AAA 'Death' - Oct 24

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, while I do want to talk about the ‘Venom 3’ film, we will need to postpone it for a few days still, because of spoilers and similar issues. Onto AAA’s episode 1x07, ‘Death’.

First, ‘Death’ is the other identity of Rio Vidal, it looks like. In the Marvel comics, Death appears often enough, and the comics have plenty of death-related deities too. In MCU, however, the Grim Reaper didn’t really make an appearance, so Rio Vidal being one of its’ incarnations… well, why not? Weirder things have happened in MCU, not to mention that this is progress and innovation, things that had been missed in AAA until now.

Again, MCU movies, TV series, and so on, always did their best to move the entire universe onwards, though, admittedly, since the end of Phase 3, this become more erratic and less efficient than before. Possibly, it would be better for everyone if MCU ended then, on a high note, than wherever it is going now – and enter ‘Agatha All Along’. So far, this show had little else going for it save for Agatha’s misadventures; yes, it is her show, but she herself had been for too little in MCU and played a specific and a small role for her to matter all that much.

…And maybe she does not. We already got Billy, Wanda’s son, possessing Willy the Teen here, and Billy/Wiccan is quite an important character, even though Marvel comics and MCU are different. Therefore, there is already a good chance that he will ‘eclipse’ Agatha after all – Western media are good at this sort of thing, this gradual transference from one main character to another – and the show will end on a different note from which it started. Pause.

Ah yes, Madame Lilia. She came back to life once more, and she died once more, and AAA the show used her and her life to progress TT/Willy’s/Billy’s story some more, albeit in a non-linear fashion. How clever, neuvau, and innovative! For real. Cough.

However, on a more serious note, AAA is turning out to be banal, rather than zany, about TT than about the titular heroine, and with more distractions than with the actual content. Here, MCU is trying to use atypical approaches and images to tell a typical story and while it is succeeding, the people are not being too impressed – or too invested; they will not be too upset if Rio/Death takes away Agatha after all, that is.

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

 

AAA ' Familiar' - Oct 17

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. In addition, what about AAA? Oh, bother…

First, TT is Willy Kaplan rather than Billy Maximoff; apparently, the spirit of Billy has merged with Willy (William) and now the MCU Pokefusion is searching for Wanda’s other boy, i.e. Tommy. (Speed in the comics). Such a twist, such brilliant writing!.. But, seriously, the way that AAA has been connecting and attaching itself to WV, showing itself to be WV’s sequel now, rather than just a spinoff, is impressive – one of the more impressive bits on this week’s episode, ‘Familiar’. Not that the bar is very high, either, but still…

Aside from the tie-in to WV, ‘Familiar’ reveals that – drumroll, please – MCU’s Willy/Billy is not just homosexual, but also Jewish! Given that Judaism is treating its sexual minorities not as favorably as the modern Western society does, this is ambiguous, and might be one of the reasons as to why AAA isn’t being showcased by the news/media too much, unlike how WV had been.

Willy/Billy himself is ambiguous as a character, but this is not too new – in DC, the Penguin is sometimes shown to have Jewish roots; Kaley Cuoco’s ‘Harley Quinn’ cartoon and the live-action ‘Gotham’ TV series had been some of the more prominent ones. The current ‘Penguin’ TV series does not go there too much, which is fine – it is a crime drama first, and everything else, including the DC comic elements, second.

In Marvel, meanwhile, we had the M.O.D.O.K. of Earth-1226, who was also Jewish, and who is a villain too, not unlike the Penguin, (but in a different style completely). As it was written before, (now this show ended, after a single season), does the global Jewish community really need to have ambiguous or outright evil, characters featuring their faith? Given the RL events in the Middle East right now, (October 2024), probably not.

…Mind you, what is happening in the Middle East right now has nothing to do with the post-Protestant neo-pagan Western society of our times; it is Eastern monotheism, pure and simple: the descendants of Abraham’s sons, the legitimate Isaac and the discarded Ismail are going to war once again, and the West… doesn’t really want to get involved; the U.S., whose own geopolitical interests are at stake there, probably has to do something, but the elections-2024 are prioritized, and so it doesn’t do anything. The other Western countries do not even try.

Is what Israel is doing in other countries, (such as Lebanon) right and proper? Possibly not, but they do not care; their government certainly does not. Can the other – Western – countries interfere? Quite so, but it would cost them, and the consequences would be unpredictable as well, and so they do not. Especially when there is money to be made off the RF/Ukrainian conflict instead.

Back to AAA, it also… serves as a mirror of the contemporary Western society, discussed above. The rest of Agatha’s new coven are gone, one-way or another, (Rio does not count, she got plot armor, most likely), but neither Willy/Billy nor Agatha herself care about it; they are going on their journey together regardless.

One might say that TT does not care about Alice and co. because he only wants to find Tommy. Jolly good; now re-watch the ‘Dr. Strange 2’ movie to see how well this mindset served Wanda herself in her quest to find her twins; now, to add insult to injury, AAA shows that at least one of her own twins has been on the same Earth and plane of reality as she was, and her entire mess with America Chavez wasn’t as necessary as it appeared to be. Yay.

Agatha, meanwhile, is reprising her role in WV – a witch-opportunist. She, apparently, had buried the rest of her new coven, and is now doing with Willy/Billy mostly the same thing that she tried to do with his mom in WV – stringing him along while waiting to backstab him as well. Character development for Aggie-poo? That is so funny!

Oh and we have to see Ralph Bohner again, albeit in a flashback. MCU is really trying to tie AAA to WV. In this, they are succeeding. What will they do with this success is another question.

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

AAA 'Reach/Teach' - Oct 3

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about this week’s episode about ‘Agatha All Along’ after all.

First, Sharon Hart/Davis is dead, and the coven replaced her with Rio. Sigh. AoS was notorious in how it dealt with its’ deceased characters: when the show needed to, it did a song and dance number, and when it did not, they de-facto just vanished into oblivion. AoS was a hypocritical show, as we have discussed in the long past – and now AAA has arrived. In this week’s episode it is all but revealed, Ms. Hart/Davis was all but a stand-in for Rio – she died so that Rio could arrive on the Witches’ Road in style, so to put it otherwise, AAA has AoS beat, and not in a good way.

In addition: remember Sharon’s probably-not-a-wake, when the coven’s members are pronouncing a list of what the ‘new’ green witch should be, and they get Rio? Does it mean that Rio is all of those things? Really? Given that AAA is her own debut in MCU, this makes Rio Vidal more pretentious than anything else. Does AAA really need this? Pause.

The greater question is, does MCU need AAA? So far, there is no indication just how exactly it is connected to MCU, aside from Wanda’s corpse; given that we have seen Wanda last in the ‘Dr. Strange 2’ film, which played around in the multiverse, AAA can be taking place in alternate timeline from the one, (because Wanda is a nexus being, among her other traits). Given how MCU has quietly put the kibosh on the multiverse after ‘Loki’ the TV series and ‘Ant-Man 3’ the movie, this is not very likely, but still.

Aside from Rio being injected into Agatha’s new coven with all the subtlety of a locomotive, the main goal of this week’s episode (‘Reach/Teach’) was Alice Lu-Gulliver confronting her demons, both metaphorically and literally. This was done well enough, but again, AAA is Ms. Lu-Gulliver’s first appearance in MCU so it’s hard to generate anything for her; the late Sharon Hart/Davis at least had her time in WV before she died here; Agatha and Rio bounce against each other, and TT is probably Billy Kaplan, (Rio tells Agatha that he isn’t her son, so Nick Scratch he apparently is not); but Alice? No one is too impressed over her victory over the demon, who was one of those monsters of the week that come and go with no impact at all. BtVS, in the 90s, had this scheme down to an art form, and proportionally, it was a better show than AAA is all along. Anything else?

No. Somehow, AAA is making much ado about little anything, probably substance. (We are not talking about the movie with the same name – someone else will have to review it entirely). It is fun to watch but little else, and there is no more ties in with the rest of MCU once it left WV and the state of New Jersey entirely. Where will it get from there, to success or disaster, only time will tell.

 

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

AAA 'Miles/Trials' - Sep 26

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, and I really hate my family sometimes. This is it, no epithets, no elaborations, (my apologizes to those who want gossip – I do not feel much like gossiping at this moment), so let us move onto this week’s episode of AAA instead. Here… we do not find much improvement, as the titular character, the ex-witch Aggie-poo, already loses one member of her new coven, one missus Hart/Davis. Let us shed a tear for this fallen worthy, and… not much more, because in the greater MCU the good Mistress Sharon was not much more to begin with. Aye, Wanda treated her – in WV – as one of the NPCs’ in her sitcom-based RPG, but the greater MCU… didn’t really treat her any different.

No, indeed, hold the outrage: in WV, the character was an occasional, albeit a recurring one, and once the WV miniseries ended, we never saw anything else of her or of her fellow West View denizens. The way that Wanda treated them – regardless of her own reasons, issues, and mental state – was abominable, but AAA is not about Wanda, Wanda is off the table due to her apparent death.

…As the ‘Dr. Strange-2’ movie showed, there are plenty of Wanda Maximoffs in the multiverse still; some of them are actually happy mothers (and wives?). A Wanda Maximoff may appear (reappear) in MCU still, who knows – but what about Agatha?

In WV, Agatha inserted herself into Wanda’s RPG and waited for the Scarlet Witch to exhaust herself mentally and physically before bringing her superior skills and experience into play. It was a good plan, but it failed nonetheless, and Wanda trapped the older witch in a Framework-like reality of her own.

Framework was a part of AoS portion of the MCU, which was more of science than of sorcery, but Framework itself was created with the help of the Darkhold – the same Darkhold that played an important role in both WV and ‘Dr. Strange-2’; it’s unlikely that any of AoS’ characters will appear in AAA, but who knows, a fan crossover is always possible. More importantly, however, that even under the spell that made her an officer of the law and a protagonist rather than an antagonist, Agatha remained antagonizing, petty, and selfish. When ‘The Teen’ (TT; might be Billy the Wiccan, Wanda’s gay son, or might be Nick Scratch, Agatha’s own son in the comics, or might be yet another MCU OC – who knows?) broke the spell and snapped Agatha back to reality (in a manner not unlike the Framework, again), she still remained this sort of person – and so far she doesn’t appear to be changing for the better, either.

Will Agatha change? The world of MCU, her corner of MCU is as much Neopagan as anything, and-

-and look at the Pinocchio franchise, of all things. (I know, of all things, but still). In the original novel, the philosophy was Catholic Christian (and it even reflected in the original animated Disney film), and so Pinocchio changed himself on the inside and became a better person, (among other things). In a Soviet spinoff of the novel, (much less known and widespread in the West, but still), the Pinocchio-counterpart remains a puppet, but he makes the world (his world) a better place for all but the villains. In addition, in the more recent Disney remake of the abovementioned-animated classic, Pinocchio just accepts as to who he is and does not change at all. Pause. So where does this leave Agatha?

The role of monotheism is downplayed in AAA, but the fact is that regardless the bracing discussion on the definition of ‘witch’ and ‘witchcraft’, for modern people witches are descendants of the pagan/polytheistic clergy, and their demons/devils/etc. used to be ‘pagan’ gods. As KAOS and ‘Twilight’ (recently released on Netflix) show, ‘pagan’ culture is alive and well in the Western society. Moreover, in that culture, a person does not need to change to be better; they already are good. In this context, Agatha doesn’t need to change – she just needs to survive Rio, the Salem Seven, and anyone else who’ll be gunning after her while she’s depowered, (probably not Wanda or Steven Strange though). If that happens, she will just kill the rest of her new coven; she will recover her power and move on to newer pastures. The end of this miniseries. Since aside from Agatha herself we have never met any of those characters, (Sharon doesn’t count for the abovementioned reasons), and Agatha herself so far has a bigger reputation than anything, this still could happen – but whom do we kidding? Agatha will become a better person despite all of the Neopagan paraphernalia AAA the show is dressed in, and become an important part in MCU’s next phase. If MCU does not collapse first, that is, but it probably will not, (events in RL notwithstanding).

…In any case, I probably will not be able to review and/or discuss the AAA episode 1x04 next week on time, so you have been warned. Sorry about this. Real life sucks. For now, however, this is it. See you all soon.

 

 

AAA series premiere - Sep 18

Obligatory disclaimer: sometimes, real life… does not suck, as earlier today I got to see both a raccoon and a striped skunk in the wild. Naturally, the two animals do not look anything similar to each other, for the pair are distant relatives at best, but moreover…

The raccoon is a tree-climbing mammal. Eyesight is important to it for the obvious reasons, and so its’ skull has a shape that allows for some binocular (forward-facing) vision at least. The raccoon is equally confident on the ground, but it prefers to retreat to the nearest growing/standing tree (or a burrow, true), than stand its’ ground and fight… on the ground, pardon my tautology. That is good news… for both sides, for raccoons tend to have powerful jaws, sharp teeth, and an attitude to match them. (In addition, in Toronto, only the coyotes are bigger than they are, and coyotes do not appear to be too interested in raccoons, you know?)

The skunk is a burrowing mammal. For it, sense of smell is the most important, and so, it has better smell and worse eyesight than the raccoon does; in addition, proportionally, skunks are smaller and lighter than the raccoons are. Here, in Toronto, and the rest of Canada, the skunk species is the striped skunk, one of the biggest modern skunk species period, and the raccoon is decidedly bigger and heavier than it is. The skunk, admittedly, has powerful forepaws with large claws to better dig out earthworms and similar food items, (it doesn’t climb trees unlike the raccoon), not to mention its’ trademark defence power of skunk spray, but the skunks in our neighborhood apparently are the shy ones, as they tend to stay away from people and dash from cover to cover instead.

Again, on this occasion, I saw both of these mammals during the morning, way after sunrise, mid-September or not, so it is probable they were not at their best or their regular, (both skunks and raccoons tend to be more active at night instead), but still, the raccoon was slightly bolder out of the two species. Anything else?

‘Agatha All Along’ has premiered today, (Sep 18, 2024), and what can be said about the miniseries? It is progressive. It has same-sex couple (couples?). It has a Euro-American, an Afro-American, and an Asian-American character – all of them are in Agatha’s entourage and are on her side (at least initially). The series’ story is a travel story, a journey story, a story of transformations and transitions and changes – everything that MCU tried to be ever since the Avengers: Endgame film. The actors’ playing is very good and confident, the roles are cast quite nicely – i.e., the actors fit the characters – and we just saw the first two episodes out of several, so it is too early to judge the plot in general. As for WV…

Well, Elizabeth Olsen and her Wanda are finished with MCU for now, apparently. The character of Vision is going to get his own miniseries in the future, but for the moment there are no details aside from a statement that there’s going to be a series for Vision. AAA stems from WV, of course, but aside from an obligatory homage, AAA is quickly leaving WV behind both literally and metaphorically. Let us wish it good luck. Last time there were witches on the TV screen, it had been the SW: Acolyte series and that had been a failure, clear and simple. I hope that AAA will not be MCU’s version of it.

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

Loki & The Marvels - Nov 10

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the ‘Loki’ S2 finale instead – or not. How about we talk about ‘The Marvels’ movie in its’ place.

First, ‘The Marvels’ work. They work because the film is part of MCU’s current transition theme, and ‘The Marvels’ executes it on the level of AoS’ S4, which is to say, very well. ‘The Marvels’ movie has three main leads, (not counting Nick Fury), and all of them share the Marvel name. This is one of the reasons as to why MCU used all three of them together – to simplify the Marvel-ous situation, and to resolve several of the problems that had haunted this aspect of the MCU franchise.

Moreover, what did MCU do with them next? Carol Danvers, who was played by the problematic Ms. Brie Larson, (remember the commotion around the first ‘Captain Marvel’ film?), seems to have heroically sacrificed herself so that the Karee new home planet could have its’ own sun. She is off the board, at least for now.

Then, there is Ms. Photon, who is associated with S.W.O.R.D., which is not a part of MCU anymore, apparently, since there was neither hide nor hair of it since ‘WandaVision’, (WV), but that didn’t stop ‘The Marvels’: S.W.O.R.D. had a brief (re)-appearance, amounted to nothing, and now that Photon is in a parallel/alternate universe, odds are that S.W.O.R.D. will never appear in MCU ever again. (Not that the new S.A.B.E.R. was any more important to ‘The Marvels’, yeah). This way, a knot is quietly resolved in the ‘old’ MCU, and we get another shy introduction into the multiverse…

Speaking of the multiverse, what about Loki, ‘Loki’, and the TVA? This resolution was less satisfactory: Loki ended up taking over HWR’s old job, while Sylvie and agent MMM are running/not-running TVA. Pause.

In the ‘Loki’ S1 finale, Sylvie was in HWR’s old digs, doing his job, (maybe), while Loki was trying to get all of the TVA armed and armored against the new Kang, (and we got a Kang in the ‘Ant-Man 3’ movie, remember?). Well, ‘Loki’ S2 arrived, we had Sylvie back out in the wild again, we barely had any Kang in the person of Victor Timely, and the (ex)-judge RR became a mini-villain, who got sent into the Void. Agent MMM, Loki and Sylvie can attest that that is not as permanent as it might appear. Where is the multiverse, though?

Nowhere in sight, unlike ‘The Marvels’. Somehow, despite all of its’ talks about the ‘sacred timeline’ and what else have you, we never got to see any alternate timelines, aside from an occasional glimpse and all. Fair enough, but back to ‘The Marvels’?

Back at ‘The Marvels’, we got Carol Danvers safely taken off the board, (with enough wiggle room to bring her back, if needed), and Photon equally safely re-positioned in such, well, position, to introduce the multiverse, and the X-Men, into MCU if necessary. Finally, we have KK, the youngest Marvel, in a position to re-start the Avengers with Kate Bishop and a few others – but keep in mind that MCU’s Avengers are a mess since the ‘Endgame’ movie, so our heroines would need to re-start from almost a blank slate, and, in addition…

In addition, ‘The Marvels’ had no characters from the KK previous TV show at all, (aside from KK’s immediate family)? Obviously, no characters from overseas would appear, given how Pakistan has backed the Taliban in the real life to drive the U.S. from Afghanistan, but you would think that Bruno or some other Kamala’s classmates would make an appearance, however briefly – but they don’t, so the odds of the KK series having an S2 is unlikely. What else?

Ah yes, ‘The Marvels’ primary villain, Dar-Benn, whose motive was to… restore a Kree home planet, so that they would be able to live now that the Supreme Intelligence died, and their planet is dying. Hell, by dying herself, Dar-Benn was able to launch a process that caused Carol Danvers to complete the process and save the Kree. Hooray? Hooray. This makes Dar-Benn better – a better leader than Fury is, whose attempts to help the Skrulls failed epically on one hand, and on the other, no one is mentioning the events of SI either. There is no mention of Gravik, or Giyah, or Ms. Sonya, etc. Somehow, the Skrull separatists of SI transformed from MCU’s potential big bad into nothing – there’s no mention of them in the greater MCU anymore, just as there’s no sign of Marvel’s ‘InHumans’ anymore either. What else?

…Well, a ‘Mean Girl’ reboot is coming in 2024, and it might be a musical; ‘Cats-2019’ say hi from their distant past and remind people that musicals belong on stage, not on the big screen – but we digress from MCU.

If ‘The Marvels’ work overall, ‘Loki’ S2 feels more like a reset that MCU tried to do subtly, but failed – something that MCU is infamous for. We have discussed this before, (especially in AoS), so let us focus here on the fact that the final resolution has a feeling of being final – Loki’s (this Loki’s) journey is at an end; he found friends and love…and lost them, for good, it looks like. Sad, but MCU has been known to pull twists like this, and if this is so, then good luck to ‘Loki’, (and Loki), and a happy send-off to their respective stories!

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

Loki, Heart - Oct 27

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, and most of the time you cannot control it, as it just goes on as it has intended to, and all of your attempts to interfere in it result in cosmetic, secondary, (at best), changes – now onto ‘Loki’ S2.

Here, unfortunately, the situation isn’t any better – this week’s episode, ‘Heart of the TVA’ brings us back to the ‘Breaking Brad’ mess, where it was all about destruction; this week it is all about killing – pardon me, pruning – of the various characters. General Dox and her people – gone. Timely – gone. The ex-judge RR – gone. Even Miss Minutes and a variant Loki are gone, (temporarily or not). What gives?

No, seriously, what gives? MCU has not treated its’ characters so badly since AoS’ S2 finale, (and no, that is just a coincidence, the two shows barely interconnected at all). Back then, AoS S2 resulted in a massive killing-off of characters, (some of whom were quite interesting, and who weren’t Kara Lynn Palamas, who is another story completely), and now, ‘Loki’ S2 is doing the same thing: we barely get to know people (ok, characters), before they’re gone. The ex-judge RR and Victor Timely, for example, could have been just as important in ‘Loki’ as agent 33/Kara had been in AoS, and now, they are just gone.

…Right, some people are pointing out to me that within MCU ‘killing’ and ‘pruning’ are two different things, (however superficially similar): the show’s titular character, (as well as Sylvie and agent MMM), was pruned in S1, and it revealed that the ‘pruned’ characters (and things) go into some sort of a subspace wasteland where they stay forever, (or until a giant fog dragon eats them). To this, I reply: small consolation, not to mention it looks as if general Dox and most of her minions were killed, rather than pruned. I.e.: was it worth to introduce us to Dox and co. in the ‘Loki’ episode 2x02 only to get rid of them two episodes later? This sort of ill-treatment of characters is reminiscent of AoS at its’ worst, again.

…In addition, ‘Loki’ is all about the multiverse – or it is supposed to. The episode 2x03, ‘1893’, has kind of embraced this – at last, but now, in ‘Heart’, we’re back in the TVA proper, where various factions are fighting for its’ control, never showing openly just what are the stakes they’re fighting for. In S1, ‘Loki’ did show bits and pieces of multiverse, but in S2, the multiverse is being downplayed even more. Why? Is MCU being rebooted, some fans are wondering? To this, I respond: yes. Look, for example, at the information about ‘The Marvels’, the MCU movie coming out in Nov 2023: it features Carol, Monica and Kamala, and-

No Skrulls. The Skrulls were a big deal in the first ‘Captain Marvel’ film, and they played a minor, but an important role, in WV, in which Monica got her powers. Since then, the Skrulls virtually vanished from MCU, and SI was an immediately forgettable show. It was also an insipid show… and it introduced Ms. Sonya, who took over from Countess Val with nary a comment. Put otherwise, MCU took time and effort in building countess Val, (Ms. Ross), as a character, only to replace her with Sonya when it really mattered. SI was supposed to be a milestone in MCU’s development and progress, and instead it became a forgettable side note – another sign that MCU is rebooting itself in mid-stride, not unlike how the SW sequel trilogy did do it. Moreover, there is no sign of Skrulls in the trailers and teasers for ‘The Marvels’, which further indicates a shift in the canon. What next?

Well, it is anyone’s guess, really. People are beginning to discuss for real that MCU is rebooting itself a-la SW. Of course, this reboot cost SW plenty of fans, but that does not matter: ever since ‘The Mandalorian’ S3, SW moved in the direction of the aforementioned sequel trilogy – that is the end game, to show how the SW world of the episode VI became the world of the episode VII and beyond. The SW fans did not like the world of the SW episode VII and beyond, but Disney/SW does not care, apparently, since it is returning its’ viewers there, albeit this time by a roundabout route. Will it succeed this time is an open question. What will this ‘rebooting in mid-stride’ approach/attitude do for Disney/MCU as well is another. ‘Loki’ S2 is already suffering from this, however, and that is not a good sign, for Disney/MCU or otherwise.

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

SI, series premiere - June 21

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about Marvel’s™ ‘Secret Invasion’ series instead.

The series’ premiere episode, ‘Resurrection’, is… no, it may be indicative of the series (mini-series), as a whole: it lacks heart.

No, let us try again. ‘Secret Invasion’ is a remake-reboot, not unlike TLM-2023, only if TLM-2023 is obvious, then ‘Secret Invasion’ is a ‘subtle’ way of rebooting both S.H.I.E.L.D., (AoS), and S.W.O.R.D., (WV, remember?). After AoS, WV, and – the ‘Ms. Marvel’ series, SI is the third attempt for MCU to develop a secret agency something or other. AoS was a spy TV series that veered into new pastures at the end of S4 or around that time and it took the titular S.H.I.E.L.D. with it. That series ended with S.H.I.E.L.D. flourishing… an ending that came from a previous incarnation of the show, and which ended in a metaphorical cul-de-sac as they were replaced by S.W.O.R.D. in WV. Skrulls also played a minor role in that series, but play they did, and as we’ve seen in the trailer for ‘The Marvels’ film, they, and S.W.O.R.D., were supposed to play a role in MCU – and so the Skrulls do. 

S.W.O.R.D., on the other hand, got replaced by something called S.A.B.E.R. with nary an explanation, though in ‘Ms. Marvel’ we just had surrogate S.H.I.E.L.D., represented by the government, chasing Clan Destine, aka surrogate InHumans, with Kamala being caught in the middle. However, by the end of MM, we learn that none of the above applied to Kamala, who had her own destiny, and who got swapped with Carol ‘Captain Marvel’ Danvers at the end – an act that ties-in directly with ‘The Marvels’ as the trailer shows – but there the villains are to be the Kree, not the Skrulls. Pause.

Going back to the first ‘Captain Marvel’ film, we learn that in MCU the Skrulls are good, while the Kree were bad. Therefore, now we got a splinter group of the Skrulls, who are bad after all, and Fury, Hill, and the good Skrulls need to stop them. Can we say ‘unnecessarily complex’? Whatever was going on in the heads of MCU’s creative team regarding them will remain unknown – it just too convoluted to be revealed.

However, the ‘plot development’, where the splinter Skrulls are beginning a conflict between USA and Russia is all too predictable: it is safe. Sure, MCU could have used China, North Korea or Iran, (to name a few), in place of RF, but RF is safe. Disney/MCU knows that it will not offend anyone by using RF as cat’s-paw for the main villains – the splinter Skrulls – and anything else is more risky.

Sure, USA is not too happy with China these days, for example, (just ask Biden the POTUS), but Disney/MCU is ready to commit to that train of thought and would rather be somewhere else. As it was written before, Disney loves to make money, but it hates to lose money even more, and controversies cost money, and so Disney prefers to end controversies before they begin. The result? Things like the almost featureless ‘Elemental’ that go down easy, go out easy, and are forgotten just as easily. You remember the Spider-society in Sony’s™ second Miles Morales film? On one hand, this organization is quite democratic - we got people of all shapes, colors, sexes, species, etc. On the other hand, this organization is quite inefficient, as Miles is able to avoid them… period. The Spider-society is less of an organization and more of a crowd that is not very efficient at executing tasks period. (The titular organization of AoS had a similar problem, but on a smaller scale). This is… not unlike the actual US society these days, which is quite democratic and politically correct, but not very good at executing various tasks; the fact that the RF’s ‘special military operation’ is floundering is their fall, not US’ achievement, and it shows. If RF ever gets its’ things together, (a tall order, true, but still), then Ukraine is in real trouble…

Leaving real world behind and going back to ‘Secret Invasion’… we got more of AoS, really. AoS had FitzSimmons to show the American unity with the U.K., and here we got Ms. /agent Sonya, who is a member of MI6 and Fury ally, (supposedly). In reality, the relationship between the two countries is more fractious, but Disney/MCU has nothing to do with reality, you know? Real life sucks as it is…

‘Secret Invasion’, on the other hand, is just lackluster – it isn’t as bad as ‘She-Hulk’ had been, but judging by the more than slightly subdued reaction from the media, everyone is aware that it isn’t ‘What if?’ or even ‘Sam & Bucky’. It is just a much-shorter clone of AoS, and people are treating SI as such. Pity, I would say, but there is nothing to pity – Disney/MCU should have just stuck with S.W.O.R.D. instead.

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

She-Hulk, Retreat - Sep 29

 

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, and you can always count on your family to make it worse – especially for you. I am almost done with everything and everyone, and that thought is scary as fuck – I do not want to go, but I do not want to stay either…

On a more cheery note – the latest ‘She-Hulk’ episode, ‘The Retreat’, is out, and… how is this more cheery, exactly? Let us elaborate.

If last week our titular character tangled with Titania, this week the Abomination is back, and he is getting therapy? Therapy for super-villains (and others?) is a thing now? Then where it was in AoS – both Grant and Daisy could have used it, (even if for different reasons…

Why am I returning to AoS this time? ‘Cause ‘She-Hulk’ is showing us the Abomination going through his redemption, apparently… In the Marvel comics, the Abomination is a monstrous, twisted mirror of the Hulk, while the rest of the characters that’d appeared at the titular location are nowhere near as powerful, but here, in MCU, he’s one of the gang, and-

-And the show is about J.W., because she is the titular character instead – in this episode, she learns to let go and deal with rejection thanks to one therapy session. Of course she does. Did the showrunners and co. think that that would make their titular character slightly less Mary-Suish, maybe? If so, then congrats – they went down the other way and made her the ‘pathetic forerunner to a Mary-Sue’ cliché: J.W. genuinely does not do anything on the episode, she just is! This has rather happened already, in the episode 1x05, but there we had Molly Book and co. to carry the day, (metaphorically), here – not even that.

In addition, we got MCU’s Wrecker, from MCU’s Wrecking Crew, in the same place, also going for therapy. Does it mean that MCU’s Wrecking Crew is done and gone? In Marvel Comics, the Wrecking Crew was competent and powerful enough to fight the Avengers regularly enough; here, it is a joke, just as everything and everyone that becomes associated with MCU’s ‘She-Hulk’. El Aquila can’t be taken seriously because he is a swashbuckler? So’s the Swordsman, technically, but MCU’s ‘Hawkeye’ (the series) has given him some respect at least.

Actually, maybe ‘Hawkeye’ warrants some more mention here. The first MCU property that went into outright comedy territory had been… WV, actually, but that show quickly began to evolve past that in its’ fourth episode. ‘Hawkeye’, on the other hand, never took itself too seriously… almost. Once Yelena popped-up, then things began to sombre up, but the new Black Widow did only come and go… Pause.

Yeah, that ‘Secret Wars’ trailer – it starred Nick Fury and Maria Hill… and only them, really. You would think that some of the AoS characters, good or bad, would appear, but apparently not – clearly, Disney is done with that show.

…Yeah, I remember that ‘Hawkeye’ was also the show that brought back S.H.I.E.L.D. as Ms. Barton’s watch – but after the initial fandom’s excitement – clearly, they aren’t done with AoS, it all died down very fast, meaning that Disney/MCU have no intention of pulling SW – to wit, the latest installments in the SW franchise deal in the period set in the original trilogy, and not going into ‘the future’ anymore; they’re flat-out pretending that the sequel trilogy doesn’t exist, and also wait for the fandom to forget all about it, before going into the future once more. Barton’s watch might have been their attempt at doing the same thing with AoS, only it failed, so no more S.H.I.E.L.D in the MCU for real.

…Actually, the same might be said about S.W.O.R.D. as well – it’d been set-up in WV, true, but earlier in 2022 we had ‘Ms. Marvel’ and there was no sign of it either; instead, we had Damage Control, who did the same thing that S.H.I.E.L.D. and S.W.O.R.D. did, and there were no Skrulls either; given how the ‘Captain Marvel’ film was almost all about the Skrulls, this is just weird – but how does that connect to ‘She-Hulk’?

It does not, not really. There were some post-credit pics of J.W. working with folders that have the S.H.I.E.L.D. eagle logo on it, but nothing else. That is good, because everything and everyone associated with ‘She-Hulk’ becomes downgraded.

…Therefore, for now, let us wrap it up. MCU is having problems, and it had them for a while, probably because of RL issues. Did I mention that real life sucks and blows? Then I am repeating this, and I will see you all soon instead!

She-Hulk, The People - Sep 1

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us continue talking about our jade-colored legal eagle instead.

Sadly, this week’s episode, ‘The People vs. Emil Blonsky’ is not exactly a break-mold episode that is needed by now; instead, we get an introductory episode.

However, whom does ‘The People’ (re)-introduce? First – Emil Blonsky/the Abomination, who seems to be one some path of redemption, (with Wong along for the ride, apparently). ‘The People’ show that he has also evolved, just as the original Hulk has, and is keeping his coherence whenever he digivolves, so no more mitigating circumstances; on the flip side, he is released, provided that he doesn’t go full supervillain once more. Pause. Yeah, looks as if the MCU Thunderbolts – still in the making – just got a new name onto their potential roster.

Second, we got the Wrecking Crew, and so far, they are quite underwhelming – just four mysterious people with Asgardian equipment, (cough). Given how Jen spent even less time with them than she did with Titania in the series’ premiere, I am not holding my breath out for them – Hell, Titania’s return would be more exciting after their debut.

Finally, we got the shape-shifting Light Elves, the better cousins of the Dark Elves (from the 2^nd Thor film), or at least the cousins with the better PR. Getting into the entire MTS situation down below, I am left wondering about the shape-shifting gig – isn’t it the Skrulls’ thing instead? Actually, we have not heard of the Skrulls since the WV ended – and the second ‘Dr. Strange’ film has seriously re-made that story, (and not necessarily for the better). I’ve heard rumors that team Disney is having some serious legal issues with the team Marvel comics, so I honestly wonder if this has any relations to this slight re-working that we’re getting in MCU lately?..

In addition, as for MTS herself… what kind of fee did she get for her appearances in the ‘Legal Eagle’ – I mean, ‘She-Hulk’? In addition, does this make her a legitimate part of MCU now, and Marvel comics can use her as a character, if she is paid? People want to know!

On a more serious topic, the entire celebrity cameo shtick had been used before in romantic comedies, (such as ‘The Nanny’), so does it mean that ‘She-Hulk’ is going full ‘Ally McBeal’ now? In that case, um, could we do a plot twist where this aspect of MCU is revealed a rebooted Westview with Wanda doing her old tricks in a new setting? Now that has potential, I have to say!

…Sadly, however, this is all I want to say about ‘She-Hulk’ at this point. See you all soon, instead!

FH: Medjai - July 22

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks; sometimes it sucks so badly, that you cannot sleep at night, but just lie there and wonder – just what are you doing, and where are you going, and where, and when, are you going to stop and get out of the groove – and go on from there to where?.. On a more lighter side, the ‘For Honour’ (FH) game has introduced the new character – the Medjai.

…Oh yes, undoubtedly, the Medjai – or rather, the Medjay, were a real-life organization, actually: first, they were a tribal group from Nubia, (a region located alongside the Nile river), and later on – something of a police organization during the existence of Ancient Egypt – something that the second incarnation of the ‘Mummy’ franchise used quite a bit. Yay?

Well, maybe – the Anubis-based armor used by FH’s Medjai clearly comes from that franchise, (as opposed to the aborted Tom Cruise one, eh?), as does this warrior’s double-axe, (double battle-axe, maybe)? There’s nothing original about the new guy, put otherwise, and what’s more, whereas its’ predecessors were taken – at least – from the now-defunct ‘Deadliest Warrior’ (DW) franchise, the Medjai doesn’t even have that – this is fiction at its’ purest. Ouch!

Finally, we return to MM for one last time – somehow we forgot to comment that MCU’s version KK is a mutant instead. Fancy that! In the original comics, MM was an InHuman instead, so now we got a flat-out switcharoo! Yay! Just kidding, but this is also one of the factors as to why the MM finale was about as bad as AoS’ had been – it is just flat-out incompatible with the rest of the show, just as AoS’ had been. However, AoS’ problems aside, in MM, the finale has rubbed-out the rest of the season – pause.

Let me start again. Throughout the first season of her show, KK was introduced and developed not as a mutant, or an InHuman, or some other Gifted, but as her own person, an independent and competent young woman, who has her own thing, and who does her own thing too. Great! She was also shown to have both her own allies and enemies, which is also wonderful – and then came the final scene, and all of this was flat-out removed, as not only Kamala was revealed to be ‘something else’ instead – i.e. a mutant, regardless whether a regular or an irregular one – but she has also found herself in an entirely different, non-connected situation from what she’d experienced so far…

…Something similar has happened to the Scarlet Witch too, in fact. Throughout WV, she has grown and changed as a character, and at the series’ finale, she actually began to return to her superhero roots – and then came the ‘Dr. Strange 2’ film, and all of that got thrown out of the window, with Wanda being reduced to someone not unlike the Wicked Queen from Disney’s original ‘Snow White’ animated movie. There is a reason as to why people are accusing Disney/MCU of mistreating their female characters, and this is a part of it. I do not know what will happen to Kamala next, has she just switched places with Carol Danvers, or if the two of them have switched their minds instead, but I really hope that she will get a better hand than the one that Wanda has received…

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

Ms. Marvel, Crushed - June 15

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about something else entirely – this week’s episode of Ms. Marvel. Named ‘Crush’, it is about Kamala’s crush on Kareem, whose mom may or may not be a supervillain – isn’t the MCU fun?

Well yes, yes it is, save that so far, little else is going down in ‘Crush’ – MCU is going with a slow burn here, possibly to avoid competition with ‘Obi-Wan’, whose penultimate episode has also aired on this day. There are similarities between the two shows: in ‘Obi-Wan’, women are clearly in charge, save for the titular character and Darth Vader; the show could’ve went with just the original female characters, but they tried already something similar in the SW sequel trilogy, and that didn’t go down too went, so now they’re trying a subtler approach – and there already are mixed reviews towards the show. Fun!

‘Ms. Marvel’, on the other hand, is trying… something similar, actually. Both the titular character, her mom and grandma dominate the show, at least to a point. Since Islam is actually a quite patriarchal religion, there is… a female character, (not related to the Khan family, but still a family friend), who is planning to challenge, or is challenging already, some sort of a mosque board for more gender variety – or something along those lines. Now what?

So far, there is no obvious indication as to how this plotline will go in the future episodes: Disney/MCU obviously has no intention of alienating the Islamic community…but neither does it want to be retrograde and upset the progressive community…so yeah, Disney/MCU is going to handle this politically correct, politely, and perfectly poised – the 3P, you can call them.

On the other hand, we still got the Damage Control duo, as they canvass the area, trying to find that elusive masked vigilante. (This takes place in a world with Sokovia accords, remember?) So far, they do not appear to have much success, but then again, they appear to be mostly annoyances right now… which is appropriate, since now? Kamala is not much of a hero, either.

Oh, of course, she is well intentioned, and she is already doing ‘the right thing’©, but, sadly, the scope is rather underwhelming – period. Again, this isn’t surprising, she isn’t a hero yet, she is only learning, but this does leave her behind on all the excitement and the drama, when compared to ‘Obi-Wan’, where the latter tries to be a telenovela built along the lines of the ‘Rogue 1’ film… or the ‘original’ ‘SW: Legends’ novels… Everything old is new again, put otherwise.

‘Ms. Marvel’, however, does not do that, but tries to be original – to a point. The problem is that while Hulu’s ‘Runaways’ – remember them? – actually did go mostly original, at least in the first two seasons or so – ‘Ms. Marvel’ does not. In fact, it tries to multitask, as it tries to entertain with Kamala and friends’ teenage antics, as well as to promote the Islam-American community, (at least the Pakistani aspect of it), in the best possible light. I.e., ‘Ms. Marvel’ the show fluctuates between reality and fiction, without settling on either, and consequently it risks ending-up flat-footed instead.

There was another TV show that tried something similar, and it was AoS, (the first 2-3 seasons). This show actually introduced a Russian – or a quasi-Russian villain; there was actually a mini-story arc, set in Russia, which caused Hunter and Morse to be taken ‘out of commission’ – they were supposed to get their own TV show, but instead they were taken outright out of MCU. Ouch!

‘Ms. Marvel’, on the other hand, does not have excessive characters, (as AoS did during the first half of S3), but it did have a reference to S.H.I.E.L.D. in the series’ premiere, apparently. Can’t say that I’m too surprised, as S.H.I.E.L.D. is still supposed to be a part of MCU, it’s just that due to real life issues Disney/MCU can no longer fit it, (at least for now), so now we got Damage Control running around, (and not amounting to anything yet). It will be interesting to see as to what exactly MCU will do with this development, and how does S.W.O.R.D. will fit in, (remember, Photon took over S.W.O.R.D. at the end of WV?). Indeed, Photon and S.W.O.R.D. should be appearing soon enough, since Kamala, Carol, and Photon are supposed to all appear in the 2023 MCU movie ‘The Marvels’, right? Because if Photon will be removed – and she is the Afro-American character here – this will be a PR disaster and Disney/MCU hates that…

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

JWD - June 10

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the JWD film instead.

Without getting too deep into spoilers, it works. The movie works. It entertains its’ viewers well enough, and the movie critics hate it. Why?

Because there is no deeper meaning in it, not really, no bigger picture, especially by MCU’s standards. JWD sought to be the endgame for the latest JP/JW incarnation, to show the viewers a world where humans and non-avian dinosaurs coexist, and I would say that it had succeeded at doing so, too. The problem, of course, is so what?

No, let me reiterate the above statement: by 2022, the viewers have become quite sated on dinosaur-related films and such; the recently released ‘Prehistoric Planet’ may’ve stabbed JWD in the back by setting the bar much higher than JWD aspired to – it seems to be an entertaining movie rather than anything else… and it is a self-contained universe as well.

These days, the multiverse seems to be the key to success, as Ms. Yeoh’s ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ movie shows loud and clear, and JWD does not deliver on that level – in JWD, the story is wrapped, there’s no mid-credits or post-credits scene, no anything else. Fair enough, and the rest of the movie is not too evolved either.

Instead, JWD seems to try to milk the nostalgia for the old JP series and with some success at least; whereas J-Ro’s Newt Scamander films tried to add some new material – at least - into the Wizarding ‘Verse… with mixed success, but still it tried. JWD did not try at all; instead, it just went by the numbers and did what it did before with its’ movies, starting with JP3 – and can you blame them? Their source material is two sci-fi novels, written by the late Mr. Crichton, and nothing more; the fact that the franchise managed to make 6 movies rather than just one or two is remarkable enough!.. Anything else?

…JWD aside, people have already talked to me about me glossing over the Damage Control people in the ‘Ms. Marvel’ series premiere. Fair enough, but again, let us turn back to AoS. I know, I know, but for me, AoS did introduce Damage Control into MCU – literally: Damage Control first appeared in the AoS’ S3 episode, when Daisy teamed-up with Mack to save the latter’s brother Reuben, who fell-in with the Watchdogs, (MCU’s take on the KKK, aiming towards the InHumans rather than POCs), and Mack and Daisy had to rescue him – and Damage Control had to clean up the mess at the end of the episode. AoS being what it is, neither Reuben Mackenzie nor Damage Control re-appeared ever again in the series, (though Reuben’s role was taken over by MCU’s Flint – maybe), and Damage Control has surfaced-up here, in ‘Ms. Marvel’ – and so far it appears to be S.H.I.E.L.D. at its’ worst.

Listen again, AoS is the one MCU property that got out of hand and/or out of control, and no one was sad to see it go, not even the cast; there’s no indication that MCU will be rebooting S.H.I.E.L.D. any time soon; unfortunately, AoS is very popular with its’ fans, and since it has ran for 6 slash 7 seasons in a row, it has become quite well-known and well-established as well. So what?

Therefore, for a while now MCU is in a quandary – they had intended to use S.H.I.E.L.D., but because of real-life issues, they are unable to. Consequently, they tried to use something else – S.W.O.R.D. in WV, but WV has had its’ own problems, most notable – the imbalance between Wanda and Vision: WV was supposed to be a TV series about both of them, but instead it turned out to be mainly about Wanda instead, who would go on to become the antagonist in the second ‘Dr. Strange’ film – and that particular movie had no sign of S.W.O.R.D., of the new Vision, or of captain Photon, even though they played important roles in WV. Still, since the upcoming 2023 ‘The Marvels’ film is supposed to feature all of them – Kamala, Carol and Ms. Rambeau – the odds of the Damage Control introducing/re-introducing S.W.O.R.D. into MCU are very good. We will just have to wait and see as to what happens next.

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

Dr. Strange 2 movie - May 6

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the ‘Dr. Strange 2’ film instead, now that there is no worry about spoilers. Therefore, what about it?

…Not unlike most of the Phase 4 MCU TV series, ‘Dr. Strange 2’ was a transitional tale, even moreso than ‘Black Widow-2021’ was. Both of the movie’s main characters – Dr. Strange and Wanda Maximoff – emerged greatly changed between the movie’s start and finish; the rest of the characters – well…

- America Chavez is a brand-new character in MCU, so she does not need to change; her being in MCU is a change enough.

- Mordo got rebooted in a manner of speaking, since the Mordo we saw in this movie was a Mordo from a different universe than the one we saw in the first ‘Dr. Strange’ film, (2016), though the two versions of the good baron were similar enough to each other.

- Christine Palmer changed from the titular character’s main love interest into, well, not – she seems to be engaged to someone else now, and with Clea appearing in the mid-credits scene, clearly, she and Stephen are done with each other for now.

- And Wong… apparently, he is the sorcerer supreme in the film; I am not sure if it is the main timeline or one of the secondary though; regardless, Wong underwent some of his own changes, so yay for him!.. What next?

…The movie is wonderful in the way that ‘Morbius-2022’ was not: the script, the plot, the acting and the scenery all work, and the fact that ‘Dr. Strange 2’ is firmly rooted in ‘the greater MCU’, helps as well. This movie is a direct continuation of both ‘Dr. Strange 1’ film, and the WV TV series; Wanda Maximoff finally reaps what she has sown on one hand, while Dr. Strange continues to evolve as a hero and to make new friends. Pause.

Yes, the latter point is important enough for further elaboration: in MCU especially, heroes tend to have friends, while villains do not. Admittedly, the titular characters of such shows as ‘Loki’ and MK have blurred the line some, but the distinction is still there, even as Loki and MK become ‘proper’ heroes, (whether willing or reluctant or something else is another issue altogether). As such, Wanda’s growing social isolation since the ‘Avengers: Endgame’ film is a clear (one out of) sign that something is wrong with her, (at least on the obvious level). By contrast, Dr. Strange has no such problems – he’s got Wong, he got Christine, (more or less), by the end of his second film he’s got America, he may have Peter Parker and his friends… well, the last one is kind of squeaky, as at the end of ‘No Way Home’ Peter got his wish for total anonymity, and now he has to figure out as to where to from here to get out of this mess. Still, unlike Wanda, Peter does not appear to have turned to unholy magics to bring back his aunt back from the dead, but, again, when it was touch and go with the Green Goblin, Peter did have friends – and his counterparts from another two realities – to keep him afloat. Wanda Maximoff, on the other hand – not so much, unfortunately…

Getting back on track, another important point made by ‘Dr. Strange 2’ is that you cannot use the multiverse to replace what you have lost; the infinite realm of possibilities also has an infinite number of ‘yous’ using/utilizing those possibilities…but Michelle Yeoh’s take on the multiverse has already depicted this concept before this film did, so, what’s next?

America’s sexual orientation? Not unlike Disney/MCU’s overall policy, this aspect of her character was underwhelming…though in RL, Disney is already in trouble with U.S. Republican party regarding their take on the U.S. sexual minorities, while overseas, in China, the ‘No Way Home’ film was banned/censored because it used the Statue of Liberty, among other things. That said, clearly Sony and Disney/MCU have their issues with each other still, as Spider-Man also got firmly sidelined in the main Marvel MCU timeline; fair enough, the rest of MCU is moving on.

…One important point relates to the element of horror in the movie; while ‘Dr. Strange 2’ can be rather gory at times, (and we might get to it later), someone – at ‘The Wrap’, I think – proclaimed that ‘Dr. Strange’ isn’t supposed to entertain fans. I am sorry, but what is it supposed to do? Give Cumberbatch, Olsen and co. justification for their career choices? ‘Dr. Strange 2’ is a movie designed to entertain, rather than to educate and/or to inform, for example.

This brings us to the Illuminati, or at least – to one of their versions, which existed only for Wanda to kill them and to gain more XP in the process… I mean, to show the audience as to how much she fallen since the events in WV, and that is a lot. In WV, Wanda was bad enough, when she mentally enslaved the entire town of Westview with her powers in her grief, but now she is just killing people – and very powerful people, too. That said, the critiques that the Illuminati served only as props to show-off the new dark Wanda are quite justified, and the use of those characters in the ‘Dr. Strange 2’ movie are justified – maybe some different approach to give Wanda more XP would have been better…

However, ‘Dr. Strange 2’ is still a good movie, one that aimed to properly depict the multiverse of MCU for the first time, (even ‘No Way Home’ was more of a forerunner instead). The restraints of live-action films (it’s slightly different with TV series, as AoS’ S7 showed), is such that ‘Dr. Strange 2’ focuses on alternate versions of Dr. Strange and Wanda Maximoff only, but because ‘Dr. Strange 2’ is a good film, this take works, so yay!

…And for now, then, this is it. ‘Dr. Strange 2’ is a good film, very enjoyable, (relatively aware of its’ limitations, and may not always be as imaginative as you’d expect, but still the good outweighs the bad here), and very fun to watch, so watch it! Otherwise, I will see you all soon!

Hawkeye, series premiere - Nov 25

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about ‘Hawkeye’ instead.

…Ok, this is actually not such a good idea, since the show itself has quite some issues going on for itself, with most prominent being the supposedly clever double entendre, (or whatever it is called), as the show’s title is the legitimate moniker for both Clint and Kate, and now the duo have to cooperate with each other, (technically speaking), in order to- but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.

Let us begin again. The problem of ‘Hawkeye’ is that both Clint and Kate each have their own issues, and they do not like to share. Kate wants to find herself, and hates her up and coming stepfather; Clint wants to spend time with his family, but cannot – because of the tracksuit mafia. And-?

And it has been a running gag for a while now that Clint is the least of all the Avengers; the ‘Endgame’ film and the penultimate episode of the ‘What If?’ s1 tried to change this perception, but not enough, and right now, his opponents are a group of criminals, organized or not, completely mundane, not very competent, and not very intimidating – clearly members of the shallow end of the MCU pool. The fact that Clint has not whipped them yet is not a mark in his favor either.

On the other hand we got Kate, who wants to be like the Avengers – perhaps even an Avenger herself – and, possibly, to avenge her late true father, who died during the battle of NYC in 2012. Sadly, because she is a young and unexperienced vigilante, so far she is underperforming herself, and the fact that her nemesis – so far – is her stepfather is also underwhelming; good thing that Kate’s attitude, charm, and charisma compensate for that lack in spades.

…Of course, the same can be said of Barton, albeit to a lesser extent, but the fact is that by the TV series’ standards, ‘Hawkeye’ delivers a much more balanced and equal act than ‘WandaVision’ did. No offence to the team WV, but in that TV show, Wanda had the lion’s share of the plot development, while Vision developed an identity crisis instead, and by now, there’s no Wanda & Vision, since the show’s Vision was either a construct that Wanda made from her memories with magic… or a completely different synthezoid who has no relationship with Wanda whatsoever, and had actually almost killed her at one point… Where were we?

Right, the transitions. MCU’s Phase 4 is all about them; for example, in the already-mentioned ‘WandaVision’, the titular characters transitioned from a couple into complete strangers, starting their entire relationship – professional, familial, and otherwise – anew. In ‘Black Widow’, the titular title passed from Natasha to Yelena. And in ‘Hawkeye’, the plan is something similar – the titular title will pass from Clint to Kate, especially since the latter is willing and almost ready already. So, what else?

Aside from the issues of underwhelming and duality, (not quite necessary)… no, not quite. The issue of duality is quite necessary, it permeates the first two episodes of ‘Hawkeye’ at least: on one hand, we have Kate, her issues with her new stepfamily, and also the stepfamily’s own issues, (just who did kill Armand III?). On the other, we got the tracksuit mafia, who, clearly, are not a part of that process, but instead seem to be working for, or with, Maya Lopez instead.

The latter was only introduced in the episode’s 1x02 finale, but she’s an important character in the Marvel comics already, and since she wears the title of Ronin, (cough), in one of Marvel’s video games, the odds of her being a rival to Kate’s claim of being the next Hawkeye, are good enough.

Of course, though both ‘Hawkeye’ and ‘Ronin’ were Clint Barton’s alter-egos, they’re also quite different from each other, so maybe Maya and Kate will learn to get along – but for now Kate and Clint should survive the tracksuit mafia and etc. Given how Hawkeye was underplayed among the Avengers that is not very encouraging, actually. What else?

Well, there is also the ‘Encanto’ film that also came out this week. It is the latest Disney movie, and it is underwhelming; less ‘CATS-2019’ and more ‘Doolittle-2020’ done right. As it is the rule with the Disney animated films, there is no villain per se, (as there are in MCU or SW movies), rather the film’s main character (and her family, to a lesser extent), and so the result is… a musical. Yes, Lin-Manuel Miranda, I am looking at you. ‘In the heights’, the movie version, was simply overwhelming, with such qualities as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ not applicable to it; that was an epic movie, and ‘Encanto’ attempts to do a liter version of it. The result are overwhelming musical numbers set in an underwhelming, by the numbers, Disney animated movie. With a lack of an antagonist, and with a less extended message than the one in ‘Frozen 2’, ‘Encanto’ leans into more flash than substance easily; it does have a message – about family and family values – but it tends to get buried under all the glitz and glammer of Disney’s animation instead. Anything else?

Yes, the first 5 and a half minutes of the ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’ movie. Whereas Disney has apparently removed most of the concept of ‘conflict’ from its’ animated movies, this film has not, however this conflict is changed – rather than humans, (or other sentient beings), so far we got dinosaur vs. dinosaur, (though dinosaur vs. human conflict is close second). Indeed, given what we have seen in all of the previous films of the franchise, there will be some conflict between humans regardless, so it will be interesting to watch…but that is a story for another time.

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

What If, 'Zombies' - Sep 8

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about MCU once again. This time, we are back with the ‘What if?’ series, and now we got zombies.

Pause. To be more specific, zombies have a long and established career slash history in the Marvel world by now; there’s a separate comic world inhabited by the zombiefied Marvel heroes and villains, but, again, this is a separate world from the mainstream comic one – and the same can be said about the MCU take on it. Uatu the Watcher shows us different worlds from the main MCU one, and this one just happens to be infected with zombies. Fun.

Again, pre-‘Loki’, the TVA would’ve appeared in such a world and tried to fix it, at least, lest things get as bad as they did in this week’s episode when the world got nearly overrun by zombies – or maybe it actually did.

To elaborate, again, the zombies in Marvel™ are much more than just shuffling mindless corpses: at the very least, they have bestial cunning as well as reflexes, and at worst, they’re as intelligent as they were in life – and much more ruthless, usually. …In D&D, there is a monster called a ghoul or a ghast, which is based on a monster from the Arabic mythology, a ghoul or a ghul, which is something intermediate between a basic zombie and a basic vampire: it has intelligence, just as the latter does, and is much quicker and tougher than a zombie is, but otherwise? It looks more like an animated corpse, or a zombie, than a vampire, who often comes across as suave and sophisticated… at least at first. Once the fangs are out, it is all different, but still… Where were we?

Right, this week’s episode of ‘What if?’. It obviously draws upon the previous Marvel Zombies’ incarnations, though it also tries to be original by making its’ cast go all over the places and phases; there’s a non-evil (supposedly) Sharon Carter in the mix, for example, but, again, all of this mix and match comes from the Avengers’ corner of the Marvel universe; there’s no sign of mutants or of the Defenders, off the top of one’s head. There are no agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. either; Coulson’s appearance in the episode 1x03 was more of a cameo than of anything more specific; what next?

A shout-out back to ‘Shang-Chi’ in regards to mix and match in regards to the racial question: Disney/MCU appears to try to have their cake and to eat it too: in AoS, they played around with interracial relationships, (Coulson and May as the most obvious example), but somehow nothing corporeal came out of it; the best was WASP and WASP, (think the FitzSimmons), and POC and POC, (Mack and Yo-Yo). In the ‘Defenders’ franchise, there were almost no interracial relationships: WASP Jessica was with the WASP Murdoch, while Mack – who was a POC – was with a different one: progressive indeed! Is this early 21^st century or the 20^th? …Of course, the ‘Defenders’ franchise also had the ‘Iron Fist’, whose main relationship was an interracial one, but it was done very clumsily, and out of the entire Defenders’ crew, the ‘Iron Fist’ went down first – but we digressed.

…On the other hand, ‘Zombies’ does work hard to keep us focused; for an episode that is all about zombies and excitement, it feels like the biggest letdown yet: it may be an ‘Apocalypse’-based episode, but somehow the tone is all over the place, and the shout-out to ‘WandaVision’ didn’t help either, though an evil zombie Wanda was a good villain. That said, I left feeling the episode not shaken or awed, but almost bored, since it is obvious by now how the story will end: the good guys always win, even if a horde of Thanos’ zombies will arrive from space as a final twist. Sigh. When Ward was revealed as a Hydra agent back in AoS’ S1, that was a twist. This was something else, and nowhere as good, leaving the audience wish either for the blank despair of 1x04, or for the cautious optimism of 1x03. 1x05 constantly careens between the two, and leaves the audience with dissatisfaction instead. Sad, but that is real life for you. It sucks.

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

 

Shang-Chi - Sep 7

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of 10 Rings’ movie instead. Where does it stand, exactly?

Why, at Marvel™, of course, sharing team Marvel’s™ standard brand of excellence! …Unfortunately, given that we are at Marvel’s Phase 4 by now, that is not enough, on its’ own – but let us elaborate.

Until ‘Shang-Chi’ rolled in, so far, all of Marvel’s Phase 4 was all about transition: Wanda and Vision have drifted apart, (putting it lightly), Bucky and Sam have become a duo, Loki has become a duo with Sylvie, and has become a proper hero rather than a selfish berk, and the title of Black Widow passed from Natasha to Yelena. Anything else? Oh yes, PP and Dr. SS, (different one from the ‘What If?’ episode 1x04, I believe), are about to embark on a magical journey of self-discovery, or at least PP does; I am not so sure about the good doctor… So, where does it leave Shang-Chi?

Kind of shoehorned into the same mould, technically speaking. Throughout the bigger part of the film, Shang-Chi travelled both literally and spiritually, both through the external world and inside of his own mind, trying to figure out as to who he really was, until he succeeded, (at least, by the movie’s conclusion). That’s not bad, but the problem is that the movie itself wasn’t a transition per se, as the ‘Black Widow’ film was, (and even that had problems…aside from ScarJo fighting Disney/MCU afterwards, cough), but rather it’s an introductory movie, not unlike the initial ‘Black Panther’ film, (another one is coming out soon enough). The ‘Black Panther’ movie had introduced Africa, (and Afro-Americans), to MCU. Now, ‘Shang-Chi’ is doing the same thing with Far East Asia, (and also its’ native people). Again, not a bad idea, but…

…But even ‘Black Panther’ had problems with its’ message, as we’ve discussed it way back when. ‘Shang-Chi’ has the same problem, and if you’ll say that its’ cast and crew went extra distance to avoid the clichés, I’ll respond that they’re inevitable, because Shang-Chi himself was a cliché – an Asian, or an Asian-American martial artist, who is trying to become ‘A Good Guy™’ person and escape his father’s shadow. The issue of Fu Manchu was mentioned repeatedly as ‘Shang-Chi’ was coming to the silver screens, so let’s not chew on it too much, but, again, Fu Manchu’s villainy worked because he was a cliché, by the Western standards anyhow – an alien, a foreigner, who isn’t, mmm, Caucasian, but who is intelligent, and rich, and formidable all the same. ‘Shang-Chi’ the movie tries to avoid that cliché by taking place – in a large part – outside of a real world altogether, but rather in the magical place of To-La…or inside Shang-Chi’s mind…or on a different plane of existence altogether…you get the drift. Not such a bad idea, but unfortunately a large part of Disney/MCU’s strength is its’ realism; the latter often tried to reference real life events and people, (especially in the first phases), and once ‘Shang-Chi’ moved away from that state of affairs, it floundered. ‘Black Panther’ didn’t go in that direction, BTW – indeed, the movie was about Wakanda ending its’ isolation, and instead becoming a part of the greater MCU world, ‘thanks’ to Killmonger and his actions – there’s nothing like that in ‘Shang-Chi’; rather, Wu Xenxu’s crime organization remains a world apart from the rest of MCU, and so’s the village of To La. ‘Black Panther’ destroyed, (well, started the process of), isolation; ‘Shang-Chi’ did none of that.

This brings us to the second big difference between ‘Black Panther’ and ‘Shang-Chi’ – the matter of ethnicity, or of race. ‘Black Panther’ was all about Africa; ‘Shang-Chi’ – about Asia, or more precisely, it is all about the Far East. Yes, it is a Western term, but since we are still living in a predominantly Western world, that is the term we are going to use. Therefore, what about it?

This is the latest attempt of the Western cinematography to break into the Far Eastern cinemas and etc. There were ‘Crazy Rich Asians’, ‘Mulan-2020’, ‘Raya and the Last Dragon’ to name a few, and now there is also ‘Shang-Chi’. The West does not care about the African mass media market and culture so much, in part, because the latter are so underdeveloped when compared to the U.S., but it cares about the Far Eastern version because of communism and the Far Eastern culture in general – neither of these factors are too friendly towards the West. ‘Mulan-2020’ in particular have brought those differences to the fore, and the West, embodies by Disney, folded first. Disney/MCU (+SW, etc.), may pretend to be fair, progressive, politically correct and so on, but the bottom line is all about the dollar. Given how much of the latter ‘Shang-Chi’ has brought to Disney/MCU, it obvious works, though maybe the heroic Black Widow ScarJo will do something about that with her lawsuit. Anything else?

…Just that even the ‘Black Panther’ film had some token characters of a different color, cough, that were actually important to the film; ‘Shang-Chi’ – not so much. As a result, the movie again suffers, becoming less of a movie and more of a propaganda piece…whose message is a lie, on top of everything else, and everyone is aware of it, more or less cognizantly. U.S. in general seems to have problems in this department; it seems to rely too heavily on its’ media to shape its’ own story, and it does not work. It didn’t work back in the elections-2016, and it doesn’t work now: no ‘FBI: International’ or ‘NCIS: Hawaii’ TV series will hide the fact that the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan with its’ tail between its’ legs, no so much an eagle or a lion, but rather whipped toy dog, but we digress.

No, no really. When ‘Black Panther’ was made and released, the U.S. still considered itself to be on top of the world, and most of the world played along, (cough, RF’s conquering of the Crimean peninsula in 2014, cough). Now, ‘Shang-Chi’ is playing in the world where the former statement is clearly false, and the rest of the world has to admit it. (Alternatively, it was the one doing the forced admitting). How will this affect ‘Shang-Chi’ and the rest of MCU? I have no idea, but out of the two movies, I have still enjoyed ‘Black Panther’ better.

…This is it for now; 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!