#brainiac is supposed to appear in season 1

[hazardous-arcadia]

So I had a completely different theory why Jor-El thought Clark would be able to speak Kryptonian.

After going through the evidence and context clues again, Brainiac does seem to be the chief factor in Krypton's destruction. The Kryptonians clearly put up a fight, but they weren't going to win.

This theory presumes that "Zero Day" is a meta-reference to the Black Zero ship of Zod's in Man of Steel and Zod is the man behind The General's paranoia. Zod was going to make himself Krypton's hero/savior whether anyone liked it or not and fucked off with his group of terrorists (the Sword of Rao) to find a planet to turn into New Krypton. And if that planet was already inhabited? Well, fuck 'em.

Zod never came back and Jor-El, at least, took that as a sign that Zod had found a habitable planet on which to establish a colony and sent Kal-El off literally seconds before Krypton was destroyed.

Either way, Jor-El was counting on a Kryptonian presence.

[intergalactic-zoo]

Whoopsie, went a whole year without posting.

I very much enjoy the Arrowverse shows, even though the only episodes of Arrow I've seen are the crossover tie-ins. Legends of Tomorrow is a constant delight, Black Lightning is incredible, The Flash is good superhero melodrama, and Supergirl is fine. It's fine. It's generally mostly fine. 

Look, Supergirl started out strong on CBS, but since it moved to CW, it's been plagued by recurring problems. The cast is stellar. I love every actor and character on that show. Dreamer is a revelation, and I want to see her ongoing comic series (where maybe her powers will be slightly more clearly developed). 

But the politics? The recent episode dealing with violence against trans women (and trans women of color in particular) was a welcome and refreshing shift in the show's usual tone of Peak Liberal White Feminism. For a show that has its heart so clearly in the right place, tackling real-world issues like internment camps for immigrants and the radicalization of cishet white men into fascist paramilitary organizations, it has also featured a hero who, up until last season, was consistently working with a government organization and adopting center-left approaches that openly demonized actual leftists and ignored intersectionality in favor of a lily-white worldview. 

Buckle in, comrades. This is an anarchist blog now. 

There are other problems as well. The way they derailed the Kara-Jimmy relationship to pair her with Mon-El for a season, then fumbled around to find something to do with his character until he left the show, feels more than a little casually racist. I think there are legitimate queerbaiting complaints to be had about how they've handled the Kara/Lena relationship. Alex's shifting desires and priorities have felt less like character development and more like trying to figure out where she fits in the show now.

There's a lot of good, too, especially with some of this most recent season's course corrections. Killing Dean Cain's character offscreen was a hilarious solution to that unfortunate problem. I appreciated Brainiac-5's evolution that gave him a more comics-accurate Coluan appearance and removed some of the played-out "smart guy doesn't understand emotions" character type. I like that every time Lena says "Non Nocere" it makes me think of standing in a Buffalo Stance.

And I've liked Tyler Hoechlin and Bitsie Tulloch as Superman and Lois Lane, on the occasions where they've appeared. Tulloch isn't my favorite Lois, and I wish Hoechlin's costume had the trunks, but they've been quite good when they've shown up. And, you know, this is the first live-action Superman show with tights and flights and the word "Superman" in the title since 1997. I am, unexepctedly, excited for that. 

Besides that, it's a different take on the characters. Lois gets second billing, but rather than being a will-they/won't-they romantic dramedy, it's centered on Clark and Lois as an established couple and experienced parents of teenagers. Personally, I'd prefer the kids to be younger—Crisis changed their single infant into two teenage boys—but I suppose there are some story and tone reasons to prefer teenage kids. Overall, I think a lot of the choices are really savvy: setting the story in Smallville immediately sets this show apart from urban Supergirl, and the teens who cut their sci-fi melodrama teeth on Clark and Lois and Lex in Smallville are now in their thirties, settling down and having kids of their own. This show has the potential of tapping into that 20-year nostalgia cycle for the mid-2000s.

But...well, my excitement has been dampened somewhat in the lead-up to the premiere. Naturally, there's the stories Nadria Tucker has told about experiences in the writers' room, how they dismissed concerns about racism and sexism, about "#metoo jokes" and the like. There's also the optics; Supergirl is coming to an end next season, and it's hard not to feel weird about the diverse, female-dominated show about found family being more-or-less replaced with the nuclear family show whose principal cast is four white people, three of them dudes. I never really watched the trailer, but the response to it on my social media feed was largely negative (though for whatever reason, my social media feed is heavy on people who apparently aren't happy if Superman's not snapping necks in a rubber suit). On the other hand, I've seen really positive responses from two of the Superman fans I respect the most, Charlotte Finn and David Mann. And that clip of Hoechlin in the Fleischer suit and the Action #1 pose? Yeah, that's pretty cool. 

So I'm not sure what to expect as I finally hit up the ol' TiVo and watch the two-hour Pilot. But I'm about to find out. 

[thistreasurehunter]

Project Earplugs (Part 3)

Summary: Snippets from The Pogues’ WhatsApp messages. John B live-texts film night and gathers evidence, while Pope turns to fan fiction for inspiration.

(Implied future Kie/Pope. Implied future JJ/Reader. This is set in a slight AU – the reader has always been one of the Pogues and none of the events of season 1 have taken place.)

Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the Outer Banks characters or settings.

*************************************************

Project Earplugs Group Chat

John B: Well, the movie’s just gone on.

John B: They claimed the sofa – obviously – so I’m in the chair and can text freely where they can’t see

John B: Not that they’d notice anyway

John B: They’re currently having a discussion about camera angles and POV shots

John B: Btw, JJ turned up with a singed eyebrow!?

John B: Now they’re talking about the female gaze

John B: #flirtyfilmnerds

Kie: Seriously JB, don’t feel the need to live-text the whole night. They’re our friends too, we know what they’re like. We literally see them act like this all the time.

John B: No, I think I should! It’s like collecting evidence!

John B: Like, if ever they find out about our meddling, we can present them with all these examples of their repressed love for each other and why we were just helping open their oblivious little eyes

Pope: That’s not a bad idea actually.

Pope: We should flag this stuff so we can easily find it later

Kie: I thought you were supposed to be writing your essay.

Pope: I am, you’re both distracting me.

John B: EVIDENCE – she’s got her feet in his lap now

Pope: I thought you were helping your dad?!

John B: Have you ever heard of a game called flicker-wacker? They’ve mentioned it about 5 times so far

Pope: Kie?

Kie: Break’s over, gotta go – the tips don’t earn themselves! 😊

John B: They’re mostly watching the film now

John B: Oh, but wait!

John B: EVIDENCE – he’s started, sort of, rubbing her feet! Bit like a lowkey massage. They’re still both watching the movie

John B: I’m gonna try and get a covert photo

John B sent a photo

Pope: photographic evidence – nice touch!

Pope: So, I’ve been doing a bit of research – according to the internet, this appears to be a “friends to lovers” situation and there seems to be several different ways this arc can be resolved.

John B: Newsflash Pope! Reading Sherlock fanfic is not research!

Pope: Shut up!

Pope: Also, it can be

John B: EVIDENCE – pretty sure I just heard her moan a little

John B: Again, what happened with the essay?

Pope: Guys, enough with the nagging – I did a solid 20 minutes, now I’m having a break

John B: Just looking out for our brainiac - #weheartpopesscholarshipsuccess

Pope: Okay, well thanks, I guess

Pope: Anyway, a few scenarios I’ve come across so far are: fake dating, sharing body warmth to stop hypothermia, making one jealous of a potential new love interest, accidental/forced bed sharing, platonically raising a baby they get joint responsibility of somehow, sex or die and soulmate au. There are probably more, I’m still looking

Pope: Guys…?

Pope: Why’ve you gone quiet?

John B: Um, okaaay.

John B: Tbh, not what I was expecting you to say

Pope: Oh. Like how?

John B: Still processing

John B: I don’t even know what some of these things are

Pope: Which?

John B: Um, the last two for a start 🤨

Pope: I’ll send you a few links

Pope attached links

John B: Is this really the kind of stuff you read? I thought you read proper books?

Pope: Again, shut up. Don’t fan shame me. It’s completely okay to enjoy reading fanfic as well as ‘intellectual’ books!

Kie: 100% agree.

Kie: I’m just more intrigued about how we’ll be able to facilitate a soulmate au to get them together?

Kie: Or how either of them could get so cold they’re at risk of hypothermia, in summer in the OBX?

Kie: Or where the surprise baby will come from!?

John B: Maybe you two could have a kid, make them godparents, then die tragically, leaving your beautiful defenseless baby in their incompetent hands?

Kie: Um, that really would be playing the long game

Kie: Also, we’d end up dead, so not the best possible outcome thanks!

Pope: Also, we’d definitely want our baby to be raised by one or both sets of our parents

John B: Bit of a serious reaction to a joke there, dude

John B: At least you know Pope has a plan for if ever that did happen Kie! 🤣

Pope: Eugh, maybe I should go back to my essay!

John B: hahahaha

John B: EVIDENCE – she’s just got up for a drink and trailed her fingers through his hair on the way past

Kie: The jealousy idea isn’t too bad.

Kie: We could probably pull something off along those lines at the Boneyard kegger tomorrow

John B: Actually, that does sound do-able

Pope: See, my suggestions weren’t that stupid after all

Kie: Debatable

John B: Dude, do you know one of the links you sent me was about tentacle porn?

Pope: Um, was it? I wonder how that managed to get there? Well, yeah, just ignore that one

John B:  😂

John B: hahahaha! Sheepish much!

John B: EVIDENCE – They’ve moved position on the sofa and he’s now got his arm around her shoulders and she’s resting her head on his chest

John B: Conclusive evidence, if you ask me.

[pagetgram]

Getting To Know The Cast Of Criminal Minds

As Criminal Minds rolls out its 15th and final season, the beloved cast gathers to discuss serial killers (what else?), special guest stars, and their millions of phenomenal fans in this exclusive interview. (x,x)

As Criminal Minds rolls out its 15th and final season, the beloved cast gathers to discuss serial killers (what else?), special guest stars, and their millions of phenomenal fans in this exclusive interview.

By David Hochman

The scene is quintessential Hollywood: a train station at dusk. Steam billowing up from the tracks. Loved ones bracing for their emotional farewells. What could be more fitting for the cast of Criminal Minds?

Chugging into its 15th and final season after more than 300 episodes, the police procedural is among the 10 longest-running dramas of all time, and in the top 20 for longest-running scripted television shows. "This is Gunsmoke and Guinness Book territory," says Matthew Gray Gubler, who has played quirky FBI brainiac Dr. Spencer Reid since episode 1.

To honor the landmark occasion, all eight series regulars are gathered at a railway museum in L.A.'s Griffith Park for photos, poignant reflections, and a few behind-the-scenes confessions (mostly involving a tradition called "hot tub wine machine"—stay tuned).

On TV, the tenacious profilers of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit—or simply "BAU" to fans—are a hard-bitten bunch, tracking down serial killers and other vicious "unsubs." But in person, clearly good friends across the board and decked out today in their spiffiest finery, the cast can scarcely hold back tears as they get candid about their extended journey together and what it means to come to the end—sniff, sniff—of Criminal Minds.

Originally published in Watch! Magazine, July-August 2019.

Judging from the misty eyes and group hugs, it looks like the series wrap-up is generating "all the feels," as they say. Are you able to get through scenes this season without a tissue break?

Joe Mantegna (Senior Supervisory Special Agent David Rossi, Seasons 3-present): This is my 50th year in show business, and next to voicing on The Simpsons, Rossi is my longest-running role. I came in with dark hair and now it's gray. I arrived without much of a game plan, and the show and character are now a deep part of who I am. This cast is a true family for me. So every episode this year has an added bittersweet layer. When the director announces, "This is the last profile scene" or "This is our last scene on the jet," you look around with a real sense of passing. It's monumental.

Kirsten Vangsness (BAU Technical Analyst and Media Liaison Penelope Garcia, Seasons 1-present): The term that keeps coming up is "ambiguous loss"—that feeling of losing something you love, and that everything's about to change. In this case it's not a person, thank goodness. But still, in the middle of a scene, it hits you. But you can't cry; you have all this makeup on. Plus, what are you crying for? It's been such an incredible experience. I will have done every single episode except episode 5, every episode of the first spinoff, and two episodes of the second spinoff. I love these people. No, sir. I'm not crying. You're crying. [Editor's note: She's crying.]

Paget Brewster (Supervisory Special Agent and BAU Unit Chief Emily Prentiss, Seasons 2-7, 9, 11-present): Um, I'm in complete denial, so I'll break down into tears the week after we end, but not before. I'm pretending this show's never, ever going to end.

Without spoiling anything, what can you say about Season 15?

A.J. Cook (Supervisory Special Agent Jennifer "JJ" Jareau, Seasons 1-present): Well, I can tell you that we will find out what happens now that JJ has expressed her true feelings for Dr. Reid.

Matthew Gray Gubler (Supervisory Special Agent Dr. Spencer Reid, Seasons 1-present): Don't you mean "Jeid?" That's what the internet is calling us. Hey, I'm not spoiling anything. I mean, don't rule out, uh, "Jemily" or "Jarcia" this season, either!

Adam Rodriguez (Supervisory Special Agent Luke Alvez, Seasons 12-present): And we do have guest stars. We love guest stars! [Editor's note: Among others, watch for Jane Lynch to return as Reid's schizophrenic mother, and for Rachael Leigh Cook as a potential new love interest for Reid.]

Daniel Henney (Supervisory Special Agent Matt Simmons, Seasons 10, 12-present): Overall, I'd say 15 has more of an arc through the episodes than previous seasons. Our unsub, Chameleon, is played by Michael Mosley, and he's definitely into some gruesome, creepy stuff.

Brewster: Like, we have a scene where a bunch of body parts are hanging from a tree. Our prop guy, who's a professional fisherman in real life, was on top of a 15-foot ladder with a foot and an ear hanging off his fishing pole.

Aisha Tyler (Special Agent Dr. Tara Lewis and forensic psychologist, Seasons 11-present): And people wonder why my house in L.A. is like a fortress and I'm armed! I'd say it's a direct result of Criminal Minds. This show is definitely dark. I'm not going around profiling sociopaths and serial killers, but, yeah, being on Criminal Minds, you become more perceptive about people's bad behavior.

Anybody else find it hard letting go in real life after chasing serial killers at work all day?

Cook: I'm blessed with a good shut-off switch. Once the day's done, I can block everything out. But as soon as I became a mom, something shifted where the naive girl from Canada got the boot and mama bear arrived. We saw that happen with JJ on the show, too. When she became a mom, it was suddenly like, "Whoa, watch out for that guy in the park!"

Henney: I'll tell you a story. About two months ago, I'm at home sleeping and a burglar alarm goes off, and I literally switched into Simmons mode. All the training I'd done with the FBI guys and our tech advisers instantly came into play. I threw on black sweatpants. I was creeping around the perimeter of my house, FBI-style. I clocked all my points of ingress and egress. When you do so many episodes, basic instincts kick in.

Did you identify the unsub?

Henney: Nobody was there! It was a stupid, faulty window sensor.

Brewster: The show definitely sharpens your reactions to your surroundings. When you start the show, you have access to the FBI training manual, which, frankly, no civilian should ever see because the photographs are so grisly. You end up going through a period of hypervigilance where you can't go into a sandwich shop or airport without thinking, Uh-oh! I think that couple's going to end up in a domestic dispute tonight.

Group question: What's your standout memory from these many seasons?

Rodriguez: I jumped onto this flying carpet 12 seasons in, and my first scene was out in the middle of the desert, and we shot all night long. There was an old car that was supposed to be in the scene, but it broke down and they ended up rolling it into the shot, which was funny. But more than that, I remember how welcoming people were. I was the new guy, but I felt immediately at home.

Brewster: We watched your family grow, too, Adam. You had a kid. A.J. had two kids. I met my husband on set. We've been lucky enough to live our lives and develop together as people.

Cook: For me, having both my boys appear in the show was an absolute treasure. Mekhai, who's 10, has been doing it way longer than Phoenix, who's 4, and he loves it, though I can't tell if it's the acting or that everybody's giving him cookies and ice cream all the time.

Henney: I was really proud to play Simmons because, as an Asian American actor, you don't often get the chance to play the quintessential American guy's guy. He's married to a Caucasian woman and has mixed-race children—which is true with me, too [Henney is also of mixed descent]—and I loved representing that on television. To have a kissing scene with Kelly, my wife on the show—you weren't seeing that 10 years ago.

Tyler: Directing a couple episodes was an incredible opportunity. But for me, just the experience of seeing this through to the end is so rewarding. I was only supposed to do six episodes. Everything's been gravy since then.

Mantegna: Hands down, my highlight was being able to work in my passion for law enforcement and the military by making my FBI character a former Marine. That allowed me to bring in Meshach Taylor, one of my dearest, oldest friends, as my commanding officer in Vietnam, and directing two of the three episodes that involved him as a character.

That included the episode where his character died, because Meshach had died. To actually bury him on camera as my dear friend—I'm the godfather of his kids, and he's the godfather of mine—it was everything. If I do nothing else on television, doing that for Meshach to me means the top of the ladder.

TV shows come and go. How do you explain the enduring success of Criminal Minds?

Tyler: Well, I'd say it's not about prurient interest in the macabre. I think the reason people like the show is because we want to know that there's a smart, dedicated team of professionals out there working very hard to make sure that the rest of us stay safe. Even if we don't know who they are and we can't see them, it's comforting that people are sacrificing their personal lives and their relationships so that they can put evil people away.

Rodriguez: I meet young people all the time, teenagers, who love the show and say they love the game of it all—figuring out how these processes work and the skills that go into solving crimes. I think we've probably inspired a generation of people to go into this important work—on the good-guy side, not on the bad.

Cook: So many people have struggled in their lives, and they can relate to what they see on the show. Hardworking moms, people that have been abused, people who've experienced loss.

Vangsness: I think it comes down to a show with some of the greatest characters on television. Garcia is just a bundle of positive energy, and that resonated. Her desk is a living piece of art to how she's connected with the audience. I've got a papier-mâché heart pen a fan from France gave me. There's a little rabbit from a fan in Japan. A German woman knitted a Penelope doll that's sitting there. Oh, and Richard Simmons gave me a necklace one time because he loved the show!

Criminal Minds fans are a devoted bunch.

Henney: I once checked into a ski lodge in Switzerland and my television wasn't working, so I went to the front desk. The two desk guys started staring at me like zombies and pointed to their TV, where Criminal Minds was on, with me on the screen.

Brewster: It takes you by surprise in the weirdest places. You'll be in a bathroom at a movie theater and girls are outside whispering, That's Emily Prentiss, and they wait for you to finish so you can wash your hands and hug them.

What are you going to miss most about the show?

Cook: Um, everything. The scenes in the jet are my favorites because it's such a tight space that we forget we're on a TV show and just enjoy hanging out together. This show, for me, was a coming of age. You can look online and find me in the beginning of season 1 wearing this ridiculous pink pinstriped blazer that will haunt me forever. I look like I'm 12. But I've grown up along with JJ. [Tearing up.] I'll miss it all so much.

Gubler: Likewise, I really look up to Spencer Reid, and I feel so honored to have played him for so long. I will miss his long, you know, three-page monologues of technical jargon about protons or whatever. I'll miss the way he holds his hands like an ostrich foot when he's solving a problem. He's definitely way smarter than I'll ever be, but I like to think that some Dr. Reid qualities have imbued themselves into my own personality a little bit. If nothing else, I've adopted his ever-changing hairstyles.

Tyler: I'll miss being an FBI badass. I'd love to take the FBI jacket, but it's absolutely illegal to walk around wearing it.

Vangsness: I can tell you what I won't miss. Garcia's glasses—because I have them all already. I've bought every pair she's ever worn, so I have a collection of around 65 at home. They remind me to be confident like her, to see life through her eyes. Garcia is my Sasha Fierce.

Brewster: I will miss the hot tub wine machine.

Hot tub wine machine?

Vangsness: You heard that right, mister. It's an epic hot tub party at my house that the women on the show have turned into a standing gig—or more like a floating gig.

Brewster: It's basically a therapy and gossip and splashing-around session fueled by chardonnay and rosé.

Tyler: And it's ladies only because it gets kinda frisky.

Rodriguez: This is a sore subject for me even as a very securely and happily married man.

Mantegna: They do send us pictures on group text, which is thoughtful of them.

Vangsness: I don't think it's too much of a spoiler to tell you that this fine tradition makes it into our last episode. I co-wrote the finale, and we tried to cram in as many little Easter eggs and satisfying plot tie-ups as we could, both for fans and for each other. So within the episode, you'll see the BAU version of hot tub time machine. We worked really hard solving these super-intense crimes over what will be 325 episodes. After all these years, don't you think we deserve a little spa time?

[that-shamrock-vibe]

TV Review: Crisis on Infinite Earths (Spoilers)

Part One: Supergirl

Spoiler Warning: I am posting this review the day after the episode airs in the U.S. so if you have not yet seen the first part of the crossover or are waiting for the entire crossover to become available then don’t read on until you have.

Overview:

We have SO MUCH to discuss! So much so that my Easter-Egg section which is usually more or less a minor tag-on at the end of these reviews is possibly going to be the same size as a lot of these other sections we are going through because, as promised by Marc Guggenheim, Easter has come early and we were treated to quite a few very tasty Easter-Eggs, one of which had me cheering at the screen.

But with Part One of this 5-episode crossover already giving us so much action, drama and emotion, it’s not only a question on how the Multiverse survives, but how the rest of the crossover does as well.

In the Beginning:

I love a good theory of evolution story, and we have heard in Arrow over the past season that The Monitor has been around for eons so it stands to reason he was around at the start of creation itself.

I just the sentiment of “In the beginning there was one singularity that soon spawned a multiverse”. It’s a lot like Doctor Who’s first rock theory from “The Runaway Bride”. I don’t know enough about the beginning of all life to actually determine what created the universe, I am more inclined to believe evolution than creationism, but I do like this idea of one reality spawning many.

I wasn’t so crazy about the visuals of this, especially considering in the past whenever we have viewed the Multiverse it’s always been within the Speed Force so we’re used to that blue energy rather than this red darker energy but it seems to be in-keeping with the theme of the crossover so I’m going with it.

Also LaMonica Garrett, who deserves some sort of award recognition not only for appearing as a series regular in both Arrow and The Flash this season but also wearing what I’m sure is the heaviest outfit created, but selling it very well, even the cheesy prophet of doom voice he has down rather well.

Multiverse Annihilation:

Alright so this was obviously to be expected that we would see some if not a lot of Earths be destroyed during this crossover, but my god they don’t pull punches in starting by letting you know “Yeah we’re killing off a lot”.

Now the Earths we see erased during the opening of this episode are Earth-9, Earth-66, Earth-89 and Earth-X. Of those four, we have only ever seen Earth-X which was the Nazi-ruled Earth from two crossovers ago.

Now while there was a great and uncredited cameo here from it and we’ll discuss that further down, would anyone really be sad if a reality where the Nazis won and ruled was wiped out? I know there are inhabitants on that world and for the most part they are innocent and good people, but you would think just maybe find a way to evacuate them like they do on Earth-38 later and then if it goes extinct then fine because it’s not exactly a good reality.

Both Earth-66 and Earth-89 also has great Easter-Eggs just in the name and we’ll discuss that also further down but it is interesting that both Earths-66 and 89 only focused on Gotham City whereas this was the Supergirl episode of the crossover.

Rallying the Team:

Okay so Harbinger, who either was Lyla Michaels but is now an emissary of the Anti-Monitor or simply likes using her Task Force X codename, appears to all the major heroes just as we saw her do in last week’s episode of Arrow and summons them all to Earth-38 aka Supergirl’s Earth.

I have to say as well, I know they’re on a TV budget and can’t really afford to have as many characters in one scene as say Avengers: Endgame did, but the fact they cheapened out and only gave us two Legends (Sara and Ray), rather then also showing Nate, Constantine, Mick and Charlie as well does seem a tad unfair especially considering they’ve been absent from screens the longest, some may say for the better considering the way their show is going.

Also, I will probably talk about this more with the Batwoman episode tomorrow, but they need to clarify the timeline of her show. When we first met her in Elseworlds last year she was Batwoman, but the start of her season saw her become Batwoman, and now she’s still hunting for Alice? How long has it been?

Also, as expected, Tyler Hoechlin’s Superman and his Lois Lane join the party after Argo City is destroyed and they send of their newborn son in a pod to safety. Argo City’s destruction also sees the death of Kara’s mother Alura played by Erica Durance but because I know who’s coming in tonight’s episode and the possibly jokes they’ll make about it I am okay with that as a Smallville fan.

I do always like it in these crossovers when the heroes either first meet or reunite, this time Oliver’s daughter but from the future Mia Smoak and Batwoman are officially introduced as Batwoman reveals herself as Kate Kane, to Oliver’s bemusement.

I do wish also that there was more time spent on character interaction because that is usually what I enjoy most about these crossovers, we had a little bit of that with Brainy and Ray, but Elseworlds I felt established a great repour for Batwoman and the Trinity yet that wasn’t really seen here.

My biggest complaint in this Supergirl episode though is that both Brainy and J’onn were never seen in their natural forms. I know it’s costly and timely to have them look like Brainiac 5 and the Martian Manhunter, but when they just look like Jesse Rath and David Harewood, no matter how great these guys are it’s a comic book crossover event and I would love to see more comic-booky character looks.

Alright so, Harbinger sits down the newly formed or reformed or updated team because they’ve come together now four times to help save a world or multiple worlds or now reality itself and just need to be called the Justice League and get it over with, but anyway I digress.

She instructs the team that the tower that randomly appears was one of many placed by the Monitor on Earths he thought were at risk...why he didn’t just place them on every god damn Earth if he could see the future is beyond me but that’s what we’re getting.

I did like a couple of interactions before going into action where Oliver seamlessly interacted with Barry, Sara and Mia without making it seem forced.

My favourite was the interaction with daughter Mia when he effectively passes on the mantle of Green Arrow to her despite the fact she’s not ready to lose him. I don’t know whether or not the spin-off series focusing on Mia as New Green Arrow has been confirmed yet but we know she will become Green Arrow in the near future.

So Oliver, Mia, Ray and Kate go off and battle the Shadow Demon army that are swarming the tower trying to destroy it for the Anti-Monitor, while Barry, Kara and Clark are off trying to save the people.

I will admit Ray didn’t annoy me quite as much as he has done in recent seasons of Legends during this episode. I did love his interactions with Kate about her suit getting an upgrade and then her asking him to upgrade her batarangs, when Brandon Routh is good he is good and he is pulling double duty in this crossover so let’s hope he’s very good.

Also at this time Lois, because she needs something to do, has gone to Earth-16 with Brainy and Sara to retrieve baby Jonathan who wound up going through a wormhole and ending up on a parallel world...in the future...2046 to be exact.

This was, I feel, there for two reasons. 1) Another Easter-Egg appearance but this time in-house as it references Legends Season 1, but also 2) To still keep the events of “Star City 2046) canon despite the fact that in that episode Connor Hawke was actually John Diggle Jr. and in present day they are not only two separate people but also adoptive brothers...and also we know Oliver is supposed to die so how is he alive in 2046? Well it’s an alternate reality version who apparently can’t remember meeting Earth-1 Sara before.

Our two other teams rallying really only serve to give the rest of the Supergirl cast something to do as Alex enlists Lena to help either build or activate portals to get the inhabitants of Earth-38 to safety while Dreamer and Kelly help get those inhabitants onto ships including the Legion Cruiser that J’onn is piloting because apparently Brainy was given it by the Legion before they left with Winn despite the fact they left in the Legion Cruiser. It doesn’t really make sense but I enjoy seeing that ship again so I am letting it slide.

Saving the Multiverse, Take 1:

This may be quite cynical for me to say but this is what the remainder of the episode was, the first attempt at saving the multiverse because Earth-38 is where The Monitor wanted the heroes to make their stand against the Anti-Monitor.

The Anti-Monitor does not appear in this episode and his army of Shadow Demons are 1) Poorly rendered compared to the likes of the Time Wraiths and 2) Quite easy to defeat when you consider Darkseid has Parademons and even Thanos with his legion of horribles.

In any case while the Supers are trying to fix the tower to make the sky not red which works margingly well before they exhaust themselves, the other heroes are on the ground battling the Shadow Demons. I would have maybe liked if Ray had to cover the Supers while they were doing what they do because it seemed slightly daft that the Shadow Demons wouldn’t try and stop them but that’s what we got.

It was a very small-scale battle and I know we’re only in part 1 and usually it’s the final episode we get the big battle but this was still small scale considering what is at stake here.

The biggest surprise of the battle was Kelly Olsen, who I haven’t really liked all season as she seems pointless other than just being Alex’s girlfriend who always needs saving, apparently has the Guardian armour left to her by James who retired from vigilantism to take over a newspaper in his old hometown and that’s why he left despite never actually being part of these crossovers, his dopplegangers were.

This was also a very low-powered battle. Think about it, the Supers, Flash and Atom all have CGI powers or tech yet we didn’t really see much of it, aside from the Supers trying to fix the tower. Maybe they’re saving the budget for later episodes but it better pay off.

The Monitor comes in as the prophet of doom to basically tell them that they’ve lost this battle but the war still rages, so transports everyone aside from Oliver to Earth-1 Star City.

Oliver refuses to leave and makes one of the most poignent comments I have ever heard him say when The Monitor says “It’s time” and Oliver asks “Has everyone been evacuated” The Monitor responds with “No” so Oliver responds “Then it’s not yet time”. From the trailer I thought this to mean it was time for his death, but actually this was something The Monitor was trying to prevent as he did not see him dying this way, but he does.

Stephen Amell delivers both this line and scene very well. I have never been the biggest Stephen Amell fan and do feel as if he goes to the corny side a little too much but here, given the interactions he had with Barry, Mia and Sara in the episode, and knowing that Arrow is ending and he is supposed to die, it was minorly emotional which is the most emotion he’s ever got out of me.

Fallen Arrow:

The Monitor returns a battered and bleeding Oliver to the Arrowcave in Star City Earth-1 where the rest of the heroes have returned to. Along with the news that they were somewhat successful at evacuating Earth-38 before it was destroyed, it seems that Oliver does actually die in this episode.

First of all, the fact that Supergirl is disheartened to know they didn’t save everyone is stupid because they only worked to evacuate one city compared to the entire planet. Secondly, we know that the episode of Arrow after this crossover will not include Stephen Amell...but to lose him on part one of the crossover does seem like a red herring.

Also I do not think he would die on any other show but his own and that part isn’t until January 14, so I don’t think this is the last of Oliver we’ve seen.

However, out of nowhere, Pariah appears. Pariah is Harrison “Nash” Wells who is the latest Harrison Wells to appear on The Flash and was the main focus of the Crisis teaser at the end of every Arrowverse show over the last two weeks.

I have to say 1) His suit makes him look like Doctor Doom and 2) I haven’t had the time to be as invested with this Wells as I was with Harry Wells or H.R. Wells or even Sherloque Wells to supposedly feel bad for him that he has become Pariah as his penance for freeing the Anti-Monitor.

He is however another harbinger which sounds stupid to say as there is a character literally called Harbinger but not only is Lyla one but so is the Monitor and now Pariah. I’ll be curious to see where this leaves him after the crossover because, unlike almost every crossover before, this is the one that promises ramifications across the multiverse.

Easter-Eggs:

Alright here we go, as I said in the opening Multiverse Annihilation alone, there were multiple Easter-Eggs that not only connect the Arrowverse to various other DC properties but also just have some very cool cameos.

I do have mixed feelings on what they’re doing, as it does look like they are actually trying to combine every DC TV property and possibly movie into the same multiverse which is crazy but it could possibly work.

Titans:

This is the one I cheered at my screen for in a similar way to when they played the Smallville theme while showing their version of the Kent Farm in Elseworlds last year.

As mentioned before, one of the Earths wiped out by Antimatter is Earth-9. On this Earth we focus on San Francisco and two costumed heroes as Antimatter obliterates everything, Hawk and Jason Todd’s Robin. These characters are portrayed by Alan Ritchson and Curran Walters who are the actors portraying these characters in these suits in Titans over on DC Universe.

It was rumoured some time back that Titans would appear in this crossover but never confirmed, I know because for my job I’ve reported on everything to do with Crisis.

Now clearly there’s nothing to say these are the same characters from Titans, particularly as the end of Titans Season 2 saw Jason Todd leave the Titans and we don’t see Nightwing, Dove, Starfire, Raven or Gar, but considering Black Lightning is joining the Multiverse it stands to reason that Titans can as well.

This does also mean that Titans is now on Earth-9, while Arrow, The Flash, Batwoman and Legends are primarily on Earth-1 and Supergirl is on Earth-38.

Batman ‘66

Speaking of other Earths, we have two others that are wiped out in the opening and both focus on Gotham City, why? Well we have Earth-66 which features an elderly gentleman in red walking his dog and seeing the red skies exclaims “Holy Crimson Skies of Death!”.

This gentleman is portrayed by Robin veteran Burt Ward and the character is confirmed to be Dick Grayson of the Batman 1960s series.

This is wrapped up very nicely and honoured in the fact that the Earth is numbered 66 to pay homage to the fact that 1966 is the year the Batman series begun.

Batman ‘89

Similarly, the other Earth we see obliterated is Earth-89. Here we see another Gotham City with a man reading an edition of the Gotham City Gazette that shows a distorted image of Batman with the headline “Batman Captures Joker”.

The man reading the paper is revealed to be Alexander Knox portrayed by Robert Wuhl, reprising his role from the 1989 Batman movie starring Michael Keaton as the Dark Knight and Jack Nicholson as The Joker.

It has also been rumoured before that Michael Keaton would reprise his role as Batman in this crossover, while I still choose to debunk these rumours, it’s official that the 1989 Batman is now canon within the Arrowverse. This takes the Arrowverse from simply being the DC TV Universe to an actual Multiverse spanning TV and Film, something the MCU hasn’t properly managed to do yet.

Star City 2046:

So as mentioned before, DC’s Legends of Tomorrow’s first season had an episode titled “Star City 2046″ where the Legends arrived in a dystopian Star City where Deathstroke’s son Grant Wilson was the new Deathstroke and Connor Hawke was the new Green Arrow and revealed as John Diggle Jr, Diggle’s son which at the time was crazy because Diggle had a daughter Sara before Barry created Flashpoint and replaced Sara with John Diggle Jr...keeping up?

So in the future of this Post-Flashpoint timeline that this universe is now in, we see that Connor Hawke and John Diggle Jr. are two separate people with Connor being the biological son of Ben Turner aka Bronze Tiger and John Diggle Jr now being the leader of the Deathstroke Gang.

This of course caused conflict with that episode of Legends, but because Legends never really follows the rules anyway I think everyone simply let it slide but now we have a loophole way of explaining things.

It turns out that when the Legends travelled to Star City in the year 2046, they also travelled to a parallel Earth, Earth-16. Now this is still in the future so I don’t think they’re saying it’s set, but what they are saying is it still happened and they didn’t overwrite their own lore basically.

We do only see Oliver here, who still has a cybernetic arm from before which Sara remembers and uses to her advantage, but Oliver doesn’t seem to remember that this Sara is not his Sara despite them having a rather candid conversation in that episode.

Also Joseph David-Jones portrayed Connor Hawke of that Earth in “Star City 2046″ so of course it makes sense for him to return as the Connor Hawke of Earth-1 in the future, but why didn’t he appear in this episode if he is already part of the cast of Arrow this season?

The Ray:

Briefest of cameos and unfairly uncredited in my opinion but we see a brief glimpse of Ray Terrill aka The Ray portrayed by Russell Tovey flying through the skies of Earth-X before being obliterated. Tovey first portrayed The Ray in “Crisis on Earth-X” two years ago and was part of the first openly gay male relationship in comic-book history with Wentworth Miller’s Leo Snart.

He then went on to voice the character in his own short-lived animated web series Freedom Fighters, but to see him return in live-action even for a brief uncredited cameo shows how much Tovey respects both the character and this universe and I love him even more for that.

Jonathan Kent:

Alright so I’ve mentioned baby Jonathan a couple of times because we knew Lois was pregnant at the end of Elseworlds last years however now seeing Jonathan Kent Jr. I am excited for what this could mean going forward.

In the comics, Jonathan is the son of Superman and Lois Lane given the full name Jonathan Samuel Kent to honour both his grandfathers and is a Kryptonian-Human hybrid who becomes the new Superboy and teams up with Damian Wayne, the Teen Titans and the Legion of Superheroes.

So when Brainy mentioned him going through a wormhole and time-travelling I thought they may be setting up that he’ll be taken in by the Legion, Mon-El may return with a grown-up version of him later in the season or something, but no he’s safe and Lois has him back.

The one thing I will say about him is I hope the writers don’t relegate Tyler Hoechlin’s already minimal Super-Antics into simply being Super-Dad. The odd dad line is funny but I hope that’s not all he is.

I am going to wait until Part 5 to rank the entire crossover but if they keep the momentum that Part 1 managed to accelerate then this could be the greatest TV accomplishment ever and could even rival Avengers: Endgame in how they literally bring worlds together.

So that’s my review of Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part One, what did you guys think? Post your comments and check out more DC TV Reviews as well as other TV Reviews and posts.

[windona]

Krypton v Smallville: A Study in Fate in Prequels

Many people have noticed that there’s been a lot of shows and movies set ‘before’ the main story or franchise. Some of these were always planned as part of the franchise (Star Wars), while for the most case Superhero prequels come about because someone thinks there’s a story there. And often they’re right; you can tell many an interesting story from side characters or backstories.

However, there’s also been a degree of prequel fatigue. Many think that it won’t be that exciting if you already know the ending, and that can happen if the idea isn’t executed properly. There’s also the way a prequel can ham fist and interesting idea to go into canon. Whatever the case, there’s always that looming sense of Fate in a prequel, and how it’s handled can either improve or drag down a show.

To explore this, I’ll talk about two Superman prequels: Smallville, which aired for ten years beginning in 2001, and Krypton, which just finished its first season this year. While there’s a bit of unfairness in comparing a finished long runner to a show that’s just beginning, they both have already established unique ways at handling the idea of ‘Fate’. (Warning, spoilers for both shows ahead)

In Smallville, we follow Clark. We know he’s going to be Superman one day, and the show has its fill of references. For a show about a character’s journey to become a hero, that makes sense. However, the show isn’t subtle and its story revolves around making Clark Superman. Characters who see the future know what Clark’s going to be. There are prophecies about Clark that are centuries old. Most glaringly, the show’s version of Jor-El’s AI is literally about forcing Clark to embrace his destiny, outright stating that as the goal. While a lot of conflict comes from the fact that Clark believes Jor-El wants him to conquer Earth and Jor-El’s behavior seems to support that initially, it still is a matter of enforcing Fate.

In contrast, Krypton is set with Seg, Clark’s biological grandfather. Krypton has been said to ‘not really be a prequel’ by those involved, and part of the reason for that is readily apparent in the first episode, when Adam time travels to the future and explicitly states he’s there to make sure Superman exists and time happens as it’s supposed to.

Both agents of fate do questionable things to achieve their goal of having Superman. The Jor-El AI brainwashes both an innocent uninvolved girl and Clark to further his goal. Later seasons, the AI keeps on giving Clark various trials, some of which are questionable at best, and is said to be responsible for Jonathan Kent’s heart condition that later kills him. In the end the narrative frames this as harsh but correct and worth it to produce a savior like Superman. The show also outright states that as a baby, Jor-El and Lara both planned on Clark being Earth’s savior. Clark had zero say as to whether or not he would be Superman, as his life was planned out for him.

Conversely, Adam Strange initially presents himself as a superhero here to prevent Brainiac from destroying Kandor and getting rid of Superman. Even if there is some doubts to his words and Adam isn’t instantly endearing to the rest of the cast, they trust him and work with him to save their city. However, the mid-season twist about General Zod being the time traveler and Brainiac taking Kandor being part of Kryptonian history changes that. It brings up the question if Krypton needs to be destroyed for there to be a Superman, and what choice is right. Seg and the other Kryptonians clearly choose to change fate and to try and save their world, while Adam continues his role as an agent of fate and tries to help Brainiac take Kandor at one point.

In Smallville, the AI is just belaboring what we already know and is essentially pulling the curtain back on a story. This is going to happen because we know it has to happen and the characters are at the will of the writers. There is no fighting or questioning it. On Krypton, some of the suspense comes from the fact we don’t know which option is right, and we can’t tell if there really will end up being a Superman. We fall in love with the characters, and see how that influences the future we think will happen, and wonder if these characters need to die for other beloved characters to be.

This also extends to non-El characters. On Smallville, Lex Luthor is introduced as a well meaning if flawed young man, trying to be a better person than his father. However, even before he goes evil we have prophecies and characters reminding us that he’s going to go evil. The audience isn’t allowed to wonder as early as season 1, and that both makes his fate more tragic but also makes him seem like a pawn of fate. If even when he was trying to be a better person he was doomed, then doesn’t that take away some of the hope that Superman stands for?

While due to the setting not many future comic characters appear, at the start of season 1 of Krypton we see the House of Zod. We know that a major enemy of Superman’s will come from them, and in fact he does appear in the second half of the season. But even with the drama, we wonder if Lyta and Seg will successfully defy society and become a couple. And when the General himself appears and tells Lyta what she will become, we wonder if saving Kandor will help prevent her from turning into her mother like she fears. Things are not written, so the audience feels the characters have a degree of agency.

Lastly, there’s the use of prophecy. Smallville is prophecy overloaded, with characters from Cassandra to Jordan telling Clark his fate, to outright written ones from the Traveler prophecy to the one of Naman and Sageth. A conspiracy forms around the Traveler prophecy, all connected to Clark and influencing his life and fate. This prophecy also influences the lives of characters, with the weight and knowledge of Clark’s future so heavy that apparently everyone knows it before Clark does. Again it serves as a reinforcement, and forces the audience and characters to say ‘yup, that’s the future’. It becomes redundant and trite, showing that no matter what again there was no free will in the matter. It cheapens Clark’s journey, and makes being Superman an obligation at times.

Krypton only has one prophecy: The one Adam gave, and a disappearing cape to prove it. Characters like Seg question it. Kem outright derides it when he’s searching for Ona. Few have reason to believe it or care, and for Seg it’s more an inspiration to fight Brainiac and go for that better future than something he feels chained to. Yes, he wants the House of El to flourish again and wants to have a grandson he can be proud of, but he doesn’t always have faith in it and is willing to throw away a vague future if it means saving his world and those he loves now. It’s not something that determines or confines their fate, but influences their choices.

[kaizokunohime]

Unforgettable

This first chapter is Bruce's perspective from Season 3, episode 2: Knight time from Superman the Animated Series. This is taking place with the assumption that Bruce still has some control over his brain while he is being mind controlled.

AO3 link

Chapter 1

I had happened years ago. He should have moved past it long ago. But he couldn’t. Everyday he’ll be going about his day and suddenly that image will flash through his head and little more than force of will prevents it from staying at the forefront of his mind.

It was all his fault. How dare that beautiful bastard look so good in his batsuit!

--8 years ago--

It should have been the start of a boring day of pretending to be airheaded while making sure his company was running smoothly and simultaneously wishing he could be working on his current cases for his ‘night job’. He’d been dropped off in front of the building by Alfred, taken the elevator to his office, casually flirted with his secretary (for appearances), and then sat down at his desk, ready to tackle some of the paperwork before falling prey to the long boring meetings with his board of directors that would take up his afternoon. Then his office phone rang and he answered it automatically.

That turned out to be his fatal mistake for the day.

He felt a prick of pain on his ear and began assessing himself for abnormalities. Almost immediately he noticed the loss of control over his body, which was spreading rapidly from his injured ear. In less than a minute he no longer had any control of anything but his thoughts. 

---

After three weeks of being under the alien robot’s control Bruce was quite fed up with having no control of his body. And it was about time; the ship the robot was having his company build was almost complete. Unfortunately, he could only hope that Robin or Nightwing had figured out his actual location, despite the measures that had no doubt been taken to hide his location.

As if summoned by his thoughts Bruce noticed a swish of black cloak out of the corner of his eye near the closest doorway. It could have been a trick of the light, but he knew better. And he knew better than to acknowledge it in his direct subconsciousness, so he immediately started meditating to have his surface thoughts be clear and unconcerned while deeper inside he began running through the possibilities of who it could be.

It could be Robin, but his cape was short and definitely wouldn’t be close enough to the ground to be the glimpse of black he had seen. So someone was wearing his costume… but why? Nightwing’s usually uniform wouldn’t be out of place, even if Gotham and Bruce Wayne weren’t a part of his usual jurisdiction. And he knew that Dick hadn’t been wearing his uniform the past few weeks or the gossip of Batman being missing wouldn’t be widespread enough for him to overhear his employees discussing it.

That didn’t leave many options open. One of the only other people it could be would be...Clark. But how would he even get involved in all this?

Oh well, Bruce thought as his body was announcing to his employees “I’d like to thank everyone for all your hard work. And for maintaining this project’s secrecy. Now please set all systems to pilot control, and you can all go home.” I’ll find out soon enough. “That’s it, we’re done. Thank you.”

Sure enough, as soon as the scientists were out of eye and earshot he was directed to say, “Everybody’s gone. We’re alone,” into the microphone, and moved to stand in front of the robot’s secret hiding place.

As the alien robot removed itself from its holding chamber Bruce definitely saw more movement at the doorway, but didn’t bother to hide his thoughts anymore. The being was far more interested in disposing of Bruce Wayne than bothering to know what he was thinking about.

“Well done Mr. Wayne,” the robot intoned, while charging up its beam weapon. “Your usefulness to me has ended.”

Suddenly Batman’s grappling line circled around his outstretched arms and diverted them away from Bruce’s body. Bruce looked to see who it was who had come to his rescue and there they were, Batman and Robin. But it wasn’t Dick in his suit as he had initially thought, no, though it should have been difficult to tell, he knew at first glance that it was Clark --Superman-- in his suit. And it was that image that was now seared into his consciousness.

Clark Kent wearing his suit, straining (probably with human strength) to hold the robot captive, speaking in a perfect rendition of Batman’s deep baritone. He had somehow managed to hit all the buttons Bruce didn’t even know he had!

--

After Brainiac is destroyed, the sudden onslaught of information and ability to control his body again after three weeks of only controlling his brain is too much and he faints. He later uses this event to justify having no memory of what had taken place, pretending he had had no control over his body whatsoever. It could possibly be used for tactical advantage later on, but he would be lying to himself if it wasn’t also an excuse to run away from that splendid image.

When he woke up back at the cave it was almost a relief to see Superman back in his usual uniform. But even as he was leaving, saying, “I have to say, for a guy who’s supposed to be such a loner, you sure know how to pick a partner,” Bruce found himself imagining the Boyscout was in all black instead. And couldn’t help pondering the other kinds of partners he has and wondering if Superman would be inclined to be one of them.

[shezowhero]

Static Shock Appreciation Week 2018 Day 1. Favorite Comic or Show Storyline. Part 2 cause part 1 was getting too long.

For the show my favorite storylines/episodes are Grounded, Gear, Frozen Out, Jimmy, She-bang episodes, and League of their Own part one and two. There are more episodes I like but these are the ones that stand out to me the most.

Grounded: I this episode cause it’s one of the funnier episodes. It was nice seeing Virgil and Richie being science bros. They are both smart but some times the show forgets that. This is where my love for Frieda comes from. I actually liked her since the beginning but this episode made like her more. Rewatching this episode make me wish they did more with Frieda being a reporter in the show cause there’s a lot you can do with that.

Gear: You can tell that throughout the show up until this episode that Richie really wants to be a superhero. I kinda think Richie was jealous of Virgil for getting powers and becoming hero. So it was nice seeing Riche permanently become a superhero. I’ve always liked Richie but I think he became more interesting when he became Gear.

Out of all the special episodes Frozen Out and Jimmy are my favorites. They both did a really job of tackling the issues they deal with, homelessness, bullying and gun violence. I really like Permafrost. I wish she wasn’t a one off character cause she’s interesting. I wish she appeared again. I don’t hate any characters from the show but if I did, it would be the bullies from Jimmy. I feel bad for Jimmy. He’s a nice kid. Frieda was cute in this episode. I wish they kept her eyes green. Besides the episode Duped and her short appearance in Frozen Out this is the most we’ve seen of Frieda seen the beginning of season one. This was the last episode of season two.

The She-Bang episodes. I like the episodes with She-bang. Rewatching the episodes with her recently makes me wish they did more with her character. She’s should’ve been a recurring character. I’ve seen her get hate but I think she’s cool. I think the show didn’t do enough with her character. I think it’s interesting that she was created in a lab. One of the few things I don’t like is that in the She-Back Shenice is suppose to be annoying but they don’t show her being that annoying. It’s more tell than show. She’s just really excited that she can finally be herself so her friends come off as jerks.

League of their Own Part one and Part two. I really the Justice League so it was cool seeing Static and Gear interact with them. Brainiac wanting to use Richie cause of his powers was interesting. I wish they did more with Static in the of the DCAU cause besides the crossover episodes the show feel like it wasn’t apart of the DCAU. Probably because it wasn’t originally planned to be apart of it until season two. I’m not sure about Unlimited but Justice League was planned out before it aired and Static Shock aired at the same time.

[junker-town]

The most exciting player on every Premier League team this season

Photo by Alex Davidson/International Champions Cup via Getty Images

Get hyped.

I understand your desires. I’m going to make your fantasies come true. I know exactly why you’re here..

YouTube highlight videos with bad EDM. Twenty of them.

Oh hell yeah, it’s that time of year when we’re excited that the Premier League is back, but we haven’t seen enough of most players to have informed opinions. For that reason, we watch mixtapes and convince ourselves that our favorite team’s new signing is going to be a game-changing superstar.

That’s usually not what happens. Nevertheless, these are the players I’m excited to watch and see if they end up being Actually Good.

Arsenal — Dani Ceballos

Imagine if Mesut Özil liked running as much as he likes Fortnite. He’d be ... Dani Ceballos! The Gunners are trying their best to ship their gaming trequartista off to D.C. United and they’ve replaced him with a Real Madrid loanee who’s got plenty of flicks and tricks. Time will tell if Ceballos has the consistent passing vision and physicality to hang in the Premier League, but he’s certainly got the skills.

Aston Villa — Jack Grealish

A lot of people wrote off Grealish when he got into trouble for partying. As it turns out, we shouldn’t base our opinions of people on the stupid things they do when they’re 19. Grealish has grown into a leader, and he looks very ready for his second stint in the Premier League.

AFC Bournemouth — Harry Wilson

I’m not sure if Harry Wilson has enough skills other than finishing to make it as a top Premier League player. Neither is Jürgen Klopp, or else Wilson wouldn’t be on loan at Bournemouth. But Wilson is 22 now and he scored 15 goals in the Championship last season, so it’s time to see what he’s capable of.

Brighton & Hove Albion — Neal Maupay

The stats nerds at Brentford unearthed a Ligue 2 gem in Maupay, then flipped him for a 10x profit. Thanks to those brainiacs, we’ll get to see Maupay play in the Prem. He’s a little tank of a man who seems impossible to knock off the ball, and he likes assisting as much as scoring.

Burnley — James Tarkowski

OK, this one is a stretch. I’m sure Burnley supporters are very proud of their solid team that comfortably stayed in the Premier League, and Sean Dyche seems like a good guy, but ... it’s Burnley. There’s not much to get excited about on Burnley. Y’all are boring as hell.

James Tarkowski might find his way onto a top six team at some point, though, if he keeps running down his contract. He makes some excellent last-ditch tackles and is a much better passer than a Burnley center back has any business being.

Crystal Palace — Wilfried Zaha

Zaha is the most established Premier League player on this list, mostly because Palace didn’t make do much in the transfer market and don’t have any promising kids playing more time this year. We’re not going to learn anything new about his game, but he still kicks ass and I love watching him play.

Everton — Moise Kean

After getting told off by his captain at Juventus for complaining about racial abuse, Kean decided to move to a country that at least cares to pretend to not tolerate that kind of shit. He only has about 1,600 Serie A minutes under his belt, so he’s a gamble for Everton at €30 million, but he’s universally regarded as one of the world’s top teenage talents. There’s nothing lacking in Kean’s skillset, he just has to put all of his skills together and translate them into goals and assists.

Leicester City — Filip Benkovic

If you’re wondering why Leicester sold Harry Maguire and didn’t buy a replacement, the reason is Benkovic. The Foxes bought him in anticipation of Maguire’s departure and loaned him out to Celtic, where he played well. How good he is in the mental aspect of the game is very much TBD, but he’s got outrageous physical tools and he’s a solid passer.

Also, holy crap, does this song nail the YouTube highlights music genre or what?

Liverpool — Naby Keita

Keita was fine for Liverpool last season. Perhaps even mildly disappointing. But in case you need a reminder of what he can do, here’s a video of his goals and assists at RB Leipzig. Liverpool are counting on Keita to take a big leap forward in his second Premier League season.

Manchester City — Phil Foden

Pep Guardiola said this summer that Foden’s biggest problem is his manager not playing him enough. It’s not easy for a 19-year-old to get into the Manchester City lineup, but he’ll be eased in as David Silva starts his inevitable decline. We don’t have a big enough sample to know if Foden is Actually Good, but if you squint at this video you’ll swear you’re watching Andres Iniesta.

Manchester United — Marcus Rashford

United selling Romelu Lukaku and not signing another senior attacker was an extremely questionable move, but it’s also a signal of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s faith in Rashford. The selection dilemmas are over: Rashford is the guy. He’s also not going to have excuses made for him anymore, not at 21 years old with three seasons in the first team behind him. This is supposed to be the year that Rashford makes a massive leap.

Newcastle United — Joelinton

I really question spending £40 million on a guy with average stats when you have extremely limited transfer resources. But it’s not my money, and I don’t really care if Newcastle wins games or not. What I do care about is watching fun soccer games, and yooooo this dude is FUN. Joelinton is a giant brick house of a striker who wishes he was Neymar, and I hope he ends up being really good.

Norwich City — Max Aarons

Really looking forward to watching the future Tottenham Hotspur right back grow during his first season in the Premier League.

:)

Sheffield United — Oliver McBurnie

McBurnie comes with some red flags. He didn’t really do anything until his age-22 season, when he massively overperformed expected goals and didn’t get that many shots off. But he’s a big dude who gets on the end of balls in the 6-yard box a lot, so maybe he’ll keep scoring? I have no idea!

Southampton — Che Adams

The Saints have a clear transfer philosophy again. Ralph Hasenhüttl and his staff are betting on themselves to turn elite physical talents with incomplete skillsets into stars. Moussa Djenepo, Kevin Danso and Che Adams all fall into that category, but Adams is the one most expected to make an immediate contribution.

There isn’t much to his game other than hitting the truck stick and scoring bangers, but he has flashed the ability to dribble past people, set up teammates, and pressure defenders. Hopefully the Southampton staff can make him a more well-rounded player.

Tottenham Hotspur — Tanguy Ndombele

We haven’t seen Ndombele play in the Premier League yet, so it’s possible his skills don’t translate and he becomes an average player. But I’m pretty confident that he’s actually Clarence Seedorf and Arturo Vidal fused together to make one SuperMidfielder.

Watford FC — Ismaila Sarr

Damn, has this dude got the jets or what? Sarr is one of the best players I’ve ever seen at almost coming to a dead stop, then getting back to top speed in about two steps. Ligue 1 fullbacks look dumbfounded.

West Ham United — Pablo Fornals

I’m not sure why a better team didn’t sign Fornals, and for more than £25 million. He’s a modern, balanced attacking midfielder with no holes in his game. The goals and assists look nice, but he also completes forward passes that consistently beat defenders, and does more defensive work than most creative No. 10s. He can play in any midfield alignment, and doesn’t need the team to be structured around him like a lot of players in his role. I like him a lot.

Wolverhampton Wanderers — Morgan Gibbs-White

Video game players know. Gibbs-White wasn’t a regular starter for Wolves last season, but still made 26 appearances and flashed some real brilliance. Expect him to get a lot more starts and provide assists this campaign.

[frasier-crane-style]

Mo’ Superman TAS, Mo’ Problems

SSeason 2

1-2: Blasts From The Past

Ugh... that’s the best title they could come up with for their season premiere?

One of the quirks of the DC Universe, in all its frequently crappy forms, is that in addition to there being seven Zods, there are about twenty evil Kryptonian characters that amount to being the Zod, Non, and Ursa from the Donner movies. This holds true as late as Supergirl, where Non, of all people, showed up as a Not!Zod. Here, Zod is Jax-Ur and Ursa/Faora is Mala (just to make things even more convoluted, this is the name of a male Kryptonian in the comics).

This arc has the novel twist that instead of a Phantom Zone criminal being released by misfortune, Superman realizes that Mala’s sentence is up and paroles her. Things quickly go amiss when she realizes he’s in love with Lois instead of her--given that Clark and Lois aren’t officially in a relationship, is it not a bit creepy that he chooses to obsess over her from afar instead of pursuing a relationship with an interested woman like Lana or, yeah, Mala? Maybe he heard about the gender-swapping thing and just isn’t into that. Mala releases her old CO, Jax-Ur, and they go at it.

3: The Promethean

Superman fights a kaiju.

4: Speed Demons

Wally West! Yes, it’s not Michael Rosenbaum, but still! And him being something of an obnoxious jerk here, but more of a sweetheart by the time of JL is actually in keeping with his comic book character arc. Man, it’s crazy how just... not obsessed with the Silver Age DC was at the time. The Flash and Green Lantern show up and they’re just Wally West and Kyle Rayner, that’s it. Kyle even gets the first human GL origin story instead of being a legacy hero. I don’t think DC would ever let one of their properties get away with that these days. And wasn’t ‘the Flash’ in Smallville actually Bart Allen? Jesus.

5: Livewire

Livewire was supposed to be the breakout character of Superman, the same way Harley Quinn was for Batman, but I think that actually turned out being Mercy Graves. Livewire just... she’s okay. The shock jock thing had to have been instantly dated and it’s hard to buy there being a rabid fanbase for an anti-Superman radio personality right smack dab in the middle of Metropolis. Plus, Lori Petty just isn’t as strong a performer as Arleen Sorkin. Her Livewire is just too one-note and even grating in comparison to Harley’s rich and well-rounded personality. What did Supergirl end up reinventing her as? Some kind of mean anti-feminist because women who make fun of other women are evil unless they’re Cat Grant? Ehhh. 

6: Identity Crisis

Bizarro shows up as a flawed clone of Superman, named by a somewhat OOC Mercy Grant. Also, your childhood is ruined as you realize that Bizarro was as smart and heroic as Superman for a good while, before suffering the equivalent of severe brain damage. Superman, stop, you’re beating up a disabled man!

7: Target

Lois Lane gets a stalker. Seriously, stalkers, of all the people you could stalk, Superman’s beau? The baddie in question is Edward Lytener, who naturally becomes the evil light-themed Luminus. By his second appearance, he was reduced to the Mysterio chic of creating ‘hard light’ holograms of pirate ships and Old West bars to fight Superman in, so no wonder this guy never made it to the comics.

8: Mxyzpixilated

Great episode. Mxy shows up to essentially be the Coyote to Superman’s Roadrunner, with Superman getting to be cold as shit in sending Mxy back within a minute basically every time they match wits. Good to see Big Blue getting his Sherlock on.

9: Action Figures

Metallo again. He has amnesia. It doesn’t last. Was Metallo the most common supervillain Superman faced, besides the technicality of Lex Luthor? He comes across like the Shocker to Superman’s 90s Spidey. 

10: Double Dose

Livewire again, and she teams up with Parasite. I wonder if they were trying to recreate the Joker/Harley relationship on some level. Basically, Parasite wants to fuck/rape Livewire, but she won’t let him unless he kills Superman. Cracked Presents: Top Five Times Your Childhood Was Raped And You Didn’t Even Know It.

11: Solar Power

That Luminus again. When will he ever learn? He doesn’t even care about Lois anymore, he just wants revenge against Superman, which kills any interest his character might’ve had.

12: Brave New Metropolis

Yes, even TAS did the ‘Lois dead = evil Superman’ story. Here, Superman teams up with Luthor despite knowing he was a scoundrel from literally day one, but at least Lex was lying to him about just how bad their dictatorship was, so Supes didn’t break that bad.

13: Monkey Fun

You ever think that if Superman were real, he’d be like “guys, can we quit obsessing over that time I fought a giant monkey? I have lots of other villains that I fight!” Now I demand that Titano appear on Supergirl. I want to see the writers try to turn him into a metaphor for the perils of online dating or something. Shut up and take my money!

14: Ghost In The Machine

Sort of a character episode for Mercy. Here, she was an orphan plucked from the streets rather than the Amazon she was implied to be in the comics, which is a seriously weird canon wrinkle that I think might’ve been entirely thrown down the memory hole. And that Brainiac is back, forcing Lex to build him a new body. 

[incorrectmlpquotes]

I watched My Little Pony: Equestrian Girls (2013)

Or: This wasn’t what I signed up for when I started watching this show, but now I’m suckered in.

If I was better at planning things, I would have started with this review. But, here we are.

Some history As stated previously, I was not exactly excited to watch the Equestrian Girls movie (mainly because this commercial still haunts my nightmares). It was a lot better than I had expected, but that doesn’t mean it does;t have flaws. Lots and lots of flaws. The biggest of which being: this feels like fan fiction. Now, let me elaborate: I have seen a lot of people compare works to fan fiction implying that it’s bad or poorly written. That is not at all true or fair. Fan fiction can be complex and well-written and way more interesting than a lot of published fiction. But there are certain thing s a writer can get away with in fan fiction that doesn’t work in other writing. For example, in stories based on, say, a popular tv show, you don’t need to go into detail about a character’s appearance or characteristics because the reader already knows all of those details. A good writer uses a pre-established world and people to get right to the meat of a story and explore other aspects of them. That would be fine, except this movie was intended to be a back-door pilot to a new show.  Let that sink in: they wanted to take a familiar and complex universe with a unique premise and make a high school au. 

The high school au is actually an easy to understand phenomenon. The advice most given to young writers is “write what you know.” I’m not going to discuss whether or not this is good advice, but it does explain a few things. The average age for fan fiction writers is 12-20. What do people in this age know a lot about? The building they spend eight hours a day, five days a week for sixteen years sitting in, thinking about tv shows. Why shouldn’t they write bout their favorite characters doing the same? The problem arises when Hollywood executives who haven’t been in a high school for thirty years decide to screw up a simple concept by taking your favorite characters and using every high school cliche in the book. They do that so often in this movie, I made a bingo game for it. Feel free to play along:

Enough stalling, to the movie:

The film starts with the princess summit. If you didn’t see the (I can’t believe I’m writing this) controversial season three finale where resident brainiac Twilight Sparkle becomes a princess alicorn, too bad. This is not explained and will be a pretty important plot point. It is nice that they give some brief characterization at the beginning, but they don’t say the other Mane Six’s names. Didn’t this come out in theaters? A movie- even one based off a tv show- should provide this information so if someone who’s never seen the show watches it, they can understand the references. The Rugrats movies did it, the Wild Thornberrys movie did it,  and this movie should have done it.

Perchance could this hooded figure that’s creeping about after dark be a villain? Meet Sunset Shimmer. She was Princess Celestia’s  pupil who went rogue after her desire for great power overtook her good nature. Sound familiar?

No? Good

Ah plot contrivances . I understand that these are the bedrock to most movies based in magical universes, but it shouldn’t make me think “how convenient” every five minutes. Maybe I wouldn’t feel this way if it were actually explained what a moon means. They have days. They have months. They have years. HOW LONG IS A MOON? EXPLAIN YOUR UNIT OF TIME, EQUESTRIA!!!

Ok, Twilight’s reaction to being turned in to a human (?) is hilarious. I read that the writers made Spike a dog to avoid the weird dragon age implication, and it is pretty funny, but why does he know how she should act in this world? (And why does that outfit make her look like an anime character?)

I know they needed to get all the characters we the audience are familiar with into one long sight gag, but why is Diamond Tiara in a high school?  How do ages translate in this universe? It’s things like this that reinforce the fan fiction argument

About the songs in this: they’re not great. They aren’t terrible by any means, but after season three (I actually quite enjoyed the songs in the finale) it’s a tad dissappointing

Over fourteen minutes in and we finally get to meet the Mane 6 doppelgängers and the villain antagonist of the piece. Aaaaand she’s a one-dimensional mean girl stereotype. Twilight can fight the literal spirit of chaos, but can she survive Regina George?

Actual Disney Princess Fluttershy. But how does she carry around any books without crushing those animals? My high school backpack would have squished Angel bunny

Princess Celestia: thousand year old omniscient being who raises the sun, demoted to a public high school principal. Not even a school board super intendant. It sucks to be you, babe. That design is beyond hideous btw

The instant they said “princess”, I just knew we were in for a ride. Look, that was the easiest comparison for what was going on in the MLP-verse, but the princess of a dance doesn’t really do anything. They get their pictures the school paper, and maybe the yearbook and that’s all. It’s not like she’s running for class president or something that would actually affect the student body

So are they seniors? There are three pictures of Sunset winning the title, so… 

The moments of self-awareness are really jarring, especially because the principal just spoke to a new student without asking for transcripts or grades or anything

You know, maybe show a little more than just one scene of making Fluttershy cry (a feat so easy her pet rabbit does it on a regular basis) if you want me to believe that Sunset is so mean and scary. She’s not exactly Heather Chandler

If there is one phrase that needs to be expunged from screen-writers’ vocabulary, it is “rule the school.” It is quite possibly the single worst cliche I have ever seen and is usually the worst part of any high school movie. Maybe if Sunset was using her magic to control these people it would be different, but we don’t see that. The lunch room would be the perfect setting to showcase how she divides people in order to keep them weak (a la the Hunger Games), but no such luck

Some hilarious foreshadowing at the hands of Pinkie, and some flat exposition from Applejack. We get it! Sunset is a mean girl! Those exist, but it doesn’t make her an all-powerful villain! So far Rainbow Dash has been presented as a better antagonist than her. Your close friend can do more to stab you in the back than someone who’s shows up just complain about decorations

Sunset disrespected the cider! Kick her ass, AJ!

I’m really glad they found the only poorly-lit corner of the school to have the confrontation scene. But honestly, isn’t running unopposed kind of a pathetic way to win? Like, wouldn’t Sunset rather crush someone on her way to victory to establish dominance? The addition of the new mythos as to what happens when an element of harmony is brought to another universe is actually a nice addition, but I bet we won’t hear about it again until the climax    

So the Main 6 5 were friends and something split them apart? I bet it must be something very serious to divide such a close friend group. Or perhaps a simple yet frustrating misunderstanding that ruins all suspense. Probably the latter. That photo of the younger characters is the most adorable thing i’ve ever seen, though

The moment I’ve been waiting thirty two minutes for: Rarity’s appearance! And it took me that long to figure out that they are basically all wearing the same outfit. I think this might be the case of designing for the merchandise before designing the characters: Doll skirts are waaaaaay easier to sew than doll pants, and those knee-high boots mean less anatomy to worry about. Did that toy line take off? I feel like I never see them in stores...

I suppose I should be asking why the school would care about someone they’ve never met doing something embarassing on a video, but in real life everyone would just assume Twilight was on drugs. Also, I’m pretty sure smear campaigns would get you disqualified from the race

So technology ruined their friendship. That’s not what’s said, but that is what’s being implied

This is the biggest example of how you can get by without detailed characterization in fan fiction but not published writing: the audience know what element each pony doppelgänger stands for because they’ve had three seasons to earn that trait. These characters have not. For the most part, none of them have even slightly acted like them. Rarity’s really the only one, being generous and helping someone she had never met hide from the crowd who has come to mock her shame. I suppose Fluttershy was kind, but Twilight stood up for her first and she was kind of just returning the favor. Applejack has’t had the chance to be honest (providing exposition does not count), Pinkie was visibly angry at one point, and and ending a friendship over a petty squabble is the exact opposite of loyalty. Rainbow Dash would not have ended the feud if Twilight hadn’t intervened. I know this is a seventy minute movie and they have to move the story along, but maybe have less montages and more exploration of character. Friendship is Magic parts 1 and 2 was only forty five minutes only and they managed to introduce a new world, characters, and a plot setup while keeping the story going

And just like that, the conflict is resolved. Rainbow’s design is HORRIBLE. What is up with that skirt? And more importantly: how does being bad at a sport mean you will be a good princess? Wouldn’t her willingness to fix a friendship say more about her character? 

 On to the annoying blue elephant in the room: I hate Flash Sentry. I hate him as a character plot device and I have no use for him. Here is what I have written in my notes for this scene:

Looking past the fact that only one main character has ever shown an interest in a romantic relationship, watching the normally competent and intelligent Twilight act awkward around a boy who (need I remind you) is a different species than she, makes me sick to my stomach. If you like him: fine. If you ship them: whatever. I do not care. This is not the worst ship I have seen come out of this show/movie, but he has no personality or character. He is generic “boy” character who could have been written out and the movie would have been the same. Every time he is in a scene, I roll my eyes and groan. That is all I’m going to say about him

Rarity being overly dramatic gives me life, but the speech about unity just beats you over the head with the movie’s message. I get the comparison, but being part of a school is not the same thing as being a part of a community or kingdom. The second you graduate, you stop caring about your high school. School pride is not the same thing as nationalism

So just to be clear: girl messes up using a copier = comedy gold. Group sings a frankly embarrassing song to the entire lunchroom = best thing ever, let’s vote for her. In real life, the principal would have just walked in and suspended all of them

Why on earth would they manually doctor the photos? It would be so much work to cut those things out. Is there no photoshop equivalent in this world? Why leave a paper trail? But, on the plus side, here is an actual dilemma! Twilight has to figure out another- Oh wait no, let’s resolve that instantly by having Blue Hair McThiscouldhavebeenliterallyanyone find the photos. It’s almost as if this scene was pointless.

Don’t flirt in front of the administer! Geez

Oh look, more conflict. Twilight has to get the crown and leave tonight. Maybe that scene did have a point. Some actual stakes, if this changed the plan to get the crown. But it doesn’t. We know they are going to redecorate the gym. This is just slowing down the plot and taking time away from developing the characters

This is a genuinely sweet scene with Spike. It is one of the best scenes in the whole movie, and it brings up a good point: Twilight feels alone because she is the only one who understands the full weight of what getting (or more importantly: possibly losing)  the crown means, in this universe and her home. But she’s not alone because the people who are depending on her will support her and try to help no matter what the outcome is

HOW LONG IS THIRTY MOONS?!?!

Oh Pinkie Pie. You majestic creature

Oh my gosh, an actually appropriate reactions to a talking animal! Wow. Usually a movie like this would just have a character say, “huh, weird” and no one would react

So the conflict is once again resolved quickly. The problem is no more. This was slightly more satisfying because is did require other people to assist in fixing the gym, thereby bringing the divided school together, but it happened in one musical number. When you rush important plot points, they lose significance

Well, Twilight has six hours until she potentially loses her magic crown to the villain and is stuck in this world while Sunset takes over Equestrian, so IT’S TIME FOR A MAKEOVER MOTAGE!

The animals are helping Fluttershy get ready- this is proof she is a Disney Princess!

Ah yes, the formal cowboy hat. A staple of every dance

I don’t know anyone in real life who’s actually taken a limo to a dance

Remember how I said I wasn’t going to talk about Flash again? Well, I lied. His car screams “douche”, but his personality screams nothing at all because ewe know nothing about this character except he plays the guitar. Granted, that’s usually the amount of info we got about the love interest in a late nineties teen flick, but this isn’t one of those. Maybe instead of that soccer scene, they could have provided reasons for me to care about whether Twilight will dance with him. Just saying

The moment you’ve all been waiting for since it was set up in the first act has arrived. I know you were all on the edge of your seat wondering if Twilight would win. 

Suspense is a tricky thing to do well. You need to build up to it without constantly reminding the audience to the point that they no longer care about it. There is a quote by Alfred Hitchcock that I’m not going to put in its entirety, but here’s the link, that basically says you can’t have a big Thing happen with no buildup. We know that something potentially bad could happen if Sunset gets the crown, but the majority of the movie has been about this darn dance. You almost forget just why Twilight wants to win, other than this is a high school movie. When you only leave fifteen minutes for the climax, with little to no build up (do we even know what Sunset can do?) it’s going to be unsatisfying. I might be putting way to much thought into this kids movie. But wait, no I’m not. This show is not one of the time-wasting cartoons of yore. It covers complex subjects and serious topics, so pardon me if I expect more out of them than cliche after cliche

In a rare display of actual villainy, Sunset offers Twilight a way home in exchange for the crown. This leads to one of the few scenes that shows her self-sacrifice: Twilight cares more about the safety of her home and her friends than her own comfort. I question what has Sunset actually accomplished there that’s so bad, but Twilight is acting noble (and I mean that in the most unsarcastic was possible)

And she just steals the crown. And becomes the most hilarious looking demon ever

How has no one pulled out their cell phone and videotaped this yet?

I question how effective the army of easily wounded humans would be against Equestrian, which is full of creatures who have magic, hooves, and stabbing horns, but whatever

What’s this? Could it be… the magic of friendship? Whoever could have guessed?

This magical pony transformation scene will really come back to haunt me (but at least no one said pony up)

If I’m being fair, this is basically what happened at the end of Friendship is Magic, part 2

So no one’s going to question what just happened? Has the internet desensitized them that much? Don’t act like you know what’s going on Celestia! And How are they going to explain the destroyed property to the insurance company?

Well, the evil has been defeated so it’s time for Twilight to go through the portal and return home. But not without a quick dance first

This scene is cute, I guess. And it is canon that Twilight can’t dance in horse form either

What was their backup plan if Twilight failed? Just wait around there?

Oh good, Twilight has the adventure of a lifetime so let’s end the movie on a really important note: talking about a boy. There’s your moral.

I know I nitpicked a lot (and overused “in real life”) but I do enjoy Equestria Girls. The first time I watched this movie, I was significantly more harsh than I should have been. It’s cute and mostly harmless, with some genuinely funny scenes. Despite the many many plot holes, it is an alright beginning to the series and most of the issues I took with this get resolved in later movies. The antagonist might me mostly absent and doesn’t play a huge role until the last fifteen minutes, but It’s worth sitting through this nonsense to see Sunset’s redemption arc. I don’t know how this would be as a standalone TV show, but there is a line of comics based on it that you can check out.  3.2/5 You know, for a universe that has a character named Cranky Doodle Donkey, Flash Sentry is still the worst name I have seen for a fictional character (and until I rewatched for this review, I thought his name was Flash Century). Here are some unused zingers I had for him: Flash Sentry sounds like a boy band from the early 2000s Flash Sentry sounds like a Flash Gordon fan fiction title Flash Sentry sounds like the name of a bankrupt film company Flash Sentry sounds like a character from Zoolander Flash Sentry sounds like a villain from Rocky IV Flash Sentry sounds like the name of a Fallout Boy song Flash Sentry sounds like the name of a horse that’s predicted to win the Triple Crown but trips during the Belmont … oh, I guess that joke’s not so funny when he’s actually a horse. But enough about me, what did you think? Were there too many scenes of Twilight not understanding the new world, or did those make the movie? Did Trixie have the best line in the entire movie? Will I get the sequel recap up in a timely manner?

[sultrysstash-blog]

Cartoon Movies List

Venom Space Jam Who Framed Roger Rabbit The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman Journey towards the center of the Earth Cartoon movies include great humor, song as well as dance sequences, and many importantly, the particular content isn't violent and explicit. Scooby-Doo as well as the Legend of the Vampire Final Fantasy: The Actual Spirits Within Jack and additionally the Witch Tom along with Jerry: Any Nutcracker Tale Oliver Twist Jiminy Cricket's Christmas The Reluctant Dragon (1941) Return to become able to Oz Futurama: Bender's Large Score 2003 Marco Polo Junior Versus the Red Dragon Of Stars along with Men Doctor Strange Wilfred Jackson (1948) Stuart little 3: call with the Wild Rime in the Ancient Mariner After College Tinker Bell Chhota Bheem and the Curse involving Damyaan My little Pony: Your Movie The Jungle Guide 2 2002 Starchaser: The Particular Legend involving Orin Monster Evelyn Lin Mash Mickey's Christmas Carol Book involving Life Scooby-Doo Meets the actual Boo Brothers The Adventures of Buratino (1959) Hemo the actual Magnificent (1957) Scooby-Doo upon Zombie Island Scooby-Doo throughout Arabian Nights Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Although they actually do use computers to render graphics, however which simply adds to the rich detail regarding 2D techniques. Additionally they are a testament regarding immense creativity involving storytellers in which a new movie with an innovative storyline is launched almost every 2 years. Aliens Scooby-Doo and in addition the Ghoul School Cloudy using a Likelihood involving Meatballs Shrek Permanently After Hoodwinked! DuckTales: Treasure with the Golden Suns Akira Madagascar 3: Europe's The Majority Of Wanted The Secret of Magic Island (1956) Dead Space: Aftermath Shrek 2 Rock-a-Doodle Alpha along with Omega 2: A New Howl-iday Adventure The Fantastic Mouse Detective Pocahontas The Pied Piper regarding Hamelin Mr. Limpet Star Wars: Your Clone Wars Beauty and the Beast Romeo & Juliet: Sealed with a Kiss 2007 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure Mulan The Jungle Book Rise with the Guardians Evil Toons Tom as well as Jerry: This Great Time Ring Asterix the particular Gaul Everybody Rides the particular Carousel Beauty and also the Beast: Your Enchanted Christmas The Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy Show The Wizard of Oz Mars Wants Moms 1980 Lady and in addition the Tramp (1955) Klay World: Off your Table The Brave Small Toaster towards the Rescue The Nutcracker Prince A Near Shave Is Presently there Intelligent Existence upon Earth? Charlotte's Web Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don't Occur Back!!) The Lord of the Rings Gladiators associated with Rome The Enchanted Boy (1955) Race regarding The Life, Charlie Brown The Invincible Iron Man Lil' Pimp Rudolph and Frosty's Christmas inside July I Want a new Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown The Cosmic Eye Cinderella III: Any Twist throughout Time Tom and also Jerry as well as the Wizard associated with Oz South Park: Bigger, longer & Uncut The Flintstones Meet Rockula as well as Frankenstone Kronk's New Groove Robotech: The Actual Movie The Terrain before Moment XIII: The Particular Wisdom of Friends My little Pony: The Actual Princess Promenade Tarzan The H2o Babies 1970 Superman vs. Toad (1949) Justice League: The Newest Frontier Titan A.E. Strange Frame: love & Sax Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves The Adventures involving Sinbad The Orphan Brother (1961) Heidi Rudolph the particular Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Particular Movie Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Particular three Musketeers Beloved Attractiveness (1958) Coonskin Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost Darkwing Duck: Darkly Dawns your Duck Batman: 12 Months One 2013 Pinocchio and in addition the Emperor in the Night The Lifestyle & Adventures involving Santa Claus Tom as well as Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes Hansel and Gretel: An Opera Fantasy (1954) The Wacky world of Mother Goose Tarzan II Pinocchio Dante's Inferno Robotech: The Actual Shadow Chronicles Doraemon: Nobita zero Himitsu D?gu Museum Winnie the particular Pooh Abra Cadabra The Hunchback regarding Notre Dame Free Birds A Bug's Life Battle with regard to Terra Journey Again to Oz The Croods Scooby Should Go Hollywood Horton Hears the Who! The Batman vs Dracula: The Particular Animated Movie Sinbad: Legend with the Seven Seas Pokmon: Destiny Deoxys Starship Troopers: Invasion The Amazing Mr. These People have begun to utilize motion capture technology to display accurate facial expressions inside animated movies, generating your characters appear life-like. However, even if the plot is serious, animated movies are generally supposed to be relaxed as well as entertaining, even however they are fiercely critiqued through the critics. Though any fully computer-aided animated movie named Toy Story came out in 1995, filmmakers didn't abandon your standard style altogether. This kind of makes them safe being watched simply by children of all ages, although the movies with adult themes do call for parental guidance. the particular Sword associated with Justice Peter Pan (1953) Planes The Flight associated with Dragons Winnie your Pooh and a Day pertaining to Eeyore Bambi II 2004 TaleSpin: Plunder & Lightning Cinderella The Highway in order to El Dorado Phineas and Ferb: Across the actual 2nd Dimension 1965 1950-55 Olive, the actual Some Other Reindeer Seer 2 The Terrain Prior To time IV: Journey Via the Mists Fantasia (1940) Here Arrives Peter Cottontail The Proud family Movie The little Motor Which Could Son involving Alladin Dumbo (1941) The wonderful Globe involving Puss 'n Boots Bigfoot as well as the Muscle Mass Machines Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness Monster Mondo Plympton Tom as well as Jerry: Blast Off for you to Mars Pokmon: Jirachi Wishmaker Gnomes Turok: Son associated with Stone Open Season The Pirate Fairy Tarzan with the Apes Cars Arthur Christmas Frankenweenie Scooby-Doo! and in addition the Goblin King Norm of the North INDEX William Hanna The Adventures involving Tintin Asterix along with Cleopatra Krishna 1979 It Has Been I Which Drew the particular little Man (1960) Asterix throughout Amerika Freddie as F.R.O.7 Mighty Ducks the Movie: the First Face-Off Cheech & Chong's Animated Movie A Flintstone Christmas The Phantom Tollbooth Justice League: Crisis upon 2 Earths Persepolis The Lion King 1 Turbo The Nightmare Just Before Christmas Dinosaur Pooh's Heffalump Movie Robert Cormack (1946) Robin Hood: Quest For Your King Beavis as well as Butt-head Do America Santa Claus Will Be Comin' in order to Town The Adventures associated with Ichabod and Mr. Joe: Valor vs. Bickford The Princess as well as the Frog TMNT The Princess and furthermore the Pea Codename: Kids Subsequent Door: Operation Z.E.R.O Yogi's Fantastic Escape Scooby-Doo! and the Samurai Sword Monsters University 1996 Snow White Christmas Iron Man: Rise associated with Technovore 1984 The Fox and the Hound 2 The fairly OddParents: Abra-Catastrophe! Mickey's When On a Christmas Justice League: Doom Escape coming from Cluster Prime Toy Story The Toe Tactic 2009 1994 The Rugrats Movie Home about the Range Ratatouille Superman: Brainiac Attacks Ice Age Afro Samurai: Resurrection Tiny Toon Adventures: The Method I Invested My Vacation The Legend regarding Frosty the particular Snowman The Ugly Duckling Alice within Wonderland: What's the Issue Along With Hatter? The Swan Princess: the Mystery of the Enchanted Treasure Batman: Below the particular Red Hood The Prodigy Jonah: a VeggieTales Movie Brave The Legend of Robin Hood The Thief and in addition the Cobbler The Lion, the Witch as well as the Wardrobe Sinbad: Beyond the actual Veil regarding Mists Legend of the Guardians: The Particular Owls regarding Ga'Hoole War of the Worlds: Goliath The 3 Musketeers Throughout Boots The Scarlet Flower (1952) How to always be able to Train your Dragon 2 The Lorax The Snow Queen's Revenge 1973 The Shepherdess as well as the Chimney Sweep (1952) Meet your Robinsons 1975 Alice associated with Wonderland in Paris The Nuttiest Nutcracker 2012 Beowulf Yogi Bear's all Star Comedy Christmas Caper The Snow Maiden (1952) Aladdin and the King associated with Thieves Alpha and Omega Frozen Santa as well as the 3 Bears The Home of Magic Alakazam the particular great (1960) 1987 A Goofy Movie Tangled Planes: Fire & Rescue 1982 1001 Arabian Nights (1959) 1971 Pinocchio's Christmas Garfield: His 9 Lives Daffy Duck's Quackbusters Tinker Bell Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron Adam 2 The Nonexistent Knight Alice inside Wonderland (1951) Hellboy: Blood along with Iron The Incredibles Dick Deadeye, or perhaps Duty Done The Adventures of the American Rabbit Dwegons Buzz Lightyear involving Star Command: The Actual Adventure Begins 1992 Megamind The Smurfs and the Magic Flute Hey Arnold!: Your Movie Piglet's Huge Movie Jetsons: Your Movie 1983 Yogi and the Invasion in the space Bears DuckTales the Movie: Treasure with the Lost Lamp Bartok the actual Magnificent Aladdin 1976 The Snow Queen (1957) A Tale of A Pair Of Toads Chicken Little The Fox and furthermore the Hound Oliver & Company Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales Monster House The Illusionist Popeye's Voyage: Your Quest for Pappy Animal Farm (1954) Benny's Bathtub Rango The three Musketeers The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie The Drawn Collectively Movie: The Actual Movie! Ultimate Avengers 2 Hellboy Animated: Sword of Storms Heaven and also Earth Magic (1962) Puss inside Boots Snoopy, Occur Home Ed, Edd n Eddy's Large Picture Show Pinocchio Monsters, Inc. Rugrats Go Wild! Happy Feet Two Kangaroo Jack: G'Day U.S.A.! How to Train your Dragon Stand Through Me Doraemon Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Actual search with regard to Christopher Robin Johnny the actual Giant Killer (1950) Tubby your Tuba Pirates of Darkish Water: Your Saga Begins Handling Ships (1945) The Fantastic Wizard involving Oz Mickey's Residence associated with Villains Mad Monster Party Leo the actual Lion: King with the Jungle Shock Invasion Willy McBean and his Magic Machine Cloudy with a Opportunity of Meatballs 2 Wizards Where the Dead Go for you to Die 1972 Heart String Marionette 1988 G.I. Evil Gulliver's Travels Aeneid Zarafa The Chipmunk Adventure Modern Animation Mr. Any classic example of this can be your Batman: The Particular Animated Series franchise along with its spin-offs. Computers get revolutionized animated feature films, a luxury yesteryear could not afford. The Actual techniques employed here ranged from your exhaustively rich in depth complete animation simply by Walt Disney to the efficient and also budget-friendly techniques employed by Hanna-Barbara. This specific helps to create the occupation of making a set of very best animated movies every 1 involving the a lot more difficult. Old Cartoon Movies The Territory Prior To Occasion II: The Genuinely Amazing Valley Adventure The Rescuers A Cat in Paris Gargoyles your Movie: Your Heroes Awaken Rio Scooby-Doo as well as the Cyber Chase Next Avengers: Heroes regarding Tomorrow Gulliver's Travels Beyond the actual Moon Ice Age: Dawn in the Dinosaurs The Lion King II: Simba's Pride The Snow Queen Rugrats throughout Paris: Your Movie Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch has any Glitch The Jetsons Meet your Flintstones Victory Via Air power (1943) Superman: Doomsday The Enchanted Village (1956) Waltz together with Bashir Hey There, It's Yogi Bear! "When we constantly inquire regarding miracles, we're unraveling the pad in the world. This kind of had been somewhat limited any decade ago, however using the latest progress throughout CGI technology, the main difference between animated movies and feature films is actually thinning. Enthusiasts still favor the existing 2D type of animation pertaining to DC comics superhero movies. Bug Should Go in order to town (1941) Hotel Transylvania Seer The 3 Musketeers: Saving Your Crown The Return of the King The Rescuers Down Under Rockin' along with Judy Jetson Felix the actual Cat: Your Movie Dot along with Keeto Daffy Duck's Wonderful Island Batman Beyond: Return in the Joker Alice within Wonderland (1949) Bambi (1942) The Tale in the White Serpent (1958) Green Lantern: Emerald Knights 1977 Yogi's Very first Christmas Thumbelina Disney Princess Enchanted Tales: Adhere To Your Current Dreams Beauty and furthermore the Beast Scruffy William Morgan (live-action) (1947) We are the Strange Rio 2 Gumby: The Particular Movie Jack and also the Beanstalk 1969 Taro your Dragon Boy Clifford's Actually Large Movie It's Such any beautiful Day Fire as well as Ice Pokmon: the First Movie A Christmas Carol Scooby-Doo as well as the Reluctant Werewolf An Oversimplification of The Woman's Beauty Dougal and in addition the Blue Cat Sleeping Splendor (1959) The Ant Bully Treasure Planet Black Beauty Dead Space: Downfall Brother Bear Adventures regarding Mowgli Water with regard to Firefighting (1948) A Troll inside Central Park Twice Upon a new Time Scooby-Doo as well as the Monster associated with Mexico (2000 in order to 2014) Exquisite detail-that's what just about any cartoon film buff says if he's questioned about the animation movies associated with today. Yes, there have been movies using less emotion and more techniques, yet filmmakers have kept the essence of the animated movies exactly where it ought to be-the heart. The Terrain before Moment V: The Particular Mysterious Island Scooby-Doo as well as the Alien Invaders Cars 2 http://www.buzzle.com/articles/cartoon-movies-list.html Shark Tale Happily ever after - AKA: Snow White 2 Animalympics Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Gnomeo & Juliet Alvin and also the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein Mulan II The Adventures regarding Mark Twain The Cat within the Hat Thumbelina 2006 Adventures associated with Sinbad your Sailor Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas Asterix: The Particular Property with the Gods Ultramarines: Any Warhammer 40,000 Movie 1985 Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius Naruto your Movie: Guardians with the Crescent Moon Kingdom Magic Gift of the Snowman Monsters vs. Such is the extent for you to which the particular filmmakers are generally likely to entertain the actual audience. a realm of continuous miracles would not be considered a world, it would be considered a cartoon." -Douglas Coupland Animated movies take you to some different world altogether. The Particular primary target audience are kids and small moviegoers, although more mature themes and scripts are attracting adults too. Chill Out, Scooby-Doo! Poe Sinbad Futurama: In To the Wild Green Yonder Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed within at the Residence associated with Mouse The Outback Fritz the Cat Planet 51 Robin Hood Stewie Griffin: Your Untold Story The Boxtrolls Ice Age: Continental Drift Halo Legends 1966 Anastasia Toy Story 3 Tarzan & Jane Tintin and in addition the Lake involving Sharks Despicable Me Ice Age: the Meltdown The Pretty OddParents: Channel Chasers A Boy Named Charlie Brown Arjun: the Warrior Prince Shrek the particular Third The Black Cauldron The Prince regarding Egypt A Christmas Carol The 12 Months (1956) (1940 in order to 1979) These movies laid groundwork for a total generation involving cartoons in which spanned almost 5 decades. the character involving Mike Sully inside the movie Monsters Inc. Unique personal computer farms are generally utilized to method how 1000s of strands regarding curly hair will behave because the character moves within the animated universe. So, you tend to be in the position to think with regards to the variety of sketches that will be needed to acquire a total duration feature! Subsequent time a person watch these classics and also crib in regards to the not enough detail and just how they don't really measure approximately today's higher standards involving filmmaking, just think about the effort the particular cartoonists possess place in to it. Stitch! the Movie Mighty Mouse within the Fantastic Room Chase Batman: The Particular dark Knight Returns - Component 1 Chico as well as Rita Shrek Winnie the Pooh: Seasons associated with Giving Bee Movie Puss within Boots 1974 Flying Phantom Ship Puss 'n Boots Travels around the particular World Heathcliff: The Actual Movie Winnie the particular Pooh: A Really Merry Pooh Year The Mouse and also His Child 2005 The Lorax Skeletor's Revenge Escape coming from Planet Earth An Most Dogs Christmas Carol (1980 to 1999) There had been this moment around involving the late 1980s as well as 1990s exactly where there is any transition inside the type of cartoons. Inside top quality animation, as much as 18 frames could be employed per second. Computers had been just being accustomed to aid animation effects. had reportedly 5 plus a half million strands regarding head of hair upon his body, and a single pc took 670 hours to render 1 2nd of the movie with the character throughout it. The following movies are generally coming from this era, a period within transition, where people finally began to accept the actual digitization regarding cartoon movies. 5 Weeks in a Balloon Garfield's Pet Force The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie Tom Sawyer All-Star Superman Happily N'Ever After 1981 Street Fighter Alpha: Your Movie Dragonlance: Dragons associated with Autumn Twilight Despicable Me 2 Batman Beyond: The Actual Movie Delhi Safari Yogi the particular Easter Bear The Lion King 2008 Naruto Shippuden the Movie: 7 Mighty Raju : Rio Calling The Prince and the Pauper Gulliver's Travels Looney Tunes: back in Action The Secret regarding NIMH Highlander: The Actual Research regarding Vengeance 1993 Thor: Tales of Asgard Tom as well as Jerry: Blast Off to always be able to Mars The Nut Job 1998 2014 Open Season 3 The Stingiest Man within Town The Simpsons Movie The Small Mermaid The Hobbit Batman: Your dark Knight Returns - part 2 The Haunted world regarding El Superbeasto The Jungle Book The Night Prior To Christmas (1951) Puss within Boots Make Mine Songs (1946) A Christmas Carol Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol (1962) Doggie March (1963) Cinderella II: Desires Occur True American Pop The Lego Movie The 12 Months Without Having any Santa Claus Ghatothkach: Master associated with Magic Cowboy Bebop: the Movie The Man Referred In Order To As Flintstone Les Misrables The Easter Bunny is actually Comin' to Town Scooby Doo throughout Where's My Mummy? The Man via Button Willow Kim Possible: Consequently the particular Drama PollyWorld The Cunning Small Vixen Dinotopia: Quest for the Ruby Sunstone The last Unicorn The New Alice inside Wonderland 1986 The 3 Caballeros (1944) Space Chimps Pinocchio in Outer Space Ultimate Avengers Legends regarding Oz: Dorothy's Return The Waterman Movie A Christmas Special A Liar's Autobiography Quantum Quest: A New Cassini Area Odyssey The Ten Commandments Rudolph, your Red-Nosed Reindeer The Polar Express Fun as well as Fancy free (1947) Tom and also Jerry: the Movie Chhota Bheem and in addition the Throne involving Bali GoBots: War in the Rock Lords Arabian Nights: the Adventures involving Sinbad (1962) Osmosis Jones 1990 Modern Classics 2011 Asterix and in addition the Huge Fight Green Lantern: First Flight Sophie's Place Tinker Bell and the great Fairy Rescue James as well as the Giant Peach Madeline: Lost throughout Paris Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland Disney's Halloween Treat Cleopatra: Queen associated with Sex Raggedy Ann & Andy: a Musical Adventure 1968 Kung Fu Panda 2 Robotix: Your Movie Alice throughout Wonderland Winnie the actual Pooh: Springtime along with Roo Bedknobs along with Broomsticks Garfield Will Get a Life One Hundred and 1 Dalmatians (1961) Tom as well as Jerry: Rapid and furthermore the Furry Garfield's Enjoyable Fest Chicken Run 1989 Mutant Aliens Happy Birthday, Garfield Charlotte's Internet 2: Wilbur's Fantastic Adventure Tinker Bell and furthermore the Lost Treasure The Terrain before Period XII: The truly Amazing Day in the Flyers 1995 ParaNorman The Adventures associated with Pinocchio Happy Feet Road to become able to Ninja: Naruto the Movie The Small Mermaid Brother Bear 2 The King along with I Down as well as Dirty Duck A Wish regarding Wings That Will Work Top Cat: The Particular Movie The Adventures involving Pinocchio Aladdin and also His Magic Lamp Futurama: The Actual Beast with a Billion Backs Rudolph the particular Red-Nosed Reindeer and in addition the Island regarding Misfit Toys The Talking Parcel The Twelve Duties of Asterix The big fun Carnival (1957) The Territory Prior To Occasion X: The Fantastic Longneck Migration Yogi Bear and additionally the Magical Flight of the Spruce Goose 1999 We're Back! A New Dinosaur's Story The Wind inside the Willows 1978 Rudolph's Shiny New Year Madagascar Teacher's Pet 2001 Treasure Island Superman/Batman: Apocalypse Seer 3 Princess Twins involving Legendale An Very Goofy Movie Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra-Doo Pinocchio (1940) Madagascar: Escape two Africa 20,000 Leagues Below the Sea Care Bears Movie II: a New Generation The Fool of the Globe and also the Flying Ship 1956-60 The Grinch Grinches the Cat within the Hat Gallavants Fantasia 2000 Mars Finding Nemo 2000 The Tigger Movie The Tale associated with Despereaux Hercules The Final with the Mohicans 1940-1949 The Soldier's Tale Jack Frost Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Kids The Iron Giant The Powerpuff Girls Movie Toy Story 2 Jungle Book: Rikki-Tikki-Tavi for the Rescue Tintin as well as the Temple with the Sun Snow White The Transformers: Your Movie Tarzan My Scene Moves Hollywood Tony Hawk inside Boom Boom Sabotage Over the particular Hedge The Batman vs Dracula: The Actual Animated Movie Dragon Ball Z 10: Broly - second Coming Yellow Submarine Bonjour Paris! (1953) The Sword inside the Stone (1963) Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World 1991 Disaster! Epic The Secret in the Sword Open Season 2 A Deadly Invention (1958) The Mind's Eye: Some Sort Involving Computer Animation Odyssey Superman/Batman: Public Enemies Hans Christian Andersen's the Small Mermaid Wreck-It Ralph The Brave Frog Batman: Gotham Knight Naruto the Movie: Snow Princess' Guide of Ninja Arts 1964 Surf's Up 1997. Peabody & Sherman The Wild 1961-63 The Pirates That Don't Perform Anything: A New VeggieTales Movie Lilo & Stitch Dot as well as the Whale Melody Occasion (1948) A Miser Brothers' Christmas Frosty Returns Care Bears: Huge Wish Movie Care Bears: Reveal Bear Shines 1967 The Nine Lives involving Fritz your Cat Astro Boy: Hero of Space Dragon Ball Z: Battle associated with Gods Ramayana: Your Epic Ark 2010 The Glorious Musketeers All Dogs Go in order to Heaven 2 Kung Fu Panda Planet Hulk WALL-E Antz Livin' It Together With Bratz The Legend involving Hiawatha The Legend of Sasquatch The Many Adventures involving Winnie the Pooh Cinderella (1950) The Point! The Amazing Mr. Unlike today's computer-aided graphics, these movies needed painstaking effort, in the way of cartoon drawings, manually drawn. Using cartoon movies, the storytellers can portray surreal universes, alternate realities, and fantastic scenarios and also stories. the Elite Fantastic Animation Festival Gay Purr-ee (1962) Live Freaky! Die Freaky! Bolt The Crucial (1961) Futurama: Bender's Game Sonic the particular Hedgehog: Your Movie Casper's Haunted Christmas Fullmetal Alchemist: Your Sacred Star involving Milos Sleeping Beauty Shenmue: Your Movie The Night B4 Christmas Hercules: Zero to Hero Foodfight! Wonder Woman Hercules as well as Xena - The Actual Animated Movie: the Battle regarding Mount Olympus Pokmon the Movie: Kyurem vs

[that-shamrock-vibe]

Point of Interest: Why the Legion of Super-Heroes Introduction is Important to the Arrowverse

So with Supergirl on a break as the CW has seen fit to alternate Mondays between Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow in 2018, I thought I'd give my opinion on one of the show's major plot-points this season which is the introduction of the futuristic Legion of Superheroes and also validate why I feel this is one of the shared universe's greatest strengths at present.

Backstory:

So who are The Legion? Well in the comics they debuted in Adventure Comics #237 way back in April 1958 as a team based in the 30th Century who were founded by teenage Superman superfans Lightning Lad, Cosmic Boy and Saturn Girl in honour of their idol Kal-El aka Superman. As the decades have gone on and the fanbase has increased for the team they have become more of a mainstay in the comics and now serve almost as the futuristic version of the Titans or Young Justice team being a law enforcement organisation with its own rules and regulations for protecting the peace.

Throughout the years and several reboots the team has recruited many “Legionnaires” including Superman while he was still teenage Superboy, Brainiac 5, Supergirl, Mon-El and Superboy aka Kon-El. There are also many others however none have been introduced in any media outside the comics or as fan-service cameos when the Legion has appeared in the DC Animated Universe.

Arrowverse Version:

While this isn’t the team’s first appearance in live-action, it is the first major recurring appearance having only made minor appearances or cameos beforehand which I will discuss further down. Having said that, during the first half of the season they have pretty much been in the background as a team aside from episode 10 which was titled “Legion of Super-Heroes” so it makes sense they were in the foreground for that one but the three episodes that followed before the mid-season break did not really focus on them as a team and instead individuals, more specifically Mon-El and his arranged marriage to Imra despite his feelings for Kara and also Brainy being jealous of Winn. Also it does seem as if we are not going to see any more Legionnaires outside of these three and personally I feel that is a missed opportunity for the show and the Arrowverse at large.

Now of course as I stated before Mon-El has been a member of The Legion in the comics before however in the most recent incarnation as I think it has been through two reboots in the team’s tenure. However everyone did guess that when Mon-El went through that portal at the end of Season 2 that he was going to the future and would join The Legion. However I do not think anyone expected him to start up the team let alone lead it because again he’s never done that in the comics. Some fans have theorized that this version of the character is a composite of both Mon-El and Superboy from the comics which I find personally weird because that would effectively make him and Kara cousins but maybe that’s a thing on Daxam and Krypton and who are we to judge? But also it is stated that Mon-El formed the Legion of Super-Heroes in honor of Supergirl and I personally do not like that even though it’s her series because the team is supposed to be a Superman fan club and changing the foundation of a long-standing team such as this is just in service to the girl power theme the show constantly pushes.

For instance in Gotham recently they have made Barbara Kean the new Demon’s Head as she is now the leader of the League of Shadows...however from what was teased in the reveal it does seem it is going to be largely focused on the Sisters of the League which is a deviation from the comics but a different spin which I personally like. But if the Legion of Super-Heroes has no deviation from the source material and is supposedly the same team that it should have the same foundation, especially considering Superman has already been introduced into the series and we have seen a Legion Flight Ring in the Fortress of Solitude suggesting he has already met them...

Saturn Girl is the only founding member of the original team to be introduced into the Arrowverse and personally I am okay with that because of the three I find her the most interesting. I am not too keen thus far on Amy Jackson’s performance as she seems more robotic than Brainiac 5 and he is essentially a robot whereas Imra is supposed to be an alien woman from Saturn’s Moon of Titan, which on a side-note is another example of there being co-morbidity between DC and Marvel because of course Titan is the homeworld of Marvel supervillain Thanos which we will apparently visit in the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War. Irregardless I do like how they have depicted her telepathic powers so far, again they have not shown much but in terms of being an actual vigilante she is the one to get the most screen-time as she teamed up with Supergirl, Livewire and Psi on that mission to Fort Rozz. Again this does seem like Supergirl as a series pushing the female agenda given that the character’s introduction to the series was announced at the start of the season and Brainiac 5 who is male was only announced when he was introduced in Episode 10.

Speaking of Brainiac 5, I am a massive fan of all things Brainiac. I think in his original form he is a superb supervillain and a perfect nemesis for Superman. He has had many great incarnations in various media including TV Series’ both animated and live-action most recently Krypton which I am starting to watch along with everything else I am watching and my uni work, but also in video games most notably Injustice 2. In the comics Brainiac 5, also known formally as Querl Dox is originally thought to be the great-great-grandson of the original Brainiac who is ashamed of his ancestor’s villainous deeds and makes it his mission to atone for them by joining The Legion. However it is later revealed Brainiac is in fact an android and Querl Dox descends from Brainiac 2 but is apparently cloned from Brainiac 1. It’s all very confusing and to be fair Supergirl does nothing to even address Brainy’s origins so unless you want to know it’s not something you have to know. I am not overly keen on Brainy’s design, for a start he’s blue whereas in the comics he’s green and secondly he has hair that makes him look like Doc Brown from Back to the Future as opposed to the shorter more youthful blonde look he has in the comics. I do appreciate them using the three dots motif that the original Brainiac is known for and also that Season 1 villain Indigo aka Brainiac 8 also had despite that fact Brainiac 5 usually does not sport them in the comics and they do make the character look slightly cartoonish.

On the subject of Indigo, there is thus far no mention or reference to suggest that Brainy and Indigo are in any way related to each other despite the fact that one is called Brainiac 5 and one is called Brainiac 8 and they both come from the same planet just 10 centuries apart from each other. Also it is slightly puzzling that a modern day Brainiac is called 8 whereas a futuristic Brainiac is called 5 but I digress. I know I haven’t really reviewed Supergirl as I have done with Arrow and The Flash but again since starting uni I cannot fit in episodic reviews of shows I watch anymore because I barely have the time to do movie reviews these days, but just to get my thoughts out there I really disliked how Indigo looked. Firstly she looked more like Mystique than how she does in the comics, again if they had made her green it would have been more faithful. Also Laura Vandervoort tried god bless her but her superhero heyday was as Supergirl in Smallville.

Now the series has referenced another Legionnaire, I think Mon-El mentioned having a friend in the 31st century named Ayla who in the comics is the Legionnaire codenamed Lightning Lass who is the sister of founding member Lightning Lad. The team has stated there are at least three unidentified members other than themselves so both Lightning Lass and Lightning Lad could be members as well as Cosmic Boy because the latter two along with Saturn Girl have always been the founding members in all incarnations of the team. However again why there has been no mention of a Rokk or Garth even by Imra yet there has been mention of an Ayla is maddening to me because again it’s pushing the female members of the team more than the original and faithful members.

On a final note about this universe’s version of the team. I do not like the fact the team are uniformed identically, it really annoys me. As much as I love the X-Men film franchise it annoys me about them too because it almost strips them of their identity. Particularly when you consider Team Arrow, Team Flash, the Legends, every supervillain depicted and even Black Lightning all have costumes similar to the comics.

Previous Versions:

As I mentioned earlier this isn’t the first incarnation of The Legion outside of the comics, the first that came to my attention was on Smallville Season 8 which is also a CW DC series and in my opinion did more in 1 episode to establish the team than Supergirl has done in the series so far. For a start they introduced the team with the original founding members Cosmic Boy, Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl, they established the team was founded on what they believed was Superman’s ideals, also they allowed the creation of Brainiac 5 and depicted the origin of said character in a more organic way than established here. Yes they went straight from Brainiac to Brainiac 5 by simply reprogramming the original which I guess brings in the clone angle from the comics but either way it was pretty straight forward and the recurring villain that James Marsters brilliantly portrayed for 5 seasons on and off transitioned into the reformed hero when he returned in Season 10. Also Supergirl is briefly a member during Season 10 as she goes to the future before going off to fight in the war on New Krypton.

Other than live-action the team has made multiple appearances in animation, firstly in the DC Animated Universe of the 90s-Early 00s and then in their own, albeit short-lived, series trying to capitalize on the success of the original Teen Titans series.

Benefits to the Arrowverse:

So now we’ve gone over who the Legion of Superheroes are, why do I believe the team are one of the stronger current installments to the Arrowverse?

Well the Legion’s primary base of operations is in the 31st Century, now yes while the Earth-38 (Supergirl’s reality) variant of the team is currently operating in present day, they could easily travel back to their own time and even take Supergirl with them to see what the future is like either if Reign remains victorious or after she is defeated.

However as has been stated numerous times, the Multiverse consists of 53 different realities including 16 numbered Earths, 5 unidentified Earths and the Nazi ruled Earth-X. Also it his widely known that there are various doppelgangers of most characters. Barry Allen of Earth-1 has an Earth-2 counterpart as well as Killer Frost, Cisco Ramon, Ronnie Raymond, Martin Stein, Iris West, Joe West, Nora Allen, Oliver Queen, Robert Queen, Floyd Lawton and David Singh as well as Earth-X counterparts of Kara Zor-El, Oliver Queen, Tommy Merlyn, James Olsen, Felicity Smoak, Winn Schott and Leonard Snart. Also seemingly a Harrison Wells on every Earth. So it does stand to reason that on at least a couple of Earths there are variants of the Legion of Superheroes.

Also because the team operates in the 31st Century, Barry Allen or the Legends could travel to the future and meet them in order for the team to ally them in a mission. This could also introduce new members including founders Cosmic Boy and Lightning Lad, that’s just on Earth-1. Also it is a public fan-theory that Smallville exists on one of the 53 Earths which already has its own Legion team so that is already another variant right there.

I do not believe the Legion can hold it’s own series for the pure and simple reason that Legends of Tomorrow is already a team series and the similarities are too close. However they could easily become recurring support for Supergirl, the Legends or Team Flash potentially in a future four-way crossover or a two-part story in one of the four series’ the universe comprises of.

So what do you guys think? Do you think the Legion of Superheroes has a place in the Arrowverse or do you think they’re just a plot-device on the current season of Supergirl. Post your comments and check out more DC TV posts as well as other posts.