I know we don’t usually cover this type of thing at World’s Best Media, but I really felt this was something that needed to be acknowledged. Today it’s important that we mark the passing of the great Stephen Hawking who died today at age 76. Despite being diagnosed with a rare motor nuerone disease he develops in his 20’s that left him wheelchair bound and eventually only able to speak through a voice synthesizer, he was without hyperbole, one of the greatest scientist minds in the history of our species. His groundbreaking work on quantum physics and cosmology were true gifts to mankind. Many of his books are very accessible to the layman and incredibly fascinating. Prof. Hawking’s work will spark the imaginations of scientists, artists, writers, filmmakers, and so many more for centuries to come. Despite having so much stacked against him, he truly changed the world with his gifted mind. We are all poorer for his loss. If you’re curious about him please look into his work. I’ll be putting links to some of his books on my website. He was a true visionary. Rest well, Professor…
-Paul
Here are two of his most famous and amateur friendly books collected in one editor: “A Brief History of ziti even” and “The Universe In A Nutshell”. You can pick them up on Amazon through the link below:
I’m flying solo for this mini-ish episode, among other things I get into the series finale of one of my favorite shows, Star Wars Rebels. I also cover some oStar Wars Expanded Universe stuff and some other cool news, like the new costumes the X-Men will wear in the new X-Men Dark Phoenix movie and more! Enjoy! Listen here or subscribe on iTunes:
It first started around The Avengers. We had Loki light up the screen as one of cinema’s great big bads. Then Iron Man 3 came along with Aldrich Killian and “The Mandarin” (Which I actually thought was a smart way to deal with a potentially problematic villain). Maleketh in Thor: The Dark World was the nail in the coffin. The internet declared: “MARVEL HAS BAD VILLAINS!” Villains like Ronan The Accuser from Guardians of The Galaxy sealed the deal: Marvel has one dimensional, forgettable villains.
After seeing Marvel’s excellent new film, Black Panther, with two very different, but fantastic in different ways. I got to thinking about the villains in PHASE 3 and not only doe each film in Phase 3 has at least 1 great villain, but I’d like to argue that the entire premise that Marvel has weak villains is BULLSHIT!
But I’ll get back to that… First of BIG SPOILERS FOR ALL MCU FILMS SO FAR INCLUDING BLACK PANTHER! Like I said, Black Panther has two great villains. First, there’s Andy Serkis as Ulysses Klaw who we first saw in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Klaw is the “fun” villain. He’s got his awesome laser canon arm, blowing shit up. He’s laughing, having a good time. This is a guy who knows how to enjoy being an arms dealer in a world of aliens, gods, and superheroes. I often hate when villains “chew the scenery”, but when it’s done well like Serkis does here, it’s a blast to watch.
Then we have Michael B. Jordan as Eric Killmonger. I love Michael B. Jordan, so I was psyched when he was cast in Black Panther, but he’s so likable I just didn’t see him as a villain. He’s the type of guy I saw more as a hero than a villain. Man, was I wrong. Killmonger in this movie is NOT. FUCKING. AROUND. He’s a vicious, focused, terrifying motherfuker.
The scene when he faces T’Challa in The Falls for The Throne, you get the sense that T’Challa doesn’t really know what he’s dealing with. This is a man on a fucking mission. It was here where Killmonger reminded me of another great Phase 3 Marvel villain: Zemo. Zemo is the villain in Captain America: Civil War. He’s easy to forget because there’s so much dramatic eye catching stuff in that film. Zemo, like Killmonger when he faces T’Challa is just a man, not a god. But in Civil War, Zemo wins. He breaks The Avengers. The beauty of it, is what breaks The Avengers apart is the truth that Zemo exposes, their own lies and their own actions. Daniel Bruhl plays it perfectly. A grim man, on a grim mission.
On the Cosmic side of things we have the excellent Cate Blanchett as the best Thor villain, Hela (because at this point is Loki even really a villain?). She was charismatic, funny at times and she made you see a much darker side of Odin. I also think she could be the most powerful Marvel villain we’ve seen so far. I do not think we’ve seen the last of her, either. We don’t really see her die and in the comics one of the reasons Thanos is trying to assemble the Infinity Gauntlet is to impress the “thing” he loves, Death. In the comics, there’s an actual female personification of Death that Thanos is madly in love with. I think instead of trying to introduce a new character into an already massive cast, they’ll make Hela the object of Thanos’ affection. She kinda, sorta, basically is Death anyway. So that’s my theory.
Staying on the Cosmic side of the MCU, there’s Peter Quill’s extremely shitty father, Ego The Living Planet. Played perfectly by Kurt Russell, he never actually lies to Peter. He definitely omits very important facts, but he never outright lies. He’s the perfect space Dad! Except for the fact that he gave Peter’s mom a brain tumor. That’s a deal breaker. Before this big reveal, there are several smaller bad guys in the movie, but Kurt Russell is so disarming I found myself wondering who the hell the main villain for the movie was. So it’s real sucker punch when he reveals he planted the tumor that killed Peter’s mom. Tim Cuff, one of the site contributors thought Ego was his favorite MCU Villain. And what comic book fan didn’t love seeing the big face on The Planet when Rocket and Yondu are in orbit. Speaking of Yondu… FUCK! That’s the most heart breaking death we’ve seen in the MCU so far. “He may have been your father, boy. But I was your Daddy.” Goddammit it gets me every time!
Then we have my personal favorite from Phase 3 and maybe the whole MCU, Adrian Toomes (they never actually called him The Vuture in the movie) played by the absolutely fucking legendary Michael Keaton. The film opens days after the Chitauri Invasion, Toomes is a blue collar contractor and he and his crew are contracted by the city to help clean up the Chitauri tech left over from the invasion of New York, but are fucked over by the government and Stark Industries when they create a government division to handle these things called “Damage Control”. Keaton almost steals the whole movie. He’s super menacing, but clearing he’s a normal, loving, husband and father. He’s kind of the anti-Tony Stark, he has the high tech Vulture suits he uses for heists, he’s blue collar, Tony’s silver spoon.
Man, the scene Peter shows up at Liz’s to pick he up for the dance and Toomes, who we now realize is Liz’s dad, is my favorite sequence in the movie. In the car on the way to the dance, the way Keaton plays Toomes slowly realizing this kid is Spider-Man is phenomenal. Keaton is so fucking good in this role, I hope he pops up in future movies.
What makes a fantastic villain is that they think they’re the hero of the own story. That seems to be a common trend here with the Phase 3 villains. Several of the villains I’ve listed are ones that we easily sympathize with. Or maybe even think are right? When you find yourself siding with a villain more than the hero, an interesting story is being told. Killmonger, Zemo, Toomes, and even Hela to an extent all have very legitimate reasons for their actions.
Now the only outlier in Phase 3 is Doctor Strange. A very good movie, a solid origin flick, but the villain, Kaicillius, is pretty bland. It’s its cool seeing Strange facing down Dormammu in the final act, he’s more of a force of nature than a villain.
So, with the exception of Doctor Strange, it think I’ve made a pretty solid argument that the Marvel Phases 3 villains are pretty great. But I also said that I didn’t think Marvel even had a villain problem in the first place. So let’s quickly go through Phase 1 & 2 and it’s villains. I’m going to rate the quality of the villains themselves, NOT the movies:
PHASE ONE
Iron Man
The one that started it all. In more ways than one. It started the unfortunate “villain just being an evil version of the hero” trend. But it’s not a total loss, Jeff Bridges is fun in the role. The irony is that he’s more menacing as Obadiah Stane than he is when he’s in the Iron Monger suit. Also, what the fuck is his endgame once he gets the suit on? I also give them a bit more credit with this being their first film and they’re still finding their footing.
Villain: Obadiah Stane/Iron Monger
Grade: C+
The Incredible Hulk
The lost, red headed step child of the MCU. Here we have The Abomination and General Ross. When it come to Ross, his reasoning for hating the Hulk/Banner so much is, here’s a badass military man who’s always in control and has never been afraid of a damn thing in his life. Then he’s there for the birth of The Hulk, an unstoppable monster that makes him completely helpless. For the first time in his life, he felt fear and The Hulk put it there. He want’s to kill the thing that put fear into him. He’s terrified of The Hulk and that’s why he hunts him with such vigor. He’s like Ahab, kind of. Ross of course pops up like a shit that just wont flush in Civil War.
Then there’s Tim Roth’s Abomination. There’s something to be said for seeing The Hulk just tear it the fuck up against his most monstrous and physically powerful adversary. Their fight through Harlem is fun, CGI madness. Like Ross, Emil Blonsky has the unique motivation of a military man. A man past his physical prime, who knows if he had the physical ability he had 20 years ago with the skills and tactical knowledge he’s learned since, he’d be a force to be reckoned with. Which leads to the series of events that turn him into The Abomination. He tries to become something like Captain America, but he turns himself into a monster instead. It’s important to remember that in the MCU the secret to creating super soldiers like Captain America died with the scientist who invented the procedure. People have been trying to perfect it for decades but . Captain America was the only real success, usually People end up with something more like the abomination. I actually think these are 2 pretty underrated and interesting villains .
Once Hulk beats The Abomination into submission, alive and unconscious, he just takes off! What the fuck were they gonna do if he woke up? It’s not like they have a prison cell designed to hold something like The Abomination just on hand, because I think they have a half hour TOPS before this fucking thing wakes up! They don’t make it clear here, but in the comic, unlike The Hulk, he doesn’t change back to a man. He’s a giant fucking death monster permanently (something tells me he’ll be cool with it). Then again maybe Ross does have something ready to go because he had JUST captured The Hulk. This is a dangerous fucking situation is all I’m saying!
There are actually several other interesting loose ends in this movie. Like how the post credit scene with Ross and Stark in the bar at the end of the film doesn’t make sense, because in the larger context of the MCU because they were still trying to figure out what the MCU would be. But they retconned it in the Marvel One-Shot “The Consultant”.
Then there’s Tim Blake Nelson as Dr. Samuel Sterns who was helping Bruce to find a cure. He helps Blonsky make the final transformation into The Abomination. During the procedure he get a cut on the head and the Hulk’s blood drips into the wound. From there his head begins to bubble and grow.
Clearly this was meant to set up Hulk villain, The Leader. In the comics, Sterns’ transformation makes him super intelligent and he ends up looking something like this:
We never see hide nor hair from this guy again anywhere in the MCU so presumably he’s out there up to no good. Or he got hit by a bus…
Villain: General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross
Grade: B+
Villain: Emil Blonsky/ The Abomination
Grade: B-
Iron Man 2
Everybody shits on this movie, but I like it a lot. I agree Mickey Rourke is another shitty “evil version of the hero” villain. He’s actually the least interesting villain in that category. But Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer FUCKING. RULES. He is so fucking fun to watch in this movie. Here’s a guy who desperately wants to be Tony Stark, but just can’t quite pull it off. When it comes to villains, he saves this flick.
Villain: Ivan Vanko/Whiplash
Grade: D+
Villain: Justin Hammer
Grade: A-
Captain America: The First Avenger
When people first started talking about the “MCU Villain Problem”, I was like do you have fucking amnesia?! What about The Red Skull? They absolutely nail him. THIS is The Red Skull of the comics. Plus, Hugo Weaving playing Werner Herzog playing The Red Skull? Fucking genius ( This is true by the way, Weaving largely based The Red Skull on Herzog). The make-up effects are fantastic. This is a great Marvel villain, people. Also, to this day I’m certain he didn’t actually die at the and of the movie. He’s holding the Tesseract, The Space Stone, I just think he was transported across the galaxy and I’ve been waiting to see him return since. I’ve heard the Hugo Weaving isn’t too keen on reprising the role, but he’s already covered in The Red Skull make up, I’m sure there are plenty of great actors to fill his shoes. I could see them maybe bringing him back in Avengers: Infinity War, so we shall see
Villain: The Red Skull
Grade: A
Thor/ The Avengers
I’m going to skip right over Thor and Avengers because we all know Loki is the man.
Villain: Loki
Grade: A+
PHASE 2
Iron Man 3
Here’s Marvel’s first big standalone after The Avenger and they were scared people wouldn’t want to see the heroes apart now that we’d see the best of the best. They were wrong to be worried. This was a huge hit for Marvel. Unlike many people, I don’t hate “The Mandarin Twist”. Which was, as I said before a clever solution to a potentially problematic villain. The Mandarin was nothing but a pathetic rip off of the much better DC villain Ras Al Ghul. It’s hard to argue that Ben Kingsley is a great in the role. He sells the idea of The Mandarin as a terrorist and then is really fun to watch when we realize he’s just a drug addled British actor. For The Mandarin purists out there the last Marvel One-Shot “All Hail The King” should help to alleviate the pain.
Villain: The Mandarin
Grade: Guy Pierce – C-/ Ben Kingsley – B-
Thor: The Dark World
Malekith is the real lowest of the low. The blandest, most uninteresting Marvel villain in the MCU’s weakest film. It’ a shame because Christopher Eccelston played one of the most terrifying villains of all time as Raymond Calitri in Gone in Sixty Seconds (That’s kind of an inside joke, which I shouldn’t do). Fortunately there’s nowhere to go but up for both the MCU and the Thor movies. This is BY FAR the worst Marvel villain from any of the films.
Villain: Malekith The Accursed
Grade: D+
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
I’m reluctant consider The Winter Soldier a villain in this film because he’s kind of more of a victim than anything else. Yes, he does some terrible things, but when I think of this film I don’t think of him as a villain. He’s Bucky, a hero in his own right and Cap’s friend turned brainwashed assassin. Ultimately he’s a very scary and effective human weapon for HYDRA. The fact that there are this many layers to the “villain” of the film speaks to how good both the movie and the character are.
Then we have the great Robert Redford who’s excellent as Alexander Pierce, one of the heads of HYDRA. Having one of the great American actors play a HYDRA agent who has infiltrated the highest levels of SHIELD is so fucking cool. This a role he could have easily phoned in, but he puts in a fantastic performance. Like all great villains, at certain points he kind of has you seeing where he’s coming from. I think this film is the moment when the geeks truly inherited the earth, when with his dying breath Robert Redford whispers “Hall Hydra“.
We also have Rumlow AKA CROSSBONES as a solid piece of shit, soldier villain. Who we get to see again as Crossbones in Civil War. I think he’s the perfect muscle in this film to the brain that is Alexander Pierce.
Villain: The Winter Soldier
Grade: A-
Villain: Alexander Pierce
Grade: B+
Villain: Brock Rumlow AKA Crossbones
Grade:B-
Guardians of the Galaxy
Here we have another pretty generic space villain. Very one dimensional. He wants to kill everyone on the planet Xandar because the Kree…something… ancient blood feud… something, something. Don’t get me wrong, Ronan is NOT a very good villain, but I kind of like him. He’s got a cool look. He’s light years better than Malekith, the last generics space villain we got. And call me out for drinking the Marvel Koolaid, but I love when he has to go get chewed out by Thanos. The whole thing had a very Darth Vader and The Emperor feel. Always a plus
Villain: Ronan The Accuser
Grade: C+ (That’s probably too high a score, but I like this guy for some reason)
Ant-Man
Ant-Man continues the classic Marvel problem of the villain being an evil version of the hero. We also have the reverse Iron Man with the young buck trying to take the company away from old Michael Douglass’s Hank Pym. In Iron Man it was the older guy trying to steal the company. A lot of been there, done that here. Sure, the Yellowjacket suit is cool and Ant-Man has one of the best third acts of any Marvel film, but this just ain’t gonna cut it villain-wise.
Villain: Darren Cross AKA Yellowjacket
Grade: C
Avengers: Age of Ultron
“There are no strings on me…” – Ultron
I wanted to save this for last, even though technically Ant-Man came out after this film. I think Ultron is by far the most underrated villain in the MCU. James Spader plays him perfectly as this twisted reflection of Tony Stark. His “birth” scene, when he reveals himself to The Avengers in that Frankenstein’s Monster version of Stark’s drones, is creepy and memorable in the best ways. He’s a legitimate threat to the Avengers, which can be difficult. To be fair he should have been more of a “HOLY FUCK, HOW ARE WE GOING TO BEAT THIS UNSTOPPABLE BADASS WHO’S 10 STEPS AHEAD OF US?!!” Villain. But I think what we got really worked. Ultron isn’t Skynet. He’s not a cold, unfeeling machine. He wants to be human, but his emotions are all fucked up. He doesn’t understand why people can’t see what he’s trying to do for them.
To Ultron, Earth NEEDS an extinction level event so the surviving humans will become stronger. As Ulron says to the twins “As soon as the Earth settles, God throws a stone and believe me he’s winding up.” I think he’s talking about Thanos here. I don’t think he knew specifically what it was, but he new something big and bad was heading our way and we weren’t ready (I just wanna say other sites have been talking about similar ideas, but I’ve had this theory for awhile now). I also think it’s fascinating that he’s always talking about God, Faith, and Religion. I find it so fascinating and would love to know why Wheadon chose to have theology on the mind of a powerful A.I. so much. Besides the Red Skull and The Vulture, this is the villain I would most like to see return in a Marvel film. In addition to being one of my favorite scenes in the MCU, when Vision and the very last Ultron drone have that great conversation about humanity at the end of Age of Ultron. Ultron comes at Vision and Vision destroys him in blinding light using the Mind Stone in his head. OR DID HE?! Check out the scene here:
Earlier in the film, Vision does say earlier “I don’t want to kill Ultron. He’s unique.” Maybe Vision has some of Ultron’s code tucked away somewhere for safe keeping. As we all, know from the comics, Ultron always comes back…
Villain: Ultron
Grade: A
So out of the 16 villains from PHASES 1 & 2 analyzed and graded here, 10 were at least a B- or higher. Of course, that’s just my personal analysis. I didn’t even get into the villains from the Netflix shows. You throw in villains like Kingpin, Killgrave, and Cottonmouth and the debate is OVER. BOOM.
I’d also like to point out that I’ve always said Marvel has the best heroes (with the exception of Batman) and DC has the best villains. Up until recently, Ive been a big DCEU defender in fact. But so far, Warner Bros., in one way or another (directly or indirectly) have managed to royally fuck up their 3 best villains: Lex Luthor, The Joker, and Darkseid. So, who really has the villain problem, hmm?
So there we have it, I’ve made my case. I hope I changed some hearts and minds. But you guys are the Judge in the end. Let me know what you think. I am right? Dead wrong? A complete idiot?.. well, we all know that last one’s true anyway. Let me know in the comments below or on our Facebook page World’s Best Media.
So much to love here… Just, as fans that fact that we’re getting this movie is mind blowing. I think Iron Man’s new armor looks very cool. EW is actually a great magazine for this kind of stuff. Very geek friendly. I get a lot of stuff from them. I know they have a whole exclusive article on the movie to go along with these covers, so it’s probably worth checking out. You can’t EW on iTunes through the App Store or anywhere magazines are sold.
Luke Cage, The Hero of Harlem, returns for Season 2, premiering 6/22/18 on Netflix. Which means we’ll probably finally get Daredevil Season 3 in the fall. I love Luke Cage, but I’m all about The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen.
On this episode of “The World’s Podcast”, In honor of “Logan” being nominated for an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, my co-host Ryan and I discuss the mega-popular X-Men superhero film franchise. From the first X-Men film to what the future holds, this episode is more of Marvel’s Merry Mutants than you could ask for! (Dammit, we forgot to talk about Deadpool!). Listen here or subscribe on iTunes ;
With the mid-season premiere of The Walking Dead on Sunday night, we had to cover how the series dealt with the monumental fallout from its mid-season finale. Most of it sucked, I didn’t want to do it, but I was reminded that we covered the last big Walking Dead ep, so we should probably cover this one. No that that’s over with IM OUT! YOU WILL NOT GET ME BACK WITH YOUR SHITTY WRITING AND TRICKS, THE WALKING DEAD!!! FUCK THIS SHOW! Please enjoy our episode 😀
Adapting a book to another medium is tricky thing to pull off. The general audience consensus when it comes to filming a good books is: “The book was better.” Or some other iteration of that. People said for years that Lord of the Rings Trilogy was “unfilmable” and those movie ended up becoming Oscar winning classics. Harry Potter is another impressive book to film series. But as good as those movies are, at their best amazing and at their worst still very good, they often gloss over important, subtle, nuanced character moments that make the novels the pieces of legitimately excellent literature that they are. Then there’s HBO’s adaptation of Game of Thrones, which pulled the Fantasy genre into the mainstream even more than the Lord of the Rings films. I’m also of the opinion that the Game of Thrones TV series is the almost unheard of case where the adaptation is better than the already excellent source material. Then there are the out right failures like The Dark Tower. It’s a difficult balancing act for any filmmaker. Which is why I was so curious to see how Annihilation, the first book in a trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer, would be adapted to the big screen.
After an unknown object fell out of the sky and crashed at remote lighthouse, a series of events begins that could eventually threaten the entire planet. A bizarre event causes a large portion of an national park and a seaside community to be covered in an alien looking energy bubble, dubbed “The Shimmer”. Everything inside “The Shimmer”, referred to as Area X, is being subjected to bizarre and unexplainable changes, including anyone caught inside “The Shimmer” as it spread never coming out again. A government organization called “The Southern Reach” has been charged with overseeing and dealing with this unique problem. Since the initial impact, the phenomena has defied understanding at The Southern Reach. Any attempts to study the phenomena at a distance with electronic equipment simply won’t work. Attempts to send teams in to investigate have ended in failure when no one ever returns. Natalie Portman plays Lena, a biologist with a military background and one of those missing teams included her husband, Kane (Oscar Issacs). That is until after being thought dead for over a year, he inexplicably shows up at their home with absolutely no answers to where he’s been and what happened to him. He quickly grows extremely ill, which is the impetus for Natalie Portman to go into Area X to try to understand what happened to her husband. Area X is slowly growing outward, which is not good. So when a new team is being sent in, her background and motivation make her a welcome addition to the mission.
Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy (as all 3 books are collectively referred to) by Jeff Vandermeer is one of the best science fiction stories I had ever read. It’s incredibly unique and thought provoking without providing clear, easy answers to what exactly is happening (in a good way). When a film adaptation in the works was announced, a director had been announced as attached to the project as well, Alex Garland. Had it been another director, I would have been worried that this was a difficult story to turn into a film. But Alex Garland directed Ex Machina, an absolutely fantastic sci-fi film. He also wrote 28 Days Later and Dredd, among other things. It seemed like a match made in heaven, an excellent sci-fi director adapting an excellent sci-fi book. Unfortunately, Annihilation doesn’t nearly reach the heights of it’s source material or Garland’s last film, Ex Machina.
It’s by no means a terrible film. There are some cool and interesting scenes and I enjoyed seeing this world and these characters being brought to life. I think the problem was that some stories just don’t work as well outside of their original medium. The movie is pretty loyal to the book. It doesn’t wildly deviate from the original story. So, I wasn’t sure at first why the movie didn’t really work.
For example, in the book the team of characters that go on the expedition into Area X have an almost anonymous quality to them. They’re cyphers that we learn more about throughout the book and the rest of the trilogy. But that doesn’t really work on film because now you have a group of characters that are difficult to care about and therefore there’s less of a sense of urgency for their survival. You’re just not as invested in them. The actors are all fine, Natalie Portman is ok in the lead role. Jennifer Jason Lee and Tessa Thompson are both perfectly serviceable in their roles. The movie also lacks the surreal sense of dread that constantly permeates the story in the book.
To be fair there is one pretty creepy and interesting scene that’s probably the best sequence in the film. I won’t spoil it here but it’s the closest the movie comes to capturing the spirit of the book.
If you’re a fan of the books and have the time and money to do so, you could do a lot worse than to see this film. The movie does have enough meat on it to be interesting for someone who has read the series. I’d say at the very least, check it out on Blu-ray or digital when it does come out, just to fulfill any curiosity you may have as a fan of the book. To anyone else I can’t say I would recommend this movie. It’s not particularly memorable or interesting, which is a real shame. It’s always good to see great science fiction pop up in films, unfortunately this is not one of them. I definitely recommend reading the trilogy of books if you haven’t because they are quite excellent. Annihilation is ultimately a fascinating failure from a filmmaker that has incredible potential. Despite this hiccup, I still think Alex Garland is definitely a director to keep an eye on.
Annihilation is in theatres now
Annihilation: C
Thanks for reading!
—Paul
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I’m a big fan of the Arrowverse. I watch every show, including Back Lightning, which doesn’t technically seem to be part of the Arowverse and I personally hope it stays that way. But there have been a few pieces of evidence that suggest the shows may be connected. Don’t forget, when Supergirl premiered on CBS and even for a few months after, it was definitely not apart of the Arrowverse. But things change and I suppose we’ll have to see. Speaking of The Girl of Steel, I’m even a defender when people like to talk about their least favorite one (which tends to be Supergirl). I think what they’re doing on that channel is great. But not amazing.
I think each of the shows right now has one element that seems to be holding it back from achieving something amazing. With Arrow, I think it’s Oliver as the Green Arrow. Let me explain that explain that. I really like Oliver, but whole idea of juggling his two lives is played out to me. Earlier this season, he stepped out of the role, and John Diggle became the Green Arrow, and honestly, I loved that. Arrowverse Trivia: In Legends of Tomorrow season one, John Diggle’s son, John Diggle Jr., is the Green Arrow protecting Star City, decades in the future, under the assumed name of Conner Hawke. Anyway, I wish Dig as Green Arrow had been a season long arch, maybe with Oliver being forced to take up the mantle again towards the end of the season. That could have the show go out with a real bang at the end of season six.
Green Arrow of 2046 AKA Conner Hawke AKA John Diggle Jr.Left: Wild Dog, Right: John Diggle as Green Arrow (Present Day)
I also hope that they are able to make Ricardo Diaz a really cool village. Up until now, he’s just been in the background as a puppet master, so he couldn’t really be in the forefront of the story. Otherwise it wouldn’t be as much of a surprise when the revealed he’s the one orchestrating everything. In the comics (and they reference this on the show) he goes by the name Richard dragon, one of the greatest martial artists on the planet and formidable thorn in the side of characters like Batman, Nightwing, and of course Green Arrow. I’ve always wanted to see him on the show and I hope they do him justice now that he’s been revealed is the true big bad. It’d be pretty cool if he started going by Richard Dragon for the rest of the season, I’ll be honest I’ll be disappointed if they don’t.
Before I move on to the other shows, I want to touch on something else that all of the Arrowverse shows are guilty of: Many of the really interesting, major changes seems to be resolved way too quickly. Season 3 of Flash began with Barry having traveled back in time, changing the timeline and arriving in Flashpoint, within 3 episodes he was back in the regular timeline. Yes, there were consequences for Barry later in the season, but I think everyone would have wanted to spend more time in the Flashpoint timeline. They had set it up at the end of Season 2, and it seemed like over the summer they said “oh shit, we cant pull off such a massive world change!. Let’s fix it asap.” The same thing happened this season with Legends of Tomorrow, the final shot of last season showed them appearing in San Francisco with modern architecture and dinosaurs running around. That would have been a crazy season, but within minutes of the first episode, the anachronism was fixed, as if they realized it wasn’t in their budget. It’s a bit frustrating.
The First 3 Big Bads on The Flash:
Eobard Thawne AKA The Reverse-FlashZOOM AKA Hunter ZolomonBarry faces Savitar
Anyway, back to each show’s big flaw. I think The Flash’s biggest flaw has been the villain. We got three season of speedsters and honestly they were each great in their own way. Thawne and Zoom inparticular where fantastic villains. But 3 speedster villains was one too many and the show needed some variety. So as we entered this season and you got The Thinker. The guy they got to play him was amazing, then they killed him off and put his brain into another guy’s body just as soon as you become invested in him as a villain. This was hugely disappointing even if it did land Barry in jail for several episodes (which did end up being it’s own highlight). Now Barry’s out of jail, facing an able-bodied Thinker (part of the appeal of the character was that he was so smart that he would be able to beat Barry with just his brain, while sitting in his hover chair).
Other cool heroes:
Then there is Supergirl. I might be in the minority here, but I do like Supergirl, I just think it has some major flaws. Most superheroes stories derive their success from action sequences and thrills, but the best parts of Supergirl are the character moments . There have been less of these great character moments that make the show so good. This season for example, the highlight has been Kara’s sister Alex’s personal turmoil over her romantic life, and her desire to be a mother. Alex’s struggle last season with her sexual orientation, and discovering she was a lesbian, was the highlight, and this season expanding on that, breaking her heart has been the most intriguing. The problem then falls on the action, and the “A plot,” and unfortunately, it’s just not keeping up. It’s serviceable, but it’s not special, it’s not captivating like Alex’s life is.
Left: Clark Kent, Right: Kara Danvers AKA Supergirl
Finally we come to Legends of Tomorrow. Before I get into it I’d just like to say, Sarah Lance, whom I disliked during her run on Arrow, is amazing on this show. She’s the Han Solo of the Arrowverse, and honestly, even though I’d really want Barry’s powers, ultimately if I had to BE anyone character, it would be Sarah Lance (She even has her own Millennium Falcon!).
Sarah Lanch AKA White Canary: Captain of The Waverider
Legends is probably the most fun show of the lineup. It definitely keeps improving year to year. It is amazingly fun every week and definitely the best of the Arrowverse, at least for now. Also, the cast’s natural rotation, and the structure of the show allow for it to always seem fresh. So what is wrong with it? It’s unoriginal. The idea’s cool, that’s not what I mean. The Wave-Rider, the team’s time-machine is suspiciously similar to, as I mentioned before, the Millennium Falcon, there are a lot of Doctor Who similarities, and while I loved the episode this week, it was Groundhog’s Day. None of these things ruins the show for me, in fact I like them all, but I do think it keeps the show from achieving the ‘amazing’ status certain other genre shows achieve.
Legends of Tomorrow (Version 1.0)John Constantine again because he fucking rules.
I mentioned before that I hope that Black Lightning doesn’t become part of the Arrowverse, and I just want to clarify that is just because it’s a different kind of show. The Arrowverse may touch upon issues of the day, but mostly they’re fun fare, where as Black Lightning as far as we’ve seen it, is a drama, with some comic book elements. They don’t really mesh, and so I hope they don’t try to force them to.
Black Lightning AKA Jefferson Pierce with his future superhero daughters
It’s Paul here! I’m very pleased to say that there’s so much fun, geek news today, that I’m gonna call this: Paul’s Awesome News Round Up! We’ve got fun bits of news from the world of Movies, TV and Comics. I’m going to start with COMICS News, but stick with me now. I know that might not interest some of you as much as movie and TV news. But stay with it because this whole article has some great stuff.
COMICS
So, Marvel is doing and another creative shake up and Relaunch of their books. A lot of fans hate this and I understand why. Sales may not be where Marvel wants them to be, so they trot out some fancy new tiles, creative team shake ups, and a bunch on new #1’s. Beside the danger to the industry by renumbering comics too often. I’m really excited to for this and it begins in May with Avengers as their flagship book, written by Jason Aaron with art by Ed McGuiness. Besides the creative team, why am I so excited about this?
Well, a few months ago Marvell put out a special called Marvel Legacy. In that special we met the characters below (some we know) who fare essentially the first Avengers team: Avengers 1,000,000 B.C.
Left to Right: The Iron Fist, Starbrand, The Phoenix, Odin, Black Panther, Ghost Rider, Agamotto
I loved that concept and hoped Marvel would do something with it soon. Now, in Jason Aaron’s Thor run, the beginning of the series took place across three eras battling the same threat. The young, still unworthy Thor who liked to battle and party with Vikings who worshiped him, the Thor of the present, an Avenger and a hero, and finally Old King Thor millennia beyond millennia into the future. One armed and one eyed, as he watches over what’s left of Midgard.
So this Avengers book will follow a storytelling format, the same threat, fought by two different Avengers teams. One in the present and the other, the first Avengers team the Avengers of 1,000,000 B.C.
Back Row: Doctor Strange; 3rd Row: Ghost Rider (Robbie Reyes), Iron Man, She-Hulk; 2nd Row: Black Panther, Captain America; Front: Captain Marvel, Thor
Avengers #1 written by Jason Aaron with art by Ed McGuiness will become available where all comic are sold in May
TV
Krypton
If you asked me a year ago that a Superman prequel series set on Krypton decades before its’s destruction, following Superman‘s grandfather, I’d say its sounds like a really fucking stupid idea. I’m very pleased to say that I’ve been proven wrong when it comes to the show. It looks really cool. And apparently it’s not going to be the stuck following the exact narrative of Superman’s family backstory because it’s largely a time travel story, focusing on Superman’s grandfather Seg-El.
Superman’s grandfather getting a dire warning from the future via DC comics hero, Adam Strange
Brainiac is going back in time try to stop Superman from ever being born (or something), thus stopping his greatest nemesis from coming into being. Meanwhile, DC hero Adam Strange shows up on past Krypton to warn Seg-El that he’s got a Skynet situation on his hands. In what you ask me is kind of a dick move, Strange tells Seg that his grandson is going to be the greatest hero the universe has ever known ( I mean, no fucking pressure, right?) The guy’s already got to worry about an evil alien artificial intelligence looking to wipe out his family line. That’s a pretty normal situation. Happened to me last week. It was a real pain in the ass, we lost some good people.
BrianiacBRAINIAC
What I like about this idea is that continuity doesn’t matter. They have openly said that because the show is in the past and time travel and alternate timelines could be involvedthe show will radically change Superman’s mythology. A crazy, time travel, Superman-prequal, sci-fi adventure series across the cosmos of the DC Universe sounds pretty fucking cool. Apparently this show is going to be shark full of cool DC characters in addition to Brianiac and Adam Strange characters like the Green Lantern Corps, DOOMSDAY, Hawkgirl and The Thanagarians have all been confirmed to appear in the first season. Today they unveiled the first look at the big bad of the series, Brianiac and I’ve got to say he looks pretty fucking cool. Below is his picture and a new trailer for the show. I’ve also put in the original trailer in case anyone hasn’t seen it because it’s relatively short and sets a cool tone. I’ve actually got high hopes for this one. I think it has the potential to be pretty fucking cool. Let me know what you think in the comments below.
Jessica Jones: Season 2
The long awaited second season of Jessica Jones is almost upon us. Here’s a new trailer that shows new material but also splices in some flashbacks from season 1. Check it out here:
Jessica Jones: Season 2 premieres March 8
Legends of Tomorrow
For you Legends of Tomorrow fans out there, not only has Kid Flash himself officially joined the team.
We can also look forward to seeing the return of John Constantine on Episode 15 airing March 13
Another fan favorite recurring characters confirmed to return in the Season 3 Finale is Jonah Hex
There have been set photos and other rumors that possibly John Constantine will return for the Finale as well. Maybe setting him up as new crew member of The Waverider in season 4? I know I’d love that.
Legends of Tomorrow Season 3 Finale airs April 9th
MOVIES
Big new for all of us Star Wars fans out there, Star Wars Episode VIII The Last Jedi release dates Digital March 13and the Blu Ray drops March 27. Check out the air work below:
Here are the listed special features:
The Director and the Jedi – Go deep behind the scenes with writer-director Rian Johnson on an intimate and personal journey through the production of the movie—and experience what it’s like to helm a global franchise and cultural phenomenon. Balance of the Force – Explore the mythology of the Force and why Rian Johnson chose to interpret its role in such a unique way. Scene Breakdowns Lighting the Spark: Creating the Space Battle – Get a close-up look at the epic space battle, from the sounds that help propel the action, through the practical and visual effects, to the characters who bring it all to life. Snoke and Mirrors – Motion capture and Star Wars collide as the filmmakers take us through the detailed process of creating the movie’s malevolent master villain.
Showdown on Crait – Break down everything that went into creating the stunning world seen in the movie’s final confrontation, including the interplay between real-word locations and visual effects, reimagining the walkers, designing the crystal foxes, and much more. Andy Serkis Live! (One Night Only) – Writer-director Rian Johnson presents two exclusive sequences from the movie featuring Andy Serkis’ riveting, raw on-set performance before his digital makeover into Snoke.
Deleted Scenes – With an introduction and optional commentary by writer-director Rian Johnson. Audio Commentary – View the movie with in-depth feature audio commentary by writer-director Rian Johnson.
All of this plus 14 FUCKING DELEATED SCENES!!! That’s crazy! But awesome.
World’s Best Media 