D:BA, Season premiere - March 5

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Deadpool/Wolverine - July 24

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the ‘Deadpool 3’ film instead – spoilers alert ahead!

…As it was written before, this is a redemption story, and hence a monotheistic, rather than a polytheistic one. Both of the titular characters of the film are down on their luck and are not handling it too well, so enter the TVA to shake the situation for them up even more. The TVA is also supposed to tie them into the MCU multiverse, but as the events of ‘Loki’ S2 showed, MCU has largely shoved the TVA itself to the sidelines, so this aspect of the movie is kin of doubtful – even for the movie.

No, seriously, the main element of ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ are the titular characters, as they get their bearings in gear, (or whatever the phrase is), and have to defeat both Dr. Cassandra Nova, and deal with the TVA, which still has its’ own problems, reminiscent of ‘Loki’ S2 once more. The TVA, however, quickly becomes sidelined (until the end of the film, and even then it is not too important any longer), and we are left with an X-Rated MCU mutant movie instead.

The plot is straightforward: Wade needs to save his world by fixing the whatever problems his world’s Wolverine has made. Logan – from this universe – also needs to save his problems, and save their world in the process of doing so. Logan, however, has lost his mojo, and Wade is trying – in several meanings of the word – to help Logan recover it. Pause.

The fact that both of those characters have very tangled timelines from the RL perspective does not help. Therefore, D&W has relocated itself largely to the Void from ‘Loki’, (introduced in S1), where they encounter various mutants and several other characters, both from MCU and otherwise. Mind, that the movie’s plot is a straight-out redemption story, seen through an equally straight-out RPG plotline, where the titular characters have to defeat tougher and tougher opponents until the final boss – Dr. Cassandra Nova in this case. Moreover, since the end of Phase 3, MCU did not really go for in-depth, rounded villains, (the situation with Kang and his actor had not helped things either), and so, Dr. Nova is rather forgettable, as is Paradox, (who gets arrested in the film’s end too, as part of TVA’s cleaning up its’ house at the end of ‘Loki’ S2. Isn’t interconnectivity clever, cough?). What next?

The movie is carried by emotions rather than logic, and by visuals rather than anything too in-depth – R-rated or not, D&W is still a Marvel comic film, and as such the next ‘Gawain and the Green Knight’ movie it is not. Thank goodness for that, too. What else?

Ah yes, the extra mutant variants of the films. Guess MCU has not yet given up on the Multiverse concept, and RR is doing a better job in fixing it than the Rock did with DCEU… before it ended. In addition, Wade broke up with Vanessa (at the beginning of the film)? Seriously? After the emotional wrangler, that was their second film? Well, weirder things have happened…  The point is that D&W film has delivered a good story, and it is good, even if it isn’t seminal, semiotic, or anything else high-brow. It has not recharged me per se, but it did bring something of a smile to my face after all.

This is it for now. See you all soon!

X-Men '97 - season finale

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about X-Men ’97 season finale. It… is not much of an improvement, unfortunately.

What has become one of X-Men ’97 traits? A lack of personal stakes for the main cast: here, for example, Rogue, Roberto (Sunspot) and Magneto seceded from the X-Men, and several of the latter went to rope them in. It was a mixed success, until professor X interfered personally and… healed Magneto, making him a ‘white hat’ once more, with Rogue and Roberto following suit. Seriously, drama does sell, but it has to be convincing, and the stakes covered by it have to matter. Otherwise, it just chews up the scenery and time. (The lack of chemistry between Roberto and Jubilee most of the time is not even worth mentioning anymore).

As for the other villains… Bastion came up only in the last few episodes of the season, and so we never formed an attachment to him, had an investment with him. He died – and good riddance. Mr. Sinister has been ‘only’ depowered, so he’ll be back once more in the future seasons, (if there are any)… Oh, and JG briefly pokevolved into the Phoenix.

Right, here is the thing. In the canon, including the original X-Men cartoon, the Phoenix was an external force, a semi-incorporeal, albeit a very powerful entity, that needed a corporeal host to manifest itself to the max. Jean Grey is the best-known example, of course, but there were, and are, others who also were, or are, the Phoenix. In the original cartoon, the Phoenix in JG was defeated, eventually, so how JG was able to tap into it is unknown. Maybe we will learn in the future seasons, (if there are any); the question as to why JG want to bring back the Phoenix, (their relationship was ambiguous, to say the least) is a different matter… Anything else?

Ah, yes, the season ends with the X-Men being scattered through time, and we get to see some of the future seasons’ villains, including some sort of a version of Apocalypse. Given how in the ‘Beyond Good and Evil’ story arc of the original series Apocalypse was banished outside time and space, guess who’s coming back, eh?

Otherwise, the X-Men ’97 11^th season was good enough; better than ZS’s ‘Rebel Moon’ movies, for example. The new/old/rebooted X-Men do not shine, but neither do they dim; they deliver; delivered; will deliver some good old-fashioned entertainment, and that is good enough for their viewers. Oh, and Senator Kelly is now president of the U.S. Of course he is.

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

X-Men '97 - Extinction II

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. The RPG 2^nd Edition Pathfinder, in particular, seems to have gone marasmatic: they try to come across fast and lose, yet at the same time they try to micromanage everything. Look at the latest adventure path, one that is set in the Mosswood (or whatever it is called, it does not matter here). In the player’s guide to the path, the Pathfinder team is bombasting the readers’/players’ with oodles of suggestions and references yet all the while telling them it does not matter; they can be whomever they like. Fair enough, but… in this case either the readers/players really can be whomever they like, in which case all of the information in the guide is superficial and unnecessary, or this information is mandatory, in which case the players have to choose out of the options presented by the guide, and their personal desires are irrelevant. Pause.

Aside from the fact that both options are equally bad and annoying, there’s also the fact that team Pathfinder and the DMs don’t really have ways to enforce it, if the players will disregard the Pathfinder options, (remember, they’re supposed to be suggestions), and go with the flow. Not to mention that the DMs usually do not want to fight with their players, because often the latter are their friends too, on one hand, and on the other, RPGs are a luxury item, they aren’t needed, they cater to whims, and if they don’t, people will find other options (such as D&D) that do. Onto X-Men ’97, then?

Yes, pretty much. Not unlike the RPGs, this cartoon series is also a luxury item, it is trying to tickle the audience’s fancy with a lot of Easter eggs and references, and when they stop, we are left with something else.

For example, Magneto – in this episode – restarts the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, taking Rogue with him, as well as Roberto. Well, Magneto and Rogue’s relationship aside, firstly, Magneto actually saved the day – or at least helped a lot – in the first part of the season’s finale, so is he really evil anymore, or did the scriptwriters want to write yet another Magneto vs. Professor X fight? (The two of them did fight here, sort of). On the other hand, since Roberto is with Magneto now… err, with the Brotherhood now, Jubilee seems to be actually missing him… why? Throughout the season, Roberto was essentially a prop; his chemistry with Jubilee was nonexistent, and so was his role on the show, and now that he is with Magneto and Rogue, Jubilee actually begins to miss him? Can we say – ‘forced relationship’? And In the past, it looked as if the relationships on AoS were contrived. Anything else?

The bulk of ‘Extinction 2’ episode was about fights, with little being done, to be frank. The non-relationship between Jubilee and Roberto feels forced, and so’s the conflict between most of the X-Men and Magneto, Rogue and Roberto. This entire specific episode feels like filler, albeit an exciting one, so odds are is that it is. In fact, as it was said before, the entire X-Men ’97 now feels like a luxury product that is getting a bit desperate for whatever reasons. Ah well, it is no skin off our back.

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

X-Men/Mufasa - May 1

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Now onto the home stretch of the X-Men ’97 season?

…Well, rather not, because by now we got the gist of the conflict in this season: it is the X-Men and most other mutants against yet another sentinel version – the Prime Sentinels. As far as Sentinels go, they are the X-Men version of the Mindless Ones, complete with glowing eyes. They can hardly be stopped, they can barely be reasoned with, they are yet another incarnation of the ‘evil mob’ kind of foe, and as such they cannot be sympathized, not really – and (the now dead) Gyrich is behind them. Of course he is. He is the mastermind behind the mob, (not to be confused with the actual X-Men character named the Mastermind). It was said before and it is said now, the X-Men ’97 franchise is going around in a circle like a snake in a wheel and going nowhere.

…Ok, this was uncalled for – with Magneto’s help the Prime Sentinels are defeated, but since the season’s finale is a 3-parter, and this was only the first part, so more excitement is ahead, really. Hell, even Jubilee and Roberto will be given something to do! Back in the 90s, Jubilee was all but written out of the main narrative, because it was no longer obvious what she was needed for in a show with a big cast, and the same is happening now, her and Roberto’s adventure in Mojo-land notwithstanding. This time she and Roberto are being dragged along for the ride like a couple of accessories to the main suit, and-

-and yes, Jubilee may grow up into a formidable warrior if she doesn’t die, and Morph is used as a prop to showcase various other Marvel mutant characters without them being actually around, and professor X is back, and everyone is excited, and the audiences are eating the show up, and there’s no specific background, unlike what is shaping up in the ‘Deadpool 3’ movie, and we’ve been here before, remember? Therefore, instead of beating up a (existential status undetermined) Deadpool, let us briefly talk about the upcoming ‘Mufasa’ film.

This is a spin-off of the ‘Lion King’ films, focusing on the childhood of Simba’s father instead. In this trailer, we see that 1) the (spotted) hyenas might be present, but they are playing a smaller role than they did in the original movie (both incarnations), which is good, because they need more good PR (the hyenas do). 2) Is that Mufasa’s brother Scar is not very prominent in the trailer either, but there are scenes of two lions of different ages fighting each other. In one scene, the background is on fire, and we get a glimpse of a small creature attacking the (enemy?) lion – perhaps it is Timon, who, alongside Pumba, is also supposed to be appear in the film. In the second fight, the background is icy, so either we are going to have a flashback into the past, into lives of cave lions instead, or Mufasa is going to get onto the Mt. Kilimanjaro or somewhere similar.

…The geography in the ‘Lion King’ franchise is just as bad as zoology is – in RL Africa has deserts at the ends, the jungle in the middle, and the savanna in-between, broadly speaking. In the world of Mufasa, Scar and Simba, we get the desert between the savanna and the jungle instead, therefore, an ice and snow covered mountain could fit quite well into this ensemble.

3) – in another scene, we have a lion cub, or cubs, having a misadventure with at least one Nile crocodile. In RL, this reptile is the only challenger to the saltwater crocodile in size and strength; the royal lion can defeat it, however – on land, and preferably in a pride. One on one, and especially in the water, the Nile crocodile has the upper hand, however. Since Mufasa (and his companions) are just cubs, they are in big trouble.

Finally, 4) – Rafiki. He is a mandrill, and this monkey, as well as its’ only true relative the drill, are not baboons, nor are particularly close cousins to them; rather, their closest relatives are the crested mangabeys, a group of guenon-like monkeys that don’t look anything like the drill/mandrill duo, as the latter look much more like the baboons and the geladas instead. Moreover, unlike the latter, the drill and the mandrill live in the African jungle, and as such, they appeared in Disney’s animated Tarzan-verse, and avoid the savannahs instead. Disney is certainly playing fast and loose with Africa in the ‘Lion King’ franchise; it will certainly be interesting to see how the movie will come out in winter of 2024.

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

X-Men/Deadpool 3 - April 24

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the X-Men ’97 instead. Um. This is akin to using capitalism to distract from feudalism, or reverse, or something along those lines anyhow. Shall we try again?

As we have been talking increasingly in those previous weeks, X-Men ’97 are fan service; the scriptwriters and co. behind them are outright adapting the older comic storylines for the episode plots. For the entire season’s plot too, for that matter. AoS had its’ own share of flaws, but at least it tried to be original, for the first 2-3 seasons of its’ run anyhow. X-Men ’97 does not. Rather, it has plenty of fan appeal; in this week’s episode, ‘Bright Eyes’, we saw a Steve Rogers/Captain America; last week, it was Ronan the Accuser. Therefore, where is Uatu? Shouldn’t he be watching – never mind. He is probably watching the live-action adventures of Wolverine and Deadpool instead.

Now that trailer is something else. Not unlike the X-Men ’97, it is a classic – it is shaping up to be a tale of redemption and resurrection; Deadpool flat-out proclaims himself Jesus, aka the Savior, and he’s saving Wolverine. Well, a Wolverine, but the fact that HJ is playing the character also clears up some things, doesn’t it?

Let us roll back a bit. To date, humanity has invented only two versions of religion: polytheism and monotheism. The two models are simply different, and it does not matter which is better or worse, but what matters is that salvation and damnation, temptation and redemption, and all the other ‘tion’ words matter only in monotheism; in polytheism, not so much. By talking about salvation, Deadpool, and ‘Deadpool 3’ flat-out tries at least to tap into monotheism, which in US means Christianity, at least the Protestant version of it. Pause.

The problem is that these days the U.S. does not acknowledge itself as a Christian country, not how it did before, before the 1990’s, at least. The entire wink-wink nudge-nudge approach does not work too good either – for example, Ms. Meg Cabot’s novels have plenty of Christian/Protestant moral values, (and they are not half-bad from the technical point of view), but because she never openly admits this, her novels fall flat, and instead of being mouthpieces for those values they… do not. They may be making Ms. Cabot plenty of money as people are buying and selling them, but not much else, and the same will go down for the ‘Deadpool 3’ film as well – it will make Disney/MCU/anyone else a lot of money, it will help establish the mutants in MCU somehow most likely, but the Christian imagery, motifs, and what else have you will just dissipate, and that is it. Still better than X-Men ’97, who don’t even have that. The ‘Deadpool 3’ film is clearly having a lot of effort behind it, effort and money, and so it will deliver, much more so than the ‘Madame Web’ movie had, for example. (The latter had potential, in fact, but it was squandered).

Therefore, to sum up, whereas X-Men ’97 is purely entertainment and fan service, ‘Deadpool 3’ is setting itself up as something more – much more than that. Will it be able to achieve this is another question, we just have to wait and see.

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

X-Men 'Lifedeath 2' - April 17

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks; it is raining all day long, so onto the X-Men ’97 episode of the week? In this case, we get to see more adventures with Storm/Ororo Munroe, as she, well, adventures. I could elaborate in some detail, but – spoilers?

Ok, not so much, as this week’s episode flavor is space and Kree, bringing back such favorites as Deathbird and the Gladiator. Listen. X-Men ’97 are playing on the audience’s nostalgia and they are playing it hard. If you like it, it is your thing; otherwise, why are you watching the show?

Again, unlike the live-action/MCU shows, X-Men ’97 is not trying to be realistic, and without the live-action’s constraints, it is not. Rather, we got some very outlandish designs, such as the last week’s variant Sentinels and this week’s aliens. X-Men ’97 is doing its’ best to be outlandish and outrageous – and it is succeeding there. No, seriously, it does, as people are certainly enjoying the titular characters battle various bizarre foes – such as the angry mobs of F.O.H., the crazy sentinel robots, and this week there are alien villains, (in a manner of speaking). Moreover, by outright adapting X-Men comic storylines, the show is… playing it safe and certain, as well as avoiding any controversies that could arise with outright new materials, such as the SW movies 7-9, (the sequel trilogy).

…Maybe the latter is not the best example, but it works: the Sequel trilogy was supposed to expand and to add new lore and dimensions to the SW-world. It failed (for various reasons) and since then… Disney was trying to play it safe; because it loves to make money, and hates to lose money, among other reasons. Controversy ruins everything is Disney’s opinion in all of its’ franchises and branches these days, and it shows.

…But wait! Hasn’t it tried to sneakily show as to how the world of SW passed from the one seen in the movie 6 to the one seen in the movie 7? Yes, and once the audiences began to realize it; the hate was back, and since then… Disney/SW is sticking to ‘the Bad Batch’ cartoon; once it runs out, it is anyone’s guess as to where it will go, (especially since ‘The Mandalorian’ seems to have ended for now). Anything else?

No, not really. X-Men ’97 are expanding their initial universe, but they are doing through visual pageantry and the like, so for now, this is it, as there is nothing specifically new to discuss. See you all soon instead!

Solar Eclipse/X-Men - April 10

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, but the solar eclipse-2024 deserves a special mention, (and not just because X-Men ’97 are not all that either).

Where to begin? On Monday, April 8, 2024, the sky where my family lives – southern Ontario – was overcast. The people of science claimed that the skies will clear up because of the eclipse-2024 and all, but in reality the cloud cover just wasn’t breaking-up, not at all.

We went for a walk. The weather was quite cold, even if it was just early spring – the days before and after it were much warmer, in fact – and there were relatively few people outside. Still, we walked around, had our daily exercise, and returned home before three o’clock in the afternoon.

At 3:10 pm, it began to get dark, so we turned on the lights. By 3:15, it was as dark as it is in evening, about 20-30 minutes after the sunset. By 3:19-3:20, when the solar eclipse was complete, and it was as dark as… during an especially heavy local thunderstorm, when it come become almost as dark as night for a few minutes. Here, it was the same, as immediately it began to clear up, and by 3:25 or so, it was daylight as usual, or even more, as by 3:30 the sky actually began to clear-out from the clouds, and by 4:30 pm, it was clear completely. Mother Nature, (or God, or etc.) has trolled us.

On the other hand, the people who went to Niagara Falls, either from the Canadian or the American sides, got to see the same sight, (in a matter of speaking); only they paid several thousand dollars for this, so our family isn’t complaining too much. Real life sucks, as this blog mentions regularly, but sometimes it also rips people off.

As for this week’s X-Men ’97 episode ‘Remember’… listen. Magneto is dead – apparently. Gambit is dead – apparently. Uncle Ben Parker says hi and promises that they will be back. Cyclops still likes Madeline better than Jean even though the ‘real’ Jean is back. Can we bring back the JG/Wolverine relationship back, then? No offence, but now that the initial excitement is slowly wearing down, it is becoming more evident that the X-Men ’97 aren’t delivering anything truly new, but the same old delivered in a new way – not through comics, (ink and paper), but through cartoons, (2-D style, rather than the 3-D). Hooray for those who really love the X-Men franchise, for everyone else – not as much. (Not to mention that character deaths in cartoons just are not the same as they are in live action).

Anything else? Aye, the JP’s Joker part 2 is coming to movie theatres in October 2024. Already it promises to be something different from the regular Joker and Harley story. We will have to wait and see just what it actually is.

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

X-Men ’97 "Lifedeath1" - April 3

Obligatory disclaimer – real life sucks, lately our entire family life feels like a bloody house of cards, (in a bad way), so let us talk about this week’s episode of X-Men ’97 instead.

Regrettably, it is a weaker one. On one side, we have a reboot of the ‘Mojoverse’ episode from the original X-Men series: back then, Mojo kidnapped six of the adult X-Men, (not Jubilee), and forced them to act out live video games, with their lives hanging in the balance, until they burst free (with some local help) and went back home. (Mojo was not a regular character/villain in this TV-verse). Here, we have basically the same thing, but just with Jubilee/Roberto, and a computer-graphic-version of Jubilee instead…

…My problem with Jubilee and Roberto is that their relationship is… not so much forced, as rushed: in various other previous Marvel incarnations, (live-action, comics, cartoons), Roberto was often competent at worst and formidable at best. Here, however, he seems to be nothing more than Jubilee’s love interest… not that Jubilee herself is doing much better.

The problem with a big cast is that not all of the main characters get the same amount of exposition, especially if they are all on screen at the same time. Some shows try to fix it by alternating characters: i.e. one episode features – mostly – characters a, b, and e, while on another it is c and d, and on the third – it is d, e, and f – the sort of thing. The X-Men cartoon, on the other hand, tended to show most of them en masse – Cyclops and Jean, Gambit and Rogue, Wolverine and Storm, (the) Beast and professor X shared their onscreen adventures episode after episode… Jubilee was mostly pushed out… she all but disappeared, (technically speaking), in the later seasons, because she was not contributing anything to the plot, not really… Now, however, she is back, and it is again not clear as to what she is contributing to the overall plot specifically, and ditto for Morph – in the original series he was more of an episodic character, a former teammate, an unwilling enemy, an ally to the X-Men, but not part of the team. Now, however, he is back, possibly depicting sexual minorities in the show…and also allowing the showrunners to depict the various mutant characters without actually bringing him into the show just yet.

Speak of the new characters? In the other half of the episode, we also get to meet the Adversary; he was an occasional foe/antagonist of the mutants in the comics; he often clashed… with Forge and his team. Here, their relationships is less clear-cut, and Storm appears to maybe be caught in the middle.

This brings us to the following feature of X-Men ‘97: the scriptwriters just took several old comic plotline and are trying to adapt them to the silver screen. Sometimes it works out, (such as the first two episodes of the new season), sometimes, (as in the last week’s and this week’s episodes), it does not – not really. AoS, it can be noted, did something similar, especially in the later seasons – it recycled and rebooted its’ original plotlines in order to keep itself going… and now it is gone, and MCU is pretending that it never existed at all – no S.H.I.E.L.D., but also – no S.W.O.R.D., and the state of S.A.B.R.E. is also in flux – but this has nothing to do with the X-Men franchise. Instead, just as AoS recycled its’ old ideas, the X-Men ’97 is recycling Marvel’s old X-Men ideas, from comics than from other media, but regardless… The original X-Men cartoon was somehow better than this…

Is there anything else? No, not really. The new Godzilla/Kong movie is out, and it is a good one, but it deserves a discussion of its’ own, so for now, this is it. See you all soon instead!

X-Men 97 'Fire' - March 27

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about this week’s episode of X-Men 97 instead. Again, this episode works. Why?

Because unlike MCU, X-Men 97 do not try to relate to RL issues. Yes, mutants can easily stand for any RL minorities, and their struggles can be perceived as struggles of RL minorities, but that is optional. In the season’s 2-part starter, for example, this happened; this week’s episode, ‘Fire made flesh’, conversely, it did not. If in the previous two episodes, the titular characters fought against not just against their regular foes – the Sentinel robots and the F.O.H. goons – but also against newer faces, Carl Denti/X-cutioner and Dr. Valerie Cooper, here it is back to the tested and true foe, Nathaniel Essex/Mr. Sinister and his proxy, Madeline Pryor, aka the evil Jean Grey clone, aka the Goblin Queen.

…For me, anything or anyone associated with goblins should belong in the Spider-Man corner of the franchise, and, moreover, the moniker ‘Goblin Queen’ belongs, or belonged, to several different Marvel characters, not just Ms. MP, so no Spider-Man crossover here and now, no. Conversely, another new character introduced in this episode is Nathan Summers, Scott and not-Jean’s son, better known as mutant named Cable.

Now, Cable is a time-traveller himself, not unlike Bishop, and so his timeline is confusing on a basic level. (In addition, that is before we even try to figure his less canon appearances, such as the second live-action ‘Deadpool’ film, into the mix). Nor does he show any powers reminiscent of either Cyclops or Jean Grey, so usually he isn’t associated with them either. Ok, he is, but not on a family level – more like a general ally or a frenemy. (All mutant relationships are confusing). To have his backstory appear on the show in such a manner is certainly unexpected.

Finally, we got Forge. For me, Forge is mostly associated with the X-Men Evolution show, (also known as Earth-11052, apparently). There, he is depicted somewhat differently from his more canon appearances, with a different backstory; he is an ally of the X-Men of that universe, while here his relationship with them is more ambiguous. Therefore, to have him interact with Storm here the way that he did is also interesting – but that is what any X-Men franchise does: it stirs up interest in its’ audience, in a soap opera way.

No, seriously, at the end of the day, a part of any Marvel (or DC, etc.) franchise’s DNA is soap opera, and for X-Men, a franchise with a large default cast, this is doubly so. When your core team amounts to half-a-dozen characters at least, (and usually eight or more instead), then you don’t often need outsiders to stir up the pot – but the X-Men usually face other teams; in fact, my introduction to Mr. Sinister in this universe had him trap the X-men in Savage Land with their powers blocked, while his minions did their best to capture them. Wolverine, (with the help of Ka-Zur, I believe), saved the day regardless. Go team Wolverine, then. In this week’s episode, however, he isn’t as big a presence; however, since we see him haunting Morph in the episodes’ intro it means that the Goblin Queen setback probably won’t set him back too much. Moreover, since only Cyclops can truly hurt him with his optic blasts (so far), it means that he’ll probably be back with a new plan, so that’ll be interesting to see. (Mr. Sinister’s MO is about evolution, but he is a different villain from the High Evolutionary, BTW). Anything else?

Yes, the reference to Dante’s ‘Inferno’. People, Dante wrote an entire ‘Divine Comedy’, an entire trilogy devoted to the Christian afterlife. The Riordan-verse novel, ‘Sun and Star’, also draws upon the ‘Inferno’ third of it, but, again, Dante’s work is not just about Hell, but about the Purgatory and Heaven too. People should not ignore those works so much; I really should talk about those works too, but for now – this is it.

See you all soon, instead!

X-Men 97 - season premiere

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks; between my family, the cold I caught, and the confusing weather outside, I’m really feeling down in the dumps, so let’s not talk about reality, (especially since it doesn’t get better once I move past the personal), and talk about the release of the X-Men-97 series.

It works. It works, first, because it is not so much as a reboot or a remake of the original X-Men, but rather, a flat-on sequel to the series. Instead of inventing something actually new, the Disney/Marvel creative team behind this just took the old stories and promptly continued where they ended – Xavier is in space with his alien girlfriend (a princess/queen of the Shi’ar), the rest of the X-Men and Magneto down on Earth, trying to fit the mutants into the human society. No crossovers, no multiverse, no nothing, but mutants. Oh, and Sentinel robots too.

The latter make good opponents for the mutants, (and many other Marvel entities too, if you think about it): they’re big, strong, tough, powerful, emotionless, and completely artificial, so when they go down, no one cares, and it is a big score in the X-Men collective cap. One of the exceptions to this rule is Master Mold, (who appeared in the two-part premiere, but seriously diminished, so he does not matter right now), and Nimrod, (who does not appear in the premiere at all, and so he does not count right now either). Instead, it is their maker, Gyrich, who is one of the main foes of the X-Men, and he is unsympathetic, (even if not unreasonable).

Here is the thing. The scriptwriters did their best to equalize the world of X-Men (of these X-Men, the world of Marvel is very branching) with our world, the RL world… or at least the version of the RL world that the modern U.S. (and the rest of the West) are living in. Other countries – from Russia to North Korea, from Israel to, even, Ukraine – have their own opinions on them, but in general they are not inclined to share them in public, or to openly confront the U.S. – at least not yet.

…Oh, right, Iran. This country, or, at least, its’ proxies are doing precisely this – they’re confronting the U.S. in the Middle East, and may be fighting it to a standstill. After all, between Ukraine/RF, Israel/HAMAS, and its’ own internal issues (to name a few causes), even the U.S. is stretched thin enough as to not win anytime soon, and there is one more thing.

The lack of commitment. From the mess with the Donald’s arrest/impeachment, to the whatever that is going on between the U.S. and Ukraine, the current U.S. government, (2020-?) seems to lack the will to follow to the end. They always stop at the worst possible moment, or just do not start at all. For a while, (as an example), Ms. Halley could’ve been an alternative to the Donald… if the Democrats have helped her, helped build her up as an alternative to the Donald… but they didn’t, and now the elections 2024 will be Joe vs. Donald – the latest round. Did they actually want this? It seems like they do – but are they certain that Joe will be the last on the ground standing?..

Back to the X-Men 97? I.e., what do they get to do with this? Oh, they are the latest shift in the Disney/Marvel strategy to make money: the live-action MCU-verse is failing, so it is back to the drawn cartoons. They are not the only ones – Sony’s live-action movies, (including ‘Madame Web’), are failing (unless they are Tom Hardy’s ‘Venom’, of course), while their animated Miles Morales films have succeeded – and succeeded quite formidably, too. Clearly, there is more to Spider-verse than how it appears at first, and there is something to the Multiverse too, to do it correctly, (yes, MCU’s ‘Loki’, I am looking at you – from a prince of semi-darkness to hot mess! Ouch!)

X-Men 97, by contrast, do not do multiverse or any other characters from the other corners of the Marvel franchise: we got the X-Men, we got their basic archfoes the Friends of Humanity, (aka Marvel’s KKK), we got personal drama, (unlike baseline Spider-Man, baseline X-Men have a big core cast, so they don’t need outsiders all that much), and we got nostalgia played correctly, so yay X-Men, then! We even got a few references to Spider-Man and Venom, so extra kudos, right? …Right or wrong, X-Men 97 have started strongly and should continue to go strong; the fact that they have connected only partially to RL helps too…

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

S.H.I.E.L.D. 'Collision Course I' - July 5

…And so, for better or worse, we are back with AoS. Real life being what it is, I can make no guarantees that we are going to make it through the S6 finale – did I mention that I hate my life and especially my family lately? Life itself isn’t so bad, every once in a while you get something unexpected, like an overly arrogant red-winged blackbird male singing almost in your face and almost not giving a fuck about you, but family is something else, something that is much harder to stomach even on a good day; and as for a bad one…

Yes, I am aware that that feeling is likely to be reciprocated – I just do not care. A man has to be honest at least on his own blog, so there is that, and if people have issues, that is tough. Now onto AoS?

…Honestly, I would rather rant some more, maybe even much more, about real life, about how there’s some shaman going across practically the entire Russian Federation on foot so that he could exorcise either a demon from Putin or Putin himself from Kremlin, (the two concepts are interchangeable, really), and how nothing similar in the U.S. regarding the Donald is taking place. The Russians’ claim of a socio-political stability in their country is fake, but they’re doing their best to uphold it anyhow…but the same is going on the U.S.A. – the media might be rocking the boat, the proletariat, (or the plebeians, if you want to go all ancient Roman empire instead), but the patricians, the elite? Yeah, they are about just as detached from the rest of their people as their Russian counterparts are – and that brings to AoS, sort of.

First, let us start with the upcoming ‘Little Mermaid’ remake of Disney, which will feature an Afro-American Ariel. People are divided about this already, but what matters to us is that it brings us to MCU’s Michelle Jones, who is based – partially – on the more traditional Mary Jane Watson, who, just like the 90s’ Ariel, is a Caucasian redhead, unlike MCU’s Michelle Jones, as played by Zendaya. There were many complaints about her playing the new MJ in MCU, but what do you know? People have accepted her, and they will accept the new Ariel too – Americans are good at this sort of thing; the problems of Disney with SW are not really about race or gender, and more about Disney & SW pissing off the original SW fan base from the beginning of their merger – but we have digressed.

One of the reasons as to why MCU is succeeding where the latest X-Man movie – for example – has failed, is because of interconnectivity: where ‘Dark Phoenix 2019’ existed in a vacuum, not connected to any other X-Men films, not really, not even the ‘Apocalypse 2018’ film, ‘Far From Home’ is very much a part of MCU, properly connected with other MCU films, especially the ‘Iron Man’ movies, making ‘Far From Home’ a part of a team, metaphorically speaking. This gives ‘Far From Home’ a greater material range than ‘Dark Phoenix 2019’ had, even though it wasn’t as bad as people claimed that it was – but we’re not talking about it anymore, we’re talking about AoS.

One of the plot lines of AoS’ S6 is that Sarge is really an AU version of Coulson who acts nothing like him, and does not really appear to care about his alter ego’s life – all he cares about his mission to stop Izil, aka the Beast. Leaving aside the fact that this is the most blatant material appropriation of BtVS and AtS, (but mostly BtVS S5 and Glory), this character is supposedly that Meso-American goddess, mostly of war and the like, but here she is utilizing the alien space bats that we have met in the past episodes already. Sarge is planning to stop her, no matter what is the cost, but what is the catch? People, i.e. the audience, no longer appear to care about AoS in large enough numbers, and what is more, the chemistry between the actors appears to be gone too, unless you are talking about FitzSimmons…but for the moment the FitzSimmons are separate from the rest of the crew, acting as an unwitting part of an alien Trojan horse of Izil. It sounds exciting, and yet it appears to have nothing in common with the rest of MCU; at least in S3 the writers did try to connect AoS with MCU, and Coulson’s appearance and (relatively minor) role on ‘Captain Marvel’ the movie was supposedly a similar effort too. Sadly, it does not appear to be working; Gregg’s new character is pointedly detached from Coulson, and AoS itself appears to be equally detached from the rest of MCU again, which is not good. MCU isn’t without its’ flaws, but it still is better, proportionally speaking, than AoS is – and that’s before we’re even talking about the reboot of Deke’s character, for example, or the complete lack of chemistry between Gregg and Chloe Bennett (Coulson and Daisy/Quake), Gregg and Wen. AoS really does not do couples anymore – there are the FitzSimmons, (who are the token couple on AoS these days, really – and to a lesser extent, on this episode, a comic relief), and also Mack and Yo-Yo. At least those two are back together again, yay!

Yes, we have talked how AoS is recycling, with the emphasis on re-cycling, its’ old material repeatedly, so it is a good thing that they are going for something completely new now. Sadly, this ‘newness’ got ruined by the disjointedness of the S6 instead. In S4 AoS showed that they can bring new material and not recycle old one – well, actually, they could do both – quite effectively. Here and now in S6 – not so much, which is a pity. Ah well, real life still has it worse.

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

Dark Phoenix proper - June 8

Obligatory disclaimer of this blog: real life sucks. As for the ‘Dark Phoenix 2019’ movie proper… it works. That is all there is to it.

Here is the fact – the previous ‘Phoenix’ movie version worked too, and I actually liked it better than this one. People are already talking about how even CGI of the 2019 movie was lackluster, and I have to agree – the previous version, where Magneto even took a certain bridge flying through the air, was better, especially given how CGI had improved from then till now. By modern standards, especially after ‘Infinity War’, and ‘Endgame’, and even ‘King of Monsters’, (which is a monster movie, and not a Marvel-related one, but we are talking about CGI here in general), ‘Dark Phoenix 2019’ is an underdog, in a bad way.

…Yes, if we are talking about Marvel, people are already pointing out how the CM movie has undercut ‘Dark Phoenix 2019’ in a bad way – again. As the previous X-Men movie – ‘Apocalypse’ – showed, Jean Grey was already the Phoenix, so what was with that space cloud shite? ‘Dark Phoenix 2019’ had been reworked from the very beginning, but it was better in the first act, so the reworks were not so glaring.

Then again, we have the D’bari – the aliens of this movie. In the Marvel comics, they were, well, alien plant people that hated humanity after the Phoenix destroyed the sun to fuel her powers. They didn’t have any shapeshifting powers, and though one of them – Vuk, who was a female in this 2019 movie and played by Jessica Chastain – became something of a villain known as the Starhammer – they never became shapeshifters, ever. That was more of a Skrull thing, I bet.

…Of course, movies have remade and restructured comic elements, Marvel more so than DC, but on that note, unlike those movies, the X-Men films were de-facto set in ‘our’ world, with just mutants added for extra flavor – nothing more was necessary. Yes, the ‘Logan’ (Old Man Logan) film also had cyborgs…but, apparently, it was set in a world apart from the other X-Men movies – Earth 17315, while the rest of the films took place either on Earth-10005, or on Earth-TRN414. Seriously, FOX’s take on the mutant world was a mess, and that is before you factor in ‘the Gifted’, and ‘Legion’, and anything else that FOX threw forth mutant-related. However – and that is the point – it always was an ‘ordinary’ world, just with mutants in it. No aliens or extradimensional elementals or what else have you required. Yes, ‘the Gifted’ ended with the show’s heroes following Blink somewhere, even though she was dressed as some sort of an alien space princess – but ‘the Gifted’ got cancelled before we could learn as to what was up with that, so that state of affairs is nullified.

And now we have ‘Dark Phoenix 2019’ that has outright aliens in it and their alien-ness did not do anything to further the film. In the trailers and clips, Jessica Chastain’s character looked more like a subdued version of Emma Frost/the White Queen than an alien and she acted similar to Emma Frost in the comics, too.

…It should be noted that there was already an Emma Frost in the X-Men movies, but we are talking about the old Earth-10005 world, not this TRN414 one, so there was no reason as to why her character could not have gotten a reboot. In addition, this version of the White Queen was not really a telepath – she could turn into living diamond, (something that the main basic White Queen versions also can), but she never had any mental powers. There was also an Emma in the ‘Wolverine Origins’ film, but it was a different Emma, a Silverfox rather than Frost, sister to the movie version of the Silver Fox character… Where were we? Oh yes, that Emma has also died in that movie, so Earth-TRN414 was still decisively Emma Frost-free, so why not have her and the rest of the Hellfire Club instead of aliens in ‘Dark Phoenix’? (As they were in the comics and in the 1990s X-Men cartoon series)?

Well yes, the Hellfire Club seems to have some problems of its own – mainly an identity crisis. These days, especially on TV, (whether real life action series as ‘the Gifted’ or various cartoons), it is referred as the Inner Circle club or something similar instead. That isn’t the problem, the problem on ‘the Gifted’ was that the show was kind of understaffed, but they still managed the best they could, and it was proportionally just as good a TV series as ‘Dark Phoenix 2019’ was a movie, so there!..

This, I suppose, brings, us to Mystique. No, it is not regarding her comment about the X-Men being the ‘-Women’ instead, that just was something of a SJW-fail in my opinion. The thing is that Mystique has never really been an X-Man, and while sometimes she was a frenemy of theirs, as Magneto was, other times she was an outright enemy, as when she worked for Apocalypse, (as she did in the 1990s cartoon). When she became an X-Man in the ‘First Class’ movie…it kind of left me rubbing my hand and wondering – ‘now why would they do that’? If they needed a mutant shapeshifter, why not bring Morph – but we digress.

The problem with ‘Dark Phoenix 2019’ was that it was re-written, that that re-write clearly was clumsily done, and that there were strong traces of Disney/Marvel behind this re-write. (Something similar went down with ‘the Gifted’ in S2 also, but since the show is cancelled, it does not matter anymore). The Earth-10005 movies were always very different from the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, with a darker, less colorful, more Gothic feel to them. The Earth-TRN414 films too were different, with various historical ‘flavorings’ to them, from the Caribbean Crisis onwards. The ‘Dark Phoenix 2019’ film lacks that element, especially in the second half of it. FOX wanted to make ‘Dark Phoenix 2019’ different from the CM film? Then it certainly took a wrong strategy, or went in the wrong direction, to do so!

What else to say? Real life sucks, as it was said in the disclaimer. The ‘Dark Phoenix 2019’ film is slightly better than that, but only slightly. The fact that it comes on the coattails of the latest Avengers films does not help, but most of its problems are its’ own design, and sadly, it will likely to be remembered as CM’s poorer cousin, unlike the previous Phoenix film, which, at least, was its own movie. (Let us not even get started on the agelessness of the characters – let us just assume that mutants do not age as regular people do, and leave it at that).

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

'Dark Phoenix', C&D, and etc - June 6

…Let us not talk about the ‘Dark Phoenix’ movie for now. The original ‘X-Men: Last Stand’ film was decent enough, but plenty of people have hated it all the same. There is no reason as to why ‘Dark Phoenix 2019’ should be any different, but I here want to talk about something else – namely, C&D. Just as the actors from AoS had appeared at the premiere of CM the movie, so has Emma Lahana, from C&D, appeared at the premiere of ‘Dark Phoenix’; and-?

Firstly, it makes the contrast between ‘Dark Phoenix’ and CM look even more in CM’s favor. Ms. Lahana gushed enthusiastically about ‘being a part of the Marvel family’, or ‘the MCU family’, or whatever, but keep in mind that Ms. Lahana is a very talented actress, as she has shown in C&D S2: although they looked, well, identical, both Brigid and Mayhem have come across as two very different people – without the use of CGI, or any special effects, or whatever. Just different clothing…and a lot of acting skill. Ergo, how could you tell that Ms. Lahana wasn’t acting here, acting all happy and etc. about ‘being a part of the Marvel family’? When you got talent, you got talent, and when it is a great acting talent, then you are a great actor, well – actress, but in real life trusting you can be kind of tricky, I reckon.

That said, Ms. Lahana was apparently the only ‘outsider’, MCU or otherwise, who had appeared at the ‘Dark Phoenix’ premiere – and CM has Simmons (Mack) and NCB (Yo-Yo), Ward (Deke) and Wen (Melinda). That is 4 people from AoS as opposed to C&D’s only one, though that’s a great one, no doubt about it. However, many people are already pointing out that the ‘Dark Phoenix’ clearly had some issues regarding MCU on one hand, and that it had to reshoot its’ second half to make itself different from CM, which brings us back to MCU. Whatever is going, or was going, or will be going behind the scenes between Disney and FOX merger, it clearly was not as clear-cut as Disney, FOX, and mass media, want you to believe, but that is real life for you.

On the other hand, there is Netflix. No, not because the second season of C&D made a direct reference to Luke Cage the Marvel character – it was in the penultimate episode of S2 or the one before that – it lasted for about a minute and was kind of blurry; blink and you miss it – but rather about the upcoming final season of JJ that is coming to Netflix, as a part of an original series. In this season, the titular heroine is coming against a man named Gregory Salinger. In the comics, he’s a Deadpool-related villain, (yes, that Deadpool), but clearly in MCU, which is an entirely different Marvel ‘Earth’, he’s going to be a completely different character from what he is in the comics – and Disney cannot really do anything about it or the entire JJ S3. Go Netflix, stick it to the man!

…As for the ‘Dark Phoenix’ movie in general? We will talk about that at another time, preferably after it becomes available to a wider slice of populace than just the movie critics. Until then – see you soon!