#black marvel heroes and their unique diverse animation | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

popculturebuffet · 4 years

Text

Static Shock: Shock to the System and Aftershock Review

“You know what? 13 years ago, me and some friends sat in a restaurant all night and daydreamed about the kinds of stories we would tell if we had the chance. We wanted to expand the concept of superhero to include characters that kind of looked like us, who had some of the same background, experiences and dreams as we did. We wanted to create something fun that a new generation would respond to the same way we responded to our childhood heroes -and damn if we didn't succeed beyond my wildest dreams. Today, Static Shock is a household name with millions of fans of all ages (Is there stuff I'd do differently? Yeah, almost all of season four but why nitpick?) Static is the most successful thing I've ever helped create and I'm both proud and gratified that people have taken it into their hearts. “

Dwayne McDuffie, Co-Creator of Static and Writer for Static Shock

This review is dedicated to Dwayne McDuffie and Robert L. Washington III. Rest In Power Static Shock is awesome. I grew up with the show watching it both first run on the WB and second run on Cartoon Network and loved it as much as I did other large parts of my childhood courtsey of DC like Batman the Animated Series, Teen Titans and both Justice League Shows. What makes this unique among the DC Properties is that Static wasn’t really a big name when he got a show. He wasn’t even part of the DC Universe.

See as I had no idea for probably a good decade, Static actually came from Milestone Comics, a company ran by and focused on african americans. The goal was understandable: While black heroes existed at the time, and there were some fantastic ones like Storm, Jim Rhodes and Steel... these guys weren’t the center of their universes. The big faces of the big companies, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Hulk, Iron Man, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash.. were white. So milestone was a shakeup of that with the main teams and heroes all being black, from Icon, an alien who’d lived among man but rather than end up in kansas like say superman ended up imprinting on a slave woman centuries ago and has been with us since, who was encouraged by an energetic teenager named Rocket to put on a costume and do something with his powers and his community, Hardware, a tech genius who had his work stolen by a white asshole and wanted to fight back and BLood Syndicate, a group of gang members all caught in the “The Big Bang”, a huge fight between all of Dakota, the midwest city where the comics take place, that ended when the police released a bunch of experimental gas that gave them all super powers.

As most of you who have watched the show already know, this is where Static comes from. Static was the company making their own Spider-Man, i.e. a nerdy teenager who suddenly gets super powers, in this case Virgil Hawkins who at the prodding of a friend took a gun to The Big Bang to get revenge on a bully. .but ultimately couldn’t go through with it, decided it wasn’t him and got rid of the gun and ran.. and still ended up in it, becoming Static, a young hero dedicated to using his powers to fight other “Bang Babies”.. a term that dosen’t really sound that great and they really should’ve thought through. But Phrasing aside the character was great and I look forward to reading more and only haven’t because I have to buy the issues gradually, but DC is currently re-releasing the individual issues of Static, Icon, and Hardware weekly in anticipation of a reboot of Milestone Coming in May digitally on Comixology at only 2 bucks a pop, and rereleased the original print collections that were long out of print for 10 bucks each, though i’m getting static on it’s own since i’ts really not that much less expensive as it only collects four issues while Icon and Hardware both collect 8, so I can wait a bit there on Hardware and already own Icon: A Hero’s Welcome.. and really need to review it at some point.

While Milestone’s output was good, at least from the two books i’ve read, with Robert Washinton III, who sadly not only ahs also passed but was fucking homeless for a while in the 2000′s.. what the actual hell, writing Static alongside Dwayne McDuffie, whose later moved onto animation writing tons of Static episodes all of them classics including the school shooting episode, the first three rubberbandman episodes and both Anasazi episodes. Point is it had good writers and artists and even had a distrbution deal with DC, so they had a leg up on the glut of other comic book companies.. but happened to start at the start of the comic book crash, a huge downturn in sales in the 90′s as the speculator boom, i.e. a bunch of people assuming every number one would be worth golden and silver age money, forgetting a character has to BUILD INTREST and this stuff takes time, and whose attempts to sell fast flooded the market with comics no one wanted,, caused the roof to cave in and with a bunch of assholes pegging milestone as a “Company for black people” rather than you know, a company trying to add fucking diversity and represntation to the comics industry, and that simply wanted a unvierse that was centered around people of color instead of white guys. The company eventually had to shut down, and was left to lisencing. This is where the show comes in. Producers HAD been trying to make shows based on Milestone for a while, as far back as the mid-90s and the company was was all for it but the closest it got was an x-men style team series using various characters whose first draft was terrible and whose second draft by Alan Burnett, a producer on various DC Animated shows who’d go on to produce Static Shock, that McDuffie and others really liked but sadly did not get picked up. eventually though with presistance Static ended up getting a series and as I said McDuffie went on to write for it though he did not develop it. Some changes went into place naturally to make it work for an early 2000′s kids show and while i’ll probably miss so since again, only read one issue as we go. But due to Milestone coming back my intrest was peaking, hence finally reading the copy of Icon I had to buy from the library years ago due to keeping it overdue but am now EXTREMLEY glad I own as i’ts incredibly rare and really damn good, and wanting to read static, doing so lately since it’s finally on digtiial and again not too expensive. So join me as I give you a shock to the system and revisit this hell of a series to see if it holds up.. which just to cut that short it does and i’m only holding off binging MORE because I want the first two eps to be fresh enough in my head to review properly.. and also go over the various voice actors because that’s a thing with me now and charcter co-creator dwayne mcduffie because he’s awesome.

As I like to do when covering a series first episodes, let’s run down the voice cast.

First up is an UTTER LEGEND, and I use the term voice acting legend a lot, and mean it every time and have good reason to use it when I say it, and Phil LaMarr is a GOD in the buisness, having done a metric ton of voice acting roles, and being easily the most proflific black voice actor in animation. He’s also done some acting work, mostly in pulp fiction which I have not seen, but his true staying power and talent is in animation so here’s just the roles I feel are most notable or may not be very notable but i’m bringing up anyway because it’s my list.

His roles besides Virgil include Lester Payton the Texas Ranger who showed up for one very good episode of king of the hill to be badass and show up the hickish, stupid and very punchable local Sheriff, Gearld’s obnoxious older brother Jamie O on Hey Arnold, Hermes Conrad from futurama, Carver from the Weekenders (PUT IT ON PLUS DISNEY), Axel Foley for exactly one bit in Clerks the Animated Series, but anyone whose seen it will know exactly which one, Micheal on the Proud Family, Black Vulcan on Harvey Birdman (In His Pants), Hector Con Carne and Dracula on Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy and Evil Con Carne, Jack on Samurai Jack something I didn’t know for decades (and I didn’t know about the carver thing till today though i’ts obvious in hindsight), John Motherfucking Stewart on Justice League and later Steel and Adult Static in the Unlimited seasons, Osmosis Jones on Ozzy and Drix, Bolbi Strogofski on Jimmy Neutron (And yes i’m just as shocked as you are.), Wilt on Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, Marcus on Life and Times of Juniper Lee, Bull Sharkowski on My Gym Partner is A Monkey and Also a Sociopath Please Help God My Life is a waking nightmare..... okay the rest of that title is implied but we all watched the same show, we all know in our hearts that was the title

Moving on, he was also, and yes there’s MORE: Maxie Zeus on The Batman, Philly Phil on Class of 3000, Both Robertsons AND Fancy Dan on the Spectacular Spider-Man, Jazz on Transformers Animated, Kit Fisto and Bail Organa on Star Wars the Clone Wars, Gambit and Bolivar Trask on Wolverine and the X-Men, Aquaman I, L-Ron and Green Beetle on Young Justice, J.A.R.V.I.S. and Wonder Man (Simon Williams) In Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Gabe and Carny on Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters (Really miss that game and have been snapping up what cards I can get lately), Baxter Stockman in the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (And there’s also an awesome photo of him with 2003 Baxter... the two best together in one place. I got chills), Dormammu (I’ve come to bargin) in various Marvel Shows, Noville in Mighty Magiswords, Zach’s dad Marcus in Milo Muprhy’s Law, Craig’s Douchey Brother Benard on Craig of the Creek, showing he’s clearly come full circle, And Mr. Scully on the Casagrndes. And given It took about two paragraphs to cover all of this, yeah, I MEANT legend.

Next we have Kevin Micheal Richardson as Virgil’s Dad Robert, and it’s the first time since I started introducing Voice Actors on a show that i’ve overlapped. I already covered him during the second episode of legend of the three caballeros, but for the short version he’s also very acomplished, very damn good and I somehow missed he played the old blind guy in hey arnold> Needless to say the dude is awesome.

Virgil’s Sister Sharon is played by Michele Morgan who was in the rap group BWP and did some smaller roles outside of this the one exception being Juicy on the PJ’s, which I have not watched much of but REALLY do not like, though i’ll at least give it credit for being a decently long lasted black claymation sitcom at at time when there were, and hoenstly still aren’t, many black animated shows.

Back to long casting sheets, next up is Jason Marsden, who is one of my faviorites as i’ve realized recently as Ritchie. As I also found out only recently he started on the Sitcom Step By Step and while that show is .. ehhhhhhhhh, he is great in it because he’s great in everything. He also apparently has his own internet variety show which I have to watch now. His roles include Max Goof, ironically given I was just talking about that role a few days ago, Haku in the english dub of Spirted Away, Micheal, the kid being yelled at by a bunch of 80′s cartoons characters not to take drugs in Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue!, Nermal in the DTV Garfield movies and The Garfield Show, Tino on the Weekenders (SERIOUSLY DISNEY), Snapper Carr on Justice League, Rikochet on Mucha Lucha! for the last season (Why I do not knkow and while I love the guy he was not the right choice), Felix on Kim Possible, Chase Young on Xiaolin Showdown (WHich I did not realize was him and now I do easily his best role and I REALLY should’ve), Red Star and Billy Numerous on Teen Titans, Speedy on Batman Brave and the Bold, Impulse/Kid Flash II on Young Justice, and Fingers on Kaijudo. He hasn’t done as much lately which is a shame but hopefully i’tll pick up again.

Next up is Hotstreak, Virgil’s brutal bully turned unhinted pyromancer played by DANIEL COOKSY, another actor i’m happy to talk about and another faviorite I haven’t seen much of lately. Daniel was an actor from childhood, playing Budnick on Salute Your Shorts, but he quickly gained a long and storied catalogue of VA Work: His first big roll was as Montana Max on Tiny Toon Adventures and if there is a god he’ll be back for the reboot, Stoop Kid on Hey Arnold, the incomprable Jack Spicer on Xiaolin Showdown, far and away his best role and part of why Chronicles sucked so bad was he was he didn’t get to reprise the role, The titular Dave the Barbarian, Django of the Dead on El Tigre (Had no idea), Kicks utterly insufferable big Brother Brad on Kick Buttowski and apparently he’s back at it again after laying low for a bit as he’s voicing Snag in Long Gone Gultch.. which I already really needed to watch but hot damn, I missed him. Sign me up.

Frieda, Virgil’s crush and close friend who in the comics was his main confidante and love intrest but here is eventually pushed aside, is voiced by Danica Mckeller whose work didn’t seem all that familiar.. until I found out she was Ms. Martian on Young Justice. Hello, Megan. Very talented and she did get a major role in a dc show eventually so good for her. Can’t wait for season 4.

So with our major players out of the way, let’s talk about Dwayne. McDuffie is an AWESOME man and my respect has grown for him more and more with time. A writer and editor at Marvel, McDuffie has a decent resume doing smaller but awesome books, which I got most of for free last year when Marvel was giving out free digital collections due to the lock down, like Damage Control, a sitcom set in the marvel universe about the company that picks up after superhero battles and the logistics and antics that insue and Dethlok, about a pacfist trapped inside a cyborg zombie. He was as mentioned one of Milestone’s founders, and wrote Icon, Hardware and co-wrote the first few issues of Static. He’d go on to a pretty stacked career in animation, writing on this show and Justice League before becoming story editor and show runner for Unlimited , even making a return to comics as a result writing the Marvel miniseries beyond and an arc of Fantastic Four in which Black Panther and Storm filled in for Reed and Sue while the two of them worked on their marriage after Reed did.. pretty much everything he did in Civil War. He also became head writer and show runner for Ben 10: Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, revamping the franchise a bit, and Alien Force, at least the first two seasons are awesome and I feel people overreacted on the changes. Ultimate Alien is okay, but has it’s problems but the finale was awesome and left the man’s legacy on a high note.. as he sadly passed in 2011 due to heart complications. He is truly missed and produced some utterly amazing stuff whlie he was alive. So on that melacholy note let’s see what happens when his creation hits the tv screen shall we?

Shock to the System:

This episode is written by Christopher Simmons, who is apparently a huge art designer guy.. but i’m not sure that’s the same chirsptoher simmons. Much more notable is the writer of the episode after this Stan Berkowitz, who was showrunner for season 1 and has done a LOT of DCAU work and is suprising talent, having written a lot of awesome Justice League episodes including Secret Society and The Royal Flush One. Point is we’re in first class hands. Before the episode itself I want to talk about the intro and how it’s unique among DCAU shows. Like most Western Animation the intros for DCAU shows didn’t change much over the seasons with the most I can see is JLU changing up the footage to preview the current episode and later adding Hawkgirl to the intro after her return to the team. I THINK superman the animated series changed some of it’s footage too, but I can’t confrim it and may of just been imagining it. As i’ve talked about on my blog it’s normally a pet peeve of mine, mostly because shows you know, change after season 1, characters get added some one shot characters used for the intro never return, and after a while it can feel dated especially in more recent shows where the status quo is not at all set in stone and things change quite a bit. But sometimes it can be good enough that either the dated elements don’t matter or general enough that you don’t need to change it and i’ts just that good.. and given Batman the Animated Series has both in spades, you can see why i’ts probably my golden standard for intros and after superman the animated series DC mostly followed suit. But being part of the teen superhero boom of the 2000′s Static is unique in that it splits the diffrence: It’s intro gets the character across perfectly like a good intro should starting with Virgil getting out of bed and running a comb across his head before showing off to his sister to bug her and literally running into his dad who hand shim his bag and smiles, silently showing off his family. He then runs to school and runs into some trouble.. and said trouble changes for each intro, with Rubberband Man for season 1, Kanga (Whose name I only know because I happened to run across it) for season 2 and your guess is as good as mine for seasons 3 and 4, though Hotstreak is a constant. They still save some money for seasons 1 and 2 by recycling some animation.. but that’s alright with mea s it was good animation, and the improtant thing is cycling out old villians for new ones, while Season 3 is the only out and out redo to show off Richie taking on the Gear identity, adding about 10 seconds of intro to let him show off. Seriously it’s an utterly great intro and like the other DCAU intros outside of superman, stuck in my brain.

The other change that’s ENTIRELY diffrent from the rest of htem is that the music changes each time. The first two have the same formula just with a difrent vocalist and backing track: a superhero theme but with some hip hop beat boxing over it. The first intro is fine enough, not specattcular but stilll god. The second song.. is eh. Not really great and feels like a marked downgrade from season 1 and just dosen’t blend an ocrehstiral superhero theme with the beatbox elements NEARLY as well. The third song though is my faviorite.. even if I HATED Little Romeo as a kid because I really did not like his nick show, it’s more a straight up rap song, but it has a faster beat that fits the intro better, and Romeo’s bragging fits Virgil’s character and penchant for Spidey quips perfectly. I also find it ironic that the theme that blends in with the dcau the most, the first season’s, is the one from BEFORE they decided to put it in the same universe. Still this season’s intro slaps, I just like the LIttle Romeo one a bit more. The opening scene is picture perfect. Some masked crooks looting a warehouse are loading some stolen TV’s into a van when suddenly the lights come on one by one above one of the crooks before his tv switches to various channels before going haywire. Cue our heroes’ entrance. Let’s tak ea good look at him

Static’s Costume is awesome. While I prefer the season 3 redesign, and clearly DC agrees as the redeisgn was used for both pre and post new-52 when they used him, and while he’s getting a fresh design for the reboot, said design takes a lot of cures from said outfit. As for how the outfit differs from the comics itself this is the design he had in the comics

It didn’t change much from the first issue, with the exception of his now iconic big puffy jacket which was added pretty early into the character’s history but I was unaware of that and just assumed he had the bodysuit the whole time. The more you know. But as you can see outside of the cool puffy jacket over a costume the two couldn’t be more diffrent. While the Dakotaverse outfit is more a standard superhero outfit, with some regular clothes touches on top the first cartoon outfit comes off more realistic, looking fantastic, but still coming off as something two teenagers could realistically have thrown together with what clothes they could buy, while still looking awesomely superheroy. IN short it’s perfect and only topped by the season 3 onward look...

But the slicker look, with an even cooler jakcet and the new colors all fitting the lighting ascetic better, but fits: not only has Virgil come along farther since he started, but with Richie now having a genius brain as Gear, he can provide a far slicker, far more professional superhero outfit on the budget the two have. This show is just great at costume design.

So getting back to the episode at hand, Static puts up a huge sign in elecrticy saying “Bad guys here”, PFFFT, and then hides away and narrates that a few days ago he’d be the last person anyone would’ve expected to be a hero. Cue Flashback.

We meet Virgil Hawkins on an average day: rapping into his razor, getting into a petty argument with his older sister Sharon, as a younger brother myself I relate to this, and talking to his dad who tries to get them to cut that out. We find out his mom has passed via his sister making really terrible eggs and saying that’s how mom made them. Exposition! Though we do get a great bit through this as when his sister gets distracted by her boyfriend calling, he uses the opportunity of her leaving the room to dump the eggs.. after having earlier jokingly prayed to his mom for a way out of breakfast. “Thanks for looking out for me mom” That’s both very sweet and very hilarious.

This is a change from the comics it turns out as I was utterly flored to find Virgil’s mom alive and well when reading the first issue of Static. Turns out this was a change made during development and one Dwane McDuffie admitted in the interview I got the tribute quote from to not liking as he had a good reason for having Virgil have a nuclear family, as most black families in media at the time were just one single parent and a kid or two with the other having either left or died. He wasn’t too bothered by it as while he preferred what he came up with in the first place, the show DID get some really good stories out of her being gone and didn’t just have her be absent because shut up. Virgil is still working over her death and the way HOW she died ends up playing an important role in this episode and gives Virgil a dislike of guns, as she died to gang violence. So the change wasn’t for stupid or racist reasons, but likely both to keep the character count down while giving them something to work with for storylines. Or it could’ve been for stupid reasons and the writers simpily made lemonade out of that very dumb lemon, either way it ended up working. Virgil also plans to ask his friend Frieda out. Frieda was a bigger deal in the comics, being Virgil’s friend and confidante as well as his ocasional love intrest, but here while she was inteded to at least be his love intrest here, that sorta fizzled out. As for the best friend role we meet her replacement in Richie, which McDuffie conceded was the kind of change a studio would make swapping out a female character for a male one. That being said the crew made the best of it and Richie is awesome, a bit of an overcompensating dipstick at times, but a good sounding board and pal for virgil and funny as hell too. He was also gay, something only revealed post series by McDuffie.. but unlike say Dumbledore, it’s a bit easier to swallow here: The early 2000′s were an even worse time for gay characters in tv let alone cartoons, and if they couldn’t kiss or have sex scenes on regular tv, there was no way we were getting any representation in a children’s show. So it was largely just hinted at by Richie overcompensating in how “into girls” he was and i’m once again fine with this being word of god as it was literally the best they could do and his counterpart in the comics was also gay, if not as relevant. Ritch encourages Virgil to work on his opening to ask her out as it’s awkward as heck, hits a bit close to home.. but I do appricate the show just .. having him try and ask her out from the first episode. They likely would’ve drug thigns out a bit granted had they used Frieda more, i’m not blind to the convetions of the time. .but as someone who got the very wrong idea from tv that just waiting around meant a girl would like you eventually, when no you need to actually try even if rejection happens, I honestly wish we had more of this in media than the other garbage morals at the time.

So he prepares to , not helped by her mentioning guy after guy is asking her out.... but before he can F-Stop, the future hotstreak, shows up. F-STOP

That being said...... it’s not as bad as the original gangster name for the comic’s version, Biz Money B. Yes BIZ MONEY B

So yeah while F-Stop is no more intimidating, it at least means I can stop laughing. Francis, because I can’t type F-Stop without laughing and this review is already behind, shoves Virgil out of the way and agressively hits on Frieda, even saying “you smell good”, the international sign your a douchebag and also to call the police. Virgil steps up to the guy and gets PAINFULLY slammed into the lockers, something I give the animation team a lot of credit for, as you can FEEL how fucking painful that was. Virgil is saved by Wade, another local gangbanger who in the comics was a close friend of Virgils but here saves him seemingly just because.. seemingly.

On the way home though Virg’s problems don’t end as naturally, the giant sized asshole with nothing better to do has his goons corner virgil before VIOLENTLY beating him.. off screen but the noises, and the clear brusies including a black eye, on virgil afterwords.. just holy damn i’m suprsied they got away with this but it shows just how horrifing it was and that this is a step above regular bullying, which make no mistake is absoluttley terrible and the series would later do an episode on it and school shootings, into straight up gang violence. Wade shows up again and gets the bastards to flee.. but also makes it clear he can’t keep doing this.. and forces Virgil to meet him at his base under the bridge. And it’s a tense sequence, with Virgil KNOWING this is a bad idea but having no real choice and Wade making it abundantly clear that he wants Virgil to join his crew, and makes a chilling point: while Virgils dad RIGHTFULLY dosen’t want his son to join a gang as Virgil points out.. he can’t be there for him all the time and eventually one of those times, Francis will be around. And he may not surivive that. Virgil nods noncomittaly. At home it gets even more grim as he dosen’t open up to his family, understandably as his dad would jsut say to call the police and well.. we’ve seen how the police treat black people. At best they’d just try and use Virgil as an informant and that likely wouldn’t end fucking well for Virgil. Ritchie points out he can’t join a gang, virgil’s mom died that way.. see told you it’d be important to the plot.. but I like how the story dosen’t offer an easy answer.. well okay he gets electric powers soon enough but without the fantastic element this is just an innocent kid caught between either joining the very thing his mom hated or hoping a system not built to protect him will keep him alive. It’s utterly saddening and chilling and holy shit is it amazing a cartoon in the early 2000′s was able to get away with.. ANY OF THIS, and they handle it great, paired down a bit from the comics but even then it’s still incredibly balsy they got THIS much in.

Naturally Wade calls in his favor and our hero is forced to come running.. and soon finds out Wade’s brought him in for a massive gang war. Welcome to the big bang, baby. He hands Virgil a gun as things get started and Virgil.. drops the thing and tries to escape, in a harrowing sequence.. and runs into Francis because god apparently REALLY hates this kid today. As if to prove that the police show up and while that prevents a beating, they demand they disassemble. then release untested gas on them because of course they do.

As a result the big bang truly begins, with the various gang members getting mutated.. and naturally so does virgil. Though he wakes up the next day seemingly fine. How’d he get home? Does his dad know where he was?

I don’t know and we’re not getting any answers, but Virgil soon finds weird stuff happening like his clock shorting out, change being attracted to him and his razor going wild. It’s only once he get sback to his room he gets an inkling of what’s going on and calls Ritchie to meet him at the Junk yard.. though it is a bit of a dick move as he dosen’t you know, tell him anything about Wade or Francis right away. He does at the yard though.. and that he has powers, having finally figured out how to use them to a point. And the series does provide a decent justification later as to why he’d get this so quickly: Virgil is a smart kid, gets great grades at school and apparnetly there’s even an episode later where he gets a scholarship to a fancy genius school. So him getting how elctromagntisim works or being a quick study on it makes perfect sense.

Richie suggest the obvious.. to become a superhero. And the thought.. hadn’t occured to Virgil. It’s honestly a nice twist on the old trope. That he hadn’t thought of it, not because he’s selfish or any of that or needs to learn a hard lesson, those have been done.. simply because the rush of getting his powers, and implicitly of having a way out of his current predciament, a way to keep Francis off his back and keep Wade from pulling him in further. His own path. But once i’ts brought up.. he jumps on it. Part of it is being a nerd like you or I, of course he wants to.. and being a good intetioned one, he knows this is the right thing to do. It’s waht makes a superhero a hero: Anyone can get powers in a universe like this, esepcailly the dcau, but it takes true courage and heart to use them selflessly and knowing you’ll be in danger. It’s why I love surperheroes: they often didn’t ask for this but they do it anyway because somebody’s gotta. We also get an intresting wrinkle is superman is, at least I think in this episode I could’ve missed it or misremembered things, mentioned as a fictional character. That’s because originally like the comics this wasn’t part of the DCAU.. but eventually the crew decided it shared staff from it, shared a network, both first run and on reruns, why not just make it part of the DCAU proper. I fully support this decisionf: While i’m midly annoyed unlimited never really used anything from static shock outside of Static himself in the time travel episode, despite you know Static and Gear having BEEN to the tower and not being much younger than Kara and defintely older than Courtney, I chalk it up to weird rights issues or something like that. But having Batman, Batman Beyond, Superman, Green Lantern and the Justice League itself all guest star was a good idea, and expanded both static’s universe and gave the DCAU something differnt as most heroes in it were older and more experinced in contrast to the up and coming virgil. Again really would’ve been nice if he and gear could’ve been a part of the expanded league but production might of just been too far ahead or, given he had his own series, they might just have wanted to stick to toher characters. Also begs the question why Icon or Hardware wasn’t adapted for the expanded League but hey, questions for later and the tricky logisitics of the milestone rights might’ve been the issue. I don’t know I wasn’t in the room.

So we get a costume montage, including Black Vulcan from Superfriends, who again ironically would be voiced by Lamarr not too long after this, though weirdly they DON’T use his outfit from the comics for this montage. I mean why not? It fits the gag and would’ve been a good second to last choice.But what could’ve been aside we get our winner and cut back to present day...

Thanks boys. Static finds out one of the things in the warehouse is a shipment of computers for the school and can’t help but show off, showing up to the school, where Frieda and Richie are setting up for the dance, and dropping off the computers, and even saying his catchphrase for the first time “I’ll put a shock to your system” (Which Richie chimes in with awesome line and I agree, great catcphrase), before helping set up and flirting with frieda.

Though as Richtie says he’s a natural. He’s not wrong as he can work a crowd. .but back it up too as his first run out had him easily taking out the crooks, and as many teen superheros and fans of heroes of hte type, myself included will tell you, getting it right in one is not easy. Not even Miles MOrales was immune. All Static needs now is a villian.

And the end of the episode provides one as we see, in horrifc and once again damn suprising detail most of hte new metas aren’t doing so good and are melting and other stuff and we catch up with Francis whose burning up.. and naturally given that hair, though given he named himself F-Stop it’s the least of his problems, he’s got fire powers and escapes to “Have me some fun”

So with that we end episode 1. And it’s excellent, a great way to introduce the hero and while the warehouse opening is a bit superflous, it is a decent addition, showing our heroes first outing in costume and giving us a bit of an action scene to get us through the very heavy rest of the episode. But the rest of the episode is no less grippping, telling the tale of a teen caught in an unwinnable scenario who suddenly finds a way out. And speaking of which waht of Wade? Will we see him again? Is he perhaps Ebon, the series big bad as I thought when I was a kid? What comes of the man who directly caused static’s origin?

Yeahhh that’s the one mistep I think the pilot makes. Frieda is understandable as that was likely a simple change in creative direction. This though? Why build this guy up if your not going to bring him back. I mean where he went was probably the grave, as he probably did due to his mutation, but it’s still VERY weird to spend a whole episode focusing on this guy, building him up as a big personal threat to our hero.. and NOT have him become the series big bad. And maybe he WAS supposed to be ebon and they just changed their mind. I don’t know but it bothers me it bothers me a lot. Otherwise though flawless. ONe more to go.

Aftershock: We open outside an electronics store, as our heroes watch the news reacap what happened in the first episode, with the media dubbing it the Big Bang and revealing their could be hundreds of “Metahumans”, as Virgil dubs after deciding the media’s term “Mutant” dosen’t fit, a nice wink to the fact that that’s the term used in dc comics and I believe milestone but could be wrong there. Me I like the term, has a nice ring to it.

At the store while Richie mulls over waht this means Static finds out he’s a human CD player.... this was before mp3 players and streaming on your phone made them horribly obsolete mind you and if you don’t know what one is congradualtions you live in some sort of bubble and you made me feel really old junior.

Frieda happens to be there and Virgil quips “What’s the matter they run out of britney cds”. Dude she’s not bad. Also be careful what you wish for man. Nickeback returned the year after this. You have not truly suffered through bad music yet my young friend. They spot a kid looking feverish, and he soon turns into a purple werewolf, as you do. It’s a bang baby.. those are richie’s exact word and you may not want to start a panic there bud. Just saying your best friend is one. THeir not all like this. Our heroes book it only to run into Francis who naturally refuses to let them leave and only doesn’t try to beat up Virgil because Virgil points otu the werewolf and nonplussed, he goes to fight it, scarring it off by revealing his own powers. He’s now dubbed himself Hotstreak which points for getting an actually good name kid. No points for what happens next as unsuprisingly getting powers did NOT mak ehim a better person and he attacks Virgil who blocks with a garbage can lid and thankfully is blasted into an ally. Richie tries to guard frieda for damn obvious reasons but gets hsi shirt burnt up because shut up Thankfully Static shows up, and we get our firsdt full on superhuman fight as both fight each other with aplomb, and it’s a damn good fight.. and one that goes pear shaped for Virg as he’s caught off guard when he finds out Hotstreak can use his powers to fly, and tackles him and his previous trauma causes him to freeze up. Thankfully , as Frieda put in a call earlier, the fire department arrive and HOt streak has to retreat, though Virgil is bummed that he “Choked”. And I love this as it not only shows Virgil’s inepxerince, as this is his first time fighting a bad guy but that just because he HAS power now dosen’t mean trauma and his previous fear of Hotstreak goes away or you won’t freeze up from time to time. It dosen’t make him weak or anything like some assholes would call it .. it makes him human. Humans make mistakes, and it makes him all the more relatable that he’s not pefect and that he did freeze up as I know I certainly would at last once in the circumstances.

Things don’t get better at dinner as Sharon and Pops argue over the bang babies with Pops calling them a meance and Sharon pointing out Static exists so they can’t all be bad. See assuming a group of superhumans are bad because a handful of them ar edick sis why the x-men had to get their own island nation. You can only save an ungreatful populous so many times before you say “fuck it i’m getting my own island, pay me for life saving drugs, save your damn selves and stop doing genocides on us. Kay thanks”. But he does bring up a valid point that rattles his son: We don’t know anything about the Bang Babies or their biological structures and it’s likely they might further mutate into monsters, Static included.

Virgil, understandably, wants to check this and thus he and richie compare blood samples in science, to no real conclusion. She he checks out with his doctor who assumes he’s sexually active in a great getting crap past the radar bit and a bit of realisim, but he agrees to the test though if something came up he would have to tell Virgil’s dsad and is up front about this. Nice dose of realisim.

That night City Council has a meeting and the Mayor TRIES to deflect Papa Hawkins questions about the bang babies which again, while being a judgmental ass as not every person hit was a gang member (Virgil, and as we discover later some others), and not every gang member is there by choice, some by circumstnace some, like virgil almost was, because they HAD no other option. Again years of reading x-men may of just made me a bit touchy on assholes admitely assuming superpower people bad. But it’s clear the public is upset and while she says an investigation is underway... Virgil and Richie are not only not convinced, but figure she’s actively covering it up. And unlike everyone else there who probably suspects the same, they can do something about it and tail her. It’s during this, and cleverly as I didn’t realie till writing this using similar skills to his human cd player act, Virgil listens in and discovers whose behind it: Edwin Alva, whose apparently richer than bill gates and a beloved phinarophist Alva, as it turns out, was actually the arch enemy of Hardware in the comics, taking advantage of the guy in his civiliian idtentiy and thus casuing him to launch a war on the asshole. He does transition into this series well though, being the one behind the gas that caused it and with the mayor agreeing to back off, planning to simply dump the info about the big bang on a disc then destroy everything for now till the heat dies down. Yup sounds like a corprate douchebag.

Static tails him, finds the lab and infiltrates it, stealing the disc.. but getting caught by Alva’s goon, and trapped in a glass prison, forced to use ALL his power to escape and barely getting out alive, but not before bouncing off alva’s car. Still he now has the proof.. and meanwhile Hotstreak, who I was wrong did get captured, is forced to take pill sbut spits them out once the orderly is gone. Dude.. WHY DIDN’T YOU WATCH HIM. Make sure he swallows that shit especially since, as he has no powers right now and can’t harm you.

Hotstreak escapes off screen and our heroes discuss the disc before he shows up, and we get a REALLY fucking amazing scene: Virgil ducks into an Alleway and ritchie is worried.. and Virgil disarms him with just one word responses Ritchie: Virg you can’t take him. Virgil: Gotta. Ritchie: Well at least wait for the fire department Virgil: Can’t. It’s simpile but it gets the point across: This is his fight, he can’t wait for help, and people need him. And this is what makes a true hero: It’s easy to be a hero when everythings going well.. but it’s the true ones who stick it out against the odds and fight anyway. And he’s going to. So we get one hell of a fight, though naturally Hotstreak burns up the disc. And I do like this as it dosen’t feel contrived.. yes Static could’ve left it with ritchie.. but he wasn’t thinking in the moment and dind’t really have time to think abotu the disc, only that people were being hurt and he was all they had between them and Hotstreak. It was no choice at all. Still that pisses Virgil off that the last night’s work is now worthless, and he fully charges up and curbstomps francis who retreats into a clearing. Hostreak brags when static follows, as even he’s figured out Static needs to be around metal, as he’s usually on his disc or the street, and in the park there suppodsidly isn’t any. But he’s not THAT smart as Virgil points out two things: one, he hoped to do this on PURPOSE so they wouldn’t be around people and no on e would get hurt and 2).. this is a city, there’s metal everywhere.. and he awesomely and cleverly proves it by unlodging a sewage pipe with his powers and dousing his foe, winning and proving his stuff. I love this solution, it’s a clever spider-man type way to disarm him, using smarts and the einvroment instead of just brute forcing it. Though the sewage part wasn’t intetional our hero still won and gets praise from the people dumb enough to follow the fight.

However at home Virgil points out it was Pyrrhic Victory and shows off his smarts by telling the tale behind it, which I didn’t know,because tv tropes didn’t exist yet: king pyrhus fought the romans and WON.. but had so little armies left that he still lost overall. That’s what this feels like to Virgil: he beat hotstreak but any chance at a cure for Bang Babies and Alva going to jail for causing them is gone. His mood does get a boost though as the doctor calls and reveals he’s fine, he just has a bit too much elctrolytes and just needs to lay off teh salt. He celebrates, we get a quick gag and the episode ends

Aftershock is another stellar episoe, giving us Virgil’s first super foe and a personal one at that, while showing some growth. As richie tells him he’s not virgil anymore he’s static and he can’t let his past get to him.. and he does’nt going from cowering in fear to easily beating his foe with simple logic. It’s a good followup that answers questions you may have from the first ep, like what does this do to virgil’s body, who supplied the gas, and why has no one done anything about this, and sets up another villian for Static in Alva. Great stuff. I highly recommend these episodes and the show as a whole: it’s fast paced, grounded and enjoyable, having just enough levity to not be too dour but just enough tension and stakes to be intresting. A throughly fantastic superhero show and one that i’d certainly love to revisit on this blog If you have an episode of static or the dcau in general you’d want me to cover, my comissions are open and details are on a tab on my blog or can be gotten simply by asking me via ask or dm. Tommorow we’re going deeper underground, there’s too much damage in this town as the Lena Retrospective continues. So expect gay ducks, straight ducks and some terrfirmains. See you next rainbow.

#static shock #static #virgil hawkins #richie foley #robert hawkins #sharon hawkins #hotstreak #milestone comics #dc comics #dc animated universe #dcau #dwayne mcduffie #robert l washington IIII #kids wb #hbo max #2000s #animation #black lives matter #black history month

95 notes · View notes

aion-rsa · 4 years

Text

How Batman: Soul of the Dragon Pays Homage to 70s Kung Fu and Bruce Lee

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Batman: Soul of the Dragon sets Gotham’s caped crusader in a vintage martial arts homage. Directed by Sam Liu, who also directed the animated movie version of one of the greatest Batman graphic novels ever published, Batman: The Killing Joke, this is the 42nd project in the ongoing DC Universe Movies series.

However, Soul of the Dragon is an original tale, not based on a precedent comic. Like the eye popping anime-style film Batman Ninja, this is a completely stand-alone story. Batman: Soul of the Dragon is yet another chapter in the many creation tales for Batman. It tells of his martial indoctrination and joining him on this adventure are three of the best martial artists within the DC multiverse: Lady Shiva (Kelly Hu), Ben Turner a.k.a. Bronze Tiger (Michael Jai White), and Richard Dragon (Mark Dacascos).

“It’s a 70s martial arts action-adventure drama with a great sense of humor,” says Dacascos. Like so many Hollywood martial arts stories, Batman: Soul of the Dragon is told in two time periods: the present-day problem and in flashbacks to the original martial arts lessons that offer solutions. It’s a storytelling motif that can be traced back to the pioneering David Carradine’s Kung Fu TV show and Bruce Lee’s iconic Enter the Dragon.

In many ways, Batman: Soul of the Dragon is a tribute to Enter the Dragon, when the Kung Fu and blaxploitation genres were at their height. Richard Dragon is an homage to Bruce Lee’s character ‘Lee’ in Enter the Dragon (just like in so many Jackie Chan films, the name of Lee’s character was the same as his real name). In some scenes, he dons a similar black catsuit as Lee wore when infiltrating Han’s subterranean lair but stops short from yelling ‘Wataaah!’ when fighting.

Enter the Dragon was a game changer for martial arts movies, but it was also in the wake of the popularity of spy films of those days, specifically James Bond. Enter the Dragon is also a spy film, and it came out at a pivotal time for the Bond franchise, the same year that Roger Moore took over 007 in Live and Let Die. The spy film genre was immensely popular during the Cold War of the ‘60s, but by the ‘70s, it was looking to reinvent itself to remain popular. Enter the Dragon had the potential to launch a spy franchise for Bruce Lee, but his untimely and shocking death cut that short. Tragically, he died just prior to the release of the film. In some ways, Richard Dragon makes us ponder what a sequel to Enter the Dragon might have been like.

With his groovy afro and jive talking banter, Ben Turner steals a page from the character of Williams (Jim Kelly) from Enter the Dragon too. Batman is faintly akin to Roper (John Saxon), a token white guy amidst a diverse cast. Even the funky soundtrack by Joachim Horsley echoes the music of Enter the Dragon’s composer Lalo Shiffrin.

“In the 70s I was very impressionable,” reflects Dacascos. “The music brings you right back to that time. I love it. I love Enter the Dragon.”

It’s ironic that Batman would honor Bruce Lee in this way. For many, the Batman TV show of the mid-60s was their first exposure to the Little Dragon. Lee’s earliest Hollywood role was Kato, the chauffeur of The Green Hornet, which became a spin-off series of Batman, running for a single season on NBC in 1966-67.

Who is Richard Dragon?

Batman: Soul of the Dragon is a complete reimagining of Richard Dragon. In the original comic storyline, Dragon was Richard Drakunovski, a Caucasian character. He first appeared in the novel, Dragon’s Fists: Kung-Fu Master Richard Dragon by Jim Dennis, which was published the year after Enter the Dragon premiered (Jim Dennis was a pseudonym, the combination of the two authors’ names Dennis O’Neil and Jim Berry). The character was later adapted to comics by DC.

In the original DC version, Dragon was a classmate of Ben Turner, both of whom trained under O-Sensei (played by the venerable James Hong in Batman: Soul of the Dragon). Lady Shiva was also part of this Kung Fu lineage. O-Sensei’s goddaughter Carolyn Woosan was Lady Shiva’s sister. After Woosan was killed, Lady Shiva was tricked into thinking Dragon was at fault and hunted him to take revenge. Eventually, the trick was foiled so Shiva and Dragon became allies, united against a common foe.

In the comics, the world of Batman doesn’t cross with Dragon’s until much later. Dragon goes on to become a trainer of many DC heroes, notably the first Batgirl, Barbara Gordon. In another story, he helps Batman rehabilitate after sustaining injuries from Bane.

In a later alternate narrative arc, Dragon’s title is usurped by his villainous student, Richard Diaz Jr. This is akin to the Richard Dragon depicted in CW’s Arrow and portrayed by Kirk Acevedo. Bronze Tiger also appears in the Arrowverse portrayed by Michael Jai White, so Batman: Soul of the Dragon marks his reprisal of the role in the animated DC universe (As a side note, David Giuntoli voices Batman for Batman: Soul of the Dragon; Guintoli is married to Elizabeth Tulloch, who plays Lois Lane in the Arrowverse, including the forthcoming Superman and Lois).

However, neither Drakunovski nor Diaz figure into this latest incarnation of Richard Dragon in Batman: Soul of the Dragon. Here, he’s more like a Bruce Lee clone, only cooler. Dacascos didn’t follow the comics or the Arrowverse depiction.

“Yeah, I did not know that at all,” he confesses. “The script was so good that everything I felt that I needed to portray him was already on the page….All of my information for the character I found in the brilliant script that Jeremy Adams wrote and the information that was given to me by our producers and our director Sam Liu.”

Nevertheless, Dragon was a dream role for Dacascos. As a longtime fan of Batman, his favorite live action portrayal was Michael Keaton.

“I love his interpretation,” he says with a laugh. “There’s a sense of humor that he has and he stands out.”

As soon as his manager and agents sent him the script, he was hooked.

“I saw the description of DC Comics, Batman, Richard Dragon. And then I just jumped right into the script and after just a couple of pages, I knew I loved it. And the more I read, the more passionate I was about it. Before I even finished the script, I’d already emailed my representatives back and said, ‘Yes, please, please, please. I want to do this.’” Dacascos was tickled to be cast as his Kung Fu brother. “I’ve been privileged to play a character that is friends with Batman,” gushes Dacascos.

Beyond being a bat-buddy, what really appealed to Dacascos was Dragon’s strong moral compass.

“He’s not ignorant to the fact that evil is there, always has been, is, and will be,” explains Dacascos. “But with his training and his apparent good heart, he is able to maintain that battle with the negative, with the evil and take it on, maintaining his open heart and his sense of humor. I think his sense of humor is a part of his armor. He’s able to deflect with whimsy of the situation. He is a very loyal student, he is a very loyal friend, and I think his force – what drives him – is his love.”

From Stunt Work to Voice Work

By casting Dacascos, White, and Hu, Batman: Soul of the Dragon goes that extra step by placing genuine martial artists into animated roles. Throughout his teen years, Dacascos was a genuine martial arts champion.

“The thing is,” says Dacascos humbly, “my parents are both martial arts teachers.”

That’s an understatement. His father is Grandmaster Al Dacascos, a pioneering master in America who founded his own style of Wun Hop Kuen Do. His stepmother is Malia Bernal, a noted champion and coach of many other champions like Karen Shepherd. “My brother and I were basically forced into our first martial arts tournament at age six.”

Dacascos began his acting career in martial arts films, several of which were groundbreaking. His earliest lead role was in Only the Strong which was the first film to showcase the Brazilian martial art Capoeira. Brotherhood of the Wolf was a unique French period horror Kung Fu mash up that completely broke the mold for the martial arts genre. Having such an extensive background in the martial arts informed Dacascos on how to approach the fight scenes.

“As a martial artist, all I have to do is just think about it and I’m feeling it again,” he says. “So that part felt like going back home. When we were doing the action sequences, I just gave myself space to move around and then take the direction from Sam Liu and went for it…It’s all in your head and in your heart, and of course in your breath.”

Dacascos loved how the fight scenes in Batman: Soul of the Dragon came out, so much so that he’s contemplating bringing it to live action in his own way.

“I thought what would be really fun for me to do is actually in real life physicalize the forms, that form that Richard Dragon does,” he says. “So I’m going to maybe make it a little challenge for myself and learn those moves in real life…I would love to be Richard Dragon in real life. He’s really cool.”

In many ways, Batman: Soul of the Dragon feels more like a creation story for Richard Dragon than a typical Batman story. Batman is almost a secondary character. With Marvel making such strides in diversity with Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings anticipated for summer 2021, DC needs to up its inclusion game. Could this be a stepping stone for Richard Dragon to become his own franchise?

“I hope so,” confesses Dacascos. “I hope that Batman: Soul of the Dragon continues and we do a sequel or series.”

While he is hopeful that there’s a future for Dragon, it’s the spirit of Batman: Soul of the Dragon that he finds most motivating. Like the title says, it’s got a lot of soul. “The thing is, it’s so much more than that because of the lessons that the students learn in the martial arts sequences taught by the wonderful James Hong who plays O-Sensei. The lines that Jeremy Adams wrote are so profound, and like any great teachers, they transcend the martial arts. It’s so much more philosophical and deeper. So, the story has the martial arts action, but it has heart, and it’s sexy, and it still has a great sense of humor.”

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Batman: Soul of the Dragon is a direct-to-video film produced by DC Entertainment and Warner Brothers Animation premiering on digital platforms on January 12, 2021.

The post How Batman: Soul of the Dragon Pays Homage to 70s Kung Fu and Bruce Lee appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3nzf5HJ

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

1 note · View note

satoshi-mochida · 4 years

Link

Following the announcement of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales for PlayStation 5 last week, Insomniac Games creative director Brian Horton has shared more information in a PlayStation Blog post.

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a standalone game that lets players experience the rise of Miles Morales as he discovers the new powers that set him apart from his mentor, Peter Parker. It is set one year after the events of Marvel’s Spider-Man, just before Christmas break. A war between an energy corporation and a high-tech criminal army has broken out, and Miles’ new home in Harlem is at the heart of the battle.

“You’ll experience a full story arc with Miles, one that’s more akin to a game like Uncharted: The Lost Legacy in terms of overall scope,” Horton said. “Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is an important, heartfelt, emotional and essential experience to expanding the Marvel’s Spider-Man universe. And we hope it will be for you as well.”

In terms of PlayStation 5 features, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales will utilize “near-instant loading, ray-tracing, 3D audio, and the DualSense controller.” Characters have been upgraded with “4D scans and improved skin shading for more realistic looking characters and spline-based hair that moves far more naturally,” and “many of the city’s assets have also been updated to take advantage of the new console.”

As for Marvel’s Spider-Man protagonist Peter Parker, Insomniac Games teased that while “we still have much of Peter’s story left to tell,” Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is all about Miles—as its name implies.

Here is the full text from Brian Horton:

Hi! I’m Brian Horton, Creative Director at Insomniac Games. Last week, we were so thrilled to introduce you to the beginning of your Marvel’s Spider-Man journey on PlayStation 5—Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales. This standalone game lets players experience the rise of Miles Morales as he discovers new powers that set him apart from his mentor, Peter Parker.

The reaction we received last week was nothing short of incredible. But we wanted to take a little bit of extra time to talk about the game and the trailer you saw and point out some things you might’ve missed. Take a look above.

At Insomniac Games, we’ve loved the character of Miles Morales for a long time. It started years ago, when Bryan Intihar (creative director, Marvel’s Spider-Man), suggested that we should have Miles Morales be a part of the same universe as Peter Parker. We sneakily introduced him at the end of our E3 2017 demo, surprising the audience when they thought the PlayStation Briefing was over.

As we continued with the Marvel’s Spider-Man universe, we knew that Miles’s origin story as a Spider-Man was something that needed its own game. Miles’s multicultural background reflects a more modern, diverse world and we wanted to give players a new story, with new set-pieces, fresh villains, and unique quests across Marvel’s New York City. This had to be a can’t-miss next adventure in the Marvel’s Spider-Man universe.

Let’s set the scene for the game a little more. It’s now wintertime, about a year after the events of the first game. Marvel’s New York is covered in snow, and just before Christmas break, a war between an energy corporation and a high-tech criminal army has broken out. Miles’s new home in Harlem is at the heart of the battle.

We know a lot of you want to know how big this game is. Our team at Insomniac has been working incredibly hard to bring you a fantastic Miles Morales adventure since we concluded development on Marvel’s Spider-Man. You’ll experience a full story arc with Miles, one that’s more akin to a game like Uncharted: The Lost Legacy in terms of overall scope. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is an important, heartfelt, emotional and essential experience to expanding the Marvel’s Spider-Man universe. And we hope it will be for you as well.

We are also excited for the game to demonstrate the power of PlayStation 5 this holiday. Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales will show off near-instant loading, ray-tracing, 3D audio, and the DualSense controller. We’ve upgraded our characters with 4D scans and improved skin shading for more realistic looking characters and spline-based hair that moves far more naturally. Many of the city’s assets have also been updated to take advantage of the new console. As you experience Miles’s story, you’ll see, hear, and feel things in a whole new way, all thanks to PS5.

It’s been amazing to be creative director on Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales, working with such an incredible team. I joined Insomniac near the end of Marvel’s Spider-Man, and being able to collaborate with our team and Marvel to create a new story and experience all around Miles Morales has been a career highlight. It’s been great to also work with Bryan Intihar, who directed the first game, as he continues to imagine big things for the Marvel’s Spider-Man universe.

Oh and one last thing: Many of you fans have wondered if Peter Parker is OK. Don’t worry, we still have much of Peter’s story left to tell. But this game is all about Miles, a critical part of our Spider-Man universe, and you won’t want to miss what happens.

Thank you so much for the incredible reaction to our game last week, and for all of the kind words on social media. We’re so looking forward to getting to spend more time with you in the coming months to reveal more of the game we’ve all been working on.

We can’t wait to see you swinging through a wintery Marvel’s New York City this holiday.

Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is due out for PlayStation 5 this holiday.

Watch a new developer diary below (transcript follows).

youtube

Brian Horton, Creative Director: “Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a standalone game, and it’s the next essential adventure in the Spider-Man universe.

“Insomniac has loved this character for a long time. We introduced him in Marvel’s Spider-Man and we knew we needed to tell a standalone story of Miles Morales becoming a hero.”

James Ham, Senior Animator, Hero Character: “I feel like it was important for us to work on Miles’ game because he is such an important character right now, especially with his influence in the first game.”

Horton: “We wanted to make sure that when you played the game, you felt like you were playing a brand new Spider-Man.”

Ham: “We wanted to make sure that his traversal was unique, his combat was unique, and we also wanted to make sure that Miles is his own Spider-Man.”

Horton: “Miles has these incredible, explosive new powers like bio-electricity and invisibility.”

Ham: “He isn’t as confident, but he’s learning from Peter, he’s trained with Peter. He doesn’t move the same way, so when he’s swinging, he’s a little bit more flaily.”

Horton: “The PS5 allows us to have a fully seamless experience from beginning to end. We take full advantage of the DualSense controller and the haptic feedback. And with ray-traced reflections, the city comes to life.

“Every single person on this team is a true believer in Miles Morales and the journey he’s going on to become a hero. It goes with our studio vision: to make a positive and lasting impact in peoples’ lives. And we believe this game has the opportunity to do that.”

Ham: “I feel like Miles is very important because representation does matter. And it’s not just about him being a black superhero. It’s about being a superhero that happens to be black. So watching the fan reactions was amazing. And seeing everyone’s face process the moment where you see his hands and you’re like ‘what game is this?’ And the moment you’re like, ‘Oh! That’s Spider-Man!… Wait, oh, it’s Miles!’ And you see their faces light up—that inspires up, and it’s such a great feeling to know that everyone seems to be behind this project and love this character.”

Horton: “Well the trailer you’ve seen is just the tip of the iceberg. We have a lot more to share in the coming months. And from all of us at Insomniac Games, please take care, and we’ll talk to you soon.”

#Marvel’s Spider Man: Miles Morales #Spider Man: Miles Morales #Miles Morales #Spider Man #Insomniac Games #Gematsu

3 notes · View notes

72crowe89 · 5 years

Text

Race-lifting Gingers

In honor of Halle Bailey being casted as Ariel in the live action The Little Mermaid movie, I wanted to explore the recent trend of changing redheads into Black people, and the significance of gingers within different media and the implications of that with regards to making those characters Black.

Examples both Old and New

Although The Little Mermaid is an animated movie to live action movie example, many of these race lifts involve redheaded comics book characters. Examples include:

Iris West-Allen--- Candice Patton (Arrowverse’s The Flash) and Kiersey Clemons (slated to appear in The Flash movie)

Wally West--- Keiynan Lonsdale (Arrowverse’s The Flash)

Josie McCoy--- Ashleigh Murray (Riverdale)

Mary Jane “MJ” Watson--- Zendaya as Michelle “MJ” Jones (MCU Spider-Man series)

Starfire--- Anna Diop (Titans)

Jimmy Olson--- Mehcad Brooks (Supergirl)

An earlier example of this phenomenon can be seen in the character Ellis “Red” Redding from Stephen King’s Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, portrayed by Morgan Freeman in The Shawshank Redemption.

Of course, changing White gingers into Black people is not ubiquitous. Sometimes, their hair colors change just change (Scott Lang in the Ant-Man movies, Daredevil in both the series and the movie); sometimes the actors dye their hair red to maintain that character trait (Black Widow in the MCU, Archie in Riverdale). Rarely, a character will even be changed into a ginger (Lois Lane in the DCEU).

Now, what makes gingers so special, and what does that imply when they are race-lifted into Black people? To answer this question, I will mainly focus on gingers in comics, but my observations are applicably to gingers in other media.

The Significance of Gingers in Comics and Other Media

Early in comic book history, many people in the industry were either uncomfortable, unwilling, or unable to create characters of color. Because of this, characters were often identified by their hair colors. Due to being a part of a constructed world, redheads are a lot more prevalent in comics than they are in the real world; they are, however, still not as common as blond or brunettes. Because of this, whereas most comic book characters aren’t notable until they do something of note, as soon as the audience sees a ginger, they automatically knew that the character was going to be significant because of their unique hair color.

Most of the time, however, most gingers had the role of love interest, famous examples being the aforementioned Mary Jane Watson, Iris West-Allen, Starfire, as well as later versions of Barbara Gordon, earlier versions of Jean Grey, and Pepper Potts. Other roles include sidekicks (Wally West’s Kid Flash), villains (Cletus Kasady/Carnage), or other supporting characters (Jimmy Olson). Redheads were rarely the main characters of their books, exceptions being both Archie Andrews and Josie McCoy from Archie Comics. Regardless, most of these characters were well-developed, and as time went on writers made them main characters who had stories completely independent from the heroes they were supporting.

With regards to gingers in other media, I will use the specific example of Ariel. Until the creation of Merida, Ariel was the only redheaded Disney Princess. When you saw her in the line up with the rest of them, she stood out. Now, you have her, Merida, and Anna (sometimes...Disney goes back and forth with considering Frozen a Disney Princess movie). Ariel and Merida pull focus with their vivid red hair; Anna’s hair is more muted, so she doesn’t stand out as much. The only one who probably stands out more is the white-haired Elsa.

Painting It Black

So why change gingers into Black people? A cynical person may say that it’s a way to add diversity with making a Black person the star of the property. This attitude, however, is dismissive of the complexity of the portrayed characters and the honest efforts of the producers to add diversity. Also, gingers are not always supporting characters-- Ariel certainly isn’t.

I have two theories for why producers make this switch.

First, finding natural redheads is very difficult due to it being a recessive gene. Many producers will use dye or wigs to compensate for that, but those methods can oftentimes look unnatural. It is easier not to bother, and if they’re changing the character’s hair color, why not also change their race? Especially since most of the time, being a redhead is not significant to the character.

Second, gingers are almost guarantee to be well-developed characters. As stated earlier, characters having red hair told the audiences immediately that they were important-- that these characters have their own stories and deep characterizations. By making them Black, producers know that they will have round and dynamic Black characters, which would be harder with many non-gingers, especially early characters of color, who were often exaggerated stereotypes.

What Ginger Would Be Cool Black?

Now, most of the characters I would like to see race-lifted are not gingers because I have a particular love for redheads. If I had to choose one, however, I would love to see a Black Jean Grey. Throughout the Marvel Universe, Jean has been one of its most powerful characters, most respected leaders, and most desirable women; it would be amazing to see a Black woman in a role with that much significance.

Black Gingers

I will conclude on this note: throughout this essay, I have talked about gingers and Black people as separate identities. There are, however, many Black gingers in the world, whether natural or not. Anna Diop, for example, plays Starfire as a Black ginger. Pictured below are examples of Black people with red hair.

And of course, one of the most famous Black gingers, Malcolm X

Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor looks like he might grow into one as well

So, in the future, just like Starfire, studios may race-lift gingers but maintain the red hair when they do!

18 notes · View notes

twitchesandstitches · 5 years

Text

the Tale of Wakanda Lost

The Endowed Fleet, particularly those descended from humanity and its children, teach the young to hold their heads up high and remember: remember Wakanda.

For though humanity has many sins to its name, many unspeakable atrocities and to the multiverse they show little but shame and arrogance, it was not always so. Once, before the Fleet had become the power it is, there was a place they first called home. A shining testament to humanity’s good works, the labors of many kings and a reminder that there was still good that could come from the children of Earth.

Wakanda is gone now, they say, but its spirit endures. It is there when they help a neighbor, when they defend others but gain nothing themselves, when they act nobly in the finest traditions of their paragon ways. Remember Wakanda, and remember what we may build again.

Wakanda was a massive space station, bordering on an artifical planetoid; a vast habitat initially constructed during the initial exodus from Earth prior to the Cataclysm. It is considered that it was likely inhabited by earthlings who did not share the xenophobic attitudes of their kin at the time, and their cultural legacy shows. A vast and wondrous landscape, it endured the ages, and its survival was a testament to its spirit.

It called to it the survivors of humanity and its children; mutants and baseline humans, the uplifted animals created in Earth’s heyday, the artificial intelligences and thinking machines both created and arisen on their own. These and many more came to Wakanda and, in time, lived together as a single people, seeing noth human and nonhuman, but kin of soul and spirit.

In time, there came to be no baseline humans at all; protected in their land, Wakanda preserved many lost technologies and created great wonders unmatched in other places, and its people all became mutants, each one developing unique powers of their own. The Wakandan languages translate their term for this as, perhaps, ‘Quirk’, as it was considered an expression of individuality. All humanity of Wakanda were mutants, and all were blessed with power.

And in Wakanda’s green richness, they were all gathered into many tribes, and these all supplied a representative at a council of elders, and the spiritual head of the entire world was the king of Wakanda, and traditionally empowered by divine means to better guide and protect the people; the longest lasting of these was a royal line guided by the goddess Bast, and she chose the Black Panther from her chosen people to lead well.

In time, the forerunners of the Fleet came to Wakanda, seeking sanctuary, and there they were given a new home. For generations they lived in peace. But alas, all things fade, and enemies came to Wakanda, and Wakanda perished in the fighting; it’s people took to the ships, and began a new life of roaming through the stars in search of a home; until recently, this became their way. Wakanda was a sad memory of better times, and now it has attaind a nearly mythical status as their Camelot. The Black Panther chosen is still king over his people, and holds great influence in the vastness of the Fleet, but the current holder of the title has declined a new Wakanda until something grand is done to honor it.

But, as a result of this history, many humans and earthling beings came to the Fleet from Wakanda, bearing their powers, and their children with the Fleet members also had this powers, contributing to the universal empowerment of the Fleet. Wakanda is a golden moment for humanity, a reminder that they can be better, and its descendants work to honor their ancestors and uphold its virtues.

(OOC stuff and info below!)

Wakanda in Crossthicc is past tense, having exaggerated its canonical utopian attributes into being akin to Camelot for humans and other beings originally from Earth, as a suggestion of what humans in this setting can do once they stop being jerks all the time. It’s the ideal; to be true paragons without believing themselves born better than everyone else.

It originally was host to the group that predated the Fleet, and was destroyed in conflicts that came afterwards; its people endured, and effectively were one of the factors in forming the Fleet, and most of the humans that live in it are of Wakandan origin.

It’s intended as a catch-all origin for Marvel humans; it can be assumed that the longer-lived Marvel characters were FROM Wakanda, or are descendants of its people. If it’s from Marvel, they’re probably from here in some capacity. DC characters of human origin who are still human here can also descend from it.

there is also some Eclipse Phase stuff in that the non-human morphs and sub-groups of that setting were created on Earth, but were harshly oppressed by changing public xenophobia. They found a new home on Wakanda, and currently have a sizable population on Fleet worlds.

As mentioned, all organic beings (humans, human variants, nonhuman inhabitants, everyone else) are mutants. EVERYONE IS A MUTANT. best possible situation. They are also mixed with BNHA’s setting, and the society was probably fairly similar but more... well, Wakandan. the BNHA characters can be assumed to be descendants, with some of the older heroes and villains having been around during the fall of Wakanda.

Wakanda’s heritage, as per canon, is mainly East African, with the particular cultural development and synthesis as in the MCU movie. However, Wakanda was a world-sized space station and habitat here, not a single country, and large enough for considerable divergence. It was staggeringly diverse, and people of all nations and ethicities had homes there, and so many of Earth’s nations survived in some form or another, with the kind of cross-cultural transformation as canon Wakanda’s founding tribes experienced.

T’challa is alive and well! Whether he was the king at that time or not is open for discussion. As is M’baku, who worships Hanuman in his form as a King Kong-type kaiju, and may be a form of Son Wukong the Monkey King. (Different lands, different names!) Also, they have animal themed mechs that act as avatars and idols to their gods. Possibly some of their tribe, including M’baku and T’challa, have mutation mods that allow them to assume the aspect of their animal deity, but unless its fairly subtle, that seems potentially VERY iffy for me, especially for M’Baku.

Mindfang may have had a role to play in its downfall; it would create a nice sense of tension between her and the Fleet, for this injustice done to their ancestors and the resulting diaspora.

#queued #crossthicc AU #twitchy!marvel #i thought hard about not being so down on humanity and i thought #why not make Wakanda even more utopian and have it be a sort of ancestral home they once had #a shining ideal to strive towards

3 notes · View notes

empireofstarsandcrows · 5 years

Text

Marvel’s Runaways

I just finished watching season 1 of Marvel's Runaways. It's an interesting story. But I also have zero problems understanding why it wasn't a smash hit.

The kids are all decent actors, but holy hell the script isn't doing them any favors. An attempt has clearly been made to write unique, interesting characters, but it feels more like they've just put a fresh coat of paint on old, offensive stereotypes.

You've got the Withdrawn Goth. She's also Wiccan. Oh! And the one pre-trauma flashback we see her in she's dressed in jeans and a tee. Not even, like mildly alternative style that she then leaned into hard after the tragedy. Just full on girl next door, "average" teenager stuff. The implication is that that's also when she turned to Wicca. So... you know... I'm not even sure they attempted to avoid stereotypes here.

There's the Jock whose "depth" is that he's actually super smart and developed a high tech weapon... that essentially allows him to punch harder and at range. So... there's that. He's intentionally written to be socially unaware, probably as a contrast to another character (more on her shortly), but it doesn't play as "can you believe this guy thinks this way?" It just plays like a normal, acceptable thing to say... except of course, that in real life I'd want to dick punch someone who says half the stuff he says.

The show also sports a Raging Feminist / Hippie who is probably the most offensively written of all the characters. She's exactly the kind of feminist / activist that makes pro-equality people shy away from identifying as feminists. She's offended by basically everything, and super hypocritical.

There's her younger sister, who's written like she's 12, even though she's meant to be in high school with the rest of them. At one point they go "undercover" by changing their clothes and doing absolutely nothing to disguise or obscure their faces... and she puts on a bandana folded so that the corners stand up like cat ears. It's a super cute effect, and when I picture it drawn as a comic I can see how it probably strikes the right balance between Brawler Super Hero (which she is) and Twee (Pre) Teen. Honestly, I don't mind that she's still into cutesy things as a teenager (Hi, I'm 36, guess how many stuffed animals are in my bed/on my nightstand). It's that as she's written, her entire personality is "younger sister." And the cutesy stuff feels symptomatic of that.

The only one of the group without some sort of super power/quirk is the nerdy ringleader. He's into computers and video games and coding. But he's black, so, totally not a stereotype, right? *eyeroll*

And finally, there's The Popular Blonde Girl. Her fresh coat of paint is that even though she behaves like the popular girl / cheerleader stereotype, she's actually /un/popular. And a member of a new-age-y church that her mom runs. But if you were worried that she wasn't stereotypically girly enough, don't be! Her super power is that she glows! Pink!

Now, to be fair, the cast is relatively ethnically diverse (4 of the 6 heroes are minorities!) which I approve of. And there's a smidgen of LGBT representation in there too. But that doesn't quite outweigh the problematic aspects of the above stereotypes for me. On the other hand it /is/ an interesting story. So I'll probably watch season 2 after a little break. Hopefully, now that the characters are all firmly established they'll also be allowed to develop.

#mcu #marvel's runaaways #runaways #stereotypes

6 notes · View notes

blogssuchasthis · 6 years

Text

Into The Spiderverse: A Trope I Do Not Understand

Overall, this was a phenomenal film. The visuals were stunning. Simply put: This was a unique take on a comic book film which reminded me of my first viewing of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Fresh. Crisp. It handled the animation precisely how I believe we should.

The story was nothing to write home about. Villains had interesting new designs, loved this version of Doc Oc, but were somewhat bland. A touch cliche, but no less entertaining. I got what I expected, and what I expected was precisely what I wanted. It was a superhero origin with a twist, utilizing classic and fresh forms from across the Marvel Multiverse.

But here's what I don't understand. Why does Miles, the black Spiderman, have electric powers in addition to his spider powers? There is this strange trope I have witnessed, and I am not the only one, with black super heroes and electricity as their power. Storm (though storms, but still lots of lightning), Black Vulcan, Static Shock, Black Lightning, Volt... and now Miles Morales as Ultimate Spiderman, it's bizarre. Bear in mind, I am not familiar with this incarnation of spiderman, and I'm not sure if it is in the comics. And I dont know if it stands out because of the lack in diversity of traditional super heroes, thus making it appear that there is a strange trend towards electricity while the distribution is fine, or if it's some sort of nod to past incarnations of black heroes. I had a brief discussion with my friends about this trope and its prevalence. @nicosdisangelic suggested that their is a tendency to find something that is non-stereotypical for these black heroes to use as their power to avoid potential conflict. There doesnt seem to be anything inherantly stereotypical or racist about electric powers. Black heroes shouldnt rely on enhanced physical and athletic abilities due to the possibility of being perceived as somewhere close to 'savage' or 'natural', essentially rephrasing 'exotic' and highlighting these attributes as one might to exemplify a black person's difference from the mythological 'white standard.' But that doesnt explain Storm's existence as a literal nature god. Black Panther stands out as an exception, given his skills are basically his enhanced athletic abilities. But he stands out also in the fact that he is intelligent, a diplomat, utlizies technology, and is surrounded by other capable black characters.

But most of the other Spiderpeople in this film and across the multiverse have the same range of powers: strength, agility, spidey-sense, sticky fingers, web. But Miles, inexplicably, is the only one who has the "Venom Strike", an electrical discharge attack. It just seems odd that the only black spiderman also has electric powers for some reason, especially when stood up against the history of black heroes and electric powers. Still, a good film I would like to watch again.

Any thoughts?

#spider man #into the spider verse #black superheroes #electricity #superheores #spider man: into the spider verse

17 notes · View notes

builder051 · 6 years

Text

Laur reviews: Into the Spiderverse

Genre/Synopsis: Animated action/adventure/comedy establishing Miles Morales’s origin story (Ultimate Spider-Man) as one of many presentations of the Spider-Man franchise.

Score: Excellent / Good / Mediocre / Poor

Review: I’ll get the Oscar talk out of the way first. Animation-wise, this was brilliant. It was stylistically unique, building on typical 3D computer animation with pop art details like shading action-word callouts that harken back to comic books. Because this film is in the same awards cycle as Isle of Dogs (which is in my top three films of the year, animation aside), I’m not confident in giving Spiderverse the best animated feature prize. However, if Isle of Dogs was not in the running, this one would be on top for sure.

Similar to Ralph Breaks the Internet, this film does the impossible and appeals to all audiences. It’s simple enough that children will be able to understand it, appropriate enough that parents can feel confident in showing it you young ones, and still full of easter eggs that only the most well-informed adult fan will pick up on. The concept is genius, establishing a multiverse that includes Ultimate Spider-Man, Amazing, Sony, and Marvel 67, as well as nods to Daredevil, Watchmen, Venom, The Simpsons, and a good half-dozen other properties. I love the way Miles Morales is the main character (and therefore Ultimate is the mains storyline), but from the getgo the film acknowledges that he is not the most well-known or beloved version of Spider-Man. (@xxx-cat-xxx, you will like it, but for the side characters.)

Another huge triumph for this film is its appropriateness. Violence and death are central to the plot, and not glossed over, but there’s little blood. I found the fight scenes comparable to live-action superhero movies--characters get tired, they get hurt, etc. The representation of urban life is also realistic without losing its family-friendly quality. The characters are racially diverse, and I think this film is up there with Black Panther for bringing a much-needed perspective shift to the world of superhero films. The soundtrack is also similarly blended with hero-esque orchestral music and hip hop.

I have two complaints, both of which are minor in the grand scale. There’s one sequence toward the beginning (right after Miles becomes Spider-Man) where he goes through basically every slapstick error that comes with his new powers. It’s too silly, too much like Thor: Ragnarok for my tastes. The rest of the film balances drama and action humor very well, so that bit feels tonally off kilter in comparison. Also, the animation is a bit harsh on the senses, so non-neurotypical folks take note. The whole thing is presented a bit like iPhone portrait mode, with the things you’re supposed to focus on displayed sharply and everything else slightly blurred. I don’t think it will be as noticeable on the small screen, but in a movie theater, it’s a little vertigo-inducing. There are also a lot of flashing lights and loud noises.

Overall, I highly recommend this film. It’s great for any Spider-Man fan, and certainly one of the best animated features of the year.

#film crit #spider-man: into the spider-verse

6 notes · View notes

aion-rsa · 3 years

Text

Hollywood Execs Are Crediting Fast and Furious with Growing Embrace of Diversity

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Over the weekend, comic book writer Gail Simone shared an interesting anecdote on Twitter about Hollywood, the industry’s growing need for inclusion, and the Fast and Furious movies.

“I had a very powerful Hollywood insider say that the success of the Fast and Furious franchise had a bigger effect on movie casts getting diversified than ‘all the social media complaints combined,’” Simone wrote. “This happened. If he was being hyperbolic I don’t know. But even if it’s just a commonly held belief at the top levels, it’s interesting to consider. It punches [holes] in the beliefs of both conservative and liberal commentators.”

Indeed, it is very interesting to consider, particularly on the social media platform which has become famous for dictating the direction of “discourse” around popular media on any given day. It also brings sharp attention to the unique vitality of the Fast and Furious franchise.

As a series sometimes written off as the silly blockbuster franchise where Dwayne Johnson once threw a torpedo into a submarine, the “Fast Saga” is actually the rare thing in Hollywood: an original property. Not based on a comic book, 1990s animated film, or space opera from 50 years ago, Fast and Furious made the unlikely journey from a B-action movie with a budget of $38 million to a billion-dollar franchise where new installments cost upwards of $250 million. And it built that popularity with a diverse cast from at least the second film—where Tyrese Gibson and Ludacris joined the first movie’s Paul Walker—creating a more inclusive identity for audiences a decade before Marvel Studios’ Phase Two remained still mostly dominated by white talent in front of and behind the camera.

Whether Fast and Furious deserves credit for actually changing minds in Hollywood, it certainly got studio executives’ attention when Furious 7 became the first entry in the series to gross more than $1 billion (its final total was over $1.5 billion). That film starred series mainstays Vin Diesel and Paul Walker (in the latter’s last performance), as well as an ensemble which included Michelle Rodriguez, Dwayne Johnson, Gibson, Ludacris, Jordana Brewster, Nathalie Emmanuel, and Elsa Pataky.

When it came out in 2015, CNN and other outlets also took notice of how the movie appealed so much more broadly across multiple demographics than typical superhero movies of the era. According to the news organization, the film’s audience was one of the few American blockbusters which had a majority non-white makeup: 37 percent of the filmgoers were reportedly Latinx; 25 percent were white; 24 percent were Black; and 10 percent were Asian.

Star Diesel told Entertainment Weekly at the time, “It doesn’t matter what nationality you are. As a member of the audience, you realize you can be a member of that ‘family.’ That’s the beautiful thing about how the franchise has evolved.”

Additionally, it’s a franchise which has actually cultivated diverse talent behind the camera as well. Of the nine mainline movies, only one has been directed by a white man—Rob Cohen, who helmed the original film way back in 2001. And the director most credited with the franchise’s success remains Justin Lin, who elevated the series from mid-level Hollywood entertainment in the 2000s to a billion-dollar phenomenon. He stepped into the series when it was on the brink of going direct-to-video with Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (part 3) and led it to new heights over an initial tenure which lasted four films. Lin has now returned to the director’s chair with F9 and has spoken candidly about how the industry is still often struggling on a blockbuster scale to create a more inclusive space.

“Hollywood is supposed to be this enlightened place,” Lin recently told Esquire, “and there are great people here, sure. But there’s some fucked up people here that are just able to use the right buzzwords. I’ve always felt like diversity is not me going: ‘I need an Asian for this role.’ It’s like, ‘No man, that’s not what diversity is about.’ It’s about creating an environment to let the best person grab that role. To have the right to say: ‘hey, we had the world come in and we found the right person.’ That’s always been my M.O with Fast. I’m not on a crusade. When you’re excluding people, mathematically, that just doesn’t make sense.”

In the same interview, Lin even revealed one of the primary reasons he was convinced to return to F9 was because, like many of the series’ longtime fans, he wanted to do justice by Sung Kang’s Han Seoul-Oh character, who died at the end of Lin’s Fast & Furious 6, yet whose killer (played by Jason Statham) was treated like a hero two movies later.

“That was a fucked up move on [F8],” Lin said. “Han is special. It really made no sense and, as an Asian-American, it kind of did shake me to the core. You’re like: ‘Wait, did we just get reduced to a fucking character that you don’t even address? That nobody fucking cares about anymore? Are we fucking back to Long Duk Dong shit again?”

But justice has finally come with Han back, alive and well, in F9 along with a diverse collection of new faces in the cast, from American wrestler turned actor John Cena to Japanese-New Zealand actress Anna Sawai. And after the encouraging success of A Quiet Place Part II at the box office, many in the industry are expecting this week’s F9 to fully kick off the moviegoing season in the post-pandemic era.

So it’s interesting, again, to consider the impact of the franchise on its industry. While no progress or change happens in a vacuum, the Fast and Furious franchise was building a diverse identity long before #OscarsSoWhite caused an overdue reckoning in the way award winners are chosen (and who is doing the choosing). And at least for the decision makers at the top, this franchise’s ability to make as much money without a preexisting IP is likely more convincing than any sort of Twitter outrage of the week—on either side of the political spectrum.

It’s worth remembering that, according to the Pew Research Center, just 10 percent of Twitter users make up 80 percent of the tweets shared, and the app’s users tend to skew younger than the median average in the U.S. Which is to say, its scope and influence may be narrower than many actually believe. Just as Fast and Furious’ surprising amount of sway in the industry may be greater than we’ve fully recognized.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The post Hollywood Execs Are Crediting Fast and Furious with Growing Embrace of Diversity appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3xHQKVk

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

0 notes

hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger · 7 years

Link

Okay lets dismantle this one for the road. But it’ll take a few goes to do it properly

To begin with what a charming header image.

“He may have abandoned his alternate universe of the same description, but Miles Morales is, without a doubt, the ultimate Spider-Man.”

SPOILERS!

There is more than a little doubt.

“In just a few short years, the webheaded wunderkind has stolen the shine from right underneath Peter Parker’s nose. ”

“His adventures hearken back to the high school heyday of the original wall crawler (soon to be returned to on the big screen in “Spider-Man: Homecoming”) while offering a completely new, modern and unique perspective of the teenage superhero.”

Why does this make him better?

Peter Parker grew in popularity under John Romita Senior when he had LEFT high school and was in college. Most adaptations which have the option of choosing tend to either begin with him as or quickly progressing him into a college student.

Spider-Man the Animated Series only briefly showed him in high school in a few flashbacks.

Spider-Man 2002 began with him in high school on the cusp of graduating and then advanced him into college by the half way point of the film.

Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3 depict him as a college student.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 depicts him as a college student.

The only major TV and film adaptations which have not had to do things for the sake of synergy which have actively chosen to make Peter a high school school are:

- The Spectacular Spider-Man Animated Series

- The Amazing Spider-Man 2012

- Spider-Man: Homecoming.

The Ultimate Spider-Man Tv series might also be counted but it was released the same year as the ASM movie meaning there was likely a desire for synergy there.

The Spectacular Spider-Man Animated Series was the first major adaptation which chose to make him a high school student when they didn’t have to and they did it because they were the first attempt to truly replicate the Ditko run and differentiate themselves from all previous adaptations.

The ASM movie was retelling Spider-Man’s origin and also desperately seeking out any uniqueness amidst the fact that they were covering the same ground again. So they had to make him a high schooler and keep him there.

Spider-Man: Homecoming similarly wishes to depict Spider-Man’s early days as it’s depicting the early days of the Marvel universe as a whole and it makes no sense for Spider-Man to have been publically active off screen for any length of time.

Furthermore another CBR article actually listed over a dozen reasons as to why the 1980s (a decade where Peter was never a high school student) was the best decade for Spider-Man ever.

http://www.cbr.com/1980s-greatest-spider-man-decade/

So what’s the big deal about Miles harkening back to the early days of Spider-Man?

Or should I say what would be the big deal because between his mother dying, SHIELD having anything like a presence in his series, Venom, Blackheart and frequent crossovers and events and big events which might potentially shape the Marvel universe, there is more than a few elements unsuitable in Miles’ adventures if he is in fact harkening back to the simple down to Earth days of the Ditko era where Spider-Man was just living his day to day life, trying to make ends meet and coping with regular life ups and down.

And...completely new and unique perspective of the teenage super hero?

How so?

It can’t be in so far as he is the first teenage superhero ever. Well over two dozen characters preceded him.

It can’t be that he’s the first teen hero or hero in general to have spider powers or call themselves Spider-Man.

It can’t be that he is the first teen hero or hero in general to have spider powers in post millennial society because we’ve had Mayday Parker/Spider-Girl and Ultimate Spider-Man do that.

It can’t be that he is the first poc teen hero. There have been shittons preceding him and shittons more after him thus he hardly offers anything unique even if he was the first out the gate (but again he wasn’t....at all).

Well okay maybe Miles is ‘unique’ as a take on the teen superhero because he is the first teen hero who’s taking over the legacy of another hero...whoops no he isn’t. See every Robin ever.

Let’s tweak that. He is unique because he’s the first POC teen hero to take over the legacy of another hero...oh hello Cassie Cain what are you doing here over 10 years before Miles Morales was ever dreamed of.

More tweaking? Okay. He’s unique because he’s the first POC teen hero to take over the legacy of another DEAD white hero who’s superhero identity was based upon a creature usually thought of as an insect and who Steve Ditko had a hand in creating.... Miguel O’Hara and Jaime Reyes? Who are they?

AH! Could it be that he was the first poc teen hero who offers an African American perspective of regular life as a teen?

Oh no wait no he wasn’t. There is quite a lot of stuff in his life which takes him away from just being a normal teen and even if there wasn’t Virgil Hawkins got there first too (and did it better). Not only was he actually created and defined as a character by black creators but here is what John Semper Junior (himself a black writer, story editor, and producer, with work including ‘SPIDER-MAN THE ANIMATED SERIES’) had to say about the character:

“... I was one of the writers and story editors of the animated "Static Shock" TV show some years back (for seasons three and four), and I was nominated for an Emmy for my work on that show, so I have a warm place in my heart for this young super-hero character. In fact, I've always considered him the first black "Spider-Man," which made it very easy for me to segue from one show to the other....”

Yes, Miles sure is unique all right. Nobody like Miles has ever existed before in comic books ever.

“The creation of Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli, since his debut in 2011’s “Ultimate Fallout” #4 Miles has gone on to utterly dominate “Spider-Man” across all media, with appearances in video games, the “Ultimate Spider-Man” animated series and a movie in the pipeline.”

Yeah dominate all media. Because as we all know he was utterly vital in all those Spider-Man video games that have come out since 2011. He was sure as heck the lead of every Spider-Man movie appearance since 2011. He was totally the main character in that crappy Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon.

He’s just so DOMINATING you guys!

“As well as doing the usual superheroics to a tee, Miles has opened the character up to a wider, more diverse audience in the process.”

Opened up what character to a wider more diverse audience? Spider-Man?

Surely most people on Earth knew Spider-Man long before 2011.

And doing superheroics to a tee?

I don’t think having spider sense, invisibility powers and a venom blast that if used in combination means every fight should last 2 minutes is doing superheroics to a tee.

Nor is just being handed your superhero costume or being fairly quickly accepted into prominent paramilitary/superhero organizations despite little experience.

“But why stop there? Here are 15 ways Miles Morales is a better Spidey than Peter Parker.”

Here are 15 ways CBR will make bullshit points for the sake of clickbait!

40 notes · View notes

creepykingdom · 5 years

Text

Disney Unveils Upcoming Film Line Up at the D23 Expo

The Walt Disney Studios—including studio leaders and filmmakers from Lucasfilm, Marvel Studios, Disney live action, Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios—wowed an audience of nearly 7,000 this morning at D23 Expo 2019 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, Calif. Alan Horn, co-chairman and chief creative officer, The Walt Disney Studios—joined by Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy, Marvel Studios’ Kevin Feige, Disney live action’s Sean Bailey, Pixar’s Pete Docter and Disney Animation’s Jennifer Lee—offered guests a captivating look at Disney’s upcoming film slate, including never-before-seen footage and a host of stars, plus a spectacular performance from “Frozen 2” voice cast members Idina Menzel, Kristen Bell, Jonathan Groff and Josh Gad. “You’re not just fans, you’re family,” said Horn to the packed room. “It’s because of you that we keep working so hard to make great movies, and we love D23 Expo because it’s where we can share them with you first.” The presentation included the following highlights.

LUCASFILM President of Lucasfilm Kathleen Kennedy and “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” director/writer/producer J.J. Abrams showcased the riveting conclusion to the Skywalker saga. Kennedy and Abrams revved up the audience, introducing nine stars from the film—many of whom marked this as their first D23 Expo appearance: Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Anthony Daniels, Naomi Ackie, Keri Russell, Joonas Suotamo, Kelly Marie Tran and Billy Dee Williams, plus special appearances from R2-D2, BB-8 and the new droid D-O. A brand-new poster was revealed—and gifted to the entire audience. And all were given a look back at the incredible legacy of Star Warsstorytelling and treated to a sneak peek of “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” which opens in U.S. theaters on Dec. 20, 2019.

MARVEL STUDIOS Kevin Feige, president of Marvel Studios, kicked off his presentation with a surprise visit from “Black Panther” director and co-writer Ryan Coogler. Together, they revealed that “Black Panther 2” (working title) will hit U.S. theaters on May 6, 2022. Feige segued to next year’s “The Eternals,” inviting cast members from the much-anticipated film to the stage: Richard Madden, who portrays the all-powerful Ikaris; Kumail Nanjiani, who plays cosmic-powered Kingo; Lauren Ridloff, who portrays the super-fast Makkari, the first deaf hero in the MCU; Brian Tyree Henry, who plays the intelligent inventor Phastos; Salma Hayek, who plays the wise and spiritual leader Ajak; Lia McHugh, who portrays the eternally young, old-soul Sprite; Don Lee, who plays the powerful Gilgamesh; and Angelina Jolie, who stars as the fierce warrior Thena. Feige revealed concept art images of each character, and announced three new cast members and their characters: Gemma Chan, who plays humankind-loving Sersi; Kit Harington, who was cast as non-Eternal Dane Whitman, and Barry Keoghan, who portrays aloof loner Druig, and was on hand for the event. Directed by Chloé Zhao, who helmed the critically acclaimed Sundance film “The Rider,” “The Eternals” opens in U.S. theaters on Nov. 6, 2020. Feige concluded with “Black Widow,” the Cate Shortland-directed first film in Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which hits U.S. theaters on May 1, 2020. Feige shared a pre-recorded greeting featuring stars Scarlett Johansson, who reprises her role of Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow; David Harbour, who was cast as Alexei the Red Guardian; and Florence Pugh, who plays Yelena. The audience was also treated to an exclusive look at the upcoming film. DISNEY LIVE ACTION

Sean Bailey, president, Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production, took the audience through upcoming releases for the studio, including next summer’s “Jungle Cruise,” a rousing adventure inspired by the classic theme-park attraction. Star Dwayne Johnson, who plays riverboat captain Frank Wolff, entered Hall D23 aboard an original Jungle Cruise boat, introducing a “trailer” that showed off his character—so much so, that co-star Emily Blunt, who portrays Dr. Lily Houghton, arrived via classic car to share with fans her own “trailer,” offering a different perspective—Bailey laughingly informed Johnson and Blunt that neither trailer was official. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, Disney’s “Jungle Cruise” hits U.S. theaters on July 24, 2020.

Bailey welcomed Angelina Jolie back to the stage to present exclusive footage and details about Disney’s “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil,” the exciting follow-up to the hit 2014 film. Maleficent, portrayed by Jolie, and her goddaughter Aurora, played by Elle Fanning, begin to question the complex family ties that bind them as they are pulled in different directions by impending nuptials, unexpected allies and new dark forces at play. Aurora’s imminent marriage to Prince Phillip is cause for celebration—however, Prince Phillip’s mother, Queen Ingrith, portrayed by Michelle Pfeiffer, challenges Maleficent’s role as Aurora’s mother figure. Chiwetel Ejiofor stars as Connal, one of the leaders of the dark fey who becomes Maleficent’s ally. Ejiofor, Pfeiffer and Fanning were all welcomed to the stage by an enthusiastic audience. Directed by Joachim Rønning, who co-helmed 2017’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales,” “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” arrives in U.S. theaters on Oct. 18, 2019. Bailey next introduced acclaimed filmmaker Niki Caro, director of “Mulan,” the upcoming live-action reimagining of the 1998 classic animated film. Caro expressed to fans her passion for the project, sharing several minutes of footage from the epic adventure inspired by one of China’s fiercest warriors. In Disney’s “Mulan,” which opens in U.S. theaters on March 27, 2020, the Emperor of China issues a decree that one man per family must serve in the Imperial Army to defend the country from Northern invaders. So, the eldest daughter of an honored but ailing warrior masquerades as a man, transforming into a heroic warrior to ultimately earn her the respect of a grateful nation and a proud father.

Next up, Bailey shared details about “Cruella,” an all-new feature film starring Emma Stone and Emma Thompson. Stone, who plays the iconic “Cruella,” sent D23 Expo fans a greeting from the London-based set with help from a spotted, four-legged co-star. Fans also got a glimpse of an image of Stone in full costume with Cruella’s signature black-and-white hair. Director Craig Gillespie, who helmed “I, Tonya” and “The Finest Hours,” brings “Cruella” to the big screen on May 28, 2021, with a fresh, 1970s, punk-rock approach.

PIXAR ANIMATION STUDIOS

Pixar Animation Studios’ Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter guided the audience through Pixar’s upcoming film slate of originals. Docter began with next summer’s release, “Soul,” which he directs. The film journeys from the streets of New York City to the never-before-seen cosmic realms and “The You Seminar,” the fantastical place where we all discover our unique personalities. Producer Dana Murray, co-director/writer Kemp Powers and writer Mike Jones joined Docter on stage, and together they set up the film for the audience and shared a sneak peek. The team revealed members of the voice cast who joined them on stage, including Ahmir Questlove Thompson, Phylicia Rashad, Daveed Diggs, Tina Fey and Jamie Foxx. Foxx lends his voice to Joe Gardner, a middle-school band teacher whose true passion is playing jazz. Fey plays 22, a soul-in-training who has an unexpected encounter with Joe when he accidentally finds his way to the “You Seminar.” Together, the two are going to find a way to get Joe back to Earth, making him think again about what it truly means to have soul. Filmmakers also revealed that globally renowned musician Jon Batiste will be writing original jazz music for the film, and Oscar®-winners Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (“The Social Network”), from Nine Inch Nails, will compose an original score that will drift between the real and soul worlds. Disney and Pixar’s “Soul” opens in U.S. theaters on June 19, 2020. Docter next introduced director Dan Scanlon and producer Kori Rae, who shared details and more than ten minutes of exclusive footage from Pixar’s upcoming feature film “Onward.” The movie, which opens in U.S. theaters on March 6, 2020, stars Tom Holland and Chris Pratt as two teenage elf brothers, Ian and Barley Lightfoot, who embark on an extraordinary quest to discover if there is still a little magic left in the world. Set in a modern fantasy world, Disney and Pixar’s “Onward” is inspired by Scanlon’s personal experiences with his brother. Holland, Pratt and Julia Louis-Dreyfus—who voices Mom in the movie—joined the filmmakers on stage—much to the delight of the audience, who all received an exclusive “Onward” poster. WALT DISNEY ANIMATION STUDIOS

Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Chief Creative Officer Jennifer Lee presented an overview of the studio’s next two features, beginning with the Thanksgiving 2020 fantasy-action-adventure, “Raya and the Last Dragon.” Directors Paul Briggs and Dean Wellins (“Big Hero 6,” “Frozen”), producer Osnat Shurer (“Moana”) and writer Adele Lim (“Crazy Rich Asians”) joined Lee on stage to set up the film, which introduces Raya, a lone warrior from the fantasy kingdom of Kumandra who teams up with a crew of misfits in her quest to find the Last Dragon and bring light and unity back to their world. The D23 Expo crowd was the first to get a look at the new film, viewing an exclusive three-minute piece. They also met two newly announced members of the voice cast: Awkwafina lends her voice to Sisu, the Last Dragon, who was left on Earth in case dark forces return to the world, and Cassie Steele voices the lead character, Raya. Exploring themes of community and hope, and inspired by the beautiful and diverse cultures of Southeast Asia, the fantasy-action-adventure “Raya and the Last Dragon” opens in U.S. theaters on Nov. 25, 2020.

Lee, who directs “Frozen 2” with Chris Buck, and wrote the screenplay, invited Buck to join her on stage as the Oscar®-winning duo revealed new details about the upcoming film, which opens in U.S. theaters on Nov. 22. Lee and Buck introduced two new “Frozen 2” cast members: Sterling K. Brown, who voices Lieutenant Destin Mattias, and Evan Rachel Wood, who voices Queen Iduna, Anna and Elsa’s mother. The crowd—who received an exclusive D23 Expo “Frozen 2” poster—saw never-before-seen footage of the new characters, including a scene that featured Wood as Iduna singing to young Elsa and Anna. The song, “All Is Found,” is one of seven all-new original songs by Oscar®-winning songwriters Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez. The audience also saw a sequence from the movie that showcased Elsa’s yearning for answers about the past, culminating in another song, “Into the Unknown.” And a climactic performance of the song “Some Things Never Change” by Menzel, Bell, Groff and Gad brought the audience to its feet, capping off the studio presentation in extraordinary style. About The Walt Disney Studios For more than 90 years, The Walt Disney Studios has been the foundation on which The Walt Disney Company was built. Today, the Studio brings quality movies, music, and stage plays to consumers throughout the world. About D23 Expo 2019 D23 Expo—The Ultimate Disney Fan Event—brings together all the worlds of Disney under one roof for three packed days of presentations, pavilions, experiences, concerts, sneak peeks, shopping, and more. The event provides fans with unprecedented access to Disney films, television, games, theme parks, and celebrities. For the latest D23 Expo 2019 news, visit D23expo.com. Presentations, talent, and schedule subject to change. To join the D23 Expo conversation, be sure to follow DisneyD23 on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, and use the hashtag #D23Expo. About D23 The name “D23” pays homage to the exciting journey that began in 1923 when Walt Disney opened his first studio in Hollywood. D23 is the first official club for fans in Disney’s 90-plus-year history. It gives its members a greater connection to the entire world of Disney by placing them in the middle of the magic through its quarterly publication, Disney twenty-three; a rich website at D23.com with members-only content; member-exclusive discounts; and special events for D23 Members throughout the year. Fans can join D23 at Gold Membership ($99.99), Gold Family Membership ($129.99), and General Membership (complimentary) levels at D23.com. To keep up with all the latest D23 news and events, follow DisneyD23 on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

(Film Images Courtesy of Disney / Panel Images Courtesy of Getty Images)

#blogposts #D23Expo

0 notes