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vole-mon-amour · 4 years ago

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OTP tag game.

Tagged by @captainjowl. You know for sure than I'm struggling to pick only 10 & fit them in here. But hell, that’s fun, thank you <3

Rules: Choose 10 OTPs BEFORE reading the questions, and then get to answering

1) Harry James Potter & Sirius Orion Black

2) Daniel Le Domas & Grace (Ready or Not 2019)

3) Samuel & Nathan Drake (Uncharted 4)

4) Corvo Attano & The Outsider (+probably Emily Kaldwin; Dishonored series)

5) Steve Grant Rogers & Bucky Buchanan Barnes (Marvel)

6) Tony Edward Stark & Peter Benjamin Parker (Marvel)

7) Handsome Jack & Rhys (Borderlands video game series)

8) Damon Salvatore & Elena Gilbert (TVD Books & a tv show)

9) Batman & Joker (in every universe, really)

10) Adam Jensen x Francis Pritchard (Deus Ex video game series)

1. Do you remember the episode/scene/chapter that you first started shipping 6?

I believe it didn't hit me before Spider-Man: Homecoming. Civil War was about Steve & Bucky for me, but when I saw that growing up Peter with Tony, their dynamic, chemistry. Tom & Robert are really just like that.

2. Have you ever read a fanfic about 2?

Lmao. I've read like 50% of the tag on AO3, I wrote my own & started a few wips on them. They are amazing. Plus, with that shitty canon? We didn't get enough of them & they deserved better, so it's only logical to save yourself with fanfiction.

3. Has a picture of 4 ever been your screen saver/profile picture/tumblr screen saver?

I was living with The Outsider icon on my twitter & tumblr. That one is still my Google profile picture I believe. Don't remember about having an icon with the two of them. Also had The Outsider as my lockscreen on my smartphone for a while.

4. If 7 were to suddenly break up today, what would your reaction be?

Funny how it fits canon, lmao. Rhys literally tried to erase Jack's AI in TFTBL, so I guess another day on Pandora, nothing new. They torture each other, they kiss each other, they kill other people in the process. It'll be fiiine.

5. Why is 1 so important?

I love them since the first time I met them, which was much more than 10 years ago, I don't even remember when. At some point they were the reason I was waking up & forcing myself to eat just to read more fanfiction & feel something. Even if I was drowning in pain (I was extremely depressed), it was still something. I read every fic I could find at that time. The depression that Harry went through, all these feelings, his love for Sirius. I was living through it, I could relate.

I'm currently drowning in these two again, though in a much healthier & happier state. I see their flaws & I know as much as I can. I see them differently as an adult. They saved me, they keep being my number one, I still consider making a tattoo of Padfoot/Sirius or of both Harry & Sirius together. I have many headcanons, ideas, I write fics about them. They are everything, you see? They were my choice when there was nothing, no one. They are HOME.

6. Is 9 a funny ship or a serious ship?

Both. There goes the dynamic of Jack & Rhys: torture, fighting, flirting, a lot of trauma. I'd definitely say that they are wild and comical sometimes, but they are definitely serious. With the Asylum, the mental health issues. There is so much more to it, the complexity of their relationship. The struggle of loving who you probably shouldn't (but hey, when does it work like that?) Thinking about Tettlate's Batman, about Batman: Europa & how Joker was: "You must be crazy, putting me in charge of the plan, letting me decide. Okay, well..."

Nah, they are entertaining, but this is a serious ship.

7. Out of all the ships listed, which ship has the most chemistry?

Are you kidding me? They are all the definition of CHEMISTRY. I'd say 5, but then go 2, 6, 7, 8. Come on. I'm not choosing. Most of they are WILD.

9. How many times have you read/watched the 10’s fandom?

The fandom itself? Idk. I found one of my favourite artists through this fandom. If it's about the characters themselves, I played the first game with the DLC from start to beginning, looking around every corner. Spent more than 60 hours in there. Watched a second game (my laptop can't run the game) and the DLC (obviously), since Francis is in the DLC & not in the main game. I have a tag for them on tumblr, I read fanfiction, I tried to write my own. I still follow Elias & want a third game. Elias liked my tweets about Adam and Jensen being an actual couple a few times. I'd say I interacted with all of this a lot? Still do, actually.

10. Which ship has lasted the longest?

5. Best friends since childhood, fought & died for each other, still found their way back to each other. "It would break your Captain's heart, to see what they did to you." That only the MENTION of Steve can pull Bucky out of this brain washing(ed?) state, distract him in the middle of a fight. When Steve died in the comics because of Sharon & Tony sent Natasha to take Steve's shield from Bucky because even Tony knew how much Steve means to Bucky. And Bucky was like: "Oh, I see what he did. Not happening!" Fought Natasha (that is his ex in the comics) & kept going for Steve's sake.

Well, you see the point, I can go on and on.

11. How many times, if ever, has 6 broken up?

They're not actually canon so none? They had a few fights: In Civil war (the comics), in Homecoming (the movie). That only means that they’ve got history & love each other.

12. If the world was suddenly thrust into a zombie apocalypse, which ship would make it out alive, 2 or 8?

As fierce Grace is, they wouldn't stand a chance against Damon & Elena. Those two had to deal with worst thing than brainless stupid zombies. On the other hand, if there were no alive humans to drink their blood... It's either an animal diet that Damon hates so much or I don't know? Still, they're faster & more powerful. Their bodies have advantage of healing the wounds as well.

13. Did 7 ever have to hide their relationship for any reason?

From some people, yeah. Don't tell Athena, don't tell Vaughn, don't tell Fiona. Though Rhys wasn't very subtle about it & Jack just doesn't give a fuck. You will probably end up dead if you disagree or bore him, or if you're useless.

"I can take you to the top, but you gotta know where the top is" & Rhys doesn't tell anybody until Jack makes him the President for like whole 20 minutes lol.

Fiona & Sasha: "This can't be happening." Sure it can, darling.

14. Is 4 still together?

I have a headcanon about The Outsider finding Emily & Corvo after Billie frees him from the Void. He doesn't have anybody & they are his only friends aside from a potential friendship with Billie. And if we don't consider TOTO dlc, they definitely are! The Outsider visits them both when they sleep & takes them to the void sometimes. How could he not?

15. Is 10 canon?

Not really but also sort of? Let's say that they really care about each other in canon, despite Adam pushing Francis away because of his trauma & fear that Megan caused him. :/

16. If all 10 ships were put into a couple’s Hunger Games, which couple would win?

Can you imagine wizards fighting extremely powerful vampires? Superheroes with venom in their bodies that make them super strong with people that made a deal with the Devil himself (hi Le Bail)? 5000 y.o. God and his lover that share his powers and an augmented human protecting his tired IT guy? Combine mental health issues to that, Jack and Rhys with Batman and Joker. Corvo & The Outsider would probably slay them all as Corvo and Emily did in both games with entire islands, though it will still be a slaughter anyway.

17. Has anybody ever tried to sabotage 5’s ship?

All the fucking time, lmaooo. I’m not even talking about it.

18. Which ship would you defend to the death and beyond?

I feel like I already did with Steve & Bucky after many Marvel movies (we're not even mentioning Endg*me, I fucking died & was dead for full 4-5 months).

19. Do you spend hours a day going through 3’s tumblr page?

I used to do that a few years back, but not anymore. There is not much content since the trilogy is finished.

20. If an evil witch descended from the sky and told you that you had to pick one of the ten ships to break up forever or else she’d break them all forever, which ship would you sink?

1 already went through it & fandom lives, so I'd say maybe 7? Rhys will find a way to bring Jack back & they are both so wild. It’s what happened in canon anyway. Jack kidnapped Lilith & forced her to do Angel's job, so I'd like to see that witch try at first. Jack is an immortal bastard. <3

Now that I think about it, Corvo would also deal with her in seconds as she waits to curse them.

As a conclusion: no one breaks up forever, we're killing the witch.

I tag: @ianmillkovichgallagher & @aledbr

Whoever else wants to join the game, please do.

#otp #me #tumblr #harry x sirius #delena #corvosider #rhack #tony x peter #batjokes #jensard #steve x bucky #ready or not #drakecest

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tygerbug · 6 years ago

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Avengers Endgame Review

After 11 years and 22 movies (59 hours), plus several TV series, the most successful adventure film franchise in history takes a well deserved extended bow, in a grand finale which makes sure to please fans of every single film they've made up to this point. It's also difficult to talk about the film even in vague terms without spoiling it somewhat, so be warned.

This isn't the end for Marvel at the movies, but it is the endgame for the original Avengers lineup. The most famous shot from Marvel's The Avengers (2012) spun around the team in a circle, showing six Marvel heroes together. It was a treat for comics fans, and it's referenced again here, but after 22 films the team is much larger now, and the scope of this film is exponentially larger. It's remarkable that the film works as well as it does, coming across as a celebratory victory lap through the series' greatest hits. It's a whole lot of movie, that delivers what fans of these movies want. At times every scene seems to bring a new surprise appearance, or pay off something established in previous films. With so many characters to include, directors the Russo Brothers could have easily dropped the ball, but everyone gets a moment to shine. It's bigger than any superhero film ever made, by quite a ways.

Perhaps Thanos, our villain, agreed that this series has too many characters, as he famously wiped out half the population of the universe at the end of Avengers Infinity War. The original six survived Thanos' snap, but at a terrible cost, and when we see our heroes again they aren't at their best, and we spend a good chunk of this film's runtime mourning.

Since the Marvel Cinematic Universe began with Iron Man in 2009, the strength of these films has been that they're really character studies, balancing slow-paced dialogue scenes with big-budget CGI action. Tony Stark has always been defined by his post traumatic stress disorder, and his arrogance, and how he fights through both to do the right thing. Thor has been defined by trying, and sometimes failing, to live up to what's expected of him as the son of a God and a King. Natasha Romanoff regrets her past as a killer and spends her time as an Avenger trying to make up for it. And the Guardians of the Galaxy films are often about overcoming trauma from abusive parents to find a family made up of friends. Only Rocket and Nebula survived the snap, and this film wisely gives Karen Gillan a major role, trying to avenge and undo the actions of her abusive father Thanos.

What the film drives home is that some things can't be undone. Despite the fantastic events of these films, there are real consequences here, and not everyone will be making it out alive. This gets tricky after so many comic book based films, where it starts to seem like anything could happen. But the film attempts to set the rules of its game early on, and it sticks to them. It is consistent, and that matters. It's an all out war and its events matter, about as much as they possibly could, under the circumstances.

The events of the previous films matter too, and Endgame constantly rewards the viewer for having watched the previous Marvel movies, and even the TV series (though don't get too excited). You'll see characters you didn't expect to see again. And there's plenty of humor and clever little moments that pay off what we've seen over the course of these films. There's never been a film franchise like this, and with Endgame they've stuck the landing to remind us of that. For kids of the early 80s, Star Wars was the big adventure franchise, and maybe Indiana Jones. Both seires made three films and then called it a day, at least at the time. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has produced 22 films and various TV series over 11 years, with more coming. It's simply unprecedented in film history.

The success of Iron Man and Captain America has led to more and more hits. Black Panther, Captain Marvel, Spider-Man. Marvel's team has put an incredible amount of time, money and effort into making their heroes work on the big screen. They've made us like and love these characters, and Endgame is a stroll down memory lane that reminds you why. It's overstuffed with characters, but takes time to breathe and portray them properly. It's a huge film with small, personal stakes. It's what the Russo Brothers and Marvel do best, and for now it's a satisfying conclusion to the Avengers films. Not that Marvel has any intention of stopping, with a new Spider-Man film on the way and more after that. But Endgame is the big one, and for now they don't plan on trying to top it. I wonder how they even could.

#avengers #mcu #avengers endgame #marvel #marvel cinematic universe #iron man #captain america #thanos #captain marvel

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marshmallowgoop · 6 years ago

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Okay, so I keep seeing all this stuff about how the 2018 film Venom is just a live-action Kill la Kill, but most of the time, this content winds up being another usage of the “In this essay I will” meme.

And, like, yes, I admit, I haven’t even seen Venom and really ain’t too familiar with Venom lore, but I WILL FINISH THE ESSAY ANYWAY.

First, lemme get the basics outta the way. Venom, just like Kill la Kill, involves a protagonist (Eddie, Ryuko) bonding with a space alien outfit (Venom, Senketsu). While the alien is viewed as a dangerous parasite, the protagonist becomes much stronger from the partnership, and together, the two are able to battle the various threats around them.

But while, say, the Spider-Man 3 adaptation of the Venom story didn’t really go much further than that sorta basic outline, it seems that the 2018 film takes the concept of a human/alien connection to a whole ‘nother level. Just as in numerous comics, movie!Venom is not depicted as little more than a monstrous power-up with zero personality besides “evilz”; they, like Senketsu in Kill la Kill, are a sentient, sapient, and emotional character in their own right. And, as @agendervenom argues in this fantastic post (which is also where I am getting all of these Venom comics images from, thank you!), Eddie and Venom “consider their entire story in the comics to be a love story.”

Which is also super the vibe I’m getting from this latest flick.

I mean, like. Most everything I see about the film is that it’s a love story between Eddie and Venom and a goofy rom-com and Venom is the Best Monster Boyfriend and... yeah. If the Venom comics are a love story more than anything else, it seems like there’s a hecka lotta consensus that the recent movie is the same way.

It’s not as easy to make a similar case for Kill la Kill. Everyone kinda has a different idea of what the show is all about, and these ideas can be anything from a warning about wearable technology to some giant metaphor about puberty.

But. Look. Kill la Kill has been described by its head scriptwriter, Kazuki Nakashima, to be his attempt to “make a form of intimacy that transcends love and species.”

And IN THIS ESSAY I WILL ACTUALLY contend that Ryuko and Senketsu’s relationship—just like Eddie and Venom’s in Venom—forms the heart of the whole narrative.

So, yes, this post is going exactly where you think it’s going. Controversial titty anime Kill la Kill is literally a love story between a teenage girl and her alien shirt, and if you don’t believe me, consider the following:

✄ The cover art for the final volume of the series (pictured at the top of this post)—or, you know, the number-one thing that the show wants you to take away from it—is an illustration of Ryuko and Senketsu wrapped in a tender embrace, presumably just about to Synchronize and become one. To further bring my point home, this image is constantly featured on the homepage for the official Kill la Kill website.

✄ (Plus, an earlier draft that character designer Sushio drew (pictured just above) is maybe even more intimate and adorable.)

✄ In Nakashima’s comments for the final episode in The Complete Script Book, he notes that he felt the story had to end with Ryuko saying goodbye to Senketsu because it began with the two saying hello.

✄ Which, I mean, is a pretty blatant acknowledgment that Kill la Kill is ultimately all about Ryuko and Senketsu’s bond.

✄ And while voice actors are generally largely uninvolved in the writing of a TV series and can’t exactly state any “canon” information, Ami Koshimizu, Ryuko’s VA, has argued for the significance of Ryuko and Senketsu’s partnership herself, saying, “Senketsu and Ryuko are like family, like friends, like lovers, are in a very comfortable/close-fitting relationship. Had they both been human, it would not have been possible for them to have this relationship. I think that is what this wonderful work depicted.” (Emphasis added.)

In short? Maybe Ryuko and Senketsu don’t get a cute fairytale ending with a little heart like Eddie and Venom do in one of the comics, but it’s kinda undeniable that their love for each other is just as crucial to Kill la Kill as Eddie and Venom’s love for each other is to Venom comics and the new film. In both cases, that human/alien connection is legitimately the bread and butter of the story.

And the similarities don’t end there. Oh, no. The human/alien connections here also resemble each other greatly.

Eddie/Venom: We are two-in-one, Hawk.

Ryuko: No. Senketsu and I are two in one.

Again, I haven’t seen the movie, so I’m gonna rely on comics caps from here on out, but given that Venom appears to follow the main comics story of the alien symbiote much more closely than, say, that aforementioned Spider-Man 3, I figure that the film can’t be too far off.

And in the comics? Eddie and Venom say the exact same thing about their relationship as Ryuko says about hers with Senketsu: they’re two in one.

And I am just scratching the surface.

Venom: Where we bonded, Eddie. Just like marriage.

Senketsu: This is literally Life Fiber Synchronization!

Venom and Eddie’s relationship gets compared to marriage in the comics, and while it’s hard to capture in just a single image from Kill la Kill, there is some pretty in-your-face wedding and marriage symbolism regarding Ryuko and Senketsu’s relationship, too. Their act of coming together is termed Jin-I-Ittai, and though this was officially translated as “Life Fiber Synchronization,” it can be more literally translated as “Human-Clothing Unity.” Given the connotations that “union” has with marriage, and that a similar alien to Senketsu is quite literally described as a “wedding dress,” which Ryuko also quite literally tears off of her body and consequently drenches herself in her own blood so that she can reunite with Senketsu... yeah.

Just like Eddie and Venom, what Ryuko and Senketsu have is akin to marriage, but it’s also way, way more than that.

Eddie/Venom: —married in a way no human can ever under—whoa!

Ryuko: I’d rather be dead! I have to take this [wedding dress] off even if I die! Because if I don’t... I won’t be able to wear Senketsu again!

And I can keep going.

Eddie: I used to hate going to the movies alone. That was before the other and I found each other. Now, I’m never alone. Life doesn’t give you many happy endings like that.

Ryuko: We’re not the same. I’m not alone. Senketsu and I fight together!

Both Eddie and Ryuko emphasize how they’re never alone and always have their alien by their side; even the short trailer for the upcoming Kill la Kill video game stresses this point, which is perhaps especially noteworthy because the game’s story is actually focused on another character altogether.

And while Ryuko and Senketsu may not go on lovey-dovey dates together in-series, there is an official card where they hold hands just like Venom and Eddie do at the movies in the comics, happily frolicking around together in what’s legitimately, seriously titled “Senketsu’s Date with Ryuko.”

(Plus, there was even a whole figure made outta this date image. So. You know.)

And I can go on some more.

Eddie: Yeah... Ohhhh, yeah. That’s it, baby. Wrap those tentacles around me.

Senketsu: We’ve never been so in sync before! Right now, you and I are one! This is literally Life Fiber Synchronization!

Ryuko: You can say that again! Doesn’t this feel awesome?!

Both Eddie/Venom and Ryuko/Senketsu have fusion sequences that ain’t at all shy about playing up the innuendo that comes along with, well, two characters “becoming one.” In one scene, Eddie loves the feel of Venom’s tentacles around him. In another, Ryuko cherishes her connection with Senketsu and starts glowing after expressing how good the sensation of being Synced with him is.

But, you know, it’s sweet! These aren’t just dirty jokes. They are expressions of these characters loving each other and loving being together.

And, like. I could really go on and on here, folks.

I could talk about how Venom declares that no one will break the bond they have with Eddie, just like how Senketsu raps in his duet with Ryuko (which is also the main theme of the show, btw) that they should “let no one break the bond that is [theirs]”:

Venom: Important place, Eddie. Bonded forever. No one will break that bond.

Senketsu: Let’s let no one break the bond that is ours

I could talk about how Eddie refers to Venom as his symbiote just like Ryuko refers to Senketsu as her Senketsu in the official English subtitles and dub:

Eddie: So, it’s true. The symbiote is here. My symbiote.

Ryuko: That’s my Senketsu! You can do anything if you try!

I could talk about how both Eddie/Venom and Ryuko/Senketsu want to be together forever:

Venom: We want to be together, Eddie. Forever.

Eddie: Yes, love.

Senketsu: I want to be worn by you.

Ryuko: I’m never taking Senketsu off.

But, y’know. I think this post is probably long enough by now, and I’ve hopefully made my point.

tl;dr? Venom is basically a live-action Kill la Kill because, if it’s anything like the comics (and I take it that it is), its entire main focus is, just like Kill la Kill’s, the similarly loving relationship between a human and alien clothes.

And if Venom can be recognized for telling a story all about an impossible love that’s really not impossible at all, Kill la Kill deserves some dang recognition for doing the same thing, even if its “monster” isn’t maybe as unconventionally attractive as Venom is.

And if I can write a ginormous essay on this subject without even seeing the film and knowing basically nothing about Venom lore, just imagine what’s possible with that knowledge.

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preserving-ferretbrain · 6 years ago

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Iron Man's Morality

by Damien F

Friday, 09 May 2008Damien F trys to figure out Iron Man's sense of right and wrong.~

This month saw the synthesised superhero Iron Man join the ever-increasing canon of Marvel characters adapted for the screen. Played Robert Downey Jr, and directed by Jon Favreau (who appears onscreen as some sort of unacknowledged personal assistant),

Iron Man refreshes Marvel's old metal-clad, commie-bashing trailblazer, who unknown but to a select few (which includes almost everyone. Iron Man has to be the least secret secret identity in the history of comic-books) is billionaire industrialist and genius arms manufacturer Tony Stark.

The best that can be said about this film is that it's not awful, raising it above the likes of Daredevil,The Fantastic Four and The Punisher, among others. It's a largely competent, if silly, two hours of Hollywood entertainment, and as the first blockbuster event-movie of the summer, it inspires hope that this season's offerings will be a significant improvement over last year's dreadful showing.

However, just as it avoids sinking to the lowest levels for this kind of film, it fails to hit the heights it aspires to. It lacks the intelligence and social consciousness that marked Batman Beyond and the X-Men series, as well as the sense of humanity that made the Spider-Man films essential for fans and newcomers alike.

Seemingly aware of this, Favreau has tried to inject Iron Man with another attribute: morality. The story, admirably faithful to the comic's origins, tells us of the playboy Stark who fails to recognise the consequences of his actions. Be they the friends left stranded at an award ceremony held in his honour while he parties with floozies at a Las Vegas casino, or the innocents killed by the weapons he produces. As he explains to a hostile reporter (shortly before bedding her), his products are essential in maintaining a global balance of power, which ultimately serves to save lives. He has a change of heart, however, when he is captured by terrorists in Afghanistan while displaying the latest Stark Industries weapon the "Jericho" to military officials. Here he sees the true effect his weapons are having on the world, as the terrorists are armed with his company's products. They demand he builds for them their own Jericho. Instead Tony builds an electric-powered suit of armour for himself under their noses and makes good his escape. Afterwards, vowing to protect the people put in harms way by his weaponry, he fashions a more sophisticated, stylish version of the suit and becomes Iron Man, flying around the world at super-sonic speed destroying the militias armed with Stark Industry weapons.

Unfortunately, his morality becomes the film's most critical malfunction. The Iron Man suit is armed with all manner of guns to rocket launchers, and Tony expresses no qualms about killing those who apparently deserve being killed. Effectively, it's a weapon itself, and we're expected to accept that its presence makes the world safer when the sale of Jericho missiles represents such a threat? Perhaps the answer to this lies in who controls the weapons. Where as Stark missiles were sold on a free market, the Iron Man suit is owed and operated by nobody but Tony. However, just as he was naive to believe his weapons would only be used by forces interested in stabilising world peace, it transpires that Tony can't protect the technology for the suit falling into the wrong hands. The issue of a central a source of control of power is also belied by a scene where Iron Man confronts a group attacking an unidentified Middle-Eastern village. After killing the foot-soldiers, he delivers their leader to the villagers and invites them to do what they like with him before flying away and leaving them at it. We jump from highly central military control to mob justice in a single breath.

The confused nature of the films morality is not helped by its generic look at international conflicts. We are told that Tony is kidnapped in Afghanistan, but the true aims of his kidnappers are never fully explained. We can't write them off as the Taliban, as they seem to be a loose alliance of terrorists from all over the world. Following this the film alludes to ethnic-cleansing of regions by the same group, but we are never told why. The Marvel comics have rarely strayed from addressing real-life events such as Northern Ireland or 9/11 (the Marvel superheroes are currently being drafted to the image of the UN). These are usually discussed in a highly superficial way, but it's admirable that they have the nerve to discuss them at all. For a film that seeks to address the affects of Western military involvement in the developing world, it would have been refreshing if they referred directly to the arming of real-life militias, such as the Taliban by Western governments rather than just gutlessly allude to it.

It should be said, however, that one real-life conflict does get a look in. We are given numerous references to World War Two, as we are repeatedly told how Tony's father worked on the Manhattan Project. Presumably the building of the atomic bomb is meant to serve as a metaphor for the construction of a hyper-powered suit of armour. Prior to his kidnapping, Tony tells us that the ideal weapon is not one you never have to use but one you only have to use once. The allusion to the atomic bomb is clear. The trouble with this is that Tony is never asked to consider if the bomb was a mistake. For all the people who mention his father's role in the project, nobody asks if he regretted this or stood by the project. An internal debate over the true nature of nuclear weapons, be they war at its most corrupt and evil or the single stabilising factor in conflicts between super-states, might have serve to address the flaws in the films muddied morality. As it stands, this is just a wasted opportunity.

For those interested in seeing this film, these flaws should not dissuade you. Fans of the comics can rejoice the film's faithfulness to its source material. They even manage to fit in Iron Man's original clunky, aesthetically displeasing armour. Praise can also be bestowed on Downey's performance as Tony Stark. A few eyebrows were raised when the decision to give him the role was announced, as it was doubted the former wild-boy could handle a leading role on such a major production, and his physic could hardly be described as super-powered. However, I suspect fans were delighted with the casting, as his hell-raising antics were suitably in tune with the charismatic Stark. On screen, the choice seems inspired. Jeff Bridges also has a ball as the villain Ironmonger. However, Gwyneth Paltrow is simply annoying as the love interest Pepper Potts. And then there's that bloody reporter, who keeps turning up like a crazed stalker ex-girlfriend.

The special effects for the suit are a joy to watch, but the action sequences lack a required energy. Watching metallic men fight serves only to remind us how much more fun last year's Transformers was. Overall, Iron Man is far from essential, but enjoyable enough if you do give it a chance. I just wish they figured out the sermon before taking to the alter.

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Arthur B

at 13:15 on 2008-05-09The thing is, Tony Stark is basically a neo-con (witness his role in the recent

Civil War

storyline, which I have been glancing at from afar and tutting at), or rather a comic book writer's vision of a neo-con, so it's probably no surprise that his moral agenda is actually kind of silly and incoherent. From what you say, the film seems to bear this out. Before he's kidnapped he's a pre-9/11 neo-con, selling weapons to the world in the name of an American-dominated balance of terror. Then he has his own personal 9/11 experience, and realises that he can't let proxies do all the work, but has to go out into the world and kick ass all by himself, like George Bush rustlin' up a posse and ridin' out into Afghanistan (briefly) before tackling Iraq. The incoherent presentation of the enemy only matches the incoherent presentation of Terrorism by the Bush administration: are terrorists weak lunatics living in caves, or are they a vast international conspiracy devoted to taking over the world and imposing a global Caliphate? Are we in Iraq to fight terrorists or are we there to allow the Iraqis to choose the government they actually want (which might perhaps include a few terrorists)?

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Jamie Johnston

at 22:34 on 2008-05-21I read this with interest, having a couple of days ago been coaxed into going to see the film with a friend. I agree that it's not a terribly morally sophisticated film, and one might have wished for a bit more exploration of interesting problems. But I think there are a few things to say in its defence.

First, there's a bit of a suggestion here that the film is internally contradictory in that both Iron Man and the film itself appear to espouse a certain moral outlook but Iron Man then behaves in a way inconsistent with this outlook and the film appears to endorse this behaviour. There is an element of this, but not a great deal, I'd suggest.

For example, Damien says that "[t]he Iron Man suit is armed with all manner of guns to rocket launchers, and Tony expresses no qualms about killing those who apparently deserve being killed." We need to distinguish between the two suits. The first one is certainly pretty heavily armed, and he does indeed use it to injure and kill people; but I'd say that's reasonably consistent and plausible in the context of the film as a whole, for several reasons. First, the materials from which he constructs this first suit are themselves armaments of various kinds, and the nature of the materials in such cases may tend to dictate the nature of the final product. Secondly, his main objective at this point is to escape from heavily armed captors who he reasonably believes intend to kill him, and even if we objectively don't accept that the life of one American millionaire is worth more than the lives of several dozen Afghan terrorists we can be reasonably forgiving if he takes the attitude that it's them or him and he knows which option he prefers. Thirdly, he hasn't at this stage had his full-blown epiphany, which seems only to occur with the death of the chap who helped him build the suit. So even if his behaviour at this point isn't especially moral it's at least not altogether hypocritical.

When it comes to the second suit, the criticism is much more deserved, but I would point out that the film makes some sort of attempt to deal with the problem. It's made clear that the initial idea is to make a suit that enables the wearer to fly, and that's it. What later turns out to be the main weapon is originally meant to be a flight-stabilizer, as we're told quite explicitly. He only conceives of using them destructively when, already in a state of considerable frustration, he discovers that his company is still deliberately selling weapons to terrorists. At this point he sets off to visit a terrorist camp and destroy said weapons. Arriving, he does a pretty reasonable job of destroying the artillery without undue injury to the terrorists themselves. When he finds civilians being held at gun-point he does then start killing off terrorists, but again that comes comfortably within what appear to be the film's moral rules since it's a necessary means of protecting innocent people. Where it really does fall down is the fact that he kills the hostage-takers with little shoulder-mounted rockety things that have no obvious flight-related function and must presumably have been intended as weapons when Stark designed the suit. Although that's still some distance from the suit being "armed with all manner of guns to rocket launchers", it still kind of undermines the 'it's only meant to fly' defence. But I still think it's worth noting that the film-makers have at least bothered to put the 'it's only meant to fly' defence in there in the first place, which shows some awareness of the problem of Stark looking self-contradictory.

There also seem to be an implication that the film is unclear or incoherent about what its moral stance is. Again I'm not sure that this is entirely deserved. It's possible to set out in fairly straightforward terms what the moral rules in the film seem to be:

- the USA is good;

- terrorists are bad;

- killing terrorists is okay, at least when they pose a real and moderately imminent threat to civilians and / or Americans;

- killing civilians is not okay;

- killing Americans is not okay unless they are evil super-villains;

- selling weapons to terrorists is bad;

- selling weapons to the US government is probably okay in principle but only with proper controls and mechanisms of accountability to ensure the weapons are used for 'good' ends (such as killing terrorists) and don't end up in the hands of terrorists.

Those rules probably accord pretty well with what a lot of Americans believe, and Iron Man's behaviour in the film by and large follows those rules. They even accommodate Stark facilitating the probably lynching of the bearded terrorist leader (which of course is a pretty close analogy for letting the Iraqis hang the not-wholly-dissimilar-looking Saddam), who is after all a terrorist. If it looks to us as though Stark's failing to live up to his new-found pacifism, it's because he's actually not a pacifist, and never says he is. We make that assumption because it's the most obvious explanation to an audience of arty young British thinking people for a maker and seller of weapons suddenly stopping making and selling weapons; but his conversion is actually a much more limited one that probably makes a lot more sense to the film's target audience.

Of course that brings us straight to what I think is Damien's main point, which is that it's rather disappointing that the film, having decided to ask questions about the arms-trade, comes up with such mainstream American answers without even exploring any other options with any sort of seriousness. That's absolutely right. But even here I'd raise a very partial defence by saying that we may be asking a bit much of the film given what it is. It doesn't tell us what the terrorists' aims are (well, actually it does tell us what their immediate aims are: they've been hired by Stane to kill Stark but when they find out who Stark is they decide he's worth more than what they've been paid and so they decide to force him to build them a big rocket; but it doesn't tell us about the over-all political cause to which this is, as it were, a side-quest). But if it did, wouldn't it then risk becoming a film about "is it right to sell weapons to these particular people in view of their political agenda?" rather than "is it right to sell weapons to terrorists in general?" And it's true that it doesn't engage very meaningfully with the point about the Manhattan project (though I must point out that Stark himself does at one point say he wishes he'd asked his father how he felt about his work). But then again wouldn't any remotely serious examination of the ethics of the atomic bomb be such a big subject as to entirely hijack a superhero action movie and turn it into something quite different?

Again, I don't want to say that the film isn't rather superficial in its treatment of moral questions and rather banal and unchallenging in its answers to those questions. It is. But at least it does (1) show a very limited awareness that the questions exist, (2) come up with a reasonably coherent (if irritatingly Bush-compatible) moral framework, and (3) make some effort to make sense of the apparent paradox of a chap using weapons-technology to destroy weapons. I'm not really sure it could have done much more while still being a superhero block-buster, just like Juno couldn't really do justice to the question of abortion while still being a cute romantic / tennage-pregnancy comedy. X-Men can do more because it does it by metaphor (mutant = black / gay / foreign) and therefore doesn't have to engage with the complex details of real situations. Spider-Man can do more because it concentrates on character and issues that occur on the ordinary human level rather than the social or political level. I'm not sure that Iron Man, given what it was, could really have done much better than it did.

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Dan H

at 09:34 on 2008-05-23Jamie pretty much sums up everything I was going to say about this (although I've not seen the film, I don't see anything inherently contradictory about "it's okay to sell weapons to some people but not others" - it's the same "contradiction" you get in pretty much all movies, books, or whatever with a strong action element. Good Guys pretty much always kill a whole mess o' folks).

What I actually wanted to say was that this reminds me of something a friend of mine once said about

Batman Begins

- on the one level it's trying to be a serious exploration of the nature of fear, but ultimately it's a movie about a guy who dresses up as a bat and fights crime. I think the simple fact is that superhero movies have to work with the themes which their frequently ludicrous premises allow.

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Wardog

at 16:37 on 2008-05-23Mmmm...I'm almost curious now, thanks to Damien and Jamie, but Iron Man has never really appealed to my imagination. I don't know, although I can get behind a man who wants to dress a bat and fight crime, I can't work up the enthusiasm for a guy who makes himself a robot-suit and blows up terrorists.

(I feel terrible - Jamie and Dan and Arthur have said all these insightful things and I've just made this pointlessly frivolous observation)

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Damien F

at 11:18 on 2008-05-27Jamie, I see where you're coming from. Your points on the first suit are spot on, but to be honest I really wasn't considering the first suit when writing the piece. Also, I suppose it's true it does come up with a Bush-flavoured morality (which is a trend I've noticed running through the comics for many years now). Stark arms terrorists and then takes it upon himself to disarm them. The problem I have with this is that it simply ignores the outcomes of these actions, in a pretty literal scenes. Look at your liking of leaving the beardy terrorist to civilians to the lynch-mob "justice" handed down to Saddam (which is something I admit I didn't spot myself). After this scene, Iron Man simply flies away, refusing accountability for what might happen. This was in my opinion lazy and irresponsible, on both Iron Man's part and the film-makers.

There was also a point I wanted to work into the piece but couldn't figure out how. At one point shortly before the fore-mention scene, Iron Man's computer-Jervis-thing distinguishes the terrorists from civilians and dispatches them accordingly. This is a horribly black-and-white approach to its subject matter.

There are two further points I wish to dispute. First, your argument that a more socially-conscious film would have spoilt its blockbuster fun. It may have been harder to make such a film, but not impossible. Since the Victorian days, good sci-fi has always been allegorical.

Second, the assertion that "we make that assumption because it's the most obvious explanation to an audience of arty young British thinking people". I'm Irish.

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Arthur B

at 11:43 on 2008-05-27

After this scene, Iron Man simply flies away, refusing accountability for what might happen. This was in my opinion lazy and irresponsible, on both Iron Man's part and the film-makers.

Are you sure that the film-makers weren't intending you to come away with the impression that Iron Man is a bit lazy and irresponsible? I've not seen the film, so it's down to those that have to make the call, but when I saw the trailers they seemed to suggest a bit of moral ambiguity on Stark's part (which would make sense given his not-exactly-clean history in the comics).

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Jamie Johnston

at 17:35 on 2008-05-27After this scene, Iron Man simply flies away, refusing accountability for what might happen. This was in my opinion lazy and irresponsible, on both Iron Man's part and the film-makers.

Yes, that was certainly the moment that put the greatest strain on my efforts to regard him as heroic. Arthur may be right to guess that at that point in the film we were supposed to be feeling a bit uneasy about his behaviour, especially since that's followed by what must have been quite a challenging scene for a patriotic American audience, in which a handful of US fighter 'planes try to shoot Iron Man down and he ends up (albeit accidentally) causing one of them to crash. Possibly we were only meant to come fully behind Iron Man when he saves the bailed-out pilot. It's hard to say.

Actually that brings to mind another point I hadn't thought about: the most morally problematic parts of the film are these bits in the middle, where he's engaged in his minimally thought-out anti-terrorist exercise. It gets much simpler when he comes back and gets stuck in to the 'main' plot of (1) stopping the technology falling into the hands of the clear-cut crazy villain and (2) trying not to get killed by the clear-cut crazy villain. Which I guess is one of the main things about super-heroes in general: much of the time, the thing that stops us regarding them as morally questionable is the fact that they're clearly better than whatever implausibly evil villain they're fighting. And that's a point that I suppose supports your argument more than mine, in that the least morally successful bits of the film are, as you've said, the ones where Iron Man is engaging with vaguely real-world issues like terrorism and the international arms trade.

First, your argument that a more socially-conscious film would have spoilt its blockbuster fun. It may have been harder to make such a film, but not impossible. Since the Victorian days, good sci-fi has always been allegorical.

Ah, well, yes, I wouldn't want to say it's impossible, but I think your point about allegory is important, and it links with my rather brief earlier comparison to the 'X-Men' films. The latter are genuinely allegorical, and I'd say that's what makes it easier for them to produce both moderately worthwhile moral / social commentary and super-hero blockbuster fun. What they don't do is what 'Iron Man' does attempt and, as you say, doesn't do very well, which is to have the characters get literally involved in real-world situations. The X-Men don't literally fight against homophobes or xenophobes, and they don't literally get hauled up before the Committee On Un-American Activities. If they did, then I'd say there's a good chance those films would end up just as unsatisfactory in that respect as 'Iron Man', because when you allegorize you can both simplify and dramatize much more easily and effectively.

Second, the assertion that "we make that assumption because it's the most obvious explanation to an audience of arty young British thinking people". I'm Irish.

Ah, my apologies! Actually so am I, at least on paper, thanks to Ireland's wonderfully welcoming rules of citizenship. My new harp-emblazoned passport is in the post at the moment, in fact. But you know what I mean. :)

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Wardog

at 16:46 on 2008-05-28I'm just going to start wildly throwing out opinions here despite not having seen the movie because, well, hey it's never stopped me before. I think the thing about X-Men which is, as you say, genuinely allegorical is that although if you were to Take It Very Seriously you could say it's about social acceptance / xenophobia, what it's most convincingly about is being a teenager, specifically the sort of clever, socially-awkward, comic-reading sort of teeanger that I and, ahem, I suspect several of us here were once upon a time - feeling different to, and excluded from, the rest of the world. And because it's very personal it doesn't strain credibility. Whereas it seems to me (from my position of total ignorance) that using comic book heroes to comment on wider social / political issues only draws attention to how necessarily and inappropriately simplistic such commentary must be.

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Jamie Johnston

at 18:28 on 2008-06-02Mmm, yes, I hadn't thought of that but you're quite right. I guess that comes out better in the films than in the comics, in some ways, because (apart from periodic returns to The Original Point) the comics have tended to forget about the teenaged and school-based part of the X-Men scenario. Not that adult characters living in secret headquarters in a volcano / on the moon / wherever can't also be metaphors for awkward brainy teenagers, but less so.

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https://me.yahoo.com/a/kVNzzlR0hezU7J7swspEMkT_LFLpag--#8a2c5

at 23:00 on 2012-07-10

the true aims of his kidnappers are never fully explained

OK, I know this article isn't exactly new, but I have to point out: we find out near the end why Tony was abducted by the militia -- it's in the video Pepper finds when she's spying for Tony. Obediah hired them to kill Tony; they tried to do so with big explosives from a distance; when they failed and saw him close up, they recognized him, so they took him hostage and forced their captive doctor to patch him up so they could get some weapons out of him on the cheap before finishing the job (after extorting more money out of Obediah, of course).

If you mean the overarching aims, the stuff they want the weapons for, I don't actually think that's necessary. In fact, I think that by leaving it open, it makes it more obvious 1, how many nasty things go on in that part of the world, often aided and abetted by the US Military and 2, how little Tony really knows about what's going on with his business.

#Ferretbrain #Iron Man #Damien F #Marvel Cinematic Universe #MCU

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littlebitwriter · 6 years ago

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MCU X-MEN SPECULATION & PREDICTIONS

This is what I’m thinking and hoping the future of the X-Men franchise within the Marvel Cinematic Universe is going to be like and I’m going to try and delve into different predictions I have.

We know for sure that Wolverine is the character that Marvel will cast immediately which I don’t know for sure if it was from producer Lauren Shuler Donner, I don’t know for sure I’m definitely no expert and not a credible source I’m just speculating and going off of rumors. I don’t know if that means he will be confirmed to be in the first X-Men film.

One of the most different ways Marvel could do it is make it a film about the core original five X-Men. Which I find to be the obvious way that Marvel could do something different. Since those characters in particular were so shafted and a lot of others were across the franchise. Here if you choose this direction you can start smaller and if there has to be Wolverine you could be set up in the background of the film, maybe.

Wolverine is over done but is still such a great character. Wolverine is such an inherently cool and interesting character and I think Wolverine is overdone but I do still think he is a great character. Even though there are some X-Men movies without him he’s still so synonymous with X-Men. I also think with whoever they cast it’s going to be awhile before people will dissociate him from Hugh Jackman. Marvel Studios has always for the most part been smart with casting but I have a strange pick for Wolverine even though they will most likely stick with an unknown. With a new actor Wolverine, I would like a much more comics accurate tale where he’s shorter and scrappier.

I think that X-Men now more than ever is the franchise for this culture nowadays. They are the persecuted minorities stand-in metaphor I think Marvel can do a really relevant and I understand you can’t do the first five X-Men because reportedly Marvel wants a very diverse cast for their rebooted X-Men. So I think they should go for something like the straight-up classic ‘Giant Size’ X-Men team where you all of these different people all around the world. Also it’d be great since we never really had all those characters together like Nightcrawler, Storm, Colossus.

With both Deadpool and X-Men being under Disney they may do a Deadpool and X-Men that may speak to each other more. While he is still kind of doing his own thing in a separate universe. Deadpool would be carried on from where he is regardless and they would poke fun and make references that Deadpool knows about the Disney buyout of Fox and things of that nature. Since Deadpool is such a breaking the fourth wall character. So his integration into the Marvel Cinematic Universe is fairly simple.

With the X-Men’s integration into The MCU I find the most likely scenario as to how they will be integrated is that mutants will have always existed. They also may retroactively say that Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver were actually mutants where they will go back and say mutants have existed this whole time. Which would be pretty much a straight up retcon since you know how they got their powers but it really wouldn’t be the first out of the many continuity discrepancies and retcons from across the MCU. Where you could say Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver has the mutant gene in them and they were sort of predisposed to it. The MCU will say there have always been mutants and they’ve been in hiding. Maybe all the mutants they’ve been in the Savage Land (which would be awesome!!!!)

In terms of casting this is MY DISNEY-FIED MCU X-MEN! With a mix of Giant-Size lineup, Pryde of The X-Men and the 90’s Animated Series.

Millie Bobby Brown as Kitty Pryde

I’d like to see Kitty Pryde especially because I love Kitty Pryde and I would make her our eyes-in focus character into the X-Men universe. I’d do something like Joss Whedon’s Astonishing X-Men meets a more serious take on The Pryde of The X-Men cartoon. Also Kitty Pryde hasn’t been well represented on screen and I like her in Days of Future Past (2014) but she still doesn’t get to do enough. Also Millie Bobby Brown is such a talented young actress if you've ever seen her performance in both seasons of Stranger Things as Eleven you know what I’m talking about. I think she’d be a great Kitty Pryde.

KiKi Layne as Ororo Munroe/Storm

I think Storm has been severely shafted in the X-Men films. She’s underrated and underutilized and it is of course important to have her in here because she is a minority character but not only that she is tremendously underrated and deserves the right to have her fair due. Also she will be older and one of Xavier’s first students because of her romantic relationship with T’challa/The Black Panther. Also Kiki Lane’s performance in If Beale Street Could Talk was great so I think she’d be a great Storm.

Logan/Wolverine

My casting for Wolverine is Zac Efron. In comic book casting traditions if this were real life people would’ve protested and demanded for Zac Efron to not be Wolverine. However this isn’t first time people have overreacted about casting look at the reactions to Michael Keaton, Heath Ledger, Ben Affleck etc. You don’t know until you see him in action. He may not be the most comics accurate Wolverine but Zac Efron isn’t 5’2 he’s 5’8 but he’s shorter than Hugh Jackman who is 6’2. Since it is Marvel Studios I’m sure they will go out with the classic yellow costume and the mask and maybe even the orange and brown suit. I understand why people despise this choice but you never know until you see Zac Efron grow mutton chops in that classic costume smoking a cigar calling someone “Bub.” That may have the potential to win people over.

Scott Summers/Cyclops

Cyclops will be the leader of this team of X-Men, I’d like to see his costume look very 90’s or very much like the 80’s or even modern look. I think Logan Lerman would be a good choice he’d be one of Xavier’s first students which is why he’d be a bit older, he will already be established on the team just like all the other X-Men outside of Kitty Pryde. He’d be very much classic Scott Summers there’s threads and hints of him growing into where he is in things like Morrison’s New X-Men or Whedon’s Astonishing. Setting up a true comic book accurate Scott Summers.

Jean Grey (Maybe???)

I don’t know if Marvel should right out the gate do Jean Grey and I don’t know if they do the Phoenix the third round this time. But I’m very much at a Marvel can’t do no wrong stage in the MCU so maybe third time's the charm. Also since it’s in MCU they can touch upon the cosmic stuff with the Shi'ar empire and Lilandra which will be cool. I think Emma Stone would be a great Jean Grey, it will seem a bit meta to have her in the role since she was Gwen Stacy in The Amazing Spider-Man franchise but she’d be a great Jean Grey. Maybe a more reserved, anxious but still witty Emma Stone sort of Jean Grey. I think she’d be one of Xavier’s first students which is why I cast her older.

Kurt Wagner/Nightcrawler

Timothee Chalamet I think is a great pick for Nightcrawler. Personally he is one of if not my favorite X-Men character and with his Oscar nomination for Lady Bird I’m hoping he can manage to pull of my favorite often misunderstood mutant.

Professor X

Daniel Day Lewis is an actor that makes for a perfect Professor X and with his role in Lincoln as former U.S. Abraham Lincoln he is such a dedicated actor that his performance as Professor X could wind up there next to Patrick Stewart himself and many other greats.

Magneto

Daniel Craig’s time as James Bond May soon be over but that won’t stop him from joining the MCU as the villain Magneto. Daniel Craig would make for a damn good villain in the MCU and what villain is more perfect than Magneto!

FUTURE X-MEN PROJECTS I WANT TO SEE…

As far as spin-offs outside of Deadpool. Since there was that Kitty Pryde movie Brian Michael Bendis was Writing or that Jamie Madrox movie I guess those aren’t happening with the Disney buyout. There’s still potential for that Deadpool X-Force spin-off and other X-characters can still get there time to shine in their own spotlight solo films.

I think a Gambit/Rogue solo film would work and I’d like to see a connection with Rogue and Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers since they have a tremendous history in the comics. I would love an X-Factor TV series on the Disney+ streaming service based on the Peter David run that’d be great!

-LittleBitWriter (3/5/18)

#speculation #xmen #marvel mcu #fancast #marvel comics

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aion-rsa · 6 years ago

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Marvel's Punisher Comics Reading Order

http://bit.ly/2T7X9FN

Does Jon Bernthal as The Punisher on Netflix have you hungry for more Frank Castle action? These are the comics you should read next.

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Feature

Marc Buxton

The Punisher

Jan 22, 2019

Marvel

And death has come to Netflix. Jon Bernthal's The Punisher has once again been unleashed on the world and finally, after three live action attempts, fans finally have the Frank Castle they deserve. It's about damn time, too. You would think the elegant brutal simplicity of the Punisher would have been easy for Hollywood, but no. But here we are, so let the body count begin.

But long hard roads are very familiar to the Punisher. For decades, starting in Amazing Spider-Man #129 by Gerry Conway and Ross Andru, the Punisher has been trying to eradicate crime in the Marvel Universe. In the '80s and '90s, his popularity peaked and the character starred in three monthly titles, countless mini series and specials, and tons of guest spots.

In recent years, a murderers row of comic creators have lent their talents to the Punisher saga, adding to the bloody legend of Frank Castle. So without further ado, strap on the Kevlar as we present the finest and bloodiest Punisher tales of all time!

Punisher: Circle of Blood

Before 1986, the Punisher was relegated to frequent guest roles. Now, some of these guest spots were pretty damn awesome, such as Frank Miller's use of the character in the writer's unforgettable Daredevil run, but until Steven Grant and Mike Zeck delivered the Punisher's very first solo series, he never took the top spot.

In Circle of Blood, the Punisher told the New York underworld that he had killed the Kingpin. This resulted in a bloody turf war that allowed the Punisher to rack up the body count. When things got too incendiary, Castle had to clean up his own mess.

read more: Complete Guide to Marvel Easter Eggs in The Punisher Season 2

Grant created the formula for all Punisher tales to follow while Zeck inspired visual storytelling that would guide the character for decades. And let me tell you, this bad boy still holds up to modern comic standards.

Buy The Punisher: Circle of Blood on Amazon.

Punisher: War Zone

In the early '90s, Marvel was publishing three separate Punisher titles. When Punisher: War Zone hit in 1992, you would have thought that the vigilante would have been over exposed and tired. Well, the creative team of Chuck Dixon, John Romita, and Klaus Janson proved that wrong right out of the gate.

In this unforgettable story, Frank Castle goes undercover to systematically take the mob apart from the inside. The only problem is, Frank falls in love with a mobster's daughter. Sounds like a wacky comedy, but oh dear, it wasn't. There is a body count and a half as Dixon proves why he is considered one of the greatest Punisher writers in history.

read more: The Punisher Season 2 Ending Explained

This story was sort of like The Sopranos done Marvel style, but with Frank Castle in the picture, Paulie Walnuts wouldn't have been cracking too many jokes, he would have just been twitching in a dark alley from a high caliber slug to the guts.

Buy Punisher: War Zone on Amazon.

Welcome Back, Frank

Hey, remember when I said there never could be too much Punisher? Yeah, I lied. By the late '90s, a market glut and piss poor storytelling did what no hitman could ever do, they nearly killed the Punisher. Some of the worst Punisher dreck was published during that period. There was even a series where the Punisher became an angel! As in, an honest to goodness heaven sent angel.

read more: The Punisher and the Bloody Legacy of Marvel's First Superhero Movie

But when Preacher creators Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon introduced their take on the Punisher, fans said yes to Welcome Back, Frank. Welcome Back, Frank was a return to the Punisher's roots, a hard hitting killing spree that was as brutal as it was funny. Ennis and Dillon introduced a ton of unique characters to the Punisher mythos and reminded fans of why they fell in love with Frank Castle and his bloody knuckled world in the first place. It even featured the Punisher punching a polar bear in the face, and if that won’t sell you on Welcome Back, Frank, nothing will.

Buy The Punisher: Welcome Back, Frank on Amazon.

Born and Beyond...

Let's be honest, any Punisher tales with Ennis' name attached as writer is worth your time. He is the greatest Punisher writer of all time and had a ridiculous long run with the character. When Ennis first started on the Punisher, he presented some action packed but often humorous stories. In the middle of his legendary run, Ennis turned on a dime and shifted tonal gears making his Punisher one of the grimmest and most potently violent monthly comics in Marvel history.

read more: The Punisher and the Dark Myth of the Real Life Vigilante

"Born" is an intense Vietnam War story that served as the kickoff of Ennis' second act as Punisher writer, and the stories that followed took him back to the streets of NYC. This time, though, he toned down the over-the-top violence and humor of the "Welcome Back, Frank" era in favor of more grounded, even more brutal stories that had little to do with the Marvel Universe at large. Kind of like his Netflix series.

Comics just don't get much darker than this. One story in particular, "Slavers" starts out like a typical Punisher story, but ends as Frank Castle learns the reality of human sex trafficking and vows to bring down Russian sex slavers. It's one of the most brutally honest and unflinching real world stories Marvel has ever published. If you want comics that have the flavor of the Netflix series, these are the ones to read.

Start with Punisher: The Complete Collection Volume 1 and then carry on from there!

Punisher: Enter the War Zone (2011-2012)

Famed crime and comic writer Greg Rucka's Punisher doesn't speak much, but he doesn't have to. During Garth Ennis' long run on the Punisher, Frank Castle didn't have too many interactions with the Marvel Universe. But during Rucka's time as writer, the Punisher got involved with Daredevil, Spider-Man, and the Avengers, the latter of which tried to bring Frank Castle down once and for all.

read more: The Punisher and the Secret History of Jigsaw

These stories introduced the character of Rachel Cole, a woman who used to serve under Frank Castle in the US Marines. Cole's entire wedding party, including her parents and husband, were killed in a mob hit gone wrong during. This bride of death became one of the richest supporting characters ever to appear in a Punisher comic and her time with Castle was unforgettable. Rucka basically focuses on those the Punisher influencd during his endless war and in doing so, gives readers a realistic idea of what kind of force of nature Frank Castle truly is.

Buy The Punisher: Enter the War Zone on Amazon.

from Books http://bit.ly/2R33CzL

#aion-rsa #Books

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reel-drone · 6 years ago

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Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, 2018 - ★★★★½

While I am always so-so on animation, occasionally I love it. In particular several TV series such as Boondocks, Daria, and Bojack Horseman. Animated movies general don't have much appeal to me. Most of them are all Pixar or Frozen or Frozen knock offs or the Lego Movie etc and while I enjoyed Coco and Inside Out, it's hard to call myself a fan.

Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse was not something I was expecting to love and I truly did. The visuals this animation creates is like nothing I've ever seen. So many eye-popping colors and designs and impeccable editing make this film truly remarkable. It's worth seeing it just for that alone. I'm also so-so on comic book movies, and for what it's worth Spiderman was always my least favorite superhero. (Well, actually that's probably Superman, but Spiderman was never far behind.) I always preferred Batman and X-Men growing up and even to this day. This film has completely changed that. The story here is quite exceptional as well, even if though it deals with a multiuniverse aspect of its plot, the near dozen characters, it fuses together effortlessly all while creating a perfect three dimensional (pun?) character out of Miles, and subsequently Peter Parker. The film also succeeds at not taking itself too seriously, making it even enjoyable for it's humor alone.

There's too many movies out there like Bohemian Rhapsody and Vice which are a waste for you dollar. Even if you're as far removed from this film's target audience as I was, this is worth experiencing, either to be fully enjoyed or merely admired. If any superhero animation blockbuster is overwhelmingly deserving of an Oscar- (among other accolades) it's this one.

from Letterboxd - Joshua R. http://bit.ly/2Rt2720 via IFTTT

#IFTTT #Letterboxd - Joshua R.

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jupitermelichios · 6 years ago

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So you want to read Marvel comics

A while back I made a post of Marvel & DC comics that would make a good intro into the world of comics, and I thought it was time for an update. So here’s some more short run Marvel comics to try if you’re just getting into comics (or some recs for those of you who already are).

Press J to skip this post.

1. X-Club (2012) - 5 issues.

I’m always a little wary of recommending Si Spurrier’s Marvel comics to new readers, because no matter what Marvel want him to do he writes in a universe largely divorced from continuity. That said, the Marvel universe in his head is a glorious mess of high camp, melodrama and comedy and I love it. X-Club is one of his best Marvel works, focussing on the scientists who surround the X-Men. Funny, silly and with some great character moments.

Written by Si Spurrier, drawn by Paul Davidson, coloured by Rachelle Rosenburg

Starring: Dr Nemesis, Kavita Rao, Danger, Madison Jeffries

Best for fans of comedy action

2. New Warriors (2014) - 12 issues

This book got cancelled just as it was really finding its feet, but while I would have loved to see more, they did a great job of wrapping up most of their plot threads in time for the issue 12 finale. Like all the best Marvel comics, this is best described as a romp, about superpowered teenagers taking on a villain called the High Evolutionary (whose whole deal is furries). I read it knowing nothing about most of the characters and was rarely confused, despite it being a sequal to previous New Warriors books. A great introduction to one of Marvel’s perennial teen teams.

Written by Christopher Yost, drawn by Marcus To, coloured by David Curiel and Ruth Redmond

Starring: Justice, Speedball, Nova (Sam Alexander), Sun Girl, Scarlet Spider (Kaine), Hummingbird, Haechi, Silhouette, Water Snake, The High Evolutionary, The Celestials

Best for fans of young adult adventure

3. Angela: Asguard’s Assasin (2014) - 6 issues

This is the first in a 3 part series, followed by Angela 1601 and Angela: Queen of Hel, all of which are wonderful. Do you want transwomen? Do you want women of colour? Do you want women loving women while also having space-opera adventure quests? Then you need Angela and her wife Sera, here to bring you the good news of queer comic-book writers. Honestly I can’t tell you how good the Angela series is - you need to go read it for yourself. Plus it’s a veritable who’s who of Asguard, so a great introduction to that part of earth 616

Written by Keiron Gillen & Magueritte Bennet

Starring: Angela (Aldrif), Sera, Malekith the Accursed, Thor, Odin, Freyja, Rocket Raccoon, Groot, Gamora, Star-Lord, Drax the Destroyer, Heidall, Sif, The Warriors Three, Loki

Best for fans of high fantasy lesbians

4. Ultimates (2015) - 12 issues

How high can sci-fi get before it loops back round to being fantasy? This is a book which walks that line - sci-fi so metaphysical it’s almost philosophy, except it’s not because it’s Superheroes in spandex fighting an all powerful being in the universe’s silliest hat.

Written by Al Ewing

Starring: America Chavez, Spectrum, Blue Marvel, Captain Marvel, Black Panther, Galactus

Best for fans of high sci-fi

5. New Avengers (2015) - 18 issues

If any comic deserved 6 season and a movie it’s this 2015 title. When Science Super-villains A.I.M run out of funds they decide to sell off the organisation. Former New Mutant Sunspot has a massive fortune, a desire to save the world, and a flair for the dramatic. It’s a match made in heaven. (Fans of the book don’t despair, it got a sequel in 2017′s U.S.Avengers).

Written by Al Ewing

Starring: Sunspot, Squirrel Girl, Wiccan, Hulkling, Power Man (Victor Alvarez), White Tiger, Hawkeye (Clint Barton), Songbird, Red Hulk, The Maker, POD, Iron Patriot (Toni Ho), Red Hulk (General Maverick), Canonball

Best for fans of comedy drama

6. Royals (2017) - 12 issues

This is Al Ewing’s third appearance on this list, because he really is just that good a writer. This is the perfect introduction to the Inhumans, who are way more interesting than the TV show would have you believe. This is classic space opera - a warring family of royalty on an epic quest to save their dying race from certain extinction. I didn’t think I liked the Inhumans until I read this book.

Written by Al Ewing

Starring: Medusa, Maximus the Mad, Gorgon, Swain, Flint, Marvel Boy (Noh-Var), Ronan the Accuser

Best for fans of space-opera

7. Mockingbird (2016) - 8 issues

If James Bond were an american woman with superpowers, actual human emotions and a chemistry degree, he’d be Mockingbird. Silly, heartfelt and deeply touching in places, this is one of my favourite short comics. Aided by her current boyfriend and his pet Corgi, SHIELD agent Bobbi Morse solves mysteries, fights bad guys and tries to clear her ex-husband’s name for a murder he really did commit.

Written by Chelsea Cain

Starring: Lance Hunter, Mockingbird

Best for fans of light-hearted spy stories and geeky jokes

8. Iceman (2017) - 11 issues

I’m not going to lie, this comics was hard for me to read in places. Not because it’s bad, but because it’s good. Founding X-Man Iceman was outed as gay against his will in a controversial 2015 story. This comic follows him as he works out what his life looks like as a gay mutant, comes out to his parents, and kisses a boy for the first time. Well written and emotional, plus it’s always nice to see queer writers and artists working with queer characters. Warning that this comic deals with homophobia.

Written by Sina Grace

Starring: Iceman, Shadowcat, Daken, Oya, Hercules, Darkstar, Angel, Amp, Ghost Rider

Best for fans of drama

9. Hercules (2016) - 6 issues

Hercules is a laughing stock in the hero world, better known for his drinking than his heroism (even though he’s 10 months sober). Gilgamesh hasn’t left Herlcules’ couch for a month. But when terrifying new gods emerge in the modern age, the old gods are the only ones who can stop them. Epic in the old sense of the word.

Written by Dan Abnett

Starring: Hercules, Tyresius, Gilgamesh, Ire of the Crua before the Ice

10. Black Bolt (2017) - 12 issues

Black Bolt generated a lot of hype when issue 1 dropped last year, and it’s hardly surprising because this comic is something special. Betrayed by his brother, deposed monarch Black Bolt is locked away in the universe’s highest security prison. Depowered, trapped and tortured, he must rely on the help of his fellow prisoners to escape. If escape is even possible. Best read in tandem with Royals (above). Warning that the later part of this comic deals with past child neglect and emotional abuse.

Written by Saladin Ahmed

Starring: Black Bolt, Lockjaw, Absorbing Man, Metal Master, Blinky, Raava

Best for fans of emotional drama and prison break stories

#marvel comics #x-men #inhumans #asguard

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statguypaul · 3 years ago

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Brief Review: Teen Titans Go! To the Movies (2018)

Rated the film 3.5 stars out of 5. A feature-length spinoff from the popular television series, it deserves at least one viewing for its clever and meta social commentary on superhero movies. Various pop culture and comic book references (both the obvious and the obscure) permeate the plot as well as the background, allowing for enhanced cleverness and meta-humour. The animated film also entertains throughout, possibly relying on flatulence jokes a bit too often for the younger crowd, yet this also permits multi-generational viewing of the motion picture. The voice acting is enjoyable as well, the main ensemble from the TV series joined by veteran voice actors as well as celebrities to provide adults the extra enjoyment of guessing who did the added characters. Directors Aaron Horvath and Peter Rida Michail push the entertainment value further by making great use of the larger screen for eye-popping visuals in the animation, yet its still the writing and dialogue that impress the most. The corresponding Annie Award nomination for writing is understandable, as is the loss to the superior Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Nevertheless, whether familiar with the television series or not, there is some intellectual stimulation and smart entertainment available in this cinematic offering, and it never hurts to have a Stan Lee cameo. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7424200/

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staarknaked · 7 years ago

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Hello! I have been watching the marvel movies and tv shows for a while now but I’d like to read the comics too. Any idea how to start since there are so many and have been there for so long (as in which comic from what year)? Thank you in advance!

I’m sorry for how long this is, I tried. Once you find where you want tostart, it gets easier to narrow down and follow timelines and full story arcs,sort of, I promise. Also, Wikipedia is your friend. Marvel starting doing a lot of events after CivilWar. You can skip them and just read summaries. Save your sanity. If you have any questions you can msg me off anon too and I can walk you through it because Marvel comics are a shit show I’m so sorry I don’t make the rules.

Projects:

-Civil War (2006-2007): This is on the list because this is where I jumpedinto Avengers comics, and it’s honestly their most iconic events. It has a tonof main titles for multiple characters and is a really good way to get into howthey think and who they are, but it is fucking huge. After reading the core book, the tie ins and theCap/Iron man books are great. Really gives you history and scope of the Marveluniverse and its original players. This will take a while.

-Avengers Disassembled (2004-2005): Probablybigger than civil war? I have the hardcover of this and it is massive. But again, iconic if you wantto do the work and read it. Scarlet Witch is a key player and it pretty coversbackground for a whole variety of previous material. This will also take forever. I have the entirely of it in a hardcover and I’ve only gotten through 2/3rds of it.

- House of M (2005): Wanda Maximoff. Right here. If you want toknow what comics Wanda is like, and why mutants are the way they are in comicsright now, House of M is it. House of M preludes some of the best x-men stuffpost Phoenix era and leads to a ridiculously intense storyline that leads towhere the mutants are now and why they are the way they are. The core book isshort, and good as a one shot, but if you go further it gets crazy.

Movie Characters in Comics

I haven’t readAnt-Man, Black Panther, or Thor solos except for the all-new thor where it’s JaneFoster but they are re-booting Thor in 2018 I think. And I don’t read Dr.Strange, he’s kind of an asshole.

-Black Widow (2014-2015): The art is amazing and Natasha adopts a cat.That’s all you need honestly. Doesn’t tie into the MCU at all but really great.

-Hawkeye (2012-2015): The Clint Barton we deserve tbh. Fraction andAja’s run is iconic and legendary. Also not MCU related but widely recognizedas one of the best comics runs.

-Planet Hulk (2006-2007): One of themore iconic Hulk runs and also where parts of the Hulk’s story in Thor: Ragnarokcame from.

-Scarlet Witch (2015-2017): Really good art, Wanda is trying to fix witchcraft, and it I think goes into a little bit of her backstory with Vision. They are no longer together in comics, but this I think deals with some of the aftermath and gives glimpses into her history. I have it, I haven’t gotten around to reading it.

-Invincible Iron Man: Extremis (2006): Ended up influencinga huge part of the original Iron Man movie, and updates Tony’s everything. Thearmor from this book was the basis for the armor in the MCU.

-All-New All-Different Invincible Iron Man (2015): This is a newerTony Stark, and this line eventual leads to the Riri Williams line I think? It’sa modern take on Tony Stark.

-Captain America: Winter Soldier / Captain America(Vol 5.) (2004-2011): Ed Brubaker is the mastermind behind bringing BuckyBarnes back as the Winter Soldier. This Cap line runs forever, and covers allthe major events of the mid-late 2000’s, including civil war, death of SteveRogers, and Bucky picking up the Shield. Really good run, it’s the only soloCap stuff I’ve read any part of. The Winter Soldier stuff starts in 2005/2006if you want to skip right to it.

-Captain America (2017): Starting atissue # 695, this is Steve’s redemption arc from the clusterfuck that wasMarvel’s Secret Empire. Getting into Cap here and then backtracking would be mysuggestion.

- Guardians of the Galaxy (2013-technically ongoing): this is a pretty long run and was launched whenthe movies started bringing new readers, and it’s really good. It does crossover with the O5 X-men business briefly, but it’s also where they reallyintroduce Angela Odinsdottir, Thor’s kick ass stolen sister.It’s been re-branded a couple of times due to events.

Team Books

-The Ultimate’s: Super Human (2002): The Ultimate’suniverse inspired the movies. It’s a close universe separate from marvel 616,which is the marvel universe where all the other comic recommendations arecoming from. Ultimate’s is grittier, darker, and changes backstories but isstill really really good. Gets weird, and is definitely not close to themovies, but a lot of the inspiration for the movies came from this universe,and you’ll see it if you read it.This is the kick off book, but the Ultimate ‘verse is pretty straight forward.

-Avengers Assemble (2012-2014): This wascreated for the movies. It has the movie team line up, and was meant to be thestepping stone from the fledgling MCU to the Marvel 616 comic verse!

Netflix/Hulu/Marvel TV

-Runaway’s (2003/2017): If you watched the Hulu Runaway adaption, these arethe comics to read. The 2003 run will not have the same characters or romancesas the show though, and the 2017 ones kind of bounce off the original omics andthe show. I’m not the biggest fan of the Runaways but my best friend read themwhen we were younger so I know this by association.

- Jessica Jones: Alias (2001-2004); Jessica Jones (2016): The netlfixshow was based off the Alias comics, and its Bendis and Gaydos back on the 2016run as well, making Jessica one of the most consistently written characters inMarvel. Very similar to the show

-The Defenders (2017): A reboot of the Defenders line to hype the neflixshow. I love danny jess and luke any and every time they interact. Jess andLuke named their kid after danny okay I love anytime these assholes teamup and I believe this is similar to the show as well.

Deadpool + Friends Deadpool is in a lot ofshit. He was in Deadool and Cable in the 90’s and early-mid 2000’s and then therewas a point where everything he was in was shit for a while, and now he runsaround the marvel universe and teams up with everyone from spider-man to thenew wolverine.

-Uncanny X-Force (2010-2012): This one is a wild ride, and only recommended ifyou really liked the Deadpool movie. Wolverine and X-23 with Deadpool and twoothers mutants. Lots of stabbing. Dark. Moral conundrums. Excellent andabsolutely amazing expose of Deadpool’s character and what his morals are like.-Spider-Man/Deadpool (2016-ongoing): I can’t speak for the laterstuff, but the first bit was pretty funny.

New Kids onthe Block These are “new” heroes that were meant to be youngand fresh. They’re fully established now, and definitely worth a look.-Nova (2013-2016): I love Sam. I do. He’s a spazy Hispanic teenagerwith cosmic space powers by accident basically. He’s one of the kids thatkicked off the dad!tony thing in comics. Has appearances by the guardians, anddeals with cosmic space stuff-Invincible Iron Man: Ironheart (2016-ongoing for now): This iswhere Riri Williams takes over the Iron Man title as weird shit happens to TonyStark. Black, 16, smarter than Tony.-Ms. Marvel (2014-ongoing): Kamala is just really sweet honestly,though I’ve only so far gone through the first 2 or 3 trades.

-Spider-Men(2012): Blends the spider-man of 616 with ultimate spider-man and gives areally good jumping point to the Miles Morales as Spider-Man when he comespermanently into the 616 universe.

-Spider-Man(2016-ongoing): Miles as spider-man. He and Nova, and Kamala get mentored by Tony Starkin some of the all new-all different avenger’s books but each also has a solorun.

- Hawkeye(2016-2018): The only Young Avengers to get her own series, Kate Bishop as Hawkeye.Helps keep Clint Barton from dying, pretty great all around. Kate isn’t newsince she came around in 2005 but she was horribly underused until she showedup in Fractions Hawkeye and then got her own solo.

LGBTQ and fucking AWESOME but not MCU related at all:

- Young Avengers (2005) and YA: Children’s Crusade (2011):Children’s crusade has more Wanda, YA is the first teenage superhero group thatalso had one of Marvel’s first gay on panel kisses.

- Angela: Asguard’s Assassin (2014) and Angela: Queen of Hel(2015): a transfriendly lesbian love story with fierce fucking femalecharacters.

- Fearless Defenders (2013): Valkyrie and a ton of kick assmarvel women team up, boot all the men off the Defenders team and then showthem the fuck up also there are Lesbians and Valkyrie is a fucking goddess.

And that’s where I’m going to stop. If you put any of these titlesinto google with the dates, it will show you what you’re looking for! There aresites to read comics for free, and there are programs that you can use to readthem digitally. But honestly, once you find what you like, head to your localcomic book shop (if you have one) and browse their titles. Most places wlilorder things in.

If you’re into X-Men, I can do an X-men specific list, butX-Men aren’t really MCU so I didn’t include them. X-Men is kind of my tried andtrue for marvel though tbh. There are a lot of new X-men series being launchedright now and they just resurrected Jean Grey, so if you want that, let me know,it’s its own list.

#anon #anon ask #answers #definitely comics #when i got this i felt like i wasn't qualified to answer it and then i looked at my bookshelf and cried

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davidmann95 · 7 years ago

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This Superman guy's pretty great, huh?

Okay. Figured I’d write this at somepoint, seems like as good a place as any to do it.

Yes: Superman is pretty great. The character’s great,the costume’s great, the cast is great, the powers are great, the scope of thekind of adventures you can tell with him is great, the mythology’s great, thepower he has to inspire on the page and in the real world is great. I’ve known that since I was…I dunno,three? Two? I’m told he was my first three-syllable word. I’m not sure what myfirst exposure would have been; Supermanthe Animated Series was airing when I was a kid, my dad had the Fleischercartoons on tape, we’d watch reruns of TheAdventures of Superman whenever they aired, I had some odd issues of Superman Adventures, I had picture bookslike The True Story of Superman, Superman: Slippery When Bad and I Hate Superman!, I even had an abridgedversion of John Byrne’s Man of Steel manyyears before I would change my tune on it. It was well past the whole nineyards of lunchboxes and Superman-themed birthday parties - mom and dad wereLois-Mom and Jimmy-Dad for a bit, who got a call one time from a teacher inpreschool that I had dramatically taken off my shirt to show the temporaryS-Shield tattoo I’d gotten on my chest. My dad ended up having to drive toevery Burger King in the area asking for any spare Superman toys because Icouldn’t stand that they had been discontinued before I could get them all andI was making life hell for everyone in the process. I couldn’t play Supermanwith other kids on the playground, because I’d demand we recreate the scriptsof adventures verbatim.

Around seven or thereabouts though,while I never developed any of the disdain towards him that so many seem tohave, I drifted away for a while towards Batman and Spider-Man. Purely bycoincidence, this is also the age I was diagnosed with Asperger’s.

It’s not something I talk about agreat deal these days. Not because of some sense of shame, to be as clear aspossible about that right upfront. It isn’t even a matter of my especiallybeing able to pass as neurotypical - take me out of my comfort zone into anynumber of common social circumstances and that illusion falls by the wayside.But I’ve carved out I feel a pretty decent niche where I’m typically fairlysatisfied and able to function at a level that meets my own standards, and as aresult it’s usually background radiation of my life, not something that comesup unbidden until a situation demands I start thinking about it again. Even when I do, thinking about it much often leaves me feeling self-conscious and self-indulgent, and convinced I’m either being stupidly self-aggrandizing or stupidly self-pitying about it.

So naturally, even once I reallystarted to get back into Superman in earnest at 13 alongsidecomics in general and he became my favorite character in earnest, there are some associations it took me awhile to make.

I’m not quite certain when Istarted to think about it, but the structure of how I thought about it I know came about thanks to @postcardsfromspace‘s (excellent) article I See Your Value Now on learningabout their own Asperger’s. I doubt it’s an association any creators for thecharacter have given any thought (aside from maybe Mark Waid, given that in an interview on Birthright he specifically noted how his idea for Martha Kentbecoming a UFO buff in response to her son was meant as a parallel to parentsof kids with autism having to become self-taught experts on the subject), andall a Google search immediately turns up is comparing a young Clark’s troubleswith his X-Ray vision in Man of Steelto sensory overload in children with autism. It’s not something that would havelikely even occurred to me if it wasn’t for that…well, that I have Asperger’s,and Superman’s a special interest, and as a default I’m always ready on somelevel to connect any input I get back to him.

Obviously, there’s Clark himself.He screams it, right? Likely just because of a general conflation of ‘nerd’traits with ‘Aspie’ traits, but it’s all there right on the surface: shy,awkward, naïve, can’t read a room to save his life, unaware of some generalsocial conventions given his penchant for drab suits, horn-rimmed glasses andfedoras well into the 21st century, either without many friends orlocked into a rigid and small social circle, by all appearances more alivebehind a screen than he ever is to anyone’s face. Even the more confident takeson him, such as in the Reeves TV show or the New 52 Action Comics, seem to lack a social grace or two, seem to grate onthe people around him. Precision-constructed by the greatest man to ever liveto be beneath the notice of his peers in every way imaginable, of course you end up with that guy.

…except even when Clark’s purely apost-Smallville construct on Superman’s part, he’s not made out of nothing, ishe? The Kansas boy who grew up reading ATale of Two Cities as a toddler and obsessively pouring over astronomytextbooks for clues can hazard a guess of what it feels like to be a nerd. Theguy who grew up on a farm who flies and can accidentally shatter steel in hisgrip is entirely familiar with how it feels to awkwardly maneuver around in acrowded city. The square who grew up in the middle of nowhere constantlygetting accused of not knowing how the world really works can probably express a little doubt over his ownself-awareness and naiveté if he absolutely has to. Clark Kent is historicallybuilt on Superman’s own worst image of himself.

(This incidentally, along withplenty of other storytelling-based reasons, is why I intensely dislikeit when Clark’s the ‘real guy’, and therefore confident and charming and on topof things; it’s Kryptonite to the ideas in play there.)

And the shyness? The sense of beingout of place? The - let’s get right to the heart of it - alien-ness?

Superman’s pretty cool. He’sfriendly; he’s understanding; he’s clever and kind and determined. He’s alsosomething of a loner who’s often surprisingly loathe to open up to people,and even once he’s married he still needs plenty of time to himself to thinkthings through. He’s someone who when he puts on the costume always engageswith the world in a very specific context: where his natural talents are mostobviously geared towards being helpful, where so long as he can pull off Sweetand Composed and make some speeches when he has to people will accept him withopen arms. Being Superman puts him in a situation where he can show his bestself, personally and socially and morally, and be accepted for his goodness ina way nerdy, quiet Clark Kent never can.

And god, does he need thatacceptance.

That’s often applied to painfullymaudlin stories of him hand-wringing over his social impact on humanity andwhether he can save all the little children of the world from cancer orwhatever, but it’s still something else that seems to be pretty consistentacross the various interpretations. Unless he’s barreling ahead with a degreeof self-confidence bordering on flat-out arrogance, he’s always worried abouthow he seems in the eyes of the world. Whether that means Red Kryptoniteexternalizing anxieties of old age or powerlessness or throwing him intodreamworlds of hate or irrelevance, or wondering whether he can justify one ofhis two identities, or pondering his alien nature, or questioning what Supermanmeans as a symbol to the world, or being flat-out replaced, or even protectinghis secret, it’s always the same question refracted through endless prisms: Can I belong here? Am I doing well enough,being useful enough, to deserve what I’ve been given? Will they find me out?Would they ever accept me if theyknew the truth?

For all the joy that comes with who he is, that’s his life too: it’s growing up inSmallville knowing there’s no one else who’ll ever know the distinct timbre ofair-pressure changes when a hummingbird slows down its wingbeat a fraction, noone he could talk about the sight of snowflakes assembling themselves out offreezing raindrops to without sounding as if he’s out of his mind, no one whocould fully empathize with having to practice normal human reactions to theworld. It’s spending half his life trying to be a normal guy among normalpeople and failing because of his own insecurities, the other half really beingable to do his best in his own element and being the person he wants to be, butnever being sure if it’s enough for those around him. It’s finally meeting other Kryptonians orsuperheroes but realizing even their own experiences diverge so sharply thatthe communication gap remains, that as a matter of circumstance he is and will alwaysremain fundamentally other in someways, no matter how deeply he connects with other people.

His relationships seem to fit the mold too - it works pretty dang well that histwo best friends are a coworker who’s simultaneously the cool dude who takeshim under his wing and the kid whouncritically looks up to him, and someone with the same ‘hobby’ who’s himselfpretty well-known for having issues opening up to people. Or that his wifefalling in love with him is framed in terms of her looking past him at his mostvulnerable and awkward and unable to fit in to see the person he actually iswhen no one else can, while a major part of his love for her is her being thekind of person who’s pushy enough to force him out of his shell and some of hismore self-defeating behaviors.

And that his worst enemy, in spite ofhis aura of smug self-regard, doesn’t seem able to relate to other people on afundamental level or manage to work with them very well when he’s not in fullcontrol of the situation, even as he needs them to accept and validate him. Lexfails because he’ll never work to bridge that gap in the same way as Superman,seeing that as a ridiculous and unrealistic imposition, and Superman as anintruder into his personal universe trying to force his unrealistic standardsof “acknowledge other people and whatthey think about things” on him while at the same time agonizingly,bafflingly succeeding where Lex fails. He’s the embodiment in that regard ofthe frustrated, shamed instinct of the isolated that you’re already great, sopeople should already love and understand you and it’s their fault for notgetting it (hence for instance how in All-Starhe overtly sees the world and the relationships that make it up in a coldly material manner where people naturally flock to only the most outwardly great aroundthem - colored by a sexist streak that’s taken on a whole new degree of toxic prominencewhen it comes to the socially awkward in the near-decade since the book’sconclusion).

(It also works that Superman’scharacter in All-Star is defined byhis disconnect from humanity, and that his big character arc is having tobecome emotionally honest enough to talk with the people who love him aboutwhat he’s going through.)

Again, clearly none of this is theintent on the part of those who’ve worked with him over the years. This is byno means the bedrock or secret key to what makes him tick; it’s at best a componentin a much larger machine. I’m sure if you dug into it enough you could find somethingproblematic in the proposition, and I won’t pretend there couldn’t becharacters closer in every sense to my own experiences.

But none of them would be Superman.

Sure, it helps that I grew up withhim, and that he’s a character with enough detail and weird ideas and characterwork that I can delve into the minutia of him in a way I can’t with anyone elseto the same extent other than Batman, but beyond all that, he’s Superman. He’s TheGuy, the best, and that I can see myself in him in *any* way means more than itever could with any other character, because that makes him being a role modelmean something else.

For all I talked about how lonelyhe is above he’s still an idealist, still has friends and a job and weirdpersonal hobbies at his personal ice-cave and a way to express his highest,best self in a way that’s loved by the people around him. The way he seesthings differently can be accepted and shared even as he understands and caresfor the people around him. He’s happy. And that he can start from a place of being the onlyone of his kind and end up a good person, the best person, in part because he knows better than anyone what it isto be alone and why others matter so much? That has more weight to people, andto me, than can be expressed.

I mentioned before I’m not wildabout Clark being the exclusive true identity in part because of how much itmesses with this. I’ve also said elsewhere that while both Clark and Supermanare inseparable and true parts of his identity that can’t be denied as importantaspects of who he is, if I absolutely had to choose one as being the ‘real’ one I’dgo with Superman. And I can pick apart any number of storytelling reasons forthat, but thinking about how I relate to Superman in the way I do made merealize something else. I have to see Superman as the truest self becauseSuperman’s who he is at his best, when he’s not afraid or ashamed and can showhimself in all his alienness to everyone and be accepted for it. That’s thedream, right? I’m no Superman, but I’ve gottabelieve in him, ‘cause I’ve gotta believe in me.

I’m pretty sure some of you canrelate.

#Superman #Asperger's #Autism #Clark Kent #Lex Luthor #Lois Lane #All Star Superman #Analysis #Opinion #Me

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shallahraekwon062488 · 7 years ago

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Undercover Daredevil /Matt Murdock haters!!!

They claim to love Matt. But all they do is bash him and harp on his flaws and negatives. Mean everyone around is perfect!!! This great man and hero well never get the proper respect and admiration he deserve.

So just who is the Horned Devil of Hell's Kitchen? I believe all characters, especially ones that have been around since 1964, have an essence to them that makes them unique. And Daredevil is pretty extraordinary. Daredevil is an often maligned character, deemed tier B. He doesn't have the wealth, charm, and gadgets of Iron Man. He doesn't have the patriotic appeal of Captain America. He doesn't have the strength or healing powers of Spider-man. He's been called the poor man's Batman too many times (especially before the TV series believe me om that). But Matt Murdock, the man under the Daredevil mask, is one of the most complex characters in comic books and certainly the most tortured character in comic books.

They say you create drama by putting your characters through the wringer and you give them depth by giving them baggage. Stan Lee had followed that guidance well with previous characters. He gave Peter Parker guilt over his uncle's death. He gave Tony Stark a damaged heart. Stan and Bill Everett gave Matt Murdock similar baggage - guilt over his father's death and blindness inflicted upon him as a child. But, over the years, a myriad of writers and artists have expanded upon another facet of Matt's identity, his Roman Catholicism. It's kind of a rule to not talk about a character's religious identity for fear of alienating readers that aren't comfortable going outside of their personal experience bubble. But, Matt Murdock's Roman Catholicism has long been front and center, adding a whole other layer of guilt to him as he spins the web of lies necessary to preserve his secret identity and breaks laws left and right operating as a street level vigilante.

Unlike the character he is most often compared to, Daredevil fails...a lot. Daredevil is a man with extraordinary abilities and skills and yet none of that can make up for experience. Reading/watching Daredevil is like watching a man turned vigilante on the righteous path of learning to become a superhero. Even when he's at his peak he still makes constant mistakes.

Flawed characters interest me so much and that was always Marvel's greatest talent-- creating characters that were more human to the point where you'd sware you had either met them before in person or they were just like you.

Matt Murdock's goal isn't to save the world. It's to protect a neighborhood that's done nothing but shit on him, beat on him, and break his torn spirt. Yet he loves his city. He knows it more intimately than any human could fathom. And he knows there's still good in the world. So he keeps fighting.

"Get up Matt. You have work to do."

#marvel daredevil #daredevil #matthew murdock #matt murdock #netflix marvel #marvel heroes #superhero #marvel defenders #marvel's defenders #netflix defenders #marvel netflix

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aion-rsa · 3 years ago

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The Actors Who Have Played Spider-Man

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With great power comes great responsibility. And the power of getting to don Peter Parker’s beloved red and blue tights has been bestowed only on a few. Despite it seeming like a new Spider-Man movie is coming to theaters every year—and to be fair that’s not too far from the truth—just three actors have played the character in live-action on the big screen. When the web is slightly widened to encompass television, the number of live-action Parkers increases, but they’re comparatively obscure.

Truth be told, there have only been a handful of Spider-Men, and each has left a strikingly distinct and unique spin on the old Web-Head. For that reason, we’ve decided to look back at the most renowned wallcrawlers and reexamine what each one brought to the table.

Danny Seagren

The first live action Spider-Man came from a place you might not expect: an educational series from the same people behind Sesame Street. The Children’s Television Workshop created The Electric Company in 1971, a show meant for kids who had outgrown Sesame Street but could still benefit from learning about reading skills in fun ways. In 1974, they acquired the rights to Spider-Man from Marvel Comics, and used him for a series of comedic skits called Spidey Super Stories.

Told in live action comic book style, Spidey Super Stories was meant to further the show’s mission of helping pre-teens learn to read. Played by puppeteer and dancer Danny Seagren in a comics accurate costume, Spidey was never shown as Peter Parker, and never spoke a single word, instead communicating via onscreen thought bubbles for the audience to read.

“I had a number of Spider-Man poses and a distinctive way I would shoot the web (that resembles an underhand pitch),” Seagren recalled in an interview with 13th Dimension. “I was a fan of Spider-Man and I had seen the animated series, a lot. Plus, I was a professionally trained dancer. So I had some moves and a grace, which is important because Spider-Man has a grace about him, slinking around. Before the first show, I had spent some time trying some things to do with my body so that I would have a repertoire of Spider-Man moves.”

While Spidey Super Stories might not be the first thing that fans associate with the wall-crawler in live action, and the shorts are a curiosity for modern audiences, Seagren deserves his place in history.

Nicholas Hammond (and Fred Waugh)

Maybe you know him as Friedrich Von Trapp in 1965’s The Sound of Music. Or perhaps sitcom fans of a certain generation know him as Doug Simpson, the big man on campus who Marcia Brady has her eyes on before a football mishap involving her nose in a 1973 Brady Bunch episode. Or maybe you were just really drawn to his brief performance as Sam Wanamaker in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Nah, we all love Nicholas Hammond as the first live action Peter Parker in 1977’s far too short-lived The Amazing Spider-Man TV series.

In his late 20s when he was cast, Hammond’s Peter was a grad student and freelance photographer who felt very much in line with the Spider-Man comics of his era. Hammond gave us a charming, even dignified Peter, who still had to deal with the “ol’ Parker luck” even though he never had to battle any of the comics’ costumed baddies. He cut a trim and athletic figure in the suit, too. And yes, Hammond DID wear the costume when stunts weren’t required. “I always wore the suit if there was a scene interacting with other actors,” he recently told The Hollywood Reporter. “I didn’t think it was fair for the other actors to work with nonactors.”

But one stuntman in particular stands out as one of the great Spidey performers: Fred Waugh. The show’s stunt coordinator was the one who made the series’ limited network TV budget go the furthest. The Amazing Spider-Man is famous (perhaps infamous) for its lo-fi special effects, with Spidey relying on rope web-shooters or casting nets at his opponents. But it also featured some absolutely eye-popping stunts. No CGI here, Waugh would literally swing between buildings, balance on high ledges, and scale skyscrapers …in one case quite literally scaling the side of the Empire State Building for a scene. And he occasionally did all this with a camera rig on his head for some dizzying POV shots.

The Amazing Spider-Man has never been given an official DVD, Blu-ray, or streaming release, a travesty we wrote more about here. And if you can look past some of the ’70s stock TV plots and occasionally shoddy production values, there’s a truly special performance by Hammond and some genuinely Spider-Man worthy stunt work by Waugh.

Shinji Tōdō (and Hirofumi Koga)

The Japanese Spider-Man live action TV series, Supaidāman, shares almost nothing in common with the Marvel Comics character other than a name and a costume. But just because this ain’t Peter Parker, it doesn’t mean that it ain’t Spidey! As Into the Spider-Verse and No Way Home prove, there’s room for infinite Spideys in the multiverse, and Shinji Tōdō’s Takuya Yamashiro is as valid as any of them. Screw getting bitten by a radioactive spider, Yamashiro gets his powers (and some killer tech, like a Spider-Mobile and an awesome giant robot called Leopardon) from a dying alien from the planet Spider who gives him a blood transfusion.

If the idea of a teen who transforms into a tech-assisted superhero to fight an assortment of nameless alien foes commanded by a single big bad each episode sounds like a forerunner of the Power Rangers franchise, that’s because it is. And while Yamashiro is a motocross racer by trade rather than a freelance photographer, there’s a bit of hapless Peter Parker comedy in Tōdō’s performance, as well as the appropriate amount of melodrama and angst when called for.

Running from 1978-1979 and 41 episodes, Supaidāman is unlike any version of the Spidey legend you’ve ever seen, but it’s colorful, fun, and like The Amazing Spider-Man above, full of some tremendous stunts and fight choreography. Some of the best, most convincing wall-crawling ever put on film is here, thanks in no small part to Hirofumi Koga, a gymnast who often performed stunts up to 40 meters in the air without a safety rope attached!

The series is currently unavailable by conventional means in the US and UK, but there’s a wonderful episode of the Marvel documentary series, Marvel’s 616 that details the complete history of the series with plenty of fun footage available to watch on Disney+ (we wrote about it here). Here’s hoping Disney sees sense and puts the entire series up on there soon, too.

Tobey Maguire

Ah, here’s the sentimental favorite for anyone between the ages of 20 and 35. Tobey Maguire, the first Spider-Man to swing on to cinema screens, and in some respects still the best.

When Maguire was cast in his now most famed role, it seemed like an odd choice to typical industry watchers. Many more traditional “leading men” in his generation, at least in the then-thriving teen movie market, were considered by the studio, and Freddie Prinze Jr. even publicly campaigned for the role.

But Tobey Maguire? The sensitive and introspective performer who brought poignancy to Ang Lee dramas like The Ice Storm (1997) and Ride with the Devil (1999)? He was a serious actor (and far from a superhero given the reputation of his and best buddy Leonardo DiCaprio’s teen entourage in the ‘90s). Even his most commercial fare saw the young actor play oddballs who are obsessed with syndicated TV (1998’s Pleasantville) or are literary savants (2000’s Wonder Boys).

Yet that poignancy and oddness is what director Sam Raimi wanted. Together, the filmmaker and star keyed into Peter Parker’s perpetual sense of self-sacrifice. If Spider-Man stories are, as comic book artist John Romita Sr. mused, a soap opera where a fight breaks out, then Maguire would make audiences acutely feel the pain of that soapiness. Here’s a young man who just wants to do the right thing, and to be with the girl next door, and he is constantly denied happiness due to making the hard choice. At a time where superhero movies still weren’t taken particularly seriously, here was one that imagined how unglamorous such a lifestyle could be.

Fans of the comic book character are justified to note that Maguire never really captured Peter’s motormouth snark when he puts on the mask. But purely through his doleful blue eyes, he articulated with a glance the character’s innate nobility better than anyone else.

Andrew Garfield

What could have been. On paper, Andrew Garfield should be the definitive Spider-Man. As a classically trained British stage and screen actor who grew up adoring the webslinger, here was a renowned thespian who won a Tony for doing Death of a Salesman on Broadway in the same year he first played Spidey.

Yet due to a multitude of factors, Garfield’s Spidey duology of The Amazing Spider-Man (2012) and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) are generally considered to be the weakest cinematic incarnations of the character. Even so, Garfield’s passion unmistakably comes through. Playing the role fresh off his Hollywood breakthrough in David Fincher’s The Social Network (2010), Garfield, director Marc Webb, and likely a legion of Sony executives attempted to differentiate his Peter from Maguire’s.

If fans were unhappy about the character’s lack of wit or playfulness in Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, Garfield would be dropping putdowns on criminals as rapidly as his punches. And if Maguire portrayed Peter as a bit of a sad sack, then Garfield’s Peter would be hip, moody, and ride a skateboard.

The truth, however, is the character had so many dissonant elements thrown into the script that it was hard to get a good read on who really was breathing behind the mask. Even that aforementioned sense of humor came off as more cruel and condescending than fun and lighthearted. Similarly, his motivations for becoming Spider-Man are muddled since he starts wearing the mask out of a sense of revenge and then inexplicably becomes a superhero.

And yet, Garfield’s own personal joy could break through both scripts’ multitude of problems, and Garfield could exude a physical giddiness at playing the character—plus a genuine sense of romantic longing. Indeed, his palpable chemistry Garfield shared with Emma Stone, who played Gwen Stacy, might make this still the best romance ever told in a Spider-Man movie.

Tom Holland

When James Gunn first saw early footage of Tom Holland as Peter Parker in Captain America: Civil War (2016), he said, “[Holland] is to Spidey as Downey is to Iron Man, Ledger was to Joker, Pratt is to Star-Lord.” It’s high praise, but in the sense of making the role entirely his own and defining it for the next generation, well Gunn’s not whistling “Itsy Bitsy Spider.”

Holland, who made his acting debut at London’s West End and in the coveted title role of Billy Elliot the Musical, is an extremely gifted actor, dancer, and even gymnast. Indeed, it was his own ability to perform Spider-Man-like acrobatics on audition tapes that helped land him the part. Before playing Spidey, he was still fresh out of the BRIT school for Performing Arts and had broken through on-screen by earning major critical raves for his turn in The Impossible (2012).

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Nevertheless, Holland was more unknown than Maguire and Garfield, even in the industry, when he was cast as the most youthful Spider-Man to date. Whereas the previous Spidey actors were in their late 20s when they played Peter as a kid about to graduate high school, Holland was just 19 when cameras rolled on Civil War. Over the course of six films, he’s thus depicted Pete as an honest-to-Thor teenager who’s perpetually in over his head.

Holland’s Parker also captures the happy-go-lucky joy that eluded the previous two actors. In fact, there’s very little of the tragic (yet) to his interpretation. Neither Uncle Ben nor Peter’s missing parents are mentioned, he rarely suffers social consequences for his adventuring, and the kid’s even on the fast-track to become a billionaire with Tony Stark willing Peter the most expensive drone program in the world. It’s certainly a different interpretation of the character, but a welcome one given Holland’s irresistible rascality.

Animated Spider-Man(s)

As perhaps the single most animated superhero in history, it would take a whole ‘nother article to detail all of the amazing, spectacular talent who have given voice to the web-head across countless cartoons and dozens of video games (and if you’d like to see that article, let us know in the comments!). But there are a some who practically defined the character for their generations, and deserve special recognition.

Paul Soles was the first actor to give voice to Spider-Man, in the famous Grantray-Lawrence Spider-Man animated series that ran between 1967-1970 that gave us the most iconic music associated with the web-slinger.

For ’80s kids, Dan Gilvezan is the definitive Spidey thanks to his work on Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends which ran from 1981-1983. Gilvezan’s Peter and Spidey are arguably the first in ANY screen incarnation to truly capture the full spirit of the comics character.

Christopher Daniel Barnes is the Spider-Man of the 1990s, playing Peter across 5 seasons and 65 episodes of Spider-Man: The Animated Series. Like Gilvezan, this is one of the most definitive Spidey performances of all time.

Josh Keaton deserves a place on Spidey Mount Rushmore, even though the brilliant Spectacular Spider-Man had its web line cut after only 26 episodes, but he also voiced the character in several video games.

And while this article is primarily Peter-focused, Shameik Moore deserves a special mention for bringing Miles Morales to perfect life in the flawless Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It’s only a matter of time before Miles swings over to live action, and in a few years we may need one of these articles chronicling all of Miles’ various screen incarnations, too!

Who are your favorite screen Spideys? Let us know in the comments!

The post The Actors Who Have Played Spider-Man appeared first on Den of Geek.

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furederiko · 7 years ago

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This is the LAST post for December, meaning it's also the FINAL post for the year. Anything special to publish in the conclusive day of 2017? NOPE. Just this... uhmmm, random ramblings. Ahahaha...

My internet went down completely for around 2 weeks since December 13th. The unexpected 'incident' (I apparently has burned my modem *sigh*) made me switched into my creative side and did genuine FUN non-internet related things instead. And I got all caught up by it... that I practically did NOT prepare anything for Tumblr.

Had a Random-News-Digest prepared for mid-December, but ditched it completely because the content would be highly outdated now. Wanted to do my monthly recap-view for "Kamen Rider Build", but haven't finished it so it'll have to wait until next month. The only thing I could pull off was the recap-views for "Uchu Sentai Kyuranger" last 2 episodes of the year. Though to be honest, that amazing show was part of my 'offline fun' as well. So yeah, unlike last year, there is no TOP 10 list this year. Didn't even publish anything for Christmas, because I completely FORGOT about it! LOL... (^^;)

Anyways, to make up for all of that, I've written a rough 'RECAP' of what went through my life this year. Entertainment-wise, of course, and not all but just some of the highlights. In list form! Why? Because I feel like it *grins*. Here goes nothing...

Movies, Oh movies...

- Watched even less movies on the theatre this year, and opted to wait several releases on home video. Only went to see the big guns, thus there isn't any disappointment. - Surprisingly, I loved the live action "Beauty and the Beast" more than the animated original. Dan Stevens' solo number "Evermore" is stuck in my head ever since. - Haven't seen "Coco", and really want to. Here's hoping the home video will be released soon. I guess I should see "Cars 3" first, huh? - "Dunkirk" was magnificent. War movie is usually not my forte, so I'm pleasantly surprised that Christopher Nolan managed to make me enjoy one. Was it the short duration, the all-out jerks of the army, or the non-stop intensity? Don't know. But if there's at least one thing I've gained from it: I disliked Harry Styles ever more now. No kidding. Poor French soldier... - I'm a visual guy so when I saw a disturbing scene, it usually stayed on my head for a good while. That bloody scene after the bomb explosion on "Stronger", for example? *sigh*. I hope Jake Gyllenhall receives an Oscar nomination for his work on this movie. - "Death Note" and "Ghost in the Shell"? Enjoyed the first one more, but both deserved better. - Tom Cruise's "The Mummy" was mediocre, but I'm among the minority who actually want to see more of Universal's Dark Universe. Even if just to see more of Russell Crowe going Jekyll. Charlie Hunnam's "King Arthur: Legend of the Sword" was the movie's kindred spirit, while "Kong: Skull Island" was the opposite. Kong will be meeting Godzilla in the coming years! - Comic book adaptations were generally top notch. Naturally the three Marvel Studios' releases; "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2", "Spider-Man: Homecoming", and "Thor: Ragnarok"; would be my top picks. Don't ask me to choose which one is the best though! All three were amazing and marvelous in their own unique ways, so I'd gladly rank them in the same spot just to be fair. - I admit, "Logan" and "Wonder Woman" were great too, but I didn't like them as much as everyone else on the planet. Not sure why, I guess... none of them was my cup of tea? Let's just say, there were problems on each of them that I couldn't quite tolerate and it reduced my overall impression on them. - Don't ask about "Justice League". I'll wait until I can borrow a copy when it's out on home video. Not wasting my money on a poorly reviewed DC Films. For now, "The LEGO Batman Movie" remains to be the best DC release of the year. - "Kingsman: The Golden Circle" was just NOT as good as the prequel. It was fun, but it felt like it's repetitive yet also missing something and trying too much.

Show Must Go On...

- Just realized that I've seen MORE TV series this year! Both the currently in broadcast, or titles from previouse years like "Westworld". Oh WOW... - Both Marvel's "Iron Fist" and Marvel's "The Defenders" were genuine duds. Both TV series were underwhelming and disappointing, that I have lost any urge to see Marvel's "The Punisher". - Haven't seen Marvel's "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." 5th season as well, because I haven't been feeling it. Though that will change in the near future because I'm itching to see its 5th episode. Hey, my boy Fitz and Hunter are the star of that episode, right? THAT I just have to see! I wonder if seeing that episode would be enough to convince me to watch the previous four episodes... - Currently following Marvel's "Runaways", though this 1st season might be my first and last. Don't know why, but not feeling it either. I think CW's "Riverdale" was a more watchable show, and even that one have been dropped after Season 1. LOL. I guess teenage soap-opera is just NOT my thing. - The 5th and final season of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" was kind of... all over the place too. This show should've ended with Season 3, if you ask me. It had a bittersweet ending, akin to "Samurai Jack". But it also did not ended gracefully, and far less enjoyable to follow. - "Stranger Things" Season 2 was amazing. It had a somewhat different vibe compared to the 1st one, but equally enjoyable to watch. Poor characters whose name starts with 'B'... - I think the 3rd and 4th Seasons of "Voltron Legendary Defender" were initially meant to be one unit. The show's first two seasons were impressive, but these latter two were... okay? I don't know why, but it felt like it has waned a bit. - "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" was somewhat similar. I had great time with Season 1 and 2, but Season 3 was a bit... uneven. Many of the jokes didn't quite hit, and some of the story development started feeling like a recycled trick. Still, I would love to see a 4th Season, and hopefully with better improvements. - Was expecting "Big Hero 6: The Series" to be as amazing as the Oscar-winning movie... but alas that didn't seem to be the case. Didn't quite enjoy the 2-episodes premiere as much as I wanted to. A complete opposite to "DuckTales", that hit all the right notes. The sole complaint I have about this reboot/remake, is that Scrooge McDuck's adventure isn't airing new episodes on a weekly basis! Aaaaargggh, the long wait is making me angry. - If you haven't seen "Thunderbirds Are Go", then what are you waiting for? I feel the 2nd Season had more and more amazing moments, to the point that I hope Season 3 will come sooner than later. - Comedies are taking my leisure time now! Have been following Seth McFarlane's "The Orville". It was mediocre to good, and desperately in need of improvements (hopefully in Season 2). Yet I keep going back and see it. Is it the star power of its guest stars? - Adam Scott and Craig Robinson's "Ghosted" is on my top priority watch. Sure, the quality has reduced a bit since the pilot, but the supernatural agents aren't going anytime soon from my house. - The same with Kevin Finn! Great goodness, I have only started watching "Kevin Probably Saves the World" since early this month (the benefit of NOT getting preoccupied by the internet LOL), but I'm already regretting why I didn't start sooner. Now I honestly can't wait to see more! Kevin is such an adorkable, likeable, and surprisingly relatable quirky lead. The kind of guy I would totally love to be best friends with in real life. Really though, the show is infectuous with its acts of kindness, heartwarming with its pleasant vibes, and also surprisingly engaging through its personal conflicts. If you hear me giggling, laughing out loud, or sobbing lately, you can probably thank Kevin, his guardian Angel, family, and friends for that! Seriously...

A Spoonful of Anime and Toku

- Turns out, "Kekkai Sensen & Beyond" wasn't the sequel that I expected to be. It's... 'different' than the first season. But when you get to see what the other members of Libra (even the team's butler) are doing in their daily lives, should one even be complaining? In the end it was indeed as amazing and fun ride as the first season, even if lead protagonist Leonardo Watch took a back seat most of the season. I'm already crossing my fingers to see more adventure of the team. But it likely won't happen in the near future, huh? Bummer... - "Ballroom e Youkoso" was a peculiar dance. I thoroughly enjoyed the first half, but after Tatara changed partner things got... hectic and irritating to follow? It was still good, but a rather uneven show if you ask me for honest impression. At the very least, it wasn't a wasted opportunity like "Kabuki-bu!" was. - "Houseki no Kuni" was of similar situation. Its animation was gorgeous, story was peculiarly engaging, and world building was great. But there were episodes that were undeniably better than the rest, and I didn't quite like how it ended. I guess that finale was teasing for more seasons? Hmmm... - It's been years since I follow a Pretty Cure series, and "Kira Kira Precure A La Mode" wet my appetite and got me back to the game. Unfortunately, while the design was interesting, and the sweets angle was neat, the story was somewhat weak. I have lost my initial enthusiasm after the first half, but I still watch it because it's going to end pretty soon. Not quite expecting a mindblowing finale though, especially if the animation quality is any indication. A common problem of TOEI Animation. Remember "Sekaisuru KADO"? - Dang it, what an impressive year it has been with Super Sentai. "Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger" was kind of dull and boring last year, but had a great ending this year. And it was quickly followed by something even better. Yes, another show that has dragged me on a pleasant roller coaster ride is none other than TOEI's "Uchu Sentai Kyuranger". Since its premiere run on February, until its Christmas episode that wrapped up its 2017 run, I haven't been disappointed once with the series. Yes, I had an issue with the spin-off series of V-Cinema "Episode of Stinger", but that didn't count as the broadcast lineup. Though it's painful for me to soon say goodbye to this amazing season, I hope its last month will be memorable and a blast. Particularly because I'm currently having second thoughts about the 2018 season... - Just like its weekly storyline, "Kamen Rider Build" is still moving me back and forth. I'm honestly on the verge of dropping it completely, but I guess I'm going to check out several episodes from the next "Kamen Rider Wars" arc. I kind of feel it takes too long to get to this point when it could've been done earlier, but who am I to argue, right?

Name of the Game

- "Nintendo Switch" was a hit! Ever since its release on March 2017, the buzz and hype for this hybrid console only continue to increase. I wonder if I will be able to purchase one next year? Perhaps, just in time for the next Pokemon gen? - Speaking of Pokemon, the addition of Generation III from Hoenn region has made me go out and explore "Pokemon GO" again. The whole Raid Battle system and Niantic's handling of the Legendary Pokemon had disappointed so bad that I was close to give up on this App. Thankfully, now I have a horde of new reason to walk around the neighborhood. Problem is, can the same premise work in the long run? Niantic really need to consider new social features that enables players to engage with one another. - "Street Fighter V" had a weird set of DLC characters this year. The 2nd Season contained mostly new characters, that was a hit or miss with fans. Thankfully, things seem to be picking up next year with the Arcade Edition. Not just because my man Cody Travers is all dandy clean and returning to the game, of course. Question is, will I be able to play the game eventhough I don't have any plans to pick up a PS4? *giggles*. - I also haven't been able to play "Persona 5" due to the exact reason. LOL. Thankfully, "Persona 5 the Animation" has been announced to air next year. Sure, I'm a bit skeptical with the fact that A-1 Pictures and not Production I.G. will be doing the animation, but at least this will be my way of enjoying the game... WITHOUT actually playing it. - LEVEL-5 should do more of that worldwide Puzzle Quest! That was meant to be a prelude or some sort to "Layton's Mystery Journey: Katrielle and The Millionaires' Conspiracy", but I think the game developer should learn by now that it could work as a stand alone project. It made people come together in surprising way, and attracted fans to come back everyday to check out the new worldwide puzzle. Real FUN!

Oookaaay, that went A LOT longer than I expected. And I'm 100% sure that there are items that completely slipped my mind. As of writing this line, it's only just a few hours before the year ends! Aaaaarggggh *grumble*. Gotta publish this one soon then!

With that said, 2017 has been a difficult and challenging year. Particularly to a very discriminative and straight-out evil political atmosphere. One that allowed people to show their true despicable nature and selfishly trampled others for it. Last year I did say that "There's so many reasons to be hopeful about 2017", but reality had spoken differently as it turned out there were plenty more to discourage us throughout the year. Many people have even lost their fate in humanity this year.

But you know what? I'm going to say the same thing this day as well. There are SOOO many reasons to be hopeful about 2018. I don't know if it's because I'm currently caught up in the holiday spirit, or because I've been feeling extra thankful and blessed this month. One thing I can openly attest, is that things DO GET BETTER. So don't ever lose hope, and keep fighting the good fight in the name of just and goodness. I'm being lazy right now, so I'm just going to copy and paste my own words from last year: "Life can sometimes be hard, but all we need to do is stay strong, stay high spirited, and more importantly, keep moving forward! Happiness and blessings will surely find its way, in ways you might not imagine!".

And also this next one... because I'm going to be saying more or less the same kind of statements anyway: "Thanks to those who have been reading my blog all year long. I know I haven't spent much time (or any) to address you one by one, and heck, I might not even know you're there. But please know that I'll always be grateful for your presence, your time, kindness, and more importantly patience to walk through my long and sometimes pointless ramblings. What you've been doing means a lot for me, and I hope what I've been posting has and will somehow benefit back to you in return.". 2017 ends in just a few hours away, so let's enter and stride through 2018 with a hopeful and brave heart, the biggest and earnest smiles, the most sincere love and compassion for others regardless of their religion, race, or skin color. More importantly, let's make 2018 a year that we can be proud of. Where we take a stand for what's right and good! Where we become better human being than we are this year!

SEE YOU TOMORROW IN 2018!!!

#message #quotes #life quotes #wisewords #Just for Fun #random thoughts #movie #TV show #anime #game #review

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