#and i shazammed it and that title came on and then it hit me that this was the exact same music as later in the ep

[airenyah]

#happy couple patpran were cheerfully investigating their parents' history at their old high school when this flashback and music happened #reminiscing about their carefree teen years before pran was sent away #still basking in their new-found couplehood‚ innocent and unaware of coming strife #when love was easy indeed #because this is ep.10‚ and right after this their idyll will be shattered when ming spots them grocery shopping 😢 (@telomeke-bbs)

oh. oh no. i'm about to sob... 😭😭😭

you know that scene in ep10 when they go back to their old high school and there's that flashback of pran watching pat get punished?

the music that was used here is called when love was easy

[theahgamag]

WEEKLY ENCORE 2022 – Week 1 (January 1-9)

Welcome to the first ever weekly cover on GOT7 news. It is only the first week of the year and the boys has given us a lot! From new albums to welcome kits to NBA, birds have been busy all week.

Some of the boys had quite a lot of updates that it is hard to keep track.

Lets journey back to the first week member by member, starting off with our dear leader JAYB.

Jaebeom had ended the year with a brief Instagram live; he wished everyone a happy new year with a 15 minute live. And started the year with a greeting tweet… on January 4th.

But Jaebeom came bearing gifts; we got a release date for his new episode as Def. And this episode will be the first episode to have a physical copy. A very special episode indeed. Pre orders have started already (and will end on 12th). Many birds quickly started checking their wallet to see what was left after the holiday period.

We also got the KAZZ photoshoot behind and… it is safe to say, JayB never disappoints whatever he does. The man has quite an allure to himself.

As we all know this week was JayB’s birthday, and by luck it fell on his Bbomdi BBomdi day. Station Z staff showed their support and love to our leader once again by not only decorating and giving him a birthday cake but arranging a heartwarming surprise. They arranged an audio letter from members currently in S.Korea and even got Jackson as a phone guest. Jackson being in the middle of a busy schedule recorded a video message in case he couldn’t make it. The whole thing was sweet, members slightly teasing but sending love, Jackson promising to call JayB after midnight in China so it would be his birthday. A must watch for an Ahgase.

(JayB looks adorably surprised when Encore starts to play, followed by members messages)

While you are there, also check StationZ’s photos of JayB, they are adorable.

JayB came online the next day with a handwritten letter as a thank you to the fans (there was a brief war flashback on birds side but we don’t talk about that). Although we didn’t get a meme from Bambam this year, he did squeez in a comment on Jaebeom’s post as a cute jab to the end of his letter.

We also got an update on Jaebeom’s MBTI: he shared a story with ENTJ so I assume it has changed now? It doesn’t think he is so thrilled at the idea either “MBTI is not science”.

While I am a bit sad that we no longer share the same MBTI (he was previously INFJ), I think the commander fits him quite well.

And lastly we had a TMI interview where he updated us on his life and answered quick questions. Check it out birds!

Our leader really didn’t let us breath this week huh? The rest wasn’t so different though.

Next is our flying member Mark. Mark started the year with a short but cheery tweet.

(Don’t mind it is the 2nd, it’s just because of the time difference; I live in Europe)

He also went to Instagram to share a snippet of his new song. Unbeknown to him (and me to be honest) unreleased songs can be shazam’d. Birds quickly figured this out and started sharing the songs title. Mark tweeting about his mistake, birds pretending they didn’t see anything, a pretty GOT7 type of chaos.

We’ll stream the song once you drop it Mark, don’t worry. Shazam or no shazam.

While Mark is our quite member we got another update from him; Ralph Lauren shared picture of Mark for the Laterals Magazine. He looks pretty good in green velvet.

Jackson has been keeping himself and us busy the whole year. And this does not look like it’s going to change in 2022 either. He ended the year with a quick Instagram live and performances for new year countdown lives. Once the clock hit midnight Jackson shared a cheeky new years message on twitter before promising to fill the year with music. We will be waiting what you have in store for us this year Jackson. But please also rest. You have worked so hard.

Jackson has been busy running from one event to another, attending Esquire’s Gentle Hala with a 20kg suit and collecting awards. That suit does look dazzling.

Fendi also shared photos of Jackson for their spring festival capsule collection. He also teased a valentines special short for Braun with "Unending Love" by Rabindranath Tagore. The Poet in question was an Indian poet who had important contributions to both Indian and Bengali literature. Now I don’t know much about Rabindranath Tagore himself but as he is an important figure, so his poem being included in the short does seem very important. Bengali and Indian Ahgases seemed pretty happy.

As Promised Jackson is also releasing new music. He teased a new song named after himself. The story of the song is apparently depicting his life and will be out on the 11th. I don’t know what to expect but something tells me we’re going to cry.

Unexpectedly we have quite a few updates from Jinyoung. First day of the year we got stories of him chilling at his sisters café and watching the first sunrise. Now that filming ended for most of his projects (that we know of, you never know with Park Jinyoung) and Christmas Carol filming still not started, he seems to have been enjoying a bit of free time. We lucky birds even got a post with the beautiful sunrise. He also posted behind photos from both “The Devil Judge” and “Yumi’s Cells”. Quite a blessing for pepis who has been living with pixel Jinyoung for months now.

We finally got Yacha and Hi5 confirmation through BH’s new years post. The company has shared the upcoming project for their artist and Jinyoung was in four of them: Yumi’s Cells S2, Yacha, Hi5 and A Christmas Carol.

Speaking of acting, Jinyoung’s role in Hi5 is confirmed to be a villain. Very exciting, especially when you think he filmed it at the same time as Yumi’s Cells. Sweet office worker Yoo Babi in the morning, super villain in the evening? I can’t wait.

Jinyoung’s Japanese fan club also shared an exclusive selfie and some birds leaked a pieces of it on tweeter, starting a big scale puzzle game. The struggle was real.

The last of of Jinyoung’s updates came from himself; he posted two dance videos seemingly from his trainee days. His dance teacher before his trainee years reposted them while teasing us with the Jinyoung dance video’s he has in his HDD.

Lastly, Jinyoung posted a selfie with the information about an art exhibit: ACEP2022. This is a special exhibition for artists with development disabilities. Such a beautiful thing to promote Jinyoung, thank you.

Next on our actor line is Youngjae. Our sunshine has been relatively quiet this week. Although there is no new project announced he is getting praise for his acting. Couldn’t be more proud of him.

Youngjae started the year with a greeting video and continued with a new episode of his vlog. Our sunshine is becoming quite the youtuber, we love to see it. Not to spoil the episode but him editing was so cute.

Youngjae also revealed a welcoming kit for 2022. It looks so sweet, a calendar, photo cards, photo strips and a stamp. The stamp is such a nice idea, I want one!

He is also announced to be a DJ in MBC’s Dream Radio from January 17th to February 6th. We get another weekly radio to look forward to. Now I don’t know if it is possible, but wouldn’t it be so fun if they’d extend his contract as well?

Before moving on from Youngjae, let’s not forget he is also the cover of The Star magazine for this month. He looks stunning doesn’t he?

Bambam has been quite busy, keeping us busy as well. He takes after his Jackson Hyung I suppose. Starting the new year with a 2 day special new years concert in Pattaya Bambam performed quite a few songs both his and GOT7s. During his talk segment he revealed 2022 is going to be Ahgases years and he is planning on doing a live on the 16th. He added he was thinking of a surprise for the anniversary but he was not sure yet. Bambam don’t feed our clown hearts like that, it is dangerous. We see you have changed your twitter header to ahgabong’s too (from his Pattaya Concert). Now what should we think of this Bambam? You know we've been clowning ourselves every other day.

Although working, Bambam has spent some time with family too while in Thailand. We got cute updates like ‘Who Are You’ dance challenge with his sister Baby and Mama B. his mother also posted a few quite videos of all of the Bhuwakul Family together. Ahgases are also happy to see him reunite with his family after two years.

Bambam is also reported to be in a Malaysian reality show “Master in The House – Malaysia”. The show is set to air on 15thof this month. His Secret Island episodes are still being uploaded weekly by KBS too.

On the 7th Bambam revealed his 2ndmini album title. The concept art is gorgeous. To be frank all his concept art looks gorgeous. With all the collaborations he has, this album is going to be a banger I am sure!

Bambam didn’t stop there though. While ahgases are trying to process the album release date and doing recalculations to afford all the boys releases we have a sudden update from him. Though this time it is of a very different nature. Bambam announced that he is now the global ambassador of NBA team Golden State Warriors. He also nominated one of the players for NBA all-star.

The birds, as expected followed suit. In a short amount of time all birds were voting for GSW players, learning about the team, even making edits for the players with Bambam and GOT7 songs. Dub Nation (GSW fans) were first shocked but were quick to embrace this change, a few started listening to our boys songs too and voted on SMA. We also found common grounds on being the outcasts within their respective areas despite being good at their craft. For a moment everyone was happy, sun was shining, people were laughing.

You can check the whole exchange under #BamBamxGSW tag on twitter.

Our maknae has been very quite lately but he did come out for a new years post. Forget western actors, Yugyeom for spiderman!

I especially love the last picture he shared, the one with the traffic lights and the sun.

While we are excited about KYG2 he teased a few weeks back, we will be patient. Yugyeom is finding his own pace it seems. Take your time Yugyeom, do what feels right to you and have fun. Although it would be nice to have a selfie here and there, dandelions are going a bit stir crazy you see.

In general news Golden Disk Awards was at the 8th of January. GOT7 was nominated for best album but didn’t win. None of the members attended the event. I am not even sure if they knew they were nominated.

There is also Korean Hip Hop award nominations going on ahgases has been nominating Yugyeom and JayB. The nomination period is between 4th to 10th January.

It is only the first week but we are definitely going ahga-broke. New Def episode, Bambam’s 2nd mini album, Youngjae’s welcoming kit…

Fighting Ahgases!

That is it for this crazy week. Lots of twists and turns. It was kind of hard putting it all together, I can only hope I didn’t miss something.

Hope you enjoyed reading!

See you next week!

Y.

P.S. I purposefully didn’t include the links for pre orders and votings because it would be too much for me. Please check the official accounts and the fanbases for all the links.

[davidmann95]

Is that Solaris I see on the cover of Superman/WW Future State? He returns! I am suddenly interested in Future State.

Anonymous said: So, Future State? Not gonna lie, at the very least I'm liking the artist line up. Also, Idk about you, but the designs for Diana and Yara Flor (the Wonder Woman from the Amazon) are the only ones that I'm really liking so far.

Anonymous said: FUUUUUUTUUUUUUURRRRE. state

Anonymous said: Thoughts on DC Future State?

Anonymous said: Thoughts on Future State?

Anonymous said: You’ve probably been asked already but thoughts on Future State?

Anonymous said: So... Future State just kind of showed up and is very mixed.

Anonymous said: Future State Superman has a heroic cop battling a villainous anarchist. Topical.

Anonymous said: On Dc future state announcements???

Anonymous said:So. Future State's been officially revealed. Your thoughts?

‘Future State’ this, ‘Future State’ that! Look, what’re you gonna believe, Jim Lee or your lying eyes?

So this looks...pretty good? Infinitely better than their previous filler stuff like Zero Month/Villains Month/Future’s End/Convergence. And given Jo Mullein is part of this, Bendis isn’t doing these Superman issues, Steve Orlando mentioned on Twitter that he was told to set aspects of this up in Wonder Woman rather than it being allowed to appear apropos of nothing like most of these, and this isn’t built around a *single* all-encompassing tone or hook - along with getting Dan damn Mora to do your main promo images and a bunch of the character designs - I do believe the plan is that this is still going to lead into new ongoing series, just all the last couple of those crossovers I mentioned did. That’s probably where we’ll see Bendis doing Jon, the Zdarsky/Fraction thing, I expect more of Ridley Batman, and maybe one or two others. In any case, nice to see a bunch of fresh talent in the mix and a more diverse lineup both on and off the page, and a lot of these concepts are neat, even if there are as always some turds in the punch bowl. The anthology model being carried forward from the Walmart titles definitely heralds more of the same, whether in the main line or for a continuation of this. And as for the books themselves, I’m gonna take my reactions one by one.

The Next Batman: Obviously I’m down for this.

Dark Detective: Bruce having a specifically defined new role (as do most of the rest of the old guard) is a smart move for making this sustainable. Tamaki’s let me down recently, but Mora, and also if this follows up on Detective #1027 we might see the Black Casebook. Backups definitely look tepid though. I’m probably gonna hold off on making a call until there’s a preview.

Harley Quinn: Pass.

Robin Eternal: ehhhhhhhh

Catwoman: Oh hell yes, V/Schmidt doing a heist.

Nightwing: Nicola Scott doing Nightwing! Andrew Scott wrote a decent little Wonder Woman/Metal Men teamup story in one of the recent anthologies, so I’m up for this.

Batman/Superman: YES. This seems to be a bit of a prequel thing, but who cares, it’s Yang/Oliver doing World’s Finest.

Superman of Metropolis: I’ve only heard of Sean Lewis doing a few indie horror books, but of course I’m curious about the Jon-as-Superman book and the groundwork I expect it lays. His costume works for me, fitting that ‘sleek and futurey’ mandate without actually rocking the boat too much (and its differentiation is a lot more tolerable with Clark still rocking the cape and trunks), and the premise is really interesting - not surprising, as editor Jamie Rich says many of the ideas for the Superman books came from conversations with Grant Morrison. Which is probably why we’re seeing so much Seven Soldiers and DC One Million stuff in here, although bringing back Manhattan Guardian, given his background, and this premise, for this moment, is questionable at best.

Superman vs. Imperious Lex: This is probably going to be the best thing to come out of this whole shebang.

Superman: Worlds of War: Privately I called that Clark would be rocking the Kingdom Come getup in here (with the belt buckle from Man of Tomorrow for some reason?). I did NOT call that he would literally have the God of War sword. I’d be skeptical at best, but PKJ and Rich have both assured they’re not doing a Dark Superman thing with this, and hot damn, Midnighter backup by Becky Cloonan!

Superman/Wonder Woman: I think this is going to turn out to be one of the biggest gems of this entire enterprise. Dan Watters did an absolutely phenomenal short story for the last Batman: Secret Files, and it’s a big teamup against Solaris!

Kara Zor-El, Superwoman: The Bombshells team reunited! Here for it.

Justice League: God, this might be really good or it might be the biggest disappointment of the bunch. Just at the sight of that I want that to be the Justice League from now on, that is an all-timer iconic cover and set of designs to introduce a group of characters, the concept’s really good, and Flash being from another universe is so cool...and the actual book is Williamson/Rocha. Rocha’s a steady hand I trust well enough, but clearly this is where Mora should have been, and you’re really leaving this to Williamson? He has done good comics, but not many. I can only hope he’s basically a placeholder setting up the status quo for a Future State Justice League imprint book same as I think PKJ and Lewis are setting up whatever Bendis is going to do later. Still, I’m not writing this off entirely, Williamson has still done some good comics and this might well be as enjoyable a two-parter as it should be. And in any case, Ram V doing future stuff with the magic characters is a win.

Aquaman: I was going to say no thanks, but the premise is a little interesting, Daniel Sampere is a good hand, and I haven’t seen Brandon Thomas’s work before but at a glance he seems to have tried some ambitious sci-fi work at Image. I’ll call this a maybe.

The Flash: Hahaha, now we’re in the shit of it. Literally there is nothing about this that would indicate it was set in the future if not for the title, a flat regurgitation of the most tired old bullshit, and it’s by a Young Justice writer to boot. Glad to know even in the future the regular Flash book is going to suck.

Teen Titans: Speaking of books we can be assured will always suck

Shazam!: Who could possibly care

Green Lantern: This one I kinda don’t blame for being nothing, Far Sector is the big Green Lantern thing in this period and they’re not gonna fuck with that so they gotta work around the fringes. Hardly sympathetic enough to get me to buy it though.

Suicide Squad: Okay, alt-Earth Flash rules, but you come up with a disabled Flash with a heavily redesigned but still recognizable and extremely rad new look - looking every inch the “Far Sector but for Flash” premise I’ve been calling for - and you put her in this nonsense? And you waste Javier Fernandez here too? I guess Robbie Thompson is passable from what I’ve seen and maybe the whole Earth 3 thing will result in this turning out alright after all, but this feels like a waste, and that’s before you get to the one story here set in the 853rd century being about Black Adam.

Immortal Wonder Woman: Oh shit this one’s gonna rule though.

Legion of Superheroes: So’s this one!

Swamp Thing: This will be excellent too but I don’t care about Swamp Thing.

Wonder Woman: I’m seeing some immediate division on Wonder Woman - some like her new costume and some hate it (I think it’s really busy but like it a lot with the blues highlighted when Mora draws it), and I understand some have problems with a Brazilian Wonder Woman rooted entirely in Greek mythology rather than any sort of indigenous religion (which I am not remotely qualified to weigh in on). I’ll hope for the best, and obviously it’ll be very pretty, but I wasn’t blown away by Jones’ writing when I tried her Catwoman book, and I hope she won’t fall flat on her face regarding representation.

I’d divide this up into

* Basically no chance in hell: Harley Quinn, The Flash, Teen Titans, Shazam!, Green Lantern

* I’d need to hear good word of mouth: Dark Detective, Robins Eternal, Aquaman, Suicide Squad

* Fingers crossed, getting it but it could go either way: Superman of Metropolis, Justice League, Wonder Woman

* Yeah, I’ll grab this one, looks fun: Nightwing, Superman: Worlds of War, Kara Zor-El: Superwoman

* This is going to be really good: The Next Batman, Catwoman, Batman/Superman, Superman vs. Imperious Lex, Superman/Wonder Woman, Immortal Wonder Woman, Legion of Superheroes, and though I’m skipping it, Swamp Thing

A pretty incredible preliminary hit-miss ratio, and along with all I said before, big shoutout to Darran Robinson for across-the-board incredible logo design work. Like the Superman books mixing Morrison and Bendis, Batman is hyper-topical with a black Batman fighting super-cops who hate resistors in masks (whole Bruce can still be part of the fight but has to reckon with not being the guy in front throwing money around and setting terms anymore), Wonder Woman goes for the obvious pun, and JL feels appropriately iconic, while the rest is hit-or-miss as not central to further plans with this setting. I had zero expectations of this as anything other than Future’s End 2.0 with a couple leading into the not-5G imprint, but while I think that’s still the same basic endgame, for the most part it feels like they’re really trying with this one and I’ve got a good feeling about it.

[the-desolated-quill]

Sonic Vs Harley: Send In The Hedgehogs - Quill’s Scribbles

Unless you’ve been meditating in the desert for the past couple of weeks, you’ll know that there’s a bloody epidemic going on in the world right now. The coronavirus outbreak has dramatically changed our very way of life for the foreseeable future, and us plebs have been having to get used to all these alien concepts such as social distancing, self isolation, vaccines being good and Gal Gadot murdering John Lennon with a tuneless rendition of ‘Imagine.’ These are scary and uncertain times we live in, and this goes double for the movie industry as productions are halted and/or delayed, and cinemas around the globe are shutting shop. This means that streaming services, initially dismissed by pompous filmmakers like Steven Spielberg as being lesser than cinema, has now become Hollywood’s saving grace. Oh the irony!

But I’m not here to talk about that. Today I’m here to talk about how a blue CGI hedgehog seems to be more profitable than Margot Robbie.

Jokes aside, this is actually a fascinating topic of discussion in my opinion. Both Sonic The Hedgehog and Birds Of Prey (I categorically refuse to type the whole title because I’ve got better shit to be doing other than trying to remember how the fuck you spell ‘fantabulous’) were released within a week of each other just as the coronavirus outbreak was gathering steam, and yet the box office earnings of both films are poles apart. Sonic has now become the highest grossing video game movie of all time and is, at the time I’m typing this, the second highest grossing film of the year, beating even Disney Pixar’s new film Onward if you can believe it, whereas Birds Of Prey... well... it’s not exactly flopped as such. The film’s low budget protected it from that, but it’s hardly what you’d call a success, making just shy of the $200 million it would need to break even. How did this happen? Especially when you consider that public opinion of both films a year ago would have you believe that the opposite would have happened. Everyone was massively excited for Birds Of Prey, especially after the string of successes DC have had with Aquaman, Shazam and most recently Joker, whereas Sonic...

...yeah, lets not talk about that.

Now before we start, let me just make absolutely clear that this is just my opinion. Mu subjective opinion. Normally I’d expect my readers to be smart enough to know this, but I’m talking about a DC movie here and I know from personal experience how ‘passionate’ a certain tin foil hat wearing portion of that fanbase can be sometimes. You may recall back in 2016 I received rape and death threats when I had the gall to say that I didn’t enjoy watching Suicide Squad. You know? That beloved classic that nobody fucking remembers or talks about anymore? Also there was that time when Harley Quinn fans started spreading fake rumours that the Sonic movie was homophobic in the hopes of salvaging Birds Of Prey’s box office earnings. And yes, I know it’s not all DCEU fans that are like this, etc. etc., but considering that it only ever seems to be DC fans that pull shit like this, you’ll forgive me if I’m not exactly in a very generous mood right now. Basically, if you’ve seen Birds Of Prey and liked it, that’s great. More power to you. I’m not even suggesting that Birds Of Prey is a bad movie. I’m just exploring the reasons why I think the film may have underperformed and why, possibly, Sonic The Hedgehog overtook them despite outside circumstances. This is not fact. This is just my opinion. It’s my opinion. An opinion. A subjective opinion. It’s my opinion. Okay? Okay.

Also I should point out that out of the two films, I’ve only seen Sonic, not Birds Of Prey. Believe it or not, this will be relevant later on. Again, this is not about the quality of either film. This is merely my subjective observations regarding their respective marketing and box office performance.

So why, according to the fans and the media, did Birds Of Prey underperform at the box office? There are three popular reasons for this. The first is obviously the coronavirus. Less people willing to leave the house and buy a ticket, therefore less box office earnings. Makes sense, but I don’t think that’s the whole story. Lets not forget, Sonic The Hedgehog came out a week after Birds Of Prey and practically steamrolled over the competition despite coronavirus fears. So I’m not entirely convinced of this. The second reason is that Birds Of Prey only has niche appeal because it’s based on a lesser known comic book property. Again, makes sense, but so was Guardians Of The Galaxy and Deadpool, and they were both hugely successful. Obviously I’m not saying Birds Of Prey needed to be as big as those movies. Even if it just made the same amount of money as Shazam did, it would have been successful, but it didn’t. The third reason is good old fashioned sexism, and yes, I agree that may have been a contributing factor, but I think it’s naive to place all the blame on the anti-SJWs who feel threatened by a gang of women kicking butt. Look at the 2016 reboot of Ghostbusters for example. That film received a tirade of misogynistic comments from butthurt fanboys, but it still made roughly the same amount of money at the box office as the original Ghostbusters did. The reason it flopped wasn’t because of the fanboys, but because of Sony spending a stupid amount of money on the thing in the hopes of jumpstarting a shared universe. If Ghostbusters 2016 had the same budget as Birds Of Prey, Sony would be laughing their way to the bank right now.

No I think there’s a little bit more going on here. Lets bring Sonic into the discussion and explore it, shall we?

The most blatantly obvious reason for Sonic’s success and Birds Of Prey’s relative failure is the age rating. Sonic is a PG, family friendly film with a cuddly animal as its main character. The film even stars Jim Carrey being his usual goofy self. Kids love this shit and parents will no doubt be prepared to risk a zombie apocalypse to let their kids see it. Birds Of Prey, on the other hand, is a hard R. Strong bloody violence, sexual references, everyone says ‘fuck’ a lot. No kids allowed. Of course that hasn’t stopped films like Deadpool or Joker being such giant hits, but they didn’t have to contend with a global pandemic. Plus, according to what I’ve heard from certain critics, apparently Birds Of Prey’s R rating doesn’t seem wholly justified. That if you were to cut back on the swearing and the gore, it would make no difference to the film. Now you see this is something I’ve been afraid would happen ever since Deadpool’s surprise success back in 2016. That studios and filmmakers would take the wrong lessons from it and make their films R rated just for the sake of making them R rated. We see this with movie studios all the time. One studio finds success and suddenly everyone tries to copy it without considering why it was successful in the first place. The reason Deadpool as well as other R rated films like Logan and Joker worked is because the films justified their R ratings. You couldn’t have told the same story without that R rating. An R rated Harley Quinn doesn’t seem necessary, especially when you consider that there have been Harley Quinn adaptations before that did just as well without being strictly for adults. Hell, the original Harley Quinn story from the Batman animated series was PG rated. So the inclusion of a R rating feels less like a genuine artistic choice and more like trend chasing. And now that Joker has become the most profitable comic book movie ever made, I fear this is only going to get worse in the future.

Another factor that needs to be considered is audiences’ trust and expectation. Sonic The Hedgehog’s journey to the big screen has in some ways become the classic redemption story. After the initial reveal of Sonic the Manhog, fans were understandably pissed off that a beloved video game icon was given such a grotesque re-imagining for the sake of ‘realism’ (snort). As a result of the backlash, the director Jeff Fowler announced they would revise the design and the film was postponed for three months in order to fix it. The result was a Sonic design much closer to the games and this generated a lot of goodwill from the fans. Subsequent trailers were much better received and there was a lot more positive buzz around the movie. Birds Of Prey on the other hand demonstrated the inverse of this. Everyone was hugely excited, but as we got closer and closer to the date of release, audience anticipation began to wane. The trailers received little fanfare. In fact a lot of people were largely unimpressed by it. Why?

Well first we should address the elephant in the room. The fact of the matter is Sonic has a bigger and much more passionate fanbase than Harley does. That’s not to say Harley isn’t a popular character. She is. But I think Warner Bros and DC seriously overestimated how much people wanted to see Harley Quinn get her own movie. She may have been the best thing about Suicide Squad, but considering what a total trainwreck Suicide Squad was, that’s hardly saying much, is it? I mean the villain Sandman was the best thing about Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3. That doesn’t mean I want a whole movie based on him. It just means out of all the things I hated about Spider-Man 3, Sandman was the thing I hated least.

And that’s another thing. The fact that Birds Of Prey didn’t try to distance themselves from Suicide Squad I don’t think did them any favours. While Suicide Squad was a commercial success at the time, people haven’t exactly been kind to the film in subsequent years. I mean feel free to read my review of Suicide Squad for an exhaustive list of reasons why the film was less than enjoyable to sit through. One dimensional characters, poor editing, ugly colour palette, casual sexism, David Ayer trying desperately to look cool and edgy, I could go on. So when the first trailers for Birds Of Prey came out and we saw the neon colour scheme and Hot Topic wardrobes make a comeback, I can’t have been the only one who was slightly put off.

Which leads me to the biggest issue of all and that’s the stonking unoriginality of the whole thing. For all their boasting about how feminist and progressive they are, what is it about Birds Of Prey that makes it stand out from other comic book films? Granted Sonic wasn’t wholly original either, but at least they had the novelty of a blue CGI hedgehog to piggyback off of. Birds Of Prey really doesn’t have anything if you think about it. Here’s the impression I got from the trailers. It has the same aesthetics as Suicide Squad, so already I’m getting PTS style flashbacks, and its story doesn’t seem all that intriguing or unique. Think about it. A violent anti-hero has to protect a delinquent child from some sadistic big baddie. How many times have we seen that done in these films? Terminator 2, Deadpool 2, Logan, even Ghost Rider has told this story before. The fact that the characters in question happen to be women doesn’t change a damn thing. They even have Harley Quinn breaking the fourth wall. Like... guys, come on! Surely we can do something more original than this! It feels like the only thing Birds Of Prey has going for it is that its main protagonists are all women. But after the likes of Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel, that’s no longer a real selling point anymore. You need something else to entice people. Something that Birds Of Prey sorely lacks.

Now I’m sure any Birds Of Prey fans reading this must be getting pissed off at me, so I’d just like to remind everyone yet again that I’m not necessarily saying Birds Of Prey is a bad film. I wouldn’t know. I haven’t seen it. And that’s kind of my point. A week or so ago, my friend and I knew this was probably going to be our last opportunity to go to the cinema for quite some time, so we knew we had to make our choice of film count. We had a choice between Sonic The Hedgehog and Birds Of Prey, and we ended up going to see Sonic. We don’t regret it. We had a good time watching Sonic. It was a fun movie, well made and surprisingly moving at points. (interesting to note, Sonic also has the main protagonist protecting a child plot, but unlike the films I mentioned, Sonic’s story is told from the perspective of the kid. It’s a little thing, but it’s enough to make the whole thing feel fresh and unique because it’s something not even the games tend to acknowledge. Sonic is a kid and the film plays around with that, which adds to its overall charm). Maybe Birds Of Prey is a better movie than Sonic. I don’t know. But that’s not what this is about. When picking which film we would watch, it was the factors I mentioned before that we considered and I suspect what many other people took into consideration too. Basically we looked at these two films and thought to ourselves which one would we be prepared to go outside and risk our health for in order to see it in a cinema. In the end, Sonic won because, out of the two films, it looked more exciting and more unique than Birds Of Prey, and ultimately we trusted that this film could deliver what it promised. Is that fair? Probably not, but sadly that’s often how these things play out. 

Birds Of Prey may have had a good critical reception, but it ultimately shot itself in the foot thanks to some of its creative and marketing decisions. And if studios take anything away from all this, it should be that relying solely on the gender of the main characters as a means to sell something just doesn’t cut it anymore.

[evilisk]

Catching Up on the DCAMU #2

tl;dr avoid Son of Batman, maybe watch Throne of Atlantis

Movie #3 Son of Batman

Overview: When Ra’s al Ghul is assassinated by Deathstroke, his daughter, Talia, is forced to bring her son, Damian, to Damian’’s father, who is... Batman. Batman has to deal with his “trained from birth to be a super assassin” son while following Deathstroke’s trail

Opinion: This movie is pretty much exactly what the title says: Son of Batman. It’s not a movie where Batman deals with having a son. It’s an origin movie for Batman’s son. This all sounds very obvious, but it really didn’t hit me until I notice how little Batman actually does in this movie.

The idea of Batman having a son isn’t a terrible story idea at all; having Mr. “No Killing” deal with a son who does kill. Unfortunately, the movie doesn’t grapple with that theme whatsoever. Instead, the conflict between Damian and Batman is shonen-esque drivel of “don’t kill, don’t be hotheaded, believe in friendship”.  The rest of the movie is also pretty uneven; little time is spent establishing Damian's upbringing and his relationship with his mother. Other characters don’t do much (Batman, Alfred) or are used to make Damian cool (Nightwing and especially Deathstroke, who just looks like a massive chump this whole film). While I could get into it, the only criticism worth pointing out is that this movie is just downright boring.

I don’t recommend this movie. You don’t need to waste an hour on this movie just to learn that “Batman had a son with Ra’s al Ghul’s daughter, and that hotheaded son is Damian Wayne”.

Movie #4 Throne of Atlantis

Overview: It’s basically the live-action Aquaman movie but this animated film adaptation came out first

Opinion: This movie is much better than I remembered. It’s still not an amazing movie I’d rewatch, like Flashpoint Paradox. And I’m not sure it I’d recommend it over the live-action Aquaman film, which is basically the same movie but with more budget. But in the context of the DCAMU, it’s the most competent offering so far, with a real story and a sparing use of action scenes. I think my favorite parts are probably just the Justice League investigating the incident. JL: War was nice, but I love seeing the JL putting their brains and expertise together. Also, I kinda love Cyborg and Shazam / Vic and Billy’s bromance. Like when Billy is the only one on time for their meeting. Or when Vic backs up Billy when he mentions asking Dr. Shin.

While I can’t really recommend this standalone, if you’re going to watch most DCAMU movies and haven’t already the watched live-action Aquaman, then I would definitely give this a watch

[jordanerickson]

Top 40 Tracks of 2019

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6RvJKcx2aPZbQv93RQHj1J?si=z7_Z3l5lTOOeRhc0WS0bLQ

Kids - PUP Is a list of songs reflective of where I feel my year has been? Or are they aspirational to where I want the next year to go? It feels like a bit of both. I don’t even remember what was going on the month I stumbled on this song but I know I was feeling bad at times and playing this song at full volume in my car and shouting along really made me feel better. "I should have tapped out/given in to my demons" says so much with so few words. I’m not into punk but if it was all like this I would be.

It Might Be Time - Tame Impala The drums sound like When The Levee Breaks, aka the best sounding drums of all time. Through the transitive property, this track kicks ass. Also love it when an exciting song has a dour message about getting old letting the dream of the eternal party die.

Paramour - Anna Meredith This song is so kinetic and exciting on its own and then I found out Anna Meredith is a composer with an OBE and did the soundtrack for Eighth Grade. She seems cool. Also from 3:25 on this song absolutely slays - a drop, a squealing 80s guitar solo, and then this devastating beat... you gotta love it.

Younger - The Mountain Goats John Darnielle is obviously a real lyrics wiz but this one especially really does feel like it's from a Dungeons and Dragons game. It actually reminds me of this comic called Head Lopper which is sort of an encapsulation of every swords and sorcery fantasy wrapped into one. The bassline gives so much space in the verses and when those backing vocals come in with the chorus things really feel epic. Also, gotta respect the sax solo.

Frontier - Holly Herndon I'm already obsessed with Shape Singing, so of course I was on board in the first ten seconds. On top of that Holly taught an A.I. to add tracks using human voices, and then she went back to the root traditions of songwriting to write a song about climate change?!?! Incredible. I was talking to my brother about this track and he brought up the fact that the lyrics seem to pit both older generations and the Earth itself as antagonistic toward the listener. "This Earth doesn't care for what we need, what we breathe/A frontier of green or of dust" What a call to action. I can just imagine a remnant of humanity singing this in caves 400 years from now once the wasteland is scoured clean.

Pressure To Party - Julia Jacklin How are all of these Australians so good at making pop-rock all of a sudden? I saw Julia Jacklin play at The Cedar last month and she was so pleasant and nice and this song was the closer because of course it was. What a beautiful song, the melody is perfect.

The Barrel - Aldous Harding This one was a surprise when I was putting the playlist together. I had completely forgotten about it but it's just an incredible groove and her voice is so clear and nice. The weird high talky voice coming in on the third chorus is the exact type of left-field choice I want in a song.

If You Want It - Jay Som This was playing in the background of a coffee shop and when the solo comes in at 1:35 I literally dropped everything and pulled up Shazam to figure out what I was listening to.

Heavy Heavy - Pom Pom Squad Every once in a while an artist just hits a rich vein of angst in the songwriting mines and Pom Pom Squad hit the motherlode. The build on this song destroys me.

Proud - The Nunnery I saw The Nunnery twice this year and both times I was blown away. She loops every track live almost effortlessly. This one is about how she's proud of you for getting out of your house.

Mine Right Now - Sigrid I hope when Sigrid came up with the chorus for this song she took herself out for an expensive meal.

Whitsand Bay - Metronomy An album that snuck in near the end of the year. This feels like a throwback to 2010, which I will not explain any further.

Chain Reaction - Control Top Wow this song really kicks ass!!!! The lyrics feel like a parody somehow but actually they're perfect?!

Bratebrann - Kvelertak I have loved these guys for a long time and got to seen them in Chicago back in 2014. They are getting less metal and more rock and I don't hate it! I always forget how good every metal drummer is and then a song like this comes along and I'm air drumming along with them.

Larry, Sleepover Friend - Ecce Shnak What the hell is this song even? I have no idea why I like this weird operatic nonsense but this track specifically gets me. The rest of their stuff is not interesting in any way but sometimes an artist can write some weird perfect single and this is one of them.

NICE OUT - Kilo Kish Weird minor key pop should be a bigger genre.

So Hot You're Hurting My Feelings - Caroline Polachek This title makes me laugh, and quite frankly Caroline wrote a better Haim song than the girls from Haim.

Drunk II - Mannequin Pussy "And everyone says to me, 'Missy you're so strong' but what if I don't wanna be?" UGH AMAZING

Hungry Child - Hot Chip Hot Chip releases an album every couple years like clockwork and on every album there are at least 2 songs that go into the all-time great Hot Chip songs. Their Greatest Hits album would be unbelievable.

Turning - Ben Noble Apparently a Minneapolis local! What a groove this song gets into!

Lark - Angel Olsen I know I'm supposed to hold up Burn Your Fire No Witness as a landmark all-time album but honestly I think it's super boring. Then Lauren played this song for me when we were on a long road trip and I had to stop and ask who we were listening to because I was so stunned. More music should have a string section.

The other 20 songs are great too but I’m lazy!

[thrakaboom]

Sha-Sha-Shazam: Why Captain Marvel Sold So Well

@zitkaplushie helped me transcribe a presentation I did back three years ago about why the Captain Marvel (Shazam) comics of the 1940s were so successful. Thank you!! Thank you too to @lyricxlili who helped me with the project originally.

Sha-Sha-Shazam! Why Captain Marvel Sold So Well.

The year was 1940. Overseas war was raging, and on the home front it was brewing as well. But on the newsstand a brand new hero named Captain Marvel was flying into the hearts of young children. 

Created for Fawcett comics by writer Bill Parker and artist C. C. Beck, boy Billy Batson said a magic word - Shazam! - and became the adult hero Captain Marvel. 

As Captain Marvel he had the powers of the gods Solomon, Hercules, Achilles, Zeus, Atlas and Mercury. These whimsical stories appealed to children and brought them into a magical world where terrible villains, such as the evil Dr Sivana and the formidable Mister Atom, could be defeated in less than 60 pages. 

He soon outsold even the biggest of the big; Superman!

Soon Captain Marvel’s family expanded with Billy’s twin sister Mary, family friend Freddy Freeman, the old con-man Uncle Marvel, and even Hoppy the Marvel Bunny. 

The Marvels were a phenomenon.

The Captain Marvel fan club had over four hundred thousand members at its peak. There were Marvel family figurines, colouring books, jigsaw puzzles, ties, patches; a ton of stuff. There was even a Mary Marvel clothing line.

So the question is: why were they so popular?

There are three main reasons; a combination of interesting storytelling, patriotism, and inclusivity. These three reasons created a sense of camaraderie and family in the readers. They too felt like they were part of the Marvel family. 

Camaraderie and Family.

Throughout the war years many children were robbed of fathers and older brothers, which is a devastating loss for young children. There were five million women who became widowed mothers and their children were left without fathers. Tens of thousands of children were alone during the day while mothers worked and fathers were overseas. 

It’s a natural conclusion that being part of a family was important to these children; and what a magical family the Marvels were.

Interesting Storytelling.

Captain Marvel’s storytelling was different from what other comics were putting out at the time. They were more silly and whimsical, and had a touch of both science-fiction and magic.

The Captain’s main writer, Otto Binder, was able to follow the logic of childhood and his stories were childhood wish fulfillment. His stories even had a talking tiger; and no children’s story can go wrong with a tiger! Cap’s main artist, C. C. Beck, was able to bring the characters to life in ways that were best for the stories.

And you can’t talk about the storytelling in the Captain Marvel franchise without talking about the implorable Monster Society of Evil, the very first villain society. Such terrible foes fighting our good heroes who are sure to have any kid on the edge of their seat. Even today, while many of the stories are dated, they’re still fun to read, and full of magic!

Patriotism.

It also had a wartime patriotism. According to Christine Dargy, who was 12 when Pearl Harbour was bombed; “We had to be patriotic. It was a way to be stronger during the wartime. It staved off fear.” In school kids had pinboards where they tracked the fighting, and regular stamp drives to raise money for war bonds. There were paper drives, rubber drives, tin drives- it was no wonder that the war played into the comic books as well, with villains like Captain Nazi and Captain Nippon, and Adolf Hitler himself.

In the beginning of many of the books there would be an ad reminding kids to buy war bonds, and a good portion of these stories were of the heroes helping the war effort. They caused a sense of American strength. We were a superpower, and we had superheroes with powers to protect us.

Inclusivity.

But possibly the biggest reason why the Marvels sold so well was a wish-fulfillment sort of inclusivity.  It was because anyone could be a superhero. Well, not anyone, but any white person. Orphans, poor children, girls, the disabled- they could all be superheroes- and the characters that most exemplified these ideas were Mary Batson and Freddy Freeman.

During the war the roles of women were changing, so the roles for girls in comics were changing too. While real women were leaving the home to be part of the WCA and WAVES, women in comic books were leaving their roles of girlfriends in damsels in distress to become heroes on their own. 

Among these heroes was Mary Marvel, who as Mary Batson would say the magic word Shazam! and became Mary Marvel, who was invincible. However, unlike her brother, when Mary said the magic word she didn’t change into an adult; she stayed an adolescent girl who could beat up a fully grown man twice her size without breaking a sweat.

According to comic book historian Chip Kidd, it was unheard of at the time for a little girl to more or less beat the tar out of a grown man. In all her stories she’s shown as smart, capable and strong, as both Mary Batson and Mary Marvel. And she could quip as well as any boy, not to mention throw a punch.

In the era of Dick and Jane many little girls grew up taking care of baby dolls and wanting to be housewives, like the damsels who did what their husbands wanted in the movies. Then here comes Mary Marvel, the worlds mightiest girl. Not only did she have the same amazing powers as her male counterparts, but she had stories and adventures that were hers and hers alone, something almost unheard of at the time.

The number of members of the Mary Marvel fan club is lost to history but it was one of the largest clubs for girls at the time. She was the perfect power fantasy for young girls. She was pretty but never sexualized, and kind but tough as nails and could beat up any big name. 

A WOW Comics ad says “Think girls can’t fight, eh? Then you don’t know Mary Marvel!”. Mary certainly was marvelous. She sold because she showed girls what they could be and she was marketed towards girls. Looking back on the century, especially in comics, Mary’s portrayal and role was very progressive. 

And then there’s Freddy Freeman- or Captain Marvel Junior. Freddy Freeman was a poor newsboy with a paralyzed leg who lived in a draft old attic, but who was pure of heart and had a strong sense of right and wrong, especially when it came to the downtrodden.

He was a modern day Tiny Tim, except when he said the magic word he became a powerful superhero who not only had the powers of the gods, but also use of his paralyzed leg. So why wasn’t Freddy Captain Marvel Junior all the time? 

Well for one, it wouldn’t make the stories as interesting, but the thing is Freddy is shown to be happy to just be Freddy Freeman. Even if he’s quieter and more observant than Mary and Billy, he still has relentless good cheer. Freddy Freeman is a capable young man with a life worth living, which not only was a strange concept at the time but today as well.

No one can know for sure, but this must have been a wonderful and empowering message for disabled youths whose futures were bleak: especially since the Americans with Disabilities Act wouldn’t be passed until sixty years later, which would guarantee equality in the workplace for the disabled. 

He was a hit with the readers, and his own title sold extremely well. While many of Captain Marvel Junior’s stories were about helping poor orphans like himself, Captain Marvel Junior’s biggest villain was Captain Nazi. We don’t know if the choice was intentional, because Junior’s writers died without speaking about it, but it’s a very interesting choice with what was going on in Nazi Germany at the time.

In October of 1939, Hitler passed Aktion T-4 in order to kill those unfit to live; a pretty way to say the disabled. Aktion T-4 was a precursor to the Holocaust and killed around two hundred thousand people. 

Whether intentional or not, it’s a very interesting choice to have one of the champions of America be a disabled child while fighting the champion of Hitler. Most of the impact of Captain Marvel Junior on the disabled community, especially young children with disabilities, is speculation but it’s not far-fetched to assume that seeing a happy kid with a disability who was not only competent and had friends but was a superhero was very important and encouraging to them. 

The Marvels sold so well because they were the right superheroes for the right time. During what could be called the only just war during the 20th and 21st century, they were pure of heart and undeniably good and were exactly what kids needed. These characters provided that for all children- boys, girls, the poor, the rich, the disabled. The reason they sold so well was because they were what superheroes always should be- hopeful and kind with a progressive mentality, and most importantly what all children can strive to be.

[natsubeatsrock]

7 Things I Enjoyed in 2019 that Aren’t Fairy Tail

So the year is almost over and you know the drill. Let's go.

#7. Alita Battle Angel

What does it say that half of the movies I’ve seen in theaters are on this list? I'm so glad I saw this in theaters when it was available. In a world where live-action adaptations of animated works, and especially anime, are handled poorly, it's great to see this movie was well made, well-received by fans and critics, and actually made a profit. In the first hour of the movie, we go from wanting to see Alita do anything to wanting her to destroy the government and we see her work towards that end through the rest of the movie. If James Cameron is somehow reading this, I know a lot of people would love to see a sequel to this.

#6. Shazam!

(This was not one I saw in theaters.) This year has been particularly good for the DC fan base. After their streaming service went live last year, they've seemed to make a lot of big plays. This movie, along with Aquaman (which isn't here because of Amber Heard), have marked the revival of the DCEU, and it's future looks bright with James Gunn coming to revamp Suicide Squad. I've heard nothing but good things about the Joker movie and wouldn't mind seeing it win an Oscar or two. And with the new Batman establishing another continuity, it seems that Warner Bros. is planning to compete with the MCU by making its own multiverse. On Shazam, this movie stands as a great uplifting tale of family and the good within a person. Shazam is one of the few comic characters who I had heard of through his comic endeavors and I'm glad one Captain Marvel had a great movie this year.

#5. Hero's

I wasn't planning on putting this on the list here. But apparently, Weekly Shonen Magazine's 50th anniversary is also this year. To celebrate, Mashima decided to run a crossover special with his three big series which ran in the magazine: Rave Master, Fairy Tail, and Edens Zero. I have had a lot of fun seeing these characters interact with each other as one of many people who have read all three. If this were longer than a volume, I might have considered putting it higher. Expect me to talk about it more next year.

#4. Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse

Yes, this is too low. In a normal year, this would be the best movie I've seen this year. Alas, it's not even my favorite animated film of the year. That being said, it didn't win an Oscar for no reason. This movie serves as both the best Spiderman movie this side of the Raimi trilogy and one of the best-animated movies of the past two decades. The fact that it works as both an amazing look into Miles Morales and a great introduction into the Spider-Verse (I didn't plan for this pun) is a wonder in a world where studios attempting to copy the success of the MCU fail at trying to accomplish one or the other. With a sequel planned a few years away, the future's looking bright for this Spiderman. If only his MCU counterpart were so lucky...

#3. The Rising of the Shield Hero

Picking only one anime series for this list was hard. There was a lot of good anime to come out this year. While I loved seeing a fellow Weekly Shonen Magazine anime do well in Fire Force and was vindicated in suggesting Astra: Lost in Space, I've decided to sidestep Funimation owned titles (says the Fairy Tail writer) and talk about this. I remember a podcast about two years ago where famous YouTubers said that this show would blow up if it was made into an anime, and, stupid controversy aside, I can see why. This show handles an overlooked issue inherent to the popular "in another world" stories: how the views of the heroes on the world affect their actions and attempts to save it. Is it possible to ruin the world you're trying to save? Is it worth trying to save a world that hates you? With the same studio behind Made in Abyss at the helm for two more seasons, I'm interested to see where the story goes.

#2. A Silent Voice

Wondering why Spider-Verse is so low? I saw this movie in the same month in theaters. Even as the hype surrounding this movie was hampered by sharing the spotlight with your name the year it came out, it's made a number of return trips to the movie theaters. As a victim of bullying, I feel that the story was unexpectedly impactful, even knowing a few of the plot beats before going into the theater. Kyoto Animation gave us the studio's best movie this side of Haruhi and Naoko Yamada has yet to make a bad anime. This movie outright deserved to be nominated for the Oscar over Boss Baby and Ferdinand and had a real shot of beating Coco for the statue. This has been the easiest 10/10 I've given an anime in years.

#1. Avengers: Endgame

Apologies to Martin Scorsese. I readily admit that this movie probably isn't the best movie in the MCU, the best thing to come out this year, or even the best thing on this list. Even among the movies made by the Russo Brothers, this might be the one with the most mess. At the same time, I can't think of anything that gets to the same heights as this movie. It helps that we only got this after over a decade worth of movies handled by a number of incredibly talented people, many of whom helped make this and Infinity War the hits they were. If the legitimacy of comic book movies has been had been established since the early 2000s, in no small part due to other Marvel movies, this movie serves as a sign that comic book movies have reached an amazing sense of cultural relevance.

For honorable mentions, in addition to the other things I've praised from this year, I can't reiterate my recommendation of Real Girl enough for bringing one of my favorite anime of last year to a satisfying conclusion, especially given a rather interesting twist close to the end of the second season. Under the Red Hood served as a reminder to the amazing quality of old school Batman stories, even as it deals with Batman in a more worried state than I'm used to. I debated adding Violet Evergarden and Kill la Kill on this list as I’ve enjoyed finally getting through them, but I’m still letting my thoughts sit about them. As of the time I’m writing this, I am on the final chapter of Fire Emblem Echoes and it would be here if I didn’t start it last year. I've also been reminded of how good Pokemon Crystal and Gurren Lagann are. 

I’m definitely planning on making more posts next year, including the revival of my series rewriting Fairy Tail. If you want to know my favorite things from Edens Zero this year, check out my list on my main blog. See you next year!

[benhaardy]

king of my heart || b.h.

(i apologize i do not know where this gif is from i found it on weheartit but im not sure thats who made it but here is the post. if you are the owner please let me know so i can credit or take it off at your request. thanks!)

Summary: Ben takes you to the Bohemian Rhapsody premiere and you reminisce of his accomplishments and your years-long friendship.

Request: Can you do a fluffy first kiss imagine with Ben? Thanks!

A/N: so uhhh the request was literally the simplest thing EVER but my extra ass had to put some Extra Sass™ upon this lol. idk why i wanted to go big for such a simple prompt but its ben and its his birthday today so HE DESERVES IT!

gotta add in that S H E E R D R E S S S H I R T because i’m still not over it, thank u, next.

the outfit i had in mind: dress (the one in the middle) shoes necklace earrings, though obviously you can imagine your own outfit.

song that the title/some of the fic is based off: king of my heart by taylor swift

obviously, i am a huge fan of the longtime best friends to lovers cliche and idk if anyone else thinks this but i write my characters as super affectionate in the first place so i hope it isn’t weird to anyone to have like the really touchy-feely best friends or friendships in my stories ig? idk, just a thought cause i literally just noticed how affectionate my characters are ANYWAYS here's wonderwall

thank you for sending a request in! hope you enjoy it!

also happy birthday to our king i hope he has a beautiful day

Wordcount: 1.7k

Warnings: a few frick words (2). fem!reader. mention of nudity. fluffy!! not proofread, but beta’d

“Ready, Y/N?” Ben called from downstairs

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

You put the final touches of your outfit on. Perfume on your wrists, Tiffany necklace on, you went down the stairs carrying your nude Louboutins and adjusting your earrings. It wasn’t really your style to do any of this, really, but your best friend Ben had wanted to take you to the Bohemian Rhapsody premiere. Go big or go home, you figured. At his asking, you didn’t see or know what he was going to wear so you played it safe with a black dress.

You went down the stairs and got to the bottom floor. Ben was standing in the middle of the living room, back turned to you. He was looking down at the cat weaving in between his legs. As far as you could see, he was wearing an all black suit. “Ben?” you said. He whipped around to see you as you were putting on your shoes.

“Oh, wow, Y/N,” he beamed. Ben put his hands over his mouth, his eyes wide with surprise. “You look so good!” You opened your arms to embrace him, to which he stepped into, his arms around your waist.

After a few seconds, you both pulled away but his arms still stayed in their place and your hands lingered on his biceps. “I could say the same about you, Benny! Everything looks great!”  He let you go fully. You looked up and down at his outfit. Sheer black dress shirt, black blazer and trousers, everything was tailored perfectly to his body. You grinned. He cleaned up very well, but it wasn’t like he didn’t dress nice in the first place.

“Ready to go?” he asked. “Car’s waiting outside.”

“Ready.”

--

You watched from the side of the carpet as the main cast were getting photographed together. That was your best friend! Standing next to Roger fucking Taylor and Brian fucking May. Everything still felt surreal, though he had been in the public spotlight for the past few years, this felt different. Your senses just felt heightened. The flashing lights, the hues of purple and pink and gold all around, surrounded by people you either knew well or were complete strangers to you. Your eyesight was crisp, noticing everything you could, taking it all in. You did musical theatre, you hadn’t really dealt with something as big as this, even with Apocalypse.

And here your best friend was, in the middle of all of this. Your mind played back all the memories of you two in drama school with his all-nighters, monologue after monologue, script after script. You couldn’t be more proud of your closest friend, all of his hard work going to this. You could remember Ben’s shifty eyes backstage the very first show of Judas Kiss and the blush on his cheeks after the show when he remembered that you had watched him perform and there was that one scene of full frontal; he figured it was worth the embarrassment, it’s not as if you hadn’t seen worse.

Back to Eastenders and its countless shirtless and kissing scenes. You thought back to the countless nights that you spent up with him when he was weighing leaving the show or becoming Archangel. At your own urging, Ben left Eastenders, ready for the next chapter, ready for the next big thing. One of the best memories of your life was traveling to the United States with him for Comic-Con and driving up and down the west coast a week before he had to attend it. He took you to Disneyland and Universal Studios after everything with the convention was said and done.

Now, Bohemian Rhapsody! You laughed at the memories of Ben scrambling to find a good drum teacher close by and how he turned up in the middle of the night to your flat to tell you he got the part. You couldn’t ever forget his embrace in the dark of your living room, his face buried in your shoulder and his arms, tight and strong around your waist. Your happy tears wiped away by Ben’s hand as you drew apart. Though you both were excited, it was still the middle of the night, so you both just slept in your bed once more with the cats.

Ben would always invite you over to watch him play and give your input. You had to admit, he had gotten pretty good over all the lessons. Though you discouraged his lying about playing the drums and seeing the consequences in his clamber to learn as much as possible, it paid off in the best way possible. They started the process of making the movie. Though you couldn’t really be by his side throughout filming, you were basically there, his perpetual FaceTimes keeping you in the loop with everyone. You even “met” the guys and Lucy, who you hit off with very well. Ben made sure you were always by his side and he was always by yours.

So when you saw him here, at his biggest premiere surrounded by even more amazing actors and actresses, you couldn’t help but shed a tear. This role of Roger had basically brought him into the light.

You watched them take pictures until Ben beckoned you over, the group disbanding and walking over to their families and significant others to pose for their own photos. You came over and he put his arm around your waist, hugging you close. Your hand was on his back and you both posed for pictures, the flash basically blinding you, the sounds of the shutters all around. “Smile,” Ben whispered into your ear.

--

Everyone was at the rooftop restaurant that you were all going to eat at after the premiere. You were sitting in between Roger and Ben, having been introduced to all of the people around the table. Never in a million years, you thought, never in a million years did you think you’d be here, conversing with the real Roger Taylor or getting along with his daughters, or telling Lucy Boynton and Anita Dobson where you got your necklace and earrings.

“If you’ll excuse us, Y/N and I are going to go out to the balcony,”

You scooped another spoon of food in your mouth before saying, “Oh, okay we are? Okay.” You gave a polite smile to Roger, who you were talking to before Ben got your attention. Standing up, you followed Ben out of the tall, ornate door, out to the terrace where you could see all of London. The view was breathtaking.

“What is this all about?” you inquired as you came over to Ben standing with his hand on the glass, observing the scenery in front of him, the various coloured lights illuminating London.

“How do you feel about all this, Y/N? The whole shazam,” he questioned, wanting to know your true feelings about everything.

You shook your head, “What can I say?” You looked out along with him. “If you had told me in the first year of uni when we met that we would be here right now. Eating dinner with two freaking members of Queen and their families and being around some of the best actors and musicians in the world!” You said, your voice breathy. It was crazy what your best friend had been able to accomplish. “I would’ve slapped you and called you mental. This is all so... wow.”

“I couldn’t have made it here without you, Y/N. I’d be a complete and utter trainwreck. I wouldn’t even, like, survive without you, you know?”

“Ben,” you shook your head vigourously, “Don’t…don’t. This is your thing. This is your work. This is your doing. I was just there along for the ride and you were there with me,” you reasoned. “It’s just...just that simple.”

He shook his head but smiled. “None of this is that simple.” Ben turned to face you, still looking down. You moved to look at him yourself. “You mean everything to me, really. It’s not just the support. It’s the little things. It’s how you never fail to put your jumper sleeves over your hands and bury ‘em in your face. It’s how you look at me when you’re adjusting my suit and doing that little,” he paused and did little sweeping movements in the air, “that little sweepy thing on my lapels and you look back up at me and smile. The way you smile, the way you look at me, love, it just- it drives me crazy in the best way. You’re always there for me, yes, but that is not the only reason that I love you.” Ben took hold of your hand and held it close to his heart, his hand encapsulating yours entirely. “I want you, Y/N.”

You leaned forward and an abundance of holy shit holy shit did I just do that did I really just do that did he reeeallly just say those amazing things about me?’s rang through your head, echoing and echoing. You kissed him. His plump lips were upon yours finally. At first, Ben was stiff, taken by surprise at your sudden action but he softened quickly with the feeling of you on him. Your hand stayed on his chest while his moved down to your hips. As the kiss deepened, you laced your hands around his neck.

He pulled away. “You don’t know how long I’ve wanted that, love,” he said, breathless, his lips swollen and pink.

“Me too, Ben.” You smiled and cupped his cheek in your hand, to which he kissed your palm and held your wrist lightly. He looked down at his shoes, blushing.

“We should—“ he started, his thumb pointing back to the inside. “We shoul—“

You exhaled. “Y-Yeah, yeah we should, we should.” Ben grabbed your hand and led you inside. He pulled your chair out for you and you sat in it. You brushed imaginary dirt off your dress, trying to act casual.

“Looks like you two had fun out there!” exclaimed Roger, a bellowing laugh coming from him.

[darkspellmaster]

YJ Theory: What may the next Title’s indicate for the June Release

So with the end of part 1 of Season 3 ending as of tomorrow, we have five months to wait to see what happens to the team. So I figure a little speculation wouldn’t hurt. 

Episode 14 "Influence"

So to start with the meaning of Influence is...

the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself.

t the power to shape policy or ensure favorable treatment from someone, especially through status, contacts, or wealth.

a person or thing with the capacity or power to have an effect on someone or something.

have an influence on.

The thing about the idea of the title of this episode is that it got me thinking about the idea of power. Who influences who, and in what sort of dynamic. We see a lot in this show both Romantic and platonic and family. How do those relationships influence one another. That’s not to mention other relationships, casual, business, and things like the light. Also people that we may not have relationships with but the influence comes from their situation in government or other areas. 

I honestly think that this episode is going to cover those influences. How one person affects another. For me I feel like this is going to connect to the idea of the sphere of influence. Terra influencing her brother, and Jace influencing Jeff  and Halo. How Wally’s death still seems to influence Dick’s choices, and many other things. 

I really think this is going to come down to who is going to be playing whom and what their role is going to be going forward. Placing bets on Darkseid influencing every action we’ve seen so far this season. 

Episode 15 "Leverage" 

Someone’s got Blackmail. A title like this means that someone’s using that influence from the last episode or from before to call in favors or do something. This could be connected to Jason and probably Beast Boy, and Terra and Brion. Not to mention Jace or Luthor. There’s so many people that have this power over someone in some way. It could also hint maybe at Damian earlier? Ra’s having that on Bruce could be a serious issue here. This could also tie into Fate and Zantana as well. 

Episode 16 "Illusion of Control"

Damn sure this is going to be around Klarion and Zantanna, and Doctor Fate. The word illusion could indicate Magic, and we’ve already heard of Project Rudabega. We know that Zee’s got issues going on with her father. Not only that but if Darkseid is playing with everything it only looks like the heroes have things under control when in reality they don’t. 

Episode 17 "First Impression"

Either it has to do with the team working as a unit again. It’s hard to say because we don’t know who would be meeting who for the first time. Unless it’s BB meeting Terra? Or someone meeting someone else? 

Episode 18 “Early Warning"

Going to call this right now. Either Connor’s going to get triggered to become Lex 2.0, or something’s going to happen where there is a warning about Darkseid coming in some form. Maybe a New God, like Orion warns them. But something happens where they have a full on alert that somethings wrong with the world and they have to stop it from happening. 

Episode 19 Elder Wisdom"

Possibly something to do with the Wizard Shazam, or the older JSA, that’s all I can think of with this. 

Episode 19 "Quiet Conversations"

Things are heating up, I get the feeling that people are distrusting others because of either Terra or someone else is being the mole (Like Jace). There’s clearly more going on in this one. Also this could indicate deeper issues that lay ahead. This could be connected also to the idea of a calm before the storm. Like the lead up to the really serious issues that are going to hit the fan in the next 3 episodes. 

Episode 20 "Unknown Factors"

The Guardians? The New Gods? Apokolips, the light? Lex? All factors that could play a part in what could be considered unknown. To me this feels like the start of the end of the season. We know that there are bad things coming but the team doesn’t know who they are or what they are and probably needs to find a way to combat them. Also this could be where Wally comes back because Bart came in basically a few episodes before the end of season 2. So this could be connected to that. This could also be linked to Brother eye. This could also be where we learn about Terra or whatever Slade is planning. This could also be Joey coming into play here (would love to see Jericho coming into his own). 

Episode 21 "Antisocial Pathologies"

Germs? Perhaps connected to the nanites from earlier?Maybe Granny activating her scanners and getting into the game. This could also be where Terra goes after the others. We see she’s not a good guy. Or it could be Jace. Either way someone is getting betrayed in this episodes

Episode 22 "Terminus"

Gonna call this now. This is the end of the Terra story, or the Judas contract. Whatever happens here will be pushing into the last few episodes. I have a feeling that by the end of this is where we’re going to see the teams all meet up and decide their move going forward to fight the Light. 

Episode 23 "Into the Breach"

The meaning of this is from Henry the V. 

The literal meaning of this phrase is “let us try one more time,” or “try again.” King Henry speaks this phrase to encourage his soldiers, who are launching an attack on through a gap or breach in the walls of Harfleur. His troops disrupt the gap in the city walls and fight against the defenders. On the other hand, the king urges them to attack again, and demonstrate courage. Here “breach” means gap, and by “unto” we mean “into.” In common expression, this phrase implies that one goes into the battle again, no matter whether it is a real battle in the battlefield, or a battle in daily life; one should always try again.

Here’s the thing. We can assume that this means that the team is going to try again. To fight again, to go into the breach, to attack an overwhelming force and try to win. It’s going to be a really hard episode to watch I have a feeling. 

Episode 24 "Overwhelmed" 

Everything goes to hell, someone dies. With a title like that I have a feeling that someone is not going home. We probably will see Wally again, but someone will end up dead because of everything. The team wins in the end but not with out losses. Still calling it that it’s going to be Super Boy that ends up dead.  

"Nevermore" 

Hints of Raven, destruction of the JL, Someone leaves the team, etc. Again the title mean never again. So this is the final for something. It could be the end of the Outsiders. It could be Dick walking away, it could be the JL being pulled apart. Something’s not going to last. Maybe nevermore could be connected to Darkseid, or something else. Whatever the case may be the hint here is that there’s going to be no future. Or is there. 

The title also suggests the poem the Raven by Edgar Allen Poe, which could be setting up for the Raven story and bringing in Starfire and others. Or this could be Bruce vanishing at this point. Hard to say, but that’s my guesses so far. 

[aftermathdb]

DEATH BATTLE Review: Captain Marvel vs. Shazam.

The DEATH BATTLE Curse lives on.

Two heroes, with their title and role forced upon them by a mentor now duke it out to see who is a true marvel.

Captain Marvel′s Preview.

Thanks to a certain new movie that’s pretty popular right now, we have a general idea as to who she is. Inspired by her Navy dad, she wanted to be an astronaut. In order to do this, she joined the Air Force. But, one day, she was caught in an explosion from a machine called the Psyche-Magnitron.

Since (Plot twist) her mom was actually a Kree all along, Carol wasn’t killed, but instead, she got super powers!

But it was basically like being drunk. Except, instead of driving and ending up running people over with her car, Carol’s ‘drunken’ persona was a hero. Eventually, she figured it all out, and went through a lot of names. Like Ms Marvel, Warbird, Whiz Bang…

Until one day, a dear friend passed on. Inspired by her mentor, Carol then took  on the name Captain Marvel.

Captain Marvel has plenty of superhuman abilities. From your standard flight, super strength, speed, and a healing factor. She also has “precognitive awareness” that we’re just going to call a 7th Sense for the sake of this review.

But, Carol’s real power comes in form of her energy absorption. And when she gets enough of it, she basically turns into Moltres from Pokemon.

Her 7th Sense can give her an edge up on opponents too. As it lets her know what’s going to happen to her on the battlefield. And in her Binary form, she can bust up planets.

And what hero rundown would be complete without some impressive feats?

But Carol is hardly invincible. She’s got her limits on absorption, and her feats only go so far. Also, she doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to magic.

But, as an Avenger, Air force pilot, a NASA security guard and so much more, Carol’s not one to give up in the face of danger.

Shazam′s Preview.

Thanks to a certain new movie that’s pretty popular right now, we have a general idea as to who he is. Fifteen-Year old Billy Batson was an orphan kid, who didn’t really know the meaning of family. But one day, after running from some bullies, he was whisked away to the Rock of Eternity, where he was given incredible powers that he could access at the shout of a single word:

SHAZAM!

And with that, he became Captain Marvel… Okay, history lesson time.

See, Marvel kinda got a bit upset about the whole thing kinda intruding on their name. Carol came in about 20 years later than Billy there, but it’s a bit more complex than that.

See, Captain Marvel wasn’t originally made by DC, but by Fawcett Comics as a competitor to Superman (Incidentally, Fawcett is now used regularly in Shazam mythos. Whether it be the city that Billy resides in, or the school he goes to, it’s always there somewhere).

Anyways, DC wasn’t a fan of competition, and took Fawcett to court.

And they won. Meaning that Captain Marvel is now DC property.

But then Marvel got in on the game, and it got even more complex from there. Because of how copyright and trademarks worked, there was a bit of a feud of what was going on.

Long story short, Marvel owned the name, but DC owned the character. So, they battled it out in the courts until DC decided to just name the character Shazam.

As Shazam, Billy gains access to these powers:

For the record, Zeus once channeled enough power to destroy the shattered God, a guy who was originally broken by the original Big Bang.

Shazam also has a lot of other powers to draw from.

From a healing factor, to the ability to teleport to the Rock of Eternity, to being able to share his power with those he considers family, Billy’s got it all.

And for those of you who haven’t figured it out, like Boomstick, here’s how the word works:

With all these powers, he’s pulled off some ridiculous stuff.

Now, to match the Flash’s speed, Shazam would have to be able to match the Speed Force, which means that Shazam’s best speed would have to match up to about…

……… Still not a number that’s faster than EXE, but considering that it would be the Speed of Mercury vs. the Speed Force, I’d say that that’s a major move for the Flash.

Shazam also once did this:

Now, he once got hit by a thing called the Tessaract Bomb.

If you’re wondering what it does, then brace yourselves…

That. He survived thanks to his powers, but the fact that he survived it is impressive.

Of course, Shazam’s experience isn’t that impressive considering… He’s 15. But the fact that he’s managed to keep up with the best of them and be a true hero through and through. That’s one impressive feat for a guy who can basically be described as “The Ultimate Power Fantasy.”

The Battle Itself.

Zack is lead on animation. Terri Doty will reprise her role as Captain Marvel from before and Shazam will be voiced by Michael Kovach. Since transformation is inevitable, Billy is going to appear and will be voiced by Paige Stork (If someone could link me to her twitter, that would be great. In the meantime, that’s her Roosterteeth profile). Jerky as the sprite artist, Chris Kokkinos ob audio, and music (titled “Marvelous”) by Brandon Yates.

So the battle starts with Billy as Shazam just walking down the street messing around with his powers. Electrifying a lamp post, a car, and an ATM

An ATM that seems to be filled with… Mr Krabs’ first dollar? Since when do ATMs dispense one-dollar bills?

Anyways, Carol sees this, and since we all know how this would look to anyone without context, Shazam decides to skedaddle. But Carol gives chase, and we have a fight on our hands.

So, Shazam decides to power through the attacks, and then goes for one of his favorite go-to attacks: Flying the opponent up while grappling them to hit them with lightning.

But, since Carol’s powerset basically makes this move null, all it does is mega-evolve Carol into her Binary form.

And since Carol retains the properties of the energy she absorbs, she can magic Billy back to his original form.

Caught off-guard (Because there’s no way anyone could see that coming without knowledge of Billy’s origin), Billy transforms back into his Super-Hero persona.

So, Carol’s kinda mad about the fact that a fifteen-year old kid has been kicking her butt, so she’s done playing games as she charges

(For the record, this line is way more hammy than the screenshot makes it look. Speaking of, I’m thinking of shrinking the dialogue a bit and adding a background color to it to make the dialogue more visible but hopefully not interfere with the visuals).

So, after crashing underground for like… three seconds (How deep would that have to be for that to work?), Carol and Shazam exit at a subway station.

So Shazam brings it back to where it all began.

Right to deep space. So after tossing Carol through three other space rocks

Shazam gears up for a finishing blow.

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

Boom!

… How is it that no matter how badly you annihilate one of these hero-types, some shred of their uniforms somehow always manages to remain intact?

(Shout-out to anyone who knows that line)

Verdict + Explanation.

So, Carol holding her own against the likes of the Phoenix force and other cosmic beings certainly meant that she could hold her own against Shazam’s strength, she kinda fell short in a good chunk of the other categories.

Take speed, for instance. While Carol’s Binary form could reach the speed of light,

Shazam could use only a fraction of that to outpace her in that area.

Experience sorta went to Carol, but the Wisdom of Solomon would certainly close the gap a lot more. It’s really overpowered, to say the least.

But most importantly, Carol simply didn’t have the means to really take Shazam down in terms of strength.

Now, for the record, when Shazam punched a black hole into existence, he was giant at the time.

Now, judging by the size of the hole, we can determine the Schwarzchild Radius.

From there, we can determine the mass of the black hole.

And then we can figure out how much force it would take to make something like that.

And in case you’re wondering, a single foe is basically…

(We still haven’t broken EXE’s record of highest number ever recorded).

And this isn’t some weird outlier either. Zeus was able to destroy the shattered god.

While he had help from other gods that he was channeling energy through, this still means he has a fraction of that same power. Even if there were a thousand gods helping him out, Zeus’ power would still be, at minimum…

That level of power.

Credit where it’s due, though…

Overall impression.

Personal opinions aside, the fight was really well-animated, the dialogue was on-the-nose, and the results are what you’d expect. While I still find the comparisons to be shallow at best, the fight’s entertaining.

This isn’t a unique scenario like Flash vs. Quicksilver, nor is it a scenario with deeper comparisons like Venom vs. Bane, this is basically like a horse with a broken leg vs. a farmer with a tank… A tank that’s powered by a nuke!

7.0/10. It’s blatantly one-sided with no unique things about the scenario to make it feel like it was worth it. Outside of the music and animation, the scenario is still a straight fight. It’s not a death race. There’s no real deeper comparisons to be made. It’s just a fight. It’s a good fight, but not a unique one.

Next Time…

Huh… Well, time to see if the tier lists are lore complicit.

If we’re going off of Smash tier lists, then Wario takes it.

Is there a fight that you want me to review? - Send an ask/request, and I’ll look into it!

Do you want to read my fanfic based around DEATH BATTLE itself? click here!

Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you next time for…

King vs Waa!

[davidmann95]

This week's comics? Specifically, new Tom King Batman/Green Lantern?

Hoo boy, this week was a hefty one. Tackling your requests at the top, and no spoilers this week:

The Green Lantern #2: It’s surprising how non-action-driven this has been for the first couple issues - it really is space cop stuff first and foremost, in this case an interrogation. I see what Morrison meant in interviews when he said people would take Hal’s voice as odd in this, and I hope he’ll follow though when he said the core of his take’ll be a little clearer soon, but even so I’m liking him well enough as the traditional straight-take superhero anchor to the 2000ADness of it all. The Oa spread on page 7 is absolutely jaw-dropping, and the guest villain of the issue explaining his name is the best thing in superhero comics this week, and possibly this year.

Batman #60: I’ll admit the last 5-6 issues or so haven’t been tremendously doing it for me, but it certainly looks like it’s about to pick back up. And good lord, Jorge Fornes had better be getting any assignments he pleases.

Justice League #13: Grisly at it gets, the best word I can think of for this issue is a romp. It’s total old-school superhero adventure and villainous monologuing, just minus the hero part of that. Honestly, I’m almost worried about these Legion of Doom one-shots’ role in terms of the integrity of the run as a whole *as a Justice League run*, because it’s this side that feels so much more vibrant and fleshed-out. Granted Snyder and Tynion get full ownership of the villains involved so there’s more room to play, but I almost feel like this team would rather just be doing a Legion of Doom book period, because this is where the whole thing sings, great as the regular League stuff in here always is too.

Adventures of the Super Sons #5: I rag on Tomasi, but he’s not a bad writer, he’s a writer with specialties. And Super Sons is hitting all of those specialties, and I love it.

Shazam! #1: I checked this VERY tentatively on a recommendation and from how great the premise sounded, and unbelievably, it’s good. Not the next big thing by any means, but great superhero stuff that takes a modern bent on the material but maintains the warmth and wonder that defines Marvel at his best. It reads for all the world like a writer doing a very deliberate course-correction from how horrifically Geoff Johns fucked up the character top to bottom…except it’s actually Geoff Johns, essentially pulling a 180 on his own reboot? Whatever, Johns somehow rules (though there’s one or two lines in the backup that feel like notable Johnsisms), Dale Eaglesham rules, Mayo Naito rules on the backup, and this book, on the whole, rules.

Archie Meets Batman ‘66 #5: Feel like it’s lost some steam, but on the whole it remains a delight regardless.

Border Town #4: Everyone should still be reading this.

DIE #1: Kieron Gillen is a writer whose craft I can always respect, but usually it isn’t until reread that I truly get a kick out of his work. Don’t know what the difference is here - Stephanie Hans, the premise, the tone, the small core cast - but this seems to be the one that’s gonna grab me right off the bat.

The Wicked + The Divine #40: On the other end of the Gillen spectrum, I’ve been lost here for awhile, so I appreciate this issue essentially reestablishing the fundamentals of what’s up as we head into the finale.

West Coast Avengers #5: Digging this! Quietly one of Marvel’s upper-tier titles at the moment. Still wanna grab Thompson’s Hawkeye run someday.

Marvel Knights #3: Fine. Exactly good enough for me to stick around for 3 more issues, knowing Cates is coming back for the end.

Shatterstar #3: I’m not convinced this shouldn’t have just been a one-shot about him as a landlord, but it’s still fun and it’s easily got me for the two remaining issues.

Killmonger #1: Top-tier shit by two creators I already loved but still underestimated. Hill has a remarkable talent for switching up his style with each project, and Ferreyra is going to be The Next Big Thing.

The Merry X-Men Holiday Special: Initially more miss than hit for me, but the ratio improves over the course of the book. However, while I was glad to see Hanukkah represented a fair deal, I can’t help but wish they called it the X-Men X-Mas Special.

Venom #9: Issa ittle-bittle Venom pupper! Otherwise solid but mainly left me more looking forward to the immediate future than getting much from what we had here (even if it laid the foundation here for what makes said future worth looking forward to).

The Best Defense: The Immortal Hulk #1: Rules. It’s Ewing Hulk (or really in this case Ewing Banner, the first story where he’s truly taken center stage other than kind of #2, making it in my opinion fairly indispensable to Immortal Hulk thematically if not plotwise), of course it rules.

The Best Defense: Namor #1: Also rules! I knew Zdarsky more than had the chops for heavier material, but this still came as a surprise that excites me for his Invaders, and Carlos Magno was a name I don’t believe I’ve seen before but quite liked. Kind of dislike though that each of these is a #1 when the recurring sequence and checklist in the back really does give this an implicit reading order; it’d definitely confuse readers who didn’t go in already knowing how this was gonna be structured.

The Immortal Hulk #10: Still the best comic on the stands, though there’s an ad placement at the end I really feel detracts from the big moment. And someone asked about the title, and I’m pretty sure it’s the mythic reference rather than an SCP one, even if I could imagine Ewing having seen that at some point.

Martian Manhunter #1: Absolutely brilliant on every level, more than carrying me through a startling premise I’m not at all geared to accept by default. Keep an eye on this one, I can’t imagine it not being one of DC’s most acclaimed books for the entirety of its run, and J’onn’s definitive story pretty much by default.

The Unexpected #7: Sharply picks up as it screams into the finale, but it’s still in every way a pale shadow of what it should have been.

Doomsday Clock #8: Well, it’s certainly still fascinating. At the 2/3rds mark Superman finally takes his place as the advertised co-lead, and while it’s probably the least technically ambitious issue so far (on that note, for a series as meticulous as this tries to be, it’s very noticeable and distracting that Superman switches between the plain red cape and having the yellow s-shield on the back), it’s probably the most thematically interesting and true to the described premise of the whole thing, showing Superman at his best trying and failing to function in a DCU that’s had its narrative underpinnings usurped by Watchmen. This is definitely on the better end of Johns’ treatment of him, with the whole issue anchored by a genuinely wonderful scene between him and the other major hero taking point for this specific installment,* and that’s what makes it work when everything goes to hell.

* It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out why Johns picked the character he did here, even if ‘long time’ in this case means ‘actively thought about it for literally seconds’: (rot13.com) ur'f gur Ahpyrne Zna. Trqqvg? Nyfb, juvyr fbzr crbcyr unir ernq vg gung jnl, V qba'g guvax gur vqrn ng gur raq vf fhccbfrq gb or gung Sverfgbez vf Znaunggna, whfg gung gur raretl fcvxr orsber gur gryrcbegngvba ng gur raq orybatrq gb uvz engure guna Ebaavr. Nyfb, Puevfg V ubcr gurl qba'g ernyyl chg gur WFN onpx nf choyvp urebrf cerqngvat Fhcrezna naq gur erfg ol qrpnqrf. Jbefg ynetr-fpnyr ergpba QP rire chyyrq, yrffravat yvgrenyyl rirel punenpgre vaibyirq.

[aion-rsa]

Cruella: Why Mark Strong Was ‘Fascinated’ to Work With Emma Stone

https://ift.tt/2SCjvU8

Disney’s new film Cruella is dominated by two exceptional performances from Emma Stone and Emma Thompson. The former plays the title character, an ambitious fashion designer who morphs into one of Disney’s most infamous villains, while the latter plays the designer who hires Cruella (in her Estella persona) and then tries to destroy her.

While the two Emmas drive the story and take full command of the screen, lurking around the edges is John, played by Mark Strong, the valet to Thompson’s Baroness who doesn’t say all that much. But even his stoic presence eventually reveals a character with more nuance and layers to him than the standard supervillain henchman.

Strong often plays antagonists and heroes with a certain level of complexity to them, whether it’s the haunted assassin Prideaux in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, the well-meaning but ultimately corrupt Sinestro in Green Lantern, CIA analyst George Panetta in Zero Dark Thirty, the sinister Lord Blackwood in Sherlock Holmes, or Dr. Sivana in 2019’s Shazam!

Strong himself is affable and charming in person (or at least on Zoom), marking quite a difference from the darker or more enigmatic characters he often portrays. We spoke with the London-born actor about working with the two Emmas, his own memories of the 1970s London punk and fashion scene that serves as the backdrop for Cruella, his own short career as a punk rocker, and more.

Den of Geek: John the valet is, without giving too much away about him, the silent, but watchful type. What was your take on the character and your approach to him?

Mark Strong: He’s exactly that. Silent, watchful. I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. Craig Gillespie, the director, basically said to me, “I want the character to have presence.” He said, “There’s not a lot of dialogue for him, certainly not in the first half of the movie, but I want him to be present. I want people to wonder who this guy is, what he’s thinking, what’s happening, whose side is he on? And so that when there is a revelation later on in the movie, it pays off.”

I also think he was playing off the fact that I’ve played a lot of villains. So you just assume coming into the movie that I’m going to be the bad guy. And although he’s the henchman of the Baroness, who is the evil character in the movie, as we learn, as the film goes on, things aren’t all what they seem.

He’s got layers to him.

He certainly has. Yeah. Still waters run deep.

As an actor, when you don’t necessarily have a lot of dialogue, what are the tools you use to make the audience feel his presence?

Well, you’re very reliant on the director then. And when I had the meetings with Craig [Gillespie], I hadn’t actually initially read the script, because it hadn’t been made available to me. But I wanted to meet him because I loved Lars and the Real Girl and I, Tonya, his past films. And I think he wanted to meet me. So we just got together for a chat really at first.

But he said, “I will make sure the guy has presence.” So I was reliant totally on him to film moments of John thinking whatever he might be thinking. And then finally to use them in the edit. And I think he used pretty much everything we shot. Because I think he wanted that character to be noticed, so that when the revelation comes, you understand what’s going on.

Emma Thompson recently said that she remembered the ’70s punk and fashion scene in London as a teenager. I think you’re roughly around the same age or so. Do you remember that era?

I do. Yeah, but mine was much more a punk thing. So that ’70s thing of long hair and baggy, baggy trousers and stuff, that was just before my time. My consciousness kicked in around about 1977. But of course I was still wearing early ’70s clothes when I was trying to be a punk. That’s the irony.

How’d that work for you?

Well, it just meant I wandered down my high street, I remember, and I had a very ’70s cut jacket, but with silver paint, I’d written the word “punk” on the back. But I still had hair down to my shoulders, you know.

Read more

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By Mike Cecchini

Apparently at college, you sang in a couple of punk rock bands: Private Party and Electric Hoax.

I did, I did. And what fun we had coming up with those names, you know?

It certainly all ties into the punk element of Cruella, in a way.

Back then, England at the time, Britain, was a very strange place. I think if you probably look at what was in the charts, it’s real middle of the road stuff, you know. And society was sort of dominated by just people who didn’t really have much drive. So when punk came along, it really was a massive social upheaval. It was a proper attempt to try and change things.

I always remember reading a magazine that had a picture of three different guitar chords. And underneath it said, “Here’s three chords. Now go out and form a band.” And I took it literally. I basically said to some mates of mine at school, “Okay, you go and get yourself a snare drum and a hi-hat, you get an electric guitar, I’ll get the mics and a bass.” And then we literally just made a noise. None of us could particularly play very well, but that was the genius of punk — you didn’t have to at first. But we kind of learned on the job, and then we got quite good.

Ever had the desire to get on the mic for old times’ sake or belt out a couple of tunes?

No, I don’t think the music industry’s lost anything important by not having me as part of it.

Let us be the judge of that, Mark. You got to work with the two Emmas in this film. How are they different or similar in their approaches to these characters?

They really are fine actresses. I’d say I loved every moment on set with both of them. Emma Thompson is just very funny, very inclusive. She’s generous, she’s warm, and she’ll talk to anybody. It doesn’t matter who you are on set. There’s no hierarchy going on with her. She’s really a really lovely lady and great company.

And Emma Stone is pretty much the same. I was fascinated with her, how hard she worked. Because she has to carry that movie. And watching it, she’s just absolutely mesmerizing. She does an incredible job of really painting in that journey with such subtlety, even though it’s a kind of heightened movie. It’s really moving and she’s really brilliant. And yeah, on set, she was still chatting to people. She was very casual. You know, she didn’t rush off to her trailer and go and have to stay in character or anything like that. They were really great company, both of them.

For this film in particular, how much did the clothes, the sets and all that period stuff really help to enhance just shooting the movie for you?

Well, Jenny Beavan, the costume designer, created some unbelievable dresses for Emma Stone. But also what she did was, there were three huge ballroom sequences, in which she had to clothe everybody. So everybody looked fantastic all of the time when I was on set. The thing about being an actor is when you get on set, and all the work is being done for you, because the set is massive and brilliant and really well done, and the costumes are all vivid and real, you just feel the part. You don’t have to do any work in a weird way. I mean, as a butler obviously, or a valet, I just got the one outfit. But that was fine by me because it was a really classy one. And it does the work for you.

What’s happening with Shazam: Fury of the Gods? Is Dr. Sivana coming back?

I literally spoke to the producer last night, because I saw that Zach Levi tweeted that they’re about to start shooting in Atlanta. Dr. Sivana isn’t in Shazam! 2. What’s happened is, I think Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu and perhaps someone else — they’ve got some female villains in. And to be honest with you, I’m very happy to take a back seat to some female villains and let them have a go, because judging by the work that Emma Thompson and Emma Stone have done in Cruella, it’s about time.

Do you think Sivana will come back if there’s a Shazam! 3?

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

 Who knows? He’s still got unfinished business with Mister Mind.

Cruella opens in theaters this Friday (May 28), and will also be available on Disney+ via Premier Access.

The post Cruella: Why Mark Strong Was ‘Fascinated’ to Work With Emma Stone appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2QVG6L2

[watusichris]

Get a Move On

In the great tradition of seemingly every music site I work for, Music Aficionado appears to have dumped my story about the Move from its virtual library. So, in honor of Roy Wood’s birthday, I’m posting it my own damn self. **********

Everyone knows the Electric Light Orchestra. From 1974-80, they ruled the charts in America, ringing up three multi-platinum albums, two million-sellers, and a trio of gold discs; four of their singles reached the U.S. top 10. Sadly, the band from which Jeff Lynne’s rock-orchestral hit factory morphed remains a relatively unknown commodity in the colonies: the Move.

Stateside, the Birmingham, England-bred Move couldn’t get arrested for loitering with intent. It was a different tale in Blighty, where during their 1966-1972 heyday the group toted up seven top-10 45s. Tearing several pages from the Who’s playbook, they were one of the most notorious live acts of their era, and their taste for outrage led to a successful libel suit filed by British Prime Minister Harold Wilson. Almost insanely eclectic and creative, they made some of the most exciting and exploratory music of the period.

Alas, they are probably best known among American listeners for covers of several of their songs – “Brontosaurus,” “Down On the Bay,” “California Man” -- by their ardent fanboys Cheap Trick. Their obscure, rambunctious legacy is worth a second look and listen.

The Move was cobbled together in the English Midlands in late 1965 by a group of local musical vets; it’s said that impetus for the new unit was provided by aspiring pop singer David Jones, who would go on to greater fame as David Bowie. The front man was plummy-voiced lead singer Carl Wayne, formerly leader of his own outfit the Vikings. Vocal and instrumental support was supplied by guitarists Trevor Burton and Roy Wood, the latter of whom swiftly became the group’s principal songwriter; thumping drummer Bev Bevan; and glamourpuss bassist Chris “Ace” Kefford, a charismatic but highly unstable character in the Brian Jones mold who was nicknamed “the Singing Skull.”

Like almost every English band of any import during that epoch, the Move took initial inspiration from R&B and soul music; their early sets included covers of the Marvelettes’ “Too Many Fish in the Sea,” the Isley Brothers’ “Respectable,” the Orlons’ “Don’t Hang Up,” and Betty Everett’s “I Can’t Hear You No More.”

They swiftly found their footing in the studio with a pair of Wood-penned singles that bubbled up from its author’s evidently bottomless well of paranoia: The debut “Night of Fear” topped out at No. 2 in the U.K., while its follow-up “I Can Hear the Grass Grow” peaked at No. 5.

By the time the second 45 was released in the spring of 1967, the Move – under the aegis of manager Tony Secunda, who also handled another top local attraction, the Moody Blues -- had attained a reputation as one of England’s most (literally!) dangerous concert attractions.

Since 1964, the Who had been alarming the populace by trashing their equipment onstage; taking a page from Stephen Potter’s books about oneupsmanship, the Move lifted the ante with freewheeling and potentially perilous gigs at which the gangster-suited act attacked TV sets with fire axes, set effigies of public figures ablaze, and, during one notorious date at London’s Roundhouse, undertook the riot-inducing onstage demolition of a car.

The band’s fortunes seemed assured with the September 1967 release of “Flowers in the Rain,” a trippy little slice of psychedelia ornamented with classically-derived production flourishes courtesy of Bowie’s future producer Tony Visconti.

However, the No. 2 chart triumph of the single was tarnished after Secunda concocted a promotional postcard depicting Harold Wilson in flagrante delicto with his secretary Marcia Williams. Wilson’s solicitors speedily slapped a libel suit on the band, and, after a verdict in his favor, all royalties from the song were directed to the coffers of Wilson’s favorite charities. (“Vote For Me,” a mocking song about politicians whose target couldn’t have been more obvious, was subsequently recorded but wisely left unreleased.)

Secunda was subsequently deposed in favor of iron-fisted manager Don Arden by the time the Move’s self-titled debut LP was tardily released in April 1968. Even for its time, it was a wildly eclectic opus. Strong, heartily psychedelic Wood compositions – “Flowers in the Rain,” “Yellow Rainbow,” “Walk Upon the Water,” “Fire Brigade,” “Cherry Blossom Clinic” – sat side-by-side with covers of material by Eddie Cochran (“Weekend”), Moby Grape (“Hey Grandma”), and the Coasters (“Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart”). It became the group’s lone British long-player to reach the charts, hitting No. 15.

Incipient drug casualty Kefford had already been ejected from the band by the time they cut a live EP at London’s Marquee Club in February 1968. Hurriedly issued as Something Else From the Move on the heels of the debut album, the all-covers effort was a genre-encompassing set featuring tracks originally essayed by the Byrds, Love, Eddie Cochran, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Spooky Tooth. It was a raucous affair, but it gave little hint of the more focused and highly personalized work that was to follow.

A pair of crunching singles released in late 1968 pointed towards the bottom-heavy sound that would characterize all the Move’s later work. The frenzied “Wild Tiger Woman” was the first of the band’s 45s that failed to chart in England: The BBC’s skittishness about its female protagonist’s sexual insatiability prompted a radio ban. It was succeeded by “Blackberry Way,” a string-inflected, Beatlesque tune – think “Penny Lane” – with a then-rare Wood lead vocal; it became the group’s only No. 1 entry.

Sometimes chaotic events during 1969 harbingered both the contorted latter-day history of the Move and the disinterested response that greeted their work on American shores. Trevor Burton, relegated to bass duties following Kefford’s expulsion, bridled at the pop orientation of “Blackberry Way.” Wood, previously a retiring figure within the band, was empowered by the song’s success and looked to take a higher profile in the group. And Carl Wayne, already studying an exit strategy, moved into music publishing and began pondering a solo career in cabaret-styled pop – and successfully dragged his band mates into incongruous dates whose repertoire reflected his aspirations.

After an on-stage punch-out between Burton and Bev Bevan at a Swedish concert, the unhappy bassist departed the band, and was replaced by Rick Price. The reconstituted quartet, some of whose earlier singles had been issued with a total lack of success by A&M in the U.S., undertook an American “tour” of four dates in October 1969; the trek was so chaotically managed that the band members had to book their own hotel rooms.

Out of this disorder came a remarkable album: Shazam, released in early 1970 in both the U.K. and the U.S. Loosely tied together by off-the-cuff “man on the street” interviews, it was a typically everywhere-at-once collection that managed to hang together thanks to its bottom-heavy sound.

Save for a string-flecked McCartneyesque ballad, “Beautiful Daughter,” which plays like a sop to Wayne’s pop ambitions, Shazam knocks a listener’s head against the wall. The LP was highlighted by the thunderous Wood original “Hello Suzie” and churning renderings of American art-rock act Ars Nova’s “Fields of People,” Frankie Laine’s antique pop hit “Don’t Make My Baby Blue,” and folkie Tom Paxton’s ballad “The Last Thing On My Mind.” “Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited” – an expanded remake of the debut album’s Wood original about life in a mental institution – pointed at things to come with its extended instrumental interpolations from Bach’s “Jesu Joy of Man’s Desiring” and Tchaikovsky’s “Peter and the Wolf” and “The Nutcracker Suite.”

This stupendous slab of proto-metal heaviosity was greeted with roaring silence, and failed to chart on either side of the Atlantic. The couple thousand people who purchased Shazam in the U.S. were probably prompted to lay down their cash by a fey yet wildly enthusiastic review of the album in Rolling Stone by critic and aspiring rock star John Mendelsohn, who would become the band’s chief advocate on these shores. The Move’s small but vocal cult following in the States had its beginnings here.

Wayne put his other foot out the door before Shazam appeared in the stores, and the band was speedily reformulated with the addition of singer-guitarist-vocalist Jeff Lynne, late of Birmingham’s Idle Race. (Wood had himself played in an early edition of that group, Mike Sheridan and the Nightriders.)

The new alignment captured immediate traction in the U.K., where Wood’s “dance song” “Brontosaurus” tallied a No. 7 slot. A full-length album bearing that track, Looking On, followed in late 1970. Grindingly, profoundly bottom-heavy, it lacked any notable songs beyond its chart hit, but it showed Wood flexing his considerable instrumental muscles on cello, sitar, oboe, and saxophones, and the twinned lead vocals and production skills of Wood and Lynne hinted at a winning combination. However, issued by Capitol in both the U.K. and U.S., it died a quick and largely unmourned death.

At this juncture, Wood and Lynne began to envision a new Move offshoot, the Electric Light Orchestra, as a seamless melding of the mother band’s already extant pop and classical strains. Thus work began simultaneously on a new Move album and a debut ELO recording.

The Move’s final set was prefaced by the pummeling Lynne-penned 45 “Down On the Bay” and two fantastic pop-rock singles from Wood, “Tonight” (No. 11 in England) and “Chinatown,” which hinted at the sonic density that would feature in his later solo work.

Recorded after Price’s exit by the trio of Wood, Lynne, and Bevan, the LP Message From the Country landed in October 1971. Though flawed – thanks to Bevan’s silly Elvis homage “Don’t Mess Me Up,” the equally obvious Johnny Cash homage “Ben Crawley Steel Company,” and the “Honey Pie”-like ‘20s pop tidbit “My Marge” – it showed what Lynne and Wood were capable of together. Wood brought in the anvil-dropping “Until Your Mama’s Gone” and “It Wasn’t My Idea to Dance,” while Lynne contributed the titular rocker, the end-of-the-world ballad “No Time,” and a pair of expansive numbers, “The Minister” and “The Words of Aaron,” that pointed towards his later ELO hits in style and sound.

Message From the Country might as well have been released with a “No Sale” sticker attached to it, for the album left nary a trace on any international chart. The band had one last, magnificent single in it: in May 1972, the double-barreled blast of Lynne’s snarling, careening “Do Ya” and Wood’s metallic Jerry Lee Lewis tribute “California Man” landed like a bomb. This two-sided stick of dynamite was the Move’s only 45 to make an American dent, belatedly peaking at a meager No. 93, but became a valedictory No. 7 hit in Great Britain.

By that time, the Electric Light Orchestra’s first LP, No Answer, had seen release. An uncertain mixture of wide-screen rock and unfocused mock-classicism, it bemused listeners in England, where old Move fans took it to a modest No. 32 chart slot, and stultified audiences in America, where it clipped the chart at No. 196 during a two-week stay.

By the time work commenced on a follow-up ELO opus, Wood and Lynne were at loggerheads about the future direction of the band, and, after contributing to just two numbers for the sophomore album, Wood exited the group, with Lynne and Bevan carrying on under the ELO handle.

It was left to United Artists Records, ELO’s American label, to release a splendid parting gift that served as a kind of primer for late-blooming Move devotees. The late-1972 compilation Split Ends brought together the best tracks from Message From the Country, with its genre pastiches excised, and the stunning singles released before and after that album’s release. No doubt benefiting from loud tub-thumping in UA’s in-house music publication Phonograph Record Magazine, which was distributed free in American record stores, the posthumous collection became the Move’s only American chart LP, rising to No. 172 in early 1973.

With the dissolution of their partnership, the commercial fortunes of the Move’s prime movers diverged. Lynne of course perfected his rock/classical fusion and enjoyed a glittering run with ELO, taking a remake of “Do Ya” to No. 24 in 1977, and went on to become a big-name producer, rock star familiar, and Traveling Wilbury as his career burgeoned in the ��80s and ‘90s.

Roy Wood, always one Tommy short of a Pete Townshend-worthy career in the U.S., proceeded as a beloved eccentric and sometime hitmaker in his homeland. His 1973 all-solo opus Boulders contained the top-20 hit “Dear Elaine,” and was succeeded by the scrumptious Neal Sedaka-meets-the-Beach Boys hit “Forever” (No. 8). Regrouping with dissident Move bassist Rick Price, he founded the visually and sonically extravagant rock big band Wizzard, which issued such neo-Spectorian smashes as “Ball Park Incident” and “See My Baby Jive.”

Quite the saga. Now, if you haven’t heard the band, it’s time to get a Move on.

[thejohncamp3ablog]

DC FIlms might be doing better than most of the bloggers lead you to believe

Why #DCEU might kick some #MCU ass in the coming years.

In order to make this point, I will use facts and some speculation, but overall compare some behavior and trends. As for the speculation part, i will clearly outline the FACT that is such and not present it as anything else.

First off, let’s start using more facts and less opinion. Opinion is when you say #MCU is better, because a site has given them certified scores. Also, please start making a difference between an aggregate score of a number of critics that said yes or no, and the actual score of the movie [situated below that flashy %]. 

Currently the average score for #MCU is at 6.9 compared to the “horrible failure” #DCEU at 5.85. Looking at this, it says only thing, none of these fanboys of the Disney cult, take the time to delve deep in the stats and meaning of them, they just use the convenient flashy aggregate number that fits their twisted narrative.

You can easily check this information on https://www.rottentomatoes.com/ , its not like a Collider reaction video, where most of the information is rumors and personal opinions. Or like a SchmoesKnow podcast back in the day featuring a Sasha Perl Raver exclusive that claimed, “Wonder Woman” is a huge mess from the same source, she says, told her “Batman V Superman: DOJ” is bad. Well after the movie came out and made 821 Million worldwide, something that has been achieved by 0 MCU origin stories [since they all rely on featured characters to make such Box Office results] the video was taken down. The reason being that I and many other fans, asked them to give us more info on their source and we got blocked by her and Kristian Harloff on Twitter with some swearing on his part for the ultimate experience.

So, we established the critical scores difference of 1 in favor of #MCU, now let’s see how things are looking monetary. 

Unfortunately #MCU is at their 18th movie now, and #DCEU at their 5th one, so we can compare them movie for movie, but we can clearly see that #DC’s average is currently 3 Million per movie more than the #MCU’s average gross per movie, and by the looks of it, with AQUAMAN coming this December, the DCU phase 1 movies [6 movies vs 6 movies] will finish as 3.766 Billion + Aquaman’s Box-office [which could be anywhere between 600-800 Million] compared to MCU phase 1 - 3.811 Billion, which consisted from The Avengers [1.5 Billion BO] and only positive RT scores. 

So that 50 Million difference is about to be swept under a wave in December with or without a good RT score. The average price of a ticket in 2018 is about to surpass 9.00 USD, and if Aquaman sells the same number of tickets like Thor did, it will gross around between 509-521 Million, now in case Aquaman decides to sell more than Thor and act like Man Of Steel in terms of sold seats it will end around 739-756 Million range, Wonder Woman seats put him in the 828-847 Million range and BVS DOJ type seats would mean a gross around 908-929 Million.

In any case, Aquaman will put the phase 1 at a minimum of 450 Million advance on #MCU phase 1, with an option to out-gross #MCU phase 1 with something close to 850 Million, not too bad for a “failed” franchise, I must say.

Now we all know #MCU fans have a ready answer for everything, one of their favorite points is that #MCU phase 1 existed between 2008 and 2012 and that Marvel had only B list characters. Well TDK came out in 2008 and made 1 Billion, so I guess the year wasn’t the issue and Superman in 78, first ever movie that appeared on the big screen with a superhero made adjusted to 2017 1.2 Billion. He did have a TV show previously. Something many Marvel characters tried and failed at, not our fault though. The character isn’t b or c list for the big screen until it hits it, as you can see #justiceleague had Batman and did not make 1.2 Billion guaranteed, nor did Batman Forever, Batman and Robin etc,. There is no guarantee for any brand, its the movie itself that makes money based on word of mouth.

So, to summarize:

Average critics score on RT

DCEU 5.85 MCU 6.9

Average gross per movie

DCEU 753 Million MCU 750 Million

Phase 1 vs Phase 1

DCEU 3.766 Billion MCU 3.811 Billion [DC has not released AQUAMAN to make it 6 vs 6], and as for adjusted ticket price and inflation, DC first 5 movies sold 434,457 Million seats and Marvel sold 491,466 seats, so AQUAMAN needs to sell 60 Million tickets for a tie, that's as many as the first Thor sold. Should be achievable and beyond.

And now let’s see the future: And here is the speculation is pointed at in the beginning. 

DC has coming phase 2 the following:  Shazam, Suicide Squad 2, Wonder Woman 2, The Batman, Nightwing and or Flash, how do you think this Phase 2 will behave? 

A Matt Reeves Batman movie, that can get all of them #TDK fans back in the seats ranging between 900 Million -1.1 Billion if not comedic and Joss-like. Wonder Woman 2, should this time perform better overseas, that’s a possible 900 Million sequel for a movies that made 821 Million with 50 % of that coming from international markets, which is usually around 60 + % for such movies. Suicide Squad 2 if done the right way sounds like it could beat the first one and go for that 800 Million plus range, with the studio having learned what is a straight no for this franchise from the first one. 

Nightwing, with all I am hearing and a good action martial arts movie set in Gotham, this can attract that Batman crowd and go somewhere between 600-700 Million possibly or less. Shazam could behave like Nightwing in terms of Box Office or if it's more comedic and family friendly even better due to the light and easy digestible tone it has, plus the huge boost it will get by its Producer The Rock. 

In case the movie titles match my prediction with the actual phase 2 - DC films and the Box Office predictions match a possible scenario like the one I mentioned, then we can assume , something at worst at 3.6 Billion, best case 4.2 Billion, which will take them over 8.3 + Billion by a lot in only 2 phases. How is that a bad? Its beside me. 

MCU phase 2 is around the 4.6 Billion mark, with its last two movies to make over 1.1 Billion, Avengers 2 [AOU] and Iron man 3. MCU phase 1 and 2 are worth around the 8.4 Billion give or take, and #DC has the chance to surpass that with critically acclaimed and original movies. As i mentioned, their phase 1 will likely close around the 4.1-4.4 Billion mark, add another 4.2 from phase 2 and you get a round 8.6 Billion. Again speculation on my part for DC, but they average per movies is currently 753 Million, and they aren't going to go lower for sure. While Marvel CU is doing fine mostly in phase 3, they first 2 phases were profitable due to Avengers 1 & 2 and Iron Man 3. We have two more Avengers movies that are coming and if they reach the success of the 1st one, i will be surprised. Nevertheless they will be aiming at a minimum Civil War Box Office, and if the plot is too generic and there isn’t enough closure, they will surely land on that 1 Billion circle, which can’t be that good for a movie with the cost of 490 Million plus.

Now remember, this is all speculation, because even with Zack Snyder gone for critics to use as an excuse for the same old same old rotten scores, they still went after David Ayer twice [Suicide Squad, Bright], Joss Whedon [who did most of Justice League as we saw and was praised for Avengers]. So, they might just come for all DC films in the future based on brand bias. We can't know, but what we do know, is that the new directors brought to work on these films have been nothing but successful elsewhere and the only issue that might exist is the suits behind WB Pictures and their will to cut the movies to make them unoriginal and bland, like they did with Justice League.

[81scorp]

My top 9 movies of 2019

Originally posted on Deviantart Jan 26, 2020)

Hey kids! Its that time again, when I talk about the movies I`ve seen in the cinema and rank them according to my own personal taste and bias. Why 9? Because I`m not a professional filmcritic who has time to see most of the movies that came out this year and sometimes other duties got in the way. So I only had time to see 9 movies in the cinema. And yes, two of these movies came out 2018, but they didn`t come to cinemas in my country until 2019, so they still belong on this list. M`kay? M`kay.

9: Destroyer (2018) Erin Bell (Nicole Kidman), a former undercover police officer arrives on the scene of a John Doe murder and informs them that she knows the identity of the murderer. The victim is a man from her past.Raw. That`s the simplest way to describe this movie. This is a crime movie, a type of movie genre that has a very broad appeal but it is also very unstylized, it`s the kind of movie that Michael Bay wouldn`t do.I have to admit that the biggest reason I saw this movie was because I wanted to see a film festival movie (I usually don`t go to film festivals.) and because it was highly praised by critics. Probably mostly because Nicole Kidman plays a character very different from the kind of characters she usually plays. She`s not even wearing glamorous make up, that`s when you know that an actress means serious business! Jokes aside, Kidman delivers a good performance. It also had a little twist at the end that took me by surprize. It`s a kind of movie that is easy to praise but hard to recommend. In some places it may be a little to raw for it`s own good, like a scene where Erin does something R rated on a bedridden former criminal in exchange for information. Still a good movie and I`m glad I saw it.

8: Alita: Battle Angel Dyson Ido, a White man with a japanese surname finds a female cyborg warrior in a junkyard with amnesia. Hijinks ensue. I feel bad putting it this low on the list, I wish I could have placed it higher but I also wish that it could have been better. Too many ideas squeezed into a movie not long enough to give these ideas enough room to stretch their legs and develop properly. It feels very sequel begging, is burdened by it`s high ambitions and Christoph Waltz`s character is stuck with a lot of expositional dialogue. On the other hand, Rosa Salazar delivers a good performance and the CGI on Alita is impressive. It takes a risk and commits to what it does and that is admirable. Who knew that you could make a good live-action manga adaptation by not pissing all over the source material? Even if it has some irritating flaws that a competent screenwriter could`ve avoided, I would like to see this get a sequel.Let`s hope that this is not a swansong.

7: Captain Marvel A digitally de-aged Samuel L. Jackson finds a female warrior from space with amnesia. Hijinks ensue. Standard MCU movie quality. It`s not better or worse than the average kind of MCU movie that we`re used to. This one was almost a tie with Alita, it gets a better spot because it has a better structure. It knows how and when to setup future sequels without intruding on the main story. 6: Ralph breaks the internet (2018) Unnecessary and necessary at the same time.Unnecessary in that the first one was such a self contained movie that said all that it could say and there really wasn`t much (if any) material left for a sequel. It felt like a believeable development for Ralph that he, after not having had a real friend for years, would be so possesive of Vanellope. But it feels like he got hit in the head with the dumb-dumb stick for the sake of the plot. His neediness could have started small and subtle in the beginning and then grow bigger and more noticeable as the story progressed. (There`s one scene in the first act that bugs me where Vanellope`s sad and Ralph could have been more empathic.) Necessary in that it has a good message about how friendship doesn`t have to end just because you live further away from each other. The princess scene was still funny even after Disney had shown almost all of it in the trailers. Personally I like this movie. I have a weak spot for movies that gives me the feels and this movie gave that to me in a scene where I felt it was earned. It`s good but not as good as it`s predecessor.

5: Shazam! Funny and silly in the right places and serious when it needs to be. An inellectual property, known for being silly, combined with the style of a director known for making horror movies creates an interesting result. This is how I wish the Superman movies from the 1980`s could have been. It has jokes in it like they did, but it also has heart. Heck, part of me wishes that Man of Steel could have been more like this. Casting Zachary Levi in the title role was a smart move, he knows how to balance comedy and heart. Glad it made money but it could probably have made more if Avengers: Endgame hadn`t come out so soon after it. 4: Missing link Sir Lionel Frost, a struggling investigator of mythical creatures comes in contact with a lone sasquatch who wants to find more of his own kind. Like Alita: Battle Angel I wish that this could have done better at the box office but unlike Alita I don`t wish that this movie was better, because it is already really good.(Maybe not quite as good as Coraline or Kubo and the two strings, but still.) And thats the tragedy of this movie, great quality but seen by very few people. Maybe someone should have started the Missing link challenge.At least it won a Golden globe for best animated feature. That`s always something. 3: Avengers: Endgame Avengers 4, or as I like to call it: Avengers 3 part 2. The impressive juggling act continues, now with time travel! Why not? they`ve had viking gods, shrinking superheroes and talking racoons in space, it was only a matter of time before they got to time travels.This time the impressive juggling act is much less about the number of characters and more about how the movie uses the time travelling to affect the characters and their inner journeys while also escalating the conflict in a way that feels natural. All leading to a satisifying, climactic third act battle. You did good Marvel, you did good.You can rest now Tony. 2: Frozen 2 The first Frozen felt (not unlike Wreck-it Ralph) like a self contained story that didn`t need a sequel. But unlike Ralph breaks the internet I was more welcoming to the idea of a sequel to Frozen. Why? Because when Frozen was made it had a very hectic production and there are traces of that in the finished movie. I felt that it could have been better. Now, the message is great but it`s narrative flow suffered. This time they had more time to make their movie. Personally I like it... a little bit more than the first one. Wouldn`t call it better than the first one but I wouldn`t call it worse either. On one hand it adds more material to a finished, self contained story, like in Ralph breaks the internet. On the other hand it does one thing better than the first Frozen: it saves it`s best part for second last instead of peaking in the first act, and "The next right thing" is a much better eleven o`clock number than "Fixer upper". Like it`s predecessor it`s stronger in the music department than in the story department. And like I`ve mentioned earlier, feels are my Kryptonite and this movie gave me the feels in a scene where it felt earned. And now, drumroll please, my number one pick for 2019 iiis... 1: The Lego movie 2: The second part Unapologetically silly in the best way possible. It really takes advantage of being a movie about toys that you can take apart and rebuild. Yes, it didn´t have that wow factor that the first one had with that twist at the end, but personally I didn`t expect it to be more twistier than the first one or even have a twist at all. At least not a big one.So, why is it so high on this list? 1: Because feels. 2: Because in the sea of jokes, silliness and a song that`s really gonna get stuck inside your head there was one character who added a little extra depth to a film based on a toy. Rex Dangervest, the "Cool guy" who shows up in the story is like a dark reflection of Emmet. He is the image that small boys and insecure, adolescent guys have in their heads of what type of person they should aspire to be. Rex says something about toxic masculinity and superficial maturity. Better than the first one? Debatable. As good as the first one? Maybe but certainly not worse. You can still feel the passion in the finished movie.

Maybe not as impressive as Moana or Coco, finding a clear winner this year was a little trickier than previous years, then again, since I only saw 9 movies this year I most likely missed out on a few gems. Maybe the winner in next years list will be easier to pick. And that`s my list, feel free to disagree.