The Week In Geek 5/14/15

It's sort of hard to explain how exactly CW is getting The Flash so right. This week's episode sort of brought back into focus a). Flash's standing as "the Superman of the Arrowverse" as well as b). the villainy sort of resembles professional wrestling. Captain Cold is admittedly part of the bad guy game specifically because he loves it. And probably because he's better at it than he ever was at being a small time crook. The implication of destiny being as much a factor for villains as it is for heroes is one of the major building blocks of superhero lore and shines through clear as day on this show. The only major problem I have with the show is its handling of Iris West. It made sense at first to keep her out of the loop of Barry Allen's identity, but in the meantime, in delaying the inevitable, the show has to find side plots for character development. It just so happens that these particular side plots have made her sort of intolerable not unlike Lana Lang on Smallville. Cockblocking Linda Park, making the Reverse Flash thing all about her, pulling Barry in and out of the Friend Zone at her leisure...not very endearing.

Meanwhile, the CW also dropped a first look at their next spinoff, Legends of Tomorrow. The best thing they could have done is bring back Caity Lotz as the White Canary or Canary Original or whatever they're going with. She was always the more entertaining opposite to the Arrow because Laurel is the WORST and has been for two seasons straight, suffering from a little more of Iris West Syndrome. The best I can figure is that this spinoff is in response to Marvel/Netflix setting up The Defenders starting with Daredevil. With the turnout Daredevil had, I doubt LoT is going to compete with that, but it shows that DC is at least trying to give fans what they want.

Also, my review for this week's issue of Thor is up and available on Black Nerd Problems for your viewing pleasure. Feel free to read, share, comment at your leisure.

A Few Things About Avengers: Age of Ultron

SPOILERS SPOILERS ::Okay, I'm a little too tired this week to write a full on review for Avengers: Age of Ultron, but I will say overall that I really enjoyed the movie as a whole. I thought it was "on par with" but not better than the first one which, in fairness, had a LOT less of a balancing act to pull off on many levels. For the interest of brevity, I'll just do a simple break down of what I liked and what I didn't like. :: SPOILERS SPOILERS

Likes:

More Hawkeye: Granted, we'll NEVER see a Hawkeye/Mockingbird romance thanks to Agents of SHIELD (where Bobbi Morse is a godsend), it was nice to get some more depth to Barton's character while still getting the smartass Avengers mainstay we all know and love. Not everyone liked the visit to Hawkeye's family, but I think it showed depth and agency in a character that we didn't get to know at all in the first movie because of Loki and The Shittiest Mind Control Of All Time. It also goes to show that we're at a point in the genre where people have to learn to let go and consider these movies as much of an alternative as Ultimate Marvel or Marvel Noir or Marvel Mangaverse and that's okay. Many readers like knowing that comic movies are all hitting the right story beats because it's a way for fans to evaluate what they're watching, but changing things in the narrative like Barton's family is also necessary and keeps readers on their toes so they're getting something fresh.

Anyone who didn't feel like a kid again at this
moment is lying to themselves.

Vision: Paul Bettany has always been a good fit as Jarvis, but the Vision is a great fit for him. Honestly, I never even thought a character like him would end up making it to the big screen, but Whedon really pulled it off visually.

Ultron: Anyone whose ever watched The Blacklist knows James Spader was the perfect voice for an evil robot who is, at times, a little too human for his own good. I know not everyone liked the quirkiness, but honestly, I was reading the latest original graphic novel, Rage of Ultron (amazing one shot, by the way) and the titular villain is a much more traditional version that longtime fans are used to. Even though Rick Remender did a masterful job of encompassing that classic voice for Ultron, the first thing I thought was "Thank God for James Spader." The Ultron that a lot of people were expecting, this dry yet self aware technological Frankenstein monster of sorts wouldn't have translated well. First of all, it's a hard sell that Tony Stark would create an artificial intelligence that didn't have any sense of humor. Second of all, yes, it wouldn't be hard to a more cerebral version of Ultron, but that "What am I? Why did you create me?" brand of existentialism just doesn't gel well with...let's face it...a popcorn movie. Just ask I, Robot.

Joss Whedon: You can tell there are certain points in the movie and the script where Whedon has a little more flexibility in making the film he wanted to make (You can also tell that there are points where he couldn't get the studio's foot off of his neck to save his life, but that's a whole other post). It's no secret that with these franchise blockbusters, the car is already built and the director just makes sure the thing doesn't run itself off the freeway into the river. But in this case, Whedon seems to have enough geek cred that Kevin Feige managed to climb out of his ass long enough to let him direct. This movie seemed to have more of his trademark snark and self aware characters. I think the importance of this Whedon's role in this movie is that

Dislikes:

Not enough Vision: He was pretty key to the story and the time we spent with him was worthwhile, but the downside to Whedon's balancing act of giving all the Avengers proper screentime was that we only spent a solid ten minutes with a brand new Avenger who was directly tied to the primary villain.

Widow/Banner Romance: Okay, I realize that, in attempting to humanize relatively static characters, the default way to go is usually to get them laid. But this....was a little weird. Don't get me wrong. Whedon gave them more than enough of that usual Whedon charm so that it wasn't unwatchable, but it was awkward. Bruce Banner is possibly the most self aware of all the Avengers in the same way someone with a terminal illness would be. There's really no need to keep hammering that point home by throwing a pretty lady at him. Making the Black Widow a big softie is the equivalent of making Wolverine a softie who weeps over Jean Grey's body. And don't even get me started on the problematic gender politics of that little Red Room speech where not being able to give birth somehow makes her a monster. I applaud them for trying to give Widow some layers that we're not used to because the mainstay things we as readers love about Widow could be dicey over time with a mainstream audience. But it was just odd.

The Week In Geek 4/15/15

Since Daredevil dropped last week, it's basically re-polarized the way a lot of people are looking at superheroes on the small screen. Jordan Calhoun wrote a pretty comprehensive opinion piece summing up the overall sentiment and it's really good. But I'm not so sure it's completely fair. It's one thing to say that Daredevil has altered the standards for grittiness in the genre. I mean, it really is the best superhero television show out there. It does dwarf everything else in terms of a writing, casting and production. But it doesn't necessarily make it's rivals trash. Arrow and Daredevil both draw parallels to the more hardcore aspects of Batman, but they serve very different purposes. Daredevil is an elevator ride to the ground floor, the cracks and crevices of a world that thunder gods and super soldiers can't always see because of the latest alien invasion or robot uprising. Arrow was the beginning of a universe that very much takes that same elevator up to the fantastic. I dunno. I feel like you can accept Daredevil and Arrow simultaneously the same way people accept Arrow and The Flash. But that's just me. I could be wrong.

Anyway, you can check out my comic reviews for the week on Thor, Ms. Marvel and Uncanny X-Men as well as my recaps for this week episodes of Arrow and The Flash on Black Nerd Problems. You know the drill. Feel free to comment, share or whatever. Enjoy.

The Week In Geek 3/25/15

It seems like I do more Flash updates nowadays than I ever cared to do before. I really have to find a way to get Will over at Black Nerd Problems to invest in some kind of "Talking Dead" type of thing where we sit around and talk about the episode of Flash we just watched or something. People seem to like that sort of thing.

Anyway, this week marks the episode in which The Flash turned into professional wrestling....which sort of puts it in dicey territory. At the end of the episode, Flash meets with Captain Cold and they come to some sort of terms where they don't hit one another too close to home and the Rogues don't hurt people. This is one of those quiet-as-kept landmarks where casual watchers who don't read the comics get to see a side of comic-based storytelling that we haven't seen in a while in the era of Marvel's "it's all connected" approach. As awkward as it came across in the show, this actually makes it more in line with a lot of stand alone comics. Sure, there are the big guys who lurk in the shadows, plotting the end game (Reverse Flash), but there are numerous villains in comic-dom who just keep showing up because they like it. Cold says it numerous times and he's just starting to have fun being a supervillain. Hell, his sister turns things into GOLD and he still just wants to steal things for the hell of it. I think this all lends itself to what people love so much about this show. The degree of investment isn't nearly as heavy as buying into a universe where everything is urging you to watch something else (as high quality as it may be) to get an even bigger effect. It's an amazing representation of comic storytelling that Smallville just never managed to pull off.

My comic reviews for the week are still and always available on Black Nerd Problems. This week, I took a look at Batman Eternal and Uncanny X-Men.

Another "Neverland" Sneak Peek....

So, I know I haven't been around, but I have been working very hard on Neverland: The Untold...which should be coming to you very soon. Katie Coats is, as we speak, drawing her ass off, working on Issue 1, so you'll know as soon as we're ready to go. Until then, here's another sneak peek at what we're up to.

I definitely wanted to create a Captain Hook that sort of has a signature look and feel all his own. Hook being one of my favorite films, I definitely loved the idea of him being this gentleman pirate who is sort of a learned man leading an army of brutes and cutthroats. The original idea for his look was inspired by Freddie Mercury. This will be much more apparent in other scenes when he's not wearing his wig (Yes, that's a wig). There are also times when he invokes Prince and Michael Jackson in his attitude and swagger. The script often plays him straight while the look is definitely that of an extravagant rock star. Expect even more twists and new takes on old characters. I'm working on the website as we speak so keep a look out.

In the meantime, as always, you can still find my comic reviews for the week on Black Nerd Problems. This week, I took a look at Batman Eternal and All New X-Men.

You Know What We Stopped Doing?

We stopped trying to change minds. We live in a more polarized era than ever and that's completely understandable. Think about it. In the digital era, it's that much easier for us to classify one another, make data out of each other. "People that listen to...." and "people who visit 'these' websites". Now, I'm not saying this to make this one of those "google is Big Brother" posts. I say that because computers amplify our ability (and, really, obsession) to classify each other, but it also amplifies our ability to filter out those people.

You've seen it on your social media before. A hot button topic comes along that drives a canyon sized wedge between people. Let's take the stupid ass dress issue for example. You look at this dress and you see one color scheme, right. You look on your timeline and you see a certain minority of people that think the dress is a completely different color scheme, but most people you follow agree with you. You then get so tired of "them" being wrong, you start making posts saying that you're going to delete everyone off of your timeline that thinks the dress is that other color. Sure, now, you've filtered out the odd element and, yeah, you probably have a Facebook/Twitter/Tumblr/whatever you can agree with easier, but you're not the only one to do this. Now we have a whole sect of people off to themselves who will continue to believe that the dress is this certain color and will go on believing it no matter what science is involved in believing one thing or the other (And there is a science involved in seeing the dress one way or the other....and part of it is the way you tilt your goddamned computer screen, but still...). They will make Facebook groups and websites and magazines dedicated to people who think this one way. All of this is in the service of building a fence around themselves, but really, they're just finishing the one that you started. Now, instead of uninformed people (something that YOU can always fix if you want to), we have voluntarily stupid people. And we don't really need anymore stupid people. If you ask me, we're at capacity.

Sidenote: It's important that you understand I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT TROLLS. Trolls cannot be saved. Trolls don't want to be saved and they don't want to see anyone else be saved. Please delete the trolls.

We especially do this with celebrities. They say something we construe as racist or sexist or offensive and we write them off and drag them through the town square until they have to issue some public apology. I AM NOT DEFENDING these people, but part of having what you consider "the moral high ground is being able to discern those who misspeak or the "uninformed" from the "trolls". Anyone who has ever watched Girls knows it's pretty silly to be mad at anything Lena Dunham says. So, she said something problematic about black people? I'm convinced Lena Dunham only met her first black person somewhere in the window of "ten minutes ago." Death threats and sexist comments in the comment section of a Buzzfeed article are not educational. Because teaching someone to apologize is not the same thing as teaching them what they did wrong. Ask my parents about 31 years of marriage and this will be one the first things they say.

Now, when a public official...someone asking for the votes of the American people....says something problematic about black people? Sure, I'm mad about that and I'm going to vote accordingly because votes are one form of communication between the American people and their leaders. If you're my governor and I don't like your sentiments towards people with my skin color? I'll show you....by firing you and hiring the guy that spoke to my issues.

Again, if someone in the media or social media offended you, I'm not defending them. I repeat: I AM NOT DEFENDING THEM. But I AM asking if you're addressing them the right way for the good of everyone involved. Are you teaching someone something?

Sneak Peek of Awesome Shit

Okay, so those of you that don't already know (which, apparently, is several of you) deserve to know what I've been up to that has taken me away from writing as much content as I used to. Well...aside from writing for Black Nerd Problems. Here's a sneak peek of my upcoming webcomic, Neverland: The Untold. The art comes compliments of none other than Katie Coats, who is a dear friend and an incredible talent. She approached me with these old sketches she'd done in college of Peter Pan and the Darling family. I was immediately smitten with her vision and unearthed some old notes I'd jotted down ages ago. I pitched her for the hell of it and we decided we had something here.

Basically, it's reimagining of Peter Pan that offers some modern sensibilities to some time honored characters. I've always been in love with the Neverland mythos, but one thing that has always bothered me is how racially problematic some aspects are. I mean, there were whooping, hollering, feather-wearing savage "indians" in the stories. Aside from that, the stories are extremely white. I wanted to tell THIS story, but if I was going to tell it, I wanted brown faces to look at while I do.

Anyway, Katie posted the initial pencils for the first couple of pages on Twitter so I figured I'd share them here with you guys. The official website will be up soon, but until then bare with me since I probably won't be as consistent with content as I've previously been. Looking forward to you all seeing what we have coming.