#should say live action superhero media

[oifaaa]

Have you seen the new DC Slate? It's out here: https://discussingfilm.net/2023/01/31/james-gunn-dcu-slate-every-new-film-show/

Yeah I saw it and I won't lie I'm not excited for any of it I'm just so tired of when studios do this when they show all the stuff they're gonna make it feels so overwhelming and exhausting and with dc especially I don't trust them at this point to actually make half of this stuff

[amethystarachnid]

MUTANT BODYGUARD - part I

⤷ JAMES LOGAN HOWLETT

ᯓ★ Pairing: James Logan Howlett x fem!reader

ᯓ★ Genre: fluff and spicy (I mean, it's Logan...)

ᯓ★ Story type: short story

ᯓ★Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

ᯓ★ Word count: 6k

ᯓ★ TW(s): Reader has stalkers and crazy fans, said stalker gets inside reader's apartment and Logan uses his claws on him

ᯓ★ Timeline: doesn't follow a timeline in the x-men movies, just...maybe before days of future past?

ᯓ★ Request: not requested

ᯓ★ From: Marvel Bingo, Bodyguard romance x Age Gap

ᯓ★ Comment if you want to be added to the taglist (specify if you want the everything taglist or for a specific character)

ᯓ★ Songs & Superheroes tales - The Game (to make a request, follow the rules on the link!)

ᯓ★ MARVEL Bingo (requests open)

ᯓ★ My Masterlist

ᯓ★ If you are a Charles Xavier lover click on this link!

ᯓ★ English isn't my first language and this isn’t proof read

You’ve always hated the idea of needing a bodyguard. It feels ridiculous, like some over-the-top celebrity diva move. But ever since your career skyrocketed, the tabloids won’t leave you alone. A role in a blockbuster film, a few chart-topping singles, and suddenly everyone wants a piece of you. The constant media frenzy, the “fans” who somehow know where you live, the paparazzi camping outside your apartment—it’s become too much. When the threatening letters started showing up, your manager insisted on hiring a bodyguard.

You rolled your eyes, argued, but eventually caved. You love your career, but you’re not an idiot. You know when things get dangerous.

So, here you are, pacing back and forth in your living room, waiting for the “best in the business” to show up. The guy your manager picked. No name, no details, just a reputation for getting the job done. Whatever that means.

You stop mid-step when the door opens. In walks a man who looks like he’s seen and survived more wars than any human being should. His hair is a wild mess, and the dark scruff on his face gives him a rugged, almost dangerous look. He’s tall, broad-shouldered, and built like someone who could easily break someone in half with his bare hands. He’s wearing a leather jacket, the sleeves pushed up just enough to reveal thick forearms that have clearly seen some action.

You blink, not expecting…well, this.

“You’re the bodyguard?” you ask, eyes sweeping over him. You were expecting someone in a suit, maybe with an earpiece and sunglasses. Not…a lumberjack biker.

He glances at you with piercing, slightly narrowed eyes. “Logan. And yeah, I’m your bodyguard, sweetheart.”

You cross your arms, trying to regain some semblance of control. “Don’t call me sweetheart.”

He gives a half-smirk, the kind that’s both infuriating and somehow annoyingly attractive. “Noted.”

There’s an awkward pause as he looks you up and down, assessing you in a way that makes you want to shrink under his gaze. “So, what’s the deal? You a princess or somethin’? 'Cause I gotta say, this gig doesn’t exactly scream 'royalty.'”

“I’m an actress, actually,” you respond with a touch of sarcasm. “Maybe you’ve heard of me.”

Logan’s unimpressed. He shrugs, clearly not the type to follow pop culture. “Nope.”

You’re not sure whether to be offended or relieved. On one hand, it’s nice not to be recognized. On the other hand, what rock has this guy been living under? You’re practically everywhere these days.

“You can Google me later,” you say, waving a hand dismissively. “I guess I’ll just assume you’re qualified.”

“More than qualified,” he growls, his voice deep and gravelly, like it’s been dragged across the pavement. “I don’t do babysitting, but your manager was…insistent. Apparently, someone out there’s got a real interest in makin’ sure you don’t stick around long enough for the next season of whatever-you’re-in.”

You narrow your eyes at him, irritated by his attitude. “Well, lucky me, right? Having you around means I’ll definitely survive to make another movie.”

He smirks again, this time with more of an edge. “Keep that attitude up, and I’ll have you wishing they got to you first.”

You snort, because as gruff as he is, you’re not intimidated. “I bet you’re a real hit at parties.”

“I don’t do parties.”

“Shocking,” you deadpan, unable to stop yourself from throwing in a bit of sass.

Logan’s eyebrow twitches, but he seems more amused than annoyed by your attitude. “You’re gonna be a pain in the ass, aren’t you?”

“Only if you deserve it,” you quip, sitting down on your couch and crossing your legs. “So, how does this work? Do you stand in the corner looking all broody while I go about my life? Or are you planning on following me everywhere like a lost puppy?”

He scoffs, taking off his jacket and tossing it over the back of a chair. “You wish. I’m not here to play lapdog. I’m here to make sure no one tries to kill you. If that means following you around and making sure you don’t get yourself into more trouble than you’re worth, so be it.”

“Comforting,” you say dryly. “It’s nice to know you think I’m worth saving.”

Logan pauses, eyes locking with yours, and for a second, the air between you shifts. His gaze softens just a fraction, enough that you almost forget the gruff exterior. Almost.

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think you were,” he says, his tone quieter but no less intense.

You blink, caught off guard by the sincerity. “Well…thanks, I guess.”

He shrugs, like it’s no big deal. Then he glances around your apartment. “You got security cameras?”

“Uh, yeah. Around the building,” you say, still trying to shake off the weird tension between you two.

“Good. I’ll check the perimeter. You stay put,” he orders, turning to leave.

“Oh, sure, yeah, I’ll just sit here quietly while my life’s in danger,” you call after him, sarcasm dripping from every word. “Don’t worry about me.”

Logan stops at the door and looks over his shoulder with that damn smirk again. “I won’t.”

As he walks out, you can’t help but shake your head. This is going to be a long job.

The first couple of days with Logan are…interesting, to say the least. He’s always there, a constant shadow, but he’s not the hovering type. He gives you space, but you can feel his presence in the room, always alert, always watching. And the banter—well, that hasn’t stopped.

“You think you could maybe try not to look like you hate being here?” you ask one morning as you head out for a meeting with your agent.

Logan’s leaning against the wall, arms crossed, that signature scowl on his face. “This is my happy face.”

“Really? Because it looks a lot like your ‘I want to punch someone in the throat’ face.”

He chuckles, the sound low and rumbling. “That’s pretty much the same face.”

You sigh dramatically, brushing past him. “Well, you’re really selling the ‘friendly bodyguard’ vibe.”

“Good thing I’m not here to be friendly,” he shoots back, falling into step beside you.

“Right. You’re just here to make sure I don’t die.”

“Exactly.”

You glance at him out of the corner of your eye, unable to stop yourself from smiling. “You’re having fun with this, aren’t you?”

He shrugs, but you catch the hint of a grin tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Maybe a little.”

You laugh, shaking your head. “You’re impossible, you know that?”

Logan looks at you, his expression softening just slightly. “Yeah, but I’m growing on you.”

“Debatable.”

But as you both walk out into the chaos of cameras, fans, and flashing lights, you realize he might be right.

The next few days pass in a blur of meetings, interviews, and public appearances. With Logan by your side, everything is under control. He’s always there—solid, unflinching, and frustratingly good at his job. You don’t feel a single ounce of fear when he’s around, but you do feel something else, something that keeps tightening between you two like a stretched wire.

It’s impossible not to notice how Logan moves, how his muscles flex under that leather jacket when he’s surveying a crowd, the quiet, simmering power in his stance. And then there are the looks. God, the looks he gives you. It’s subtle, but whenever you catch his eye, there’s this electric charge, a tension that wraps itself around you both, even if no one else in the room can feel it.

You don’t acknowledge it, though. At least, not out loud. It’s ridiculous. He’s older—way older—and this is supposed to be professional. You’re not some starry-eyed girl who’s going to fall for her bodyguard just because he’s dangerous and good-looking.

Right?

At least, that’s what you keep telling yourself. But the more time you spend with him, the harder it is to ignore. He’s just so there, so…Logan.

The rumors don’t help either.

It starts with a photo—just one. The paparazzi manage to catch Logan opening your car door, his hand on the small of your back as you slip inside. It’s a simple, professional gesture, but in the world of tabloids, it’s something else entirely. Within hours, the internet is flooded with headlines: Mysterious Man Seen With Actress Y/N! New Bodyguard or New Romance?

You laugh it off at first, but the rumors snowball. Suddenly, every gossip site is buzzing with theories. Logan’s too attractive to just be a bodyguard, they say. You’re spending too much time together. There are whispers about the age gap, about the “forbidden attraction.” Some tabloids get more imaginative—Logan: The Bad Boy Who Stole Y/N’s Heart? or Secret Fling with Older Bodyguard? Inside the Dangerous Romance.

“I can’t believe people are actually buying this,” you mutter, scrolling through a particularly ridiculous article.

Logan’s lounging on your couch, reading through a security report. He doesn’t even look up when he responds. “You’re famous. People’ll believe anything.”

“Yeah, but this?” You wave your phone at him, exasperated. “Secret romance? Seriously?”

Finally, he glances up, his expression unreadable. “You worried about it?”

You snort. “No. It’s just insane. People will say anything for clicks.”

Logan’s silent for a moment, his gaze lingering on you a beat longer than necessary. “It’s not that crazy, y’know.”

You freeze, your heart doing a weird little flip. “What’s not?”

He smirks, just a touch of amusement in his eyes. “You. Me. The rumors.”

Your mouth goes dry. “I—what?”

He leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “People see what they wanna see, darlin’. You’re young, successful, in the spotlight. They think you’re gonna fall for the first guy that gives you a little danger, a little excitement.”

You narrow your eyes, heat prickling at your skin. “And you think you give me that?”

Logan’s smirk widens, slow and deliberate, like he knows exactly what kind of effect he has on you. “Don’t I?”

Your stomach twists in response. There’s no denying it—there’s something between you two, something you’ve been ignoring for days. Weeks, maybe. But hearing him say it, so casually, like it’s a fact you both already know, sends a rush of heat straight through you.

“Logan,” you start, trying to regain some control, “there’s nothing—”

“Yeah? You sure about that?” His voice is low, and suddenly the space between you feels smaller, like the room’s shrinking, the air thickening. He’s not even touching you, but it feels like he is, the weight of his presence pushing against every nerve in your body.

You swallow hard. “We—there’s an age gap.”

He chuckles darkly. “Yeah, there is. Doesn’t seem to stop ‘em from talkin’, does it?”

“No, but—” You stop, frustrated, because what’s your argument here? That you’re not attracted to him? That you don’t spend half your nights thinking about what it would be like if he wasn’t just your bodyguard?

Logan stands, slowly, and you have to tilt your head up to keep eye contact. His sheer size makes the room feel smaller, more intimate. He moves closer, and your breath catches in your throat as he stops just in front of you.

“Thing is, people are gonna talk,” he says, voice a low rumble that sends a shiver down your spine. “Doesn’t matter what we do or don’t do. So, the way I see it, you got two choices. You keep fightin’ what’s happenin’, or…”

He pauses, his eyes dropping to your lips before slowly moving back up to meet your gaze.

“…you see where this goes.”

Your heart hammers in your chest. There’s no more pretending, no more banter to hide behind. The air is thick with everything you’ve been avoiding—the attraction, the tension, the unspoken desire that’s been crackling between you both since the moment you met.

You take a shaky breath, trying to think through the haze of want clouding your mind. “Logan, this is—this is complicated. We can’t just—”

“Why not?” His voice is rough, raw, like he’s barely holding himself back. “You’re not some kid. You know what you want. So do I.”

There’s a dangerous edge to his words, something primal that sends another surge of heat through you. You can feel the weight of his gaze, the intensity that makes it hard to breathe, let alone think straight.

You try to hold on to logic, to the rational part of your brain that’s screaming at you to slow down. But when you meet his eyes, all dark and stormy, your resolve crumbles.

“Tell me you don’t feel it,” Logan murmurs, his voice so low it’s barely a whisper. His hand moves, just a fraction, like he’s fighting the urge to reach for you, to pull you close. “Tell me I’m wrong.”

You open your mouth, but nothing comes out. Because you can’t tell him that. You can’t say the words when your whole body is aching for something you know you shouldn’t want but can’t stop thinking about.

He steps closer, and the air between you crackles with the kind of tension that makes your skin tingle. “Last chance, sweetheart.”

Your pulse races. Every rational thought, every reason you’ve been telling yourself not to cross this line, fades into the background. All you can think about is him—his scent, his presence, the way his body radiates heat like a furnace.

“Logan…” you whisper, your voice barely audible.

That’s all it takes.

In one swift movement, he closes the distance between you, his large hands finding your waist as he pulls you against him. The world tilts, and before you can think, before you can breathe, his lips are on yours—hot, demanding, and absolutely relentless.

You gasp against his mouth, but it’s lost in the kiss, in the way he takes control, his grip firm but careful, as though he’s been holding himself back for weeks and now there’s no stopping it. He tastes like whiskey and danger, and the moment his tongue brushes against yours, your knees threaten to give out.

You don’t even realize your hands are in his hair until you’re pulling him closer, pressing against him as if you can’t get enough. The kiss is rough, intense, filled with every ounce of pent-up tension you’ve both been ignoring.

When he finally pulls back, both of you are breathing hard. His forehead rests against yours, his breath warm against your lips. “Still think it’s just rumors?” he growls, voice ragged.

You can’t speak. You just shake your head, fingers still tangled in his hair, your body flush against his.

Logan smirks, his thumb brushing against your hip. “Thought so.”

Just as you start to lose yourself in the heat of Logan’s kiss, a sharp, sudden beep cuts through the haze. It takes a second to register, but when you pull back slightly, you see Logan’s face shift—his entire body going rigid. His phone is vibrating in his jacket pocket.

The change in him is immediate. The heat, the softness, all of it hardens into something sharp and dangerous. He pulls away from you, grabbing his phone with a quick, practiced movement. You don’t get a chance to ask what’s happening because his jaw clenches, eyes narrowing at the screen.

"Shit," he mutters, already moving toward the door.

“What’s going on?” You ask, heart still racing from a mix of adrenaline and confusion.

Logan’s whole demeanor has shifted into something colder, sharper—his focus laser-like. "Someone’s inside the building."

Your stomach drops. "What? How? Shouldn’t the security downstairs—"

"They got past it," he interrupts, throwing on his jacket in one fluid motion. His eyes are darker now, more alert, and it sends a chill down your spine. "Stay here."

Before you can protest, he’s out the door. But the idea of staying still, alone, in a situation like this? No chance. You grab your phone and follow him, keeping a few paces behind as he stalks through the hall, every movement precise, calculated.

He barely glances back at you, his body a wall of tension, like he’s ready to explode into action at any second. "I told you to stay back, Y/N," he growls under his breath, his voice low and urgent.

"And I don’t take orders," you snap back, even though you’re trembling inside. The hallway feels too quiet, too still.

Before Logan can argue, you both hear it—heavy footsteps, coming from the stairwell. Your heart skips a beat. You weren’t prepared for this kind of fear. Sure, the letters had freaked you out, but this? Someone actually in the building, hunting you?

Logan moves so fast you barely see it, pushing you behind him as the door to the stairwell creaks open. The figure that steps out is shadowy at first, but as the light hits him, you see a man—unshaven, wild-eyed, and holding a small knife that glints in the dim light. He’s muttering something under his breath, eyes locked on you.

"There you are," the man breathes, voice unnervingly soft. "I’ve been waiting for this moment."

Before you can react, Logan steps forward, his body a barrier between you and the man. "Back off," he warns, his voice so low it rumbles in his chest.

The stalker’s eyes flick to Logan, sizing him up, but instead of retreating, he grins. "You think you can stop me? I’ve been planning this for months."

You feel your skin crawl, bile rising in your throat. But Logan is a wall of calm fury. Without a word, he lunges at the man, moving so fast you barely register the impact. Logan’s fist connects with the guy’s jaw, sending him stumbling back into the wall with a sickening thud.

It should have ended there. Any normal man would have been down for the count. But the stalker scrambles to his feet, eyes wide with manic determination, swinging the knife wildly.

You gasp as the blade slashes through the air, missing Logan by inches. But he’s not rattled. He ducks, then pivots with a speed and grace that shouldn’t be possible for someone his size. And then, with a growl that sounds more animal than human, Logan throws the stalker against the wall, pinning him there.

The man struggles, trying to bring the knife up again. But then, something happens—something that makes your breath catch in your throat.

Logan’s hand shoots forward, and suddenly there’s a metallic SNIKT. Three long, razor-sharp claws extend from between his knuckles—gleaming silver, impossibly deadly. They punch through the man’s jacket, pinning him by the shoulder to the wall.

The stalker lets out a scream, eyes wide in terror. But your own scream is stuck in your throat. All you can do is stare, your brain struggling to comprehend what you’re seeing.

Logan has claws. Metal claws.

What the hell?

With the stalker writhing in pain, Logan leans in close, his voice a low growl. "You picked the wrong damn target."

The man whimpers, his bravado completely gone as blood trickles from the shallow wound. Logan jerks the claws free, and the man collapses to the ground, groaning in pain but still breathing. Without a second glance at his attacker, Logan turns to you.

“Y/N,” he says, stepping toward you, his voice a low, rough murmur that sounds far away. “It’s not what you think—”

But you stumble back, the knife in your hand trembling, not because of the stalker lying on the floor, but because of him. Because of what you just saw.

“Y-you…what—” You can’t even get the words out, your mind scrambling to make sense of what just happened. “What are you?”

Logan’s face tightens. He’s clearly seen this reaction before. “I’m a mutant,” he says quietly, the calmness in his voice almost unnerving given what just went down. “I didn’t want you to find out like this, but—”

“I—” You take another step back, your heart still racing. “Mutant? Logan, you—what the hell did you just—” Your eyes drop to his hands, where the claws retracted just moments ago. “You have claws?”

Logan doesn’t move, his hands by his sides, still covered in a few drops of the intruder’s blood. His whole body looks tense, as though he’s bracing himself for whatever comes next. “I know what you’re thinking,” he says, his voice low and steady. “But I’m not gonna hurt you. I’d never—”

“You—” You’re shaking your head, not even sure what you’re trying to say. Everything’s too much. You’ve only ever heard horror stories about mutants, about how dangerous they can be, how you should keep your distance. You’ve never known anyone who was one…until now.

And it’s Logan. The guy who’s been protecting you.

The guy who just kissed you.

“I need…I need some space,” you manage, your voice barely a whisper, your mind still reeling.

Logan’s expression shifts, a flicker of something that looks almost like regret crossing his face. But he nods, stepping back slowly. “I get it,” he says, his voice rough. “You’re scared. But I’m still the same guy I was five minutes ago. I’m not the enemy, Y/N.”

You know that. Deep down, in some part of yourself, you know that Logan wouldn’t hurt you. He’s saved your life, protected you, and been nothing but loyal. But right now, your instincts are screaming at you to get away, to process what the hell just happened.

“I just…please, I need to be alone,” you murmur, wrapping your arms around yourself.

Logan’s jaw tightens, and for a moment, he looks like he’s going to say something. But then he nods once, giving you space, just like you asked. “I’ll be close,” he says quietly, before turning and walking away, leaving you alone in the hallway with your racing thoughts.

As he disappears around the corner, you lean back against the wall, your knees threatening to give out. You’re not sure what scares you more, the stalker lying unconscious on the floor, or the realization that Logan isn’t just a man with a bad attitude and a dangerous past.

He’s something else entirely.

And you have no idea what that means for you both.

The next day is a whirlwind of confusion and conflicting emotions. You wake up to the soft light filtering through the curtains, but instead of feeling rested, your heart pounds in your chest, and the events of the previous day come flooding back. Logan’s claws, the way he fought off that intruder, the raw power he displayed—it all feels surreal.

You spend the morning trying to distract yourself, throwing yourself into your usual routine. You have interviews lined up and a photoshoot to get through, but every moment, you can’t shake the image of Logan standing over that intruder, the fierceness in his eyes as he retracted those deadly claws. There’s a knot in your stomach, a strange mix of fear and something else you can’t quite place.

Despite your attempts at normalcy, you’re acutely aware of the absence of Logan. He hasn’t checked in, hasn’t texted, and that silence weighs heavily on you. You told him you needed space, but now, part of you wonders if you made a mistake pushing him away.

As the afternoon stretches on, you finish your last interview and head back to your apartment, an unshakable sense of anticipation coursing through you. The place feels different without Logan’s presence, quieter, more hollow. You take a deep breath, trying to steel yourself for whatever comes next.

The door swings open, and you step inside. The scent of leather and Logan’s cologne still lingers in the air, sending a shiver down your spine. You glance around, half-hoping to see him leaning casually against the wall, arms crossed, that trademark smirk on his lips. But the space is empty.

You walk into the living room, the tension from the previous day still hanging in the air. You’re about to pour yourself a glass of water when a knock on the door startles you. You freeze, heartbeat quickening as you glance at the clock. It’s late, too late for anyone else to drop by.

You approach the door cautiously and open it, your breath catching in your throat as you see Logan standing there, his presence filling the doorway. He looks as imposing as ever, dressed in a black t-shirt that hugs his torso, the leather jacket thrown over one shoulder. His hair is tousled, and there’s a shadow of stubble on his jaw that somehow makes him look even more rugged.

“Hey,” he says, voice low and a touch uncertain.

“Hey,” you manage, heart racing. The tension between you two feels palpable, and you can’t ignore the rush of warmth spreading through your body at the sight of him.

“Can I come in?” he asks, his expression serious, but there’s an underlying urgency that makes your stomach flip.

“Of course,” you reply, stepping aside to let him in. He walks past you, the warmth of his body brushing against yours, sending a rush of heat through your veins.

Logan turns to face you, his expression shifting, revealing the storm brewing behind his eyes. “I wanted to talk. About yesterday.”

“Okay,” you say, feeling suddenly shy under his intense gaze. “I mean…you didn’t have to come over.”

“I wanted to,” he says, his voice dropping lower, almost a growl. “I’ve been thinking about you, and I… I didn’t like how we left things.”

The way he looks at you makes your heart race. There’s a vulnerability in his expression, a longing that mirrors the tumult inside you. But there’s something else too—something electric.

“I was scared, Logan,” you admit, your voice barely above a whisper. “Everything just happened so fast. I didn’t know—”

“I know.” He steps closer, closing the distance between you, the heat radiating off him wrapping around you like a thick blanket. “But I’m still me. I’d never hurt you.”

You search his eyes, looking for any hint of deception, but all you see is sincerity mixed with an undeniable hunger.

“I just… I don’t know what to do with all of this.” You gesture between the two of you, feeling the weight of unspoken words and unresolved feelings hanging heavy in the air.

Logan takes another step closer, his voice a rough murmur. “What do you want?”

Your breath hitches. The question hangs in the air, charged and raw, and for the first time, you allow yourself to confront the truth of your feelings. “I want—”

Before you can finish, he closes the distance between you, capturing your lips with his in a kiss that ignites the fire simmering beneath your skin. It’s not the same as before; it’s deeper, more urgent, filled with the need to reclaim what was almost lost.

You melt against him, your hands finding their way to his hair, pulling him closer as he deepens the kiss. Logan’s hands roam your sides, fingers skimming over your hips, drawing you nearer as if he’s trying to memorize every inch of you.

When he pulls back, his breath mingles with yours, and the intensity of his gaze makes your heart race. “You want this,” he says, voice low and rough, as if he’s trying to convince himself as much as you. “You want me.”

“I do,” you admit, your cheeks flushing as the words spill out. “But it’s complicated, Logan. We shouldn’t—”

“Who cares?” His fingers slide down your arms, sending shivers down your spine. “You’re not just some celebrity to me. You’re not just a job.”

“What do you mean?” Your voice is a whisper, the intensity of his gaze holding you captive.

“I mean you’re you. I don’t care what the tabloids say. I don’t care about the age difference or the rumors. I want you.”

His words send a thrill through you, igniting a spark of something wild and reckless. You’ve never felt this way before, not like this. It’s heady, intoxicating.

“Logan, what if—”

He cuts you off with another kiss, more demanding this time, as if he’s trying to erase every doubt from your mind. His hands find their way to your waist, pulling you flush against him, and you can feel every muscle in his body, the heat radiating off him in waves.

And then it happens again—the sharp, undeniable rush of want overwhelms you. The world outside fades away, and all that matters is this moment, this connection, this man standing before you.

When you finally pull away, both of you are breathless. “This is crazy,” you say, your mind racing, but the way Logan looks at you silences your doubts.

“Maybe,” he replies, his voice low and gravelly. “But I’d rather be crazy with you than without you.”

Your heart flips, and suddenly the space between you feels impossibly small. You’ve never wanted someone like this before, and the thought sends a thrill of excitement through you.

“Then what do we do?” you ask, your voice barely a whisper, heart racing at the thought of what lies ahead.

Logan smirks, his eyes sparkling with mischief. “I think we start by not overthinking this.” He leans in, brushing his lips against your cheek, igniting a fire in your core. “And maybe just…enjoying each other.”

His lips trail down to your neck, kissing a path that makes your head spin. You lean into him, surrendering to the moment as his warm breath sends shivers down your spine. The world outside is forgotten, and it feels like you’ve stepped into a realm that’s just yours and his.

“Logan…” you breathe, fingers tangling in his hair as you pull him closer, desire flooding your senses.

His lips brush against yours again, teasing, playful, igniting the tension that’s been building between you two. “Just trust me,” he murmurs, his voice low and sultry. “I promise I won’t bite…unless you want me to.”

A breathless laugh escapes you, and the air crackles with undeniable tension. Maybe this is crazy, but right now, with Logan’s warmth enveloping you and the world outside forgotten, it feels more than right. It feels like fate.

Days turn into weeks, and you and Logan become a fixture in each other's lives. What began as a chaotic bodyguard relationship slowly evolves into something far more intimate—something neither of you anticipated but both desperately needed.

You find yourself falling into a routine, one that feels both exhilarating and terrifying. Every morning, he’s there, often making breakfast—his way of saying he cares, even if he does burn the toast. Every night, you curl up on the couch with him, sharing popcorn and movies, laughter filling the spaces where tension once resided. But it’s the moments outside those walls that change everything.

You don’t keep your relationship a secret, not intentionally, anyway. You both know the world you live in—the public scrutiny, the flashing cameras, the endless rumors. But Logan doesn’t seem to care. If anything, it emboldens him, a rebellious spark igniting in his eyes whenever you’re out together.

One sunny Saturday afternoon, you find yourselves strolling through a park in downtown Los Angeles, the kind of place where everyone is too busy with their own lives to pay attention to two people in love. But as you walk hand in hand, you can’t help but notice a few heads turning.

“Logan, I think we’re being watched,” you murmur, glancing around at the passersby. The mix of curiosity and surprise is palpable, but you also feel the warmth of Logan’s hand gripping yours, reassuring and steady.

“They can look all they want,” he grins, leaning down to press a quick kiss against your temple, his stubble grazing your skin. The contact sends a thrill through you.

“You’re not worried about the tabloids?” you ask, a teasing smile on your lips.

“Let them say what they want. At least they’ll get my age wrong,” he chuckles, his eyes sparkling with mischief. “Besides, you think I care about some headlines? I’m more concerned about you.”

A warmth blooms in your chest, and you can’t help but lean into him, your heart swelling with affection.

But the cameras don’t stop. That evening, as you both enjoy dinner at a trendy rooftop restaurant, the whispers and glances become more pronounced. The waitress seems to be holding back a grin as she serves you drinks, clearly recognizing Logan and you. You glance around, feeling a little exposed but also exhilarated.

“This could be the new gossip for the tabloids,” you say, rolling your eyes playfully. “‘Famous singer falls for mysterious bodyguard.’”

��Or maybe ‘Local badass finally finds a reason to smile,’” he counters, winking at you. You laugh, the sound bright and airy, and it feels good.

You both savor the evening, leaning into the playful banter and the stolen glances that carry an undeniable spark. But when the two of you leave the restaurant, a group of paparazzi suddenly swarms you, their cameras flashing like fireworks in the night.

“Y/N! Is it true you’re dating Logan Howlett?” one of them shouts, voice cutting through the air like a knife.

“Logan, how long have you two been seeing each other?” another calls, pushing closer, their cameras nearly colliding with your faces.

Logan’s grip tightens around your waist, and you can feel his tension rising. You glance at him, but he simply raises an eyebrow, an amused smirk on his lips. “Guess they’re interested, huh?”

“Yeah, interested in our personal lives,” you whisper, a mix of excitement and nervousness bubbling in your chest.

“Let them watch,” Logan says, stepping closer to you, almost as if to shield you from the chaos. “Just remember—they don’t know the half of it.”

You share a glance, and there’s a spark of understanding in his eyes. With a deep breath, you face the throng of reporters. “We’re happy together,” you say, your voice steady despite the cameras flashing around you. “That’s all that matters.”

The crowd quiets for a moment, the buzz of excitement hanging in the air. Then Logan leans down, placing a gentle kiss on your lips, and the cameras go wild. The moment feels electric, and as you pull away, you can’t help but grin.

“Wow, you’ve really got it bad, don’t you?” he teases, the playful glint in his eye returning.

“Can you blame me?” you shoot back, your heart soaring.

The reporters seem to be taken aback by the chemistry between you, the dynamic clearly more than just a simple bodyguard-client relationship. You can hear the murmurs among the crowd as you both walk past, the air buzzing with a mix of curiosity and approval.

“Do you think it’s serious?” one of them asks.

“I heard she’s been seen with him a lot,” another replies, voice laced with intrigue. “What a power couple!”

“Wonder how long they’ll last,” a third one scoffs, but you’re too high on adrenaline to let their words get to you.

As you reach your car, Logan turns to you, his face softening. “You okay?”

You nod, a burst of happiness washing over you. “More than okay.”

“Good,” he replies, smirking. “Because now you’re stuck with me. The tabloids might as well start preparing for a long-term feature.”

“Is that a challenge?” you tease, nudging him with your shoulder.

“Absolutely,” he says, pulling you closer as you both settle into the car. “Just remember, if they start digging into our lives, I’m the one with the claws.”

You burst out laughing, and as he revs the engine, the world feels like it’s finally aligning. The chaos of the paparazzi, the gossip, the rumors—they all fade away. Because in this moment, it’s just you and Logan, ready to take on whatever the world throws your way, together.

[backtothefanfiction]

20 Minutes | dad!peter imagine

A/N: just a quick one before I sleep. I saw a gif from we live in time and just suddenly became very needy for some dad Peter again. It’s been a little while, hope you enjoy. If you know the Bluey episode that inspired, you are a real one and I have love for you. Also MJ stands for May Junior

Warnings: this is just some dad!peter fluff, everyday domestic parent stuff even though your hubby is the local superhero

The moment he climbs through the window, he’s already wishing he was back in the other side of it.

“Ahhh good, you’re home.” You say cheerfully as you enter the room. “Here, hold this.” You say, holding out your two and a half month old to him, just as a cry of “Muuuuuuuuumm!” called out to down the hall.

“What? The? Huh? What?” Peter frowns at you confused as he stands in the middle of the room in his spider suite, toddler in his outstretched hands as you’re already beginning to leave the room, another call of “muuuuuuuuummm!” echoing down the hall.

“I just need 20 minutes.” You tell him.

“But I just got in.” He protests.

“20 minutes.” You reason cheerfully, like it’s no time at all and he will be fine.

“Maaaaaaaahhhhmmm!” The voice down the hall comes again and he can see the way your shoulders rise and the corners of your lip twitch at your 4 year olds whine of your household moniker.

“Daddy’s coming in just a minute!” You call back to the young girl out in the living room.

“Can I at least take the suit off?” Peter tries to reason as the toddler in his hand starts to pull at the stretchy material.

“Just 20 minutes.” You repeat to him again as you begin to back away. “20 minutes.” You say. You can hear his small frustrated huff that no doubt was paired with the famous Parker eye roll, but you didn’t care. If you didn’t get 20 minutes to yourself and a moment to go to the bathroom in peace, you were probably going to throw yourself out of the window your husband just climbed through.

Okay maybe that was a little dramatic, but in your defence he had been out longer than he said he would on patrol and MJ has regressed back into her clingy phase. As you locked the bathroom door and pulled out your phone in order to have a quick scroll through social media and a catch up whilst you sat on the loo, the reason for your husbands tardiness quickly became apparent.

There was video after video popping up of footage from peoples phones of Spider-Man saving a family from a car wreck. As you watched the masked figure swing into action again and again from different angles, watched him pull the two kids from the back of the burning car, your irritation before quickly subsided, instead making way for pride; for your husband, his family values, his care for the people of your community. Memory after memory of him sharing both special and also mundane moments with your two children flooded your mind, making your heart glow and your tummy all fuzzy and warm.

When you eventually emerged from the bathroom 20 minutes later and made your way back down the hall, that fuzzy feeling only grew as you saw him sat on the sofa with your two children tucked in tightly to either side of him. He had put on your fluffy robe over the top of his suit, the legs and sleeves poking out beneath the pink fabric comically, as he read a book to them.

As he turned the last page, MJ cried, “Again, again, read it again daddy.”

“But May, I’ve already read it to you three times. Maybe we should give another book a go.” He tried to sway her.

“Again!” She insisted and you loved the way he laughed with her as she giggled at her own cheekiness.

He looked up to you then as you leant against the door frame, hopefully. “Or maybe Mommy can read it.” He stated.

“Orrr,” you began to counter as you saw May’s eyes light up at the sight of you and the prospect of you reading her, her favourite book of the moment for the umpteenth time that day, “we could go out for ice cream.” You suggested.

There was a piercing shriek as May got up from the sofa at the sound of the trigger word. “IIICCCEEEECREEEEAAMM!” She screeched before running off to find her shoes.

“Ice cream?” Peter asks with raised brow as he stands to hand off your youngest back to you.

“Yeah,” you say with a coy smile, “I think we’ve all earned it.”

“Well, if that’s the case, I best go get out of this suit then.” He muses.

“Oh really?” You whine. “But this is such a good look on you.” You joke.

“It’s a good thing I love you Mrs Parker.” He grins, a leaning forward to kiss your lips.

“I love you too.” You smile.

“IIIICCEEEEE CRRREEEAAAMMM!” May bellowed excitedly as she came back in the room, her shoes on the wrong feet and her jacket inside out. Both of you couldn’t help but laugh.

“You get changed, I’ll help her out.” You smile.

“I love you.” He says again as he begins to back away. “You’re my hero!” He shouted across the room to you, reminding you your just as resilient and heroic as he was- and sure, you couldn’t swing from buildings or save kids from the back of burning cars, but you could look after both your kids alone for 6-8 hours of the day and live to tell the tail; and that in itself was a heroic act too.

[idontbeatgames]

For the last several weeks, I've gotten to witness what may be the most positive thing I've ever seen the DC fandom do. 

To not let Blue Beetle become forgotten or ignored, a group of Twitter users got together and unironically formed what is now known as "The Blue Beetle Battalion". If you didn't know about this the "Blue Beetle Battalion" grew to become a genuinely positive group of folks who had one intention: to positively promote Blue Beetle as much as possible because Warner Bros/DC Studios couldn't do so. 

To most people's shock, that group grew to become a massive amount of people across Twitter to the point where even the cast of Blue Beetle became aware of its existence and started to push the #BlueBeetleBattalion hashtag to higher levels than we ever thought it'd reach. We'd spam gifs, tell people why they should support it, push all the positive stories surrounding Blue Beetle and even hype up all of the new posters that would drop. The best part is that along the way, a lot of people grew to become friends or at least aware of each other's existence and social media profiles as we'd joke around as we continued to push Blue Beetle across social media. At most, it was gonna be a funny joke to look back on where we'd all think "Man it sucks it didn't work out but at least we tried" but here we are today, having our efforts and love for Blue Beetle, Xolo Mariduena and the cast of Blue Beetle vindicated.

At the time of this post, Blue Beetle has gone against all the odds and currently sits at an 85% on Rotten Tomatoes! The highest DC film score since The Batman, can you believe it!?

As I said in so many of my other Blue Beetle posts, please support this film. Please go out and watch Blue Beetle with your friends and family. As the first live-action Latino superhero film, the representation that it's bringing is such a warm welcome and no matter what people say, we need more superhero projects that represent massive cultures to have amazing lighthearted success stories now more than ever. Let Blue Beetle be the beginning of this amazing trend of these incredibly important films overcoming all of the odds no matter how many people choose to immediately write it off. 

Blue Beetle releases Aug 18 in theaters across the world y'all

[herefortheships]

My thoughts on Venom 3.

It's been a long time coming! I'm pausing my Beetlejuicy blogging tonight to talk a little bit about Venom. If you didn't know, back when Venom 2 was released, and a little bit before then, I was absolutely obsessed with Venom. More specifically, I was totally obsessed with Symbrock. (Although my love for the character of Venom has been with me since I was around 13 or 14 years old, back in the early 2000s.) So for a while, I think between 2021 and 2022, this blog was almost entirely dedicated to Symbrock (and Destiel, that one is always here). That's the reason why my blog title was originally "My Fandom and Random Blog": I hyper-fixate on whatever piece of media blows my mind. And for a good chunk of time, that was Symbrock, so I'm writing this little intro to this post because my blog is currently, predominantly, a Beetlejuice (Beetlebabes) blog. And it will continue to be for the foreseeable future.

But tonight, we go back to my previous hyper-fixation.

I have a lot of feelings about Venom 3. This post will focus on the Eddie x Venom relationship, as that's what I am most invested in. Warning: There are spoilers here.

My fresh-out-of-the-movie feeling is that I loved it, but a few things made me go "hmm..." Starting with the marketing for this movie.

I would not have expected much in the Veddie shipping department if it wasn't for the marketing. It's a superhero action movie and I know what kind of world we currently live in (plus this world isn't reading for a monsterfucker leading character like our beloved monsterfucker king Eddie Brock lol). But I noticed that a good effort was put into highlighting their relationship, not just as a friendship, but as a romance, in the marketing for this movie. There were TikTok edits and Instagram posts showing them as a romance, and the phrase "We ship Eddie and Venom" was also used (here's the Instagram post, if you don't believe me lol). What I'm getting at is that the ship was used to hype the movie. So, what was I supposed to expect? Look, there was a lot of lovely subtext between Eddie and Venom, which I loved, but it wasn't any more obvious than what we got in LTBC (in fact, maybe it was even less evident? I'll get to that in a second). So it doesn't really justify all this effort to hype up their relationship.

So, when they amped up the shipping as they marketed a movie with the slogan "'Til death do they part" (which I should mention had scenes in Vegas, notorious place for odd weddings, hello), a lot of fans (myself included) thought that something was going to happen in Vegas, if you know what I mean. Or that at least the subtext would be even more obvious. Some fans even expected another Veddie kiss scene (my expectations were more reserved, but after all that marketing I would not have been surprised to see a kiss, tbh).

I never expected to get anything overt in Venom with Symbrock, but this being the final film in the trilogy, the previous movie ending with the two of them on the run, the release of that deleted scene in which Venom is teasing Eddie about Eddie being in love with him, plus all this gay marketing? I started to expect we'd get something a little more evident, and only that is what made me feel disappointed we didn't get more. I'm sure I'd be more excited and happy with all the subtext we got in this one if it wasn't for the expectations created by the marketing, ngl.

I did cry in the scene where they were with the hippie family and Venom was talking to Eddie at night about how they'd been happier with a different kind of life. But I think I only cried because I had been spoiled about the ending. Knowing they would be separated in the end, that Venom would die, made that scene a lot more emotional and tragic, because Eddie and Venom will not have a chance at that happy and peaceful life.

And now that I brought up Venom's death, I have to say this: I really wish we could have had a couple more minutes with Eddie on that bed reflecting about his loss at the end. In the comics, whenever they are separated, usually Eddie is losing his mind, either desperate to reconnect with the symbiote, almost like an addict who's been cut off cold from his addiction (like in my favorite "The Hunger", 1996), or out of his mind in grief, feeling the symbiote still there like a phantom limb (...pretty sure this was in Donny Cates' 2018 run, but correct me if I'm wrong). What I'm getting at is that separating from the symbiote has never been easy on Eddie Brock. But, due to the constraints of movie play time I guess, he got over it seemingly very easily. Also, just an observation, the trailer featured a different take for that scene, in which Eddie says "but I need him", instead of "but I need him back". Both takes were very emotional and Tom's acting was superb, but the scene is too short. I feel like we needed a couple more minutes of mourning. Or if not minutes, then a couple of seconds of Eddie sobbing on that bed, or, I don't know, trying to get up and finding his way back to where he last saw Venom... Something more dramatic like that, is what I mean.

Eddie appeared to be more fond of Venom by the end of LTBC. Especially with comments he made earlier in this film about Venom stealing his life and being (understandably) cranky, I would have expected more grief and even regret from Eddie after losing Venom presumably forever.

About the after credit scene... I'm not sure what I'm supposed to make of it. I mean the cockroach one. One could think one of the symbiotes survived and took over the roach (hopefully Venom), but there was no indication of it; one could only assume the cockroach has a symbiote because, why even show it? Right? Now, about the Knull ending scene, was he breaking the 4th wall and telling us, the audience, that he would make us watch? Or did he say that to someone else? If there was another Venom movie or appearance after this, then I could come to the conclusion that Venom was successfully captured and taken to Klyntar, but being separated from Eddie he cannot operate as the codex anymore. <- That last bit is my own interpretation, though, and should be taken with a grain of salt.

I'm going to leave this post here. I'll write more if I feel like I have more to say (which, maybe I do, because I always do lol), but this is it for now. It was a good movie and I did like it. I do have my criticisms, but overall, they did a pretty good job and I will miss this Eddie and Venom symbiote very much. I hope we can see them again.

One note I want to leave this post with is that I'm pretty sure both Eddie Brock and the symbiote have died more than once in the comics (the most recent Eddie death was this year, btw. I'm not buying that it's permanent because in the comicverse characters die and come back all the time), but one thing will always be consistent with these two, and that is, they will always find a way back to each other. Always 🖤. So don't be sad; Venom is only gone for now.

[ilikekidsshows]

Hey! I’ve been viewing your stuff now and I agree with most of your Miraculous takes. I do have a question for you.

How do you feel about Adriachat’s habit of giving up his ring? A lot of people point to this as a way to criticize/salt on Adrichat about him being unfaithful and reckless. I’d only agree on the front that him leaving his ring out in the open in “Kuro Neko” was absolutely stupid and he should get push back for that. But as for everything else, it’s not so much that the him giving up the ring happens, but it doesn’t have a lasting impact. It really lasts for an episode and it’s used for dramatic effects.

If anything Adrien does didn't have a zero impact on anything there might be something here to analyze. But the thing with Adrien's actions is that they haven't had much if any followup since the early seasons. Like, Copycat is such an outlier as an episode specifically because it revolves around Adrien messing up and having to fix his mistake. I thought the conflict was kinda basic at the time but the latter seasons have made me remember the episode fondly because Adrien got to mess up in a way that had real consequences that he had to deal with, while in the later seasons he isn't even allowed to have feelings on anything, let alone act in any meaningful way.

But, like, let's pretend for a while that Miraculous is a normal superhero cartoon, where Adrien giving up his ring could have consequences. No, I don't think him leaving the ring, even out in the open, is stupid. It would only be stupid if we could reasonably expect Hawk Moth or someone working with him specifically to find it. Any other citizen would be far more likely to join forces with / give it to Ladybug. Hawk Moth doesn't leave his lair often, and Syren didn't want to leave the advantage being underwater gave her. Adrien left or would have left the ring where Ladybug would obviously be a little bit later.

We also have to take into account how Adrien is treated by his teammate and their mentor. Neither of them really listens to him, and Fu refuses to see him or let him know where he lives. He also isn't allowed to know where Ladybug lives. There is no safe, undercover way for Adrien to deliver the ring to Ladybug or Fu unless he wants to break the one rule they have been very adamant he obeys: he must not reveal his secret identity. Like, the level Adrien follows this directive is so absolute that the only time he broke it was when Ladybug, who was his leader at the time, told him to in Ephemereal.

Adrien has no control over anything that happens in their hero team, and he's equipped with the power that is always the biggest burden in superhero media: destruction. Adrien gets no support in this, from anyone. All he gets are orders and stonewalling. Adrien giving up on his ring when he's been told in actions or words that he is 1) not trusted, 2) not appreciated and 3) not wanted around is not a selfish act. He thinks he's doing Ladybug and Fu a favor, because they rarely if ever give the impression that they trust, appreciate or want him. They just want someone to use the Black Cat ring, so he leaves them with what they value the most when he finally self destructs from the pressure. It's not like he can go to them with his mental breakdown.

Giving up the ring is the only form of protest Adrien has in a situation where he has no power. I will not criticize him for using it when it's the only thing that makes Ladybug and Fu listen to him. Especially since it's not the ultimatum salters make it out to be, it's not "do what I say or the world perishes", it's merely "you can hire someone else from your numerous allies to fill my role, I'm done". If your boss mistreats you, everyone will tell you to quit, no matter how essential your job is.

[wanderersrest]

An Abbreviated History of Mecha Part 1: The Mighty Atomic Prelude (The 50's and 60's)

Welcome to An Abbreviated History of Mecha anime. Today, we're starting at, as Fraulein Maria would say, at the very beginning. We're taking a quick peak at the beginning of the canon, which means that we're starting back in 1950 (specifically 1952). I should also confess right now: there are two series on here that are demonstrably NOT mecha shows. However, due to their sheer influence on Japanese media as a whole, I feel it is important to bring them up as being honorary mecha shows due to their sheer influence pop culture.

Tetsuwan Atom/Mighty Atom/Astro Boy (1952)

Starting us off is Osamu Tezuka's seminal manga series, Mighty Atom. Known over here in the west as Astro Boy, this series would be what kickstarts a lot of the modern anime and manga industry due to its sheer popularity. Astro Boy would also be one of two series that would be emblematic of how Japanese pop culture would portray the recent use of atomic energy. It should also be worth noting that realizing that Astro technically is a mecha is what got me to start using a broader definition of mecha instead of the classic giant robot definition.

Due to its fame, Mighty Atom has receive multiple adaptations throughout the years. Of note are:

The original 1963 anime.

New Mighty Atom (1980) which updates the series to 1980's animation standards.

The 2003 anime, which does the same, but to the standards of early 2000's anime.

The 2009 CGI movie.

Gojira/Godzilla (1954, honorary mecha series 1)

1954 would also give us Ishiro Honda's Godzilla, the movie that would make tokusatsu-styled live action stories in Japan. Godzilla, alongside RKO's King Kong, would play a large part in popularizing the concept of kaiju. And boy will kaiju play a big part in the history of the mecha canon. As we'll see soon enough, the history of tokusatsu heroes, kaiju, and robots are all intertwined with one another.

Godzilla has starred in numerous movies since the original, but for stories based off of the original there are:

Godzilla Raids Again (1955), a direct sequel.

Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: All Out Monsters Attack (2001), a Heisei-era production that uses the original '54 Godzilla as a manifestation of the horrors of World War II.

Shin Godzilla (2016), a re-imagining of the original movie set in contemporary times directed by Hideakki Anno.

Godzilla Minus One (2023), the most recent outing inspired in part by GMK.

Tetsujin 28-go/Gigantor (1956)

(Oh hey, this gif again!)

Tetsujin 28-go is the creation of one Mitsuteru Yokoyama and is generally regarded as the grandfather of the giant robot style of mecha. Tetsujin is unique amongst mecha in that it is controlled not by a pilot riding inside of it, but by a little kid with a controller. Tetsujin 28, alongside Mazinger Z, would help to codify a lot of the tropes common to the classic superhero mecha anime that would be prevalent in the 70's. Like Mighty Atom, Tetsujin would receive multiple adaptations throughout the decades.

Shin Tetsujin 28-Go/The New Adventures of Gigantor (1980), which updates Tetsujin's design to look more in line with something like Mazniger Z.

Tetsujin 28-go FX (1992), sporting a radically different look that's more akin to something out of the Brave Franchise.

Tetsujin 28 (2004), a faithful adaptation of the original manga (at least I think it is) directed by Yasuhiro Imagawa.

Cyborg 009 (1964)

Created by Shotaro Ishinomori in 1964, Cyborg 009 is another classic human-sized mecha series. Cyborg 009 would be the first of many hits for Ishinomori, and he will be mentioned again later in this series.

Oh boy... I am not a Cyborg 009 nut, but in terms of adaptations, Cyborg 009 has:

The 1966 Film

The 1980 Film

009 Re:Cyborg (2012)

The Call For Justice Trilogy (2016)

The 1968 Anime

The 1979-1980 Anime

The 2001-2002 Anime (I actually remember when Toonami aired this series!)

Cyborg 009 vs Devilman (2015 OVA)

If you want to follow someone who follows a lot of Shotaro Ishinomori's works, I'd recommend checking out YouTuber Mercury Falcon for more info about Ishinomori.

Ultra Q and Ultraman (1966, honorary mecha series 2)

(The urge to use a gif of Ingraman is strong)

Ultra Q and Ultraman are the first two entries of Tsuburaya's legendary Ultra franchise, with the latter in particular being one of the most famous pop culture icons of all time. Ultraman's influence on Japanese media is so large, that I'll be mentioning it at least once in relation to other series later on.

Ultraman, like Godzilla before him, would get the Hideaki Anno treatment with Shin Ultraman in 2022.

Giant Robo/Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot (1967)

Another one of Mitsuteru Yokoyama's classic manga series, Giant Robo deserves a mention due to its influence on tokusatsu. Giant Robo would usher in an era of tokusatsu that would rely on using giant robots as the main protagonist.

In terms of adaptations, there are two animated adaptations, but only one will be listed here:

GR: Giant Robo (2007)

If you want to learn a little bit more about the history behind Giant Robo, I'd recommend checking out blunova's video on Giant Robo for more info on this important series.

Conclusion

As the 60's would lead way into the 70's, we would see a lot more live action tokusatsu series involving giant robots. Of course, this would be untenable due to how expensive it was to do tokusatsu effects for television. However, one robot would appear in animation that would change everything.

(Read in the voice of Tessho Genda) AND ITS NAME IS...!!!!

[fly-pow-bye]

The Lost Blossom Shampoo Commercial Part 3

I was already following Hook Up Animation on Instagram because they post old promos and even newer promos like that amazing one they did for Cartoon Network's 30th anniversary. I opened up Instagram and the first thing I see is that they posted a compilation video of various promos they did featuring the Powerpuff Girls. Since I have learned recently from someone at Hook Up that Hook Up Animation worked on it, I had reason to believe I was about to see at least the clip I saw in the Rogan and Toonix reels. It's not the full spot, but about 9 seconds in, there it was.

My 10 year old mystery is technically not fully solved, but at least we get to see more of it. More after the break.

One thing right now: this compilation is essentially an AMV of various clips from promos and commercials they worked on set to the Powerpuff Girls theme, and none of the promos and commercials are shown in full. However, we do see quite a bit more of the commercial I called the Lost Blossom Shampoo Commercial, and I can say one of those words is technically wrong, as it's not just Blossom.

We get to see the setup of the commercial, with Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup looking in the mirror with their bad hair day. It would have been wrong to just have Blossom even if she would have the most impressive hairstyle for a hair product ad. I did suspect that Bubbles and Buttercup should appear as well considering there's three superhero mascots at the end of the commercial. Three Powerpuff Girls, three Showerpuff Girls.

Having Bubbles and Buttercup in this commercial also means that the almost Sailor Moon-esque hair transformation scene Blossom got also happens to Bubbles and Buttercup as well. I can at least do a quick GIF of Buttercup's.

Bubbles gets one too, but the clip of Bubbles is a little too short and I couldn't really fix it like I tried to do with Buttercup. Each of the girls do get different effects. Bubbles gets a wind-like effect, possibly representing the spiky haired mascot, and Buttercup gets the combing cream, representing the long red haired watery mascot.

Now with the appearance in this compilation, this is how much of the commercial we have now.

We went from just under 3 seconds to 7 seconds of what could be a 15 or 30 second commercial. I should point out that even with all of these different reels, we have exactly zero seconds of audio from this commercial, as the reels and compilation plays these clips over stock music and the English Powerpuff Girls' opening, respectively.

I did joke about what the rest of the commercial would be like, and that obviously wasn't going to be accurate. Thanks to having the intro, I can make a good summary of what it actually could be:

Professor Utonium sees the Powerpuff Girls in dis-tress, yadda yadda yadda, the Powerpuff Girls' hair gets restored to their usual glory thanks to the power of Hidratacion Intensa. Warning: baby shampoo will still not give your baby superpowers.

Much like that Seinfeld episode, the yadda yadda does hide what could be interesting: what did the Professor do? Does he pull out the brand new hair products, spawning those superhero mascots to help out Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup? Or...did he create those superhero mascots? Have I stumbled upon the most obscure Powerpuff Girls in any officially-sanctioned media before I made that article about Bittercup? There's only one way to find out, and I wish I could find that way.

One commercial I could find because Cartoon Network themselves uploaded it is this O Movimento Cartoon PSA. Yes, we know, there's already a well hated episode with this exact concept, but the live-action/animated hybrid style looks really cool. Maybe if the CW show used that, maybe it would have been greenlit! Or, maybe not.

< Part 2 - Part 4 >

[fandom-thoughts389]

Miraculous Ladybug Critiques (Rant)

I followed along with the show pretty much since its debut, but I fell off on caring for it somewhere in the middle of the fourth season. I still kept tabs on it though cause by that point it was like a dumpster fire and I had to know what dumb decision they made next.

I will acknowledge though that looking back I now realize the show and its creators never had any intentions of making something compelling or with any depth to it. It was just show to be made and they'd continue it for however long they could.

So, I felt like listing out the various problems I have with the show and what I personally thought would've created a better narrative/story.

1. Powers

I can really appreciate the lore and origins of the miraculous/kwamis being concepts of the universe, but beyond that there's too much going on. Having way more miraculous exist beyond the 19 the show originated loads the show with too much going on.

-The Zodiac

Heck, the 12 zodiac miraculous overcomplicates the number of powers the show has to juggle. Not to mention that the concepts and powers some of them weald are either too broken or too redundant. The rabbit can just freely time travel with seemingly no limitations. Plus time travel just always complicates things in any media. Meanwhile, the dog just allows you to retrieve an object back to your person. There's no balance here.

There should've been a hierarchy to their powers, or at the very least the zodiac could've individually been weaker in some sense. Maybe there could've been combinations that form greater powers. The snake allows you to rewind a short window of time into the past, but another miraculous could've been about prediction or seeing the future, so when used together they could've allowed for some level of controlled time travel. Like how creation and destruction come together to form reality the zodiac could've been other concepts broken into pairs (or heck maybe even trios?).

-Power-ups

These were completely redundant. They alluded to 7 power but have only ever used 3 of them (2 of which are very situational with water and ice). The zodiac could've been better used in place of there since they were more about adding additional transformation sequences, that's really all they were.

-Other Heroes

The New York special feels so stupid introducing a justice league knock-off roster of superheroes. They make no sense existing cause why the hell wouldn't the come help Paris when they're literally dealing with a domestic terrorist with superpowers daily. By that point I knew the creators didn't care what they added to the world they made.

-The main 7

I just think these guys needed some balancing to fit alongside each other.

The ladybug and cat do well for their main powers of creation and destruction, but the extra powers of the ladybug needed to be mirrored by the cat. To restore/fix any damages should've been a combined power of the two used in unison. As for dealing with the akumas maybe only the wielder of the cat can break/destroy whatever they're in.

As for the other 5 I feel like they all should've functioned the same. Like all of them imbue their power into something then bind it to an object and manipulate it from there. The fox would have a focal point for its illusion. The bee's stinger could be what's implanted and I think they should have control over the person's actions. As for the Turtle, idk? a protective charm of sorts?

The butterfly and peacock a little much though. The butterfly can just bestow ANY sort of power, I fell like it should be limited in someway. And the peacock can apparently just straight up create fully functional, living beings/humans as well as monsters? Probably should just stick to actual monsters.

I'll also say that I think they were suppose to the 'five Chinese elements' (Wuxing)? Given their number and arrangement(?) in the original box. So maybe there could've been a flow/balance amongst each other where they can either boost or counteract the others.

2. Love Square

Marinette and Adrian's relationship just became another trait to drag on and perpetually extend the show's life. They did everything to keep them from starting a relationship and when they finally shoved them together (halfway through the 5th season?) they didn't do anything meaningful with them afterward.

I think the initial set up of who they love is good. Marinette only loves Adrian, while Chatnoir loves Ladybug. Creating a cycle of them pining for each other. However, that cycle should've been broken at some point way earlier to progress their dynamic.

I honestly think they should've had Marinette and Chatnoir start a relationship. Its an inverse of their crushed and to me they feel/act most like their real selves. Marinette isn't under the responsibility of being Ladybug and she's not falling over herself and stuttering like when she's around Adrian. Meanwhile, Adrian is expressive and outgoing as Chatnoir and uses that time as an escape from his restrictive life.

I could see this relationship starting after they confess to their respective crushes, but of course get rejected. Afterwards though they fine solace in the one they rejected and decide to give that person a chance, maybe thinking along the lines of: "Hey, this person liked my other identity, why don't I give them a chance".

I also think that the dynamic of Ladybug and Adrian should've been used as a 'Superman&Lois Lane' or 'Spiderman&Mary Jane' sort of situation. Ladybug saves him every now and then and the media blows it out of proportions. It’d be cute and funny and a nice nod to comics/heroes before them.

As for Kagami and Luka, I could see them dating the protagonists for a bit of time. An alternate choice to get their minds off their crushes that don’t work out and breakup later. Just not LITERALLY THE NEXT COUPLE OF EPISODES AFTER STARTING TO “DATE”. Geez.

3. Characters

I really don't care for how this show handled most of its characters, especially Chloe and Gabriel. I'll also say it's annoying that they inflated the roster of heroes/important characters with the rest of the class with the zodiac miraculous.

Marinette

My main problem with her is that the show is solely fixated on her. They never really divide the attention with Adrian's side of things, so the narrative weight of everything is always dependent on Marinette. She's always the crux of every situation with the Ladybug's powers being so inflated on their role/importance.

Also, I think everyone can agree with me on this one: They needed to turn down the creepy, obsessive stalker behavior of her towards Adrian. I could understand learning the times of some of his afterschool activities to watch/fawn over him, but how the hell does she know his entire monthly schedule?! It's all way too much.

Adrian

Like I said, they hardly ever do anything narratively with him. Heck, they give him no role in the main finally of everything! More episodes should've been centered on and followed him to give some balance between him and Marinette.

Also, I think it might've been a better idea to keep him as his original concept of Felix. Or at the very least lean towards it with a bit of a reclusive and abrasive personality. I think it could've involved him a lot more in the story if he was the cause of more akumatizations. It could've lead to a lot more character growth with him bettering himself after each experience. It also could've aligned him more with Chloe as friends and let them develop together.

Chloe

I still don't understand why they had her better herself so much just to turn around and regress her back to her stubborn self in an instant. I understand the idea of a "failed redemption arc", but somehow they failed at doing that. There just wasn't any proper build-up to it.

Honestly, I would've had Chloe be used vigilante/anti-hero if they didn't have her out herself immediately in the show. She's doesn't want to give up the bee miraculous, but she wants to prove herself as a hero.

She could've been a novice that inserted herself into every situation and got in the heroes' way or complicated things, but eventually got better at heroics. She could've learned that not every situation calls for her immediately and she could stay on the sidelines watching over the heroes in case they needed a save/backup.

All that development could build up to her making the tough call of her losing her miraculous to Hawkmoth in order to save Ladybug and Chatnoir. Then with the Bee miraculous in Hawkmoth's possession, fights with future villains could be harder if their perfectly under his control with the bee's venom ability.

Gabriel

Dear God this man should've been written as a father first and foremost. He's too much of a 'Saturday morning cartoon villain' when there should be a lot more depth into the weight of his actions.

The man wants to revive his wife and restore their family but he throws his son under the bus any chance he gets to use/manipulate him. In the end though they want him to be seen a sympathetic but flawed villain? They actively ruined and perception of sympathy.

I would have loved for him to actually be a sympathetic villain given his motivations and him being one of the heroes' parents, but they actively had him choose the most malicious and batshit ideas. They could've made him immediately concerned for Adrian's safety if he saw he was around one of his villains, ordering them to stay clear of him.

Him succeeding in the end isn't even that bad of an idea too. Maybe he should've been unaware/ignorant of the wish's price though. Like he brings back Emilie but at the cost of Marinette or Adrian's life. Ultimately encouraging him to reverse his wish, let go and move on. Also, there was no need to make it look like the world was ending when a wish is made. Felt a little over dramatic.

Also the tech rings were way too random for the narrative in my opinion for a fashion designer to have made?

4. Fashion

What ever happened to the show's fashion emphasis? Wasn't their school an arts school? or am I just misremembering that?

Anyways, there should've been more (and a better use) of fashion in this series. Like come on, the main villain is a renown designer, and the main leads are an aspiring designer and model.

The villains Gabriel created should've looked like they were designed by him. I can understand/appreciate the occasional abstract one but most of them just looked ridiculous (utterly ridiculous). Plus the superheroes' outfits are just mostly spandex suits, barely anything unique or involving their animal motifs. Not to mention the combos between a few of them are either bland or clunky.

I also think they could've had their outfits change occasionally, like after every season. If its suppose to be like sentai/magical girl transformations then new outfits over time is the norm.

Rant. Done.

[sepublic]

I love the Castlevania show, but I can't help but be miffed by how much of the source material and colorful bestiary the show tends to ignore in favor of more vampires. I love characters such as Striga and Morana, but then you've got fairly generic ones like Dragan or Nikolai, who are just there to be obstacles and don't have any real personality themselves.

It's just a little confusing, because why do the writers keep trying to come up with OCs when they have plenty to pull from the actual games? In the games, vampires themselves are actually very rare; They're usually only represented by endgame bosses like Dracula, Bartley, Brauner, etc. Otherwise, the vast majority of enemies are night creatures, ghosts, haunted suits of armor, and the like.

But instead of embracing the weirder monsters like the Minotaur or Werewolves, the Castlevania show keeps defaulting to regular old vampires who are basically just humans with pointy ears and teeth. The show keeps defaulting to Vampire melodrama, like it's trying to emulate other pieces of Vampire media, instead of embracing what sets Castlevania apart from those stories. It has a concerning lack of weird castle exploration for a show called Castlevania.

Skeletons only appear in one scene, and I'm sorry but a common staple of a series should not be reduced to a mere fanservice cameo. It's like the Resident Evil live-action films making everything about zombies and reluctantly including a Licker as the ultimate monster. It's like if the Super Mario Bros. Movie barely had Goombas, they made the show too normal from the source material.

That isn't to say the source material is a perfect narrative, far from it; It can get pretty damn repetitive at times, especially with certain character roles and dynamics. I'll die on the hill that Annette's reimagining was justified, and Ortega and Hugh Baldwin are admittedly less interesting versions of Maxim Kischine.

The repetition makes sense! Castlevania's priority is gameplay, and each installment is meant to be its own thing. But when you're doing it as a TV show, a story, and having each story arc play a part in a larger narrative, you have to mix things up in terms of story and characterization, because you can't rely on different gameplay mechanics and levels to differentiate entries in an animated show.

But all that said, it's tiring how much the show will ignore aspects that wouldn't conflict with the writing at all in favor of more generic vampires. I don't want to see vampire politics and melodrama, but it's infinitely more interesting if its melodrama and politics between slimes and minotaurs!

I dunno, it feels like the show is limiting itself on an aesthetical level. What difference does it make in terms of writing if there's a flying Medusa head, or an Axe Armor? I think the writers are afraid of coming across as 'corny' as if Castlevania itself isn't crazy and anime as hell, but this just makes them come across as lacking sincerity. It's like how people complained about a bunch of 2000's movie adaptations of superheroes watering down everything to be more 'serious' and 'realistic' and 'believable', but it just made it grey and boring and cut away what made it unique.

The writers could've easily replaced characters like Dragan with, say, Sir Grakul from Super Castlevania IV, or had freakish looking night creatures be the ones to monologue (instead of treating Flyseyes as the one exception). There's acceptable departures from the source material, and then there's just straight up ignoring it, and then going out of its way to make up new things when stuff is already there to use. It's not as if the animators struggle with animating non-humanoid beings, considering how many unique night creatures they've come up with. So can we please stop being lowkey embarrassed of the source material???

It'd honestly make the show so much more memorable if we got to see Richter fighting a Skull Knight or Mummy. It's just so much wasted potential, especially when they ignore game Richter's compelling narrative of a Fallen Hero, in favor of making up something completely different. I can understand revising protagonists who barely have anything to them, like John Morris from Bloodlines, but Richter HAD a meaningful storyline to expand on, and one that deconstructs his role as a vampire hunter!

Given the show's attempts to be a grittier deconstruction and its suggestion that killing vampires isn't 100% good, I don't know why they didn't go with the idea of Knight Templar Richter whose desire to be needed in battle leaves him vulnerable to Shaft's brainwashing. The deeper, character-driven writing does not have to be mutually exclusive from fantastical and weird elements.

[bird-lettuce]

hello! i’m looking to get into blue beetle and was wondering if you could tell me about him? what’s he like as a person and superhero and stuff

thank you!

helloo!!! sorry for taking so long!!! you've come to the right place!!!!

(please bear with me, english is not my first language)

first, here's a reading list im working on! it's still very much a wip but it covers most his more prominent apperances (you can check my pinned post for a link to a spreadsheet that has more apperances if you want background/cameos) https://jaime-reyes-archive.carrd.co/#guide-eng

If you want the best intro to him as a character you should read his first book from 2006. It falls off a bit at the end with the writer change imo but the rest it absolutely fantastic and what made me love the character so much! A follow-up to that would be Blue Beetle: Graduation Day, his most recent mini.

Here's an abridged description of his character, more other media you watch him on and my thoughts about his different media and comic characterizations. Buckle up! We have a long way to go. I'll try not to spoil the first run too much:

Jaime Reyes is a a mexican-american teenager (15/16 in his first run, 17/18 in his most recent mini), son of mexican immigrants who lives in El Paso, Texas. He became the third Blue Beetle after Khaji Da, the scarab that belonged to the first Beetle, Dan Garrett, latches onto his spine overnight. He was scared and rejected his power at first, looking for ways to get rid of the scarab, who is capable of communicating with him in his head. Through some mentoring from more experienced characters and communication with the scarab they grow to think of each other as friends and brothers. (highlight: bb06 book one & #25)

Jaime's most important trait is his deep connection to his family and community, notably not keeping his identity as a hero secret from his family and close friends. He is constantly aided and supported by them in his journey to becoming a superhero. (highlight: bb06#1-7, 16, 17, 25-26)

He is a normal teen who was suddenly given powers, so a constant theme is the nervousness and stress he has about the amount of responsibility and expectations he was suddenly given. He tries to do right by his family and community, choosing to dialogue with any possible foe before attacking, and prioritizes the security of the people he protects over his reputation or being on the good side of other leaguers or authorities. Personality wise, he has a very light spirit, and a good sense of humor, he regularly jokes around while fighting. He is good-natured and often silly. (highlight: bb06#17, blue beetle: Graduation Day, Justice League Action)

As a hero, he is the wielder of a potentially world-domination weapon that has enough power to rival that of a green lantern (bb06#1), multiple teen titans, producing synthetic kryptonite (bb06#18), tracking people, protecting him from falling from the atmosphere (bb06#1), hacking batman's computers (the secret six storyline), producing a wide range of weapons, flying, a type of dimension-jumping (bb06#25), etc. The world is lucky that Khaji Da is in the hands of a good kid.

In his original story, he had no relationship with the other Beetles, being mentored by an array of different heroes. After Rebirth, though, he and Ted Kord were often written as a team, either as a duo or through ocasional teamups. It is important to say, however, that Jaime's growth as a hero was more impacted by his family, friends and mentors than it was by Ted. He is self-made and has a separate legacy from the other two Blue Beetles that should not be discredited. Their stories have been separate more than they have not, and recently there has been a subtle push to recognize Jaime as the current main Beetle, and Ted as someone whose time in the spotlight has passed, as opposed to having both of them as The Blue Beetles. (Blue and Gold #7, Blue Beetle: Graduation Day)

Notable relationships:

Paco and Brenda, his best friends

Khaji Da, the scarab. His brother and half of the Blue Beetle

Milagro, Brenda and Alberto, his sister and parents

The posee and La Dama, first rivals, then close allies in his community

Hector and Nadia, the people he trusts the most and the team's tech experts

Peacemaker, Guy Gardner and Starfire, his most notable mentors

Batman, who has gone out of his way to spend a lot of money on him and his family without them knowing lol. Compensation for certain wrong choices I'd say.

The JLI, legacy allies. Especially Booster Gold.

The Reach, his main antagonists. Creators of Khaji Da

Other media

Batman: The brave and the bold: Jaime has a lot of remarkable appearances in BATB! He's literally in the first episode lol. I love his characterization and his dynamic with Batman, and the approach to Jaime's relationship with Ted Kord. His origin story isn't the same, but a lot of characters' stories were changed to be more Batman-centric so i don't really mind. He is also one of the main characters in the Wii game, and his banter with batman is really fun. Definitely one of my favorites

Justice League Action: a more light-hearted version of him! Really fun and the design is very cute imo. Also has some funny banter with Batman

Young Justice: the second season has The Reach as main villains, so Jaime is pretty prominent. He doesn't appear much after that though. It's not exactly my favorite adaptation but it introduced a lot of people to him so it's notable.

The dc animated movie universe: not that interesting lol he's mostly a bg character.

NOTES ON HIS COMICS

The Blue Beetle 2006 run by Lilah Sturges tries to tackle an immigration storyline, but does so poorly and has a very important main character siding with right wingers. The final issue has a couple of upsetting endings for some beloved characters. It starts after #30 and ends the book.

New 52 is awful. Awful. Changed his origin, his relationship with almost everybody, gave him a weird running joke with the scarab and a lot of the dialogue and characterization choices come off as insaaaanely xenophobic, racist and classist. Also all of it was retconned so it's not even worth reading.

Rebirth was written by Giffen and had Ted Kord back as a mc. Also changed the scarab's origin from tech to magic. Not a favorite of mine, a lot of it is based around Giffen's humor, which i never really connected with, and the dynamic between Jaime and Ted can get annoying after a while. I've noticed it's still enjoyed by a lot of people and only had 16 issues, so you should probably give it a try and see for yourself.

Blue Beetle: Graduation Day is very good. Probably his best book since his first run. It's just about to end, the final issue comes out next week. It's just a mini so it can feel like it was missing more issues to fully flesh out what it wanted to do, but it honestly is refreshing to have Jaime's family and cast back. Also introduced a new city, a new armor and a lot of new characters!! I highly recommend it

This is all I can think of without going into extremely detailed analysis and breakdowns of every little bit of content he has had over the years!! I hope it's understandable and helps guide you into this beloved character <3 He's absolutely one if not my favorite DC character, and means a lot to me. If you have any questions or would like me to clarify about anything I'd be more than happy to answer!!

[crystalninjaphoenix]

One Last Puppet Show

A JSE Fanfic

SepticHeroes AU: Part 22

First Part | Previous Part

Heyyyy besties :) Are you ready for a nearly 8000 word chapter of this AU? I know I am! I'm actually so excited for this that I'm posting it a whole day early. Think of this chapter as the end of the first arc. Jackie has a confrontation with the Puppeteer. Schneep and Marvin come, too. Things go well, until they don't. And, somehow, we finally see who's behind the Puppeteer's mask =) There are payoffs and twists and a whole bunch of superhero action, so stay tuned! And enjoy :D :D :D

===============

Jackie spent the train ride back to their apartment glued to his phone as he obsessively checked local news and social media. He had no idea what the Puppeteer could possibly be planning, but it wouldn’t stay silent for long. The rest of the city must be panicking. They’d all seen the Puppeteer hijack the airwaves. 

He wanted so badly to get off at the next station and fly the rest of the way, but he wasn’t about to leave Chase alone when there was a threat on the loose. So he had to just stand there, one hand holding the train handle, one hand continuously refreshing the feeds on his phone. Chase sat on the seat nearest to him. He was quiet. So were a lot of the other train passengers.

Until—

Vrrr. Vrrr. Vrr. The train car was so silent that the vibrating sound could easily be heard. Chase took his phone out of his pocket, glanced at the screen, then picked it up. “Hey, Schneep,” he said. “No, we’re still on the train. Yeah. Are you with, uhhh, our other friend? Great. What’s—oh. Oh.” Chase’s eyes widened. “All of the buildings, or just central SepTech?”

Jackie’s head snapped over. Chase held up a hand, asking him to wait. Nodding, Jackie looked back at his own phone. He silently cursed that it was so hard to get recent posts on most social medias. It was really helpful to have a live update from the people, but only if he could actually see those updates!

“Oh shit,” Chase cursed. “Yeah no that sounds bad.” He glanced around. A fair number of passengers were staring at him, being the loudest thing on the train at the moment. “Windstorm should get on that. Maybe if he knew where the guy doing this was he could, uh, go after that.” Jackie raised his eyebrows. “Does anyone have any idea about that?... Oh. Well, uh, it’s bound to be at one of the buildings, right? Yeah. Yeah, that’s a great idea. Hey, it’s crazy out there, so be careful, alright? Okay. You can call again later. Or you can call Jackie. Yeah. Promise. Bye.” And then he hung up.

“Is there something going on?” Jackie asked, trying to sound like a curious bystander and not like he absolutely needed whatever information Schneep found.

“Yeah, there’s some crazy stuff happening at one of the SepTech locations,” Chase said. “Maybe all of them.”

“SepTech, huh?” Of course. Jackie adjusted his search, looking for posts that were specifically tagged around the SepTech buildings in Daindover. There were all the live updates. The SepTech buildings had gone dark. Pedestrians on the sidewalk reported people running out of them and screaming. Someone posted a picture of a window with a man inside one of the buildings. A man carrying... was that a baseball bat?

The train announcer came on, reporting that they were nearing the station closest to Chase and Jackie’s apartment. Jackie kept checking and re-checking until the train came to a full stop and the doors opened. At which point he put the phone away and grabbed Chase, pulling him out of the train with Frosty hurrying behind.

“Whoa, hey careful!” Chase protested.

“Sorry,” Jackie muttered, then leaned closer to him and whispered, “What did Schneep say?”

Chase looked around; luckily no other passengers were getting off and the station was fairly empty. He whispered back, “He’s with Marvin, who apparently, uh, mentioned SepTech somehow, and the two of them decided to check it out. There’s like—people storming the buildings. Or at least the center one, they haven’t checked the rest yet. They think the Puppeteer has to be there or at another building, so they’re checking things out. Stealthily. You know, how Schneep does it.”

Jackie nodded. His heart was racing, adrenaline pumping through his veins. “We have to get you home fast. Can you run?”

“Yeah, but if I fall, you have to catch me.”

“I’m fine with that. Let’s go.”

The two of them broke into a sprint.

===============

When they reached their building, Chase encouraged Jackie to fly up to their apartment and get in through the window. “I’ll be there in... a few minutes,” he said, panting. “Your stuff inside... is more important. I’ll... be fine.” Jackie reluctantly agreed; the sooner he was in his supersuit and out there, the better.

He tumbled in through the window, rolling back to his feet and immediately lunging for the box where he’d left his supersuit. It only took him a minute or so to completely change. A new record. If only it happened under different circumstances.

As he was pulling on his gloves, he remembered what Jameson had said before they’d left his shop. Maybe when you go out, you can wear the gift I gave you? The bracelets. He wanted to leave them behind, but then after a second’s hesitation, he grabbed them both and slid them onto one wrist, pulling the glove over them. They were small and under the thick fabric of the suit; they wouldn’t get in the way. And maybe JJ would freak out if he heard Jackie wasn’t wearing his ‘good luck charms.’ Jackie had known some people who put real stock in stuff like that, and JJ had been stressed enough without worrying about little things like that.

His phone rang. Jackie searched through the pockets of his discarded jeans until he found it. “Hello?”

“Jackie? It is me.” Schneep was on the other end.

“Yeah I figured. Chase told me some of what you called him about. You could have called me directly, y’know.”

“Well I was not sure if you had changed yet. Superheroes do not carry their phones with them. I thought Chase was safer.”

In the background of the call, Jackie heard a far-away “Just get on with it!” Spitfire Cat was not known for patience and a cool temper.

“Yes, yes,” Schneep dismissed. “In any case. My friend. We are at the East SepTech location, and we think the Puppeteer is here too.”

Jackie’s stomach dropped. “Did you see him?”

“Distantly. He is on the roof. I saw him peer over the edge.”

“That building is fucking ten stories tall how the fuck did you see—?!”

“I made some modifications to my goggles a while ago,” Schneep said vaguely.

“How?!”

“Is this really the time for that?! The point is I saw a man in black with a green glowing face!”

Jackie took a deep breath. “No, you’re right, it’s not the time for this. What else is there? You told Chase people were storming SepTech?”

“We only saw the Central and East locations, but the same story for both of them. There are people with weapons attacking. No guns, but there are knives and crowbars and axes—”

“How do you get a fucking axe in central Daindover?!”

“It’s actually remarkably easy, but that is not the point. Chances are this is happening at all of the SepTech buildings. The attackers are all breaking things and grabbing people, but I don’t think they are trying to hurt them. We think they are converting them. Putting strings around their wrists.”

“Fuuuuck.” The Puppeteer’s numbers were growing. A breeze swept around the room, matching Jackie’s growing worry. “Okay. Okay. He’s on the roof of the East location. That’s good, actually. I can fly right up there and take him out. Fuck, where’s my neutrinalin?! Oh right.” He’d put the syringes and injection gun at the bottom of his supersuit box. He hurriedly picked up the gun, checking that it was loaded, and then secured it to his belt. And put a couple syringes in his pouch, just in case.

“We are going to help,” Schneep said.

“Are you sure? If they’re stringing people up—I mean, the building is probably full of—of puppets—”

“They will need to touch me first,” Schneep said, a bit smugly.

“What about Spitfire?”

Marvin must have heard that, because Jackie heard the sound of a short scuffle, and then Marvin’s voice. “I said I wasn’t going to let this fucker get away with this! And trust me, I’m more angry at him than scared of them.”

“Let go of my hand, thanks!” Schneep’s voice said, getting louder as he returned the phone to his ear. “We can find a way in without getting puppetted. I am good at this, I can make sure of that. You just get here soon! Hopefully you will be here before we even get to the roof.” And then he ended the call.

“See you th—oh you hung up.” Jackie didn’t have time to be offended at that. He put his phone down on the dresser and instead picked up the Red Line. There was a special app on this gadget. All he had to do was press it, and it would immediately send out a signal for other Heroes to come to its location. If there was ever a time for Heroic reinforcements, this was it. He activated the signal without hesitation.

The apartment door opened. “Jackie?” Chase called.

Jackie ran out of his room and down the hall, stopping at the living room entrance. Chase was there, looking winded, with Frosty, looking excited. “The Puppeteer is at the East SepTech location, and so are Schneep and Spitfire,” he hurriedly said.

“That one?” Chase blinked, surprised, then shook his head. “Well why are you talking to me?! Go go go!”

“Stay safe,” Jackie said, and turned around, running back to his room, shoving the Red Line into his pocket as he went. He opened the window again and jumped out, flying off to the scene of the crime.

===============

The East SepTech building was the newest of the SepTech locations. Not because of age, but because it had collapsed two and a half years ago during a fight between Timekeeper and Earth Shaker. It had been rebuilt in remarkably fast time—something that couldn’t be said for the other buildings around it, many of which were still visibly under construction. The new East building was ten stories of glass and white concrete. It was a triangular shape, with one side that curved outward. Normally there was a green neon sign along the top with SepTech’s logo, but that had gone dark.

Jackie circled above the building, far higher than the roof, hoping that he couldn’t be seen from this distance. He wished his mask had whatever ‘zoom and enhance’ features Schneep’s goggles apparently had. From up here, he could only vaguely make out dots of people on the ground. He dropped lower and lower with every circle, assessing the situation.

There were some people on the sidewalks and streets, but no cars. At least, none moving. He couldn’t tell what they were doing from so high up. But he could clearly see the crowd of people on the roof. How many were there? Thirty? The Puppeteer must have them gathered up there to protect himself. Smart move. But when you could fly, you could just drop right on top of the Puppeteer and inject him with neutrinalin before any of the puppetted crowd could react.

He kept slowly descending until he was able to pick out the Puppeteer. He was the only one wearing all black, standing out against the pale concrete roof. Jackie zeroed in on him and dove.

He was only ten feet away when something slammed into his side. Taken by surprise, Jackie was thrown through the air until he hit a concrete wall. He was only just able to slow himself before impact, barely avoiding what surely would have been broken ribs. Even so, he fell to the roof gasping for air.

“That was an excellent shot,” said a familiar, computerized voice.

Jackie looked up, taking stock of his surroundings. He hit the concrete wall right next to a door—clearly the roof access entrance. It was blocked by about five people holding various weapons. Twenty-five others were scattered around the roof, slowly walking closer to him. They all held weapons. Mostly knives or blunt objects like crowbars. But one man was holding what looked like a giant compound crossbow. And over all of their heads, Jackie could see the Puppeteer’s glowing LED grin.

He gritted his teeth and stood up, trying not to stagger or wince as his body screamed at him. As he moved, he noticed something wrapped around his waist. A metallic rope with two heavy-looking balls on either end. That must be what knocked him out of the air. He glanced back at the man with the strange crossbow and noticed two more ropes coiled at his feet. “Clever,” Jackie grunted, untangling the rope from his waist.

“Isn’t it?” The Puppeteer said, managing to sound delighted despite the robotic tone of his voice. “They just had that in storage here, you know. A prototype built just for this purpose: knocking flying supers out of the sky. It never made it to completion. They branded it ‘too dangerous.’”

“Oh shut up,” Jackie said.

“I don’t think you are in a position to tell me what to do.” The Puppeteer folded his arms, and every single person pointed their weapons at Jackie.

His eyes darted around. Sure enough, he could see strings around many of their wrists. Varying in color, but all there. None of these people wanted to be here. He could see it in their eyes. “Alright,” Jackie said slowly. “So... now what?”

The Puppeteer tilted his head. “What do you mean?”

“Are you going to tell them to kill me? And then are you going to take over the world? Put everyone under your control? Or just Daindover?” He was stalling for time and he knew it. He had to figure a way out of this.

The Puppeteer laughed, a strange sound. “Do you want me to explain my whole scheme to you? That seems very unwise for me.”

“What if I said please?” His back was literally to a wall. Sure there was a door only a few feet away, but he’d have to push past the five knife-wielding puppets guarding it. The Puppeteer was prominently displayed, standing on top of some sort of rooftop industrial unit. He might be able to fly for him, but he no longer had distance and surprise on his side; the poor puppets could attack him before he made it. “I gotta be honest, I don’t understand anything you’ve done so far. So, I’d appreciate some sort of closure in, uh, my last moments.”

“Last moments are never guaranteed,” the Puppeteer said. “But I suppose I could tell you what I had been intending to do. Before your discovery of my plan—and the failure of certain key parts—” His body twitched “—forced me to abandon it all. That would not take too long.”

“Great. Thanks. Much appreciated.” Some of the puppets walked closer, forcing Jackie to move forward to get away from their outstretched weapons. Farther from the door, closer to the Puppeteer. His options were becoming more limited.

“I suppose you know I was the one behind that crime wave in August,” the Puppeteer said. “That was only a test of abilities. That was only me seeing how far I could push. I focused on those with criminal pasts for two reasons. Because I knew the police would not take their claims of mind control seriously, and because of SepTech’s Reformation Program. Do you know about that, Windstorm?”

“It... it’s a program to give ex-convicts jobs at SepTech,” Jackie said slowly.

“Very good.” Again, the Puppeteer managed to give the computerized voice emotion. Now he sounded very condescending. “If I kept control of criminals, I could get them into SepTech through that program. And once I did that, I could get them to spread my control to other employees.”

“But why?” Jackie asked.

The Puppeteer laughed again. “Are you asking me why I would want to gain even more control over one of the biggest technology companies in the British Isles? I think that would be obvious.”

“So... it’s about power, then,” Jackie summarized. “That’s what it always is with you types. Power or money. I’m almost disappointed.”

“I’m glad I don’t exist for your approval then.” The Puppeteer leaned forward slightly. “My plan was going well. Progress was progressing smoothly until—”

“Did you just say ‘progress was progressing’?” Jackie interrupted incredulously.

“Shut up,” the Puppeteer said, now audibly annoyed. “As I was saying. Progress was going smoothly until you discovered my plan—far quicker than I expected. As well as other factors not working.” Again, he twitched. “So, I decided to shift direction. Now I would be more... straightforward.”

“By staging a hostile takeover of the company,” Jackie said. “And killing the city’s only Hero?” 

The Puppeteer tensed. “What makes you think—”

Slam!

The roof access door flew open and a bolt of orange energy shot straight for the Puppeteer, barely missing. Jackie spun around and saw Marvin—in full Spitfire Cat costume, standing in the doorway. Then Jackie spun back around and launched himself towards the Puppeteer. The puppets grabbed at him, some throwing their weapons, but his momentum was too great. He tackled the Puppeteer, knocking him right off the industrial unit he was standing on. They rolled across the ground.

For a moment, the puppets regained control of their bodies. Most of them dropped the weapons. Many ran for the door. One woman shrieked in surprise. “Something’s got me!” she shouted.

A figure flickered into view next to her. Schneep, wearing the Specter suit. “Something has got the strings off your wrist,” he said. “Now run! All of you who don’t have them!”

After a few seconds, eight people ran for the roof access door, passing by Marvin as he ran the other direction towards Jackie and the Puppeteer. He jumped onto the unit and peered down at the two of them. “Did we come in time?”

“I would’ve got it,” Jackie said, struggling to pin the Puppeteer to the ground. He kept wriggling and flailing. Jackie tried to take the injection gun off his belt, but he must have secured it a little too well.

Marvin rolled his eyes. “Yeah. Sure.”

“How were things?” Jackie asked through clenched teeth.

“Fine. The Specter knows what he’s doing.”

“Thank you!” Schneep shouted. “But it helps that most of the building was empty. It let me run ahead and find you up here.”

“So, while I was talking, you were invisibly taking the strings off. That’s pretty—hey!” Jackie ducked to the side, barely managing to dodge the wild punch the Puppeteer threw. “Spitfire stop fucking watching and help me the fuck out!”

Marvin chuckled, then climbed to the ground. “I thought you had it.”

“Shut up.” Jackie paused. “And thanks. Both of you.”

Was it over already?

===============

The apartment was deadly quiet after Jackie left. Chase stood at the window and watched him fly off into the distance. He watched until Jackie disappeared from sight, then shook his head. He couldn’t believe that was his roommate.

What does he do now?

He knew he should probably turn on the TV and watch the news to keep up with what was happening. But... quite frankly, he didn’t want to. If things went bad, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to know. If he wanted to sit there in worry. But he would be sitting in worry anyway... ugh.

Chase wandered into his bedroom. Maybe if he had something physical to do while he watched the news, he wouldn’t feel sick with anxiety. What was there to do? He kept his hacky-sack in here. Maybe that. Where was it? On the dresser?

As he moved things around on the dresser by his bed, Chase’s hand brushed against something. It fell to the floor and immediately burst into lots of tiny bits. “Fuck.” He wasn’t going to be able to clean that up, and neither was Frosty. Too small. But... what was it that could have broken like that?

He squinted at the floor. Beads?

Beads. Like from a bracelet.

He looked back at the dresser. This was where he’d left the bracelets JJ had sent him and Jackie. Now only one was left. He picked it up to examine it closely. And as he lifted it up... the beads slowly fell to the ground. Until he was left holding only the string. A string that was still tied in a circle, but which looked less... solid somehow. As Chase stared, the string turned wispy, like a strand of fog, and then faded away.

Fear jolted through his stomach. Strings. Strings. Strings.

Chase fumbled for his phone. He unlocked it and navigated to the photos. The most recent thing on his camera roll was a video he’d made for himself, recounting everything Jackie had told him and the others about the Puppeteer. Just so he would remember. He pressed play, skipping forward every few seconds until he found what he was looking for. “—Jackie says that these strings don’t last forever. He said that when he got them off that uhhh ice lady they became sort of transparent and then fell apart, like... like the way steam fades away, y’know? And then they disappeared. So—”

He paused the video.

The world was tilting beneath his feet. He started listing to the side.

Frosty pressed his head against his side, gently righting Chase before he lost his balance and fell. “Thanks, Frost,” Chase said absentmindedly.

He’d been feeling guilty for constantly forgetting to wear JJ’s gift, but now he was relieved. These were not bracelets. These were the Puppeteer’s strings. How did JJ get them?! Why did he give them to Chase and Jackie?! Unless—he was—

Chase ran into Jackie’s room. He searched every surface for the bracelets—or at least the beads, if the string had faded. But he couldn’t see anything. JJ had asked Jackie to wear the bracelets for this. Jackie must have put them on. He must be wearing them now!

“Shit!” Chase opened up his phone contacts and called Jackie. If he could warn him, maybe—

A gentle ringtone came from the bed.

Dreading what he’d see, Chase glanced towards it. Jackie’s phone. Right there. Left behind.

He couldn’t reach him. He couldn’t tell him.

Unless—the East SepTech location—He knew how to get there, the Yellow train line had a station right in front of it. He might not be much use if there was a fight, but—but he had to tell Jackie!

“Come on, Frosty,” Chase said, running out of the room and towards the door. He wished he could leave him behind, but if there was ever a time he needed to avoid a fall, this was it.

===============

“Just hold him long enough for me to get this thing, okay?” Jackie said.

“Easier said than done,” Marvin grunted. “God damn, this guy’s a wriggly bitch. Hey!” He shot a pencil-thin beam of red energy at the ground right by the Puppeteer’s head. The Puppeteer immediately stopped moving. “That’s what I thought.”

Jackie leaned away from the struggle and glanced around. None of the puppetted victims were being controlled. In fact, Schneep had managed to free even more of them, leaving only half left. They were trying to help each other with the strings, but even with this lack of active control, they were unable to remove them on their own. He looked back at Marvin and the Puppeteer. Marvin had him incapacitated for the moment, twisting one of his arms behind his back. But Jackie knew this wouldn’t last forever. He had to—yes! Finally! He managed to take the injection gun off his belt. “Should’ve just put it in the bag,” he muttered.

Marvin glanced over at him. “That’s neutrinalin.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yep.”

“Well I don’t know if the needle will get through this outfit. That’s what the armor’s for.”

“I think there’s a spot near his neck. Can you hold his head still?”

The Puppeteer spoke up for the first time in a while. “Do you really think this is the end?”

“That’s what they all say,” Jackie muttered. “Spitfire?”

“Got it.” Marvin pushed the Puppeteer’s head to the roof. “I wasn’t kidding about the wriggliness, by the way. Do it fast!”

Jackie nodded. He made sure the gun was ready, then reached forward, and...

Stopped.

Marvin looked at him. “I said fast! This isn’t the time to hesitate!”

“I’m not, I’m—” His arm was trembling slightly. He tried to move it forward, but it simply would not respond to his commands.

The Puppeteer laughed.

Suddenly, Jackie’s arm darted forward, aiming not for the Puppeteer, but for Marvin. He gasped and ducked. The injection gun barely missed him, but the sudden movement gave the Puppeteer enough momentum to throw him off. Marvin went rolling as the Puppeteer climbed to his feet. Jackie stood as well and tried to grab him, but again, he suddenly stopped. “Wha...?”

“Windstorm, what the fuck?!” Marvin recovered and got up.

“I’m not—this i-isn’t—!” Jackie tried again to grab the Puppeteer, but he wasn’t able to get within arm’s reach. He strained, trying to take a step forward. He only managed to stumble for a second.

“I said it wasn’t the end.” The Puppeteer calmly walked away, going around the industrial unit he’d been standing on.

Marvin’s eyes widened. His head darted towards Jackie. “When did he get you?!”

“He didn’t!” Jackie protested. “I-I don’t know what—”

“Maybe you should double-check your gifts next time,” the Puppeteer said calmly.

Jackie’s heart dropped. “You mean—Jameson, the—the bracelets—?”

“Bracelets?!” Marvin gasped. “Jackie, you fucking idiot! Your friend gave you bracelets and you put them on even though I told you not to?!”

“When did you tell me not to put on bracelets?!”

“In the email! When I told you SepTech was compromised!”

“You didn’t say shit about bracelets!”

“You have to be careful sending messages online,” the Puppeteer said. “Sometimes parts of the message gets lost in transition.” He tilted his head. “Email isn’t that secure, anyway. I thought you would have learned that, Spitfire, after the fake mail I sent you from your Kanchana friend.”

Marvin snapped back towards the Puppeteer. His eyes narrowed and a growl escaped his throat. He clenched his fists and spheres of orange energy appeared around them. “You motherfucker. I’m going to kill y—”

“No you’re not.”

Against his will, Jackie stepped forward, right in front of Marvin, blocking the Puppeteer from his sight. Feeling it happen made his skin crawl. Marvin backed up. He looked around Jackie towards the Puppeteer. “You’re forgetting something.”

“Like what?” The Puppeteer asked.

“There were three of us.”

Suddenly, the Puppeteer was knocked to the side by something unseen. He fell to the ground, but then lashed out. A red string came from his hand and wrapped around something invisible. Schneep briefly flickered into view again. Then the string fell to the ground, limp as it passed right through the arm it had been wrapped around. “Everyone run!” Schneep’s voice shouted. The remaining puppets tried to flee, but they all froze in place before they could get too far.

“Let them go, you bastard!” Marvin lunged forward, hands burning bright. But then Jackie grabpped his arms around him, stopping him in his tracks. The energy spheres around his hands disappeared as he tried to pry Jackie’s arms away. “Damn it! Fight it, Windstorm!”

“I’m trying!” Jackie gasped. His muscles shook, but didn’t let go.

The Puppeteer was on his feet again. Red, green, and black strings trailed from his fingers as his head darted around. Then it snapped to the side, hit by something unseen. He staggered and whipped the strings around. They briefly caught on invisible Schneep before falling through. “Don’t think I cannot see you,” the Puppeteer taunted. His head turned to the side, tracking something. “This mask has many features!” He lurched forward. Schneep cried out and briefly appeared again as the Puppeteer knocked him down. 

Marvin managed to get Jackie to let go of him. He ran forward, shooting a beam of yellow energy that barely missed the Puppeteer’s legs. “Fight it! All of you!” he shouted at the puppets. None of them moved. They could only watch.

Jackie jumped into the air and dove down. The air whipped around him, pushing Marvin to the side. He landed right next to the Puppeteer.

“I never wanted to kill you, Windstorm,” the Puppeteer said. “You are of much more use this way.”

“Sh-shut up,” Jackie said weakly. His fist flung to the side, connecting with something. Schneep shouted, reappearing as he staggered back from Jackie. “I’m sorry!”

“Not your fault,” Schneep said. “I thought you could not see me!”

“I-I can’t.”

“But I can,” the Puppeteer said. Green strings curled around his fingers. “And that’s all that matters.”

All the puppets rushed forward, swarming. Marvin threw his hands up into the air and a grid of red energy surrounded the four supers, separating them. A few of the puppets ran into the grid, burning themselves, but none attempted to make it through. “Keep this between us,” Marvin said, glaring at the Puppeteer. “Leave them out of it.”

“...Alright.” The Puppeteer’s posture relaxed. “Perhaps that will be interesting.” And Jackie rose into the air and attacked.

It wasn’t too different from all the times he’d fought Spitfire Cat before. He stayed in the air, dodging beams and balls of energy, occasionally getting close enough to land a blow before another burst of energy pushed him back. But the devil was in the details. He was not an active participant in this fight. It was just his body, ducking and jumping and punching on its own as he struggled to stop. Like being in the passenger seat of a car with an out-of-control driver. But at least in a car he could have reached over and grabbed the wheel.

Marvin was trying not to hurt him. With powers like his, he could have easily caused permanent damage, maybe even killed Jackie if he wanted to. But he didn’t. And that was far different from any fight they had before. Jackie grabbed his arm to hold him back, but Marvin used Jackie’s own flying momentum to fling him into the distance, making the surrounding grid disappear just before he hit it. Jackie recovered mid-air and came charging back in. Marvin conjured a shield on his arm to block Jackie’s attack. Jackie’s fist managed to change trajectory at the last minute, but even a glancing blow against the shield burned the knuckles of Jackie’s gloves off.

Schneep was trying to fight the Puppeteer, but it wasn’t going well. He was able to phase right through the strings the Puppeteer kept flinging his way, but he couldn’t attack the Puppeteer while he was intangible. And since the Puppeteer couldn’t hurt him either, the two of them ended up in a stalemate. Schneep let out a cry of frustration, then turned and ran into the fight between Jackie and Marvin. He jumped up and grabbed Jackie’s ankle while he was hovering in the air, pulling him down to earth. Jackie’s leg reacted without input, kicking Schneep in the face before he had time to phase through the blow. Schneep’s head snapped backwards as something cracked.

“I’m sorry!” Jackie shouted again as his body flew up again and threw itself at Marvin.

Marvin jumped to the side, barely avoiding the tackle. “It’s not your fault, it’s his!” He pointed at the Puppeteer. A curved blade of orange energy flew out with the motion, but the Puppeteer dodged it easily. Then Jackie grabbed that hand and twisted it to the side. Marvin punched his chest with his other hand, knocking him back.

“I could make this worse, if you want,” the Puppeteer said. “Windstorm is dodging your attacks now, but only because I am making him. I could stop. Let your blows hit him.”

“No!” Jackie gasped. He saw Marvin pale with horror behind his mask.

A pair of arms wrapped around him from behind. Schneep was up again, trying to restrain him. Jackie stomped on his foot, and Schneep went intangible. Jackie passed right through him and went for Marvin again. He dodged the clumsy attack, but then Jackie flung out a hand, and a gust of wind blew him backwards. He spun around and did the exact same motion, knocking back Schneep as he tried to sneak up behind him.

“You’re right, it is more amusing this way,” the Puppeteer said.

“Fuck your amusement!” Marvin flung a red energy ball at him. The Puppeteer jumped, surprised, but still managed to duck. In retaliation, the wind knocked Marvin over again.

Slam!

Everyone looked towards the sound at once. The roof access door had burst open, and standing there was—

“Chase!” Jackie gasped. “No! Get back!”

Chase was too stunned to move, taking in the sight before him. “Ja—Windstorm?” he said. By his side, Frosty began growling.

The puppets moved again, closing in on Chase. Schneep ran towards him, pulling him to the side before they could get to him. “Why the fucking hell are you here?!”

“I—There were—Strings—” Chase’s eyes were locked on the Puppeteer as Schneep guided him past everyone. “I—He wasn’t answering, so—I knew the way here—”

“Chase Brody,” said the Puppeteer.

Chase stumbled. He slowly stepped back. “H-how do you know my name?”

“I know all your names,” the Puppeteer said. He looked around at the puppets. “Do you all want to know our Hero’s true name? He is—”

“No!” Marvin ran forward, flinging out another blade of energy. The Puppeteer barely dodged this one, and it cut through the armor on his upper arm. Jackie flew up into the air, landing in front of Marvin and throwing him backwards with the strongest push of air yet.

“Leave him alone!” Schneep shouted, sprinting straight for the Puppeteer as well.

Jackie spun around and sent another gust of wind towards him. Schneep had already gone intangible, so not even the air could touch him—

But beside him, Chase was as solid as ever.

The wind sent him flying backwards. He hit the edge of the short wall surrounding the rooftop. For a moment, he stayed there, arms flailing, trying to regain his balance. But he couldn’t. And he went over the side screaming.

Jackie felt something snap.

He was moving before anyone knew it, before he knew it. A low BOOM! echoed through the air as a shockwave of wind burst from the spot where he’d been standing, knocking everyone to the floor. By the time the sound ended he was already over the side. The air whistled past his face as he dove down, down, down, towards Chase’s limp, falling form. He wasn’t going to make it—No.He wouldn’t let himself not make it. 

He flew faster, faster, faster, outpacing the pull of gravity, the concrete ground growing closer by the second. Chase was a few feet away—a foot away—his arm brushed Jackie’s fingertips. Jackie closed the distance between them and wrapped his arms around Chase, but now the two of them were falling together. No. No. No.

Wind kicked up dust on the ground, sending clouds of it flying. It pushed against the two of them, slowing them down. They were still going too fast. The only way out was to use the momentum. Jackie grabbed the back of Chase’s neck, keeping his head still to prevent whiplash. He shifted trajectory, coming at the ground from a diagonal. The slope evened out, a curve. Litter on the ground flew into the air as Jackie—gritting his teeth, commanding the wind like he never had—pulled out of the dive, now flying up as fast as the two of them were falling down.

In just seconds, they were back at the East building’s rooftop. Then above it. With infinite space to work with, Jackie slowed down, down, down... until they came to a stop fifty feet above the roof. Jackie finally let himself breathe again. He could feel Chase clutching his suit, clinging to it, squeezing him in a tight hug. He was alive. He would be fine.

Jackie slowly descended back to the roof, landing gently, making sure Chase got his footing. The whole rescue had only taken one minute. Everyone up here was still recovering from the shockwave. “Chase?” Jackie whispered. “Are you alright?”

Chase let out a shaking breath. “I... I’ve n-never liked heights...”

“Are you hurt?”

“N-no, I don’t... think so.” He was clearly reluctant to let go of Jackie, but he did. Slowly. Frosty, who had also been knocked over by the shockwave, got to his feet and hurried towards Chase, whining slightly. Chase got down to the ground and wrapped his dog in his arms.

“That’s good. That’s...” The words got caught in Jackie’s throat. His vision blurred as hot tears filled his eyes.

But it wasn’t over yet.

He scanned the roof. The puppets were recovering. Schneep was running towards him and Chase. Marvin was standing up. But his eyes locked onto the cause of all this. The Puppeteer, barely on his feet again. Jackie stalked towards him.

The Puppeteer noticed him instantly. He tensed. His head darted from side to side. Some of the standing puppets started walking towards Jackie but he knocked them down again without even glancing their way. The Puppeteer began backing up. He threw a black string towards Jackie, but it was blown away.

Wind circled Jackie’s body, picking up in speed. “You,” he growled.

The Puppeteer said nothing. Then he turned and ran.

Jackie was on him instantly. He latched onto the Puppeteer’s shoulder and spun him around, delivering a punch to his face with such force that the mask cracked, a spiderweb breaking apart the green face. The Puppeteer staggered back but Jackie didn’t give him time to recover. He hit him again in the stomach, making him fold. Then knocked him to his knees with a jab to his shoulder. Jackie’s knee hit him in the face again, almost dislodging the mask and sending him sprawling on his back. He got down, kneeling on his chest, and raised his fist—

“Windstorm, no!” A hand grabbed his wrist. “Holy shit!” Jackie looked up and saw Marvin, staring at him, completely stunned. “It’s fine! You don’t need to do this!”

“You’re one to talk,” Jackie muttered darkly.

Marvin winced slightly. His voice softened. “Chase is alive. He’s okay. It’s going to be okay.”

Anger burned and bubbled in Jackie’s chest. It coiled in his stomach. His whole body shook with the heat of it. But he took a deep breath. Chase is alive. He’s okay. It’s going to be okay. “I dropped the injection gun, but...” He reached into his pouch and pulled out one of the syringes. The Puppeteer was too dazed to stop him from pulling the cloth of his suit away from his neck and plunging the syringe into the thin line of exposed skin there. Jackie leaned backwards. He let out a breath, imagining that anger leaving him through it. “It’ll take a couple minutes to take effect.”

“Did you bring pow-sup cuffs?” Marvin asked.

“What? Oh, power suppression. Damn it, I knew I was forgetting something.”

Marvin smiled wryly. “It’s fine. As wriggly as this bastard is, I don’t think he can get away now. Not with you sitting on him.”

Jackie looked down. “Oh, uh...” He was right on the Puppeteer’s chest. Maybe he hadn’t fought back because he couldn’t breathe. “Oops.” He adjusted his position, now kneeling next to him.

“Gotta take care of the hands, that’s where the strings come from.” Marvin took off his belt and wrapped it around the Puppeteer’s wrists and hands, preventing them from moving. “I’ll be wanting that back.”

Jackie burst into laughter. And he kept laughing. He couldn’t stop the stress-fueled, manic-sounding shrieks. A good minute passed before he was able to get a hold of himself.

Schneep walked over to join the two of them. Chase trailed behind, standing a few feet away from the others, one hand on Frosty’s head and the other holding his leash. “The strings have already faded from the victims,” Schneep said. “I told them to all go home. They are gone now.”

“I see.” Jackie looked around at the roof, empty except for their small group. “I wonder if the same is happening at the other SepTech locations.” He then looked back down at the Puppeteer. The right eye was flickering on the screen. “You hear that, bitch? We beat you.”

“Dii~iid yo-you-youuu...?” The computerized voice stuttered and glitched. Jackie couldn’t help but shiver, finding it creepy.

“Uh, yeah, who’s knocked out on the floor?” Marvin commented.

Chase cleared his throat. “Are, uh... the police coming?”

“They should be,” Jackie said. “If they haven’t been responding to a group of people storming buildings with weapons, I’ll lose all faith in them. We can hand this piece of shit over to them then.”

“Okay.” Chase nodded. “Are... you going to... take his mask off?” He gestured at the Puppeteer, lying on the ground.

“Well apparently I’m not supposed to,” Jackie muttered, glancing at Marvin.

Marvin chuckled. “You’re not. But honestly, I think that mask is a health risk now that it’s broken. Shattered glass. Might be exposed wires. Overheating and shocking and all that. You’re justified... if you want.”

“Well, do you guys?” Jackie asked.

“It is your call,” Schneep said.

Jackie glanced at everyone. Then he turned his attention back to the Puppeteer. The Puppeteer stared back at him, that eye flickering. Like a wink. “Okay,” Jackie said quietly. “Okay.” He wanted to see the face of the man responsible for everything. Slowly, he reached out with trembling hands and grabbed the top edge of the mask. He pulled it off the Puppeteer’s face. And beneath it—

In a single moment, everything shattered.

Jackie stared at the face. The face of the Puppeteer, the face of a man who had been tormenting the city for months, controlling people against their will, the face... of someone he knew. “Jameson?” he breathed.

Bright blue eyes stared back at him. Jameson blinked. A bruise was forming over his right eye, and a thin stream of blood trickled from his nose down his mustache. He didn’t say anything. Because of course he didn’t. He couldn’t.

“What?!” Schneep shoved Marvin aside to get closer. He pushed his goggles back as if that would change what he was seeing. “No. No no no, this is—this is a trick, this is—He is not the Puppeteer!” He laughed.

“Uh... I’m not... familiar with him as much as you are,” Marvin said slowly. “But... that’s him.”

“Nein! I-I mean no! It is not, it—a trick, I said, a trick.” Schneep fell to his knees. He grabbed Jameson by the shoulders—the costume, he was wearing the costume—and pulled him up to a sitting position. The hood—the Puppeteer’s hood—fell back, revealing Jameson’s hair. It was definitely his. “This is—the Puppeteer is pretending.”

Chase stepped forward slowly. “I didn’t know the Puppeteer was a shapeshifter,” he whispered.

“He’s not...” Marvin said quietly. “That’s impossible. The powers are completely unrelat—”

“Okay, okay, fine fine fine!” Schneep interrupted. “Then he is—Jameson was being controlled! Yes, Jameson? Right?”

Jameson just stared at Schneep. His expression was sad. ...No. Regretful.

“It was a fake-out, yes?” Schneep insisted. He looked at Jameson’s bound hands. “The—the strings must be in these gloves! Yes, if we take them off and look at them—” He fumbled with the belt, untying it enough so he could feel the gloves. He held Jameson’s hands tightly in his own. “There is—is something here!”

“...Schneep,” Chase whispered.

“Don’t ‘Schneep’ me!” Schneep cried. Tears were gathering in his eyes. “This is a trick, I know it! Right, Jamie?! Right?! You are not the Puppeteer, right?! You are just—being controlled!”

“The strings on the other puppets wouldn’t have disappeared at the same time the neutrinalin took effect,” Marvin whispered.

“It is mind control!” Schneep looked up at him. “You said—the bracelets, there were—Jamie was wearing bracelets a lot recently—”

Marvin frowned. “But... he wasn’t wearing bracelets earlier today.”

Schneep stared at him. His eyes darted to Chase and Jackie, as if expecting either of them to contradict Marvin. But they didn’t. He looked back down at Jameson. “Jamie, this is... th-this is ridiculous, right? You... you are not this type of person, you... You are not the Puppeteer!”

Jameson closed his eyes. He took a deep breath, and pulled his hands away from Schneep’s. Then he opened his eyes again and mouthed two words: I’m sorry.

“What are you sorry for?!” Schneep pulled his mask away from his face; it was getting wet with tears. “This is not—This cannot be! Jamie, you—this is not—Jamie, please. Please, just—say something! Explain! Please! Jamie, please!”

Schneep continued to cry and beg, but Jackie stopped hearing the specifics. It felt like... like he was dreaming. This... was a dream, wasn’t it? A nightmare. Any moment, he would wake up.

Thnka-thnka-thnka-thnka-thnka...

That was the sound of a helicopter. Jackie looked up and saw a blue copter in the sky, slowly getting closer to the roof. The League of Heroes’ golden emblem blazed on its tail. Oh. Right. He activated the signal for reinforcements, didn’t he? He forgot.

Marvin was pulling Schneep away. He fought against him, trying to cling to Jameson, tears streaming down his face, but Marvin was stronger. He dragged him back towards the roof access. Schneep was too distraught to even think of phasing through him. Chase stayed where he was. Standing. Watching everything happen. Frosty stepped up to Jameson and sniffed his face, then pressed his head against his chest. Jameson looked away from the sight but didn’t push the dog away.

And Jackie just sat there. Once again, a passenger of his own body. Now controlled only by instinct.

He vaguely remembered the helicopter landing and Lorelai and Josh rushing over. He sort of recalled giving a distant, fragmented explanation of what happened on the roof. Lorelai and Josh said something like “we’ll take it from here, go rest” and that the League would be in contact tomorrow.

Getting home was a blank. The next thing he knew, he was in their apartment. Lying on the sofa. Staring up at the ceiling. Frosty was on top of him, a heavy, solid weight. Easy to latch onto. Chase was sitting in a chair nearby. Maybe he was saying something. He couldn’t remember. He couldn’t remember if they had dinner, or if he changed out of his supersuit before climbing into bed. He couldn’t remember what time it was when he finally fell asleep.

But he would never forget the sight of two Heroes pulling Jameson into that League helicopter. Of Jameson, still in that black, menacing costume, looking back over his shoulder at Jackie with sorrow in his eyes.

[il3x]

Tagged by @vikugnavikugna!

coke or pepsi? beverage BITE miette?? beverage STING her tongue like the insect??? jail!!! jail for beverage for One Thousand Years!!!

disney or dreamworks? dreamworks did HTTYD, right? them.

coffee or tea? tea

books or movies? books hehe

windows or mac? never used mac so windows it is

dc or marvel? ok, exposing myself here, worm was like my 2nd superhero media ever. i haven't read either 🙈 i have seen a few marvel movies but i'm not sure whether that should count for or against them

x-box or playstation? mine crafdt on my laptop

dragon age or mass effect? mass effect bc incuriouscat on youtube makes sick ass fan PMVs

night owl or early riser? night owl

cards or chess? chess, you can narrate stories about the pieces and thoroughly annoy your opponent (sibling) even as you lose >:3

chocolate or vanilla? chocolate all the way!!

vans or converse? wgat

Lavellan, Trevelyan, Cadash, or Adaar? I can't tell if these are fantasy names or antidepressants

fluff or angst? uhhhhdfcgvhbjnk gonna have to say fluff

beach or forest? beach

dogs or cats? cats 100%! (or secret third option: fish...)

clear skies or rain? clear. god. please... 🙏🙏

cooking or eating out? cooking :P

spicy food or mild food? Mild by any sane standards, but spicy according to my family and/or BBC Food haha

halloween/samhain or solstice/yule/christmas? chris mas :))

would you rather forever be a little too cold or a little too hot? uuuhhhh .. hh. hard one here. gonna have to also go cold

if you could have a superpower, what would it be? SUPERSPEED!! Or time powers. My irl friend has convinced me of their usefulness.

animation or live action? animation

paragon or renegade? renegade, it's the name of my serial killer dark forest!hollyleaf fanfic (only half kidding...)

baths or showers? shower

team cap or team ironman? hm. remember when I said I watched a few marvel movies? yeah none of them were this one :(

fantasy or sci-fi? fantasy baybey!!! but I adore both

do you have three or four favourite quotes, if so what are they? oh god okay. hm... "Where did we learn it, this talent for insatiability?" from The Handmaid's Tale still Lives In My Head from high school english. If song lyrics count, then, "You don't know me / don't you question my love" from Berlin, Without Return. "Sometimes a hypocrite is just a man in the process of changing" (I don't recall the exact wording) from... Oathbringer? is my fav cliche cosmere pick. Oh! And I forget the episode or even who said it, but at some point during the s3 All Might/AFO fight in MHA, one of the side characters stuck on guard duty said "You're confusing difficulty with importance", and that changed my life.

youtube or netflix? youtube :) it has fun little AMVs

[REDACTED] [Clearance Level 9]

when do you feel accomplished? when I bake something! making concrete stuff is really fulfilling, especially if I'm baking for other people.

star wars or star trek? spaceballs (jk, star wars, but I haven't seen star trek so sw wins by default)

paperback books or hardcover books? paperback

to live in a world without literature or without music? [sad character song assigner noises]... without music.

who was the last person to make you laugh? that would be @ty-bayonet-betteridge with several lines in their riley fic hehe

city or countryside? city! much as I complain about missing nature :') ideally a city that's near the sea

favorite chips? anything plain sea salt and properly crunchy 🤌

pants or dresses? pants, though dresses are fun for fancy occasions!

libraries or museums? is it a natural history museum? pleamse?? if so museum! otherwise library all the way.

character driven stories or plot driven stories? I don't really have a preference ngl

bookmarks or folding pages? i was one of those heretical kids who just plonked their books face down open 🙈😭 and now I mostly read online so... idk? Probably bookmarks.

Dream job? honestly would love to be on the management council for a small nature conservancy. second choice would be ecological research, but data-based, not fieldwork (animals scare me >.<)

What gives you comfort? thinking about The Characters...

what are some of your favorite song lyrics? literally ANY pun or double meaning lyric by idkhow!! gonna go with "lose yourself inside the city / lose your mind inside a week".

favorite ice cream flavor ever? chocolate my beloved...

first fandom? warrior cats......

deep ocean or deep space? (personally, i gotta pick ocean, because theres fish in there 👍😊)

Your desert island band?

@thesternest @seroquelfan @chaoticrushu, but no pressure to answer, and anyone is welcome to join! add your own question at the end if you answer :]

[signalwatch]

The Marvels (2023)

Watched:  11/09/2023

Format:  Alamo Drafthouse

Viewing:  First

Director:  Nia DaCosta

Marvel has been having some issues, of late, with quality and maintaining a fanbase.  I'm not sure why having a fanbase for sci-fi/ fantasy stuff means eventually that the absolute worst people on Earth feel like their opinions should dictate what the rest of the planet sees and what constitutes a "good" Marvel, Star Wars or whatever movie.  But I suppose it's the same reason that people think they get to tell other people they're the only *real* Americans.

I don't want to define the film Captain Marvel or TV show Ms. Marvel by the audience that manages to mix misogyny and racism into rocket fuel for social media, but I will say - in the event of this year's strike by SAG-AFTRA, it's been tough to get much in the way of promotion out there for The Marvels other than dropping trailers, and that's left a gap in the conversation those folks have filled.  It's more likely we'll see the occasional hit-piece by a major industry publication looking for clicks than Disney doing anything worthwhile to actually promote the film on their own.  We coulda really used the lead cast hitting Hot Ones and Good Morning America.

Look, I agree:  Marvel has put out too much content since Endgame, and that's had a deleterious effect on the overall quality of the material.  Even I have been asking "will this be necessary?" as I hear about each new Marvel thing still in the pipeline.  And sometimes you're watching, say, Loki Season 2, and you're thinking "I literally do not care what happens here" because something like "oh noes, the timelines will all collapse" is both meaningless, up it's own ass of the story being about itself, and insanely old hat to us aging comic nerds who've seen timelines and multiverses collapse and expand over and over for our *entire lives*.  And, yes, Superman will still get printed every month.

Movie superheroes still have to have an antagonist, and they still have to wind up in a big crescendo of a finale, but we've seen this dozens of times in the past fifteen years.  You can polish it, put a new coat of paint on it, but eventually it's someone in a slugfest with their evil opposite who has the advantage on paper (but not the heart of a hero).

So what you have left is what you can do with characters.

And that brings us to The Marvels (2023), Marvel Studios' latest offering.  

The movie has mediocre reviews and is tracking to open badly.  I haven't read the reviews, because (a) I already had tickets and was going, and (b) I kinda wanted to write this before I saw what Chris Spectacles of the Akron Observer thought of the film.*  And I didn't want this review to be me addressing the concerns of reviewers.  

I saw it in a 2/3rds full theater on opening night, and with not a child in sight.  I will say the following up top:  

First - there's no post-post-credits sequence to wait for.  Go home after the first couple of them.  This is not a trick.

Second - Before watching this, yes, you will have to have seen Captain Marvel.  You should see Ms. Marvel.  You will want to just skip Secret Invasion, which this movie pretends didn't happen, and that's fine, because that show was quite bad and more confused the MCU than helped it along.

SPOILERS

The Marvels (2023) is not going to change the world.  This is also not going to "save" Marvel Studios, if, indeed, Marvel Studios needs saving, or the *idea* of saving the studio that means anything at all.  

What I'll argue the movie does is provide a fun time at the movies with characters that are a good hang for the movie's speedy, non-stop runtime.  If Guardians of the Galaxy taught Marvel that what you need is a mix of action, comedy, space and family issues, this movie is absolutely a product of that line of thinking.  The Marvels isn't trying to copy Guardians (despite the fact the villain is a version of Ronan who is a mean lady instead of a mean man), but clearly those items were on a whiteboard somewhere while this movie was getting sorted out.  

The movie knows that the villain's plot is going to fail, and knows we, the audience, are just following the beats on that score.  And so it does the unthinkable of late for Marvel:  it uses the plot as an excuse to tell a three-sided story with three solid characters thrust together an inextricably linked, thereby creating a movie that's character driven.  The problems it addresses are personal in nature as much, or more!, than the need to stop Kree Hammer Lady.**

We catch up with the MCU as Kamala Kahn has settled a bit into her role as teen-hero, Ms. Marvel.  She's still very much a kid living with her family (Marvel understands when they've struck character gold).  Meanwhile Carol is in deep space, living with Goose and part of a network of folks helping keep peace across the galaxy, one supposes.  And, working aboard SABRE's orbital base, Monica Rambeau (I think last seen in WandaVision) is putting her powers to some use and being a scientist/ astronaut type.

But it seems since we checked in during the 1990's, the Kree had a civil war that somehow:  (a) messed up their sun? (b) evaporated their oceans and (c) ruined their atmosphere, creating a permanent state of planet-wide nightfall.  Not-Ronan has taken up the mantle and is trying to restore Hala, the Kree homeworld in a very Kree way - by murdering people.  She's obtained the second Quantum Band (Kamala having the first one we'd seen - there are two) and she's using it to open worm holes to...  

Look, the plot is the villainous plot from Spaceballs, and our villain is MegaMaid.  There's really no way around it.  It's not what *I* would have done as a writer, but Spaceballs was also 40 years ago, so... we may have to let this one go.  What's important is that MegaMaid is targeting planets in which Carol Danvers has an emotional investment and stealing their water, air and sun, and that's personal and mean.  But why?  Well, thereby hangs a tale.

But, like I say, it kind of doesn't matter.  She could be unleashing cooties on those planets.  She exists so our heroes get together and figure out their personal stuff.  And that's what the movie is about.

Monica has to figure out what it means that Carol didn't come back for Monica when Maria fell ill, both the why's and the impact.  Kamala has a parasocial relationship with Carol that Carol feels she has to live up to, even as it inspires Kamala and Carol doesn't feel at all like that hero.  But Kamala's hero-worship is kind of the unspoken opposite of how Monica has reacted to learning she has powers of her own.  And Kamala and Monica are complete strangers, navigating knowing each other while also seeing each other's relationship with Carol.  It's complicated stuff!  You could have made a similar indie movie about a movie star, her old friend and a fan, and gotten much of the same effect.  

But this one is in space, action-packed (I mean VERY action packed) and manages to balance the sincere moments with the incredibly silly moments with the pathos of inadvertently causing the self-immolation of Space Nazis.  And, in my opinion, it all worked.  

I liked the singing planet (but they did need to hold to the concept through the battle), I liked the kitten Flerkens and the absolute chaos of the evacuation scene.  I liked Kamala's family dealing with the nonsense of superhero/ SABRE life.  I liked the kooky three-way fights and the "we gotta synch up" montage.  The fight sequences are very well choreographed and work well despite what absolutely should have been a lot of confusion for the audience - ironically, only the audience is in a position to get what's happening. And I very much liked that our heroes *tried* to reason with the mad despot once it was clear they had the upper-hand and offer a way out of this.

In general, I was already in the bag for Brie Larson's take on Carol, and it's interesting to see a version 30 years older and with a lot of new, self-inflicted baggage.  Iman Vellani's Kamala Kahn is an absolute delight and can't wait to see her again.  And Teyonah Parris is very pretty great as my first Captain Marvel, and with decades of baggage to sort through with Carol, the blip, super-powers and how to be a superhero, which, frankly, she doesn't want to be.

Complaints:

So - did the singing planet die?  I have no idea what happened there.  It would be nice to know.  It seemed like everyone was going to die, and no one seems to care.

They basically borrowed the ending of All Star Superman, but didn't do it as well or with much emotional resonance, which is a real bummer.  Now DC can't use it, and this didn't land as well as it could have for Carol.  Felt like it needed a few more beats.

We gotta find more interesting ways to dress aliens.  Bright robes are very 1990's ST:TNG and it keeps happening at Marvel

Space is boring in this movie.  Marvel space was defined by James Gunn, and it is beautiful. Show that candy colored majesty, not ST:TNG white stars (the new Trek knows this).  There's definitely some more creative design they could have done, but maybe less is more if Quantumania was any indicator

Carol sure is good at astro-navigation and everything is apparently cosmically nextdoor in the MCU

I don't understand how the heroes became disentangled

Kamala uses her powers without her bangle, and I didn't know that was a thing

Spoilery Spoilers

It was fun seeing Valkyrie again, and good use of the character in her current role.  Also, sure felt like she and Carol knew each other pretty intimately...  Close to making that happen as Marvel will get, I guess

I don't know who Park Seo-joon is, but he was swoony.  I guess he's a big star?  Probably make the kids very happy

The first post credits scene was met with audible joy from the audience, so here's hoping that works.

The second post credits scene received an involuntary verbal response from me and a few others in the theater.  I like where they're going with this.  X-Men will not work in the MCU, but as close-universe neighbors, seems like a fine idea.  Also, thank goodness that isn't the last we'll see of Lashana Lynch

I was led to believe Richard Ryder/ Nova would appear, he does not.  

(late edit: this movie has the single greatest needle drop in Marvel history)

I don't think this one landed for me exactly as hard as the origins of either Ms. or Captain Marvel, but if the requirement was "I would like to spend time with these people, and see them together in a fun way" this managed that.  It feels unnecessary only in that it only barely strives to move a universe of stories forward and is, instead, self-contained and about these three people and their family/ friends.  It is very necessary as a "we should have solo stories that advance the characters but not carry the universe forward in obvious and awkward ways" sort of way.

Would I watch four more of these?  Yes.  

And thank god they got Nick Fury into a place where it's not a drag to have him around.

Look, I don't know what you people want out of Marvel, but I want something fun I can rewatch without feeling like I'm doing homework.  I like a good adventure and fight scenes and jokes and characters to enjoy.  I suppose I'll check out some reviews, and I think from my laundry list of nits to pick, it's clear I'm not giving this a 5/5, but when all you hear is "underperforming" and "mediocre reviews" in a world with ten movies about Vin Diesel driving cars fast and the general shit people get enthusiastic for, I won't even pretend to know what people consider a win.

*I swear to god, if I see one more person thinking they've got the edgy take on Marvel by saying "I don't consider Marvel movies to be *cinema*...   Dude, we get it.  You're very special and very smart and you can get your "I'm a very smart person on the internet" cookie on your way out the @#$%ing door

**no one is beholden to remember made-up alien names for longer than the name pass by in the credits

[geekgemsspooksandtoons]

My...own take on Spider-Man rambling

Edit update I showed this crap to @kaijuguy19 first.

This is all copied from a draft from June 23rd, 2023. Which I will delete after posting this. This is what I have been talking about or hinting at. But I think I won’t really go through with it because even though I am being affected by outside opinions. But I feel like again, with a lot of different takes on this character. This is all just fanfiction, but I question if I should even go with this.

Especially with my weird mixed opinions on Sony’s Spider-Man Universe, my love and liking for certain adaptations such as the 70′s live action Spider-Man show. Along with Insomniac’s take on Spider-Man which is...LITERALLY WHAT I’M KIND OF DESCRIBING HERE. That my ideas aren’t really creatively new. Especially after playing the game recently which I have said in earlier posts.

Along with the idea of that I may have made Peter Parker more akin to Miguel O’Hara (The original comics version that is) but I had thought of him being literally the “Opposite” of Miguel in Across the Spider-Verse. And other changes I had wondered of having him get bitten by the spider at the age of 15 like in the 616 universe.

But the point being, this dude is a depressed man due to some hardships. But he’s one of the most human and caring people who is scared of losing people close to him. With this Peter’s character arc is learning to forgive himself for his uncle’s death, letting his guilt go & learning it’s okay to let them others in his life, that he doesn’t need to be alone. Even if there is danger being close to Spider-Man, he shouldn’t have to be alone in that responsibility.

And the fact I have imagined this Peter being on Miles’s side in Across the Spider-Verse. If the film was PG-13, he would say, “Fuck your canon.” taking the one F-bomb for the film and take on the entire Spider-Society and Miguel himself if he had to. I guess this idea is if RIPeter was a “Perfect” Spider-Man, but he was such a mess behind the mask when he was Peter Parker.

Anyway, I think I’ve said enough. I’ll let you all read the rest below the keep reading option. I really like Spider-Man. Whether it be comics, films, games, shows and whatever else. I strangely want to see Spider-Man in Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur. Whether it be Peter or Miles, or both, I would love to see both of them. Because I want to write something warm with Peter being this warm, protective “Older brother” to Lunella. Because this Peter is wary about LITERAL KIDS being superheroes because he became one at the age of 15...and it was rough for him.

You know, Spider-Man has had a lot of adaptations in different sorts of media. And considering recent stuff like my rant about the Sony spin off films for Spider-Man villains, me loving Insomniac’s take on Spider-Man in general. I feel like me doing a Spider-Man thing isn’t really worth. Despite I’m no director or so, this is basically just an AU. But I want to write this down in case I want to share it with anyone.

My take was the idea of making a Man of Steel/The Batman like approach and wanting to make a version of Spider-Man that really honored the source material but being its own thing. Including taking elements from previous versions. A take on character I’ve loved since I was a kid. And when I look at my idea, it feels like to me this seems to be the Spider-Verse films but without the multiverse aspect. Even something akin to Marvel’s Spider-Man PlayStation game series by Insomniac. But also, make “The Dark Knight” of the Spider-Man franchise which sounds silly.

-

The main focus or the two major characters are Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson. Yet during this “Trilogy” there’s also the inclusion of Miles Morales as he is important later on. But the other two are what I wanted to focus on and talk about.

Peter has been Spider-Man for about 3 to 4 years. He’s not a veteran yet but not fully a rookie. MJ has not seen Peter since the end of high school. During an event where she is saved by Spider-Man. She likely accidentally discovers that her old high school friend, Peter is Spider-Man. It’s been four years since they met, they graduated at 18 and now 22 years old.

But what surprises her the difference in Peter’s personality when he’s not in costume. While as Spider-Man, Peter is more jokey, chattier and more whatever else. What you would expect of Spider-Man. But as Peter, yes, he’s reserved. Yet also, he’s...very pessimistic and just a tired young man. He’s strangely cynical and does suffer from anger issues. But he’s able to control it when he can. As Spider-Man, he’s kind of putting up an act in a way, but he can be himself as well.

In a strange way, Peter is basically a combination of Peter B. Parker and RIPeter from Into The Spider-Verse. There’s even a comment from MJ where she says, “You know, for a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man. You sure are very pessimistic.” or something akin to that but yeah.

Since he had become Spider-Man, Peter’s life has been a mess. But not in the way you expected. There was a time where he tried to balance his life yet as everything went on, things couldn’t be balanced. His life has been a mess to where he’s evicted from his apartment, MJ offers him a place to stay, and he’s still working at the Daily Bugle. One idea included him dropping out of college, but that seems like too much.

Peter has literally sacrificed his personal life and relationships to focus on being Spider-Man and it showcases the problem when that happens. Including the fact during those four years, in this version. Gwen had broken up with Peter due to whatever he was doing. Especially because Gwen, her father and the rest of their family had moved out of the state. Peter hardly has any friends and keeps to himself most of the time. And there’s also another reason.

The death of Uncle Ben is still present. But there are other certain aspects to this origin. Peter is still reeling from the incident because while he was responsible for not stopping the killer. But Peter was there to witness Ben being shot in the face three times. Including before then possibly, learning his birth parents had purposely abandoned him so May and Ben can raise him. Peter learned this during an argument he had with his uncle. Which was revealed by Ben in anger. And was likely one of the last times Peter had spoken with Ben. Which Peter still strongly regrets that.

Despite the persona he puts on as Spider-Man. He’s still doing Spider-Man out of guilt, not out of anything else. Even though he understands what he’s been doing is a very good thing. But he looks at it in a strange negative light. And he kind of looks at Ben in a “sage” like way. But during this story and him reconnecting with MJ. There are things that Peter discovers about Ben that truly make him question being Spider-Man.

Including the “If you have great power, you have a great responsibility to use it” that Peter had to figure out himself after Ben’s death. This was meant to be in a strange way a reference or so the fact unlike many other versions. The iconic line was only said at the end of “Amazing Fantasy #15″ and my idea was to again, Peter realizing it himself without being told it.

During the story, Peter tries to push away MJ from helping him as Spider-Man in anyway. He’d rather keep the burden on himself and not allowing her in harm's way. It’s likely the guilt over Ben still troubles him and he tries to hide it. But a revelation is revealed to Peter, by a villain or in some other way.

It is revealed that Ben before marrying May or behind her back. Ben had been a criminal. Although not a hardened one, but a man who kept that part of him a secret from his family. A former bank robber who hadn’t kill anyone but had done some illegal things. And that the man who murdered him was one of his old friends who was originally going to rob them first. But upon recognizing Ben, the robber murdered Ben in anger. Or the idea the robber planned to kill Ben as he figured out where he lived.

This revelation destroys Peter’s concept of Spider-Man and should he even continue it. Even the horrible thought process of maybe Uncle Ben deserved to die. The truth eats away at him as he realized Ben wasn’t the “Perfect” father figure that he felt like he failed. But Peter learns later on that before Ben had been killed, there was a note he wanted to share with him.

Ben had written a note that details who he was before he met May and started raising him. When Peter was graduating but was slowly turning getting used to his new powers, Ben had started to worry for Peter. Including seeing how Peter was acting, Ben feared that Peter would’ve became like who he was before he wanted to change. The note contained an apology to Peter and wanting to explain who he really was and how he only wants Peter to make the best decisions he could. And that he shouldn’t push out a support system like May and whoever else because those are people that are willing to help change who you are. But it’s also his choice of who he wants to be.

One of the big themes for this story is “Duality”. Such as with MJ wanting to help Peter but he keeps pushing her out. She tells him (And this was important) that when they were younger, she used to put on a “Party girl” persona to hide what she had been going through. And in some cases, she still does. Mainly this was happening when her father had been abusive to her and their family. And when she and her family tried to report him to the police, MJ’s father left a “Fuck you” note and killed himself to not face the consequences when his family was able to prove what he was doing.

This idea and MJ telling Peter she knows what it’s like to hide under a mask. And again, the theme of “Duality” as Peter realizes how flawed his uncle was. But the note reveals that he truly was a good “Father” and simply was only worried for Peter. And with Peter realizing he doesn’t need to make himself suffer as Spider-Man and needs to allow people in to help him. But also, that his job as Spider-Man doesn’t need to be done out of guilt. He can be Spider-Man because of his choice and to honor what Ben would’ve wanted him to do.

And thus, Peter becoming less cynical and more well, hopeful.

-

Then we got the villains, and this was tricky. Originally or well, the major one seemed to be Mysterio and likely still could be. Who is basically a sociopathic and egotistical man using his talents to make himself look better than Spider-Man and things get worse. In a sick way, possibly an extremely dark mirror if Peter went down the line of still being selfish and having a superiority complex. Slowly becoming even more of a worse person when Quentin Beck at one point straight starts killing people to make Spider-Man look worse.

Another villain to be included Shocker (Who I love like, I love this dude) to be a secondary one. Maybe he still may be included. But Shocker was one of the earliest villains Spider-Man faced in his career in this story. Along with possibly Vulture, the Chameleon, and the Rhino. But one character I was really thinking of using that works so strongly was the Prowler, the Aaron Davis version.

Mainly the idea of Aaron/Prowler is a foil to Spider-Man not just in terms of design, but in other aspects. Despite one angle that like the Spider-Verse films, Aaron actually has a close bond with Miles and is a genuinely cool uncle. Despite his relationship with his brother Jefferson isn’t in the best condition.

There’s this story idea of Peter bonding with Miles and maybe accidentally discovering Peter is Spider-Man as well. But also learning along with Miles that Aaron is the Prowler. Which would shock the both of them and Peter realizes Miles is in the same position he’s in with his own uncle. That Ben was a criminal before he changed. And seeing Miles going through the same thing as he is well, hurts him.

Really, I’d gotta develop this more. But the idea is it looks like Aaron/Prowler is going to die. Yet instead of him dying, Peter literally risks his life to save a man that has been trying to kill him this entire story. All because Peter is not wanting Miles to go through the same thing he did with losing Ben. Which makes Aaron rethink his viewpoint on Spider-Man.

-

There’s a lot to talk about with this. But I want to finish this. But yeah, the idea of Miles also becoming Spider-Man alongside Peter. But with Peter despite being reluctant a bit, he’s grateful that he’s no longer alone.

But there have been thoughts about other characters like Harry Osborn, Black Cat, Flash Thompson, Gwen Stacy, Silver Sable and whoever the Hell else. Such as Eddie Brock/Venom if I want to bring the Symbiotes into this world.

Yet one aspect that I have thought about a lot...do I want to bring the Green Goblin into this story? Should it be Norman or Harry? What’s the point in even doing Green Goblin again when you’ve had many different versions of him that do him justice. When my idea was to make him the most dangerous version he possibly could be. Basically, make him on the level of Heath Ledger’s Joker.

There were even ideas of combing Green Goblin and Hobgoblin into one character and simply call them “The Goblin” but after some thinking. And I think for my sake and other people may like this too. But I feel like the Hobgoblin is everything or so I want in a Spider-Man villain that would push Peter and others into their darkest moments. Because seriously, Hobgoblin is a fucking bastard and I like that. And also, the fact I love his design more than the Green Goblin’s too.

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I’ll just admit I imagine Kyle McCarley as Peter Parker and Kirby Howell-Baptiste as Mary Jane Watson. Both actors being from Infinity Train. Murray Bartlett from The Last of Us 2023 as Uncle Ben and these are mainly voice roles. I keep imaging Miles and his family as like from the Spider-Verse films. And Hobgoblin, this dude would have Roger L. Jackson from the Scream franchise as his voice.

And on a funny note. I have wondered about setting this in the world of the Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur cartoon. But I feel like to me and the possible hints with how the world in that cartoon is...that wouldn’t work. XD And I would continue on my shit like, “For the love of God, make sure Lunella and others NEVER face any of Spider-Man’s rogues gallery. But maybe Shocker, maybe Rhino. But mostly Shocker because that might be funny.”

[beardedmrbean]

Zoomer Huey rants about fairytales and Disney, okay they been a mess with public domain post Walt… but dear lord the copyright shitshow on the other 18th century-

Shit anyways, let use the earliest Disney movies to say Hercules (I can use mulan but we have very easy access to the og tale vs the classic Disney films)

Let me use the mother of all modern American animation, Snow White and the seven dwarfs

The thing is that Walt Disney grew up watching a version of Snow White in theaters as a child

And he decided that he wanted to do a new SPIN of the Classic fairytale in the then NEW and GROWING style of storytelling that was animation

And that the thing about a lot of Walt Disney era films like Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Sword in the Stone, and Jungle Book.

They were SPINS on classics books and stories that were used in live action movies and plays at the time

And while behind the scenes knowledge became more well known after inking and desire to research it became more popular. Surviving documents and quotes always had Walt and his crew doing a different take on the source material. It just the Disney takes on fairytales stood the test of time due to animation styles and the company  preserverstion measures

Also the grimm thing….does anyone look up that the Grimm “fairytales” was a AMALGAMATIONS of different European folklores. So they serve as the basic of where you can get into European folklore…but it always had a citation needed as each region, culture, and era will have a different spin on it

Hell the Arthurian Legends are big examples as they rapidly change over the centuries. Hence why in Sword in the Stone, Merlin mention movies because he was hinting at Art that his life and stories will be retold and remembered for centuries to come.

But Hercules ugh

“Did you know Hera was actually a bitch-“ did you know that the Greek myths been a backbone of western culture stories for years and around the same time of the Disney movie, there were 2 popular Greek myth shows called Xena Warrior Princess and the legends of Hercules?

Not to mention that the animators presumed you would have learn the og Greek myths in high school English class like they did

And there was a ODEIPUS joke where Hercules thought his daddy issues was bad until he saw the play of the tragic Thebes king

Actually that the thing that I I notice with a lot of pop culture media and Wish is prime example…

Do people only know the CONTEMPORARY versions of Stories and don’t look into classic media or inspirations

Actually a lot of modern dc and marvel comics lore got me thinking here this as a example

Current comics writers and fans know that superhero teams like the Avengers and Justice League are contemporary American twists on classic team groups like Argonauts or Knights of the Round Table right?

Sorry, a lot of media is like…someone making a hamburger and think fast food is the basic for that. Make sense?

And that the thing about a lot of Walt Disney era films like Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Sword in the Stone, and Jungle Book. They were SPINS on classics books and stories that were used in live action movies and plays at the time

Walt was a storyteller first and foremost, ya so he adapted a lot of things staying mostly true to the story but not entirely, which make them your own if you can at least with the Grimm stuff since you don't have any copyright issues to fuss with there.

Peter Pan is a odd case, there's still a partial copyright in place even though it's way past where it should exist, but the money funds a children's charity so people let that be, and I think it only is a thing in the UK.

But Hercules ugh “Did you know Hera was actually a bitch-“ did you know that the Greek myths been a backbone of western culture stories for years and around the same time of the Disney movie, there were 2 popular Greek myth shows called Xena Warrior Princess and the legends of Hercules? Not to mention that the animators presumed you would have learn the og Greek myths in high school English class like they did

I knew about Hera, Hercules and Xena too. Hercules really had the biggest issues with Hera not Hades too, but that doesn't work for the story. Also Walt was long dead so not on him at least.

One other bit that bugs me to no end, Hercules is Roman, Heracles is Greek and almost nobody in media ever gets it right.

And there was a ODEIPUS joke where Hercules thought his daddy issues was bad until he saw the play of the tragic Thebes king

Ya they do that, throw those in for the parents. Much better than the naked people in Great Mouse Detective lol.

Actually a lot of modern dc and marvel comics lore got me thinking here this as a example Current comics writers and fans know that superhero teams like the Avengers and Justice League are contemporary American twists on classic team groups like Argonauts or Knights of the Round Table right?

I never put that much thought into it, but honestly most media produced is a twist on a existing tale.

Black Panther, to The Lion King, to Kimba the White Lion, ect till we get to Hamlet, and it actually keeps going from there but I forget the stuff in between Kimba and Hamlet and after Hamlet.

Clueless is just Jane Austin's Emma, 10 Things I Hate About You is Taming of the Shrew, to be fair the writers and such were very open about the fact that they were doing a modern retelling on those ones, several others too big thing in the mid to late 90's.

Sorry, a lot of media is like…someone making a hamburger and think fast food is the basic for that. Make sense?

Think so, would be nice to see more effort put forth. At least for some types of films, stuff that guys like Adam Sandler fart out in order to take him and his friends on a 6 week working vacation and get some people that haven't worked in a while working so they can keep their SAG insurance and what not can stay as they are.