Loki, 'Glorious Purpose' - June 9

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the premiere of ‘Loki’ TV series instead.

The first episode, ‘Glorious Purpose’, is more of an introductory episode than of anything. It introduces Loki to the TVA, (especially agent Mobius and the hunter B-15), and it introduces the viewers to the TVA, to the greater multiverse, (even more so than the ‘M.O.D.O.K.’ series have done), and to Loki from the universe TRN732, rather than the mainline MCU, where he’d been killed by Thanos – not blipped, but killed literally, not unlike Vision.

In addition, not unlike ‘WandaVision’, and even more like ‘The Sam Wilson and Bucky show’, ‘Loki’…is building out the MCU, yes, by adding more layers to the previously streamlined Marvel Cinematic Universe – literally speaking, for the viewers get a literal depiction of the side-universes branching out from the central timeline – the ‘sacred timeline’ or whatever it is called; given how the live-action TVA is depicted as a rather secular place, the entire ‘sacred’ terminology doesn’t really appear to fit.

…And the same can be said about the titular glorious purpose. Getting back to the show’s titular character, the man’s- the god’s- the alien’s villainy stemmed from his selfishness, exacerbated by his arrogance and his identity crisis. In the original MCU timeline, Loki fancied himself the smartest there was, and then the events in the ‘sacred’ timeline unfolded and proved him wrong, and the original Loki learned compassion, understanding, self-sacrifice, so on - and then he died, killed by Thanos – but we repeat ourselves.

This brings us to the TRN732 Loki, who has found himself in the TVA, with his identity crisis made worse by the TVA, and who is getting to be angry with all of this. This Loki is still stuck in his selfish stage, and he is not pleased with the tough love treatment that his character is getting. Of course, there’s also the question as to why his character is getting this treatment, why not just put him back into his original timeline and move on? Yes, that would deride the show to begin with, but conversely, if ‘Loki’ will try to go deep, such questions will be raised.

…Yes, if we are to go back to the Meta, the TVA saved Loki in order for him to grow, (re-grow?) as a character, to confront his evil- well, eviller, counterpart and become an actual hero, or at least an anti-hero, rather than an outright villain. MCU tried to subvert this trope in AOS with Ward’s and Palamas’ story lines, and the result backfired in their face badly enough that they didn’t appear to have tried to do that anymore, and have outright replaced S.H.I.E.L.D. with S.W.O.R.D. in Phase 4, but now they’re tried to do exactly the ‘forced repentance’ plotline with (the rebooted) Loki, for better or worse – and for the glorious purpose, of course, whatever that even means anymore. TVA has clearly deflated Loki for the moment, but the alien is resilient and vengeful, if nothing else. ‘Loki’ the TV series should really introduce the carrot to counter the stick, or else its’ titular character might just figure out how to turn onto the TVA and really mess them up – don’t forget, this is the Loki that led the invasion of NYC to do Thanos’ bidding, and tried to destroy Jotunheim with Bifrost as well. I.e., Loki may act suave and sophisticated, but he goes for some wide scale destruction as well, if he can achieve it, especially quickly.

…Yes, this might be somehow played out in the entire ‘Loki vs. Loki’ conflict/plot line of the ‘Loki’ S1, but for the moment, we don’t know that, not really, and we can only guess. What we do know, though, is that the new MCU show – i.e. ‘Loki’ is good, but not great, and whether or not it will succeed or fail is too early to tell.

Cruella - June 2

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

What can be said about it? It’s long – at 2 h 14 min long, it could’ve been shorter. It is overindulgent, (not unlike the titular character), what with all the costumes, the music, and what else have you. Pause.

Let us try to talk about the message, and the plot line, instead, because complaining about technical issues does not really take us anywhere. The reviewers, the critics, etc. talked a lot about ‘I, Tanya’, and the other movies made by Mr. Gillespie, so let us talk about the actual influences here – Disney’s animated movies, such as the initial ‘Cinderella’, ‘Snow White’, and so on.

Seriously, I am calling out people here – ‘Cruella’ is designed as a typical Disney princess story: the righteous heir…ok, heiress, who is cheated out of her fortune by the evil mother/stepmother, who begins to run the kingdom…ok, the barony, by herself and no one can help our protagonist until she takes matters into her own hands. Pause. Simba from the original ‘Lion King’ movie rolls his eyes and matters that Cruella makes him feel like a Pansy, since his uncle actually ran his kingdom into the ground, while the Baroness was a success. How is that for cross-pollination?

…As for the ‘Devil Wears Prada’ franchise – do not go there. Initially, some of the ‘101 Dalmatians’ franchise pieces inspired it, but otherwise? Cruella was not a fashionista or anything; she was just a crazy rich woman who wanted to kill puppies to make herself a fur coat.

…Dalmatians’ skins and furs are actually rubbish from the fur industry’s P.O.V., and I suspect that Ms. Dodie Smith, who actually invented Cruella, Pongo, Perdita, Roger, Anita, and who else have you in the initial 2 novels, intended it to be so – her Cruella is rude, crude, entitled, and little else. Oh, and crazy, but this aspect of Cruella is her most defining and enduring one, from Ms. Smith’s books to the 2021 movie.

Getting back to the film, ‘Cruella’ differentiates from a Disney princess movie by Cruella being not just morally ambiguous, but also crazy, as in mentally unstable, something that is signified by her white and black hair, of course. Whether it stands for her split personality or something else, I do not know, but the titular character had no issues in proclaiming herself being ‘just a little bit mad’ or something. This is fine, this is her superpower, just as Elsa from the ‘Frozen’ franchise has powers over water and ice, but it does ‘unmake’ Cruella in being the underdog here, really, and makes the conflict between her and the Baroness rather undercut.

…Yes, this is probably a conflict between generations as well, respectable vs. rebellious, or something along those lines, but the conflict is still undercut; the entire issue of ‘grey morality’ isn’t exactly something that is safe or easy to discuss, and has plenty of its’ own baggage, but in ‘Cruella’, the titular character’s bicolored hair undercuts this concept as well, kind of – hence the entire confusion over the movie’s message.

…Is there actually a message in the movie? It is hard to say. Mr. Gillespie tried to combine the trope of the Disney princess movie with the modern individualism and the result is something akin to the relationship between Cruella’s bi-colored hair to the modern grey morality – a semi-existent mess… that was mostly buried by the stunning visual and audial pageantry. Hooray! Anything else?

Not particularly, no. ‘Loki’ is coming next week, (June 9, 2021), and we will get to see the trials of the god of chaos, who has been identified by everyone as being an unpredictable wild card that can’t be trusted. Still better than whatever the ‘Eternals’ movie is promising us in the future. This is it for now. See you all soon!

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!