More on 'M.O.D.O.C.' - May 26

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us get back talking about M.O.D.O.C. No, not the titular character, but rather the actual show, (though about the titular character too – sort of). As I was going over the characters’ trivia, I realized that yes, the character of ‘Angar’ appeared in one episode of AoS, and that the character of ‘Tenpins’ appeared – sort of – in one episode of Netflix’s ‘Daredevil’, but more importantly was that Patton Oswald, the man behind the M.O.D.O.C., (sorry), was also the man behind the various Koenigs that’d appeared in AoS over the years. Pause.

This got me thinking; I looked over the entire Marvel ‘Robot Chicken’ take, and realized that M.O.D.O.C. really was more than just Marvel’s take on ‘Robot Chicken’.

First, it is Disney/MCU’s challenge to Sony, whose ‘Spiderman: Into the Spider-verse’ introduced the concept of the multiverse in the Marvel-based movies and co. Yes, the upcoming ‘No Way Home’ and ‘Multiverse of Madness’ films, starring MCU’s Spiderman and Dr. Strange are also intent on dealing with the multiverse theory, (and then there’s mini-series of Loki’s adventures, aye?), but the ‘Robot Chicken’… I mean M.O.D.O.C., came first, testing the waters to see as to how Marvel’s fans will respond to the multiverse/alternate timelines theory. Given that M.OD.O.C.’s reviews are mainly positive, this looks like a win for Disney & Marvel. Good for them!

Secondly, it is Disney/MCU’s way of testing the waters regarding mutants and co.; Mr. Sinister of the X-Men franchise briefly appeared in one of M.O.D.O.C.’s episodes, and there were other X-Men references in the series’ episodes too. Basically, Disney & Marvel are not putting the X-Men and the other mutants away now that they bought FOX out in real life, but they are doing it slowly; Ralph from ‘WandaVision’ was especially a disappointment given that he had turned out to be literal dick joke instead.

Finally, M.O.D.O.C. tried to address some of the themes that were supposed to be discussed in AoS, (yes, we are going there again) – in particular the matter of family. In AoS, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were supposed to be more than just coworkers – they were supposed to be a family, as opposed to Hydra and its’ agents, that were anything but. Sadly, because AoS just couldn’t handle real life issues period, this approach went nowhere, or at least it was notably diminished; and as for S.H.I.E.L.D.’s victory over Hydra? It did happen, sort of, but in a very messy way, so by now MCU isn’t talking about either Hydra or S.H.I.E.L.D.; instead, we got S.W.O.R.D., (in ‘WandaVision’), and this is it. Huzzah!

Back to M.O.D.O.C.? This show’s titular character also had issues with family – as he had figured out, they were slowing him down from achieving his dream of a global utopia, (or something along those lines), because they were bringing out the best in him, and since we’re talking supervillain material here…yeah, that’s bad news. Therefore, by the S1 end, M.O.D.O.C. seems to have gotten rid of his wife and children and achieved his dream instead. Since this is only the first season of the show out of several, (one hopes), odds of him regretting his choice and turning it all around, (this show featured plenty of time travel already, you know), and even finding some sort of redemption in the future, are still fairly good. Where does it leave us?

…At M.O.D.O.C. son’s, (aka Lou) bar mitzvah, maybe? Now there was a piece of tone deafness. First, the mother of the family – Jodi – does not really look Jewish, and that is important, because in Jewish religion, if the mother is not Jewish, then neither is the child, not for all of the official priests and rabbis. This attitude has caused the Jews plenty of trouble, which brings us to the other point - HAMAS. Them fighting the Israelis again, for the first time in a while, marked the May of 2021 and while the Israelis claim that they won, officially it is more of a tie instead. So what?

You mean aside from the fact that M.O.D.O.C. has apparently given the global community the first Jewish super-villain? The latest Israeli-HAMAS fighting only given more kindling to the fire, but fortunately for the Israelis, in the current world order, their fighting with the HAMAS just isn’t that important: the U.S. is busy dealing with both RF and China while trying to win the EU back regardless of the damage that the Donald’s reign wrought over the U.S.-EU relations, and everyone else just doesn’t care. The U.S.S.R. was notably anti-Israel, but the RF doesn’t even pretend to be the U.S.S.R. anymore, so here M.O.D.O.C. got a lucky break, but do we have to associate Judaism with a comic-book super-villain, eh? …Anything else?

Well, there is the new ‘Eternals’ trailer that dropped down on May 25, 2021, but that is another story, so for now, this is it. See you all soon!

Venom II trailer - May 10

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, but then the trailer for the ‘Venom II: Let there be Carnage’ movie came out, so let us talk about it and the initial movie ‘Venom’ as well.

Where to begin? The initial ‘Venom’ movie, released back in 2018, was flawed. It had problems, and while I have enjoyed it, this enjoyment didn’t conceal the facts that ‘Venom-2018’ had been rewritten and remade a couple of times; it was more compact than the final 2 episodes of WV were, for comparison, but regardless, it lost characters at about ‘Riverdale’-level bad.

…Yes, I know that ‘Riverdale’ is not a part of the Marvel™ franchise, but it was still a good TV show premise that went bad in a hurry; by the S3 finale, I simply could not watch it, but we are talking about ‘Venom-2018’ here instead.

‘Venom-2018’ suffered from unnecessary character killage, from the fact that SUMC’s take on Ann Weying was to focus on Michelle Williams’ arse and legs; they are wonderful, of course, but somehow Ms. Weying comes across as having less personality than Dr. Skirth was, and the latter died in the movie, so that’s saying something. Yes, Ms. Weying was the She-Venom for one brief moment in the movie, but then she went back to normal… but now that ‘Venom II: Carnage’ is coming out later this year, (in theaters only, so says Sony), maybe she’ll get to reprise this role somehow? Pause.

Let’s be clear – yes, that is speculation: so far the trailer only showed us Eddie trying to live his life with Venom in it, (and that’s not easy), Cletus Kassidy getting obsessed with Eddie somehow (and who knows for what reason, because he’s crazy), Shriek (a villain and an ally of Carnage in the Marvel™ comics, cough), having a cameo in the trailer, there’re a bunch of other cameos in the trailer, including Mrs. Chen, who was kind of important in the original trailer, and this is it. We get the general feel of the upcoming movie; it will be all about Venom vs. Carnage, but nothing else. The showrunners have done their job well. What is next?

Hard to say. The trailer is exciting and it will be fun to watch the actual movie, but it looks as if Spider-Man himself will not be in it, or in SUMC, period. IGN, who is willing and able to work as a mouthpiece for various companies for money, has talked for about 4 minutes about how Venom has de-facto parted ways from the old Web-Head in the comics for a while now, so there is no reason as to why this cannot happen on the big screen either. Fair enough, and again, we need to get through Marvel’s M.O.D.O.C. the TV series first.

Yes, it has been confirmed that this series takes place on a ‘separate Earth’ yet again – Earth-1226, if my info is correct, so it is not a part of MCU. This means that whatever happens there, whoever gets depicted in it, (and we know from the trailer that it includes S.H.I.E.L.D. the organization and Tony Stark the Iron Man at least), it isn’t MCU canon, though it is some sort of canon all the same.

…Pause. Here I feel like bringing out that MCU canon is a tricky thing on its’ own – ‘Helstrom’, the previous Marvel series that were made by Hulu, just as ‘M.O.D.O.C.’ is, was supposedly a part of MCU, until it isn’t, and instead became its’ own separate universe, ‘Earth-TRN836’, so there’s that. You never know what and when everything will turn out in the world of Marvel™ & MCU. The Disney/SW merger is much more predictable; the second episode of ‘The Bad Batch’ has already featured a mixed-race family – so woke! All that is missing is an actual human/Twi’lek baby, and we will be all set! …In reality, interracial children are an even more complex issue than interracial couples are, especially by the standards of the American elite, so here Disney/SW is messing around with topics that is has no ideas about – again. At least now, they are avoiding everything that came during the SW Sequel Trilogy, and instead focusing on the space between SW movies 3 & 4 instead. Fair enough, and is there anything else left?

No, not this time, sadly. See you all soon instead!

Peloton and Co. - May 7

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Just ask the Peloton™ team: they have only just recovered from their previous ad snafu, one that smelled of either sexism or of the Dark Mirror™ TV series, and now they got another scandal: apparently, children are getting into accidents over their treadmill equipment, and are getting hurt, maybe even seriously.

Listen, I don’t like Peloton™ as much as the next lazy guy, but even I have to admit that an indoor gym equipment isn’t necessarily child friendly, and as such, children – especially young ones – should be kept away from it, or at least – kept under supervision. This time, Peloton™ isn’t exactly at fault here, you know?

…On the other hand, we live in a world where endangered condors are trashing people’s homes, so all bets are off, actually. Let us try to talk about a less bizarre topic, i.e. the bad batch, the titular characters.

…No, I have no intention to talk about the series’ premiere in detail, let us just point out that the group’s villain, Crosshairs is…

No, let us try again. The Bad Batch themselves are a variant clone of the AoS’ team Bus from the get-go, just as the core characters of the ‘Blindspot’ TV series had been. Omega, of course, is the new Skye, while Crosshairs is Grant Ward, save that he is actually mind-controlled by some chip here, and thus has an out, (sort of): he was really made to do it and his mind isn’t entirely his own. It’s a thin excuse, but Ward didn’t have even this; actually, he never had anything, he hadn’t been fully damned nor fully redeemed, but we’re not talking about him; we’re talking about Crosshairs, who is also modelled after a Marvel comics’ character, a minor villain named William Cross, who is a master sniper and planner, who has slightly cybernetic modifications, but who wasn’t in S.H.I.E.L.D., but rather in CIA, before he went bad. He is also bad at hand-to-hand combat, and everything, (except for S.H.I.E.L.D. and CIA, primarily), applies to Crosshairs: the clone might be a Grant Ward variant mentally, but physically, he is more of a variant William Cross instead. The cross-pollination between Disney’s various franchises is proceeding apiece quite nicely.

This brings us to DC, and its’ ‘Justice Society: WWII’ film. Listen. The DC franchise is in the middle of a latest reboot, which began with the ‘Superman: Man of Tomorrow’ animated movie. This specific person plays an important role in this film too, even though in the promo videos it was more about the Flash and Wonder Woman instead, but so what? DC is trying to reinvent itself…cosmetically, while remaining same old same old on the inside: JS: WWII is a variant of the first Gal Gadot Wonder Woman movie, though there’s a nice homage to ‘Flash’ the 2014-onwards TV series too. You are free to watch it, but it is forgettable. Anything else?

Ah yes, the first season of ‘Jupiter’s Legacy’ is available to watch now. I have tried to follow the original comic series, and found them to be confused – just what exactly did they want to be? They tried to be original, but they did no better than Hasbro’s ‘G.I. Joe’ franchise, which struggles to be something more than another S.H.I.E.L.D. vs Hydra variant in an increasingly Marvel vs. DC comic world, and in this world, Marvel is increasingly driven and motivated by Disney, (cough), while DC is trying to figure out what it wants other than bigger sales of its’ own merchandise. Nice.

…Into this fray entered the ‘Jupiter’ comics, which tried to leave a mark, tried to be original, but somehow have largely vanished without a trace, until now, when they’ve resurfaced with a complete reboot from the original plotline, and-?

And nothing. Not unlike the abovementioned DC film, people will either enjoy the ‘Jupiter’ series, or not. There is nothing memorable or outstanding that gives them an advantage over the rest of their respective crowds, and so it is time to move on and to talk about something else.

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

TFATWS, OWOP - April 26

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks; a python ate a woman in her rice field, and our family barely got over being vaccinated against the COVID. Onto the show?

Firstly, I was half-right about the show being renamed: Sam Wilson is now the new official Captain America, but Bucky Barnes is still the Winter Soldier rather than the White Wolf. Have to admit, I do not know why, but then again, ‘the White Wolf’ does sound rather Nordic and Aryan, so there is that.

…Of course there is the racial politics at play again – as Sam himself proclaims, he is the Black man, dressed in Stars and Stripes, so in your face… just who, exactly? By losing the 2020 election, the Donald has caused a lot of venom in CAAWS to disappear, because Disney/MCU themselves are trying to downplay it now, because the Biden administration is supposedly different. How exactly is anyone’s guess, but it is different. It has to be. Where were we?

Right, the season’s finale. Not unlike how WV has ended, it is a somewhat lopsided episode; Sam Wilson, as the new true Captain America, got the lion’s share of development here, (in WV, it was Wanda), while everyone else – not so much. To be more precise, both Batroc and Karli are dead, Zemo is in prison, the rest of the Flag-Smashers are dead, and J.W. seems to be redeeming himself instead. Pause.

Let us try again. Last week, we talked as how to J.W. became a tragic anti-hero, not unlike Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, (the titular character of the play). Here, Disney/MCU did a reboot, as J.W. and everyone else in the CAAWS fandom did an about-face and went in a very new direction from where the last week’s episode ended. On one hand, this is justifiable, and Sharon Carter’s revelation as the Power Broker is quite expected, but…

…Well, whatever she is in the Marvel comics, in MCU Sharon had had barely any presence – she had some brief appearances in the previous CA films, (especially the CA: CW film), but she had barely any character development there, if any. Hence, once she was revealed the actual villain of the series (so far), there was little if any shock value, and most people are more interested in the good contessa Val instead.

“Don’t call me that!”

To elaborate on this character, the good contessa comes across almost like a female Coulson, and since during her comic book history, she had been Nick Fury’s love interest and ally, as well as his enemy, this may mean that she may be helping Nick, (Talos and Soren), to re-build the Avengers, and she may be a Skrull herself, because why not? If Sharon/Power Broker may be a Skrull, (but somehow, unlike WV, CAAWS doesn’t really mention Skrulls or anyone like that at all, so this is unlikely), then why not her ladyship? Where were we, again?

Well, following the zeitgeist, her ladyship seems to have mended fences with Mrs. W, suggesting that for a while the latter will be a part of the U.S. Agent’s life yet. Of course, that is no guarantee that she will not die as MCU’s Battlestar did in the episode 1x04, but them’s the risks. That said, also, the U.S. Agent’s new suit is notably black, just as Sam’s is notably white, so I guess that we now got a white knight against a black one, cough.

This brings us to Zemo, who seems to be becoming MCU’s answer to Batman/Dark Knight instead – he even got a kick-ass butler, who seems to be on par with DC’s Alfred Pennyworth, eh? In addition, he is a rich man, with a secret I.D., a serious yen towards vigilantism and some sort of a code of conduct – meet MCU’s up and coming founder of the Thunderbolts! What is left?

Nothing much. Karli died, but her sacrifice was not in vain, as Sam uses it to fuel his righteous rage to get the GRC moving in the right direction. Sharon is poised to be the next Big Bag in the MCU, Batroc died and not became MCU’s answer to the Box Ghost – there is a God, it seems – and Sam and Bucky are moving on with their lives; Bucky seems to be flirting with Sam’s sister, but until it is official – and Hollywood, including Disney & MCU are very bad with interracial couples, just look at AoS – this may not mean anything. Is there anything else?

Next on MCU’s roster is the ‘M.O.D.O.C.’, which seems to be MCU’s answer to ‘Adult Swim’ in general and ‘Robot Chicken’ in particular. I do not know if I will be watching it, but that is a story for another time all the same.

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

TFATWS, 'Truth' - April 19

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, though sometimes you choose to take a risk, come Hell or high water because it is worth it. Beyond that, I do not really want to talk about myself or my family, so let us talk about TFATWS’ penultimate episode instead. It is called ‘Truth’, ironically enough, and what about it?

Well, first, the big cameo in the episode – it is JLD, the titular character of the now ended political comedy show ‘VEEP’. In MCU, JLD played contessa Valentina, who comes across both as a cougar and a female Phil Coulson – a femme fatale of no determined age that should’ve belonged to AoS, only, again, AoS is over and done with MCU and vice versa. Pause.

Throughout the weekend, fans and co. were discussing as to how ‘Val’ was one of the Marvel comics’ characters who were Madame Hydra. Fair enough, JLD’s version of Val has clear femme fatale vibes, and the way that she came between Captain Walker and his wife suggests clearly enough that she is a harbinger for worse things to come in the life of the good captain.

Captain Dubya’s situation is clear enough though – not unlike Shakespeare’s Coriolanus, (who was a titular character in one of Shakespeare’s historical Roman plays), an initially good person, who becomes undone, and a villain, (well, in Coriolanus’ case it is more of an enemy of the state situation), instead.

Seriously, remember the second episode of TFATWS? The initial depiction of John Walker shows him as a good man rather than a bad one, but that is not a guarantee of anything; in the case of the original Captain America, the super-soldier serum made a good man into a great man; in case of John Walker, the reverse seems to be true, (so far).

And contessa Val? (Que Karliene’s ‘Blood Countess’ song, I daresay). Right now it is shown that she is going to separate John from his wife, the last good thing from his pre-Captain America days, the only thing that stops him from going full villain, (or not, cough, the new shield, cough). His wife, mother and daughter stopped Coriolanus from destroying Rome; here, there is only a wife, and she is being replaced by the contessa.

Back to the contessa herself… can she be Madame Hydra too? MCU already had a Madame Hydra, in the person of AIDA, back in the AoS’ S4. AIDA was a complex entity, but she did fill the hole – and the role - of Madame Hydra in MCU’s (admittedly messed-up) S.H.I.E.L.D. vs. Hydra discourse that was supposed to be what AoS was all about. And yes, there are several characters that were, and are, called Madame Hydra in Marvel, but given how S.H.I.E.L.D. isn’t talked about in MCU – and S.W.O.R.D. was invented/reinvented to fill the S.H.I.E.L.D.-esque hole in WV, I doubt that Val will be Madame Hydra, (or that Hydra itself will ever return). Rather, she may be the actual Power Broker – or a Power Broker, I suppose, since in Marvel, the Power Broker is both a single person and an organization, but the mention of S.H.I.E.L.D. brings us to Sharon Carter…and also to Georges Batroc.

Well, with Georges’, it is all quite clear – he is the Box Ghost of MCU, so he will probably survive because MCU will need a lesser, but a recognizable villain for some time at least. Sharon is more complex; she may be the Power Broker instead of Val, or she can still be working for Fury (and S.H.I.E.L.D.?), or she may not be Sharon Carter at all, but rather some Skrull – or any other shapeshifter, really – who is pretending to be Sharon Carter for her own reasons. Either way, her apparently sending Batroc to bulk up Karli and her Flag-Smashers is morally ambiguous at best.

Speaking of Karli, how did her and her Flag-Smashers arrive in U.S. from the E.U.? The original Karl ‘Flag-Smasher’ Morgenthau was a rich WASP male, who had no such problems, but Karli herself seems to be a proletariat person, a Greta Thunberg gone wrong, and she is a wanted criminal by now, so how was she able to achieve this feat? ‘Why’ is simple – MCU wanted the final showdown of TFATWS take place in USA, and so it shall be! …Anything else?

Well, Zemo was written out of the rest of TFATWS, as were the Dora Milaje. If they were around to show that Bucky transformed from the winter soldier into the white wolf, then they did their job, though they were rather underwhelming, especially the Dora Milaje; and if they were for any other reason, well… then they are even moreso. Pity.

As for the titular characters… I honestly do not know. By now, it is reasonable to assume that they have stopped being TFATWS, and instead became CAAWW – Captain America and White Wolf. The former is explanatory – now, USA is being represented by an Afro-American person, (one that is not Luke Cage, BTW), and it will live with it, somehow – or not, given that MCU is not the most rational of the fictional universes. With Bucky, it is more complex – White Wolf is not the most known character of the Marvel comic universe these days, so it will be rather interesting to see as to what MCU will do to Bucky next… but that is not the point. The point is that MCU has progressed further from where it ended at the end of Phase 3; now it has a new Captain America, a new (first) White Wolf, and a new Falcon, if J. Torres is anything like his comic book counterpart is. The other characters are more secondary, sadly – ‘so much for Fortinbras’, since we’ve mentioned Shakespeare earlier. Anything else?

No, not yet. So far, after TFATWS’ series’ finale, MCU seems to be taking a break – May is marked only by the new ‘Cruella’ movie, and ‘Loki’ the TV series is coming only in summer. Fair enough, and see you all soon!

TFATWS, 'Whole World is Watching' - April 12

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. So, let us move onto TFATWS, only we cannot leave real behind, this time.

What had happened in the mini-series? The new captain Dubya has went berserk after his friend Lamar – who has been his closest friend and confidant all this time – died. Yes, it is a parallel as to how Steve did not go berserk after his Bucky died…but at the time when TFATWS was being made, it was presumed that it would air during the Donald era, and now it was released during Joe Biden’s era instead, and the real life world changed.

…More precisely, Joe Biden is not like his predecessor: whereas the latter had a personality, the former does not. Moreover, the man is rather bland, which is not the best thing for a POTUS to have, (all the rumors about him being sued over the XL pipeline aside). Ever since he was elected, Joe tried to rebuild the old U.S. image… i.e. the image that was around even during Barack Obama’s first term, and he has not succeeded. People do not like the idea of an RF, let alone Chinese, domination of the world, but neither they are too excited about the U.S. doing it either. Last week, there was talk in the air of the U.S. teaming up with the Ukraine to go to actual war against Russia (and its’ nominal allies, whoever they are) over Crimea and other disputed locations. Pause.

The punchline here is that while the RF did go up, spitting mad, as it did when Biden agreed that Putin is a killer, it didn’t throw the actual first punch, but went into a waiting game. The U.S. had to have Russia attack first, because otherwise – while they would still win such a war, however eventually, at this time – they would be the aggressor, and that would be bad. Plus, Ukraine, while it has little love for its’ eastern neighbor these days, probably isn’t too enthused about being Europe’s version of a U.S. ‘protectorate’, as Iraq is in Middle East, and Afghanistan – in Central Asia. As a result, right now aggression appears to have de-escalated over the contested area – and the Disney/MCU’s latest mini-series have just aired – last week, (April 9, 2021), an episode, where a man in the U.S. colors kill another man – and a European one at that – in the most violent and savage way possible. Yes, it was supposed to contrast Rogers and Dubya – but also the Trumpist U.S. and its’ predecessor.

…Only now the Trumpist U.S. is gone – apparently, though opinions vary – and captain Dubya suddenly may be standing-in for Biden’s regime instead. Ouch! Naturally, Disney/MCU is trying to do something about it, trying to make captain Dubya ‘incel’, (even though ‘The Star-Spangled Man’ episode clearly introduced the audience to his actual wife), by throwing out a bunch of secondary, if not tertiary, factoids about WV, and what else have you, all to downplay captain Dubya’s impact on MCU & real life via the silver screen. Nice integrity you got there, Disney/MCU! Now let us talk about the plight of the Afro-Americans in real life and whatnot!

…Only no, they do not – instead, the show had the Dora Milaje appear on screen, make captain Dubya even a bigger jerk, and start a fight that allowed baron Zemo to escape. I hope that he will come back worse than before, because right now? Captain Dubya makes him look positively humane and relatable, (not a good thing, you know). Anything else?

No, not really – as the scriptwriters for this episode have intended, captain Dubya’s actions have overshadowed everyone and everything else: he created a pivotal moment within MCU, and everything and everyone else in ‘The Whole World is Watching’ episode got overshadowed. Bravo, people! You achieved exactly what you were striding for, only in a different real life setting from the one that you have intended, so now you have to live with the consequences. The end. Anything else?

No. The titular characters continue to be ‘the straight men’ in their own mini-series, Sharon Carter’s appearance here was barely a cameo, and Karli continues to be a fresh-faced innocent poised to tempt Sam Wilson into the dark side, even though she continues to remain one of the most inept villains ever. Seriously, if she is that set into her ideology, then how and why she remains a rebel? Pause.

Yeah, Karli right now is a rebel (against the global authority and what else have you), not a villain, but regardless of the importance of this distinction, she is still very unlikable, and I don’t think that even the show’s fanbase knows what to do about her, and they largely ignore her; even Sharon Carter, (who has come and gone off screen and on screen), has a bigger following than MCU’s gender-bend Flag-smasher has. That is sad, but also deserving – she just is not very likable, (and kind of redundant, but that is just my personal opinion).

And as for the Power Broker… listen. Marvel itself was never certain if there was just a single power broker, or several. By now, people are believing that if the person isn’t going to be one of the already-revealed characters, (either Sharon Carter or Zemo, ‘cause if it is going to be Sam or Bucky all along, people are just going to freak out and probably not in a good way), then they aren’t going to be revealed at all, and that works out, because not unlike WV (and also AC), TFATWS remains to be small, tightly-built show, all the world-travelling (and world-building) aside. A villain does not have to be on screen to be a driving force – just look at Thanos before the events in the ‘Infinity War’ and ‘Endgame’ movies as an example; whether or not Power Broker will be a threat of Thanos’ level is another question entirely, but it still will be interesting to see as to who, or what, they will be revealed to be at the end.

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

TFATWS, 'Power Broker' - April 5

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Therefore, let us look at the latest episode of TFATWS, the ‘Power Broker’, to check on the titular characters… yeah, they are not doing so hot either. Where to begin?

Unlike WV, which was centered all around the town of Westview and nowhere else, not really, (cough, S.W.O.R.D. and Skrulls, cough), TFATWS is something of a globe-trotting adventure: in the first half of the mini-series alone, we’ve been not just to the U.S., but also to north Africa, to Europe, (Germany and now Riga, the capital city of Latvia), and also to Asia, via the fictional state of Madripoor. Pause.

Yes, people are very excited about the last one, since Madripoor is usually associated with the X-Men and the other mutants’ of the Marvel comic universe. However, just because it had finally appeared in MCU does not mean that the mutants themselves are going to follow suit – Disney/MCU has a plan, and it does not include the appearance of the X-Men and the other mutants for a long while – at least officially. Unofficially, I do not know – maybe Sharon Carter is a secret mutant who works for Mr. Sinister or someone like that, but until it is officially revealed, all we can do is speculate, and that is not enough.

Sharon Carter… yeah. If Batroc is shaping to be MCU’s answer to the Box Ghost at best, then Sharon Carter is one of those jack-of-all-trade characters, the one who is constantly reshaped to fill whatever plot hole MCU needs to fill-in next. She used to be Steve Rogers’ love interest, but then Steve went back to Peggy Carter once the latter’s titular series got abruptly ended post S2, (a pity), in a non-too-obvious MCU reboot. Yes, Daniel Sousa went from AC, to AoS, where he ended up being Daisy Johnson/Quake’s love interest, but AoS itself has ended, and where are they now? Supposedly being S.H.I.E.L.D.’s alien ambassadors, whatever that means, but we’re already getting well into MCU’s Phase 4, and S.H.I.E.L.D. itself is nowhere in sight – or is it? Sharon Carter herself was an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. in MCU, so now that she is back, and with her own agenda, it may be that S.H.I.E.L.D. is returning to mainstream MCU after all.

Or not, it is too early to tell. The main focus of TFATWS remain the titular characters, as well as baron Zemo. The latter is clearly a bad man, but is he a villain? Yes, MCU tried - tries to make its’ villains sympathetic, and the results are mixed: the early seasons of AoS were bad, while in WV Agnes/Agatha Harkness is more of an obstacle or an upstart rival than an enemy, (as John Garrett had been to the team Bus, for example), and that probably left at least some fans wondering – was Wanda the villain all along after all? Spoiler alert – she was, but we digress.

Well, not really – he is still a self-centered, entitled, rich jerk, who has shot Sam and Bucky’s latest lead, Dr. Nagel, in order to remain useful to them for longer. On one hand, you cannot blame him – he probably does not want to go back to prison, (though with the Wakanda on his tail this situation may change), on the other, Sam and Bucky should remember, that when you dine with the devil, you should use the long spoon, and if you do not, then it is on you.

The Power Broker themselves… yes, that’s still vague, so we really ought to move onto J.W., his main man Battlestar, and the iKarli, but first – a big shout-out to Disney/MCU on their hypocrisy! In the first two episodes, they involved scenes showing Sam getting harassed by the Anglo-American authorities because he is an Afro-American instead, but here comes the episode 1x03, and we got none of that at all – even Sarah Wilson’s cameo in this episode is more of a cameo than anything else. Fair enough, but this doesn’t support my theory that the social commentary in TFATWS is just to pad the runtime, nothing more, and when it isn’t actually necessary to pad the runtime, (here we had Sharon Carter’s expose to do that), it is being discarded. Thank you, Disney/MCU, for being true to yourself! (Cough, Mulan-2020 controversy, cough).

Back to TFATWS and MCU proper, we finally got J.W. and Karli Morgenthau. J.W. behaves just as the U.S. itself did in the late 90s and the early 2000s, when they were on the rise and did not believe that they needed anyone’s help to establish their ‘global village’, aka ‘Pax Americana’ – and then there were Iraq, Egypt, and, most importantly, Libya – and the American global presence began to decrease, (as it does even now), and now the U.S. is changing their tune, because of the RF, yes, but especially because of China. Listen, the U.S. hate to admit it, but without allies, they are not so tough, and so they are looking for allies to go against the RF if necessary, but also – against China too. Yes, RF is tricky, because Putin seems to have an authentic crazy yen against the U.S., but he is not eternal, you know? The U.S. can still afford to wait.

Getting back to TFATWS proper, we still should discuss Karli and her Flag-Smashers, only there is also a limited amount of things to say. Karli seems to be shaping into yet another ‘sympathetic villain’, what with her innocent face, idealistic values, and what not, only a good deal of damage that occurs around her occurs because of her. Her Robin Hood to Power Broker’s prince John may be more of anti-hero thing than that of a proper villain, but her bombing of the GRC office is fully on her. She is horrified by that? Fine, but that on its’ own isn’t enough – she has to do something more concrete to show that she doesn’t want to be typecast into a villain role – only odds are is that she is going to be instead. Karli Morgenthau is a stand-in for the good old-fashioned European revolutionary, not so much a Communist or a Nazi, but more of a generic anarchist, who gave rise and gave way for the former two, (among others), and who tends to implement terrorist practices just for their own sake rather than to drive a goal forth. Now what?

Well, it is anyone’s idea, actually, as the storyline apparently needed an insertion of Wakanda’s elements to move itself forwards. Zemo may die in the TFATWS plot arc, yes, but odds are that he will stick around at least for a better part of the Phase 4 to be its’ token villain/anti-hero, (he does it better than Karli at this moment, actually). I also admit that I did not see this coming, Bucky Barnes’ remark about him being the White Wolf regardless. It will be interesting to see as to how this all goes in the next episode…

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