Moon Knight, 'Tomb' - April 20

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about MK instead.

Sadly, here is not too much to talk about either, except… for the Egyptian mythology: in this week’s MK episode – ‘Tomb’ – we get to meet Tawaret at the very end of the ep. So what?

‘The Kane Chronicles’ by Mr. Rick Riordan, that is still what’s up. In the second book of that trilogy, Carter and Sadie Kane – the titular characters – get to go to the Egyptian underworld, (because of Osiris, cough), where they meet Tawaret, aside from the other characters, (including the moon god, Khonshu). Here, in ‘Tomb’, Marc and Steven seem to be trapped in some sort of a limbo, depicted as a mental asylum, but that… is nothing new in the world of comics, DC’s Batman got trapped in this sort of thing quite regularly, for example, and they meet Tawaret.

To add injury to insult, Carter and Sadie encounter Tawaret who works in a retirement home for aged Egyptian gods, i.e. an alternate medical facility to the mental asylum that the Moon Knight, (Moon Knights?), has found himself/themselves in. I.e., Mr. Riordan associated Tawaret with a medical profession, and ‘Moon Knight’ seems to be running with it. Given how MK’s cast and crew reamed Gal Gadot and Patty Jenkins in regards to their treatment of Egypt in WW84, this dependence on Mr. Riordan’s works seems strange, almost hypocritical. Anything else?

Aye, ‘The Secrets of Dumbledore’ movie. I have seen it, and found it to be disappointing. Why?

Let us start with ‘The Book of Boba Fett’. Unlike ‘The Mandalorian’ series, ‘Boba Fett’ was less of a success because whereas ‘The Mandalorian’ series moved the entire SW universe onwards, ‘Boba Fett’ did not. Well, technically, it did, as the SW universe has the entire linear time concept, but you have to admit that ‘The Mandalorian’ also developed and expanded the SW universe in content, whereas ‘Boba Fett’ did not.

But the same can be said about ‘The Secrets of Dumbledore’ – it didn’t really introduce anything new into the wizarding world; the story did move forwards at a livelier pace than the ‘Boba Fett’ series did, but whereas MK has Tawaret, ‘The Secrets’ had a qilin.

A qilin is a mythical Far Eastern animal that is supposed to appear before a birth or a death of a great sage or a ruler, but to the Western audience/readers, especially the baseline members, a qilin is a Far Eastern analogue of a unicorn instead. Consequently, the use/participation of the qilin in ‘The Secrets of Dumbledore’ and the election that was the climax of the movie, transformed the election from, well, an election, as conceived by the Western audience into something more among the lines of ‘and the hand of God chose the rightful king and cast the pretender into Gehenna’ – this sort of thing. Given how the elections are a big deal in RL – maybe even an even bigger deal given the RF’s assault on the Ukraine – the way that ‘The Secrets’ handled the elections’ concept is outright insulting!

In addition, since we are going back to real life, people have already talked about the nearly complete absence of Tina Goldstein’s character from the movie. The team behind ‘The Secrets’ did not even try to explain it – they could have made Tina pregnant, or ill, or something, but no – and therefore, people are believing that she’s avoiding J.-Ro because of the latter’s transphobic statements. Fair enough, though it is weird – J.-Ro had no problems with Dumbledore being gay so that she could court the sexual minorities for her novels, or Hermione being a person of color so that the real life people of color would like her works before, so why the abrupt change of tune? Ah well, it is her life, her choice, and nothing else. Is that it?

Yes, pretty much – MK continues to be largely divorced from the rest of MCU, the occasional nudge-nudge wink-wink Easter egg aside, the Donald seems to be preparing for the 2024 election after all, and if he does win it, then the rest of the West will stop looking at the U.S. as their spiritual leader for sure, and – that is it.

See you all soon!

Moon Knight, Type - April 13

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the third episode of ‘Moon Knight’ – ‘Friendly Type’. Sadly, MK continues to not quite deliver, and-

-And nothing, sadly. First, Oscar Isaacs continues to imitate Tom Hardy’s characters – he has Steven, he has Marc, and he can even do Khonshu – though Khonshu got petrified by the finale of this week’s episode.

Second, MK continues to imitate the original Indiana Jones movie trilogy and the like – we got a European adventurer in the exotic foreign country with its’ treacherous natives and mysterious undercurrents – the Dany plotline in the original ASOIAF novels has demonstrated the same theme, and fairly recently too; Hell, the entire face-off in the arena where MK on foot fought an opponent on horse is certainly reminiscent of a certain showdown in one of the ASOIAF novels…

Third, the Rick Riordan factor. In his universe, the modern Greco-Roman world is USA, (with Canada being Hyperborea, seriously!), while Egypt is associated with the U.K. instead. Ergo, now, in ‘Moon Knight’, we got the U.K., (especially England), and Egypt, delivered with barely more maturity than the novels in the ‘Kane Trilogy’ series did! Yes, Disney owns both Riordanverse and MCU, but still, this is not the sort of crosspollination that I have expected in ‘Moon Knight’.

Fourth, I am guessing that this change of focus – from USA, (and especially NYC), to the rest of the world, (especially U.K. & Egypt) might have brought the sudden downfall in the reviews and responses regarding ‘Moon Knight’ – the American public and its’ elite aren’t very fond of pro-U.K. movies as people might think; remember the ‘King’s Man’ film? It was done with all of the main American cultural tropes, but it was Great Britain, rather than the U.S., that was in the focus of the film. The result was mixed reviews, with some of them being quite scathing too – you do not try to out-U.S. the U.S. and not pay the price!

That said, the geography in MCU is atrocious; whereas DCEU went fully imaginary, with its’ world having mostly imaginary cities such as Metropolis, Gotham, National City, Starling City and so on, MCU tries to have some real-life places as well, especially NYC…and little more. Their geography feels a lot more restrained, especially in the 90s and the early 2000s, though now it has improved – some, but not much.

Finally, all of the subtle nods to ‘the greater MCU’. It is not very impressive, about the level of the ‘Eternals’ film. The latter has been one of the least successful MCU films up to date – precisely because of that detachment, and it seems that MK suffers from the same problem, (and the same goes for the Sony films). Ah well, we have discussed this problem before, and now it is too late for MCU to change anything in MK…and they probably did not want to from the start…

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

Moon Knight, Suit - April 6

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about something else. The second episode of ‘Moon Knight’, maybe?

Unfortunately, not. See, the problem with ‘Moon Knight’ is that it is about as detached from MCU, as ‘Morbius’ is; only while ‘Morbius’ is a separate universe from MCU, ‘Moon Knight’ isn’t. Hence, the notable lack of anything MCU-related in the second episode by now is becoming kind of grating.

No, seriously, when you compare ‘Morbius’ to ‘Shang-Chi’, the lack of Marvel-related Easter eggs and co. is notable…which is expected, (see above), but in ‘Moon Knight’? You would think that we would have encountered at least one Iron Man (or some other Avengers’) graffiti by now as a minimum; but no – we have a seemingly ordinary world, inhabited by Steven, an ordinary man, who abruptly finds himself in extraordinary situation, complete with Egyptian gods. The gods themselves we have discussed in the series’ premiere, and so far, there is little development… but what! The dog-headed demons are not caught by video cameras and co. so poor Steven got fired!

…Well of course they are not seen by electronic equipment, (and maybe even by muggles, cough). If they were, the situation in ‘Moon Knight’ would be different, more derived, because not unlike ‘Morbius’, the plot in ‘Moon Knight’ is also quite basic so far: it is ‘The Bourne Identity’ meeting Rick Riordan’s ‘Kane Chronicles’, save that ‘The Kane Chronicles’ have treated the Egyptian gods more respectfully, professionally as well, but that isn’t the point.

The point is that Oscar Isaac seems to be doing Tom Hardy’s shtick in ‘Moon Knight’, and then there is also Khonshu doing his thing to try to cover this rip-off up. The movies in ‘Venom’ series have their problems, and we’ve talked about this, but they’re also quite successful, and I’m guessing that MCU decided to emulate them, as Steven/Marc summon their suit in a manner not unlike how Venom takes over Eddie in the films. I am guessing that Sony and Disney/MCU have worked out their professional differences for the latter to try this sort of thing. What is left?

…I got a chance to see ‘The Bad Guys’ in not quite legal manner cough. Now there is an interesting movie, actually, as beneath the colorful candy wrapper it sought to talk about such fundamental matters as good, evil, (ok, badness) and redemption. It is quite Biblical, and there is even a ‘Mr. Snake’ to further drive that adjective home, since you cannot go badder than a snake, which stood in for ‘The Great Adversary’ in the original Book. Yet even he – the Snake character is male in the film – becomes a ‘good guy’ by the film’s finale. Hurray, but the movie’s message is marred by several issues.

Firstly, the child-friendly wrapper gets quite heavy at time from time, so the underlying message gets quite lost. And second, while venturing bravely to talk about such monotheistic issues in an increasingly polytheistic West, the movie may not have been brave enough; ‘Mr. Snake’ might be biblical, but Mr. Wolf and The Crimson Paw, (a fox), are more of fairy tale/folklore elements, and fairly baseline too. A wolf and a fox, really?! Moreover, a red fox at that – they could have used an Arctic fox or a grey fox instead; they could have used a porcupine or a coyote; but no – a fox for a wolf.

In reality, wolves ignore foxes normally, which is good, because otherwise? The former can easily overpower and eat the latter, but that is real life, where politicians – no offence, Ms. Foxington – are not necessarily ‘good guys’, eh? But real life has little connection to children films, so let’s just accept ‘The Bad Guys’ as a good film – and the ‘Moon Knight’ as a struggling MCU TV show – and move on.

This is it for now; see you all soon!

Morbius - April 5

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, and that is especially true with the extended family angle. Still, I did give as well as I got, so I should not complain too much, therefore let us move onto ‘Morbius’. What can be said about that film?

It is an origin story, and it is done by Sony, rather than by Disney/MCU, hence its’ lackluster appearance and delivery. The original ‘Venom’ film had the same problem, but it had Tom Hardy and his antics as the titular duo to counteract this; ‘Morbius’, instead, has Jared Leto, who is a good actor, sure, but, apparently, this is not enough.

One may argue that it is unfair to compare ‘Morbius’ to something like ‘Shang-Chi’, which is also an origin story but is done much more glamorously and colorfully and so on, but the problem is that the same has plagued ‘Venom’ – the original film, and ‘Carnage’ wasn’t that much better. Let us elaborate.

In MCU, origin stories tend to introduce other elements and Easter eggs quickly on; Phase 1 may have had its’ problems, but by the time the first ‘Avengers’ film arrived they got past it…by making a bigger, better show than what ‘Sony’ is doing with its’ Marvel characters so far. The first ‘Venom’ film had a script that was rather confusing, in a threadbare sort of way, and ‘Carnage’ was really a reboot of the first film, one that simplified its’ characters, especially Eddie, Venom and Ann, and not in a better way, I would say. What was consistent in that aspect of the SUMC-franchise were aliens; ‘Venom’ and co. were dealing with them and only with them. Hence why AoS was so good in the MCU franchise in that they dealt not just with Hydra, but with other threats; pity that it had outlasted its’ promise and ended in a whimper rather than a bang, no matter how much the cast and the crew tried to pretend otherwise. By contrast, ‘Morbius’ has started with a whimper – it is a variant vampire movie with some ‘Batman’-like aesthetics that don’t really mesh.

…Speaking of DC and ‘Batman’, the Caped Crusader had tangled with vampires, primarily Dracula, who comes and goes to both DC and Marvel at will, but he usually does not become infested with the virus of vampirism himself, and he usually is not associated with vampires at all. Hence, ‘Batman’-like imagery in ‘Morbius’ isn’t very appropriate and it doesn’t work too well either.

The vampire angle itself… it is one of the reasons as to why I remembered AoS – just as AoS had worked the Hydra threat into the ground, so has the cinematography in general done with the vampire threat; Dracula, at least, has panache and authenticity on his side, a certain gravitas, if you will. Michael Morbius – not so much.

Again, it all comes down to the treatment of the character – I first met ‘the living vampire’ during the 1990s Spider-Man cartoon series, (which was a Spider-Man centered MCU, cough). The show had Peter’s origin story done canonically – he was bitten by a radioactive spider and became Spider-Man – and then in S2 his blood and DNA began to mutate, and he began to search for a cure. Enter Morbius, who was Peter’s fellow student in the university, who discovered Peter’s blood sample and began to experiment with it, trying to figure out as to how Peter was able to mutate it, cough. Enter the lab’s vampire bat, (one of  - did I mention that Dr. Connors, aka the Lizard, was running the class in that universe?), who also got irradiated by the lab’s technology, and then it bit Morbius, turning him into ‘a living vampire’, just as a spider turned Peter into Spider-Man. You have to admit, this does sound more glamorous than what Sony did with Morbius in the movie. So what?

So, the problem with ‘Morbius’ is that there’s no Spider-Man in it; whereas Venom did evolve to be an independent character with their own thing, (did you follow ‘the King in Black’ story arch, in particular?), so they can carry their own movie, and even several, but with Morbius this isn’t the case – ‘the living vampire’ has rather faded into obscurity by now, so people aren’t too impressed or excited by his arrival on the big screen, and the trailers didn’t make things any better, unfortunately. People went into theaters – or got to see ‘Morbius’ otherwise – with low expectations already, and the show gave them just that – a variant vampire movie with very little Marvel content, even less so than ‘Venom’ did – and ‘Venom’ does have more oomph in Marvel than ‘Morbius’ does. (See above). So, what is left?

Unfortunately, nothing. Sony’s ‘Morbius’ movie delivered what it promised to do – to introduce Morbius, the living vampire into the Sony Universe of Marvel Characters and that what it did to do. Sadly, the delivery portion of the plan was underperforming, but that may not matter in the end – Sony is not licked yet, according to some news. Ah well, good luck to Sony, then!

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

About hyenas - March 31

Let us talk briefly about hyenas. PBS Eons have recently released yet another one of their YouTube videos, this time about the hyena evolution, but somehow I do not think that they have done those animals justice. Therefore, let us talk.

For a start, people tend to get an incorrect idea about the modern hyenas because of the reasons listed below.

To begin, we must put all of the four modern and existing hyena species into a row, from the biggest to the smallest: we got the spotted, the striped, the brown and the aardwolf. Though we have not professional biologists, but if we look at this quartet, we get to see that the spotted hyena stands out from the rest of its’ kin. Why and how?

First, because it is spotted, while the other hyena species have stripes. Seriously, the striped hyena is named after its’ coloration pattern, while the aardwolf looks like a miniature version of the striped hyena, and the brown hyena may be mostly brown, but it still has some stripes, albeit mostly on its’ legs; still, they’re stripes, not spots.

Second, the spotted hyena has a differently shaped jaws and muzzle from the other three species: it is shorter and broader than in the other three species. This is more than justified: the structure of the spotted hyena’s jaws and skull, as well as its’ postcranial skeleton is what gives it strength and power to crush bones and to get through flesh so easily; the spotted hyena is the stereotypical bone crusher, put otherwise.

The other hyenas, conversely, well… The aardwolf has become an obligate insectivore instead: it feeds only on insects, mostly social insects such as ants and termites; it has lost most of its’ teeth, though its’ canines are still large and formidable for its’ size – the aardwolf uses them for defence.

…Yes, this is a reference to the Thylacosmilus, the marsupial sabretooth. Initially it was thought to be a marsupial counterpart to the better-known sabretooth cats such as Smilodon, but now it is known that Thylacosmilus led a very different life-style, which just do not know which one. Maybe it was an atypical insectivore such as the modern aardwolf…or the bat-eared fox – more about that below.

Anyways, the striped and the brown hyenas are more formidable than the aardwolf is, but they still fall short to their spotted cousin – and they look much more canine, or maybe lupine, than the spotted hyena does, (whose appearance is pretty unique in the mammal kingdom). The same can be also said for the aardwolf, who is called a ‘wolf’ for that reason: it does look like a wild dog of some sorts on the surface. More succinctly, while the spotted hyena does not look anything like a wild dog, the other three species do.

In behavior, however, the situation appears to be reversed: the spotted hyena is a pack hunter, just as the wild dog species are, while the other three hyena species are not. Fair enough, but how do they live?

In family groups – small in the case of the aardwolf, larger in the case of the striped and the brown hyena, but whereas the spotted hyena is loud and brash and in your face, the other hyena species are shyer and more retiring and aren’t encountered by humans very often. (Especially the aardwolf, for the obvious reason). Consequently, while most people know of the spotted hyena, (especially thanks to Disney’s Lion King Movie from the 1990s and beyond); the other three species of hyena tend to be more overlooked, especially by the non-scientific crowd. What next?

…The hyenas are accused of having lost to the dogs in the evolutionary race. There’s some justification there, as only the striped hyena occurs outside of Africa; the brown hyena in particular is restricted to the countries in the African south, and is a rather shy animal when compared to its’ spotted cousin, but…

However, what an evolutionary win is? From a human point of view, (and we don’t have anyone else’s, ‘cause we’re still the only sentient species on planet Earth, regardless of what the Yetis and co. think), this means that your species continues to thrive, if not outright flourish, on the face of the planet, and here the hyenas…well, make do – they might not be as widespread as the wolves are, but…

However, if we look at the wild dogs, which have supposedly beaten the hyenas, then we see a picture that is not too different from the hyenas. The pack-forming canines are not all that numerous: we got the wolf, (whose main success is in the north, where there are few other large carnivores, save for bears, and the bears are more omnivorous instead). There is the African wild dog that is not found outside of Africa, the dhole, which lives mostly in Southeast Asia, and the Australian dingo, which is found only in Australia, and whose taxonomic status is still debated – is it a wild dog or merely a ‘feral’ one? The rest of the wild canids, including the jackals of the Old World, the coyote of the Americas, and the singing dog of Papua New Guinea tend to live in much smaller family groups – just as the non-spotted hyenas do. So, what does prevent the hyenas from leaving Africa and succeeding elsewhere?

…Because they have already succeeded in Africa, that is why. The non-human mammals, as well as the other animals, tend to lack ambition, especially in human terms; whereas humans often cannot be sated until they have it all, the other mammals can get along with each other under the sun; yes, the prehistoric hyenas have existed outside of Africa and now they’re gone, but so’s their world; the prehistoric wild dogs might’ve displaced them at one point, but now they’re also largely gone; all that’s left are the people, (and the domestic dogs, but they’re something else), and they’re the ones keeping the hyenas, well, subdued, and the same goes for the wild dogs.

The bat-eared fox, incidentally, is the canine counterpart to the aardwolf: it is bigger than fennec, (made famous by the Zootopia movie), but not unlike the aardwolf it lacks most specialized adaptations of a ‘professional’ insectivore, save for teeth and extra-large ears. It lives… alongside the aardwolf, actually, but it does not outcompete the hyena, cough. Therefore, I feel safe to say that the concepts of the canine success and hyena failure are coined human terms and thus should be treated with a grain of doubt when applied to the actual animals.

End

 

Moon Knight, series premiere - March 30

 

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, hence why I kept on down low for several months now. However, I have come back, (and with a new haircut), and I feel like discussing something new for the moment.

The problem is, what do I want to discuss? Given my blog’s latest tendencies, people might assume that I want to talk about MCU’s ‘Moon Knight’ premiere, ‘The Goldfish Problem’. Fair enough, but for the moment there’s nothing to discuss: MCU has made a wide choice by making ‘Moon Knight’ separate from the rest of MCU – for the moment – but it does leave us rather bare-handed and flat-footed as to where to go from here; so far, there’s nothing, except…

Except for Ammit, also known as Ammut, (and Ahemait, apparently). As a matter of fact, she was an Egyptian deity, but the thing is that the ancient Egyptians did not worship her/it; instead, Ammut was an underling of Anubis, who was the divine judge of their afterlife, and if an ancient Egyptian was found to be unworthy, Ammut would it his heart, and the ancient Egyptian would be ‘dead a second time’, according to the official sources. As such, the ancient Egyptians did not worship Ammut, and in the religion of mainly animal-headed deities, Ammut was a completely bestial chimera, with the head of a crocodile, the main and the forequarters of a lion, and the hindquarters of a hippopotamus: whereas the Greek Chimera was just three random animals jumbled together, the Egyptian Ammut personified three of the deadliest animals known to the ancient Egyptian culture and society. Neat, but she/it still was not worshiped… unlike in MCU. That is not a problem, actually, but a while back there was an article about how the team Moon Knight criticized Gal Gadot and Patty Jenkins as to how they handled the Egyptian angle in WW1984, calling their approach… retrograde and backwards, basically. The irony here is that MCU seems to be treating the ancient Egyptian mythology very similarly, especially when you look at the episode’s monster.

Let us roll back. At the episode’s finale, the show’s main villain, Arthur Harrow, have conjured up some sort of a demon creature with a humanoid body and the head-skull of a jackal, (for simplicity’s sake, let’s treat it as such). Well, given the strong influence of the ‘Mummy’ trilogy (of the late 1990s and the early 2000s) in the monster’s depiction and actions, I feel that MCU have repeated the trilogy’s confusion and conflation of Anubis and Set.

…If there are people who are not too versed in the ancient Egyptian myths, then while Anubis was the divine judge of the ancient Egyptian underworld, Set was a god of evil instead; the two are depicted similarly – Anubis has the head of a jackal, whereas Set has the head of… a Set beast or a sha, a creature that hasn’t been fully identified yet, (though some people associate it with the saluki, an ancient dog breed; the fact that Set was also Anubis’ father in the ancient Egyptian canon doesn’t help things either. Still, the ancient Egyptians had no problem in keeping the two gods apart, and they did not consider Set wholly bad; he was one of the strongest lieutenants of Ra, the sun god, and regularly helped Ra with fighting Apep, the chthonic demon-snake of the ancient Egyptian myths. More precisely, Rick Riordan got the facts down flat in his ‘Kane Chronicles’ trilogy, and since Mr. Riordan is associated with Disney just as the MCU is, there’s no reason as to why MCU had to conflate the two gods and throw Ammut/Ammit into the mix as well. I wonder as to how they will treat Khonshu the moon god now…

Did we digress, or rather ramble? Well yes, we have. In my defence, it has been a while since I wrote in my blog and I have a lot under my belt, but an article entry about the ‘Moon Knight’ series’ premiere isn’t it, sadly. Therefore, I am ending my rant for now.

See you all soon (hopefully)!

 

TBOBF - Jan 16

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, and you can always count on your family to make it worse, so let us briefly talk about Boba Fett instead. We are already 2 or 3 weeks into 2022, so it is time for me to make my first blog entry of the year anyhow…

…Well, here is the tricky part – there is not much to talk about in regards to ‘The Book of Boba Fett’: like almost anything that is associated with Disney, the technical side of things is done perfectly, but otherwise…

But otherwise, if you look at the Disney/SW situation, then you will notice something else: it is stuck. It is stuck within the framework of the first two trilogies, done without Disney’s involvement and investment in Lucasfilm™, and while ‘The Mandalorian’ tested those borders, ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ – not so much, at least not in the first three episodes; ‘The Book of Boba Fett is taking place sometime around the original trilogy…ok, sometime after the SW6 film, but so far it is ignoring the greater galaxy far away and is centered around a certain town on Tattooine instead. In ‘The Mandalorian’, we travelled all over the place, but then… first, Gina Carano made a daft and a politically inapt statement, she was fired, her SW character Cara Dune was scrapped, the end. Where did this leave us?

…With the titular character handling over Grogu the Yoda Baby over to Luke Skywalker, leaving fans wondering, just what has happened to the tyke between ‘The Mandalorian’ S2 finale and the SW7-9 films that he either sat out Luke Skywalker getting his ass handed over to him practically by everyone else, or else Grogu was in the posse that joined the Dark Side and handed Luke Skywalker his ass. Neither possibility is good, so for the moment Grogu and the rest of the remaining ‘Mandalorian’ cast are benched, and we got ‘The Book of Boba Fett’, which is detached – in a large part - from the rest of the SW universe. The fan community is not too impressed, and so ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ is not flourishing as much as it could have been. Anything else?

Yes, the AoS, for I would not be talking about Disney’s latest SW misadventure without it. Yes, DC seems to have come up with its’ own take on the show’s initial premise in the ‘Peacemaker’ series, which is actually the redemption arc Grant Ward should’ve had; the titular character is his variant, the rest of the crew are the variant AoS, save for the Vigilante, who is essentially a Deadpool variant instead. Marvel’s loss is DC’s gain – if Deadpool was a regular on the AoS show, it would have been much more popular and successful than how it was. Instead, we got Ms. Ming-Na Wen making a smooth and a casual reply to the question – is AoS coming back? – that amounts to her saying nothing and promising nothing, which is much more diplomatic than anything that Chloe Bennett would’ve said, but I digress.

First, Ms. Ming-Na is a talented actress, who knows that who pays for the music dances the girl, and does not go against Disney/MCU’s grain, as Chloe Bennett seems to have had. Second, AoS is over for good. Whatever it was supposed to be initially, in the end it was a clunky Frankenstein’s monster of a show, which had cannibalized the other cancelled MCU shows, such as ‘InHumans’, ‘Ghost Rider’, and even the cancelled third season of AC, but we’ve discussed it in the past.

Third, Disney/MCU has re-started that issue themselves in ‘Hawkeye’ – yes, we’ve talked about this before, but again, I’ll note that given how the audience’s/the fans’ reaction to the suggestion that Laura was the ‘true’ Mockingbird all along was ambiguous, Disney/MCU quickly squashed the discussions on this topic, and used the latest ‘Spider-Man’ movie to cover-up its’ tracks. However,

…However, there are traces of AoS in ‘No Way Home’ as well; the way that team Spider-Man deals with the extradimensional villains isn’t too different from the Tahiti method that AoS used on Cal, so clearly, the way that AoS had re-used its’ recycled ideas has spread to the rest of MCU by now. Oh dear, we will have to wait and see as to what will come out of it.

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