She-Hulk, Law - August 25

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about ‘She-Hulk’ instead. In the show’s second episode, ‘Superhuman Law’, the titular character continues to evolve…along the expected lines of a Mary-Sue: her family sucks, they are a different aspect of the patriarchy, (and their indoctrinated female lackeys, of course), and they are keeping our plucky heroine down, until she embraces her different, outlier, destiny of being a lawyer for the outsiders, such as Emil Blonsky/the Abomination. Fair enough, and J.W. got her girl Friday Nikki to help her along, so yay! And who needs Titania anyhow? …Anything else?

…Yeah, in the B-story B.B. the original Hulk is back in space, probably to re-enact MCU’s version of the ‘Planet Hulk’ storyline. A different studio – Lionsgate or something similar – has already released an animated movie version of that story some time before, so MCU has to do something much more complex to avoid any copyright conflicts… but what is the point?

The point is that ‘She-Hulk’ is continuing the traditions, initiated the previous Phase 4+ installments, such as the Sam and Bucky show, or WV: the old heroes are leaving, new ones are arriving. Steve Rogers is out, Sam Wilson is in. Carol Danvers may be leaving, but Photon is entering, but…

…but I guess we’re re-saying once more: real life happened, and it sucks, and so the MM Disney+ series, instead of being feted as a breakthrough of the Pakistani-US relations, got downplayed to the max, and may even join AoS in being MCU’s apocrypha instead – but nothing like that is threatening the ‘She-Hulk’, no sir: there’re no contentious real-life racial issues or anything, just straightforward girl power, (with Wong and Blonsky being the titular character’s gay wingmen), and B.B. is heading back to the stars… What else?

I genuinely do not care anymore, in fact. MM was flat-out disappointing, with its’ substitute InHumans and S.H.I.E.L.D., (aka Clan Destine and DoDC, respectively), and ‘She-Hulk’ is just trite and predictable, in a genre sort of way. Oh, and this week’s episode had a hidden reference to Wolverine apparently too. This makes it all better, no doubt. MCU has mishandled the InHumans about as badly as it had S.H.I.E.L.D., so now they are introducing the mutants, (and also other beings, such as the Clan Destine), to do something about that. Well, good luck to them!

As for us… right now, this is it. See you all soon, instead!                                                                                                                       

Ms. Marvel, S1 finale

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the ‘Ms. Marvel’ finale. Unfortunately, it is not an improvement over reality either; I am honestly confused if this is a season finale or a series finale, and I am admitting aloud: for the first time since involving myself with MCU, I do not care!

Can I elaborate? It is tricky to say: on its’ own, ‘Ms. Marvel’ wasn’t bad; it was just lackluster – more like the ‘InHumans’ than the AoS, if we used comparisons.

What was specifically out of what in ‘Ms. Marvel’? I would say that it tried too hard to be a superhero origin story, and a coming of age tale at the same time; the fact that it also tried to give itself an ‘ethnic’ flavor didn’t help either, as Disney/MCU is notoriously politically correct – and not always in a good way.

Where had it gone wrong in the opinion of most critics? Precisely there – in the original ‘Ms. Marvel’ comics, KK has to struggle with at least some racism, as she is a POC in the US. In the Disney+ series, this aspect was seriously downplayed, leaving quite a few viewers and fans wondering – then what is the point of making MM a POC? For Disney/MCU to put another (metaphorical) notch into their feel-good belt? FOX’s last X-Men films tried something along those lines, and it really backfired upon them; Disney/MCU seems to be going in a similar direction…

True, Disney/MCU doesn’t have to do this sort of a story – i.e. one where a POC defeats WASP opposition, but for the modern Western culture this is one of its’ basics, and when it isn’t followed, then the modern Western culture wonders as to what that POC is doing on screen and shouldn’t we be watching something else instead? It can also be argued that just as with women-based movies, (such as the ‘355’ or the ‘365’ – does anyone even remember it?), the Western audiences are no longer satisfied with watching POCs ‘merely’ succeed over their WASP opposition, but in that case people may no longer be satisfied with what Disney/MCU is offering them to begin with… yes, it can get real ugly for Disney+ and its’ universes very quickly – but we got carried away.

On a less ‘deep’ level, MM suffers from the fact that it is shallow – the lead actress may be carrying the show, but there’s little to carry as the show’s villains, the Clan Destine and the Damage Control, appear to be substitutes for the InHumans and S.H.I.E.L.D., but lacking their histories within MCU for the audiences. People just don’t perceive them as threats or care about them, and so MM falls flat once KK goes to confront them: she kicks their ass? So what?!

…And as for her love life – do not go there. Can you imagine a male lead with three female love interests? Wouldn’t go down too well, (unless the lead was James Bond, but still, it is squeaky), so why should the gender-flipped situation work? Oh, right, because these days the fanworks are full of Mary Sues, especially of the female variety, and, yes, this version of KK is a Mary Sue.

No, really, there is some justification for my proclamation: KK is a female lead, she gets the lion’s shares of the romance, and the rest of the female characters are much more peripheral. Since MM was written by professional writers rather than amateurs, MM is able to get away with it, (the brevity of the show helped too), but still there are strong elements of Mary Sue in KK too. What is left?

Ah, yes, the finale, where KK and Captain Danvers switch places in the universe: KK is elsewhere, and Captain Danvers is in KK’s bedroom. I have not cringed so hard, and not just because this situation is reminiscent of Disney’s humor at its’ worst, but because this situation was flat-out shoehorned into the show. Throughout MM, Captain Danvers was referenced quite a bit, because of the obvious reasons, but nothing else; KK was built into a superhero/vigilante who stood on her own two feet and did her own thing, getting free of Captain Danvers’ shadow – and then along comes the final scene, and everything is up-ended once more; seriously, what does Disney/MCU want with KK? She is a first Muslim superhero – fine, but there has to be more than that to her, right?

…And then there is the fact that that scene was also reminiscent of the AoS’ series finale – one that had nothing in common with the rest of the series’ S7. Rather, it was more reminiscent of where the show’s characters were at the end of S3 – the beginning of S4, save that now the cast seemed to include Kora, (whose story arc made no sense), agent Piper, (a character that seemed to have no real purpose, and was just a plug), and the LMD of agent Davis, (an act of dubious morality even by MCU’s standards for reasons that were discussed else when). Here, again, the brevity of MM works in its’ favor, as its’ disastrous epilogue is much more restrained and contained than AoS’ had been. Yay? – I do not know and I honestly do not care. Anything else?

 Sadly, no. ‘Ms. Marvel’ had been one of the most lackluster Marvel shows that I have ever seen, which is something of an anti-record. Ah well, real life sucks, remember? In any case – see you all soon!

Ms. Marvel, 'Destinied' - June 22

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks: we got one heatwave coming after another, with intermediary thunderstorms to make life more interesting, apparently. Hence, let us talk about ‘Destined’, the episode 1x03 of ‘Ms. Marvel’.

What can be said about it? That finally, after reaching the half-mark of the ‘Ms. Marvel’ S1, we got some excitement here. First, Kamala’s brother got married, and we got a beautiful depiction of an ethnic Islamic marriage…before the Damage Control goons gatecrashed it. This time, though, they seem to be going after Kareem and his mother, who are associated, or simply are, the Clandestine, or the djinn. Pause.

So, in real life, the djinn are a part of Islamic – or proto-Islamic – mythology; their role isn’t too different from the various demons and such in the Christian mythos; they were blamed for everything bad and unknown and mysterious, their shapes were often poorly defined – there are even some version of the djinn who are more akin to the doppelgangers/evil twins of the modern Western mythology; and the Quran mentions them, but not necessarily in a good way, either. Also, you can call them genies or jinn instead, and they often weren’t as nice as they were in Disney’s ‘Aladdin’; in the ‘original’, ‘1001 nights’ ‘Aladdin’ the jinn or the djinn were really powerful entities, able to destroy cities and armies, and built palaces, and to take them across the world…basically, compared to mortals, the djinn are almost all-powerful, but the forces of the Lord, (or Allah), can route them, if necessary.

…And none of this applies to the djinn ‘depicted’ in ‘Ms. Marvel’, aka Kareem and his mother, whose relationship with Kamala has become more ambiguous by now. Rather, the ‘djinn’, or the Clandestine of MCU seem to be surrogate InHumans, and I got nothing new to comment about that here, because of predictability. In Marvel Comics, Kamala ‘Ms. Marvel’ Khan was an InHuman, and was regularly associated with them, even though she never was a part of Black Bolt and Medusa’s court, and she has her own storyline; separate from the InHumans’ main one – usually. There are always crossovers, you know!..

In MCU, there are InHumans, actually, but because their TV series was insipid, nowadays MCU pretends that they never existed, a fact further enhanced by the fact that AoS was a clusterfuck, and has already been largely replaced by S.W.O.R.D., as well as by Damage Control. Hence, we got surrogate S.H.I.E.L.D. chasing surrogate InHumans, because despite all of the proclamations that MCU’s ‘Ms. Marvel’ is original, in reality it is just a rehashed version of the comics, because Disney has problems with original – just look at the ‘Lightyear’ movie: while it isn’t bad, neither it is truly great.

…And the same can be said about the ‘Obi-Wan’ series; I was not going to talk about it, but, since it has finished, I might as well – the show’s predictable: Obi-Wan got his shite together and kicked Vader’s ass, while Reba’s storyline was also neatly wrapped-up. Sadly, while Obi-Wan has won a clear and a decisive moral victory, he did not kill Vader; since Vader has become Palpatine’s chief enforcer by now, (though yes, technically, he is Palpatine’s apprentice – but does anyone believe that?), his death would’ve caused a major butterfly effect… so ‘Obi-Wan’ the TV series doesn’t kill Vader, and everything from now on till the events in ‘The New Hope’ will be (mostly) canon. Did I mention that Disney has a problem with originality? Well, it does, and in case of ‘Ms. Marvel’, it is also in denial, both regarding originality and the quality of ‘Ms. Marvel’ it is rather trite and unoriginal, but it is also beautifully depicted, complete with the ethnic angle: hooray for that!

…Otherwise, however, this is it for now. ‘Ms. Marvel’ S1 is halfway done; we will just have to wait and see as to what will happen next. See you all soon!

 

Ms. Marvel, series premiere - June 8

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so here is a shout-out to Mr. Nicklaus Brendborg: this learned worthy, while writing – and publishing – his treatise on old age, aging, and immortality, talked about – well, mentioned, really – the naked mole rat. That is fair enough, but he implied that the ‘ordinary’ rats and mice used in labs are its’ relatives. Yeah, no – the terms ‘rat’ and ‘mouse’ are very broad; the term ‘mouse’, for example, includes not only the various rodents, but also the so-called marsupial mice – distant cousins of the kangaroos and the koala, and close cousins of the quolls, the numbat, and the extinct Thylacine. By contrast, the term ‘rat’ includes several genera, including, obviously, the naked mole rat, as well as several of its relatives from the parvorder (or infraorder) Phiomorpha, but the ‘true’ rats aren’t closely related to them; this parvorder actually includes the Old World porcupines, (not the ones found in North America, but the ones found in Africa, Asia, and sometimes even in southern Europe); proportionally, the naked mole rat is a much further relative to the lab rats (derived from the black and Norway rat stocks, mainly), and lab mice, (variant house mouse, primarily), than we are to the apes. For Mr. Brendborg, a man of science and philosophy, to make such a mistake slash generalization is just rude and wrong – so let us end this rant for now, and turn onto ‘Ms. Marvel’, the series’ premiere.

So, what have we here? Last time, when we have talked about the ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ series, we talked about how Disney was playing it safe with SW now, producing new content that is only fan-approved. Whether that is a good long-term strategy is another matter, but this is what Disney does with SW. And what about MCU?

First, in ‘Ms. Marvel’, Disney is playing it safe, again. The series’ opener, ‘Generation Why’, is an introductory chapter through and through; in it we meet Kamala Khan, a modern young woman with a strong personality and personal values, whose relationship with the rest of her family is loving, of course, but there’re some pesky personal issues that initiate the rise of a conflict between them – a generational gap or whatever the modern term is… Wait a second…

…In ‘Encanto’, we have Mirabel Madrigal, who is a teen/young adult, who is a good person, (some character flaws notwithstanding), who loves her family and vice versa, but due to some pesky personal issues she and the rest of her family end up fighting…before making up.

…In ‘Turning Red’, we have Mei-Mei, who is a teen, who is a good person, (some character flaws notwithstanding), who loves her family and vice versa, but due to some pesky personal issues she and the rest of her family end up fighting…before making up.

…And in ‘Ms. Marvel’, (the TV 2022 series), we have Kamala Khan, who is a teen, who is a good person, (some character flaws notwithstanding), who loves her family and vice versa, but due to some pesky personal issues she and the rest of her family end up fighting…before making up – wait, what?

…Without a doubt, there are some differences between our three protagonists; i.e., Mirabel is the only one without powers in a power-ful family, (pun intended, sorry), while in Kamala’s case it is more of a reverse, (so far), and Mei-Mei and her mother both have powers to turn into giant red pandas now. Conversely, though…

In ‘Encanto’, the Madrigals are depicted – each of them is depicted – in a unique and a standout way, to a point where Julietta and Pepa’s families don’t appear to be very closely related at all, from a physical P.O.V.

In ‘Turning Red’, the citizens of Toronto – for example, Mei-Mei and her friends – are depicted in all of their multicultural glory, where each and every one of them is unique, in a standout way.

And in ‘Ms. Marvel’, we are about to meet the citizens of New Jersey, all of whom are depicted in a way that promotes America’s multicultural glory, with its’ characters depicted in a unique, standout way, each and every one of them…

Again, there are differences – ‘Turning Red’ and ‘Ms. Marvel’ don’t display the same high level of individualism as ‘Encanto’ has, but their levels are high enough…and then we come to the religious issues. ‘Encanto’ takes place in Colombia, (late 19^th century-first half of 20^th century, most likely), so the odds are that it is a Catholic, rather than a Protestant or Orthodox, community, though that is only a minor element in the movie. ‘Turning Red’… yeah, this one is a bit fudgey, but there are religious-cultural elements as well. And in ‘Ms. Marvel’, we learned from the trailers and the teasers, that Islam will be playing a BIG role in the TV series. Ergo-?

Ergo, while being something of a variation on the theme of a politically correct progressive young woman main character, ‘Ms. Marvel’ is also a propaganda piece, (unlike ‘Encanto’ & ‘Turning Red’, presumably): it aims to show ‘the life and times’ of a Muslim family in the U.S., how it lives, (as a unit), and how it functions, (as a unit), how it is both same and different from the WASP American families, and so on. So-?

So nothing. This week’s episode – ‘Generation Why’ – was pretty much just that: an introduction to yet another politically correct progressive young woman character, and another introduction to a politically correct and properly presented Islamic-American family. People, who like this sort of thing, will like ‘Ms. Marvel’; those who do not, will call it ‘Woke’, and will not. Such ‘soft power’ may be better than the ‘hard power’ that Putin’s Russia is trying to execute in Ukraine, but it has its’ own flaws – but that is a discussion for a different time. Is this it?

…Wait! There is more! There is the Avengers-con! And the magical bracelet from one of Kamala’s grandparents! (A person has two parents, but four grandparents – and we are talking a standard nuclear family here, anything more derived, and we get much more confusing numbers). And Bruno! But we do not talk about Bruno- wait, sorry, wrong Bruno. In ‘Encanto’, Bruno is a seer, (with a strong moon symbolism, but we will not get into it here). In ‘Ms. Marvel’, Bruno is just a teen/young man, who got friendzoned by Kamala so hard, that even the crappy Avenger-con feels sorry for him. No, seriously, there is a feeling that Disney/MCU is poking fun at itself – first there was the Avengers musical in ‘Hawkeye’, which was nothing more than window dressing in that series, and an unnecessary one at that, and now we get the Avengers-con, which was the weakest part of the episode, and as for the ‘magical bracelet’… well, we already talked about it: between AoS and ‘InHumans’, the InHumans became especially toxic and anathema to Disney/MCU, so Kamala will get to be something else other than an InHuman. Good for her!

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

What if, S1 finale - October 6

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, and I cannot wait for today to be over for all sorts of reasons; as such, given that I have neither the time nor the inclination to wax poetic about the S1 conclusion of ‘What if?’ let me try to be brief instead.

The S1 finale is rather rushed; I do not know what ‘What if?’ was going for here; maybe it was some sort of a 4^th wall breakthrough, but in this case, they should have gone for a better medium than what is essentially a cartoon series, whose finale had been spoiled since the teaser trailer if not before. Marvel multiverse has plenty of stories, no doubt, but the audience of ‘team Marvel’ had been quite aware of them for a while; unlike the ‘Star Wars: Visions’ anthology, which authentically brought something new to the table due to a variety of factors, Marvel’s ‘What if?’ brought essentially some tried and true ideas to the table, nothing that hadn’t been encountered by Marvel fans before, albeit in different mediums, but still. The S1 finale assembled merely a different set of Avengers – pardon me, Guardians – but somehow they have reminded me of yet another Marvel team-up: Netflix’s ‘Defenders’. Whereas AoS was honestly bad, and ‘InHumans’ insipid, Marvel’s ‘Defenders’ were simply lackluster; a condition made worse by their heterogeneous nature: all 4 series, (plus ‘Punisher’ made the fifth), were different from each other, and when the ‘Defenders’ tried to combine all of them, (minus the Punisher) into a single show, it failed. What next?

‘What if?’ S1 finale was not a variant of the ‘Defenders’, no, but it was also lackluster: it was evident, (just as in case of the ‘Defenders’), just how everything and everyone would go so there were no twists and turns. Individual episodes were predictable enough, but in this case… Uatu threw a variant Gamora into the mix as an extra, and – period. That is it, and even the ‘Gamora killing Thanos’ case isn’t too unique – Marvel comics already did it… in one of the last pre-COVID-19 plot arcs. Yay.

…Well, the fact that ‘What if?’ had not killed the variant Zola and Killmonger off is different, though it is reminiscent of how the 1990’s Spider-Man cartoon had had its’ Captain Rogers and the Red Skull trapped in some timeless void in an eternal struggle. Here we have something similar; and has the variant Dr. Strange become Uatu’s jailer? Seriously, what are the ramifications of Uatu breaking his oath, and are there any ramifications for Uatu? That is not answered; instead, we get ‘What if?’ transformed from an anthology of independent stories – think SW: Visions for comparison – into another ‘Avengers’ variant, which is something that we’ve seen before… unlike the second ‘Venom’ film that we have also recently discussed, and which has actually brought something new to its’ audiences, (however limited or flawed it might be, yes, but still), hence its’ success and ‘What if?’-s not so much. Disney/MCU stopped taking risks after the fall of the SW Sequel Trilogy – but that is another story.

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

What If, 'Dr. Strange' - Sep 1

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks: the U.S. and the rest of the West are officially done with Afghanistan, and the Taliban has taken over it just as officially. Hooray. Biden had no intention of continuing this ‘forever war’ – fine, but it doesn’t change the fact that during the last 20 years, USA completely failed to build a proper Western country in Afghanistan, so let’s talk about this week’s episode of ‘What if?’ instead.

Sadly, this week’s episode seems to be offering more of the same; in the last week’s episode, five out of six initial Avengers died, but the rest of the world moved on; this week, however, Dr. Strange destroyed everyone and everything in his grief instead, and-

Let us try to talk about this one character across. First, in AoS, Grant Douglas Ward lost John Garrett, and more importantly, Kara Palamas, just as Dr. Strange lost Christine Palmer in this week’s ‘What if?’ episode. Unlike Dr. Strange, Ward went to extract his revenge – well, first he went completely insane, in a sad, but dangerous way – by killing…well, mostly Ms. Price, Coulson’s girlfriend of the month, and also exposing Melinda’s (ex?) husband Andrew as an InHuman called Lash…but that is another story. The point is that as far as Ward was concerned, Coulson’s S.H.I.E.L.D. owed him a karmic debt, and he resolved it by flipping it over, by dying – and joining Palamas in the Underworld – and by tipping S.H.I.E.L.D.’s karmic cup over, and leaving them dealing with Hive, who almost executed Grant’s revenge on a far bigger scale than Grant ever could. Dr. Strange, on the other hand, did not work the system as Grant did, he did not join Palmer in the afterlife as Ward did with Kara, but rather he tried to resurrect her, which went against the flow of existence in this particular universe – but this brings us to Wanda.

In WV, Wanda did not accept Vision’s death all that well, and by using her powers, she took over a town in New Jersey (of all states), and through the power of her mind, (augmented and empowered in part by the Mind Stone of Thanos’, cough), she rewrote that corner of MCU, brought back Vision, and did plenty of other things – but they were obviously only temporary, and so Wanda had to let go of her past and move on – or else she would’ve gone insane, (or even died), and Vision would still be lost to her; at least, at the WV’s finale, Wanda is moving on… in some direction, and she might yet be able to recover their twins, and moreover – there’s a new Vision in the MCU, so who knows? Maybe the two of them will be able to work it out. Of course, the fact that the new Vision looks like a hybrid between GoT’s Night King and KKK’s mascot doesn’t help things, but that’s on Disney/MCU’s conscience, so where are we?

Yes, that unlike Wanda, this Steven did not release his grief, but rather let it use him to destroy his universe – MCU’s grief metaphor in reverse. I am impressed, really, but the fact that this universe’s Ancient One states that Christine’s Palmer’s death was destined to be rather rubs me wrong: it’s reminiscent of predeterminism – that some things are just meant to be, and no one can do anything about it… and that just goes against Protestantism and the rest of all things Western, you know?

Let us try again. In AoS, S.H.I.E.L.D. stood for democracy, just as Hydra stood for tyranny, so whereas in Hydra compliance was rewarded, in S.H.I.E.L.D. initiative and taking charge of one’s own life and future were – and they were shown to be superior to Hydra’s blind obedience. So far so good, but then the second half of S2 introduced the InHumans, whose life motto was ‘what will be, will be’ instead. It isn’t exactly Hydra’s ‘compliance will be rewarded’ motto, but there were enough similarities, superficial or not, for S.H.I.E.L.D. to become confused, and to start treating the InHumans incorrectly, (Skye’s inexperience in these matters didn’t help any), and the result was the bloodbath on the Iliad, (a S.H.I.E.L.D. battleship of the Navy sort), and things became even worse from then on, until the S3 finale – Ward almost didn’t make things worse, but when he did… see above. The point here is that Lincoln paid the ultimate price in AoS’ S3, but he did it because of predeterminism, among other things, and because of it, he never became fully at home in S.H.I.E.L.D.- pause.

Getting back to ‘What if?’, Dr. Strange gets into trouble and destroys everyone and everything because he actually refuses to bow down into inevitable, and tries everything he can to change his and Charlotte’s destinies, and as a result, the world ends. Maybe he should have moved on, true, but the way this episode have handled it? It is too reminiscent as to what has happened in RL Afghanistan, where instead of building a proper Western society, of meritocracy, of self-advancement, and self-worth, and what else have you, the Americans failed, and Afghanistan remained an Eastern country, where people are prepared to bow to inevitable and to die for their beliefs – whether it’s Islam, or democracy, or whatever – but not to kill for them. There’s a difference…and besides, a good deal of Afghanis would rather run away anyways and live a better life elsewhere, away from Afghanistan – what were the Americans and the Europeans doing over there, anyhow? Clearly not building a different nation with a new system of values as the Soviets tried in the 20^th century, or even subduing them in servitude, as the Brits did in the 19^th. But hey – Disney/MCU is trying to be educational here and now about the nature of grief, (seriously the laurels of ‘Inside Out’ success just cannot be let go here?), funded by the taxpayers’ dime, while inadvertently promoting the values of predeterminism here. How patriotic and clever! Do they want to replicate the ‘success’ of AoS in the ‘What if?’ If so, full speed to them to go ahead! Not.

…Well, this is it for now anyhow. ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings’ is officially coming out this Friday, so we’ll talk about it either this week or the next. See you all soon!

Quarantine entry #117 - July 16

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, which brings us to AoS. It is not real, but it is not doing much better than real life does, albeit in different details. Pause.

What is the big berk about this week’s AoS episode? It is yet another reboot of the old material; fans of Ward and Kara will look at Nathaniel Malick, (himself rebooted from his S3 appearance), and his new friend Kora, and sigh.

…For the record, just who is Kora? If the name sounds familiar, thank the Greek myths – in there, Kora is the alternate name of Persephone, as in the queen of the underworld and Hades’ wife. This is one of the best-known and most popular Greek myths in the modern times, BTW, so any similarities to agent 33’s actual name – Kara Lynn Palamas – is wholly accidental, I’m certain.

Moreover, there are two characters named ‘Kora’ in the MCU. However, they are episodic characters and do not appear to have appeared in the overall Marvel universe for more than a couple of appearances. One is a native of Lemuria, (and we have not seen too much of Lemuria in Marvel recently), while the other is an associate of the so-called Machine Man, and he has not made much of an appearance in Marvel either.

…Really, if Kora lasts until the end of S7/AoS proper, she might not be too different from Sarge from S6 – a secondary character who was given a primary status because the same actor played him as he did Coulson, (i.e. Clark Gregg), and who shared a name with several other unrelated Marvel characters, (i.e. Sarge). Is she worth time to dwell upon? Not right now.

…The Kora issue aside, the fact is that in this week’s episode AoS tried to reboot its’ S2 InHumans… again. They were very important in AoS’ S2 & 3, but afterwards they became rather diminished as apparently no one in Marvel/Disney knew what to do with them once Marvel’s ‘InHumans’ series flopped after the first season. More specifically, in this episode, any reference to the Daisy/Jiaying connection was carefully scrapped and/or avoided, and instead it was focused on Yo-Yo trying to recover her powers. Daisy, on the other hand, was put into the metaphorical storage – apparently, she could recover by herself after all the abuse that Nathaniel Malick had put her through, right?..

No, seriously, last week’s trailer presumed that Jiaying would help Daisy, and maybe even mend bridges with her before all the deaths – but wait! Silly us, team Time Bus does not want any changes, it is trying to preserve the original time line, and this brings us to Yo-Yo meeting Jiaying… right. What will happen to Daisy now that she had missed her chance to recover at Li Shi? Come to think of it, is Malick working with the Chronocons still a thing?

…Well, yes, they probably are, given what we have seen of ‘the excellent adventures of Mack and the D’, but this brings its’ own problems: AoS is trying to balance several plotlines simultaneously; sometimes it works really well, (I.e. AoS’ S4), while in others it doesn’t, (I.e. S6). Between this and the fact that AoS should be getting to its’ final hurrah, its’ final showdown between good vs. evil, (S.H.I.E.L.D. vs. Hydra?) and so far there’s no clear evidence that this will happen.

…True, there is no indication that the abovementioned is what is going to happen, but if it does not, then odds are that AoS’ fans are going to feel stupid – but AoS itself is almost over, it may not care! …Still better than what team GoT did at their series’ finale though. Where were we?

…Moving one more step closer to the AoS’ series finale, that is where! Moreover, for now, this is it. See you all soon!

Doolittle-2020 - Jan 23

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. It sucks just because, and your family, as well as yourself, are a part of it. Yes, every new day is different, one way or another, but as a rule – real life sucks. You may want to discuss the long-tailed duck or something, but you cannot, simply because real life sucks, and your personal life sucks, and you suck. Plus – priorities. No matter how much you love nature, sometimes you just cannot master the enthusiasm to write about the ducks, (or the woodpeckers, hedgehogs, squirrels, etc.). So, let us talk about something else – the doctor. He, (i.e. Doolittle), is in the house!

…And apparently, he sucks almost as much as real life does, according to many reviews and critics. They are wrong. ‘Doolittle-2020’ is not bad. It is insipid.

Does anyone remember Marvel’s ‘InHumans’ that’d aired several years back? If not, it is not surprising – the show lasted for a single season, and it numbered only eight episodes. Yes, in the pre-Disney+ era Marvel TV shows didn’t last for more than two or three seasons, (AoS is the exception, period), but even so, ‘InHumans’ stood-out: they were that bad.

And yet… there did not appear to be something that was specifically damning that prevented them – in theory – from continuing from another season or two. (Marvel’s ‘Runaways’ ended after 3 seasons, for example). Instead, it was an entire assimilation of small flaws, including bad script and rushed acting that did Marvel’s ‘InHumans’ in. In different hands, under different management and circumstances, they could have been good, but because real life, they failed to launch instead. ‘Doolittle-2020’ is in the same boat, even though it is a single film and not a TV series instead.

On one hand, it had a lot going for it, actually, starting with the Iron Man being the titular character and a story plot that sounded good on paper. On the other, with such an illustrious name playing the main lead in a film that just couldn’t be anywhere near the level of the last two Avenger films, (let’s be honest – even in the best of circumstances ‘Doolittle-2020’ wouldn’t be anywhere near the level of ‘Infinity War’ and ‘Endgame’), enough people would feel gipped, as if this was a step down or something – and they were probably right.

 …And top of those failed expectations and the subconscious feeling of being cheated out of something that is Avenger-level film, the film itself is flawed, let’s be polite. The plot felt rather like Stark’s new Welsh accent – completely unnecessary and a straight-out failure. Queen Victoria is poisoned, so Stark – er, Doolittle – is off to bring back the miracle cure? What is this – the Avengers, Victorian era? Well, maybe – we did also get Sony’s current version of Spider-Man voicing a dog, so it could have been a start. Instead, we got a failure with a bunch of grown-up jokes in a decisively pro-child film, (children under the age of 10 will enjoy ‘Doolittle-2020’ moreso than their parents, yes), the titular character farted by a dragon, (what is this – mockery of GoT? If so, then ‘Doolittle-2020’ is excessively late for this party), and, oh yes, a gorilla fighting a tiger, (sort of) among other things.

Off topic, if a gorilla fought a tiger for real, who would win? In AFO, when a gorilla faced-off with a leopard, it actually won, but a tiger is much bigger and heavier than a leopard is and carries a much heavier punch than a leopard does. In a feline clash, tiger will triumph over a leopard, as ‘Jungle Book-2016’ showed openly and clearly – even though it is fiction, it actually did a good job of being realistic, at least to a point. But a gorilla is completely different beast than a leopard is. A tiger is a professional hunter and killer, but if it fails to get a drop on the modern world’s biggest and strongest primate, period, then it can go either way – and, of course, ‘Doolittle-2020’ went in a completely different direction to begin with. What next?

Well, for me, Chee-Chee the gorilla brought back memories of the Soviet adaptation of Doolittle, (where Chee-Chee was actually a capuchin monkey instead). To wit, this adaptation consisted of one large poem where the Soviet Doolittle went to Africa to cure all the cute animal babies there, because they all were sick; and of another large poem, where the good doctor comes to Africa to rescue a couple of human children from the Soviet analogue of Rassouli; and also a couple of novellas for children where the good doctor crosses swords with the pirate leader time and again, until he defeats the villain for good. Not such a small assimilation, especially by children’s standards, after all.

…And then the Soviet cinematography produced a cartoon series, and a couple of movies, all about the good doctor confronting the wicked pirate and his crew, and frankly, one of them, ‘Soviet Doolittle-66’ is just as crazy, but much more coherent and enjoyable than the U.S. 2020 version. Not unlike the gender-flipped ‘Ghostbusters’ reboot, ‘Doolittle-2020’ is just bad as in uninspiring and insipid, which brings us back to Marvel’s ‘InHumans’ TV series – they had the same problem and collapsed, though compared to them, ‘Doolittle-2020’ is better, (and it is certainly better than ‘Cats-2019’, cough), simply because the younger children will enjoy it with all the poop and fart jokes as well as periodic clothing, and, hey, the Iron Man is riding an ostrich in this universe, while a giraffe is talking to him in voice of Selena Gomez. Fun! Anything else?

Well, the second ‘To all the boys…’ movie is coming out on Netflix on Feb 12, 2020. Why before 2020’s Valentine Day – who knows; who cares, too – while the first film had its’ flaws, clearly, the entire franchise has proven to be tough, enduring and popular enough to bring forth a second movie. (Jenny Han wrote a trilogy about LJ’s adventures, so there is at least one more movie in store for LJ and her love life). By comparison, ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ franchise apparently hadn’t – so far there’s no news about a second movie in this franchise; maybe because it tried to be a pro-American propaganda piece among other things back when it aired and ‘Boys-1’ didn’t? Who knows, but ‘Boys-1’ was a very good romantic movie, surprisingly so, given all the flaws of both it and the original novel…but it was not insipid. It delivered. It gave enjoyment to the views. It made real life slightly more endurable than it is on its’ own. I am actually looking forwards to ‘Boys-2’ coming to Netflix next month. Yay.

…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!

To All The Boys That I Have Loved - Aug 21

…And, since we have talked about Jenny Han and her LJ trilogy before, let us talk once more about the movie.

Why? Firstly, because of timing – it isn’t known if it was intentional or not, but it came out just as the ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ did, and so it got to ride their wake, because the LJ movie is also a movie about the Asian-American people, who actually live in a mixed-culture family: their dad is Anglo-American, while their mom was from Korea, and now she’s dead. There is the spectre of Jane Austen hanging over the entire LJ trilogy, and it is likely to be intentional for whatever reasons the author has.

The movie has toned down that influence: the film’s LJ is much more spunky and athletic than the novels’ version is. Jenny Han did her best to show LJ as a young woman who is just coming into her womanhood throughout the trilogy…with some humor, but also some drama and tragedy. The movie has that too, but the humor is more boosted, just as it is in the ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ film.

True, we did discuss it before: the LJ novels feel more like a ‘Maid in Manhattan’, not ‘Fools Rush In’ or ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ (mostly, in the latter case). The author put the emphasis on romance, not on humor, while the movie feels more like a mixture of two. This makes it better than the ‘Insatiable’ series, as far as YA Netflix productions go, while ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ differ from it by trying to go international and beyond their rom-com parameters.

Listen: there are still plenty of accolades for ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ coming from…within the U.S. Abroad, even in Canada, there are more sceptics than in the U.S., and it is beginning to show. ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ is an American movie, or maybe even an Asian-American one, but it isn’t an Asian one, and if the American society doesn’t understand the differences, then it has problems. The American society, not the ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ movie. The latter does its job – it entertains. So does the LJ film, as well as the original novels, (in both cases). It’s just that LJ is less ambitious in its message or scope than ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ are, which makes sense, because Netflix isn’t Disney, and it isn’t as formidable as the big league movie companies are, either.

(Apparently, Netflix did offer to make ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ a part of its’ menu, but the director decided to go for the big screens instead. Small world).

Finally, about ‘Reverie’. So far, it is still uncertain if it will be renewed for a second season or not. That is not surprising – it got potential, but little excitement, and on occasion, it was known to focus on Sarah Shahi, (who plays Mara) and her legs a little too much. It is not exactly a hot mess, nor is it insipid as Marvel’s ‘InHumans’ had been; it is just rather lackluster and sometimes – it felt hollow, unsupported, loose.

That and the fact that it ripped-off Marvel’s AoS’ framework plotline, of course. Cannot forget that either. Not surprising, then, that the face of ‘Reverie’ is still hanging in the balance. Good luck to it, though.

This is it for now; see you all soon!

ABC and MCU - Aug 7

There are rumors of talks of yet another Marvel TV show on ABC, on top of AoS; the article that I have read talked about both AC and ‘InHumans’ and some vague talks about this theoretical show, and that is fine.

What is bothering me is the lumping. The truth of the matter that AoS, even at worse, is a TV show with good ideas – where it went wrong was not just the depiction of these ideas, but also the cast: just like in the MCU movies, AoS had problems in keeping its actors, especially for more than one season, especially on recurring non-villain roles, (but villain roles too). AoS has its flaws, but it also has bad luck, so there is that.

AC was only two seasons long, but it was just as good as AoS was, maybe even better, and it is a pity that Hayley Atwell left MCU – at least for the moment – because otherwise maybe AoS had had a frenemy of a rival in AC, which would have whipped AoS into shape instead, for the improvement of everyone.

And conversely, there were Marvel’s ‘InHumans’, which lasted for only a single season and had only 8 episodes, (in this incarnation, but still). Just like AoS, but far worse, ‘InHumans’ had bad luck and a host of problems from the beginning. The initial two episodes, aired before the general TV real on IMAX, gave the ‘InHumans’ a bad reputation, one that they didn’t deserve, because they weren’t bad; they were insipid, lukewarm, and rushed.

Again, just like AC, and AoS, and the rest of MCU, ‘InHumans’ best quality were the actors and their acting…and it felt rushed, flawed, incomplete; there were plot holes and indications that the show had problems with the actors; this wasn’t enough to end the ‘InHumans’ by itself, but with the low numbers and an initially bad reputation – it was.

So, what next? It is anyone’s guess – so far, there are not any direct indications as to what the next ABC MCU TV show will be. As the cases with ‘Runaways’ and ‘C&D’ show, other TV companies/channels/etc. are already getting involved and grabbing them all. Ouch! In addition, there is a limited pool of genuine Marvel ideas too; it is always possible to create OCs, as it happened in AoS, actually, but in that case, what about the AoS? If there’s a second group of OCs – based on Marvel’s Squadron Supreme or whoever – does ABC actually need AoS anymore, (as a supplement to Marvel’s movies or otherwise)? That is a good question…

Well, this is it for the moment; see you all soon!

Reverie, 'Altum' - June 28

‘Reverie’ continues to improve. No, it really does. This week’s episode – ‘Altum Somnum’ – was all about… Kara Lynn Palamas, also known in S.H.I.E.L.D. as agent 33.

Yes, this is a joke, AoS and ‘Reverie’ are not going to have a crossover any time soon, but this week’s focus character Ashley/Denise was based on AoS’ agent 33, with plenty of similarities, if you know where to look. The differences is that Ashley/Denise was given dignity, redemption, humanity…everything that Kara/33 was denied as a character on her show. Not unlike how ‘Blindspot’ handled it, (just in a different way), earlier, ‘Reverie’ now shows that AoS sucked as a show, including the lack of respect for the characters; and their script got cut and revised several times…much more so than the ‘InHumans’ script had, yet because AoS is the supplement show to the greater MCU, it remains, (and will air its S6 in summer 2019), while the ‘InHumans’ are gone.

…Not that they are really missed; they were not bad, only – insipid, and also rushed. An 8-episode S1 was not bad, but a 10-episode one would have probably been better, but we got what we got, and the ‘InHumans’ are history for now. AoS remains. So’s ‘Blindspot’. And ‘Reverie’?

‘Reverie’ continues to stay low in the numbers, which is sad. Its’ initial episodes may have started slow and staid, but by now they are clearly improving; the only real handicap is its’ (incomplete) reliance on AoS’ themes and values, (relatively speaking), to get itself moving along. ‘Blindspot’ already does that, (its’ 3^rd season finished earlier this year), but it certainly is not unpopular either.

Maybe it is the lack of action: no matter how ‘Reverie’ tries, it just is not as action-high as AoS or ‘Blindspot’ are, but a show does not need a high level of action to be successful, as ‘Time after Time’ showed – it had plenty of action, but it got cancelled mid-season all the same. That is some sort of an anti-record; so far, only it and ‘Powerless’ got that treatment, and ‘Powerless’ was notably less coherent and uptight than ‘Time’ had been…

Back to ‘Reverie’? Not really; it is a good show already and it continues to improve. Will it be enough to win people over? That is another question, and so far, the prognosis is not good. Nor are the numbers, actually. Still here is to hoping – if ‘Blindspot’ was able to last for 3 seasons already, then maybe so can ‘Reverie’…

Well, that is it for now; see you all soon instead!

Reverie, 'Nice Guy' - June 14

On one hand, ‘Reverie’s’ new episode – ‘Nice Guy’ – was aired last night, and let us be honest: the series is growing more complex, but you can still see the AoS’ influence in its roots. ‘Reverie’ is doing its best to get away from them through rapid character growth and plot development, and it does a better job than Marvel’s ‘InHumans’ had. ‘InHumans’ hadn’t been a bad show, just insipid, and had bad PR problems from the start, even during the production stage, as did the current ‘Solo’ movie. ‘Reverie’ does not appear to have so many problems, but so far, it is a new show, untested, not overly popular, and – overly dramatic.

Plus, Sarah Shahi, who plays the main lead as Mara, is developing her own aura of weirdness – in the last episode, (‘Jane Bond’), the titular character, (the woman who was looking for her father and became a spy in the reverie), almost never appeared in the same shot, say – face to face – with Sarah. In this week’s episode, it was the wife of the titular character, Nate the ‘Nice Guy’, who also almost never appeared in the same shot as Sarah. What gives? Does Ms. Shahi not get along with the other women on the set, (something that might have also been true for AoS’ Daisy/Skye – Chloe Bennett), or is it some sort of ‘Reverie’s production gag? We will probably never know.

Also, Ms. Nate, the wife of the titular character, is supposed to be pregnant. She does not look pregnant at all. Yes, this is nitpicking, but Hollywood these days has suits for just such roles – couldn’t ‘Reverie’ get one? Just what kind of a budget are they working with?

…That is actually an interesting question: ‘Reverie’ does have special effects, but in a fairly dosed, controlled amount and so far, it seems to be not relying on them very much. On one hand, this is good; AoS showed that excessive CGI and special effects could be a bad thing, but on the other, given that ‘Reverie’ is not just a mystery drama, but a sci-fi one as well, this approach can backfire still. Again, we will just have to wait and see.

What we have already seen, instead, are the new characters of FH, and we were wrong – they are neither Saracens nor pirates, but rather ancient Chinese warriors, ancient being the time period here, rather than anything else. Do they work? So far, we only got the basics, but yes, they work as well as any of the already established FH characters.

…And who are they, the new characters? Undoubtedly, FH and Ubisoft™ will tell us more in the days for come, but even now, we know quite a few things from all the released material. There is the swordsman, the man with the falchion/saber. He is reminiscent of an assassin from the ‘Assassin’s Creed series, (also from Ubisoft™), done in an eastern/oriental style rather than the traditional one, and it works. Of course, the Assassin series also work, but they are a somewhat different game series from FH, so let us not compare the two – it’s like apples and oranges.

Second, is the monk with the quarterstaff. He is the Shaolin monk, so yes, he is a direct relative of the Shaolin monk from DW S1, and that deserves a mention of its own, for while the Shaolin monk did defeat his opponent, the Maori warrior, this victory was lopsided and weird, in a bad manner: the Shaolin won because his tiger-hook swords were superior to the Maori’s spear; this was the only Shaolin weapon that had the advantage, and it was a big one! Maybe even too big – in tests, the swords were not that overwhelming compared to the spear. As a result, when DW did the episode follow-up, as it always did, none from team Maori were there; it is unknown just what went behind the scenes during the making of this episode, but something certainly did.

Back to FH? The third member of team China uses these swords – she is probably the team’s assassin – and the last character uses a spear that is more like Nobushi’s naginata, rather than Valkyrie’s spear – a longer weapon that needs two arms to wield with a tip more designed for slicing than stabbing – so for now let’s call it a glaive to differentiate from the other weapons with reach.

This brings us to the rest of the differences. All of team China’s members have no masks, but open faces – something that only a few other characters have – Highlander and Shaman of the Vikings, and the Aramusha of the Samurai. This already sets the Chinese warriors apart from the rest, and as for the rest… FH has released, or is going to release, a new scenario – breaching the castle – and Warden of the Knights, at least, got a new look, one that’s rather reminiscent of Tolkien’s Sauron. What gives? Then again, FH is as much about the looks as it is about the content, so there must be some logical reason behind their decisions…

Well, that is it for the moment; see you all soon again!

MCU in general - May 15

So, an obligatory apology – my bad, due to the insanity of real life I’ve miscounted; the S5 of AoS had its appropriate 22 episodes after all; jolly good! Anything else?

…AoS got renewed for the next, sixth, season – that is the main thing here. Good for it, but with a cast in tatters, it will be hard to produce anything truly exciting in it. Of course, with A: IW part 1, the background is set for AoS; Hell, they can even separate the FitzSimmons again by killing one of them – because Thanos did kill half of all the life in the galaxy, and that includes half of the agents too, as the S5’s finale promo hints at. Coulson, of course, is dying already, so maybe Thanos’ action will have him restored instead – the Infinity gems are tricky things, after all.

This can also be the crunch time for Jeff Ward, who’s been playing Deke Shaw on the series: if one of the FitzSimmons dies, however temporarily, then that can be the end for Deke – because the present will change, then so will the future, which means – no Deke, and Jeff Ward is free to leave the AoS and the rest of MCU. Easy. Of course, if he, conversely, pulls ‘a NCB’ for the upcoming AoS seasons and stays, he can ignore this course of action and stay. ‘Course, Palicki and Blood also become regular characters by the end of AoS’ S2 finale…which didn’t prevent them from leaving by the second half of S3 – just in time to clear the path for the already-mentioned NCB, so this sort of thing is tricky, and-

And the great romantic love that is supposed to exist between Deke and Daisy? Yes, the names alliterate, which can be considered important, but… it is being downplayed. A lot. Frankly, they should just pair Daisy with Coulson and be done with it.

Oh, but Coulson is being paired with May – at last – but it is also being downplayed. I don’t know if real life’s racial differences are a factor, but frankly, it is Mack & Yo-Yo and the FitzSimmons who have to carry the show in the romantic department – go them, but…why keep Deke around? On one hand, he is the new rookie, on the other…his role is being regularly downplayed, and he feels more like a lighter version of Lincoln. Did the writers need to kill off Lincoln? Was the offer from ‘Blindspot’, (which is also nearing its’ S3 finale, BTW), that irresistible? That good? Mind you, ‘Blindspot’ has its own issues by now, especially the contrived Reade-Zapata-Patterson relationship triangle, (and Rich Dot Com’s new regularly recurring role in the show is not an improvement of ‘Blindspot’ either), but still, it is livelier than AoS is. Yes, it is a younger show, but so were Marvel’s ‘InHumans’ and that didn’t work for them…

Anything else? Talbot became the new Graviton officially – usually this job is held by Franklin Hall, but this time Dr. Hall has not returned to MCU, even though he was officially designated to become somewhat like that back in AoS’ S1, but apparently not. Ian Quinn and Raina are not reappearing either, not even in cameos, so it seems as if they are done with MCU by now too, especially since the latter is putting the InHuman angle on hold: the show took forever to get started, and now it is gone. For good. Not even Marvel Wiki is acknowledging its’ existence now. It is acknowledging slash recognizing MCU’s Robbie Reyes as one of that Ghost Rider version, but not the MCU InHumans. Ouch.

It’s not all gloom and doom for MCU, of course – ‘Deadpool 2’ is coming to the big screens officially later this May, and while Han Solo’s movie is a part of the SW universe rather than MCU, both of them are part of Disney, so there’s that. We will just have to wait and see as what happens in the AoS S5 finale later this week.

Until then – see you all! Hopefully…

S.H.I.E.L.D. 'Gravity' - May 12

…Real life sucks. It just does. The end of that bon mot. And AoS?

AoS is not doing that well either: its’ numbers continue to fall, although the viewers’ fatigue may have something to do with it: ever since the S4 finale nothing really seems to impress them anymore, and AoS knows it: it campaigns considerably less aggressively than it did before S4, and it shows.

…Actually, some elaboration regarding AoS ads can be put here. Marvel™ comics, especially the paper ones, often show one or another promo image for the AoS episode of the week, at least the S4. These promos are accompanied by a message, left deliberately vague. But! One of them promised an epic fight between Daisy and Ruby. On TV, the actual fight was a disappointment, and Ruby eventually died because she went crazy from gravitonium, and then Yo-Yo slit her throat with Ruby’s own chakram – but we’ve discussed this earlier already. This week, it was the turn for Melinda and the captain of the alien ship…and the actual fight was nothing special either. Last week’s episode had a mention of Thanos, the big…purple cranberry of MCU, but so what? S3 had a mention of Stark – probably Tony Stark, since Ned Stark and his family do not really have any holdings in the US…still, since the second half of S2, AoS seems to be doing its’ own thing, separate from the rest of MCU…of course, so does everything else – ‘The Defenders’ on Netflix, for example, and the ‘InHumans’ are gone.

No, really, they have been cancelled. Considering that their first and only season had various features, but most importantly, they were insipid – neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm, with some amazing suits, but nothing else. Again, the script was not bad, and the actors did the best they could to come across even better, but it seems that it was not enough. The ‘InHumans’ got cancelled. Now what?

…AoS continues to soldier on, with just one episode – the finale – left for S5. This makes S5…the shortest season of AoS yet, with two less episodes than the others had, I think. Maybe these are signs that there are some troubled times ahead? So far, there is no talk about AoS getting cancelled, but the cancellation of AC came unexpected too, so there is that. There’s no rumors of the ‘Runaways’ getting cancelled, in fact the show got renewed for an S2 in January 2018, and of course ‘Cloak & Dagger’ are coming this summer, so MCU isn’t down for the count yet.

Back to AoS? Not really. AoS does its’ best to deliver…but it fails, and the viewers are not interested in helping it keep going – the fans ignore most of the new characters, (surprisingly, Kasius and Sinera are the most popular ones out of them), and as for the reintroduced ones…Talbot killed his former friend and sidekick Carl ‘Absorbing Man’ Creel in this week’s episode, and how does S.H.I.E.L.D. react? They ignore it and move on. Considering that Creel saved Coulson’s life literally in one of the earlier episodes, this makes Coulson, and the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D., look like uncaring jerks. Go AoS and S.H.I.E.L.D.

…And sadly, this is it for this week’s discussion: AoS S5 is ending, so we will discuss it in greater detail in the future weeks. Until then – see you soon!

Runaways: Doomsday - Jan 11

…And ‘Runaways’ penultimate S1 episode was aired on TV this week. (We will skip the season’s finale from Hulu – also this week – because of next week’s TV spoilers). Was it good?

Well, the titular heroes are together as a team at last, it seems. They look good, though Tico seems to be going for DC’s Zatanna Zarana look in this episode, complete with fishnet stockings, while Molly…what is her theme? Is she supposed to be more like the comics’ Patsy Walker/Hellcat here? And as for Old Lace…

Old Lace clearly has a problem with ‘Runaways’ – being more CGI than animatronics, this heir of BBC’s ‘Walking with Dinosaur’ series doesn’t appear to be fitting into ‘Runaways’ budget, whatever it is – and it should be noted that as a whole ‘Runaways’ S1 was low on special effects; the staff of one has plenty of oomph in it, and Molly’s amazing feats of strength are also CGI’d, at least in part, but as a whole, there wasn’t much CGI in ‘Runaways’ S1, period. Ergo, budget issues?

It certainly is possible; aside from ‘Cloak & Dagger’, which is coming to Hulu later in 2018, ‘Runaways’ were their first dip into the Marvel pool, and unlike ‘InHumans’, which appeared in the second half of 2017, it has worked. ‘Runaways’, that is.

…In fact that is because unlike ‘InHumans’, ‘Runaways’ were more on periphery than on the main stage, and didn’t get into contact (of whatever sort) with AoS. In the years past, when AoS was airing its seasons 2 through 4, it has borrowed a lot of materials from the failed versions of Marvel’s ‘InHumans’ and ‘Most Wanted’ series, (the latter never got aired at all), and as a result, ‘InHumans’ had to backpedal a lot and rewrite themselves – and their characters – a lot, and the result was insipid; plus there was the IMAX disaster, and at the moment, the fate of ‘InHumans’ hasn’t been discussed about, much.

AoS is doing well, so far the numbers for ‘Fun and Games’ – last week’s episode – have gone up, and are now in S4’s higher end. Good for them. Here is to hoping that their winning streak can continue, though is it the right choice in making Kasius and Synera more sympathetic now? Well, this was already discussed, we will have to wait and see for this week’s episode to learn how this decision will work out.

(Of course, the fight between Daisy and Synera was good, the reunion of the FitzSimmons – ditto, and of course the acting itself in S5 has been great from the start. The fact that AoS has finally managed to get itself out of the mess that were seasons 2 through 4 helps as well).

‘Runaways’, meanwhile, managed to avoid this entire issue by going original and by not invoking any specific Marvel™ material at all, other than the basic one, the ‘Runaways’ comic series, of course. Throughout the series ‘Runaways’ have adopted the original material in whatever ways that wanted, and they have achieved what they wanted as well: this particular Hulu/TV series was very enjoyable to see. It isn’t always true to the source material – in fact, it is almost never true to its’ source material – but the acting of the actors, as well as the script of the show in question, has more than adequate compensated for this decision. Good luck to them!

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

Runaways: Ep I & II - Nov 23

Marvel’s ‘Runaways’ made their premiere in Canada, and what can be said about them?

The show started slow, with the titular heroes – the children of the Pride – are hurting over the death of Amy, Nico’s sister, who was not shown yet – in a flashback, on a photo, etc. This is important, because – spoilers, or rather – the comics.

Just as the rest of MCU, ‘Runaways’ have existed as a comic book series a long time before now, (when the TV series/web TV series got released) and people have gotten familiar with them by now, with their parents, friends, enemies, etc. They know the plot, they know where it is all going, and so they are not too surprised with how it all is developing, TV-wise.

…So now ‘Runaways’ are throwing plenty of original content, and while they are still seem to be following the initial plotline and conflict (parents vs. children, etc.) they are throwing plenty of their own, new twists into the plot, possibly inspired by the initial comics, but something new all the same. This makes ‘Runaways’ different from such Marvel shows as AoS and ‘The Gifted’, which are simply original from the start, but also introduce various Marvel characters from all over the MCU as part of their narrative, (AoS) or are outright redesigning comic book characters into someone new (‘Gifted’). This is very impressive, but is it good?

So far, most reviews claim that ‘Runaways’ are a soap opera, but so were the ‘InHumans’, actually, and no one made a big deal out of that. Of course, this raises the next question: was the first season of ‘InHumans’ good of its own, and honestly? While it had some flaws, it certainly was not any worse than, say, AoS, (especially in the later seasons), so it is doubtful that it had earned all that hate… However, the truth is that people did not hate ‘InHumans’, they just did not care about the show, and so it collapsed. A show can pull out all of its stops, but sometimes, it is just not good enough. Are the ‘Runaways’ good enough?

Judging by the first two episodes, they can be – certainly by the second episode the action begins to go up, the plot begins to have layers, and the new developments, away from the original comics, certainly help. So for now let us remain cautiously optimistic and hope that the ‘Runaways’ continue to deliver, period – MCU needs it.

InHumans, Black Bolt - Nov 11

‘InHumans’ S1 has reached its conclusion. What can be said about this?

This was a show where the actors and the rest of the crew know and respect their characters, and know where to take them - usually. I.e., Maximus may be sympathetic, but he is still a villain because he is selfish and does not care about anyone but himself at the end, unlike the rest of the Royal Family, who do care about each other, period. The thing is, so could Maximus, but…he does not. He fails his empathy checks – or whatever they are called – every time, despite anything and everything. He really wants to go through the Terragenesis once more and become a proper InHuman. (Of course, the obstinacy that he is facing isn’t very convincing and seems more obtuse and/or childish more than anything else – but that is a problem for ‘InHumans’ S1 entirely, as it was said in earlier discussions of the show). He does not want anything else and he does not care about anyone else, although he could. But he does not. That is his tragedy.

And on the other hand, we have Triton, who was reintroduced in ‘Havoc’ – the previous episode – for no good reason. Surely, Karnac could defeat the royal guards and capture Maximus just as well? Triton’s role is superfluous; possibly the only reason why he returned was that MCU and co. wanted to get their money worth from this character, and so they did – sort of. Neither Triton nor Gorgon have much to say in the last two episodes and their roles are minimal, but there you have it. Even Crystal played a larger role, even if it was just as an assistant or an accessory to the amazing Lockjaw, who has been a treat to watch on the show.

And as for women,…Auran’s role got rearranged some in these last two episodes. In particular, in last episode, she and Maximus ended their friendship and she left, befriending Karnak, helped him to resurrect Gorgon (with mixed results), and then just left Attilan – supposedly. And in ‘Black Bolt’ – this episode, the season’s finale – she was shown at Maximus’ side once more, as if nothing happened. But something did happen – pieces of the season’s script got shifted around; AoS had it especially bad in the later seasons; now it is coming back in December 2017 – completely rebooted, it seems. Not surprising: the last season, the fourth, was focused on basically resolving the leftover issues from the first three seasons with mixed results…where were we?

…If Auran’s role and character development got rearranged, then Declan’s just got terminated: the resurrected version of Gorgon killed him, period. His death carried no meaning, no reason, just – to frustrate Maximus again. Considering that Declan was even less of a villain than Auran was, this is just unfair and pointless; at least Mordis came across as some sort of a villain, more or less, but Declan? He was genuinely helpful to all of the InHumans, and he got no epitaph, he was just forgotten by everyone, including the Royal Family – the heroes of this series.

Here is the thing. Maximus makes an unconventional villain, but still a villain. His opponents, as far as heroes go…not so much. Medusa, in particular, allowed Auran to kill a bus driver before fighting her in the first episode of the season, and now we got more of the same. Yes, Maximus is no hero or a victim, he has set the bar low, but his brother and the rest of his relatives do not exactly do a sterling job of surpassing it, on a regular basis. They are unconventional heroes? Perhaps, but also not very good ones, and the script’s occasional twist doesn’t help matters either – whether it is revealed that Maximus and Medusa were friends once, before she married Black Bolt, or when Karnak channels his inner Jedi and declares that as strife has created Attilan, so it has destroyed it: what exactly he is talking about? Has the show intended to have another episode or two that featured the past lives of the Royal Family and the history of Attilan in general? Such episode(s) would have actually been helpful, they could have answered some of question, like – when and how Karnak had built a containment unit for Black Bolt…and why did he think that it would work? Just an example…

So, the actors and acting was good, the script – not so much, (and some humor, in particular, was somewhat juvenile), and the conclusion? Nothing surprising here: the InHumans have returned to Earth and are going to live there, at least for the foreseeable future. Considering that the show is met with low numbers and unfavourable reviews, it doesn’t have much ties-in with the rest of MCU (deliberately, it seems), the odds aren’t looking good that the show will be another AoS – but we’ll have to wait and see what will happen next in real life.

That is it for now, see you soon!

PS: And did I mention lately that real life sucks lately? Because it does, though this time it is probably my fault. I hate my life. 

The Gifted, siX - Nov 7

‘got your siX’ was aired this week. What can be said about it?

It is a filler episode, so to speak. The plot is progressing, of course – the mutants are getting valuable info at the Sentinels’, and the government’s expense while getting away with it – successfully – while the Sentinels are doing their best to step up their game with the help of the government. Okay, this works, though has anyone figured out yet that Sage – one of the more mainstream X-men characters – is one of ‘the Gifted’s’ secondary characters as well? No, well there you have it – and ‘the Gifted’ are still a better show than AoS is at this stage. (More about this later, maybe).

Why AoS got mentioned? Because one of its trademark plotlines is teamwork, how important and essential it is… Because of issues, (and not just RL), this is not always apparent, and does not always work on AoS, as opposed to ‘Blindspot’, (especially the first two seasons), and now – ‘the Gifted’ as well: ‘siX’ was all about teamwork, which is important because Clarice/Blink left because of what Dreamer did to her – i.e. used her own memories to make a bond between Clarice and Johnny…and now Clarice is angry and wants to be on her own for a while.

This makes perfect sense – between their mutual competency as a team and Clarice’s own powers, mutants could run rings about Sentinels (within the show’s parameters, anyhow), and this could get boring in a while – ‘the Gifted’ is about suspense, after all. ‘got your siX’ shows it perfectly, mutants and Sentinels are equally matched, what mutants have in powers, Sentinels make in everything else…although the robots haven’t made much of an appearance yet, aside from the spiders in the first episode ever, and the drones that appeared in a couple of episodes by now…

Back to AoS? The two shows don’t have anything in common so far, though in RL, 21^st Century Fox (which owns the mutant portion of MCU right now), may be selling some of their property to Disney, (which currently owns the bulk of Marvel MCU), so some things might be changing soon. On its own, ‘the Gifted’ continues to deliver, it may not be the most intellectual TV show, but it has plenty of feels and human touches and perfect actors’ performances, so it works, and it works very well. It delivers via the ‘human factor’, as do ‘InHumans’, only ‘the Gifted’ do it better.

…Well, this is it for ‘siX’ – it was a good filler/bridge episode but nothing more. Lauren has made a new friend, his name is Wes, and apparently, in the next episode, we will learn something bad about him – and the drama continues. See you then!

InHumans, Havoc - Nov 4

This week’s ‘InHumans’ episode, ‘Havoc’, was a mixed bag: when it worked, it really worked, and when it did not, it really did not. To elaborate?

This penultimate episode of S1 was supposed to show the fall of Maximus and his regime. The problem is, we were never shown his regime and what it actually did to Attilan – rather we had Maximus walk around the royal palace, sometimes with an entourage of royal guards, sometimes with Tiber, in this episode – with Declan, etc. We had some glimpses in the first two episodes, but nothing more. Thus, it is hard to feel any emotions for the supposed plight of Attilan’s citizens, and it is hard to be impressed when Triton defeats Maximus in a fight.

Yes, Triton is back this episode – if he had more than 15 to 20 minutes from the first episode ever and nothing more, we might have cheered for him and his defeat of Maximus. But…the Royal Guard of Attilan make SW troopers look competent and good, (especially in SW7 and Rogue 1 films), and Maximus was never a fighter, so nothing impressive here, team Maximus and team Black Bolt are breaking even.

In part, this was intentional: Black Bolt has a secret bunker and he has supposedly outmaneuvered everyone, not just Maximus, but also even Medusa and the rest of his team. This didn’t endear him to Medusa, to Crystal and everyone else, but hey, this is Marvel’s take on GoT, right? There are no clear-cut heroes or villains, just regular people, albeit with supernatural powers.

…Actually, while GM’s novels are somewhat murky on this topic, the TV show – not so much, especially when it comes to Starks vs. Lannisters, which is probably the main plotline of the show. Secondly, as AoS have experienced with Grant Ward and Kara Palamas, creating a sympathetic villain for your show can be tricky: even these days the viewers and fans of AoS are divided on those characters; they do not get along with each other, and in general, character mismanagement caused AoS more harm than good.

Now, ‘InHumans’ don’t mismanage, or even disrespect their characters, so no problems here. The problem is in the plot, or the script, as well as the budget – for a TV show that was supposed to be an epos, it is surprisingly small-scale and tightly contained, just as AC was – but as it was said, AC was a very different Marvel show.

Back with ‘Havoc’ proper, one thing that stands out is not Karnak and Auran’s new relationship, (although Karnak did acquire a girlfriend back on Earth, remember?), but Gorgon’s resurrection. Seriously? As AoS, and even the movies, have shown, death and resurrection are a big deal in MCU, and here ‘InHumans’ just brought Gorgon back because…the audience needed to understand that Maximus isn’t that different from the good guys? Then who is to say that it is the good guys who are winning, and not the villains? Hopefully, this slippery moral slope will be addressed by Medusa in-universe and by the script in general in RL, because otherwise? The plot twist of the dead but resurrected Gorgon can backfire and ‘InHumans’ can get cancelled after the S1 ends, because this has happened to other shows…

…Well, this is for ‘Havoc’; see you all later!