#wb bro he was the only one in your corner

[elodee]

*head in hands*

[divineerdrick]

Homestuck: Beyond Canon Upd8 for 413

Happy 413 everyone! We knew we were getting something today, as James announced that earlier. This time, it's an extensive news posts with notes from the whole team. Looks like we've got a few comic pages as well. Let's see what we got!

James: I can definitely relate to what James is saying. Homestuck and its community helped me keep going when it seemed like there genuinely wasn't a path forward. Obviously it hasn't always been sunshine and rainbows, but I do still feel there is a lot of genuine goodness and greatness in our little corner of the internet.

And yay! James is an Aradia fan!

Kim:

Kim is one of the people who grew up with this comic. I honestly can't imagine what that must be like. Although I had a lot of media I enjoyed at 13, I don't feel like any of it had the kind of impact on me then that Homestuck had now. It's not like there wasn't anything good on, either! It was 1993 when I was 13, and WB and Disney were at their apex. But Homestuck hit different. I honestly can't imagine what it was like being able to relate to those kids like they could be your friends in another life, growing up along side them.

Miles:

A beautiful mindfuck is a great way to describe it. Honestly the somewhat over the top, trollish, insincere seeming way that Miles is writing shows a great love for Homestuck and the project in and of itself. The love honestly does come through.

Chumi:

Chumi appears to be even younger than Kim, though I could be wrong there. And she also grew up with it, if maybe starting a couple of years into its run. But it goes a step further for her. Homestuck is her formative fandom. And again, I can't imagine what that must be like, let alone now creating art for it.

Andi:

Andi is another member of the team to have grown up alongside Homestuck. It makes sense that this would create the most talented and passionate people to work on the project. Like many fans, though, they also had Homestuck influence their identity and help them feel safe in discovering who they were. It will always be important we have people like them keeping this fandom alive.

floralmarsupial:

While the way Homestuck inspired me was different, she too was drawn in and influenced by the very artistic questions Homestuck posed. Looks like James has managed to put together a team that has all been impacted by Homestuck in subtly different ways. And I'm totally here for it!

Haven:

Oh wow! Coming in on Murderstuck! Ouch! Still, the effect Homestuck has had on them is very obvious!

It's nice to hear more from each voice behind the project. I'm glad they took the time to make this celebration a bit more personal. But with all that said and done, it's time to read an Upd8!

There is so much to talk about just from this image.

First off, this is the most like Bro that Dirk has ever looked. And it's not just the fact that we've just got a plain white silhouette with shades. There is a lot of chaos in this panel reminiscent of Bro's apartment. That outfit has absolutely never looked wackier. The anime ninja aesthetics combined with the pooffiness of those shorts is already crazy. But the Kamina cape in this looks more cliché villain than anime hero.

While we can't currently see one of the monitors, we absolutely can see that Dirk has been keeping track of our Meat crew. My guess is that the other monitor is Deltritus.

Also we get a throwback with some orange drinks floating about.

Dirk is, of course, being suitably condescending here. After all, in his mind this is the only way to make the narrative matter, to make anything that we'll give a shit about. He probably knows we still enjoy the "narrative kiddy pool" but he's counting on us truly getting invested in what he has planned.

Wow! Nice frame break! Also this art slaps!

Apparently Rose and Terezi are still a thing. Dirk only seems to partially approve of this. From his perspective, the relationship is a very Rose thing to do. And Rose doing Rose things is important to him and his plans. He also appreciates that Rose doesn't have infinite patience for the finetuning that Dirk could spend a literal eternity on. It keeps him on something resembling a schedule.

So are we going to see these "scions" of theirs?

I like that there's an obvious sea horse in that test tube. Also, outside of Hero mode Dirk is still sporting his character features at least. He hasn't slipped into being a full guardian yet.

Well fuck. That might just be the hardest anyone has ever "spoken too soon."

Hell yes! Adult Terezi is awesome! Also, she's not getting rid of her facial features any time soon!

I hope I didn't jinx that . . .

I'd forgotten Terezi can hear Dirk's narrative. She's also very much on the "Get on with it!" train. Dirk was planning to skip ahead anyway, but of course he wants to unveil his creation first.

So Terezi will be the one that actually makes sure the new session happens. I'm surprised Dirk is allowing that. I can definitely get why he doesn't want it automated.

I can honestly believe that Dirk really does care about his creation.

And I can honestly see Terezi playing the long game. I'm honestly curious why she wouldn't, beside Dirk's fuckery.

Ouch.

Also, damn this art is so fucking good!

We've seen the way Terezi can let what she sees as a mistake eat at her. We've seen how far she'll go to fix it. Is John's death doing that to her? Is even this older, seemingly more jaded Terezi unable to let something like that go even with what's at stake?

Or could she possibly be letting Dirk think that's what's going on? I really kinda hope that's it.

Now that's just being mean pretending you don't know what she meant by being in her "CH4MB3RS", Dirk.

Apparently Dirk still has a mouth when he needs to.

FUCKING!!!

DAMN!!!

That's an interesting way of showing them speaking at the same time. Kinda like it.

Okay. That is some legitimate Bullshit. I like that even Dirk calls it out as such. That is a ton of power to just flex like that. His reasoning is sound, but even he knows he's partly doing it because he can.

Wow.

There is so much to potentially read into this moment. On the one had, this might be a genuine Rose moment. Even if Dirk has been manipulating her a lot, this version of Rose might genuinely be appreciative of what they're trying to do.

The other possibility is that Rose is manipulating Dirk this time. There've been hints, and I find it hard to believe otherwise, the Rose is aware Dirk has been manipulating her somehow. She may not have figured out how he's doing it, but I feel she knows. As an ascended Seer of Light, her ability to read the most fortuitous path is literally godlike. I can't imagine that definition of fortune including one where she keeps losing more and more agency. So this might be a moment where she's telling Dirk what he needs to hear to stop him from stealing more from her.

The worst part is he genuine believes that.

[xamaxenta]

I firmly believe the bond between captain and first mate was solidified when deuce and ace left that barren island chanting ‘Arson! Arson! Arson!’ Not whatever flowery reason deuce gave in the novel. After all that novel is supposed to be deuces diary, he could very well be writing bullshit to cover for the fact that he’s just as bad as ace.

Hell I bet once they got hauled off to the moby the WBs pegged only ace as the arsonist and corralled him somewhere non flammable like ‘as long as we have at least one person watching him and putting out fires it’ll be fine’ and so didn’t notice the not yet assimilated deuce sharing his captains thought process perfectly and quietly setting the rigging on fire repeatedly until they took all 6 of his lighters and the emergency flint and steel

The point is they are as bad as eachother deuce just has training in pretending to be decent in front of people he doesn’t trust and ace doesn’t care to

Sabo and Deuce would actually love each other because they both have the distinct unhingedness of growing up privileged realising just how fucked up their position in a broken society is and going nah FUCK that noise

Sabo becomes a lead pipe toting bone breaking strongest grip in the fucking world man of the revolution fuck the government to the max

Deuce meanwhile becomes a pirate because why the hell not, reasons fuck being a normie i wanna see the world and cause a little ruckus at the same time and i respect that

I immensely enjoy the concept that Deuce was writing a cover up to make him look good and Ace look like a crazy bitch bc thats how it is and then it transitions into the actual loyalty love and respect of true friendship but man those initial chapters WOOF LMAO he put Ace DOWN for sure i know he did so i almost brainwd this motherfucker on this forsaken hunk of fuckall called sixis and his dumb fucking ass went hey wanna like hang out

WHERE IDIOT???? THERES NOTHING TO DO BRO

Anyway they both indulge in petty arson Ace just had to show Deuce his devil fruit like shit this is actually kinna sick and Deuce went whoa does it hurt no? Okay cool i have a confession i reealy like blowing shit up

Ace: sweet me too 👌🏽

Corraling Ace in somewhere nonflammable would be the showers and hes just there LMAO skulking in the showers in the Moby and side eyeing all the crew coming to shower like fuck i do not give a fuck about your dick jones just shower and get the fuck out k

Cue petty crew nervously showering as Ace glowers at them in his seastone cuffs from the corner of the tiled room aHAH DF ZHCHSJADB this is so stupid

And then Marco walks in naked and Ace is like AWOOGA!!!!!

I kinda care about YOU naked

And then Deuce throws his book at Ace like holy shit hes just showering man fucking get a grip

Ace literally a rabig dog debased insnane like the fucking ass dimples, do you see those legs can i ask him to step on me oleaspleapelase actually salivating over the pecs on this dude like he wants to smother himself in THOSE WOOFWOOF

Deuce opens his book of horrors and writes: My captain was a man of many and yet rarely well practiced talents, flirtation was never a strong suit of his but by the seas he tried. The one to receive the brunt of his bawdy affections was none other than the totally out of his league, Marco the goddamn fucking Phoenix, yeah you read that right, Marco the fucking Phoenix

Ace scowling at Deuce like stop that i can see the pinch in your eyebrows asshole i know youre writing some rude fucking shit well im abbouta shiv your ass that fuckin stupid pencil of yours you know I cant read dickfuck

Deuce flourishing as he writes just to piss him off more and Ace cant do anything cuz hes chained to the wall in the showers

Marco walks out finished with his shower and Ace actually makes the most pathetic noise in his throat like a kicked dog and Deuce thinks the boot shaped bruise across his face was totally worth the ten seconds of hyena laughter he got to work with (ace kicked at him so hard his shoe flew off and smacked deuce in the face)

[aion-rsa]

Does Ben Affleck’s Batman Have the Best Movie Batcycle?

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We finally got our first look at Ben Affleck’s Batman in The Flash movie, thanks to photos taken the film’s Glasgow, Scotland set, where the Dark Knight could be seen zooming through George Square and the surrounding streets on a brand new set of wheels. The scene in question, which actually featured stunt double Rick English in the new Batsuit and not Affleck, seemed to be a daytime chase through the streets of Gotham City, with a humvee shooting back at Batfleck’s heavily armored ride.

English, who was also a stunt double for Robert Pattinson in Matt Reeves’ The Batman, can be seen riding the new Batcycle (the official name of the vehicle hasn’t been announced yet) in the set photo below:

New close-up shot of Ben Affleck's #Batman stunt double riding the Batcycle on the set of #TheFlash pic.twitter.com/t5f4HosX7G

— Big Screen Leaks (@bigscreenleaks) July 26, 2021

In short, the new Batcycle is an absolute stunner, a bit more tank-like than past live-action versions of Batbikes, as seems to be the overall DCEU aesthetic since the Zack Snyder days, but still sleek and modern. It also boasts forward shields that lift up when Batman is being shot at (as another series of set photos show) and what look like machine gun cannons on either side — presumably armed with non-lethal rounds…

Despite the bulkier design, the bike seems built for speed and maneuverability, not just battle, as it cuts tight corners through the streets of Gotham/Glasgow. Why the Caped Crusader has chosen his Batcycle over his much more heavily equipped Batmobile, a staple of Affleck’s tenure, is a mystery. Perhaps the Batcycle is just the faster pursuit vehicle…or since The Flash is a multiverse-spanning adventure, maybe he just doesn’t have access to his trademark car at the moment because he’s in the Burtonverse’s version of Gotham (I’m just speculating here).

Interestingly enough, Warner Bros. has been trying to introduce a new Batcycle (likely for toy reasons) since Justice League. In an interview with Film Sketchr, concept artist Ed Natividad revealed that he’d designed a new Batcycle for Affleck’s Batman to use in the superhero team-up movie but Snyder chose the massive Knightcrawler in its place.

“The Batcycle was proposed as a new form of transport for Batman,” Natividad said. “However it was superseded in favor of the Knightcrawler. Zack Snyder felt the cycle did not reflect the ‘team’ dynamic and needed something that would carry at least three of the members.”

It sounds like WB finally has its new Batcycle, but it’s only the latest in a long series of bikes introduced in Batman movies. In fact, Batfleck’s chopper isn’t even the only Batcycle being introduced in an upcoming DC movie.

The Batman: Robert Pattinson's Stunt Double Rides the Bat Bike in New Photo pic.twitter.com/kM9diNfJK2

— AG MEDIA NEWS (@AGMEDIANEWS) October 15, 2020

First spotted while The Batman was filming last year, the more pared down Batcycle ridden by Pattinson very much matches the aesthetic Reeves is going for with his take on the Bat mythos. Unlike Affleck or Bale, Pattinson doesn’t seem to own any vehicles or equipment he didn’t modify or design in-house, all while looking super unhappy. His suit looks very DIY, with its shoulder pads and heavily stiched and dented cowl, as does his minimalist take on a Batbike — a simple number with bat ears over the headlight.

Pattison’s Dark Knight seems like a bit of a grease monkey who’s less concerned looks than performance and efficiency. Even the movie’s Batmobile looks like a cool muscle car Battinson bought and modified with an insane engine he found on the black market and a matte paint job. The custom body work also makes the car look more Bat-like.

He clearly took the same approach with the bike, and it’s nice to see a Batman who prefers “simpler” and more “sensible” vehicles over the massive tanks driven by Affleck and Bale before him. Pattinson’s rides are much closer to reality than what’s usually on tap in a Batman movie. And unlike the things driven by most of his predecessors, his bike doesn’t seem to have any guns on it.

Meanwhile, the Batpod screams “billionare superhero who owns his own R&D division.” Wayne Enterprises has military contracts to develop tech the U.S. Department of Defense never adopted on the battlefield, and Bale’s Batman gets to reap all the rewards.

Despite being part of a much larger whole, having been jettisoned from the totaled Tumbler before it self-destructed in The Dark Knight, the Batpod has its own identity. It’s kind of ugly and doesn’t look very practical, but it becomes Batman’s main mode of transportation for much of the back half of the trilogy until Lucius Fox gifts him the Bat in The Dark Knight Rises. It also has the best maneuverability of all the bikes on this list due to the sideways rotating wheels that allows it to turn tight corners without skidding off the road. Lateral movement comes in very handy when in a high-speed chase, and it seems only Christopher Nolan figured that out.

The Batpod’s biggest crime is looking kind of like those tumbling RC cars you played with when you were a kid. This is all by design, of course, since these movies are all made so WB can sell toys and bedroom sets to children. At least this one has cannons Batman (and later Catwoman) can use to remove obstacles from his path. And if you’re someone walking through that mall Batman zooms through while chasing the Joker, you would be intimidated. But if your favorite kind of bike is the bulky kind, you’re better off with the Batfleck cycle.

Finally, we come to the Batblade, the bike George Clooney just happened to have sitting in his Batcave in case of an icy situation. Apparently designed to speed through Gotham City streets that are frozen solid, it’s best not to try to decipher the logic behind wheels with such excellent traction. This is Batman & Robin, and we don’t do logic there.

Driven by Alicia Silverstone’s underrated Batgirl, the Batblade pretty much looks like a normal bike except for the Bat symbol and LED lighting that adorn the front. Its big feature is that it is equipped with “Ice Armor,” so even Mr. Freeze’s ice beams can’t slow it down. Which is pretty cool. And the bike totally fits within Joel Schumacher’s vision of a neon-drenched Gotham.

It’s hard to believe that almost 25 years after the release of Batman & Robin, a movie that at the time seemed to be the final nail in the Dark Knight’s coffin, we’re still talking about big-screen Batmen and their cool toys. As far as the latter goes, the newest addition to the Caped Crusader’s toybox delivers plenty of style.

I can’t wait to see the new Batcycle in action when The Flash opens in theaters on Nov. 4, 2022.

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[thenerdparty]

Avengers: Endgame Film Review

Written by Shawn Eastridge Has it really been 11 years since the first Iron Man? The Dark Knight might have taken all the credit that year for revolutionizing the superhero genre, but Iron Man’s legacy has proved just as important. While other films in Phase One hobbled somewhere between decent and mediocre, Joss Whedon’s first Avengers exceeded any and all expectations. To this day, it stands as one of the greatest superhero films ever, and it paved the way for the remainder of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe.

Over the course of the past decade, the MCU has seen its fair share of highs (Anything directed by the Russos), lows (Thor movies not directed by Taika Waititi) and everything in between. But through it all, Marvel Studios has maintained a consistent level of quality, conjuring up box office numbers that made Warner Bros SO JEALOUS they ruined Superman in the attempt to catch up. (Hey, WB: I’m still available to help get you on the right track with the Man of Steel. Call me.)

But now, twenty-two movies later, it’s all come down to this. We’re in the Endgame now, the long-awaited BIG FINALE to Marvel’s Cinematic Universe.

Let’s be real, though - we all know this isn’t really the finale. The MCU will chug on and on forever. In fact, we’ve even got another Marvel movie right around the corner. (That would be July’s Spider-Man: Far From Home) And while that knowledge does dilute Endgame’s overall effectiveness - can anyone ever stay dead in the realm of comic books - it seems foolish to recognize Endgame as anything other than a monumental success.

Seriously, this ‘conclusion’ to the MCU’s recently dubbed ‘Infinity Saga’ satisfies on nearly every level, fulfilling arcs set up in prior films and providing proper send offs for characters we’ve come to know and love over the past decade. Instead of collapsing under the weight of its ongoing 22-film arc, the Russo Brothers, along with screenwriting duo Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus, rise to the challenge and then some, wrapping things up with style, grace and a surprising amount of emotion. That is perhaps the most pleasant surprise: Endgame is genuinely touching in the way it thoughtfully concludes this ongoing story arc. You may find yourself dabbing the corners of your eyes more frequently than expected through the film’s brisk three-hour runtime.

This isn’t all to say that Endgame is without its fair share of flaws - and there are plenty that I’ll get into during the spoiler section of this review - but honestly, the nitpicks feel so minor when compared to all the things that work. Marvel Studios hasn’t just raised the bar for superhero filmmaking and ‘big finales’ in general. They’ve obliterated it.

There. That’s my non-spoiler reaction. MASSIVE SPOILERS await you ahead. So, do yourself a favor: if you haven’t seen Avengers: Endgame already, see it. Immediately. If you have any fondness for any of the films in this massive franchise, there’s no way you’ll be disappointed. Once you’re in the know, come back and check out the rest of this review.

Sound good? Okay. Let’s push forward.

. . . . .

Where Infinity War brought the comic book action early and often, Endgame’s opening moments are more meditative and somber. Our heroes have just faced a crushing loss. They’re still reeling from the devastation of Thanos’s infamous Finger-Snap Heard ‘round the Universe. Nothing will ever be the same.

After staging an effectively heart-wrenching opening scene, giving us a brief glimpse at Hawkeye’s family life before his wife and kids fade into ash, the Russos keep the mood low-key and mournful for the duration of the film’s first act. Then we get one of Endgame’s earliest and best twists: within the film’s first twenty minutes, the Avengers find Thanos and discover he’s destroyed the Infinity Stones to prevent anyone from undoing his monstrous deed. In an empty gesture, Thor chops off the purple dude’s head. It’s a brilliant way to kick things off, throwing the audience for a loop and suggesting an ‘anything goes’ vibe to keep us on the edge of our seats.

The story jumps ahead five years(!!) to find our heroes scattered and broken, attempting to mend together the pieces in a world still devastated by its new reality. I loved that the Russos let us wallow in our heroes’ misery for a bit. You really get a sense of the loss they’ve experienced, that the entire world has experienced. These scenes offer some wonderful character beats and conversations, something that has always elevated Marvel above the rest of the pack.

Scott Lang, a.k.a. Ant-Man, escapes the Quantum Realm (you saw Ant-Man and the Wasp, right?) to discover a significantly altered world. But he brings a message of hope with him: the duration of time he experienced in the Quantum Realm was only 5 hours, suggesting the potential for time travel. Maybe they can find a way to fix the devastation Thanos has wrought by traveling back in time?

P.S. Can I just take a moment to talk about how much I love Paul Rudd in this movie? Ant-Man has been on the periphery of the MCU’s big events and to see him take on such a big role in this movie was a huge thrill.

This glimmer of hope inspires the band to get back together and it’s genuinely surprising where some of them have ended up. Bruce Banner has finally made peace with his meaner, greener side, resulting in Professor Hulk, a version of the character that maintains Banner’s intelligence and personality. Thor never overcame his grief and has spent the past five years descending into drunken slobbery and gaining a significant amount of weight in the process. This provides one of the film’s best sight gags. Plus, it’s maintained throughout! Kudos to you, Russos!

And then we have Mr. Tony Stark himself, the key to figuring out how to make time travel work. But he’s moved on. He and Pepper have an adorable daughter. He has absolutely zero desire to lose what he has. Ultimately the realization that he can save the lives of countless billions - including one surrogate son Peter Parker - drives him to support the cause.

Endgame’s 2nd act centers around the newly reassembled Avengers time-traveling into the past to gather the Infinity Stones, bring them to their future and use them to ‘un-snap’ their fallen comrades. These sequences are fun and light on their feet. They’re especially effective in lieu of the grim opening scenes.

Here’s the thing, though: As much as I love this portion of the film and the way the time travel stuff is handled, I couldn’t help feeling there was a general lack of consequence to everything that happened during this sequence. Even when things skew from the team’s set plan, it doesn’t feel like a significant snag or an insurmountable obstacle. These moments are treated as minor annoyances before our heroes carry on with a new solution, nary breaking their strides or a sweat in the process.

It’s all fun in a Back to the Future Part II kind of way, but it’s treated more as an extended comedy bit than anything else, and to a certain extent, this robs Endgame of some level of suspense. Plus, it’s time travel. Once you throw time travel into the mix, all bets are off, and I couldn’t help shaking that feeling. After all, what’s to stop them from using this plot device again and again in the future, consequences be damned?

At the very least, the wackiness of the time travel sequence is balanced with some great character beats. I loved Thor’s tender moment with his mom. I loved Captain America vs. Captain America. I loved that Tony gets a sincere heart to heart with his dad, offering some much-needed closure. Robert Downey Jr. has never been anything less than wonderful in this role, but his performance in Endgame might take the cake. Honestly, everyone brings their A-game to the table and these moments ground the sequence, keeping it from getting too bonkers.

This sequence is also balanced with a genuinely tragic moment: Black Widow sacrifices herself to get the Soul Stone. I don’t know why this scene has been stirring up some people, because here’s the thing: this moment works perfectly. Natasha (Black Widow) and Clint (Hawkeye) travel to Vormir to obtain the Soul Stone. As established in Infinity War, the only way to obtain said stone is to sacrifice the thing you love most. Clint’s willing to take the plunge. He’s become a monster in the five years since his family’s disappearance (but an awesome, katana-wielding monster) and he doesn’t feel he deserves to see them again. Natasha knows this isn’t true and she’s willing to sacrifice herself to ensure Clint gets his happy ending. After all, he saved her all those years ago. It’s time to return the favor. It’s heartbreaking, but it feels right and Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner sell every minute.

The plan is a success, but it's not without its snags. Past Thanos ends up getting involved when past Nebula tunes into future Nebula’s wifi and begins broadcasting everything future Nebula has seen, including the Avengers’ time travel plan. Thanos gets worked up into a tizzy and he and past Nebula devise a plan to get him into the Avengers’ future so he can ensure everyone snapped out of existence stays snapped out of existence. Also, why not wipe out everyone else in the process just for good measure? Because that’s what big, angry, purple maniacs do. Don’t question it.

Is it a bit weird that the Thanos the Avengers face isn’t the same Thanos so carefully fleshed out in Infinity War? Yeah, a little bit. To be honest, it makes things feel kind of impersonal. This Thanos feels more like the mysterious being teased in dozens of MCU post-credits sequence than the layered, thoughtful villain of the previous film. It’s a bit of a bummer, but it is what it is.

Ultimately, my biggest gripe with Endgame is the same gripe caused by Infinity War’s conclusion. We already knew the disintegrated heroes were going to come back for their obligatory sequels. Their arrival during Endgame’s epic battle to end all epic battles feels inevitable more than surprising.

And, look, let me be clear: Endgame’s climax is the ultimate superhero big battle you’ve been dreaming of since Nick Fury first name-dropped the ‘Avengers Initiative.’ I went nuts with the best of them when all our heroes returned from the abyss for this ultimate showdown, so understand my next criticism comes from a place of love. Once all the heroes show up, the stakes disappear. I didn’t have any doubt the Avengers would win. As a result, the climax is robbed of its suspense. It’s basically fan service to the nth degree, which again, I’d like to emphasize I was totally cool with. It just prevents the battle from conjuring up any emotional depth.

This isn’t The Return of the King. It's not the Battle of Hogwarts or the Death Star trench run or even the first Avengers' Battle for New York. It’s a big, flashy special effects extravaganza overflowing with crowd-pleasing beats, but lacking in genuine (here’s this word again) consequence. Again, I want to emphasize that I loved every second of it, but there’s a significant lack of loss during these scenes. Ultimately, Tony Stark sacrifices himself to save the universe and it’s absolutely BRILLIANT and heart-wrenching, but no one else seems in danger. Iron Man dies so that dozens of franchises can live on.

The remaining twenty minutes or so of Endgame are low key. We witness Tony’s emotional funeral, torches are passed (go, Sam Wilson, go!) and some unexpected-slash-exciting team-ups are teased (Fat Thor with the Guardians of the Galaxy? I am SO in.) But it’s during these quiet scenes that the Russos skillfully remind us what has always mattered the most: the characters. And I’m not going to lie, it’s difficult not to get choked up when Steve Rogers, a man who has sacrificed so much for the greater good, finally gets his happy ending, dancing the day away with the love of his life.

Big finales don’t get much more enjoyable or fulfilling than this. Marvel’s Cinematic Universe will go on and on and on. Inevitably, its quality will wane and fade, but we can rest easy knowing that the heroes that kicked everything off got the send-off they deserved. It might not be perfect, but it’s pretty damn great. Most importantly, it’s satisfying.

With the Infinity Saga, Marvel Studios has accomplished something extraordinary. They’ve touched countless millions across the globe without compromising the artistic quality of this multi-billion dollar franchise. We can rage on and on about Disney’s domination and how everything is just a corporate product and blah, blah, blah, but we’d be ignoring the fact that they got to where they are because they honored their source material and went out of their way to give the fans something special.

So to Kevin Feige and the entire team at Marvel Studios, cast, crew, writers, bean pushers, etc., I’d like to say thank you. You’ve earned every record-breaking penny. We love you 3000.

Now can someone please un-cancel Daredevil?? Come on!!

[archivingspn]

Entertainment Weekly: Fall TV Preview Special Double Issue Sept. 16/23 “Supernatural”

(...)

THE CORONER'S VAN JUST PULLED INTO THE DRIVEWAY.

It's the middle of August, and Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles are filming a scene at a farmhouse in the Vancouver countryside, which at the moment is passing for Iowa. Sam and Dean Winchester have ditched their flannels and jeans for sweaters and slacks in order to pose as social workers. They're doing what the brothers do best: lying about their jobs in order to solve mysteries and kill monsters— in other words, saving people, hunting things.

Heading into its 12th season, the longest run of any CW or WB show, Supernatural tells the story of the Winchester brothers, who fell into the family business of hunting creatures after their mother was killed by a demon. What began as their father's journey for revenge has evolved into countless monster slayings, near-death experiences, and a few actual deaths.

By this point, the Winchesters have been to hell and back, killed Death himself, come face-to-face with God, and prevented the apocalypse. But perhaps more impressively, the series has survived three network presidents, four showrunners, 

writers' strike, and four different time slots. Turns out the only thing harder to kill than the Winchesters is the show itself. "It's one of those shows that has moved a lot, and yet each time it has found that core audience and built on it,” Warner Bros. Television president Peter Roth says. “It's been an unsung hero.”

If anyone knows about being an unsung hero, it's Sam (Padalecki) and Dean (Ackles), who've dedicated their lives to saving others and asked for nothing in return. Seriously, how many nights have they spent sleeping in their car? And yet, that on-the-road lifestyle has paved the way for a number of the show's riskier episodes, which play a crucial role in keeping the audience engaged. Just last year, “Baby” was told entirely from the perspective of their beloved 1967 Impala, and that's not even close to the craziest thing the show's tried.

Aside from the rules the show creates within its canon-yes, they have a historian in the writers' room to keep them honest—not even the sky is the limit when it comes to story ideas. “[Show creator] Eric [Kripke] used to say, “Smoke 'em if you've got ’em,' which meant: Anything crazy, don't be afraid to run it by us,” executive producer Robert Singer says. That motto led most famously to season 6's “The French Mistake,” in which Sam and Dean found themselves in an alternate universe where everyone mistook them for Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles, the stars of a show called Supernatural. “Our show's not bound by reality,” Ackles says. “We're rooted in reality, but we're not bound by it. That gives us a fifth wall almost.”

No matter how meta or abstract the ideas get—God has a sister!—one thing remains unchanged: At the center of it all are Ackles and Padalecki, whose Sam and Dean are the beating heart of the show (whether theirs are beating or not).(...)

(...) even pulling up their favorite scenes on their phones to watch at the table. Padalecki, 34, can easily name the scripts that made him cry—“Heart," “Sacrifice," and "Baby" all make the list. The common thread is a heartfelt moment between the brothers where they get to talk about their crazy life as if, say, having visions of Lucifer is normal. “I feel like those situations where we treat the abstract and the fantastical as just part of life is where the show thrives,” Padalecki says. Ackles, 38, adds, “I think the show is truly at its best when it doesn't take itself too seriously, then it does take itself seriously, then it gets scary as s---" 

Coming off a season that checked all of those boxes, new showrunner Andrew Dabb has big shoes to fill. His plan: Get back to basics. “Every time we do a big world-spanning story, we feel we're really stretching our show," Dabb says. “What our show was designed to be and I think functions best as is smaller personal stories with a genre twist.”

And it's hard not to tell a personal story when season 11 ended with the resurrection of Mary Winchester (Samantha Smith), Sam and Dean's mother, who died in the pilot. “You're going to see two brothers be sons," Ackles says. “We saw that (with their dad, John], but when you're a son to your father, it's a different son than you are to your mother.” With God and Amara fading to the background, Mary will find herself in the bunker and on the road hunting. “[This season is] more Sam and Dean on the road. Mary is there. Cas is there. Crowley is there,” Dabb says. As Crowley (Mark Sheppard) is less concerned with Moose and Squirrel than with regaining control of hell, Castiel (Misha Collins) is the one encouraging the brothers to bond with Mom. “He has a shared experience of feeling like an outsider with the brothers yet feeling connected to them,” says Collins, whose angel is as close as one can get to being a third Winchester brother. “He is pushing them to confront the emotional bomb that is their mother showing up.”

(...)

Two hundred forty-one episodes, to be exact, and they're not done yet. The CW president Mark Pedowitz has made it clear that as long at the guys are happy and the ratings are relatively stable, Supernatural has a long life ahead. 

For Ackles and Padalecki, their focus is on the next milestone: hitting 300 episodes (something that would take them 13 episodes into season 14). However, if Sam and Dean have taught them anything, it's that Death can be lurking around every corner (and he's usually eating pizza). “If we don't make it to 300, I think Ackles and I will both be truly bummed,” Padalecki says. “When we get to 300, I think Ackles and I will think it might be time to say bye. There's a chance that changes, but we certainly do not take it for granted that we're going to make it to 300.” Ackles adds: “They're paying us to bring that little bit of magic to what they wrote, and I still feel that magic today. The day that I don't feel that magic will be a very sad day, and I hope that day never comes. I'd like to get to 300 before that day comes.” (The only thing that's certain about Supernatural's end is Baby's fate. “He gets Baby," Padalecki says of Ackles. “I get Baby Two.” Ackles makes one correction: "No, you'll get Three. Two is stunt. It's beat to s---.") 

As the sun sets on the Vancouver countryside, Sam and Dean ditch their slacks for jeans and send the coroner's van on its way. It won't be needed— this show has a lot of life left in it. Not that death has ever stopped it before.

[pg 20-21]

[theheavymetalmama]

Fine.

I’ll answer your DCEU questions, starting with the ones plugging up my inbox (not including the derivatives I’ve deleted.)

“Will you see Justice League despite your black list? And if so, will you review it?”

Eventually. Not on opening night and certainly not the day or next day after. Sorry, but as good as Wonder Woman was, nothing leading up to this movie has evoked my confidence in this movie or the people making it. Will I review it? Probably, if for no other reason just to get if off my chest if it ends up being a frustrating experience.

“Do you think the Justice League will right the wrongs of Batman v Superman or Man of Steel?”

No way in Hell. Look, even if Justice League defies all expectations and ends up blowing us all out of the water while proving me so wrong that I’ll leave the theater with so much egg on my face that you could smack me with a frying pan and call me an omelette (and if that’s the case I’ll happily sing its’ praise as I did Wonder Woman) that won’t suddenly erase previous movies where Superman acted like an unlikable sad-sack, Batman straight up murdered people for reasons that happened off screen, Lex Luthor was less like Lex Luthor and more like Ace Ventura if he were a supervillain, the Joker was-

...that, the big title fight of the second movie was started not by clashing ideals of justice but because one guy was a paranoid asshole and the other was blackmailed into the fight because his mom was kidnapped, said fight was resolved and they became instant besties because both their moms shared a common name, and where the entire story and arc of ‘The Death and Return of Superman’ was shoehorned into the second movie of the franchise. And it was a movie that Superman had to share!

Look, with the exception of maybe Warner Bros. shareholders, nobody wants good DC movies more than me. But even if they have nothing but home runs after Justice League, it won’t change the shaky foundation upon which their franchise was built.

“Will you still do your writings on how you would have made the DCEU despite your blacklisting?”

Maybe. I’ll definitely finish my Man of Steel post because I’ve put way too much time, thought, and effort into it to just scrap it now, but after that depends on whether or not they keep forward with the DCEU in the aftermath of Justice League.

“So Henry Cavill said that we’ll be getting the ‘true Superman’ in Justice League. You think that’s true, or is it just more PR damage control?”

If it is true, congratulations WB! It took you, Zack Snyder, David S. Goyer, and Chris Terrio five movies, countless hours of shooting and editing, and half a day’s worth of actual movie time to do what the Donner film did by the end of its’ first act and the animated series from the 90′s did in its’ second episode!

I have nothing against Henry Cavill and I don’t blame him for the depiction of Superman in the DCEU. He was just working with what he was given. Even acting legends such as Al Pachino can only do so much with “stand there and look sad.” I have no doubt in my mind that given the right material and good direction he could knock the role right out of the park. Will he replace Christopher Reeve? No, and nobody ever will, but he can still be a great Superman in his own right if given the chance.

So yeah, put that one under ‘PR damage control.’ Not to mention they said basically the same thing for Dawn of Justice, Snyder saying that his Superman in that movie would be ‘true canon’ and that he would change in the aftermath of Man of Steel, and we all know the bald-faced lies those turned out to be.

“Have you heard about how Superman comes back in Justice League? If so, what do you think?”

Yes, I have heard, and I hope like Hell it’s just a rumor put out by marketers to distract us. If it does end up being true, it only goes to show just how much the people making these movies don’t give a shit about Superman or his fans. I’ll keep it spoiler free just in case it’s true, but if it is...really? That’s how it’s done? That was the big secret that Snyder et al kept banging on about? Not only is that profoundly underwhelming and achingly lame, but for the third time in this franchise it robs Superman of any agency. Why should I care about this iteration of the character if they’re only going to use him as a plot device or prop?

“So apparently Man of Steel 2 ‘isn’t coming anytime soon’ according to someone at WB. Your thoughts?”

That’s heartbreaking, but given how they’ve treated Superman in this franchise so far I can’t say I’m surprised. Especially considering the corner that Dawn of Justice wrote him into. How do you write a Superman story where he can’t go back to being Clark Kent? Let alone Jimmy Olsen being dead, the Daily Planet acting like those assholes from TMZ, and Lex Luthor being an obnoxious, unlikable weirdo. Oh, and look, a clip from Justice League shows that Martha Kent lost the farm. Huzzah! Now we have even less places for Superman to go!

But oh, that Batman movie, Gotham Sirens, Suicide Squad 2, and the Harley Quinn spin-off are all still on track. They may as well just come outright and say “So you’ll probably never see Superman go up against Livewire, the Parasite, Bizarro, Mr. Mxyzptlk, Lobo, Brainiac, or even a proper version of Lex Luthor anywhere in this franchise, but the good news is that you get to see Batman fight the Joker! ...again...and it’s a Joker that totally sucks...but still, Batman! That’s cool, right?”

No, I’m not salty, I’m just outright bitter. I love Batman, but at this point in time he’s Wolverine, Doctor Who, Spongebob, and Minions levels of overexposed and now he’s boring. And if the best Warner has to offer Superman fans is him maybe showing up in Shazam or Black Adam, sorry, but bit-parts in other people’s movies aren’t enough.

And that’s all I got in me right now. Just typing that was an emotionally exhausting experience and now I need a nap. I hope that sufficed, because I’m not talking about this again until AFTER I see the damn movie. Hope it’s good.

[projectalbum]

R U Talkin’ I.R.S. R.E.M. RE: ME? 183. “Murmur - Deluxe Edition,” 184. “Reckoning,” 185. “Fables of the Reconstruction,” 186. “Lifes Rich Pageant,” 187. “Dead Letter Office," 188. “Document” by R.E.M.

If you’ve been following this blog with any regularity, you may have noticed how often references to R.E.M. weave their way into my appraisals of other artists. That’s because the band has become a bit of a Rosetta Stone for my musical taste: eclectic, ever-evolving, beautifully melodic, with evocative (or downright inscrutable) lyrics. I delved into their decades-long catalogue- piecemeal and out of chronology in the pre-Spotify days- at the exact point in my adolescence when I was forming what that taste would be. And now I must ask the question that has so ignited the public's curiosity: When did I first hear of the band R.E.M.?

My answer, at long last, is… "Hmm, not sure." As recounted in my entry on Barenaked Ladies (or “BNL,” as befitting such an essential band): during a high school trip through Europe, a bus ride from Ireland to Wales was scored by an all-over-the-map mixtape.* I was definitely already familiar with “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” when it popped up. And I remember, sitting there as misty green hills moved past the window, that it sparked a web of associations: I likely thought of “Losing My Religion,” probably “The One I Love.” After watching a Comedy Central documentary on Andy Kaufman, I became briefly obsessed, and my mom helpfully told me that there was a song written about him, titled “Man on the Moon.” She pulled Automatic for the People, the only R.E.M. release she owned, off the shelf and played that track for me. I think I liked it, but I didn’t go further than that.

So, sitting on that tour bus, I figured that when we reached the London leg of our whirlwind trip, I would use my personal pilgrimage to Virgin Megastore (remember those?) to pick up a greatest hits collection. And I did, getting the recently released In Time: The Best of R.E.M. I loved it so much, I barely noticed that half the songs I knew, including the one that had inspired the purchase, were nowhere to be found.

As I later learned, that compilation was put out by Warner Bros Records, and as such was solely focused on the songs the band recorded while under contract to that label. And it’s true, several of their biggest hits came out of those first few WB releases. But wither “The One I Love?” Well, before they signed that lucrative deal, R.E.M. made their bones putting out arty, jangly, pastorally pretty rock music under the banner of I.R.S. Records.  

It’s been awhile since I first heard their debut full-length Murmur (#183), but after the slicker, weirder, string-flavored tunes I was used to, hearing the upfront immediacy of the young-and-hungry band, playing as a tight group over a chasm of reverb, was a bit revelatory. Recorded at the now-defunct Reflection Sound Studios in Charlotte, NC (a liner note discovery that filled me with no small amount of regional pride), Don Dixon and Mitch Easter's production makes the jangle rock dreamy and beguiling while avoiding cheesy 80’s pitfalls. It’s all killer, no filler (I even love “We Walk,” all bouncy repetition and ever-climbing arpeggios)— right now, I’d say the earnest “Talk About The Passion” and the almost hiccupy hook of “Catapult” rank as my favorite moments, but that changes and shifts unpredictably.

The sonic muscle of Reckoning (#184) is cleaner, with opener “Harborcoat” immediately shaking loose the spooky cobwebs of Murmur. Again, the immediacy surprised me when I first heard it: I was hearing the version of the band that tore the roof off of tiny venues in sleepy college towns throughout the South. For a time, it was the comparative lack of the fussy arrangements and earnest, soaring melodies I’d come to expect from my R.E.M. that dismissed this album to a dusty gray corner in my mind. But the mark of a Favorite Band means that you can return to their work at different times in your life and find that while the music stayed the same, you’re hearing it with different ears. There’s not a weak link in 10 tracks, and songs that I’d once had trouble even recalling became new favorites: "So. Central Rain,” with its ringing Rickenbacker guitar line, melodic bass, and keening chorus (“I’m sorry”) is a fan favorite for a reason, and “Camera,” which recalls a departed friend of the band’s, builds to a shattering chorus. And of course, the one straight-up, tear-in-your-beer country rocker in their catalogue, “(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville."

I remember driving to night classes in my first year of community college, listening to my newly-purchased disc of Fables of the Reconstruction (#185). Now this was immediately my speed, with the spooky, menacing, string quartet-inflected “Feeling Gravity’s Pull” and incantatory “Maps and Legends" leading the pack. The band had a lousy experience recording it, and they badmouth the way the songs were mixed, but to me the thick-as-kudzu production is a big part of this album’s hallucinatory power. I love the surreal, umber and burnished gold and chartreuse cover art as well: though the layout looks a little too cluttered on the CD, I bought the vinyl record from a second-hand store just to frame it, with the “Reconstruction of the Fables” ear-box side facing out from my wall.

Not every track does it for me. “Can’t Get There from Here” is fun but a little too affected in its whimsy, and “Auctioneer (Another Engine),” already a bit monotone, is the track most hampered by sludgy sound. But sandwiched in-between are “Green Grow the Rushes” and “Kohoutek,” glimpses of the environmentally-conscious, culturally-sensitive side of Michael Stripe and Co that led directly into their follow-up, Lifes Rich Pageant (#186). They expand the promise of those two tracks with “Fall On Me” and “Cuyahoga,” to devastatingly pretty effect.

Where Fables was a nighttime drive down an inky-dark American highway, Pageant is a wide-eyed survey of virgin prairie, a longing to return to unspoiled harmonic existence. “Let’s put our heads together / Let’s start a new country up,” the natives of “Cuyahoga” resolve over the ashy remains of the river bend. "What you want and what you need, there's the key / Your adventure for today, what do you do / Between the horns of the day?” Stipe exhorts his listeners in “I Believe,” and the Southern beach rock behind the words pushes you to make your move. “We are young despite the years / We are concern / We are hope despite the times,” he belts out over furious riffs and annihilated drums in “These Days," Mike Mills calling out affirmation in his backup vocal.

Right down to the absurdist sea shanty “Swan Swan H” and infectiously fun cover “Superman” that close it out, it’s hard to find a more consistent document of the band’s strengths. And now, damn, I want that to be a crackerjack segue to discussion of their next studio album, but months before that final I.R.S. release, there was Dead Letter Office (#187). A collection of occasionally rather sloppy outtakes and covers of varying reverence, the main draw here is the inclusion of their debut EP Chronic Town (on the CD, anyway. I notice that Spotify separates those songs from the DLO tracks). The angular menace of “Wolves, Lower” and the subtle, melodic magic of “Gardening At Night” (Stripe’s almost unintelligible lyrics are Exhibit A for his early-years shyness) are justifiable fan favorites to this day— not bad for the first batch of songs from such a prolific group. A must.

Buying Document (#188) finally gave me easy access to “It’s The End of the World...” and “The One I Love” (rather than, you know, waiting to hear one or the other on the radio). It also meant first experiencing one of my favorite opening salvos on record: “Finest Worksong.” It sounds HUGE, to borrow an oft-accurate phrase from notable actor/R.E.M. podcaster Adam Scott. Bill Berry’s thundercrack drums echo as if recorded in a cavernous factory where the overlords have been overthrown, while Peter Buck’s guitar chugs and drones, a dramatic change from the nimble arpeggios that made up previous records. It, and the songs that follow— “Welcome to the Occupation” ("Listen to the buyer still / Listen to the Congress / Where we propagate confusion”), “Exhuming McCarthy” ("Vested interest, united ties / Landed gentry, rationalize / Look who bought the myth / By Jingo, buy America”), “Disturbance at the Heron House”— make the album, at 31 years old, feel like a queasy reflection of our current milieu. No one feels fine right now.

Luckily, the music is still driving, fun, singable, varied in its grooves and moods. “Fireplace,” coming right after the twofer of the most famous singles, provided me such an unexpected thrill with a rare appearance by sinuous be-bop saxophone, such a different color for this band. Sax in 80’s songs is usually an utterly cheeseball affair, but this is a dark, weird tune, and is nowhere near that register of power balladry. “Lightnin’ Hopkins” is just as unique, with a metalhead rolling drum beat and Stipe acting like a throat-shredded street preacher over echoey chain-gang backup howls.

This band takes up a whole shelf in my house, so hold on tight for several more comprehensive and encyclopedic write-ups. 

*It’s been over a year since I wrote that entry, and I recently realized my memory is jumbled up. I now have a clear recollection that the songs from BNL’s Everything For Everyone were repeating in my head ON THAT VERY TRIP! So I was already a fan.

[aion-rsa]

Batman, Spider-Man and the Golden Opportunity of a Multiverse

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In certain geek circles, the news of the week (or month) came early Monday when it leaked that Warner Bros. is approaching Michael Keaton to reprise the role of Batman, or at least Bruce Wayne, in their upcoming Flash movie. If he agrees, the actor whom ‘90s kids will insist is the best Dark Knight will wear the cowl for the first time in 30 years. It’s an obvious play toward nostalgia, but it could also be only the tip of the iceberg.

The plot device that would allow Keaton to brood once more in the Batcave is nothing new. Indeed, a version of it already exists in Flash lore. In the comic book Flashpoint, Barry Allen travels through time to prevent the murder of his mother, but in the process creates an alternate timeline (think Back to the Future Part II). It’s a particularly favorite storytelling crutch among comic book writers, the “multiverse” is a pulpy reduction of actual quantum mechanics theories about “many worlds” in which every choice you’ve ever made branches off into infinite possibilities and variables. In comic book terms, this means every wacky idea a writer or artist has entertained, no matter how aesthetically discordant with “canon” and other creatives’ work, can co-exist across multiple timelines.

It’s an idea on which worlds have turned on at DC Comics, as that company tends to reboot their sprawling continuity every 10 or 20 years for new readers while not throwing away the “alternate reality” versions of the characters their older fan base grew up on. It’s also already begun to be mainstreamed with wit and intelligence by Phil Lord and Chris Miller in the delightfully warped Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. By using a “multiverse” of infinite Spider-Mans, Lord and Miller carved out an excuse to explore what a middle-aged Peter Parker might look like while playing him off a young new lead in Miles Morales. Heck, they even found room for Spider-Gwen, Nicolas Cage doing a Bogie impression as a 1940s noir Spider-Man, and a talking cartoon pig named “Spider-Ham.” What else would you call him?

As an animated film, Into the Spider-Verse actually embraced the tonal chaos this storytelling technique creates, turning it into a self-aware virtue. But it also proved, like Marvel Studios’ incredibly nerdy Avengers: Endgame, that mass global audiences are ready for convoluted sci-fi ideas that create interesting stories… and commercial possibilities.

Thus more than a decade after WB pulled the plug on George Miller’s Justice League movie, in part because they were afraid of having competing visions of Batman while Chris Nolan finished his The Dark Knight Trilogy, the studio is now courting the first major big screen Batman to reprise the role while simultaneously preparing to launch Robert Pattinson in Matt Reeves’ The Batman. If one is being cynical, you could say studios are finally catching on from comic book writers how to have your cake and eat it too, but it’s also seeding major new narrative avenues.

Hence the next most obvious opportunity is Raimi agreeing to direct Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness for Marvel Studios. Raimi of course directed the original Spider-Man Trilogy, which in this writer’s opinion features the best live-action Spider-Man movie to date, Spider-Man 2. Told with a sense of earnest awe and soap opera grandiosity, there’s a core element of those early Stan Lee, Steve Ditko, and John Romita Sr. comics in Raimi’s movies that no later Marvel movie has matched. Sadly, they ended on a sour note in Spider-Man 3.

While that third movie certainly has qualities that endear it to this day to children of the 2000s, such as Raimi’s still uniquely kinetic visual eye during the action sequences, it was a messy movie that sent Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst’s Peter Parker and Mary Jane off on a downbeat note. But as the title for Doctor Strange 2 suggests, we’re about to enter the “Multiverse of Madness.” Just as The Flash may bring Keaton back as Batman, Doctor Strange could easily bring Maguire and Dunst back as Spidey and MJ.

In fact, I’d suggest making that work would be even easier since Raimi is at the helm and often talks as if he has unfinished business with the wallcrawler… which is weird to say since technically Spider-Man movies are still produced and distributed by Sony Pictures, but Marvel Studios holds so much sway with fans that Disney was able to renegotiate with Sony the profit-sharing terms of future Spider-Man sequels. Further Marvel has also tacitly accepted the Raimi movies’ legacies by bringing J.K. Simmons back as J. Jonah Jameson in Spider-Man: Far From Home. Hell, if they write it correctly, there could even be a scene of the two Jonahs meeting, mustache to mustache.

Fan service though it may be, it could also be a gateway for better movies overall at WB and Disney. Sure, seeing Keaton as Batman again would be a thrill, as would seeing Raimi and Maguire’s Spider-Man getting a proper sendoff. But more importantly, the general acceptance of the multiverse is an excuse for these companies to take wilder risks with these eternally copyrighted characters and not worry about hurting the brand.

WB already began exploring this aspect with R-rated and “off-brand” movies like Joker and Birds of Prey—and the now defunct 20th Century Fox beat both other major superhero-producing studios to this punch with Logan and Deadpool. Still, these kind of risks tend to be exceptions that prove the rule of superhero movie formula. Marvel Studios is particularly famous for a quality control that is the envy of all other blockbuster-minded studio executives… but it’s one that creates a general homogeneity to all their products. By introducing the multiverse in Doctor Strange, it could begin as a fan-pleasing exercise of revisiting the first major live-action Spider-Man franchise and then expand beyond that by allowing Marvel to get weirder.

And if one steps away from the big screen, Warner Bros. Television is already charting this territory for teen audiences and superhero diehards with the CW’s “Arrowverse” TV shows. Their recent adaptation of seminal comic book event Crisis on Infinite Earths merged timelines and alternate realities from across DC movie and TV history, including  elements of Keaton’s Batman films and an on screen meeting between Miller’s movie Flash and Grant Gustin’s TV version. Thus with Crisis, Warner Bros. can now claim that all of their disparate DC properties exist in different corners of the same multiverse, something they may seek to double down on with the Flashpoint movie.

Which brings us to Keaton and the specific Batman films he starred in: They were late 20th century love letters to  German Expressionism by Tim Burton that operated on a fairy tale logic where the dead could be resurrected by supernatural cat bites, and Gotham City could, as its script suggests, appear as if “Hell erupted through the pavement.” This is a far cry from the self-seriousness of Zack Snyder’s DCEU movies, from whence Ezra Miller’s Flash hails. And it’s safe to say that no one would make such a dreamlike superhero movie today.

But why not? With the multiverse, Keaton’s esoteric Batman can exist in tandem with Snyder’s grimdark and whatever Matt Reeves gets up to. And conversely, Marvel can experiment a little bit more with their brand to create a comic book movie universe as colorful and weird as, well, their own comics… or at least Into the Spider-Verse, which already showed just how liberating a plot device the multiverse can be.

The post Batman, Spider-Man and the Golden Opportunity of a Multiverse appeared first on Den of Geek.

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