#In a time where a lot of people are discussing the evil Superman trope I feel it’s important we bring up this mf

[fifiophobia]

Enough with only thinking “Omni-Man’s the best evil Superman” or “Homelanders the best evil superman!” because there’s another mf who needs to be added to the discussion

[randomnumbers751650]

That post on Superman made me think why I’m writing my novel. Since it’s from a work that I haven’t got to finish (got sidetracked because I decided that I should write a fanfic where an idol reincarnates as a mech pilot), I’ll put under Read More.

I mentioned in the tags that gentleness is underrated strength in our current time (among others). Maybe I was just being a boomer when saying this, so you can ignore that, but still why do many people complain? I studied heroism and heroes from an academic point of view and I know that the monomyth/hero’s journey is bullshit.

In my novel, Mara is a loser. Both before and after going to Tabula. Before, she’s poor, ugly, unhealthy and perceives herself to be unloved and unlovable (she thinks her mom hates her and she’s only partially right). After that, nothing changes; even if she gets the “solution” to being poor, ugly and unhealthy, everyone there is brainwashed to serve her and those aren’t either freaking hate or pantshittingly fear her.

But one thing that I want to include is Mara losing all intellectual debates and discussions. I always hated the trope of small kid humiliating everyone else. Mara is just a teenager, she only doesn’t flunk because she’s studying in the literally worst school in all of Tokyo, they’re too apathetic to flunk kids there. Of course she has no capacity to win against an intellectual debate (1).

Returning to Mara, she has a few things: faith, kindness, gentleness. She’s the very definition of a good girl and that’s what being tested here. Tojava is doing all those things because, while she believes in the good potential of mankind, she thinks the best course of action is removing mankind’s ability to choose evil, no matter the cost. Mara has to be tempted to either agree with Tojava or become bitter and closed to the world (because she isn’t becoming a villain, she has no drive for that).

But I’m aiming for a third choice. Mara is a devout Catholic, but, in the beginning she’s one because it fulfills a need in her life (God is love), so she doesn’t really know why she is one. Her time in Tabula will test that and many times she’ll feel God has abandoned her. But through perseverance she has to learn she can’t be someone passive; if God is love, you have to put that in practice. Otherwise, her defeat is guaranteed because those fancy powers are temporary.

That’s what makes Superman so interesting as a character: he has a lot of fancy powers, but they don’t really define who he is; rather, they provide even more incentive for him to be kind, gentle, compassionate. And I hope to do something like that in my novel.

(1) There’s an academic edge to this, which is fitting because I work in the field. Aristotle taught us that debates can be won and the one who lost should submit (I only read his Poetics, but this I’m saying from a former pastor of mine who said this to me, who, in hindsight, was a bit too much interested in winning arguments, and whose church I don’t go anymore for a large variety of reasons and I don’t regret anything), but the more I study philosophy of science, the more I see that, from a technical point of view it’s impossible to win a debate because we’re always discovering new things in science that might make old debates outdated. It’s like attributing magical properties, the final word of a debate is a conversion spell. I won a debate once, when I had facebook, against a contact who always won against me; I managed to trap him and win…we stop talking (he was another who put way too much interest in winning debates), but even after “winning”, I felt it was one of the emptiest experiences of my life. Contrast with Ayn Rand, another person who had a bit too much faith in the miraculous properties of debates, and a big fan of Aristotle, who loved to create strawmen for her characters to beat subhuman antagonists; and whose biographers said it was invincible in debates, but her invincibility was more because it made the other realize “why the hall am I taking to her?” and just move on with their lives. This is why I hate the trope of "super genius defeats so-called wise men", because it's just so self-indulgent in a toxic way, even when I agree with the winning side.

[frankendykes-monster]

Though I will say that the superhero has become an increasingly militaristic and reactionary concept since 9/11, that begs us to question how we got here.

One thing people fail to notice on here is that the "superhero" is functionally wed to the American comic book. We can see this in the form of why superheroes need to be partly defined by altruism. It's frequently pointed out that Batman killed pretty frequently in his first year of publication, but by Batman #4 in 1940, you have Batman tell Robin "we never kill criminals with weapons of any kind." It's a synthesis of two rationales, first that the primary audience of comics was children, and two, the "comic" is something that's supposed to last indefinitely. Characters and concepts need to stay in a position where they can be reused at any time in the future. Details that we will return to.

Another major thing that needs to be discussed is that superheroes are obviously also defined by their ability to be able to do superhuman feats; but this is also an issue of why they frequently devolve into right-wing fantasies and how much the altruism is a bandaid solution that needs to be reapplied constantly. You see in Action Comics #1 where Superman breaks through walls to start fights against one other guy but it's in sharp contrast to Action Comics #242 (the second issue of what DC officially regards as the Silver Age of Superman) where Superman has to save the Bottled City of Kandor from Brainiac's personal collection. What happened? A difference in power levels. Superman as originally conceived could withstand a bullet, but not an artillery shell. Superman by the late 1950's was doing stuff like accidently taking out a solar system by sneezing. The only way Superman functions as a concept that is not immediately terrifying is if he is Capital-G Good and also doesn't throw his weight around in any capacity (why superheroes always have to wait for something to go amiss before heading into action).

9/11 causes a shift that forces superheroes to be much more active. Something hasn't gone amiss, something *is* amiss, the world has been fundamentally changed (in the American consciousness at least). You see a lot of superheroes now working directly with the US government or be genetically engineered soldiers, not new concepts mind you but never were they this prevelant. I always think of The Ultimates, The Avengers in the Ultimate Universe, as the apex of this; Mark Millar ends the second volume with the Ultimates fighting an evil version of the same team composed of members from Russia, China, DPRK, Afghanistan, etc. that were formed because The Ultimates themselves were attacking other nations on behalf of the US. Millar being the same guy who wrote Civil War and later said that Iron Man's team representing a fictional version of the PATRIOT Act was in the right, but I digress.

But enough about comics, people nowadays are way more familiar with the superhero in the live-action film, obviously. Namely the action-adventure film. We aren't quite at the "9/11 ruined everything" moment because Batman (1966) and Superman (1978) were both made without the modern action-adventure film to serve as a model, but Spider-Man (2002), the first superhero film of the still ongoing genre boom, gives us some interesting details to look at it. It's a film series constrained by the new genre tropes it has to work with. The antagonist in action-adventure films traditionally dies because death (and also fight scenes taking place at night specifically) are a good cue to the audience that the story is wrapping up. Films are and always will be a single unit of information (in contrast to comics), so Raimi's trilogy consistently has to find ways to kill Spider-Man's opponents because Spider-Man himself isn't going to do it.

But things change pretty quickly with the MCU. All these factors, alongside the historical transition to superheroes being more realistic since the end of the Silver Age (not super necessary for this post) sort of collapse into a black hole which results in The Avengers (2012) ending with Iron Man stopping an alien invasion with a nuclear warhead. It's funny. Even The Dark Knight (2008) for all its posturing on how the new surveillance state was necessary, still has the characters earn a moral victory. The MCU is functionally a wasteland of "might makes right", where there shall be no questioning of the authority of any individual character, authority granted by their powers alone. It's a common theme across so many entries that I couldn't name them all. There will be no concluding paragraph at this time because I am writing this on my break.

Is it a bad time to mention that while superheroes are an inherently reactionary concept, the interpretation that they always fulfill or reintroduce the concept of the ubermensch is just a wild/overcompensating reaction by people who already didn't like them to begin with.

[thoughtfuldreamercreatorduck]

Underapreciated Yang Fact

Yang is by far my favorite character in RWBY (Yang stan till the day i die) but something i really Love about her is something i dont think anyone has ever Really discussed so far. So i am going to Talk about it.

The fact that Yang is Not a villain.

Okay i can understand why that may doesnt seem all that great to you or just confuses you maybe so Let me explain. And I ask of you to Take a Moment of your Time and Read the Post completely so you understand my opinion and dont Make any forgone conclusions.

It is painfully obvious that Yang has been through quite a Lot over the course of the series. Abandonment, mutiliation, PTSD and the list goes on.

In fact it is easy to View the series and EXPECT her to turn evil.

In fact it would fit the trope of the older sibling going evil and the younger sibling who is the "protagonist" Holding on to Hope and having to Stop them.

From the very Moment we found out that Yang is Rubys sister some could have ended up Thinking Yang will be her sisters final boss.

Going along with that something that we often get confronted with in Media is the idea that evil is Made. That the Most horrible People have Been put through the Most horrible acts. And the character of the "tortured badass" is so common at this point it is sort of what de have grown to expect when a character, especially One who started out Kind and loving, is put through suffering. How many times have there Been examples in fiction where a character has suffered and uses this suffering as an excuse for their own evil?

Something that goes Hand in Hand with that is the character being dissapointed or betrayed in a way by people they love.

It is very easy to view RWBY and come to the conclusion that Yang has Been failed by everyone and Everything she ever counted on and cared about.

Her birthmother Raven abandoned her at birth.

Qrow is a drunk shell of a huntsman who likely has rarely Been there for her.

Summer the only real mother figure in her life died and left her, not volunteraily but it still happened.

Taiyang became secluded and in his depression Left Yang to become a mother figure while still being a Child herself.

Ruby her sister who she raised abandoned her in Patch while going out and chasing some villain.

Weiss A treasured friend was just taken away.

Blake her Love interest (Deal with it haters) pretty much abandoned her After she received the biggest defeat of her life.

The law and state itself failed her through Ironwood and believing her to be guilty of attacking an Innocent boy.

Ozpins war affected Yang the Most out of all of Team RWBY and she Made it clear that she has no Trust left for her headmaster.

This is in some cases heavily oversimplified, for example that the reason Blake left we're more complicated, but at its core...

Every Authority figure failed Yang.

Everyone she loved failed Yang.

The World failed Yang.

With this Setup it would have Been very easy to turn Yang into a villain.

All that was needed was One last Step to have her get a Start of darkness. It would have perfectly fit with the cliche of every Bad person being Hurt and Been even somewhat believable with the requirements.

But IT DOESNT HAPPEN.

Yangs entire existence completely defies the trope that suffering makes a person evil.

Look at all the villains who Take something that happened to them as a excuse to Make others suffer.

One of the biggest examples would be The Joker from DC whos Core philosophy in 'the killing joke' is all it takes is One Bad day to turn any man and woman into monsters. He tries to prove it in said story with gordon and the series Injustice is all but build on proving the Joker right with the seemingly incoruptable SUPERMAN turning into a tyrannical dictator and using what the Joker did to him as an excuse for all the suffering he causes.

Yang basically looks ALL of them in the eye and tells them: "Youre full of shit!"

Yang proves that People like Joker are WRONG.

In the end being evil is a Choice!

No One forced Superman to kill an entire Planet.

People using their suffering as an excuse to harm others are just Bad people. Thats it! No tearful backstory justifies that kid you bullied til he cried, the Innocent cop you gunned down or that civilization you massacred!

Being Evil is a Choice weakwilled People Make because they cant Deal with shit happening to them.

But Not Yang.

Yang is the example of a character starring into the abyss and forcing the abyss to run back where it came from. She choses to Not Let what happened to her define her. She makes the Choice to Not become a Monster and to Not Let her pain out on others.

She immediatly hugs Ruby and tells her she loves her as Ruby stutters out panicked excuses.

She never blames Blake for losing her arm and has the heart to accept her back in her life.

None of these things would have Been done by weakerminded characters like injustice!superman.

Because the idea of evil makes you evil is an pathetic excuse People Make to Not feel like they are doing anything wrong.

It is also why i believe Yang in particular has so many haters. Those haters are likely people who have Been through MUCH less than PTSD and loss of limb. Yet whatever happened to them they use as an excuse to be assholes in real Life. Thats why they hate Yang. They can Not Deal with the fact that there is someone SO MUCH BETTER THAN THEM. They want her to be as pathetic as they are because than they dont have to feel like what they do is wrong. Yangs very existence violates that idea and they cant stand it!

If you hate Yang (in which Case why are you Reading this i publish this in the Yang tag) youre Most likely an asshole who cant accept that Yang is capable of being a good person.

Yang is just so much better than Most of us are in real Life. I am completely okay with admitting that she is a better person than me. I dont Think i would be capable of even half of the Things she did.

Yang is the Kind of character i Aspire to be. And if everyone would feel the same than Maybe this World wouldnt be this fucked up.

Yang is One gigantic example of just why that entire trope is bullshit. Another reason as to why I believe it is so meaningful she is the One to bring Adam down with Blake.

Adam is this trope to an Extreme. He makes the World suffer for what it did to him. And his Fans obviously latch on to that. They use the Brand as an excuse as to why he can be allowed to do all the Bad things. That is also why so many Adam stans hate Yang (One of many stupid reasons). They See Yang and See that she is better than Adam in any possible way and LOATHE that.

Yang DESTROYS this overrated trope.

And its One of the many reasons why i stan this woman till the day i die.

[tessatechaitea]

The Witching Hour #1

Can somebody please hypnotize me to stop buying these crossover specials?

No! NO! Why didn't I listen to myself? Why must I always do what I want?!

Grade: D+. This grade doesn't reflect how other people might enjoy this comic book. It only reflects my own enjoyment of it. And since most of my time spent reading it was drowned out by my brain saying things like "Is it over yet?" and "Does magic cost more than freedom?" and "I'm glad that barn owl Madame Xanadu only had one small scene!", I found I didn't enjoy it much at all. Half of this issue was non-evil Hecate explaining the story to Wonder Woman so that the previous issues made sense. That allowed Wonder Woman to win the day using hugs. Not that Hecate accepts a hug from Wonder Woman which forces Wonder Woman to send the Upside Down Man to hug Hecate and eat her. I guess getting a god cannibalized by another god was the terrible cost of Zatanna's magic? That doesn't seem so bad. Oh, I should also add that this story also contains the best comic book trope of all: the way everything played out was planned all along by the real evil villain: Circe! Ha ha ha ha! I mean, bwa ha ha!

If you don't know what's wrong with Zatanna's speech, we can't be friends.

[the-desolated-quill]

Justice League - Quill’s Quickies (No Spoilers)

Oh Warner Bros. You’ve really fucked up this time, haven’t you?

I’m sure we’ve all heard about the situation at the box office by now. Apparently Justice League only made $281 million worldwide during its opening weekend, which for any other movie would be great, but not for Justice League. You see the geniuses over at Warner Bros and DC decided to spend $300 million on the movie (that’s including the extensive reshoots directed by Joss Whedon). And if that’s not bad enough, according to some sources, the film’s extensive marketing brings the overall budget to somewhere in the realms of $450 million. The film is going to need to make at least $750 million in order to make any sort of profit. That is beyond stupid and judging by current figures, it looks as though the film is set to bomb big time. Whether the film is good or not is frankly immaterial at this stage. It’s going to flop. That’s practically a guarantee thanks to WB and DC getting too big for their fucking boots and spending a moronic amount of money on a film that was never guaranteed to be a hit. You’d think they’d have learnt their lesson after Batman V Superman. The fact that movies like Deadpool, Logan and even their own Wonder Woman became gigantic hits on relatively lower budgets should have given them just a little clue that maybe pouring the equivalent of Scrooge McDuck’s money bin into Justice League wasn’t a good idea. And now it looks as though the entire DCEU is in jeopardy as a result.

Let’s face it. Even if Justice League was a good movie, it would have struggled to make a profit on such a ridiculously massive budget like that. It was always destined for the cinematic graveyard no matter what Zack Snyder or Joss Whedon did. The fact that it’s crap just means the movie can now die faster.

Oh yeah. Justice League is crap. And when I say crap, I mean crap. (And please bear in mind this is coming from someone who actually enjoyed and defended Batman V Superman). Granted it’s not the worst movie I’ve seen. It’s not even the worst DC movie I’ve seen. That honour still goes to that misogynistic, wafer thin and utterly tone deaf piece of shit known as Suicide Squad, and while Justice League does share a few of the same problems with that movie, at least I didn’t feel unclean after I watched it. So hey. At least it has that going for it, right? But to say I left the cinema feeling disappointed would be an understatement.

So some random alien called Steppenwolf shows up to take over the Earth using these Mother Boxes. Who is Steppenwolf? I don’t know. What are the Mother Boxes? I don’t know. Why does he want to take over the Earth? I don’t know. This is literally all you’re getting I’m afraid. There’s not even any philosophical discussions or symbolic meaning to it like Man Of Steel and Batman V Superman had. When I say this is literally the entire movie, I mean LITERALLY. Some random alien we’ve never heard of shows up to grab some boxes that have never been mentioned before in previous movies and tries to take over the Earth because... he’s evil I guess. It’s so uninspired and so thin on the ground, you could have told me that Zack Snyder scribbled the entire script on the inside of a chocolate wrapper whilst he was on the toilet having a shit, and I would honestly believe you.

I’m sure some of you are objecting to me blaming Zack Snyder for all this, and I’m sure Joss Whedon deserves a lot of blame too, but honestly i’m past caring at this stage. Is Joss Whedon to blame for mucking about with Snyder’s vision, or is Snyder to blame for not better co-ordinating Whedon? I don’t know and I don’t care to know. We could debate for days whether it’s the organgrinder or the monkey who’s at fault, but at the end of the day the result is the same. The movie is crap and I’d rather neither of them were let near this franchise ever again.

This movie doesn’t even have any decent characters to fall back on. I suppose Ezra Miller’s interpretation of the Flash was okay. He provided a few genuine laughs and his Speed Force sequences do look pretty cool, even though they don’t in any way cover new ground because, you know, Quicksilver exists in the X-Men movies and his running scenes looked so much more impressive than this. i also quite liked Ray Fisher’s portrayal of Cyborg, and there are some genuinely touching moments at the beginning of the movie with his character. Beyond that, there’s basically nothing. Aquaman is by far the dullest character in the movie with no personality and is basically just the spare wheel. The film never takes advantage of his unique powers or the underwater setting, and he never gets any real moments where he stands out or comes into his own. You could literally replace him with Robin or Green Lantern or the Martian Manhunter, and it wouldn’t have made the slightest bit of difference. And as for Wonder Woman... Oh how the mighty have fallen. Remember when her solo movie broke new ground, doing away with a lot of the sexist tropes we normally see in these types of movies and became something truly unique and revolutionary? Well hope you enjoyed that while it lasted because here the sexist tropes are back with a vengeance. Wonder Woman is pretty much interchangeable with Lois Lane and Martha Kent because they all play the same role. The empathetic woman who props up the male heroes. The only thing that sets Wonder Woman apart is that she can fight, but not too well because God forbid she should steal the spotlight from Batman or Superman. 

And then of course there’s other sexist elements that I’m sure you’re all aware of by now. The Flash tripping over and comedically landing on Wonder Woman’s tits (LOL, a feminist icon has been reduced to a sexist punchline! How hilarious!) and of course the fact that most of the Amazonians seem to have scrapped their practical armour in favour of leather and/or metal bikinis (and to those people defending this saying that it’s historically accurate, fuck off. Seriously, just fuck off. This is a movie that claims that Amazonian warriors, merpeople, aliens and Gods had a massive war at some point in Earth’s prehistory. I’m pretty sure that’s not historically accurate, but suddenly the studio and filmmakers care about historical accuracy when it comes to how much bare naked flesh the sexy women warriors are showing in fight scenes? Fuck off. Your argument has the same whiff of bullshit as those idiots defending Suicide Squad’s romanticising of the Joker and Harley Quinn’s relationship by saying that it’s intentional because it’s from Harley’s point of view and that, if you turn your head to the side and squint hard enough, a few seconds of one particular scene could be interpreted as abusive. Look, we all like an underdog and i’m sure it must be hard to hear people constantly criticising your favourite franchise, but can we at least have the fucking spine to admit when they screw up? You just sound pathetic!).

But the absolute worst characters are Batman and Superman. Yeah we all knew he was coming back, so it’s not really a spoiler. And do you know what? I really wish Superman stayed dead. Because not only is the way they bring him back from the dead so contrived and so stupid, it also results in Batman’s character arc being regressed in order to justify this massive leap in logic. Remember in BVS when Batman became so paranoid and so controlling that his actions nearly resulted in catastrophe? Well the exact same thing happens here. In fact there are a few moments where he’s almost indistinguishable from Lex Luthor at points with his rhetoric, but the movie just wants you to conveniently ignore that. It’s okay. He’s a good guy, so it’s alright for him to be a hypocritical arsehole. So not only has Batman become a wisecracking fascist with a massive God complex, Superman has also become an insufferable dickhead. The reason why I liked Man Of Steel so much was because it got me to appreciate the character in a way I never had before. Justice League seeks to undo all of that by reminding me of all the reasons why I hated the character in the first place before I watched Man of Steel. He’s a ridiculously overpowered Mary Sue (or is it Gary Stu?) who can do no wrong, can beat up baddies effortlessly to the point where all threat and tension is chucked out of the window, and keeps stealing all the good scenes from other characters. Is the Flash about to prove his worth as a hero by saving a family? No it’s okay. Superman can do that. Is Wonder Woman going to avenge her fellow Amazonians by defeating Steppenwolf once and for all? No it’s okay. Superman can do that. Is Cyborg going to reclaim his humanity by saving the world? No it’s okay. Step aside Cyborg. Superman’s got this. Superman can do anything because he’s powerful and special and the bestest guy eveeeer.

So to all those people who were complaining about how much you hated Man of Steel because it ‘wasn’t your Superman. Boo hoo,’ I hope you’re pleased with yourselves. Sure they may have brought the entire franchise crashing down into a pile of rubble, but at least they ‘fixed’ Superman.

You can tell this movie is trying so hard to be like the Avengers, right down to the bullshit alien invasion story, but they forget what made Avengers Assemble so good. All the characters were well developed and likeable, each of them were given their own arc and they all evolved and bonded over the course of the movie. Justice League just pales in comparison. It gives the illusion that they’ve all bonded and evolved by the end, but they haven’t really. There were never any moments where they felt like real people or where they truly interacted and grew closer to each other over time. We never learn anything significant about them and I certainly don’t feel an overwhelming desire to see them all again in future films like I did after the first Avengers. I’m not necessarily saying each member of the League needed their own movie before a crossover, but there must be a better way of doing it than this.

So there you have it. Justice League. 10 years of production and approximately $450 million spent... and this is the result. A lifeless, shallow excuse for a movie with one dimensional characters, incompetent direction, and the realisation that all this buildup meant precisely jack shit in the end. Can the DCEU continue after this? Not in its current state, no. And if I’m being honest, I’d rather it didn’t.

[pinkuboa]

What is A Mary Sue?

Alright I keep seeing  discourse on this in confessions the past week or so so let’s talk about the term “Mary Sue” and it’s brother “Marty/Gary Stu”.  I’ve been on the internet reading bad fanfics for like 7 years at least so I’ll give you the low down on what it means to me when I use it.

There’s a lot of meanings to “Mary Sue (and Marty/Gary Stu) ”.  A good portion of people say it means “Overpower character who everyone loves and has no flaws.”  And they’re somewhat correct, but it’s a gross simplification. A Mary Sue is not just an overpowered character with a convoluted backstory.   A Mary Sue is a story structure.

A Sue (a more gender neutral shortening) is the author’s spoiled child. Every character whom the audience is supposed to like loves the Sue, or eventually grows to love them.  Every character the audience is supposed to hate dislikes the Sue, and is also probably satan.  Not many other characters in the story get any sort of focus or development and usually have one dimensional personalities.  Other characters aren’t characters, they’re plot devices that serve to either aid the Sue by giving them things the author wants the sue to have, whether it’s money, love, complements, the keys to the kingdom, or even a pony.  If they’re evil, then they’re there to show how persecuted the Sue is, how tortured their soul is because of their tormentors, or because 

A Sue never suffers long term consequences for their actions.  They will either always pick the right choice.  They kill someone who deserves it (and not a thought goes to the deceased one’s family or the family agrees with them), break the rules of wizarding school and not get in trouble, act like a huge jerk yet have tons of lovers and the respect of their superiors, eats a frickton of sweets in one setting without suffering the consequences, etc. Their flaws serve only to make them look cool.  They’ll be moody broody jerks but the kind of moody broody jerk who makes cool quips and still has a posse of people who like them.  They can have a self confidence problem but it only serves to make them look more humble.  They can be painfully shy and overly polite but their shyness is why their love interest notices them and loves them over their terrible siblings.  No flaw has consequences.

This isn’t limited to heroes either:  they can kill a person or a whole bunch of people if they’re evil and never suffer anything because damn they’re too cool/smart/whatever to get caught (and you, the audience, are supposed to think so as well).  Evil sues can also be redeemed easily, and everyone will be like “oh boy Mr./Ms./Dr. Sue!  I instantly believe you’re not evil anymore!” and won’t go to jail or anything.  Those who question the Sue’s loyalty are either proven wrong about their assumption and are won over easy or are someone the audience is supposed to hate.

A Sue has everything handed to them.  They have this one unspecified quality to be the one true love to this incredibly hot and perfect character, they were born special due to a prophecy, they are discovered as the lost royalty and become rich and powerful, they just happen to be the best at what they do naturally and dammit the police chief can’t fire them for that.

A Sue doesn’t have a hard time doing anything.  They can have a long drawn out fight sequence slaying a beast, or have a long drawn out talent show scene where they sing the most beautiful song in the world, but these serve to show how amazing the character is.  They don’t really struggle through them, and there’s no conflict to be found.  They’ll worry about them and be like “Oh no I look like a fool when I dance” but then their love interest is like “lol i got this” and then the two of them look great together dancing and show up everyone else there.  

Since they don’t have any conflict in their lives aside from cardboard cutout villains (or equally Sue-ish villains), the story becomes booooriiiinnnng.  That’s their biggest problem.  Unless you’re buying into the idea of “I want all of this to happen to me!” and just want a mindless story, there’s no conflict or thought put into the story to keep it entertaining. 

A Sue is a collection of various bad writing tropes tied together by author favoritism.  The author’s love of the character turns the Sue character into a black hole, flattening every other possible interesting thing in the story.  A good story focuses on making interesting stories with interesting worlds and characters that go into them, not the author binge-ing on a bunch of twinkies in written form (and they gotta have a cool fight scene! and live up to what I think is right  and make fun of preps!  and I want to be the best/ sweetest/ coolest/ smartest ever!) This is what separates a good Superman or Batman story from a bad one (Compare: The Long Halloween/any good Batman story and All Star Batman & Robin).  It’s what separates most protagonist like Frodo from Lord of the Rings & Alice from Alice in Wonderland from Eragon & Bella Swan from Twilight.  

There’s nothing wrong with writing a Mary or Marty Sue (Or Sue) when you start out.  Your first 10 stories could all be 200000 word Sue stories, and that’s ok - you’re learning how to write!  It’s all good.  Over time, you should gradually grow to be a better writer and naturally shed Sue in favor of making characters people, making interesting plots with fleshed out conflicts, and worlds that feel like characters actually live in them.  They’re not something you should worry about in the long run, unless you’re trying to pass them off as good writing.

The meaning above got lost when Shippers started co-opting the term to mean “Any woman who gets in the way of their beautiful Yaoi ship” (I saw someone call Sakura from Naruto a Mary Sue - what????), and people started using it as a term for  “badly written character”, or “way overpowered character,” and even “OC I don’t like”.  Tv Tropes discusses the various meanings of Mary Sue/Marty Stu/Sues, and has a little page on the story structure thing I talked about above.  

So I don’t know how you guys interpret Mary Sue, but whenever I talk about them, I mean this.

[lastgeeksdying]

Let's talk about Hydra, Cap, and Mind Control

Want to know the books and issues that lead to this discussion?  Check out these comics: Tales of Suspense 67.68 Captain America, Captain America Reborn, Winter Soldier(written by Ed Brubaker totaling 75 issues) Captain America: Steve Rogers Captain America Sam Wilson Secret Empire First Off, I need to get this off my chest.  If you think that Captain America being a Hydra agent means that he is a Nazi I can only draw one of three conclusions.  Option one is that you don't read comics and are just regurgitating bullshit that other people are perpetuating.  Option two is you are one of those people intentionally perpetuating bullshit for the clicks because even though you know that Hydra is not Nazi but you benefit from the clicks so you never set the record straight.   Option three is you don't read comics.  More specifically you don't read comics about Hydra.  There are a few other options, but let's just clear up the misconception right now.  In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Hydra was Nazi's.  But the comics are more complicated than that.   One of the core pillars of Secret Empire and Captain America:Sam Wilson and Captain America:Steve Rogers, is that Hydra is a fascist, authoritarian organization which has had Nazi leadership and Nazi leaders.  Hydra is an organization that is made up other small tendrils.  Each tendril is led by a different leader.  We've had the Nazi leaders, like Red Skull. But there have also leaders like Madame Hydra and Kraken who aren't.  A major plot point in Captain America:Steve Rogers(CA:SR) is that Steve sees the Nazi influences in Hydra has perverted it, and he is working to remove those elements.  In CA:SR issue 15, Steve kills Red Skull.  But everything in that issue and in the flashbacks leading to this issue, have been building this narrative of how badly Steve was still hurt and manipulated by Nazis.  It's a major point that Nazis are still bad and Steve still opposes them.  He still would willingly punch Hitler.   Meanwhile there is this whole other element.  A popular genre trope, and comics in particular, is mind control.  Sure, in the Captain America case it's way more complicated and they went through a lot of hoops to do a mind control story in a new way for a long form story, but it is ultimately mind control.   For clarity, this isn't even the worst scenario.  That would be when Jack Kirby, Jewish comic creator of Captain America, made Back in 1979, Jack Kirby drew a comic in which Captain America not only used a Shield with a Swastika on it, but also saluted Hitler.  The comic was Tales of Suspense 67 and it was written by Stan Lee.  The arc continues in Tales of Suspense 68 and Cap manages to break out of the mind control.  But let it sink in.  A Jewish comic creator who received death threats from Nazi Sympathizers and was prepare to fist fight them drew Captain America hailing Hitler.   In 2016, an incredibly powerful artifact made sentient (because comics) used it's power to rewrite Captain America's personal history and made him an Agent of Hydra.  Nick Spencer has been unveiling this alternate history for Steve over each issue of CA:SR.  Effectively proving he still has his core traits of who he is, but with this crucial trait changed.  It's basically an in-contiunity version of Superman:Red Son, a story where Superman landed in Russia and became a communist dictator.   I'm not here to defend Nick Spencer.  I will say that digging up his political opinions for 10 years ago make you seem like someone either really unhinged or really you just want clicks.  We all go through change.  We learn and grow.  If we talked about how my vision of feminism changed over the last ten years, if you pick a sample from any given year in that time period, you could make me look like an asshole, because at the time I was.  I fully support tearing apart what he is saying now.  If you are fully against heroes breaking bad, I understand that.  If you think you need to dig up dirt on a comic creator because you don't like what he did in the story, you have problems.  If you are sending death threats to marvel and Nick Spencer because you don't like Hydra Cap, you have problems.  Your actions have consequences. Right now, this vocal minority is frustrating me into not wanting to talk about comics with people.  But I want you to walk away thinking about something else.  Many major character arcs have involved mind control and dramatically retconing a character's history.  The most notable example of this is James 'Bucky' Barnes who went on to be turned into a Russian and then Hydra assassin called the Winter Soldier.  Winter Soldier operated from 1945 until 2006 as an assassin.  This isn't the power of an in-universe Deus-ex-machina.  This is still in continuity today.   On a similar note, Jean Grey was revealed to be possessed by an evil, all-consuming entity called the Phoenix.  In her Dark Phoenix form she went on to destroy an entire Galaxy.  Murdering billions of people.   There is a core group of fans who see Steve now being a Nazi who are angry that this is a reaction to America at large.  And for the Jewish among them (along with the handful of other groups murdered by actual Nazis) I can understand the very angry and real reaction to the idea of Captain America being a Nazi. I understand if they see what a lot of people calling him a Nazi for this and getting angry and calling it Anti-Semitic.  That I understand.  Which is why I'm hoping someone reads this and realizes that it is being destructive to America to do so.  Nazi's are way too real right now, as is Hate.  So every time you try to bait people into thinking Captain America is Hydra you are doing genuine damage to creators that are working tell escapist stories.  This isn't Ethan Van Scrier telling some of his fans to go kill themselves.  This isn't Orson Scott Card donating to hate groups.  This is a story about Captain America becoming a bad guy.   Steve is absolutely a murderer now.  Steve is an authoritarian now.  Steve is a Fascist.  But he isn't a Nazi.  And the nuance, and distinction here is key.  And don't worry, it'll be changed back by the end of 2017.  I will continue to enjoy this story.  And I'd really appreciate it if you would stop calling him a Nazi.  

[tgunn64]

Favorite Villains - Frieza and Cell (Dragon Ball Z)

This is moreso a tie spot than a composite entry--though also sort of composite. Eeh you’ll see. Now even though I don’t discuss it so much these days, Dragon Ball was a really huge part of my fandom development growing up. There was a period where it was one of my huge obsessions, and I think it’d be sort of an injustice to not have any villain from it on my list. I couldn’t decide if this spot should go to Frieza or Cell, though, which is why I sort of decided to mash them together. Imma just walk through both one at a time before discussing what ties them together.

Frieza is an intergalactic emperor of sorts, who flies around with his many, many troops colonizing planets to add to his planetary empire and destroying any planet that causes him trouble. Though he’s pretty damn powerful, both physically and monetarily, Frieza knows his existence finite, which is why he seeks the Dragon Balls--seven mystical gems than when gathered in one place, will grant the gatherer’s wish. So, he starts a conquest to find them, leaving a trail of death and destruction in his wake.

Before his search for the Ballz, though, Frieza has a couple more connections. As a conqueror and emperor, Frieza took over the Planet Vegeta, home of the saiyans--a race of humanoid aliens that are considered lowbrow savages. Frieza used this stigma to keep the saiyans under his thumb, but he secretly feared them. He knew that if the Saiyans banded together, they could have the potential to overthrow him, especially if the prophecy of the Super Saiyan was fulfilled. It’s a strong allegory for real life dictators and the like that we see a lot in fiction, but it's ever strong for Frieza. It reminds me a bit of Hopper’s relationship with the ants in Bug’s Life, for instance. Frieza rules with fear and manipulation, and remains on top with the illusion that that’s the only way it can be. With time, Frieza’s anxiety of the Saiyans drove him to just do away with them, ordering an extermination of the race. Via evacuation squads as well as his own immense power, Frieza killed the bulk of the saiyan race, sans a few, among them the prince of the planet, aptly named Vegeta (who Frieza deceived into working for him by saying Planet Vegeta was destroyed by a meteor), and an infant Goku, whose father shipped him to earth when he realized their time was up a la Superman.

Like I said above, I like the trope of the evil emperor that tries to wipe out a subservient faction/people out of fear, while keeping up an air of superiority. Pharaoh Ramses Complex? Is that a trope? I’m naming it that. Frieza, as arrogant and secure he is in his strength, can’t hide his true colors, that he knew the Saiyans had the power to end his reign. And it’s all the more telling of how self destructive his arrogance is when the only two saiyans left would live to rise against him, and both would become Super Saiyans, nonetheless. Frieza is cold, shrewd, and cruel, seeing the lives of those around him as tools that he can use for his own selfish purposes. He’s his own top priority, and would gladly kill millions if it proceeds his plans. That said, he has a faux-affably evil way about him. He’d act almost facetiously polite one second only to destroy you and everything you love the next. This makes his fury all the more scary, and the bottomless fear his henchmen feel when Frieza even seems slightly upset speaks volumes.

But his elitist personality makes it all the more satisfying when he sees what’s feared all this time, a Super Saiyan, and with it, his plans falling apart. Frieza is extremely iconic, I feel like everyone kinda knows who Frieza is to some extent. The battle between him and Goku is infamous for be just long and taking so many turns, because Frieza never gives up. Frieza is also known for being extremely effeminate, (I was always pissed when they remastered the show and gave him a male voice actor, I loved Linda Young’s performance) but the thing is I never didn’t take him seriously for it. It was never ‘teehee he’s girly’, he was always terrifying and not at all hard to see as a major threat, as diminutive as he is, which is impressive considering how young many of us were and dismissive of “not super badass” villains at that age. On to Cell, the main villain of the arc after Frieza’s. Cell is a man made creature, biologically made with the DNA of several of the show’s strongest characters. This meant he was capable of the skills and abilities of Goku, Vegeta, Piccolo, and Gohan among many others, with a goal in mind of the ultimate being that could destroy them all. Cell awoke, however, long after the deaths of his creators, and rather than lacking a purpose, moved on to achieve his own conquest by himself.

Cell he has many forms, and starts out as a more insectoid looking creature. He skulks about, absorbing the life force and powers of anyone he crosses, because when he intakes enough, he will achieve his ‘perfect’ form. When Cell absorbs the Androids 17 and 18, he finally achieves his self declared perfection, which is a cool aim for a villain, trying to achieve a metamorphosis at the cost of others. I really love how much Cell changes when he transforms--his voice goes from raspy and flemmy to deep and commanding. His appearance becomes sleek and compact, and even his personality changes a bit. Achieving perfection gives Cell a huge ego boost, and he never wastes an opportunity to boast his perfection.

While in many ways similar to his predecessor villain, Frieza, Cell juxtaposes him too. Where Frieza talked big but was secretly a coward that would rather allow his minions to do his dirty work, Cell is fearless, a show off, and would love to get his hands dirty, just to prove his superiority. In fact, Cell craves validation so much, rather than just destroy earth, he creates a makeshift fighting ring and invites the defenders of Earth to a chance to stop him in his own ‘Cell Games’.

Also like Frieza, Cell sees his opponents as toy soldiers to knock over, killing people with no remorse. Of course, his ego only takes him so far. But in the face of failure, he’d much rather use his self destruct trump card to take the rest of earth with him upon his death than suffer the thought of just losing. While they were the villains of two entirely separate story arcs, Frieza and Cell were always considered birds of a feather; Goku’s two greatest foes that everyone loved to draw together. This leads to the often disregarded sequel series, Dragon Ball GT, which is...arguably non canon, BUT, is memorable IMO if not for seeing Cell and Frieza finally team up. A portal to Hell opens up, unleashing every villain that’s ever died over the course of the series, and Frieza and Cell, bonding over their hatred of Goku, agree to team up and destroy him once and for all.

While they sometimes bickered, I loved Frieza and Cell as a Big Bad duumvirate, their combined power making up probably Goku’s worst nightmare. I actually kind of ship them. They just make a really iconic pair and I can live with them sharing a spot on my list.

[the-desolated-quill]

Has The Marvel Cinematic Universe Become Too Big? - Quill's Scribbles

Is anybody else getting sick to death of superhero movies and TV shows? There was a time when I used to get excited for a new comic book adaptation. Now the market has become so overly saturated with them that I’m actually starting to get bored of the whole genre, and I’m willing to bet I’m not the only one suffering from superhero fatigue.

I’ve mentioned before in numerous posts about the dangers of flooding the market with too much comic book media and by far the biggest offender has to be the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Releasing three movies a year (which could increase to four thanks to its quasi-partnership with Sony), three Netflix series a year as well as a whole barrage of network TV shows including Agents Of SHIELD (yes that still exists. God knows who’s still watching it) and the upcoming Cloak & Dagger, Inhumans and The Runaways. Like the Martian red weed from War Of The Worlds, the MCU is spreading out of control consuming everything in its path. But how did this happen? How did the once exciting and creative venture of a shared universe become a bloated and soulless sequel factory?

Well let’s start from the beginning.

In 2008, Iron Man was released, taking everyone by surprise with its charismatic protagonist and intelligent, character driven story. From there we saw more Marvel movies come out with links and ties to each other all culminating in 2012′s Avenger’s Assemble. While the Phase 1 movies weren’t perfect by any means (coughTheIncredibleHulkcough), you can tell there was an effort on the part of the filmmakers to really work out the chronology of this shared universe. We knew exactly how all of these movies fitted together and how these characters influenced each other.

Then came Phase 2 and this is where things started to go wrong. And I can pinpoint exactly when I thought things started to go wrong. Agents of SHIELD.

Now for the record, I haven’t actually seen any of Agents Of SHIELDS beyond the first few episodes of Season 1, but from what I’ve heard I’m really not missing much. From the very start, Agents Of SHIELD rubbed me the wrong way. Apart from the fact that the first episode seemed to be an exact carbon copy of Iron Man 3, the characters were all pretty much just stereotypes plus they made the big mistake of bringing Agent Coulson back from the dead, despite the fact that his death was what motivated the Avengers to work together. As I say, I haven’t seen the rest of the show so I have no idea if it improves, but from the random tidbits of information I’ve heard over the years, Agents Of SHIELD sounds like its become the black hole into which all of Marvel’s unwanted or unprofitable ideas go to die (What’s that? You want proof? Okay. Ghost Rider is in it. And don’t be surprised if the Fantastic Four  make an appearance too should Marvel ever get the rights back). Plus I don’t really have any real want or reason to watch Agents Of SHIELD because it doesn’t seem as though anything that happens in that show affects the MCU (now remember this point. I shall come back to it later).

After the success of Avengers Assemble, it seemed as though Marvel have become complacent and this is reflected in their movies. Movies such as Thor: The Dark World, Guardians Of The Galaxy, Avengers: Age Of Ultron and Ant-Man all seemed extremely formulaic and uninspired. Ant-Man in particular really was just a cookie cutter origin story with no interesting characters and pretty much consisted of nothing but exposition until the third act, and Thor: The Dark World and Guardians Of The Galaxy were basically the exact same movie (find the artefact before an evil zealot destroys a race of people as revenge for what happened to his own race). But while the creativity of the movies were beginning to stagnate, Marvel seemed to be prospering on television with Agent Carter and the Netflix shows.

Agent Carter’s first season was pretty good, depicting Peggy Carter’s rise to power whilst fighting the sexism of the time period, while the Netflix shows were branching out into uncharted territory for Marvel, tackling some very adult themes and topics. Daredevil explored the effects of violence and the morals and implications of vigilante justice, Luke Cage looked specifically at issues of race and the power dynamics within street gang culture, and Jessica Jones was by far the most adult as it delved into issues of rape and consent. While not perfect, these were very intelligent and hard hitting shows. 

But even these started to slip. Agent Carter’s second season was an absolute mess that introduced the poorly thought out Zero Matter from the Dark Dimension to confuse an already muddled plot. Daredevil Season 2, while starting well with the Punisher storyline, quickly descended into a stupid and convoluted omnishambles with the introduction of Elektra and the Hand. And when Iron Fist wasn’t busy being racist, it was boring us to death with poorly paced and heavily padded storylines that used tropes and cliches we’ve seen done loads of times before in other superhero stories. And again, nothing that happens in these TV shows seem to have any impact on the larger MCU or vice versa (again, I’ll come back to this).

As we move into Phase 3, it’s becoming increasingly clear to me that Marvel seem to care less about creating original, well written, interconnected stories and more about expanding their brand. I mean look at the three films that are meant to come out this year. Spider-Man Homecoming pretty much looks like every superhero coming of age story ever made, and Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2 and Thor: Ragnarok look virtually identical to each other with their 80s pop tracks, sci-fi settings, bright colour schemes and retro graphics. The entire MCU seems to have become completely homogenised with filmmakers seeming to be perfectly content with giving us the most basic, bottom of the barrel plots and conflicts. This is apparent with most of the MCU movies (villain wants to take over the world, hero stops them) and it seems this is going to continue in the future. A prime example is the upcoming Cloak & Dagger TV series, which is apparently going to be a love story.

I don’t know if something happened in the comics recently, but when I used to read Cloak & Dagger, the two characters were never romantically involved. While Cloak did have feelings for Dagger, she never reciprocated them. This provides an interesting dynamic as the two have to stay in close proximity to each other due to the nature of their powers. What this TV series is potentially doing is stripping away this interesting dynamic in favour of the same bog standard romance we’ve seen done millions of times before. Not only is this beyond lazy, it’s also troubling because romance is something Marvel movies and TV shows have been consistently rubbish at so far.

But while the majority of the MCU is, in my opinion, becoming blander and blander, there is one notable exception. The Russo Brothers.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier was easily the best movie of Phase 2. It was action packed, extremely tense, and it also offered an extremely interesting plot as we saw the relatively straightforward Captain America being put into a morally grey and complicated scenario. The revelation that SHIELD had been infiltrated by Hydra was a jaw dropper and it was fascinating to see how Cap would react to that. The Winter Solder was also unique in that the villain Alexander Pierce had a lot more depth and nuance than previous villains we’ve seen in the MCU movies. We really got to know how this character’s mind works and explore his ideology as we discovered to our collective horror that SHIELD and Hydra really weren’t so different. Both were authoritarian and willing to make questionable decisions for the ‘greater good’. The only difference between them is one of degree. It’s a fascinating topic of discussion on how far is too far when it comes to protecting civilians and its genuinely interesting to see how a relative outsider like Cap would react to a conflict that’s less good vs evil and more light grey vs dark grey.

The Russo Brothers produced a truly phenomenal movie that poses some very intelligent and difficult questions whilst shaking up the entire status quo, potentially setting up interesting new plot lines going forward. Which is why it angers and frustrates me that Avengers: Age Of Ultron happened. What’s that? SHIELD was secretly infiltrated by Neo-Nazis and had to be destroyed? Don’t worry. We’ll build an all new SHIELD. With blackjack. And hookers. And look! Nick Fury just so happens to have a spare helicarrier knocking around. Don’t worry guys. Nothing morally complicated here. Just a generic fight against a James Spader robot. Nothing the Avengers can’t handle. You’re totally safe.

Avengers: Age Of Ultron seemed to go out of its way to undo all the good work that Winter Soldier did. But then, lo and behold, the Russo Brothers returned to save the day yet again with their second big hit Captain America: Civil War.

While I was initially skeptical due to the fact that this was made purely because DC were making Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice (and as much as I love Civil War, I feel it would have benefitted from being put on hold until at least Phase 4), the Russo Brothers won me over with another intelligently made movie that went into even murkier territory than Winter Soldier. While Helmut Zemo was the quote/unquote ‘bad guy’ in that he was the one who instigated the events of Civil War, the true antagonist of the movie was the political shitstorm that surrounded the Avengers due to their actions and lack of proper oversight. The Avengers weren’t fighting some great evil anymore. They were fighting each other over their conflicting ideologies. The Sokovia Accords make for a fascinating moral and political discussion because there is no clear right or wrong answer and, crucially, the Russo Brothers don’t even try to give us an answer, instead allowing the audience to come to their own conclusions. The film allows you to support Cap’s mission to save Bucky regardless of whether or not you agree with his political views. 

Oh and let’s not forget that brilliant ending! Instead of the typical heroes beat the villain scenario, we get a more emotional climax as Iron Man finds out that Bucky killed his parents and that Cap hid that fact from him. It’s a tense and deliberately uncomfortable final fight because it’s very hard to tell who you should side with. While neither Cap nor Iron Man are going to be winning any Superhero of the Year awards anytime soon, their actions can be plausibly justified. This is plain and simply good storytelling, and while there are a few trivial problems with the movie, Civil War served as an excellent follow-up to Winter Soldier.

If there’s any reason why I’m still sticking with the MCU at all, it’s because of the Russo Brothers, because they’re the only filmmakers who seem to actually give a shit about what they’re doing. There’s a concerted effort to create intelligent and thought provoking stories on their part, putting these beloved characters into complex moral and political scenarios and seeing how they react to it based on their personalities and ideologies. They’re also the only filmmakers who actually seem to understand the concept of an interconnected shared universe, taking what was previously established in past movies and using it as a foundation to build on it further. The Winter Soldier builds directly off of what happened in Captain America: The First Avenger and Avenger’s Assemble. Civil War builds directly off of what happened in Iron Man 3, The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Age Of Ultron. This is what good sequels should do, and I’m curious as to what the Russo Brothers plan to do with Infinity War.

But even in the Russo Brother’s movies familiar Marvel problems start to crop up, and the most glaring example is in Civil War with the introduction of Spider-Man.

While the character was written reasonably well and Tom Holland does a decent job in the role, the way he’s introduced is extremely clunky. So Spider-Man has always existed in this universe, has he? Okay. How come he’s never been mentioned before? Especially when you consider the Defenders who live practically on Spidey’s doorstep. Now yes, it’s because the introduction of Spider-Man was kind of a last minute thing, I know, but here’s the thing. Why did Iron Man recruit Spider-Man and not the Defenders? Like I said, Spider-Man  lives practically in the same neighbourhood as the Defenders and they haven’t exactly been keeping themselves secret. Why would Iron Man ignore the Defenders? There isn’t even a mention of them or anything. The only possible explanation for this is that the Defenders don’t exist in this continuity... except they clearly do.

This to me represents the problem with the entire MCU as a whole. People often praise Marvel for their extensive planning, but that’s clearly bollocks. The way Spidey is introduced clearly shows that they’re just making this up as they go along and aren’t giving any thought as to how any of this connects together. And this is where we come back to the problem of the movies and TV shows seeming to have no impact on each other. Like I said, while Phase 1 had its issues there was more effort to link the films together. Cap’s super-soldier serum was used as the basis for Bruce Banner’s gamma experiments. The Tessarect from Captain America: The First Avenger was used as the basis for Tony Stark’s arc reactor technology in the Iron Man movies. Thor’s arrival on Earth motivates Nick Fury to create the Avenger’s Initiative. Everything fits together. Phase 2, with the exception of the Russo Brother’s movies, don’t do that. They’re just a jumble of stories and characters that have no relation to each other whatsoever. I have no idea where the Defenders fits in within the Avengers timeline because they seem to have nothing to do with each other. Aside from ‘the Incident’, nothing that happens in the Marvel movies seem to have any impact on the lives of Daredevil or Luke Cage when you’d think they’d be a major talking point for the average joe. There just doesn’t seem to be any focus anymore as Marvel are beginning to stretch themselves too thin. And it’s only going to get worse as more movies and TV shows come out. They’re not so much releasing adaptations as they are spamming us with them.

I mean... does anybody actually want a Cloak & Dagger TV series? Or an Inhumans series? In fact, I don’t even think Marvel want to make them either judging by the quality. I mean the Cloak & Dagger trailer looks unbelievably cheap and tacky, and as for the Inhumans...

Okay. Where’s the real cast photo? This can’t be it. This looks more like a really bad cosplay.

So if their hearts clearly aren’t in it, why are they making these in the first place?

But... how much more money do Marvel need?What are they planning to do with it? Is Kevin Feige trying to recreate Scrooge McDuck’s money bin?

When a new character or plotline is introduced, it’s normally to offer new dynamics, challenges or perspectives to an existing narrative thread. This isn’t the case with Marvel at all. Let’s be brutally honest here. What does Ant-Man offer to the Avengers as a character? Really? What about Vision? Or Doctor Strange (No. Magic doesn’t count). With the introduction of Cloak & Dagger, the Inhumans and the Runaways, it feels like Marvel are adding characters and stories just for the sake of adding characters and stories. There’s no thought being put into what they could contribute to the MCU as a whole. They just... exist. At this point Marvel seem more concerned with creating a big franchise as opposed to a coherent one. And this is worrying because every other movie studio under the sun is trying to replicate this, most notably Warner Bros. with their list of upcoming movies coming out longer than the Yellow Pages. And most of these upcoming movies are sequels and spinoffs to movies that haven’t even come out yet, which just makes me want to scream. For God’s sake, pace yourselves guys! This is a marathon, not a sprint! Let’s sort your Batman script out first before we start planning Nightwing and Batgirl movies, yeah?

But while I do have grave concerns about the DC Extended Universe going forward, I’m still much more excited for their future movies than I am for future Marvel movies because, unlike the MCU, the DCEU seems to have a much clearer focus. The entire franchise is built around the premise of how Superman’s existence affects the people and environment around him. While it’s up for debate how well the filmmakers explore and execute this premise, the point is it’s there. The entire DCEU so far revolves around this core idea with each new character and movie contributing to the overall narrative. With the MCU... I haven’t the faintest idea what is even going on any more. It’s all over the place. What’s the main focus? Is it this idiotic war with the Hand? Dormmamu and his convoluted Dark Dimension? The plight of the Inhumans, which has never even been mentioned in any of the main Marvel movies? I suppose you could be fooled into thinking its Thanos and the Infinity Stones, except that’s been handled extremely poorly as well. There’s been no effort to really delve into the history and capabilities of the Infinity Stones, merely serving as interchangeable plot macguffins, and Thanos, the supposed Big Bad of the MCU, has barely gotten a look in since he was first introduced in Avengers Assemble.

In fact let’s talk about Thanos because this especially pisses me off.

Here’s the thing. I know absolutely nothing about Thanos. I had never even heard of him until Avenger’s Assemble and I was looking forward to seeing what this character has in store. Five years later and what have we learned about him? Not a goddamn thing! He’s just some big chinned purple alien wearing golden armour that would give King Midas a massive boner and who wants the Infinity Stones because... the script says so. It’s hard to find a villain threatening when you barely see him and know fuck all about him. In fact the few times we do see him, he comes across as, well, a bit of a moron. In Guardians Of The Galaxy, we learn that he keeps the survivors of planets he’s conquered as his children, giving them cyber augmentation. Well that sounds like a stupid thing to do. No doubt his ‘children’ would harbour deep rooted anger toward him and want him dead... and what do you know? Gamora and Nebula end up betraying him! Whoops! He also wants the Infinity Stones, tasking Ronan the Accuser with finding the purple stone. But he constantly belittles and patronises Ronan over the course of their brief partnership. See Thanos, that might not be a good idea because once Ronan gets an Infinity Stone, he might try and use it against you as payback and... OH NO! Ronan is now using the Infinity Stone against Thanos as payback! Doh! And then we learn in Avengers: Age Of Ultron that Loki’s sceptre actually contained an Infinity Stone... the same sceptre that Thanos gave to Loki as a gift... So Thanos had an Infinity Stone in his possession only to give it away.

How can Marvel expect us to view him as anything other than incompetent? The guy is clearly a complete moron! And yet they still present him as this major threat without giving any evidence to back it up. In Avengers: Age Of Ultron it starts to become comical when Thanos puts on his golden glove, saying he needs to deal with this himself. First of all, Thanos is clearly such a doofus that I don’t think he could find his own arse with both hands, let alone an Infinity Stone, but also... what’s the significance of the golden glove? Why was there ominous music playing in the background when he put it on? Do Marvel really think this is suspenseful or threatening? A purple alien putting on a golden glove? Is it like Rumpelstiltskin’s ‘angry wig’ from Shrek Forever After? Is it Thanos’ angry glove? Is that what they’re getting at?

Now I’m sure Marvel fans are chomping at the bit to tell me the life history of Thanos and his fabulous golden angry glove, but you see that proves my point. The movies should be giving me this information. If they want to build anticipation for Thanos, they need to give us this information. Right now they’ve done such a rubbish job of building him up that not only do I know nothing about him, I can’t even take him seriously as a credible threat. And the reason why Thanos has had so little build up is because Marvel have been wasting their energy in all the wrong places. Like do we really need to know who Star-Lord’s dad is? Do we really need to know what Ant-Man and the Wasp have been getting up to? Is this really an appropriate time to be introducing something as complicated as the Dark Dimension into this clusterfuck of a franchise (especially considering that Marvel can’t seem to make up their mind as to what the Dark Dimension actually is)?

After all of this, you’re probably thinking I’m some Marvel hater, and I’m not. I actually quite like Marvel. That’s why I’m criticising what they’re doing. There’s no art or creativity in what they’re doing anymore. The MCU has become a cynical assembly line production and this lack of passion is starting to show in their work. I’ve said in my numerous posts about the DCEU that it would be beneficial for them to focus on releasing one or two movies every couple of years rather than producing an endless stream of content, and I think Marvel should consider doing the same, or at the very least take a break to reassess what their priorities are. As I said, I’m sure I’m not the only person becoming slowly disinterested in what the MCU has to offer and the reason I’m becoming disinterested is because the MCU follows us around constantly and rarely provides anything of substance or that challenges us. It’s the same crap over and over again, and it’s just getting boring more than anything else.

There needs to be more of an effort to connect these stories, thus giving us a reason to keep up with everything beyond fan loyalty, as well as provide more variety in the types of stories that they tell. 20th Century Fox have realised this, hence why we’re getting more experimental stuff like Deadpool, Logan and Legion. And while the MCU is still successful for the time being, that could change very rapidly if they don’t pull their finger out.