#maybe st can have that kind of nostalgia ten years into the future

[mushroomsleepy]

going back and watching adventure time after so many years is a truly life changing experience.

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #482

Top Ten Sega Games

So I read somewhere on the internet that in June it’s the thirtieth birthday of Sonic the Hedgehog (making him only a couple of months younger than my brother, which is weird). This is due to his debut game, the appropriately-titled Sonic the Hedgehog, being first released on June 23rd. As such – and because I do love a good Tenuous Link – I’ve decided to dedicate this week’s list to Sega (also there was that Sonic livestream and announcement of new games, so I remain shockingly relevant).

I’ve got a funny relationship with Sega, largely because I’ve got a funny relationship with last century’s consoles in general. As I’ve said before, I never had a console growing up, and never really felt the need for one; I came from a computing background, playing on other people’s Spectrums and Commodores before getting my own Amiga and, later, a PC. And I stuck with it, and that was fine. But it does mean that, generally speaking, I have next to zero nostalgia for any game that came out on a Nintendo or Sega console (or Sony, for that matter). I could chew your ear off about Dizzy, or point-and-click adventure games, or Team 17, or Sensible Software, or RTS games, or FPS games, or whatever; but all these weird-looking Japanese platform games, or strange, unfamiliar RPGs? No idea. In fact, I remember learning what “Metroidvania” meant about five years ago, and literally saying out loud, “oh, so it’s like Flashback, then,” because I’d never played a (2D) Metroid or Castlevania game. Turns out they meant games that were, using the old Amiga Action terminology, “Arcade Adventures”. Now it makes sense.

Despite all this, I did actually play a fair few Sega games, as my cousins had a Mega Drive. So I’d get to have a bash at a fair few of them after school or whatever. This meant that, for a while, I was actually more of a Sega fan than a Nintendo one, a situation that’s broadly flipped since Sega stopped making hardware and Nintendo continued its gaming dominance. What all of this means, when strung together, is that I have a good deal of affection for some of the classics of Sega’s 16-bit heyday, but I don’t have the breadth or depth of knowledge you’d see from someone who, well, actually owned a console before the original Xbox. Yeah, sure, there are lots of games I liked back then; and probably quite a few that I still have warm nostalgic feelings for, even if they’re maybe not actually very good (Altered Beast, for instance, which I’m reliably informed was – to coin a very early-nineties phrase – “pants”, despite my being fond of it at the time). Therefore this list is probably going to be quite eccentric when compared to other “Best of Sega” lists. Especially because in the last couple of decades Sega has become a publisher for a number of development studios all around the world, giving support and distribution to the makers of diverse (and historically non-console) franchises as Total War and Football Manager. These might not be the fast-moving blue sky games one associates with Sega, but as far as I’m concerned they’re a vital part of the company’s history as it moved away from its hardware failures (and the increasingly lacklustre Sonic franchise) and into new waters. And just as important, of course, are their arcade releases, back in the days when people actually went to arcades (you know, I have multi-format games magazines at my parents’ house that are so old they actually review arcade games. Yes, I know!).

So, happy birthday, Sonic, you big blue bugger, you. Sorry your company pooed itself on the home console front. Sorry a lot of your games over the past twenty years have been a bit disappointing. But in a funny way you helped define the nineties, something that I personally don’t feel Mario quite did. And your film is better than his, too.

Crazy Taxi (Arcade, 1999): a simple concept – drive customers to their destination in the time limit – combined with a beautiful, sunny, blue skied rendition of San Francisco, giving you a gorgeous cityscape (back when driving round an open city was a new thrill), filled with hills to bounce over and traffic to dodge. A real looker twenty years ago, but its stylised, simple graphics haven’t really dated, feeling fittingly retro rather than old-fashioned or clunky. One of those games that’s fiendishly difficult to master, but its central hook is so compelling you keep coming back for more.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Mega Drive, 1992): games have rarely felt faster, and even if the original Sonic’s opening stages are more iconic, overall I prefer the sequel. Sonic himself was one of those very-nineties characters who focused on a gentle, child-friendly form of “attitude”, and it bursts off the screen, his frown and impatient foot-tapping really selling it. the gameplay is sublime, the graphics still really pop, and the more complex stages contrast nicely with the pastoral opening. Plus it gave us Tails, the game industry’s own Jar Jar Binks, who I’ll always love because my cousin made me play as him all the time.

Medieval II: Total War (PC, 2006): I’ll be honest with you, this game is really the number one, I just feel weird listing “Best Sega Games” and then putting a fifteen-year-old PC strategy game at the top of the pile. But what can I say? I like turn-based PC strategy games, especially ones that let you go deep on genealogy and inter-familial relationships in medieval Europe. everyone knows the real-time 3D battles are cool – they made a whole TV show about them – but for me it’s the slow conquering of Europe that’s the highlight. Marrying off princesses, assassinating rivals, even going on ethically-dubious religious crusades… I just love it. I’ve not played many of the subsequent games in the franchise, but to be honest I like this setting so much I really just want them to make a third Medieval game.

Sega Rally Championship (Arcade, 1994): what, four games in and we’re back to racing? Well, Sega make good racing games I guess. And Sega Rally is just a really good racing game. Another one of those that was a graphical marvel on its release, it has a loose and freewheeling sense of fun and accessibility. Plus it was one of those games that revelled in its open blue skies, from an era when racing games in the arcades loved to dazzle you with spectacle – like when a helicopter swoops low over the tracks. I had a demo of this on PC, too, and I used to race that one course over and over again.

After Burner (Arcade, 1987): there are a lot of arcade games in this list, but when they’re as cool as After Burner, what can you do? This was a technological masterpiece back in the day: a huge cockpit that enveloped you as you sat in the pilot’s seat, joystick in hand. The whole rig moved as you flew the plane, and the graphics (gorgeous for their time) wowed you with their speed and the way the horizon shifted. I was, of course, utterly crap at it, and I seem to remember it was more expensive than most games, so my dad hated me going on it. But it was the kind of thrilling experience that seems harder to replicate nowadays.

Virtua Cop (Arcade, 1994): I used to love lightgun games in the nineties. This despite being utterly, ridiculously crap at them. I can’t aim; ask anyone. But they felt really cool and futuristic, and also you could wave a big gun around like you were RoboCop or something. Virtua Cop added to the fun with its cool 3D graphics. Whilst I’d argue Time Crisis was better, with a little paddle that let you take cover, Cop again leveraged those bright Sega colours to give us a beautiful primary-coloured depiction of excessive ultra-violence and mass death.

Two Point Hospital (PC, 2018): back once again to the point-and-clickers, with another PC game only nominally Sega. But I can’t ignore it. Taking what was best about Theme Hospital and updating it for the 21st Century, TPH is a darkly funny but enjoyably deep management sim, with cute chunky graphics and an easy-to-use interface (Daughter #1 is very fond of it). The console adaptations are good, too. I’d love to see where Two Point go next. Maybe to a theme park…?

Jet Set Radio Future (Xbox, 2002): I never had a Dreamcast. But I remember seeing the original Jet Set Radio – maybe on TV, maybe running on a demo pod in Toys ‘R’ Us or something – and being blown away. It was the first time I’d ever seen cel shading, and it was a revelation; just a beautiful technique that I didn’t think was possible, that made the game look like a living cartoon. Finally being able to play the sequel on my new Xbox was terrific, because the gameplay was excellent too: a fast-paced game of chaining together jumps and glides, in a city that was popping with colour and bursting with energy. Felt like playing a game made entirely of Skittles and Red Bull.

The Typing of the Dead (PC, 2000): The House of the Dead games were descendants of Virtua Cop’s lightgun blasting, but with zombies. Yeah, cool; I liked playing them at the arcades down at Teesside Park, in the Hollywood Bowl or the Showcase cinema. But playing this PC adaptation of the quirky typing-based spin-off was something else. A game where you defeat zombies by correctly typing “cow” or “bottle” or whatever as quickly as possible? A game that was simultaneously an educational typing instructor and also a zombie murder simulator? The fact that the characters are wearing Ghostbusters-style backpacks made of Dreamcast consoles and keyboards is just a seriously crazy detail, and the way the typing was integrated into the gameplay – harder enemies had longer words, for instance – was very well done. A bonkers mini-masterpiece.

Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 (Switch, 2019): the very fact that erstwhile cultural enemies Mario and Sonic would ever share a game at all is the stuff of addled mid-nineties fever dreams; like Downey’s Tony Stark sharing the screen with Bale’s Batman (or Affleck’s Batman, who the hell cares at this point). The main thing is, it’s still crazy to think about it, even if it’s just entirely ordinary for my kids, sitting their unaware of the Great Console Wars of the 1990s. Anyway, divorced of all that pan-universal gladhanding, the games are good fun, adapting the various Olympic sports with charm, making them easy-to-understand party games, often with motion control for the benefit of the youngs and the olds. I don’t remember playing earlier games extensively, but the soft-RPG trappings of the latest iteration are enjoyable, especially the retro-themed events and graphics. Earns a spot in my Top Ten for its historic nature, but it’s also thoroughly enjoyable in its own right.

Hey, wouldn’t it be funny if all those crazy internet rumours were actually true, and Microsoft did announce it was buying Sega this E3? This really would feel like a very timely and in some ways prescient list.

[thesinglesjukebox]

THE WEEKND - BLINDING LIGHTS

[6.50]

Considering this and "Heartless," the Jukebox concludes that a heart is worth 2.6 decimal points...

Andy Hutchins: A guy whose career has been spent toggling between scuzzy, drug-driven explorations of the dark and Michael Jackson impressions of variable accuracy finally finds the midline between those bumpers while doing 120 in a Testarossa and surrenders to '80s-era cheese -- that flimsy synth line that echoes the hook melody and bridges the chorus and verse is both ridiculous and perfect. It's okay to be corny! [9]

Juana Giaimo: I recently met someone who told me he was a big fan of The Weeknd, and it made me wonder whether all music writers sometimes just start hating someone without many reasons. But personally, I'm enjoying this -- maybe because it doesn't sound like The Weeknd? The fast beat and the '80s keyboards are more dynamic than anything he's released in the last couple of years. He's playing the "I can't love, there is too much lust in me" character again, but considering the first line of "Heartless" is "never need a bitch, I'm what a bitch need," "Blinding Lights" suddenly sounds super deep. [7]

Tobi Tella: The Weeknd's pop pastiches have been better than his woozy R&B attempts lately, highlighted by how much better this is than "Heartless." This has more energy than most of his other forays into this '80s sound, and that sense of propulsion works wonders. [7]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: Everything The Weeknd does works better at high tempos than at slow. The creep of his voice, the way his lines linger and descend, fits better when it's not just another part of a languid whole. On "Blinding Lights," The Weeknd is an irritant, buzzing around the electro-pop of the beat like a moth navigating to a blocked-off flame. It's a pop song that makes the desperation of trying for a pop hit into something slightly rabid, and more compelling than an album full of downer-driven torch songs. It passes the "is this a banger in real life?" test, too -- at every party I've been to this year, "Blinding Lights" was the only unifying dancefloor hit. [8]

Scott Mildenhall: As if seeing a lost Italo classic through new eyes, The Weeknd and his sugar-sweet synths sell this set piece with verve. He forgoes the worst of his cliché for a more urgent than tense approach: showing rather than telling the drama. It's a full, almost maximalist sound delivered through minimalist means: The verse slides into the chorus, and every part has its counterpart, almost, but never quite interlocking as they brush past. [8]

Thomas Inskeep: Time-travel back to 1984 and this would have been a Laura Branigan single. In 1985 this would've been on the Breakfast Club soundtrack, because it's totally got the right tempo for the "Molly dance." (Seriously, listen to this while playing that video on mute and tell me I'm wrong.) The Weeknd adds nothing, but that's to the track's benefit because a) his personality (cf. cocaine and sexual assault) is gross, and b) anon-ish mid-'80s uptempo synthpop is kinda my jam anyway. [7]

Isabel Cole: Pretty enough, I guess, although the synths have started feeling a little video game fight scene for me. But I have listened to "Blinding Lights" at least half a dozen times in a row actively trying to attend to its particulars enough to form an opinion, and my brain simply refuses. Which is kind of its own information, you know? [4]

Brad Shoup: A few years ago, he might have forced a snow-blindness joke. But now there's just a withdrawal reference and that's it. He's making the safe moves, and so is Max Martin: even I know Drive-core isn't in fashion. [6]

Kylo Nocom: "Oh, this is Max Martin?" I asked myself while looking up the track credits, impressed by the more entertaining murk of his synthwave biting that had mixed results before. "Oh, this is Max Martin," I realized once I kept listening and found out he had no other ideas. [5]

Alfred Soto: For fuck's sake, enough. How many Swanson Frozen Fish 'n' Chip versions of 1985 Holiday Inn acts will we endure before our gall bladders rupture from nostalgia overdose? Tender-voiced narcissism needs one-finger keyboard riffs for support like Prince needs Grammy tributes. [4]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: The beat is propulsive and the melody is tinged in gorgeous melancholy, but Abel's the star here. He gives his best vocal performance in ages, emoting with the calm mania of someone coming down from a high. [7]

Julian Axelrod: That whoo! before the wind tunnel synth rush chorus is the most emotional I've heard Abel Tesfaye sound since he begged to fuck Julia Fox in the bathroom in Uncut Gems. It's also the most I've liked Abel Tesfaye since he begged to fuck Julia Fox in the bathroom in Uncut Gems. [7]

Maxwell Cavaseno: "Lost in the Fire" was like chromed-out La Brean spittle getting hacked into your mouth with vengeance and spite, a weirdly underappreciated chance for Tesfaye to find his weapons again by remembering his urges for cruelty. Here he's returned to something else that's familiar from his early work: detachment and disconnect. The Vangelisian synths swooshing around his falsetto also occupied so much of Kiss Land, but there he was trying to convey a stir of emotions. "Blinding Lights" isn't just numb; there's a deliberate disaffect. You end up learning what it's like if the whole point of "Take On Me" was to feel resigned to the helplessness of things moving beyond you at a rate where focus and absorption is not only impossible, but detrimental. Is that perhaps a reductive retro-futurism? Sure, if you think you can control your future. This song doesn't sound like it expects to. [6]

Katherine St Asaph: Ten(!) years(!!!) into the Weeknd's career, "Blinding Lights" finds him doing full-on outrun, after several singles of just mostly outrun. I wonder whether Max Martin ever finds it weird that the going sound of pop -- dictated as much by him as all the Redditors leaving comments on Chromatics videos -- now sounds exactly like the stuff that was popular around the time he was doing hair metal. Imagined Shitty A&R Guy brief for this: "Can you get me a song that sounds like Giorgio Moroder, or 'Take On Me,' or honestly just that Vine with the girl grinning to 'Take On Me'"? (Writing that, one gets the creeping realization that those references are all very specifically 2015, which perhaps says something about Martin's adaptation to the times. But so many people have been so wrong, like David-Frum-predicting-Trump's-trouncing wrong, by predicting Martin's decline, so who knows?) It's a backward trajectory for Abel Tesfaye, in more ways than one. We think of artists beginning their careers with this kind of fakedeep, false-heroic faux-lovelorn bullshit, a valentine cut from polyester and trimmed in coke, and then maybe it's revealed through tabloids or journalism or scandals or basic judging of character that they don't so much have skeletons in their closet as ascended to a fame on a staircase of skeletons, many freshly torn. But with House of Balloons and its subsequent trilogy the Weeknd built his on-record brand as an admitted, unapologetic scumbag, whose songs were filled with often-drugged women, used When the public loved the scumbaggery enough to boost him from hipster-famous to famous-famous, he paired each more charming pop track with a repudiation: "Heartless"'s "lowlife for life," "The Hills"' "when I'm fucked up, that's the real me." (His mentor Drake has also tried to do this, with less focus and less convincingly.) But it increasingly seems like The Weeknd's long-term goal is for his music to culminate in sensitive facade: a Miami Vice Byron who soothes with familiarity of form, with singles so expensively vulnerable they gleam like a neuralyzer and erases memories equally well. I suspect, for much of my cohort, that's the generational dream. [6]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox]

[wknc881]

Top Ten Hip-Hop & RnB Albums of 2017

2017 may go down as the poopiest year of the ‘10s. Unless of course you’ve spent the whole year with the TV off and your earbuds plugged in your ears, in which case you may think of 2017 as a pretty solid year for Hip Hop & RnB music. Not nearly as good as 2015 or 2016, but 2017 has given us many new faces and many new favorites, while also reminding us just how much some familiar faces have grown. So what better thing to do than to torture myself by only picking out my personal Top 10 albums for this year. I’m not sure if it was harder picking my top 10 or ranking my top 10, but nonetheless I am a fighter so let us move on to the list.

  10. Smino - blkswn

  The first time I fell in love with Smino’s music was last year on the Monte Booker assisted track “Kolors”. The song was just a teaser of what could happen when Booker’s atmospheric, groovy beats mix with Smino’s eccentric flow and sharp lyricism. That blend of styles is what eventually would become the St. Louis artist’s debut album, blkswn. Running at 18 tracks long, blkswn can best be described as a long, but never boring, ride through space at 2:00 a.m. in a Honda Civic (and yes I am aware that there is no sense of time in space). Producing nearly the entire album, it is hard to ignore what Booker is able to bring to the table as an up and coming producer redefining the genre of hip-hop. Smino raps on various different topics that range from Netflix and chilling with his shawty to speaking on the black experience in America and delivers this with a very fresh and unique flow. Also, the sequencing on the album cannot be ignored. It’s is so good to the point where you don't know where one song ends and the next one begins, producing a very fluid album listening experience. For sure worthy of a Top 10 position this year.

  Favorite Tracks: "Glass Flows", "Netflix & Dusse", "Anita", "Father Son Holy Smoke"

  9. Goldlink - At What Cost

  Goldlink impressed many critics, fans, and myself with his second mixtape And After That, We Didn’t Talk, which was released two years ago. Instead of continuing his career in LA or another major city, Goldlink decided to stay home and create an album all about home. At What Cost is all about, and for, the DMV (a popular nickname for the area surrounded by Washington D.C., Maryland, and Virginia). Goldlink raps about many DMV related topics, such as go-go music and the increased gun violence and death of many black youth in the area. It’s easy for Kendrick Lamar or Drake to rep their hometown because their hometowns are so popular already. The DMV is a city often underlooked as a major hip-hop city and Goldlink wanted to prove that on At What Cost. With features from many popular DMV artists, like Wale, Mya, and Shy Glizzy, and songs that feature go-go production, At What Cost is a fun, dancey, and entertaining album that let’s the world in on the sounds of the DMV. Also, it would be remiss of me not to mention that “Crew”, with its infectious hook sung by Brent Faiyaz, is one of the best songs of this decade. Don’t @ me.

  Favorite Tracks: “Have You Seen That Girl?”, “Meditation”, “Crew”, “Kokamoe Freestyle”, and “Some Girl”.

  8. SYD - Fin

  Despite the name of the album, Syd’s career in music is far from over. Syd (formerly Syd da Kid) has been around making music since 2011 with Odd Future. Her band, The Internet, has put out 3 albums, including the Grammy-nominated Ego Death released in 2015. In 2016, Syd delivered a few features for artists like KAYTRANADA, Isaiah Rashad, and Common. It was 2017, however, where Syd established herself as an independent and confident voice in R&B. Fin is Syd’s first solo project and she sounds as fierce as she has ever been. Leaving the familiar neo-soul sounds of Ego Death behind, Syd goes for a more contemporary, 90’s R&B flavor on Fin. Focusing on topics of success and relationships, Syd delivers a fresh R&B album in a time where R&B is beginning to become stale in lyrics and trap heavy in production. Syd has struggled with stage fright and anxiety for most of her career, but these past two years, and on Fin, Syd has proven that she is here to be a confident, sexy, and bold R&B artist. Syd’s songwriting ability and magical, lush voice make for a stellar debut album.

  Favorite Tracks: “Shake em Off”, “All About Me”, “Smile More”, “Body”, and “Dolla Bills”

  7. Princess Nokia - 1992 Deluxe

  A few things caught my eye when i first saw Princess Nokia’s 1992 Deluxe: it was an album titled after a year (those albums are proven to be better), her bright smile on the cover, and her totally New York tomboy outfit. New York City’s Puerto Rican culture is huge and is one of my favorites. Unfortunately, there haven't been many representatives of Puerto Rican culture in Hip-hop (Fat Joe is the only one to come to mind). But have no fear, Princess Nokia is here and she is amazing. You may know her from that video of woman throwing soup on a man’s face in a subway after he was screaming racial slurs and two young black males. Yeah, she’s the one who threw the soup. That same attitude is what makes 1992 not just a great, gritty album, but also a very classic New York album. Nokia’s bars and verses are vicious and unapologetic. Nokia raps about her mischievous upbringing (“Bart Simpson”), her tough personality (“Tomboy” & “Mine”), and the beautiful city she grew up in (“Saggy Denim” & “ABCs of New York”). She mixes modern trap production with classic NY boom-bap and clever, illustrious lyrics to create a wonderful peek into the life of Princess Nokia.

  Favorite Tracks: “Bart Simpson”, “Mine”, “Saggy Denim”, “Green Line”, “Goth Kid”, “Brick City”, and “Chinese Slippers”

6.  Brent Faiyaz - Sonder Son

  If Brent Faiyaz’s name sounds familiar it’s because it should. I mentioned him earlier when I was talking about Goldlink’s explosive hit “Crew” that really made Brent Faiyaz a popular name. He also worked on a project with his group Sonder, which was a very soft and smooth RnB album. But Sonder Son sounds completely different from anything he has released before. Sonder Son is the proper introduction to Brent Faiyaz himself and proof that he is more than just a really good voice. Sonder Son is filled with personal narratives and introspection, which is pretty different from most RnB albums you hear nowadays. It does, of course, come with a few love songs as expected on almost any RnB album. But what makes Sonder Son stick out to me the most, and why it’s on this list, is the throwback 90’s RnB production and 90’s feel it has. Faiyaz was born in 1995, but Sonder Son sounds like it was made in 1999. The 22-year old’s clever and mature songwriting and production with beautiful guitar riffs and slow drums makes for a very solid debut release.

  Favorite Tracks: All of them but I want to say that “Talk 2 U” is my absolute favorite.

  5. Vince Staples - Big Fish Theory

  Vince Staples is young, black, intelligent, and loud and Big Fish Theory will not let you forget that. Vince came out with his strong double-disc debut Summertime ‘06 two years ago and in the last two years, Vince has drop any guest features for a wide range of artists (ScHoolboy Q, Gorillaz, Kali Uchis) and even dropped the Prima Donna EP last year. These last two years highlight how much Vince has grown as an MC and has even strayed away from his usual sound and Big Fish Theory is a good example of that growth and change. Vince is still rapping about topics concerning race and politics, but this time in more curt and direct manner than before. With shorter verses and repetitive hooks, Vince wanted to get straight to the point on this album. Fans of Vince Staples will no doubt the huge difference in production this time around. Giving off Yeezus vibes, the production is very industrial-EDM heavy with maybe only one or two songs that actually sound like a traditional hip-hop beat. With features from artists like Kilo Kish, Ray J, Ty Dolla $ign, and a killer verse from Kendrick Lamar, Big Fish Theory is the backdrop to a dark, apocalyptic future. Kind of imagine if Tron was set in Long Beach, California under a corrupt system and that’s what Big Fish Theory sounds like.

  Favorite Tracks: All of them

  4. Tyler, The Creator - Scum F*ck Flower Boy

  Tyler’s debut studio album came out over six years ago and Mr. Creator has come a long way since his roach eating days. Released two years after the experimental album, Cherry Bomb, Flower Boy is Tyler’s most mature album to date from his writing to his production. The first single “Who Dat Boy” (featuring a verse from his buddy A$AP Rocky) was a very excellent return from his two year hiatus and “911/Mr. Lonely” is one of the best (and most fun) songs to come out this past summer. From the very first track, it is clear that Tyler’s production has been highly influenced by very bright and sunny sounds, which matches perfectly with the sunset and sunflowers on the front cover. You can also tell that, from the very beginning as well, that Tyler is getting more personal on this album than he has on any other album he’s put out. Discussing topics of fame, loneliness, nostalgia and his own sexuality, we get a very good look on what’s really going on inside the mind of Tyler, The Creator. As usual, the entire album was produced by Tyler himself and it is some of his best production. With lush strings and vibrant keys, it is very clear that Tyler has been learning how to incorporate more sophisticated instrumentation into his work. And despite the list of popular names that pop up in the features (Rex Orange County, Frank Ocean, Kali Uchis, Lil Wayne), it still feels like Tyler’s show and he is shining brighter than ever.

  Favorite Tracks: “See You Again”, “Who Dat Boy”, “Pothole”, “911/Mr. Lonely”, “Boredom”, “November”, but really all of them

  3. Kendrick Lamar - DAMN.

  I think I speak for most people who listened to DAMN. that the title is more than appropriate. Once I finished listening to this 55-minute project, all I could say was “damn”. From beginning to end this album slaps. And it slaps hard. The transition from the suspenseful intro “BLOOD.” into the Mike WiLL Made-It produced “DNA.” is rush of bars and beats as we are reintroduced to much angrier Kendrick Lamar that we haven’t heard for a few years now. DAMN. is a pretty good painting of what 2017 turned out to be as far as politics and social issues go. Lamar discusses what’s going on his life (“FEEL.”, “LOVE.”, “FEAR.”) as he is becoming even more of a superstar, while also reflecting and commenting on the current state of the people (“LUST.” and “XXX.”). As expected, Lamar’s pen game is as vicious and intricate as ever and the production on this album has been taken new heights. Sounding nothing like his last two LPs, DAMN. further shows how Lamar has probably grown the most among his peers and is definitely one of the best.

  Favorite Tracks: All of them let’s be honest it was pretty fire

  2. SZA - Ctrl

  Ctrl is one of my favorite albums of the year (it’s my #2 duh), but my sister loves the album even more than me and has her own personal connection to the album. So the following review will be told by sister, Carmen. Enjoy.

"This album is one of the most empowering albums of 2017 for women. Solána Imani Rowe is a badass woman who is not afraid to sing what she really feels. SZA released her debut album this past June, after months of delays, and it debuted at number three on the Billboard 200. The types of things she sings about mainly on this album are the empowerment of women, demanding respect from men, sexual acts and behavior, the intimacy and heat of relationships, and just the grimy truth of how people are in today’s society. The first song on the album is “Supermodel” and it is about how SZA slept with her ex-boyfriend’s friend because her ex did her wrong and left her. This was such a dope way to start an album off because she comes straight out and says basically “yeah I’m leaving and slept with your friend oh well that’s what you get”. Not many women in the industry will say something so straightforward. SZA’s lyrics and the way she sings them so confidently is what makes this album very strong. The following track on the albumis the Travis Scott assisted “Love Galore”. SZA wrote this song to tell the story of a man hitting a girl up saying he’ll be down and how he’s a real one but then after he gets what he wants he leaves. This song is one of the most popular off the album because of the boppy vibe it has. It’s something that as soon as you hear the beat and what she’s talking about you just go “ahhh sookie sookie now” and just dance.  My personal favorite off the album is “The Weekend” because she sings about the role of the main chick and the sidepiece in the relationship. Many women, and myself love the vibe that the song gives off because the feeling of having someone trying to play and take advantage of you but then the tables are actually turned and you’re the one who’s playing them is like no other. Also it explores the high people get off of sexual behavior because for SZA to be a woman and to tell that man you are only here to give me what I want to please me sexually and that’s it, incredible."

--- Carmen

Although it is not her first album under Top Dawg Entertainment, Ctrl is the proper introduction to SZA and proves she is ready to be a superstar.

  Favorite Tracks: “The Weekend”, “Go Gina”, Drew Barrymore”, “Doves In The Wind”, “Garden(Say it Like Dat”

  1. Joey Bada$$ - ALL-AMERIKKKAN BADA$$

  Personally, I think Joey Bada$$ is the best MC in the game right now. While some people may give the “Best MC” award to Kendrick Lamar, I think if Joey can make 3 more albums like ALL-AMERIKKKAN BADA$$ (ABBA), then he would definitely deserve that title. Joey has put out three solo projects, one of which was his debut album. All three of his previous projects were solid, with clever lyrics and an old school boom-bap aesthetic. However, on his debut album, Joey never really switched things up and basically released another mixtape. I’ve always compared to Joey to Biggie in how he has the ability to sound effortless when rapping and has never really had a bad verse or song in his career. Since we know that Joey is a good rapper, I was really looking forward to ABBA in hopes that he would also be able to construct a good album with a message and a concept. And boy did Mr. Bada$$ deliver. Running 12-tracks long, ABBA is Joey’s most political album yet. Splitting in down the middle, we see in first 6 tracks that Joey takes on a Superman role in addressing racial issues in America and provides lots of hope. The production is rather light and joyful, and Joey has a very calm tone throughout. That is until the last 6 tracks on the album. Starting with “Rockabye Baby”, Joey switches the flavor and starts to release his own personal anger over the issues in America by rapping with a voice that is much more aggressive and production that slaps. Most importantly, though, this album is relevant and could not have come at a better time. Being so young, it is impressive to see an artist like Joey Bada$$ take on political rapping and while also making a good and cohesive project. ALL-AMERIKKKAN BADA$$ is one of Joey’s strongest projects and it was my personal favorite for the year of 2017.

  Favorite Tracks: All of em fam

Honorable Mentions:

A$AP Mob - Cozy Tapes Vol. 2

Rapsody - Laila's Wisdom (honestly have not given this a thorough listen or else it might've been top 10)

J.I.D. - The Never Story

Daniel Caesar - Freudian

 BROCKHAMPTON - SATURATION II

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New Look Sabres: 2019-2020 Schedule

Reviewing next season’s Buffalo Sabres Schedule was the first blog of New Look Sabres last year. It was full of mediocre to hardly passing jokes and double entendres. I wasn’t necessarily new to blogging, but I knew I was committing to a very regular blog and had some jitters about it. I’m not saying my writing has grown enormously since then, but I’ve figured out some stuff. Looking back on how I looked at this past season’s schedule is both delightful and disappointing. It’s delightful thinking we all were in for the thrill of the ten-game winning streak and we didn’t even know it. I had a little angry tangent about the Pittsburgh Penguins in last year’s schedule analysis and not only did we get a fun win off of those guys during the win streak, we beat them in their house in a barnburner. What fun that was! On the other hand every time I speculated about the playoffs it sorta burns in retrospect. I looked at the last seven games of the season as the opportunity for a fun, grade-A F1 duel for a playoff spot against mostly teams that didn’t qualify for the playoffs the prior season. Little did I know that those last games would be hard to watch waiting for a Head Coach firing. Enough reminiscing! The grass is always greener on the other side! What does the future hold? How does the 2019-2020 NHL Schedule set the table for the Buffalo Sabres 50th season?

To begin with: the Global Series. Playing regular season games on another continent is a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because it’s fun to have your team get that kind of attention for however short a window on top of the general fun of watching your favorite players travel to a foreign country. It’s a curse because that’s a lot of extra travel and exhaustion for games that matter the same but are more difficult unnecessarily. I’m all for growing the game, particularly in a place like Stockholm, Sweden where, if this league ever does ever expand to Europe, will certainly be a target market. However it would be nice if those games either didn’t matter in the standings and or were in the preseason. The Buffalo Sabres will take on the Tampa Bay Lightning in two games November 8th and 9th. Rasmus Dahlin’s Instagram will be very fun I’m sure but for a team who has struggled to get good starts to their season a lot this decade, playing two games on another continent in November isn’t ideal. Two out of four games against a high-powered divisional rival will be absolute wild cards. That said, they’re going through it too and crazy as it may sound, Tampa wasn’t the hardest divisional opponent this past season. So that’s something. The Global Series isn’t the only different thing on the schedule. Since the day the Draft started actually we’ve known the first two games of the season. Buffalo starts on the road at Pittsburgh before returning for a home opener against the newly PK Subban-ized New Jersey Devils on October 3rd and 5th respectively. That’s a fun Saturday night not just because of Subban but the Devils also have this year’s first overall pick in Jack Hughes. Hopefully there are some equally fun Sabres players to talk about at that point, but this many months out the visitors are the more interesting part. Neither of those teams will be cakewalks to start the season but neither are impossible. This is the first season in a while neither of the first two games of the season involved a hated divisional rival. Speaking of divisional rivals: games against the seven other teams in the Atlantic Division are remarkably evenly spread out. Excluding eight division bouts in November each month has four or less excluding April of course. That high concentration gives me an interesting idea of focusing all the divisional trash talk into one month: Atlantic Division Hate Month! It’s a working title.

I mentioned briefly off the top this is the Sabres’ 50th anniversary season. Surely more promotional nights will be announced after I post this but already we’ve got a couple fun oddities listed. The home opener will feature a pregame ceremony featuring past Sabres Captains. If that shit doesn’t look like a fucking illuminati induction then it ain’t doing enough. Also potentially cult-like: “Founders Night” December 2nd against the Devils… why are the promotions with big cult potential both against the Devils… hmm, I’d bring a crucifix to both if I were you. How about we chase that with some normal stuff: there’s a California road trip in October, there’s a potentially weak stretch of teams down the last ten games of the season that we’ll waste the opportunity and be long out of the playoffs by. I don’t know how you feel about the San Jose Sharks but there’s a rare home and home series in late October against them. If you’re the kind that likes to have a Sabres game at the epicenter of a day getting trashed there are a couple real gems in the schedule. For drunks who I’m going to insist travel safely there is a home and home back-to-back with the Toronto Maple Leafs Black Friday and the Saturday following Thanksgiving. I’m imagining a big drunk family enjoying that, just enjoy safely. You don’t want to be hungover on a Saturday evening watching that second game. New Year’s eve features a game against Tampa and January features a road game in Nashville on a Saturday night that would be tempting for even the most sober among us. If you’re more the lawful type like myself and prefer your non-alcoholic juice beverages in the afternoon you’ll be disappointed to hear there are only 3 Saturday games at 1pm. One of those is a game in Stockholm and the other two are on otherwise uneventful nights in the dead of winter. Take that how you will. Before we get to the strategy of the schedule its worth noting that at the posting of this article we have been royally teased. The team twitter account posted the 50th Anniversary patch in the current navy with navy OG logo after a row of that same logo in royal blue, red and black with the goat-head, and navy with buffaslug. There’s no real explanation for those except “Journey through the decades.” Sabres twitter immediately responded with the wounded optimism our team may actually do something cool. It’s hard to say exactly what that means. My heart tells me decade-themed nights where they wear the jerseys from those decades, but my head tells me tribute videos and special guests with some pricey auctions. We’ll see what it actually means. Here’s to hoping I guess.

So does the schedule help or hurt the Sabres prime goal of Lord Stanley’s Cup? Yeah, I know the best teams win no matter how tough their schedule is but let’s all be honest here: these guys need as much help as they can get to break the playoff drought. I’d say this season’s schedule is the most favorable to help the club as it’s been in years. It starts with October in which your toughest opponent is… the Sharks? The Habs? Ok, so there is a challenging opponent by last season’s standards sprinkled in, but the thirteen games of the season’s first month look to be a great early barometer for where the team is at. It’s not crazy to imagine our boys in blue and gold getting nine, ten, maybe even eleven wins in October. That would be the best start to the season in many years. There’s a lot of time off in November because of the Global Series so even if it’s not a flaming start they have time to figure their new coach out early. We’ll see a lot of our division’s elite that month: Tampa, Boston and Toronto. Getting wins against them will go a long way to building confidence if Ralph Krueger is the motivator we’ve been led to believe he is. December will be decisive per usual with the Western Canadian road trip preceding the trip to the Stanley Cup Champion St. Louis Blues. With some luck the two matchups against Boston after Christmas will provide an opportunity to solidify genuine hope before the halfway mark at Game 41 the last day of the calendar year. Most of the Sabres’ toughest matchups and series of matchups come after the bye-week next season. That bye-week will be the third week in January. If the Sabres are still in close contention for a playoff spot by the time they take on the Leafs at home Sunday, February 16th then hopefully we won’t be singing the same sad tune come April. That’s my optimistic strategic view of it, the wheels are still apt to come off pending a lot of stuff happening between now and then. I want to insist I’m being optimistic not unrealistic. I’m trying to see opportunities and the challenges. It’s easy to be pessimistic, especially with so little of the promised “roster surgery” occurring right now but this blog is a fan blog, not another raincloud engine like much of Sabres Fandom right now. Come here for your optimistic takes, you know the drill.

So there it is: our look at another Sabres campaign, the 50th one in fact. Recent history tells us otherwise, but the time is right for this club to finally take off. The post on Free Agency will come out late next week or the week after; maybe by then we have some more of the birds we need to actually take off. Before we see any W’s or L’s on this schedule we’ll need to go through what will hopefully be another busy offseason. If not, we will have a very interesting Offseason Retrospective at the end of August… one way or another. Hey, if this season sucks yet again we at least have the powerful drug of nostalgia and special promotions to distract us! Dear God, I hope its not another shite season but no matter what, come here for your fan reaction content on the Sabres. Like, comment and share this blog with your friends and family. Think of it this way: New Look Sabres is what you feel being a Sabres fan, not necessarily the smartest thing you think. For those of you who are new to this, I do try to sprinkle in some intelligent takes, but this blog is really about the beating of Sabres fan’s hearts. I hope we can beat together this season! Let’s go Buffalo!

Thanks for reading.

P.S. Development Camp is going on now at Harbor Center and I could emphasize all the draft picks new and old who are there but instead I’m going to show my Niagara University Purple Eagles pride and point out Niagara winger Eric Cooley! This will also be the extent of my coverage of Development Camp unless something monumental happens.

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24 Marvel And DC Fan Castings Better Than What We Got

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24 Marvel And DC Fan Castings Better Than What We Got

Fans have been putting together their dreaming casts for Comic Book movies for years now. Even before the internet, in the old Wizard magazine was a monthly column devoted to fan castings. Years subsequently, thanks to Photoshop, good artwork, and some wild imaginations, fans have been putting together their ideal casts for all kinds of superhero movies. If you’re savvy and imaginative enough, you can take your favorite actors and put them as your favorite superheroes. Every very often, the rest of the internet takes notice and follows suit, posting and reposting a fan’s casting creation and creating some of their own.

Unfortunately, Hollywood does tend to cast their own movies. Even though the fans might want some star, or another play a given role, Marvel and DC go with their own choices. Seldom have they been one and the same, although Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark is pitch-perfect, there wasn’t a lot of fan clamoring to watch RDJ in the role. As the MCU is closing out its Infinity Saga and now has Fantastic Four and X-Men back in the fold; they might need to cast and recast some classic characters. As for the DCEU, it is unfortunately in shambles, thanks to shoddy storytelling ideas, so they might need to recast some parts as well.

Maybe fans will get to see dream casts realized- here are 25 Marvel And DC Fans Casting Better Than What We Got.

24 Emma Stone As Poison Ivy

It’s been over 20 years since the comically bad Batman And Robin debuted in the theaters. The movie was so terrible that it succeeded in attaining the vivacious actress Uma Thurman completely ridiculous as Pamela Isley, aka the vivacious eco-criminal Poison Ivy.

Perhaps it’s time to try again with Ivy. Emma Stone is currently one of the young vibrant Hollywood starlets and DC is scrambling to recapture the magic of Christopher Nolan’s Batman cinemas. Maybe having Stone deliver a real-life take on what an eco-criminal looks like would be a good jumping start to the DCEU!

2 3 Donald Glover As Spider-Man

Nearly 20 years ago now, Marvel launched its Ultimate imprint. The brand was designed to tell some of the same old tired Marvel origin narratives in new and updates for the biggest characters. When Brian Bendis was done telling Peter Parker’s story, he generated a new Spider-Man, Miles Morales, in 2011. The character has garnered plenty of acclaim and fans have clamored for Donald Glover to play the kid since the beginning.

Maybe in a future MCU movie, we might ensure Miles come to the forefront, but seeing as how Glover is a little older now; and we’ve already seen him in Homecoming as Miles’ uncle, fan artwork are to be able to the only place to assure Glover as Spider-Man.

2 2 Jeffrey Dean Morgan As Batman

When Batman Vs. Superman: Sunrise Of Justice premiered, fans got a sneak peek at Thomas Wayne. Like all Bat-flicks do, fans need to be reminded of how and why Bruce becomes Batman. It might have seemed like a strange bit part for Jeffrey Dean Morgan to play, but there was supposedly more to the story.

Morgan was eventually going to play the Thomas Wayne version of Batman in the Flashpoint movie. Fans had already started dreaming up what Morgan might look like as the Batman. With Zack Snyder’s vision of the DCEU in limbo, these pics are all we’re going to get to the character.

2 1 Rosario Dawson As She-Hulk

Rosario Dawson has been a very popular actress since debuting in Kids in 1995. While she’s dabbled in a few comic book movies before and has been the connective tissue in the Marvel Netflix Universe, it’s about day she makes her own mark in MCU.

If the next Phase in the Marvel movies is all about the ladies, you have to include Jennifer Walters, the MCU’s answer to Wonder Woman- She Hulk! With Dawson playing Walters, you have an actress who could pull off both Walters sarcasm and posture as well as her compassion.

2 0 Willem Dafoe As The Joker

As the Green Goblin, Willem Dafoe more or less played a maniacal, cackling version of Norman Osborn. Osborn was supposed to be a cold and calculating tycoon. Dafoe built him sort of a lite version of DC’s Clown Prince Of Crime.

Dafoe as the Joker would make a lot of DC fans very happy. The performer was actually one of the several on a short list to play the Joker in Tim Burton’s bat-flick. Even when he’s trying to play a compassionate human, he always seems right on the edge. That kind of intensity would be tailor-made for the Joker.

1 9 Neil Patrick Harris As The Riddler

Christopher Nolan loves mind-bending films that, by the end of them, stimulate you question everything you’ve ever known about the previous two hours you just watched. For example, why does everyone think Dom’s totem is a top in Inception. Watch it again, it’s his wedding ring. The top was his wife’s.

But that love of messing with our minds actually could have extended to his phenomenal Dark Knight Trilogy had he cast Neil Patrick Harris and brought the Riddler into this series of cinemas. NPH could have not only erased the bad savor of Jim Carrey’s version but possibly created a menacing version of the character not ensure since The Animated Series.

1 8 Joseph Gordon-Levitt As Ant-Man

While Joseph Gordon-Levitt did say that Marvel eyeing him for the role of Scott Lang in Ant-Man as “nothing but lies, ” the casting rumor did create a slight fervor amongst fans of Levitt, who at that time had come off the heels of The Dark Knight Rises and Sin City: A Dame To[ End] For.

While Paul Rudd is charming and funny in everything that he does, his version of Scott Lang absence a little bit of gravitas that is needed for the occasional dramatic scenes in both Ant-Man and Ant-Man And The Wasp that Levitt would be able to crush.

1 7 Christina Ricci As Harley Quinn

Lindsay Graham and Mary Vernieu, the casting directors of Suicide Squad are clearly blind as bats. Sure, Margot Robbie was decent as Harley Quinn, but Christina Ricci would have been able to take the iconic role to the iconic heights that it deserved.

The woman IS Harley! She’s usually depicted as a goth girl or a gremlin, she generally plays crazy and/ or deranged characters, she’s five-foot-nothing and can still intimidate most people she comes into contact with. DC and Warner Brother, can we make this happen?

1 6 Vin Diesel As Black Bolt

Throughout the ten years of Marvel movies that we have gotten, there have been very rare misses. But a complete and total black mark on the entire MCU would be the decision to even attempt to bringing The Inhumans was clearly a mistake. The feature film never got off the ground, so ABC had it as a mini-series that looked like a lot of people in cosplay.

Even the original guy who Marvel was supposedly trying to casting as Black Bolt knew that it wasn’t running work. Vin Diesel might play meathead Dom, but he’s no buffoon in real life. While he did teasing that he’d be playing the enigmatic ruler of the Inhumans, he backed out before any career injury could be done.

1 5 Idris Elba As Green Lantern

Ryan Reynolds is astounding as Deadpool, the role he was born to play. But before he could play the Merc’ With A Mouth, he tried his hand at playing the Green Lantern in the 2011 movie. This movie, directed by Bond veteran, Martin Campbell, was supposed to be the launch of the DCEU. But thanks to a whole heap of behind the scenes headaches and sub-par performances and impacts, there is virtually no love for Green Lantern.

Which is why Green Lantern fans ought to have jonesing for their fix ever since. Idris Elba as the stoic John Stewart would be the right move to make as far as casting is concerned to erase the bad

memories that Reynolds himself tried to eliminate at the end of Deadpool 2.

1 4 John Krasinski As Mr. Fantastic

With a less-than-fantastic four cinemas in the franchise, fans have long-suffered without an engaging movie featuring Marvel’s first household. Now that Disney has bought 21 st Century Fox and the rights have reverted to Disney, we’re all hoping that The Fantastic Four can be made correctly.

Maybe they let John Krasinski do what he did for A Quiet Place, which was a pretty big hit in 2018. He wrote, directed, and starred in the horror thriller, and all three of those credits, plus the cinema, were well received.

1 3 Emily Blunt As Invisible Woman

Thanks to her responsibilities filing for Gulliver’s Travels, Emily Blunt has to pass on playing Natasha Romanov in Iron Man 2, the characters’ first MCU appearance. Since then, the actress has built up an impressive resume, including the action movie, Edge Of Tomorrow.

If her hubby John Krasinski is going to be tapped to play Reed Richards, then let’s cast Blunt as Sue. They already played a husband and wife trying to survive in A Quiet Place. They can easily pull off scientists who wound up with superpowers.

1 2 Natalia Dyer As Rogue

It’s the fancasting that plenty of fans didn’t know they wanted! But digital artist BossLogic put together some pretty cool renditions of Stranger Things performers as members of the X-Men. Sadie Sink as Emma Frost and Winona Ryder as Mystique to name a few.

But his version of Natalia Dyer as Rogue takes the cake and makes a sense of nostalgia for the character that near-fatally absorbed Captain Marvel and less for the Anna Paquin version that was more Jubilee and less Southern Belle powerhouse.

1 1 Tom Hardy As Wolverine

The brash character actor is playing Venom, it’s hour we get over the notion that Tom Hardy will one day take over for Hugh Jackman as the raging Canucklehead, Wolverine. But there was a day where we could all dreaming, right?

Who cares if he played Bane and was tapped to be part of Suicide Squad. There are several artist supplies online of Hardy not just as Wolverine, but as Logan in full comic book costume. Since he’s Venom now, it will be a longshot when it is necessary to recasting the role, but if anyone could pull off both, it’s Hardy.

1 0 Oprah Winfrey As Amanda Waller

If you’re not familiar with Amanda Waller, or the Wall as she’s sometimes referred to- she’s basically the Nick Fury of the DCU. She’s actually way more of a horrible, secret carrying government agent. She started Task force X( aka Suicide Squad ). She also had no issues basically doing whatever she needed to do and if she had to call upon someone like Batman to clean up her messes, she would.

There aren’t much more powerful political people in Hollywood than Oprah Winfrey herself. The casting of Winfrey as Waller is route more inspired than Viola Davis( Suicide Squad ), Cynthia Addai-Robinson( Arrowverse ), and Angela Bassett( Green Lantern ).

9 David Hasselhoff As Nick Fury

What if, just what if( like the name of the old Marvel series ), we were living in a world where the original Nick Fury, who debuted years before anyone knew who David Hasselhoff was but appears eerily similar to the actor, stimulated his MCU debut and no one caught it ?!

Besides starring in a Nick Fury Fox TV Movie in the 1990 s, Hasselhoff had a silly cameo in Guardians Vol. 2. Maybe we’ll find out that once the Avengers undo the snap that Hasselhoff will be playing the new/ old Nick Fury.

8 Matt Bomer As Superman

To cast Superman is rough. You have find a dark-haired, square-jawed, built like a brick, undeniably attractive “all that is man’s man.” At the same period, a total Boy scout that everyone should aspire to be. THAT was Christopher Reeve. No disrespect to Henry Cavill and Brandon Routh, as good as the issue is, they’re simply not.

Perhaps Matt Bomer is. For some reason, he has been the internet’s choice Man Of Steel for years now. He’s voiced Clark in several DC animated movies. It’s time to give him a chance in the suit for real.

7 Finn Wolfhard As Billy Batson

By the time you’re reading this, Shazam will be in theaters. The unique take over the hero has already garnered positive reviews for its starring, Zachary Levi. The kid who turns into Shazam, Billy Batson is being played by relative unknown, Asher Angel.

The young chap of the moment though is Finn Wolfhard Of Stranger Things fame. He’s been a part of It and the new Carmen Sandiego show. He might have a lot on his plate being one of the stars of the hottest Netflix show. But casting him in any movie could add to the overall box office receipts.

6 Jon Hamm As Batman

Unless he’s choosing not to be a bigger starring, it’s a travesty that Hollywood hasn’t yet made a route bigger starring out of Jon Hamm than he already is. The versatile performer expended seven years wowing fans with a charismatic portrayal of the Don Draper on the hitting present, Mad Men.

The steely-eyed demeanor that Hamm exhibited, while occasionally letting loose and having fun all the while wearing a dapper suit. That behavior simulateds Bruce Wayne’s pretty much to the letter. Hamm’s got the appear and the act down, it’s time to see how he’d look in another suit.

5 Keanu Reeves As Wolverine

There is no denying that Hugh Jackman has been a fantastic face of the X-Men franchise, bringing Logan to life. Thanks to him, the world’s most popular mutant is thoroughly entrenched in pop culture. It will be a chore to bring him into the MCU.

Unless your name is Keanu Reeves. Some detractors will always be wary of devoting this guy his just due( thank you Bill And Ted ). But he’s been a top action starring for 25 years now and even at over 50 years old still looks in his mid-thirties. Logan is good claws if the Keanu were to be tapped for the role.

4 Mark Hamill As The Joker

The man has been widely accepted by fans as the quintessential Joker for years. Not Romero or Nicholson, and Ledger comes in a very close second. Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill has been voicing the Joker since the early nineties.

Give the guy a costume and set him on camera! No matter the medium or the rating, he’s crushed it as the Joker. It’s about time to put the monarch of the Clown Prince Of Crime on his throne.

3 Kristen Bell As Harley Quinn

Christina Ricci might seem perfect to play Harley Quinn, but there is also a slew of fan pics of Kristen Bell as the same insane lady. But what if there were two Harleys? In Batman: White Knight, that’s exactly the instance. One Harley that wanted to reform the Joker, but when the Joker tossed her aside, Marian Drews became his new Harley.

The story is totally bananas( as most Joker narratives are ), but the thought of two Harley Quinns, one completely crazy but innocent and one that is completely crazy and wants the Joker to be just as twisted “wouldve been” pretty cool to see both Ricci and Bell duke it out on screen.

2 Patrick Stewart As Mr. Freeze

The Wizard Casting Call for X-Men got it right when they cast Patrick Stewart as Professor X. There was actually no other choice. The guy would have been able to pull off a menacing Mr. Freeze as well, and one that might have saved the proceedings of Batman And Robin.

There is no way he would’ve been worse than the ultra-quippy, ultra-hammy “Ahhnaald.” He was actually initially considered, but Joel Schumacher decided that Victor Fries must be chiseled out of a glacier.

1 Ronda Rousey As Captain Marvel

Ronda Rousey has been one of the pillars of the Women’s Revolution that has taken place in athletics. Her stint in UFC will be heralded and unmatched for years. Now, as the WWE Raw Women’s Champion, she is gearing up to be part of the first ever women’s main event at WrestleMania.

If she had her style, she might also be revolutionizing the MCU as Captain Marvel. She looks the part and already knew how to fight. She might have saved Kevin Feige a couple of bucks having to train Brie Larsen.

Read more: screenrant.com