#logan is very aware of the effect he has on wade and will use his body for nefarious purposes

[obihoebikenobi]

Logan knows Wade likes a view.

In fact, the asshole won't shut up about how much he likes Logan's body and hair and eyes and ass--

So Logan decides to give Wade what he wants.

Logan takes his time getting dressed after his shower in the morning, dropping his towel and whistling to himself while he searches through his underwear drawer for a good couple of minutes, just to take out another pair of tight black briefs like he wears every damn day.

Wade just stares, head still stuffed into the pillow, but he's wide fucking awake, watching Logan's ass flex when he pulls on his briefs and stalks out of the room like couldn't feel Wade's gaze on his back the whole time.

Logan will walk around the house after a heavy dinner in just an unbuttoned pair of jeans and without a shirt, read his book and glance over his reading glasses at Wade's gaze lingering from where he's washing dishes in the kitchen.

When Logan goes out for a run he wears Wade's tightest, shortest shorts, the ones that ride up his thighs the moment he starts moving around.

He's so good at nonchalant partial nakedness and live action thirst trapping that Wade thinks he's just like that, and blissfully unaware of the effect he has on Wade. Specifically.

Wade can't get a rise out of him, can't say something shockingly horny enough to scare Logan out of going commando in gray fucking sweatpants.

So Wade resolves himself to his fate of a constant half-mast cock and fucking his fist in the shower thrice a day.

[guardiandae]

how about some cablepool headcanons (im wiggling my eyebrows)

I took some time to think about this, because I’m very bad at headcanons in the sense that my headcanons are either actual canon events and therefore don’t count, or I can’t tell the difference anymore. That said, sorry if some of this contradicts any existing canon, suck it Marvel you ain’t my dad.

Nate wears an apron when he cooks, because it's practical and not at all because it drives Wade nuts.

Wade wears socks in bed (and during sex) because his feet get cold.

Nate prefers not to wear clothes at all (except when he's socially obligated to) but Wade also loves to steal Nate's clothes and wear them, so Nate is torn between 'I don't need this many clothes' and 'I need clothes so I can see Wade wear my clothes'

Wade can recite the entire Bee Movie script involuntarily despite the fact that he's never, as far as he knows, ever seen the movie in his goddamn life.

Nate comes off as 'stoic, joyless bastard' to a lot of other people who do not get him because his sense of humor is mostly dry and morbid wit, delivered with a straight face. Wade is often the only one who not only gets Nate's sense of humor but loses his mind over it. Meanwhile, most people get Wade's jokes, but they choose to ignore him or find him annoying, but Nate not only loves Wade's sense of humor, he shows that love by playing off of Wade's jokes, and the two of them can banter back and forth for ages, which drives any unfortunate bystanders up a wall. See also: flirting.

Nate once almost got arrested for attempting to liberate caged dogs from a puppy mill, because it wasn't considered illegal. The second time, he didn't get caught because Wade helped him out.

Nate and Wade are both banned from almost every fast food restaurant within a 50 mile radius from where they live, but for separate and wildly differing reasons that can (most often than not) both somehow be boiled down to 'causing a scene and threatening the establishment.'

Wade is almost always verbally stimming (making weird noises or sound effects ('Snikt!'), singing and humming to himself, talking about whatever stream of consciousness is in his mind, or just repeating the same word over and over again because he thinks it's neat.) He isn't even aware of how often he's doing this, and most anybody who comes in contact with him for more than ten minutes can't understand how Nate puts up with Wade's constant babbling, but Nate is so used to it, the only thing that bothers him is when it stops for too long.

Nate only pretends to be annoyed by Wade's overwhelming desire and persistent requests to rub him from head to toe with WD-40. The truth is, Wade is ridiculously good with his hands and when Nate is having a bad pain day, a massage really hits the spot. The biggest problem he has with the WD-40 is that he hates the metal parts of himself, and the virus eating away at his body, and he can't reconcile with the idea that Wade finds the metal just as attractive as the rest of him anymore than Wade can believe that Nate really doesn't mind his tumors and scars.

Wade is legitimately one of the smartest people Nate has had the pleasure of knowing, although it takes him a while to fully realize that and appreciate it, because Wade's train of thought usually goes too fast for him to communicate it in any effective way, making whatever he does communicate seem like a maddeningly confusing series of leaps in logic, bordering on psychic premonition, but really it's just because Wade is intuitive as shit and often gets the whole picture before Nate can even put it together.

Nate would absolutely help Wade dispose of a dead body, so long as Wade could look him in the eye and tell him it was for a good reason. He's accepted this and even has several extremely detailed plans ready to go, for various unlikely scenarios (such as, disposing of a dead body in outer space, because this is Wade we’re talking about) but thankfully he's never had to utilize any of his plans.

Nate has gotten into a fistfight with Captain America because he found out that Steve hurt Wade's feelings and he wouldn't apologize for it. Consequently, this is the reason they are both banned from Starbucks.

Wade is also semi-banned from the same Starbucks, but because he once ordered a venti consisting of nothing but espresso shots and sweetener and paid in nickels. The staff were all extremely concerned for his well-being and now politely refuse to sell him anything containing caffeine. 

Wade keeps most of his pouches full of snacks At All Times. Nate also keeps extra snacks for Wade in his pouches, because sometimes Wade forgets he still has food in his (and this is how we get ants!) He also keeps random objects to keep Wade entertained in a pinch, like a slinky, duct tape, and a squish ball.

Usually Nate wakes up first, but when he sleeps in, Wade loves to make him breakfast, even tho his idea of breakfast food is questionable at best. (Porkchops made in the toaster and ham and cheese pancakes anyone?)

Nate is a cuddler.

Wade loves the beauty guru side of youtube, and started his own channel where he applies makeup and falsies onto his mask. Logan once lost a bet and had to appear in a video with Wade and let him give his claws a manicure. He only has 8 subscribers but he thanked all of them with a $10,000 dollar giveaway. Nate was very mad about being behind on rent that month, but it was totally worth it.

[nightcoremoon]

So I finally watched Deadpool 2. long post. very... very... very long.

back in 2009 my then 7 year old sister really got into avatar the last airbender and I hadn't really watched it but I had to share the tv with my four sisters and honestly between the kids television and disney sitcoms it was a breath of fresh air, and for a year and a half we would wait for reruns of episodes we hadn't seen yet. avatar was the show that got me into fandoms. alas, time passed and by the time korra was playing we'd moved to a different house and lost cable tv because the stepfather refused to pay child support and we were on a one parent income. we didn't really do anything together anymore either because I was in high school now. but then she got super into comic books. and I mean SUPER into them. especially harley quinn and deadpool. so when they announced the first movie and suicide squad we had both collectively lost our shit in excitement. alas, mom said she wasn't allowed to watch it since it was rated R and she was only 14. so one late february afternoon I was gonna take her out to see a movie. I told mom we were going to go see zoolander 2. in the car, I looked at her and said

we're not watching zoolander

and she screamed

and we watched deadpool

AND IT WAS FUCKING AWESOME

anyway more time passed and I heard that a second one was coming out and I wanted to do the same thing but that didn't happen and I lost my chance to see it in the theater. and then as I got enraptured in transitioning and working and a whole bunch of other stuff I just never got around to it. I did watch all of the supporting videos and trailers and stuff though. anyways, my sister (yes the same one) just rented it on dvd from a video store and watched it with her boyfriend today (actually yesterday but shut up), so I just sat down to watch it after work and

It

Was

...

a little disappointing at first, don't get me wrong. there were a lot of plot contrivances and I LOATHE fridge stuffing. I literally made a joke, "if she dies I'm gonna be mad" and then BOOM she fucking died and I was so pissed off I almost just turned it off. but I decided fuck it might as well watch the whole thing. it was a huge step forward from a technical perspective and all of the cinematography was on point and I could tell david pulled his a-game and did so much better than tim did (sorry tim, I love mass effect 2 and scott pilgrim if it's any consolation) and felt so much more fluid of an action movie considering the man did john fucking wick. of course ryan was fantastic too, as he always is. everyone was great: rena, tj, karan, leslie, BRI AND KUTSUNA-SAN, zazie, and stef's voice plus the cgi crew. also I always love terry crews, bill skarsgard, matt damon, alan tudyk, and the two seconds that brad pitt was on screen, even if their appearances were for comedic effect. I wasn't really sold on julian though but he's a newcomer on the scene and he did pretty well for all intents and purposes. I could tell which scenes were filmed first thought but this isn't a scathing attack on a child's acting abilities. I'm just angry that the actual plot for getting to the end was so weak, that they're aware and had ryan lampshade the fuck out of it, and the last half hour was such a trip.

okay so first of all how in the FUCK did sergei figure out who deadpool's secret identity was, track down wade wilson's apartment, get a hit crew together, and make his way downtown in the amount of time it took dopinder to drive wade home, wade and vanessa to bang, and them to start watching a movie? oh yeah sure there's nothing saying that their talk about his daddy issues was the same day let alone the same hour as the previous scene except for the simple fact that there was no fucking indication that any time had passed. either way, someone fucked up, and it was for the sole purpose of fridging ness to cause wade manpain. although frankly the only thing I hate worse than killing off the previous waifu for the next is breaking them up for zero reason whatsoever from out of nowhere (or doing both: if you do both then you're no better than paul blart mall cop 2 and that movie is a steaming blight on humanity that's only saved by perfectly syncing to pink floyd's dark side of the moon album). and to be fair THEY ACTUALLY USED THAT AS A PLOT ELEMENT AND MADE ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL AND HAUNTING SCENES I HAVE EVER SEEN IN A MOVIE. and also a hilarious one. so that sucked at first but then redeemed itself later. I'm still a little salty that he killed francis for nothing. MORE ON KILLING LATER.

(actually upon reflection maybe wade didn't hide his secret identity at all so it's perfectly reasonable that sergei just went after him but that would awaken a whole swathe of problems like why the fuck are wade and ness livin in the middle of the city full of crime and shit??? and more on that later)

dopinder killing his rival in love. come on now, that's just unrealistic. dopinder is too fucking incompetent to successfully murder anyone who isn't a pedophile. MORE ON THAT LATER.

the suicide. I can understand going out with a bang but are we supposed to believe that wade bought all those barrels, wheeled them in, and arranged them all and never once thought "well gee maybe I'm overreacting a little bit"? okay, he was depressed and not thinking clearly, but he was constantly getting drunk, doing coke, and god knows what else. he somehow didn't have the clarity to not kill himself but had just enough to arrange such an extravagant death? yeah yeah I get it, rule of funny and cool, and I can forgive it because it's deadpool, but god damn it that's really lazy (AND GODDAMN IT THEY EVEN ACKNOWLEDGE IT TOO. ITS LIKE THE ROYAL RAT AUTHORITY BONFIRE HERE). it's also indicative that weasel and colossus and dopinder are just bad or at least distant friends. and at least althea has an excuse being that she can't see. but as for the other two? bruh he is suicidal and unstable as hell. the last thing he needs is SPACE. but well maybe he hid it well, like kurt cobain, robin williams, chris cornell, chester bennington, okay writing this sentence maybe that actually does make sense. fuck.

negasonic thought that wade "flamboyant pansexual" wilson was lesbophobic? what? I understand it was for a joke but like come on now. surely she'd know that wade legitimately wanted to fuck colossus but wouldn't because he loved vanessa. lesbian gaydar works well, okay? then again the writers are not lesbians so I mean they can't be faulted for not grasping the raw power lesbians exude. (and if there's canonical evidence negasonic is actually bi, the same rule applies because wlw solidarity and stuff). and that's more than made up with the interactions between wade and yukio. whom I love and would die for. she's delightful and I hope she gets plenty of screentime in DP3. (also lmao 'pinkie pie from my little pony'. the real pink pony would be proud)

now, I get that this is purely because of license issues and budget constraints but THE WHOLE CONCEPT OF THE X MEN COEXISTING WITH THE PEDOPHILE HOME AND THE ICE BOX IN THE SAME UNIVERSE IS SO FUCKING ASININE. even if I made concessions for everyone being dead despite the timeline being fucked up the ass without lube, and admitting to never having watched literally any x men movie past X3 and yes that means I've not seen origins, japan arc [wait shit yukio's in that WTF SONY], first class, days of future past, apocalypse, or logan so I'm not an expert on the field but like. FUCK. I know there's jurisdiction, things change, erik is away and charles is dead (I think) and logan is dead (I know), and there's six whole movies I'm lost on, but jesus christ, none of that segment had any work done to make sure it was logical. so here we're supposed to believe that colossus and negasonic took wade as a trainee in the X Jet to Allegorical Racist/Homophobic And Literal Pedophile Central to... do what, exactly? What was the fucking plan? Because it sure as fuck looks like the plan was to distract him enough to force the Devil May Cry (sorry but I see DMC I either think of the rap duo or the game series) to haul him off to fucking prison to the fucking nth power. Colossus who seems to be the head honcho and sole decision maker of the X Men just stood by and watched until bullets started flying. Was he recruiting? Was he the damage control? Was he the cheap plot moving device whose sole reason for showing up at Essex was to punch Wade out before he killed headmaster touchykids allowing for the hamfisted climax? Clearly if we were to derive any conclusion from this circlejerk we have to assume that not only Colossus but the entirety of the XMansion just don't give a fuck anymore, or that it isn't important to make sense because hey this is a Deadpool movie so fuck you for using logic. Excuse the shit out of me for being confused as to what the fuck actually happened, because if Colossus is willing to let Wade get thrown into prison for killing a pedophile but he's not gonna TAKE ACTUAL LEGAL ACTION AGAINST ESSEX HOUSE FOR TORTURING MUTANT CHILDREN FOR DECADES (Domino admitted to it being the same when she was a kid), either it's just a Public Relations nightmare to not let the Run-DMC haul him off, Essex is a legal powerhouse on the same level as the Westboro Baptist Cult with lawyers up the ass, or they changed a lot of shit from the trailers and cobbled together what they could from what remained (which is the most likely suspect because Bedlam and Shatterstar had scenes in the trailer where they were not dead and were actually fighting with Wade and Domino). Regardless, the scene however dumb and nonsensical was necessary I guess, and established Russell/Firefist as a character. I'm still gonna be pissed about that in particular but HOLY SHIT is that stupid. But that's not all that's stupid. More on that later.

Cable's motivations are grief. His hypocrisy is understandable. Killing kids is wrong so I'm gonna kill a kid so he doesn't kill other kids. Why doesn't Russel deserve life? Because he's a mutant? Wow, Thanos is racist AND mutant-phobic! In all seriousness though, all Cable had to do was nothing to prevent his family's death. If he had stayed in the future, nobody would have broken Russel out so there would be no way in hell he'd have killed the headmaster let alone everyone else he did. Although according to the laws of time travel, the timeline Cable came from was the timeline that he went back in time and did everything exactly the way it happened up until Wade took that bullet for Russel. Because that's the moment the teddy bear lost its bloodstain. Because literally not a goddamn thing changed the course of history up until that exact moment, THAT IS THE EXACT FUCKING MOMENT IT BUTTERFLY EFFECTED ITS WAY TO HELL AND BACK. Cable's dead family is a direct result of him going back in time to kill Russel to save them and failing miserably. And god I love time travel paradoxes UGH I JUST LOVE THEM SO MUCH. We have to assume Cable failed and that's why he succeeded. THATS SO FUCKING STUPID.

And you know what else is stupid? Wade made it back to New York after breaking out of DMC. How is that stupid? Well, first of all, the facility wasn't looking for THEIR MOST DANGEROUS INMATE. Black Tom said it himself, Wade is the toughest cunt in there. Although Juggernaut is way more powerful but whatever. More on that later. Anyway, the facility got the riot back on lockdown despite Cable decimating most of the staff, and got everyone in line enough to get them to start convoying to the more secure location. Did they see that Wade was missing and decide "hey, fuck it, what can the literally most unkillable man in the world with the most enormous boner for revenge in the universe POSSIBLY do to us who forced him to slowly die of cancer all over again in a hell prison???" Fucking stupid. Even dumber is the actual X Men themselves not giving a shit that there was an attack on the ice box which is apparently Mike Pence's wet dream, not lifting a finger to so much as offer assistance TO ENSURE THE SAFETY AND REHABILITATION OF ALL OF THE MUTANT INMATES, or even so much as being like "hey guys is Wade doing okay dying from cancer in your Guantanamo Bay?". And dumber still than that is Colossus deciding that Wade deserves to slowly die of cancer since he killed a pedophile who abused a kid so bad he used his powers for destruction and murder and evil and eventually became one of the most deadly sociopathic murderers in the fucked up future world, rationalizing it because Wade broke the rules of being an X-man by killing, even though Wade didn't wanna be an X-man in the first place. Colossus dragged Wade from his suicide directly to the X manor to get his body healed, forced him along to a mission he didn't wanna be a part of, and then punished him for killing a pedophile by forcing him to die slowly from the cancer while getting the shit kicked out of him by convicts. AND THEN WADE APOLOGIZED TO COLOSSUS? ARE YOU FUCKING FOR REAL HERE? WADE WAS SUICIDAL AND COLOSSUS FORCED HIM INTO PRISON. Bad friend, 0/10.

Seriously, a queer military vet with ptsd and a fucked up past replete with daddy issues who developed cancer and was then tortured by a shadow organization went on a revenge spree followed by a murder spree as a mercenary, and expressed that he's a violent psychopath who won't hesitate to murder sex traffickers or pedophiles or people who threaten his girl, and watched said girl (the only good thing in his fucked up life) die right in his arms immediately after his life was about to go in a good direction and start a family and probably give up all of the murder business and just be the best dad in the world and give a good life to someone to make up for the one he never got himself, did a cocaine bender, and literally committed suicide. But his godforsaken mutation wouldn't let him die, so he couldn't even see his Vanessa again. He clearly has severe clinical depression and needed a FUCKING MENTAL HOSPITAL STAY, not being shoved into a planless feeble attempt to get him to join the Xmen (using him for an extra hand for missions), and he was allowed to BRING THE GUNS, and he was confronted with a physically and sexually abused CHILD with mutant powers he probably didn't ask for that ruined his life and got him sent to Essex, a BIG KNOWN HOTSPOT FOR PEDOPHILES, and he has a big problem with sex criminals (oh yeah and the girl he loved so much he killed himself when she died? sex worker with a life full of being sexually assaulted herself. let alone the fact that wade has been sexually assaulted as well). You take a queer, mentally ill, suffering man and push him past his breaking point, and let him bring guns to a pedophile nest, HE IS GOING TO KILL THE PEDOPHILES. Colossus is a fucking cunt in this situation in every single conceivable fashion. He dragged Wade out of the frying pan, and out of the fire, and into the fucking woodchipper, before stepping on him. The situation is so far behind fucked up that I don't even think the crew fully grasp the full gravity of the situation described. But I digress.

Things weren't all bad from this point on.

The recruitment was funny and full of people. Dopinder's reaction at Peter was amazing and I love him. Domino was fucking phenomenal and I loved her. I knew that everyone else was dead from the moment I saw them, though, but I still loved them anyway. Brad. fucking. Pitt. Great action scene all around. Josh Brolin is just the baddest of asses. Murphy's law is supreme.

Juggernaut's reveal was well done. Still dumb but not quite "AHM THE JUGGANAUT BITCH" dumb. Cool dumb. And then he Megatron'd Wade which was even cooler. I thought Russell joining him was a little dumb but it was quite a callback. Although it begs the question: Wade knew it was foreshadowing something and he knew that Juggernaut existed but he just isn't omniscient and the inconsistency is driving me fucking bonkers. This isnt the Deadpool of the comics. This is the movie Deadpool. And while I do like it I can't say it's without flaws. That's ok but still annoying as fuck. And then more flaws.

It's stupid that Colossus would react the way he did when he learned Wade was back. Well if Colossus was moping about because an entire convoy of mutants literally fucking died except for Juggernaut (PROFESSOR X'S BROTHER IN THIS CHRONOLOGY) and Russell, that's even dumber. If he learned Wade was back at that moment then he's not even paying attention to anything considering Deadpool was out and about. Negasonic and Yukio didn't look too surprised to see him. Lazy writing, lampshades, whatever, blah blah who even fucking cares.

The heroes show up just in time. Shocking. But of course if they didn't it'd be a boring movie.

The action scene was FANTASTIC. It balanced four different fight scenes all at once. Why Jug didn't rip Cable in half like he did Wade I won't ask, maybe because he's half robot I guess idk. Still, Wade/Cable, Domino, and Colossus kicked ass, and Russell's advance to the headmaster was beastly. Julian's acting wasn't the best and neither was Eddie's but I got what they went for and HOLY SHIT THE SCENE IS SO CHILLING, especially for queer youth. Bryan Singer could only dream of that level of subtle analogues.

I thought it was dumb that Cable was all like "if Russell kills then he'll be an evil monster since killing is wrong" even though literally every one of the people there have killed several people that fucking day. Cable killed many, Wade killed many, Domino killed many. Granted they killed mostly pedophiles but they also killed a lot of DMC people & innocent civilians (accidentally). But again he was grieving so whatever.

Negasonic and Yukio had their moment too, I just wish there was more. But that's what the threequel is for. WE WANT MORE LESBIANS!

Wade has balls, I'll give him that. Where he kept that power nullifier I'll never know. [also... fuck that noise. they just have a collar that turns off mutant powers? ORORO WILL HAVE A FUCKIN ANEURYSM. and marie will have an orgasm. for once in her life. hahaha references]. But it was still a great scene. Russell is actually a really good character, if he is a bit Woobie, Destroyer Of Worlds. But I like that trope. Simon from Cry of Fear is one of my favorite characters in that respect; sympathetic even to the very end if he kills Purnell and Sophie (god that monologue is so haunting... "have fun cleaning my brains off the wall. FUCK YOU."). He's basically just a mini Wade but a mutant first. And it allowed Wade to have a defining character moment.

And what a moment. There's a quote that was said about The Princess Bride that I feel works here. It was about the Inigo fight with Rugen. "A comedy is only as strong as the moment when it stops being funny." And the moment when Inigo stabs Rugen, and says "I want my father back, you son of a bitch." is just permanently etched in my mind because the entire movie you watch with a smile up until right at that moment. And when Wade finally bites it, you think "oh, he'll just wake up again and make another joke" but he doesn't. He doesn't move again. He shows up on death's door. And you hear the acoustic version of Take On Me. And he walks through the fog door, and he's got his skin back. He did it, he's finally reunited with Vanessa. And Cable looks away, and you start to piece together where they're going with it, and he goes back, and you wonder wtf is this, and it returns to the present day and Wade digs in the wound AND PULLS OUT THE SKEE BALL TOKEN HOLY FUCKING SHITBALLS OH MY GOD THATS THE COOLEST SHIT IVE EVER SEEN IN MY LIFE JESUS CHRIST ON A STICK.

THE ENTIRE ENDING SCENE IS SO ICONIC.

And the whipped cream on top of the sundae is the headmaster getting creamed in the middle of his tirade. And then Dopinder's reaction is the cherry.

After that it kinda does the sappy ending which is fine for what it is. And then it brings in all the fourth wall breaking time travel shenanigans, drenching it in sap and Ryan Reynolds' brains.

The music is just OH MY GOD amazing. Yeah there's the pina colada song and skrillex and celine dion and ac/dc and enya and pat benatar and peter gabriel and cher and steve miller and for some reason diplo/french montana/lil pump but THOSE ARE ALL ACTUALLY REALLY GOOD OKAY???

The movie is chock full of amazing lines.

The fights are all really fluid and visceral.

The cinematography is always on point.

The plot formula is shaken up a little bit.

Several pedophiles die incredibly violently.

ITS A REALLY GREAT MOVIE, FOR REAL.

I'd literally say it's better than the first one.

All of the plot contrivances in the first half are negligible and are barely even problems unless you overanalyze them too much. Like I do.

And I also watched all of the extras... Celine Dion is such a good sport, really, and honestly kind of a dork and super endearing and I love her honestly and think she caught too much flak for being a) a woman b) popular c) in the worst 'romance' movie ever made tifuckintanic god I hate that movie so much despite loving kate winslett, leonardo dicaprio, and james cameron as much as I really loathe to admit it. And Ashes is a really good song.

And I never thought I'd say this but... Lil Pump has really nice flow. I really kinda hope he isn't the dead one. I despise French Montana but I love Sia and by extension Diplo (because LSD), and the song they did for the movie was... bad. But I'll probably be checking out Lil Pump soon.

And anyway the winter solstice mtv unplugged acoustic version of take on me? Beautiful.

I enjoyed this movie a lot, despite the nitpicks.

Thank you Canada. 🇨🇦

[magzoso-tech]

New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/watchmen-review-hbos-new-dc-series-bravely-pushes-the-superhero-genre/

Watchmen Review: HBO’s New DC Series Bravely Pushes the Superhero Genre

The sheer proliferation of superhero culture in this century — more so, the past decade — has pushed filmmakers to venture into hitherto unexpected avenues. That has given us genre crossovers from period war epics (Wonder Woman) to animated spoofs (The Lego Batman Movie), highly self-aware commentary (Deadpool) to counter self-serious dramas (Logan), and fresh visual styles (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) or aural experiences (Black Panther). More recently, some have toyed with the very boundaries. The Boys semi-successfully touched upon how superpowers and a capitalist world could easily corrupt humans, before Joker delivered a cynical character study, albeit controversially and irresponsibly. Enter HBO’s Watchmen.

Based on the 1980s DC comic of the same name created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons — Moore’s name is missing from the credits, since he doesn’t want anything to do with adaptations, while Gibbons is also listed as a consulting producer — the new TV series adaptation comes from Damon Lindelof, previously a co-creator and showrunner on the hit supernatural sci-fi drama Lost, and then the largely-unknown supernatural mystery drama The Leftovers. Lindelof’s take on Watchmen is in some ways a sequel and a reimagining of the comic. It still takes place in an alternate reality where Vietnam is an American state, except it’s set in present day, one that has pagers instead of the Internet, and where Robert Redford — yes, the actor — has been the US President since 1992.

Since the events of the comic took place 34 years prior in Watchmen‘s past, only a select few of the eponymous team — Adrian Veidt / Ozymandias (Jeremy Irons), and Laurie Blake / Silk Spectre (Jean Smart) — are still around in 2019. Doctor Manhattan is repeatedly mentioned as living on Mars, but not shown, at least in the first six episodes that critics, including us, had access to. That means there are virtually no superpowers on display in the new HBO series. For what it’s worth, Watchmen has plenty of strange happenings on offer, be it alien conspiracies, a Vietnamese trillionaire, or a Veidt stuck in a world with clones. Lindelof has plenty of experience in dealing mysterious twists and turns from his Lost days, and he happily riffs on that to keep audiences wondering and guessing.

But that’s just the side dish. The meat and potatoes of the new Watchmen TV show is a deep-seated exploration of racial inequality in the US, with Lindelof — as the creator and primary writer — seemingly interested in delving into its cross-generational effects. Watchmen goes to great lengths to showcase the hate, violence, injustice, and disregard meted out to African-Americans, and how that leads to a corrosion of society itself. The HBO series looks at the different issues across various time periods, from the Tulsa race massacre in 1921 to the modern-day rise of white supremacist groups. In doing so, Watchmen is both timeless and timely, as it touches upon the racial divide that has been exacerbated in the age of Trump, who has emboldened the white supremacist cause.

Set for the most part in the city of Tulsa in the central US state of Oklahoma, the primary focus of Watchmen is Detective Angela Abar / Sister Night (Regina King). Angela adopted her masked alter ego after a white supremacist outfit The Seventh Cavalry — an officer sums them up as “basically the Klan with different masks” — launched a co-ordinated strike on Tulsa’s police and family several years ago, in response to reparations handed to victims of racial violence. The event is now known as the “White Night”, for the assailants all wore Rorschach masks, a former Watchmen now alluded to as deceased. While most of Tulsa police now wears yellow masks to protect their identities, some such as Angela have adopted a cover identity and are “retired” in public eyes.

These efforts have helped bring down crime by 80 percent in Tulsa — though with considerable police brutality as a by-product — as local Oklahoma Senator Keane (James Wolk) notes while trying to sell himself and his policies. But a three-year peace is disturbed after a Seventh Cavalry member nearly kills a patrol cop. That brings Laurie Blake (Smart) into the picture, who’s left behind her days as Silk Spectre, personal and professional partner to Doctor Manhattan, to become an FBI agent. She now helps catch vigilantes, who are outlawed in Watchmen as they were in the comic. Meanwhile, the only other former member, Adrian Veidt (Irons), seems to be occupying his own separates series — though he makes one intriguing appearance elsewhere — as he lives in a castle somewhere all by himself. He’s been declared dead officially, though rumours persist.

Future Watchmen episodes expand the series’ depth to look at the crime-fighting history of Angela’s family, and her fellow costumed detectives in the Tulsa police force, which include the likes of Wade Tillman / Looking Glass (Tim Blake Nelson), who wears a reflective silver mask on his mask, and Red Scare (Andrew Howard), a self-described communist dressed in all-red attire. Further vignettes help shed a light on the Vietnamese trillionaire Lady Trieu’s (Hong Chau) connection to the plot, who is using her massive fortune to build a new wonder of the world near Tulsa. Watchmen has a lot of exposition to wade through, and though most of it is handled, acted, or presented well — the sixth episode is especially well done — it’s inelegantly delivered at times.

Tim Blake Nelson as Looking Glass (third from left), and Regina King as Sister Night (second from right) in Watchmen Photo Credit: Mark Hill/HBO

In fact, the HBO series’ production is top-notch in every regard, as you’d expect. Complementing that visual treatment is the work of Oscar- and Grammy-winning composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, with their music delivering that same uneasy eeriness similar to Twin Peaks at times. The soundtrack is otherwise eclectic, comprised of songs across genres and time as Watchmen‘s story travels through decades of the previous century.

Lindelof’s desire to look at contemporary American issues does mean that Watchmen is largely self-serious, but it does make room for sprinkles of humour, most of which stems from jabs aimed back at the superhero culture the HBO series emanated from. A Batman lookalike is made to look foolish in one episode. Some of it is a variation on stuff from the comics: an FBI agent ridicules a “historically inaccurate” in-world TV series based on Minutemen, a superhero team from the 1940s that was also part of the comic. By baking that into a modern-day show within a show — it’s called “American Hero Story”, modelled on the similarly-titled anthology series — Watchmen tries to get at how nostalgia and superheroes have taken over pop culture. The unacknowledged joke is that it too is part of it.

Except that’s a clever bit of garnishing. It’s clear that Lindelof is using the superhero aspects of Watchmen as bait to draw viewers in, hoping to then engage them with a rich, heavy drama that is at its core. That core is very American though and hence might not strike a chord with portions of the international audience. Lindelof is likely betting he can pique their interest and get them to hang around by sprinkling mysterious elements influenced by his time as a veteran writer on Lost. Watchmen is obviously not a show for most fans of the superhero genre (or Lost fans, for that matter), but those willing to keep an open mind will find a relevant socio-political series that has a lot to say about us.

At the same time, Watchmen pushes the envelope of the superhero genre, in better, more successful ways than what has been claimed of other adaptations this year.

Watchmen premieres October 21 on Hotstar, and November 24 on Star World in India.

[freedomborn]

I wrote a little Nick and Lucas thing just for fun, directly inspired by a couple of lines from the movie ‘Moana’ (which I still haven’t seen. RIP)

Lucas and Nick have gotten into the habit of sitting by the riverbank and talking through their issues with each other, but they don’t usually get very far before they start arguing. Today, Lucas tries humor. It’s.... a little bit effective? 

“I’ve certainly forgiven you for the most part, but I’m not going to lie. There’s probably always going to be a small piece of me that says ‘fuck you’ for all that you’ve put me through.”

Like most long-time enemies, small talk between Nick and Lucas was always going to be a little bit uncomfortable. The two were seated by a riverbank deep in one of Montana’s beautiful forests, keeping an awkwardly large amount of distance between each other while Nick spoke. Lucas, during this time, couldn’t maintain eye contact for more than half a second with the younger man, and opted to watch the river instead.

Unlike most long-time enemies, though, they tried. It had been about a year since the first time they both ended up in this general location, and the interaction turned into a nasty fight that could have ended a lot worse than it did. Since then—and especially recently—both had been making a strong effort to abandon the past, talk through their problems, and hopefully find a little bit of common ground.

It wasn’t until those last couple of sentences that Lucas’ solemn expression started to change, and he glanced back at Nick with the very slight hint of a smirk.

The younger man caught the change, and raised an eyebrow curiously at his old enemy. “What? Did I say something amusing?”

“You said something incorrect, which is always amusing.” Meeting up here with Nick on Sunday afternoons was becoming too commonplace, and more than anything, Lucas just wanted to lighten the mood a little bit. This probably wasn’t the way to go about it, but considering nothing had ever worked in the past, it was time to try something new.

So far, Nick wasn’t taking it well. “Everything I’ve said to you in the past five minutes has been completely subjective and opinion-based; I didn’t present any facts that could be considered ‘incorrect’.”

So defensive. Lucas chuckled softly, picking up a stone in his hand and tossing it into the river in front of him. “Yeah, yeah, I know. You just had me at ‘fuck you’; you don’t usually slip up that much when you speak, but it’s okay. I know what you meant to say.” The blond was completely at a loss, so he continued. “I’m pretty sure what you meant to say is ‘thank you’.”

“Thank you?!”

“You’re welcome.”

“What? No; I… what??” It was probably immature to find Nick’s astounded and completely appalled state to be so funny, but… it was pretty damn funny. “Why would I…? I would never…!”

“Oh, come on. Give some credit where it’s due. You’re married and have children with a woman you never would have met if it wasn’t for the genetics lab. And who’s the one who paired you two together?”

Nick just stared at the other man for a moment, completely taken-aback by this argument. “You ordered her to spy on me and report back any suspicious activity because you thought I was a rebel.”

“Yeah. You’re welcome.”

The younger man opened his mouth to reply, but no words came to him. It seemed that his complete disgust had to be put on hold for a moment as he begrudgingly thought this over. He was glaring toward the ground now, but it wasn’t long before he muttered his half-assed answer.

“If she and I were somehow meant to be together, I’m sure we would have found each other without all of the pain. Even if not, I would’ve been none the wiser. I’d probably be married to someone else, having never met Christina, and in that circumstance I’m sure I would have fared just fine.”

“Okay, fine. But what about Logan? He’s important to you too, isn’t he?”

“Understatement,” Nick replied softly. He could tell where this was going, but he wasn’t about to deny his connection with the kid. “He’s my son; he’s the most important person in my life.”

“And who was responsible for his creation?”

“Sanders,” Nick retorted, without as much as a second thought. “Certainly not you.”

“Well unfortunately for you, that manipulative son of a bitch is dead--thanks to me; you’re welcome--so you can’t thank him. But keep in mind that none of his ideas would have been able to happen without my ability to run the place, and organize the teams, and insure that everyone had what they needed. And don’t forget who granted your request to let you take care of Logan in exchange for a little bit of extra work. That wasn’t Sanders.”

“Well yeah, but…”

“You’re welcome again.”

Nick let out a huff, getting up from where he was seated and taking a couple absent-minded steps closer to the riverside. As bad as he was at reading people, he could catch the playfulness in the other man’s voice, at least enough that he knew the insistence on a ‘thank you’ wasn’t completely sincere, but the topic required a bit of self-reflection nonetheless.

“I am happy now,” he admitted softly. “Not because of anything you’ve done, but certainly because of the people I met along the way. I’m not thankful that I was taken from my home and forced to play a role in some illegal organization for thirty years, and I don’t think anyone should expect me to be. But at the end of the day, things turned out. I never thought that they would, but they did.”

“That makes sense.” Lucas decided to stand as well, preferring to be at the same level as the other man when they talked. “And I’m glad that things are working out for you. Not saying you made the best decisions, really�� at any point ever in the lab, but even so. I’m glad that you had an opportunity to start fresh.”

Nick nodded in response, the argumentativeness having all but disappeared. Now his expression could be described as little more than neutral—serious, but calm. He didn’t think much of it when he responded to Lucas’ kinder words with a ‘thank you’, until a split second after he said it. “Don’t—“

“You’re welcome!”

Dammit, he fell for it; that one was painfully obvious. Nick rolled his eyes. He wanted to retaliate, but he knew very well that Lucas got what he wanted. Nothing that the blond could say now would make Lucas and less smug about winning this one. It wasn’t even worth trying.

...So he pushed him into the river instead. Seems like an appropriate long-time mortal enemy thing to do. It would have been a sufficient form of retaliation, if Lucas wasn’t twice his size, but the scientific mastermind didn’t quite think that far.

Oh well. Hindsight is 20/20 when you and your old enemy are sitting together in a shallow riverbed, staring dumbfounded at each other.

“Really Nick? Really?”  

‘You started it’? Childish. Throw water in his face to shut him up? Even more childish. Turn Lucas’ previous game against him? Also childish, but… reasonable. Better than saying nothing at all.

Nick went to stand up in the knee-deep water, but slipped on the mossy rocks under the surface and fell back down. Of course, Lucas was very quick to laugh at him for it. But he also didn’t look like he was going to try and get up himself any time soon.

The blond steadied himself and tried again, this time successful, and gradually waded back toward the shore.

“You provoked me to do it,” he chastised, glancing behind him as he pulled himself out. “But I was being more responsible than you think. I threw you into shallow water where the current isn’t strong. Unlike last year when you almost murdered me further downstream.”

“You had to bring that up?” Lucas eventually stood up too, taking a bit more care with it so he wouldn’t make a fool of himself like Nick did. But he was a bit more balanced anyway, so it wasn’t that hard to get up and climb back out. “That was an accident.”

“I think what you’re trying to say,” Nick replied smugly, shaking water out of his hair as he spoke, “is ‘thank you’.”

This is what their arguments boiled down to nowadays: this petty, childish nonsense. Lucas only snorted, punching the other man in the shoulder as he passed by.

“Oh yes, thank you so much for not having the motive of drowning me. Let’s not get into that all over again. I think we should probably head back to town before it gets dark… and while we’re on at least a semi-good note. And before you end up in the river a second time. I’d rather leave here jokingly insulting you than yelling at you.”

“Agreed.”

“For the record,” Lucas added, “I was completely kidding about all of that. I know I was an absolute piece of shit to you in the lab. I don’t think either of us owe each other anything at this point.”

“Yeah, I know. Lightening the mood and everything, I get that.”

As they conversed, the two started to make their way back, following the trail through the forest and back toward home. Lucas led the way, since the path was fairly narrow, and Nick didn’t object to following a few feet behind him.

“Oh, and another thing…” Lucas glanced behind him for a moment, meeting Nick’s eyes, before turning back around and focusing on the path in front of him again. It sounded serious, so the younger man chose to keep quiet this time and listen. “Just… for the record, again; I feel like I should tell you. So that you’re aware, you know? In case you aren’t.”

“Go on.”

Lucas nodded. Thankfully Nick couldn’t see from their positions that he was grinning. “Yeah, okay. I just wanted to say… you look really fucking stupid when your hair is wet. Like… seriously, it would do you a tremendous amount of good to get a haircut.”

“Hah…” Nick found himself grinning. He wasn’t going to start this again. Besides, there was something about Lucas’ joking insults that was almost comfortable. Like their relationship was changing for the better, but not too much. “Fuck you too.”

“You’re welcome. I’m keeping you from looking like an idiot in public.” As if they weren’t both soaking wet and covered in mud. But whatever; it was the thought that counted. Kind of. 

Of course, like most long-time enemies, things were bound to take some time. The pair had their moments where it felt like nothing would ever improve, and moments when they did genuinely feel like they hated each other again, but things were getting better. They talked, and they listened; they did what they could to put the past behind them. And as of today, the awkwardly large gap that they usually kept between them when walking together was just a little bit narrower.