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demifiendrsa · 2 years

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DC Studios | Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters

Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters:

Creature Commandos: An animated seven episode series, written by Gunn, that is already in production. Originally a team of classic monsters assembled to fight Nazis, this is a modern take on the concept. The voice actors have yet to be cast but the executives are looking to find people who can voice the animated characters and also portray the live-action versions when the anti-heroes to show up in movies and shows.

Waller: A spin-off of Gunn’s own HBO Max hit series, Peacemaker, Viola Davis will return as the ruthless and morally ambiguous head of a government task force. It is being written by Christal Henry (Watchmen) and Jeremy Carver, the creator of the Doom Patrol TV series.

Superman: Legacy: The movie featuring the Man of Steel that Gunn is writing and may direct, although no commitments on that end have been made. While the two previous titles are meant to be “aperatifs,” in Safran’s words, Superman is the true kick off for the duo’s DCU plans. “It’s not an origin story,” Safran said. “It focuses on Superman balancing his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing. He is the embodiment of truth justice and the American way. He is kindness in a world that thinks that kindness as old-fashioned.” A release date of July 11, 2025 has been penciled in.

Lanterns: Greg Berlanti’s long-in-the-works Green Lanterns TV series has been scrapped and the duo have parted ways with the longtime DC series steward. In its place will be a new take on the space cops with power rings. “Our vision for this is very much in the vein of True Detective,” Safran described. “It’s terrestrial-based.” It will feature prominent Lantern heroes Hal Jordan and John Stewart and is one of the most important shows they have in development. “This plays a really big role in leading into the main story we are telling across film and TV.”

The Authority: a movie based on a team of superheroes with rather extreme methods of protecting the planet that first originated in the late 1990s under an influential imprint known as Wildstorm, run by artist and now head of DC publishing, Jim Lee. “One of the things of the DCU is that it’s not just a story of heroes and villains,” said Gunn. “Not every film and TV show is going to be about good guy vs. bad guy, giant things from the sky comes and good guy wins. There are white hats, black hats and grey hats.” Added Safran: “They are kinda like Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men. They know that you want them on the wall. Or at least they believe that.”

Paradise Lost: The duo describe this HBO Max series as a Game of Thrones-style drama set on the all-female island that is Wonder Woman’s birthplace, Themyscira, filled with political intrigue and scheming between power players. It takes place before the events of the Wonder Woman films.

The Brave and the Bold: “This is the introduction of the DCU Batman,” said Gunn. “Of Bruce Wayne and also introduces our favorite Robin, Damian Wayne, who is a little son of a bitch.” The movie will take inspiration from the now-classic Batman run written by Grant Morrison that introduced Batman to a son he never knew existed: a murderous tween raised by assassins. “It’s a very strange father-and-son story.”

And, importantly, it will feature a Batman not played by Robert Pattinson…

Booster Gold: an HBO Max series based on a unique and lower-tiered hero created in 1986. Safran said of the series, “It’s about a loser from the future who uses basic future technology to come back to today and pretend to be a superhero.” Gunn described it as “imposter syndrome as superhero.”

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow: Taking its cues from the recent Tom King-written mini-series, this movie project promises to have a different take than what most think of when the idea of Superman’s cousin comes to mind. “We will see the difference between Superman, who was sent to Earth and raised by loving parents from the time he was an infant, versus Supergirl, raised on a rock, a chip off of Krypton, and who watched everyone around her die and be killed in terrible ways for the first 14 years of her life and then come to Earth. She is much more hardcore and not the Supergirl we’re used to.”

Swamp Thing: a horror film that promises to close out the first part of the first chapter.

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comicweek · 2 years

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Before audiences get to those films and series, however, there is a matter of this year’s crop movies, starting with Shazam! Fury of the Gods, coming March 17, and continuing with The Flash (June 16), Blue Beetle (Aug. 18), and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (Dec. 25).

The duo are high on the quartet, made by the previous film regime and under the aegis of DC Films, run by former head Walter Hamada. Gunn calls The Flash, directed by Andy Muschietti, “probably one of the greatest superhero movies ever made.”

He also said the four leads of those films could potentially continue playing their leading roles in DCU projects down the line. “There is nothing that prohibits that from happening,” said Gunn.

DCU

Elseworlds

The Batman sequel: Pattinson will continue to portray the Dark Knight in at least one more crime saga movie directed by Matt Reeves. That movie, the executives revealed, will be released Oct. 3, 2025 and is being titled The Batman Part II.

#DCU #DCEU #Batman #Superman #Wonder Woman #Supergirl #James Gunn #The Batman #Damian Wayne #Creature Commandos #The Authority

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gamerbulten · 11 months

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Acele. Bağlılık. Varyant kapaklarına saygı Şiddetli DC anti-kahraman Peacemaker - özellikle John Cena Peacemaker - Ocak 2022'de yaklaşan birkaç çizgi roman kapağı alacak.Yaklaşan HBO Max'e bir bağlantı olarak barışçı Cena, DC'nin başrol oynadığı dizi, 2022'nin başlarındaki DC kitaplarının varyant kapakları olarak yayınlanacak bazı çarpıcı Peacemaker illüstrasyonları oluşturmak için yedi sanatçıyı görevlendirdi.Hatırlarsanız, Peacemaker, ana akım izleyicilerin son The Suicide Squad filminde tanıştığı, kötü niyetli, silahlı bir vatansever kahramandır. Aslen 60'larda yaratılan Peacemaker, bir süre için en iyi Watchmen Komedyeni için ilham kaynağı olarak biliniyordu, ancak The Multiversity: Pax Americana ve daha önce bahsedilen The Suicide Squad filmindeki görünümüyle yeniden ilgi gördü.2022 Peacemaker varyant kapaklarını arıyorsanız, onları hangi çizgi romanlarla bulacağınız, resimleri kimlerin çizdiği ve onları ne zaman alabileceğinizin bir listesi:4 Ocak: Justice League Incarnate #3 (5/5) Jorge Fornes tarafından4 Ocak: Joker Sunar: Bir Bulmaca Kutusu #6 (7/7) tarafından Fico Ossio18 Ocak: Mavi ve Altın #5 (8 adet) tarafından Simone Di Meo18 Ocak: İntihar Timi: King Shark #5 (6 kişiden) Kaare Andrews tarafındanOcak 25: Deathstroke Inc. #5 (7/7) Lucio Parrillo tarafındanOcak 25: #11 Dima Ivanov tarafındanOcak 25: Görev Gücü Z #4 Dan Mora tarafındanİşte şu ana kadar yayınlanan Peacemaker varyant kapaklarının bir galerisi:Resim 1 / 7Kredi: Kaare Andrews (DC))Peacemaker varyant kapaklarıResim 2 / 7Kredi: Lucio Parrillo (DC))Resim 3 / 7Kredi: Dima Ivanov (DC))Resim 4 / 7Kredi: Dan Mora (DC))Resim 5 / 7(İmaj kredisi: Fico Ossio (DC))Resim 6 / 7(Resim kredisi: DC)Resim 7 / 7(Resim kredisi: DC)Tüm varyant kapaklarda olduğu gibi, bunlar yalnızca çizgi roman dükkanları ve dijital versiyonlarda mevcut değildir.Bu, ek olarak Peacemaker: Barışı Rahatsız Etmek Garth Ennis ve Garry Brown tarafından kaleme alınan tek seferlik çizgi roman, 25 Ocak 2022'de çıkış yapacağını duyurdu. Peacemaker ayrıca yakın zamanda, Mart 2021'de yeniden lansmanı ile devam eden Suicide Squad serisine yeniden katıldı.John Cena'nın Peacemaker HBO Max serisinin 13 Ocak'ta piyasaya çıkması bekleniyor.Peacemaker'ı seviyorsanız, önerilen önerilerimizi de seveceksiniz. En iyi İntihar Timi hikayeleri tüm zamanların.

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blast0rama · 2 years

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James Gunn and Peter Safran Reveal DC Studios Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters

Let’s just get into the nitty gritty here…

The Hollywood Reporter:

A new Batman movie without Robert Pattinson (but featuring Bruce Wayne’s murderous son). A Superman movie on the release schedule (mark your calendars for July 11, 2025). A Game of Thrones-style drama set on Wonder Woman’s home island of Themyscira (Amazonian palace intrigue). And an animated series already in production (Creature Commandos … wait, what?).

That’s just part of what will be coming to theaters and TV screens as part of DC Studios bosses James Gunn and Peter Safran’s new slate.

The pair have been busy in the three months since taking over and combining the film and television slate of DC properties, including live-action and animation, as well as gaming. They revamped the way the movie and TV sides do business, cutting ties with projects and creators. A writers room was formed to find an overall story that will launch a unified DC Universe. Creators have been approached. And a plan, at least part of one for what is being billed as Chapter 1: God and Monsters, was formulated and a slate of projects put into development.

And the long-awaited lineup reveal:

And, importantly, it will feature a Batman not played by Robert Pattinson…

“2025 is going to be a very big year for DC,” crowed Safran. “Superman and Batman within the same year.”

Swamp Thing: a horror film that promises to close out the first part of the first chapter.

There’s a lot here to be excited about — casting remaining consistent across movies, TV and animation (unless you’re Batman, I guess), some interesting pulls of comics to turn into films (The Authority! Tom King’s awesome Woman of Tomorrow series!) — but we’ve got 3 movies to deal with from the old guard and a few years before any of this actually makes air/hits the screens.

I am cautiously optimistic. Let’s see how this looks come 2025.

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technodrome1 · 3 years

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rorsharch mask

#rorshach #mask #kanye #comics #dc #watchmen #hbo #sandy #drawing #kofax #kofacs #drome #2021 #future #squid #hero #anti villian #anti hero #joker #batman #smiley face #the comedian

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dovebuffy92 · 4 years

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Check out my reviews of the last four episodes of The Watchmen miniseries. The pilot episode deals with the real-life 1921 race massacre where Black Tulsa Oklahomans were shot down by white terrorists and Black businesses were burnt down. A piece of history that was almost forgotten. The whole Science Fiction/Super Hero series deals with racism in the past and an alternative present. The Watchmen argues that unless you change how society views African American and erase White privilege, passing all the progressive laws (including restitution) won't do much good.

https://www.whedonopolis.com/…/the-watchmen-season-1-episo…/

https://www.whedonopolis.com/…/watchmen-season-1-episode-7…/

https://www.whedonopolis.com/…/watchmen-season-1-episode-8…/

https://www.whedonopolis.com/…/watchmen-season-1-episode-n…/

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coquettesamosa · 3 years

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fucked up book list please 🤲

i'm gonna preface this by saying that the list isn't actually all that long and that people's definition of fucked up tends to vary. for my part, i'll most recommend books that have a specific manner of narration? and. just a bit too much violence and death and philosophy to be written by and for a well-adjusted human being. if that makes sense.

trigger warnings for extreme violence, war, death, gore, and human life and death being described in a rather disturbing and off-putting manner. you'll see what i mean. it's not everyone's cup of tea.

watchmen by alan moore and david lloyd (graphic novel)

set during the cold war. deconstruction of the superhero genre long before it was popular. alan moore's and david lloyd's other graphic novel, v for vendetta is also worth a read but it is a lot more black and white, and not quite as fucked up and morally grey as watchmen (the hbo show is also worth a watch).

the broken earth trilogy by nk jemisin

the world-building is *chef's kiss*. not nearly as messed up as the other books on this list but worth a read for the manner in which it is written, specifically the characters.

god of small things by arundhati roy

just like chuck palahniuk and nk jemisin, arundhati roy has written this book in a very specific manner, with repeated callbacks to certain phrases - almost like a chorus - that get more and more horrifying as one gets further into the book and learn more about the situation in which those phrases originated.

kari by amruta patil (graphic novel)

two women, in love with each other, decide to commit suicide. both survive. what follows is an intense deep-dive into death, gender, and ultimately, hope.

fight club by chuck palahniuk

and by extension all of his other work but especially the first 3-4 novels he's written. i've only read fight club so far but it's deliciously messed up and the others seem to promise as much and more.

cat's cradle by kurt vonnegut

again, only completed this one so far but all of his works involve dark humour, intense anti-war sentiments and a choppy disjointed style of writing i've come to love.

#asks #anon #recs #ask to tag #books

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diversemymedia · 4 years

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one thing i can really, really appreciate about cleverly written comic-based shows like hbo’s watchmen and harley quinn is that it’s meant to show grown asses in their mid to late 30s & older, that characters like the joker and rorshach aren’t meant to be admired and never should be. while i can understand that there are certain aspects to these characters that can be respected or relatable on a surface level, they still aren’t meant to be worshipped. people may wanna believe they’re meant to be “flawed” morally “grey” anti-heroes or whatever but, in reality, they’re assholes and with any kind of power and privilege, they’re capable of having such hateful, racist, homophobic, and misogynistic legacies. and the reason other people see that is not because people are being sensitive, it’s because you either lack basic empathy or because you’re in denial that you were inspired by such a terrible character as a teen.

#rorschach was LITERALLY a racist and a homophobe #watchmen hbo #rorschach #the joker #joker 2019 #watchmen #harley quinn the animated series

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revlyncox · 4 years

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Superhero Values (2021)

Whether we have great powers or simply great responsibilities, we return to our values to guide our actions. This talk was revised and expanded for the Washington Ethical Society, February 21, 2021.

Earlier, you gave some advice to “Human Person” (a fictional superhero who “visited” earlier in the Platform) about compassion, understanding, and commitment, which are easier words to say than to practice. It helps to have role models, even if their stories didn’t happen exactly in the way they are told. It seems to me that mythology, fiction, and maybe even history can supply us with examples of values we can agree on. Stories that have captured our imaginations in the past may remind us of the people we hope to become.

When I was a kid, Batman was the lead character in some of those stories. He showed up in comic books and Pez dispensers, but the most influential form of Batman from my childhood was the Adam West character on television. When I was six or seven years old, the other kids who went to my babysitter and I used to run around the yard chasing super villains, pretending the basement steps were the Bat Cave, and generally doing our part for the good of Gotham City. We all traded roles as the heroes, heroines, and the various arch-nemeses.

I learned a couple of things from the Bat-team. I learned that superheroes have origin stories, events that changed the direction of their lives. You might not be able to tell from looking at them, especially in their secret identities, but every superhero has a past. The Bat-team also taught me that superheroes struggle with power. Whether the super skills come from hard work, cool gadgets, or another planet, heroes have to figure out the most effective and responsible way to use those skills. Finally, I learned that superheroes form coalitions. Batman and Robin and Batgirl worked together, not to mention Commissioner Gordon and Chief O’Hara. Even an independent vigilante needs other people for the toughest problems.

Come to think of it, those same things are true for all of us. Each of us has to decide how to respond to the past. Individually and as a group, we are faced with questions of power and responsibility. Teaming up with other people is a source of strength, in spite of and perhaps because of our differences. I think these characteristics of superheroes call attention to WES’s future as a community.

Heroes Have Origins

First, superheroes have origin stories. Some event from the past sparked the character’s discovery of talents and passions, leading to a new sense of identity and purpose. Those events might be associated with death or separation from a loved one, or with the loss of the character’s pre-heroic dreams.

Superman’s powers come from his extra-planetary birth, but his ideas about truth, justice, and the American way come from Martha and Jonathan Kent. There is some speculation that Superman’s creators (Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster) modeled him after Moses, a baby whose people faced destruction, and was carried in a small vessel to a land where his birth identity had to be concealed.

There is a category of stories in which the characters have qualities that were typical in their place of origin, but something called them to help people in a world similar to our own, where their profound difference turned out to be a gift. Wonder Woman, Black Panther, AquaMan, and Valkyrie fall into this category.

On the other hand, some superheroes start off with an event of pain or trauma, like Peter Parker’s radioactive spider bite to become Spiderman. Batman’s path is a response to trauma. In the Watchmen mini-series on HBO, one of the characters’ commitment to justice came from being a survivor of the 1921 white supremacist attack on Tulsa, Oklahoma. Ms. Marvel’s Kamala Khan is mainly in this category, having gained her powers during an unusual event.

Whatever the story, most extra-human comic book characters have faced a life-changing event that seems to isolate them from important people in their lives. Often, the character will acquire or discover or place new value on a gift or a talent they have during that experience. Picking up these pieces of loss, loneliness, and strength, the character eventually forges a new sense of purpose.

Michael Servetus (Miguel Serveto) is someone from history whose story follows this pattern a bit. He wasn’t always brave, and he wasn’t known for being kind, but he did set himself apart and commit his life to the truth as he saw it. I wouldn’t necessarily call him a Humanist, but he was a free thinker in that he defied the orthodoxy of his time, and his sacrifices made it possible for the people who came after him to do even more questioning of creeds, dogmas, and oppressive religious organizations.

When Servetus read the Bible for himself for the first time as a young student in the 1520s, he was shocked to discover no evidence for the doctrine of the Trinity. In 1531, he published a tract, De Trinitatis Erroribus (On the Errors of the Trinity), seemingly convinced that people would see it his way if only they would listen. That’s not what happened. He was run out of town, his books were confiscated, and the Supreme Council of the Inquisition started looking for him.

This is where the secret identity comes in. Servetus fled to Paris and assumed the name of Michel de Villeneuve. He had a varied career as de Villeneuve, first as an editor and publisher, then as a doctor. He worked on a seven-volume edition of the Bible, adding insightful footnotes. He was the first European to publish about the link between the pulmonary and respiratory systems.

During his time as the personal physician for the Archbishop of Vienne, he secretly worked on his next theological treatise, Christianismi Restitutio (The Restoration of Christianity). He also struck up a correspondence with his old classmate, John Calvin. Servetus was not diplomatic in his criticisms of Calvin’s writing, and Calvin broke off correspondence. Servetus seemed to think that their exchange was illuminating, because he included copies of the letters when he sent an advance copy of the Restitutio to Geneva.

The publication of the Restitutio in 1553 marked the end of Servetus’ secret identity. Both Protestant and Catholic authorities pursued him as a dangerous heretic. He was burned at the stake on October 27, 1553, by the order of The Council of Geneva. Reportedly, he maintained his beliefs until the end, shouting heretical prayers from the flames. The Catholic Inquisition in France burned Servetus in effigy a few months later. There were a lot of people who didn’t want his ideas to be heard. Luckily for us, a few copies of his books were preserved, and went on to generate new ideas among religious reformers for over 450 years.

Now, I’m not saying Michael Servetus was a superhero. It might be hard to identify with him in some ways. Though he had ideas that were called Unitarian at the time, Unitarian Universalists oday would disagree with most of what he wrote, as would most Ethical Culturists. His creeds don’t match most of our beliefs; though some of his deeds, such as challenging authority and being a medical provider, might resonate. Nevertheless, we can see how a turning point in someone’s life can bring isolation, energy, purpose, abilities, and vulnerabilities, all at the same time. His origins were more like Spiderman than Superman: Being in the right place at the right time, Servetus was bitten by the free thinking bug. He had to adopt an alter ego, but the bug also afforded him the drive and the insight to make great contributions to scholarship and religious freedom.

How often is it the same for those of us who are regular folks? The events that make us who we are may bring a sense of loss or loneliness. These same events may bring a chance for us to develop new talents, or personal connection to the work we aspire to do. Passion and vulnerability can come from a single point in time.

The thing that sets a superhero origin story apart from a villain origin story is how the character translates their past into a future of meaning and purpose. Most of us are not consistently villains or heroes; we have to choose in every moment how to draw from our past to make choices in the present. We can’t control the historical facts of our origin stories. Even if our own choices led to the turning points in our lives, they are in the past now. What we can do is bring our values to the way we understand those turning points, and to our decisions about what to do with the gifts we have now. Let’s do our best to choose to use our origins well.

Heroes Form Coalitions

The very first appearance of Spiderman (in Amazing Fantasy #15 in 1962) saw the teenage Peter Parker misusing his new powers, only to have his negligence contribute to the death of his Uncle Ben, one of his adoptive parents. Peter’s understanding of Ben’s teaching that “With great power there must also come—great responsibility!” shaped his character from then on. The spider counterparts from other universes, heroes like Gwen Stacy and Miles Morales, also have turning points on that theme.

Superhero characters struggling with power and responsibility would have benefitted from reading about James Luther Adams, who was a professor at Harvard during the 1950s and 1960s. Adams had a great deal to say about power and what that meant for the responsibilities of movements for liberation.

Between 1927 and the late 1930s, Adams made several trips to Germany, a country that was renowned for philosophical scholarship. He spoke with religious and academic leaders, was detained for questioning by the Gestapo, and developed a sense of urgency about the political, cultural, moral, and spiritual crisis that went along with the rise of the Nazi party. While Adams developed great respect for the anti-Nazi Confessing Church movement, he noticed that Germany’s churches as a whole were not pushing back against the crisis.

Adams said that individual and organized philosophy should be “examined.” There must be a path for critique, self-correction, and development. Adams wrote, “the achievement of freedom in community requires the power of organization and the organization of power.”

In that same period when Adams was noticing trends of power, organization, and responsibility in Germany, Humanists in the United States were also teaming up. The roots of some of these relationships went back to the Free Religious Association, which was the group where Felix Adler hung around with Ralph Waldo Emerson and the other Transcendentalists. The FRA led to another trend called the “Ethical Basis” group within Unitarianism.

I’m drawing here from The Humanist Way: An Introduction to Ethical Humanist Religion, a book by former WES Senior Leader Ed Ericson. Ericson writes that, by the end of the nineteenth century, the Ethical Basis bloc had successfully advocated that inclusion as either a member or a clergy person in Unitarian congregations be purely on an ethical basis rather than having any doctrinal basis. Ericson continues:

They resisted all attempts to impose any theological requirement, however broadly such a test might be construed. Like Felix Adler’s Ethical Culture, the Ethical Basis Unitarians regarded the dedicated ethical life to be inherently religious without any necessary underpinning of theological belief. This concurrence of views resulted in a close working relationship between the leaders of the Ethical Societies of Chicago and St. Louis and their ministerial counterparts in the Western Unitarian Conference.

(Ericson, The Humanist Way, p. 46-47)

Ericson goes on to say that, while this cohort was concentrated in the midwest, Octavius Brooks Frothingham in New York also largely shared Adler’s philosophy. Ericson also points out that the Ethical Basis cohort provided “a seedbed where organized religious Humanism, under that name, would first put down roots in American soil,” making this development of interest to Ethical Humanism. So, already at the turn of the century, there is some superhero teaming up going on. It gets better!

In 1913, the Unitarian minister John H. Dietrich began using the term “Humanism” to identify his non-theistic philosophy of religion. Dietrich said that he first encountered the term as a religious designation in the text of a lecture delivered to the London Ethical Society (Ericson, p. 61). Ericson writes that “the Ethical Union in Britain had described their movement by the turn of the century.” Ethical Culture in the United States started identifying more closely as a unique expression within the broader Humanist movement a little later, not until after Adler’s death in 1933. At that point, they found a whole league’s worth of Humanists to team up with.

But back to Dietrich, who discovered that his colleague Curtis Reese in Chicago was writing about the same kind of philosophy. Having found each other, they attracted others to the growing Humanist movement. By 1927, they had connected with scientists, philosophers, and journalists, who collectively were turning out what Ericson describes as “a torrent of books, articles, sermons and lectures” (p. 67) that established Humanism as a significant force in American society. In 1933, thirty-four of these prominent figures signed on to The Humanist Manifesto.

Later groups wrote the Humanist Manifesto II of 1973 and the Humanist Manifesto III of 2003. The original 1933 document set a historic precedent, bringing together people from a variety of perspectives and settings. Unitarian and Universalist ministers were well represented, along with V.T. Thayer, Director of the Ethical Culture Schools of New York, plus A. Eustace Haydon and Lester Mondale, who later became Ethical leaders (Ericson, p. 70).

I would suggest that the Washington Ethical Society, by affiliating with both the Unitarian Universalist Association and the American Ethical Union, is living out the spirit of cooperation that has powered the Humanist movement in the United States from its inception. Ethical Humanism is a unique expression and tradition within the larger Humanist movement, and yet that larger movement remains important for understanding who we are and what we are here to do. We come to a deeper understanding of identity and mission when we team up.

In fiction, superheroes seem to gravitate to one another. From the X-Men to the Avengers to the Teen Titans, collections of lead characters become ensembles. They have very different abilities and outlooks. Teaming up isn’t always easy, and it can be risky. Household squabbles may become epic battles if super abilities get out of hand. However, when they combine their gifts in the same direction, they can tackle complex problems that none of them would be able to handle alone.

This is why we form coalitions, too. WES is a community of people who have many differences in your individual lives. Diversity in creed and unity in deed, WES members are able to learn together, make music together, serve the community, and witness for justice, without worrying too much about who is an atheist or an agnostic or a theist or a polytheist. Whether among members, or in coalition with our neighbors across religious or geographic lines, we are able to put differences aside as we work for the benefit of our shared community. It does happen, though, that human beings forget, or retreat into what we think is a bubble of sameness, or narrow our scope of what seems possible.

Let’s build on what is already going well as we resist the shrinking of our horizons. There may be partners in our community that we have yet to meet. There may be institutes for exceptional heroes, or halls of justice, that we have to overcome our internalized hurdles of classism and racism before we can join.

At the very least, we can ensure that we’re making the most of our super team here at WES. Like the superheroes, we can do more and support each other when we come together.

Conclusion

There is a lot that WES has in common with an assembly of superheroes. Each one of us has an origin story, a set of events that shaped our talents, passions, and vulnerabilities. Each one of us has the opportunity to shape that story into a life of meaning and purpose. Like superheroes, it is incumbent on us to come to terms with power. Our collective abilities and assets make us a force to be reckoned with, and it is up to us to do the moral discernment to make sure we’re doing a good job wielding that power. Our honesty with each other and practicing all of our shared values and commitments will help. Like the best superheroes, we form alliances. Within the WES community, we share our specialized powers and support one another to accomplish goals none of us could handle alone. In our coalitions with other groups, we build bridges that support compassion. May all that has been divided be made whole.

May it be so.

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birdbrainless · 4 years

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thinking about how watchmen hbo made the main character of the most anti cop series in comics a cop. a vigilante cop, too! taking her cop justice outside of the cop law into her own cop hands. i don't like watchmen hbo very much

#watchmen

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myhahnestopinion · 5 years

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THE AARONS 2019 - Best TV Show

Last year, I said that I had become content with knowing that there are far too many streaming service with far too many great TV shows for me to ever watch everything worthwhile. This year, I signed up for a bunch of free trials and canceled immediately before they billed me. I’m not sure where the contentment went, but I do know that I found a bunch of great contenders. Here are the Aarons for Best TV Show:

#10. Evil (Season 1) - CBS

Why, yes, Evil is good. The rare CBS show able to make such a list, the procedural hailing from The Good Wife creators Robert and Michelle King twists the languishing network-TV formula into the devil’s playthings. A spiritual spiritual-successor to The X-Files, Evil blurs the lines between skepticism and belief as its trio of investigators unravel a series of uncanny phenomenon, while asking the viewer if supernatural malice looks any different from human cruelty. The show’s attempts to incorporate modern technology can sometimes be a bit clueless, but overall the show is sold by its ambition. The devil’s not in the details.

#9. The Good Place (Season 4) - NBC

Why, yes, Good is good as well. The NBC comedy had questionable long-term sustainability when it first premiered, but thanks to nimble inventiveness, it’s tough to imagine saying farewell four seasons later. The Good Place has been a safe haven during uncertain times as an exaltation of the virtues of forgiveness, kindness, and self-improvement. While less structurally ambitious than past seasons, the fourth season was the show’s most thematically ambitious as the creators played god by crafting a whole new afterlife. In this philosophical debate over the concept of justice, the show more than justified its long-term existence.

#8. Arrow (Season 8) - CW

Arrow truly became something else over the course of its run, growing from a gritty Batman Begins-inspired melodrama into a network-dominating superhero universe that just powered-through its most ambitious crossover yet. With a shortened season order and an ominous prophecy of death hanging over its hooded head, Arrow pulled out all the greatest hits from its quiver in a rapid-fire revisitation of settings and reunion of cast members. Bringing Oliver Queen face-to-face with his adult children from the future, the show finally made its litigating of legacy literal. The Green Arrow is gone, but the hero left quite a mark.

#7. When They See Us (Limited Series) - Netflix

Representation matters. The stories we choose to tell and the stories we choose to listen to make a powerful impact on the betterment, or worsening, of equality and justice. When They See Us shows us a failure, and hopes for an uplifting. Director Ava DuVernay’s intimate, authentic recreation of the tragedy of the Exonerated Five, boys wrongfully imprisoned for a violent assault in Central Park, unravels the prejudice, malice, and laziness that upend our justice system and destroy lives. The story’s true-to-life intersection with the currently-in-power, forever impeached President is all the more reason that now is the time to see When They See Us.

#6. Mr. Robot (Season 4) - USA

The early episodes of Mr. Robot were met with trepidation that it would be little more than an infantile Fight Club rip-off. In its final episodes, creator Sam Esmail codifies that he is no hack. The show’s well-researched technological thievery is as thrilling as ever (Experimental episode formats this season include an entirely dialogue-free heist), but its real endgame boils the conflict down to one of mind and soul. With its final season, the ever-elusive show finally brings all its various string-pullers into the light in gut-wrenching yet deeply-empathetic reveals. Who could have guessed Mr. Robot possessed such humanity?

#5. Dickinson (Season 1) - Apple TV+

I would not have stopped for Apple TV, but I would gladly stop for thee, Dickinson. Though inspired by the life and poetry of Emily Dickinson, Alena Smith’s comedy mixes the artist’s love of the macabre with a sense of millennial malaise. Throughout its 19th Century-set trials, tribulations, and guest spots from John Mulaney as Henry David Thoreau, the cast behave as modern teenagers and are backed by a contemporary soundtrack. The approach laces the sitcom’s situations with a delightful ironic wit, but, more preciously, forges a sense of camaraderie across eras. In the relatable burdens of past lovers, we find ourselves, and Dickinson find immortality.

#4. Tuca & Bertie (Season 1) - Netflix

While its shared style caused many comparisons to a certain other Netflix series, Tuca & Bertie was in fact a horse of another color. Confident in its voice, and the voices of its stars Tiffany Haddish and Ali Wong, from the get-go, the show stretched the wings of its animation with more substantial surrealism than its sister show. While a scintillating showcase of cartoon buffoonery, the series’ content is not just for the birds; Tuca & Bertie find courage in the face of addiction, power in the face of trauma, and persistence in the face of sexist power structures. Coupled with Bertie’s boyfriend Speckle, perhaps my favorite character from all of TV, these birds of a feather have impeccable chemistry and insight. Who knows what heights it could have soared to had it not been cancelled after one season?

#3. Green Eggs and Ham (Season 1) - Netflix

With unusual grandeur for a project its size, Green Eggs is a show that’s one of a kind. It’s hand-drawn animation (Expensive, I’m sure) gives this adaptation a can’t-miss allure. With an all-star cast, cute jokes, and surprising twists too, you’ll want to follow the Chickeraffe’s road-trip escape from the zoo. And don’t forget the very best part! This TV serves up a whole lot of heart! If you want a show whose theme song is a jam, you surely will love Green Eggs and Ham.

#2. Watchmen (Season 1) - HBO

The original graphic novel has long been an essential read for the genre; the new sequel TV show is now a must-watch, man. Respectful of its source material but not beholden to its ideas, Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof’s ‘remix’ revitalized Watchmen’s power by substituting Cold-War nuclear anxiety for the insidious threat of entrenched white supremacy. With a harrowing recreation of the Tulsa Massacre and ingenious retcons to a few comic characters, Watchmen provoked complicated questions on race relations. In true Lindelof fashion, it also wisely left many things unanswered. The quality is good enough that the comic’s writer might just have to rethink his stance on adaptations of his work, and good enough that the viewer might want HBO to rethink their decision to end the show after one year. Yet the retroactively limited series ends on a perfect note, and there is no more.

AND THE BEST TV SHOW OF 2019 IS...

#1. You’re the Worst (Season 5) - FXX

Evil is good, and The Worst is the best (What a list I have this year!). Of all the series on this list that capped their run in 2019, You’re the Worst has always had the lowest stakes, but its ending by far hit the hardest. In season five, the whirlwind will-they/won’t-they resistant romance between narcissistic writer Jimmy Shive-Overly and self-destructive PR executive Gretchen Cutler reached its decisive culmination. To suggest the show reached an ending, though, would be a disservice to the beautiful decisions made. Such decisions were a perfectly imperfect solution for two imperfect people, striving each day to be better and do well by one another, meeting each other where they are. In the end, the show’s initial billing as an “anti-rom-com” was proven a mismarriage; the laugh-out-loud show had a profound outlook on what it means to love another person. Hilarious and heartful from beginning to end, You’re the Worst will go down in history as one of TV’s greatest.

NEXT UP: THE 2019 AARON FOR BEST TV EPISODE!

#tv #TheAarons #TheAarons2019 #TheAaronsTV #best of #best of 2019 #evil #the good place #arrow #when they see us #mr robot #dickinson #tuca & bertie #green eggs and ham #watchmen #youre the worst

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thanagariansnarebeast · 4 years

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Top 15 villains: Part 1

I’ve been meaning to do this list for a while, but kept getting distracted. Villains are very different for me to rank compared to the heroes; heroes I ranked based on personality and morality; but villains I’m ranking on personality, entertainment, and relationship to hero. After all, villains by nature are almost always the antagonists, and they play off of the hero; so that factor is important. Most of them see themselves as the heroes of their own story in some way, but I would definitely not call any of these characters heroic. Some of these characters have different versions of them over the decades, but I’ll talk about my favorite versions of them.

15. Ozymandias

“ My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair! “ That quote does quite nicely define this character, someone who did a monstrous act to try to save the world. I have already featured him on my fallen heroes list, because for most of his life he was a hero; the terrible thing that he did was really surprising to me when I first read it; and I did feel his betrayal. He’s lonely, calm, and extremely intelligent; and you can really tell that he understands that what he did was awful. You might be thinking “Does doing one terrible thing really make you a villain?” and I would argue that yes it does. He didn’t like doing what he had to do, but he doesn’t consider it a mistake, he would do it again if he felt that he had to. Also spoiler for this list, he’s the only one that isn’t a main DC or Marvel villain, I think him being on this list for only being in one book ever really speaks to how interesting he is and how fucking good the Watchmen comic is. I refuse to read the DC Watchmen stuff, so it is possible he shows up in that; but I don’t like how DC keeps unironically using characters meant as a take down of the genre itself. (The HBO Watchmen series is fantastic though, I highly recommend).

14. Deathstroke

Deathstroke seems to be thought of by a lot of people as mainly a Batman villain, and while I think he is a great villain for Batman; I think he’s better as a Teen Titans villain. Some of the plans and tactics he uses to fight them are absolutely brutal. The Judas Contract is one of the best Titans stories, and he is the mastermind behind all of it; he really knows how to twist the knife. Some writers make him more of an anti-hero, but I think he is far better when he is using his intimidating physical prowess, cunning, and ruthless intelligence to do everything he can do destroy a hero.

13. The Anti-Monitor

“Worlds lived, worlds died. Nothing will ever be the same.“ Holy shit is this guy bad news; Thanos and Darkseid showing up is enough for you to understand that the world might be about to end; but this guy destroys entire realities. He is the big bad for one of my favorite comic book stories, and the consequences of his actions shaped the DC multiverse for decades, and his actions sill can be felt to this day. The first villain on this list that is just pure, absolute evil, he is responsible for the deaths of countless DC universes, as well as Supergirl and the Flash. DC really likes bringing dead characters back to life, building off of (and sometimes ruining) the legacy of characters, but they almost never do it with Anti-Monitor; because he’s such a cataclysmic threat that there is not a lot of stories you can even have with him. The CW did a great job with the Crisis on Infinite Earths adaptation they did, though they didn’t really make Anti-Monitor look as intimidating as I would have liked, and they didn’t make him nearly as big as he should be.

12. Kingpin

The kingpin of crime does live up to his name; not all crime in New York is his doing, but much of it is. He is a fantastic villain, and one who really seems to enjoy what he does. He’s just fun to watch and is so good as an antagonist for Daredevil and Spider-Man. His size makes him seem slow and intimidating, but his body is all muscle; and he has come close to crushing Spider-Man to death. When I was very young I was first exposed to him on the fantastic show Spider-Man: The Animated Series, and he’s been one of my favorites ever sense. Vincent D’Onofrio absolutely blew me away with his portrayal of this character in the Daredevil Netflix series, and I really hope we get to see him again in the MCU.

11. Brainiac

Another villain that is a massive threat, Brainiac has had many different incarnations in the comics, but his incredible intelligence is his defining trait. Another cold, calculating villain, he collects cities full of people because to him; they have to be preserved and studied. The idea of being shrunken down and living in an isolated world just to amuse an alien robot is a pretty scary concept. Superman is his main adversary, but many times it takes the entire Justice League (And sometimes some of the more helpful villains) to take him down. He has such a perverse logic to him that I really enjoy, and when he someday shows up in a film I really hope they do him justice.

10. Mr. Freeze

Doctor Victor Fries is one of the most sympathetic villains on this list, he really just wants to save his wife. Batman: The Animated Series wrote that origin story for him, and its stuck ever sense. There is a deep and beautiful tragedy to the character, and you completely understand why he is doing what he is doing, even if you personally wouldn’t go that far. His character makes you think “How far would I go to help the person I love most in the world?” and any villain that makes you introspective about yourself is a great character. His ice theme and very distinct look really makes it fun to see how different artists design him. He’s one of Batman’s more popular villains, and Batman has some of the best villains in comics. He makes Batman question himself and his motivations, because he doesn’t really want to hurt anyone; he just wants to survive and cure his wife, and if no one ever got in his way he would probably do exactly that. His story is a tragedy of circumstances, but his inability to go about getting what he wants in any other way, and his uncaring attitude for most other people definitely makes him a villain.

9. Doomsday

This character really is the polar (pun intended) opposite of the last character on this list. Doomsday is a big, unstoppable killing machine; and he defeated most of the Justice League with one hand tied behind his back. He is just such a raw, brutal character that I love seeing him show up. This thing has the power to come back to life, unable to be hurt by what killed it before; and spent decades wiping out entire planets before it came to Earth. His biggest and scariest feat is literally beating Superman to death! His best story was his first one, but every time he shows up and Superman fights him, in the back of his mind he has to be thinking “This thing killed me before, and its stronger now.” which is just absolutely terrifying. His striking visual design and brutal nature are always enjoyable, and he was one of my favorite characters to play as in Injustice: Gods Among Us.

#My lists #top 15 #villains #Marvel #DC #comics

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the-desolated-quill · 4 years

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She Was Killed By Space Junk - Watchmen (TV Series) blog

(SPOILER WARNING: The following is an in-depth critical analysis. if you haven’t seen this episode yet, you may want to before reading this review)

The first episode was a shaky, but intriguing start. The second episode was both incredibly provocative and intelligently written. What about the third episode? Um... I’m honestly not too sure what to make of it, if I’m honest. I watched it twice like I do with everything I review and I genuinely don’t know what to say about it. I couldn’t even tell you if I liked it or not. I think I liked it.... but I couldn’t tell you why.

Okay. Sorry. Hi guys. Let me explain what happened. I wrote that first paragraph and then I got writer’s block, so I decided to step away from it. I had a nap, played a video game and then decided to watch the episode again for a third time with fresh eyes. Now my thoughts are a little more concrete. So. She Was Killed By Space Junk. Having watched this episode three times now, I’ve decided that I don’t like this episode very much at all, and that’s less to do with what’s in the episode and more to do with what isn’t.

Let me explain.

Reviewing episodes like this one can often be very frustrating because it’s hard to tell what is a genuine flaw and what is merely setup for what’s to come. I have a number of problems with this episode, but for all I know, what I’m about to talk about might not actually be problems at all and will all be explained in a future episode. Or they are genuine problems and I’m inadvertently giving the writers way too much credit. I don’t know. That’s why it’s so frustrating.

My main point of contention is with the character of Laurie. First of all, let me just say that Jean Smart doesn’t put a foot wrong. She gives a great performance and is a good choice to play an older Laurie. The problem I have is with her characterisation. Or, at the very least, bits of her characterisation. I don’t know. It’s complicated.

Laurie’s inclusion in the TV series was something I was actually most looking forward to because I felt her character was kind of shortchanged in the graphic novel. Initially starting out as an effective and scathing critique of how women are often presented in comics, over the course of Watchmen’s story her role was reduced until she ended up becoming little more than a prop for the male characters’ stories. It was disappointing and it’s led to me arguing multiple times that Silk Spectre is one of the most underrated and wasted elements of Watchmen. The HBO series felt like a perfect opportunity to right some wrongs and give Laurie the attention she deserves. She Was Killed By Space Junk certainly gave her the focus and attention she didn’t receive in the graphic novel, but I’m very much struggling to ascertain what the show was trying to achieve here.

Let’s quickly remind ourselves where the graphic novel left us with her character. She had recently discovered that the Comedian, the man who tried to rape her mother, was her biological father, she was in a relationship with Dan Dreiberg, aka Nite Owl, and they were both on the run from the law, hellbent on continuing their lives as vigilantes. Okay. How does the HBO series continue this? Well it turns out she and Dan are no longer together. I know some fans really don’t like this, but I personally don’t have a problem with it. In fact I’m perfectly happy with it. In my review of A Stronger, Loving World, I explained how I didn’t believe their relationship could possibly last long term because it was clear that they were together not because they were in love, but rather because they were indulging in each other’s fantasies, and the fact that Dan’s seeming fascination with the Silk Spectre porn comic supported this. Showrunner Damon Lindelof clearly agrees, so cool. It’s always nice to be proven right.

Anyway, at some point between the graphic novel and the HBO series, the fantasy was shattered and the pair split up. I’m assuming what shattered the fantasy was them getting caught by the FBI. It’s unclear what’s happened to Dan at this time. Judging by the fact that the police in Oklahoma are using Owlships and goggles, I’m assuming that Dan was arrested and his equipment was appropriated by law enforcement. Laurie meanwhile has struck some kind of deal and now she’s working with the Anti-Vigilante Taskforce and enforcing the Keene Act, which is an interesting parallel with how her father, the Comedian, served the American government during the Vietnam War. But you see this is where I start to get a bit confused.

The episode opens with Laurie setting a trap for a vigilante known as Mister Shadow (basically Fake Batman) and shooting him, either not knowing or not caring whether or not Mister Shadow’s body armour would save him. She’s also taken on the Comedian’s last name Blake and displays a very similar nihilistic attitude, making dark jokes and exhibiting uncaring, unsympathetic behaviour. Now I don’t necessarily have a problem with Laurie becoming more nihilistic, given what she’s been through. Having witnessed Ozymandias and his squid of doom, it’s bound to affect her worldview. However, her turning into a female Comedian doesn’t really marry up with her character at all. And yes, I know at the end of the graphic novel she talked about getting a gun and body armour, like the Comedian, but it didn’t work there either. It felt too drastic a character shift and was painfully on the nose. I didn’t like it there and I don’t like it here either. I just don’t buy that she would want to emulate the man who tried to rape her mother.

I especially don’t like her violent, uncaring attitude toward Mister Shadow. Why does she have such a disdain for vigilantes? Is it because of what happened with Dan, and she’s projecting that onto everyone else? Has she become so nihilistic that she just doesn’t give a shit anymore? There’s a moment later in the episode where she asks someone if their civil rights are being violated only to then turn around and say she was being sarcastic. That really didn’t sit right with me. It just doesn’t feel like something Laurie would say.

And then there’s the whole thing with Doctor Manhattan. Throughout the episode we see her in a phone booth trying to tell a joke to Manhattan (quite what the purpose of these phone booths are, I don’t know. Considering that people in the world of Watchmen believe that Manhattan was giving people cancer, why would anyone want to call him?). She clearly misses him to the point where she has a large blue dildo hidden a briefcase that’s clearly a direct reference to Pulp Fiction. I REALLY don’t like this. At all. The reason Laurie left Manhattan in the first place was because he couldn’t emotionally satisfy her, being an omnipresent demigod and all. So why would she be pining after him? The blue dildo joke in particular just felt kind of degrading. Just... why?

Weirder still is the joke she spends the whole episode trying to tell him. It’s clearly an indirect reference to the Pagliacci joke from the graphic novel, except the Pagliacci joke had a specific purpose in the graphic novel and its meaning was clear. Rorschach was remarking on how America was relying on the Comedian to save them from violence and corruption, which was futile considering what a violent and corrupt person the Comedian was. Here, however, I have no idea what Laurie is trying to say with the brick joke at all. I’m assuming the bricklayer is her father and she’s following in his footsteps. Okay, I kind of get that (except not really for the reasons I’ve already mentioned, but whatever). But then we come to the whole bit with God at the pearly gates sending Nite Owl, Ozymandias and Doctor Manhattan to Hell, only to then get killed by the brick from the previous joke. Now... what the fuck is that all about? I’ve been racking my brains, checking what other people said, and I can’t find any satisfying answers. It just feels like pretentious, unnecessary fanwank. The best I can come up with is that Laurie is expressing how she’s not letting men dictate her life anymore. But... she’s spent the whole episode pining after Doctor Manhattan, she’s modelled herself after her rapist father, and at the end of the episode, she sleeps with her assistant Petey, an agent who claims to not to be a fan of superheroes, but is totes a fan of superheroes. So... is that the joke? She wants to escape from the shadow of the men in her life, but can’t? Or she intends to overcome the patriarchy that has kept her down, but she still ends up choosing to indulge in the power fantasy of Petey? Or does it refer to something else she’s planning to do later? It’s all so frustratingly vague.

As I was watching this episode, I honestly lost track of the number of times I thought to myself ‘I don’t know where Lindelof is going with this.’ Sometimes this approach works, keeping the audience in the dark in order to build intrigue and suspense, but for Watchmen, a story that’s famous for its dense material and subject matter, it’s just plain annoying. In fact this whole episode feels really off to me. Instead of focusing on character narratives and thematic storytelling, She Was Killed By Space Junk relies more on a plot heavy story that moves the pieces of the larger arc forward and keeping certain specific details vague in an attempt to keep people watching. Except that’s not really what Watchmen is about and it results in leaving the more integral aspects of the story in the dust. Angela barely gets a look in here, and considering a significant portion of the episode focuses on Judd Crawford’s funeral, it feels like a massive, missed opportunity. How does it feel discovering that the man you liked and respected wasn’t the man you thought he was? Does that change your feelings toward him? Does it invalidate the good times you had with him? And with Laurie there, the show could have compared and contrasted the two. How these two women move forward knowing these uncomfortable truths about the men in the lives? But the show never really capitalises on this.

And the annoying thing is, for all I know, all the things I’m talking about could actually be addressed in a future episode, thus rendering what I’m saying moot. I don’t know. I can’t tell if this is all just really bad setup for an eventual satisfying payoff or if it’s just plain bad.

That being said, while I do ultimately dislike this episode, there are a few things I like. For instance, I do like what we learn about the larger world of Watchmen. We learn that Oklahoma is the only state that’s allowing the police to mask up and that this law was passed by Joe Keene Jr., whose father was responsible for the Keene Act that was passed outlawing vigilantes. Joe Keene Jr. was briefly introduced in the previous episode and it looks like he’s going to be playing a larger role from here on out. Let’s wait and see where that goes.

We also learn that Looking Glass knows Laurie and has prior history with her. He even confirms Sister Night’s secret identity to her, albeit reluctantly. So is he a plant? Maybe sent by the FBI to try and sabotage Keene Jr? Hmmm, what’s going on here then?

And then there’s Ozymandias.

While I dislike how Laurie is being handled so far, I love, love, LOVE what they’re doing with Adrian Veidt. After the events of the graphic novel, it seems he’s gone into self imposed exile. Whether this is as a punishment or as a way to make sure he doesn’t inadvertently blab about his involvement with the squid is unknown. Anyway, he’s been here for three years now, judging by the candles on the cake, and he seems to be going a little bit stir crazy. He’s sacrificing his clones in order to try and find a means of escape and now he has to contend with a bloodthirsty game warden (another clone). The idea of Ozymandias being hoist by his own petard and being oppressed by the very tools and instruments of his own vanity is absolutely tantalising, and I love what Jeremy Irons is doing with the part and the way he’s depicting the character’s slow descent into lunacy.

Also a special shoutout has to go to the costume department for the Ozymandias costume we see Adrian finally don. It’s gloriously, breathtakingly terrible. Truly one of the worst superhero costumes ever seen on screen... which is exactly what it should be!

One of the things I intensely disliked about the 2009 movie was Zack Snyder’s attempts to make the characters look cool and stylish when in reality these characters are supposed to be the complete opposite of that. Rorschach looks like a hobo, puts on a gruff voice and wears lifts on his heels in a pathetic attempt to look more imposing. Nite Owl wears a ridiculously tight fitting costume that shows off his belly bulge. Silk Spectre’s outfit looks more like something a stripper would wear and is not even remotely practical. They look stupid to us, the outsiders, but to the characters, it makes them feel powerful. That’s the whole point, and the HBO series captures that perfectly. Adrian is going to war with the game warden and wants to feel powerful, so he puts on his objectively silly purple and gold shawl in an effort to reclaim the power he once had. It’s laugh out hilarious, made all the more funnier by the fact that he’s clearly far too old to be playing dress up. It’s moments like this that demonstrate that Lindelof clearly does understand the source material, which is what makes the way Laurie is treated all the more baffling.

She Was Killed By Space Junk isn’t a bad episode. There’s stuff to like, but it doesn’t have any of the intelligent thematic storytelling or characterisation the previous two episodes had. Coupled with the apparent mishandling of Laurie’s character and the deliberate vagueness of some of its plotting leads to it being an episode that’s ultimately more frustrating than enjoyable to watch.

#she was killed by space junk #watchmen #watchmen hbo #damon lindelof #dc #hbo #review #spoilers

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