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ultrahpfan5blog · 3 years

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Retrospective Review: Spectre (2015)

So going into Spectre, expectations were incredibly high. Skyfall was a massive triumph and the entire cast and director were coming back. Christoph Waltz cast as the villain seemed to be idea casting. I loved Andrew Scott as Moriarty in Sherlock so he was also a welcome presence. I remember that the first teaser was brilliant and I was convinced that the film was going to be excellent. What we got was unfortunately a mixed bag. Spectre is a movie that s not as bad as some people make it out to be, but is a relative disappointment compared to Skyfall, which was its immediate predecessor.

I would say that Spectre is a film with a bit of an identity crisis, Craig's Bond films are decidedly modern. Breaking away from lot of the known aspects of Bond films from previous eras. This has what has distinguished his movies from others. However, Spectre is a film that is trying to be classical Bond in some ways, with the bomb in the watch, the villain with a lair with a torture device, the almost wordless henchman etc... and still trying to be modern and continue on from Skyfall with a plot concerning global surveillance and intelligence. And the film has a difficult time juggling these aspects. In my opinion, Spectre is about 2/3 a pretty good movie, with a final act that just feels lazily written.

The storytelling in the movie is not as airtight as it should be. While I had a few issues with Skyfall storytelling, the issues with Spectre are a bit more apparent. The opening of the film is outstanding. Might be the best opening sequence of all Bond films. And its probably the best of the action sequences. But the film never really tells us why Bond takes Siara's ring. How did he know that ring is important? Its just one of those questions that isn't answered. There is also a bizarre personal connection between Blofeld and Bond which was completely unnecessary. What it does is raise a really bizarre coincidence that the boy who was Bond's foster brother grew up to be his arch nemesis. There is also the case of trying to retcon Mr. White a bit and make every single movie a part of an overarching narrative. Until Spectre, Skyfall felt separated from Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. Spectre tries to tie all these movies together in a rather clumsy manner.

A part of the issue is that Blofeld is supposed to be this grand, maniacal head of Spectre, but he comes off as a pompous blowhard rather than genius villain. He doesn't actually do anything in the movie. He shows up and claims credit for manipulating the events of the previous movies, bragging about how powerful he is, and then does nothing much else of note. It feels like a waste of an actor who is perfectly suited for the role. Waltz does what he can with the role but in the end he can really elevate it to the level that we got from Bardem in Skyfall or Mads in Casino Royale. I would say he's better than Greene just because its Christoph Waltz but it does feel like a role he could do in his sleep. Andrew Scott is the secondary villain and he's also a bit annoying. Again mostly there to lord over his power over M. He's essentially just an antagonist for M. Ironically, the villain that leaves the most effect is Dave Bautista who is an impressive physical presence. I think he says only one word all movie but he does make a significant impact. His entry scene is one of the most memorable scenes in the movie.

Lea Seydoux has a very significant role in the movie as Madeline Swann. Her relationship with Bond is built as a legitimate romance. I felt that her performance was pretty strong in the movie, but the film doesn't use her all that well. By the final act, she's again reduced to a damsel in distress for Bond. Another issue is that the chemistry between Craig and Seydoux is a bit lacking. Given the film tries to pitch this as a love story for bond where he could finally have a life outside of being an assassin, its a bit of a problem, especially because his chemistry with Eva Green was so strong. Monica Bellucci shows up briefly for a complete throwaway role. She could have been removed without it making any difference to the movie. She's literally there to appeal to old school Bond fans where you get to have Bond seduce a woman into helping him. Naomie Harris is back and wonderful as ever as Moneypenny and she and Craig continue to have a fun banter and she's certainly more actively involved than previous Moneypenny's. However, she is a tad wasted.

All the returning cast members are top notch. Ben Whishaw continues to be brilliant as Q and one of the highlights of the movie. His relationship with Bond is really fun and he gets to have a substantial role in the movie. Fiennes is excellent in the movie as well, as he always is. Rory Kinnear as Tanner is a background presence but is enjoyable. Jesper Christensen reappears early on in a vital scene as Mr. White. They try to retcon him into a character with some morals which doesn't really work when you remember him from CR and QoS, but its a well acted scene.

Daniel Craig continues to be excellent in the role. He continues to have touches of humor throughout the movie and excels in the action scenes. He manages to carry the film through its weaker moments. At this point, you can tell he's very settled into the role. He continues to add little touches to his performance which I love. Like after his early dispute with M, he is clearly irritated that he is suspended but he tried to be polite but because he's annoyed he's unable to button his suit smoothly. I don't know if that was just something that happened accidentally or it was on purpose but it was a cute moment. Similarly when he's admiring the car and Q tells him its going to 009, you can tell his annoyance as well as his irritation when he's handed a watch.

The action in the film is all pretty solid. Like I mentioned, the opening action sequence is the highlight. The train fight sequence is pretty cool. You see Bond getting his ass handed to him for once. The plane scene in Austria is pretty excellent. There is a dull car chase scene which feels awfully like a car commercial with completely empty streets. The climactic action sequence is a bit low key compared to previous movies. Like I mentioned earlier, there is something a bit lazy about the final act and climax suffers as a result. It should have probably been better because it is basically just Bond and Madeline avoid the destruction of a building and shooting down a helicopter with Bloefeld in it. I did like that the movie emphasizes the idea that being an assassin also means you have to be sure whether killing someone is the right thing at the time. And I liked the symbolism of Bond choosing not to kill and choosing to leave it behind and be with Madeline.

The film has its plusses. The first 2/3 are entertaining despite some flaws. Its only the last act that doesn't work for me. I think this is a decent Bond film. It could have been edited down a little but Mendes does a good job directing the film. I am glad its not the final film even though it ends in a way where it could have been Craig's swansong. I am hopeful that No Time to Die gives him a better send off. This film is a 7/10.

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ayearofpike · 6 years

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Falling

Tom Doherty Associates, 2007 402 pages, 24 chapters ISBN 978-0-7653-5644-4 LOC: PS3566.I486 F35 2007 OCLC: 73502344 Released March 6, 2007 (per B&N)

Matt Connor has been wronged by the girl he loves. Kelly Fienman has been wronged by the suspect she’s stalking. They’re both out for vengeance, but while Matt is upfront and honest about the stunt he plans to pull, he isn’t really honest with himself about what he actually wants to get — and for her part, Kelly pretends that her need for justice is both moral and absent. When their paths inevitably cross, they’re left with several huge questions: what is right? what is good? do these things intersect? is it OK if they don’t?

(Thanksgiving and a child’s birthday were NOT conducive to A Year of Pike, gang. Let’s see if I can pick it back up here in December.)

I remembered being really happy with this book the first time I read it. Like, OK, Pike is taking it easy on the kidlit, having maybe resigned himself to the understanding that his style no longer fits with popular expectations. Plus, this came probably three years after I’d read a recent predecessor, and a solid five years after I’d BOUGHT one — I got Alosha and The Shaktra out of the library, never read The Yanti until just now, and then I saw Falling at a bookstore sometime in 2008. I read it and I loved it: so unexpected, such power, what a shift in tone and characters, what a strong and solid cliffhanger ending — literally! Surely there exists some kind of excited blog record of me finding this, so long after I’d decided Pike wasn’t for me anymore. After spending entirely too long trawling the depths of my LiveJournal, though, I can’t find one.

And the reread? Eh. As it turned out, I didn’t actually remember very much about this book. Parts of it want to be The Silence of the Lambs (and Pike even nods to that) but it doesn’t have the same power. The rest? So much speculation and estimation left up to the reader to really understand this closed-book antagonist, who is actually quite selfish but we don’t get her perspective. She doesn’t even monologue when she has our hero at literally the end of his rope. And the powerful scene at the end? More like a trickle to a halt, made even weaker by the unnecessary intercutting to the other character’s perspective as she oversees the end of her antagonist’s life. We’ll get there. I don’t know. Maybe I was so excited to get this, and to have a book where a baby’s life and future hangs in the balance right around the same time I was raising my own baby as a new at-home parent, that I overlooked another one of Pike’s letdown endings.

I forgot to talk in the last post about the ISBN shifting to 13 digits. This started in 2007: all new books would have a code that better matched up with international book listing codes. These last two have had both an ISBN-10 and an ISBN-13, I assume because he had both of them slated prior to the change, but I’ve decided to just list the newer code for simplicity’s sake. You can do more research if you feel like it, or even convert back and forth between ISBN-10 and 13. It doesn’t really affect my blog, but it’s a change and I wanted to mention it.

So Falling. It actually could have been a pretty straightforward story, with much of the bulk of the book spent exploring the mental attitudes involved in what it takes to go beyond the law, commit some kind of horrific deed that most people couldn’t imagine. The real problem with this story is that it tries to cram too much into it, and the one crime is so vile and base that it renders our antihero’s misdeed into almost seeming unimportant. But it’s not — Matt’s actions are horrible and indefensible, especially as we don’t actually get his villain’s perspective, no matter what someone else did that was totally gross. (I am so a parent: “I don’t care what Tommy did, you are not to act that way.”)

What the hell does Matt actually do? This is where Falling is good: it keeps us in suspense for the first good quarter of the book as we try to understand his plan and how it’s going to adversely affect the girl. Because of course his object of vengeance is a girl — the one who just dumped him, actually. She didn’t “just dump him,” though; she strung him along as “the only one” while she was still in contact with her rich “ex,” who she is now married to and has an unborn child with, a child that could only have been conceived while Matt was still seeing her. And it’s not his, it can’t be his, because she never let him stick it in. So Matt is going to fake his own death by crashing a personal aircraft in the depths of the Pacific Ocean. Meanwhile, he will parachute to a waiting boat, anchored in a shallower area, and assume a new identity until he can carry out the second part of his plan: kidnap the baby, months later, after everyone has forgotten his involvement with the woman.

Kelly is one of the FBI agents assigned to the kidnapping case. She’s actually just back on the job after a tragic and devastating incident with a previous suspect that has taken out a good chunk of her GI system. And this is where Falling has problems: this second story, totally unrelated to and unnecessary for understanding Matt’s motivations, is clung to and pushed on us constantly through the whole book, even as it threatens to be a more engaging tale of horrific glee. Like, I get why Pike didn’t just write this one (out of concerns of being accused of ripping off Thomas Harris) but this is really TWO suspense stories, and he hasn’t properly fleshed out the tale of Kelly and the Sex Murderin’ English Teacher.

Because that’s what’s happened: three-four months before the kidnapping, she gets pulled into an investigation on a dude who has made videos of himself having extremely consensual sex with rich women, tying them to the beds, confronting them about their obvious infidelity to their rich husbands, and then killing them by pouring corrosive acid on (and then INTO) their chests. She has a Ph.D in mythology and literature, which they need because the dude is throwin’ out all sorts of esoteric references and they think that knowing them will help them track him down. Of course, Kelly has gone into FBI work because she wants to be a hero, and so she breaks like EVERY protocol in investigating the trail of these obscure Asian myths back to either Ohio State or Ohio University, depending on which page you look at. (Does Pike know there’s a difference?) All the evidence points to a doctoral student, but it’s been manipulated that way by his faculty advisor, who is doing the sex murders because he caught his wife cheating with the dude. And now he’s going to kill Kelly the same way, only he hasn’t counted on her being a totally buff FBI agent who actually MOVES THE ENTIRE BED SHE’S TIED TO and makes the acid splash on the ropes, which she can now break to get at her gun and cap the fucker in the back of the neck. Of course, the acid has also splashed on her stomach and eaten into her organs, hence the GI problems. And also her husband is pissed that she went to such crazy lengths and endangered herself, to the point where if she goes back to the FBI he’s not willing to hang around and watch her kill herself. So he moves out and takes their young daughter with him.

I KNOW. This is a WAY more fuckin’ interesting story than oh, boo hoo, she was stringing me along so I’m gonna kidnap her baby. It’s too bad that he drags this shit out and doesn’t give it more consideration. But as with so much literature, we gotta accept the tragic male antihero versus the strong female agent who is still trying to figure out the boundaries of her moral code.

Yeah, there’s still more story. Matt hires a nanny under the table to help take care of the baby, and she thinks they look alike. You hear this all the time as a parent, even if your kid looks NOTHING like you — but Matt’s curious, so he does a mail-away DNA test and it comes back unquestionably that he’s actually the father. So now he knows he can’t just bail on the kid like he was planning, but he needs money to raise him. So he sets up an intricate ransom for his ex and her husband, who has money (of course he has money; why do you think she married him?). Matt makes the dude put $3 million in cash and jewels into a bag, then chase all over metro LA until he finally ends up taking a boat out to Catalina Island. But halfway there, he instructs the husband to load the dough into a weighted box and throw it overboard. Because of course Matt is a scuba diver — this is a Pike book, after all. He retrieves the money and then uses a personal propeller to zip off underwater. And the FBI, which was so prepared for an island drop or a boat handoff, is caught with their pants all the way down.

Of course Kelly is furious, but also curious. She remembers seeing a picture of Matt in the woman’s desk, and asks about the circumstances of his death. It seems that the day Matt’s plane crashed, he had been on Catalina — finishing up his scuba certification. So now Kelly has connected the dots, in a way only a Pike heroine can, but she can’t imagine where to find the dude. But she knows someone who can: a certain Sex Murderin’ English Teacher, who is still alive but paralyzed from the neck down, who knows better than anyone Kelly knows how a twisted male mind works. He grasps the intricacies of the situation immediately and advises Kelly to follow the woman, because there’s no way she’s unaware.

Kelly doesn’t believe it, but sure enough the chick leads her directly to Matt and the baby, set up in a fancy apartment not even that far from the rich husband’s house. It seems that Matt felt like he had all the leverage he needed to get the girl back, now that he had the baby and some money. But it’s not enough — she knows that the dude isn’t ever going to let her just go, and that the only way to be totally free to be back with Matt is if they kill her husband. So Matt, against his better judgment, starts coming up with a plan to murder a dude: drive his boat to Catalina, get him super drunk, and then push him overboard on the way back. The girl, weirdly, insists that Matt has to be on board and actually do the pushing. Which makes Kelly, listening in on her bugs planted in the apartment, start to think that maybe she’s the actual monster, even though Matt has faked his own death and then kidnapped her son. So she affects her own secret identity and moves into the complex to get closer to the situation but also to try to keep Matt from doing something he’ll regret.

Matt actually has no intention of killing the husband. His plan was pretty much always to tag along on the boat and then get the girl to fake her OWN death, and then they can be free and alone and untraceable. But but but, the girl objects, if she is dead and not the husband, then she won’t be heir to all his money! But Matt flatly refuses to push the dude. So she goes ahead and does it. Unlucky for her, they’re being tailed by — who else? — Kelly the Hero, who now has enough circumstantial evidence to arrest the woman for murder. Her father-in-law bails her out of jail, raising more weird questions, and then she manages to convince Matt to help her jump bail and escape with all her worldly possessions. They make it to Utah the first night, but the ten minutes Matt runs out to buy diapers and formula is long enough for a dude to bust in and tie his girl to the bed and be looming over her with a beaker full of acid when he gets back.

Holy shit, right? By now Matt knows who Kelly is and has gotten her backstory, and he knows that she’s willing to let him slide on the whole kidnap kerfuffle, so he calls her with this weird coincidence. But there’s no way it could be SMET, who is totally paralyzed! But Kelly now fears for HIS ex-wife’s life, and flies back to Ohio to do another check on this whole twisted clan. The best thing she can think of is to do a home stakeout with the lady and her new man, the grad student she was cheating with. Only — uh-oh — turns out the dude is in cahoots with SMET the whole time! His whole life, in fact: Cheatin’ Grad Student is SMET’s little brother! Their mother was also a cheater, and died of complications from their dad pushing her down the stairs after he found out. But wait! It seems that SMET actually did the killing, replacing her cardiac epinephrine shot with vinegar, so when she seized in her hospital bed it was the attempt to save her that killed her. Please note: SMET did this as a motherfucking TEN YEAR OLD. From there, he realized the thrill of destroying loose women and employed his little brother in helping to deface and dispose of the bodies.

So it only follows that he’d employ the dude to lure his wife, and was devastated when she bit, and that has turned into more killin’. In fact, it was CGS who was in Utah the night before, on his brother’s orders, ready to take down another terrible, cheating, murdering, bail-jumping lady. But this kid is even more debased than his brother, and is just going to rape and dismember Kelly while his new bae is knocked out from drugs in her dinner. Luckily she has her own syringe of cardiac vinegar, uncovered in her prior search of the dad’s house, and she manages to stab it into CGS’s heart just in the nick of time.

What’s up with Matt and the On-the-Lam Family? No big, they’re just doing some leisurely rock climbing now that they’re free from dead rich husbands or acid murderers. This, it turns out, is Matt’s one final big test to his girl’s fidelity — and she fails big time, cutting his rope and leaving him stranded on the edge of a cliff while he’s rappelling. But Matt’s been here before, because he’s an experienced and expert rock climber (because what the FUCK ELSE can this asshole be good at), and he manages to free-climb up the side of the cliff and catch his girl as she’s packing up the car. So now it’s her turn to be stuck on a cliff ledge, until he can get to a pay phone and call the cops on her for jumping bail. And we’re all like, good god, dude, it took you fuckin’ well long enough.

Of course we can’t just be done, right? Kelly has a sex murderin’ English teacher to revenge. She makes it look like a suicide, unscrewing part of his wheelchair and scraping his wrist veins against it so he bleeds out. But before he goes, he wants to talk to Matt, because they’re not so different, and he’d like to congratulate a fellow charismatic criminal for getting away with his misdeeds. And then he dies, and Kelly swears off FBI work so that maybe she can go back to her family and actually appreciate it and be appreciated by them.

Um ... what? But yeah, that’s the end of Falling. Either one of these stories would have been better served by itself, unless he could have given us Kelly’s necessary backstory in the beginning rather than trying to make everything happen at the same time. It comes across as excessive and unnecessary, and makes the ending fall flat. And when you have a blah ending, it doesn’t matter how vibrant the characters have been, or how real and horrific their struggles, or how much you sympathized with them throughout the narrative. All you remember is the “um ... what?”

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coreyevanleak · 6 years

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Why “Superfly” is the Movie We Wanted, But Not the Movie We Needed

I NEVER do this. I hate when other people do this, but I’m going to do it. I’m going to give my opinion of a movie still in theaters.

My wife randomly asked me if I wanted to go to the movies to see “Superfly” yesterday, and I said yes. I was excited to see it. We have Moviepass, so it feels virtually free to go. The previews to the movie looked amazing! It has great actors like the up and coming Jason Mitchell from “The Chi” and “Straight Out of Compton” as well as one of my favorite actors, Michael Kenneth Williams who will forever be known to me as “Omar” from “The Wire”. We both thought we were headed for a fantastic movie. I didn’t even check the reviews like I usually do. First, I was convinced I had a good sense of what this movie was going to be, and secondly because I knew this was a movie by black folk, for black folk, about black folk, set in Atlanta. How could it not be good?

With that as the backdrop I was in a good head space to be wowed. I wanted to be entertained, and for the most part I was. The movie does have some decent action, all be it way over the top at times. The costumes were fantastic. Especially on the main character “Priest”. His swag made me wonder if I could pull off perming my own hair. The story line was solid. It followed the same over arching theme as the original which was a cult classic. The problem was, once the excitement I brought to the theater wore off, I was left watching what amounted to an extended R rated rap video complete with what felt like a 12 hour shower scene that had no connection to the story at all.

Who doesn’t like rap videos? They are usually so original!!! Clubs, iced out wrist throwing cash in the air, dancing girls, extravagant cars and houses, rappers looking down at the camera, rinse, and repeat - that’s been rap videos since I was 12 years old.

It’s my own fault for being surprised really. The movie was directed by a man who’s renowned for his work on rap videos and produced by Future. Both of these men are tremendous talents no doubt. With this film, they had an opportunity to tell not just a great story, but an important one. Opportunity knocked, and Future and Director X must have been pre-occupied popping bottles to answer.

I assumed that the overblown attitudes toward money and power displayed in the opening couple of scenes was intended to be hyperbolic. I was expecting to see the folly of worshipping money and power brought to light at some point in this film, but I was sadly disappointed all the way to the very end. It seemed to be continuing the same old, tired story of black men seeking to achieve greatness through robbing, killing, and degrading women. Some of that is to be expected from the antagonist of a story set in Atlanta, but in this story even the protagonist is caught up in believing the myth of power and money. The hero in this story has spent his life chasing the myth, and now wants to get out. I wish I would’ve seen the end game of this pursuit played out in this movie, but sadly it ends with madness being rewarded. “Superfly” suggested that after years of flooding the streets with cocaine, perpetuating violence, objectifying women, and blatantly breaking the law, a reward waits for you on a yacht in the middle of the ocean where your LTE has full bars.

I understand that the makers of this film wanted to be true to the original. I know they wanted to mirror as many of the iconic characters and scenes from the original as possible, but cast it against our modern reality. To that end in one of the more potent scenes of the movie, a racist and crooked cop shouts “take your hand off the gun” as he fires several shots at an unarmed black man in the car with his girlfriend, a clear allusion to #PhilandoCastile. In a later scene pointing to America’s racial tension, a statue of a Confederate soldier is knocked down during a car chase. Lastly, in a scene that fed my own carnal craving for vengeance, the policeman who killed the unarmed black man and his girlfriend in the aforementioned “police shooting” scene is shown being beaten to death by “Priest”. All of this would have been great to add to a story if only it didn’t feed into a false narrative.

I’ve written before about how some people refuse to believe that an unarmed black man could possibly be the victim of injustice. They believe there is always more to the story no matter how much video evidence there is to the contrary. This movie surrounded important issues of racism with the kind of foolery that fuels the fires of ignorance. The unarmed black man in this movie had cocaine in his trunk and a couple scenes earlier killed three men himself. The confederate flag was knocked over by a black gangster driving a gaudy Lamborghini on his way to his death. This film fails to contrast evil vs good. It prefers to spend it’s frames contrasting evil with not that bad.

The glorification of sex, drugs, and money along with the myth of power have been a plague to the black community. Black people aren’t solely responsible for the plague, but I’m really disappointed when I see and hear black artists and film makers cooperate with oppression by telling stories that propagate destructive ideas.

With just a little bit of attention to detail and a conscience, Superfly’s creators could have told a powerful story exposing the folly of chasing superficial joys and still spoke to the injustices of American culture. Instead they chose to bury a conscious message beneath cheesy villains, gaudy portrayals of black culture, and dangerous notions of vengeance and escaping consequence.

I wish I could have found the movie more entertaining. I was willing to suspend my disbelief and just let it be like Empire or a Tyler Perry movie, but once they introduced important issues like police brutality and America’s history with racism I held them to a higher standard. Maybe I’m being overly sensitive or expecting too much from a movie or from rap videos for that matter. Perhaps I’m being too harsh, but the times we live in demand more from all of us who are using a platform. Whether that is social media, music, movies, or sports. If you use a platform, use it well.

Do you have a platform you use for sharing values that make the world better?

If not, why don’t you?

If so, how have you used it?

#christianblog #diversity #race

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swan-archive · 8 years

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you: so, swan, wanna explain to the class why you haven’t filled 90% of those prompts your kind and delightful followers sent you?

me: :)

you: oh no

me:

Trust Burr, Herc thinks sourly, nursing his beer, to ghost on you right when you thought he was about to commit to something for once in his life.

He’s not really sure what he expected, honestly; it’d taken weeks to get him to agree to a meeting, just to talk about the idea of having him try and make connections with some of the British higher-ups, not even to agree on a course of action. Herc would’ve liked to scrap the whole idea ages ago, but names have power and unfortunately, even the British have some folks on their side who know better than to run their mouths around the good-natured, unthreatening help. Would’ve been worth trying that reserve against Burr’s upper-class mannerisms and modish style, but—well, no point in fussing about that now. A more hopeful man might say to himself, give it another quarter of an hour, perhaps he’s been delayed, perhaps he’s just being cautious, perhaps he doesn’t know if he can trust you yet, you know how that is.

Herc is a pragmatist. It’s been two hours since they said they’d meet. Caution has a place in these dangerous times, but at a certain point it tips over into pure foolishness, and Herc’s already got his fair share of fools knocking around.

He knocks back the rest of his drink and pushes his chair back just as some sort of disturbance erupts at the corner of the bar. He winces. Yeah, he’s getting too old for this shit. He can remember a time when he’d’ve thrown in on one side or the other, completely at random, just for the hell of it, but he can leave those kinds of shenanigans to Laurens or one of his fellow hotheads now.

Beth would laugh at him for that. Would say you’re not even old, Hercules, quit being such a grouch, and boy, that’s how he really knows he’s a grown-up, because the thought of going home and crawling into bed with her sounds like the best thing in the world right now, fuck Burr, fuck the Sons of Liberty, fuck a bar fight. God, he loves his wife.

He’s fighting his way over to the door when he catches a flash of oxblood red in the thick of it, over by the bar. Familiar shade. Burr with a new coat, adjusting his cuffs and making polite non-statements as Herc had tried to pin down a time to meet with him privately. So he bothered to show up after all, then.

Herc groans a little bit internally. Really all he wants right now is to go home, but Burr’s right there and it’d be a waste of an evening and god only knows if the man would be coerced into another meeting if Herc failed to make this one. Damn it. Herc turns around and starts pushing his way toward the oxblood coat. If it turns out that Burr has been here the whole time, Herc is gonna pummel him, vital espionage or not. Best not to make that obvious, though, so he hitches up his ruffian’s grin as he draws closer.

“About time, Burr, thought you weaseled out on me!” he says loudly, throwing out a hand to catch him by the arm—

The young man he’s grabbed spins around, stares at Herc from behind an untidy fall of black hair. Very obviously not Burr. Oops. Herc drops him, and he jerks back against the bar, baring his teeth like an angry dog.

“What do you want?” he snaps, rather shrilly.

Herc’s about to tell him to step off, kid, I just thought you were someone else, no need to get all excited, but the bartender’s noticed them talking. “Friend of yours, Mulligan?” he says. “You wanna tell him not to waste my time if he can’t pay for his drinks?”

“I can pay, I have money, it’s just—it was just here,” the young man retorts, fumbling at his pockets like a man who knows his pocketbook is long gone and is hoping to be subject to an act of God in the immediate future. Ouch. Tough break. None of Herc's business, though, and his family’s waiting for him at home, so all he can do is mentally wish the young man good luck and that his money’s in his other pocket.

The young man locks eyes with Herc for just a moment in his flurry of motion. Desperation stamped all over his face. He’s very young, just a kid, really, for all the sharpness in his voice. The bartender is giving every sign of being ready to chase him out of the tavern. Herc feels a little pang.

He just yelled at you for no good reason, says the reasonable part of Herc, and that may be true, but—Herc’s not made of stone. He has a heart. He’s always quite liked doing folk a good turn. It feels nice. And you can always cash in on it, later, if you need to, with the right sort of person. It never hurts to have an extra favor in the bank.

Herc makes up his mind.

“Relax, Mo,” says Herc, “I’ve got his. And while you’re at it, another for me.” The bartender glares, but when Herc digs in his pockets and slaps the money on the counter he more or less obligingly draws two beers for them. Herc pushes one of them at the kid and steers him over to the first free table.

“You’ll have to excuse poor Moses,” Herc says, “he’s dealt with too many people trying to skip out on a tab in his day to remember what it’s like to have a little patience. Sorry about your wallet, pal. At least take a load off.” He pulls out a chair gallantly before settling back down himself.

The kid’s chin bobs in what might be a jerky nod and what might just be a twitch, and he crumples into the chair. Up close, he looks even younger, with big dark puppy eyes and an outsize nose and not even the slightest hint of peach fuzz on his chin. He clutches his beer and stares at Herc as though he suspects him of poisoning it. Doesn’t take a sip. Tense, Jesus. Herc takes a swig of his own drink and makes himself comfortable.

“Hercules Mulligan,” he says with a flourish, by way of introduction. Gives the kid a second to enjoy the name; he knows it’s an impressive one. “You got a name, friend?”

The kid looks, if possible, even more rattled. “Yes,” he says, his knuckles going white on the mug. There’s a long, awkward pause. Herc sits with it. Let him come to it in his own time. “Oh,” the kid says, finally, and then, “Alex. Alexander. Alexander Hamilton.” Can’t quite hide the pleased little smile that curls his lips as he says it. Pride. Which is funny, thinks Herc, given that he himself wouldn’t know a Hamilton from a hole in the ground.

No point in being antagonistic, though. “Well, Alex Alexander Alexander Hamilton, let me be the first to welcome you to our fair city. I am the first, right? Let me guess, you got off the boat, what, maybe four o’clock this afternoon?”

Hamilton scowls in a way that suggests Herc has hit pretty close to the mark. “How would you know that?”

“Call it intuition. I can tell a New Yorker when I see one, and you’re not quite there yet.” In truth, it’s that the tavern they’re in is close to the waterfront, a bit off the beaten trail, and someone wearing clothes as fine as Hamilton’s probably wouldn’t have bothered giving the place a second glance if he hadn’t just stumbled off a ship. Simple deduction.

Although he wouldn’t have blamed himself for guessing wrongly, given the kid's general state of dishevelment, the hair falling into his eyes, his half-buttoned waistcoat and sloppily tied cravat, like someone who’s been drinking for several hours already. But that’s impossible; no one could be that sloshed and still be as jittery as Hamilton is. So—newcomer.

“And what brings you to New York, Mr. Hamilton? You here for work, or pleasure, or—” he gestures grandly with his mug of beer, “—just to seek your fortune?”

To his great amusement, Hamilton perks up at that. “Last one. Definitely the last one,” he says. Herc can’t help but smile back.

“A romantic, huh? Cute. No, no, don’t be mad,” he says, when Hamilton bristles at his tone, “I think it’s nice. We could always use a few more dreamers in this world.” He waits for Hamilton to calm down again before continuing, “So you must have big plans for this city, huh? Gonna knock out a couple of life goals while you’re here?”

“I, um.” Hamilton stares down into his mug. “I sort of—I’m new here, like you said. I just wanna learn. Wanna see what there is for me to do.”

“You’re trying to do some learning, this isn’t a bad place for it. Not bad at all. Some great colleges around here. If you’re a scholarly sort, good with your words, you can get a solid start there.”

“College. Yeah.” Hamilton’s eyes brighten. “Yeah, I’m—I was—I’m pretty good with words. Numbers too. I used to think, maybe I could still—college. I like that. How do you do college?”

Herc snorts, but otherwise lets that slide. “Can’t just walk in off the street, for the first thing. You’d have to apply, there’s an exam to prepare for and everything. Might need to do some schooling before you apply, even, depending on how prepared you are. There’s places you can go for that nearby, though. It’ll be work, but if you buckle down—”

“I can figure it out.”

“What, just like that?”

“I’m smart. I remember a lot, I—” Hamilton frowns a bit, like he’s let too much slip, but goes on. “Anyway. I’m good at that kind of stuff. Reading. Studying. I’ll be able to do it.”

“You got your Greek, your Latin? Gonna need those if you’re interested in going down this path.”

“I’m sure I could pick ‘em up,” says Hamilton with absurd confidence, and Herc rolls his eyes. Yeah, okay. Just pick up some dead languages like it’s no big deal. Kid must already have some schooling under his belt, to be talking like that. Cheeky. But Herc kind of likes that swagger coming out.

“Well, once you do, give me a shout. I know a guy at Princeton, I could introduce you.”

“I, sure, yeah. Thank you. Princeton. That’s, is that in New York?”

“No…it’s in Princeton.”

“Right.” No comprehension on that face.

“Princeton, like, across the river and inland a ways. Jersey, you know. Or maybe you don’t, where are you here from…?”

“Oh. Inland. Okay.” Some of that nervousness filtering back in. “I was sort of trying to stay around these parts. If I could.”

“Yeah, well, slow down a little, you haven’t even applied yet, you don’t have to make any decisions right this minute. Although between you and me, might be safer for you to get out of the city, if you can. You’ve chosen a risky time to come here. We’ve got more than our fair share of unrest right now.”

“Do you?” Hamilton leans forward, raises his eyebrows with interest. “What is it, what’s going on?”

Herc sips his beer. Glances at Hamilton, without looking like he is. Could be a Redcoat, could be a spy, mutters a cautious voice in his head, you know they’ll use anyone. But Herc trusts his gut, and his gut is telling him that the Brits would be idiots to send a spy dumb enough to get in a noisy public argument, lose his wallet, and not know where Princeton is after him. Amateur hour. They’re better than that.

Hamilton is looking at him with what must be genuine curiosity, dark eyes like blank slates, and he had said he was a dreamer, hadn’t he? Give him some dreams to work on. No such thing as a bad time to recruit for the cause. Carefully, though, always carefully.

“Lotta stir, what with that rebel army up north,” Herc says in his most casual tones. “Gets people saying all sorts of things. Scandalous things. Downright seditious, even. They say folks are organizing, right here, in the city. Our King’s not too pleased with us right about now. Of course, I wouldn’t know anything about it,” Herc continues, lightly, “hardworking, law-abiding citizen like me. I just listen. Just hear things.”

Hamilton has caught on, though, and fixes Herc with a stare that puts Herc in mind of some hunting animal, cat, hawk. No, not a hawk, something colder, something sharper. Hamilton wets his lips, opens his mouth, and…

“What king?”

“…You serious? Where did you say you were from, again?”

“The—the Caribbean?” says Hamilton, sounding rather uncertain. He shakes his head and tries again. “The Caribbean. St. Croix. Nevis, and then St. Croix.”

“Right. You know you have the same king down there as we do, right?”

“Do we?” A little concerned line appears between Hamilton’s brows. “I mean, yes. We do. Obviously. Yeah, I know. The king, that king over in, in, uh…”

“England.”

“England,” Hamilton says, a little too hard on Herc’s heels.

“Really, though, how old are you, that you don’t know who the king is?”

“I’m nineteen! And I know, all right, I do, it’s just, I just…” He trails off, drops his eyes. “I’ve had. There’s been. Other stuff to think about. King didn’t really seem important.” He looks back up, beseeching. “Should he have been?”

Herc studies that expression for a moment. Shame mingled with desperation to be right, to understand. “Nah, you’re okay. We all miss things,” he replies, with a dismissive wave of his hand.

A few more pieces click together in Herc’s head. Came to New York to seek my fortune, right; translate that into came to New York for a fresh start, came to New York running from whatever—whoever—was dogging me so hard that I couldn’t even be bothered to look at whose face was on the money. Explains the jumpiness, and the badly-concealed lies—Herc’ll be damned if Hamilton is nineteen, not with that girlish complexion, and the way he stumbled over Nevis and St. Croix was more than a little suspect.

A runaway, then, huh. Poor kid. Which, Herc supposes, is all the more reason to give him a solid mooring, ideological if nothing else. And if people tend to stay loyal to their first benefactors, well, so much the better.

“Anyway, you wanna learn something about what’s really going on in this city, come to Fraunces Tavern two nights from now. Some friends of mine are having a meeting, we can show you the ropes. Where are you staying? I can tell you how to get there from your place.”

Hamilton smiles unconvincingly. “Oh, uh, I was just planning to, you know, find somewhere around…”

“Got it. You have nowhere to stay. ‘I was just planning to find somewhere.’ Jesus, you really are new to this city, aren’t you.” Herc pushes his hat back on his head, sighs, and then rises from the table. “Nothing for it, then. Finish your beer, and then you’re coming home with me.”

“What? No, it’s fine, I don’t need, you don’t have to do that!”

“I do, unless you like the idea of sleeping in the gutter. No arguments, my man, I’ve got a spare bed and you don’t wanna spend your first full day in New York in the lockup for vagrancy.”

Those huge eyes of Hamilton’s get even bigger, and he stammers out a few words of argument before falling quiet. Herc can almost see his brain working at this additional unexpected generosity, like he doesn’t know what to do with it.

In the end, he just says, more quietly than he’s said anything all evening, “Thanks. Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it. Now, you gonna finish your beer or what?”

Alex looks dubiously down at his full mug of beer. Lifts it to his mouth.

“Whoa, hey, I didn’t say inhale it—shit, Hamilton, are you crazy, cut that out!”

Hamilton makes a noise like huuurghlgh and spews half the contents of the mug across the table before doubling over, choking. He looks very green, and for a second Herc is afraid he’s going to vomit, but he recovers his color, sits up and paws at his mouth in abject disgust.

“Fucking—what the fuck—what is—vile fucking shit—”

“All right, all right, take it easy,” says Herc, pulling out a handkerchief and mopping at the beer splattered all over Hamilton’s coat. He’s contrived to spray it backwards, somehow, so it’s dribbled into his hair and down the sides of his collar. “Look, forget what I said, I’m cutting you off. You got your stuff?”

Hamilton coughs several times, makes a face at Herc. “My…my stuff?”

Herc rather belatedly realizes he hadn’t seen Hamilton carrying a bag at any point in the evening. Good God. Lost in New York without a wallet, without connections, without anything but the clothes on his back. He’s lucky Herc found him, or he would’ve ended up dead in a gutter before the end of the week.

“Never mind. C’mon, up. We’re going.”

With a last vicious glare at the mug of beer, Hamilton gets up and follows Herc to the door and out of the tavern, and they set off for the house. It’s slow going; Hamilton’s unsteady on his feet, and keeps stumbling until Herc throws a steadying arm around his narrow shoulders. And what’s that about? He can’t possibly be drunk, not on a mouthful of beer he didn’t even swallow. Herc leans over and sniffs discreetly, willing to walk back on his earlier judgment of this kid is not an uncontrollable lush, but can’t detect a whiff of anything harder under the smell of the beer.

“It’s not far, your place, is it?” Hamilton says with a bit of an edge to his voice. He glances back over his shoulder towards the waterfront.

“Like ten, fifteen minutes’ walk. Not bad at all. Hey, don’t worry,” he says, clapping Hamilton on the shoulder and almost causing his knees to give out, “you stick around until after my shift’s done tomorrow, I’ll show you around town a little, help you get your bearings. You’ll be a New Yorker before you know it.”

“Yeah,” says Hamilton. He shivers. Looks back at the harbor. Catches Herc noticing, and points his face back homeward. “It’ll be fine. I’ll figure it out.”

“That’s the spirit. Watch the cobblestones there.”

Hamilton yelps and hits the ground. Herc hauls him back to his feet. It’s gonna be a long walk home.

(part the second)

#swan talks #hamilton for ts #murderfish au #will herc ever figure out what alex's fucking deal is? will alex ever learn how drinking works? how do you do college???#find out in the next thrilling installment coming to a dashboard near you whenever i can fUCKING FINISH IT #(spoilers: yes; not really; and do your homework learn to time your crying jags so they happen in front of sympathetic teachers #and hope for the best)#(that last one isn't REALLY relevant to murderfish au but it worked for me so maybe it would work for others)

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aion-rsa · 6 years

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Venom: Who is Carnage?

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OK, Venom fans, break out your Green Jelly tapes, because it's time to learn all about Carnage, Spider-Man's evil double's evil double.

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Feature

Books

Gavin Jasper

Marvel

Oct 16, 2018

venom

Spider-Man

Carnage

All right, so, a few months ago, when Deadpool 2 came out, we did an article called Deadpool 2: Who is Juggernaut? People were pretty annoyed because Juggernaut’s role in that movie as a major antagonist wasn’t advertised and they cried spoiler. And that’s a fair call. Apologies.

That said, if you think it’s a spoiler that Carnage is in any way alluded to in Venom, I don’t know what to tell you. It’s Carnage. Of COURSE he’s going to be at least referenced in a Venom movie. The movie just used Carlton Drake and Riot. Venom doesn’t exactly have a Batman-level rogues gallery to play with and only one of his bad guys is important enough to get a red SNES cartridge.

So yeah, Carnage. He’s teased at the end of Venom. Read more on that in this look at the Venom post-credit sequences.

The only real surprise is that it’s taken this long for Carnage to be in a movie. With so many comic book movies out there, we’re running out of iconic villains who haven’t been featured. We’re down to Darkseid, Kang, and...I don’t know, Arcade?

Much like in the movies, Carnage’s first appearance in the comics was a quick teaser. While Spider-Man was busy dealing with Cardiac in Amazing Spider-Man #360 (by Davie Michelinie and Chris Marrinan), we got to see a one-page scene of a man named Gunny Stein returning home, only to be smothered by an attacker who admitted to killing him merely because he was looking through the phone book and found a suitably stupid name.

While he would appear in full in the following issue (Mark Bagley on art), the wheels towards Carnage’s creation came far earlier. When trying to kill Spider-Man, Venom ran afoul of Styx and Stone, a villain duo only really remembered for this very story. Styx, who has a death touch, touched the Venom symbiote and seemingly killed it. Eddie Brock was thrown in a regular prison and I would make a Bronson joke if I had actually gotten around to seeing that movie.

Venom returned to mess with Spider-Man again, only this time on an abandoned island. Spider-Man pretended to die in an explosion and Venom was all, “Sweet! Our to-do list is done! Let’s just squat on this island, where there are no TVs or newspapers to let us know that Spider-Man’s alive!”

That worked out great for everyone, but then the Carnage storyline kicked in and after a single fight against the new villain, Spider-Man decided that he needed Venom to fight with him. I enjoy a good hero/villain vs. bigger villain story as much as the next guy, but the intent to make it a Venom team-up was laughably blatant. How blatant?

Knowing that Venom was going to go into a violent frenzy, Spider-Man confronted him with Human Torch as backup. After all, fire is one of Venom’s weaknesses. Makes sense. Only, like, WHY DO YOU NOT JUST CUT OUT THE MIDDLE MAN AND JUST BRING HUMAN TORCH WITH YOU TO FIGHT CARNAGE? Hell, the dude has three friends who would be extremely helpful in catching the loud and obnoxious serial killer. He can’t be THAT hard to find.

further reading: Venom Comics Reading Order

There’s a quick line in the end about how bringing them in would make things more dangerous, but I have trouble accepting that truth when their replacement is an irrational mass murderer who will kill Spider-Man the first chance he gets.

But anyway, Spider-Man and Venom teamed up against Carnage a few times, got beat up despite the odds, then beat him by exploiting his sonics weakness. Then Spider-Man and Venom went back to fighting. A solid enough story, but not really all that memorable.

No, Carnage’s more memorable story would come a year later with Maximum Carnage. Actually, even that story wasn't all that memorable. I read it several times and I can barely give you the gist of what happened. Just that Carnage got himself his own personal Harley Quinn in Shriek, then created a short-lived supervillain team alongside Doppelganger, Demogoblin, and Carrion. Spider-Man and Venom teamed up again, only this time with a bunch of Marvel randos on their side like Morbius, Iron Fist, and Night Watch.

Stuff happened, Captain America being there was treated like a huge deal, and...man, whatever. All I know is that there was a seriously sweet panel where Venom was tearing off Carnage’s eyes.

The real reason anyone remembered the storyline was because of LJN’s video game Maximum Carnage for SNES and Genesis. Considered “good for an LJN game,” it allowed you to play as Spider-Man or Venom as you beat up extremely 90s street thugs and Carnage’s crew over and over again. Even being the final boss, you end up fighting Carnage a handful of times throughout.

further reading: Complete Guide to Marvel Easter Eggs in the Venom Movie

The game had a red cartridge and featured a soundtrack by Green Jelly (including their song “Carnage Rules”), so it had that going for it.

There was a sequel (technically a prequel) called Separation Anxiety, which was based on Venom: Lethal Protector. Since the arc didn’t have any major end boss threats, they just threw in Carnage as the final challenge because what the hell. They had the assets. Even the ending was just a picture of Carnage with zero epilogue. Again, Carnage had absolutely nothing to do with the story.

And so, Carnage continued to make comic appearances throughout the 90s. Inspired by the Maximum Carnage game, there was a silly Venom comic called Carnage Unleashed where Venom and Carnage fought inside the internet and it was somehow broadcast on the big screen in Times Square. Planet of the Symbiotes had Carnage become a giant after devouring and absorbing an untold amount of invading symbiotes. There was even a Spider-Man/Batman crossover where Carnage teamed up with Joker and then got punked out and made fun of for being a one-dimensional Joker knockoff.

Oh, and Batman beat him down with just his fists.

Speaking of DC crossovers, when they did the Amalgam Comics gimmick, Carnage was merged with Bizarro to become Bizarnage. The albino symbiote wanted to kill and replace Spider-Boy. Hey, at least he got representation. Nobody merged with Venom during that entire event.

further reading: The 15 Craziest Venom Moments in Marvel History

Carnage even got a couple animated appearances during this time. He showed up on Spider-Man: The Animated Series as a henchman of Dormammu where he wasn’t allowed to do anything remotely serial killer-y. He was fine, all things considered, but then things got real stupid once the show spun off into Spider-Man Unlimited.

Instead of that, I’ll talk about his appearance in the Spider-Man video game for the PlayStation, Nintendo 64, and Dreamcast. In the plot, Carnage and Doctor Octopus teamed up in hopes of taking over the world with a symbiote army. This led to the pants-shittingly terrifying final level where Spider-Man is chased out of a huge tower by Monster Ock – the Carnage symbiote on Ock’s body. He wasn’t really even a boss because even if you were wearing the Captain Universe costume that made you invincible, you couldn’t damage Monster Ock and if he caught up to you, you’d instantly die. You just had to swing away until you were saved by a cutscene.

further reading: The Many Characters Who Wore the Venom Symbiote

The 90s ended and so began the era of being embarrassed by things that happened in the 90s. While we did get a Venom vs. Carnage miniseries that mainly acted as a launch pad for the Carnage symbiote’s spawn Toxin (it didn’t take), Carnage was soon taken off the board. In the pages of New Avengers, Brian Michael Bendis had the Sentry show off how OP he was by grabbing Carnage, slamming him through several prison ceilings, flying him into space, and tearing him in half.

Mac Gargan Venom was a thing around that time anyway, so we already had a 100% evil symbiote guy creeping around.

After 5-6 years, Carnage finally came back in a miniseries simply called Carnage by Zeb Wells and Clayton Crane. It was originally going to be called Astonishing Spider-Man and Iron Man, but marketing realized that putting Carnage front and center would probably sell better. It revealed that Carnage survived the Sentry’s stunt and Cletus was kept alive by a corrupt prosthetics developer who gave him metal legs in exchange for using his symbiote to enhance his prosthetics technology.

It all went horribly wrong and created another Carnage offspring in Scorn. She also did not take.

There was a sequel called Carnage USA by the same creative team and I absolutely recommend it. Seemingly building up to some symbiote-related event comic that never came to be (Rick Remender’s Venom was also guilty of this), the comic had to do with Carnage expanding to the point that he was able to take over an entire town in Colorado, along with Captain America, Wolverine, Thing, and Hawkeye.

further reading: Venom Deleted Scenes Revealed

This led to a lot of cool shit, including a Venom gorilla being chased by a Carnage-controlled stampede of escaped zoo animals, Venom’s Life Foundation children being used as military weapons, and a legless fight between Flash Thompson and Cletus Kasady. Oh, and the hilarious revelation that Hawkeye fucking HATES Ben Grimm and thinks all of his shtick is old and tired.

Starting with the ho-hum yet cleverly named Minimum Carnage, Carnage started showing up in more stories with different creative teams forgetting that he was supposed to be missing his bottom half. He ended up in a really fun miniseries called Deadpool vs. Carnage where Deadpool was able to defeat Carnage in a way Spider-Man and Venom could not by shattering his confidence and breaking his spirit.

This led to Carnage’s extremely fun turn in Axis, otherwise known as that event Marvel did where the good guys became bad guys and vice versa. Through magic mixed with psychic suggestion, Carnage was briefly driven to become a hero, but he didn’t exactly have a full grasp on what that meant. Him trying to punch a woman in the face just hard enough to knock her out but not crack her head, followed by boasting about a job well done was entertaining as hell.

further reading: The 20 Year Quest to Make a Venom Movie

Carnage then had a short-lived ongoing written by Gerry Conway with a story about a cult worshipping Carnage because he’d unleash some kind of Lovecraftian god or whatnot. All the while, a task force was put together to stop him. This was partially an exercise in removing the Toxin and Scorn symbiotes while setting up Eddie Brock’s return to being Venom.

Over the years, the Carnage symbiote has possessed many hosts other than Cletus. There was Ben Reilly, Silver Surfer, an alternate universe Spider-Man, the Wizard, and so on. Its most high-profile instance was Norman Osborn, making him the final end boss of Dan Slott’s very lengthy run on Amazing Spider-Man. As the Red Goblin, Osborn was powerful enough that Spider-Man reluctantly took up Eddie Brock’s offer to borrow the Venom symbiote.

As for Cletus, he’s back floating in space in pieces thanks to the events of Venomized. Long story.

Even though Carnage only made a quick film appearance just recently, he’s reached one height that not even the likes of Thanos have ever hit: Carnage was on Broadway. Back in 2011, the butt of jokes everywhere was Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, known for its immense budget, laundry list of performer injuries, and iffy take on the source material. So iffy that there are two versions of the show that existed. There’s Julie Taymor’s fever dream original and the more coherent second attempt.

further reading: Venom Director Wanted to Honor the Comics

I was lucky enough to see the former in all of its ridiculous glory.

Carnage appeared as a member of the Green Goblin’s Sinister Six alongside Kraven the Hunter, the Lizard, Electro, Swarm, and original character Swiss Miss. Yes, that’s seven characters. Just let it go. Carnage ended up being the best looking of the villains, since most others came off as looking like goofy sports mascots. He didn’t really do anything, but he was immortalized in this cringeworthy David Letterman performance.

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...did Osborn suggest Kraven is into bestiality?

Gavin Jasper writes for Den of Geek and still can’t believe Carnage never showed up in a single Capcom Marvel game. Read more of Gavin’s stuff here and follow him on Twitter @Gavin4L

Read and download the Den of Geek NYCC 2018 Special Edition Magazine right here!

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isaacathom · 6 years

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like, if i were to basically redo it to just be a fun fantasy romp - id take it back to its original sort of time setting rather than having it be urban fantasy. Finley died in an expedition about 10 years earlier, making Crystal and Akian into orphans. theyve basically been living with the D’Lore’s since then, so Akian and Chase being really fucking close makes complete sense (and was likely why they started living wit the d’lores in the first place). in that last decade, like 5 yearsago or so, SKye joins the family after the whole uhhhhh Sorix/Naten situation. my poor boys. so crystal and skye already know each other. they arent super close, mostly because skye’s a moody lil bitch sometimes, but they know each other and are passing friends. crystal works with the d’lore’s apothecary, since the d’lores are like, biiiiiiiig boys. mayors or some shit. big boys. not a king, tho. well, actually, maybe? that could be interesting. or perhaps like a pricipality sorta deal. ill think about it.

since the d’lores are royalty here, kidnapping Akian and Chase (the crown prince boy and his gf) makes complete sense. theyre a perfect ransom and way tohold the entire city/region hostage. its a crisis. skye and crystal, who are really pissed about it, decide to take proactive action. which brings them into contact with Violet, who runs a small library with her “aunt”, Dawn. Violet helps them find some information about some of the weird shit the two reported seeing before their sibs were kidnapped, and gives them a shit ton of advice on what they could do. because violet is the best.

smth smth happens, they come into contact with Will, who is an expedition man just like Finley, and also the guy with th complex relationship with Skye. the three manage to convince Will to take them along into his second trip into a portal he’s discovered north of the town, because violet thinks it’ll have useful info and then begs to come along to see it. sothe 4 go in. suhbitch, its the heaven realm, and here they meet Skye’s mother, Alexa, who has still been dead for 200 years because, lets be clear, Skye’s dad fucked a ghost. fucking crazy. fantasy is wild. and she helps give them some pointers. maybe suggests they head to Quartai, which is the Big Boy Kingdom. a probably more overtly magical/religious place, more info on Ryaris and shit, stuff like that.

the 4 go there. then im not sure how stuff resolves from there. they probably still end up heading to the southern isles, which is an even more Big Magic place that has all these portals. in between then, violet seems to disappear, following an(other) encounter with Princess Alara, angry wind mage of the hour. which isnt great? but thats because Violet realised something was off about Alara (in a way specific to Violet) and she went out alone after the others went to sleep to find her and demand answers, and then, well, shit escalates.

they finally get to the fire realm and find the castle. before they can sneak inside, Alara catches them and promptly kidnaps Crystal, under the rationale that, well, Crystal is actually quartaian royalty, she’ll be a good ransom as well! :) skye and will (and i guess ash if hes just floating around, i dont Know)get tossed in the jail cell with chase and akian. Violet, who has now assumed the position of Princess fucking uhhhhh she has a name. fuck. T- Tacha??? yea ok whatever. Princess Violet’s out here, trying desperately to avoid the consequences of abandoning the group and trying not to get seen by any of them. but after overhearing her mum and sister interrogating Crystal about shit (and probably revealing Crystal’s heritage at that time, tho idk how id tie that shit in proper) Violet decides to stop being a coward. easily talks her way into the jail, frees everyone, get them all their stuff back, and make arrangements with some sympathetic guards that escort the exhausted Chase and Akian to a portal that will plop them out near-ish to the capital city, where they will be quickly found. bonus points if one of the guards, being a local to the area, offers to then personally escort them to the palace and hand them over. if yes, then violet likely gives him something that is proof of divine intervention (like, a symbol that cannot be manufactured by a human? and that is proof that Ryaris was involved and has returned them, smth like that, idk)

then the three of them work together to free crystal from Alara, who is acting as the primary antagonist. Ryaris is getting cold feet like noones fucking business, which is why she hasnt made a single appearance apart from kidnapping the two at the start. Alara’s filled in the rest, in part because Alara can pass for human (shes more a demigod than a minor goddess, in contrast to Violet), and because Alara was a LOT more into the plan from the start. probably using some info they gathered in Quartai or in theheaven world (it definitely has a name, i dont remember it) to convince Alara that, well, no, Dalace is absolutely fucking lying to you, stop it. which is easier than you would think, because Dalace’s lies were revealed the instant Violet returned home.

Part of Dalace’s plan to escape from her imprisonment is to have Ryaris (and her daughter, tho that was a later addition) force a whole bunch of humans into constructing and using portals, which would weaken the seal and also give Dalace more power. then she can break out and wreak havoc. her end of the deal is that, once restored to full power and free, she would bring back Evelyn and Violet. Evelyn being Ryaris’ human wife, who died like 5-6 years prior to the start of the story, and which was actually caused by Dalace in order to force Ryaris’ hand. but that conceit was that Violet and Ryaris were both dead. But Violet is here, perfectly fine, and with 0 trace of any magical interference. Violet was been alive the entire time, just out of Ryaris’ sight and in a different place than where Alara ended up going undercover. essentially a stroke of bad luck.

so, yknow. Violet has overheard Ryaris talking to Dalace, and has already found out about the fact that her revival had been promised. so its like, ‘what proof do you have???’ ‘well, im here, arent i?’ ‘:|||||’ if its then additional that, after violet left the party, the other three found out that Dalace doesn’t have the ability to revive, and that revival as a skill would require the death of Losa (light goddess and just general death lady), they can use that too. combine forces. violet uses her knowledge of the agreement, and the others use their acquired knowledge of the limits of magic. bam. maybe even some prior history, like ‘the stories say that Dalace went mad because everything died in her care. if she could revive the dead, surely this wouldnt have been an issue?’ ‘..... fuck youre right’. i mean they almost definitely have to fight her too because Alara’s a bit of a pain in the ass. people probably almost die. hardcore.

everyone chills out, they go convince ryaris to maybe chill. thats very easy because ryaris literally just wanted to settle down with her wife and two children before shit got messy (and i mean, Same). very easy to convince her off the mess train. but, of course, she’s already done a lot of the damage. the ransom for Akian and Chase has been active for like, at LEAST a week, possibly even more, she’s already reaped a solid chunk and started making good on her promise to Dalace. so the damage has been done. Dalace will get out soon. so they decide like, ok, lets fix it. time to go like, punch her in the face.

and then they beat dalace or reseal her or something. im not sure? dalace’s issues with the world are so deeply seated, her anger so much a part of her, that you cant really turn her good again. and to kill her would be nigh impossible and extremely disastrous. so really its like. do we trap her again but More this time, do we force the gods to actually intervene this time instead of acting through Champions? its rough. a godly intervention would only work if the group had been to each of the realms, because then they’d have met or affected each god in some way. but theyve only been to light and fire worlds. any more than that and it just gets like..... convoluted...... it was the original idea but idk. smaller main cast, makes even less sense. going to the worlds of each of their patrons makes SOME sense??? which then means id need to add a trip to the earth world (perhaps this is where they go from the southern isles. since they dont have a fire portal. and then they lose violet in earht world?). which then only leaves out the water and wind worlds. but the wind goddess is explicitly on Ryaris’ side, having freed Ryaris from her own constraints after a Whole Bunch of Shenanigans. so they dont actually need to convince the wind goddess, Xen i think, to support ryaris. Caliyo, the water goddess, is a little harder to finagle. she doesnt really agree with Ryaris for what i hope are Obvious reasons. in theory keeping Ash as a member of the party would potentially fix that, since he’s an active and practicing water magician prior to meeting the cast, and it’d be fair to guess that she might have a hand in that?in the community he’s from. sort of a mini water realm? Caliyo could also possibly be convincedby like, Losa and....Elra? earth lady. to just maybe think about just fucking talking to Dalace, for fucking once. its been fucking millenia,just talk to her and maybe youll convince her to stop being a shit. idk. Dalace is complicated? and a pain in the butt.

like, if Ash remains part of the squad (which does skew the cast 2:3 male, and 1:3 male when Violet leaves, which Pisses me Off) he can act as throughline to Caliyo. i dont see why not. his community is very much magical. buuuttt you could also potentially get around having him be in the party by having the same connection be present in the Southern Isles, which is a separate magical community that hides away from the continent. and if you think about it, how would you hide an island? other than straight up illusions.mist! caliyo is a perfect patron for the southern isles, thus removing Ash from the story as well in a clean 1 2. which also removes the dragons, which is.... a shame, definitely. big fan of them. but it also makes some sense to remove super overt magic stuff, if people are supposed to believe is superstition or extremely rare. a northern tribe that rely on dragons doesnt gel with that. they can still exist, i guess, but as a completely separate entity. though that does then raise the question of how the party of 4 get from Quartai to the southern isles. in SB, they flew there on the backs of some of Ash’ dragons, which also allowed them to cross the fucking sea between the isles and the coast. unless theres a secret way? like, hey, a secret bridge. use the portals to return back to the capital city, tie up some loose ends (employment and ‘WHERE THE /FUCK/ HAVE YOU BEEN?’ sorts of ends) before heading south to the coast and then trying to find the path across. Skye or will would be good for that, though Violet is also a stellar candidate due to the sheer magnitude of her magic. she’s basically a minor deity. its crazy. it depends on like, narrative usefulness? i guess? like, violet was the one who put them on the path to realise the kidnapper was Divine in some way, and put them in contact with Will. Will got them into fucking Heaven Light World, which got them to quartai, where they were able to get more info (or maybe even skip quartai altogether, tho thats smth else to deal with). so at this stage, crystal and skye’s sole contributions have been to kick the whole thing off. at best, skye mightve suggested they go to a smaller library than the Royal one, since, well, theyre already known to the royal one and the librarian likely tells them to stop bothering everyone and go back home (stay safe from kidnappers, etc). so Skye finding the path to the island, with all that light boy goodness, might work? crystals skillset can then come in handy when they travel to earth world, since she’s an earth mage. she can learn magic and possibly even learn about her heritage there. smth smth. depends how long theyre there.

idk. you can probably remove quartai from the mix altogether??? and have them go straight from Light World to heading south of the capital. does sorta remove the quartai buildup though? with the whole ‘youre the descendant of a runaway prince’ thing. since it justified crystal being removed from the group and likely the first person to find out about violet being a god, which can then feed to like. Shit. theres no other reason to separate out crystal and not, say, Skye. crystal and skye hold identical levels of relevance to thespecific kingdom theyre from. theyre commoners. crystal is in slightly higher regard because akian is practically a princess and even before that her family were good friends with the royals (because, yknow, Finley is a runaway prince who sought refuge in a neighbouring kingdom, lol). skye is just like, some guy, even though he lives in the palace too. theyre just commoners in high esteem of the king. so like, if you were going to separate Crystal out from the group for that, you should also take out Skye, which means in practice youre just chucking Will in a dungeon on his own. which just seems rude. the boy has suffered enough.

the idea was that bringing Crystal into Quartai, a place she has never been but that her father had once promised to take her to (which i can set up). and that by placing her in that environment, maybe even engineering a scenario where she is taken to the royal library (which i guess is like, a public library run by the royals? i dont know) and is spotted by Alara, who has been living in Quartai for the last year or so to gather intel. and, by the nature of how it is, theres royal paintings on the wall showing the late queen, Crystal’s grandmother, and theres an immediate visual connection. Crystal looks just like her dad. someone else (or alara, if it works) might even comment on her being new to quartai with a sort of ‘are you sure youve never been to quartai before? you look like you’d fit right in’ and it couldbe assumed as a personality thing. especially if in terms of personality, crystal doesnt appear to mesh with quartaian society at all. and if the line is by a character with no humour. which means Alara would actually be a perfect fit. it would be a genuine question and observation - Crystal looks Quartaian, whatever that means. while in quartai, they find out its connected to the earth goddess Elra, which helps convince them that they should maybe ask Elra for advice, since she seems like a goddess who has a lot of input and would know about goings on. crystal is then revealed to be an earth mage later (either southern isles or in the earth realm itself) which is like an Ooh boy. you could possibly hammer it further home by, if they DO meet Elra, her confusing Crystal for quartaian royalty. either by assuming she’s a specific Queen (her grandmother) or just a general ‘oh, youre a princess of quartai, then?’ ‘w- no?’ ‘oh? my apologies’. though if elra is going to notice any lineage she’s going to recognize the tall white haired youngster with piercing eyes and an overwhelming magical aura is the daughter of the goddess of fire. so. might distract her?i think it would be too on the nose for Elra to straight up call her out.

though i could definitely make Crystal not looking local a thing? because she’s not. culturally she is, but both of her parents are full blooded quartaians who fled across the border because Keiran (correctly) anticipated that him marrying a commoner wouldnt go down well. Akian and Crystal both look quartaian. but they also look nothing like Will, who is from another demographic also not native to the kingdom. but his demographic is more prevalent, like there are far larger communities of them. Akian and Crystal just look out of place. Skye technically has a sort of otherworldly quality, but thats partly because his dad fucked a ghost. i cant get over that. but he still looks local enough, because he looks like his mum! and aside from being a ghost of sorts, she was from that kingdom, just 200 years in the past. so theres been drift, and he does look slightly off relative to everyone else, but to an extent you can assume thats just an individual thing. especially since his family is unknown. Akian and Crystal’s parents are known. their apperance is familiar. and that appearance is distinctly foreign. theres no real PROBLEM with that, because theyre good friends with the royal family and have been living in or near them for their whole lives, but its notably. their specific complexion, hair colour, and eye colour? not common ‘round these parts. that sorta thing? could work??? especially if relations with quartai are sorta weird. like..... we’re cool....... but also dont move here? with the exception of Kieran, because the implication is that he’d been a lot friendlier than his mother (and his cousin) and when he comes knocking on the door going ‘listen man i just fled the country can i crash on your couch with my girlfriend for a few days’ the kings like ‘yea dude go ahead. you can explain tomorrow at breakfast. just us’ ‘thanks dude i really appreciate it’. maybe its a quartaian thing. not big fans on these guys. so they just stay in their place and dont leave much. people from this kingdom can come to quartai, sure....... you cant STAY for that long, but you can come visit.......... sure.

which, if quartai is kinda.... i guess just straight up racist??? xenophobic? one or both. if quartai is straight up racist, than crystal’s appearance as a fullblooded quartaian would be quite notable! because its like, oh, youre a local! wait, y- youre NOT a local????? what the fuck do you mean youre not a local????? from - from sp- ok. sure. alright whatever you say lady. move the fuck along then. people see this ragtag group with this one quartaian lady and assume, oh, a local with some friends from out of town. well, if thats the company they want to keep, sure. cause it looks almost correct. it almost makes sense. but then you hear her speak, in a distinctly non-quartaian accent, and its like ‘hold on a sec’ but then she’ll say some words with a quartaian twang, relating to adventure, and you have No idea how to process that. what. its wild. doesnt come across in raw text but, you know.

im sure i can roughly justify going o quartai. theyre a generally more spiritual kingdom, with prominent reverence in a specific goddess who is tied in with the geography and economy (Elra), and the royal family are supposedly her descendants on some level. theyd have more specific information about the gods, the history of their involvement in the world, some shit about Dalace (not in depth, tho, just that she took over at one point and it was a Bad time). it depends how much info they can get from light realm? i mean, they arent REALLY supposed to say much. they arent even really supposed to interact with the living. which does make you go 0>0 at Alexa. hot damn. willing to break big rules for some living dick. legendary.

i mean i feel like its better if they DO go to quartai, because it allows them to encounter Alara, who has basically bribed and conned her way into a position of power through some whack shit and has integrated into the community to get some of the Juicy Information. they can meet her in a safe environment and find that she’s weird, they can learn a bit about shit, crystal being quartaian can be emphasised in a sort of coy way (im a shit writer sooo it probably wouldnt read very coy lol) and there can even be some foreshadowing for Violet’s position as minor fire deity. since thats almost definitely what catches alara’s attention. a tall, light haired individual with burning green eyes and an implaceable aura? fascinating. but when Violet doesn’t catch any of Alara’s references (to like, the gods and shit), Alara assumes she’s mistaken and perhaps she’s just sensing a strange combined aura. its not till later in the earth realm, when they meet as protagonist vs antagonist, that she realizes no, she was right on the money the first time. because at this point in the story, the main cast have actually started using magic, and theyve already found that Violet’s use of magic is effortless. and with their magic unlocked, so to speak, violet’s aura is fucking incredible. none of the others can see it, with the possibly exception of either Will or Skye, depending which way dark/light fall re: seeing shit. but Alara is an incredibly well practiced mage and demigoddess, and she knows how to see it, and violet’s is intense. its unmistakeable. alara isnt 100% sure what if she recognizes the aura, for the simply fact that violet disappeared when they were 9 and alara hadnt learnt to see/feel aura at the time. but she thinks she knows what it means. shes confident that violet is some demigod. which god? unclear. until Violet throws a fireball at her and tells her to fuck off.

the only other possible ways for violet to be a fire demigod and NOT being the daughter of Ryaris, are for her to be the daughter of Xen (goddess of wind) OR be a distant descendant of Ryaris via her mortal parent, who is also her mother, and which might overrule the godly disciple of the godly parent. the latter is nigh impossible because Ryaris has only had two children to her knowledge, unless she blacked out during 200 years exile and accidentally boned down. she’s pretty sure she didnt, though. not that thats a topic that comes up, exactly. but ryaris only has two kids. Alara has no children, and Violet is not the right age to be the daughter of Alara’s sister. she is, however, the approximate age to BE Alara’s sister. so is sheactually, or is it cosmic coincidence that two demigods (the fire/wind twins and someone else) were born around the same time? who knows! alara has no idea. violet doesnt have a damn clue either. ita rough.

uhhh this got very lost VERY fast. uhhh tl;dr return the story to its original full fantasy setting (not urban/modern fantasy). akian is the girlfriend to the prince of a kingdom, with crystal being her sister. skye being in a weird state of being commoner but living with royalty, just like crystal. akian and the prince are kidnapped by Ryaris in order to force the kingdom into an awful ransom agreement whereby they will do a bunch of suspicious shit. crystal and skye believe they saw part of the kidnapping take place, and attempt to get information. after a bunch of the royal staff tell them to stop worrying and go home, they go find a non-royal library run by Dawn and her ‘niece’ Violet, who help them find some info. Violet, being very much in the know, hooks them up with Will, an adventurer and cartographer who is planning a visit to a portal he located north of the city. after a lot of negotiating/arguing, Will agrees to let the three of them come along, and off they go. a whole bunch of shit happens, involving a trip to neighbouring kingdom Quartai, where Crystal is treated strangely in relation to the party and they first meet Alara, posing as a foreign noble who takes an immediate interest in Violet.

more shit, they end up in some hidden magic isles south of the continent, which then leads them to the earth realm, where they seek an audience with the goddess of earth Elra, on how they can get an audience with Ryaris, goddess of fire, and most likely the kidnapper. more shit. alara appears again and they have a brief confrontation. that night, violet disappears. after failing to find her, they resolve to press onwards (leaving fucking missing persons signs all over this foreign land and even informing Elra about it). go to fire realm, get captured by Alara, who separates out Crystal in order to interrogate her about her lineage to confirm a suspicion she has that Crystal is long lost quartaian royalty (si). violet is brought in to help, much to their mutual distress, and then alara kicks violet out for just doing an awful job of forcing crystal to talk.violet then breaks everyone else out of jail, sends Akian and the prince home with some guards she trusts to take them back safely, and then they go rescue Crystal. final showdown with Alara. convince alara that Dalace, goddess of darkness, has been lying out her fucking ass the entire time and cant do anything she promised. alara reluctantly agrees to confront Ryaris about it. Ryaris admits thats all true and that she knew from the start Dalace was a lying piece of shit, but, i mean...... yknow....... your wife dies and you havent seen your daughter in over a decade........ white lies are nice. also alara was the one who got sucked in. its complicated.

then they go ‘aight time to fuck with dalace’ and then i have no idea. probably all the goddesses (who theyve met throughout the story) come and tell dalace to stop being a cunt? roll credits.

#story blogging #echo child #long post #well whoops #thats uhhhhh8 hours of fun #i didnt mean for that to happen but i wasmultitasking and just sorta..... kept plugging away i guess

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apsbicepstraining · 7 years

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The Premier League proceeds: how are the title contenders determining up?

With the top-flight back in action this weekend, we take a look at the top sevens fortes, penchants, force profundity and leading player before asking whether they have got what it required in order to acquire the league

The Premier League is back after the international break and, following a breathless start to the season, we assess the top seven slopes in the conference in search for evidences as to which area will lift the trophy come May. Manchester City are the early pacemakers but their defeat at Tottenham Hotspur have given the rest of the clubs hope. It is also worth remembering that seven games into last season, Louis van Gaals Manchester United were top, West Ham United third and eventual wins Leicester City eighth

What have they done right thus far?

Manchester City

They won their opening six activities and so guide the hasten by a object from Tottenham Hotspur. The manager may be brand-new but his passing game has been speedy to berthed in and bewitch antagonists. The display of Pep Guardiolas full-backs moving into central midfield is a further poser. The 45 -year-old has done all of the above while also bombing out Joe Hart, discarding Yaya Tour, blocking Wi-Fi at the training base and banning pizza from players foods. It is as close to a change as has been witnessed in the division since Arsne Wenger strode into Arsenal in 1996. Jamie Jackson

Tottenham

The 2-0 home win over Manchester City before the international terminate was a occasion of a better quality that Mauricio Pochettino has instilled and an illustration of what can happen when everything clicks. Tottenham are guaranteed connection for the purposes of the Argentinian and the lucidity of his high-octane physical approach. The director wielded his actors harder than ever in pre-season( mindful of the additional stress of a Champions League campaign) and it is clear that their conditioning is a major plus. Even when they have not been at the most appropriate thus far, they have delved out a outcome and their defensive miserliness bodes well. The summer contract Victor Wanyama has been good and Son Heung-mins resurgence has been a boon. David Hytner

Arsenal

Once they get over the ill-prepared opening day shocker against Liverpool, what Arsenal have found is greater efficiency. That happens to be one of Wengers favourite words. It was the causes of his greatest resentment last-place season that the rate between decent fortunes created and actual goals to change competitions was not efficient enough. The deployment of Alexis Snchez at centre-forward has encouraged a far pacier and mobile criticizing cadence. Arsenal have tallied three goals or more in half of their tournaments in all challengers. The plan to seeing how they can be at the most appropriate as evidenced when they blew Chelsea away is there. Amy Lawrence

Possession

Liverpool

Jrgen Klopp improved Liverpool as an attacking personnel by the rotation of its first year but their threat has improved again this season with 18 purposes acquiring them the joint highest scorers in the Premier League. Liverpool have looked excessively impressive on the front hoof while the players willingness to buy into the managers methods is reflected in them contributing the practice in terms of lucks caused, shots, guides, sprints and distance crossed. They have also successfully steered what seemed a knotty start to the season along the road because of redevelopment work at Anfield obtaining seven points from visits to Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea. Andy Hunter

Everton

Ronald Koeman has started his Everton predominate by focusing on the glaring weakness that his predecessor, Roberto Martnez, could not correct and contributed significantly to his downfall defending as a squad. Everton relinquished an average of 1.45 goals per competition last season and leaked objectives from set pieces but has all along been carried only 5 in seven league games under the Dutch coach. Simply Tottenham Hotspur have conceded fewer. The crew are more solid, more disciplined and, thanks to Idrissa Gueyes impact, better protected than in recent seasons. When Yannick Bolasie influences a game, they likewise have a better render wire to Romelu Lukaku. Andy Hunter

Manchester United

This is an interesting question as the search for a 21 st championship has so far been uneven and unconvincing. The excellent act likely is that United remain only five points from the top, despite two overcomes from seven accords. Another plus is that three of Jos Mourinhos summer buys Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Paul Pogba and Eric Bailly are all integrated into the side, and prospects is likely to be further boosted if the fourth the Bundesliga player of the year, Henrikh Mkhitaryan can join them. The course in which Marcus Rashford has forced his road into the firstly XI is also good information for entitlement desires. Jamie Jackson

Chelsea

They have taken items from all the teams they have met outside the top bracket and have speedily established that Antonio Conte, for all his undoubted characters as a motivator and tactician, is unlikely to be able to work amazements with a squad that remains preferably imbalanced. Ensuring that the owner and hierarchy have acknowledged as much is half the combat towards rendering some long-term deliberation, with heavy investment in the market foresaw over the next two delivery spaces. They have integrated NGolo Kant, their key summer newcomer, into the side and are clearly not going to endure the same distressing safarus as last occasion round. An progress on mid-table is insure. Dominic Fifield

Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba have slotted into the Manchester United side after signing in the summer. Picture: Oldham/ BPI/ Rex/ Shutterstock

Whats their main weakness?

Manchester City

Their sole conference win came last time out when Tottenham outpressed them. This is intriguing as being the ascendant chase-and-hasslers is a founding timber of Guardiolas ethos. Celtic also tallied a moral victory by, if not flogging, then at least parallelling City at their own pressing game in the 3-3 draw in the Champions League group meeting. Here, then, is a ploy that will be studied by competitives to see if City can be interrupted repeatedly this space. JJ

Tottenham

Their implosion towards the end of last season reminded everybody that this remains a young crew and there can be lawful questions about their ability to handle the pressure when it is at its most extreme. On the other side, they will surely be more appropriate for its expertise and the lessons learned. The Champions League represents a brand-new frontier for many of the players, very. Will they be able to cope with its challenges? DH

Arsenal

Four consecutive clean membranes leading up to the international separate have suggested defensively Arsenal have found an encouraging solid pulpit, based upon the growing rapport between the superb Laurent Koscielny and the determined beginner Shkodran Mustafi, with Hctor Bellern and Nacho Monreal so reliable on either side. But in the spirit of old dress succumbing hard it is not difficult to imagine fragility at the back haunting them in a pressurised play. An hurt in a now colonized back four could bring complications. AL

Liverpool

Just as scoring points has been a welcome feature of Klopps first time in charge at Liverpool, failing to prevent them has furthermore been a long-lasting problem. Liverpool have not prevented a clean expanse in the Premier League this season and, with 16 of the 50 league aims conceded under Klopp coming from free-kicks or angles, their problems with set pieces are glaring. A striving Swansea City side noticed opening between Liverpools central champions frequently last-place time out but shortage a better quality to take full advantage. AH

Everton

By contrast to the work on Evertons defence, the brand-new manager is hitherto to have the same impact on the teams frontline. Three competitions without a acquire including elimination from the EFL Cup by Norwich City have provided as an unpleasant remember that a change to an intense pressing style will not occur overnight. Evertons assaulting alternatives Lukaku, Bolasie and Ross Barkley impress sporadically and demonstrate why Koeman was so keen to strengthen that department in the summer. He will try again in January. AH

Manchester United

Their two losses resulting from City and Watford derived from the kind of sluggish, disjointed play that is reminiscent of the football under Louis van Gaal. “Theres” fault-lines in apology specially along the sides where full-backs Luke Shaw and Antonio Valencia have been clumsy and United still absence a midfielder with bite and aggression. As City proved in the first half of their derby prevail, this intends the quick tempi that they are able perforate punctures in Mourinhos humankinds can be established with ease. JJ

Chelsea

Their defence persists clumsy, error-prone and, against the better teams, obliging. Conte had targeted drafts from Serie A over the summer but, in the frenzied streetcar panache on deadline date, purposed up sanctioning David Luizs return from Paris Saint-Germain. He has most varied calibers to those initially expected. Cesc Fbregas, extremely, has fallen out of privilege and will not enjoy life on the peripheries. DF

Chelseas Cesc Fbregas has fallen out of favour this season. Image: Matt West/ BPI/ Rex/ Shutterstock

Whats the strength of the substitutes terrace?

Manchester City

Guardiolas bench features the fraternity skipper in Vincent Kompany( fitness permitting) and Pablo Zabaleta, Leroy San, Kelechi Iheanacho, Gal Clichy, Fabian Delph and Jess Navas are all equally capable as deputies. But held John Stones import to the Guardiola project, if he goes down could Kompany or Tosin Adarabioyo really slot into the ball-playing Gerard Piqu-esque role the Barnsley-born defender provisions? JJ

Tottenham

Pochettino has greater depth than last-place season. Few beings thought that he required Moussa Sissoko but “hes been gone” and signed him anyway for a guild record-equalling 30 m. Sissoko and Wanyama have bulked up his alternatives while the manager has confidence in young players such as Cameron Carter-Vickers, Josh Onomah and Harry Winks. Another brand-new sign, Georges-Kvin Nkoudou, looks like a potential gamechanger. Pochettino was without five key players for the Champions League tie at CSKA Moscow. His crew issued a statement with the 1-0 acquire. DH

Shot conversion

Arsenal

It expressed loudness that in their last match before the break Arsenal tried to break down Burnley goalless going into stoppage time and did not have a single striker on their terrace. There is but one attacking participate of any description in the replacements radical( Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain ). That persuasivenes in depth is a question exclusively seven games in is divulging. AL

Liverpool

In periods of goalkeeper and attacking alternatives, better than it has been for several seasons. Loris Karius knows he must make a self-confident start, with Simon Mignolet pushing to regain his situate, while Daniel Sturridge, Divock Origi and the fit-again Danny Ings who has scored nine objectives in five impressions for the under-2 3s this season are all having to bide their day for inclusion. Defence could be pulled by hurts, however. AH

Everton

The bench is arguably a fair thought of where Everton stand in the Premier League overall better than most, with promising youngsters such as Tom Davies and Mason Holgate given an opportunity, but weak in comparison to the leading lights. AH

Manchester United

Wayne Rooney( currently) honcho a reasonable number of substitutions who also include Anthony Martial, Mkhitaryan, Michael Carrick, Marouane Fellaini, Morgan Schneiderlin, Matteo Darmian, Phil Jones, Marcos Rojo, Tim Fosu-Mensah, Ashley Young and Memphis Depay. It is not perfect: if Pogba is inaccessible who can impressively deputise for the midfielder? The same theme is also able to is in relation to Valencia/ Chris Smalling in defence. JJ

Chelsea

There is a certain depth if one considers Fbregas and Pedro Rodrguez, both World Cup wins, tends to frequent the bench, while Michy Batshuayi, appearing his lane into English football, is clearly a knack. Kurt Zouma will too return from injury soon. DF

Liverpool have run 80 km more than Manchester United

Liverpool have lead 80 km more than Manchester United

Which player can they not yield to lose to injury?

Manchester Citys John Stones clears from precisely near his goalline against Manchester United. Image: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian

Manchester City

Stones. Guardiola bought him to be the decisive human in his pinball pass-and-move gambling. A lane to illustrate how important Stones ability to find space and time to ignite criticizes is if he were to be injured Guardiolas firstly thought would be which midfielder could supersede him Fernandinho( perhaps ), David Silva( if he could undertake, certainly) just as the coach-and-four distributed vocation schemer Javier Mascherano in the centre-back slot at Barcelona. JJ

Tottenham

Mousa Dembl has felt indispensable but the team has coped without him this season, when he has been unavailable ditto, Harry Kane and so, perhaps, it is Toby Alderweireld who can be described as the boulder. Since the centre-half is participating in the summer of last year, Tottenham have had the best defensive enter in the separation. Comfortable on the ball or protecting one versus one, his interpret of video games is superb.

Arsenal

Koscielny. Alluring to say Snchez merely because his flow acquires Arsenal stretch units in a way they dont so easily when geared around Olivier Giroud. But Koscielny is a defender in superb figure who results by illustration. A essential attendance. AL

Liverpool

Sadio Man. Unlike previous years and other self-confident starts, Liverpools strength this season has been their collectiveness. Klopps team is not reliant on an individual but People speed, plus his intelligence with and without the ball, has improved their attacking play. He was also absent from Liverpools merely demolished so far at Burnley.

Everton

Lukaku. An obvious refute but Koemans only alternatives up front, having given the 13.5 m Oumar Niasse the cold shoulder, are the deadline-day lend ratify Enner Valencia and Arouna Kon. AH

Manchester United

Last season it was Martial, this year the voting rights be applicable to Rashford as his coalesce of searing tempo, directness and goalscoring ability is unique within Mourinhos ranks. JJ

Chelsea Diego Costa. The forward is back to his bullying best from the title-winning safarus of 2014-15, enraging markers and producing the line selflessly and aggressively. He have so far been scored six durations in the Premier League. Even if Batshuayi has his own excellences, this unit revolves around Costa. DF

Which month is likely to be key in their designation chase?

Manchester City

December. City have to face not one but two claim competitors in Chelsea and Arsenal and may have to beat Celtic in their final Champions League radical recreation to advance. This makes it an even more crucial month for them. JJ

Tottenham

November searches fruity. On top of potentially sapping Champions League ties against Bayer Leverkusen and Monaco, there are derbies with Arsenal( away ), West Ham United( home) and Chelsea( away ). DH

Arsenal

The conventional nightmare November towers. After five straight winnings in the Premier League, Swansea, Middlesbrough and Sunderland are up next. But what a change of speed come November. Tottenham, Manchester United and Paris-Saint Germain in consecutive parallels will tell us a lot about whether certain challenges can be sustained. AL

Liverpool

April. March delivers more glamorous plays Arsenal and Manchester City but six tournament meetings in April could express the benefits of a season without European football for Liverpool. A month that may result in potential deed rivals being disconcerted by Champions League quarter-finals begins with a Merseyside derby and includes recreations against West Bromwich Albion, Crystal Palace and Watford, all of whom took degrees from Klopps team last-place season. AH

Everton

December, although it is extending it to say Everton are prosecuting the entitle. A frenetic planned that includes residence games against Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool, plus a journey to the endorses, Leicester City, on Boxing Day could influence Koemans first season in charge. AH

Manchester United

December. Six league outings, including information against Spurs, plus a trip-up to Odessa in the Europa League, make this the slog-fest of all months for United. Last year Van Gaal emerged from a torrid December that boasted zero prevails for the first time in the clubs biography as a dead man limping. JJ

Chelsea

It is alluring to say the seven-week period from Saturday, when Chelsea confront the champs Leicester, Manchester United, high-flying Everton, Tottenham Hotspur and call Southampton and Manchester City. But, in reality, it will be January when the sorority will attempt to make a splashing in the market. DF

Chances formed

Chances developed

Finally, can they acquire the claim?

Manchester City

Certainly: but we will know more by 1 January.( A cop-out of an answer? Could be) JJ

Tottenham

The leagues only unbeaten crew have to be considered, at the least, as authentic challengers. Strong excuses triumph championships. DH

Arsenal

Possibly but dont extend potting any residences hitherto. AL

Liverpool

That question has preoccupied Liverpool for 27 years and has always caused the same explanation but, given their start, their directors title-winning pedigree and their fixture schedule is comparable to rivals in the Champions League, their hopes have foundation. AH

Everton

Koeman said it himself: If I tell you the authorities concerned will fight for the entitle I envision most people will tell you that gentleman is crazy. Thats a no then. AH

Manchester United

Having tipped United at the start of the season the response here has to be, yes, but it seems a less than 50/50 shooting, currently. JJ

Chelsea

Highly unlikely. That designation objection may come next season after Conte has made this squad more his own. DF

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apsbicepstraining · 7 years

Text

The Premier League proceeds: how are the title contenders determining up?

What have they done right thus far?

Manchester City

Tottenham

Arsenal

Possession

Liverpool

Everton

Manchester United

Chelsea

Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba have slotted into the Manchester United side after signing in the summer. Picture: Oldham/ BPI/ Rex/ Shutterstock

Whats their main weakness?

Manchester City

Tottenham

Arsenal

Liverpool

Everton

Manchester United

Chelsea

Chelseas Cesc Fbregas has fallen out of favour this season. Image: Matt West/ BPI/ Rex/ Shutterstock

Whats the strength of the substitutes terrace?

Manchester City

Tottenham

Shot conversion

Arsenal

Liverpool

Everton

Manchester United

Chelsea

Liverpool have run 80 km more than Manchester United

Liverpool have lead 80 km more than Manchester United

Which player can they not yield to lose to injury?

Manchester Citys John Stones clears from precisely near his goalline against Manchester United. Image: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian

Manchester City

Tottenham

Arsenal

Liverpool

Everton

Lukaku. An obvious refute but Koemans only alternatives up front, having given the 13.5 m Oumar Niasse the cold shoulder, are the deadline-day lend ratify Enner Valencia and Arouna Kon. AH

Manchester United

Last season it was Martial, this year the voting rights be applicable to Rashford as his coalesce of searing tempo, directness and goalscoring ability is unique within Mourinhos ranks. JJ

Which month is likely to be key in their designation chase?

Manchester City

Tottenham

Arsenal

Liverpool

Everton

Manchester United

Chelsea

Chances formed

Chances developed

Finally, can they acquire the claim?

Manchester City

Certainly: but we will know more by 1 January.( A cop-out of an answer? Could be) JJ

Tottenham

The leagues only unbeaten crew have to be considered, at the least, as authentic challengers. Strong excuses triumph championships. DH

Arsenal

Possibly but dont extend potting any residences hitherto. AL

Liverpool

Everton

Koeman said it himself: If I tell you the authorities concerned will fight for the entitle I envision most people will tell you that gentleman is crazy. Thats a no then. AH

Manchester United

Having tipped United at the start of the season the response here has to be, yes, but it seems a less than 50/50 shooting, currently. JJ

Chelsea

Highly unlikely. That designation objection may come next season after Conte has made this squad more his own. DF

The post The Premier League proceeds: how are the title contenders determining up? appeared first on apsbicepstraining.com.

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0 notes

apsbicepstraining · 7 years

Text

The Premier League proceeds: how are the title contenders determining up?

What have they done right thus far?

Manchester City

Tottenham

Arsenal

Possession

Liverpool

Everton

Manchester United

Chelsea

Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba have slotted into the Manchester United side after signing in the summer. Picture: Oldham/ BPI/ Rex/ Shutterstock

Whats their main weakness?

Manchester City

Tottenham

Arsenal

Liverpool

Everton

Manchester United

Chelsea

Chelseas Cesc Fbregas has fallen out of favour this season. Image: Matt West/ BPI/ Rex/ Shutterstock

Whats the strength of the substitutes terrace?

Manchester City

Tottenham

Shot conversion

Arsenal

Liverpool

Everton

Manchester United

Chelsea

Liverpool have run 80 km more than Manchester United

Liverpool have lead 80 km more than Manchester United

Which player can they not yield to lose to injury?

Manchester Citys John Stones clears from precisely near his goalline against Manchester United. Image: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian

Manchester City

Tottenham

Arsenal

Liverpool

Everton

Lukaku. An obvious refute but Koemans only alternatives up front, having given the 13.5 m Oumar Niasse the cold shoulder, are the deadline-day lend ratify Enner Valencia and Arouna Kon. AH

Manchester United

Last season it was Martial, this year the voting rights be applicable to Rashford as his coalesce of searing tempo, directness and goalscoring ability is unique within Mourinhos ranks. JJ

Which month is likely to be key in their designation chase?

Manchester City

Tottenham

Arsenal

Liverpool

Everton

Manchester United

Chelsea

Chances formed

Chances developed

Finally, can they acquire the claim?

Manchester City

Certainly: but we will know more by 1 January.( A cop-out of an answer? Could be) JJ

Tottenham

The leagues only unbeaten crew have to be considered, at the least, as authentic challengers. Strong excuses triumph championships. DH

Arsenal

Possibly but dont extend potting any residences hitherto. AL

Liverpool

Everton

Koeman said it himself: If I tell you the authorities concerned will fight for the entitle I envision most people will tell you that gentleman is crazy. Thats a no then. AH

Manchester United

Having tipped United at the start of the season the response here has to be, yes, but it seems a less than 50/50 shooting, currently. JJ

Chelsea

Highly unlikely. That designation objection may come next season after Conte has made this squad more his own. DF

The post The Premier League proceeds: how are the title contenders determining up? appeared first on apsbicepstraining.com.

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#IFTTT #WordPress

0 notes