#marvel maniac 2000

[marvelmaniac2000]

The Riddler - (Edward x Reader) 💚

Ch.3

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Summary: Edward can’t help seeing you struggle with your day to day life. Being a college girl is hard enough.  

Subject: SOMNOPHILIA/SMUT WARNING, storyline, Fluff, eventually will turn into smuts in between chapters, desperation, submissive kink, savior kink, Being pampered/babied kink, stalking, minor depression, mystery thriller? P in V content, slight choking,

Words: 1.7k

Characters: Edward Nashton x Reader (college fem! reader) 

MATURE 18+/MISSPELLING GRAMMAR APOLOGIES 

                                    (Side notes) 

 I want to drown in a sea of all things Edward Nashton and Paul Dano. I might write nonstop headcanons and other fics all week about this beautiful man. I’ll soon have more time, btw this chapter is consensual  <3 

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 Ch. 1 2 3 4

“You sure Eddie? I’m being serious if this–”

    “I’m sure we’ll figure it out though” you pause for a second and study his expression.

“I-It’s fine, I think we are going to be ok..just don’t overthink it” he gave you a sly smile. 

You stood up from the stool and snaked your arms around his waist resting your chin on his shoulder. “Thank you” you whispered before pressing a kiss on his cheek. Eddie flushed with heat having you kiss him. “Y-you’re welcome” He wanted you to stay close to his arm, but that would have to wait a little while longer tonight. 

  “I think we should get going. I was supposed to lock up the door like thirty minutes ago” you rushed over to the corner of the store to retrieve your jacket. 

“Right, but I’m sure you have to be back here before you know it right? It seems kind of pointless to him, considering you practically are here pretty early in the morning.  

 “Yep. One last day, and I will be switching jobs soon” Eddie followed behind you toward the door as you switched off the lights for the night. 

  “Text me when you make it home” Eddie curled his fingers in his pockets locking his eyes with yours. 

   “I will..” you gave a sweet grin realizing this was a beginning of something relieving. Like a new feeling of something you couldn’t quite describe. Was it too soon to move in with him? You watch him walk off as you graze the key against your fingers inside your pocket. Maybe it’s just you overthinking once more like he said. There’s so much that you couldn’t wait to do, But one thing you knew for certain though, you made the right decision for the roommate that you did want to have. 

   You walked down toward the first block near the stop sign to wave down the closest taxi driver.

Man were you tired. As soon as you hopped into the car, you slouched your head against the window watching the city pass by. There were just a few more things you needed to get down at home, before heading to bed. But man you couldn’t wait to text Eddie more than anything else. All the plans and future freedoms you can have, and also the relief you have hopefully only going have on the expenses and all that other jazz. Once the taxi driver arrived at your stop, you paid him his money before making your way to your home. 

   The warmth of the hallway hugged you, rubbing off your worked shoes at the door. 

You greeted your mom and spent time with her to ask about her day and everything else going on in her own world. The amount of time left was growing grim as you glanced at the time on the wall at your home. 

 You wished her goodnight before walking up the stairs to finally go into your bedroom. 

“Shit” you cursed to yourself realizing you forgot to text Eddie that you made it home. 

You scramble for your phone and text him. 

You: “Hey! Sorry for the late response, but I made it home” 

you smile at your screen and curl up on your bed. 

Eddie: It’s Ok :) I’m glad you made it safely. Are you free this weekend to talk about plans?”

You: “Yea I took off this Saturday, we can talk tomorrow too, we have plenty of time” 

Eddie: “I know I just need to let my landlord know in advance about you. But don’t worry I’ll take care of it”

You:  “oh yea that’s right lol … but we should make sure you have enough space in your place too.” 

Eddie: “Don’t worry, remember? Just get some sleep, and I’ll see you tomorrow morning :) 

Gn”

You: Good night :) 

You smiled and stared at your phone for a while, looking at his messages. How could someone be so perfect? He could do everything you wanted. But as a roommate and something more?

Can’t be possible. It would just mess everything up in the long run. You never want anything to harm his precious feelings either. Eddie was such a sweetheart to you. There’s no other guy who made you feel the way you did. But it was important not to get caught up in the moment and focus on the end goal of this stage. You slowly made your way to your bathroom to take a quick shower. 

    Eddie watched from across the street of your home and noticed the yellow light of your bedroom on. After your late text he had to make sure you went to bed or otherwise he himself wouldn’t be able to sleep for the night. Oh the things he would do to you every minute and day he would see you. Kiss you goodnight and whisper sweet nothings into your ear. That was something he planned on doing as soon as you went to bed. He usually never was this bold with his advances, but this time he felt as though he knew more and felt closer to you. You were his..

He slowly creeped over to your bedroom window and watched you enter your room naked with a towel wrapped around just your hair. “Oh baby” he whispered, taking in your beautiful body. His dick hardens, noticing your curves and every inch of your body. His glasses fogged up with his mouth wide open dreaming of touching your skin and being between those thighs. 

  Going unnoticed he watch you rub lotion on your skin and carefully slip on some very cute pink underwear that hugged your ass just right. Eddie hand tucked into his pants stroking himself slowly as he seen you crawl into bed and shut off your lamp for the night.

    Eddie waited patiently for a good while before finding a way to break into your home. He sneakily made his way into your bedroom and quietly closed your bedroom door. You were peacefully asleep with just your hair fallen over your face. 

  “My love” he whispered into your hair and smelled it. He slowly peeled the covers back and glided his hands up your soft legs. His fingertips brushed over the inside of your thigh making you moan just a bit in your sleep.

  Eddie bent down to kiss your thigh and slowly parted your legs without waking you. He couldn’t help seeing how peaceful and cute you were. All of your body was his and no one else. So pure and soft. All he wanted to do was pleasure you and make you feel good. “My precious girl” he rubbed his hand against your cheek and softly ran his fingers between your folds in your panties. You softly moan and squirm in your sleep. “Shh” Eddie grew harder watching your face squirm. He smiled wondering what you dreamed of as he pleased you. “You’re so wet baby girl” his hand was leaned against your side to support himself as he slowly swirled your clit with your lubricated up wetness. Eddie pushed up your night gown to expose your sweet breasts. 

  He carefully pulled your panties down halfway to expose your flower. His fingers twirled your nipples in circular motions to harden them. 

   He smirked carefully, giving a soft squeeze. His mouth grazed around your nipple while silently sucking on it. He watch your sleepless expression as your chest rise up and down. 

Eddie slips his digits inside you to feel your wetness build up while you rest. Making you squirm a bit between your legs. Eddie slowly retracted his fingers before undoing his pants. 

   His harden dick dripped off pre cum ready to own your body. His breath heavily tried to slow down pace before aligning himself between your thighs. He felt shameful for doing his but he wanted to make sure you were taken care of. You felt so good to him. All of you were taking him in as he slowly enters inside you. You slowly awaken and startled by seeing him on top of you. 

 Before you could speak Eddie covered your mouth with his hand. 

  “Please don’t scream” he continued to pump into you harder. You wrapped your legs around his waist to signal to him that you liked him inside you. You pull his hand away and quietly breathe out. “Eddie go faster” you pull him in closer to feel his strokes deeper inside you. 

  Eddie silently moaned out your name as you begged him not to stop. “Look at me Eddie” you softly took his adorable cheeks into yours. You both were in the dark but you could barely see his face. You weren’t sure if you were dreaming or not but you felt hungry and lustful for him as he made you feel pleasure. “I’m all yours” you kiss his lips clinging on his shoulders. 

  “You promise? He pounded into you harder feeling you silently scream. His hand lightly gripped your neck. You notice a slight difference in his puppy eyes that makes you go crazy. 

“mhmm” you bit your bottom lip  toes curled feeling him slowly soften his strokes to torture you. 

“I just wanted to make sure you were okay” he kissed your cheek. “I promise I am now” you whispered. “Sorry I think I made a mess” he pulled himself out of you and noticed a pool of cum on the sheets. 

   “Oh man” you had so many questions in your mind, but you didn’t bother asking yet, the only concern you had was felt in the moment. Your face was flushed red from how sleepish you still were. You pulled his arm back before he could get up. “No just stay here, sleep next to me until early in the morning, we're going to see each other anyway right?” you grabbed a towel to cover the sheets and cuddle next to him. “How am I going to be able to leave?” Eddie still was surprised at how you weren't freaking out. “Just sneak out the window silly” you whispered before falling to sleep cuddled up in his arms. 

Tag: @miurumacaroons

My Card

[thattimdrakeguy]

Frankly if you asked me, all of that unnecessary misdirection and twists that left poor Tim at the ‘make him angsty and edgier’ block for later writers to force upon him was the result of the whole darker and edgier train that permeated not just the Batbooks but the whole industry throughout the decade he was in.

Basically short, in my honest opinion, Tim Drake was the perfect character at the absolutely wrong time.

The 90s edgier nonsense (as foreshadowed by the marvelous competition’s hefty promotion of Venom, Cable and other like minded antiheroes, Early Image having a foundation built on that) made possible with the Batmania (since he’s naturally the perfect candidate for darker and edgier due to both his gothic aesthetic and his insane popularity) unfortunately gave the writers of that era and the 2000s the impression that since it’s Gotham, things in universe are just miserable and sucky

And since Tim lives in Gotham, despite meant to be the counter to that misery that permeates the city he helps defend, it was only a matter of time before that wrong impression got to him too

It’s why to this day, my preferred Tim Drake is that original Fanboy we saw in A Lonely Place of Dying since in the end, that’s what he’s meant to be, beginner or not and why I am still reluctant to get anything Dixon related on both him and Nightwing since those runs are built on that train of thought that says ‘misery in setting and edgier characters means compelling and mature storytelling, especially in Gotham’

I know, long winded, I just needed to vent. You may ignore this if you wish to

Bro, I just asked #cats what a raw potato tasted like, I don't feel like ignoring much.

And, I wouldn't say Tim was in the wrong time. He has his great successes in the 90s. The main reason he's talked about past people's obsession with one story in Red Robin, that has slowly lost popularity 'cause of people realizing it wasn't the best Tim--is 'cause of the 90s.

There was plenty of people who were sick of the big overexaggerated 90s crap even if it did infest Tim a bit when they'd draw him way buffer than he was clearly meant to be.

It's all just a matter of writers with the ability to do better either not advancing to the right places in comics, or throwing their talents down the toilet to be there.

It's all about good writing. That's it, really, that's the big secret.

Why is Dick a massive joke of a character now? 'Cause the writing got bad.

Why did Batman look like a total maniac more like usual for a while? 'Cause the writing got bad.

Why is Damian totally unrecognizable a lot of the time on nearly every single level for over a decade now(Though I have heard some aspects like art have been getting better, or so I've seen thankfully, but I'm still not trusting that all the way because now this fucking fucking hell)? 'Cause the work got bad.

Why is Jason just a fan fic edgy woobie fuck a lot of the time now? 'Cause the writing got bad.

How did Steph go from edgy, determined, "vigilante vixen", who was morally kinda questionable at times go to acting like a 12-year-old sometimes? 'Cause the writing got bad.

No matter what in the end. It's all down to the writing, and also art.

There's always been good movies in every decade no matter the taste, because people with true talent and knowledge, and know-how where out there to make so happen.

Comics being a dwindling medium that's how a down-turn in quality going on for a long time? It's just not a business worth getting into anymore. Passion or not, people just aren't good writers. And that can happen in any era.

But back to the main point, Tim was at his most popular in the 90s in an era you wouldn't think he'd fit into with all the Rob Liefeld stuff. Like he got an 80-page-giant in the late 90s over some characters you think would actually get one because he was so naturally popular.

But what made him work then isn't dated. It's timeless. They just haven't had good enough writers to make him work, and it sucks, but it's how it is.

The reason Tim really got changed so much isn't down to tastes in an era. It's down to the taste of a few people in specific positions. Things that made Tim work were still working wonders in other places.

[marveldcnerdys]

Venom War

“Venom War” is a compelling storyline that combines classic Marvel storytelling with a dark, thrilling twist on Spider-Man's universe. Though not as prominent as some of Spider-Man’s more iconic conflicts, the storyline adds depth to the relationships, motivations, and psychological complexities surrounding both Spider-Man and Venom. The Venom War arc appears in *Ultimate Spider-Man*, an alternate Marvel universe series where Spider-Man is younger, often more vulnerable, and faces unique challenges that separate it from the mainstream Marvel continuity. Let's dive deep into the plot, its key themes, and its impact on the Ultimate Universe.

Background on the Ultimate Marvel Universe

The “Ultimate” imprint was Marvel’s attempt to refresh classic characters with updated storylines, streamlined origins, and a more contemporary tone. Launching in 2000, it allowed creators to reimagine Marvel’s most popular characters without decades of continuity. In this universe, characters like Spider-Man are younger, facing modern issues, and developing differently than their original counterparts. *Ultimate Spider-Man* follows a teenage Peter Parker, allowing readers to explore his growth in a familiar yet distinct world.

Unlike the classic Spider-Man and Venom relationship, which is built on Eddie Brock's personal vendetta and the alien symbiote’s hatred for Peter Parker, Ultimate Venom has a different origin. Here, the symbiote is a biotechnological experiment created by Richard Parker and Eddie Brock Sr., designed as a “miracle cure” but later discovered to be dangerous. The suit becomes sentient and attaches itself to Peter, giving rise to a unique take on the Venom saga, distinct from mainstream Marvel.

The Plot of *Venom War*

“Venom War” spans several issues in *Ultimate Comics Spider-Man*, a series featuring Miles Morales, a young teenager who assumes the mantle of Spider-Man after Peter Parker's death in the Ultimate Universe. Following the tradition of “legacy heroes,” Miles offers a fresh take on Spider-Man, facing his own set of villains and challenges, one of which is Venom.

In *Venom War*, the Venom symbiote returns with a vengeance. This time, it targets not Peter Parker but Miles Morales and the people close to him. Venom is on a mission to absorb and corrupt as much as possible, believing it can achieve this by bonding with Miles. For Miles, this is more than a physical fight; it’s a psychological struggle, as he has just begun to understand the burden of being Spider-Man.

Venom's Quest for Power

The storyline reveals Venom as an even more monstrous and uncontrollable force than before, driven by a near-maniacal desire to bond with a Spider-powered host. Venom has learned of Miles Morales, and it views him as a more “pure” version of Spider-Man—a perfect host for symbiote domination.

In the process, Venom causes devastation wherever it goes, attacking and endangering people close to Miles, including his family and friends. This results in one of the most tragic moments in Miles' life: his mother, Rio Morales, is killed while trying to protect him from Venom. This moment serves as a turning point in Miles’ journey, transforming his motivations and outlook on his role as Spider-Man.

Miles' Struggle with Responsibility

Throughout “Venom War,” readers witness Miles grappling with the weight of responsibility that comes with his powers. Though he's still very young, he's forced to face a brutal truth about the life of a superhero—sometimes, despite your best efforts, the people you love get hurt. Rio's death forces Miles to reevaluate his mission as Spider-Man and the emotional toll that it demands.

This storyline pushes him to the limits of his endurance, testing his willpower and resilience as he confronts one of his most dangerous foes. Miles ultimately realizes that his greatest weapon is not his spider powers but his unbreakable spirit and the strength he derives from his love for those around him.

Themes in Venom War

“Venom War” covers a range of thematic elements that make it a resonant and impactful story for readers:

1. Legacy and Identity

The legacy of Spider-Man is a central theme in the Ultimate Universe, especially after Peter Parker’s death. Miles steps into Peter’s shoes, honoring his memory and taking on the Spider-Man mantle, despite initially doubting his worthiness. In facing Venom, Miles understands that he’s no longer just a “replacement” for Peter—he’s his own Spider-Man, bringing unique strengths and perspectives to the role.

2. The Cost of Heroism

The storyline emphasizes the immense cost of being a hero. Rio's death illustrates that being Spider-Man isn’t just about battling villains or saving the day; it’s about the personal sacrifices and losses that heroes endure. For a young hero like Miles, this lesson comes at a significant emotional cost, adding depth to his character and his ongoing journey as Spider-Man.

3. Power and Responsibility

“With great power comes great responsibility” is the mantra of Spider-Man across all universes, but *Venom War* places a darker spin on it. Miles, already struggling with the pressure of filling Peter’s role, faces an enemy who specifically targets his loved ones. He learns firsthand that his responsibilities extend beyond just battling villains—they include protecting his family and friends, often at a high personal cost.

Differences from the Classic Venom Storyline

The “Venom War” storyline diverges from the classic Venom arc in several ways:

1. Symbiote Origins: In the Ultimate Universe, Venom isn’t an alien life form from space. Instead, it's a man-made bio-suit with dangerous properties, originally developed by the fathers of Peter Parker and Eddie Brock as a potential cure for diseases. This scientific origin aligns with the more grounded tone of the Ultimate Universe.

2. Miles Morales as Spider-Man: Unlike traditional stories that pit Venom against Peter Parker, *Venom War* focuses on Venom’s pursuit of Miles Morales. This change allows readers to see how Miles handles a deadly villain with deep ties to the Spider-Man legacy. It’s a test of Miles’ resilience and his commitment to the Spider-Man identity, offering a fresh perspective on the classic hero-villain dynamic.

3. A Different Venom: This version of Venom is not solely motivated by revenge or jealousy toward Spider-Man but by a primal urge to bond with a “Spider-powered” host. Venom’s obsession with finding and corrupting Miles makes it an even more dangerous and unpredictable enemy, pushing the storyline into darker, more intense territory.

The Impact of Venom War on Miles Morales' Character Arc

Venom War is a significant turning point for Miles Morales, shaping his journey as Spider-Man in profound ways. The loss of his mother becomes a core element of his character, influencing his motivations and his understanding of heroism. While Peter Parker’s journey was marked by the death of Uncle Ben, Rio Morales’ death is Miles’ defining tragedy, binding him to Peter's legacy uniquely.

After this storyline, Miles’ commitment to being Spider-Man deepens. He’s no longer motivated solely by admiration for Peter or the excitement of being a hero. Instead, he understands the reality of the responsibility he carries. His mother’s death solidifies his resolve, making him a more serious and mature Spider-Man.

The Reception and Legacy of Venom War

Venom War received praise from both critics and fans for its emotionally charged storytelling and its darker tone. The storyline succeeded in giving readers a new perspective on Venom, introducing a more horrifying version of the character while exploring Miles' resilience and growth. It showcased the creative potential of the Ultimate Universe by taking familiar elements from the main Marvel continuity and reimagining them in innovative, often darker ways.

For many fans, *Venom War* is a standout moment in *Ultimate Comics Spider-Man* and a defining arc in Miles Morales' journey. It also reinforced why Miles remains such a popular character—his vulnerability, courage, and enduring optimism in the face of tragedy resonate with readers, making him a unique and relatable Spider-Man.

Conclusion

“Venom War” is more than just another battle between Spider-Man and one of his classic foes. It’s a story that examines legacy, responsibility, and the painful sacrifices that come with heroism. The arc allows Miles Morales to carve his own identity as Spider-Man while paying homage to the challenges and sacrifices that Peter Parker faced before him. As a pivotal story in the Ultimate Universe, *Venom War* offers a thrilling and poignant exploration of what it truly means to be Spider-Man, showcasing why both Peter Parker and Miles Morales are heroes for their worlds—and for readers across the globe.

[theastrophilearchitect]

WandaVision series review part 3.

You'd think I'd have learnt my lesson now--save the damn draft before you switch tabs to find the tags you want to add. But I haven't. Clearly.

The last two weeks I've posted parts 1 and 2 of my WandaVision review, because, even though by the time this goes up, WandaVision will have ended nearly a month ago, it's still all I can think about. Part 1 contained my initial thoughts and episodes 1-3 breakdown; part 2 contained episodes 4-6 breakdown, and this part will contain my episodes 6-9 breakdown and my final thoughts.

Episode Seven: ‘Breaking the Fourth Wall’ This episode was released on February 19th, with a runtime of still 37 minutes, following a 2000s-style sitcom format heavily influenced by Modern Family. 

Cue the recap, and we open to Wanda waking up in an empty bed. We then cut to an interview-style scene which I assume is based off Modern Family or another sitcom, like the interviews intermingled with reality TV, but there’s nothing to really pick apart; it’s just entertaining. The twins then run into Wanda’s bedroom and tell her their ‘game is freaking out’, and we see their controllers change over and over with that scarlet-TV texture. Billy comments that his head is noisy, an echo of the power shown in episode six, similar to Wanda’s own.

Interview-Wanda then says as punishment for expanding the borders, she plans on taking ‘a quarantine-style stay-cation’, which, written probably in 2019, did not age well. She goes downstairs to make milk, and it transforms between a carton and a bottle. These object shifts may be implying as Wanda expands the borders, she loses more and more control of even the things right beside her--the Hex is falling apart.

Cut to Hayward and SWORD setting up a new camp beside the new border of the Hex, but further back than before, likely to give them more time to move if it happens again.

Vision then wakes up in the circus the original SWORD camp was turned into, and, looking like his synthezoid self, is assumed to be a clown. He then sees Darcy, dressed as an escape artist, but she doesn’t remember him, clearly under Wanda’s control.

Wanda asks the twins if they’ve seen Vision, they ask if she wants them to look for him, and she replies, ‘If he doesn’t want to be here, there’s nothing I can do about it.’ It seems like she’s trying to defer her guilt at what she’s down to the townspeople. The twins then ask about Pietro--’Do not believe anything that man said. He is not your uncle.’ We saw Wanda blast him into a haystack towards the end of the last episode, but now he’s simply vanished. Wanda then laughs that she has none of the answers they expect her to, and makes some nihilistic comments. She uses her magic to open the door to a knock, and enter Agnes, who takes the kids next door to give Wanda some alone time. The furniture then begins to shift into pieces from the other decades, but Wanda fixes it.

Cut to Jimmy and Monica in a military vehicle they stole in the last episode, and Jimmy explains in Darcy’s hacking, she found a secret project called Cataract, to bring Vision back online--to fix the Vision. But it failed, until Wanda brought him back, which was why Hayward was so focused on Vision over Wanda in the Hex. They then meet some non-SWORD military people, who unveil a higher-grade vehicle, presumably for Monica to attempt to safely re-enter the Hex.

God, I love seeing Darcy in this show. She was the only good thing about the first two Thor movies. So Vision zaps Darcy, and she wakes up. They steal a circus vehicle--a transformed SWORD vehicle--and Vision asks her some questions about the Hex she doesn’t actually know the answers to.

The tension really builds in this episode, simply as it cuts between characters in much shorter intervals than in previous ones. We watch a montage of things in Wanda’s house shifting, then cut to an interview, where she explains that she doesn’t know what’s happening. Then, the person behind the camera asks, ‘Do you think maybe this is what you deserve?’ The voice doesn’t sound familiar, but knowing who the interviewer is, I can hear it. Wanda questions this because the interviewer isn’t supposed to talk, then cut to this episode’s advert.

This is for a drug called Nexus--’A unique anti-depressant that works to anchor you back to your reality. Or the reality of your choice.’ ‘Nexus. Because the world doesn’t revolve around you. Or does it?’ As someone who hasn’t actually read any comics, this information is very second-hand, but a Nexus Being in the comics is a powerful being with the power to alter reality and time--essentially in possession of the Infinity Stones’ powers without possessing the Stones themselves. This brings with it the implication that is what Wanda is--more than just a girl who got powers from the Mind Stone, but Nexus Beings aren’t elaborated on in the rest of the show.

Cut to Agnes and the twins; Billy says he likes it there, because Agnes’s mind is quiet, which is compared to Wanda. I want to explain the implications of this, but I’ve been trying to only spoil things as I get to them, so I’m going to keep my mouth shut, or rather... what’s the keyboard equivalent? God knows. Anyway, Agnes tells them not to worry about Wanda, because ‘she’s supermom’, which, you know, is a fun superhero thing.

Cut back to Monica, who prepares some kind of suit to re-enter the Hex. She gets in, and drives toward the barrier, but when the wheels meet it, they fail to pass, and begin to drive up the barrier, flipping Monica onto her back. The vehicle begins to rewrite itself and break apart; Monica manages to clamber out of a trapdoor in the roof. Jimmy prepares a medical thing, and the barrier spits out the vehicle. Monica turns back, drops her helmet, and plunges into the barrier, and presses through. Her body warps, we hear echoes of Captain Marvel, we hear Carol’s quote about Maria being given the toughest kid, and her body reforms, her eyes light up blue, and she passes all the way through, eyes still glowing, and we see a shots of her warped vision, almost as though she can see energy or EM radiation.

Darcy tries to explain why Wanda killed Vision to him, and though the road is empty, a traffic light is red. As it turns green, roadworkers approach, impeding them and preventing Vision from returning to central Westview. 

Monica enters Wanda’s house, who threatens her, and lifts her telekinetically out onto the street, where she is watched by the neighbours. Wanda drops Monica to the ground, but she pulls a superhero landing, with blue lights for effect--her DNA has been rewritten by the Hex’s borders for the third time, and it’s clearly unlocked something. Wanda continues to threaten her, and Monica says to do it--’Don’t let [Hayward] make you the villain,’ to which Wanda replies, ‘Maybe I already am.’ Which is fair, but then villains never think they’re the bad guys.

Agnes watches them from a window. Monica tries to talk Wanda down, then Agnes comes outside, tells Monica to leave, and takes her inside. The people haven’t questioned Wanda’s magic, or Monica’s apparent new powers, which merely shows the extent of Wanda’s control. It’s also interesting that Monica didn’t fall under her control again when she re-entered the Hex.

Cut to Vision and Darcy, the roadworks clear away, but someone with a stop sign and a queue of crossing children continue to block their way. Vision phases through the van’s roof, and flies away.

Wanda notices the kids’ show on Agnes’s TV, and the half-eaten food on the coffee table, and realises the twins are missing. She asks, and Agnes tells her they’re probably in the basement, where Wanda then obviously goes. The basement walls are covered in branches, made of stone, and there is no reply when Wanda calls for the twins. She then enters an ancient chamber, walls engraved with runes, and a spellbook on the side.

Agnes comes downstairs, stroking Senor Scratchy, the rabbit Wanda and Vision used in their magic act way back in episode two, and says, ‘You didn’t think you were the only magical girl in town, did you?’ Agnes shuts the door with a twist of her hand and some purple sparks.

‘The name’s Agatha Harkness. Lovely to finally meet you, dear.’

Purple fogs Wanda’s eyes, and cue the best moment in the entire series: Agatha All Along. This musical number essentially shows that Agatha has been behind everything that’s gone wrong for Wanda, aside from SWORD, obviously, and is such a good song. Go listen to it. Now. Immediately. Go. 

We see her screw up the magic show, send Pietro to the door, and we see her sitting behind the interview camera.

‘And I killed Sparky, too.’ Insert maniacal laughter, and cue the credits.

We sit through to the split between the animated credits and typical black and white scrolling ones, and this episode has an mid-credits scene. I checked for one the first few episodes, then gave up, and I can’t remember what it was that made me find this one, if it was just letting the credits play, or feeling the odd urge to check, or what.

We watch Monica try to find a way into Agatha’s house. She pulls open basement doors, then--’Snooper’s gonna snoop.’ Fake Pietro stands behind her, dressed in a beanie, hair no longer mostly white as per Quicksilver’s design.

This is my second-favourite episode overall, first being episode 8, and contains the biggest switch since episode 4. We meet the big bad, since Marvel is literally incapable of writing a story in which the climax isn’t between the hero and a villain with their exact same powers. (WandaVision takes this to the extreme, but that would be a spoiler.)

Episode Eight: ‘Previously On’ Released February 26th, Marvel blessed us with an episode 46 minutes long! At last! This was the second episode to completely break the sitcom format (first being episode 4, obviously), which leaves us in 2000s-themed Westview, but without a laugh track or any other sitcom elements.

We open with a recap, including Jimmy Woo’s explanation of Wanda and Pietro’s origins pre-Avengers from what I believe was episode 5. Or was it 4? Probably 4, because it was really soon after Hayward was introduced, in episode 4. Yes. Let’s go with that. 

This episode opens in Salem, Massachusetts, 1693, and we watch Agatha dragged to and magically tied to a stake, to be killed for betraying her coven of witches, by practising dark magic, but she denies it. She then relents and admits it, begs for help to control it, but the witches blast some kind of blue magic at her, which Agatha turns violet, and absorbs, killing the witches wielding it. The witch she calls mother, who also seems to be the leader of the coven, blasts her with magic after the others are dead, and as she does so, a kind of crown of the same blue light glows around her head (something I would neither notice nor question if I had not yet watched the series the whole way through). Agatha absorbs her magic and kills her, too. She steals a necklace from her mother, flies away, and we cut back to present.

Wanda tries to penetrate Agatha’s mind, but she tells her her thoughts were never available--a repeat of Billy calling her mind ‘quiet’ in episode 7, but I’m not actually sure the point of this, aside from limiting information available to both Wanda and the audience. Wanda’s Sokovian accent also returns in this scene. She tries to use her magic, but Agnes puts her in magical binds and explains that the runes in the walls mean ‘only the witch who cast the runes can use her magic’. Agatha also explains how she possessed fake Pietro--Fietro--not so she could control his mind, but so she could see through his eyes and ears.

Agatha questions how Wanda cast so many spells to control so many people, so many objects and locations all at once, when she had no magical training, which confuses Wanda because she doesn’t use incantations the way Agatha does; her magic is more through willpower and intention. 

Agatha then brings Wanda through a door, in an attempt to comprehend how she did it, and it leads them to an old, one-room living space in Sokovia--Wanda’s childhood, before her parents died. They prepare for a TV night, and their father invites young Wanda to pick, showing her a box containing various sitcoms--Bewitched, Malcolm in the Middle, I love Lucy, Who’s the Boss?, The Addams Family etc.--many of which acted as the basis for episodes of WandaVision, but she chooses The Dick Van Dyke Show. This love of sitcoms, the ideation in comparison to the Cold War outside, is where Wanda’s subconscious choice of making Westview into one--her version of a paradise for herself and Vision.

Then a bomb goes off outside, killing their parents and leaving Wanda and Pietro in rubble. A bomb lands before them, Stark Industries written on the side, but their television is behind it, and Dick Van Dyke still plays. 

Cut back to present Wanda and Agatha; Wanda says the bomb was defective, but they were trapped for two days, and Agatha implies it not going off was Wanda’s doing, believing her to be a witch like herself.

They move onto a HYDRA testing chamber, where teenage volunteer-Wanda stands near the sceptre from The Avengers, the one Thanos gave to Loki, the one containing the Mind Stone. She moves toward it, and the sceptre’s blue orb breaks from the handle; floats towards her. She touches it, and it bursts, revealing the yellow Mind Stone inside, and letting out a kind of wind blast. In the light, Wanda sees a silhouette reminiscent of the original Scarlet Witch design.

They take Wanda to isolation, and we watch some scientist replay the tape from the testing chamber, but in the footage, the orb doesn’t move; she moves to the room’s centre, then it cuts to her lying on the ground.

Agatha concludes that the Mind Stone amplified a dormant power, and they move to a memory of the Avengers compound post-Avengers: Age of Ultron. Past-Wanda is grieving for Pietro, Vision enters her room, and she invites him to sit. They discuss the comedy on her TV, then he asks if she wants to talk about her grief, and she describes it as ‘this wave washing over [her], again and again. It knocks [her] down, and when [she tries] to stand up, it just comes for [her] again.’ Vision tries to reassure her, then says the thing that everyone’s been quoting but hit me hard: ‘But what is grief, if not love persevering?’

Agatha asks present-Wanda what happened when there was no-one there to pull her back from the dark, and when Wanda refuses, she presses. They shift into the SWORD compound, where past-Wanda approaches the desk demanding to be given Vision’s body post-Avengers: Endgame. This is the point from the CCTV Hayward showed Monica, Darcy, and Jimmy, claiming Wanda stole Vision’s body.

The receptionist calls somebody, and sends her down the hall, and I can’t help but notice that in her grief, in her hoodie and jeans, her hair is perfectly curled. She goes to Hayward’s office, who takes her into a windowed chamber, beneath which she can see mechanics/engineers doing something to Vision’s body, colour faded and parts broken up. The eyes in his severed head are white, and Wanda is upset, but Hayward questions why she wants to bury him, when she has the power to ‘bring [her] soulmate back online.’ But Wanda says she can’t do it, like when she refused to bring back Sparky, and Hayward tells her his materials are too valuable to just be buried, but offers her the chance to say goodbye. He tells her Vision isn’t hers, and she shatters the glass; lowers herself into the room.

Hayward calls off the guards who raise their guns at her. She lifts her power to his head, where the mind stone was: ‘I can’t feel you,’ reminiscent of the I just feel you, in Avengers: Infinity War, when the Stone bothered him in the night in Scotland. And she leaves, without the body, proving to the audience that Hayward is a liar.

Wanda drives to Westview, real Westview, where she watches the people go about their regular lives, but they seem sad. They all seem sad. She drives to a plot, the outline of a house marked by a concrete foundation, holding a piece of paper from an envelope in the car. She unfolds it to find a plan for the house: To grow old in. -V. Wanda breaks down in what is presumably the plot she turned into their house in the Hex, and her power explodes from her, in huge gusts we’ve never seen. The house forms itself, then it goes further, transforming the town and turning it to monochrome in preparation for WandaVision episode one.

Streams of power turn gold in the air, and form the silhouette of a body, which solidifies into Vision, black and white Vision, dressed in 50s clothes. Wanda remains in colour, in her regular clothes, then she turns to monochrome, to her 50s outfit, and Vision greets her. And despite the seriousness of this scene I can’t get over the damn bullet bra. 

And the pair sit down to watch the television, then the surroundings shift, and we see present-Wanda in her 2000s living room, but in a set, with empty seats for a live audience before her. Agatha claps from them, then vanishes. We hear the twins yell, and Wanda comes outside to find Agatha magically garrotting them, dressed in full-witchy attire.

Agatha describes Wanda as ‘a being capable of spontaneous creation’, calls it chaos magic--’And that makes you the Scarlet Witch.’ I feel like I ought to say roll credits, only that’s not even the name of the show. Before WandaVision’s title was officially announced, I remember seeing speculation that it would simply be called Vision and the Scarlet Witch, like Falcon and the Winter Soldier. 

The credits roll, and, halfway through, we cut to Hayward and SWORD outside the Hex. Hayward goes into a tent, describes all their hard work at something, ‘but all we needed was a little energy directly from the source;’ and we’re shown the missile Wanda dragged out of the Hex in episode 5, glowing red. Someone flips a switch, and we watch lights turn on in a glass chamber, containing Vision, rendered in pure white, who wakes up. Another Vision, made from the original, and yet before this episode, due to the constant thing about twins, people were speculating there were two Wandas. Wrong character, right idea.

This is my favourite episode in the show: it’s magical, and it makes everything make so much more sense. We see that the Hex’s creation was an accident, but Wanda was ‘making it up as [she went] along,’ like the theme song in, I believe, episode 5. I just love origin stories.

Episode Nine: ‘The Series Finale’ This finale was released on March 5th, with a grand total of 49 minutes of runtime, and, epic as it was, I found it to be rather disappointing, following a fairly typical Marvel formula, compared to the originality of the rest of the series. Granted, parts of this episode in particular were shot in 2020, so they didn’t quite go as planned, but still. The CGI is excellent though.

We open to exactly where we left off; Wanda frees the twins and sends them inside, then sends a blast at Agatha, who absorbs it-- ‘I take power from the undeserving. It’s kinda my thing’--and Wanda’s hand begins to blacken. Agatha offers her Westview in return for her magic, which Wanda obviously doesn’t accept. White Vision lands behind her, and she goes to him, confused. He places his hands on her face, but presses, trying to crack her skull, and it becomes clear he is doing Hayward’s bidding.

In sweeps Wanda’s Westview-Vision (who we’ll call Red Vision) and blasts White Vision away. The two swoop off together for their own fight, Wanda flies after Agatha, and we see Monica locked in a messy living room with Fietro, where she has presumably been since the end of episode 7.

The Visions fight each other, in that classic Marvel way of pitting the hero against a villain with an identical skillset (I’m looking at you, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and basically every other movie. Seriously, Marvel needs to make more villains like Loki, instead of introducing them at the start of a film and having them somehow taken out of the equation by the end). It’s a cool sequence, as they phase through each other and plummet up and down. I love flying sequences.

At SWORD, Jimmy calls out Hayward, saying he won’t be able to cover this out, but Hayward says Wanda stopped her show, so there’s no evidence, and there’ll only be one Vision by the end, who people will assume Wanda resurrected. But Jimmy says he has called some friends from Quantico--whatever that is--to expose Hayward, who handcuffs him, but Jimmy is a magician, so he frees himself and actually calls somebody to apprehend Hayward.

Wanda arrives in the town square, to no sign of Agatha, and is then blasted to the ground by her from behind. Agatha summons a book we saw in her basement: ‘The Scarlet Witch is not born, she is formed. She has no coven, no need for incantation. [Her] power exceeds that of the Sorcerer Supreme’--Doctor Strange--’It’s [her] destiny to destroy the world.’ But Wanda denies that she is a witch. Agatha casts a spell on Dottie from episode 2, apparently bringing her back to consciousness. She tells Wanda her name is Sarah, and begs her to let her bring her daughter out of her room. Wanda accuses Agatha, who replies, ‘She’s your meat puppet. I just cut her strings.’ I just love that line, for some reason.

Agatha casts another spell, and everyone in the square returns to their senses, approaches and surrounds Wanda. 

Monica finds a document in the room with Fietro, that says his name is Ralph Bohner. This was incredibly unsatisfying to me--it’s interesting that Fietro is actually the Ralph Agnes constantly mentioned, but nothing else comes of this, and, as of the end of the series, Pietro and his changed face are simply an elaborate boner joke. I wish his face had some kind of relevance as of now, but it may become relevant in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, because that’s obviously where we’re really going to delve into the multiverse, and it features Wanda, so it would make sense.

Monica pins down Ralph and tears a string of beads from his neck, which glowed purple; the thing allowing Agatha to control him.

In the twins’ room, Billy has a vision (heh) of what is happening with Wanda, and they run outside.

The people around Wanda bombard her with their real stories, their real problems. ‘When you let us sleep, we have your nightmares.’ She yells that she’s kept these people safe, but they beg to be freed, and the noise builds, until Wanda screams, with a burst of power that toes ropes around their necks, suffocating them, but she stops it. Mrs Hart begs her, ‘If you won’t let us go, just let us die.’ Agatha taunts her that heroes don’t torture people, and she sends out a blast of power, that highlights the Hex’s border crimson, and it begins to break apart. She tells them all to leave now.

His white counterpart blasts Red vision to the ground, near Wanda but he begins to break apart. The twins arrive, and begin to break apart, tied to the Hex. It looks weirdly like a LEGO advert, but Wanda recloses to Hex to save them. You know, what? I’m still not sure why it’s hexagonal. I wouldn’t question it being round, or quadrilateral, but hexagonal seems too intentional.

Agatha blasts the family with magic, and Wanda shields them, but Agatha absorbs the power. SWORD vehicles roll into the square, hayward in one, having apparently managed to cross the border before Wanda closed it again. White Vision rolls into the scene and slams Red Vision through the walls of and into a library, and Red stops White attacking him by explaining that he is not the true Vision, because he’s just Wanda’s version.

Wanda flies up, again after Agatha, while the twins use their powers to take away SWORD’s guns, and Hayward comes out with a pistol, which he fires at them, but Monica, having freed herself from Ralph, blocks the bullets. They ripple through her body, and pass through, but fall to the ground as her eyes glow orange. As Hayward drives back, then revs up to apparently run them over, Darcy, in the circus van, slams his vehicle into the side of a building.

We cut to the Vision’s pondering the Ship of Theseus--a philosophical thought experiment. If the Ship of Theseus has one of its planks replaced, it remains the Ship of Theseus. But, if all the planks are replaced over time, is it still the same ship? And what if the old planks are reassembled into another ship; which is then the true ship? This is a metaphor for the two Vision’s--White being the reassembly of the old planks, and Red being the replaced.

Red Vision proposes that the true ship is the one touched by Theseus himself, with the wear and tear, suggesting White Vision is the true one, because he has the memories Red doesn’t; the one touched by Wanda. White Vision claims he does not have the memories, but Red tells him his data banks are not so easily wiped--they’re there, just withheld. White allows Red to do his zappy thing, and the memories of everything Vision went through pre-WandaVision comes back to him. White says he is the true Vision, and flies away through the roof.

Meanwhile, Wanda sneaks up behind Agnes and does the nightmare-mind thing she did to the Avengers at the beginning of Avengers: Age of Ultron, sending her mind to the stake at the opening of episode 8. The desiccated witches rise, but instead turn on Wanda, calling her a witch, again, and again. The witches wrest Wanda onto the stake instead, but a red crown, like the blue on Agatha’s mother in episode 8, materialises on her head, formed of the same light as her magic. It’s really jarring at this point that she’s still in a hoodie and sweatpants.

Wanda blasts away the other witches, and they emerge from the nightmare, back to Westview. She and Agatha rise, blast magic at one another, and Wanda’s hands blacken further as Agatha absorbs more and more. She sends a blast at one of Westview’s walls, and a spot ripples in the middle of each. 

Wanda’s face seems to age, like the witches of Agatha’s coven, and Agatha absorbs streams of magic, until Wanda has none left. She gives her some depressing lecture, then tries to blast Wanda out of the sky, but it doesn’t work. Her hands begin to blacken, and Wanda’s face youthens, then the camera pans to reveal runes on Westview’s walls, like those in the basement, now disabling Agatha’s magic. Little confused how Wanda stayed flying when Agatha took her power, and how Agatha now stays flying.

The red crown reappears on Wanda’s head, her eyes glow, she reabsorbs her power from Agatha, and, as she does, she changes. Her hair comes down, and she becomes the silhouette she saw in the Mind Stone at HYDRA, finally getting a Scarlet Witch costume, and it is epic. 

They return to the ground, and Wanda uses her powers to put Agatha under the control she had the other residents under, to turn her into the Nosy Neighbour once and for all. Wanda leaves Agatha alive, so she could return in future instalments,.

Wanda, Red Vision, and the twins return to their home, and the Hex’s border contracts, until it covers only their street. They put the boys to bed, and Vision begins, ‘Your mother and I...’, and, when I first watched this, I really thought he was going to say ‘...are getting a divorce,’ but he simply finishes, ‘...are very proud of you both.’

Wanda says that ‘a family is forever,’ clearly already in mourning for the children she’s about to lose. They finish up, the border continues contracting, and Wanda turns off the lamps in the living room, though Vision turns one on, to say goodbye. As the border progresses towards them, Vision asks what he is, and says some literal and romantic crap; they kiss, talk a little, and he breaks apart as the border reaches them, and the house returns to the empty plot it once was.

Wanda is left standing exactly how she was before she formed the Hex, same hair, same clothes, puts up her hood, and walks into town. where the people glare as she approaches Monica, who says, ‘They’ll never know what you sacrificed for them.’  They have a classic series-wrap-up conversation, then Wanda shifts into her Scarlet Witch outfit, and flies away.

Mid-credits scene; we see Jimmy just after the debrief, Hayward is put in handcuffs, and Monica is called into the theatre, where she meets someone wearing a police badge, who shifts into a skrull. The skrull says a friend of Monica’s mother’s would like to meet with her, presumably Talos, and when Monica asks where, she just points up. 

And an end-credits scene opens in a pan shot, zooming to a cabin by a lake in the woods, where Wanda, dressed in sweats, sits on the porch with a mug. We follow her inside as the kettle whistles, but the camera continues into the bedroom, where her astral form sits, dressed as the Scarlet Witch, with the Darkhold, the book Agatha had. When we see Doctor Strange astral-project, his body falls unconscious, and this truly proves the Scarlet Witch is more powerful than the Sorcerer Supreme, as aforementioned.

This series really solidified my love for Wanda and Vision--Wanda, who I liked before, but mostly because of her powers than her character, which lacked development, and Vision, who I kinda hated because of his moral-high-ground bullshit, but who I now love--brought back fan favourites Darcy Lewis and Jimmy Woo, and set up Monica’s future plotlines. In truth, I liked Agatha better before she went full-witch mode, but she was an enjoyable villain. Hayward, on the other hand, was someone easy to hate, but not to such a level it was fun to hate him.

Every episode kept me on my feet, and every week I screamed I couldn’t wait for another. Part of my love for this was because we’d had no MCU content since July 2019, with Spider-Man: Far From Home, but it was just such excellent storytelling. Though the climax was a little disappointing, it was still more entertaining than most action sequences, where things happen so quickly I just zone out, and the visuals were incredible. I loved the sitcoms, and the differentiation at the end. Episode 4 was the perfect time to finally give us some form of explanation.

Basically, watch this damn show. Though I’d be surprised if you got this far without watching it. Watch it, make everyone else watch it, and, writers, take notes. The best stories are the ones with excellent characters and an excellent plot, and WandaVision mastered it.

[iwouldvebeendrake01]

WOMEN IN FILM

Agnieszka Holland - director, The Secret Garden (1993) Alice Waddington - director, Paradise Hills (2019) Amma Asante - director, Belle (2013), A United Kingdom (2016) Amy Heckerling - director, Look Who’s Talking (1989), Clueless (1995) Angela Workman - writer, The Zookeeper’s Wife (2017), Longbourn (?) Angelina Jolie - director, By the Sea (2015), First They Killed My Father (2017) Anna Boden - director, It’s Kind of a Funny Story (2010), Captain Marvel (2019) Anna Kendrick - exec. producer, Dummy (?), Love Life (?) Anne Fletcher - director, The Proposal (2009), Dumplin’ (2018) Ava DuVernay - director, Selma (2014), A Wrinkle in Time (2018) Barbara Streisand - director, Yentl (1983) Brenda Chapman - director, The Prince of Egypt (1998), Brave (2012) Brie Larson - director, Unicorn Store (2017) Bryce Dallas Howard - director, Dads (2019), The Mandalorian Ch. 4 (2019) Carey Mulligan - exec. producer, Promising Young Woman (2020) Cate Shortland - director, Lore (2012), Black Widow (2020) Cathy Yan - director, Birds of Prey (2020) Céline Sciamma - director, Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) Chanya Button - director, Vita & Virginia (2018) Charlize Theron - producer, Monster (2003), Atomic Blonde (2017), Bombshell (2019) Chloé Zhao - director, Eternals (2020) Claire McCarthy - director, Ophelia (2018), The Luminaries (?) Debbie Allen - director, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990), The Twilight Zone (2003) Deborah Chow - director, The Mandalorian Ch. 3, Ch. 7 (2019), Obi-Wan Series (?) Debra Granik - director, Winter’s Bone (2010) Desiree Akhavan - director, Appropriate Behavior (2014) Diablo Cody - writer, Jennifer’s Body (2009), Young Adult (2011) Dorota Kobiela - director, Loving Vincent (2017) Drew Barrymore - director, Whip It (2009) Elizabeth Banks - director, Pitch Perfect 2 (2015), Charlie’s Angels (2019) Elizabeth Olsen - exec. producer, Sorry for Your Loss (2018–) Emma Stone - exec. producer, Maniac (2018) Emma Thompson - writer, Sense and Sensibility (1995), Last Christmas (2019) Gal Gadot - producer, Wonder Woman 1984 (2020), Hedy Lamarr Mini-Series (2020–) Gillian Armstrong - director, Little Women (1994), Death Defying Acts (2007) Greta Gerwig - director, Lady Bird (2017), Little Women (2019), Barbie (?) Gurinder Chadha - director, Bride & Prejudice (2004), Blinded by the Light (2019) Jamie Babbit - director, Supergirl (2016), The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2018) Jane Goldman - writer, Stardust (2007), X-Men: First Class (2011), Rebecca (2020) Jennifer Lee - writer, Frozen (2013), Zootopia (2016), Frozen II (2019) Jerusha Hess - writer, Napoleon Dynamite (2004), Nacho Libre (2006), Austenland (2013) Jessica Chastain - producer, I Am Jane Doe (2017), 355 (2021) Joanna Hogg - director, Unrelated (2007), Archipelago (2010), The Souvenir (2019) Josie Rourke - director, Coriolanus (2014), Mary Queen of Scots (2018) Julia Ducournau - director, Raw (2016), Titane (2020) Julie Taymor - director, Frida (2002), Across the Universe (2007), The Glorias (2020) Karen Gillan - director, The Party’s Just Beginning (2018) Kari Skogland - director, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2020–) Karyn Kusama - director, Æon Flux (2005), Jennifer’s Body (2009), Destroyer (2018) Kate Mara - producer, My Days of Mercy (2017), A Teacher (2020–) Kathryn Bigelow - director, The Hurt Locker (2008), Zero Dark Thirty (2012) Katt Shea - director, Poison Ivy (1992), Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase (2019) Kay Cannon - writer, New Girl (2012-2013), Girlboss (2017), Cinderella (2021) Kelly Fremon Craig - director, The Edge of Seventeen (2016)  Lana & Lilly Wachowski - directors, The Matrix (1999), Cloud Atlas (2012) Laura Lau - director, Silent House (2011) Leslye Headland - writer, Terriers (2010), Bachelorette (2012), Russian Doll (2019–) Lindsey Beer - writer, Chaos Walking (2020), The Kingkiller Chronicle (?), Silver Sable (?) Lois Weber - director, A Heroine of ‘76 (1911), The Angel of Broadway (1927) Lone Scherfig - director, An Education (2009), One Day (2011), Their Finest (2016) Lorene Scafaria - director, Seeking a Friend for the End of the World (2012), Hustlers (2019) Lucia Aniello - director, Rough Night (2017), Broad City (2014-2019) Lupita Nyong’o - producer, In My Genes (2009), Americanah (2020–) Lynne Ramsay - director, We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) Madonna - director, Filth and Wisdom (2008), W.E. (2011) Margot Robbie - exec. producer, Gotham City Sirens (?), Modern Shakespeare Project (?) Marielle Heller - director, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (2019) Marjane Satrapi - director, Persepolis (2007), The Voices (2014), Radioactive (2020) Marti Noxon - writer, Fright Night (2011), To the Bone (2017), Sharp Objects (2018) Mary Harron - director, American Psycho (2000), Alias Grace (2017), Charlie Says (2018) Mary Pickford - writer, The Awakening (1909), Rags (1915), A Girl of Yesterday (1915) Michelle Williams - exec. producer, Blue Valentine (2010), Fosse/Verdon (2019) Millie Bobby Brown - producer, Enola Holmes (2020) Mimi Leder - director, Deep Impact (1998), On the Basis of Sex (2018) Nancy Meyers - director, The Parent Trap (1998), The Holiday (2006), The Intern (2015) Naomi Watts - exec. producer, Gypsy (2017), The Wolf Hour (2019) Natalie Dormer - writer, In Darkness (2018) Natalie Portman - director, A Tale of Love and Darkness (2015) Nia DaCosta - director, Little Woods (2018), Candyman (2020) Niki Caro - director, Whale Rider (2002), The Zookeeper’s Wife (2017), Mulan (2020) Noomi Rapace - producer, Stockholm (2018), Close (2019), Hearts of Stone (2020) Nora Ephron - director, Sleepless in Seattle (1993), You’ve Got Mail (1998), Julie & Julia (2009) Octavia Spencer - exec. producer, Green Book (2018), Self Made (2020–) Olivia Wilde - director, Booksmart (2019) Patty Jenkins - director, Monster (2003), Wonder Woman (2017), I Am the Night (2019) Penélope Cruz - producer, Twice Born (2012), Ma ma (2015), The Queen of Spain (2016) Penny Marshall - director, Big (1988), A League of Their Own (1992) Phoebe Waller-Bridge - writer, Fleabag (2016-2019), No Time to Die (2020) Quiara Alegría Hudes - writer, In the Heights (2020), Vivo (2021) Rachel Weisz - producer, The Shape of Things (2003), Radiator (2014), Disobedience (2017) Rashida Jones - writer, Black Mirror: Nosedive (2016), Toy Story 4 (2019) Rebecca Hall - director, Passing (2020) Reese Witherspoon - producer, Penelope (2006), Gone Girl (2014), Tinker Bell (?) Robin Wright - director, House of Cards (2014-2018), Land (?) Ruth Wilson - exec. producer, Mrs. Wilson (2018) Sally Potter - director, Orlando (1992), The Man Who Cried (2000) Salma Hayek - producer, Frida (2002), Ugly Betty (2006-2010), The Prophet (2014) Sandra Bullock - exec. producer, George Lopez (2002-2007), The Proposal (2009) Scarlett Johansson - exec. producer, The Whale (2011), Black Widow (2020) Sofia Coppola - director, Lost in Translation (2003), The Beguiled (2017) Susanna White - director, Bleak House (2005), Jane Eyre (2006), Woman Walks Ahead (2017) Susanne Bier - director, Serena (2014), The Night Manager (2016), Bird Box (2018) Tessa Thompson - exec. producer, Little Woods (2018), Sylvie’s Love (2020) Thea Sharrock - director, The Hollow Crown: Henry V (2012), Me Before You (2016) Thea von Harbou - writer, Destiny (1921), Metropolis (1927), Woman in the Moon (1929) Tina Fey - writer, Mean Girls (2004), Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015-2019) Valerie Faris - director, Battle of the Sexes (2017), Living with Yourself (2019–) Vanessa Taylor - writer, Divergent (2014), The Shape of Water (2017) Zoe Kazan - writer, Ruby Sparks (2012), Wildlife (2018) Zoe Lister-Jones - director, Band Aid (2017), Woman Up (?), The Craft (?) Zoe Saldana - producer, Rosemary’s Baby (2014), The Honor List (2018), From Scratch (2020–) Zooey Deschanel - exec. producer, New Girl (2011-2018)

[neutral-evil-slytherin]

Spider-Man (2002)

Before Tom Holland stole the hearts of many in his portrayal of the webslinger, and even before Andrew Garfield took on the mantle, there was Tobey Maguire in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man.

And allow me to tell you why this stands as my favourite Spider-man film!

If someone hadn’t the foggiest clue who Spider-Man was apart from being a superhero, this would the ideal film to introduce them to the character. It’s not flashy or busy with maintaining a shared universe; it is on the ground like the friendly neighbourhood hero!

What makes a good superhero film (especially if it’s the first of a beloved character) is to set up concisely who they are as a person and as a hero. Raimi doesn’t linger too long on Peter Parker because we all know a Peter Parker in real life. Maybe not an orphan, but someone who is on the outside of the cool kids, feels like life neglected them, and who’s not in the same league as the person they’re head-over-heels for.

As Peter Parker is built up, we learn who Spider-Man is through Peter’s own discovery. Don’t know what Spider-Man can do? Let Raimi show you through 2000′s special effects! What does ‘spider sense’ actually mean? Let Peter take you on a visual journey of what that is! Although Tobey Maguire doesn’t look like a senior in high school, he truly did act how a teen would if they suddenly woke up with muscles. Raimi and the writers also set up Norman Osborn and Peter Parker to be parallels of one another; intelligent, someone dear to them stolen, and given an opportunity to do something great. We learn about Spider-Man as we learn about Green Goblin and it is satisfying to see the two stories collide!

Raimi explores what it means to develop the person behind the mask. What makes a hero isn’t wholly what he does; it’s his heart. Act 3 of this superhero movie slowly develops and rolls into its climax, leaving breadcrumbs for its audience to invest in until the big payout. And who can forget the line, “You mess with Spider-Man, you mess with New York!”?

Spider-Man is a comic book movie I can forever revisit, and although the special effects might look slightly dated, the writing is what I believe to be a perfect blend of comic book camp, coming-of-age, comedy, and action. Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe are perfectly cast to be opposite one another. And although Dafoe will forever be in my heart the Green Goblin (I love his maniacal laughter), I want to see what the Marvel Cinematic Universe would do with him if they brought him in. BRING HIM IN, COWARDS!

And for those of you that didn’t understand how great the final end-credit scene was in Spider-man: Far From Home....

(What was fun about revisiting this film was that I didn’t know Danny Elfman did the soundtrack, and boy can I hear the Elfman in it! It’s the same vibe as Tim Burton’s two Batman films and it’s perfectly camp for comic book films!)

[2idiots]

Sleepless Night by 9muses and Love You More by Kim Jaejoong :)

Sleepless Night: disclaimer I know nothing about 9muses

1. I am 17 seconds in and this is a song for the gays. I'm living for it 🌈

2. I'm getting charmed vibes. I think it's the brick and glass vials. Please tell me they're witches

3. Is that a no right on red sign because I hate those 😒 (geez just let me drive like a maniac please)

4. This is so good fashion I approve (I literally would wear a burlap sack if it was comfortable so idk how much my opinion is worth)

5. I LOVE this instrumental, it's super interesting!

6. THERE'S A POST CREIDTS SCENE IT'S LIKE A MARVEL MOVIE

7. While rewatching to get the screen grab i would like to note i really like the first vocalist!

Endgame: there are not 9 🤔, I enjoyed it, very drama aesthetic, approved (not that my approval is necessary for literally anyone)

Love You More: again no clue who kim jaejoong is but I'm here! Pre-note: I know this says 2016 but it looks like earlier 2000s and I love that.

1. Are these normal people starring in the video? 🤯🤯 love love love

2. He has a very pretty face

3. I like the ponytail that is like a garden sprout on the top of the boxer's head 🌱

4. Wait am I seeing diversity in the music video? 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀

5. Does he have a tramp stamp?

I approve.

Overall impression: approval rating high. I'm getting very punk pop vibes from this dude and as a certified angsty teen (once upon a time now I'm an angsty twenties something year old) I know my sh*t.

[angelofberlin2000]

In his 14 minutes of screentime in Always Be My Maybe, Netflix’s latest rom-com phenomenon, 54-year-old Keanu Reeves — now 30 years into his stardom — skewers and subverts the personas we’ve come to attach to him.

Reeves, playing an outsized version of himself, cuts an imposing figure in his introduction. Time slows to a crawl. All eyes gravitate toward the velvet-jacketed figure with striking beauty and prickly charisma. After his entrance — a show for everyone in the farcical restaurant Maximal — he slides toward Ali Wong’s celebrity chef Sasha, offering spiritual platitudes in the face of her unfettered lust. “I missed your thumbs,” she breathily exhales. “I missed your soul” is his reply.

It’s a maniacally delightful performance that both reminds audiences of Reeves’s place in Asian-American Hollywood history and allows him to flex improvisational skills as he cycles through the various masks we have grafted onto him. There’s the impossibly otherworldly Keanu, who says with utmost sincerity, “The only stars that matter are the ones that you see when you dream.” There’s action-star Keanu, who smashes a vase against his own head in a game of Icebreaker and easily puts the jealous protagonist, Marcus (Randall Park), in a headlock — fully committed, physically graceful, and beautifully dangerous. The Keanu of internet memes and viral threads is here, too, in the very fact that he’s playing himself.

Reeves is having a dynamite year with the success of Always Be My Maybe, the outrageously violent John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum, and Toy Story 4, in which he plays Canada’s greatest stunt driver, Duke Caboom. (Another sly nod perhaps? While born in Beirut, Reeves — who is of Chinese-Hawaiian and British ancestry — was raised in Toronto.) The actor’s more recent evolution into a meme may flatten his complexities, but it does signal why he has endured all this time, despite the persistent claim that he’s a bad actor, or just a limited one. As I’ve contended in the past, this is a gross misreading of a great actor. In her tremendous 2007 masterwork The Star Machine, film professor and historian Jeanine Basinger praises Reeves amongst his generational contemporaries: “Reeves is a neo-star fighting the concept of stardom itself, working steadily against persona to the point where no one has a clear idea of who Reeves is onscreen anymore. This has hurt him, but it has also allowed him to maintain versatility that means more to him than fame. […] His career would have been limited, and thus short lived. Instead, he has used his freedom to move on and slowly force audiences to accept him as a real actor.”

  Just take a look at the arc of his career — as a teenager going through an existential crisis in the blackhearted wonder River’s Edge (1986); the affably dimwitted Theodore “Ted” Logan from Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989) and its sequel; the bodaciously supple and yearning FBI agent and surfer Johnny Utah in Point Break (1991); a bruisingly courteous SWAT officer in Speed (1994); the beatific savior Neo in The Matrix (1999);  the violent redneck in The Gift (2000); an occult detective radiating self-loathing and suicidal yearnings in Constantine (2005); and of course, the titular tenderhearted and violently dangerous assassin of the John Wick franchise. In looking at all of his performances, I am reminded of what the great Roger Ebert wrote in his review of the Bill & Ted sequel back in the early ‘90s: “I have seen Keanu Reeves in vastly different roles (the FBI man in the current Point Break, for example), and am a little astonished by the range of these performances.”

Throughout his career, Reeves has eschewed obvious transformation in favor of something trickier and more subtle. What has allowed him to remain a star, 30 years later, is a blend of virility, vulnerability, and an aura of mystery, hearkening to a bygone era of stardom that contradicts the current moment, which requires stars to seem endlessly accessible; his sheer joy for the medium that makes him a cinematic sensualist; his racial dimensions as a star; and his gimlet-eyed understanding of the female gaze. These qualities are unique in the current market of stardom in Hollywood, allowing him to straddle various cinematic contexts with ease — mainstream romantic comedies, somber indie flicks, gloriously decadent action flicks.

They come through in one of his earliest films, My Own Private Idaho, a meditative character study about two young hustlers — Mike Waters (River Phoenix), a shy narcoleptic in search of a sense of home, and the strikingly beautiful Scott Favor (Reeves), a trust-fund kid slumming it until his inheritance kicks in at 21. Reeves and his late co-star imbue their characters with a particular mix of virility, vulnerability, and mystery. I’d argue that all the greatest leading men in the annals of Hollywood stardom have existed at this intersection to varying degrees — something I feel has been lacking from modern male stars, partially because they are being formed in franchises that lack interest in the visceral aspects of humanity. (It helps that Reeves has declined offers to join Marvel, even though they’ve been trying to woo him to their stable for years.) Humphrey Bogart’s cool is consistently undercut by his own anger and self-loathing. William Holden held something dark behind his megawatt smile and gleaming blond locks. Paul Newman always felt a touch remote, like he was hiding bruised aspects of himself from the audience. Marlon Brando, of course, epitomizes these qualities. Reeves is brimming with similar contradictions. He reflects this tradition by being at once beatifically still and emotionally expressive, defined by loneliness and a yearning to be saved from it.

In My Own Private Idaho, Reeves is the object of desire not only for Mike but the camera itself. Deep into the film, Mike timidly reveals his love to Scott while they camp out in the desert, a fire crackling before them. Phoenix plays Mike as wild with energy he has no real outlet for, leading to an awkward physicality. Reeves grants his character a languid brio. He takes up space, laying close to the fire, his head dipped back to study Mike as he timidly expresses his feelings. He’s outstretched, willowy, and aware of Mike’s gaze; he examines the weight of it. The scene reveals one of Reeves’s greatest skills as an actor: being an active listener. As he studies Mike, he invites and toys with his feelings. “I only have sex with a guy for money,” he notes offhandedly as if it were a random truth, not a response to a declaration of love. But just as the prickliness of his character comes into view (foreshadowing later betrayals), Reeves displays a burnishing sincerity. Arms outstretched, he says, “Let’s go to sleep,” and proceeds to cradle Mike.

The full-bodied listening Reeves exhibits in My Own Private Idaho is a hallmark of his work opposite women as well. Reeves is a great example of what Roswell New Mexico writer Alanna Bennett deemed The Look: “The number one thing a man in a romcom needs, TV or movie, is the ability to look at their love interest REALLY WELL. The man barely even needs to speak if he just knows how LOOK at a person.” Reeves has given that look in multiple contexts — his face is bright with awe when he looks at Carrie-Anne Moss’s Trinity in the Matrix films; it has a touch of admiration when he gazes at Sandra Bullock in Speed; and it is filled with unmitigated desire for Diane Keaton’s Erica Barry in Something’s Gotta Give.

Nancy Meyer’s 2003 ode to beachside property and an older woman’s sensual awakening stars Keaton as a successful playwright who finds herself falling for two very different men — Harry Sanborn (Jack Nicholson), who briefly dated her daughter (how this didn’t disqualify him immediately continues to baffle me) and has to go through a damn heart attack before he can see what’s attractive in a woman around his own age; and Julian Mercer (Reeves), a sweet doctor with a penchant for black turtlenecks who is immediately smitten when they meet.

In the film, Reeves is attuned to the female gaze in its most literal incarnation — an understanding of how women see the world, what they want from it, and how they make sense of desire. During a dinner scene with Julian, Erica’s face and neck are flush. She’s skittish and nervous in the face of his undeniable — but never disrespectful — sexual and romantic interest. Reeves’s face shows the depth and breadth of The Look, as he glides from teasing lust to a spark of genuine intellectual attraction. At one point, when their conversations turns to women his own age, he says, “I’ve never met one I’ve reacted to” — stumbling for a moment, as if shocked by the depth of his own feeling — “… quite like this. When something happens to you that hasn’t happened before, don’t you have to at least find out what it is?” He’s a man overcome and humbled by his own desire. Is there anything sexier? Then he leans in, his face going soft, gently kissing the groove where her neck meets her shoulder. “I knew you’d smell good,” he whispers. Only Reeves could pull off a line like that.

Many actors of Reeves’s caliber are too invested in being in the spotlight of a scene to play a romantic lead like this. After the fall of the studio system in the 1960s, Hollywood no longer looked at women as a viable market, and while romantic comedies continued to get made, going forward, there was a notable shift in whose desire was centered — and how little male actors seemed interested in exploring romance and desire. Reeves’s willingness brought another layer of intimacy to his relationship with his audience, offering a more flexible, vulnerable portrait of masculinity that sets him apart from other name stars.

That intimacy is key to Reeves’s longevity. It’s what makes him such a great cinematic sensualist. In 2009, Matt Zoller Seitz argued that directors Michael Mann, Terrence Malick, David Lynch, Wong Kar-wai, and Hou Hsiao-hsien were the “the decade’s best sensualists filmmakers.” He wrote, “They share a defining trait: a lyrical gift for showing life in the moment, for capturing experience as it happens and as we remember it. The sensualists are bored with dramatic housekeeping. They’re interested in sensations and emotions, occurrences and memories of occurrences.” I’d argue that being a cinematic sensualist is a distinction that can apply to acting as well. For actors, it is about bringing texture and complication to a film, existing wholly in the moment, and a keen interest in the human body.

When we watch films, the body keeps score as much as the mind does. Reeves demonstrates an understanding of this. This is apparent in the delicate neck kiss in Something’s Gotta Give; the careful way his hand skitters across broken glass before deciding on which shard to slit his wrists with in Constantine; the calm he engenders with merely the sound of his voice in Thumbsucker. But it’s most impactful in his career as an action star. In many ways, the John Wick franchise is the perfect marriage of director and star. The third film is a tactile feast. Consider a scene early in John Wick 3, in which Reeves methodically takes apart and reassembles a gun for a single shot. This scene is, of course, a testament to the character’s skill as an assassin. But it also acts as a reminder of how out of step John is with the world around him, betraying a desire for the quieter moments in life — despite the brutal milieu he finds himself in — and a strange empathy for the world around him, whether it be object or animal. This allows a humanity to glitter throughout his performances that often feels absent from many action franchises that sacrifice character on the altar of plot.

There’s another part of Reeves’s star image I suspect has played into our abiding fascination with him. Until Always Be My Maybe, the most under-discussed part of Reeves’s persona was his race. Late in his slim but potent book-length essay Mixed-Race Superman: Keanu, Obama, and Multicultural Experience, Will Harris astutely writes about a particular aspect of the 2005 film A Scanner Darkly that, metatextually, speaks to Reeves’s whole career:

“To be mixed-race is to exist in a state of paradox. Race is an illusion that depends on purity and singleness. […] In A Scanner Darkly, set in a paranoid surveillance state in the near-future, Keanu plays a government agent called Bob Arctor, who because he works undercover, has to wear a ‘scramble suit’ in the office. The suit projecting 1.5 million constantly shifting representations of different people — male and female, black, white, Latinx — keeps his identity cloaked. Even the people he works with have no idea who he is.”

Like his persona, Reeves’s face itself is considered unplaceable. Growing up, he never read as white to me, but he has read that way to Hollywood, which allowed his career to be mutable in ways that very few people of color ever experience. But for much of the moviegoing audience, seeing his face has always been a point of connection. It’s the undercurrent of why his turn in Always Be My Maybe felt like such a significant moment in his career. It was as though something had been revealed about him for the first time, even though it had been present all along. That it was such a joyful, brazenly comedic role added yet another twist on his image. There was a sense that, even after 30 years in the spotlight, Reeves can still surprise us.

[ty-talks-comics]

Best of Marvel: Week of August 21st, 2019

Best of this Week: Tony Stark: Iron Man #15 (Legacy #615) - Dan Slott, Jim Zub, Juanan Ramirez, Francesco Manna, Edgar Delgado and Joe Caramagna

Tony Stark may not be the man he says he is anymore.

Since the landmark 600th issue of Iron Man, Tony Stark hasn’t been entirely sure that he is actually himself and not just a strange collection of nanobots and machines strung together in the form of the billionaire tech wizard. After the horrible incident surrounding eScape, Tony Stark’s virtual reality world, leads to the deaths of a few people and millions or more in property damage, Tony has to take the stand and address what exactly happened. 

He’s grilled pretty thoroughly on what an AI is and how much was his responsibility vs. how much can be blamed on Controller, the supervillain who hacked into the supposedly secure network and caused all of this damage. Overseeing the hearing is a surprising character from another mechanical superheroes past. Senator Miles Brickman, a character that originally appeared as something of an anti-machine/anti-AI character in the pages of Machine Man’s original series, it livid and irate at Tony Stark. Showing a bit of prejudice in his questioning, he asks has Tony Stark ever made any changes to his body using technology, then follows by asking “Can you prove that you’re not some form of artificial intelligence?”

Tony initially tries to dance around the question, but upon being reminded that he’s under oath, reveals that it is actually quite possible as his body was put back together cell by cell while he was in his coma. This shocks everyone, from Rhodey to Bethany Cabe, his head of security at Stark Unlimited, and even his brother Arno Stark who is watching the hearing from his office at Baintronics, the rival technology company.

AI Tony calls for a recess after a few snarky lines as we cut to Vision and Wonder Man arriving at Avengers mansion, thinking they’ve been called to assist in Tony’s hearing. Immediately some red flags might want to be set off with the characters involved, especially when Jarvis lets them in and soon after betrays them with a large piece of metal embedded in the back of his head with a familiar design. 

Things start to heat up as Brickman produces the Tony Stark AI that was used by Riri Williams while Tony was in a coma and asks does this fully functioning, autonomous copy have legal rights and responsibilities. What makes me so uncomfortable about this scene is that it plays on the fear of the unknown.

Brickman has tried to have Machine Man destroyed in the past and even knowing that Tony Stark has saved the world in the past, he’s not willing to consider that he still has right once it’s admitted that he may not be fully human anymore. In a way it mirrors some of our own discussions as it pertains to AI and whether or not we’ll allow them autonomy once they become advanced enough for it. There’s a whole discussion for sex robots that no one is qute ready for just yet.

The Wasp, Janet van Dyne, flies through a robot protest on her way to meet Tony for lunch and catches him talking to Tony AI. Tony AI agrees to be loaded into the Iron Man suit and they all fly off when suddenly they’re met with a gross amalgamation of Vision and Wonder Man fused together. Ramirez’s art makes him look so horrifying with only half of Wonder Man’s luxurious hair and cracking skin that’s as red as Vision’s. He rushes at Tony in a rage and promises to rip the human and AI halves of him apart, displaying an anger that neither character has ever presented. 

In the middle of their fight, Jarvis appears and zaps Janet, who was knocked out of the fight during the initial rush. He places her in his pocket and leaves thereafter. Tony and WonderVision continue their fight, destroying the robot protestors in the process. Tony realizes that they only way to stop them is to use a localized EMP which will also kill Tony AI. The technological Tony isn’t fazed and just tells Tony to kiss Jan a bunch and feel vaguely bad about it later.

Unfortunately, this leaves Tony in the middle of the carnage. He’s surrounded by broken robots, likely to take the blame for all of it and realizes that Jocasta was right, he only sees everything as data. He breathes a small sigh that he’s still alive and that WonderVision didn’t take Janet… until he can’t find her. We then cut to the surprising return of The Avengers greatest enemy as his new gambit to destroy Tony Stark and spark a new machine age is in full effect.

What I liked most about this issue is that Tony’s mistakes really catch up to him in a bad way. He’s always managed to skate by the skin of his teeth when his machines have gone haywire. While Brickman was being an asshole for the trial, he made a good point in that we don’t quite know if we can trust this Tony. Given what we as the audience know thus far, he’s falling hard. Almost going back to the drink, questioning his own existence, not even having the trust of the brother that’s been by his side since his appearance in the mid 2000s (in this universe).

And that ending, finally seeing the seeds of what’s been sewn for months now starting to take form, is always fun. I had wondered what happened to this character since Infinity Wars (2018) and I can’t wait to see where exactly this story is going to go and what the repercussions of that event will be. I also can’t wait to see how exactly he’ll scar Tony and his extended family now that he’s returned. High recommend!

---------------------------------------------------

Things were looking up for Otto Octavius. He had found a nice woman and was slowly falling in love, he had mended fences with Anna-Maria in a way. After the events of War of the Realms, he was a respected and loved hero in San Francisco and then it all came crashing down.

Runner Up: The Superior Spider-Man #10 (Legacy #43) - Christos Gage, Mike Hawthorne, Wade von Grawbadger, Jordie Bellaire and Clayton Cowles

After taking the lovely Emma on a swing through the city, The Spider-Man of San Francisco goes on to visit the child he saved all the way back in issue #4 and help his new adoptive parents get custody of him. These small moments of warmness are a far cry from the maniacal nature that we were once accustomed to from Octavius. Bellaire colors most these scenes in a nice, warm orange. Giving us this feeling of joy and some happiness for Otto… at least until he’s discussing having a child with Emma and she alerts him to the news report that asks if the SF Spider-Man is really Otto Octavius. 

Things start to spiral even further as Spider-Man is interviewed and dances around the question and the Brothers Grimm acknowledge that he hired them for some temp work if they went straight, alluding to the first arc of the book. Otto is furious, Anna-Maria gives him snark and Emma tells him that he needs to face things head on, getting in front of it all. He can prove that he’s changed. Unfortunately, Anna-Maria brings up the kid as an example of someone who he’s helped and he swings to the apartment to find the foster parents angry and the child sad that he lied. Normally Otto wouldn't think twice about lying to someone or omitting information, but looking into that child's eyes as he began to cry, Otto reveals that he lied because he wanted the kid to like him and they hug. 

Soon after, Otto is called back to Horizon University where he is known as Professor Tolliver. Max Modell is waiting for him as he's received an email telling him that Tolliver is actually Otto Octavius. Surprisingly to Otto, Max already knew. Max Modell may act like a goof, but he's not considered one of the brightest minds in Marvel for no reason. He ran a DNA test to confirm soon after his emergence and gave "Tolliver" a chance to prove himself a changed man and given that he has, he's been trying to help clear his name. 

With Max's security footage and his own enhanced suit, Otto is able to determine that it was actually Spiders-Man that sent all of the incriminating data to everyone. Once Spiders-Man realizes he's caught, the thousands of spiders that make up his form reconstitute until Ock defeats him and compresses the former Peter Parker's consciousness into one Spider-Body. After some pushing, Spiders-Man reveals that it was Norman Osborn's idea. This Norman Osborn, however, is from another dimension where he's the Spider Totem and his main enemy was a Green Goblin Peter Parker, if I remember right. 

Spiders-Man also tells Otto that Norman is in his own dimension, safe from harm. During the events of Spider-Geddon, the Web of Fate was destroyed, making dimensional travel much harder for Spider people. Octavius hits a wall until Anna-Maria comes out that she's saved a bit of Terrax's energy from the first arc in the Living Brain robot, in case Otto ever reverted. This makes him sink even lower, but ultimately he understands and tries to use the power to make a portal...only Norman planned for this and over loads the machine, causing it to destroy the building almost killing everyone inside if not for Otto. 

Otto manages to save Max and Anna-Maria, but is swiftly defeated and left for dead by Norman who was there the entire time. When Otto asks why Norman is doing this, he responds in the most Norman Osborn way possible by saying, "You insulted me."

Just when Otto Octavius was finding his place in the world as a hero, forces mostly belong his control have made their move in an effort to derail him. Otto finally seems happy, even helping out a young child that he absolutely has no obligation to and starting a budding new relationship with an older woman that's just as smart as he. Things were going well, he even got a key to the city for crying out loud!

But, as fate befalls all Spiders, his terrible actions in the past are coming back to haunt him. Who's to say that Mephisto doesn't have a little bit of a hand in this as well? We can only hope things turn out well for Otto in the end, but not before Norman makes things much, much worse.

[ultrace]

Soundtrack Update

Tomorrow will bring another batch of soundtracks going onto eBay, for which I will make a post when they go up. For those of you looking to keep convenient track of these, here is a link to my seller page so you can see all of whatever I have up at any given time. The first batch of CDs still has a little over 4 days to go!

Some of you have asked questions. Questions are good! They show that I’m more interesting than annoying, mostly.

Do these soundtracks contain spinecards (obi)? Most of them do. Some may have been acquired without them or I may have misplaced them in the very early days of my collecting. If this is a deal-breaker, ask about any CD you need to.

Can you combine shipping? You sure can. I’ll be more than happy to send multiple CDs and charge only the total amount of shipping.

Is there a full list of all the soundtracks that will be auctioned? There is now. I have painstakingly written down the names of each of the soundtracks to be auctioned, 238 in total. It was a little less than I thought; some of them took up large space on the shelves and skewed my calculations. For the sake of your dashboard, the full list is under the cut.

These soundtracks have been photographed and tested:

Akumajo Dracula / Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow & Dawn of Sorrow OST

Akumajo Dracula Apocalypse OST

Akumajo Dracula Best  (Otakara printing)

Akumajo Dracula Best 2  (Otakara printing)

Akumajo Dracula Nocturne in the Moonlight (Castlevania: SOTN) OST

Akumajo Dracula X

Akumajo Dracula: Gallery of Labyrinth (Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin) OST

Castlevania Chronicle Akumajo Dracula

Castlevania: Circle of the Moon / Concerto of the Midnight Sun OST

Anamanaguchi: Dawn Metropolis

Atelier Iris Bonus Soundtrack CD

Bangai-O Spirits Sound Collection Plus

Banjo-Kazooie The Soundtrack

Bastion OST (signed by composer Darren Korb), x2

Baten Kaitos OST

Biohazard 2 (Resident Evil 2) Complete Track

Borderlands 2 OST

Borderlands OST

Breath of Fire III OST

Broken Thunder: Thunder Force VI Doujinshi Soundtrack

C64: 64 Reasons to Live

C64: Best of David Whittaker

C64: Best of Fred Gray

C64: Best of Matt Gray

C64: Best of the Maniacs of Noise

C64: Best of Tim Follin

C64: Creatures the Soundtracks

C64: Thalamusic

C64: Way of the Exploding SID

Capcom Trilogy Box - Capcom Game Music Vols. 1, 2, 3

Chrono Trigger OST

Dance Dance Resolution Ultramix 2 Limited Music Sampler

Dance Dance Revolution Extreme Limited Music Sampler

Dead Rising OST

Devil Crash / Alien Crush

Devil May Cry Limited Soundtrack Box - OSTs for Devil May Cry 1, 2, 3

Diablo 15th Year Anniversary

Disgaea Custom Soundtrack

DK Jamz: Donkey Kong Country OST

Dodonpachi & Dodonpachi II OST

Donkey Kong Country 3 Dixie Kong's Double Trouble OST

Dragon Force Complete Album

Ecco: Songs of Time

Einhander OST

Electronic Arts Music Sampler, "Signature Sounds"

ESPGaluda OST

All Sounds of Final Fantasy I & II

Final Fantasy III OST

Final Fantasy IV OST   (gone missing)

Final Fantasy V OST

Final Fantasy VI OST

Final Fantasy VII OST

Final Fantasy VII Dirge of Cerberus OST Limited Edition

Final Fantasy VIII OST Limited Edition Limited Edition

Final Fantasy IX OST Limited Edition

Final Fantasy X OST

Final Fantasy X-2 OST Limited Edition  (Rikku Keychain

Final Fantasy XI OST Limited Edition

Final Fantasy XII OST Limited Edition

Final Fantasy XIII OST Limited Edition

Final Fantasy Tactics OST

Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles OST

Front Mission 3 OST

G.S.M. Capcom 3: Final Fight (Missing booklet and obi)

G.S.M. Captom 4: Street Fighter II (Missing obi)

Game Sound Museum ~Famicom Edition~ - Full set of 20 CDs

Game Sound Museum ~Famicom Edition~ - Vol. 1: Super Mario Bros.

Game Sound Museum ~Famicom Edition~ - Vol. 11: Nazo no Murasame Jiyo

Game Sound Museum ~Famicom Edition~ - Vol. 3: Donkey Kong Jr.

Game Sound Museum ~Famicom Edition~ - Vol. 7: Light Gun Games

Game Sound Museum ~Famicom Edition~ - Nintendo Dream Special Disc: Super Mario Bros. 3

Gears of War OST

Ghost in the Shell Megatech Body Cd. (European Printing)

Golden Axe: The Music

Gradius Arcade Soundtrack

Gradius III

Gradius V Soundtracks

Grand Theft Auto Vice City Official Soundtrack Box Set

Grandia II ~Deus~

Grandia II ~Povo~

Guiity Gear X Heavy Rock Tracks

Guilty Gear Original Sound Collection

Konami Music Masterpiece Collection (Complete 15-CD set)

Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time Soundtrack (Black/Gray Cover)

Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time Soundtrack (Gold Cover)

Makaimura (Ghosts n' Goblins) Ongakutaizen Box Set

Metal Gear Solid 4 OST

Suite Dragon Quest II

That's Atari Games Limited Edition Box - Vols. 1 & 2 in special case

The Last Blade OST

The Music of Command & Conquer

The Music of Command & Conquer: Red Alert

X-Men: Children of the Atom OST

Ys: The Oath in Felghana (Wanderers from Ys) Premium Music Box

Yuzo Koshiro Best Collection Vol. 1

Yuzo Koshiro Best Collection Vol. 2

Z.O.E. Zone of the Enders OST

Zwei!! OST

These soundtracks have not been photographed and tested. If for any reason the discs have failed, they will not be auctioned.

C64: Last Ninja 2 Music Collection   (disc failure, discarded)

C64: Last Ninja 3 Music Collection   (disc failure, discarded)

C64: Last Ninja Music Collection   (disc failure, discarded)

Capcom Music Generation Limited Edition ~Legendary Wings~

Capcom Music Generation: Rockman 1-6 (1st printing with cardboard sleeve)

Capcom Music Generation: Rockman X1-6 (1st printing with special box)

Fatal Fury / Last Resort OST

Genso Suikoden OST

Gokumakaimura (Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins) OST

Gunstar Heroes Sound Collection

Halo 2 OST Vol. 1

Halo 2 OST Vol. 2

Halo 3 ODST OST

Halo 3 OST

Hudson's CD Game Music Collection '93

Hundred Swords OST

Justice High School (Rival Schools United By Fate) OST

Katamari Damacy OST

Killer Cuts Killer Instinct (cardboard sleeve has been sliced in half and put in jewel case)

Konami Game Music Vol. 1

Legend of Mana Music Selection

Legend of Mana OST

Lost Technology: Thunder Force V OST

Lumines Remixes

Mario Kart 64 Greatest Hits Soundtrack

Mars Matrix / Giga Wing

Marvel vs. Capcom OST

Mass Effect OST

Maximo OST

Metal Gear / Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake Music Collection (from the MGS Premium Pack)

Metal Gear >> Solid Snake Music Compilation Red Disc

Metal Gear Solid 2 Sons of Liberty OST

Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater OST

Metal Gear Solid Music CD (1 open, 1 sealed)

Metal Slug 3 OST

Metroid Metal: Varia Suite (signed by the band)

Mortal Kombat II: Music from the Arcade Game Soundtrack (also Mortal Kombat)

Music From Ys II

Music From Ys III: Wanderers from Ys

Musik: Mortal Kombat 3 & 4 Arcade Soundtrack

N3 Ninety-Nine Nights OST

Namco Game Sound Express Vol. 18 Air Combat 22

NiGHTS into Dreams Perfect Album

Ninja Blade OST

Ninja Gaiden (XBox) Original Sound Trax

Panzer Dragoon Azel RPG Memorial Album

Parasite Eve OST

Phantasy Star 1st Series Complete Album

Planet Harriers OST

Pocket Fighter OST

Pretty Soldier Sailormoon Another Story Music Collection

Quest For Glory V: Dragon Fire OST

Radiant Silvergun Soundtrack+

Ridge Racer V OST

Rockman 2 The Power Fighters

Rockman Dash OST

R-Type Delta OST

R-Type Final OST

Salamander ~Again~ (Otakara printing)

Salamander 2 OST

Salamander Remixes

Samurai Spirits

Samurai Spirits (Scitron 1500 series)

Samurai Spirits the Best 10th Anniversary Special

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game OST (Arcade Block exclusive)

Sega Ages Soundtrack The Best Plus

Sega Game Music Vol. 1

Sega Game Music Vol. 2

Sega Game Music Vol. 3

Sega Power Cuts 1 (cardboard sleeve version, has been sliced in half and put in a jewel case)

Sega Power Cuts 1 (Jewel Case promotional copy)

Sega Virtual Sonic 5-CD Set with Box Case

Seiken Densetsu 2 (Secret of Mana) Original Sound Version

Seiken Densetsu 3 OST

Sengoku Musou (Samurai Warriors) OST

Shadow Hearts OST

Shin Contra (Contra: Shattered Soldier) OST

Shin Megami Tensei III Nocturne OST

Shin Samurai Spirits

Shin Sangokumusou 3 (Dynasty Warriors 4) OST

Shin Sangokumusou 4 (Dynasty Warriors 3) OST

Shin Sangokumusou 4 (Dynasty Warriors 5) OST

Shin Sangokumusou Kyuukyoku Onban

Shinobi (PS2 version) OST

Silent Hill 3 Official Soundtrack

Silhouette Mirage OST

Snatcher Zoom Tracks

SNK Game Music

Soul Calibur OST

Sounds of Onimusha

Star Ocean Till the End of Time Sound Complete Box (Empty box only! Someone gave it to me.)

Star Ocean: The Second Story OST

Starfox 64: Original Cuts (cardboard sleeve has been sliced in half and put in a jewel case)

Storm of Progear OST

Street Fighter EX2 Arrange Album

Street Fighter Zero / Street Fighter Alpha OST

Street Fighter Zero 3 / Street Fighter Alpha 3 OST

Strider Hiryu 2 OST

Suite Wizardry II Legacy of LLylgamyn

Super Mario 64 Original Soundtracks

Super Mario 64/Waverace 64: Original Cuts from the Hottest N64 Games

Super Metroid Sound in Action

Tales of Eternia OST

Tales of Symphonia OST

Technosoft Game Music Collection Vol. 10: Technology - Thunder Force V

Technosoft Game Music Collection Vol. 2: Excursion - Herzog Zwei

Technosoft Game Music Collection Vol. 9: Voyage - Neorude

Tekken 3 Arcade Soundtrack 001 ex

Tempest 2000 The Soundtrack

Tenchu OST

The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim OST

The King of Fighters '95

The Minibosses: Brass

The Music of Suikoden Konami Sampler Disc

The Protomen

The Protomen Present: A Night of Queen (signed)

Threads of Fate Music Selection

Tobal 2 OST

Treasure Quest the Soundtrack

Turrican OST

Vagrant Story OST

Valkyrie Profile OST

Valkyrie Profile Arrange Album

Valkyrie Profile Covenant of the Plume OST

Valkyrie Profile Silmeria OST Vol. 1 Alicia Side (with limited edition "Sound Complete Box")

Valkyrie Profile Silmeria OST Vol. 2 Silmeria Side

Vampire: The New Warriors OST

Vandal Hearts OST

Very Best of Ys

Video Game Orchestra (signed by some members)

Video Games Live Volume One

Viewtiful Joe & Viewtiful Joe 2 OST

Virtua Cop Soundtracks

Virtua Fighter 4 OST

World Heroes 2 Jet OST

World Heroes Perfect OST

World of Tanks OST

Xenosaga OST

Xexex OST

Ys V OST

Yu Suzuki: Hang-On/Space Harrier

The following soundtracks are bootlegs (usually SonMay) and therefore of little actual value. They will probably be auctioned as a single lot:

Grandia OST

Dance Maniax OST

Dance Maniax 2nd Mix OST

Arc the Lad OST

Arc the Lad III OST

G-Darius OST

Chaos Legion OST

Breath of Fire II OST

Music From Ys

Virtua Fighter Maximum Mania

Pretty Soldier Sailormoon S Game Music

SaGa Frontier OST

Rock Man (unidentified CD, GAME-089)

Rockman X Alph-Lyra Arranged

Panzer Dragoon OST

The King of Fighters 96

[johnnymundano]

Slasher Season 1: The Executioner (2016)

Directed by Craig David Wallace

Written by Aaron Martin

Music by Shawn Pierce

Country: Canada

Language: English

8 Episodes of around 46 – 53 minutes each

CAST

Katie McGrath as Sarah Bennett

Brandon Jay McLaren as Dylan Bennett

Steve Byers as Cam Henry

Patrick Garrow as Tom Winston

Dean McDermott as Iain Vaughn

Christopher Jacot as Robin Turner

Wendy Crewson as Brenda Merrit

Jessica Sipos as June Henry

Mary Walsh as Verna McBride

Enuka Okuma as Lisa Ann Follows

Erin Karpluk as Heather Peterson

Mayko Nguyen as Alison Sutherland

Rob Stewart as Alan Henry

Jefferson Brown as Trent McBride

Mark Ghanimé as Justin Faysal

Dylan Taylor as Bryan Ingram

Alysa King as Rachel Ingram

Victoria Snow as Sonja Edwards

Hannah Endicott-Douglas as Ariel Peterson

Shawn Ahmed as Sharma

Booth Savage as Ronald Edwards

Susannah Hoffman as Marjorie Travers

(Guilty Party: I took the images from IMDB because I can’t screengrab over 8 hours and besides, my dog told me to.)

Slasher: The Executioner is a Canadian TV series about, um, slashers and all that slasher stuff. Bogling about The Internet I discovered that the creator, one Aaron Martin by name, has wisely opted for an anthology format, whereby each season (two at present) is a complete storyline. Apparently there is connective tissue between each season  to engender a feel of them taking place in the same Slasher Universe; which is like the Marvel®©™ Universe but with less quips and more mom porn and severed hands. I say “apparently” because I haven’t seen the second season (Slasher: Guilty Party (2017)) I have seen the first season though and that definitely has more mom porn and severed hands than the Marvel®©™ Cinematic Universe.

Now, if you’re reading this thing which is about a TV show called Slasher, then you might think you like slasher movies, but do you like slasher movies enough to watch what is effectively a 7 hour and change slasher movie? Do you? Huh? Huh? That’s a normal working day right there. You are right to be hesitant, as that doesn’t sound like it would work, at least not as entertainment, maybe as a kind of torture. The usual slasher movie is a timidly formulaic creature, so we can characterise the average slasher movie as starting with a brief kill, then some flopping bonelessly about with a solid hour of “meet the characters”, then 40 minutes or so of mayhem, climaxing with a one on one slobberknocker. Stick to that formula for 8 episodes and you’d end up (NB: the maths is a bit loose here) with an exciting first episode, 5.5 episodes of dishwater dull soap-operatics and then an insanely violent final 1.5 episodes. That would of course be stupid, which is one of roughly a billion reasons why they didn’t ask me to make it. No, they asked Aaron Martin and the Slasher gods should be thankful that Aaron Martin knew what to do.

A nagging sense of fairness demands I should pause to note that hundreds of people were involved in the making of Slasher: The Executioner, but it’s accepted shorthand to say “Aaron Martin…” So, “Aaron Martin” made a long-ass slasher movie, but realising this was a marathon and not a sprint, structured each episode so that it worked within the larger narrative framework. It’s an approach familiar to anyone who read mainstream comics back when they had actual stories (rather than today’s unending conversations punctuated by punching; Calm down, Cochise, I’m not saying they were better back then (most of anything is shit after all), I’m just saying they were different). In effect then, for all the none old timey comics fans: in Slasher: The Executioner the uberplot chugs along while various subplots intertwine beneath it breeding red herrings, developing character and basically raising the stakes until uber and under finally intertwine in a climactic crescendo. Oh, and there is at least one kill every episode to keep your unhealthy interest piqued. Got to have those sweet, sweet kills. It is called Slasher after all, not Magic Picnic Time With The Dancing Rainbow Babies. Those dismissive of the slasher movie (Hi, mom!) often underestimate the variety of slasher movies; they aren’t all set in a holiday camp for randy morons on Prom Night one Halloween which is coincidentally, and impossibly, also Friday the 13th. No, there is also Cherry Falls (2000) and, oh, My Bloody Valentine (2009) and, er, anyway, probably some others. This type being The Small Town Terrorised by Its Past slasher, as it is more commonly known. This is the template which Slasher: The Executioner favours most. (The Internet Elves tell me Slasher: Guilty Party riffs on The Holiday Death Camp template).

Events kick off with the present day return of pleasant, newlywed young artist Sarah Bennett (née Ingram) to Waterbury, where she was born on Halloween night in 1988, when a masked killer cut her from the womb of her mother, Rachel. Rachel’s husband, Bryan, had died about ten seconds earlier from a frenzied knife-torso interaction, leaving nobody to hand out candy to the trick or treaters except the killer, The Executioner, who docilely awaited the police cradling the bloody new-born in his arms. It’s fair to say Sarah has issues with Waterbury, and as her arrival coincides with  the start of a spate of copycat Executioner killings, Waterbury has issues with Sarah. And it’s this business that occupies your eyes and ears for the bulk of the 8 episodes. I mean, that was some spoilertastic stuff back there, yeah? But get this…that was only the opening 10 minutes; there’s plenty of unspoiled stuff and, hey, maybe those first 10 minutes I just got spoil all over aren’t all as they initially appear? That is a distinct possibility. Yes it is.

What then unfolds over the televisually paced course of Slasher: The Executioner’s 8 episodes is slashtastically fun stuff. Pretty much everything you expect in a slasher movie happens, because that predictability is part of the fun of a slasher movie. Crucially, however, some stuff you don’t expect to happen in a slasher movie also happens, which is part of the fun of a good slasher movie. A good slasher movie has to both cater to and exceed expectations, and Slasher: the Executioner is a pretty good slasher movie despite its arse-numbing running time.  But then only a glutton would gulp it down one go; Slasher: The Executioner is most rewarding when taken episodically; which is kind of why they made it like that, I guess. With a gap between each episode you can ruminate and ratiocinate in an attempt to understand the motivations, unearth the clues and unmask the killer. Although, good luck with that; the identity of the killer may be easy to guess (it’s [Redacted]!) but it’s a lot less easy to back it up with clues and evidence. It’s more a case of “It’s [Redacted]” because it has to be, rather than you have been perceptive enough to amass an evidence trail suitable for a Court of Law. But then slasher maniacs rarely see the inside of a Court of Law, so going with your gut is okay in this context.

The cast though? I mean, you’re going to be spending a lot of time with these people and given the nature of the beast some of them are going to have to surprise you with who they really turn out to be. Happily, everyone in Slasher: The Executioner is far better at this acting lark than the usual cast of a slasher movie. It probably helps that unlike most slasher movies the cast is portraying adults rather than the more usual teenagers. Feeelingzzzz aside, adult life is a lot more complex than teenage life, so there’s a lot more scope for surprise behaviour wise. And adults by definition have lived longer than teenagers so they have an actual past which could, maybe, be full of misdeeds and tragedy. That kind of thing would be pretty helpful were you trying to fill about 8 hours of screentime, yeah? Yeah, it totally would. As Sarah, Katie McGrath is maybe a bit of a milksop but this, to be fair, pays off later with a major change in attitude, and also in her defence she is mostly on the backfoot as surprises and violence tend to single her out. And she certainly rallies herself with an impressively sad ferocity come the bloody climax. Brandon Jay McLaren as her life partner convinces as a man too nice to be true, but who just might come through. The killer is great and clearly having a fun time, but their performance becomes a real humdinger once the reveal hits and the pretence can be dropped (in front of the viewer at least). Lots of actors, lots of performances and all of them are lots of fun. Some are more fun than others, but saying more would splash spoil all over the place. In a town this big there might be more than one mystery, is all i’m saying.

Slasher: The Executioner is overwrought, it’s daft, it’s violent, it’s rarely dull and it successfully stretches your suspension of disbelief like so much Silly Putty. Pretty much a dreamy slasher experience all in all. Of course many a long form TV show comes a cropper when it has to deliver a definite ending. But rest easy, the end of Slasher: The Executioner doesn’t reveal everyone is dead, and, no, it wasn’t all a dream. The stakes are high ending wise; after nearly 8 hours Slasher needed to deliver a faceslap of an ending, and while the mechanics of what happen are hardly brain meltingly original, the psychological darkness of it was a bleak delight. In short the ending to Slasher: The Executioner is a TV win: it doesn’t make you wish you hadn’t bothered. As long as you came expecting a slasher, that is. The clue’s in the title after all.

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

My Thoughts on Venom 2018 Part 3: The 90s live again!

We’ve spoken about the different takes upon Venom and which one the movie leans on, but does that take really work for the movie?

Which version of Venom SHOULD this movie be portraying?

And again that answer will depend upon whether you are talking to a Spider-Man or a Venom fan.

You ask me Eddie Brock was never a more compelling character than when he was a Spider-Man villain and 1990s solo anti-hero Venom is just a laughably broken character. This is mostly because the transition for Brock/Venom into a sympathetic anti-hero made little sense given his background and early appearances where he was a homicidal maniac. It was akin to playing the Joker as sympathetic.

However in the context of a film project where Venom is a solo star and where Spider-Man can’t be in it, it’s only logical to base the film upon that rendition of the character.

The advantage the film holds over the comics is that their version of Eddie Brock is being built from the ground up and so consequently selling the audience on the idea of him as a sympathetic anti-hero is a lot easier when you don’t know he has a history of murder prior to that. He is more sympathetic albeit like his comic book version also rather a jerk, just not immensely unethical.

In this sense the movie could’ve worked as a movie unto itself. But it doesn’t which is largely owed to the facts that...

This movie is a product of the 1990s

As I mentioned above to my knowledge a lot or most of the script for this movie was specifically based upon a repurposed 1990s Venom script and the comic book source material for the movie was 1990s Venom mini-series. Specifically Lethal Protector and Planet of the Symbiotes, with stuff like She-Venom  and other references thrown in too.

More than this there are even nuggets from the 1990s Spider-Man cartoon which played a HUGE role in bringing Venom to a wider audience and redefining the character. In fact that show and the 1990s X-Men cartoon were incredibly important to the late 1990s/early 2000s Marvel movies.

The X-Men movies even to this day borrow an awful lot from those cartoons at least in spirit if not in explicit elements (although X-Men: Apocalypse contains a direct quote from the cartoons). Various elements of the 1994 Spidey cartoon made their way into Sam Raimi’s trilogy, including the name Oscorp, Norman Osborn conversing with himself in a mirror and the entire central premise of the alien costume in Spider-Man 3.

In fact the cartoon was an influence upon the original Blade and Daredevil films. Remember how in Daredevil 2003 a young Matt Murdock saw his father acting as a criminal before he was blinded? Or how about Blade’s mentor Whistler who appeared across all 3 Wesley Snipes movies? Both of those things originate from the 1994 Spidey show.

Similarly elements from the show found their way into the Venom film. The symbiote(s) are brought to Earth by a shuttle piloted by John Jameson who crash lands it on Earth. Venom is essentially pursued by Spider Seekers, highly explosive drones made to locate and engage Spider-Man in battle. I’m sure there are other things I missed.

The inclusion of these elements in the movie serves to further highlight how the film was obviously originally conceived in the 1990s and spruced up to serve as a quick script for a modern movie.

This is the reason why so many professional critics are drawing 1990s comparisons to the film. Of particular note was the immeasurably over the top and bombastic car chase sequence that threatened to be something out of the Blues Brothers. Also the shape shifting qualities of Venom and Riot (who turns his arms into liquid blades) which is again straight out of Terminator 2, one of the most defining action movies of the early 1990s.

But of course the biggest 1990s influences are the fact that everything (and I do mean everything) in this movie is ripped from 1990s Venom stories. There isn’t a hint of more modern Venom stories from the 2000s or 2010s. There is at best a vague reference to Venom’s 1980s origin as a disgraced reporter. Really this movie’s heart and soul lies in 1990s source material because it’s script was obviously vaguely updated from something made 20 years ago.

And by God....you can tell.

I am someone who defends 1990s comic book stories on the grounds that the popular perception of them as essentially universally bad is a lazy oversimplification since there was plenty of quality material in the decade.

This does not however mean I am blind to the failings of certain 1990s stories and tropes.

1990s Venom solo stories are unfortunately quintessential examples of those failings.

I do not pretend that I have read EVERY 1990s Venom solo story ever.

But I will tell you that I’ve read a few and of those few I have read...none of them have been good.

This is true unfortunately of the two stories that this movie is based upon. I respect David Michelinie very much and feel his is often grossly over criticised as a Spider-Man writer.

But I must be honest. Lethal Protector and Planet of the Symbiotes are simply bad stories.

And the fact that they are bad stories is what critically hurts the movie.

This didn’t need to inherently be a problem though.

Captain America: Civil War and Marvel’s Spider-Man for Playstation 4 were both based upon shoddy source material and were nevertheless able to elevate said material and deliver compelling stories.

Venom 2018 however instead of recognizing the weaknesses in its source material and borrowing the best ideas to build a better story was weirdly reverential to the spirit of those 1990s stories.

The massive logical fallacies, the goofiness, the bland and overly similar to Venom looking villain, the macabre and rather out of place dark humour and violence along with just being over the top and caring little for true character development or organic plot progression, these are all faults of 1990s Venom stories, including Lethal Protector and Planet of the Symbiotes.

I typically advocate that an adaptation of comic books should respect the spirit of the source but in this case this was a bad idea because the source material itself is rotten.

And yet...

This movie was incredibly entertaining!

[callunavulgari]

Scrapbook 2019 | Pt. I

Normal font - meh, it was okay | Italicized titles - enjoyed quite a bit | bold titles - love | titles with an asterisk* - all time favorites | (bracketed titles) - re-watches/re-reads | strikethough - dislike

Goals are: read one hundred books this year, finish five video games, write something novel-length and write something original. These last two goals CAN be combined.

MOVIES

January

(Kingsman: The Golden Circle)

Pitch Perfect 3

February

(Big Hero 6)

March

Geostorm

Captain Marvel

(Thor Ragnarok)

(Avengers: Infinity War)

(Pocahontas)

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Venom

April

(Brave)

(Flipper)

(Spirited Away)

(Breakfast at Tiffany’s)

How To Train Your Dragon 3

Crazy Rich Asians

Matilda

The Death Cure

The Mummy (2017)

(Monster’s University)

Avengers: Endgame

May

Detective Pikachu

Bohemian Rhapsody

The Rim of the World

June

(Zombieland)

Rocketman

The Secret Life of Pets 2

Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse

July

Spiderman: Far From Home

Truth or Dare

(Coraline)

BOOKS

January

Ender’s Game | Orson Scott Card [Fin]

The Poppy War | R.F. Kuang [Fin]

Turtles All The Way Down | John Green [Fin]

Challenger Deep | Neal Shusterman [Fin]

The Bear and the Nightingale | Katherine Arden [Fin] 

Shards of Honor | Lois Mcmaster Bujold [Fin]

(Throne of Jade | Naomi Novak) [Fin]

The Wicked King | Holly Black [Fin]

Vengeful | V.E. Schwab

Elantris | Brandon Sanderson

February

Vengeful | V.E. Schwab [Fin]

Elantris | Brandon Sanderson [Fin]

(Black Powder War | Naomi Novak) [Fin]

(The Amulet of Samarkand | Jonathon Stroud) [Fin]

Once Upon a River | Diane Setterfield

(The Golem’s Eye | Jonathon Stroud) [Fin]

(Ptolemy’s Gate | Jonathon Stroud) [Fin]

The Screaming Staircase | Jonathon Stroud

March

Once Upon a River | Diane Setterfield [Fin]

The Screaming Staircase | Jonathon Stroud [Fin]

The Girl In the Tower | Katherine Arden [Fin]

The Whispering Skull | Jonathon Stroud

(Empire of Ivory | Naomi Novak) [Fin]

The Two Towers | J.R.R Tolkien

Winter of the Witch | Katherine Arden

Saga, Vol 1 | Brian Vaughn

Saga, Vol 2 | Brian Vaughn

Saga, Vol 3 | Brian Vaughn

Saga, Vol 4 | Brian Vaughn

Saga, Vol 5 | Brian Vaughn

Saga, Vol 6 | Brian Vaughn

April

The Whispering Skull | Jonathon Stroud [Fin]

The Slow Regard of Silent Things | Patrick Rothfuss [Fin]

The Two Towers | J.R.R Tolkien [Fin]

Winter of the Witch | Katherine Arden [Fin]

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns | Julie Dao [Fin]

King of Scars | Leigh Bardugo [Fin]

The Hollow Boy | Jonathon Stroud [Fin]

Mistborn | Brandon Sanderson [Fin]

The Well of Ascension | Brandon Sanderson [Fin]

The Creeping Shadow | Jonathon Stroud [Fin]

The Empty Grave | Jonathon Stroud [Fin]

May

Hero of Ages | Brandon Sanderson [Fin]

Everything I Never Told You | Celeste Ng [Fin]

The Kiss Quotient | Helen Hoang [Fin]

The Two Towers | J.R.R. Tolkien [Fin]

The Near Witch | Victoria Schwab [Fin]

The Trials of Apollo | Rick Riordan [Fin]

Alloy of Law | Brandon Sanderson [Fin]

The Gentlemen’s Guide to Vice and Virtue | Mackenzi Lee [Fin]

Shadows of Self | Brandon Sanderson

The Dark Prophecy | Rick Riordan

Sabriel | Garth Nix [Fin]

June

Shadows of Self | Brandon Sanderson [Fin]

The Dark Prophecy | Rick Riordan [Fin]

(Victory of Eagles | Naomi Novak) [Fin]

Warbreaker | Brandon Sanderson [Fin]

(Tongues of Serpents | Naomi Novak) [Fin]

The Bands of Mourning | Brandon Sanderson [Fin]

What If It’s Us | Becky Albertalli & Adam Silvera [Fin]

A Court of Thorns and Roses | Sarah J. Maas [Fin]

Carmilla | Kim Turrisi [Fin]

The Alchemist | Paulo Coelho 

The Eye of the World | Robert Jordan

The Hundred-Foot Journey | Richard C. Morais 

Three Dark Crowns | Kendare Blake

Mistborn: The Secret History | Brandon Sanderson [Fin]

The Eleventh Metal | Brandon Sanderson [Fin]

July

The Alchemist | Paulo Coelho [Fin]

The Eye of the World | Robert Jordan

The Hundred-Foot Journey | Richard C. Morais [Fin]

Three Dark Crowns | Kendare Blake [Fin]

Saga Vol. 8 | Brian Vaughn [Fin]

Saga Vol. 9 | Brian Vaughn [Fin]

Codename Villanelle | Luke Jennings [Fin]

Borne | Jeff Vandermeer [Fin]

Crucible of Gold | Naomi Novak [Fin]

The Time Traveler’s Wife | Audrey Niffenegger [Fin]

The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy | Mackenzi Lee [Fin]

The Wise and the Wicked |  Rebecca Podos [Fins]

Sweetbitter | Stephanie Danler [Fin]

Blood of Tyrants | Naomi Novak [Fin]

PODCASTS

January

Adventure Zone Ep 1

EOS 10 s4 1-4

February

EOS 10 s4 4-7

March

The Penumbra Podcast

April

Adventure Zone Ep 2

May

Welcome to Night Vale Eps 30-54

The Bright Sessions -Bonus Eps-

June

Welcome to Night Vale Eps 54-59

The Penumbra Podcast (Second Citadel eps + last two Juno)

July

Welcome to Night Vale Eps 60-

The Magnus Archive Eps 1-11

TV SHOWS BY SEASON

January

Voltron s8

The Flash

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

February

Happy

The Umbrella Academy

The Flash

Black Mirror

Russian Doll

March 

The 90s

The 2000s

(Sailor Moon)

Maniac

The Dragon Prince

(Inuyasha)

American Gods

April

American Gods s2

Voltron s8

World’s Weirdest Homes

Game of Thrones s8

Brooklyn 99

The Bold Type

Cupcake Wars

May

Schitt’s Creek s1-3

Game of Thrones s8

June

Schitt’s Creek s4

Good Omens

The Terror

Chernobyl

Black Mirror s4

July

Rick & Morty s3

Stranger Things s3

Schitt’s Creek s4

VIDEO GAMES

January

Pokemon Go?

(Kingdom Hearts: DDD, 54 hrs) [Fin]

Pokemon Let’s Go Eevee

Detroit: Become Human [Fin]

Kingdom Hearts 3 - Monstropolis, 20 hrs

Life is Strange, Episode 2, 4 hrs

February

Kingdom Hearts 3, 56 hrs [Fin]

Pokemon Go

Life is Strange, Episode 5, 20 hrs [Fin]

Life is Strange -Before the Storm- Episode 1 complete, 5 hrs

God of War (3 hrs)

March 

God of War (35 hrs) [Fin]

Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (40 hrs)

April

Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (43 hrs)

(Final Fantasy XIII)

Portal 2 [Fin]

Final Fantasy 15 - Episodes Prompto, Ignis, Gladio, and Ardyn [Fin]

May

Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (70 hrs)

Life Is Strange -Before the Storm- Episode 2 complete, 15 hours

June

Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey (120 hrs) [Fin]

Rime (1 hr)

Final Fantasy XII: Zodiac Age (1 hr)

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD (2 hrs)

July

Rime (25 hrs) [Fin]

Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD (35 hrs)

Witcher 3 DLC: Hearts of Stone [Fin]

Witcher 3 DLC: Blood and Wine (10 hrs)

DELIGHTFUL FIC

January

What Dreams May Come by Lenore | Crimson Peake | Edith/Thomas | 5k |  Ghosts are real, and there are things that tie them to this world. Sometimes it's because they want to linger, and sometimes it's because they are trapped. Sometimes ghosts need the help of the living before they can be truly free.

and prove your body wrong by paperclipbitch | The Defenders | Matt Murdock/Jessica Jones | 1k | Neither of them can read minds, but they both fake it for their day jobs.

these roads will take you into your own country by notbecauseofvictories | American Gods | Shadow/Laura, Gen | 5k | Here’s a joke for you: a Muslim, a zombie, and a leprechaun walk into a bar in Misery, Indiana. No one stares, because no one in the puckered, shitty asshole of Misery, Indiana gives a fuck. The Colts are playing.“Fucking new gods,” the leprechaun mutters, hunching his shoulders almost up to his ears. “Gridiron and Pepsi commercials.”

Small Step For Man by Toft [archived by yuletide_archivist] | Greek Myth | Artemis/Apollo | 4k | "It's all right, sister," Apollo whispers, and his arm is warm around her shoulder. She forgets, he is her twin, he is her other half; he knows her almost as well as she knows herself. "We're still the same."

learning curve by Yuu_chi | Detroit | Hank/Connor | 15k | “While sexual activity is not my default purpose, I do possess the capability,” Connor says without so much as batting an eye, unaware that he’s completely shattered Hank’s world view in one single sentence.

machine learning by kriegersan | Detroit | Hank/Connor | 31k | “This kinda shit doesn’t go away overnight. It’s only been a few months, Connor. We’re only just starting to know what this is gonna look like.” Lt. Anderson throws back his beer.“You think I don’t know that?” He sounds defensive. He tempers his voice. “I’m simply processing.”

eighteen wheels on an uphill climb by blackeyedblonde | Detroit | Hank/Connor | 73k | Hank is going to die. He’s going to die right here in Kentucky, 53 years old, halfway to broke, and tragically sober. Survived only by a nine-year-old St. Bernard and the 31-year-old twink who delivered the fatal blow.

Fuck pride (pride only hurts, it never helps) by ImogenGotDrunk | Detroit | Nines/Gavin | 40k | What Gavin cannot deal with is Connor’s replica; two inches taller, blue-eyed, and with a mouth that Gavin doesn’t know whether to punch or take between his teeth. The RK900 model has been assigned as his partner for the foreseeable future.

linguistics, semantics by pseudoanalytics | DBH | Hankcon | 49k | "So, what? Cyberlife gave you a preference for ugly, old, washed-up bastards?" Connor intentionally allows himself to appear unamused. "Absolutely not." He waits for Hank to look at him again before delivering his punchline. "I believe I developed that for myself."

Skin Deep by bughnrahk | DBH | Hankcon | 50k | Hank is 53 years old. He's never had a soul mark, doesn't have a soul mate. And he's fine with that. He cheated the system once and it cost him everything he had. Never again.When August 2038 rolls around and the number '313 248 317 - 51' appears on his arm in perfect Cyberlife Sans font, exactly where a soul mark should be, Hank wants nothing to do with it.

Watch Me, Watch You by elefseus (oscillos) | DBH | Hank/Connor | 82k | WIP | "How do you go about living when everything you've ever known changes? Can you?"

the most formidable lies by fshep | DBH | Connor/Gavin | 15k | WIP | Gavin is given an ultimatum: agree to give his mother’s coworker’s son a chance, or introduce his family to his new boyfriend, Connor, who isn’t his boyfriend at all.

February

and we'll figure it out by consumptive_sphinx | Temeraire | Lawrence/Tharkay | 1.5k | Everyone is born with their soulmate's name written on their skin, somewhere. Laurence has two names. Neither of them are in a script he can read.

Propriety and Fate by esama | Temeraire | Lawrence/Tharkay | 3.5k | It isn't as if one can go and talk about such things

Watercast by Fishwrites | Voltron | Keith/Lance | 205k WIP, Chapter 15 | Shiro has been a Galra prisoner for over a year; with his flight feathers clipped and unable to fly. Desperate to escape, he jumps overboard while being transported to the capitol on a Galran ship. Lance is a merman who saves him from drowning. Keith thinks Shiro is about to become mermaid dinner. Hunk just wants Lance to stop going to the surface all the time, dammit!

Afterlife by jaegermighty | Haunting of Hill House | Gen, Luke-centric | 6k |  Leigh and Steve name their daughter Eleanore, with an 'e' on the end which is more old-fashioned, they say. Eleanore Olivia Crain. Lots of dead people in that name; Luke's not a fan. Not that anyone asked his opinion.

in memoriam by oxymoronic | Bartimaeus | Gen | 1.5k | Kitty Jones has but a little strength left in her body, and she has decided on this lazy summer's night to spend it on the question which has plagued her for half a century.

March 

Second Chances by rootbeer | Teen Wolf | Sterek | 2k | "A lot of times the ‘markings’ were common, simple things you said to strangers all the time. 'Excuse me'; 'thank you'; 'hello'. Some got extremely romantic things like 'it’s you isn’t it? I’ve been waiting for you' or 'Wow you’re really pretty'. And they were always the first words their soulmate would ever say to them.Of course, having 'You are the fucking worst kind of person in the world' tattooed down your side, didn’t bode well.

have your cake and eat it too by keskasi | Naruto | Naruto/Sasuke | 7k | “What’s it like to give a blowjob?” Naruto asks.

Timing it Right by DragonBandit | The Bright Sessions | Mark/Damien | 14k | Damien's gold rises at Whitney. Mark tries to make things right.

April

and maybe you'll find a way to keep me a floating when i can't by LazyBaker | Stranger Things | 3k | Billie’s tough. Nothing but sharp edges with sharper teeth. She’s all bark and all bite.

A thousand by Ever-so-reylo (Ever_So_Reylo) | Star Wars | Reylo | 3k |  “I’m going to kill you, now.” The problem is—really, the crux of all of Rey’s problems at the moment—he actually thinks he means it.

He Who Is Made Of Iron by MayContainBlueberries | The Queen’s Thief | Gen, Costis centric | Tea reminds Costis of his childhood.

May

for my wild by vixleonard | GOT | Arya/Gendry | Set post 8x04, Arya tries to find out who Arya Stark is now.

Almost Cool by blacktofade | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Shane/Ryan | 30k | While filming the Yuma Territorial Prison episode, Shane gets bitten by what he thinks is a bat. Spoiler alert: it's not.

Two Worlds Collided by blacktofade | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Shane/Ryan | 10k | There's a new guy at work and Ryan belatedly realizes they've actually already met once before.

Keeping Out the Cold by blacktofade | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane | After a strange ghostly encounter, Ryan and Shane begin sharing visions via a telepathic bond. AKA: the In Your Eyes AU that no one asked for.

Bringing Things Together by blacktofade | Buzzfeed Unsolved | 7k | “Look,” Shane says over the phone. “Mistakes were made.”

Pride by astolat | Game of Thrones | Jaime/Cersei/Brienne | 22k Jaime didn’t understand why Cersei suddenly insisted on trimming his hair and shaving his beard, but he also didn’t care to fight her on it, even though he’d just as soon have kept the beard: it was bitterly cold in the small tower room with its arrow-slits. At night, even curled together under the two blankets they’d been allotted, it took the better part of an hour before their bodies could warm the bed enough to sleep.

L'aura è tua messaggera by Rosyredlipstick | PJO | Nico/Will | 9k | Or, how the Stoll Brothers accidentally got Nico di Angelo and Will Solace together.

June

Competition by astolat | GoT | Jaime/Brienne | 11k | Almost the instant Brienne was out of earshot, Bronn turned to Podrick, jerked his head towards Jaime and asked, “Has he fucked her yet?”

Skin and Scales by Ernmark (M_Moonshade) | The Penumbra Podcast | Arum/Rilla/Damien | 17k | The man glares, and this time, Damien is certain it isn’t a trick of the light: those eyes are violet as amethyst. He wears disdain like a second skin–- or, perhaps, like the scales that he is missing.“Lord Arum?”

I will become yours and you will become mine by spiderwebsitar | DBH | Reed900 | 24k | After an argument with his new partner, Gavin Reed wakes up five years in the future married to an android who won’t stop making fucking waffles.

Numerology by Hth | Schitt’s Creek | Patrick/David, Sebastien/David | 20k | Still, it's true that Patrick can have his shy side. He likes to be a gentleman – Mr. Order Whatever You Want I'm Paying and Mr. Here Let Me Fix That For You and Mr. No David Not In the Backseat I Want It to Be Special – so David can't entirely rely on Patrick's willingness to charge forward for the greater good.

someone you like by caela | She-Ra | Adora/Catra | 5k |  catwithabat u think ur so hipster but u just look like a lesbian 27m she_ra @catwithabat bc… i’m a lesbian. lmao 5m

Ugly Words and Pretty Things by Ias | The Terror | Crozier/Fitzjames | 4k | There are words for a man like that.

Sands of Time by tirsynni | LoZ | Link/Ganondorf | 97k | Link awakens in the desert with no idea how he got there, to encounter his worst enemy...except it was the King of the Gerudo, not the King of Evil, he faced.

death shall be no more by Ias | The Terror | Fitzjames/Crozier | 5k | "I'd rather we leave our tents behind and sleep two to a sack like the orphans we are, than to leave one man alone with last burdens."

and then redemption by spidermooned (softlyblue) | Marvel | Spiderman & Loki | 7k | "Kid," says Tony Stark wearily, "Please gimme a reason Loki's been spotted talking to Spiderman that isn't 'I wanted to be his friend'. Please. Tell me you can do that."

so many ways to talk about longing by lymricks | Stranger Things | Harringrove | 3.6k | Steve wakes up--in a pool lounger--to Billy Hargrove looming over him. Billy pushes his sunglasses down and Steve thinks sleepily that it must be so that Steve gets the full impact of Billy’s narrow-eyed glare. “Harrington,” Billy says. “We’re fucking closed.”

sun gutters by lymricks | Stranger Things | Harringrove | 5k | Steve can feel Billy’s eyes on him. “You should get here early,” Billy says, casually. “Tomorrow. At six.”

Finders Keepers by blacktofade | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane | 3k | Ryan wakes with a hangover and an empty bed, and only one of them he expects.

Back Room by forthegreatergood | Good Omens | Aziraphale/Crowley | 5.6k | Aziraphale actually does have quite an extensive collection of pornography in the bookshop. Like most of the questionable things in Aziraphale’s life, it’s Crowley’s fault.

killed with kindness by veterization | Persona 5 | Akechi/Akira | 52k | Goro can't quite figure out why so many people keep acting like they're his friend.

July

On mandated uniforms and workplace entertainment by Thei | Stranger Things | Harringrove | 2k | Robin loves this job. Besides an income, it also provides her with quality entertainment. Especially when she's working with Steve, and Billy Hargrove shows up.

don't make a shadow (of yourself) by lymricks | Stranger Things | Harringrove | 11k | WIP | And Billy, curled in a cheap plastic seat with his eyes squeezed shut, wonders, could it really be this easy? Just get on a bus and go home?

paper thin by sarcasticfishes | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane/Sara | 9k | Shane’s new neighbors are a morning-sex kind of couple.

your love is three times better by sarcasticfishes | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane/Sara | 14k | Ryan grimaces as he types out the words, >It’s Valentine’s Day. Don’t you want to do romance stuff?

you, through half-shut eyes by brawlite | Stranger Things | Harringrove | 8k | Two parts sugary sweet summer vibes, one part snarky instagram stories, and three parts mutual pining.

damn.nation, now available on itunes by antistar_e (kaikamahine) | Good Omens | Crowley/Aziraphale | 11k | When lowly tempt-pusher Amphora (formerly of Stairwell 7B North, before she Fell,) gets the notice that end times are nigh, she gleefully quits her job and cancels her Netflix subscription and takes her place among the legions of hell.This, it turns out, was a bad plan.

The Dragon and Her Wolves by hapakitsune | Game of Thrones | Sansa/Dany/Jon | 60k |  When the truth of Jon's birthright is revealed, control of the North and Daenerys's claim to the Iron Throne are both called into question. To preserve their tenuous alliance and secure her rule, Daenerys puts aside her personal feelings to arrange a marriage of political convenience between Jon and Sansa Stark.

Bonded by softestpunk | The Witcher | Emiel/Geralt | 13k | Regis is punished for Dettlaff's assumed death, Geralt comes to the rescue, and the two of them gain something neither of them would ever have dared hope for.

Something We Were Withholding Made Us Weak by triedunture | Good Omens | Aziraphale/Crowley | 17k | "Yes, exactly. Retire." Aziraphale reaches for the last remaining tartlet brimming with summer berries. "Somewhere along the south coast, perhaps."

something happens and i'm by brawlite | Stranger Things | Harringrove | 10k | Billy loves his job as at the Hawkins Community Pool. It's even better now that Steve Harrington's a lifeguard, too.

break up with your girlfriend ('cause i'm bored) by thecopperkid | Stranger Things | Harringrove | 15k |  @umissedconnections: Bambi eyes. m4m. i was rippin cigs in the sae p-lot. u made urself puke 2 make room 4 more beer. incredible? ur my hero PLS say ur into guys

I’m Gonna Keep You in Love with Me (for a While) by beethechange | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane | 22k | “Okay,” Shane says finally. “Okay. Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re just going to—we’re going to be married. The only way out is through.”“Um,” Ryan says, because this plan strikes him as counterproductive to their shared goal of not being married.

YELLOW SQUARE by dejavu (suggcest) | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane | 16k |  “Since being the scene of those two, grisly double homicides in the early 1950’s, the Bringle House Bed and Breakfast has sat empty, waiting for the next couple stupid enough to try to stay all four nights.”

darling it's a faded notion by varnes | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane | 28k |  Ryan and Shane get cursed by a ghost, and now they can't be not-touching. It's ... not great.

Things That Go Bump in the Night (and 7 till 12 at weekends) by HoopyFrood | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane | 4k | Shane works at a Haunted House. Ryan is Ryan. Things go about as well as you'd imagine.

Everything's Weird and We're Always in Danger by beethechange | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Ryan/Shane | 15k | “It won’t go away,” Ryan says miserably. “I’ve been like this since we got here, basically, and it won’t fucking—”

Muscles Better and Nerves More by beethechange | Buzzfeed Unsolved | Shane/Ryan | 26k | “I’m serious,” Ryan says. “Don’t go fucking up my body. I want that shit back in the same condition I left it.” 

DELIGHTFUL FANVIDS

January 

(Marvel) Avengers | True North 

A Sad Man With A Box

►Dance to 2018

Collab Parts (2016-2018)

just a machine? [Detroit: Become Human] *HBD Pteryx*

【Detroit｜Become Human】Way Down We Go

She-Ra AMV | I'm Just Your Problem (Catradora)

multifandom || 2018 (the way I remember it)

Detroit: Become Human || Paralyzed

in the end | connor & hank | detroit: become human

BELIEVER - Connor ( Detroit:Become Human ) GMV

who are you? | Connor | Detroit: Become Human

Detroit Become Human - Connor ~ Blood in the Water

Connor - I'm So Sorry by Imagine Dragons [Detroit: Become Human] GMV

» whatever it takes (connor; detroit become human gmv)

Detroit: Become Human / Connor and Hank / Uptown Funk

Would You Kill?| Connor RK800 [Detroit: Become Human]

Rude Boy | Connor | Detroit: Become Human

hold on | connor & hank | detroit: become human

Interstellar | STAY

sabrina spellman *:･ﾟ✧ [look what u made me do]

Stranger Things || Blood in the Water

February

(GoT) Margaery Tyrell || The Queen

Kingdom Hearts 3 EPIC AMV/GMV - Part of the Journey is the End

My Hero Academia AMV - The Greatest Show

Endgame | The Man Who Killed The Avengers

MARVEL || Not Today

March

Marvel/DC || FRICTION

Luke & Nell || There's no without

MARVEL || Blood On ME

What is a STORY?

TUA | Swallow Us

(SW) Obi-Wan Kenobi | Whispers of the Past

Quentin & Eliot || Beautiful nothing

queliot; peaches + plums

Way Down We Go | Red Dead Redemption 2

Marvel || Together

steve x bucky || answer

part to act on [Harry Potter]

April

marvel || supercharged

(Marvel) Avengers || The Big Three -- Iron Man/Thor /Captain America

Guardians of the Galaxy

CAOS || Welcome To The Jungle

Marvel || Rise or Fall

Avengers | Sacrifice [4K]

(Marvel) Tony Stark | I love you 3000

May

(Marvel) Captain America || I Stand Alone

(GoT) Daenerys Targaryen | See What I've Become

Ser Jaime Lannister

Arya & Sandor // Thank You [+8x05]

Kingdom hearts 3 |Dearly Beloved| AMV |

June

(GoT) Cersei Lannister || The Queen Of The Seven Kingdoms

(GoT) The Dragons || They're My Children

(GoT) Melisandre || A Champion Of Light And Life

Bioshock & Infinite - Never The End (Epic and Beautiful Fanmade Video)

Bioshock Infinite : Constants and Variables : Music video/Tribute

Crowley & Aziraphale ][ Don’t Stop Me Now || Good Omens

Crowley ][ Rebel Just For Kicks || Good Omens

i'm the bad guy | villanelle.

mission accomplished • connor RK800

The Haunting of Hill House || Empty hands

Mad World ✘ The Umbrella Academy

July

(GoT) Daenerys Targaryen || The Last Dragon

Steve Harrington [Burn The House Down]

max&eleven | my blood.

Billy Hargrove [Bury a Friend]

Max Mayfield [Rebel Just For Kicks]

billy hargrove | gasoline.

Stranger Things | Heroes

✥ STEVE HARRINGTON ✧･ﾟ: * HANDCLAP {+S3}

billy hargrove | lovely.

stranger things 3 | blood in the water.

Steve Harrington; I Need A Hero

Kilgrave ][ Bad Guy

billy&steve [harringrove] || a little death (+s3)

Avengers | Sacrifice [4K]

Stranger Things || Shelter

Kilgrave ][ Rule The World || Jessica Jones

Ben & Rey | What do you see?

Billy Hargrove - RIP to my YOUTH

a thing about life.

(SW) Obi-Wan Kenobi | Whispers of the Past

The Avengers | Unreachable Star

Steve Harrington || Another One Bites the Dust

DELIGHTFUL MUSIC

January

Dark Night - Kara | Philip Sheppard

Carousel - Kara | Phillip Sheppard

They All Look the Same - Connor | Nima Fakhrara

Curse of the I-5 Corridor | Neko Case

Way Down We Go | Kaleo

Gasoline | Halsey

Sleep All Summer | Neko Case

Hold On, Hold On | Neko Case

Dreaming at Daybreak | Ann Licater

Can’t Leave | Whiskey Charmers

Voodoo Mon Amour | Diablo Swing Orchestra

Undo - Transviolet

Xuanzang - Gareth Coker

Almost - Hozier

Movement - Hozier

Dancing in a Room - EZI

Snow Dancer - Antti Martikainen

Burned Out - Dodie

Epic (pt 2) - Anais Mitchell

Mercury - Honey and the Sting

February

Spanish Sahara - Foals

Obstacles - Syd Matters

If You Still Believe - SIE Sound Team

The Expanse - Through Juniper Vale

The Woods - San Fermin

Sophie - The Altogether

Tom Thumb - Bitter Ruin

Wolves of the Revolution - The Arcadian Wild

Mitchell: Epic III - Cast of Hadestown

Hamilton soundtrack

The Spine - Transistor soundtrack

Don’t Think Twice - Utada Hikaru

Face My Fears - Utada Hikaru

Take On Me - Hidden Citizens

Moonlight Sonata - Hidden Citizens

Waves - chloe moriondo

Alligator Teeth - Mother Falcon

We All Become - Darren Korb

Ashes - Bear McCreary

Journey and Transistor soundtracks

March

The Sailor Song - Autoheart

It’s Quiet Uptown - Kelly Clarkson

Fernando - Cher

Dinner & Diatribes - Hozier

The Fly By Night - Taktsugu Muramatsu

Wake Up, Moving On - Kevin Penkin

April

Austin Wintory Radio

Resurrections - Lena Raine

Fight For You - Hidden Citizens

Mine - BazziIn the Flame - Darren Korb

Paper Boats - Darren Korb

May

Thedas Love Them - Trevor Morris

The Dawn Will Come - Trevor Morris

King - Blue October

Lemonworld - Ocean Alley

Still Feel - Half Alive

Carry On - Kygo

Longshot - Catfish and the Bottlemen

Call Off Your Ghost - Dessa

Sucker - Jonas Brother

Power Over Me - Dermot Kennedy

A Hole In the Earth - Daughter

Lunatic Fringe - red Rider

June

Ummah Oum - Kaya Project

The Fortress - Kaya Project

Good Omens Opening Title - David Arnold

A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square - Tori Amos

A Future for the Krogan - Christopher Lennertz

Ганджу - brain tumor

last piece | Lykke Li

Bite - Charlie Cunningham

Wait For Me - Hadestown

Nightmare - Halsey

Kaya Project albums!!!

Birds - Imagine Dragons

Crazy - Patsy Cline

Can’t Help Falling in Love - Elvis Presley

in waves playlist

July

in waves playlist

Rime soundtrack

2017 soundtrack

bury a friend - billie eilish

bored - billie eilish

the seed - aurora

how do you - elderbrook

quicksand - x ambassadors

what’s up danger - blackway 

bad guy - billie eilish

sunflower - post malone

scared of the dark - lil wayne

elevate - dj khalil

be still, my tongue - snorri hallgrimsson

dark matter - les friction

must’ve been - chromeo

magnets - disclosure, lorde

secrets - the weeknd

feels like summer - childish gambino

the hunter’s mark - erutan

johanna in space - stephaen sondheim

POSTED FIC

January

N/A

February

children of dust and ash | Bartimaeus |  Bartimaeus/Kitty(/Nathaniel) | 1,801 words |  Kitty summons Bartimaeus on a chilly fall day in her thirty-eighth year. 

March

sweet music playing in the dark | DBH | 1,102 words | “I noticed some time ago that you seem to have an appreciation for jazz.” Connor pauses, his fingers hesitating over an old Billie Holiday album. “I’d wondered if that meant you enjoyed dancing as well.”

April

N/A

May

Radio Ga Ga | Stranger Things | Harringrove | 1,143 words | There’s always another party in Hawkins, Indiana. It would be almost boring if it weren’t for Steve Harrington.

June

Sunlight | Marvel | Loki/Thor | 765 words | They aren’t quite out of the solar system when Loki appears at the arm of Thor’s chair, hair shorn short and a furious snarl on his face. 

July

like the bough of a willow tree | Detroit Become Human | Hank/Connor | 1,214 words | There’s a human lost in his woods.

knocking on heaven's door | Stranger Things | Harringrove | 1,748 words | “Just, get in the fucking car. I’ll drive you home.” Billy looked at him, very seriously, and said, “What if I don’t want to go home?”

WIPS | UNPUBLISHED | ORIGINAL

January

like the bough of a willow tree | DBH | Hank/Connor | 1,286 words | There’s a human lost in his woods. Fae!Connor   

hankcon valentine’s exchange fic | DBH | Hank/Connor | 985 words | slow dancing and kisses in the dark basically

February

N/A

March

N/A

April

Sunlight | Avengers | Loki/Thor | 746 words |  They aren’t quite out of the solar system when Loki appears at the arm of Thor’s chair, hair shorn short and a furious snarl on his face.

May

N/A

June

Untitled Original | Ghost + rain | 817 words

July

Reverse BB | 5.6k

FANMIXES/GRAPHICS

January

N/A

February

N/A

March

June

in waves playlist

[bmaxwell]

The Bryan Maxwell Cinematic Universe

I have made a "Top X Games of All Time" list a few times over the course of my life, for no particular reason beyond "it's fun for me."

The problem is that they keep making new games. And redoing the entire list over and over seems silly. But what if I kept a running list going - sorted by year - of all of the really good games? What if?

I'm starting with links to games I've written about as part of Top X Games lists over the years. Whenever a game comes along that feels special, I can write a thing and add it to this list.

1981: Galaga Ms. Pac-Man

1985: Gauntlet

1986: Bubble Bobble The Legend of Zelda Dragon Warrior

1987: Mike Tyson's Punch-Out Contra

1988: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link Bionic Commando Dragon Warrior III Super Mario Bros. 2 Maniac Mansion

1989: River City Ransom Shadowgate Strider Mega Man 2

1990: Super Mario Bros. 3

1991: Tecmo Super Bowl Super Mario World

1992: Shining Force Super Mario Kart The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

1993: NHL '94

1994: Super Metroid

1995: Suikoden

1996: Super Mario 64

1997: Final Fantasy Tactics

1998: Baldur's Gate Starcraft Twisted Metal 3 Diablo

1999: Planescape: Torment Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings

2000: Diablo II Paper Mario The Sims

2001: Animal Crossing

2002: Warlords Battlecry II

2003: Culdcept Grand Theft Auto III Final Fantasy Tactics Advance

2004: Katamari Damacy Dragon Quest VIII World of Warcraft

2005: God of War Chibi-Robo!

2006: Viva Pinata Guitar Hero II The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion Persona 3 Dead Rising Dragon Quest Heroes: Rocket Slime Okami

2007: BioShock Portal

2008: Castle Crashers Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved 2 Pixeljunk Monsters

2009: Plants vs. Zombies Flower

2010: Heavy Rain

2011: Portal 2 Dungeons of Dredmor

2012: Journey Diablo III

2013: The Wolf Among Us Gone Home

2014: Transistor

2015: Life is Strange Steamworld Heist Heroes of the Storm

2016: Firewatch Stardew Valley Salt & Sanctuary Darkest Dungeon Final Fantasy XV

2017: Pyre Hollow Knight Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Slime Rancher Persona 5 SUPERHOT VR NieR: Automata Yakuza 0 Night in the Woods

2018: Monster Hunter World Florence Moss Astro Bot Rescue Mission Dead Cells

2019: Slay the Spire Resident Evil 2 Remake Days Gone River City Girls 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim Death Stranding Disco Elysium

2020: Hades Yakuza: Like a Dragon Spiritfarer Monster Train Final Fantasy 7 Remake

2021: Inscryption Bravely Default II Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Resident Evil Village Life is Strange: True Colors

2022: Triangle Strategy Citizen Sleeper Elden Ring Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope Xenoblade Chronicles 3 The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe™ Tactics Ogre: Reborn Marvel’s Midnight Suns

2023: Hogwarts Legacy Baldur’s Gate 3 Alan Wake II

2024: Persona 3: Reload

This isn't cinema.

[collectorscorner]

CC Blogger - New Arrivals @ Collectors Corner : Wednesday 6/30/21

Collectors Corner Parkville - HQ : OPEN for IN STORE SHOPPING with Strong Safety Measures in Place (Hand Sanitizing Stations, Masks Encouraged for All) - 1-410-668-3353.

CC Parkville - 2020/2021 STORE HOURS, Sunday 12-6, Mon-Tues 12-7, Wed 9-8, Thurs 11-7, Friday & Saturday 11-8

Collectors Corner - Bel Air Outpost Location : OPEN for IN STORE SHOPPING with Strong Safety Measures in Place (Hand Sanitizing Stations, Masks Encouraged for All) - 1-410-838-1777.

CC Bel Air - 2020/2021 STORE HOURS, Sunday 11-5, Monday/Tuesday - Closed, Wednesday 11-8, Thursday 11-7, Friday/Saturday 11-8

Complete list of items shipping to the stores, some items may be limited in availability. If you see anything you want to purchase on the list and are not a subscription member at Collectors Corner, just contact us and let us know if you want an item held at the stores.

Email - collectorscornermd@comcast.net

Subscription Membership & Free Membership Card : Collectors Corner's No Obligation (FREE) Membership Card or FREE (In Store) & ONLINE Subscription Membership saves you 10% Off ALL Bagged & Boarded Comic Book Back Issues, Board Games, Graphic Novels, Manga & Special Orders. Plus Never miss a comic again! Computerized and organized + you can add and cancel titles on your subscription list from home on your own time, or in the store when you pick up your comics at :

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CC PARKVILLE - HEADQUARTERS 7911 Harford Rd Parkville, MD 21234

&

CC BEL AIR - OUTPOST 17 N. Main St. Bel Air, MD 21014

www.collectorscornermd.com

PUBLISHER/TITLE/PRICE

ABLAZE Gung Ho Anger #2 (Cover A Mike McKone), $3.99 Gung Ho Anger #2 (Cover B Antonio Fuso), $3.9

ABSTRACT STUDIOS Terry Moore 2021 Sketchbook, $15.99

AFTERSHOCK COMICS Girls Of Dimension 13 #3, $3.99 Maniac Of New York #2 (Andrea Mutti 2nd Printing Variant Cover), $3.99 Undone By Blood The Other Side Of Eden #4, $4.99 We Live #1 (Inaki Miranda 4th Printing Variant Cover), $4.99 We Live #5 (Inaki Miranda 3rd Printing Variant Cover), $4.99

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The Most Maniacal Villains From the Judge Dredd Universe

The Most Maniacal Villains From the Judge Dredd Universe

Marvelous Videos on the most maniacal Judge Dredd villains… Judge Dredd is one of those characters who has weaved his way into pop culture through hard grit. As part of the British comic book series 2000 AD, Dredd had a hard enough time competing against other popular titles by popular writers and artists, and yet his strip not only stood out but managed to garner a strong following that has…