Superheroes!

[EgonSpengler]

Well, a bit of both. I think the writers have pretty much expended all there is to get out of the character, and they are writing themselves into a corner with this "give the humans super-powers" bit. If they do give him powers, what do they do with him?

On the other hand, a heroic death that comes available because he has powers is a good end. It also produces a 'repentant and grieving Lena Luthor' storyline to further develop...as if they hadn't already played that card, but driven by dead James it has a new tone.

I agree. He replaced Cat Grant at CatCo, but not in the story, and his relationship with Lena is kind of a yawner. Did anybody "ship" the two of them before they got together? Their whole storyline has felt kind of shoehorned-in the entire time, and I keep waiting for some kind of payoff. A heroic death might be the best thing they could do with him, especially if his final act was to literally save Lena or Kara from the Anti-Monitor (I think it would be better for him to save one of them, than to 'merely' sacrifice himself for "the greater good" - make it more personal).

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I agree. He replaced Cat Grant at CatCo, but not in the story, and his relationship with Lena is kind of a yawner. Did anybody "ship" the two of them before they got together? Their whole storyline has felt kind of shoehorned-in the entire time, and I keep waiting for some kind of payoff. A heroic death might be the best thing they could do with him, especially if his final act was to literally save Lena or Kara from the Anti-Monitor (I think it would be better for him to save one of them, than to 'merely' sacrifice himself for "the greater good" - make it more personal).

I'm thinking more of a "Someone has to die to save the earth, the Kryptonians are willing but shouldn't it be an earthman?" like The Guardian, for instance.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I rewatched Ant-Man & The Wasp over the weekend. I'd forgotten how much fun it is. It's really a great action-comedy, uncoupled from the MCU. The cast is fantastic. The scene where Paul Rudd is impersonating Michelle Pfieffer really struck me, this time; I didn't really remember it from my first viewing. I don't know how large a role Evangeline Lilly may play in Avengers: Endgame, but I hope we get more of her in future movies. Walton Goggins and Randall Park were great additions to the gallery of comedic supporting performances. I would have thought adding more guys, on top of Michael Pena and David Dastmalchian would be gilding the lily, but it totally worked.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Disney continues to rake and weed its Marvel yard: They announced that their feature film distribution deal with Netflix has run its course; Ant-Man & The Wasp is the last MCU movie on Netflix. Legion will end with season 3, sometime this year. Rumors are flying that The New Mutants will go straight to Hulu, without a theatrical release. I think it was already announced that Dark Phoenix will be the last X-Men film in the current run, and that Gambit is on hold. A mystery project being developed at ABC by the guy who wrote the screenplay for Wonder Woman has been canceled. There's still no official word on The Punisher or Jessica Jones, but I assume their fates are sealed. On the bright side, Agents of SHIELD and Cloak & Dagger were recently renewed (I never finished the first season of C & D, come to think of it - the first few eps were very promising, but slow as molasses).

 

[Cutlass]

I didn't even hear about when the current season of Agents of Shield was airing. And I was following that show. I don't know anything about Cloak & Dagger.

 

[Laurana Kanan]

I didn't even hear about when the current season of Agents of Shield was airing.

Last I heard was July.

 

[Cutlass]

That's an odd time for a series to begin airing.

 

[Laurana Kanan]

In the past couple years I've come to the conclusion that there are no more "off season" or "odd" times for shows to start. Between the main networks, cable, and streaming services like Netflix, I always have a few shows premiering every month. I'm just glad AoS is getting a sixth season, even if it's only 13 episodes.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Yeah, there's no "television season" anymore. Even the major networks have been doing Summer shows for years, now. If you're into cop shows, there was a good Summer series in 2014 called Murder in the First with Taye Diggs and Kathleen Robertson. I watched it expecting nothing; I figured it would be a glossy, CSI: Miami or NCIS-style melodrama, mainly because Diggs and Robertson are both too good-looking. Silly me. It turned out to be a Steven Bochco show (Hill Street Blues; NYPD Blue; Murder One). If you're into that sort of stuff, it was a lot better than I expected it to be.

 

[EgonSpengler]

I'm trying to be cool, casual, nonchalant.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

This may be overly simplistic...

I just watched last night's episode of The Flash. Sort of campy, some silliness on a side plot, some forwarding the Nora mystery, some dark investigative reporter stuff for Iris...nothing ground shaking great, but nothing to turn off a fan, and I admit I'm a fan.

But what struck me is that Grant Gustin and Hartley Sawyer were incapable of disguising the fact that they were having almost unbearable fun shooting the scenes as Barry and Ralph without powers. There's acting, and there's the actors, and sometimes you can just see that whatever the scene being acted the actor is totally loving their job. This was one of those times.

It made me think of The Avengers and stories of Robert Downey Junior hiding snacks all over the sets so that Tony Stark could be snacking all of a sudden and offer to share with Bruce Banner or whoever else, throwing an ad lib curve ball to his fellow actors that brought a life and energy (fun) to the work. Then there's the flip side. I get that Batman is just a dark character, but has there ever been a moment in any Batman movie where it seemed like the cast was really enjoying what they were doing?

 

[EgonSpengler]

This may be overly simplistic...

I just watched last night's episode of The Flash. Sort of campy, some silliness on a side plot, some forwarding the Nora mystery, some dark investigative reporter stuff for Iris...nothing ground shaking great, but nothing to turn off a fan, and I admit I'm a fan.

But what struck me is that Grant Gustin and Hartley Sawyer were incapable of disguising the fact that they were having almost unbearable fun shooting the scenes as Barry and Ralph without powers. There's acting, and there's the actors, and sometimes you can just see that whatever the scene being acted the actor is totally loving their job. This was one of those times.

It made me think of The Avengers and stories of Robert Downey Junior hiding snacks all over the sets so that Tony Stark could be snacking all of a sudden and offer to share with Bruce Banner or whoever else, throwing an ad lib curve ball to his fellow actors that brought a life and energy (fun) to the work. Then there's the flip side. I get that Batman is just a dark character, but has there ever been a moment in any Batman movie where it seemed like the cast was really enjoying what they were doing?

I watched it last night, also. I thought the undercover-without-powers story was fun. The Sherlock-and-Adler subplot was a snoozer, but didn't distract too much. I do like Iris as a Lois Lane-type adventurer, and I hope they continue that; having her play the Overwatch role for Team Flash didn't work as well as it does with Felicity on Arrow. btw, I don't watch this show regularly, but I must have missed something important: Does Caitlin transform into Killer Frost at will, now? And is Killer Frost a hero?

 

[Timsup2nothin]

I watched it last night, also. I thought the undercover-without-powers story was fun. The Sherlock-and-Adler subplot was a snoozer, but didn't distract too much. I do like Iris as a Lois Lane-type adventurer, and I hope they continue that; having her play the Overwatch role for Team Flash didn't work as well as it does with Felicity on Arrow. btw, I don't watch this show regularly, but I must have missed something important: Does Caitlin transform into Killer Frost at will, now? And is Killer Frost a hero?

Mostly yes, and mostly yes. There's generally still some duress required so it isn't as much 'at will' as it is 'at need.' There's also still the occasional question of of who's will is the at will. You probably caught a mention of the "meta-human cure" they are working on. Killer Frost was opposed, and made a point of taking over and wrecking the lab at intervals for a while. On the hero thing, KF is definitely part of the team and her raw firepower has saved the day more than a couple times. She hasn't quite caught on to the whole "take them alive, we're the good guys" bit, so there's frequently some 'splainin' and negotiatin' involved, but she's definitely loyal to the team.

 

[EgonSpengler]

In the last ep of Arrow, Oliver said to the police captain something like "You should check the wound patterns against other, unsolved homicides", and I wanted her to, like, pat him on the arm and say, "Thank you, Oliver, I've never done this before." I imagine it was just lazy, 'police procedural 101' writing and not intentional mansplaining, but it made me roll my eyes so hard I almost passed out. It would have been funny if they'd written it that way on purpose.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Marvel/Disney have a retro, '90s-style website for Captain Marvel. There's an Easter Egg hidden in the site that I think could be teasing Fantastic Four.

Spoiler :

Check out the URL.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Hulu is evidently ready to dive headfirst into Marvel superhero series. They've renewed Runaways for a 3rd season and announced a handful of animated series - Dazzler; Howard the Duck; M.O.D.O.K. Their senior VP also made some throat-clearing noises about picking up the canceled Netflix series for continuations. I mean, heck, if they're willing to throw some money at the creatives without meddling, I'd say go for it. The business deals signed with Netflix could be a roadblock, even after they canceled the series. I guess we'll see.

 

[Cutlass]

Now is Hulu currently a subscription service? They didn't used to be. But back when I used it some it also didn't work that well.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

Whenever things are going good at Marvel someone will look at all that momentum and say "hey, we could try Howard the Duck." Thus far, no amount of momentum has ever been sufficient. Maybe this time will be different. They are on quite the roll.

 

[EgonSpengler]

Now is Hulu currently a subscription service? They didn't used to be. But back when I used it some it also didn't work that well.

It is. They have a lower-priced subscription where you still have to watch ads and a "regular" subscription where you don't.

Whenever things are going good at Marvel someone will look at all that momentum and say "hey, we could try Howard the Duck." Thus far, no amount of momentum has ever been sufficient. Maybe this time will be different. They are on quite the roll.

I never read the comic, so I'm not sure what a "good" Howard the Duck is supposed to look like, but yeah, Marvel seems to know what they're doing. It's animated, which probably is better, and is being written by Kevin Smith. I like Smith as a pop-culture commentator - I listen to one of his podcasts - but I haven't seen any of his movies since the '90s. Glancing at his IMDb page, I'm surprised to see how many films he's done since then. He's also done several episodes of Supergirl and The Flash, although he's quick to tell you that movies and television are different; of directing an episode of an ongoing tv series, he says, "I'm just the guy who brings the donuts." He's also written some comics story arcs - Daredevil, I think - which may or may not be useful in an animated series.


p.s. The Dazzler show is actually Dazzler & Tigra; there's a fourth animated show called Hit-Monkey, a character I've never heard of before; and M.O.D.O.K. sounds like it'll be a spoof of The Sopranos, with the titular character "balancing the demands of his evil organization and his demanding family" and will be voiced by Patton Oswalt (who also plays Happy in Happy!, which I recommend, if you haven't seen it).

 

[Timsup2nothin]

If you had read the comic you still wouldn't know what a good Howard the Duck is supposed to look like.