Batman Caped Crusader Season 2 Overview: They Continue To Ruin The Batman Mythos

Why not have the Riddler as just another thug, it destroys his character but why not, why not gender flip more classic Batman villains like The Mad Hatter rather than bringing in actual female villains like Lady Shiva.

They make Harley Quinn a girlboss, she breaks from the Joker far too early and easily and it really damages the overall relationship there in terms of dynamics and how that plays out. As well as this they introduce The Dark Knight Returns Robin rather than you know any of the other more well known ones. Again all of this is a choice.

When you look at something like Invincible and yes it does make changes from the comics but it also replicates things as well pretty 1:1 at times, this just seems like vandalism.

Overall: lots of people already aren’t watching this but you shouldn’t either.

1/5

Pros.

There are a couple of cool fights

Cons.

The gender swaps

The lore ruining moments

The girlbosses

The animation itself

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Spider-Man Brand New Day: Spider-Man Is Depressed

Summary Jean Grey shows up for no reason and decides to act like a villain. Spider-Man pines over his girlfriend.

Let’s get one thing right off the bat as our article from a few days ago said putting Jean Grey into the MCU sans X-Men is dumb as hell. Jean does not behave like herself here, and her backstory around her missing sister etc would have fit very well into a gritty X-Men film but without the light hearted world of a Spider-Man film it really sticks out. If you removed her entirely from the plot and just had it be Spidey working with and then going up against the leader of Damage Control it would have been much better.

The arc they give Peter is probably the best of the MCU, he is broken as Peter but on top of the world as Spider-Man he has lost everyone and needs to learn to trust and let people in again. This is a serious and grown up Spider-Man, we wouldn’t be surprised if kids like this one a bit less as it’s far less about dances and curfews and far more about loneliness, sadness and trauma. Seeing Spider-Man at a low ebb is kind of what the character is all about though.

You’d argue that the supporting cast does a lot of the heavy lifting here, John Bernthal is wonderful as the Punisher and you really see how much he cares about Peter. Yelana is funny and steals the scenes she isn’t in. However, the star of the side cast is arguably Zendaya. Now a number of the contributors to this magazine do not have a high opinion of Zendaya however, here she is the emotional core of the film. The fact that she can’t remember anything about Peter and that they don’t get back together in the end is incredibly mature and grown up.

There is a real sense of transition with this film not the least due to the changes happening to Peter with his Spider DNA but because it shifts from being a children’s film to something much more serious and grown up.

3.5/5

Pros.

Peter and MJ

Frank

The action and the go pro scenes

The humour

Cons.

The stuff with Jean Grey

The end credits tease isn’t good

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Cinema Issues: The Jean Grey Issue Spider-Man Brand New Day

At the time of writing we do not know if Jean Grey is in Spider-Man 4 and if it is Sadie Sink’s mysterious role however a lot of online speculation says that’s the case.

If it is then it is a terrible terrible decision for multiple reasons, let’s get into it.

1- It introduces her first as a villain: Jean Grey of the X-Men outside of her Phoenix possessions is a good guy, however, a lot of the rumours linking Grey to this film say that she is the villain pulling the strings behind the scenes. Why would she be doing this? It would be incredibly against the character and make very little sense.

2- It cheapens the idea of introducing the MCU’s own X-Men at a later date: we know the X-Men are coming however, the drips and drabs strategy we have been getting isn’t working. The idea was to have an X-Men film pretty immediately after Secret Wars when the universe will be reset why would it make sense to have just Jean Grey introduced early here rather than alongside her fellow X-Men there, it wouldn’t.

3- Spider-Man is still not able to hold his own film: under the MCU there seems to be an idea that you can’t just have a Spider-Man film, like Sony did for years. You need Iron Man, you need the multiverse, you need an X-Man. Repeatedly it seems like Peter cannot just have his own adventure and this film is already crowded with the likes of the Hulk and the Punisher showing up for some reason, now they have to put Jean Grey in as well, it’s just stupid. People want grounded, focused stories not cameo fests.

We long hoped that she is Firestar a different mutant character but one that would be a much more organic fit for the film, however, it would not explain the seeming mind control elements of the plot.

If it is Jean Grey it is a poorly thought through desperate move.

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Cinema Issues: Trouble In The DCU

So with Supergirl crashing out in almost comical style at the box office, what’s next for DC. In the immediate term what’s next is a Green Lanterns show that is so embarrassed of its source material it won’t even call itself Green Lanterns and Clayface a film no one was asking for. However in terms of what’s next as a broader more heady topic the idea is likely a movie back towards the hardcore fanbase and masculinity. Superman last year had a soft more feminine form of masculinity and Supergirl this year de-centred men as they are toxic okay. Look at how well it worked out for them Superman didn’t reach the heights they wanted it to and Supergirl will cost them money. You can already see this movie towards the hardcore fans, by the fact they have fast tracked the Deathstroke and Bane film.

The fact is as unpopular as it may be Superhero films are aimed for a male audience, the vast bulk of comic readers and people who attend these films are men, as such making Superhero films for women or for softer men when may like more will result in box office failure. James Gunn seems to like championing this kind of soy boy masculinity, look what he did with Peacemaker over time, however, Gunn’s influence is likely shaky, he’s up for a contract renewal in 2027 as co-head of DC and he doesn’t have a lot to recommend him, particularly if Clayface fails.

What is very curious is the brand damaged control. After Supergirl flopped, the toxic fans of the film screamed everyone who didn’t like it was a misogynist and attacked them. However Gunn, Alcock and the rest of team DC stayed quiet which is odd for this kind of thing. Normally victim narratives are spun up. There was the fan hit piece in the New York Times screaming about “misogyny” whilst ignoring the misandry of Ms Alcock, which could be seen as doing damage control for the studio. However, even in Peter Safran’s statement wherein he acknowledges that Supergirl is a flop he doesn’t say a word about the fans. It’s very curious.

A lot is now on Clayface if that too flops then you would imagine the incoming Paramount takeover will not look favourably on Gunn’s DCU and may wipe the slate clean.

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Invincible Season 4 Overview: March To War

Summary, it’s finally here the big war for the Galaxy.

Season 3 spent a lot of time teasing this and season 4 was supposed to be where they delivered. Whilst hopes were for perhaps a full season of war action, we got plot lines about Debbie and her boyfriend moving in together, Eve’s abortion and a long subplot about Mark being sad he killed someone. Can you say filler.

The war stuff we got was good though it didn’t go into it as much as we would have liked and it seemed to be over with much too quickly.

The season ends with the promise of more to come with Rex/Rudy returning from the other dimension even more evil than before, however, we are leaving this season with a sigh.

There was a lot of good here but a lot of filler too.

Overall, goodish

3/5

Pros.

The war

Setting up Rex/Rudy

Less relationship drama

Cons.

Filler

The war is disappointing

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Supergirl: Toxic Femininity

Summary: Superman’s cousin puts down the bottle, more like moves with it, and actually does something.

Maybe having your lead saying how men don’t own women’s bodies, when no one said they did, then insulting those offended on the grounds of their gender and religion, then changing the canon of a character to say she’s Bi and then finally saying the films better as it doesn’t centre men, isn’t a great way to market a film, as the terrible preview numbers show.

Kara is deeply unlikeable, she is very much the human embodiment of the damaged tattoo from the forehead of Jared Leto’s Joker. She drinks, she’s sad, she’s unpleasant to those around her, as God forbid she doesn’t take out her mental issues on other people. The message of this film is that that is okay behaviour as you can be good but not nice, which is a self defeating morally bankrupt principle. The film thinks this is showing her as a damaged character, with the journey being to show how she becomes more connected to people. However, the film tries to make her seem cool in her broken state glorifying her entitled and bratty behaviour.

Superman is in this, as more than just a target for dog urine, as Gunn and co really respect the character, herein he plays the concerned mother hen constantly checking in, usually to be met with derision or a well actually from Kara.

Of course the film likens being a bride to slavery, by having the villain literally kidnapping women and turning them not into sex slaves as is the case with most human trafficking, but rather brides. The message here is clear, marriage is bad and a prison for women. It is also entirely unoriginal as Mad Max Fury Road did a similar thing about ten years ago.

Lobo gets less screen time than you imagine and serves really to be red meat to throw to the male fans who Alcock has alienated so completely. He’s maybe on screen for a total of 5 minutes.

The focus on Krypto once again shows the weakness of the Gunn verse as it does not seem to be able to stand without having a cute dog to try and guilt butts into seats. This shows a weakness in storytelling. The actual journey of healing if you want to view it like that shows off the toxicity of Kara’s damaged personality and even when she does something good it quickly becomes self centered once again.

Overall, there is a reason that Clayface is having it’s premium formats reconsidered, this feels like edgy Tumblr fanfic from about 2 decades ago.

0.5/5

Pros.

It’s not a 3 hour slog

Cons.

Kara is unlikable

The journey feels incomplete by the end

You’ve seen it before

Lobo is barely in it

It feels like it’s for edgy girls circa 2009

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Punisher One More Kill: A Fear of Gareth Ennis

Summary: The MCU tried to adapt Welcome Back, Frank and does what it always does.

This is why the MCU can’t make a Blade film, sometimes people just want to see badass characters being badass, not processing trauma, not having a crying, just being cool. You’re making a comic book film/made for streaming one shot, for God sake.

The first half of this is Frank being sad, the amount of time wasted herein becomes more and more noticeable later.

The second half tries to give the people what they want but then just abruptly ends with no how do you do, to maybe be picked up in Spiderman Brand New Day.

John Wick understands the badass factor, Mortal Kombat understands the badass factor, the MCU is allergic.

Plus as has been memed heavily since there is a God awful CGI shot of Frank falling, wherein they swap the stuntman’s face with John’s and my my it looks terrible.

Overall, it’s about twenty minutes of goodness wrapped in 30 minutes of disappointment.

Pros.

Some cool Punisher action

It leaves you wanting more of the good bits

Cons

The sad Frank sequences

The ending

The CGI

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Cinema Issue: TDS And The Boys

Straight off the bat the Boys isn’t anything like the fantastic graphic novel in any way, that was the first sign of things to come. The graphic novel had something to say this show is the safety most made by committee thing ever.

However, the thing that really began the terminal decline of the boys was when Eric Kripke decided to make it about his dislike of Trump. Homelander in the comics was never supposed to be a stand in for Trump, yet in the TV show it is pretty damn clear. Every week a old political event from serval years ago is trotted out, now done by Homelander, with the writing going you should be outraged.

The more and more the show has felt the need to fight the culture war the worse it has got. At least in the beginning they hit both sides but as the show went on it just went one way.

Even the fans that cheered on every Trump parallel and thought oh it was so timely are starting to call it out. A one trick pony becomes clear to everyone in the end . The final season so far is hated by many fans as they are starting to see it for what it is.

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Cinema Issues The Death Of DC

In this edition of Cinema Issues we will be discussing the state of DC, in terms of films and tv shows.

When the new Gunn lead DC was announced immediately after the previous DCEU failed attempts were made to win fans back however it has been a series of large scale mistakes that have hurt this universe to the point where it could be rebooted once again in the near future.

Firstly, announcing the slate so far in advance was an error, it made it look like they were trying to copy Marvel it also allowed everyone to see each time they missed a deadline for a film and then that to influence the narrative. As was the case with the Authority.

Secondly the focus on characters has been wrong, of you wanted to do something interesting you could have focused on characters that had not been adapted before. However they went straight for Superman, it appeared they were going for all the old favourites, however, then they neglected to make a Batman film.

Thirdly the new universe is inherently confusing. As certain elements of the old DCEU carry over it becomes unclear what is canon and what isn’t. What is the fate of Blue Beetle?

Fourthly is the fact that James Gunn is the wrong man for the job. He does odd ball well, he could have been good for a Creature Commandos or Doom Patrol, but Superman? He just didn’t get it, and the film underperformed. There is also the ego issue, Gunn seems to have developed megalomania, he named the Justice Gang after his own initials, he debated taking on a Stan Lee like role in the DCEU, he got himself animated into the Creature Commandos logo and he puts his wife in everything. The DCUs fascination with Krypto who here is based on Gunn’s own dog is just another example.

Finally you have the fact it has already gone negative. Think about the MCU at its peak, did it attack the audience and call them names? No that came later as the cracks emerged. We are a TV series and a film into Gunn’s DCU and we already have stars attacking fans with Milly Alcock deciding to consistently bad mouth men.

Supergirl does not look like it will do well, Lanterns has already angered fans by viewing the Green part of the name as dumb, and Clayface who the hell cares.

The DCU has half its hull missing and is sinking, what we are seeing now is the final attempts to save the doomed ship.

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Daredevil Born Again Season 2 Overview: It Got Worse

So the TV show brings back Jessica Jones a fan favourite character, but why not Luke Cage because he is a deadbeat father who is out of the country working for the CIA, he shows up in the last few minutes after all the fighting is over no doubt to be emasculated next season.

The reason why Muse was barely in the show last season before being killed off was because they wanted to have Daredevil’s girlfriend take over the mantle and become a female version of the character, who was in one issue of a comic once.

Matt is overshadowed in his own show by the crime stopping adventures of Karen Page, at the end of the series he goes to jail despite being a force for good, so that next season they can give someone else the mantel of Daredevil whilst he’s gone, perhaps Electra.

The decision to not feature the Punisher this season at all, but have Dex essential serve the same purpose is a choice and and a weird one at that.

Finally having Kingpin be exiled after all he has done is ridiculous, people have died as a result of him, yet Daredevil pleds with the crowd to let him leave. It’s just dumb. It’s suicidal empathy.

As you can guess it’s bad the first half of the season was bad and this somehow got worse. Overall since the first episode of season 1 of Born Again it has been rapidly running down hill.

0.5/5

Pros.

The new White Tiger

Cons.

It makes Daredevil a background character

The writing makes no sense

Characters who should be there aren’t

It feels sanitised

How they handle Luke Cage

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