D:BA 'Hollow' - March 11

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Now, let us talk about D: BA, as we should have earlier last week, but because real life sucks, see above, let us talk about the current PBS Nature special series, of women and nature.

In the season’s premiere, we meet Ms. Doma, (that is her name, I checked), and her relationship with the greater one-horned rhinos. Technically, they are also called the Indian rhinos, but because this episode takes place In Nepal, which is not India, let us call them greater one-horned rhinos instead. There are also lesser one-horned rhinos, a different species, but more on them below.

First, what this relatively short (about 20 minutes long) video was about? Hence the reason behind my anger – it is not about anything in specific, it does not commit.

…Oh, on a certain level it does – it is a product placement. The aesthetics and other visuals are beautiful, the people are obviously aware that they’re being filmed and took care of coming across attractive and appealing, especially the female majority of the cast – they’re not stunningly beautiful, but they are appealing, well-groomed, clearly have spent time (and have time to spend) on their appearance, contradicting the episode’s narration that Nepal isn’t a very forward nation, that women are still being oppressed there. Since we never see any oppression, you either take the narration at its’ face worth, or not at all.

What do we see? Foreign people, especially of the female gender, presented appealingly. Foreign locations, presented also in a positive way. Foreign animals in their natural habitat… or rather brief clips of various animals, doing their thing, oblivious to humans around them.

This is something of a point, as Ms. Doma’s mother was killed in a rhino attack – presumably. In the modern world of fake news and what else have you, this is what happened, or it might not have. In any case, this event is a), treated by showing more beautiful imagery on screen, and b), so what? This is real life, not Marvel, DC, or what else have you; the mother died because of a rhino attack, so the daughter became a wildlife tour guide because of it? Seriously, at least Peter Parker’s superhero origin story makes more sense than this!

In real life, the tour industry is nothing to sneeze at; I worked for a tour company behind the scenes, and there is serious effort and money involved in running one; for Ms. Doma to work in a tour company means that she makes money, and she has a lot of important social connections – i.e., her family isn’t struggling, and they’re upper middle class on the average. Pause.

What all of the above has to do with wildlife of our planet? Nothing, because the episode was about Ms. Doma and whatever impact she’s making on the Nepalese society – more women are getting hired as wildlife tour guides, for example. That is commendable, but what about the rhinos?

Nothing and that is a point. A large segment is dedicated to people teaching others how to handle an encounter with a rhino, but what does Ms. Doma’s gender identity has to do with it?

Again, nothing, and this is the same point. In a 20-minute special, PBS Nature could have talked about Ms. Doma’s biography, how she rose from humble roots to become a person of importance; they could’ve talked about Nepal, how it is moving forwards, to become a more gender-equal, more Western country; they could’ve talked about the Nepalese wildlife, and how it interacts with humans (and with each other), but no. They tried to mix it all together and came up with nothing because they did not stick to anything.

By contrast, Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom series talked, and talk, only about wildlife; their episodes run for about 24-25 minutes, not that much longer than what PBS Nature has, but because they follow only one narrative, they have no problem in getting their message across. What next?

Um, in last week’s episode of D: BA, White Tiger was killed - that is it. The Fisks run NYC, but the Kingpin was doing that in the Marvel Comics for a while now, so nothing new here. What is notable is the absence of Echo – remember her? She fought the Kingpin and won, (sort of), but no mention of her or her friends or of Kazy and the tracksuit mafia in this show. Just as CA: BNA movie, this series is resetting MCU to Disney’s new standards and socio-political landmarks; Echo may be back, but right now? Apparently not.

Back to Nepal and its’ rhinos? The greater one-horned rhino is the biggest Asian rhino and might be the second biggest rhino in the world, even more so than the African black rhinoceros. However, there are important differences between the two rhino groups. (It should be noted that while the rhinos are all related to each other, they are not as close relates as donkeys and horses are, for comparison, so they do not hybridize unlike the latter). No, not the number of the horns – there is one Asian rhino species that also has two, but rather everything else.

The African rhinos are terrestrial animals that come to water only to drink. The white rhino is a grazer; it has a wide square upper lip and a low-set head for easier grass reach and consumption. The black rhino is a browser; it has a hook-shaped upper lip and a high-set head for easier foliage reach and consumption. It is smaller, more lightweight and mobile than the white rhino is, and when the two species clash, the black rhino loses. The point is that the two African species coexist with each other on the open savannah/scrubland and evolved visible physical differences to avoid competing with each other.

On the other hand, the Asian rhinos (the last three species) all live in dense tropical jungle, in marshland, on floodplains, and come into water regularly enough – they are almost semi-aquatic, more like the hippos than like their African cousins, in fact. Consequently, all of them are built similarly – large, bulky bodies with thick armor; though the greater one-horned rhino does overshadow the other two rhino species – but the ranges of the species in question do not overlap, due to population crashes of all of them. Moreover, Whether one horn or two, Asian rhinos’ horns are smaller than the African rhinos horns are, while their teeth are bigger and more tusk-like – they tend to bite humans instead of goring them, as the African rhinos do. The Asian rhinos are herbivores, they do not eat meat, but neither do they specialise as the African rhinos in either grass or leaves – they eat everything, and their teeth, lips, heads and necks, are not as specialised as the African rhinos are.

All rhinoceros species are in danger however, and all of their ranges are shrinking. People are trying to change this, but while the two African rhino species are getting better, (perhaps), the three Asian species – not so much, so it is important for us to protect them – and if that and social gender politics can’t be balanced, then maybe they should be treated separately instead.

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

D:BA, Season premiere - March 5

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘YFNSM’ S1 finale - Feb 20

 Obligatory disclaimer – real life sucks, so let us talk about the ‘YFNSM’ season finale. It ended on Tuesday, and I… practically missed it. Sigh.

Listen: ‘YFNSM’ is a good, entertainment show, with just enough drama, action, comedy, and even tragedy to keep everyone in suspense. You watch with baited breath as Peter, Lonnie, Harry Osborn and others navigate through life (and high school), while dealing with the likes of the Scorpion and Dr. Octopus, (though he is not that yet). Coupled with the show’s visual aspects – clearly reminiscent of a vintage Marvel comic book, maybe even one from the ‘Golden Age’, ‘YFNSM’ leaves its’ audience… on a good note; some may re-watch it sometime in the future, but otherwise – this is it. All of the abovementioned drama etc. are self-contained; Norman may not have gone goblin yet, and Dr. Octopus has not acquired his trademark tentacles, but in the end, this is the end game, (nine out of ten). What next?

Yes, there are some outliers, such as Nico Minoru, but what role do they play? Hangers-on, window dressing, NPCs. So far, they do not affect the flow of the story and Spider-Man’s personal development. Seriously, yes, Nico is from the ‘Runaways’ franchise, where she is a witch, but is she one on ‘YFNSM’? It doesn’t look like that, whereas in the 90’s Spider-Man cartoon Felicia Hardy grew from an NPC (and MJ’s rival, though that storyline wasn’t really present in that series) into Black Cat, Spider-Man’s friend and ally; (love interest – it came and went), but in the end, Black Cat teamed up with Blade and Morbius to fight vampires in ‘their’ universe – so far, ‘YFNSM’ hasn’t done anything like this; it is the lesser show out of the two. What next?

CA:BNW is developing MCU further, as we’ve talked, plus it took the titular character – Sam Wilson – out of his comfort zone, by putting him against Hulk’s villains: the Red Hulk and the Leader; it also may have made Bucky a politician, but we’ll have to watch ‘Thunderbolts to see what is going on with him – and Yelena; her relationship with Kate Bishop appears to have ended for now, because the winds of social politics in RL have changed, oh the fun of living in the West these days – but that is a different discussion altogether.

For now, this is it. S1 of ‘YFNSM’ is over, and we wish the show all the best it deserves in the future. See you all soon!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

‘YFNSM’ + 'Circe' - Feb 6

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks, so let us talk about the next three episodes of ‘YFNSM’, yes?

…Well, that was the plan, but somehow I ended up reading Ms. Miller’s novel ‘Circe’, and-

-And the novel is a mash-up of various myths, some about Circe, and some not really. What caught my eye is the novel’s treatment of Circe, Picus, and Scylla.

First, Scylla. In the ‘Odyssey’, she is an immortal evil, undefeatable by anyone, so Odysseus does not try to begin with. In the ‘Aeneid’, Aeneas and his fleet just avoid her (and Charybdis – the duo are a matched set, JRH breaking them up is something new), and in the ‘Metamorphoses’, she is an empty-brained and hollow-hearted girl who denies Glaucus his love for her, and Circe – who’s been jilted by the sea god in question – turns her into the monster that Odysseus meets… and who eventually turns into a sea reef (according to ‘Metamorphoses’). What next?

In ‘Circe’ this pretty much what happens; the only twist here is that the team of Circe, Telegonus (Circe’s son by Odysseus), Penelope, and Telemachus ends Scylla. Pause.

Leaving aside the soap opera morality of Odysseus’ two sons marrying each other’s mother, (this has happened, in fact, in some of semi-apocryphal conclusions to the ‘Odyssey’), what about female empowerment? Wouldn’t it make more sense for Circe to undo her enchantment and return Scylla to her original self (before swimming off into the sunset with her new trophy husband, his mother, and her son who’s married to her new mother in law)? No? So much for progressive values – first Circe de-facto mutilates another woman for the sake of a man (that she quickly moves on from, to boot), and then she ends her, heroically, of course. Wow.

As for Picus, he just is not here. His story is also told in ‘Metamorphoses’: he was a pre-Trojan Latium king who refused to cheat on his wife with Circe and transformed into a woodpecker instead. His wife failed to recognize that, and wasted away. ‘Circe’ just ignores this story…wonder why.

…The point here is that Ms. Miller tried to tell Circe’s story anew, in a new, progressive way, but what she told instead is a now-old story of a powerful woman who rises to match the men-folk around her…and becomes just like them, albeit gender-flipped. Pause.

‘YFNSM’, meanwhile, is trying to tell the origin story of the titular character also in a new way, but somehow it all feels empty, pointless. The 1990’s ‘Spider-Man’ series already did that, and in a much grander manner than the 2025’s version, which is doing its’ best to be politically inoffensive. Sigh. By losing the elections-2024, the Democrats have really dropped the ball, shot themselves in the foot, stabbed their non-politician allies in the back and so forth. In addition, team Marvel (and Disney?) are having a giveaway of a Marvel encyclopedia at the same time as this cartoon airs, and so they are trying to generate the primary excitement for the giveaway, not the cartoon. The universe might really hate the ‘Spider-Man’ franchise for real, after all.

…Well, this is it for now – see you all soon!

Jurassic World Rebirth - Feb 5

 Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks. Therefore, I looked at the upcoming JWR movie trailer, (due to come in summer 2025 for now), and it was something else.

What is it, then? A recycled chimera, pun intended. …Well, a recycled and a rebooted chimera, to be fair. In the 2022 film, ‘Dominion’, there were non-avian dinosaurs, (as well as other prehistoric reptiles) all over the Earth once more, and as the mini-movie ‘Battle of the Big Rock’ showed, the JP/W franchise was going with this setting once more.

Time passed, not so much within that universe, as within our real world, and in the ‘Rebirth’ film the non-avian dinosaurs have largely disappeared from our planet again, with just a few select populations within the tropical (and the subtropical?) belt. Put otherwise, this is the situation with had in the second and third Jurassic Park films, where non-avian dinosaurs lived only a couple of ex-lab sites’ islands and nowhere else. The franchise tried re-running itself in a new direction with the second and especially the third Jurassic World film and now that that trilogy is done, they are returning to the original setting – modern world, restrained dinosaurs. Pause.

In the trailer, both the mosasaur and the pterosaurs, (reminiscent of the RL Tapejara or some similar species), are hanging around the island site as well. Why? While the dinosaurs- while the non-avian dinosaurs are restrained by air and sea, the mosasaur can swim all over the globe, while the pterosaurs are fliers. Period. They can go anywhere they want, but they are here, because the movie’s plot is vintage RPG: go there, I know not where, bring back what, I know not. In this case, it is the DNA of the three biggest dinosaur species on the site so that a miracle cure can be made. Didn’t we see something similar in the ‘Dominion’ movie with Maisie and co.? We did, but in ‘Rebirth’ trailer, there are no mention of Owen, Claire, Maisie, Blue, or Beta, so odds are that they will not be mentioned in the actual movie either. Continuity? What continuity?

The new characters are your run-of-the-mill modern stereotypes: a warrior woman, an intelligent and sensitive scholar man, and another man, who is the modern P.O.C. sidekick; (the other two are WASPs, or can pass for them). Together, the three of them must compete the quest, or… they will die, and their superiors will send a new team, most likely. Somehow, ‘Rebirth’ makes ‘Naruto’ (anime and manga) look like a masterpiece, in the terms of the plot…

Anything else? Ah, yes, the actual chimera (chimeras) of the movie – the hybrid/mutant dinosaurs. Somehow, ever since the first JW film, the JP franchise was fiddling with hybrid/mutant dinosaurs in its’ games and like, and now, after a pause in the third JW film, (no mutant/hybrid reptiles there), we’re back with them. The regular theropod dinosaurs (aka most of the dinosaur carnivores) are no longer enough…

Therefore, to recap, we got a JP/W movie that has a recycled plot (from several previous films, but still), clichéd/stereotypical characters, and completely unrealistic monsters. By contrast, the original MC novels that started it all were at least trying to be informational, (if not educational), and entertaining. How it all has ended! As a direct opposite of what it once has been, that is how…

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

YFNSM, series premiere - Jan 30

Obligatory disclaimer: real life sucks; sometimes, it just sucks and nothing quite feels right or goes right, you know? Therefore, let us talk about the new ‘YFNSM’ show instead.

The show’s premiere – a double feature – started strong enough; we got to see Peter Parker in becoming the titular character and in action as the titular character; we saw some of his classmates, including Loomie Lincoln, who’s probably going to become a villain named Tombstone soon enough, and Nico Minoru, who is usually one of the Runaways instead, (remember the live-action series? They were not bad, especially the first two seasons, but that is unimportant); and more importantly, we met the Osborns – Norman, and his son Harry. They are important, because both would wear the mantle of the Green Goblin, Spider-Man’s archenemy, in this universe. Pause.

All of this is delivered/depicted in a style that feels like a vintage comic book series, which is also impressive, but, the fact is, that ‘YFNSM’ is yet another reset of the Spider-Man universe; everything is new in it – new faces, new redesigns for the old faces – and yet nothing stands out: Spider-Man has so many TV cartoon shows under his belt that so far this feels just one more face in the crowd.

The 2024 movie ‘Kraven’ about the titular foe of Spider-Man, on the other hand, was something new – so far, until 2024, Kraven never had a movie of his own, and was, indeed, often passed over in favor of other Spider-Man foes, such as the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus. In the 2024 film, meanwhile, we saw Kraven, as well as other characters like the Rhino and Chameleon, and, well, meet them. Pause.

Kraven wasn’t a good movie; one of its’ problems was the mishandling of the plot. It was supposed to be a ‘hero’s journey’ sort of plot, such as it was in the other SUMC movies, and all of them have their own problems; in Kraven’s case, it was the timeskip – one moment we see the titular character in his youth just gaining his metaphorical footing, the next he is an adult and is already established himself in his world – but we don’t see it, and therefore we cannot relate to him, or accept his progress, because it isn’t there. Team Sony would have done better in making ‘Kraven’ a two-parter: first part is Kraven’s youth, and the second – his adulthood and dealing with the Rhino, (for example). Instead, team Sony compressed those two films into one, and failure was the result.

And yet, with ‘Kraven’ team Sony tried to do something fresh and new, while the ‘YFNSM’ TV series just give us another ‘life and times of Spider-Man’ package. There was a Spider-Man cartoon show on TV since the second half of the 20^th century, so up to now ‘YFNSM’ is not making any breakthroughs for Marvel™ - but maybe Marvel™ doesn’t need them right now? ‘Kraven’ was flawed, and AAA… well, we’ve discussed AAA at length during the 2024, and let us not start now – it’s done for the moment, hopefully…

In fact, for the moment, we are done, as the new Spider-Man show does not offer too much to discuss for the moment. (Proportionally, it is already better than AAA was). Therefore, for now, this is it. See you all soon.