#i found true happiness in them from the Ultimate Spider-Man comics

[i-have-one-braincell]

Just wanted to post the Ultimate trio from how they’re basically portrayed in my fic “The Day I Called You Mine” 💀😭 They my sunshines🫶🫶

[thevindicativevordan]

Why I Like Superman

This is a post I’ve been going over and over in my head, trying to suss out my feelings. The simple fact is I love Superman, and I have for as long as I can remember. I wore Superman pajamas as a kid. I watched cartoons like Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League, Legion of Superheroes, and was hyped as hell when he showed up on The Batman cartoon. I drew variations of the S-shield all over the sides of my school notebooks, and I tied a towel around my neck and pretended I could fly.

One of my favorite Xbox games to play was the Superman Returns tie-in game (remember those?), because it was the only game I could play that let me fly around, shooting off heat vision and freezing people with arctic breath. I still remember the opening that had you destroy asteroids, and being absolutely wowed as a kid by the big finale which had you slam into the largest asteroid at supersonic speed to destroy it. Took me forever to beat the Warworld arena level though because I didn’t know how to block.

Because there were no local comic shops near my home for me to go buy issues at (not that I even knew what a local comic shop was at the time), I kept up with his, and the rest of my favorite DC heroes adventures, via reading the DC wiki. I spent so much of my time waiting for my mom to get off the computer so I could go online and catch up that my parents installed parental blocks because they were worried about what I was doing.

In short he’s been a constant favorite of mine throughout childhood, through my teenage years, and straight on into adulthood. I never developed the dislike or distaste for him that some people did, and he never dropped out of the top spot for me like he did for others. There were times when he shared the top spot for me with Batman and Spider-Man, until One More Day wrecked my relationship with Spidey and I grew bored of the endless cycles of Batman being a dick to the Batfamily and then learning he needs them. But even throughout his lowest points (and God have there been so many of those in the last decade), he’s remained the top guy for me.

But why? I think it’s in part because of the type of genre he embodies. He is of course The Superhero, and he lives in the genre he founded, but he also lives in a type of optimistic science fiction genre that’s downright extinct nowadays. As a kid I was a massive science fiction fan, and my dad was friends with a guy who was also hugely into science fiction. This guy had a basement full of science fiction books written from the Golden Age of Science Fiction, up until the cyberpunk era kicked off in the 1980s. He was happy to hand novels off to me, and his private library beat the hell out of our public one. I devoured stories of fearless heroes in space exploring new worlds, first contact with alien races, mindbending new technologies that seemed like magic, about transcending our mortal flesh and becoming part of a universal, transcendental whole, stories that didn’t just talk about technology but about the human condition. Stories that while sometimes bleak, painted a positive picture of the human ability to overcome our inherent flaws and be a powerful force for good. And ultimately Superman speaks from the same source.

It’s not just about the powers, although those who completely dismiss their appeal are making a mistake I believe. It’s about humanity, about our ability to transcend our base natures, reflected in this Strange Visitor from Another Planet, who embodies our virtues and our vices, who is torn between the fear of doing too much and the fear of doing too little. Who hides his true self behind a pair of glasses because he craves the fellowship of humanity more than any amount of glory or riches. His no-kill rule a firm affirmation of the value of life, all life everywhere no matter it’s form. His greatest love, Lois Lane, is his co-worker and greatest rival as a reporter, who has everyone’s number in her phone, be they crime lord or living saint. His greatest friend, Jimmy Olsen, is the guy everyone else ignores or bosses around, but is a rich kid weirdo who gets up to all sorts of bizarre adventures that keep the Daily Planet afloat. His childhood friends are superheroes from the future, his home City of Metropolis is 10 years ahead of everyone else in terms of technology, his dog can shatter concrete via barking at it, his home den is a ice crystal castle situated at the North Pole, like Santa’s Workshop. In short his life is one where even the mundane corners hide fantastical attributes. By living among us, he helps to elevate us, to make our daily grind interesting by seeing through the lens of his life. As others have said, we walk our dogs around the block, he walks his around the solar system.

But it would be a mistake to assume that Superman doesn’t tackle the darker sides of life too. Even the most optimistic sci-fi novels that I read as a kid had dystopic elements in them, intended or not. His home planet of Krypton was our technological superior, yet ignored the warnings of it’s chief scientist, and died a victim of it’s own greed and arrogance with Kal-El as the Last Son. His birth parents died in the fires of self-perpetuated genocide, his adopted parents the Kents often fall to mundane heart diseases or accidents, which even his power can not save them from. His greatest enemy Lex Luthor, is the one person who can understand his loneliness, his need for the public’s approval and acceptance, and yet the shared enmity between the two has ruined any chance of them forming a friendship that could have been. The shining City of Metropolis venerates Luthor as well as Clark, reflecting the greed, selfishness, and callousness of it’s other favorite child. Suicide Slum stands as a testament to the limits of how much Superman can improve life. The Phantom Zone is a spinechilling example of the inhumane treatment of prisoners. His foes ran the gauntlet from greedy businessmen out for money at any cost, to victims who have suffered at humanity’s hands and seek revenge, to sociopaths who treat other peoples pain and lives as a source of amusement, to murderers who care not from where the blood flows, only that it does, to tyrants who seek to crush all resistance underneath their heel, to gods who wish the elimination of free will itself. Each of them force Superman to confront the fallibility of human nature and wrestle with whether or not his faith in both them and himself is justified.

In a sentence? I love Superman because he’s a character you can do almost anything with, from comedic hijinks, to serious dramas, to distributing horror stories, to exciting adventure stories. He reminds me of the best type of science fiction stories, ones that explore people and existence from all sorts of angles, that never lose sight of the emotional human core at the heart of all the high concept existential concepts. He’s made me laugh, cry, think, get motivated, get angry, and sometimes just get writing. He brings the big ideas and the human emotions that keep me reading comics throughout all the Big 2′s bullshit. He still believes in the human capacity for good, in spite of our flaws, in spite of how few of us seem to believe in that capacity ourselves, and he shows us that it’s still there by touching our hearts through his stories. That’s why I like Superman, and why he’s my favorite superhero.

[idk-my-aesthetic]

Ok. Ima say smthn really controversial. But Pls hear me out

The way MCU Spider-Man is written completely, disastrously misrepresented Peter Parker’s Spider-Man, to the point where it’s damaging to the character’s legacy

Also like the writing choices also have some lowkey racist and antisemetic undertones, which are hopefully accidental, but we’ll get to that 

NOW WAIT. Before you send the hate mail please hear me out! Bc tbh I like a lot about the spider man movies!!! All the actors are like perfect choices and almost all of the scenes work really really well on their own

But there’s a HUGE problem with the portrayal of the character as a whole. Because the writers completely threw away the heart of Peter Parker’s spiderman in the name of ripping off Miles Morales’s spiderman.

We all know the “with great power comes great responsibility” line, right? Well there’s a bit more to it than just that

Peter Parker as a character is meant to embody the Jewish concept of Tikkun Olum. Translated literally tikkun olum means “repair/heal the world”. It’s a major concept in Judaism, and basically teaches that it’s everyone’s responsibility to do as much good as they are able to. Not just by being kind when the chance presents itself, but by actively seeking out things to help with. (Hey, doing the right thing bc u have the power to? Sounds familiar!!) it’s supposed to be his whole motivation, and what he represents as a cultural icon

But in the MCU movies he’s completely rewritten for his motivation to instead be to live up to Tony Stark’s legacy. A character arc that is one of the many, many things straight up stolen by the MCU writers from Miles Morales’s spiderman.

And like.... it just doesn’t work the same way guys. Not only because that’s not what Peter Parker’s spiderman is about at all, but also because there’s a lot of different connotations bc of the different characters/how it’s portrayed specifically in the movies, bc it completely erases the Jewish themes and history behind an inherently Jewish character, and bc it’s basically stealing a story meant specifically for black characters and giving it to a white one instead. (Not just miles btw- Riri Williams- the person who is actually supposed to continue the iron man legacy- is a black woman literally replaced by a white boy. That’s.... really not great)

Which is a huge issue, and greatly damages the legacy of the character. spiderman is a cultural icon. He’s just as recognizable as characters like bugs bunny or micky mouse. But unlike characters like micky mouse or bugs bunny, spiderman as a symbol is a lot more divorced from his source material. Basically anyone you ask has probably seen a loony tunes cartoon, but the amount of people who’ve read a spiderman comic or seen one of the cartoons is much much smaller in comparison

Which isn’t really an issue on its own. Ppl know what spiderman stands for in an abstract way from pop-culture, even if they’ve never necessarily seen it first hand. But there’s a big difference in being told a character stands for something and seeing/feeling it in a peice if media

But when a massively popular movie franchise completely fucking misinterprets that character and establishes itself as the definitive version? Well shit! Now everyone is told he’s a hero because it’s the right thing to do, but instead what they see is a hero fanboy. And that’s really damaging when the most popular version of a character completely undercuts it’s legacy

*for clarification, the issue is not that he is in awe of tony or looks up to him. The issue is that his primary motivation is to be cool and impressive like tony- slash like straight up impress him in the first place, instead of his motivation being doing the right thing. Peter Parker was never a hero to be cool. He was a hero bc it was the right thing to do. He was serious about it, even if he joked around he knew how dangerous it was. He was confident in his own moral code, was a leader who actively searched out things to fix. and the idea that he’d look to someone else for directions? Or let himself be limited by someone else? Is insulting.

Oof. That ended up a lot more aggressive than I intended. I don’t wanna make people feel bad for enjoying MCU spiderman. Like I really, really get it guys. The relationship between him and tony stark is really cute, and Tom Holland plays the best teenage Peter Parker in film history. You’re allowed to like it!! I’m actually really happy that y’all have found smthn you can truly enjoy

I’d just like to bring some attention to how this portrayal of the character isn’t the most faithful to the heart of the character. Which is ultimately much more important than anything else about a character, even things like their name or how they look. The heart is the most important part of them

I don’t think these movies are going to completely destroy the legacy of spiderman, or that they’re actively malicious. But I do think the way they misinterpret the character is damaging, at least in the long stretch of time until a new version takes it’s place.

I just don’t want these movies to give people an incorrect idea of what Spider-Man stands for. And I don’t want these traits that belong to other characters to be attributed to the wrong person. Like, y’all know they basically had to cut out Miles’s best freind Ganke from spiderverse bc he was too much like Ned? Even though Ned is literally based on Ganke, who’s role in spiderverse was cut down so much he literally doesn’t talk

ANYWAY. Y’all can like what you like and I’m legitimately glad u found smthn that makes u happy. I’m not gonna go get mad at ppl for writing a fic where Tony adopts Peter or enjoying the MCU movies. That would be a total dick move. But if u could please just.... share this if u don’t completely h8 me, and try to remember Peter’s true motivation is that he just wants to help ppl bc it’s the right thing to do. It would really mean a lot to me, and help preserve the inherently Jewish themes of the character’s and author’s legacy.

[justalitlecreacher]

I’m here to prove that Andrew Garfield’s portrayal of Spider-man/peter parker in The Amazing Spider-Man is objectively the best love action adaptation of the character. In this essay I will....(yes this is really happening)

Edit: 10/20/20- i want to indulge myself in spiderman content but finding non mcu spiderman content is exhausting so imma update this instead

TL;DR

Andrew Garfield is my favorite of the 3 Spider-Man actors. TAS’s Peter is more fun and dynamic than the cookie cutter “shy introverted nerd that has a crush on a girl who’s way out of his league” Peter in Tobey Maguire’s movies. I enjoy Tom Holland’s portrayal of the character, but hate the way Disney has written the movies.  I enjoy the characters, plot, and humor of The Amazing Spider-Man far more than the other 2, and i deeply wish we had gotten the third movie with the canon BIder-Man of Andrew’s (and my) dreams.

[DISCLAIMER: I HAVE NOT SEEN THE AMAZING SPIDERMAN 2 OR ANY MCU SPIDERMAN MOVIES OUTSIDE OF CLIPS AND REVIEWS ITS ALSO BEEN A VERY HOT MINUTE SINCE IVE SEEN A TOBEY MAGUIRE MOVIE]

Characterization

  Most arguments against Andrew Garfield’s Spidey( AG’s from now on) begin and ends with “he was a good Spider-Man but a bad Peter Parker”. This references an outdated post comparing all three Spidey actors.(Id attach the image here but i dont want the post to be too long(thats a lie this is so long what am i doing with my life)) The post also claims that Tobey played a good Peter and a poor Spidey; and that Tom is good at both “roles”.(Honestly I think it seems silly that this seems obey the “third time’s the charm” rule but thats just me).  Most people using this seem to be Tobey stans who have forgotten or ignored the rest of the post funnily enough, but the ones that go further into the WHY AG is a poor Peter are also incorrect. This argument also ignores the idea that there can be more than one version of Peter Parker which is blatantly incorrect.  Just look at Into the Spiderverse or the PS4 game; these provide 4(5 if you count the pig) versions of Peter themselves, and that doesnt even include the comics. 

 Arguments that go further in depth claim that the AS Peter is too cool or well liked by his peer to be a “true” Peter Parker. The evidence for this seems to be that Peter has a skateboard.(which what? didnt realize that having a skateboard would instantly make you cool brb guys). Adding to that i dont really see where people get the idea that Peter is popular or well liked. While looking for complaints i found this qutoe from reddit(theyve since deleted it looks like but i’ll add a link in the notes) “He's angsty, pretty socially awkward, has an aptitude for science, and is kind of an outsider. He gets bullied by Flash and he gets his ass kicked after trying to stand up to Flash. He isn't a "cool" person in any way (until the ending, in which he's best buds with Flash, so I'll give you that). While Maguire is more accurate to the 60s comics where Peter in high school is just a fucking loser with basically no friends, in the ultimate comics, Peter is more of the kid who has a small amount of friends, but isn't popular.”. Honesty i fully agree with this because once again, other versions of a character are allowed to exist. You can dislike one version, but its silly to dislike something for not being exactly like another thing.

Ive also heard that Peter isnt “nerdy enough” in this movie which really doesnt make any sense considering the entire plot happens because Peter was looking into some of his parents’ research. If he wasn't interested in looking further into his father’s work what reason would he have to go to Oscorp where he’s bitten by the spider? Why would he have become Dr. Conner’s assistant? If he wasn’t intelligent how did he develop the web shooters?(something that Tobey!Peter doesn't have to do out of plot convenience might i add).  

 Another complaint i see is that the quips he uses in the movie(the first one specifically it seems) makes him seem like an asshole. Honestly thats a fair complaint, but i think its a good bit of characterization; espcially if he does get better about it in the second movie like the internet suggests.The Peter in this movie is a rightfully angsty teen; of course he acts a bit of an ass to criminals(also i feel like its important to mention that he’s like that to criminals? its not like hes being a dick for no reason).

  Compare this with the Tobey Maguire(TM) movies. Like i said i haven’t seen these in awhile but as far as i’m aware TM’s Peter doesn't really do anything particularly nerdy in the film? I may have forgotten something( ok in the scene before he gets bitten he knows a cool spider fact) but he doesn’t have to invent the web-shooters because they came with his powers and he’s only at Oscorp in the first place because it’s a school field trip that he appears to be taking photos for. This Peter does fit the definition of outcast(friendless and bullied for it), but honestly i just dont like him. He’s weird and something about the character makes me feel like i should be a little grossed out every time he looks at MJ at the beginning of the movie.  

   I honestly don’t have any complaints for Tom Holland’s(TH’s)Spidey. Tom is a great actor and from what ive seen i enjoy his portrayal of the character.( He made me cry when i character i actively dislike died).  

Story

  I cant really say much for TAS story. It’s interesting but nothing special really. However, there is one scene that i don’t think i’ve seen anything like since( the closest would probably be the train scene in the original trilogy). 

 The crane scene. Early in the film Peter saves a boy from a car that has fallen off of a bridge, and at the end of the movie this becomes relevant again when it is uncertain that Peter will be able to get to the lizard to stop him in time.(as Peter is already injured and pretty far from the lizard’s location). The boy’s father is then revealed to be a construction worker who recognizes that Spider-man is going to need help to get to the lizard; he remembers how Spider-Man saved his son and organizes the rest of the construction workers to build a path out of crane arms for SM to swing from. All of them are putting themselves in danger by not evacuating, but SM’s actions in the first act of the film motivate them to do what’s right. 

  I love this scene primarily because it highlights something that i think is a really important part of Spider-Man’s character; his connection to the people he saves. SM is often shown interacting with and chatting with the people he has saved after the fact. One comic shows Peter accidentally scaring some bullies and then taking the time to ride the bus to school with them to continue their conversation and educate the students on bullying.( There’s definitely more but this is off the top of my head).

  Another scene in TAS that i love is shortly before the crane scene when Peter is originally attempting to make his way across the city to stop the lizard, and he is shot down by the police. They manage to unmask him before Peter comes to his senses( he had just been shot and fallen pretty far out of the sky in his defense). From there Peter is able to deal with the police while keeping any of them from getting a good look at his face. The one cop he cant take out happens to be Gwen Stacey’s father who had previously had an argument with Peter about Spider-Man(Peter obviously on SM’s side and Mr. Stacey against SM). Peter turns and allows Captain(?) Stacey to see his face. I believe that this is an example of an unwilling identity reveal done right. i really enjoyed this moment because Peter had just shown that he likely could have gotten out of this encounter with his identity in tact as he had just taken down however many men. This implies that it was an active choice on Peter’s end to trust that Captain Stacey would ultimately do the right thing and allow Peter to go fight the Lizard, rather than a final desperate attempt to get away unscathed. Whether or not this interpretation of the scene is correct or not it still gives the character a bit more agency than some versions have done with their identity reveals.

  In Spider-Man 2 Peter starts to lose his powers because he’s having internal conflict about wether or not he should be Spider-Man. Honestly thats kinda neat and i might want to give that a rewatch. As for the one i have seen i don’t have any complaints. I do however prefer the way that Peter was bitten in TAS because it was a result of him poking around where he shouldn’t’ve been rather than him just happening to be standing in the right place for a spider to land on him. 

  Onto TH’s movies; the way Disney has treated Spidey in the MCU is why TH’s is my least favorite version of the character. I feel like too much of the story revolves around Iron Man; Iron Man made Peter’s suit and equipment, Iron Man introduces Peter to the MCU(via blackmail but thats another rant for another annoyingly long post), its Iron Man that “makes” Spidey in this universe rather than Spidey being self-made. In Homecoming(which remember i havent seen outside of clips so bear with me) most of the conflict is cause directly or indirectly by Tony’s refusal or inabilty to communicate with the teenager he’s meant to be mentoring

 For one the entire incident with the ferry could have very easily been avoided had Tony bothered to communicate with Peter enough to tell him that the situation was being taken care of. On top of that at the moive’s climax Peter is shown trying to get in contact with Happy(from what ive picked up isnt he a chauffeur? like idk his deal i just know he’s someone Peter got pawned off onto after Civil War). Peter even goes as far as to somehow hack into Happy’s phone(i think thats what happened it was a weird tech thing that shouldve been a red flag that the call was important though) but instead of listening; Peter is ignored. If this was a different kind of movie Peter literally could have died and itd be the fault of Happy and Tony like..... A large portion of conflict comes from characters being incompetent and not communicating and thats just poor storytelling.

Before this turns too much into an anti mcu rant id also like to say that the way they did Civil War was really dumb considering that Peter defects to Cap’s side in the comics, but whatever.

 Also i loathe the way they handled the identity reveal at the end of Far From Home. With MCU movies most people know to expect an end credits scene by now, but typically that scene is not important to understand what’s happening in the films; they just aren’t important. Putting an identity reveal here makes it seem significantly less important than it is. On top of that i dislike their use of J Jonah Jameson for this scene.

  JJJ is a character who has been repeatedly shown to have a genuinely good heart. All of his anger comes from a place of love for his city(he even says this hemself in the ps4 game when May writes in to tell him that he needs help). He hates Spider-Man because SM reminds him of the masked man who killed his wife; JJJ has never been able to get past that( and Peter’s antagonism of him definitely doesnt help) However, JJJ has been shown to care for people; he has a son who he often brags about, and one comic shows that JJJ is paying Peter for “amateur” quality photos because he knows that Peter is having a hard time and “just need some help”. JJJ has even learned Peter’s identity before and kept his secret for him(seriously though i cant remember the name of the comic but its defiantly worth the read), and in the original trilogy when Goblin threatens JJJ he claims that he doesn’t know who sends in the photos of Spidey because he does it via email( this is a lie). The MCU will have a very difficult time convincing me that JJJ would ever out a teenager’s identity and put him in danger like that. It goes too far against his character.(this could be hypocritical of me to say considering how i just insisted that multiple versions of a character can exist but whatever ¯\_(ツ)_/¯) 

This is accidentally turning into an MCU rant but id also like to say that i hate the lack of a TH!Spidey origin movie because it gives you no motivaion for Peter becoming SM or explanation of his powers; most people will know these things but if youre unfamiliar with the character its bound to be confusing(and im a sucker for origin movies)

[hellzyeahwebwielingessays]

Super Heroes are a HUMAN power fantasy Part 2

Super Heroes are a HUMAN power fantasy Part 1

Master Post

There were several points a bit more tangentially connected to my arguments in part 1. As a result I decided to leave them until now and hit them up in bullet points.

These are arguments against the superhero genre chiefly perpetuated by the tryhard trinity of Osvaldo Oyola , J. Lamb and Noah Berlatsky.

On the topic of the genre portraying ‘might making right’, the truth is this is part of the ancient inspirational aspect of these figures and can be found in stories like Rama and Sita, Rama of course ultimately never giving up his quest to be reunited with his lover. Which was not a Western influenced story.

Yes the genre involves ‘punching as conflict resolution’. I’m sorry, but that is part and parcel of the genre and the wish fulfilment/fantasy/narrative entertainment value of the stories. If you DON’T like that then frankly it’s like complaining that a romance story involves kissing.

It has been claimed that a black hero wouldn’t punch someone but again, the genre is entirely about people with powers using them to help people by preserving their life. And if they have no other choice but to K.O. a mugger who’s going to stab someone then a black person, or any decent person, would/should do it. But examining the meaning and repercussions of that realistically given the fact that they aren’t white in a white society is something that could benefit the genre.

A common critique of the genre is that crime happens sometimes because of a racist system, therefore fighting crime innately supports racism. Look, obviously we should remove institutionalised racism from the law. At the end of the day though if someone of any race is committing a crime which HURTS people they should be stopped, the reasons which drove them to that should be taken into consideration, but Spider-Man shouldn’t NOT stop a mugger because they’ve been driven to do that through desperation. There is often no time for that and without being able to talk to or trust strangers he or other heroes need to act in the moment.

Superhero fiction on one level is childish, but on a deeper level they’re representative of universal truths and desires which are often boiled down to fairy tales or simple stories. The above shitheads also claims that superhero fiction is written and consumed by children, when the truth is that in the last 20-30 years the opposite has been more true. THAT is partially why sales have been dwindling over the years.

Superman’s values are innate to the heroic and altruistic desires and ideals ALL humanity has expressed throughout its history. They are not inherently ‘white’

Apparently superheroes are white constructs because they reinforce the ‘status quo’. To quote the Atlantic article (see part 1) again:

“What status quo do superheroes reinforce? These heroes fight because everyone is entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The only fascists here are the supervillains who disagree.”

Also Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman were created specifically to change the status quo of the fictional worlds they were created in. At the same time the entire Marvel pantheon were about changing the status quo of the genre by introducing people who were flawed and different and more human than the DC heroes

Superheroes, despite the assertions by the above fuckwits have at times interrogated the justice system. But generally their lack of interrogation is I think for the same reason their science is so wonky. They don’t know better. They just boil it down to the simplest terms. Muggings and villain threats abound. Hero prevents those. They don’t know enough to tackle something much deeper than that. This ties into the fundamentally flawed aspect of most critiques wherein they are looking to superheroes as intellectual pieces of academic and critical study when...that’s not what they are...at all…

One of the above douchebags once said:

An African American Superman, with kinky, close-cropped black hair, thick, half-reddened lips, high cheekbones, and wide nostrils all bathed in dark Lindt chocolate, resists White supremacist logic, negates Black inferiority mythology, and threatens the established order. Superman’s disconcerting physicality, tempered by his omnipresent cheerfulness calmed and invited White comic readers to imagine themselves as gaudy Caucasian perfection, the Anglo-Saxon ideal. Static in panel, without speech bubbles or thought balloons, Superman Black warps the absurdly developed skeletal striated muscle and eternal hopefulness fans rejoice into a clear and present danger to the American experiment, an unholy figure derived from Tea Party paranoia, Barack Obama’s calculation and Terry Crews’ musculature. Public Enemy’s prescience abounds – were Superman Black introduced on the game-changing Action Comics’ cover, White America would have yet another reason to fear a Black planet.

This entirely depends upon who is doing the perceiving. To someone of a different mindset a Black Superman could be just that. The same thing Superman is except he happens to have black skin.

Also, the author needs to take a major chill pill, Jesus Christ.

Here is another quote from one of them:

Only in White male power fantasies can people blessed with skin privilege and bodies carved from living marble wield heat vision or super speed or unbreakable claws against indigent criminals from broken homes who lack high school educations.

This is again grossly incorrect because the idea of individuals having superhuman abilities and using them to fight criminals predates American society, and if one accepts figures like the Hydra to be stand-ins for threats to human life then the superhumans have been fighting what the criminals represent for eons before the advent of American society. The criminals they use their abilities against are rarely stated to lack education or come from broken homes, but yes okay let’s say that they are that.

Having super humans go up against them and defeat them isn’t a white male power fantasy because their abilities are used to subdue and NOT kill. Injure perhaps but in real life sometimes force is sadly necessary and if someone is robbing a bank or holding a gun to someone in an alley it is justified no matter what skin colour anyone involved in is, or what society you find yourself in, for the perpetrator to be stopped in order to safeguard life. Just because the perp resorted to what they did due to social ills beyond their control, that doesn’t justify their actions at that moment. Stealing someone’s money or trying to murder them is never ever going to be acceptable no matter if we live in a white society or not.

Only in White male power fantasies would women display abundant porcelain cleavage or don starry microskirts to fight crime.

Yeah um, preeeeeeetty sure that actually that’s more of a male SEXUAL fantasy and less than a WHITE male POWER fantasy. That was never the topic of conversation.

Shuttle diplomacy or natural resource husbandry rarely bring metal-faced technological sorcerers to heel in superhero comics; superheroes often save planet Earth through fantastic violence judiciously applied.

Yeah, that’s part of the narrative FANTASY element of the genre that is intended to be escapist. Condemning it for being otherwise is asinine.

More than this, guess what, there are people whom Dr. Doom is a metaphorical stand-in for. And an awful lot of them legitimately can’t be negotiated with. I am of the belief that in the REAL world we should negotiate and use force when there is no other choice and even then only use what is necessary. But the Dr. Dooms and Lex Luthors of the comic book world represent grander themes of evil and social ills, whilst at the same time existing to challenge the heroes physically and mentally. They represent the unmovable types of evil that legitimately can only be dealt with via physical means.

This was the type of circular logic I talked about before. It is looking at the villains as stand ins for EVERY type of situation and therefore the super hero’s use of violence as ‘problematic’, when in reality the superheroes’ use of violence isn’t problematic because it is justified by the extreme circumstances they find themselves in.

Because those situations don’t exist in real life...like in World War II...which was literally about people using force in the face of failed negotiation to halt the advance of fascism…

I submit that the superheroic reflex to subdue evil with violence directly descends from Thucydides and Alexander, from Richard the Lionheart and Dwight Eisenhower.

Yeah...except it isn’t. Again...it came from the same place as Hercules and Sun Wukong, and those came from the natural human biological imperatives to survive.

Superheroic morality requires Western Civilization’s literary canon and political history to justify its callous disregard toward collateral damage. To be clear, superheroes routinely consider innocent noncombatants’ lives (if not their property) when they confront cosmic despots or sociopathic steroid abusers, but comics document the never-ending battle in colorful tomes largely sold after Nagasaki and My Lai, after the time when total ignorance of American military supremacy was vogue. When Wally West as the Flash pulls a hysterical single mother out of her overturned silver 2001 Honda Civic and carries her to safety from Apokoliptian cannons at breakneck speed, comic fans favorably regard his heroism; any dialogue from the frazzled thirty-something file clerk will remind readers how grateful she is to escape otherworldly horror with her life. Superhero comics don’t care about the destruction of this woman’s sole transport; when the gas tank explodes behind the Flash’s blurred strobe, this woman loses her credit cards, her driver’s license, her insurance documents, her six-year-old daughter’s vanilla birthday cake with its beloved artificially flavored strawberry icing. The comics don’t recognize the heroism of this brave woman’s seven-month struggle to rebuild her finances and maintain her identity following Darkseid’s incursion; all we know is for that poor woman, the Flash saved the day. He’s a superhero. Isn’t she grateful?”

Collateral damage and the disregard for it IS regarded. Hence the existence of Damage Control. Furthermore, that is AGAIN part of the escapism and fantasy element of it. THAT is the suspension of disbelief element of superheroes and taking it THAT realistically and criticising it for it is frankly just mean spirited and simply looking for an excuse to hate it.

Furthermore the reason the rescued woman isn’t focussed upon is because it’s not HER story. If you write a story about a protagonist THEY are your focus. Everything is for their benefit. That’s true of older non-white folktales as well.

And yeah readers are supposed to regard the Flash as heroic and the woman grateful because her kid’s birthday cake isn’t realistically as important as her life!!!!!!

This is criticising superhero fiction for being unrealistic even when it is being actively so The woman WOULD probably be grateful that she’s not fucking dead!

I wouldn’t mind seeing the survivors of something like this try to rebuild their lives. And superhero fiction has focussed upon that from time to time, but again...that’s not the point of the story. Criticising the genre fro this is like criticising Harry Potter for having the audacity to focus more upon Harry’s trauma in the wake of Cedric Diggory’s death than his parents’. Harry is the star. He gets the focus.

Superman is a White boy. Superheroes are White people. Superhero morality exacts the Melian Dialogue’s ‘might makes right’ overwhelming force realpolitik with every onomatopoetic Biff! Bam! Pow! gut punch and karate chop combo.

See what I’ve said before about how superheroes are not fascists and how force is often necessary

There exists no genetic propensity for group violence in the human genome. None.”

Er....yeah...there kinda is...that’s part of why wars happen.

racially-informed vigilantism.

This phrase in one of the articles itself sums up it’s own contradictions. Racially informed vigilantism is just one type of vigilantism, a type the superhero doesn’t subscribe to. A superhero would sooner join the likes of the Joker than the KKK style vigilantes and would be all too happy to apprehend them.

One of the articles seems to be conflating basically ALL criminals super heroes fight with people who’re labelled criminals due to racial profiling. Yes superheroes operate to an extent like police officers but you can’t truly complete the analogy whatsoever.

Few of them have legal sanction, which is partially why so many refrain from actually killing anyone as officer’s are allowed to do under certain circumstances. More than this when they take down criminals their methods are entirely different from regular cops. Apart from very loud and overt super villains who may or may not be on a rampage, most of the time when they tackle regular criminals it’s due to them either being informed of a crime that is going to happen (like a hijacking or something) or they literally see something happening whilst on patrol. They don’t profile people beyond what their super sensory abilities or logical observations tell them. Which is to say if someone is following someone else a little too closely then maybe, just maybe they are planning something. If their Spider-Sense or super hearing or something alerts them to something they will act.

Taking that, ignoring it, and then supplanting the superhero for a regular cop who would racially profile people and/or supplanting the criminals they tackle for racial minorities because those are the people who (stereotypically in the real world) would be targeted as criminals is very inappropriate. Not least of all since superhero comics obviously don’t present a wholesale realistic depiction of the real world so what they present isn’t entirely interchangeable with that. And what is more, erasure of minorities was so prevalent that overwhelming majority of all the criminals they ever encountered were themselves white, so again exchanging those for racial minorities who’re profiled as criminals is highly questionable.

It’s all just such a MASSIVE reach!

But I think the panels also work to point out that Miles himself “does not belong” in the superhero tradition. He, like most black and brown superhero characters in mainstream comics, is an outlier. In other words, people like Miles or Trayvon are unfortunately more likely to be victim of a “heroic” vigilante than to be one.

This is conflating the superhero vigilante with the majority of real world vigilantes who are overly violent (and frequently hard conservative) individuals who do take overly simplistic views of the law and use those to profile people. And it’s doing so whilst taking superheroes too literally, bringing their own personal interpretations to the mix and then overlaying them onto the superhero concept before finally accepting it as fact.

Police officers use violence against racially profiled people who exhibit unrest due to a societal system stacked against them. Well shit, Batman punches the Joker. It must be the same thing obviously!!!!!

Look. Without our stories, without the true nature and reality of who we are as people of color, nothing about fanboy and fangirl culture makes sense. What I mean by that is, if it wasn’t for race, X-Men doesn’t make sense; if it wasn’t for the history of breeding human beings through chattel slavery, Dune doesn’t make sense; if it wasn’t for the history of colonialism and imperialism, Star Wars doesn’t make sense; if it wasn’t for the extermination of so many indigenous nations, most of what we call “first contact” stories don’t make sense. Without us as the secret sauce, none of this works, and it is about time that we understand that we are the Force that holds the Star Wars universe together. We’re the Prime Directive that makes Star Trek possible. We are… in the Green Lantern Corps? We are the Oath. We are all of those things. Erased, and yet without us? We’re essential. This is an incredibly important project, because it puts front and center, not only a community that has long consumed and given power to these practices and consumer categories, but it’s a community without whose suffering and struggles, none of [these narratives] would make sense.

I agree with a lot of this but there are some problems with it.

a)     X-Men makes sense also because they are a stand in for almost ALL marginalised groups. Racial minorities, disabled people, queer people etc.

b)     Actually Star Wars makes complete sense with or without colonialism or imperialism, at least the kind which directly relates to the issues of racism. Imperialism, conquest, these are things which are much older than American society, dating back to even before Ancient Rome. It’s about freedom fundamentally and freedom is a desire shared by ALL human beings innately because at the end of the day we are animals who wish to be free and not caged. Being caged metaphorically within a tyranny is thus something we abhor

c)     The Star Wars universe doesn’t begin and end with the story of imperialism. It’s about how Democracy can be turned into an dictatorship and how that has to be prevented, or re-addressed once it happens

d

When white comics readers claim that they did not need white characters to relate to and enjoy comics (as a way to argue against positive race-bending), that point to their love of Luke Cage or Spawn as evidence of their ability to enjoy characters across race, what they are failing to note is how black, Latin@, etc… identities in the superhero genre are framed by a system of white supremacy.

Again I don’t understand this one. I as a white reader can enjoy Luke Cage rescuing someone from a burning building because doing that is part of white supremacy????

It presumes a white power fantasy is inherently different to a black one. But the power fantasy element of the superhero relates to them having powers and using them to help others and defeat villains. A power fantasy by another race would still have that because it is inherent to the human power fantasy. Non-white power fantasies would logically have all that and more!

Much like Noah Berlatsky explains in his book Wonder Woman: Bondage and Feminism in the Marston/Peter Comics, 1941-1948, part of what made Marston’s original Wonder Woman stories so wonderful, was his expectation that girls and boys would identify with the heroine, to value and idealize her compassionate strength and victory through submission, rather than through cyclical and ultimately futile fisticuffs of male dominion.

Many female readers enjoy the action scenes. Action scenes are good because it enables us to have a healthy outlet for aggression without taking it out into the real world. It is also NOT an inherently male dominion thing. Again this is THEIR projection. Fighting and violence is innate to human beings because we are animals biologically programmed towards it for the sake of survival. That goes for males and females. Furthermore far from fisticuffs just being about male ‘dominion’ the Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman comics were a reflection of impending war. A war that sadly required violence to be solved.  That’s what the superhero typifies. Wish fulfilment action in situations where violence was (usually) a necessity. Diplomacy is good and should be our first resort. In life though sometimes things do come down to necessary violence.

There are many ways to craft a racial minority superhero, but if we consider racial authenticity as a foremost concern, today’s Hollywood is simply not prepared for that intellectual labor. The real diversity conundrum isn’t how to include the minority metahuman in the existing comic framework; that’s an art project, a casting decision solved by calling Michael B. Jordan’s agent. The real question is how to write that superhero in a way that moves the medium forward, past the Reaganomics antiheroes of Alan Moore and Frank Miller and past the hyper-emotive Silver Age redux of Geoff Johns and Brian Michael Bendis. Respectable, authentic diversity in superhero comics should redefine the nature of the meta-protagonist to his powers and his audience, with exhaustive attention to cultural detail. I’m not convinced that a Black superhero would wear tights. I strongly doubt that a Black superhero would solve conflicts with his fists. The Black superhero knows that his community watches him religiously, and that any false move will have public repercussions he cannot expect or control.  If anything, the Black superhero template plays out on our nation’s cable news channels at all hours. President Barack Obama, with all his clipped vocal inflections and measured language and natural equivocation and faulty dealmaking and perfect family and limitless patience is the closest public figure to a Black superhero America has yet experienced, an international celebrity unthinkable before his ascent. Watching President Obama today, one feels expectation crush into his bones like a gravity well. No matter the political stimuli, Republicans oppose him. The concept of the Obama Presidency struck American conservatives like a Bernard Hopkins’ kidney punch, and in return, President Obama absorbs the vitriol of our coarse public debates more than any President to date (and progressives never tired of calling his predecessor a National Socialist). The agony and the ecstasy of Grant Park has given way for many Americans to the sobering fact that American authority, her global military supremacy and international economic primacy, is controlled and represented by a Black man. Disliked, hated, or worse, the Establishment is Black.  I need the Black superhero in print and/or on-screen to reflect that paradigm shift. Superheroes in the popular imagination are Establishment figures; if the Black superhero I’m presented can’t interrogate what it means when the Establishment is Black, of what utility is her story?  

A minority hero wouldn’t wear tights or punch people...why?

What do tights have to do with anything? As for solving problems with his fists this is conflating the threats superheroes face with ANY threat, when they are almost always situations which legitimately do require necessary physical force to resolve. If the black superhero patrols an area and sees someone about to stab someone else, yeah he should punch the stabber to save the innocent person if there is no time for anything else.

This is basically asking for the core foundation of superheroes (which transcends racial constructs and is innate to human wish fulfilment and mythic tradition) to be scrapped in favour of something else entirely. Barrack Obama isn’t a superhero. He is many, many things but what Mr. Lamb here is asking isn’t so much for a different template but for something just wholesale different. He doesn’t actually WANT a superhero story in the first place!

Super heroes aren’t establishment figures. Superheroes don’t uphold the law regardless. They uphold the law in so far as a greater need to safeguard innocent lives. Conflating them as inherently establishment figures ignores their origins and over literalises what they do.

At the same time the utility of their story is first and foremost as a story: to entertain and inspire.

It is inherently worthwhile for a little black kid to sit down and open up a comic book where someone who looks like them is being a good person, is helping people, is defending the weak. I agree that minority heroes shouldn’t just be white heroes who happen to have different skin colours. I think they need to reflect the realities of what it means to be black or Asian or Pakistani in white society is necessary and a superhero should do that and should have that inform how they interact with their powers.  It doesn’t mean the whole genre needs to abandon what it fundamentally is or that those minority heroes should not do the things a superhero fundamentally do.

Ultimately, yeah these characters were created within a white context, but my point is fundamentally the same thing was created in non-white contexts as well throughout history.

Super Heroes are a HUMAN power fantasy Part 1

Master Post

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

‘The Absent Father and Spider-Man’s Unfulfilled Potential’: Rebuttal Part 1: Introduction

Master Post

Back in 2012 I read a very interesting book called ‘Webslinger: Unauthorized Essays on your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man’. 

As the title suggests it was an anthology book made up of several different essays about Spidey (and edited by Gerry Conway himself).

The essays are an interesting read, though there are questionable points made and some inaccuracies. 

Today though I’d like to debunk some points made in the essay titled ‘The Absent Father and Spider-Man’s Unfulfilled Potential’.

The reason for my desire to debunk parts of this essay is partially due to my inherent instinct to debunk problematic or misinformed stuff surrounding Spider-Man generally. However it’s also partially due to the author, J.R. Fettinger.

Fettinger is the creator and author of the essays found on ‘Spideykicksbutt.com’ and a regular panellist on the Spider-Man Crawlspace podcast. I respect both and the content they provide though there have been times I’ve disagreed with both and other times where quite frankly I think they’ve put forward statements that are outright wrong.

Fettinger and his work was the inspiration to an extent for me even choosing to write so much about Spider-Man, helped bring me back into fandom and his work helped me reconcile some things that I had felt made me an uninformed minority within fandom.

However, there have been times, more and more as the years move forward, wherein my eyes have narrowed at Fettinger’s statements regarding Spider-Man.

He once said something to the effect of ‘alcoholics are just stupid people doing stupid things through no fault but their own’.

He has repeatedly attested that it is morally wrong for Spider-Man and Batman to not simply murder characters like Joker or Carnage.

He has said that Otto’s actions towards Peter in Superior Spider-Man render him the worst enemy Peter has. This is in spite of him being a huge Norman Osborn fan.

He has essentially stated criminal killers like Shriek or Vermin (who suffer from severe mental disorders) deserve no sympathy.

He has said Kraven’s Last Hunt was flawed (to put it more delicately than he did) because Peter ‘never settled his score’ with Kraven.

He has even said that whenever DeMatteis gets into the psychological aspects of the characters he ‘goes off the deep-end’.

These views are most especially chronicled in his on-going segment of the podcast ‘Spider-History’ wherein he takes a month’s worth of (usually 616 Peter Parker) Spider-Man comics from a bygone month decades ago, recaps them and analyses the stories.

However, what is so frustrating to me about these segments as time has gone by is that Fettinger is overly critical and incredibly cynical. He has put forward his opinions as fact with little analysis or consideration of an alternative point of view.

To be blunt with relatively few exceptions he surmises each month in this section as mediocre-bad unless it contained something by Marv Wolfman or Roger Stern, two of his personal favourite runs.

Even then he puts across reductive summaries of the events of the book, in particular phrasing things to make certain characters (like Spider-Man himself) come across as worse than they actually are in the stories in question.

This is particularly a problem in my view because Fettinger’s status as a long read, knowledgeable and analytical fan confers onto him a certain degree of authority in regards to his statements about Spider-Man.

And you know what? It should.

He really does know A LOT about Spider-Man and he has made some incredible assessments about stories and characters related to the wall-crawler.

I cannot recommend you check out his website Spideykicksbutt enough.

But here is the thing...I do not advocate blind trust in his word, or anyone’s for that matter. Not even my own. I know A LOT about Spider-Man but I’m far from infallible.

Think for yourselves, do your own research, present your own arguments and counterpoints.

It’s what I do and why Fettinger frustrates me. Because he’s so belligerent to changing his views, most of which are adamantly cynical and judgemental.

Some people I’ve spoken to about this attribute this to his age. Most of his writing and podcast work has been produced when he was in his 40s or 50s.

It is often said that everyone becomes more cynical, grumpier and more stuck in their ways as they age.

I disagree with that in so far as not everyone becomes like that. And 40-60 is not a point when you are ‘done’ becoming who you are going to be and beyond changing.

It is the prerogative of old men to speak their minds but the WISE men are not adverse to changing them.

This is the root of my problems with Fettinger and his cynicism. Not to mention, I find cynicism simply lazy and foolish under most circumstances. Much as I find Fettinger’s ‘kill all criminals’ mentality to crime to be lazy and foolish.

These thoughts struck me when I re-read his essay from Webslinger. I read the essay upon first discovering his work but I apparently have changed in 6 years as I find much of it ill-considered, cynical, judgemental and problem riddled.

Hence my desire now to debunk it.

The gist of the essay is Fettinger talking about how Spider-Man has lots of unfulfilled potential and attributing this to the loss of his father figure Uncle Ben. He goes on to list off different father figures Peter has had and what the end result of their roles in his life might have been. For context this was written around the time of Civil War 2006.

My first and probably biggest bone of contention lies in how Fettinger frames Peter’s ‘unfulfilled potential’.

It’s here where you start to see his overly cynical and judgemental side.

I will not quote him word for word here because it’d take too long. But early on he writes that Spider-Man’s powers come at the price of his happiness, peace of mind and the normalcy that we all take for granted.

This is partially true but still misinformed.

Peter’s mind is most definitely not peaceful most of the time and his life not normal. But there is that key phrase ‘most of the time’. Not all of the time.

Even during his career Peter has had several moments of grace. Most of the stories transpiring in the immediate aftermath of Mary Jane’s return to his life in ASM v2 #50 come to mind issue #51 even calls out that nothing bad has really happened to get in the way of Peter and MJ’s reconciliation.

This oversight is particularly egregious since that period had only been a few years before the writing of this essay.

But it’s not as egregious as the other thing Fettinger said. That being Spider-Man has cost Peter his happiness.

Er....no.

There have been many things that have made Peter unhappy in the course of his superhero career but as ASM #500 clearly confirmed for us Peter, in spite of all that, is  ultimately happy. Which was a big deal as Peter had just relived all his old battles at once.

The omission of ASM #500’s ending is telling because Fettinger actively dislikes the story and the scene with Uncle Ben particularly. He’s labelled it as ‘banal’ and essentially said if he could talk with his own deceased father the conversation would’ve gone very differently. Problem is the the story was not about him and his family but about Spider-Man and HIS family!

Fettinger then asks if when Peter dies he’d be labelled as someone who fell short of his potential. He illustrates the point by comparing 15 year old Spider-Man to adult Spider-Man circa 2006.

He claims Peter made few adjustments to his fighting skills. Not true. The older Spider-Man beyond the Silver Age did in fact adjust some of his fighting skills, noticeably in regards to ramping up his speed during combat.

He also took martial arts lessons from Captain America in FNSM v1 #1, putting the techniques he learned from that into practice in the very same issue. That issue was published just a year before Fettinger’s essay by the way.

Granted these do not seem particularly significant.

But let’s flip the script a little bit. Let us presume Fettinger to be correct, Spider-Man between 1962-2006 had never evolved his fighting style significantly.

Is that really   an example of Peter doing himself a disservice, of not fulfilling his full potential...or is it that the fighting style he had was not only adequate for the life he lived but in fact optimum?

Spider-Man after all has an incredibly effective and sophisticated fighting style. It is impossible to truly replicate by anyone exempting those of similar powersets to himself.

His immense strength allows him to plant himself on the ground and exchange simple punches, kicks, etc. with a lot of power behind them.

But with more room to manoeuvre his speed, wall crawling, web-slinging and agility allows him to augment that raw power to deliver a lot of hits in a short space of time from a near 360 degree axis. See his battle with Firelord above)for proof of this. 

His webs can be used concussively, to distract, to incapacitate and can even act as a defensive shield.

(I know the Spider-Girl image isn’t 616 but it might as well be if you know the contex behind the story) 

And then there is his ace in the hole, the Spider Sense. This ability is linked to his reflexes and intuitively enables him to know an attack is coming. It almost automatically makes him adjust his movements accordingly in conjunction with his immense reaction speed and agility.

This fighting style had been enabling him to defeat a wide variety of foes across what was then 44 years of published stories.

So was it really that Peter was slacking off in not evolving it? Or was it more that he early on developed something extremely effective that didn’t need any real reinvention?

Moreover isn’t it impressive (rather than a point of condemnation) that Spider-Man essentially figured out the best way to fight with zero instruction or training when he was just a teenager. That’s incredible so it’s far from something to chastise him for simply because he hadn’t radically altered it.

What’s worse is Fettinger claimed that Peter ‘continued’ to rely upon sheer strength, raw intelligence, dumb luck and the stupidity/lack of imagination of his foes to win the day.

Let’s put aside for the moment how Peter has whipped up gadgets or chemicals when needs be.

Let’s also ignore how his foes even upon trying new tricks have more often than not met with defeat anyway.

Let’s also entertain the idea that Peter truly does rely upon his foes stupidity and dumb luck in battle. Let’s do that even though he absolutely doesn’t, he’s very rarely just presumed he can win because a villain is dumb, but he has exploited that fact when presented with it; see 99% of Rhino fights. Hell let’s even ignore how Spider-Man uses his speed, and agility and webbing and spider sense in battle as much as his strength.

What exactly is Spider-Man supposed   to rely on besides  his sheer strength and raw intelligence?

Fettinger is calling Spidey out for relying upon his raw physical powers and his intelligence.

Like...what is an MMA or boxer supposed to rely on besides their muscle and their mind to strategize before and after a fight?

Fettinger continues to point out that exempting his Iron Spider outfit or his alien costume Peter has continued to rely on his ‘wash n’ wear red and blue pajamas’.

There are two waysto view this statement. Either Fettinger is being critical that Spider-Man has not opted to alter his costume aesthetically ever or else never opted to alter it in terms of being functional. That is to say it’s still just a piece of cheap cloth.

Both arguments are invalid criticisms.

Peter has changed his look more than once throughout the years, noticeably he wore a cloth version of his black suit, used two rubber insulated outfits to fight Electro, made an armoured costume in Web of Spider-Man #100 and used four different costumes when he adopted four new identities for himself, all of which were used for different functions.

The black costume however served no function beyond enhanced stealth and Peter retired it due to him and his wife not liking how it reminded them of Venom, a notorious publically known homicidal maniac.

The Armoured suit was only created with access to ESU’s scientific resources, was destroyed on its first mission and realistically was compromising to Spidey’s fighting skills (hence Slott’s version was redesigned). It was also impractical as it was composed of a new hardened version of Peter’s webbing meaning it was never going to last anyway.

His rubber suits were similarly impractical for continual use and severely damaged during battles with Electro. They could not be worn as casually as his standard suit, realistically would’ve impeded mobility to a certain extent and were designed for one specific foe anyway. In fact Spidey usually ran into Electro by chance or else with limited time to intervene in his crimes. Meaning he’d not have the time to locate the rubber suit anyway. Besides...he usually managed to beat Electro without it anyway. After all rubber gloves would be a fairly effective defence and his webbing was itself an insulator. That was his go to in Electro’s debut in ASM v1 #9 and brought up in New Avengers v1 #4.

True Spider-Man trashed his original rubber suit for seemingly no good reason, but since this so aggressively makes no sense I think it’d be safe to presume Peter’s rationale was that the suit itself was ineffective (it didn’t provide full insulation) and was literally held together by glue. The suit was likely unusable after the battle hence why Spidey trashed it.

The four new identities he created though are the hardest to defend. It really doesn’t make much sense for him to have retired those identities beyond the simple fact that, well...the book is called Spider-Man not Hornet/Ricochet/Dusk/Prodigy. I suppose you could go so far as to say pretending to be other people and not using his web-shooters compromised his fighting abilities as he had to consciously move and talk differently as well as use different weapons and tactics. Also maybe he heard about how well multiple alter egos went for Moon Knight. The costumes were to be fair stolen from him and used by other people meaning he’d have had to come up with entirely new identities for himself and ultimately Peter would prefer being Spider-Man having come to see it (for all it’s burdens) as part of who he is.

So contrary to Fettinger’s criticisms, Peter HAS changed his costume, but from a practical/functional point of view there really is little reason for him to permanently make any changes. Or else when he has done so extenuating factors have compromised his attempts.

Meaning all that’s left is Fettinger’s complaint that Spidey never changed the outward aesthetic. Which is not a legitimate complaint about his ‘unfulfilled’ potential. I’ve kept the same posters in my room for many, many years. It doesn’t mean I’ve failed in my potential. It just means I can’t be bothered to change them/I have grown attached to them.

Fettinger continues his train of thought by talking about how Spider-Man’s webbing and web-shooters have not significantly changed since his early days barring his adoption of organic webbing.

I will give Fettinger some leeway here. He never said the webbing/webshooters have remained totally unchanged, just that they’ve mostly remained unchanged. So stuff like Peter equipping a spider tracer trigger to his web-shooters, sedative stingers, impact webbing, an LED light to tell him when he’s low on ammo and adjusting the design and formula of the webbing over time I am lumping all under ‘mostly not changed’.

Even though objectively by 2006 the web-shooters had changed.

But again why does this demonstrate unfulfilled potential?

Spider-Man’s web-shooters are a brilliant feat of scientific engineering/chemistry and have served him well across the decades.

They didn’t need to be radically re-invented.

True, Ben Reilly found ways to improve upon them which Peter later incorporated. Does this not prove Peter was slacking off, of failing to live up to his potential?

Yes and no.

Yes because there WERE improvements he could have made.

But no because Ben had access to Seward Trainer’s scientific resources, less social responsibilities, a lot more time on his hands and was in many ways far less stressed out. As such he was better able to spend time dreaming up those improvements.

Said improvements by the way equated to wearing the web-shooters on the outside of the wrists, sedative stingers and impact webbing and he had FIVE years to dream all that up.

So you know...hardly him re-inventing the wheel.

The truth is if Peter had been in a similar position to Ben, he would’ve likely dreamed up the same improvements.

But he evidently didn’t need to since the web-shooters worked just fine. Ben himself didn’t spam the stingers or impact webbing during his career as Scarlet Spider or Spider-Man. Nor did Peter in the years after he integrated most of Ben’s adjustments into his own web-shooters.

And he did just fine most of the time.

Any further upgrading to his web-shooters, like the kind we saw in Parker Industries, would’ve required access to resources Peter simply didn’t have.

Fettinger continues that Peter’s relationship with the public he serves is tenuous at best.

Again, this is not an example of unfulfilled potential. This is the result of Spider-Man’s reputation being slandered by Jameson and the wider press getting in on the act. This was proven in ASM v2 #39 wherein Aunt May, decades after Spidey began his heroic career, attempted to find a newspaper that didn’t  have a negative bias towards her nephew and struggled to do so.

In New Avengers v1 #15 the Avengers attempt to win Jameson over due to Spider-Man’s involvement with the team only for him to turn on the team collectively.

Combine that with:

 a)     The numerous times Spider-Man has been framed for crimes he was guiltless of

Or

b)     The instances where he was deliberately painted in a negative light, such as when he assaulted a seemingly innocent Norman Osborn in Spectacular Spider-Man #250

 And it was summarily not  Spider-Man’s fault that in his 15 year history his public relations had never been great. Nor was it a negative reflection upon him that he’d been unable to improve them in that time

The public have been fed a particularly strong and buzz worthy narrative for so long that it’d be difficult for him to ever rehabilitate his public reputation without working for the authorities legitimately, being pardoned for any real/perceived crimes he’s been accused of and unmasking publically. Even then it’d be no guarantee.

Not to mention (though Fettinger could be forgiven for not taking this into account from a 2006 perspective) in the world we live in today it’s sadly apparent that news stories about how bad  things are simply sell much more than stories about something positive.

Fettinger continues to say that in spite of Spider-Man’s dalliances with team membership his stubborn independence and feelings of inadequacies ensure he remains a loner and at times a fugitive with many heroes regarding him as poorly as the villains he fights.

This for me was possibly the greatest ‘what the fuck’ moment in this essay.

Stubborn independence. Okay, maybe? Although the message of his role in the then current ‘Civil War’ storyline was that surrendering his independence was a bad thing! By unmasking, surrendering some of his independence to Iron Man and working for the government Peter found himself in an inevitable position. He was trapped from doing the most good by a corrupt system. A system that was actively demanding he help do bad things by rounding up fellow heroes and removing their civil liberties. And in the process he made his friends, family, colleagues, students and general acquaintances targets!

Fettinger didn’t know this at the time, but in truth when you follow the chain of events, joining the Avengers is what led to One More Day.

If Peter hadn’t joined the Avengers and let them know his identity, Charlie Wiederman wouldn’t have gotten approval for his experiments from Iron Man.

If he hadn’t performed his experiments he’d have never become a freak.

If he hadn’t become a freak he wouldn’t have eventually burned down the Parkers’ homes.

If they hadn’t been homeless Iron Man wouldn’t have offered them Avengers HQ to stay at.

If they hadn’t been living there Tony wouldn’t have taken Peter under his wing.

If Tony hadn’t done that, if the Parkers weren’t beholden to him for the roof over their heads and if Tony didn’t know who Peter was, there’d have never been an issue about Peter unmasking publicly in support of the Super Human Registration Act.

If Peter hadn’t unmasked publicly Kingpin wouldn’t have put a hit out on his family.

If Kingpin hadn’t put the hit out Aunt May would never have been critically injured.

If Aunt May hadn’t been critically injured there’d have been no need for a deal with Mephisto to save her life.

Joining a team led to one of Spider-Man’s darkest hours and ultimately his greatest defeat.

So you know…maybe there is something to be said for ‘stubborn independence’.

Moving on…feelings of inadequacy? That’s heavily debatable. Again, see ASM #500. Peter was an ultimately happy person. He had a firm sense of pride throughout his life as much as he’d beat himself up. His inadequacies always came in the form of ‘I could/should have done more to help’.

Typically inadequacies manifest as ‘I’m just not worth it’. Even if you disagree and argue they are more like ‘I’m not good enough’ the context is still different. Whenever someone laments ‘not being good enough’, it’s almost always coming from a selfish mindset. Peter in AF #15 was frustrated about his inadequacies before going off on a power trip. But the older Peter’s frustrations were about his inability to do more for others! Superficially they might be called the same thing, but the internal psychology behind them is very different. Fettinger is attributing the former mindset to the latter iteration of the character.

It didn’t even really apply in the early years of the character. After all his problem in ASM #1 when he tried joining the Fantastic Four was about being too cocky (understandable given his age and experience as a performer) than about feeling himself to be somehow ‘not good enough’ for the team.

But then you get to the part here Fettinger claims these inadequacies and independent streak ensure Peter will at times be viewed as a fugitive. And that’s the point where I began to question near damn everything Fettinger has ever said about the character.

That’s not about Peter.

That’s the result of Jameson and super villains. If he wasn’t so independent or felt so ‘inadequate’ then I fail to see how that’d change his situation beyond other heroes disbelieving the news and vouching for him. But his various friends in the superhero community for many years never fully believed such slander anyway, especially since some of them had been victims of similar stuff themselves.

For instance, circa 1996 (let alone 2006) I find it fundamentally unbelievable that Daredevil or the Human Torch of all people would ever honestly entertain the idea that Spider-Man simply assaulted an innocent man in Spec #250 or (beginning in Peter Parker: Spider-Man #88) that he actually murdered low rent thug Joey Z (a crime Osborn framed him for).

More mind boggling though is Fettinger’s assertion that Spider-Man was (and always had been) a loner precisely due to his independence and inadequacy. This is utterly inaccurate because by 2006 Spider-Man was (to much consternation within the fandom) a member of the Avengers!

He’d been one for 1-2 years at the time of this essay’s writing and it’d been a MASSIVE deal. With hindsight we know that to some extent Spider-Man more or less held some form of Avenger’s status up until 2019, around 15 years after he first joined.

The idea of Spidey always being a loner was also aggressively contradicted by Spectacular Spider-Man #75-100. In those issues Peter and his girlfriend the Black Cat formed a crime fighting partnership. Yes they were lovers but the point is Peter was more than capable of accepting an on-going team arrangement. True their team fell apart with the end of their romance, but that had little to do with his independence or his feelings of inadequacy. Peter broke up with Felicia because she’d lied to him and didn’t value him beyond his Spider-Man identity.

That doesn’t touch on his independence at all and more importantly is an example of Peter doing something because he had too much self-respect to continue to be with someone who didn’t value him properly. Which is the opposite  of things failing because he had issues of inadequacy.

Heck Spidey at one point tried to form his own superhero team, the Outlaws.

What’s worse is that Fettinger himself wrote a detailed essay about Spidey’s history as a team player.

I’ll leave it there for now. We’ll continue covering the introduction next time.

Master Post

[syderion]

Random thoughts about Far From Home now that I had two screenings under my belt, a lot bit of alcohol and time to process everything. Of course, spoilers for both Far From Home and Marvel’s Spider-Man.

So many references to Marvel’s Spider-Man. There’s Peter’s new suit (that could also be inspired by the comics but I’m not that informed about Spider-Man’s comics) with the white spider. The whole, gorgeous, illusions sequences are extremely reminiscent of the sequences in the game where Spider-Man is drugged and while going after Doc Ock has to confront his guilt about the events unraveling. ps4!Peter feels like he failed to save Doc Ock while Peter feels like he failed Tony. The visual effects are very reminiscent to the fights in the Negative Zone too and well, it works so very well. Keeps you on your toes the whole way through (like I’ve rarely heard so much gasping and seen people really clenching their fists and yes, I’m spending half my time watching my fellow audience members’ reactions). The swinging through New York scenes could have been taken straight out of the game. It was exactly the same vibe. Also, extremely gorgeous. In a general manner, the camera work whenever Spider-Man swings around throughout the movie is very dynamic and works so very much to make you feel you’re swinging around too.

It’s no wonder Peter trusted Mysterio almost from the start. From what’s shown, he’s probably the most public and active hero amongst what’s left of them. The thing is, he’s still a 16 years old kid who is still grieving for his paternal figure (being Peter Parker, he probably hasn’t taken a proper break after being back). On top of that, he’s now living in a world that completely changed (like, May says she’s came back in a flat that wasn’t hers anymore and it’s very very possible that the two of them have been homeless at some point before getting a new flat). And he’s living in a world that is looking for a new Avenger-like group. A bit like Miles in Into the Spider-verse, Peter is kinda crushed under the expectations people have of him and under the expectations he has of himself (taking Iron-Man’s place). So when Mysterio arrives, when Peter is at his most vulnerable and so so happy to be able to share his doubts and fears and just be himself, a teenager, with a seemingly trusting adult that has no expectations of him, no wonder he fucking jumps on the occasion.

I absolutely love how down-to-earth Far From Home is in its themes. Ultimately, it’s about Peter just wanting to be a teenager with a crush and a well-deserved need for a break. Every high schoolers feel like a high schooler, from Peter and MJ’s awkwardness to Ned’s summer fling with Betty. It feels pretty real. On that topic, it’s the first time I really root for Peter and MJ. I feel like their couple came pretty naturally and they’ve had the best chemistry amongst the whole MCU.

I absolutely love how they treated Mysterio. He might have only been here for a movie but he’s definitely a great villain. He might not have the best motivations, but you know what? I don’t care whether he’s got good motivations: they make sense and it’s said from the start that he’s unstable. I love how he still manages to validate Peter’s feelings, how sympathetic he is. Most of all though, I love that he’s smart and has managed to gather smart people around him. In a world after Thanos, it’s no wonder that their multiverse theory totally worked. I mean, if I’d witnessed half the population vanish, you bet I’d believe that the multiverse theory to be true: especially in a world that’s still searching for its new heroes. In general though, I think Mysterio’s character is pretty great. And Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Holland had such great chemistry on screen.

I’m very fine with how they treated the Blip. The name might sound a bit silly, but well, it’s just a blip in the concerned people’s life. And it’s better than the Decimation.

I absolutely love to see how Happy and Peter’s relationship has progressed. That, when he was in trouble, Peter called Happy and he just took a jet and went fetching him was pretty nice. The “hey, Tony was a mess, you’re a mess and it’s okay,” talk was great! It’s a far call from Happy ignoring Peter’s call in Homecoming. Like here, Peter called and Happy just came, no questions asked.

We always knew that Peter was a genius, but seeing him nerding out was such a great thing. Also Mysterio telling him to never be sorry for being smart was damn fine.

OH.MY.GOD. It is so satisfying to see how Peter has become skilled with his own abilities. How fast and on point he is compared to other movies (well, mostly Homecoming). Like the way he moves and how he uses his webs. It’s so so cool (and so satisfying I need to repeat myself).

The post-credit scenes are great. Probably my favorite amongst the MCU. They have are important, are logical and explains a lot (and, actually, the whole movie works so well because Furry!Talos totally is in character as Talos). I’m so so happy to see Talos again (he was my fav in Captain Marvel).

What’s great about getting to see a movie a lot of time is to see the audience’s reaction. I’ve only seen Far From Home twice so far (for a comparison, I’ve seen Infinity War maybe... erm, 6 or 7 times and Endgame 5 times), but the audience always was really on their toes and my neighbours gasping and on their toes and really surprised and enjoying themselves all the way through. They might not laugh as loud at all the jokes (for exemple, in Endgame the ‘Heil Hydra’ joke tend to land more amongst a more comic-knowledgable crowd), but most jokes landed. People in my second screening laughed as much as in my first (more geek and comic-fans) and for me, it’s important: it means that it’s a humour that understandable whether you just like super-heroes movies or are a comic fan.

You know what. I feel that, overall, it’s my favorite live action!Spider-man. I liken it to Thor: Ragnarok in the fact that is completely is unrepentant in its comic-ey aspect and it works so so so well for me. I mean, Tom Holland already was the best live action Spider-Man for me but Far From Home came and managed to be the best slap in the face. I found it’s such a great way to start phase 4 and I absolutely can’t wait to see more of the MCU.

Also, sorry if it’s all a bit random but I went out to have some drink with friends, came back home and had more drink before writing. So yeah, alcohol. Don’t be afraid to message me though, I’ll be please to gush more (or argue if that’s what you’re into) Far From Home when I’ll be more sober.

[marshmallowgoop]

Okay, so I keep seeing all this stuff about how the 2018 film Venom is just a live-action Kill la Kill, but most of the time, this content winds up being another usage of the “In this essay I will” meme.

And, like, yes, I admit, I haven’t even seen Venom and really ain’t too familiar with Venom lore, but I WILL FINISH THE ESSAY ANYWAY.

First, lemme get the basics outta the way. Venom, just like Kill la Kill, involves a protagonist (Eddie, Ryuko) bonding with a space alien outfit (Venom, Senketsu). While the alien is viewed as a dangerous parasite, the protagonist becomes much stronger from the partnership, and together, the two are able to battle the various threats around them.

But while, say, the Spider-Man 3 adaptation of the Venom story didn’t really go much further than that sorta basic outline, it seems that the 2018 film takes the concept of a human/alien connection to a whole ‘nother level. Just as in numerous comics, movie!Venom is not depicted as little more than a monstrous power-up with zero personality besides “evilz”; they, like Senketsu in Kill la Kill, are a sentient, sapient, and emotional character in their own right. And, as @agendervenom argues in this fantastic post (which is also where I am getting all of these Venom comics images from, thank you!), Eddie and Venom “consider their entire story in the comics to be a love story.”

Which is also super the vibe I’m getting from this latest flick. 

I mean, like. Most everything I see about the film is that it’s a love story between Eddie and Venom and a goofy rom-com and Venom is the Best Monster Boyfriend and... yeah. If the Venom comics are a love story more than anything else, it seems like there’s a hecka lotta consensus that the recent movie is the same way.

It’s not as easy to make a similar case for Kill la Kill. Everyone kinda has a different idea of what the show is all about, and these ideas can be anything from a warning about wearable technology to some giant metaphor about puberty.

But. Look. Kill la Kill has been described by its head scriptwriter, Kazuki Nakashima, to be his attempt to “make a form of intimacy that transcends love and species.” 

And IN THIS ESSAY I WILL ACTUALLY contend that Ryuko and Senketsu’s relationship—just like Eddie and Venom’s in Venom—forms the heart of the whole narrative.

So, yes, this post is going exactly where you think it’s going. Controversial titty anime Kill la Kill is literally a love story between a teenage girl and her alien shirt, and if you don’t believe me, consider the following:

✄ The cover art for the final volume of the series (pictured at the top of this post)—or, you know, the number-one thing that the show wants you to take away from it—is an illustration of Ryuko and Senketsu wrapped in a tender embrace, presumably just about to Synchronize and become one. To further bring my point home, this image is constantly featured on the homepage for the official Kill la Kill website.

✄ (Plus, an earlier draft that character designer Sushio drew (pictured just above) is maybe even more intimate and adorable.)

✄ In Nakashima’s comments for the final episode in The Complete Script Book, he notes that he felt the story had to end with Ryuko saying goodbye to Senketsu because it began with the two saying hello. 

✄ Which, I mean, is a pretty blatant acknowledgment that Kill la Kill is ultimately all about Ryuko and Senketsu’s bond. 

✄ And while voice actors are generally largely uninvolved in the writing of a TV series and can’t exactly state any “canon” information, Ami Koshimizu, Ryuko’s VA, has argued for the significance of Ryuko and Senketsu’s partnership herself, saying, “Senketsu and Ryuko are like family, like friends, like lovers, are in a very comfortable/close-fitting relationship. Had they both been human, it would not have been possible for them to have this relationship. I think that is what this wonderful work depicted.” (Emphasis added.)

In short? Maybe Ryuko and Senketsu don’t get a cute fairytale ending with a little heart like Eddie and Venom do in one of the comics, but it’s kinda undeniable that their love for each other is just as crucial to Kill la Kill as Eddie and Venom’s love for each other is to Venom comics and the new film. In both cases, that human/alien connection is legitimately the bread and butter of the story.

And the similarities don’t end there. Oh, no. The human/alien connections here also resemble each other greatly.

Eddie/Venom: We are two-in-one, Hawk.

Ryuko: No. Senketsu and I are two in one.

Again, I haven’t seen the movie, so I’m gonna rely on comics caps from here on out, but given that Venom appears to follow the main comics story of the alien symbiote much more closely than, say, that aforementioned Spider-Man 3, I figure that the film can’t be too far off.

And in the comics? Eddie and Venom say the exact same thing about their relationship as Ryuko says about hers with Senketsu: they’re two in one.

And I am just scratching the surface.

Venom: Where we bonded, Eddie. Just like marriage.

Senketsu: This is literally Life Fiber Synchronization!

Venom and Eddie’s relationship gets compared to marriage in the comics, and while it’s hard to capture in just a single image from Kill la Kill, there is some pretty in-your-face wedding and marriage symbolism regarding Ryuko and Senketsu’s relationship, too. Their act of coming together is termed Jin-I-Ittai, and though this was officially translated as “Life Fiber Synchronization,” it can be more literally translated as “Human-Clothing Unity.” Given the connotations that “union” has with marriage, and that a similar alien to Senketsu is quite literally described as a “wedding dress,” which Ryuko also quite literally tears off of her body and consequently drenches herself in her own blood so that she can reunite with Senketsu... yeah.

Just like Eddie and Venom, what Ryuko and Senketsu have is akin to marriage, but it’s also way, way more than that.

Eddie/Venom: —married in a way no human can ever under—whoa!  

Ryuko: I’d rather be dead! I have to take this [wedding dress] off even if I die! Because if I don’t... I won’t be able to wear Senketsu again!

And I can keep going.

Eddie: I used to hate going to the movies alone. That was before the other and I found each other. Now, I’m never alone. Life doesn’t give you many happy endings like that.

Ryuko: We’re not the same. I’m not alone. Senketsu and I fight together!

Both Eddie and Ryuko emphasize how they’re never alone and always have their alien by their side; even the short trailer for the upcoming Kill la Kill video game stresses this point, which is perhaps especially noteworthy because the game’s story is actually focused on another character altogether.

And while Ryuko and Senketsu may not go on lovey-dovey dates together in-series, there is an official card where they hold hands just like Venom and Eddie do at the movies in the comics, happily frolicking around together in what’s legitimately, seriously titled “Senketsu’s Date with Ryuko.”

(Plus, there was even a whole figure made outta this date image. So. You know.)

And I can go on some more.

Eddie: Yeah... Ohhhh, yeah. That’s it, baby. Wrap those tentacles around me.

Senketsu: We’ve never been so in sync before! Right now, you and I are one! This is literally Life Fiber Synchronization!

Ryuko: You can say that again! Doesn’t this feel awesome?!

Both Eddie/Venom and Ryuko/Senketsu have fusion sequences that ain’t at all shy about playing up the innuendo that comes along with, well, two characters “becoming one.” In one scene, Eddie loves the feel of Venom’s tentacles around him. In another, Ryuko cherishes her connection with Senketsu and starts glowing after expressing how good the sensation of being Synced with him is.

But, you know, it’s sweet! These aren’t just dirty jokes. They are expressions of these characters loving each other and loving being together.

And, like. I could really go on and on here, folks. 

I could talk about how Venom declares that no one will break the bond they have with Eddie, just like how Senketsu raps in his duet with Ryuko (which is also the main theme of the show, btw) that they should “let no one break the bond that is [theirs]”:

Venom: Important place, Eddie. Bonded forever. No one will break that bond.

Senketsu: Let’s let no one break the bond that is ours

I could talk about how Eddie refers to Venom as his symbiote just like Ryuko refers to Senketsu as her Senketsu in the official English subtitles and dub:

Eddie: So, it’s true. The symbiote is here. My symbiote.

Ryuko: That’s my Senketsu! You can do anything if you try!

I could talk about how both Eddie/Venom and Ryuko/Senketsu want to be together forever:

Venom: We want to be together, Eddie. Forever.

Eddie: Yes, love.

Senketsu: I want to be worn by you.

Ryuko: I’m never taking Senketsu off.

But, y’know. I think this post is probably long enough by now, and I’ve hopefully made my point.

tl;dr? Venom is basically a live-action Kill la Kill because, if it’s anything like the comics (and I take it that it is), its entire main focus is, just like Kill la Kill’s, the similarly loving relationship between a human and alien clothes.

And if Venom can be recognized for telling a story all about an impossible love that’s really not impossible at all, Kill la Kill deserves some dang recognition for doing the same thing, even if its “monster” isn’t maybe as unconventionally attractive as Venom is.

And if I can write a ginormous essay on this subject without even seeing the film and knowing basically nothing about Venom lore, just imagine what’s possible with that knowledge.

[wellhalesbells]

If you have the time and if you don't mind, what are some books you really recommend? Doesn't have to be all time faves, but anything that pops into mind that you want more ppl to read and love, Extra points if lgbt+ , i got the whole summer with little to do and i wanna spend it reading some good quality writing and honestly so far your recs have introduced me to so many faves its unbelievable

[blushes profusely] oh wow, thank you!!!  i’m so glad you’ve trusted me enough to check out some of the stuff i reblog; that is like the ultimate compliment, i can’t even???  i don’t mind at all(!), fair warning though: i only started recording what i read partway through last year and my mind is like a sieve so i’ll do my absolute best to remember what’s sang to me in the recent past.  warning number two: i’m in an open relationship with absolutely every genre out there so i’ll try to note which belongs where so you can avoid those that hold no interest for you.

LGBT+

i’ll give you the sun.  i loved this book, the writing is fucking transformative and all the characters are so damn likable, while still being realistically flawed human beings.

the raven cycle (tetralogy).  definitely my favorite series since harry potter.  the writing, the world-building, the characters, it’s all on top-form.  i wrote a little, mini non-spoilery review of it: here, back when i was better (worse?) wordly-wise and my feels were brand new.

more happy than not.  i’m still not sure how i feel about this book.  it was hard, but it felt very true to the characters and the lingo and style matched the ages of the players and i have a lot of respect for that.

the watchmaker of filigree street.  woooow i loved this book.  i admit ‘historical fiction’ kind of makes me cringe.  it never precludes me from reading a book but it does knock it down the list by a book or five because they’re often very dense and very clunky and end up taking me ages to get through.  but this one was gorgeous.  i loved the plot, the attention lovingly placed on every character and the historical elements.  the surprise gay in an already brilliant book felt like winning the lottery honestly.

captive prince (trilogy).  okay, truthfully, i’m only putting this on here because the second book is such a high point for me.  it was never bad at any point but it had unfortunately been hyped far too much for it to live up to my, admittedly, very high expectations.  hopefully it’ll fare better with you?

everything i never told you.  i go back and forth on this one.  i like the writing a lot, i like the LGBT aspect a lot, and i like the mystery aspect a lot but there are definitely characters i would cut out entirely for sheer predictability if i could and that killed a lot of my enjoyment at the time (but i think much more highly of it in retrospect?).  so, take that as you like.

aristotle and dante discover the secrets of the universe.  if there’s a book that handles its characters with more care or respect or consideration then i haven’t run into it.  i love the way this is written and the people it’s populated with.

flying lessons & other stories.  a bunch of uber talented authors writing a bunch of uber diverse and LGBT-focused stories and, yes, that is exactly as awesome as it sounds.

the song of achilles.  it is utterly heart-breaking but so rich, honestly.

FANTASY

the diviners.  (also has a minor LGBT character, who may play a bigger role in the sequel?)  fair warning, i have not read the sequel, lair of dreams, because it is somehow still not out in paperback (yes, i read physical books, yes, i pretty exclusively read paperbacks so i can lug them everywhere with me, YES, I PRE-ORDERED THIS ALMOST TWO YEARS AGO AND IT’S STILL NOT OUT, NOT THAT I’M BITTER ABOUT THAT OR ANYTHING) so i can’t speak to that one finishing on a high note as i don’t know.  but this was the first historical novel i managed to like in a long while.  it does such a good job of fusing in 1920s lingo and dress and aspects that i couldn’t help but love it.  add in the fantasy elements and i can admit i’m the perfect sucker for it.

the scorpio races.  i’m not sure why but it took me a long-ass time to get into this book, i wasn’t flipping pages with gusto until well towards the end but - especially as i was reading so much YA at the time - i really appreciated coming across a romance that lets both people come into it as themselves and stay themselves, neither puck nor sean were ever smashed or crumpled or shaved away to fit into their relationship, which was so refreshing.  plus the water horses were fucking cool.

the night circus.  the writing, the atmosphere, the circus.  just… it is all very whoa.

all the birds in the sky.  i loved this writing style and these characters and the magical elements.

CONTEMPORARY

i’ll meet you there.  there was something about this and i just… ended up liking it way more than i expected to.  i might’ve just read it at exactly the right time, i’m not sure, but i really enjoyed it.

the invoice.  this is honestly just hella cute and so freaking surreal.  swedes, man.

NON-FICTION

why not me?  i like mindy kaling a lot.  i make no apologies for that.  plus you can read both her books in about five seconds, haha.

SCIENCE FICTION

station eleven.  i loved this book.  the way the narrative is woven is so refreshing and i wish the comic book miranda was writing in this book was a real thing more than anything else in the woooorld.

illuminae.  hot DAMN this book was cool.  the plot was rock solid, the characters were hilarious and badass and the graphics made out of text and spiraling words and just the way this thing is put together?  shit, it’s worth your money and then some.

a robot in the garden.  okay this is just cute as hell.  i can’t even with tang, he’s the most adorable robot to ever adorable.

annihilation (southern reach trilogy).  (LGBT minor characters.)  okay, honestly?  i don’t know.  this was freaking zany but i was invested as fuck in all the kookiness for reasons i can’t articulately elaborate on.

the martian.  hilarious, engaging, SPACE.  what more do you want?

HORROR

things we lost in the fire.  this is more atmospheric than anything but, damn, could this get me wishing i wasn’t reading this in the dark or looking over my shoulder to make absolutely sure no one was standing behind me.  it’s a book of short stories (by the way, i love books of short stories and i definitely realize that is not true for everyone) and each one is so well-delivered and stylized.  i really enjoyed reading this.

let the right one in.  okay, this is legit horror so definitely stay away if you’re easily squicked out but it is harrrrrd to find good horror (at least in my opinion) and this definitely, definitely qualifies.

horrorstör.  i honestly had such low expectations for this, a horror story set in a wannabe-ikea, but it ended up being so ridiculous and strange and funny that i was won over by the finish.

the girl with all the gifts.  holy unique and well-executed zombie idea, batman!

SHORT STORIES

the bigness of the world.  there were definitely ones here that hit better than others but the ones i liked, i really liked!

GRAPHIC NOVELS (i read a lot of these so, um, prepare yourself)

saga.  (LGBT minor characters as well.)  this is world-building to a degree that i’m convinced did not exist before.  just, i can’t say enough amazing things about this series and the staggering amount of imagination that regularly goes into it.

ms. marvel.  heart-warming as fuck.  it’s definitely really easy to lose faith in the world these days, luckily kamala is there to remind you that people are primarily and genuinely good.

black science.  this is another one that took just an insane amount of imagination to cook up.  i got off to kind of a rocky start with this one but the gray-ness of all the characters really speaks to me, and that doesn’t really blossom until later in the series.

spider-man/deadpool.  this was very satisfying for my super duper spideypool-shipping mind.  joe and ed did us so good, and joe basically said in his sign-off: i made it absolutely as gay as they would let me, haha.

the wicked + the divine.  (LGBT minor characters that you’re going to get way too attached to, and retroactively.  it’s awful [sobs].)  the concept for this, gods reincarnating into teenagers before they burn up their hosts after a predetermined set of time, is so fucking cool.  the humor and the characters and the plot is all just aces.

iceman (LGBT MAIN CHARACTER).  okay, so this just started.  like issue #2 was only released days ago but 1) i am liking it so far and 2) marvel did it so dirty and barely advertised bobby - an openly homosexual superhero - was getting his own series, like, i found out about it the day before it went on sale and i keep my ear fairly close to the ground (not as close as some BY A LOT, but closer than the lay person i’d say) so if you can support it, please do!  pre-orders mean a lot in terms of numbers. :))))

descender.  admittedly, this starts out rooough.  because the main character, TIM-21 (and his little dog too), are annoying as hell.  he’s an android so there’s no dimension to him so he’s booooring as all get out but i am so glad i stuck with it through to the next trade because, probably picking up on the unsustainability of him as a main character, he gets shuffled off and the side characters get the stage and they rock so hard.

paper girls. (LGBT main characters.)  i’m kind of just convinced that brian k. vaughan can do no wrong at this point.  his plots are so tight and mind-blowing and badass.

monstress.  here’s a little tid-bit about me: female comic book writers are 100% more likely to get my money and my time because they are so damn rare and this series is unique, badass, and eye-opening.

black monday murders.  i’m a little premature with this since there’s only one volume and i usually try to wait until there are at least two but i check up on a volume two a lot so that definitely means something intrigued me!

nailbiter.  okay, i haven’t read the final volume yet ‘cause i’m reluctant to let it go but, so far, a series about multiple serial killers all being from the same town has me VERY HOOKED.

i wish i could remember more but this is honestly way better than i expected to do, haha.  they’re definitely not all my all-time faves but they’re ones that have stuck with me for one reason or another and that i didn’t feel i wasted my time on, so that’s something, right?  i hope this helps get you started and that you don’t think too awfully of me when you inevitably run across ones that aren’t your cup of tea!

[mysticprima]

Spider-Man Homecoming Thoughts

People may not want to read if you haven’t seen Spider-Man Homecoming yet, but I’ve just seen the movie last night and I’ve gotta say, wow! I thought it was a brilliant movie! I’m not saying it was perfect in every way, but there were so many things they got right this time and I am so happy they seem to have done a good job of rebooting the Spider-Man franchise.  Anyway, this is just me sharing some of my thoughts on the movie.

*SPOILER ALERT*

1. Tom Holland as Spider as Peter/Spidey Perfect casting choice and great acting from him all around. Tom’s Peter is exactly how I imagine a young Spidey to be. He isn’t obnoxious, too much of a nerd or too cool (like Garfield was), but he’s is still an introverted kid, kind of nerdy, not to mention cute, adorable and most importantly, relatable. Prior to this movie, I always thought Toby Maguire did it best, but Tom is definitely the one true Peter Parker for me now (other than Drake Bell as my fave Spidey VA but that’s another somewhat controversial rant in itself). I loved how Tom really captured the spirit of a young Peter. He gave an incredibly realistic take on the character as being a young, scared kid underneath it all with a huuuge responsibility, but he is still having fun with his powers and reacting as you would expect a kid to do. I actually found his performance very credible.  One question, though. Did Peter have Spidey sense in this movie? I don’t recall it being showcased or mentioned. 

2. Marisa Tomei as Aunt May - I am a huge fan of Ultimate Aunt May, so it goes without saying that Marisa Tomei’s Aunt May is my favourite version too precisely because she is shown here to be a character who has her own life which doesn’t just revolve around Peter. It was a good casting choice.

3. Zendeya as “Michelle”. For the record, I really liked Zendeya’s character. Loved her tomboy look and she had a lot of sass and one liners in the movie. She was generally a great character. However, I did have some issues with this character, particularly surrounding what she reveals at the end of the movie. Okay, so she is called Michelle Jones which, I get, is “MJ” for short. Fair enough. But if Michelle is “MJ”, then why not just call her Mary Jane? I wouldn’t have minded if they had had just done what they did with Flash who is obviously a very different take on his character, but at least they still called him “Flash”. Michelle’s personality could have easily fit with a cooler and nerdier Mary Jane, similar to kind of how she is in Ultimate Spider-Man comics and cartoon, so I don’t know why they had to invent this “Michelle” character, who is the “MJ” of this universe. Like I said, I don’t dislike their take on the character. I’d take her to Kirstin Dunst’s Mary Jane any day of the week, but why “Michelle?”

4. Robert Downey Jr as Ironman and Tony and Peter’s relationship – Robert Downley Jr was great (as you’d expect), but it goes without saying that having Ironman and his relationship with Spidey feature in this movie was one of the highlights. Now that Peter is finally in the MCU universe, we get to see the dymanic between them on the big screen and it is perfect. I’m a big IronSpider fan and this movie did not disappoint. There was so many great Tony + Peter moments to appreciate such as the awkward “hug” scene, Tony giving Peter a lecture after the Statten Island Ferry incident and Tony comparing himself to his own father while lecturing Peter. There were so many other cute moments between them and so many feels, needless to say I love the Tony/Peter dynamic of Tony as the mentor/older male figure who pretends he’s too cool to care and Peter as the teen who idolises and wants to be like him. At first I was disappointed that Peter did not make his own suit, but actually I can now see how it made more sense that Ironman was involved. At least Peter still made his own web fluid. It was more realistic, I guess. But yeah, loved seeing Ironman and Spidey in this movie. 

5. Michael Keaton as the vulture. We actually have a great bad guy for once in Michael Keaton. Having a strong villain is just as important as having a strong hero and this is something the other Spider-Man movies have previously lacked (with maybe the exception of Otto in Spider-Man 2). Usually in Spider-Man movies, they either try to cram too many villains in at once (here’s looking at you Spider-Man 3) or the villains are just plan forgetful (I honestly cannot remember who the villain was in Amazing Spider-Man). Keaton, on the other hand, did a great job. There is also that great scene where the twist is revealed and the characters come face to face. You can actually see the fear and shock on Peter’s face when he realises who The Vulture is outside of costume. When I was at uni, my tutor (a professional writer who writes scripts for various UK TV shows) once said how in every great action movie, there always have at least one scene where the hero and villain come face to face off the battlefield, where there is a moment of understanding between them.  This really was one of those great moments which made this movie so much better because of it. 

6. Other supporting characters, such as Ned Leeds, Flash and Liz – I felt the supporting cast was mostly good. My initial worry is that Ned was too much like Ganke. To be honest, I still think that’s the case, but I can see how he was a nice addition to the movie and a funny character who was actually useful to the plot. I’ll be honest about Flash. I hated this take on Flash, mainly because I have always associated Flash as being a jock but then, as it has been pointed out, this movie is trying to move away from stereotypes like the “big dumb jock” and “preppy girl.” Liz was fine as the beautiful but smart girl who has depth. I’ll be honest, I do not like Liz as Peter’s love interest in any universe, but she played her role well enough. Flash…well… I’m still not sure about Flash to be honest, but I see what the writers we’re trying to do and I’ll give them a nod for that. But the true star of supporting characters was Happy!! Can we talk about HAPPY?!!!

7. Conclusion

Overall I thought it was well written, well acted and entertaining as far as superhero movies go. It has it’s flaws, but it is so much better than the mess that was Amazing Spider-Man (in my opinion) and it provides a much more up-to-date version of the character which was needed. There are some things I might have liked to see, like maybe a quick cameo from J K Simmons as J Jonah Jamerson, even if they had just flashed his face flash on the screen like they do in The Ultimate Spider-Man Cartoon.  I for one am glad we didn’t get a repeat of the same story with Uncle Ben and the Osborns. It will be interesting to see where the series goes next. 

[mediocrereview]

The Homecoming Phenomenon

By Simple Cash

“Hey everyone”.

When Captain America: Civil War was coming out, I wasn’t aware of the whole Marvel-Sony deal and the inclusion of Spider-Man into the MCU. It wasn’t until a friend showed me the trailer that I found out. One line, he had one line in the trailer and it made me more excited than anything else. Since that day, I had been waiting for a standalone Spider-Man movie to be announced. I felt like me 6 year old overweight self watching Spider-Man cartoons in the living room with my homemade (and pretty lame) Spider-Man costume, pretending to shoot webs at my stuffed animals and pretending to crawl walls on my kitchen floor.

Bottom line is, as a kid, my favorite superhero was Spider-Man. As an adult, my favorite superhero is Spider-Man. But, what exactly is it that makes him so great? Is it the fact that he is relatable? Is it his intellect, his goofiness, his sense of moral?

I remember looking forward all day to catch the animated show, and I remember the excitement I felt when the original Spider-Man movie came out. That excitement was matched when Homecoming was announced, and there began one of the longest waits of my life.

Before we go any further, I will make it clear that there may (and will be) minor spoilers, so take that into consideration before reading any further. Consider this your spoiler alert!

Tom Holland is Peter Parker. No, I mean, he really is. This is by far, in my opinion, the most faithful incarnation our favorite web slinger has had. Sure, the Sam Raimi trilogy and Marc Webb’s Amazing Spider-Man nailed Peter Parker in a lot of ways, but I humbley believe this is the ultimate version of Peter Parker.

The opening scene introduces us to Adrian Toomes, owner of a cleaning crew incharge of cleaning up after the Battle of New York. Not long enough, a group of the DODC (Department of Damage Control) notificate Adrian that his services will no longer be needed, and that all cleaning up is now on them. Adrian explains that he has invested a lot of money on this company, and that his workers and himself have families to look after. This, however, falls upon deaf ears.

At this point, is that things are different from most superhero movies. I felt bad for the guy, I mean, I guess it’s something we can all relate to. He is just a man, struggling for his family and for himself, and that drives him into a life of crime. Justified? Perhaps not, but understandable nevertheless.

Cut to 8 years later, we are presented with vLogs from a young Peter Parker that has been recruited by Tony Stark. Peter explains that he is going to Berlin with Happy Hogan, but he doesn’t really know what the mission is. We then see Peter in his homemade suit talking in front of a mirror. Happy bursts in, telling him to go get the case. In Peter’s hotel room, a silver case with a note from Tony Stark sits on a table. You guessed right; the case contains the now iconic Stark Industries Spider suit.

We then cut to another Peter Parker vLog, this time during the Airport battle from CA:CW. Three months later, we see Peter back in school. What I really liked about this part, is that we see Peter eager to take on new missions and impress Tony, but he only goes around doing small tasks like helping people find addresses (being rewarded with churros. Is it really that bad? I wouldn’t mind some free churros…)

At the beginning of this post I mentioned briefly that Peter Parker is a character one can easily relate to; he’s a high school boy, trying to balance his life. Sure, a huge part of his life consists of being a masked hero and ruining his life, but it is a universal theme.

This movie has by far the most hatable version of Flash Thompson. He’s a wealthy kid that bullies Peter, but not in a physical way. I really liked that Flash bullied Peter by calling him names and trying to make his life difficult rather than physically intimidating him because this is a problem, and shouldn’t be overlooked as “playing” around.

Peter’s best friend, Ned, made me eat my words. Based on the trailers, I was under the impression that he would be an annoying character with no contribution to the film, but boy was I wrong. More than that annoying “but you are a kid” line from the trailer, Ned represents that friend we all need: that guy that’s there for you, that accepts you the way you are and that helps you keep your feet on the ground. He is, by far, one of the funniest and most lovable characters in the movie.

Oh, one thing I almost forgot to talk about was the Shocker. We actually get two different Shockers in the movie. A couple of months back when the cast list was revealed, this confused many, including myself. Well, maybe it wouldn’t have been necessary to cast two different actors to play the Shocker, but then again, clumsy old Vulture can’t tell the difference between an anti gravitational cannon and, ehm, something else.

We don’t see too much from Logan Marshall-Green, a.k.a Shocker #1, and I don’t think it was necessary. He is killed off incidentally by the Vulture when he threatens to reveal his plans after he is kicked out of the Vulture’s crew for being too irresponsible and jeopardizing his operation. The second Shocker, however, Bokeem Woodbine, is a more mature and responsible Shocker, and I really enjoyed his performance.

I am, however, slightly disappointed that we didn’t get to see a masked version of the Shocker, but then again, I kinda saw it coming based on the trailers and the LEGO “Beware the Vulture” set (which I will review later on). You win some, you lose some, but it’s nothing too important in my opinion.

While we’re talking about costumes, I loved the design for Vulture. While many were upset, wanting a more comic accurate version for his suit, I am happy they didn’t go that way. Let’s face it, we wouldn’t (or at least I wouldn’t) be able to take Michael Keaton seriously as a villain if he was flying around in feathery green tights now, would we? The whole aviator-like feel to the suit is marvelous, and it makes sense. If someone were to actually become a criminal under the name the Vulture, my best guess is that he would go that way costume wise. Plus, it’s terrifying, intimidating and all around badass.

Some of us were concerned that Homecoming would essentially be “Iron Man 4”, and while it may be true that Robert Downy Jr’s Tony Stark plays an important role in the movie, he is far from being the center of the spotlight. Tony plays a father figure for Peter, and he even says that he is trying to show support to him and trying to “break the cycle”. Iron man does show up a couple of times throughout the movie, saving a drowning Spider-Man from after his first encounter with Vulture and again during Spider-Man’s second fight with Vulture in the ferry.

I really liked Iron Man’s MK47 from the trailers, and man did it look good onscreen! But what I liked the most about Iron Man is definitely the way he looked after Peter, sermoning him when necessary to make sure he became the best he could be.

With the inclusion of Donald Glover’s Aaron Davis, a whole new world could be opening before our eyes. During his talk with Spider-Man, Davis addresses that he “has a nephew” who lives in town. This nephew he refers to is of course Miles Morales, who takes on the mantle of Spider-Man after Peter Parker’s death in the Ultimate series. Now, I really like Miles but I hope he doesn’t become THE Spider-Man, at least not for now. Tom Holland delivered such an amazing Peter Parker that it would be a waste not to have him being the wall crawler at least for a couple (or a hundred thousand) more movies.

Homecoming is a great film, and you should watch it. Wether you are or not a superhero fan, you will definitely enjoy this movie and what it has to offer. It sets a new standard for superhero movies, and balances out perfectly comic book faithfulness and modern ideas to deliver a perfectly crafted masterpiece.

If you don’t believe me, go see for yourself what is making everyone crazy about Spider-Man right now. Maybe it is the air of nostalgia, maybe it is wanting to reconnect with your childhood self. Maybe it’s everything, but you’ll never find out if you don’t take the leap.

[kazephantom]

Spider-Man Homecoming thoughts

Well, my first one is kind of a spoiler but I think it is important to know.  Leave your expectations at the door.  This is a new version of Spider-Man, one that is different from any other version.  This is not Sam Rami Spider-Man, this is not Andrew Garfield Spider-Man, this is not Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon or comic, and this is not 616 Spider-Man.  This is a new version, a new interpretation of the character and mythos.  That being said, I liked it for what it is.

Thoughts and spoilers below the cut

The two best parts of the film are Tom Holland’s Peter Parker and Micheal Keaton’s Adrian Toomes.  The two actors play their characters so wonderfully well, Tom Holland’s Peter really, really reminds me of Tobey Maguire’s, from the voice he uses as Spider-Man, to how he sometimes comes off as lovably pathetic, and Hell, in some shots Tom Holland even starts looking like a younger Tobey Maguire.  That being said, he does tell more than one joke in the film, so his Spider-Man has that over Maguire’s. Oh, it should be noted though, he does not have Peter’s anger. Even in the scene where Tony takes away the tech suit, I really expected him to get angry there and show that aspect of the character off, but instead he just, kinda starts to cry.  Which, I don’t know how to feel about. 

Micheal Keaton. Hands down. Plays the best MCU villain. To date. Better than Loki. There I said it.  Hiddleston’s Loki has always had the problem of being too sympathetic to be taken seriously as a villain.  But Keaton. Holy shit. Everything he does is for his family, there’s a scene where he’s with his family and he is so sweet and caring and a perfect father and husband, but then. HOO BOY. That car scene. The scene where Keaton is dropping Peter and Liz off at the dance, I had white knuckles all the way through it.  The way he made Peter say ‘Thank you’ was terrifying.  And the way he found out Peter was Spider-Man, as they drive and you start to see Keaton put the pieces together. HO-LY SH-IT.  Only problem: nobody ever in this whole film calls him “The Vulture.”

Two more important notes about Spider-Man. First, Remember how in Civil War he was really, really strong?  Well forget that, because in this film he’s really, really weak.  Like, the weakest we’ve ever seen him.  Not just his strength, but also his sticky powers.  It is commonly accepted that Spider-Man’s stickiness is absolute, that it is an unbreakable molecular bond. When he sticks to something, if you try to remove him from it you will break the thing he is stuck to before the sticky bond comes undone.  Well forget that.  Because in this film Spider-Man is slippy and sliding all over the place when he’s sticking. Not just when he’s on a plane and in huge wind resistance where it might make sense, but when he’s climbing the Washington Monument, he can be seen sliding and loosing his grip on that too.  This could just be chalked up to him being nervous and inexperienced, but I really, really, really hope that it changes going forward and that Marvel can stay consistent with how strong this version of Spider-Man is supposed to be. Oh yeah, and no, at no point in the film did Spider-Man ever express his Spider-Sense.  I really hope this is just a case of “his powers are still growing”

Second point, that inexperienced bit.  Yeah. This is the most inexperienced Spider-Man we have seen on film to date.  I think the best symbol for this is the fact that this Spider-Man never once webswings in the city.  He is always shown in the residential neighborhoods, never once does he really webswing around.  He never goes to the big buildings.  Again, for this movie I liked that and it fit it’s tone, but I really hope the next film has him going all out, and has him in true form.

No Daily Bugle, no J. Jonah Jameson. I really think they were afraid to recast him after J.K. Simmons’ legendary performance, and as humorous as that is, I’m kind of sick of it.  Just recast already, we’re at the point now where it’ll be ok. Bite the bullet on this. 

I was one of those people who was really afraid this film would turn out to be Iron Man 4, and I am happy, so so so happy to say it is not.  Yes, Tony is in this, yes Iron Man is in this, but it’s not too much.  Tony really only has four relatively short scenes that I can remember, but they are important scenes plot wise.  I think he basically shows up to open and close every act.  The movie is definitely about Peter though, thank god.

Oh yeah, and the Iron Spider is in the film. Or, a version of it.  It invokes feelings of the Iron Spider, what with being an armored costume for Spider-Man, but in the end Peter turns it down and all for the better..... but I want a figure of it.  It was kinda hard to see the design, since it was in shadow a little, and there was no glory shot of it, but what I saw of it was cool and I want a figure of it.

Best Aunt May, her role in the film is what every Aunt May’s role should be. Oh, and that was the absolute best way to end the film “WHAT THE FU--”

Oh yeah, I was also worried about the highschool setting, since 30 year old writers pretty much never know what a modern highschool is like, (I’m 23, only 5 years out from it), but this highschool setting was perfect. The teachers. Just. Did. Not. Fucking. Care.  And that is so much my highschool experience.

Zendaya is MJ, but she’s not Mary Jane, and she’s really only there to set-up for the sequel.  It’s really nice set-up though.  They seem to have a good grasp on the idea of MJ’s character, how she wears a metaphorical mask to hide her true self just like how Peter wears a literal mask.  All we see in this film is her metaphorical mask persona and it’s good to be acquainted with that before exploring her further.  NOW, Yes, I would have preferred 616 the-mask-is-a-party-girl-Mary-Jane, and yes, Changing the character’s real name to Michelle is absolutely fucking unnecessary and stupid.  But I think it’s too early to judge this version of the character because we have so little information about them. 

Also there to set-up for the sequel is Mac Gargan, he has a role in the film itself as one of the people buying Vulture’s tech, but really his most important bit is the mid-credits scene, where he sets up the Sinister Six, and then Micheal Keaton’s Vulture wonderfully knocks that set-up down.  Also, he does not become Scorpion in this, though if he does come back in the sequel to be Scorpion I’d be cool with it.  His character is pretty much a total psychopath and we haven’t seen Spidey fight a villain like that in the movies yet.

That being said, if the next movie is Sinister Six I have total faith in Marvel to be able to do it, since this film had Vulture, Tinkerer, Prowler, Scorpion, and two Shockers in it, yet it never felt like that weighed the film down. Showing Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 once and for all that it doesn’t matter how many villains you have, it’s how you use them that matters

The post-credits scene is the funniest one yet. Funnier than Deadpool’s even. 

Now, there are two things about this movie that I absolutely LOATHE... or, at least don’t like and think were completely unnecessary

Ned-- Holy fuck he was annoying.  His dialogue was nowhere as cringy as it was in the trailers, since they did that thing were they used alternate takes for the trailer lines, and yeah, the trailers for this film did not do it justice at all.  Ned’s “But you are a kid” line in the trailers sounds so forced and poorly acted, like he’s trying to be epic about it but comes off instead like he’s out of breath, but in the film it is so much more natural and quick. Back to the point though.  Yeah, he’s just Ganke.  They stole Ganke from Miles, gave him a white guy name, and gave him to Peter. And ‘Nedke’ and Peter do not have the same chemistry that Miles and Ganke have. Nedke’s role in the film is basically to just be a tool, a tool for the film so that Peter has someone to talk to to explain things too, and someone to be really, really stupid.  And that role would’ve been served so so so so so much better by Harry Osborn without the stupidity.  There is a montage at one point where Nedke is asking Peter a bunch of Spider-Man questions out in the open and Peter is just trying to get him to shut up, and it was so annoying I wished Peter would punch him in the fucking face. ....That being said he had one of the funniest jokes in the movie. “I’m... watching porn?”

Karen-- Hoo-boy. Ok. So. Spider-Man really is kind of just an Iron Man Jr. Even down to the fact that his suit has it’s own AI that talks to him and tells him what to do and stuff.  The taser webs are stupid and unnecessary, as is so so so much of the tech in Peter’s suit.  I’m glad that the webwings are clearly shown to just be for short range gliding, but I still think they’re unnecessary.  The film seems to go out of it’s way to show how Peter’s standard webline could be limited in certain situations, from being in a residential neghborhood, to climbing the Washington Monument where there’s nothing else around to swing on, setting an action scene on a boat (which how Iron Man saved that boat is completely physics defying), to even having Peter go way up into the air on a plane.  Back on point, yeah, Spider-Man’s suit has a completely unnecessary AI.  It’s only real purpose in the entire film is to be the punch line to one joke where the AI, which should have no human emotions or concept of human relations, tells Peter to kiss Liz. 

Other things I didn’t like but don’t really get on my nerves too much

The music sucked.  Just, sucked.  The only one that was any good was the orchestral version of the 60′s theme song.  I’m really torn with which theme I like better, the Orchestral 60′s or the Rami theme.  One of these days though, I need to put together a Spider-Man playlist and show these films what that should be like.

Peter didn’t end up beating the villain, he just won through pure coincidence.  Which I guess can be part of the point and audiences might be tired of the “good guy wins through a fist fight” climax, but still, Peter’s victory in this just, didn’t feel earned.  He didn’t show Vulture error of his ways, or talk him out of a life of crime, Vulture’s wings just took on enough coincidental damage to finally explode of their own accord.

Alright, I think that’s everything I wanna get down.  Or at least everything I can think of right now.  I’m tired now, gunna go watch some reviews, see what others thought and hopefully get to see this film in theaters again soon with friends.

[williamsjoan]

DualShockers’ Game of the Year 2018 Staff Lists — Grant’s Top 10

As 2018 comes to a close, DualShockers and our staff are reflecting on this year’s batch of games and what were their personal highlights within the last year. Unlike the official Game of the Year 2018 awards for DualShockers, there are little-to-no-rules on our individual Top 10 posts. For instance, any game — not just 2018 releases — can be considered.

After the absolutely monstrous year of video games that 2017 had, I don’t think that we are going to see a year similar to that one in a long time. Hell, I thought that last year’s excellent lineup would put a damper on this year’s games no matter how good it was. However, boy was I wrong: 2018 straight up told everyone to put a sock in it.

What most surprised me about this year was the variety of games I thoroughly enjoyed. Throw in some indie titles, your typical single-player AAA experience, multiplayer shooters, VR titles, and you are left with a something to play for whatever mood you are in. Sadly, there are plenty of games that I need to get to that could have possibly made this list such as Astro Bot Rescue Mission, Hitman 2, and Monster Hunter: World. However, I plan on getting to them as soon as the holiday ends.

That being said, here are my top 10 favorite games from 2018:

10. Mario Tennis Aces

To start the list off, let’s discuss the best Mario Tennis game yet. Yeah, I said it! Mario Tennis Aces had a forgettable and easy single-player mode. But let’s forget all about that and talk about what really matters, the online mode.

Oh my god did I play so many Mario Tennis Aces multiplayer matches. The game didn’t have all too much content, but damn was that multiplayer addicting! The tournament system was genius; even though the scoring system doesn’t mean much, there was a two-week window where winning a tournament meant everything to me.

What was surprising was the vast difference in gameplay when playing as different characters. Playing as Boo had me curving tennis balls all across the court. If I wanted to just blast some tennis balls down the other player’s throat, Bowser was the right guy for the job. Yoshi could probably return almost every ball hit his way and I can only imagine the player on the other side throwing his Switch into the wall when I won a rally of 50 or more hits. Mario Tennis Aces was excellent, but it makes me want the one true king in Mario sports titles back, Mario Golf. In due time my friends. In due time.

Check out the DualShockers review of Mario Tennis Aces.

9. Moss

In a year full of wonderful PSVR experiences, Moss was one of the standouts. It showed me how clever level design can be in virtual reality and how many different ways that the new tech can be utilized. Rather than being in the typical first-person perspective, the all-seer perspective–as I like to call it–was such a unique way to solve puzzles and control the adorable Quill.

If I could describe Moss in one word, it would be “magical.” Playing the game was similar to being at Disney; everything just felt so wondrous. The storybook narrative, the incredible environments, and unique level design had me enthralled. Polyarc created one of the best VR games on the market, and I can’t wait to see what they have planned next.

Check out the DualShockers review of Moss.

8. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild — The Champions’ Ballad

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is my favorite game of all time. I have had the time to reflect on it, and I can say that without a doubt is, as no other game has captivated me like it. So, of course, I was happy to jump back into Hyrule with the game’s second DLC expansion, The Champions’ Ballad.

I know that The Champions’ Ballad released last December, however, I didn’t get to it until January of this year, so it still counts! Even though the second expansion pass didn’t live up to some fans’ expectations, I still believe that it provides some of the best shrines and I would say the best boss battle in the game.

What might have helped was that I had not popped back into the game in a while. I beat it at launch and beat it a second time on Master Mode when the first DLC launched, so it had been a while since I had popped back in. It might be a short time for some, but for my favorite game of all time, it was a while for me. Revisiting my favorite open world was like going back home and having that favorite dish your mom makes.

The Champions’ Ballad provided me with new content to the most memorable, fascinating, and wondrous game I have played, and that might be all it needed to do to make me love it. Does that make me biased? Probably.

7. Marvel’s Spider-Man

I am not as high on Marvel’s Spider-Man as many of my colleagues: I found the missions to be repetitive and not many of the side missions stood out to me. However, swinging through New York City was so damn fun. I don’t think I had ever used the fast travel mechanic just because I would much rather swing my way around and over buildings. I am not sure how Insomniac Games made it so damn easy and intuitive, but they did a phenomenal job on not only the movement but combat mechanics. Combining brutal kicks and punches along with web attacks was fast, fluid, and surprisingly easy to get a grasp of after only an hour of playtime.

Insomniac also compiled a wonderful narrative, and much of that was due to Yuri Lowenthal’s performance as Spider-Man/Peter Parker. If it wasn’t for Red Dead Redemption 2 and God of War, he would have been a shoo-in for the performance of the year.

I am personally not that big of a comic book/Marvel fan. Woah, whoah, whoah, before you raise your pitchforks: I do enjoy all the movies, I am just not as into them as others. However, I was incredibly invested in the story of Marvel’s Spider-Man, and I am eagerly anticipating the second entry into the series.

Check out the DualShockers review of Marvel’s Spider-Man.

6. PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds

It almost became just a part of my nightly routine. Around 8:30 every night at the beginning of the year, a couple of my buddies and I would hop on the Xbox One version of PUBG and try to win a few chicken dinners before bed. Even though it was frustrating as all hell to play sometimes at launch due to frequent crashes, terrible framerate, and entire buildings taking forever to just render, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds was probably the game I played the most this year. Despite its hiccups, and it had a whole lot at launch, the game is still an experience unmatched by other Battle Royal shooters.

PUBG provides some of the most suspenseful multiplayer gameplay on the market right now. You could run into ten other players depending on where you drop, or you could possibly get run into one other player and somehow get that sweet chicken dinner. I know that the game still has a multitude of issues that still are not fixed, but PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is still an experience like no other. Just one match sucks me right back in.

Check out the DualShockers reviews of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds on PS4 and PC.

5. Firewall: Zero Hour

Firewall: Zero Hour, developed by First Contact Entertainment, is the game we all dreamed of when we were kids. With the power of PSVR, rather than just controlling the first-person shooter, you are now inside the first-shooter. I am still blown away by how well everything worked. Using the PS Aim controller to, well, aim of course, is incredibly intuitive and fluid. Besides learning how to move with the thumbstick on the aim controller, it is as simple as just pointing and shooting, and boy is it fun.

As a competitive tactical shooter, Firewall: Zero Hour is a mind-blowing experience and shows how limitless the possibilities are for PSVR. When an enemy was around the corner, I would peek my gun barrel around the corner and take them out. If I got pinned down behind cover, I could stick my gun over and blind fire to give myself an opportunity to get to safety. My only issues with the game were that it had some annoying quality-of-life issues at launch when it came to matchmaking, and how long it would take to start a new match.

Firewall: Zero Hour was my favorite VR experience this year, in a year that was absolutely packed with some of the best games that PSVR has to offer. Now, all the game needs is a rounds system like Rainbow Six Siege. Please, First Contact! I am begging you!

Check out the DualShockers review of Firewall: Zero Hour.

4. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate lives up to the Ultimate name. It is the definitive Smash experience and even though it released just a couple weeks ago, it has provided me with some of the most fun I have had all year. I mean, what did you expect? It’s Smash Bros. except, this time around, there is much more content to enjoy rather than just regular Smash battles with your friends.

World of Light, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate‘s single-player/adventure mode, has had some mixed reactions across the internet. However, I am a firm believer that it is the best single player offering in any of the games in the series. Running into familiar and new faces while collecting Spirits has provided me with hours upon hours of enjoyment. Collecting and switching different Spirits in and out might sound tedious to some, but I have enjoyed every second of it. With a stellar single-player mode, the biggest roster in the series by far, a knockout soundtrack, and that same old, yet refined Smash gameplay, Ultimate is the best in the series and a must-buy for Switch owners.

Check out the DualShockers review of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

3. Celeste

Talk about a game that caught me off-guard. Celeste was not only a great platformer, but also had a very emotional story that impacted me in an unexpected way. Here I was thinking that I was just booting up a new, retro-style platformer. But next thing I knew, I was up at 3 AM, captivated by Madeline’s conflict with her own inner demons and also torturing myself to find strawberries. Celeste is the best platformer of the year, and I don’t think it is even close. (I haven’t played The Messenger or Guacamelee! 2 or many other of those types of games yet, but it just sounded cool to say)

I think what stood out to me the most, along with other many other players, was how unexpected of an experience that Celeste was. When I first started, I was thinking I was going to get a fun and challenging platformer, but that was going to be most of the experience. I never would have guessed how impactful the narrative was going to be and how it tackles deeper subjects such as mental health issues. At the time, I was going through some personal problems and this game helped me to cope with those emotions, as well as tackle them head-on. Maybe in a lesser year, Celeste would have taken my personal top spot.

Check out the DualShockers review of Celeste.

2.  Red Dead Redemption 2

It seems crazy that Red Dead Redemption 2 isn’t the definitive game of the year for everyone’s list. After the excellent Grand Theft Auto V and the almost infinite amount of money that Grand Theft Auto Online continuously makes even to this day, the sequel to Rockstar’s classic Western seemed like it was going to be the most ambitious game ever made, and I think it just might be.

Red Dead Redemption 2 had an absolutely phenomenal and heart-wrenching story; the downfall of the Van der Linde gang was a beautiful mess, even though we all know where it was heading. The world is by far the most immerse open world ever created. Roger Clark captured Arthur Morgan and his enlightenment so well, and these are only just a few parts of why I enjoyed the game so much.

While the game is groundbreaking in many aspects, there are still some little nitpicky things that I can point out that bug me, such as the lack of traditional fast travel systems, clunky gameplay, and that it might go on just a tad too long. However, Red Dead Redemption 2, despite its minuscule flaws, is one of the best open world games ever created.

Check out the DualShockers review of Red Dead Redemption 2.

1. God of War

To me, God of War might be the closest the closest thing to a perfect video game. In my opinion, there is not one flaw that I can point out. In fact, I think that most aspects of the game can be considered as the best we have ever seen from the medium.

The narrative in God of War reached a level of storytelling that I have didn’t think the industry could reach. The simple, yet extremely detailed story left me captivated. Christopher Judge made Kratos into a purposeful character and gave one of the best performances I have ever seen. The Leviathan Axe is my favorite video game weapon I have ever used, and it was just so damn satisfying to play with.

Cory Barlog and Sony Santa Monica created an absolute masterpiece that other developers will be studying for a long time to come. God of War set the bar so freaking high that it will be hard for any game to follow this up next year. It is the pinnacle for storytelling, gameplay, level design, world building, and artistry, and because of that, God of War is absolutely one of my favorite games of all time.

Check out the DualShockers review of God of War.

Check out the other DualShockers’ staff Top 10 lists and our official Game of the Year Awards:

December 17: DualShockers Game of the Year Awards 2018 December 18: Lou Contaldi, Editor in Chief // Logan Moore, Reviews Editor December 19: Ryan Meitzler, Features Editor // Tomas Franzese, News Editor December 20: Scott Meaney, Community Director December 21: Reinhold Hoffmann, Community Manager // Ben Bayliss, Staff Writer December 22: Ben Walker, Staff Writer // Chris Compendio, Staff Writer December 23: Eoghan Murphy, Staff Writer // Grant Huff, Staff Writer December 26: Iyane Agossah, Staff Writer // Jordan Boyd, Staff Writer December 27: Max Roberts, Staff Writer // Michael Ruiz, Staff Writer  December 28: Noah Buttner, Staff Writer // Rachael Fiddis, Staff Writer  December 29: Steven Santana, Staff Writer // Tanner Pierce, Staff Writer December 30: Travis Verbil, Staff Writer // Zack Potter, Staff Writer

The post DualShockers’ Game of the Year 2018 Staff Lists — Grant’s Top 10 by Grant Huff appeared first on DualShockers.

DualShockers’ Game of the Year 2018 Staff Lists — Grant’s Top 10 published first on https://timloewe.tumblr.com/

[martens-movie-reviews]

Released: May 6, 2016 Running Time: 2 hours 27 minutes

“Political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability when the actions of the Avengers lead to collateral damage. The new status quo deeply divides members of the team. Captain America believes superheroes should remain free to defend humanity without government interference. Iron Man sharply disagrees and supports oversight. As the debate escalates into an all-out feud, the other superheros must pick sides“

Marvel Cinematic Universe – Source – Marvel Studios

You can find all of the reviews for the Marvel Cinematic Universe at the link here. At that link, you can also find the dates that the other reviews for the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be posted. My plan is to release one every single day, and because I’ve already reviewed Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 here, and Spider – Man: Homecoming here, they will not be included in the two weeks leading up to Thor Ragnarok.

As such, I will now move onto the actual review of the film, and I hope you enjoy!

Captain America: Civil War Trailer – Source: Marvel Studios

Cast and Crew

This film was directed by Joe Russo and Anthony Russo, who have been captaining the MCU ship since Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and followed that fantastic film with another in this one. They are also directing the two upcoming Avengers movies that are set to be released with Avengers: Infinity War in May 2018 and the untitled sequel to that Avengers film in May 2019. They have done such a marvellous job in their work so far, that I have the utmost faith that they will deliver in those movies. I just hope that I’m right.

From Left to Right: Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa / Black Panther, Paul Bettany as Vision, Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man, Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow, Tom Holland as Peter Parker / Spider-Man, Don Cheadle as James Rhodes / War Machine – Source: Marvel Studios

As I mention in the paragraph about the Russos, I’ve also already talked about the writers of this movie in several of my other MCU reviews as they have written quite a few by now. Captain America: Civil War was written by Stephen McFeely & Christopher Markus, who to this point have written 4 Marvel Cinematic Universe movies including this one, as well as the two upcoming Avengers movies in 2018 and 2019. They, along with the Russos mentioned above have gained a lot of trust from Feige, and seem to have been given the ‘keys to the kingdom’. With 3/4 movies that they’ve written to this point being between good and fantastic, I can understand why they are trusted with the future of the MCU.

From Left to Right: Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson / Falcon, Paul Rudd as Scott Lang / Ant-Man, Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton / Hawkeye, Chris Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch and Sebastian Stan as James Buchanan Barnes (Bucky) / Winter Soldier – Source: Marvel Studios

The cast featured Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, Emily VanCamp, Tom Holland, Daniel Brühl, Frank Grillo, William Hurt, Martin Freeman, Marisa Tomei, John Kani, John Slattery, Hope Davis, Kerry Condon and Stan Lee.

Review

In my opinion, the biggest flaw with the Marvel Cinematic Universe is their usage and waste of most of their villains. One of them being the one in Captain America: Civil War – Helmut Zemo, who in the comics is more commonly known as Baron Zemo. The character in the movie, other than his dedication and intelligence is nothing like his comic book counterpart. I understand that the movie is about the heroes fighting amongst themselves, I feel like they could have used this character a lot better than they did, making him a typical villain out to hurt the people that took ‘everything from him’. I’m happy they kept him alive, as it gives us hope that he might be better utilised one day, but for this movie, and for this story, Zemo was probably one of the biggest wastes of a comic book villain that we have seen so far.

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The choice to kill off Crossbones in this film is something that I can’t really understand, other than to show the character in his costume. Brock Rumlow could have and should have died at the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, as it would have made more sense since he had a building drop on top of him. I can understand the usage of the character to confuse Rogers, but I feel they could have done that using any character to mention Bucky.

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The divisive piece of legislation that is used to tear apart the Avengers, and make them choose sides is known in this movie as the Sokovia Accords. In the comics that this movie is loosely based on, they fight over the need to register with the government, so that people would know the true identity underneath the mask. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, that information is already readily available, with no one hiding who they are, other than the newest character – Spider-Man.

In Captain America: Civil War, Tony argues that they should be held in check, and be answerable to someone other than themselves. What he is suggesting is that they would be told when they can enter a situation, and when they can’t, limiting the freedom that they would need to save the people who needed them, but would make them accountable and be able to cross country lines ‘legally’.

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Steve argues that the option of choice is what makes this legislation wrong, as he even counters Stark’s argument that he chose to stop weapon manufacturing when he found out what they were being used for. The legislation would in fact take the ability to make that choice away from them. They might not want to go where they are sent, or they would want to help people, but couldn’t. It’s a very difficult conversation to have because essentially, both sides of that argument has merit and isn’t wrong. They are both right, and that’s what makes the choice of who you support and individual one.

I would have been on Rogers’ side, but I know a lot of people who agree with Stark’s point of view, and the great thing about this movie, is that even if in hypothetical, it’s making people have these conversations.

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We get to know a bit more about how Bucky was controlled over the years, with the code book making ‘activating’ the brainwashing. It’s something that would have been made a bit more sense if we had seen someone even holding the book in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. I feel that they gave a good reason for Rogers to go against his newfound friends on this, and side with the only person that he has left from WWII. I absolutely love the relationship that they have, and it’s truly touching to see the lengths at which Rogers will go to save his friend. Sebastian Stan once again does a really great job at showing the different sides of Bucky, and the chemistry that he was starting to have with Anthony Mackie competing against one another to prove who was the better ‘sidekick’ was extremely entertaining.

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This movie can be very emotional, and not in the sense of romance of movies, or tearjerkers, but in the sense that ‘mommy and daddy’ are fighting, and you don’t want them to fight, you want them to talk it out and be together again. The scenes where it’s just Downey Jr. and Evans talking it out, trying to come to compromise, and then they just fall apart again and again is rough, because you want all these characters to stay together, and that’s Stark’s ultimate goal, but he’s unable to realize that he, and partly Rogers, is the one tearing the group apart. The scene where you find out that The Winter Soldier is the one that killed Stark’s parents, is a very emotional scene, that was beautifully played by Downey, and his reaction to just attack was slightly heartbreaking.

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The introduction of Peter Parker arriving into the Marvel Cinematic Universe was all that it was hyped up to be, and more. I’ve already mentioned my thoughts on Tom Holland’s interpretation, as well as his part in the movie in my Spider-Man: Homecoming review, but I’ll talk about it a bit here. Peter Parker has been Spider – Man for about 6 months in the universe focusing more on the small crime of Queens. Tony Stark somehow finds out that the Spider – ‘Man’ from the internet is Peter Parker, and decides to pay him a visit to get some help against Steve Rogers.

The interaction between Tony and Peter was magnificent to watch, and showed fans of the character that they were going young for the character, and would explore Peter’s story in High School rather than rush him into adulthood. Peter is intelligent, having made the webshooters and webbing himself, and gets a new suit from Tony. He is also naive, young, anxious but extremely enthusiastic, all very important characteristics of the character of Peter Parker. The character of Spider – Man was also enthusiastic, quirky, and delivered the witty lines and comebacks with ease that makes people forget Maguire and Garfield’s Spider – Man very quickly. Something that I found interesting, is that if Parker would have known Captain America’s side to the fight he would have agreed with him and not with Iron Man.

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The introduction of King T’Challa, due to the fact that his father King T’Chaka tragically died in an explosion during the movie. His purpose in this movie was too look badass, and to be a threat to the Winter Soldier. I enjoyed the look into what type of character that we will get in his solo film in February 2018, and I think it will awesome based off of the trailers. I truly enjoyed that they included a musical theme for the character as well, that really seemed to fit the style and tone of the character that they brought to life. The final point with T’Challa is that they gave him an arc in the film that takes away the need to rehash that later on in the MCU, where he learns that vengeance is all consuming, and that it blinds people, he declares that he will stop letting vengeance control him, and I can’t wait to see they will do with him next.

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The sad, but timely death of Steve Rogers WWII love, Peggy Carter was something that really hit home in it’s emotional baggage that Steve was feeling. The fact that it was happening just as his newfound friends were infighting is something that might have made it just a little worse in its timing. I was really happy with the fact that they decided to have Natasha show up, just because she didn’t want him to be alone. I thought that was really touching, and was building upon the friendship that started during Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

I knew that Sharon Carter would eventually be a love interest for Steve Rogers, and while I was happy to see a hint of that, and their closeness in the film, the kiss was a little awkward at first, but the next shot of Bucky and Sam Wilson just nodding and smiling at the kiss was so hilarious and enjoyable that it made that scene perfect.

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The Vision and Wanda scenes were fun to watch, and to see the start of that relationship start to grow was interesting, especially because of the big disagreement that they had when Vision was told by Stark to keep her on the compound. The amount of power that Wanda is able to handle is astronomical, as some may have noticed, she was able to manipulate Vision and the Mind Stone (it turned from yellow to red), when she finally left with Hawkeye who came out of retirement. The use of that amount of power makes me wonder if ever we will see exactly how powerful she is, or she would be able to stand up to Thanos in any way in the Infinity War movie next summer.

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This movie was jokingly called Avengers 2.5 and for right reasons by a lot of people. Captain America: Civil War is still very much as Cap centric film, as it focuses more on his storyline than the others. This movie had brought in all of the MCU superheros that we have been introduced to so far (other than Hulk and Thor who are busy in Ragnarok), and even introduced 2 new ones. This film contains Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Black Widow, War Machine, Falcon, Winter Soldier, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Ant-Man, and brings in Black Panther and Spider-Man.

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The music in Captain America: Civil War was done by Henry Jackman was probably one of the best scores for any movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. When I say score, I mean the instrumental music that is playing during scenes, not the soundtrack that includes songs as Guardians of the Galaxy is famous for. The score for this movie was a very strong score, and the themes that they incorporated into this movie was amazing, and I get chills everything the music rises during the airport scene, and it really enhances the tension and drama in that scene.

The cinematography was done by Trent Opaloch, and I enjoyed the framing of the scenes in this movie, and it was particularly difficult when he had so many characters to include, and I feel like it was a good job and worth mentioning briefly here.

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The airport scene was one of the biggest set pieces that the MCU has had, and involved all of the superheros in the movie. We got to see a lot of amazing moments including but not limited to; Spider-Man stealing Cap’s Shield, Ant-Man and Hawkeye team-up, Giant Man (that was unfortunately spoiled by a Lego set), Spider-Man fighting Falcon and Winter Soldier, and a run up between all of the character leading to a lot of other one on one fights.

The biggest drawback of the airport scene, was other than at the very end, there was no real risk involved within the fights. There was no sense of danger, because everyone knew that they would all be okay, even going as far as Natasha asking Clint if they were still friends.

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The unfortunate accident that happened to War Machine (Rhodey) when Vision became distracted by Scarlet Witch, and Falcon was able to dodge the energy beam was something that was spoiled in the trailer, and it was a scene where I thought they would actually kill him off, and show some commitment in showing that it is a War between them all, and would have given Tony the pain and anger that he would have needed to go after Bucky that the character of Zemo wouldn’t have needed to be involved for that. I’m still happy that he’s alive and will still be around for Stark, and his companionship, but I would have preferred if there was actual stakes in the fights. Plus, we got to have that Tony Stank scene, which was great to have.

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The final fight between Captain America, Iron Man and Winter Soldier is a beautiful and amazing fight to watch, however it’s the emotion behind the fight that makes it so great. Bucky is fighting for his life and wants to be better than what he was forced to be, Rogers wants to protect his best and oldest friend and Stark just wants to kill the man who killed his parents, especially his mother. You can see in the fight that Cap and Iron Man are holding back when they are fighting each other, but Stark and Bucky have no qualms about going all out against each other in a battle for survival.

The sequence that we see of Iron Man’s laser shooting directly at Captain America’s shield in slow motion is straight from the cover of one of the Civil War comic strips, and it was amazing to see that brought to the big screen. I feel like they portrayed each character with justice, and as a huge comic book fan, I was happy with what I got out of that scene. Plus, watching Bucky and Rogers toss around the Shield while alternating punches with Stark was really awesome to watch.

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The mid credit sequence of the film shows Steve Rogers and Bucky in Wakanda, who with the help of the Black Panther, puts Bucky into a carbon freezing tube until they can find a way to get rid of the brainwashing in his head. It gives the audience a brief glimpse into the look and feel of Wakanda, that we will get more in February 2018.

Mid Credit Sequence Bucky and Rogers in Wakanda – Source: Marvel Studios

The post credit scene shows Peter Parker sporting a black eye from when he got hit by Ant-Man at the end of the airport fight, and tells his aunt May that it was a guy named Steve from Brooklyn. We also see that he now has some sort of Spider-Man signal attached to his web shooters, and we find out that he would indeed be returning, as we would see him in his own movie ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’.

Post Credit Scene – Peter Parker after the airport scene – Source: Marvel Studios

Overall, I feel like this movie was a very solid film that is one of the better films that we have seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It handled all of the characters extremely well, while also introducing two new characters in a film bloated with characters in a way that made sense, and fit the story. The downside to this movie was the villain, and the extremely precise pieces of his plan perfectly falling into place (other than the suicide at the end). It’s a movie that I think would have been better serviced without the use of Zemo as the villain, and if it would have just been that the doctor that was supposed to see him would have been involved in the brainwashing again.

Winter Soldier and Captain America vs Iron Man – Source: Marvel Studios

The twist in the film is that Zemo didn’t want more Winter Soldiers running around, and while I feel like it makes sense for the character, the extreme focus on it, and the formula that the Winter Soldier stole from Stark made the plan a little convoluted and wasn’t necessary for this film. The movie hit almost every other mark that it set out to so well, that I have to give it the score that I do, and that would be 9/10.

What did you think of the film? Are you excited for Thor Ragnarok? Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for reading,

Alex Martens

Captain America: Civil War Review Released: May 6, 2016 Running Time: 2 hours 27 minutes "Political pressure mounts to install a system of accountability when the actions of the Avengers lead to collateral damage.

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Spider-Man 2099 v3 #13-16 Thoughts

This was mostly great fun!

I must admit when hearing about this arc and even approaching my re-reading of it, I was not looking forward to it. Typically event crossovers derail the ongoing plot in a big way, and for PAD’s Spidey work and for his 2010s Spidey 2099 work in particular it was a problem.

Plus I despise both the original Civil War 2006 and as this arc was originally released was in the midst of despising Civil War II.

I don’t know if it was the fact that I’d forgotten most of the plot points, the fact that I binged the whole arc or if the tie-in nature of the story lowered my expectations but regardless, I wound up really enjoying this arc, much like the last one.

In fact comparisons to the last arc are very apt as they’re almost going in for the same thing.

It’s an adventure in the altered 2099 future depicting futuristic versions of characters and groups we’re (in theory) familiar with, utilizing a fair amount of older 2099 continuity.

The difference is that whilst the Sinister Six arc was more Spider-Man centric, this arc is more concerned with the wider 2099 universe.

Just off the top of my head this story features:*

·         Spider-Man 2099

·         Captain America 2099

·         Strange 2099

·         Hawkeye 2099

·         Black Widow 2099

·         Hercules

·         Hulk 2099

·         The X-Men2099

·         ‘The Power Pack’

·         Punisher 2099

·         Iron Fist 2099

·         Deadpool 2099

·         Daredevil 2099

·         Moon Knight 2099

·         Sub-Mariner 2099

·         Ghost Rider 2099

·         Nik Fury, granddaughter of the original Nick Fury

·         And Ravage 2099 (although he’s an original character debuting in the 2099 line anyway)

 Now featuring this many characters is a double edged sword, much like the last arc.

On the one hand a lot of them have little development, little substance to them. They show up with cool looks, cool abilities and the novelty factor of seeing futuristic versions of familiar characters.

Some of them are pre-established people too, like Daredevil 2099 and Moon Knight 2099. So there is fanservice to be found there, but if you really liked those characters you didn’t get that much out of seeing them briefly back in action.

On the other hand I think considering this was a mere four issues and with this many characters, giving them all depth and distinction is difficult. More importantly I think it would detract from the fact that this is ultimately Spider-Man’s book. It’s about him and his ‘world’, of which these figures are definitely a part of, but also definitely not the point.

The fact is PAD does the best he can with what he has. More than this, I think it’s an example of PAD making the lemonade out of lemons and making the tie-in nature of the issues work for him  as opposed to making his series work for the tie-ins.

For starters he uses Ulysses lightly but effectively. He gets the ball rolling on the plot and beyond that has little involvement. In fact the entire story has little to do directly with the events of Civil War II, which is a plus given how shite the crossover is.

Rather PAD uses the tie-ins as an excuse to essentially present his own story with the general gist of Civil War, which you could say is true of every 2099 spin on the classic characters.

So in practice this arc is less a Civil War II tie-in and more Civil War 2099. It actually has more in common with the original 2006 Civil War story except you know, it isn’t dogshit.

There is an anti-superhuman legal act in force. Superhumans work directly for the government to round up their fellows. Those opposed to the law fight back. Hell Skrulls are even the root of the problem, which was initially the implication during Civil War 2006 and Secret Invasion.

PAD also demonstrates how massive crossovers and events like this should ideally be played. If I were being blunt, there isn’t much substance to this, there isn’t much character exploration.

With so many characters who draw from so many genres that simply don’t really go together (Greek myth side by side with sci-fi monsters, arcane magic and crime noir), going for something simple, superficial and yet fun (with at best a singular central character who shoulders whatever substance there is to be found) is the most logical approach to such events.

It’s why Infinity Gauntlet and Secret Wars 1984 are still fun reads decades later but hot trash like Civil War II has been forgotten about. The former know they’re trying to have fun and at best place one or two characters as the heart of the stories, the latter try to include everyone, be about everyone, and also strive for substance in stories that can’t support that.

Getting back to the specific heroes vs. heroes nature of the series, if there is one major failing in the set up its that the two sides don’t feel evenly matched.

The rebel superhumans have heavy hitters like Hercules, Cerebra, Hulk, Sub-Mariner and Strange, whilst the government forces...well, don’t have anyone in the same league. They’re also outnumbered by the rebels.

The pro-government side is also a clever use of subversion as they are comprised of the Punisher, the X-men and the Power Pack. Now I know little of the Power Pack so I did feel a little lost with them, and know equally little about the X-men 2099. But what little I do know makes their choice of sides unexpected but toally logical. The reasons given are that mutants were deemed not responsible for their powers as they were born with them and thus granted amnesty from the anti-super human laws provided they work for the government. Essentially mutants were given their best chance for rights and protection from persecution BY discriminatory laws. Ironic, but as the comic points out, mutants accepting this deal makes sense given their history.

Now we need to talk about Jameson and the Skrulls.

On the one hand it was a good twist. It had sufficient set up and you genuinely didn’t see it coming. It also made for neat and effective explanations of Jameson and Power Pack’s surviving into the distant future along with their questionable histories (like marrying Liz Allan or JJJ running Alchemax).

But I must admit, I was a little bummed by the Skrull reveal as I found the prospect of Jameson as the actual villain behind this fascinating. I’ve noticed that Peter David’s Spider-Man work, whilst not painting Jameson as a villain per se, has painted him often less flatteringly than he’s usually been played since the 1980s. In the 1960s-1970s, Jameson was one step away from practically being a super villain, his bufoonishness often offset his more unethical practices in the eyes of readers.

In PAD’s stories he still does unethical stuff and so the idea he could go down a road where he’s essentially happy to persecute super humans is frighteningly believable.

The Skrull reveal undermined this, and undermined the great twist halfway through the story that Jameson was behind everything. I thought it was Tyler Stone so the subversion really worked!

It also wrapped things up a little too neatly, in the sense that the heroes could get along just fine because the heroes on the opposite side were fake anyway. Maybe that was a subtle dig at the original Civil War, that they should’ve done something like this instead of commit to the schism in the superhuman community. But at the same time since we’re dealing with a version of the Marvel Universe that doesn’t need to last long term that’s kind of unnecessary.

One small criticism I have, and this is a nitpick. I felt that the part where Spidey was holding Punisher hostage before the issue ends wa not properly resolved at the start of the next one. The X-men have simply retreated, the heroes have gone back to their bases. It’s like if you smashcut in the middle of a hostage situation to the aftermath when everything is fine.

Over all a great way to do a tie-in and deliver a fun time for old time 2099 fans. I’m not one of them and even i had fun with this.

 *Note, whenever I don’t put ‘2099’ after a character’s name it means we’re dealing with, at least supposedly, an older version of the 616 characters, rather than new characters adopting their mantles.

[brianplayssometimes]

'92 to Bendis: Why I Love X-Men

Genesis of X

The year was 1992. That summer had seen my 8th birthday. It also saw my 4th open heart surgery. Born with a severe heart defect I endured hospital visit after hospital visit. Throughout those 8 years I spent many days and nights in the hospital. Truth be told most of it I don’t remember. Whether because of being so young or because my mind blocks it out I do not know. What I do know is that in October of that year X-Men: The Animated Series debuted. Until now I thought I merely loved the show because of it being a great cartoon with fantastic characters. However, as I typed this I realize a deeper reason connected me to the show.

As someone with a severe heart defect you become limited in what you are allowed to do. I couldn’t play sports. I couldn’t be outside in the heat or the cold. I couldn’t do many physical activities. Basically all of the things that a normal 8 year old boy wants to do I couldn’t do. I grew to appreciate things in doors such as; movies, TV shows, video games, and playing with action figures. While I had friends growing up my limitations inevitably led to feelings of alienation. In hindsight, I never really felt normal, and in October of ’92 I saw for the first time a team of people who knew what that was like. It’s no wonder I became a bigger fan of X-Men than any other cartoon. It appealed to me in a deeper, subconscious way that I didn’t understand until now.

I grew to love this show more than any other by watching the team struggle with prejudice, rejection, fear, and being outcasts. As they battled these social and personal issues I received inspiration from their ideologies and hope from their personal redemption arcs. This love for the show led me to convince my mom to buy me the comics. I remember her taking me every week to the comic book store. She would buy me the X-Men and Uncanny X-Men issues every month. My collection grew and grew to the point that I had filing cabinets and storage bins full of comic books. Some Batman, Spider-man, Nightwing, and others were amongst my collection, yet X-Men outranked them all.

I can recall stories such as the Phalanx Covenant, X-Cutioner’s Song, Onslaught, and Age of Apocalypse. Having grown up when I did these are the “classics” when I think of X-Men stories. I read every issue I could, and some multiple times. I still have storage containers full of comics from this phase in my life.  Then somewhere after the Trial of Gambit the stories seemed to shift and I began to mature. I wasn’t as attached anymore and interest waned.  The stories didn’t seem as well crafted, and characters like Marrow and Maggot couldn’t keep my attention. Once the X-Men film came out I attempted to get back into the comics, but ended up not enjoying them anymore. I had officially moved on from my first love.

Marvel Unlimited

Years later the Marvel Cinematic Universe was born. These films sparked a wildfire of interest in comics across the globe. They brought former readers back while simultaneously creating new ones. Around this time Marvel Unlimited had launched as well. Not nearly the behemoth it is now, it still had a solid 2,500 comics in 2007 at launch. Marvel created a way for the newer generation of readers to attach to them instead of the competition, and at the time of this writing they now have over 17,000 comics available.  Between the films and this new service I subscribed to Unlimited and tried reading Avengers, Magneto, X-Factor, and Iron Man comics. I enjoyed the app, but my phone couldn’t handle it well and the stories weren’t gripping me. Ultimately I cancelled it.

The year was 2016. By the time summer began my daughter had finished 1st grade, my son turned 2 years old, and my wife and I celebrated 9 years together. My life had changed, and I was much different than that 8 year old kid who fell in love with X-Men. Adulthood in full swing I became a responsible husband and father. My life focused on providing and taking care of them. Their safety, future, and happiness became all that mattered to me. Never could anyone have known that during this phase of my life Brian Michael Bendis was about to make me fall in love with X-Men all over again.

During July of 2016 Marvel Unlimited ran a $1 for a month promotion. After realizing how many comics they added I decided to try it again. The updated app combined with my upgraded phone made reading comics a breeze. I could read a couple of pages here and there throughout the day, and couldn’t praise the service enough. Winter Soldier, Black Widow, and Captain Marvel were some of the comics I started reading. Then it hit me. In ’92 I fell in love with X-Men and the time had come for me to read Bendis’ All-New X-Men.

I began reading All-New X-Men and couldn’t stop. I flew through the entire 41 issue series plus tie in issues during the course of 6 days. Everything in me couldn’t get me to quit reading them. The series quickly became one of my favorite ever, and will likely stay that way. Once I finished this I went on to read all 35 issues of Bendis’ Uncanny X-Men run, and found myself as infatuated with it as All-New. Bendis provided something scintillating to the franchise that I personally hadn’t seen since the ‘92 X-Men: TAS. He gave a depth to each character during his run, and made everyone feel different from each other. There were no caricatures. Everyone came off unique, and the decisions they made fit within their personalities.  Out of all the positive things I could say about his run my favorite things are the original five, Cyclops’ revolution, and the team ups.

The Original Five

In a society inundated with fictional heroes how could Bendis make the original five X-Men appealing? I mean they were created in 1963. A lot had changed over that time frame. Look at a Batman comic from the ‘60s vs now and you could easily see the tonal differences. The bright, colorful palettes of that time easily stand out against the dark, gritty concepts of our day. Yet Bendis found a way to keep these characters true to the Stan Lee versions and appeal to the modern generation of readers. It’s a testament to his skills as a writer. He crafted an overarching storyline about the original five X-men being brought from the past into the present. The idea being that current day Beast wanted to stop the Revolution of Cyclops.

His vision saw Beast becoming so obsessed with stopping modern day Cyclops that he brought the original five X-Men from the past to the present. This concept created a wonderful dynamic whenever the original five saw what type of people they grew up to be. From Beast’s reaction to the blue fur to Jean freaking out about her “destiny” of marrying Scott, becoming the Phoenix, and eventually dying. Watching these X-Men see what their lives become brought uniqueness to the comics. Over the course of the 41 issues of All-New X-Men they wrestled with their place in the current time stream and struggled with what fate really meant. Seeing them wrestle with this, with each other, and with the Revolution of Cyclops, in particular, provided a dynamic unlike any other that I have read.

Cyclops’ Revolution

Bendis made me do the unthinkable, fall in love with Cyclops. The perfect storm occurred. I had matured into the responsible family man when I read the revolution of Cyclops. His character took it upon himself to be the champion of all homo sapien superior. His team of Magik and Magneto were virtually unstoppable. He stood up to S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers never for a moment backing down. He placed the mutant races survival as priority number 1, and didn’t flinch at the opposition. His own son and daughter might not have been the focal point, but Cyclops as a father was evident with how he fought for his kind.

I had been unfamiliar with this aspect of Cyclops. Nothing in the runs I read prior to this had ever painted this picture of him so strongly. His new mindset (which in reflection started before Bendis’ run) felt like a mixture of ideologies; Magneto’s and Xavier’s. Try for peace, but do what it takes to guarantee the survival of his “children”. As a husband and parent of two I can relate to this. I would do whatever it takes to ensure the protection of my family. Perhaps this relatability is why I grew to rank Cyclops near the top in terms of favorite comic characters. Bendis provided an angle and depth to him I hadn’t previously known.

The Team Ups

Throughout his run on both Uncanny and All-New Bendis infused the stories with team ups that made sense and felt unique. Yes, we have seen the X-Men and Shi’ar interact before, but Bendis made it compelling while appealing to nostalgia. The X-Men have long been known for their space exploration, but having them cross paths and work with The Guardians of the Galaxy felt natural. The move should have been done years ago, and on the surface looked like an opportunity to promote the MCU films. However, when reading the story, it clearly shows that the team up was seamless and fit the overall storyline perfectly.

The Trial of Jean Grey was a fantastic idea. Crafting a story that united the Guardians and Starjammers to battle the Shi’ar felt compelling and natural. The interplay between the groups created some hilarious moments as well as heartwarming scenes. The slow build between Star-Lord and Kitty could change the minds of even the staunchest Colossus/Kitty shippers. It didn’t feel like a normal comic book relationship where two people randomly hook up. Substance was provided to it by building it up with playful, flirty banter. I will always remember that part of his run.

Rebirth of X

I wish I could remember every detail of my feelings when first reading the Bendis run, but unfortunately I can’t. What I do remember is that I felt the rebirth of a love that had grown cold. From getting older to the arrival of the Marvel Cinematic Universe my original love of X-Men had dwindled. Thanks to a promotion for Marvel Unlimited & and incredible run from Bendis that love sprang forth again.

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