. There is no gender flip in CA2019 because of reasons, but that just makes its’ similarity to O8 more evident. Both films featured strong female characters who were superior to their male counterparts, with the latter relegated to more supporting roles, if any; both had various action sequences, though O8 was more high-brow and less fisticuffs’ than CA2019; both had their female leads dress in very revealing, sexy clothing, because you know what? Their audiences might be ‘woke’, but not that woke apparently; and both movies are so slick that they entered through one ear and exited through another without making much an impact on the audience’s hearts and minds; there are fan works about the characters of the CA2019-verse, but you know? There usually are fan works; you will need to be especially stodgy and stiff, such as the ‘Ad Astra’ film, to not have any. CA2019 is not anything like ‘Ad Astra’; it is a derived variant reboot of CA2003 film, and even though most of their target audience had not seen this movie, it tells.

Reboots are among the less successful films to begin with – CA2019, O8, the latest Terminator film, any recent ‘King Arthur’ movies, the latest Robin Hood movie, and so on. Regardless if they are woke or not, if their leads are male or female, they usually fail, justly or unjustly, because the latest Terminator film was quite good, and Gabriel Luna was a very impressive villain.

…Does this steer us away from the movies and onto TV series and comics? (Luna’s version of the Ghost Rider appeared in both). Yeah, probably. Maybe. Some of the current ‘Avengers’ comics do a better job of helping to escape reality… only not. In those comics, our titular heroes got replaced as America’s number-one superhero team by the latest incarnation of Squadron Supreme, which seems to embody Trump’s current foreign policies, and who are revealed as false puppets of the false Phil Coulson, who is probably the Red Skull (the comics’ version) or some similar villain.

…Yeah, I must admit that I kind of enjoy this story arc – I never stopped disliking Phil Coulson as a character since AoS’ S2 for reasons that I talked about regularly in the past… so here I want to point out that this strategy – Trojan horse of false S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, or in this case, false Avengers, has been used on TV before – and not just in MCU, but also in an Avengers’ cartoon series, where the Red Skull had imitated some U.S. senator and tried to poison the Avengers; in particular, he turned the Hulk into an evil version of the Red Hulk, and did other mischief before captain America exposed him. Yay, but it also means that again, Marvel is reworking its’ old material, however masterfully, rather than making something genuinely new… under the guise of old and tested, as Disney is doing with the ‘Frozen’ franchise, (maybe with ‘Moana’ as well). Next?

…As for the real-life connections of Marvel comics… this happened in the past too, for example, when Copperhead used the word ‘hombres’ in an indirect dig at Trump. ‘Indirect’ is the key word here, because…

Well, let us look at the ‘Avengers’ again. In this incarnation, everyone is getting into a team – the Avengers, their Russian counterparts, the Squadron Supreme, Namor of Atlantis and his people, Dracula and his, and so forth. In the previous plot arcs, it was Avengers vs. the Russian counterparts…until it was revealed that Dracula played them all, so now Major Ursa is reaching out to the Black Panther and his Agents of Wakanda because reasons, the fake Coulson and his best friend Mephisto, (Marvel’s Mephistopheles, whose name got abbreviated because… copyright infringement, maybe?), talk about ‘red’ as opposed to ‘red, blue and white’. Hence my suspicion that it’s the Red Skull who’s behind the fake Squadron Supreme…and then there’s also the Red Widow, a new member of the Russian not-Avengers; maybe it will be revealed that it’s a latest version of Hydra who is trying to keep Russia (well, the Russian Federation) and the U.S. at loggerheads. Does it remind you of something?

…What it does not remind you of is real life, wherein on one hand we have president Putin, who, apparently, is genuinely interested in bringing the American way of life and democracy down for purely ideological reasons with not a whit of common sense and right now? He is unstoppable, both within and without his country, because on the other hand we got the Donald, whose take on ‘making America great again’ seems to be smelling strongly of isolationism. In real life, America had had bouts of isolationism before; the most notorious is the 1920s-30s, where at first everything in America was great and wonderful and constantly improving and glorious – the Roaring Twenties. 

And then it all fell apart and collapsed into the Great Depression – the Depressing Thirties. These days, the Western mass media does not really talk about those decades anymore and would rather have the American masses forget about it. Why? Because the man who pulled the American society out of the Great Depression is the same man who got them to win in WWII – Franklin Delano Roosevelt, one of the greatest U.S. presidents. The twist here is that he used decidedly semi-socialist methods and means to achieve that success, by dismantling the U.S. Capitalistic utopia of that time, something that Bernie Sanders, and AOC and her squad, and some other people, are trying to implement… and they are being opposed by the current generation of political American utopists, most of whom are also in the Democratic party, whereas the Republicans-

-the Republicans are keeping it together. While the Democrats are fighting between each other like a horde of angry bears that are stuck in a single cavern, the Republicans remain solid. Oh sure, they have their own problems, starting with the Donald who is marching to his own drum and ignoring everyone else, but they intend to stay in power for as long as they can, and God-damn everyone else – and this brings us back to Russia.

Alternatively, if you would like it, this brings us to the Roman Republic – the very first one. In the older history books it was proclaimed a democracy, but in reality? Before long, it became a reign of oligarchy very much in the same sense that the modern Russian Federation is. In the ancient times, the Roman Oligarchical Republic became a Roman Empire and it was nowhere as bad, especially at first, as George Lucas depicted this process in the original SW trilogy; in the modern times, the fate that will befall the oligarchical political style of the modern Russian Federation is still undefined, but keep in mind that history showed that went the temper of the Russian plebeians (aka the proletariat) ends, it does so explosively; and the U.S.?

…And in the U.S. we got the Republican oligarchs facing-off the Democrats who are divided between utopists and pragmatists, (with the latter having a strong socialist tinge, true), while there’s a swarm of third parties and other people who want a chance to steer the ship of the American state. The results are unpredictable, and possibly a part of the reason as to why Ms. Nancy Pelosi did initiate the impeachment process was to prevent the Democrats from splitting into several factions that wouldn’t, or don’t, get along with each other: if that had happened, that would’ve been the true end of the American society as we know it, that started with the 13 colonies that faced-off with Great Britain and led to the modern American culture & society. Therefore, instead, we got the impeachment that is going nowhere fast, but at least the Democrats have stopped their infighting instead. Sometimes the only choice is between a pair of evils, and hopefully Ms. Pelosi chose the right/the lesser one after all.

And does the mention of evils bring us back to Marvel and Mephisto? Kind of sort of, because the Avengers’ last completed plot arc has Robbie Reyes face-off with Johnny Blaze in a Ghost Rider showdown, which takes the Avengers in a different direction entirely – it belonged to a time period where it seemed that Gabriel Luna’s Robbie Reyes would become a part of MCU for good – instead he followed the paths of Hunter and Morse for example and is fully out of it, at least for now. Consequently, now the Avengers’ comic puts them into space, a very different medium from Hell – but this is neither time nor place to discuss it; for now, let’s just admit that when it comes to real-life political savvy, Marvel’s comics isn’t any better than CA or O-franchise movies, and leave it at that.

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

Ghost Rider cancelled - Sep 26

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. With it out of the way, let’s go forth into the alternate universe of media, and-

Yeah, things are not much better there: Marvel’s ‘Ghost Rider’ TV series got cancelled. This is not too different from Marvel’s ‘Most Wanted’ TV series, which also got cancelled, and ditto for Marvel’s ‘InHumans’, (though the latter did get to feature a single 8-episode season), but still – it sucks. Gabriel Luna did a very good job as the Ghost Rider back in AoS, though yes, given that it was AoS, odds are that the Ghost Rider’s plot line got tangled, rebooted, restructured and so on several times before the character appeared on TV. It was not a bad plot line, Robbie and Daisy (Chloe Bennett, in case anyone has forgotten), had a moment together at the end of S4, and this was it. In the second half of AoS’ S5 the titular characters had to deal with a ‘fear dimension’ – Ghost Rider no show, we got Deathlok instead. (Just what kind of a contract Disney/MCU/AoS has had with its actor? Deathlok was very important in S1, but from S2 onwards he appeared more and more rarely on the show; he had not appeared in AoS’ S6 at all, and there is no indication that he will appear in S7). AoS’ S6 had some distinct references to Ghost Rider regarding the entire Izel storyline, but no Ghost Rider per se. True, I have not figured out the references back in S6, this one’s on me, but still – no ‘true’ Ghost Rider, and this brings us to the cancelled show.

Sadly, we do not know much about it; it was supposed to be a separate TV show from AoS, with Robbie (and his brother Gabe, maybe?) living their life alongside the U.S.-Mexican border, doing their thing, whatever it is, and – that’s it. That is all the information that has become known, really. It is not enough to make speculations about, but apparently it was enough for the show to break-up in the preliminary stage over creative differences, the end. Sad.

And on the other hand, this has made someone in the Marvel comics feel rather stupid, I reckon. Lately, the current ‘Avengers’ incarnation, it has become increasingly ‘all about Robbie’, as he gets to race the other main Ghost Rider of Marvel, Johnny Blaze, in Hell, (while the rest of the Avengers are dealing Frank Castle, the Cosmic Rider). The first 12 issues of ‘Avengers’ or so were mostly about the Avengers, with Robbie being the new kid on the block, (and being in early stages of a relationship with Carol Danvers, Captain Marvel, yay). However, from the ‘vampire civil war’ arc this series became increasingly about Robbie, until we currently have him racing Johnny Blaze in Hell on one hand, and on the other, we got the beginnings of a ‘Strikeforce’ comic arc, which is centered around Blade instead. Not that I got anything against Blade – the man is going to return to the movie screens…but this is not fully the point.

What is the point? It unfolds as follows. To wit, Marvel Comics do not really know what to do with the Avengers as a cohesive unit of comic characters anymore. They were initially going for some sort of a Stone Age Avengers’ adventures, but that got replaced first by the Ghost Rider, as Robbie Reyes’ TV series were going to be his big moment in the spotlight, but now that that isn’t happening, the focus is shifting instead to Blade and the Hellstrom siblings, who are still on to being parts in the new MCU. More powers to them, I suppose, but still, poor Robbie. He is out of the AoS, (even though the upcoming S7 is the end for them as well, but still), and now he is not going to get his own TV show either. Ah well, I guess now that Lance Hunter and Bobbi Morse from Marvel’s ‘Most Wanted’ are going to get some company…

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

S.H.I.E.L.D. 'Missing Pieces' - May 11

AoS S6 is here. And?

Firstly, the obligatory disclaimer: real life can be trying, but that is real life for you. How does AoS stack up to it?

The season’s premiere, ‘Missing Pieces’, is about Coulson and Fitz, since both died at S5 finale. Now, though, Team Jemma (her, Daisy, Davis and Piper) are travelling through space, kicking alien butts and taking their numbers while looking for Fitz – and there is a giant-ass space ship chasing them instead. However, never let it be said that Simmons is not an opportunist – she used the ship’s latest attack to take her team into a new territory, to continue to look for Fitz, though the rest of her team are unhappy with her, and there is going to be drama.

Simmons’ issues with Fitz aside - by now everyone knows that the FitzSimmons make their own drama, and this season AoS just might’ve jumped the shark with them, pity – what is worth noting is that Piper and Davis have become proper supporting characters: here’s to them lasting at least to mid-season, and not just because otherwise the FitzSimmons and Daisy will have to make a lot of uncomfortable explanations to Davis’ family at least, you know? Secondly, Daisy is having her own issues – she is channeling either Ward or Morse, and it does not do her character any favors. And finally – Deke is pointedly not with them; as Marvel Entertainment accidentally showed on YouTube, Jeff Ward (Deke) and Iain (Fitz) do not get along, so they clearly had to do something about it, while keeping Jeff on the show. Why is another question; they did a half-arsed job of trying to make chemistry between him and Chloe’s Quake in the second half of S5, but apparently it didn’t stick, so no Deke in space. Pity, because he and Elizabeth Henstridge (Jemma) actually had a good thing going-on in the second half of S5…

Back within MCU, Fitz is shown at the episode’s end, being dominated, somehow, by someone (or something) called the Controller. In Marvel, it is a man named Basil Sandhurst, who is…an Iron Man villain, actually, but in MCU, Stark is dead – for now, at least – so it is an open question if this is going to be a real-life version of the man, somehow. The point is that Fitz is having his own problems – again…so, it is nothing new. The more interesting question is – where is Enoch? He was not bad back in S5, did liven up AoS somewhat, and it would be exciting to see more Chronicoms in the future AoS episodes too. The fact that Fitz is in trouble, is mentally dominated, does things that are probably morally ambiguous at best, and needs Simmons and the team to help him is nothing new – remember the S4 Framework mini-arc, anyone?

This brings us to the other half of the season’s premiere – Mack’s version of S.H.I.E.L.D. on one hand, and the appearance of ‘Sarge’, (Coulson’s look-alike) on the other. There are several characters called ‘Sarge’ already in Marvel; the main ones are Nick Fury Jr. (and now that would be an interested character to introduce to MCU proper), and a mutant for a secondary universe (earth 2099 A.D.) now more usually called Travesty.

…Yes, in S5 already AoS took its’ characters to the future, and yes, there are gifted individuals of some sort, working for Gregg’s Sarge character, so it’s always possible that S.H.I.E.L.D. will be dealing with time travellers from a new future – the old one got derailed when S.H.I.E.L.D. blew up the alien space shift and defeated Talbot/Graviton in final S5 episodes, remember? The time loop is broken, the future is free from grabs – and MCU has introduced, sort of, the concept of a multiverse in ‘Avengers: Endgame’ movie, and it might be developing this concept further in the upcoming ‘Spiderman’ movie, just look it up at the IGN YouTube channel. IGN is not perfect, but it does deliver. What is next?

The main twist here is that as contrasted by a deliberately misleading clip released earlier, this version of Coulson/Not-Coulson is no friend of S.H.I.E.L.D. at all; the man he took down was a new S.H.I.E.L.D. agent instead, but on the other hand, despite their rugged appearances and crazy behaviours, he and his people aren’t trying to intentionally & deliberately hurt people, so maybe they’re not actually evil? In this case, Mack and co. will need to invent a new strategy beyond throwing armed forces and armored vehicles at them, while dealing with new drama: Mack and Yo-Yo have broken up, and now Yo-Yo is beginning to flirt with a new character named Keller, while Mack is with May…yes, because Coulson is dead now, (so far, Sarge is being set up as someone who’s not S.H.I.E.L.D.), and because AoS had thrown them together on occasion, especially in S4. What will come out of that, aside from the generic answer – more drama – is currently unknown.

…Also, speaking of drama, Mack and May managed to persuade an old friend of Dr. Garner to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. while the FitzSimmons are in space. Since Dr. Garner was revealed to be Lash, a killer InHuman, (who got redeemed, supposedly, by rescuing Daisy from Hive and dying in the process), it’s possibly safe to take the newcomer’s moral alignment with a grain of salt; after Radcliffe and the Darkhold disaster it is better to be safe than sorry, right?

Anything else? Gabriel Luna will return to his role as the Ghost Rider…this time, on his own show. Since it will be on Freeform, his show might have more in common with C&D that AoS, so (tentatively) welcome back, Mr. Luna, to MCU! Hopefully, you will have better luck here than Blood and Palicki did – by now, they are firmly in the past/recurring character sector of AoS, alongside Dalton and Campbell; ah well, ce la vie.

As for ‘Missing Pieces’ as a whole, it did a good job by bringing out the best aspects of AoS – special effects, a decent plot, great acting and decent dialogue. Now all they have to do is to keep it up and to win back their strayed fans. Between ‘the Gifted’, ‘the Runaways’, C&D, and ‘Legion’, (though it is supposed to have its final season this year, hah), it will be a tough job, even with Netflix’s series gone, and the Ghost Rider show still being in production…

This is it for now; see you all soon!

S.H.I.E.L.D. 'Rewind' - Dec 23

AoS has reached the ‘fall finale’. Where does it stand?

…It has achieved the break from the past seasons that it needed to have back in S4 – as Lance has shown Fitz, S.H.I.E.L.D. is gone for good in the MCU universe. Yay?

Firstly, yes – Nick Blood has starred as Lance Hunter once more on AoS, in a manner similar to Dalton (Ward) and Britt (Tripp) back in S4, save that the titular team is out of the framework now, hopefully. (It is still a possibility that Radcliffe betrayed them in S4, and the septet are still in the framework, somehow, just in a different part of it. AoS has been known to remake its plot line with large twists in the past, you know?) That said, Blood’s heart wasn’t in the acting, you could tell – he was still Lance Hunter, but in a much-diminished role, so there’s that… but again, unlike Dalton and Britt, Blood (and Palicki, who played Bobbi Morse on AoS, remember?) ended his RL relationship with MCU in a bad way – his and Palicki’s own Marvel show, ‘Most Wanted’, fell through…and frankly the way their characters, and especially Palicki’s Morse got handled on the show? Not the best way, either. (Cough S2 finale cough).

Speaking of characters, apparently Fitz is going to learn to deal with the darkness within him that got released in the framework. It would be easy to root for him…but AoS has already put Daisy through something similar back in S4, (after she got freed from Hive’s mental control and all), plus there was Robbie Reyes and his own issues as the Ghost Rider, remember?

…Yes, so far there was no mention of the Ghost Rider anywhere in S5, but maybe that’s because back in RL Gabriel Luna is currently working in a film named Hama; so far it is still in the filming stage, so we’ll have to wait and see what it is about in the future – but still, back before S4, MCU and AoS made a big whoop about the Ghost Rider coming to AoS…and he did. Just for nine episodes. That is slightly less than half of an AoS season. Ouch! A change of strategy was required, so this time around, before S5, AoS cast gave only some slight hints about what S5 was going to be around, and…

And it did not work very well – the numbers for AoS S5 are lowest yet, even though the AoS’ cast and crew did do their best this season to win their audience back. However, between DCEU’s ‘Arrowverse’, the ‘Gifted’ TV show about MCU’s mutants, and even another MCU show – about the InHumans, (remember?), AoS has its’ work cut-out for it, and it shows. In the numbers. In addition, the reworking of the main characters does not help either – the FitzSimmons are already going through it, so who is next?..

Mind you, this phenomenon is not restricted to AoS – ‘Blindspot’, having returned for its’ own S3, is going through the same thing as well. Its’ problem is that the first 2 seasons were very, very good, so it decided to go for an S3 – but it has no new ideas of where to go from there, so now ‘Blindspot’ is promptly recycling its’ old ideas – something that AoS has also done, largely in S3 and 4, and it didn’t do anything good for the ‘Agents’. The only new development is the introduction of Rich Dotcom as a main character…and some sort of a comic relief, and…what for? In S1 and 2 ‘Blindspot’ didn’t really have a comic relief…so why now?

Another possibility is that Rich is going to be token gay character, (he is in a same-sex relationship on ‘Blindspot’ already). However, so far we see no evidence of that either, so why is Rich a main/regular character on the show, again? Between this reworking of at least one old character, and the recycling of old ideas, ‘Blindspot’ is beginning to suffer, and that is not good.

Finally… it seems that ‘Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom’ is going to feature Allosaurus amongst other dinosaurs. Again, Allosaurus was a carnosaur – it was an earlier, (Jurassic), smaller, (about 9 m in length on average), version of Giganotosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, Mapusaurus and co. of the Cretaceous – and that includes the I-Rex; whatever it was supposed to be, in RL mechanics, the I-Rex was a carnosaur, but it was discussed already… so that’s that.

Put otherwise, this is it for today – see you next time!

The Gifted: boXed in - Oct 31

‘The Gifted’ TV show has reached the S1 middle point – ‘boXed in’ – and it was a dozy. Put simply, the scriptwriters as well as the rest of ‘The Gifted’ crew, tried to make an episode showing ‘how the other half lives’ – namely Jace from the Sentinel Services. Did it work?

It all depends on how much the audience likes/hates Jace and everyone else from ‘The Gifted’. Every TV show is a product, trying to be sold to its customers, in this case – the audience. In addition, yes, it is not clear-cut how it works, but having good ideas and an appropriately good execution of those ideas helps: just look at ‘Arrowverse’ TV series (DC) as examples. If this does not happen, well… ‘The Catch’ got cancelled after 2 seasons, APB, (aired in winter 2017) – after just one. AC, of course, also got cancelled after 2 seasons, but it is also a possibility that that happened because of Hayley Atwell – some things just went wrong for Marvel at that moment in time, and it showed in S2/S3 of AoS as well…

Actually, it is not quite certain if AoS got over that problem back then: at the end of S3, the titular team was already in space and primed to have some space adventures – but they did not. Instead, AoS S4 was a mixed bag of various discarded ideas of the first three seasons, including the Ghost Rider, but even that does not appear to have stuck: so far, there is no mention of Gabriel Luna returning to AoS, so no Ghost Rider for S5, it seems.

Back to ‘The Gifted’? Well, so far it is going strong, it features a solid plot and it knows exactly what it supposed to be, unlike ‘InHumans’, for comparison. Unlike AoS, ‘InHumans’ greatest flaw isn’t revisions of the script; rather it is indecisiveness – where do they want to go as a show? As it was written regarding them the last time, ‘InHumans’ try to be action/adventure, a space soap opera, some sort of a romantic comedy, etc. – all at the same time, while trying to do so with a small cast as well. AC also had a small cast, but it knew precisely where it wanted to go, so it’s anyone’s guess where it had went wrong instead, while ‘InHumans’ are going all over the place, and it is hurting them. Pity.

On the other hand, ‘The Gifted’ also knows where it is going – in the X-Men direction, complete with direct references to the X-Men, so no problems here. The script might have been revised, but so far, there is no overt indication of that, so it is just guesswork. And the viewers love them, because of novelty, good acting, other reasons, etc. – so no problems in this area either. What next?

Well, next week Johnny/Thunderbird is going to spearhead a mission to learn if Sentinel Services are brainwashing mutants into fighting other mutants, Lauren/Dreamer makes a new friend with useful new powers and Clarice/Blink needs to make a choice.

…Oh wait, you mean in the in review? There is nothing much left – ‘The Gifted’ have delivered as they have done from the beginning, so let us wish them good luck and wait until the next episode!

The Gifted: eXit strategy - Oct 24

…We are back with ‘The Gifted’! Spoilers alert: Reed and Polaris have escaped the Sentinel Service custody!

Let us pause and acknowledge that so far, for all of ‘The Gifted’s’ advantages and pluses, we haven’t seen any actual sentinels; just some drones and spider robots (or is it robot spiders?). Both are cool, but are not exactly associated with the classic Sentinel – a humanoid robot, often of a giant size, that is designed to kill and capture mutants (in any combination of the two). Of course, given the fact that this is a live TV series with minimum CGI and animatronics, this is not surprising, but still… What next?

‘The Gifted’ continues to evolve its’ characters, showing that you do not need to have 22 episodes per season to accomplish that. It deliberately puts its characters into morally shady situations and it explains that sometimes to win a war you have to dirty yourself – and it drives this point home when Marcos/Eclipse goes to his old friends in the organized crime and has to torture a man so that they have to give him information about Lorna/Polaris’ and Reed’s transfer…

Speaking of Lorna/Polaris and Reed: on one hand, it was cathartic that the rescue became successful only when Reed got Lorna get over her hatred of authority figures/non-mutant humans/etc. That is good, but on the other, after Lorna had pulled out the metal screws from his leg, how he was able to make it to the getaway vehicle without them holding his leg together? Just what exactly was his medical condition (beyond the basic he got shot and could not walk in the premiere episode) and how bad was it?

Beyond the unnecessary criticism, of course, there is the twins’ progression, as the two of them continue to bond with each other…and are growing slightly apart away from the main team – it’s some sort of together but separate situation, it seems. Not unlike ‘InHumans’, ‘The Gifted’ are trying to give each character some sort of a major plotline on a regular, but rotating basis, but unlike ‘InHumans’, ‘The Gifted’ are actually making it work. …Possibly because they are not rushing the script as ‘InHumans’ do, but still… Anything else?

Aside from the Strucker family woes, ‘eXit strategy’, (aka this week’s episode) has introduced ‘Trader: A mutant who can cloud others’ vision to hide’, as a potential love interest for Dreamer, (the mutant who can manipulate the others’ memories), who has appeared in the previous episodes and has empowered Blink to rescue the Struckers and others from their universe’s version of Neighbourhood Watch or whatever. Now, of course, Blink will have to live with the consequences, as will Dreamer and the others, of course. This is a typical course for a TV series – some sort of a love/romantic drama, and it all depends on the viewers – how many of them care about this plot development and how many of them do not. Numbers tell, and if romance between Blink and Johnny, (or anyone else, really), does not sell, that is the end of that. In addition, there is always RL, as AoS and MCU have shown/experienced: whatever they had planned regarding the Ghost Rider, at the moment it seems to be over: NCB (Yo-Yo) has become a regular part of the cast, while Gabriel Luna (AoS’ version of the Ghost Rider) has not.

True, the S5 of AoS seems to be taking the titular agents into space, (but apparently there’s no S.W.O.R.D. yet), where the Ghost Rider doesn’t appear to fit in, but Marvel often does odd things with its’ characters; back in the comics, the Ghost Rider is teaming up with Satana, Helstrom and few others ala the Defenders to save the world, (probably), without any connection to S.H.I.E.L.D. It is like the Fenris twins – there are so many incarnations of any given character that it becomes hard to keep track of what is canon and what is not, yeah?

…Riverdale and co., BTW, don’t have this problem because there is no ‘Archies’ canon – there are a lot of comics, of course, depicting the adventures of Archie, Jughead, Betty & Veronica, etc. – but they aren’t connected to each other, each is a standalone adventure, and between that, how the entire franchise changed at least once each decade, and some other factors, Riverdale isn’t breaking any canon – it is just another incarnation of the comics’ multiverse, though the franchise itself treats it as a separate entity from the rest of the multiverse in question. What will come out of that is currently unknown.

…Back to ‘The Gifted’? There is nothing else to add, sadly. The Strucker family continues to evolve, as do the initial members of the Mutants’ Underground Network; Marcos met his ex, now the leader of a drug cartel, and neither of them ended happy from this encounter, leaving open a venue for new romantic misadventures as well as morally shady decisions. Really, ‘The Gifted’ is playing with a traditional set of characters, but it is doing so extremely well. Thus, for now let us leave them, and go and talk about something else the next time we meet.

S.H.I.E.L.D., Fire - Oct 18

…AoS continues to deliver. (No, really). The ratings clearly continue fall. Why?

In part, this is because of Dr. Radcliffe and AIDA – probably. Radcliffe is not bad, it is more that he is clearly has no idea what he is doing in S.H.I.E.L.D., and neither does the show. Possibly, in the original plot, before Luke began to work at ‘Blindspot’ instead, the two of them would have been more important, but right now? They are more of a comic relief, and do not feel very necessary to the greater plot – S.H.I.E.L.D. is dealing with the Watchdogs and the ghosts of the Reyes’ family.

Now the ghosts, apparently, have some sort of a scientific explanation going for them – they are victims of a scientific experiment went wrong. The book – Darkhold – is something else, but still, it is just a book…and it seems that AoS is leading back to aliens and sci-fi, rather than the occult. That is strange, since the opening episodes have focused firstly on the Ghost Rider and in Marvel, Ghost Rider is clearly more at home with the occult. (Seriously, check out the Ghost Rider movies (Earth-121347 for those who care).) Put otherwise, it feels as if AoS did its best to sever its’ links with S2 and S3 and the mess that came with them in S4 – and now it is returning back to those seasons, thinking that they can pick out all of the good stuff and leave all the badness behind. They cannot. It is unknown just what exactly happened in the second half of S2, causing an exodus of actors forcing a mass killing-off of characters, but it did, and AoS didn’t handle it very well – just as it hadn’t handled Luke’s departure from their show post-S3. (Lincoln was mentioned once, and his photo was shown once – great going at the being the bigger people, AoS!)

Hellfire/J.T. James (Axle Whitehead) is a typical example of that, his turning on Daisy (and S.H.I.E.L.D.) is not, actually, yet another good idea executed badly. It is yet another sign of an AoS problem – with redemption. Seriously, first, there was Grant and Kara, and now there is J.T. – yet another character who could have been redeemed, and instead began to work with the Watchdogs, (the new Hydra). What is AoS’ problem with redemption? No one knows, (outside of AoS), but this constantly rejected redemption is costing the show some viewers at least. (And how does Coulson’s spiel on ‘second chances’ back when Skye/Daisy messed-up with Miles in S1 fit into this?)

On the plus side, AoS has introduced Reyes’ uncle, (who knows more about the experiment than you might think), Daisy is back with S.H.I.E.L.D., and so is Robbie, (at least for now – apparently, AoS isn’t fully sure yet how the Ghost Rider will fit into their corner of MCU, so he is a recurring character, not a main one, yet).

To sum it up: AoS is devolving currently back to whatever slog it used to be in S3 (and even S2). They are beginning to have problems assimilating the Ghost Rider into their world, (and keeping him the Ghost Rider). They seem to have pet peeves separate from their constant recycling of ideas. And their S4 season seems to be transforming into S2 – revisited.

No wonder, then, that their ratings are going down, overall. One can only hope that AoS will reverse the trend while there is still time. 

S.H.I.E.L.D., The Ghost - Sep 20

S4 of AoS has premiered – and?

Well, Brad and Angelina are divorcing, after 2 years of marriage (and 10 years of living together). As a member of team Aniston, I am certainly not upset; as an average person, I do not really care either way – oh. We are talking about AoS. Never mind.

As an AoS episode, ‘The Ghost’ was a very good starter, in the same vein that ‘Laws of Nature’, (3x01) was not.

In case people have not figured out, back in S2, AoS opened with the action directly following the S1 finale, AoS was shaping to be a different show, from a technical P.O.V., than how it turned out. Then they tried to integrate Blood & Palicki, (Hunter & Morse), the plot line with Stojan (33/Palamas) went really wonky, and starting from the second half of S2, AoS went into a slog, to use a term from ‘Ocean’s 13’ movie. S3 tried to start afresh, but it could not, especially post the ‘Maveth’ episode, where original S3 ideas where intermixed with the older, S2 ideas. Basically, rather than making S2 largely Hydra with the InHumans really coming into their own in the finale, AoS tried to mixed InHumans and Hydra from the middle of S2, and it didn’t work.

What did work was getting rid of both of them by S3 finale – sort of. Obviously, since InHumans are very major part of Marvel, they are not going away, especially since NCB (Yo-Yo) is now a major secondary character on AoS. (Daisy does not count: she is a part of the main cast, and not just an InHuman, period).

With Hydra, it is the same thing – as soon as it can be useful, it will be brought back. (Alternatively, AIM will, or maybe the Secret Empire – they all amount to the same thing, really, a shadow organization that plans to take over the world). But for now there is no Hydra, and as for ‘generic bad guys’? The Watchdogs, (introduced in the second half of S3) can probably do the trick. Maybe we will see S.H.I.E.L.D.’s former agent Felix someday, but considering that Deathlok had not appeared in S3, the odds are against it.

This brings us to ‘The Ghost’ proper; maybe the title is about the Ghost Rider, (who is busy being discussed all over the ‘Net by now), or maybe about the ghost/banshee who were released out of the box in the second plotline (you can see her; she is brief, not blurry). Either way, ‘The Ghost’ did its’ job in introducing the new major character, in reintroducing the old characters, and in introducing new story lines.

Once more – ‘The Ghost’ is an introductory episode; it introduces, it does not develop anything. ‘Laws of Nature’ tried to the same thing, but between the massive placings of MCU elements, the way that S2 has ended, and some other issues, it did not really work. ‘Purpose in the Machine’ did: it mainly concluded S2 and started the new S3 plotlines, primarily regarding Hive, (who looked like the villain in the old ‘Osmosis Jones’ movie, but that is irrelevant). ‘The Ghost’ does the same thing, without the massive installment of MCU elements, and it has started anew…well, no, AoS did. Grant Ward’s conflict with S.H.I.E.L.D. has been resolved, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s conflict with Hydra has been resolved, Hydra’s greatest monster – Hive was defeated, the end. AoS could honestly start anew, with new everything, except for the main cast, unlike the S2 finale (well, duh). Now what?

Nothing. The S4 is just getting started. We saw now that Daisy has gone rogue and vigilante, with Yo-Yo running interference between her and S.H.I.E.L.D. (This raises the question – just how much Mack is in the loop: by now, he and Yo-Yo are clearly in a relationship of their own). This will allow AoS to have several plotlines and P.O.V.’s in their episodes, (they actually did something similar with Grant & Hive in S3). We have seen the new Ghost Rider – Robbie Reyes in action and in his entire CGI glory (and it is a good CGI, BTW), as well as his crippled brother. We have seen all of AoS leading ladies, (not just Daisy) in new getups, (what? We did! I do not think there will be too many complaints regarding this – hence why AoS moved to another time slot). We learned about the new lay of the land in S.H.I.E.L.D. (and undoubtedly will learn more in the future episodes). And we were introduced to the occult not just via the Ghost Rider, but via an actual ghost/banshee/spirit, that has a magical box (Pandora?). Now S.H.I.E.L.D. will have to deal with the occult directly, and while a visit from Dr. Strange is not very likely, (his movie will not be aired anytime soon), S.H.I.E.L.D. will have to call in someone to help them deal with this – and no, this isn’t the ghost of Grant Ward – Dalton is done with AoS for now, and the ghost is a woman, from what we’ve seen.

This actually brings us to not-a-love-machine that Radcliffe has built and Fitz is helping to further improve. You know what, however? These are the FitzSimmons; apparently to AoS they just have to have some sort of personal drama in their lives, so why not Radcliffe’s robot? Maybe the ghost will fuse with it and make it an entirely new entity, who knows? AoS is big on twists like this. We will just have to wait until the future episode to see how it goes.

So: a very good starter episode and a good episode, with good acting and plot overall. Let us hope that remains like this in the future, too. 

S.H.I.E.L.D. is coming back - July 23

AoS came to the Comic-Con with the rest of the Marvel™ and threw its’ weight around. Marvel™, that is, not just AoS, but it still worked. Yay.

The big stuff. The Ghost Rider – (Robbie from Earth 616 for those who care about this sort of thig), is coming to AoS. Basically, he is the Ghost Rider take II, the heir of the original GR, Johnny Blaze. The latter has a couple of his own movies, but they are not exactly a part of MCU, so it is unlikely that we’ll have the original GR giving Robbie the one-two; ‘with great powers comes great responsibility’, etc. After all, the original Robbie did not want to be a vigilante, but rather a street racer, until Mr. Hyde and his people came across him.

Now, Mr. Hyde has already appeared in AoS S2 – he is Daisy’s father and a former ally to Raina. ‘Former’ because Raina died at the end of AoS S2, (and got promptly reincarnated as ‘Tulip’ on ‘Preacher’ these days). ‘Preacher’ is a wonderful show; though it differs from the original comic that has spawned it a lot. Then again, if we are to talk about differences in shows and comics in regards to AoS proper…just no. The point is that at the end of AoS S2 Mr. Hyde, or Cal Zabo, got redeemed, sort of, via T.A.H.I.T.I., and did not appear at all throughout S3, so now, apparently, he will return – and back as a villain.

Now, throughout S2, Cal was a more sympathetic, ‘redeemable’ character, rather than outright evildoer (that was Hydra’s job: Whitehall, Bakshi, in S2 – Malick), so if he is to appear as an S4 villain, then he will have to go through some major character reworking…AoS should have plenty of practice after Grant Ward in the first half of S3 especially, so no problem there.

The problem is the ‘recycling’: starting in S3, especially in the second half, AoS began to recycle ideas, primarily from S2, (though S1 was there too), complete with such characters as Carl ‘the Absorbing Man’ Creel. The result was that the viewers’ ratings dropped, and for now, the second half of AoS S3 had some of the lowest ratings in the entire series. Period.

Now, AoS is a good show still; when it works, it really works; however, it does not work all the time and sometimes, it outright does not. The entire agent 33 plotline in S2, for example, really did not work, to the point where Kara was largely ignored by the entire S3, except when it was unavoidable, the elephant in the room, you might say. Now, on the Comic-Con, the cast of AoS largely ignored Lincoln Campbell, (played by Luke Mitchell), as well as the entire Static Quake relationship; instead, they focused on Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), and his non-relationship with Skye. Yes, it did make some people happy, but because Dalton is gone from the show for good, (just look at the new poster), alongside Blood, Palicki and Mitchell himself, it was way too late and pointless (SkyeWard fans are not interested in this sort of bones anymore; they will continue to watch AoS or stop altogether regardless of audition videos and the such), and it pissed the Static Quake fans too. It is unknown why Mitchell hadn’t worked out on AoS, (there were hints, for a while, that Lincoln would be the one working alongside Mack in S.H.I.E.L.D. and tracking down Daisy in the conclusion), but he didn’t, so now Bennet (Daisy) got either to work out with Henry Simmons (Mack), or maybe she’ll just stay solo for a while. Or, of course, one of her ex-boyfriends could always come back from the dead. Cough.

However, regardless of any behind-the-scenes-problems, AoS will still be going strong, at least for a while. ‘Carter’, who became a much more compact and collected show by S2, is finished. ‘Most Wanted’, a spinoff of AoS, never came to be. AoS still keeps on going. Good luck to them. Mind you, given how the TV-land works, S4 just might be the season to break them, but in general? They are suffering because MCU has its own problems – the InHumans movie got scrapped, Dr. Strange film is coming out in 2017, etc. AoS is here to stay. Live with it.

PS: And as for J.T. James, aka Hellfire? Since we do not have Blaze as GR, it is anyone’s guess how he is going to fit into the entire dynamic, which, apparently, is now supernatural/occult than extraterrestrial. How will the FitzSimmons deal with it? Or is it why they will be going to Seychelles? Who knows!