On this episode, Mike Cole returns to The World’s Best Podcast as we discuss the biggest news to come out of COMIC-CON 2022! Among the many topics touched upon in this episode, Mike and I pick out our favorite trailers and chat about some of the other major announcements made at COMIC-CON. Along the way, we have an in depth discussion about Black Panther and the legacy of Chadwick Boseman. We offer up several different view points and give our conclusions regarding the question: Should Marvel have re-cast the role of T’Challa after Boseman’s tragic death? Plus, we ponder some the greatest and most profound of life’s philosophical questions! All this and so much more on The World’s Best Podcast!
We also want to recommend Mike Cole’s new podcast, Talking About The Big Stuff with Michael Cole! Available on all of the apps where you listen to your podcasts including iTunes and Spotify, to name a few. I’ll be making a a guest appearance on the show in the coming weeks, sos start tuned! Thanks for listening and enjoy!
We’d love to hear your feedback about anything discussed on the show! What had you most excited from this year’s COMIC-CON? Do you think Marvel should have re-cast Black Panther or not? Let us know in the comments below!
Thanks for listening! Follow us on Twitter @PJWrightWBM, Instagram @worldsbestmedia2017, and our Facebook Page, Worlds Best Media. Those likes and follows, as well as iTunes reviews for the podcast, go a long way to supporting World’s Best Media. We really appreciate the loyalty and support shown to us by our fans, so thanks again! Stay healthy and stay safe!
When The Infinity Saga came to a close, The MCU began premiering new movies and Disney+ projects as part of Phase 4. One the biggest questions left unanswered for fans, was the status of The Avengers. With Tony, Steve, and Natasha gone, was there even a team anymore? If so, who was on it? As we’re heading into the end of Phase 4, the films and Disney+ shows have made it pretty clear that The Avengers are still very much a staple of The MCU. We’ve just been left in the dark about some of the details. Now that the team will be officially assembling again with not one, but two new Avengers movies on the horizon, who will make up the New Avengers roster? I thought it would be fun to try to answer that question. These picks include, characters that I think Marvel Studios will likely want on the team, some less obvious, but potentially interesting inclusions, as well as some personal favorites that I’d like to see pop up. We would love to hear your thoughts, so please leave your ideal Avengers roster in the comments below! Anyway, let’s get into it…
The New Avengers
Captain America (Sam Wilson) & The Winter Soldier (Bucky Barnes)
You can’t have The Avengers without Cap and Sam Wilson has shown he’s more than worthy of the mantle. The team also needs someone to fill the leadership role left by Steve (but I think there are a couple of other worthy candidates for team leaders as you’ll see below). When it comes to Bucky, he and Cap are a package deal (whether Cap is Steve or Sam) and frankly, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Shang-Chi
This one’s a no brained for a couple of reasons. In the marketing for Shang-Chi, the trailers would often say something along the lines of “Get ready for the next Avenger.”. Marvel has always had big plans for this character. Plus the director of Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings, Destin Daniel Cretton, is also directing the upcoming Avengers: The Kang Dynasty. So this one’s pretty much a lock.
Captain Marvel
The Avengers need a powerhouse and Carol Danvers certainly fits the bill. She’s another character I could see filling the leadership vacuum in the absence of Cap and Tony. She also has another movie on the way with The Marvels premiering next year.
Ant-Man
Who would have thought that Paul Rudd’s Ant-Man would become such an integral part of The MCU? Compared to some other characters on the list, Scott Lang is a veteran Avenger at this point. Going up against Kang The Conqueror in Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania will make him even more important to The Avengers and The MCU.
Hulk, She-Hulk, or Both
If I had to pick one Hulk that I think Marvel would want to use, it’d be She-Hulk, which would be fine by me. I like the character a lot and I think her new show looks really cool. But one thing we’re missing from this line up, is a scientific genius, so the team needs Bruce Banner. The more Hulk’s the better I always say!
Spider-Man
Tom Holland’s continued role in The MCU is a bit of question mark, but his participation as an Avengers in the Multiverse spanning, Secret Wars, is damn near guaranteed.
Wong
The team needs a big time magic user and Wong is Sorcerer Supreme, after all. It should also be noted that Wong has taken a very proactive role in keeping an eye on the major events and players in Phase 4. Hell, Wong has basically been the Nick Fury of Phase 4. So far he’s already made major appearances in Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness, and She-Hulk. He’s even seen as a part of mini-Avengers alongside Captain Marvel and Bruce Banner in the Shang-Chi post-credits scene.
Doctor Strange
While many fans saw Dr.Stephen Strange as the natural choice to take up an active leadership role within The Avengers, Marvel recently came out and said that he’s technically not even on the team, let alone one of it’s leaders. Having said that, obviously Doctor Strange is going to be one the main characters in any Avengers film. Doctor Strange is a key character in Secret Wars particularly. Strange and Wong are the mystical Stark and Rhodey.
Hawkeye (Clint Barton)
C’mon he’s a founding Avengers! The Avengers have never lost a battle where Hawkeye was present. He can definitely play both a mentor and leadership role. He’s a clutch member and could be the heart of the team in this new era.
Other Likely Contenders
Without going into too much detail, based on skills, experiences, abilities, and seniority, I think it’s a safe bet that Marvel will include, some or all, of the heroes on The Avengers roster:
Rhodey aka War Machine
Ms Marvel
One of the Eternals?….
Phastos (his power is basically control of technology, a technopath, and the team is out of the big science guy with Tony Stark gone)
My Top Picks To Join The Avengers
Loki
This would be so much fun. At this point Loki has done a complete 180, going from villain to anti-hero to full-blown hero. Loki was the reason The Avengers had to form in the first place! Making him an official member of the team would create so many interesting character and storytelling opportunities. Loki was the first major MCU character to understand the threat that Kang poses to The Multiverse. Much like Banner in the beginning of Infinity War, Loki could show up early in the story to warn the rest of Earth’s protectors of the coming threat.
Daredevil
Daredevil is by far my favorite Marvel superhero and I love that the character has left Netflix purgatory and is poised to become a major player in The MCU. Matt Murdock made his first canonical MCU appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Home and he’s already confirmed to have major roles in multiple upcoming projects. Including She-Hulk, Echo, the animated series Spider-Man: Freshman Year, and his new Disney+ series Daredevil: Born Again in 2024. In addition to being one of the best hand-in-hand combatants in the world, he’d also bring some unique abilities and skills to The Avengers. It would be pretty sick to see The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen join Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.
So which MCU characters do you will make the New Avengers lineup? Do you have a favorite character that you’d love to see on the team? Let us know in the comments below!
Thanks for reading! Follow us on Twitter @PJWrightWBM, Instagram @worldsbestmedia2017, and our Facebook Page, Worlds Best Media. Those likes and follows, as well as iTunes reviews for the podcast, go a long way to supporting World’s Best Media. We really appreciate the loyalty and support shown to us by our fans, so thanks again! Stay healthy and stay safe!
When The Marvel Cinematic Universe began with Iron Man, each subsequent film was building towards 2012’s modern classic, The Avengers. When The Avengers proved to be a smash hit, it was clear that The MCU wasn’t going anywhere. As they continued to build their mythology, the characters I wanted to see on the big screen more than any others were Doctor Strange and Black Panther. When they finally made their debut in The MCU, they didn’t disappoint. There’s still so much to look forward to in the comics.
T’Challa has an amazing rivalry with Namor The Submariner, The King of Atlantis (Basically Marvel’s more villainous version of Aquaman). Seeing a conflict between the two characters play out was high on the list of things I wanted to see come to life in The MCU.
I’m still unsure exactly how Marvel is going to handle Black Panther after Chadwick Boseman’s tragic and untimely death. I’m fairly certain it’s been stated that Marvel Studios doesn’t plan on killing off the character in The MCU. The sequel to Black Panther, titled Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is set to premiere in November. It looks like the plan is to shift the focus to the ensemble supporting cast from the first movie like T’Challa’s sister Shruri, Okoye The Head of The Dora Milaje, Nakia, a Wakandan spy and T’Challa’s former love interest, and M’Baku, leader of The Wakandan Mountain Tribe. This official promo art from the upcoming film shows how, both Shuri and Okoye will appear in the movie.
I’ve always maintained that Marvel should have waited a respectable amount of time and then recast the character. These characters are bigger than one actor who inhabits them. As much as we would love to see Chadwick Boseman in the Black Panther costume again, he’s in his family has come out to say that Chadwick would want the character to continue on after his passing. After speaking to Boseman’s brother, Derrick, TMZ reported “…Chadwick knew the power of the character, and the positive influence it carries. Derrick says there’s so much power in seeing a Black king — especially in a superhero capacity, like in the Marvel flick — which has a huge impact on African-American youth.” It’s like saying we should never have The Joker appear on screen again because Heath Ledger died.
What’s bittersweet for me, is that the new films story seems to be about a conflict breaking out between Wakanda and Atlantis. Which is awesome, but if Marvel wants to tell that story, T’Challa should be a part of it.
Tenoch Huerta
Actor Tenoch Huerta has a large, but unspecified role in Wakanda Forever. Most sources say that Huerta is indeed playing Namor. The character rides the line between anti-hero and villain, so I assumed he was the Big Bad in Wakanda Forever. However, new promo material for the upcoming movie has me thinking the film will portray Namor in a more heroic light. New promo images and an official character description has revealed that another long time Atlantean Marvel villain is appearing in the movie. A powerful bad guy named Attuma. Take a look at the character design and the character description below.
“Attuma was born into the tribe of Homo mermanus who eschewed civilization to live as nomadic barbarians. For some unrecorded reason, Attuma was endowed with strength far surpassing that of his people. Nearing adulthood, Attuma learned of a prophesy, in the lost Atlantean Chronicles, of a conqueror who would take the empire of Atlantis by force. Believing he is that conqueror, Attuma has launched numerous attacks on the city of Atlantis and its regent Namor the Sub-Mariner.”
As apprehensive as I am about this film, I must admit that this sounds very exciting. Marvel is once again pulling back the curtain on an entirely new part of the rich tapestry that makes up The Marvel Universe. I’ve always said that Black Panther’s best adversaries are characters like Namor and Doctor Doom because they’re all kings. The best hero and villain dynamics occurt when the characters are reflections of one another. Being King of Wakanda is one of the most fundamental aspects of who T’Challa is. He feels great responsibility to his country and his people. He’s more than just a King, he’s a great leader.
So putting him up against somebody in the same position, who has gone down a darker path, makes for some incredible storytelling opportunities. I think Ryan Coogler is a fantastic director, and he certainly has an absolutely stacked cast to work with. The first Black Panther film was excellent, Marvel knows what they’re doing. Hopefully, sometime in the near future, Marvel Studios will come to their senses and give us a new T’Challa/Black Panther. Not just for the fans, but to also honor the legacy of Chadwick Boseman and the character we saw him create and bring too life. As I mentioned before, from what I’ve heard, the character of T’Challa is not being killed off, so it will be interesting to see how they handle his absence. Almost the entire cast of the first film is returning for Wakanda Forever, not to mention that Wakanda itself is such a cool and unique setting, that it’s almost a character in its own right, so the filmmakers definitely have a lot to work with here. Every time I’ve had serious doubts about a decision Marvel Studios under Kevin Fiege has made, I end up eating my words. Hopefully that streak will continue and this will be the spectacular sequel that Black Panther deserves!
Thanks for reading! Follow us on Twitter @PJWrightWBM, Instagram @worldsbestmedia2017, and our Facebook Page, Worlds Best Media. Those likes and follows, as well as iTunes reviews for the podcast, go a long way to supporting World’s Best Media. We really appreciate the loyalty and support shown to us by our fans, so thanks again! Stay healthy and stay safe!
On this very special episode of the show, Tim Cuff returns to celebrate the 5th Anniversary of The World’s Best Podcast! It’s been quite an adventure, but we’re here to commemorate 5 EPIC years of The World’s Best Podcast! As we reflect back on the show, we discuss everything from Game of Thrones to The Boys to Doctor Strange and The Multiverse of Madness! Thank all of you who’ve continued to listen to and support the show!
Thanks for listening! Follow us on Twitter @PJWrightWBM, Instagram @worldsbestmedia2017, and our Facebook Page, Worlds Best Media. Those likes and follows, as well as iTunes reviews for the podcast, go a long way to supporting World’s Best Media. We really appreciate the loyalty and support shown to us by our fans, so thanks again! Stay healthy and stay safe!
It’s funny how things come full circle. Way back in the early days of TheMCU, when the first Thor movie was about to hit the big screen, the Thor comic book was one of my favorite series. Written by Jason Aaron, with gorgeous art by creators like Esad Ribic and Russell Dauterman, their Thor run is already a modern classic. Without a doubt, my favorite work on the character. Which is high praise because their have been some absolutely killer Thor stories over the years.
2011’s Thor had just been released and I remember thinking: “Gorr The God Butcher would be such a cool villain to see in a Thor movie! But that’s never going to happen.”. Oh, young and naive Paul…
Peter Quill and the rest of The Guardians of The Galaxy will be joining Thor on his latest adventure.
Now we live in a golden age of comic book films! Where some of the most bizarre, bat-shit crazy characters and concepts are given the spotlight. Anything goes. The MCU dove head first into some of the most insane elements in rich history of Marvel Comics. 20 years ago, not even in the wildest dreams of comic book fans, would we have imagined seeing The Avengers, Rocket & Groot, Wakanda, Doctor Strange and The Illuminati, fucking Moon Knight(?!), brought to life by some of the best actors and filmmakers in Hollywood. It still blows my mind that Thanos is a household name!
Now we’re just a few weeks away from the premiere of Thor: Love & Thunder. As I mentioned before about things coming full circle, Thor is now the only MCU hero with a 4th solo film. Not only is Gorr the movie’s antagonist, he’s also played by Christian Fucking Bale! Love & Thunder seem to be drawing heavily from Jason Aaron’sexcellent Thor where I first met Gorr The God Butcher in the comics all those years ago. Jane Foster picking up Thor’s hammer in becoming her own version of The Mighty Thor was an enormous part of Aaron’s Thor magnum opus. I know some people have been turned off by this story development with Jane, but trust me, if it’s even half as cool as it is in the comics, it’s going to be fucking awesome. It’s important to note that Jane isn’t replacing Thor. She’s becoming A Thor, not THE Thor. Chris Hemsworth’s Thor Odinson isn’t going anywhere.
Anyway as we look forward to the films released, Marvel has released some very cool new character posters for you guys to check out. Take a look below…
So, are you excited to see Christian Bale as Gorr The God Butcher? How do you feel about Jane Foster wielding the mighty Mijonir? Let me know in the comments section or any of our social media platforms!
Thanks for reading! Follow us on Twitter @PJWrightWBM, Instagram @worldsbestmedia2017, and our Facebook Page, Worlds Best Media. Those likes and follows, as well as iTunes reviews for the podcast, go a long way to supporting World’s Best Media. We really appreciate the loyalty and support shown to us by our fans, so thanks again! Stay healthy and stay safe!
We have a couple of pretty cool trailers this week, with the new trailer for Season 3 of AmazonPrime’s The Boys, as well as our first look at the upcoming MCU Disney+ series, She-Hulk: Attorney At Law! Both trailers a very exciting for their own reasons, but check them out below and then we’ll get into some interesting details about these upcoming shows…
The Boys: Season 3
At this point, what more is there to say about The Boys? We already know the show is fantastic and I have no doubt that the new season will deliver just as much, if not more, than the previous seasons. I love seeing Homelander beginning to seriously go off the deep end. It looks like Maeve is beginning to proactively work against Vought a bit more, which is interesting. It seems like Hughie has some level of authority over Butcher now. Which led the great line from Mallory (their old boss) to Butcher ”You’ve even started taking Hugh Campbell’s orders without strangling him.”.
However, there was one thing problem I had that was on display in the trailer. In the comics, The Boys using something similar to Compound-V to level the playing field against the supes, is introduced fairly early in the series. So I didn’t really like M.M.’s sanctimonious “you’ve become the thing you hate! Blah, blah, blah“ schtick. If you’re going up against enemies with the power of gods, a move like this seems inevitable. So hopefully, that’s not a major subplot and this becomes a tool that The Boys use on a semi-regular basis when they need it .
Then, of course, the other big deal in Season 3 that has a lot of people excited, is Jensen Ackles joining the cast as Soldier Boy. We see much more of him in this new trailer and goddammit, he looks pretty damn cool. I feel like he’s going to be the wild card of the season. He’s the X factor. He doesn’t seem to be towing the Vought company line, but he doesn’t seem like a guy who’d necessarily become a straight up ally to Butcher and The Boys either. So it will be really interesting to see how his character is used and how his story plays out over the season. Ackles is a talented actor with a lot of range and I think he’s going to get a lot of attention with this role. The premiere can’t get here soon enough!
The Boys Season 3 begins streaming on PrimeVideo June 3rd.
She-Hulk: Attorney At Law
While I’ve always liked the character of Bruce Banner’s cousin, Jennifer Walters, I was surprised how much I loved the trailer for She-Hulk: Attorney At Law. The tone feels exactly right for a show like this and I thought She-Hulk’s character design really worked (I’ll get to the CGI/VFX in a minuet).
Let’s not forget some of the interesting familiar faces who show up in the trailer. It’s great to see Tim Roth back as Emil Blonsky a.k.a. The Abomination. We last saw him in Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings, taking on Wong in a superhuman cage fighting tournament and it appears as if he’s been, at least a little bit, rehabilitated. Because after the fight in Shang-Chi, in the locker room he and Wong are clearly friends. Wong then opens a portal and walks through with The Abomination into a room that appears to be the same one that we see Tim Roth being kept in, in this new trailer.
Of course, I’ll take any excuse to see Mark Ruffalo pop up as Bruce Banner/The Hulk (some of you may disagree, but I love that he’s still in Professor Hulk-mode). Not to mention the persistent rumors that this is where we’ll see Charlie Cox as Matt Murdock/Daredevil again after his official re-introduction into the main MCU in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Considering that Matt Murdock is a lawyer and this series is dealing with the creation of a superhuman law division, it makes a lot of sense for the character to make an appearance.
Something important to keep in mind when watching this trailer, is how on projects like this, the visual effects are continuing to be worked on and perfected up to the last moment. So while some of the She-Hulk rendering may not have been pitch perfect, the special effects wizards working on the show have literally months to perfect the process. I have no doubt that when the show premieres, we will have an impressive looking She-Hulk.
She-Hulk: Attorney At Law premieres on Disney+ August 13th.
Thanks for reading! Follow us on Twitter @PJWrightWBM, Instagram @worldsbestmedia2017, and our Facebook Page, Worlds Best Media. Those likes and follows, as well as iTunes reviews for the podcast, go a long way to supporting World’s Best Media. We really appreciate the loyalty and support shown to us by our fans, so thanks again! Stay healthy and stay safe!
Join us, as we take a thrilling dive into Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness on this episode of The World’s Best Podcast! Beware of FULL SPOILERS as we discuss the latest film in The MCU! We also cover the Season (or Series?) Finale of the Disney+ series, Moon Knight! Don’t miss this epic entry in our excellent podcast!
Thanks for listening! Follow us on Twitter @PJWrightWBM, Instagram @worldsbestmedia2017, and our Facebook Page, Worlds Best Media. Those likes and follows, as well as iTunes reviews for the podcast, go a long way to supporting World’s Best Media. We really appreciate the loyalty and support shown to us by our fans, so thanks again! Stay healthy and stay safe!
We finally got our first look at Thor: Love and Thunder, with these new character posters and this AWESOME teaser trailer posted below!
Pretty great, right? A teaser trailer is supposed to get viewers excited to see the movie, without giving the whole story away. So by that definition, this did its job and then some.
One of the things I’m really excited about in this film is seeing Jane Foster become The Mighty Thor. I had a few people tell me that they didn’t really like this new story idea. While Natalie Portman has always been fine in the role, I don’t think she is a stand out character in the minds of many fans. We change is so much justified. But let me tell you this storyline is fucking awesome! Jane Foster wielding Mjolnir and becoming The Mighty Thor was one of the best storylines in Marvel Comics over the last 10 years. If the film can manage to tap into even half of how cool this character can be and how fascinating her story is, we have a lot of reasons to be excited. So I encourage people to keep an open mind. We still have our classic Thor. He’s not going anywhere. There just happens to be more than one Thor in Love and Thunder. On that note, I’m sure there are plenty of fans out there who aren’t familiar with the comics, who may have been a little bit confused by her sudden appearance as another Thor at the end of this teaser. The video below does a good job of answering some of you’re burning questions and works as a solid primer to give you the basics surrounding Jane Foster AKA The Mighty Thor! Take a look…
Thor: Love and Thunder opens July 8th.
Thanks for reading! Follow us on Twitter @PJWrightWBM, Instagram @worldsbestmedia2017, and our Facebook Page, Worlds Best Media. Those likes and follows, as well as iTunes reviews for the podcast, go a long way to supporting World’s Best Media. We really appreciate the loyalty and support shown to us by our fans, so thanks again! Stay healthy and stay safe!
Im just gonna put it out there: This movie is going to fucking RULE! We’re gonna see some serious shit go down in this one. I have a feeling that this is going to be the Captain America: Civil War of The MCU’s Phase 4. Based on what we’ve seen from the trailers alone, this movie is going to be huge. We’re going to be introduced to a lot of new characters and concepts, and I really think The MCU will be fundamentally different by the end of the film. Which is similar to what Civil War did. It put all the pieces where they needed to be, for the story to come. I actually think that’s one of the reasons we haven’t seen a trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder yet, which premieres in July. Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness was originally supposed to come out in March and if Doctor Strange is going to make is big of an impact on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as I suspect it is, they may not even show a trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder until Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness comes out in theaters. Yesterday on The John Campea Show (a great YouTube show for pop culture news, by the way), John revealed that he’d been told via an email, from a trusted source at Disney/Marvel, that:
“There are more big surprises in Doctor Strange 2, than in Infinity War, Endgame, and Spider-Man: No Way Home combined.”
That’s a bold statement to say the least, but if anybody could back it up, it’d be Marvel Studios. The crazy thing is, I totally buy that quote because Marvel has some insanely cool stuff in their toybox that hasn’t even been touched yet. There is enough A-list material to cover another Infinity Saga, just using the new characters and concepts coming down the pipe line, alone.
Wong: Sorcerer Supreme
New character: America Chavez (She can literally punch through dimensions)
Because the MCU that the new Thor film exists in will be fundamentally different. But who the fuck knows? They’re probably dropping the trailer online as I’m typing this. Anyway Marvel dropped two awesome Doctor Strange in The Multiverse of Madness videos, one is another trailer. Check them out here:
We also have some great new character posters that I’ve posted throughout the article.
Mordo
I love Rachel McAdams, but does she really need to be here?
The film’s director, Sam Raimi, is the perfect guy to helm a project like this. This type of movie is tailor made for him this is the guy who gave the original Spider-Man trilogy. He knows how to do a huge superhero blockbusters and fucked up creepy horror movies like the Evil Dead films, Drag Me To Hell, and The Gift. I really can’t wait to see what he brings to this movie. He’s also a big enough hitter and a big enough name director, where I think he could push Marvel to take some risks in ways they might otherwise not be comfortable. It’s an exciting time to be a comic book fan ladies and gentlemen
Also, it looks like Stephen will be getting a hand with those Ultron drones The Illuminati seem to be using…
Thanks for reading! Follow us on Twitter @PJWrightWBM, Instagram @worldsbestmedia2017, and our Facebook Page, Worlds Best Media. Those likes and follows, as well as iTunes reviews for the podcast, go a long way to supporting World’s Best Media. We really appreciate the loyalty and support shown to us by our fans, so thanks again! Stay healthy and stay safe!
I was late to the party when it came to Arcane. I’ve been hearing for months that the Netflix animated series was fantastic, so this week I finally sat down and watched the first season. Man, this show lived up to the hype and then some!
Set in the utopian city Piltover and it’s oppressed underground of Zaun, the story follows orphaned sisters, Vi and Powder, whose lives have been shaped by tragedy, loss, and betrayal. The sisters eventually find themselves on opposite sides of a conflict, that’s ready engulf both Piltover and Zaun -and possibly tear them apart forever.
Sisters, Vi and Powder, shortly after the death of their parents.
However, before they’re eventually ripped apart, for a time, the sisters seemed to have carved out something resembling a happy life. As the big sister, Vi has always been deeply protective of Powder. Despite it’s problems, their remains a glimmer of a sense of community among the people of Zaun, and the sisters are able to make a home in The Undercity. They even develop a surrogate family, forming strong bonds with others just trying to scrape by in the unforgiving Zaun.
Despite it’s appearance as a gleaming, steampunk metropolis, Piltover is a city divided: The affluent, prosperous city above…
Piltover
…and the crime-ridden Zaun or The Undercity, as its most commonly referred to, ravaged by poverty, crime, and addiction. Piltlover’s police force/military, The Enforcers, are responsible for keeping the peace in the whole city. Yet they abuse their power and victimize the more vulnerable people in Zaun, the people they’re supposed to protect. The real power in The Undercity belong to kingpins and crime lords, all too happy to keep the corrupt Enforcers and Council Members who run the city, in their pockets.
Zaun or The Undercity
After another tragic, personal loss, involving a bloody showdown with Silco, one of the cities most powerful and dangerous crime lords, the sisters are abruptly and unwillingly separated.
Neither sister is completely certain what happened to the other. If there’s one the two have in common, it’s that they’re survivors. So, while separated, both sisters do what they have to do to survive.
Vi, all grown up
Years pass, and Vi finally returns home. Determined to find her sister, Vi receives help from the last place she’d expect, a rookie Enforcer named Caitlyn. The only daughter from a wealthy family in upper Piltover, Caitlyn is one of the only Enforcers who isn’t corrupt. Unlike many of her colleagues, she genuinely wants to help people in need.
Caitlyn: The only honest Enforcer in Piltover
As she accomplices Vi to The Undercity, she shares Vi’s disgust with what has happened to her home. With Silco now the undisputed Kingpin of Zaun, The Undercity has sunk into chaos. Drugs, violence, and crime have ravaged this once tight knit community. Vi holds Silco responsible for turning her home into as cesspool, as well as her separation from her sister.
Powder is long gone. Now, there’s only JINX.Silco & Jinx: The Undercity’s creepiest power couple.
Unfortunately, Vi’s sister is not the sweet little girl that she once knew. Now going by the name Jinx, she works for Silco as his right hand woman and surrogate daughter (with some slightly creepy sexual undertones). Jinx is feared as a dangerous, and seriously unhinged, part of Silco’s operati|on. Does Jinx even want to be “saved” by her sister? Or is she too far gone?
This is a phenomenal series. Flawless pacing, gorgeous and dynamic animation, as well as incredible voice performances, Arcane is simply a story well told, on EVERY level. This show would still be killer,even if the animation wasn’t top notch, but Arcane boasts beautiful animation that rivals blockbuster studios like Pixar. There are a lot of fight scenes in this series and that’s where the animation really shines. Each fight is telling a story. The fights never get repetitive because they’re all unique and dynamic. I found myself rewinding and rewatch certain fight sequence four or five times because the creators bring so much to each scene.
Every character feels real and fleshed out. Arcane understand that no one thinks they’re the villain of their own story. Characters with the noblest of intentions find themselves morally compromised, crossing ethical lines in service of a greater good. Men and women we would label villains or monsters, display unexpected love and compassion. All of Arcane’s characters are nuanced and well written, there are no “good guys“ and “bad guys“. Even Silco, the character who could most easily be described as the “villain“, has some of the most compassionate and vulnerable moments in the entire series. Just like the real world, people exist across an entire moral spectrum of complex emotions. While It’s easy to throw around labels like, “The Bad Guy” or “Villain”, the truth is often much more complicated. People aren’t born evil, they’re shaped into the person they become through the trauma and tragedy they experienced. It’s a refreshing change of pace because we rarely see this kind of sophisticated storytelling.
It wasn’t until after I finished watching the first season of this excellent show, that I found out it was actually based on a video game. Now I have no idea what kind of game this is, is it an RPG? A fighting game? I don’t know. The point is that this world and these characters are entirely new to me. Yet through Arcane’s incredible storytelling and compelling characters, I totally fell in love with this world and the characters who live in it. I was in! 100%!
As I mentioned before the voice work in this series is extremely impressive, led by Hailee Steinfeld who plays Vi. Hailee Steinfeld has been crushing it this year with great performances in Arcane and Hawkeye. who plays the lead character by. This series is just excellence across-the-board. I almost forgot to mention the show’s great music. Arcane has one of the best soundtracks for a series that I’ve come across in awhile. If you’re looking for something to dive into now that The Book of Boba Fett and Peacemaker have wrapped up their seasons, Arcane is the show to watch. Simply put, Arcane is a storytelling masterpiece. This series gets my highest recommendation!
Heavy lies the head that wears the crown…
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