Captain America: Brave New World and '...NSM' - Feb 14

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. That said, Happy Valentine’s Day, everybody! This out of the way, let us talk ‘Captain America: Brave New World’ now.

…Whereas ‘YFNSM’ cartoon series just exist in a vacuum, the occasional cameo by Dr. Strange, Daredevil, or even the Iron Man regardless, (they don’t influence there anything, you know?), CA:BNW is a part of MCU, and unlike AAA, it cannot be ignored, as it sets the stage for everything new.

See the evidence: when Sam Wilson only MCU’s (original) Falcon, he and Bucky the Winter Soldier had their own mini-series, named after them, remember? In it, we were introduced to the post-Thanos MCU, and we met both Val, (ok, do not call her that), and Sharon Carter, an ex-S.H.I.E.L.D. agent turned weapons’ deal and villain, who was being set up as someone important. Roll even more forward, and Sharon vanishes without a trace, while Ms. Sonya replaced Val in ‘Secret Wars’. SW was one of MCU’s most insipid entries, and so Sonya and friends are gone now instead, and Val is coming back in the upcoming ‘Thunderbolts’ film.

This brings us to Bucky, and – Sarah Wilson, aka Sam’s sister. In the abovementioned mini-series, she was Bucky’s new love interest, (sort of). Previously, he had something going on with Shuri, but then came the ‘Black Panther 2’ movie, and any connections of Wakanda with the Avengers vanished in favor of a Shuri-Namor romance, (tentatively speaking), and Bucky was moved over to Sarah in a favor of another interracial romance. AOS has set MCU’s bar for interracial romances pretty darn low, and CA:BNW + ‘Thunderbolts’ have appeared to cleared it by a mile: Sarah Wilson and her children vanished from MCU, and Bucky seems to be bonding with Natasha’s sister and father in the ‘Thunderbolts’ trailer – no interracial relationships, no color mixing here. USA! USA! The Donald must be so proud!

…Back with Sam Wilson proper, and speaking of colors, we got the Hulk. Ok, we also got MCU’s Red Hulk now – ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross, (in the comics, the Thunderbolts were often his team), but what about the original Hulk himself?

Pause, rewind to MCU’s ‘She-Hulk’, one of the unlucky contenders to challenge SW for the insipidness. For 9 parts out of 10, (or perhaps 11), SH was a typical Mary-Sue story, with the titular character being that woman; watching SH is just pointless, the most important parts there are the Hulk’s story: he went into space and brought home a son. Everything else can be swept under the rug safely… the Hulk and his son not so much, but by ignoring them, CA:BNW does a gamely attempt at doing just that; anything else?

Yes. It is a brand new world where everything from the previous phases matters about as much as the ‘YFNSM’ cartoon – nothing at all. Sam Wilson defeated the Red Hulk who has imprisoned in the Raft alongside Sam ‘the Leader’ Stearns. In addition, we were introduced to MCU’s version of Sabra – Israel’s superhero in the Marvel comics, (who is more closely associated with the mutants, BTW), and the mercenary group the SERPENTS, who will probably be the default villains of MCU for a while, until they all die or whatnot. Given how Disney is lying low while RL USA is changing… just changing, let us leave it at that, they just might be replaced instead, and no one will care. At least, since SW was worse than the ‘Sam & Bucky show’, Val is replaced Sonya once more. Ah, the perfidy of chance!

This is it for now. See you all soon. Have a happy Valentine’s Day once more!

Marvel & PJ take 2 - Jan 25

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the FH game and its’ new character instead.

First, however, here is an honorary mention of MCU’s previous Disney+ TV shows – the ‘She-Hulk’, in which the titular character became a ‘legal eagle’ version of a Mary-Sue. This is not particularly good or healthy for any character, even a Disney/MCU backed one, and so ‘She-Hulk’ is as good as cancelled, the word on the street is. Will ‘Miss Marvel’ be the next to good? This show’s titular character, Kamala Khan (KK) was redesigned in ‘The Marvels’ film, so the jury is still out. What next?

Right, the 1^st season of the PJO TV series is ending, (next week). It was ok, though it can be pointed out that unlike in the original novel, (‘The Lightning Thief’, cough), PJ and Annabeth are an interracial couple now, (with Grover being the obligatory non-human sidekick). This is not too new, admittedly – first there were Ron and Hermione in J-Ro’s ‘Cursed Child’ piece, and while it may have been something of a reason as to why that piece failed, it was not the most important one.

Second, there are Tom Holland’s PP and Zendaya’s MJ in MCU (/not in MCU?). Between this MJ, and the Black Cat from Tom Holland’s first Spider-Man film, so Disney/MCU was making inroads into this sort of scenario before the adaptation of ‘The Lightning Thief’.

(Keep in mind that Disney/MCU also was trying to making it in AoS, but it failed, and it might be part of the reason why AoS characters have vanished from MCU for good).

Otherwise, the 1^st season of PJO is a dutiful and solid faire, and it has went down with minimum fuss and commotion, with no one caring about the interracial couple at the heart of it, (myself included). What I want, (in a manner of speaking), to point out, is that the Greek satyrs weren’t really good-like; instead, they had horse-like ears and tails, while being otherwise human; the ‘great god Pan’ and his children were the half-human half-goat hybrids instead; in the Roman mythology, they were Faunus and the fauns, but we’re getting sidetracked from the FH.

Today on FH (Jan 25, 2024), we were introduced to a new Viking character – the Varangian. They are swinging a mean bardiche battle-axe, so is there anything to say?

Yes, the Varangians were the elite guards of the Byzantine Empire, (aka the second Roman Empire, though this statement is debatable). They were mercenaries, and they were good old Vikings, just under a different moniker. In the FH game, the Varangian… is an independent agent, on a collision course with their treacherous uncle, if you care about this sort of thing. Put otherwise, once again, FH pulled a ‘cool-sounding’ name out of a hat and tried to make it work. It did work, too, in a manner of speaking. Bully for them, I daresay. At least this time the moniker is appropriate for the character.

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

'Echo' - Jan 11

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about MCU’s ‘Echo’ series instead. Normally, we would talk about one episode after another, but since Disney/MCU have done something different this time, and released all of the episodes in one swoop, let us do the same thing and talk about the entire miniseries at once too.

For a start, ‘Echo’ was good. It was a miniseries about the journey of the titular heroine, first as a villain, and second as an (anti)-hero. We saw Echo build herself up, then tear herself down, (the ‘Hawkeye’ miniseries), and finally rebuild herself from the ground level once more. The acting was done perfectly, and the plot (as well as the character) development went down smoothly. So, what is there to criticize?

Nothing, but it can be pointed out that Disney/MCU is trying to do something similar to Echo’s (the character’s) journey in the miniseries; they’re trying to rebuild themselves, and they’re trying to incorporate Native Americans, among other minorities, to do that. First, there is Kahhori from the 2^nd season of ‘What if?’, so let us talk about that.

In the ‘What if?’ episode 2x06 we have something different from MCU’s regular fare: we get an alternate history universe, where the Spaniards clash with the Mohawks. Now, contrary to popular cliché, the Spaniards did not just colonize Latin America, (including Mexico), but they did come into what would become U.S. territory: they did so in the southwest, (and it was a part of Mexico rather than the U.S. for a while), as well as in the southeast, (i.e. Florida, which was also Spanish for a while), but the Mohawks weren’t a part of it. Historically, the Mohawk people lived in New England, (the New York State, to be precise), as well as in the Canadian province of Ontario. The Spaniards never came there, but the English and the French did. Pause.

Now, having the Native Americans fighting, well, Anglo-Americans, (or Franco-Americans), would be not just politically incorrect, but outright unacceptable by the modern American/Western mass media. Seriously, can you imagine Native Americans, powered by alien/magical/other artefacts, or not, taking down London, Paris, or Washington D.C. for that matter? Especially in the modern Western media where cultural integration and goodwill among people are the concepts of the day? No, you can’t, and not even U.S.’ political enemies cannot. (Though North Korea is somewhat dicey, admittedly). Hence, we had the Spaniards instead, and the Native Americans overwhelming its’ capital of Madrid. Hey, Alternate History rocks, baby, you want some good AH – read the late, great Eric Flint’s ‘1630s’ book series, otherwise you’re stuck with Disney and MCU!..

Now, Kahhori does appear in ‘What if?’ S2 finale, but the fact that she is Native American does not play a big role in that, so let us switch onto ‘Echo’, where her voice actress plays the role of Bonnie, who is a friend of Echo/Maya. Disney/MCU went out to make it clear that the two roles/characters are separate, and so Kahhori will not appear in MCU, at least not in the short term, so there is that. Without Kahhori and her superpowers, what is the Native Americans’ role in MCU?

Why, the same as it is for the other racial/social/other minorities – their ‘uniqueness’ is just ‘window dressing’. I.e., a character’s, well, characteristics have to play a role, preferably an important role, in the show/movie/novel, etc., because otherwise, they will be forgotten by the audience instead. Ms. Cox’s, and by extension, Maya Lopez’s prosthetic leg plays a notable part in ‘Echo’, and so it has become one of the defining traits of the titular heroine. However, it has nothing to do with her Native American origins – Maya got it in a car accident, the same one that would cost her her mom. Since Echo is an ‘artificial’ character, who was invented for a while now, she rose with the occasion, rather than fell with it. Wilson Fisk helped.

Now, Wilson Fisk first appeared in MCU’s Netflix series, especially ones connected to Daredevil and the Punisher. They were not unofficial apocrypha, unlike AoS, but they were ignored by MCU and vice versa. There were several shows about ‘the Defenders of New York’, but they were eventually all subsumed back into Disney/MCU, without a trace. ‘Echo’ attempts to fill in the niche, with the help of ‘Hawkeye’, (the show). ‘Hawkeye’ itself was a different show from ‘Echo’, but it did reintroduce Wilson Fisk/Kingpin to the MCU. However!

In the Netflix series’, Wilson Fisk was depicted… actually very much like the cartoon version from the 1990s ‘Spider-Man’ cartoon series: a baseline human, who, however, was Spider-Man’s biggest opponent through both brains and brawn. In one story arc, Wilson Fisk and his son, (yes, he had a wife and a son, it is canon), actually framed both Peter Parker and Spider-Man, cough, so Spider-Man had to team-up with Matt Murdoch and Daredevil to fix this. (Fisk’s son went to jail as a bottom line). In MCU, Fisk did not clash with Spider-Man, though Daredevil did do a cameo in the ‘No Way Home’ movie, but since Spider-Man’s own status in MCU is somewhat vague, we might as well skip and go straight to the ‘She-Hulk’.

Only not, as ‘She-Hulk’ was more of a failure than a success, and right now, it is being ignored by MCU, as is the ‘Ms. Marvel’ miniseries. Even if it was not a failure, it is still very different from ‘Echo’, and so the two shows probably will not connect anytime soon, especially since Daredevil’s role in ‘Echo’ is mostly of a cameo – for now. Since Wilson Fisk survived his latest encounter with his stepdaughter/protégé, this can change. Will Fisk change, however? MCU, in fact, is not big on redemption for villains, let alone corruption for heroes, so it is unlikely. Stranger things have happened, however, and right now Disney/MCU itself is trying to change into something different from what it was, so we will have to wait and see instead.

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

SI & Eric Flint

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, and SI is no escape.

First, about real life: Eric Flint is dead. The man – the author – died in 2022, last year, and the world has become a poorer place without him. His 1630s series was a fun AH series of books, novels and story anthologies, even if they weren’t the most politically correct – i.e., in the last few novels, the new USE – United States of Europe – and their Swedish allies are fighting the ‘upgraded’ version of the Ottoman Empire. This could have been quite appropriate in the 1990s and especially early 2000s, when the U.S. has invaded, (for a lack of better word), Afghanistan and Middle East, but now, when U.S. has lost all of its’ earlier gains, (especially Afghanistan), not so much. What next?

SI offers little succor, save that it is over, and as people have noticed, the series’ finale redeeming feature is the abrupt change of tone in this particular episode. This is not neither new nor surprising: this has happened already in AoS, ‘Ms. Marvel’, and ‘She-Hulk’, as we have discussed previously, and indicates that regardless of whatever these shows have shown previously, in the future, this information will not be utilized, but be discarded instead, and moreover, MCU is starting anew with them.

…Aye, AoS was rather discarded completely as an alternative, and so far there’s no sign of ‘She-Hulk’, but MM the character is going to be important in the upcoming ‘Marvels’ movie – and so SI concluding shots are tied into it; the rest are just a rip-off of the Sokovian accords, which are done and gone and forgotten by MCU. Anything else?

About SI – not really: it was full of forgettable, surrogate characters, just as MM had been, and just as MM has, it is going to vanish into nowhere. About Eric Flint – I do not know, maybe his novel series will continue, maybe not. Real life sucks, eh?

This is it, then. Talk to you all later.

GotG holiday special - Nov 25

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk… about the GotG: holiday special? Yeah, no.

Here is the thing: this piece is a variant of the ‘Green Mary-Sue: Legal Eagle’ that we have been subjected earlier in 2022 – a ‘comedy’ piece that actually degrades MCU…but because it is a 45 minute long special, it works, as there is nothing to actually degrade. Instead, we mostly get Drax and Mantis traipsing around the world of MCU, channelling their old married couple vibe, while Kevin Bacon… is just Kevin Bacon, just as Megan Thee Stallion was Megan Thee Stallion in the J.W. show. These celebrities do not add anything to MCU; they just add gravity to the void of content in ‘She-Hulk’ and now – the GotG special. What is there to discuss? Nothing!

However, what else is there left? ‘Strange World’, a Disney original special movie. Whereas MCU took 4 phases to arrive in that particular place, ‘Strange World’ was there, and stayed there throughout its’ run, (i.e. 102 minutes long). Supposedly about living in homeostasis with nature, (i.e. the ‘Frozen 2’ film), ‘Strange World’-2022 does a half-assed job of it; rather, for most of the movie’s duration the show’s characters are running around their ‘strange world’, (which is rather reminiscent of a human body, cough), doing… nothing of substance. Yes, I know that this is a journey of discovery, with the discovery being the truth about the Pando plant and the rest of the world, but due to the speed of the movie, both the discovery itself and the process of discovering it, are downgraded and vanish in all of the rush and the special effects. Yuppie, only not, as we are the ones paying for this piece and get to watch the shenanigans of the Clade family for over an hour. ‘Strange World’ indeed! Anything else?

Sadly, no. The American Thanksgiving has come and gone, the Black Friday is upon us, and the winter of 2022-3 is upon in a matter of days. This is very disheartening… and I did say that the real life sucks, didn’t I? So I did, and rather than to drag it out, I am ending this rant for now. See you all soon instead!

Black Adam - Nov 2

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us briefly talk about ‘Black Adam’, before MCU’s ‘BP2’ steals the spotlight.

‘Black Adam’ works. It is not the most powerful or poignant installment in the DCEU series, it is not necessarily even ‘the most’, period, but it works. The villains are villains, (with the final Big Bad being an actual devil of all things), while the good guys… Pause.

The titular character is an anti-hero, right? Yeah, no, it does not work like that. When anti-heroes first entered the fray, the cultural landscape was still dominated by heroes and villains; an anti-hero was a sinner who had found redemption; the grey area was located between light and dark; people could dwell there, spiritually speaking, but sooner or later they would have to make a choice between the aforementioned light and dark… or else they were NPC characters who had no role in the piece of fiction at all. Now, though, this dichotomy is over, grey morality is a thing, and people like Black Adam are just heroes who aren’t afraid of getting their hands dirty… unlike the Justice Society league, for example.

Here is…not so much another pause, as an admittance of a sticky issue: why was Amanda Waller bossing Justice Society league around? In the DC canon, she runs only the Suicide Squad, (which was absent in ‘Black Adam’), nothing else. True, the status of the Justice Society itself is suspect – these days it is more apocrypha than canon in the DC comics at worst, and a second tier to the JL at best…but we still got the JL in the DCEU, right? Henry Cavill is returning from the witcher-verse, and Gal Gadot has never left, correct? Somehow, the JL never gets a mention in ‘Black Adam’, and while the entire film never feels like a reboot, somehow it does not feel like a part of the already-established DC-verse.

…Yes, I am quite aware that DCEU - and the rest – are being overhauled by their superiors in real life, (re: the Batgirl film), but that is not a problem of ‘Black Adam’ cast and crew: they set out to make a movie, (and not, say, a pet project of The Rock), and they delivered. What else?

‘Black Adam’ is an entertaining movie. Well, naturally – it is a comic-book film, is not supposed to be informative or educational. The good people are good, the bad are bad, and Black Adam and his Kahndaq are not about to bow to the U.S. any time soon, Superman or not. Can the latter defeat the titular character is another issue, but it was not explored in the movie canon – and then there is Shazam. More precisely, Black Adam is a Shazam villain, (or at least a nemesis), so you would think that DCEU’s Shazam would appear in the movie under one pretext or another, but no, nothing. Is there some problem with Shazam’s actor in real life, I know not. Moving on?

Hard to say. Lately the Internet is being bombarded with the ‘BP2’ movie info, but I am holding out – lately MCU was more disappointing than not. ‘Ms. Marvel’ was pointedly downplayed for RL reasons… and she was flat-out lackluster, while ‘She-Hulk’ was a Mary-Sue story, period, with Titania getting the short end of the stick, here. See, a Mary-Sue cannot stand female characters that are equal with her, (and the same goes for the male characters in a Marty-Stu story), and does her best to get rid of them, or at least – seriously diminish them. This is exactly what happens to Titania: at the end of the ‘She-Hulk’ S1, the ‘Hulk-King’ and the Abomination are arrested, and Titania just… vanishes – clearly, the titular character’s deal with K.E.V.I.N. included getting rid of her for good – or something. In any case, the end of ‘She-Hulk’ S1 is all about the titular character and her new and updated family – though with her cousin the Hulk introducing his own son, the situation may begin to change – but what does this have to do with ‘BP2’?

Nothing, sadly. All I wanted to point out is that MCU’s Namor has at least some things in common with MCU’s Killmonger, (now deceased… probably). MCU’s Namor has strong Mesoamerican overtones, and some of his promo images show him wearing a jaguar-head helmet/headpiece/headdress… you get the idea. Plus, there’s his moniker Kukulkan, who was, or is, a Mesoamerican serpent deity in RL – and on the other…paw we have MCU’s Killmonger, who went with the moniker of the ‘Golden Jaguar’ in the first BP film. There are no wild jaguars in the Old World, (which includes Africa); they are an American-only species – and now we get a Namor with strong Mesoamerican connotations. Again, nothing is new under the sun, we already had a half-Japanese Namor, (located on Earth-13410, one Namor Miyamoto), so why not a Mesoamerican one?.. At this point, I am more annoyed with the endless barrage of pro-BP2 promotions, but that is another story.

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

She-Hulk, Story - Oct 13

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the ‘She-Hulk’ S1 finale instead.

…Actually, the ‘She-Hulk’ S1 finale – ‘Whose Story?’ – is not that much an improvement, either. Instead of returning ‘She-Hulk’ to the series’ MCU roots, the storywriters took the series in a weird direction. Pause.

Let us try again. With ‘She-Hulk’, the MCU tried to do something different from its’ previous installments – a rom-com TV series, just as the ‘Werewolf by Night’ special was supposed to take MCU into the horror genre area. This is not a bad concept, but the thing is that MCU, such as it is, does not fall into the ‘fit one, fit all’ area. Marvel comics are, well, action comics, and action-driven comics, and without that action drive, they… stagnate. Or, at least, they do not go anywhere – hence, the ‘She-Hulk’ series, (so far, but I am not being optimistic by now), which almost didn’t do anything to promote the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe further. Almost, because at the end of this episode the Marvel Cinematic Universe does go further – the actual Hulk returns, Titania seems to be a halfway decent individual after all, Blonsky is morally ambiguous instead of being a straightforward good guy, and so on.

Actually, about Blonsky – Wong does take him back to Kamar-Taj after all; given how neither of them were this season’s ‘Big Bad’, this does raise an interesting question: now what? What will this unlikely male duo do next? In addition, where does Madisynn fit into this?

Another pause. Here is the thing. The ‘She-Hulk’ S1 finale almost redeems itself; almost, because the middle five episodes of S1 had not much to do with either the first two or the last two episodes. These four eps actually have some of the ‘mainstream’ Marvel feel, and they work – more or less. The middle five – not so much. So what?

That is the tough one. On one hand, Disney/MCU can do whatever they want to do at this point – unlike the SW aspect of this juggernaut, the majority of their fans will swallow anything; on the other extremity – Disney/MCU has announced that they’re delaying a lot of their releases not too long after their official proclamation of the schedule, so, clearly, something isn’t going according to the grand plan. Consequently, Disney/MCU can diminish ‘She-Hulk’ to a nearly stationary rom-com; on the other, they may not be able to afford this, as when you think about it, any TV series, (or a movie, or a book, a magazine, etc.), is just a product that its’ maker must sell – to their audience.

…Here is not quite a pause, but more of an admittance: the above statement applies to fiction. In case of non-fiction, the situation is slightly different, as fiction applies to the audience in general, while non-fiction has a more specific, a more defined audience. However, since ‘She-Hulk’ is fiction, it is supposed to be sold to everyone, who cares about MCU…and maybe a few other folks. Instead, it appeared to have become not as successful as ‘Werewolf by Night’ was, implying that Disney/MCU is not as good at playing the market, as it would like to pretend.

This brings us back to ‘She-Hulk’. As an MCU rom-com, it was something of an experiment, here, and as such, it was expected to bring in success if it were to continue. So far, it did not do as well as Disney/MCU expected it to, and the more successful parts were the more old-fashioned and less experimental ones. Consequently, it is anyone’s guess as to where the future will take ‘She-Hulk’, and the rest of MCU, given that there already are delays and what else have you.

(Oh, wait, there is the ‘Wakanda Forever’ film coming in November 2022, but I am not holding my breath about it either, but let us wait for it to come out before we make any judgements).

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

She-Hulk, Ribbit - Oct 7

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about this week’s ‘She-Hulk’ episode, ‘Ribbit’, since it is the penultimate one in ‘She-Hulk’ S1.

What is there to say? Let us talk about the ‘Devil’ in the room – a while back, MCU and its’ related/connected press services proclaimed that this will not be a sequel/direct continuation of the Netflix’s ‘Daredevil’ series, but rather a straightforward restart – and so it is. Somehow, Murdoch made his way from the East Coast, (Tom Holland’s third Spider-Man movie, remember?), to the West Coast, (‘She-Hulk’ takes place in MCU’s L.A.), in order to have a relationship with the She-Hulk, apparently… Pause.

Now, again, I have no problem with the two of them being in a relationship. First, Cox and Maslany really manifest chemistry between their characters… plus they have the entire red/green contrast thing going.

Second, Marvel has already done this thing with the relationships – I am talking about Matt’s relationship with Jessica Jones back when they were featured on Netflix series instead. The fact that there was no mention of her, or any other ‘Defenders’ made on ‘She-Hulk’ (so far), doesn’t matter – it only means that their fates are up in the air for Disney/MCU to decide upon, that’s all. As for Matt and Jennifer, I am reminded of the Marvel comics’ Avengers: at first, they were going to set-up Robbie Reyes, (one of the Ghost Riders), with Carol ‘Captain Marvel’ Danvers. (Yes, that one).

…And then, abruptly, Robbie/Carol ship disappeared; now, Danvers seems to be mending fences with Tony, (who isn’t dead in the comics, BTW), while Robbie is hanging around Echo, who is now the host of the Phoenix force in the comics and is about to get her own show in the MCU. (Hint-hint). What’s more, Keanu Reeves is openly hinting that he is open to becoming MCU’s next Ghost Rider. Pause.

Now, MCU already has a Ghost Rider – Robbie Reyes, played by Gabriel Luna, who appeared in AoS’ S4, and who was supposed to have his own TV show, but that failed, and he vanished from MCU after AoS’ S4 finale. That said, there was another Ghost Rider – one who turned Robbie into a Ghost Rider in his backstory, so there is room for John Wick to enter MCU. In addition, yes, there were several Ghost Rider films in the past that featured Johnny Blaze, but they are not part of MCU, so no problem from this part either. Back to the ‘She-Hulk’?

…There isn’t much left to say, actually – somehow MCU tried to turn ‘She-Hulk’ around at the 11^th hour, by having the Intelligentsia, (yet another super-secret super-villain cabal, sigh), attack her when she was receiving some sort of an award, causing her to freak out, and allowing the Damage Control people to step in, suggesting that the show might be stepping away from its’ previous rom-com incarnation. Since ‘She-Hulk’ S1 has only one last episode left, I’m not feeling too overwhelmed here, not to mention that as far as power groups go, Damage Control is just a surrogate S.H.I.E.L.D. – and we’ve discussed both it and S.W.O.R.D. in the current MCU before, so, uh, excuse me if I’m underwhelmed; the fact that the titular character here is one of the least sympathetic and popular MCU super-heroes so far doesn’t help either, (no offence to Ms. Maslany intended). As such, I won’t be holding my breath to wait and see as to how J.W. gets out of this one, as both she and Damage Control people are flat-out lackluster, and we have to wait and see as to how the new Daredevil version fares. Is that it?

Well, no, there is also the ‘Werewolf by Night’ TV special, but first – a shout-out to the upcoming ‘Wakanda Forever’ movie for its’ line that Namor is ‘Kukulcan, the earth-shaker god’. Whoever came up with that line is a moron, because Kukulcan was a different name for Quetzalcoatl – the god, the pterosaur is called Quetzalcoatlus instead – and regardless of the name, he was not a sea or an underground deity, no, he was a sky deity instead. Earthshaker is a moniker that is, or was, associated with Poseidon/Neptune instead, a much more appropriate deity to Namor, what with the trident and all, but because he is Old World and all, the movie’s scriptwriters pulled Kukulcan out of their… orifices instead.

Keep in mind, that Disney is associated with Kukulcan already – via Mr. Riordan and a certain Ms. Cervantes, who’s YA novels deal precisely with this mythology. First ‘The Moon Knight’, and now this. No wonder that Mr. Riordan appears to become done with this universe and is writing straight-out YA novels instead that have nothing to do with myths or with Disney. Well, kudos for him, ‘because his PJ is going to be a Disney+ TV series soon, it seems.

However, what about ‘Werewolf by Night’? Succinctly, it works because, firstly, it was short, compact, and precise, and Disney/MCU did not stuff it full of their Easter eggs and co. as they tend to do. (In addition, such approach works best in MCU – just look at the AC TV series). Second, it works because it is only barely connected to Marvel – it might be just your typical horror mini-movie for all that it is so no problems there. Third, the same can be said about characters – they may be from Marvel originally, but so far there’s no indication that they’re a part – that their world is a part – of the greater MCU universe, and given how MCU has been playing with the concept of the multiverse, this might be the start of something new entirely – we’ll just have to wait and see.

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

Hocus Pocus 2 - Oct 3

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the ‘Hocus Pocus 2’ film. Why? ‘Cause I have actually enjoyed watching it, unlike the ‘She-Hulk’ series.

Now, some of you have taken objections regarding her latest episode, ‘The Retreat’ and claim that J.W. is not a Mary-Sue here. To which, I reply: she is an only woman in an episode, surrounded by a bevy of men. Of course, she is a Mary-Sue; this is one of the telling marks of a M.-S. Character in fiction, (regardless of gender), but…

…But the men in ‘The Retreat’ were underwhelming, meaning that J.W. isn’t a ‘typical’ M.-S., but more of a ‘pathetic’, ‘underwhelming’ one; I never thought that a M.-S. Character could have such adjectives, but MCU managed to achieve that regardless – congrats to them! Not, and what about ‘Hocus Pocus 2’?

‘Hocus Pocus 2’ is something different, less like MCU, and more like ‘Frozen 2’. Why?

Because almost like the ‘Frozen 2’ film, ‘Hocus Pocus 2’ lacks a ‘typical’ antagonist; the Sanderson sisters – in the first film – certainly were that: unabashedly evil. The main protagonists of the first film – several plucky kids and one special cat – had to go unbelievable lengths to defeat them, (which they did). More importantly, while the Sanderson sisters had magical powers, (and some serious singing skills, let us be honest), the children – or the cat – did not.

In ‘Hocus Pocus 2’, the situation is different: practically everybody is a witch here, save for a certain cranky zombie, cough. Now the playing field is much more level, everyone can relate to each other better, and the secondary conflicts between the new children characters feel rather forced and, well, secondary.

Yes, aside from the Sanderson sisters, none of the characters from the first film appear; instead, we get a brand-new cast. This also connects ‘Hocus Pocus 2’ to ‘Frozen 2’, where the franchise had a complete remake and went in a completely new direction from where the first film (we’re talking ‘Frozen’ here) had gone. That said, the films in both ‘Frozen’ and ‘Hocus Pocus’ franchises were excellently made and fun to watch, plus…

…Plus whereas ‘Frozen 2’ went in the ‘green energy’ direction, (and we will talk about it at another time), ‘Hocus Pocus 2’ – not so much. Here, the issue was with the concept of witchcraft – no duh: from the old stereotype that we had during the release of the first film, now the witchcraft became a part of U.S.’ cultural history, and must be dealt with differently – which ‘Hocus Pocus 2’ did. Quite successfully too, given the movie’s reviews: it worked.

Why, again? Because it did not go too deep into various RL issues, but instead sought to entertain its’ audiences, which was a children’s/YA’s movie is supposed to do. Both the children and the Sanderson sisters were zany and fun to watch…and nothing else, actually: somehow, the stakes in this film feel lower than how they were in ‘Hocus Pocus 1’, but that’s ok: this franchise is just small enough, and compact enough, to endure this without much ado… and so they had. MCU, conversely, is much larger and more overblown than this, and so it is not doing as well: ‘She-Hulk’ is not bad, it is just flawed – but we have talked about this show before.

Therefore, for now, 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, Jen - Sep 22

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the latest ‘She-Hulk’ episode instead. Only… it is not doing so hot either – this week’s episode’s highlight, apparently, was when the titular character, wearing a sparkling pink dress, punched Titania – who was back for round three – in the mouth. Titania was wearing an equally sparkling pink power suit, BTW. So what?

So earlier this week I watched the latest HoD episode – you know, the one where Daemon T. kills his wife with little more than a big rock. Killer Croc from the DC-verse would have been so proud!.. But we are not Killer Croc, and I, for one, find it kind distasteful that team HBO and co. have needlessly vilified Daemon T. just for extra drama.

Again, in the book, Daemon is not a good man, but his wife dies pointedly from natural causes and he has nothing to do with it, Targaryen family powers or not. By making Daemon actually do the deed, team HBO and co. have made him something of a misogynist and have diminished him as a person and as a character. The fact that HoD’s main protagonist – you know, the ‘new and improved’ Dany – wants to elope with him does not help anyone either… but wait!

In this universe, actually being an evil asshole gets you ahead! Daemon and co. are doing the right thing by their standards! Well, yes, and don’t forget – the upcoming Dance of the Dragons thingy will be the start of the end for the Targaryen dynasty; odds are good that GM was going to revive their reign at the end of ASOIAF, but now that ASOIAF faded away, and GoT ended up with a Stark on the throne instead… yeah, this makes it hard to root for anyone on the show and I’m actually hoping that all of the Targaryens featured on the show so far will die – but there was one unexpected side-effect: I remembered MCU’s AoS.

…yes, I’ve been talking about it on and off for ever, but this time the death of Ms. Daemon reminded me of Fennec Shand from the SW-verse instead. Why?

In SW, Fennec is shot down, left to die, but with Boba’s help she recovers and becomes his assistant.

In MCU, Kara is shot down – not unlike Fennec – and is just killed-off by the show.

Put otherwise, Fennec is SW’s Kara, and the issue isn’t that that Ming-Na Wen, plays Fennec on SW, and played both the Cavalry and agent 33 on MCU, (in a manner of speaking, but still), and it isn’t that Disney properties recycle each other’s ideas, but how AoS has treated Kara. Agent 33 was an interesting character, and the showrunners could have pulled a Fennec and kept her alive, but they did not. Indeed, Kara did not have to be a regular character on the show at all – they just could have sent her off to her mother, (with or without her memories intact), or done something similar, (as they did to the characters of Lance and Bobbi in S5), and that would have been the end. Instead, they flat-out treated her as crap, and that is the final line.

…Not that HBO is treating its’ powerful women characters any better – Ms. Daemon was verbally abused by her asshole husband at first and then killed-off by him, while the surrogate Dany is coming off as Daemon’s female counterpart instead. Oh, and one of her (potential) minions just killed-off her new husband’s same-sex partner. Take that, modern socio-political values!

…In the ‘She-Hulk’ we do not go so far, but it is the same direction still. In the comics – and the cartoons – the character in question was, and is, one of the Hulk’s most powerful relatives and allies, and Titania is her adversary and arch-nemesis. On the show, the two appear to be little more than just two semi-toxic bitches that just cannot get along because that would be the reasonable and sensible thing, am I right, fellows? Oh, and the ‘Mr. Immortal’ subplot, cannot forget that – a Marvel character has faked his death 8 times, effectively becoming a bigamist! Ha-ha-ha! ‘Futurama’ actually did that plotline first, save that its’ bigamist did not fake his death, he just shapeshifted and packed-on more wives. Have to admire his stamina, if nothing else – but he still were taken down by all of his wives, just less legally and more violently than Mr. Immortal has been.

…There is also MCU’s Abomination, who was last seen on the show having a cult with multiple girlfriends – and he got set free. Aside from the moral issues, there’s the fact that he got diminished from being a monstrous reflection of the Hulk into a mere jerk too – but that is what ‘She-Hulk’ the show does, apparently – it diminishes all the Marvel characters that it touches, no wonder the original Hulk fled to Sakaar in the episode 1x02 before it was too late – or maybe it was, we’ll just have to wait and see.

...That said, my original point is this is what the American nation have come down to, after ‘MeToo’ and all of that? Between HoD’s handling of Ms. Daemon on one hand, and ‘She-Hulk’ making its’ titular character a mockery of the ‘powerful female character’ concept, I am really sore at real life. Did I mention that it sucks?

…Well, this is it for now, people – I will see you all soon.

She-Hulk, Jeans - Sep 15

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about ‘She-Hulk: the Legal Eagle’ instead.

…Oh, this isn’t how the show is actually called? My bad, and you are right – the show is barely legal either. Pause.

Let us try again. In this week’s episode, we learn that Titania has acquired the rights for the ‘She-Hulk’ brand, and is suing JW for the supposed copyright infringement. JW fights back on the court of law, and with the help of Ms. Book, she wins her right to remain the She-Hulk. That is fair enough, but…

However, the more I watch the ‘She-Hulk’ show, the more I feel that the characters are diminished because of this. In the comics and such cartoon shows as the ‘Agents of S.M.A.S.H.’ (now ended), She-Hulk was a lawyer, (or at least a legal councillor), but she was also a hero who smashed things, and, actually, in the comics? She still does that, while being an Avenger at the same time. Conversely, the show seems to be focusing on her being more of a lawyer, and that is ok, only… She-Hulk the titular character is not really a lawyer, she is a rom-com lawyer, and that makes her show not so much legal drama, but more of a parody of one.

By contrast, something like ‘The Good Place’ has its’ humorous moments, true, but it has serious moments too, and the show feels – even in re-watches – much more well-balanced than ‘She-Hulk’ does. I would like to say that there is drama and stuff in ‘She-Hulk’, but I cannot. Somehow, the way that the show presents itself discredits any possibility of there being actual drama in ‘She-Hulk’, and as for Titania and her character…

In her past incarnations, Titania went from being an outright villain to more of an anti-hero, and from She-Hulk’s enemy to more of a frenemy slash eternal rival. Basically, the two ladies had the better chance of beating each other if and when they went toe to toe, than anyone else would. Here, on ‘She-Hulk’, Titania is not anything but an annoyance; JW does not learn anything, or get anything from their confrontations, and neither does Titania; you could have replaced Titania in this episode with some random character off the top of your head, and the story would’ve remained the same, with JW becoming more confident in being the She-Hulk in the end. Put otherwise, the titular character is not the only one being diminished on the show; everyone else is as well. Sad – and in case of Madisynn, (seriously, that is her name), outright annoying. True, ‘She-Hulk’ is rounding-out the story of Wong and Kamar-Taj in new, unexpected ways, but, again – somehow Wong is being transformed here from a formidable and serious magician into some sort of an irresponsible asshole – while the Abomination, (I’m quite certain that we haven’t seen the last of him yet), has transformed from a monstrous, distorted image of the original Hulk into some sort of a heterosexual cult leader and nothing more. That is… disappointing, if nothing else, but, again, that is what Marvel going for intentionally, so more power for them, I guess. Anything else?

…The funeral of Her Majesty Elizabeth II is proceeding apiece this week, but I frankly have no intent of discussing it, out of the respect for Her Majesty, if nothing else. An epoch did end with her passing and I really do not want to muck around in themes of such epic levels…

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

 

She-Hulk, Magic - Sep 8

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks – Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain has passed today, on Sep 8, 2022, at 96 years of age. May she rest in peace! The rest of the world will be in a worse place now that she’s gone, as her immediate heirs – her son Charles, and his sons, William and Harry, don’t get along, (and there are plenty of lesser scandals and fights in the family too), so it’s anyone’s guess as to what will happen in the British politics next. Given that the modern world is already a rocky place, this is not good. Shall we try to lose ourselves in the world of fiction instead?

…Yeah, that is tricky too – we got a partially live-action remake of ‘Pinocchio’ coming out today, (i.e. Sep 8, 2022), but, frankly, I am not the biggest fan or connoisseur of this franchise, so I politely pass over this. ‘She-Hulk’ is onto the 4^th episode (‘is this not real magic?’) of its’ franchise so far, and it seems to be finding its’ legs by now, and… it’s somewhat decent, as we get to meet some new and original characters, and get to see the titular character actually do something more aside from some rom-com lawyering – she isn’t Ally McBeal, after all!

…The problem with ‘She-Hulk’ is that by now it is unintentionally diminishing the Marvel characters that are featured in it – the Abomination, Wong, Titania, the Wrecking Crew, and even the titular character. Instead of being, well, characters, heroes and villains, as the characters of the Phase 1 through 3 were, the characters of ‘She-Hulk’ seem to be as relatable, realistic and sympathetic as the characters of any rom-com – say, ‘Friends’, had been. People just do not care about the adventures of J.W. and her Gal Friday, Nikki, (the duo are trying just a touch too hard to come across as straight), as they seem to meander from case to case, from episode to episode, (while looking sexy, because reasons). Oh, and Bruce/the original Hulk is gone from the show, having left for the vastness of space once more. Planet Hulk, here we come!

Back on Earth, the titular heroine is about to get sued by Titania, (whose RL is Mary) about who is the real She-Hulk. Hold on to your horses, you cannot stand the excitement! …The poor bloke from Michigan, who got mauled by a grizzly bear and her three cubs, is causing more excitement on the Internet than the ‘She-Hulk’ does. And finally, there is the entire issue with Amazon’s latest series: ‘LotR: RoP’ – people hate it.

Now, Amazon, is actually denying it, which is just dumb – either those negative numbers and reviews are a lie, in which case Amazon should just ignore them, or they’re the truth, in which case calling them a lie is a mistake. Disney was already in such a place with their SW franchise – the SW movie sequel trilogy, to be more precise. They tried to do something about such criticism, and their actions resulted in the SW fandom to be still split into several factions, and Disney/SW itself is trying to rebuild itself…, which includes ignoring that the sequel trilogy had ever taken place. I do not know as to how Amazon will handle their misadventure, but that will actually be interesting to see. Anything else?

Aside from the fact, that team Amazon had no open indication that anything LotR-related is guaranteed to be an immediate hit? I am afraid not. Gorbachev is gone, Her Majesty is also gone, and we are left with the live action Pinocchio-2022, which even IGN openly calls ‘mediocre’, which means that it is that bad. Therefore, for now, this is it. 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!

She-Hulk, Law - August 25

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

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

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

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

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

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

She-Hulk, series premiere - August 18

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, the electronics in my life and my home are going berserk, so let us talk about the ‘She-Hulk’ series premiere – and… it is a Mary Sue!

No, seriously, she is – she is better than her cousin BB is, (and he used to be a cosmic gladiator, remember?), she is better than Titania is, she’s better than everyone else, and it’s the patriarchy that is keeping her down, nothing else.

Yes, I am quite aware that this version of ‘She-Hulk’ is a direct descendant of the early 2000s’ comic version, where Ms. Walters got fired by her old legal firm ‘cause of her skin color, (cough), and who became a freelancer instead, battling even Dr. Doom, (hint-hint towards MCU), matching wits with the Daredevil in the court of law, (and look who is back, even in the trailers)… over the old Captain Rogers; (it resulted in Cap being acquitted rather than condemned, and in him punching Dr. Faustus in the face – in MCU, this role belonged to Dr. Whitehall, who seems to be dead after all); and she’d confronted Titania, who’d been… actually in employ of some minor villain-hero, who was revealed not to be so minor after all… and who had altered the Marvel universe somehow…and the She-Hulk had to team-up with the Shocker to fix things… yes, Marvel comics can be really confusing sometimes. What next?

Well, MCU’s Titania resembles a reject from the World Wrestling Federation, and, apparently, fights like one, so pardon me for not being impressed as to how Attorney at Law: She-Hulk kicked her ass. Any true Mary-Sue requires having other female characters around to be the villains for her to easily defeat, or maybe even redeem, but they are still inferior to her, because she is perfect, (and otherwise? She will bugger-off into the sunset, leaving the authors with a gaping plot hole, ‘cause she’s that sort of an a-hole instead). What next?

Well, the 355 film, (remember it?), failed despite trying to show this sort of a female protagonist, (or several, actually), and the same can be said about the DCEU, such as the “Harley Quinn’ films, which have also vanished by now with nary a mark left. We will see how ‘She-Hulk’ will fair next, and there is also a statement about MM.

MM, by contrast, is less of a Mary-Sue, and more of a propaganda piece, aimed at showing just how well, and how domestically, Muslim immigrants are living in the U.S. Sadly, RL being what it is, this happened soon after the Taliban vanquished the U.S. army and the democratic regime in the Afghanistan, completely and utterly, so the American elite’s take on MM was underwhelming, but what could be done? Admit that MM is a propaganda piece with a message that not even its’ makers believe in? Yeah, that’s not how they do it in America; they adhere to their beliefs – in a half-ass manner that satisfies neither side; the result here is that MM got buried between ‘Obi-Wan’ and ‘Thor 4’, and the world moved on…

Therefore, let us move on as well; so far, MM offered little, and ‘She-Hulk’ offers less; as such, I’ll see you all soon instead!

She-Hulk trailer 1 - May 18

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the trailer for the upcoming ‘She-Hulk’ series; even as a trailer, there is already controversy surrounding it, as some people have called it ‘woke crap’. To this, sirs and madams, I can reply with this repartee: and what is so woke about it?

What does the trailer actually depict? The titular character, of course, albeit in her depiction as a metahuman lawyer, rather than a vigilante or anything like that. This was a period in the She-Hulk’s comic life, though the last time I saw her, her character was redesigned, and she was working with the Avengers’ in her cousin’s place, while Bruce Banner did his own thing, with his own crew, as the Immortal Hulk, or something to this extent. Consequently, in the trailer, we see the She-Hulk mostly in her lawyer incarnation, we see her interacting mostly with Bruce in his green state and with her bestie, (an unnamed white female lawyer), and some shots of the Abomination as well.

What else does the trailer tell us? Why, nothing – it shows, not tells, just as the ‘Ms. Marvel’ trailer did. Only, in case of Kamala, we also learned that Disney/MCU has redesigned her character; in the comics, Kamala is an InHuman – her powers come from inside, from her DNA. In MCU, Kamala is not an InHuman – her powers will come from some cosmic bracelet instead. This is not surprising – between AoS’ InHumans being all over the places, and the ‘InHumans’ 2017 TV series being simply insipid, Disney/MCU doesn’t want to bring back the InHumans at all, (which makes bad news for Chloe Bennett’s Daisy/Quake character, but I’m done caring about her by now), so naturally Kamala is getting a redesign… just in time to meet her S1 archnemeses… who appear to be bland corporate types. Right. Where were we?

Right, the trailer for ‘Ms. Marvel’ was rather insipid in its’ own right, and the trailer for ‘She-Hulk’ is the same. Both trailers show the titular characters doing things, such as acquiring their powers, but nothing to little else. This is frustrating to the viewers to say the least, and so, naturally, they begin to accuse the two shows of being ‘woke crap’ – but there is nothing ‘woke’ about either ‘Ms. Marvel’ or ‘She-Hulk’ – the two trailers are just crappy, and that is that. Whether or not the same can be said about the actual shows remains for the future, when they will come out onto the streaming services…

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