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popculturebuffet · 4 years

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Ducktales Reviews!: The Split Sword of Swanstatine! or Sometimes You Just Have to Punch Your Problems Away

The race for the missing mysteries takes Scrooge, the kids and a sorta hyjacked Lena and Violet to a mystical market to hunt down the pieces of the mythical sword of the warrior king swanstanine. Naturally a split artifact leads to a vignette episode as the kids pair up to find the pieces while Scrooge and Heron face off. Dewey and Webby face blindness, Louie and Violet face Louie’s reputation as an underworld kingpin, and Huey and Lena face Huey’s Feral Side. The race is on with full recap and spoilers under the cut.

Not a lot of background here.. I was excited enough for this one as Steelbeak and Rockerduck came back, but I went from “This will be pretty good and oh look Flula Borg” to HOLY SHIT LENA AND VIOLET ARE BACK LET’S GO ALREADY. So yeah, there’s not a lot to get started here that can’t be done as we go, let’s get out there and talk about some ducktales. We open in a vast marketplace whose name i’ve already forgotten.. it’s almost 4 in the morning here and I have terrible memory with name sometimes, I make no apologizes. Naturally given the big declaration at the end of the last episode the family is on the hunt for a missing mystery.. and Dewey is on the hunt for Street Meat, though Scrooge denies him any till they get the job done... I mean they can eat and go treasure hunting. They can do two things. Let him have some lamb dammit, spiced lamb is fucking delcious you monster! Or whatever that is the point is it’s larged, well seasoned and makes me hungry! But starving his grandchildren aside, Scrooge has no doubt they can acomplish this as a family.. and then notices his future in laws are also there and his whole big speech game is thrown off by the question of why. To me it’s because we need more of them, quit old man your already 0-2 this episode, but turns out the explination is one of the funniest jokes of the season.. and this is a season that’s include “There now your susceptible to vampires”, “Yipiee Kai Yay Mr. Falcon!”, Darkwing’s Cookbook, Gene’s Soda Commerical, Gladstone having a mental breakdown over having to be a normal person, and Della trying to deflect the blame for traumatizing children. This bit is on par with that. Violet explains that Scrooge told everyone to get on the plane. I assume Donald and Della are with their signifigant others, Beakly was getting some much needed therapy and Launchpad.. was flying the plane.. and also had Drake and Gosalyn with him because he double booked and had to take them with him to assist whatever ex of his is in trouble this week. Point is that bit’s freaking hilarious and Scrooge simply asks if they enjoy history and the answers are a predictable “Not really” from Lena, which given her own personal history is vast, terrible, and traumatizing up until the last year and her adoption by two gay men, relationship with a charming young lady, and gaining a beloved nerdy sister, that tracks. Violet of courser says it’s her life. Scrooge takes it: He’s used to having half his adventuring party either not caring about culture and history, the Saberwings just keep the average up. So Webby does the natural thing and tackle hugs her girlfriend and future sister in law while Scrooge smiles because why wouldn’t you.

And I was happy about this: not just hte tackle hug, because that was precious, but Scrooge eagerly accepting them along for the ride. I was worried for half a second that as good as the gag was that’d be the episodes big underlying issue.. but nope, his confusion was more “Wait why are the extra children here”, than questions of worth and given their previous appearance had him willingly inviting them along, and Lena and Violet only opting out due to fears about her magic getting them all killed and to support her sister, it woudln’t of made any character sense for him not to, doubly so since their up against a shadowy organization of ruthless thugs. Granted Beakly likely sighed after returning from her midnight therapy and called the Saberwing parents by Ty and Indy are probably used to their daughter’s friends elderly Uncle taking them to strange places in the middle of the night by this point. I mean one of their daughters can turn bluper sayain now, the ship on normal behavior kind of sailed over a cliff a while ago.

But Scrooge soon detects what he thinks is heron but is actually a woman who justifiably punches him. Turns out Heron was actually hiding in a stall though, and brought all her friends with her.. except Blot.. and while at first I was going to make a joke I realized they probably don’t want the guy who drains the magic out of everything near a magic artifact he’d probably destroy despite the consequences. So Bradford probably just sent him to murder the lucky charms leprechaun... he DOES have a life outside of trying to Murder scrooge... he can want to murder cereal mascots too. He’s a renascence evil mastermind. A sword fight ensues, with Scrooge telling the kids to pair up and go find the pieces while he keeps Heron busy.

Cue Credits and cue the episode itself being split into three vignettes. I do love vignette episodes, episodes of half hour shows that split into 3 different stories taking place at the same time and break from the formula, with two of the best I can think of being the Avatar classic “Tales from Ba Sing Sei”, most famous for the really gutpunching bit with Iroh singing at his dead son’s grave.. jesus I teared up, not a joke or an exaggeration literally teared up, just thinking about it. On the opposite end we have the season 12 Simpson’s episode Trilogy of Error, which while during when the rot started to set in for the series is easily a classic on the sam tier as the first 10 seasons. It alfeatured an at the time young Daniel Radcliff as Lisa’s love interest, Marge getting accused of attempted murder after accidently chopping homer’s finger off, Bart and Milhouse turning informant ont he mob and the tragic life of Linguo. It’s a classic.

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But yeah three pieces, three teams of two, and three story segments. So like last week I can easily divide the stories up and unlike last week I won’t be frontloading or forgetting anything since their divided up much more evenly and are played back to back to back rather than intercutting. So with that in mind...

Dewey and Webby: The Hidden Truths of Temporary Blindness and the Albino Snakes We Mistook for Cats Along the Way

The Dynamic Duo Returns! Seriously I did the legowork, I.e. went to google and despite the two’s dynamic being a sizeable part of season 1 and a plot point at the start of season 2, which also put the final nail in my shiping them coffin as it was very clear they were basically siblings in all but blood at this point and I wisely jumped off the ship and nuked it from orbit. But outside of Webby’s subplot with Dewey and Louie in “The Town Where Everyone Was Nice!”, it just.. hasn’t come up again. They’ve just had other dynamics to explore with the show and thus the two really haven’t interacted as much for the rest of the series thus far. They still interact, it’s just not really as a major part of any episodes plot till now. So while not a pairing I was expecting it was nice to have it back. For about ten seconds. Yeah cards on the table this is the weakest of the three segements. While the other two have intresting settings, setups, and character dynamics we genuinely haven’t seen this one has.. a weird version of a dynamic we’ve seen done better, and an antagonist who feels oddly flat this go round. It’s just not THAT intresting despite some intresting moments but it’s best to just get into it to explain why.

The basic setup is Webby is hoping to use bold de-ducktion to figure things out while flying under the radar while Dewey’s solution is naturally to ask everyone they meet, and then shout at Gandra when they do find the piece. This naturally gets a flashbang thrown at them, though we do get one great bit where Gandra asses their threat levels with Webby’s being high and Dewey’s being Eh, which tracks. And the thing that stings here is.. Gandra COULD’VE been an intresting opponent for Webby. While Huey and Violet, being fellow genuises as well as Huey’s personal stake in it for her hurting Fenton last year/season would be a better match, pitting Webby against someone just as focused and thought out in fighting, but who rather than use strength uses cybernetics and various gadgets would be really intresting, especially since the other two villian matchups are equally perfect. But instead.. it just feels like Gandra could’ve been replaced with a random fowl soldier. She just uses a flash grenade and some pakour, no real unique skills of hers or insight into her character or anything remotley intresting on her first Fenton-less outing just... “eh I use tech stuff because i’m the tech girl bleh”. The show can do better, and Jameela is given nothing to work with to the point I genuinely worried she’d been replaced.. she hadn’t, but it’s NEVER a good sign when you give an actor so little to do character wise I can wonder that. Also it’s a bit of a nitpick but it genuinely bothers me that Flula Borg, John Hodgman and Jason Mantzokus all got guest star credits.. but April Winchel and Jameela Jamil got nothing. And you could say April’s a long standing voice actor and all that.. but Tress Macneile also got a guest starring credit for next week’s episode solicit, so it’s clearly not that, and just comes off unintetionally sexist and obnoxious and has bothered me since the episode summaries came out.

That out of the way the basic conflict is our heroes are flying blind, literally, with Dewey able to easily amble along, while Webby struggles as she can’t analize blind.. which comes off as bullshit to me. I HIGHLY doubt Beakly, paraoid mess she is, would not train her granddaughter to be able to fight without seeing. It’s one of the most basic training techniques in media. There’s a reason it pops up Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles a lot. To fight on instinct and with your other senses. And the instinct part is the lesson and insn’t a bad idea, it’s just the tool they use for it means they have to make Webby entirely helpless in a way that’s nonsensical to her character to make the plot work and it drags the bit down, thoguh we do get an utterly hilarious bit where Dewey mistakes a coiled white snake for a kitten. But our heroes make it through, Webby eventually saves Dewey with a leap of faith and Dewey has Webby hit a flash grenade back at Gandra which works somehow and blinds her optics despite you know.. someone who uses this kind of tech probably being smart enough to protect her own cybernetic eyes from flashbangs. But the kids have the piece.. and a snake now even if it terrifies them. I wish one of them had taken it home a snake fits either of them and Webby’s dealt with worse.. which is the whole problem with this segment. That being said getting to see Dewey pull a hank venture and turn his normal near-suicidal reckleness into a strength was great I just with it was framed in a way that wasn’t “plannig and knowing things is stupid USE IMPULSE”. Thankfully we can move on. Louie and Violet: The Silver Tongued Viper and The Violet Blade versus the Billion Dollar Man

Next up is Violet and Louie, a team up I didn’t expect at all but works well, and is a much better contrast. Webby and Dewey are similar enough, despite his rampant stupidity, that having a “one side teaches the other how to use something else and tap into their inner self”lesson didn’t work> Here it works perfectly: Someone who speaks frankly and seeks the truth through reason and research paired with someone whose greatest and most cherished talent is the ablility to lie and swindle. It’s a good contrast. Their headed for the underworld since, as I forgot to mention, each of the clues is framed as coming from the heavens (the first piece being on top of a statue), the underworld and the heart of the earth.

Violet, and understandbly given her sister is magic and the general nonsense the duck family runs into, takes the underworld part literally taking an axe and some coins to pay the ferryman with her. Louie however figures it’s usually just a flowry way of putting a con.. and while he’s wrong about mythology given the ducks have met gods and the ENTIRE next episode (which likely features selene since i’ts now established they leave out guest stars if there’s more than three apparently) is about the gods they met... his instincts are not wrong and it is nice they aren’t. Sure some myths are real but sometimes a clue isn’t literal, and it’s clever that hte underworld here is the criminal underworld.

Turns out center piece for the sword is an underground den for the criminal underworld focused around spice eating and general no goodnik shenanigans and Louie’s come prepared. In a bit of character stuff I REALLY love, Louie’s built up a rep as “The Silver Tounged Serpent”, with him bluffing that violet is his companion, having simply used a web of lies and word of mouth to build him up as the worst and most vile criminal imaginable. It’s not a bad plan and while Violet rightly points out he’ll have to live up to it eventually, and Louie naturally deflects that as “Future Louie’s” problem, not realizing in this case Future Louie is about 2 minutes from being present Louie, it’s not a bad scheme. Sure it’s risky as hell and he picked the worst place to use it.. but having an alias he can use to sneak into places like this where Scrooge would be made in an instant, and can easily come up with lies for the rest of his family minus Huey, whose useless not for being easily detectable but because he can’t lie to save his life and this very episode cements it. Most of his family is certified grade a badass, and can easily help him bluff or back up his claims or make him look like one. it’s just this time he happened to get Violet instead whose brutally honest and while badass, isn’t great at running con games nor pleased about any of this. That and Louie’s biggest weakness is forthought: While his brothers either don’t plan at all or overplan, Louie underplans: He has good ideas and good schemes and scams.. it’s just he has no real endgame for any of them and Violet sees right through that. Still meeting the Spice Baron, played by Flula Borg who I mostly know from this song he did with Ninja Sex Party, though I also forgot he was in PItch Perfect 2...

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Your welcome. But while he’d like to give our fake arch criminal his prize, someone else already offered him a literal, not figurative ton of cocaine.. I mean Gold. Got the wrong show there for a second. Unsurprisingly it’s Rockerduck whose done this and unlike the wasted opprotunity above this battle of wits is between the perfect opponents. Rockerduck is easily what Louie would become without his family: A shifty conman with a flair for lying, contacts in the criminal underworld and aversion to doing the hard work himself. He’s such a perfect opponent for Louie I don’t know why I never considered the two going head to head before, but it’s utterly fantastic. John Hodgman is also far and away the MVP of the episode guest villain wise, with some of the best lines too, my favorite being, after making a spice pun, demanding the assorted roughnecks “Laugh, LAUGH AT MY SPICE PUN”.. just the way he demands it with a mixture of karen and a whiny teenager is inspiried. But yeah, Rockerduck knowing who he’s dealing with challenges Louie to a spice duel, basically eating the hottest spices imaginable till one folds, winner takes all. Naturally Louie’s ep included being a champion at this, and naturally his first instincts are to bail and when that fails, keep lying while Violet encourages him not to. I mean he’s ignored the pink and red angels on his shoulder telling him not to do bad things, why would the new purple one be any different. But Rockerduck has the edge as his taste buds were burned off in cryo.. though in another great line he laments he can never enjoy hard boiled eggs again. Which fair enough but.. you know two geniuses.. one of them can simulate taste buds. Regardless, Louie’s in trouble and his attempt to simply cheat his way out fails and the baron dosen’t tolerate Cheaters.. or Cheetahs.. or Cheating Cheetahs as seen in a great sight gag with a cheetah which requires the Baron to clarify it’s both. Point is Louie is screwed.. but Violet then downs all three, without a bead of sweat for reasons the episode explains at the end of this segment, but works since we don’t know violet well and the mystery of how she did it is a compelling question for a second. Our heroes have won but Rockerduck plays his trump card: that they aren’t who their saying they are.. but turns out the truth is even better than the lies Louie has, as Violet quickly spins Louie’s legend with the outright acomplishments he’s had, including defeating the bombie and defeating Scrooge’s entire Rogue’s gallery with a pen stroke.. both true. And unlike the last segement this bit of true strength feels earned: Louie’s other ablility besides lying is seeing all the angles.. and thus like Violet.. he sees the truth. He can see what a person feels, know them better than they may know themselves or the lies they might tell themselves simply through a keen eye. He can pick apart a million dollar defense system simply with a few glances as seen last episode. Louie’s lies may be useful.. but his biggest strength is inddeed his ablility to see the truth. Louie backs violet up as conquerer of the shadow realm (techincally true) and scourge of magica de spell (not even remotely true as Magica has the same problem with face blindess scrooge has with Darkwing and just Darkwing but with everyone). Rockerduck tries to complain but the crowd turns on him, our heroes escape, and Louie compliments violet. As for how she did it meditation, which fits her pefectly so I easily accept it, and a spice of the month club.. which is oddly specific but eh, this bit was really fun so i’ll give it to her. Plus her usualy steely demanor means she likely has a great poker face.. as seen by the fact sh’es soon guling a nearbye trough of water and screaming. Great. As you can tell I liked this segment better, as it’s a clever duel that uses wit instead of strength ilke the others this episode, and forces Louie to find his real strength as his usual one backfires and really helps define Violet even more giving her a strong sense of truth, which fits her like a glove, and a nice dynamic with Louie. It was an odd pairing, but it worked wonders and brought the episode back to life after the last segment killed some of the momentum. And thankfully that momentum keeps rolling into the best segement:

Huey and Lena: Harnessing Your Inner Feral Goblin Child for the Greater Good

As you’d expect, our heroes are doing what they do best: Lena is trying to reign in a quirky nerd, and Huey is overthinking everything by trying to triangulate where the blade of the sword is. Naturally Lena just finds it as it’s embeeded in a compasss pattern on the earth, hence being part of the earth. Unsurprisingly Lena’s solution.. is to wack it free with a mallet... you know there’s a reson she’s one of my favorites and it’s nice to see two of my faviorites who haven’t interacted hardly at all have some time together. Naturally Huey objects to destroying the thing they came for and figures out how to remove it using the clues. Unfortunately for him, but happily for me, Steelbeak is back!

I missed this feral asshole, and Jason while not getting a ton of lines sadly, does make the best of what he has, and is used less as himself on purpose. Also while he’s still kind of a moron, as I mentioned in my Tiff of the Titans review, this version is still CLEVER. He may not be book smart, but he can think on his feet and come up with plans and here.. his plan was the best of the three we’ve seen: Just wait for the ducks to come by and solve it for him and then beat them up and take it or as he puts it “Not the first time a nerd did my homework for me. “ Dumb dosen’t always mean incompetent, and he still has his classic self’s easy sense of planning. Had Lena not been there he would’ve won his piece and been the ONLY member of his group to do so. But Lena is there and now fully trained, so she stops steelbeak by freezing time, Za Warudo! style. Though unlike DIO she can’t manipulate anything, or go get a steam roller though given her powers she can probably make something into one, so tha’ts still on the table. She instead enters someone’s mindscape and uses that to freeze time for a bit.. how .. I have no idea, but it’s an interesting concept and the white look of the void their in now is neat, with only steelbeak himself present in a black and white negative of himself. Huey takes this as time to plan indeiftely till he finds one that works, shooting down actually fighting Steelbeak as “a cowardly brute’s way out”. We then get a great montage as Huey tries everything, from reasoning, to barganing, to crying, to a TON of hilarious and obviously ineffectual disgusies, to lying.. which as you’d expect is simply holding the massive sword blade behind his back and going “what sword.” It’s a really great montage that shows off two things: Danny Pudi’s talent, and that Huey.. can’t reason or trick his way out of this. He can’t plan his way out. And that’s why Steelbeak is the perfect foe to put him up against: Unlike Webby who faced something she could understand and Louie, who simply faced his evil counterpart, Huey faces his exact oppsotie: Huey thrives on logic and as we soon learns bury’s his emotions and impulses and dosen’t fight unless he HAS TO and even then it’s usually in a group. Steelbeak.. is a dumb, impulsive, thug who thinks out his plans on the fly, if at all, laughs at logic, and thinks the best solution to everything is punch it or blow it up. He can’t be reasoned with, Huey isn’t good enough at deception to trick him, and outrunning him was the first thing Huey tried and failed miserably. Steelbeak is made of huey’s blind spot, his inablaity to act without thinking. And he can’t fight it.

While Lena’s humored him despite her annoyance with Huey’s stubborness, she finally breaks and tries to force him to admit he has to brute force his way out, with Huey refusing.. but his refusal brings out a door to “the duke of making a mess”. Naturally something this ominous and personal, and the fact they have no other options and she wants to prove a point, is catnip to Lena who lets the king out.. who turns out to be what you’d get if Bart Simpson’s evil deformed twin Hugo and the messed up Dipper Clone from Gravity Falls did a fusion dance. While also in a nice nod looking VERY similar, with his broad fangs and red eyes, to the evil version of mickey from runaway brain. It’s also somehow the SECOND TIME i’ve seen a child supress his negative emotions to the point they manifested into a person shoved deep inside our hero’s head. Lena naturally loves this feral goblin who Huey explains as all his impulses and emotoins, his spur of the moemnt ones anyway, funneled into one being so he can use logic and only logic. So basically.. Huey is bruce banner.. get.. this kid.. some therapy.

Point is Huey dosen’t want to embrace his wild side, while Lena points out he needs to, and that sh’es learned from experince being a part of ones self someone ignored entirely as Magica’s shadow he can’t just ignore this and hope it goes away. And given Bruce Banner eventually got several more split personalities which turn into hulking rage monsters, which are a sadist with a good core, a raging child and a las vega leg breaker, and that KO repressing TKO just lead to his other half killing everything he loved and only getting that snapped back thanks to god himself... yeah maybe Lena’s right. And this really brilliantly plays into Lena’s development: Her past two episodes have been entirely about her solving a problem, her nightmares and her wondering magic, that she’s been running from by facing it. She’s learned by now you can’t just ignore something and expect it to go away. Again, that’s how you get Hulks. You have to face your sometimes literal demons and yourself to get better and make things better. And now she’s learned that, it’s Huey’s turn. His entire problem has been that he functions entirely on reason and when reason can’t work, he falls apart. It’s something I honed in on last week and has come up again. The point Lena, and the episode, is making with this bit is that sometimes you just have to trust yourself and go with your gut. Huey, reluctnatly lets the duke out who goes Donald on Steelbeak... seriously while the big team shot of the cousins and triplets at the end of season 2 showed Huey as Fethry.. he’s easily the most Donald of the group. He’s considerate, romantic, seriously the date he set up for Fenton really was sweet and Violet is in for some very nice evenings.. but also stubborn, prone to mental breakdowns, badly needs therapy (which donald IS getting so there’s hope), and when angry is a demon sent straight from hell. I REALLY hope this gets pointed out at some point. However without focus the Duke is useless so Lena convinces Huey that he needs to not fight the duke as some evil demonic part of him but accept him: USE his rationality and strategy with his more violent and angry impulses. The two reunite with a hand shake, seriously i’m getting so many KO and TKO vibes this episode what the actual hell, and thei rmerged self easily beats steelbeak witha wedgie and tied shoelaces. It’s beautiful to see and Lena is brought to tears. Before we get to the finale, this was EASILY the best segment, using Lena’s character growth to faciltiate Huey’s that’s been going on all season: making him see he needs to step out of his comfort zone of logic and accept his own inner strenght, his complete self, to really function. It’s good well done stuff and the setting is really intresting. THE FINALE: You are my Inner Strength

So naturally all the parts come together as Scrooge and Heron’s fight lands near Huey and Lena with Webby, Dewey, Violet and Louie all showing up soon after. Scrooge in a really nice moment is utterly proud of the kids, having had the utmost faith in them to get the pieces, and having his faith validated. He may be a cynical, sometimes assholish, old man.. but he loves and believes in his kids and future kids in law, he trusts them more than himself and he’s come far enough to not doubt them when he needs them most. FOWL however has regrouped, and Scrooge.. just gives them the assembled sword. Unsurprisingly, if still awesomely this is a ploy: Heron tries using the sword.. but it flies out of her hand and into Scrooges. He out gambited them. Also getting JoJo’s Bizzare Adventure vibes this episode with all the planning and counter planning and I am loving it. As he explains the sword reponds to true inner strength, while heron is all surface level: All malice and schemes and nothing beneath her character, as are the others. There 3 dimensional characters.. but their all pretty open with who they are and not really open to introspection, where as our heroes are and thus grew.. and Scrooge already knows his inner strength: The kids. THey helped him become a better person, all of them except violet and she just joined the family give her time. They’ve all helped him let his walls down and let people in again after the tragedy of della destroyed him emotionally and put the walls up thick, with Lena being the one to finally get him to destroy them for good. They’ve all helped him be better and he’s helped them all be better in turn, giving them a live of adventure where there their best selves and becoming great kids who will become incredible adults. Their love for one another is what drives them. And thus activates the sword. FOWL seemingly decides to just book and our heroes have won. Scrooge rewards his kids, new additons included, with some street meat cut byt he sword, and we get nice little shots of the lessons having sunk in with Huey knawing into his like a rabid wolf and Dewey and Webby sharing theirs blindly i’ts a sweet conclusion to a fun episode. But given we’re in the thick of the story arc now, FOWL naturally didn’t just book it for no reason.. this was all a setup. Heron calls back to Bradford with a mission accomplished and a lock of scrooge’s feathers.

It’s genuinely impressive as there’s no way F.O.W.L. can loose here: They win the sword.. and they have both the feathers for whatever nightmare they have planned for the Ducks, and another Missing Mystery for their grand scheme. They loose.. and they likely already have a plan to get any mysteries the ducks gather, just like last time, and they still get what they want. Either way Scrooge and the audience are unaware of the real plan, and FOWL is still ahead.

Dew-abolical!

Final Thoughts for the Episode as a Whole:

While a bit weaker than the last two weeks, and almost entirely thanks to the first segment, this episode is still a fun ride and a great way to kick things off now the ducks and F.O.W.L. are both on the offensive. It was also a great way to bring the Saberwing Sisters back and give them some fresh dynamics outside of Webby for a change, bring back some old faviorite vilians and in general pack a fun, Barks and Rosa style adventure story into the myth arc while still dripping with the character progression and dynamics this show lives for. One dark spot aside this really is a great episode, and the other two segements are clever and fun enough to easily ignore that. This season continues to be the show at it’s absolute peak doing what it’s always done best: taking the past and making something fantastic with it. Next Week: The kids, sadly minus my girls, audition to replace Zeus! Horay! Finally Zeus got MeTooed! It took long enough.. I mean they wrote entire sonets about his sex crimes. This isn’t a Bill Cosby situation where it suprised the general public, no one liked him since greek times to begin with. Also DAISY RETURNS! Horay! And so does the incredible storkules, MASTER OF COCKBLOCKING! Also Horay! Seriously unlike the last two blocks of episodes there’s not a one i’m not excited about in the bunch. Until then you can check my blogs for more reviews, and I plan to do the first episode this month and adjust my patreon rewards accordingly. You can follow said patreon at pateron dot com/popculturebuffet, comission reviews of other ducktales or cartoon episodes for 5 dollars an episode by shooting me an ask or message on here, and get out and vote tomorrow.. that’s not related to me but given how crucial this election is. Do it get out and vote. Until we meet again it’s been a pleasure.

#ducktales #the split sword of swanstaintine #ducktales spoilers #scrooge mcduck #webby vanderquack #dewey duck #lena saberwing #violet saberwing #huey duck #louie duck #john d rockerduck #gandra dee #steelbeak #black heron #f.o.w.l.#weblena #huelet

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inhumansforever · 6 years

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Ms. Marvel #25 Review

spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers

The ‘Teenage Wasteland’ story arc begins here as Kamala’s buddies try to pick of the super heroing slack during Ms. Marvel’s mysterious absence. From the creative team of G Willow Wilson, Nico Leon and Ian Herring Recap and review following the jump.

Ms. Marvel is missing and Jersey City has been left unprotected. Kamala’s good friends, Zoe, Nakia, Mike and Gabe are all quite worried that all manner of mayhem might ensue were the all the bad guys outer to discover Ms. M’s absence. Hence they have hoisted it upon themselves to take up Ms. Marvel’s mantel, dress up as her and keep the denizens of Jersey City safe and believing that their hero is there to protect them.

And the city may very well need this protection, for the weird and evil scientist, Dr. Gregory Balthazar Knox, has just been granted parol and has been released from prison. Knox is actually the super villain known as ‘The Inventor’ and is one of the first major adversaries Ms. Marvel tangled with in her short career as a costumed hero. It looks like Kamala has chosen the wrong time for her sabbatical in that The Inventor is sure to be up to all manner of dastardly deeds now that he’s free.

Elsewhere, Mike is roaming the rooftops of downtown Jersey City trying her best to fill Ms. Marvel’s shoes, and uniform, and there’s also a cheap wig (which she forgot to remove the price tag from).

Mike spots a robber (who is very conveniently dressed as a robber) trying to pilfer some priceless pearls from an older woman. Mike jumps onto the scene, using a rigged-together inflatable device to mimic Ms. marvel’s embiggoned fist. At first the robber laughs at this un-intimidating display, but laughs no more when the inflated fist wallops him into next Tuesday. Her job accomplished, Mike attempts to make a dramatic exit which results in her falling off a rooftop and into a dumpster.

Back at Gabe’s basement hideout, Mike exclaims that she’s had it. Playing the role of Ms. Marvel has been rather difficult and she has sprained everything that she has left to sprain. It’s someone else’s turn to take a shift. The others lament that this would all be easier were Kamala there to help. None of Kamala’s pals know that she and Ms. Marvel are one and the same; the fact that Ms. M and Kamala have both gone missing at the same time seems to strike them as little more than a mere coincidence.

In any case, Zoe agrees that she’s be next at playing the role of Ms. Marvel… she’s confident that it’ll go well; you know, since she’s been doing some cross/fit of late (plus she has a copy of ‘Pakour for Dummies’ so it’s certain to go fine).

The next day at school, their classmate, Neftali, has come looking for Kamala. It’s Wednesday, sandwich day, and Neftali has brought with him a deluxe kosher hoggie for his pal. This is the character’s first introduction in the pages of Ms. Marvel, but apparently the two are friends and usually share sandwiches on Wednesday. He is perplexed by Kamala’s friend’s seeming lack of concern over Kamala’s whereabout.

Nakia and the others have grown rather accustomed to Kamala disappearing for long spats at a time. Between Ms. Marvel’s adventures as a solo hero coupled with her participation with both The Champions and Secret Warriors, Kamala likely misses a lot of school and the others seem to have just become used to it. Neftali, however, doesn’t like it at all and sets upon finding out where Kamala is and delivering her her sandwich (or be mildly inconvenienced in trying).

Fortunately, Neftali has a pretty boss scooter that he uses to shoot over the Khan household where he finds Aamir in the process of loading up a moving van, prepping for his and his new wife moving into an apartment of their own. Aamir appears to know what’s up with his sister; she’s taking a break and Aamir is not about to spill the beans on her whereabouts. Aamir is not about to get on his sister’s bad side; he and his wife are expecting a baby any day now and Aamir is going to need all the help (and babysitting) that Kamala may have to offer. Still, Aamir is able to convince Neftali that Kamala is okay and that he has no need to worry about her wellbeing.

That night, Zoe has donned the Ms. Marvel garb and wig and doing her part to patrol the city and assure the citizenship that Ms. Marvel still has their backs. Smartly, Zoe has chosen an affluent, low-crime neighborhood to patrol. It is here that Zoe is approached by Laal Khanjeer, The Red Dagger.

The Dagger sees right through Zoe’s disguise. He knows the real Ms. Marvel quite well and is rather certain she doesn’t have blue eyes and caucasian skin. He demands to know what has been down with the real Ms. Marvel, but Zoe is able to turn the tables on him by asking why it is he’s so interested… The Dagger has a big ol’ crush on Ms. Marvel and he bashfully goes on the defensive, explaining that things did not go so well between them on their last adventure together; he’s been quite worried about her.

Zoe and The Dagger’s conversation is cut short when a screaming old man rolls by on his slow-speed motorized rascal. Newly arrived from Karachi, The Dagger is not sure whether or not such an occurrence is a normal thing here in the states. Zoe has to admit it isn’t and she catches up with the old-timer to see what the problem is. The man explains that he’s escaped his assisted living home because someone there has been locking up the residents in a science dungeon.

Concerned that the old fellow might be suffering from some type of age related cognitive issue, Zoe and The Dagger escort him back to the Sundown Senior Sanctuary. Whist doing so, The Dagger laments that in his home country they would never treat their elders in such a way; one’s grandparents deserve respect and should be cared for by their families. Here here.

Despite the old man’s claims of peril, the Sundown Senior Sanctuary seems to a nice enough place. There’s a spirited game of checkers going down as well as an old codger who appears perfectly content chucking a bunch of stuffed animals out the window (which does look rather fun).

Despite the apparent lack of any danger, The Dagger insists that he and Zoe have a look around just to be sure. Begrudgingly, Zoe agrees and as they look around they encounter Bob the orderly who demands they vacate immediately. This ‘Bob’ is quite obviously Dr. Gregory Balthazar Knox. Yet, in his guise as a super villain, Knox wore this weird bird costume so neither recognize him (although Zoe does sense something familiar about him).

Quite suddenly, a mechanical arm crashes through the wall, its mechanized hand grabbing Zoe and picking her up. The Dagger tries to rescue her but they both end up falling down to the side of the building. Fortunately they land safely in the pile of stuffed animals that old dude had been chucking out the window. Thanks gramps!

The two get up and see before them the creature that had attacked them: some type of giant chameleon cyborg! Uh oh!

And it is here that the issue concludes with the promise of continuation.

It’s an interesting and fun irony that an issue that doesn’t feature a single appearance of the real Ms. Marvel should feel so unequivocally ‘Ms. Marvel-esque’ in tone, style and substance. The quippy but authentic dialogue, continued strong character development, and fun but still perilous adventure is all here… it’s only Kamala herself who is missing. Yet I don’t miss her too terribly in that I love her supporting cast and am quite happy for a story arc putting them in the center spotlight.

Zoe especially shined in this issue. She is such an intriguing characters in that she has transformed so much from her first appearance (where she was a one-dimension and stereotypical cheerleader mean-girl) to her current status as a wholly unique, fully fleshed-out, interesting and relatable character. Zoe is merely a component of Ms. Marvel’s supporting cast, yet she has more depth and development of personality than most characters who star in their own book (or books plural). It reminds me of the Lee/Ditko era of Amazing Spider-Man where Petey’s pal, Harry Osborn, Gwen Stacy, Flash Thompson and Liz Allen all played pivotal roles in the stories, making Spidey’s world feel real and multidimensional.

Zoe and The Red Dagger make for a great pairing. Outside of their shared concern for Kamala, the two have almost nothing in common yet they play off one another in a wonderful fashion. G Willow Wilson’s skill at providing her characters such a unique and idiosyncratic sense of voice makes the dialogue such a treat to read.

I also appreciated the addition of Neftali to the crew. It’s difficult to say what the story is with this guy, where he’s been all this time and how it is that he has access to such highly coveted sandwiches, but I’m definitely interested in learning more. The scene between him and Aamir is particularly intriguing... not because of what is said, but rather what is not said. I like that there can be a scene between one character who is quite obviously Muslim and another who is quite obviously Jewish and the matter of culture and religion is not at all a factor.

Also, as a Jewish guy myself, it is always nice to see a fellow Jew introduced as a character. I can already hear the haters lamenting the overtly political correctness of Kamala’s running crew being so very diverse, but representation does matter and it just feels good to see someone like me as a part of the Ms. Marvel cast.

Likewise, I’m glad to see The Inventor make a subsequent appearance. As a comic, Ms. Marvel really needs to start accruing a more stable rogues gallery; and the Inventor’s return is an excellent step in that direction. It makes for an interesting twist that he has gone from targeting shiftless teenagers to setting his sights on shuffled-away senior citizens. It’s sinisterly clever that he always goes after those who are pushed off to the fringes, who may be the least likely to be missed. Based on his prior appearance, The Inventor has expressed a particular animosity toward those he see as not contributing to society; perhaps he feels the same way toward the elderly. He’s just a bad dude.

A lot of the fellow Ms. Marvel fans I’ve spoken with are still holding out hope that Kamala/Bruno might still happen. Although it’s a shipping I respect, I actually much prefer Kareem. Of course I would also be fine with Kamala not having a love interest at all. She’s just a teenager and anything outside of holding hands is likely to be more than what she is currently interested. Still, I think the Red Dagger is super cool and I’m psyched that he’s going play a central role in this adventure.

Artist, Diego Olortegu, had illustrated the previous two issue. Mr. Olortegu is a very talented artist, yet I didn’t feel as though he was a particularly good fit for Ms. Marvel. This issue is illustrated by Nico Leon who is much more apt in capturing that distinctive look and aesthetic that has come to be something of a hallmark of the title. Similar to Adrain Alphona and Takeshi Miyazawa, Leon absolutely excels at providing the kinds of facial expression, panel layouts, detailed backgrounds, sight gags and all the fun little tidbits that makes the series so special. In particular, I liked Gabe zipping about his basement on a hover-board, Zoe’s reading ‘Pakour for Dummies,’ and the sign at the Sundown Senior Sanctuary reminding residents not to feed cake to Fluffy the dog.

I’ve long-since run out of ways to laud Ian Herring’s color work, so I’ll just repeat once more that it is flawless and Mr. Herring’s coloring has remained just as crucial a component to the specialness of Ms. Marvel as the wrting and illustration.

Another fantastic read and highly recommended. This is the last issue of Ms. Marvel for 2017 and I can say once more that the series has easily earned a spot on my top ten best comics of the year. A must read. Five out of Five Lockjaws.

#Ms. Marvel #Kamala Khan #G Willow Wilson #Nico Leon #Ian Herring #spoilers #review #Inhumans

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