WandaVision: Color - Jan 25

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Therefore, let us try to talk about WV the TV series instead.

First, yes, a big shout-out to the upcoming ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ movie trailer. After months, if not years of waiting, it was worth the wait, showing the titular titans duking it out across the world, with Godzilla getting the worst of it… in the trailer. How will the movie play out is another issue, but the trailer was certainly very enjoyable. Now onto WV?

Here is the thing. Already ‘Now in Color’ was examined under the metaphorical microscope and examined tightly. The most important topics of ‘Color’ were Wanda’s pregnancy and birth, and the official confirmation that ‘Geraldine’ is Monica Rambeau, aka Photon, so let us start with them.

…The pregnancy and birth themselves were done in a rather light-hearted, airy style – i.e., unlike the first two episodes, ‘Color’ was not just colorful, but pointedly sunny, light-colored, (pardon the tautology), and light-hearted, whereas the first two episodes were, obviously, black and white, (aside from the occasional splash of red, cough), aka chiaroscuro, creating a rather stolid, if not a downright static, atmosphere within the series. Now, with ‘Color’ we got color, and right now, it is of a pale and/or bright variety… as opposed to, for example, the birth of Hope on X: WP back in the 90s.

Not unlike ‘Kong vs. Godzilla’, X: WP deserves a more expanded mention if only because Xena/Lucy Lawless briefly appeared on MCU’s AoS in S2. Despite her name, Hope was Gabrielle’s daughter from a demon-god Dahak, (in RL, the name belongs to an apocalyptic dragon from the Zoroastrian religion), who was one of the main villains on the show (and also on H: TLJ) for a while, before Hercules killed him, (if I remember correctly), while Xena and Gabrielle were able to eventually slay both Hope and Hope’s son, the first of the supposed Seven Destroyers, a chupacabra-like monster… The point here is that Gabrielle’s pregnancy and Hope’s birth were shown in a pointedly ominous style, complete with a placid-looking goat, which is an indirect reference to the ‘Great Adversary’, cough – and nothing like this was shown on WV; instead, we got butterflies and a stork coming to life.

…Whether or not the butterflies are a reference to a Marvel’s character I have no idea: the name slash moniker ‘Butterfly’ belongs to about 10 of them, and I do not know enough Marvel to decide as to which one. What I want to point out here is the stork – we have talked about storks in the past, about completely non-Marvel-related topics, (remember?), and one of the stork-related themes was, and is, its’ association with bringing children, and how it – we’re talking about the ‘common’ white stork, Ciconia ciconia – is a ‘positive’, ‘solar’, ‘life-bringing’ bird, (especially in the European and Russian folklore). Put otherwise, Wanda’s pregnancy and the birth of her twins appears to be a positive event, at least for the MCU. And-?

And I got nothing, actually. Here, the world of MCU is colliding with RL – the Disney/Marvel PR are making WV and its’ events A Big Deal, but in reality? Neither Wiccan nor Speed, (the twins in the series), aren’t that big of a deal in the Marvel comics; Wiccan, at least, appears on a regular basis in them…because he is one of Marvel’s official same-sex characters, which is A Big Deal…just for reasons that we won’t talk about here and now…but Speed? He does not appear in Marvel comics at all lately, (though yes, due to COVID-19, following Marvel comics has become rather tricky for some people; real life sucks, cough). Where were we?

Ah yes, ‘Geraldine’. The 1x03 episode established that she’s an agent of S.W.O.R.D., (probably), and showed her helping Vision and co. with Wanda’s delivery, thus laying the groundwork for a potential friendship, if not comradery, between the two women, (cough, future Avengers, cough). Sadly, given how Wanda ejected ‘Geraldine’ from the pocket universe, the two women have a long way to go just yet, if they’re to succeed in becoming friends, or at least comrades…which is no way certain in MCU, let’s be fair…but there’s something for that, for now.

However, before anything will happen in the future episodes of WV, we must still discuss… no, not ‘Geraldine’s’ ejection into the world out of the pocket universe, and yes, it is a pointedly and a purposefully sharp contrast with the world inside the pocket: it is dark, it is night, and it might be raining; plus, we don’t know anything about Monica’s position and status in S.W.O.R.D.; and then, there’s Hydra…

Now that deserves face slap, and no mistake. Disney & MCU just cannot make-up their mind about this evil organization: it was supposed to be done and gone by the AoS’ S3 finale dash CA: CW movie; Zemo, (who will be coming back as one of the main characters in ‘The Winter Soldier & The Falcon’ series), says that Hydra is done flat out loud.

…And then AoS’ S4 happened and Hydra came back, and the titular characters continued to lock horns with it on a regular basis; it would be nice to assume that they have stopped Hydra for good in their final season, but given how the AoS’ concluding scenes seem to be a remastered version of a very different AoS, anything is possible.

On a more serious note, it seems that Hydra is just too convenient and easy a villain slash organization for Disney/MCU to stop using, as last week’s ‘Hydra Soak’ shows – already there are fan theories that Hydra is behind Wanda’s pocket universe, rather than Mephisto is, for example. If that happens… I got nothing just more proof that not just AoS, but also the rest of MCU keeps on recycling and reviving their own old ideas, rather than bringing in more original ones, from the comics, i.e. the ‘House of M’. …Without mutants being an established presence in MCU, ‘House of M’ does not work anyhow, so I confess that I am observing with some curiosity as to how the events in WV will continue to develop…

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

Captain America - agent of Hydra? ?? May 27

Now that AoS S3 is over, AC has been cancelled, and ‘Most Wanted’ has been cancelled pre-production once more, Marvel must have been bored, or something, since it came up with the idea of Captain America/Steve Rogers being an agent of Hydra all along. To paraquote the Old Testament book of Leviticus, the Hell?

Let us start again. In ‘Civil War’ the movie, captain America came off the screen as a right arsehole at times, especially when it came to Tony and his family. Tony himself can be a big-mouthed jackass from time to time, but he tries, he really tries, and the entire ‘Civil War’ movie is actually based on this. Steve has ideas of what a heroic life should be life, and so does Tony, and neither of them like each other’s idea, and then along comes colonel Zemo with his own grievances against the Avengers, and it all goes to Hell, and Stark and Rogers aren’t talking to each other anymore, and the Avengers are outlawed, and -

Okay, ‘Civil War’ was a very impressive piece of mass media, let us be honest here. The characters were well rounded and real people, the background and its details was awesome too, and Black Panther and Spider-Man were introduced (and will be getting their own movies in the future), and the Ant-Man kicked ass too.

Of course, this being the MCU, there was at least one sticky point – Ant-Man the movie. In the credits scene, the audience saw Cap and Falcon actually capture Bucky and working on de-brainwashing him; the Accords are mentioned too. Then comes ‘Civil War’, which seems to be ignoring this scene, as Barnes is out at large once more, and not really de-brainwashed too. Tough break, Ant-Man the movie.

Otherwise, however, ‘Civil War’ fits well enough with the rest of the MCU continuity; in many ways, it seems to be a direct continuation of the previous Captain film, ‘The Winter Soldier’. Now what?

Let us start with an important point – Hydra is gone in MCU. The Avengers, the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., had finished it off between the ‘Age of Ultron’ film and now. Crossbones/Brock Rumlow, who is an important Hydra-related villain in the comics, (and ‘Winter Soldier’ movie) is killed in the first half-hour of the film and is forgotten almost immediately in all the fallout that follows. Hydra as such is gone in MCU, general Talbot in AoS has destroyed it with S.H.I.E.L.D.’s help, so that’s it, the odds of Hydra returning to MCU is possible, but until the next MCU movie or series features it coming back, (and Werner von Strucker, for example, is still alive in AoS) it is gone. Case in point – Helmut Zemo. In the comics, he is an important figure in Hydra hierarchy; in MCU, he was a native of Sokovia, a colonel of its’ secret service, who had an axe to grind with the Avengers because of the ‘Age of Ultron’ events: his family got killed. He was not Hydra, he helped the Avengers to fall apart all the same – so it is quite likely that any villains that the Avengers, (or the agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.) will face in the future, will not be Hydra. Fair enough. So-

So now, Marvel comics release a new Steve Rogers series, where Captain America is an agent of Hydra. The Hell?

Yes, Marvel comics and MCU tend to be treated as separate entities, but they (especially the comics) seem to be blurring the lines, especially with the comics’ AoS story lines. S.H.I.E.L.D., by now, has become established in comics, and it seems to be reflecting the MCU, as Avengers and agents (and an occasional X-Man or so) interacting openly with each other in the universe. Now what?

Into the mix comes Grant Ward, who, in the MCU, was a Hydra agent, who eventually became a host for Hive, an InHuman villain in the last part of AoS S3, who almost turned a large part of the world’s human population into InHumans or Primitives – take your pick. Grant was a controversial character – odds are, that at first the writers planned to redeem him…and then changed their mind; but frankly, AoS the TV series constantly suffered from continuity gaps, canon controversies, some nasty characters who were supposed to be ‘White Hats’, and etc.; the point is that some people hate him, a lot, and others are solidly behind him, precisely because of this controversy, which is why, one suspects, the show had him finally killed in mid-S3 finale, and Hive became an independent character instead.

And also? AoS S3 finale was reminiscent of the first captain America film finale, where Steve and Peggy say good-bye and Steve vanishes, until Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. discover him in the Arctic. That is fine, except that here it was director Coulson, rather than Lincoln Campbell, who was supposed to perish alongside Hive.

To elaborate: ever since the mid-season S3 finale Coulson was growing increasingly haunted by him killing Ward on Maveth and needed repentance/closure/whatever for his actions. On the other hand, the first episode of S3 showed Daisy and Lincoln working their powers in perfect tandem to defeat Andrew/Lash; it was one of the worst episodes of the entire series, but still it was canon.

Again, it could have been a very dramatic finale – Coulson sacrificing himself to stop Hive, to fix his mistakes and shortcomings, and to give his adopted daughter, Daisy, and her new boyfriend, Lincoln, a fresh chance to be themselves, their own people, free from the past influences of Hive and Grant Ward. If, six months later, Daisy and Lincoln were on the outs, it would still work and create a further dramatic conflict between the team members, not unlike to how it went on ‘Civil War’ between the various Avengers…but it did not happen. Instead, Lincoln is dead, Daisy is swinging in the wind, and Coulson was demoted from his directorial office in S.H.I.E.L.D. This, too, can work – after all, after the Avengers’ Civil War, we had an ‘age of Darkness’ – we had Stark as a director of S.H.I.E.L.D., we had Osborn (and hey, he is Spidey’s archnemesis, so maybe he will appear in MCU in time?), and we had all sort of nastiness afterwards. Maybe Coulson’s demotion will make sense in S4 when it comes to screen…but mostly, this is just another AoS clusterfuck. Ian Quinn is gone, the Koenigs are gone, Hunter & Morse are gone, Deathlok, Joey – they all just left the show without a reasonable explanation. At least Mitchell, who played Lincoln, had closure for his character, cough.

Back to the comics – now, the comic version of S.H.I.E.L.D, has Grant Ward in it – as S.H.I.E.L.D. spy in Hydra, at least for now, (building an army of Iron Man rip-offs, in a plot similar to Iron Man 3 movie), and Captain is Hydra. Already there are theories that the Red Skull has used a cosmic cube to accomplish this, but it does not matter. People are upset. People are pissed. Moreover, people are claiming that the writers for ‘Steve Rogers the Hydra agent’ have ripped-off this idea out of AoS S1 (Grant Ward). Now what?

Well, it is ‘just’ a comic – people will get over it…eventually, because it is captain America, so odds are that this idea will go down like a lead balloon especially at first (and later on too, if this trend picks up momentum). Comics themselves are a confusing medium of mass media, especially Marvel with their interactive and intertwining plotlines, so odds are that the shock of cap being Hydra will be buried, eventually.

However, an aftermath, an aftertaste will remain. People will not forget how their beloved character was turned into a ‘Nazi’ (something that MCU tried to distance itself from, especially on AoS, again), and since the Internet is a ‘global village’ of sorts, this controversy will cause problems, especially among Marvel fans, for a time at least.

However, wait! Cap’s predicament is supposed to reflect on real world’s issues! Donald Trump and the right wing! No, just no. Trump is a most unpleasant man, but he, currently, is executing one of the basic features of the American society: equal opportunity for everyone. He saw, for himself, a chance to become the president of the U.S., and he took it. On the other hand, an American citizen named Krystal Lake, (works in Home Depot), used the same opportunity not to enter politics, but to order a custom cap, with a pithy slogan: ‘America was never great’ or something along those lines. As a result, Trump may become president of the U.S., while Lake has a cap with a pithy slogan, the end. The moral?

Yes, Americans are a people with a freedom of speech and they use it, and they will keep it, and yes, the American president is elected by the people (and for the people…maybe). Guess what, there are plenty of people behind Trump, and no pithy message will be able to change this, not alone.

Do you know what happened in Russia, after their WWI misadventure? The Royal family was deposed, but not by the Communists, no. By the aristocracy and intelligentsia, by the people who would be later depicted, (sometimes), as monarchists. They were not, not really – they honestly intended to depose the monarch and create something between a democratic republic (the U.S.) and a constitutional monarchy (the U.K.), not the USSR. Only, while they discussed, debated and talked, Vladimir Lenin (look him up on the Wikipedia, if you don’t know him) and his communistic comrades got together, produced several simple and straight-to-the-point slogans, and won the hearts of the masses – workers and peasants, primarily, but the rest of the social strata of Russia of that time was present too. The result? The USSR. Was it built to last? Gorbachev broke it from the inside, and ta-dah, we have Perestroika, and then, 25 years later, the U.S. finally realized that one more victory like this one, and they will be undone, so they…got involved in Middle East, and northern Africa, and now they are much more undone than before, for Obama the democrat just continued what George Bush II the republican has started, and- Enter the Trump.

Trump is not a very good person. He already backed out of a debate with Sanders, for example. However, he is a man with concrete, specific ideas, and people appreciate it. The international democracy, the global village that the U.S. has been practicing since the Cold War and beyond isn’t for everyone – hence the rise of new right-wing practice, hence the growing insistence that the Middle Eastern refuges go home or wherever/whatever, just – out of Europe. If Trump wins the election, he might be the American version of Gorbachev – but pithy slogans on custom-ordered headwear will not prevent this – and neither will comics. How does Captain America, as well as the rest of Marvel relate to the ‘Trump situation’ directly? They do not. As a result, Marvel is stuck with Cap being Hydra, and – nothing more, at least for now. Maybe Tony is a member of the communistic Leviathan or something like that, who knows? It is not the point.

The point is that Marvel has overshot its’ mark completely. If Captain America being Hydra is some sort of a pithy statement, that is. Otherwise? It is just another plot twist to boost up the sales, in the worst traditions of AoS the TV series, and it will reverberate/backfire on the Marvel comic series as such as well.

End

Captain America: Civil War - May 1

And so, Captain America: Civil War has finally became available to the masses. What can be said about it?

Great movie, great action sequences, the actors themselves pushed each other to the limit in order to depict their characters’ inner struggles. What else?

Per se, there are no ‘bad guys’ (something that lately has been played out in Marvel TV shows, especially AoS and AC). Well, no, there is Brock Rumlow/Crossbones from Winter Soldier film, but he is killed fairly early in the film, he is less of a character and more of a plot device, in the overall film. This is not a problem; Brian Jacques did this with his villains on a regular basis, but-

However, who is Brian Jacques? He was, during his life, a fairly popular author for children, writing faux-medieval novels about anthropomorphic animals: ‘Redwall’ and the like. As far as books went, Brian Jacques’ were straightforward: there were ‘good’ animals, such as badgers, mice, squirrels and hares, and ‘bad’ animals – rats, foxes, mustelids, etc. In any given Brian Jacques’ novel, all ‘bad’ characters would die by the end, and almost all ‘good’ characters, would survive, save for one or two, who would die for greater drama… Right. Any coincidences with AoS, especially the current season, are just that – coincidental, which is good, for nowadays, with Brian Jacques being, sadly, gone, so are his books: they had no staying power and were quickly forgotten once he was no longer around to write them; hopefully, this won’t happen to AoS (though every hiatus, at the end of the season, or the middle of the season, of AoS results in the decrease of viewers, cough).

However, AoS aside, what about the current movie? Not unlike the comics, Civil War film was about superheroes fighting each other, over the UN decision of registry and the issue of Barns: is he redeemable or not? Of course, there is also the thorny issue of what is redemption and how does one ‘eat’ it, but anyhow. The point is that the Avengers did not need any bad people/villains to have problems, and neither did the rest of the world, not when it had to wonder did it need the Avengers in the first place, and how do they fit in? Even Baron Zemo (he is called Helmut here; his name has changed over the ages) is not exactly a villain: he is just obsessed with revenge for what Hydra did in Sokovia back in Avengers: Age of Ultron movie.

This is actually a fairly notable deviation: in the comics, Baron Zemo is Hydra/Nazi, something that is not really depicted in MCU, and-

Last week’s episode of AoS had Hydra destroyed, perhaps for good, by the heroic U.S. military, cough. Between this, and Crossbones’ own demise in Civil War, Hydra is not likely to appear in any future MCU features. 

On one hand, this is to be expected. Hydra is causing quite a bit of controversy on the Web these days: whether or not it is Nazi or just fascist? In the comics, Hydra is depicted as predominantly Nazi, ((just as Leviathan is implied to be communist), but to be honest? It is the same type of argument as whether or not Adam and Eve (the book of Genesis), had bellybuttons, or not. To those who do not care, the entire issue is uninteresting, or worse, but to those who DO care, they care. A lot. In addition, they argue. Even more so. Creating arguments, controversies, etc. Moreover, odds are that neither Marvel nor Disney want it.

Few years back, back when MLP: FIM cartoon was in its second/third season, a background character was given a role and a voice: Ditzy/Derpy Hooves. Immediately, her debut produced many arguments between the fans – whether or not the character had a mental disability, whether or not the show was depicting her ‘correctly’, whether or not the show was depicting mentally disabled characters properly or not, etc. The result? Ditzy/Derpy vanished back into background – no speaking roles, no nothing, and has re-emerged only recently. Hasbro did not need the controversial hassle, and neither do Marvel and Disney in regards to Hydra, one supposes: they are moving MCU into a next phase, anyhow, so they can leave Hydra behind, only-

Only Hydra is a major part of the Marvel comic universe. Getting rid of it will cause problems at least for some people – not even because they were fans of it, but because it was a part of Hydra: ‘I hate you, but I will defend your right for freedom of speech because it is the right thing to do,’ cough. Odds are, this will hit the AoS show the hardest, because most other Marvel TV series do not deal with Hydra as much: AC is more concerned about Leviathan, ‘Daredevil’ and ‘Jessica Jones’ are more concerned with more down-to-Earth threats, (relatively, since the Hand would certainly try to take over the world if given an opportunity), and ‘Power Man’, as well as ‘Punisher’ haven’t really been unveiled yet (‘Marvel’s Most Wanted’ isn’t likely to be dealing with Hydra too, but this is a separate topic), so who knows what they will be about?

But then again, stepping away from Hydra for a moment, there is also the matter of Captain America himself: in the movie, he does not die, and actually takes his share of the ex-Avengers to Wakanda. Make no mistake, this is a good thing, (at least in the short term), but the death of Captain America was a landmark, a milestone in Marvel comics; a feature that was a key element in Marvel for issues and months to come. Captain America isn’t dead; there is no Hydra or Red Skull (and WTF with that?), where will MCU go from here?

In the comics, the death of Captain America caused Tony Stark to take over S.H.I.E.L.D., which then, eventually, enabled Norman Osborn (the Green Goblin) to take over – and in the process, there was the attempt of the aliens named Skrulls to take over Earth, but the Earthlings defeated them, with Deadpool, (yes, the same bloke, whose film also appeared ins still not distant past) killed the Skrulls’ Queen – and then Osborn stole the glory for himself, founded HAMMER, and initiated a stage in Marvel comics called ‘The Dark Age’. Here, the Captain is alive; Norman Osborn…ok, Spider-Man was also in Civil War, and he is getting his own film too, so Green Goblin, (his archnemesis), may not be far behind; and instead of Skrulls we got Kree and InHumans. Only InHumans’ movie was cancelled, (for now at least), so who knows what happens next?

The same thing goes for Spider-Man, at least to a point. Yes, both Captain America and Iron Man will appear in his film, but he had been ‘reset’ at least twice now in the Marvel-related films, so with him anything can go too – but this is beyond THIS particular film, eh?

So. Captain America: Civil War, is a very impressive and marvelous movie, (pun intended), which, however, still raises more questions than answers, and shows a further divide between MCU and Marvel comics. What will be next? No one knows.

S.H.I.E.L.D., The Singularity - April 26

And so, ‘The Singularity’ was aired. What can be said about it? Alisha, the redhead from Li Shi, finally gets to shine – she has been on and off since the finale of S2, and apparently she has become evil once more – or maybe the Hive have brainwashed her into doing this – whatever. The point is that the Hive is not Grant Ward, all Ward haters are wrong, and one has to give the actors their due: their job was done marvellously! The writers, on the other hand…

Well, to be more precise, the cast – it just cannot get itself together: Elena and Joey are absent altogether, Lincoln is absent from the second half of the episode and Mack is playing a background character, period. How did he defeat James?

…James, apparently, is the new Hellfire. Ok, no, just no. Hellfire – back in the comics – was the first love of Daisy, who betrayed her and the rest of the Secret Warriors to Hydra, so Fury killed him (without anyone knowing, for Daisy’s sake) on the sly – wait. Doesn’t this sound like Ward, especially in S1?

Yes, much more so than some Li Shi reject, who lives in either Australia or in South Dakota, (it depends on which episode you are watching). Yes, the comics and MCU are two very different…universes, but still, if the movies are borrowing from the comics, surely some similarities must be made in plot, aside from everything else? Instead, all goes helter-skelter, and we do not even know how his battle with Mack had went. Yes, some cut-outs must be made, but they should not diminish the plot SO much.

Speaking of the plot… ‘The Singularity’ introduces Dr. Radcliff, who isn’t Hydra or S.H.I.E.L.D., just some sort of an alien fan, who either is going to die by the end of S3, or he will be the next super-villain, for Hydra has fallen.

Yes, that is right, Hydra has fallen. The Hell? Coulson is correct to feel dissatisfied by Talbot’s achievement: Captain America: Civil War movie is coming to the screens on May 6, and its villains include baron Zemo and Crossbones. Baron Zemo is a complex figure; actually, there are several baron Zemos’ in the comics, so it is for the best to wait for the movie to be aired to learn which one is appearing in it, but Crossbones? He is Brock Rumlow, who was Hydra back in Captain America: The Winter Soldier film, so either MCU is taking a lot of liberties with the Marvel canon (the odds are that the fans are going to hate that), or Hydra is not as dead as Coulson and Talbot and the others think.

So: liberties with characters, liberties with canon, possibly forced interaction with ‘the rest’ of the MCU – Kree are coming, so Guardians of the Galaxy, anyone – (the sort of forced interaction that went down like a lead balloon in the S3 premiere, BTW) and the issue with the InHumans: there almost aren’t any.

No, seriously, the MCU is having problems with InHumans in general – their own film was cancelled for the moment – and AoS has problems depicting them on screen. Most of the time it were just Lincoln and Daisy, with Joey starring on occasion and Slingshot appearing in just two episodes for the moment. Now there are Alisha and James, plus Hive, (he is not Grant), and Daisy and Lincoln…who appeared in just the first half of ‘The Singularity’. For some reason, MCU has problems in depicting them, in finding actors to play them, so yeah, it is a mystery.

Of course, it does not mean that MCU is having problems, unlike AoS. Agent Carter preformed wonderfully on its second season, Hunter and Morse’s appearance on their own show is now a guarantee (and people will watch it, at least at first, to see where they are going), and a lot hinges on the upcoming Captain movie. This is not AoS, this is the big leagues. Of course, ‘Dawn of Justice’ of DCEU was something of a flop, so perhaps Cap and Tony can do better? There are some concerns, especially about Pepper not appearing in the film, (which does suck), but maybe Tony can team up with Maria Hill? Either way, it this movie flops, then AoS will have new problems, much bigger and badder ones than they do now…

Thus, let us wait and see how the Captain movie goes first, before making any bets regarding AoS. Until next time!

S.H.I.E.L.D., S.O.S. - May 12

An ancient English saying says: “Best is the enemy of good”. Last night’s S2 finale of “Agents” had certainly proven it right.

Where to begin? The two-part “S.O.S.” had been truly epic, containing several plot lines. 1) Jiaying, having proved to be some sort of a life-sucking monster (BtVS grins and says hi from its new-old home in the comic-world) as well as a bio-terrorist, who wants to destroy the world – or at least, S.H.I.E.L.D. by using crystals containing the Terrigen mist. 2) Cal is sent over to Coulson in order to destroy him personal. Silly Jiaying – you cannot kill Coulson, Coulson can win over anyone (well, almost anyone. Grant Ward does not count). 3) Grant and Kara Lynn kidnap Bobbi because Bobbi had handed Kara Lynn over to Hydra between S1 and S2, and now the dastardly duo want Bobbi to apologize to”} Kara Lynn – but things do not go according to plan.

 So far so good, and on screen “S.O.S.” proved to be truly epic, as actors and their characters delivered dynamic action sequences and tense dramatic dialogue. It was a very great pleasure to watch it, but it was so overwhelming, that it was too much. Breaks in the action – comedic or otherwise – would have made this double-parter of a finale even better. Instead the tension just rose and rose until people could not take it any more – and lost interest, or lost the thread of a narrative, or the show suffered in other ways...

Take, for example, the death toll. At the end of S1, only one person had died – Garrett, and yet “Agents” still gained enough popularity to be renewed for the second season, and to sprout “Agent Carter” on top of it. Here, conversely, we have Raina, Jiyaing, Gordon & Kara Lynn (spoiler alert?). Plus, Cal had been treated by T.A.H.I.T.I. and no longer remembers anything of his old life (just how did this procedure interact with his altered biochemistry, one wonders?) and Bobbi will apparently be leaving S.H.I.E.L.D. for good (reminiscent of some of the Avengers on ‘Ultron’?). Of course, considering that there are rumors of her and Hunter doing their own spinoff, I would not discard her just yet either. Or the ship HuntingBird itself.

...Yes, the relationships of all of the agents (or “Agents”) have largely fallen apart at the moment. Grant had lost Kara Lynn and has joined with Hydra (or rather decided to take it over, as Garrett did in S1), forgetting all about Skye for the moment; Hunter and Morse have their own issues to work out; Melinda has left Phil for her ex-husband; and an 0-8-4 ate Simmons, just when Fitz was about to ask her out (but left her alone with the alien thing for a moment). That, of course, is a monster of cliffhanger in regards to the future S3 of “Agents”, but still raises some questions even now, for example - does Simmons have alien DNA just as Skye does, and that is why the new 0-8-4 had reacted towards her so?.. But these questions can wait, for any answers will be short-circuited by the show’s scriptwriters and the show’s general unpredictability.

About that. Unlike “Carter”, “S.H.I.E.L.D.’s” strongest point was its unpredictability and ability to frustrate, shock or awe its audience and fandom. That is good. But the S2 finale stretched this ability to the limit; the audience has realized that no matter what happens, they will be wrong-footed, and they are feeling overwhelmed and emotionally exhausted by this; they need a break. Hence, of course, the break in the action between the finished S2 and the upcoming S3 (whenever that will happen), but still...

Most of the characters who died did not have to die! S.H.I.E.L.D. was supposed to be about justice, instead the evil Inhumans got lynched, and Kara Lynn...didn’t deserve to die; unlike Grant, she remained a wholly sympathetic character, whose death had been unnecessary and accidental; with her around, Grant might return to the side of goodness much sooner, if at all.

...Yes, this is “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”, not “Skye and Grant show”, but still, Grant is beginning to become a ‘designed evil character’ or something along these lines. Cal got redemption (via memory working but still) – why not Grant? Skye fought with May – and got forgiven post haste – why not Grant? Let us not forget – at the beginning of S2 he actually cooperated with S.H.I.E.L.D., but got handed over to his brother for all that...a decision that backfired upon S.H.I.E.L.D. and got Bobbi tortured among other things. Seriously, if Grant is such a monster, then kill him already! Don’t let him go on for more seasons than it is necessary! Even Angel was Angelus for just one season of BtVS (more or less.)

The same can be said about the other deceased – or otherwise departed – characters. Now the Inhumans of Afterlife are leaderless; Skye and Lincoln can take charge of them and the other Inhumans. Hooray?! Probably not, and not quite necessary. Sure, as the alien angle continues to develop further in “Agents” the part-alien Inhumans will continue to grow in importance (unlike Hydra?), so Skye’s connection to them will grow in importance too, yet this mass destruction of ‘secondary’ characters is overkill. Until “S.O.S.”, “Agents” had killed off relatively few people, and never at once, so this? “S.O.S.” is a game changer for sure, and towards something more and more grandiose. Will this be a good thing for the show or not? We will learn this only in the future.

JW and S.H.I.E.L.D. - April 21

Once more, Marvel’s “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” have a delivered a very good episode; but before we get into it, let us talk about a certain upcoming future film – “Jurassic World”. 

What is the film’s premise? 22 years in the future after the events of the first JP movie, InGen – or a similar company – has restarted the dinosaur theme park thing, making it bigger and better. When I say bigger, I mean literally – aside from the I-Rex, there was also a vastly oversized mosasaur (Tylosaurus?) that swallows great white sharks whole: in reality, mosasaurs were very big animals (8-12 m long on average), but that wasn’t big enough to swallow a modern great white shark (or its Cretaceous analogue – the Ginsu shark) whole; it would rip and tear into pieces first, instead. What JW presents here, though, is already an imaginary, impossible, artificial creature, making the producers’ use of the I-Rex redundant.

And as for the I-Rex itself... Aside from various rumors – that it possesses telepathy and similar amazing mental powers – there is the fact it is not a Rex! There is not any tyrannosaur in this monster’s genetic makeup: apparently, it was created from the DNA of Giganotosaurus and various abelisaurs instead. We will get to Giganotosaurus in a moment; first about the abelisaurs. They were a group of Cretaceous carnivorous dinosaurs, descendants of the Jurassic Ceratosaurus and the like; formidable hunters in their own right, they were smaller – on the average – than Tyrannosaurus was, or than Giganotosaurus, for that matter. They also had very small front limbs – even smaller than those of a T-Rex, though they had three or four fingers instead of T-Rex’s trademark two. The Carnotaurus from Disney’s “Dinosaur” film, for example, was an abelisaur – and it did not look anything like an I-Rex. Or the I-Rex does not look anything like an abelisaur – instead it looks like a carnosaur.

What is a carnosaur? It is a group of carnivorous dinosaurs, which in the Jurassic were represented by allosaurus, saurophaganax; in the Cretaceous – by Giganotosaurus, Carcharodontosaurus, Mapusaurus and so on. Compared to tyrannosaurs and abelisaurs, the carnosaurs were more gracile, so to speak: they had longer and thinner legs, lighter skulls, less powerful jaws (more designed to rip and tear rather than to grip and crush), and correspondingly – longer and stronger front legs and claws, as you can see for yourself in a museum, or a paleontology book, or online. The I-Rex has these features too – especially the front limbs – so why is it a Rex? You could have as well called it a “Megalo-raptor” or something along those lines, and it would be just as true! The real T-Rex should sue this impostor for the unlawful appropriating of its name or something...

Anything else? There is the blatant disregard or mocking of the modern paleontological discoveries – JP3 had its own share of problems, but at least its’ raptors had protofeathers, and the Spinosaurus featured there was not so much wrong, as it was outdated, just as the featherless raptors in the first JP films were. Speaking of raptors: for Crichton, in the original novel, velociraptors were not a name of a specific species, but a term that he used as a synonym for a generic ‘raptor’, to describe such dinosaurs as the Deinonychus (a bigger, stronger species of ‘raptor’ than the Velociraptor was) instead; once again, he was more scientifically accurate than his followers in the field of mass media are.

As for the latest incarnation of JP (-related franchise) raptors...yeah. They are still the size of Deinonychus, but are still – apparently – identified as velociprators by fans and filmmakers. The fact that they are featherless and scaly is only an extra insult to an injury, but still. The telepathically communicating dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and marine reptiles put all science (paleontology?) out of the window, which contrasts sharply with the main message of the film – artificial animals are bad, Dr. Frankenstein was wrong; man should not meddle with what he does not understand in the name of science, etc. I would not go that far to say that JW has been sponsored by creationists to discredit science in general, but discredit science the JW cast and crew do all the same.

(And on top of all the paleontological inaccuracies JW had some legal problems as well, mainly in regards to who had actually written the story – the WGA had to get involved; I’m not sure if it was Writers Guild of America East or West, but that’s not the point; the point is that the film hadn’t been yet aired, and yet there already are legal problems with it. Sad.)

While JW is dealing with problems legal and scientific, “Agents” have to deal with Hydra instead. Well, most of them anyways; Skye has to deal with her parents instead. So far, she’s got a delusional, perfectionist father, who puts insane into ‘insane genius’, and has physical prowess not unlike that of the Incredible Hulk, just like in the comics, and a mother, who is obsessed with research and protecting – and running – her town of Afterlife; a typical modern American family gone nasty, in the other words. To make things more complex (potentially), there is also Lincoln, a young man she may have developed a crush on; Raina, who is Raina, and Gordon, who may be Raina’s only friend in the world for the moment. Together, combined, these people may make life in Afterlife more complex...even if one forgets about the fact that Lincoln was captured by Hydra alongside his new potential friend Deathlok the Cyborg...and Skye’s mother appears to be the sort of a person who doesn’t like complications...then again, she had lived with Skye’s father, who is a complex character, in an insane sort of way...where were we?

Right, the rest of the team. They got Grant Ward and Kara Lynn, sure enough, but somehow this plot line did not have the same impact as the one dealing with Skye and her family did. Grant’s re-integration into the rest of the team just did not feel natural, but rather rushed; and the team itself appeared to lack the moral high ground that is needed, when dealing with Grant and 33; Coulson’s idea of a carrot – S.H.I.E.L.D. erases Grant’s memory and makes him a normal man – is flawed, and not just because this is a lot like the mental/memory manipulation that Whitehall and the rest of Hydra had practised... yeah. (And Kara Lynn was not even included in the negotiations – who did Coulson think he was by dealing with her in such a high-handed manner? Headmaster Dumbledore? Aye and Fitz almost got his throat slit for this.)

Moral ground aside, this plotline also feels rushed and forced: Coulson and Ward switched from arguing with each other at gunpoint to watching each other’s back within an episode (though that came as a surprise to Coulson, admittedly.) So did Lance and Kara Lynn, of course, but considering that Bobbi is getting rather friendly with Mack...who knows? Maybe the ship HunterBird is more broken-up than it initially looked like. True, there are rumors of a Lance/Bobbi spin-off going around, but, firstly, it all depends on the actors, and secondly, not unlike the “Agent Carter” plotline it could be a filler arc that takes place in the past (with more of agent Isabelle/Xena/LL thrown into the mix, maybe?), so all bets are still off.

And finally, the villains (not counting Grant and Kara Lynn). Dr. List is ruthless and efficient; Bakshi is back being charge and something of a creep; Cal and his ex-wife were already discussed (though it is anyone’s guess if they are villains or not); and there was an official mention of the good baron von Strucker too (and a possible tie with the upcoming new Avengers movie). Hydra villains are getting badder, basically – will S.H.I.E.L.D. be able to stand up to the challenge? Only time will tell.

Until next time!

S.H.I.E.L.D., Oct 14 - Faces

And so, the amazing funfest that is called “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” continues. No, seriously, this particular episode felt like a clear-cut break from the previous action, and had more of a spy-vs.-spy feel to it.

Let us start with the basics: what this episode had been about?

Teamwork. Throughout this episode, S.H.I.E.L.D. clashed with Hydra, and it was established, that while Hydra got the better technology, S.H.I.E.L.D. got the better people; staff; agents – call them whatever you want, but while Hydra sought to get ahead by using technology (including one that permitted its’ agents to copy the faces and voices of other people – hence the face in this episode’s title), S.H.I.E.L.D. negated their advantage by working together: the agents know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and they also know how to utilize those strengths and weaknesses of each other to overcome any emergency.

On one hand, this leads us to Fitz. In “Faces”, Fitz had finally overcome his new low level of self-esteem and returned to be one of the group, one of the guys, so to speak. His new friendship with agents Mackenzie and Hunter is a sign of that. Fitz is moving on and returning to his old levels of competence – maybe even more so, but he is also clearly moving past his feelings towards Simmons too: the seemingly unsinkable ship FitzSimmons has just sprung a new, major leak. 

Of course, since we still do not know Simmons’ side of the story (Fitz’s version from Foster’s house of Imaginary Friends does not count), we should not dismiss this boat just yet – in the next episodes it just may be patched up and returned into the hearts of fans in style, but still...

It should be noted, however, that while FitzSimmons boat is in the process of sinking, the boat SkyeWard has largely sunk – Ward didn’t appear in “Faces” either: the agents’ team is leaving him behind, largely as an information source about Hydra, which is sad, but nothing more than what Ward hadn’t earned by betraying his team back in S1, but that’s life, and the choices we make in it.

Conversely, the ship Philinda, which has not been in spotlight as much as the rest of ‘ships in the series, has shined in “Faces” loud and clear. The other side of the agents’ close and personal teamwork is that they know each other, even on a personal level, which was how Coulson was able to figure out that agent May had been substituted by a Hydra doppelganger instead. (The fact that it was the brainwashed agent 33 has not become known, however.) May and Coulson know each other, they know each other’s flaws and advantages, and that is why they are such a great team. That is also what Hydra is lacking in S2 (Ward and Garrett’s relationship in S1 was something else), and that is why they failed in this face-off of spy vs. spy, though general Talbot had been made a fool of, as usual. 

Finally, there was Ming-Na Wen. She has really shown-off her acting skills in Faces: as agent May, as agent May undercover, as agent May having a heart-to-heart talk with agent Coulson, and as agent 33 pretending to be May. That fight between May and 33 still disguised must have taken some fancy choreographing for sure. Of course, if agent 33 ever gets un-brainwashed, May will have some apologizing to do, but both she and Coulson can handle it.

The final component in “Faces” was Raina. She may’ve thought that she had left Hydra behind when she had left Garrett (incidentally, where’s Ian Quinn?), but Hydra begs to differ: Dr. Whitehall has put a bug on Raina and told her to get the Obelisk back to them, or else it’s death by long, prolonged even, torture. Odds are that Raina is not going to chew off the hand with Hydra bug on it with her bare teeth and send it to the good doctor by mail with a note saying ‘You want the Obelisk? How about I give you my finger – five them, actually?’ No, odds are that she will have to get Coulson and the others involved to rescue her own heiny – we will just have to wait and see. 

So: team S.H.I.E.L.D. is victorious once more, Fitz is an agent once more, Coulson and May are a couple officially, and Raina is in trouble with Hydra. All in all – a standard day for the agents.