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Near the end of the movie, when the big fractures started appearing, there were white silhouetted figures in the sky. At least two shots of different groups of figures, neither on screen long enough for me to recognize any of them. Anyone with faster eyes than mine think they spotted someone?
Yeah, this is the Spiderverse for the entire MCU, definitely. What If...? predates the Spiderverse by several decades. Calling the show the MCU Spiderverse is like saying Tony Stark is the old Ruri Williams.
screenrant described it as "...an authentic, modern-day reboot of the 1972 series starring David Carradine." indiewire called it "CW's update of a classic..." cbr.com claimed "The classic martial arts television series Kung Fu gets updated for a new generation on The CW." They're all wrong. The CW's show has nothing in common with the 70's series except the title. Justified or not, CW takes a lot of flak for transforming what should be familiar properties into something...less recognizable. But at least Riverdale, Nancy Drew and the various superhero shows have recognizable roots. Not so with Kung Fu. Kwai Chang Caine was the orphaned son of an American man and a Chinese woman, raised in a Shaolin monastery from a young age. He was forced to flee China after killing the Emperor's nephew in a rage when the nephew shot and killed blind Master Po during an altercation with royal guards. He wandered the American West alone searching for his half-brother Daniel, evading bounty hunters and helping people along the way. Nicky Shen is a Chinese-American pre-law student on her way to Harvard. She has a white boyfriend, something he mother doesn't approve of. Mom sends Nicky on a "cultural tour" of China, which turns out to be part of a plot to get her a Chinese husband. As soon as Nicky realizes this, she runs out of a speed date, hides in the back of a random pickup truck loaded with produce, and gets taken to a Shaolin monastery run and populated entirely by women. She more or less ghosts her entire family and boyfriend and studies at the monastery for the next three years. This brings us up to the beginning of the series. The monastery is attacked by raiders, the shifu (head of the monastery, Nicky's mentor and the person who had been driving the pickup truck three years earlier) is killed and an ancient magical sword is stolen from the monastery, which is burned down in the attack. The raiders are led by a woman named Zhilan. Nicky engages Zhilan but is wounded and Zhilan escapes with the sword. Nicky feels it's her duty to find Zhilan and recover the sword but has no idea where to begin, so she returns home to San Francisco's Chinatown. Her parents run a restaurant in Chinatown , and they are having money troubles with a Chinese gang lord who totally controls Chinatown and the cops in the district By the end of the pilot episode, gang lord Tony Kang is no longer anyone's problem, thanks entirely to Nicky and her awesome support team: Her sister Althea is for some reason an incredible hacker of all things. Her brother Ryan is a doctor/intern/medical student working at a Chinatown clinic, who sees a lot of Tony Kang's victims. Her old boyfriend is now an ADA. And pretty much the day she gets back from China Ryan introduces her to Henry Yan, the cute Chinese guy who teaches Cantonese down the hall from the clinic, and happens to be working on his Masters in ancient Chinese art, so he's super instrumental in finding out what the sword is, why Zhilan likely wants it, why it would be terrible if she were to be able to collect all eight ancient magic swords, long protected by eight different Chinese families including the shifu's, etc. etc. Oh, and he also knows kung fu, so he's able to help her once when she got outnumbered in a street fight. If the accrual of allies and resources had been a little more spread out and organic, I'd say I could probably enjoy the show on its own, I just wouldn't credit it with any connection to the David Carradine series. As it is, it felt both rushed and maybe a bit heavy on stereotypes.
So...I watched the backdoor pilot for "Painkiller" this week. Didn't like it at all. I don't know, the set design, the lighting, just the whole Akashic Valley thing put me off. Also wasn't thrilled about the "copycat" nature of the supporting characters as compared with those in Black Lightning (another former ASA guy and a medico, plus a high tech lair under an ordinary business), including the reveal on the villain at the end. Nope.
I can't see any possibility that this is the plan, but I found it interesting that just leaving Supergirl where she was at the end of this season premiere would be one way to close out the series. Some other team of heroes can always retrieve her in the future. The rest of this season could be a riff on Reign of the Supermen, as Sentinel, Dreamer, M'Gann and Lena adopt Kara's symbol -- doubly unlikely since Sentinel just got a symbol of her own -- to carry on the good fight.
JoelF847, Spoiler: ammonium nitrate is used in explosives but is also a good fertilizer. That was mentioned as soon as the Crows first smelled it. So "the explosives" were in the field fertilizing the flowers.
I'm disappointed by the disconnect between the CW shows outside of annual crossovers. Okay, over in Black Lightning they did make an offhand reference to Barry when they needed something brought from Central City "in a flash." But Ryan gets poisoned by Kryptonite and no one reaches out to Supergirl or Lena for help, or even information? No, for dramatic purposes her survival is down to a medical student and a mystical flower. As with the Black Lightning reference, they wouldn't have to have guest starred anyone, just made the connection via scripted dialogue. The final scene in tonight's Batwoman confused me until I saw an explanation online. Still not sure how much sense it makes to me. Spoiler: So, Kate is alive, badly burned, heavily bandaged and holed up below a barber shop in Gotham City. What "body parts" of hers were found by Safiyah's people? All those hanging crystals/vials that Safiyah showed Alice might have contained blood, but they all seemed to be of uniform size and too small for most "body parts."
Is she getting a new face intentionally, to hide the fact of her survival until she knows who tried to kill her? If so, I wonder who's she going to be until it's safe for Kate Kane to resurface?
DC has apparently circled back to what they tried by introducing Hypertime back in 1999 with The Kingdom: The domino effect of Death Metal, Future State, Generations Forged and Infinite Frontier just left me thoroughly confused. Also, an offhand comment made by Waverider in -- was it in Generations Forged ? -- sounded a bit like it conflicted with something that was established in ...
Spoiler:
Doomsday Clock: namely, that Superman's original frequently shifting forward in time was due to Doctor Manhattan's interference and that (also because of this same futzing around by Dr. M) that the Earth-0 universe was effectively the Superman Universe and was someway outside of the rest of the multiverse. (Waverider said the Linear Men know the Earth-0 universe as the Linear Universe, which is unique in that folks live longer there than their counterparts in other universes.)
But then I believe Infinite Frontier said that Dr. M's corruption of that universe's timeline had been undone in the after math of Death Metal. So...yeah.
...never mind, I just got finished saying that "established" has no meaning for DC any more. Old habits die hard.
Bob Newhart wakes up in bed and tells Suzanne Pleshette he had the strangest dream...
Much like that pirate ship in Monty Python's Meaning of Life. The Crimson Permanent Assurance did return for an unwarranted attack on the main feature, only to have a larger building fall on it.
Wonder if we can get a Raymond Burr tribute. Ever see Pinky & the Brain: Tokyo Grows?
Mecha Godzilla, Nozuki aka Warbat, and a Skullcrawler Of Unusual Size should all be making appearances, based on the upcoming toy line.
There was a single reference to "all those years" Ryan spent teaching karate, but so far that's all the justification we have for her combat skills. Overall I liked both Ryan and Ryan-as-Batwoman more than I thought I might, but I agree with those that felt the episode was rushed, or compressed. Spoiler: I didn't want Tommy to impersonate Bruce for any lengthy period, but it felt like he got exposed too quickly to do any damage -- he even found the Batmobile for them.
And what's up with Ryan not being killed or even seriously injured by the kryptonite bullet that was supposed to have taken Kate out, and why does she seem to be infected by something that should only be harmful to Kryptonians? Normal humans affected by kryptonite only happened in Earth-167's Smallville, right?
Could have used Wonder Woman in DC today. That's all. Back to the movie.
It's...fine, I guess. Except for the helmet. For some reason I just don't like the idea of Spidey in "heavy" gear.
The Tennessee Valley Authority is going to be in a movie?
Apparently Naomi has a show in development as well. I've heard a rumor that Ava DuVernay's involvement in this show may be [further] indication that Green Arrow and the Canaries is not going forward.
I haven't watched the third episode yet, but just off the first two they've introduced Blue Devil (well, actor/stuntman Dan Cassidy...so far Blue Devil has only appeared as a movie poster and as laptop wallpaper) and not-yet-floronic Jason Woodrue, along with other supporting cast members who will be familiar to comics fans. I was never more than an occasional reader of Swamp Thing -- and that in the 70's -- so I have no particular expectations the show needs to live up to. I didn't watch the 80's movies or the first series in the 90's. It's early yet, but so far so good.
Oh, no he didn't! So, I'm not finished with Battle Ground yet, but I did get to the part that pissed my wife off. And I don't blame her. Spoiler:
Karrin Murphy got killed. And worse, in a stupid way: shot by a panicked cop with poor trigger discipline. Sure, she killed a Jotun just before that. If she and the Jotun had taken each other out, and she'd saved the kids in the process, that would at least have been a good death. But noooooooo!
I'm tempted to go as far as to say she was fridged. But as I said, I'm not done with the book. Fridging more or less requires that a supporting character -- typically female -- be killed for the purpose of motivating the main character to some external action, or freeing him to take that action. So far, it's only motivated Harry to try to murder the panicky cop, an action he was prevented from taking. My wife did go ahead and give me enough spoilers to let me know that Murphy will be accepted as one of the einherjar, but apparently those guys aren't allowed to return to Earth until the last person who remembers them has died...so, not in Harry's considerably extended lifetime. Butcher, you butcher, you suck. We've both read and enjoyed all the Dresden books to date, but after this, Peni says I'll have to read the last few coming and let her know whether or not she should bother
Holy...!!! Peace Talks / Battle Ground was amazing. Damon Griffin, I want to hear what your wife has to say and see if it is what pissed me off. I'll get back to you in a few days when I've finished the books and we've had the conversation. All she's told me so far is that it happens in Battle Ground and is something Butcher, rather than one of his characters, did (or didn't do.) Sooo...took the story in a direction she didn't like? failed to resolve some key question? <shrug>
My wife finished Battle Ground yesterday; I just started Peace Talks today. She says when I get done with both we can discuss the things that seriously p!ssed her off. She didn't give me any hints. I note that early in Peace Talks there was a prediction that someone would betray Harry, but when I mentioned it, she said "Yeah, well, that's just Harry's life, isn't it?"
Oh, okay. I knew they'd been adding new options periodically, just didn't know it was weekly or that they had a name for it.
I did back the Heroforge Kickstarter but haven't been paying close attention to the updates. What's Treasure Tuesday?
It seems silly to refer to the Disney animated version as "the original", particularly since it wasn't a faithful adaptation to begin with.
I won't be going to theaters for the foreseeable future. Anything in theatrical release for the next several months at least, I'll be seeing via HBO, Netflix, DVD purchase or not at all.
The introduction of the Dark Multiverse is an interesting addition to the DC universe, but there are elements of it I'm just not finding to be my personal cup of tea. These include the five "actual" elements infused into Batman (Nth Metal, Promethium, Dionesium, Electrum, and oh-for-God's-sake Batmanium) in order to bring Barbatos forth. Although I will read and enjoy things like The Boys, Brat Pack, Irredeemable, and Herokillers as an occasional change of pace, Dark-Death-Metal lays it on a bit too thick and continuously for me. Plus, as much as I like the character of Batman, I'm not sold on him being the focus of an entire multiverse and a dark supernatural plan spanning tens of thousands of years. I have several upcoming Death Metal titles on order, but I really don't like the idea of them becoming the main focus of DC going forward. One reason I read comics is to escape the real world Dark Universe for a while.
My comic shop just notified me that Generation Zero #1 has been cancelled (which doesn't necessarily mean it won't be re-solicited, perhaps even as early as the following month.)
I enjoyed Cloak & Dagger quite a bit, as did my wife. (She's never been a big TV watcher, and has a casual interest at best in the superhero genre, but she did give a number of recent shows a try: Agents of SHIELD, Supergirl, Batgirl, Black Lightning, The Gifted and Cloak & Dagger. For different reasons she eventually gave up on SHIELD, Supergirl and Batgirl.) We were both bummed that C&D didn't get renewed for a third season. Despite decades working in and with IT, I remain technologically backward in some ways: I have never subscribed to any streaming platform, so I haven't seen Runaways (or a ton of other stuff I'd otherwise have watched.) I watched S1 of both Titans and Doom Patrol once the DVD sets came out.
Kinda hinted at with one of the Far From Home post-credit sequences already... Remind me...?
If you're referring to Junior, I don't. Spoiler: My assumption is that Henry instinctively created a telekinetic shield, keeping him from being crushed under the rubble. Dad believes he's so much stronger than his son that he doesn't verify the kill, even telepathically. Not sure where he'll go now that he doesn't have a parent or a home to go back to. Sleep at Pat's garage, maybe.
I think I must have missed something early on regarding Sylvester Pemberton/Sam Kurtis. The pics that Barb was finding online seemed fuzzy, but in her basement she saw at least one good picture of him with Pat in their costumes. I assume Barbara can recognize her own husband. Why can't she point to the picture and say "That may be Starman, but that's not your dad." Does Barb have no pictures of Sam Kurtis? A line cut from the first episode described Courtney's difficulties in trying to locate her father under his given name, Sam Kurtis, and how she couldn't find a picture or any information about him on-line. It shouldn't be a "Clark Kent's glasses" thing; Cindy recognized Courtney despite the mask.
I'm pretty sure he's planned to show up, and pick up the most dangerous item in the collection. Clearly. I was just wondering why the delay it seeing him, even if he doesn't claim the pen immediately...does Mike never have his friends over? Jakeem is the only one he's mentioned. Don't know which is worse: "Say You" or "So Cool". Both are awful, but neither is as bad as "3X2(9YZ)4A!" But I doubt we'll see Johnny Quick (although the All-Star Squadron has already been referenced: it was mentioned that the Red Bee was a member) and the CW already had "Jesse Quick" (Jesse Chambers Wells) over in Flash, so I wouldn't bet on a next generation speedster, either.
Still waiting for the appearance of Mike's friend Jakeem, mentioned only once several episodes back.
Well, that's one question I asked myself two weeks ago answered. They are bringing in the 7 Soldiers of Victory, at least as history and one member who is still around. Two members still around, though apparently one doesn't remember it yet.
I've seen chatter that Manhattan's powers are getting casually passed around so yet another cosmic threat can go 'Woooooooo!' So, "Captain Manhattan - the antihero who could be you?"
I binge watched all of Star Trek Continues on YouTube last week. It's a significant step above [the three episodes I've seen of] Star Trek New Voyages, even with the latter's TOS guest stars: William Windom, Barbara Luna, Walter Koenig, George Takei, Malachi Throne, Grace Lee Whitney and Majel Barrett's voice.
Sorry, I am unable to see or hear Lesley Gore while Julie Newmar's Catwoman is in the room.
Cast of characters is growing rapidly. Glad to see this week's reveal on the school janitor, Justin. As much as I'm a fan of the JSA, I hate to say it, but Beth just looks stupid in the original Dr. Mid-Nite costume. I wish there'd been an opportunity for her to update it in some way, though I don't know that Beth Chapel's Dr. Midnight costume from the comics would be a huge improvement. I'm also not clear on the limitations of these AI goggles. For example, how were they able to project a holographic reconstruction of Solomon Grundy killing Rex Tyler and his wife, when that even was presumably not filmed? Where did the AI get that data? This sort of thing reminds me of a TV series from 2002-2003: John Doe. Guy wakes up naked on an island off the coast of Washington State. He has no idea who he is of how he got there, but he knows basically everything else. Ask him any question, he can answer it (except, apparently, who he is and where he came from.) At one point in the show they described this as being able to access any database of recorded information...never mind how he does it, or that many databases are standalone, not linked to anything like the Internet.
This is also why I did not mention Cathy Lee Crosby or Ellie Wood Walker as Wonder Woman. ;) The Crosby movie was awful; the Walker pilot was an abomination that thankfully never saw the light of day! Never mention it again!
You might even say George Reeves created the role of Superman as an actor; while no one has ever remade specifically his series, of course Superman is a character who has appeared again and again on the small and large screen. My completely uncalled-for nitpick: Kirk Alyn was the first live action Superman; serials in 1948 and 1950.
What would folks think of Monica Raymund (The Good Wife, Chicago Med/PD/Fire, Hightown) as Renee Montoya?
What I'm curious about is if they will just fly along with a recast just pretending she doesn't look a little different, or if they will actually plot in an appearance change. I actually hope for the former, but wonder what they'll do. Beth could give Kate a new face, just out of spite. But the writers might tie themselves in knots working out a rationale for her to drop her plan to kill Kate.
Oliver was only broody because Dad killed himself. Also, five years of Lian Yu, Deathstroke, League of Assassins, and Bratva do not incline one toward a cheery disposition.
We're coming up on the 50th anniversary of "Kryptonite Nevermore" (Superman #233) in January, which is the only thing that makes me think we might see an end to the stuff in the CW-verse. Traditionally speaking the only things that could hurt Superman (and by extension, Supergirl) are kryptonite, red solar radiation and magic. Lex can only turn the sun red so many times, and we've yet to see unambiguous magic in Supergirl. Regarding Batman, my feeling is we'll never see him, or that if we do, it'll be in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it flashback -- perhaps in a situation where [real] Bruce Wayne is explaining to Kate why he left that role behind for good. All I know is that 'second banana Superman' better not get an echo in Batwoman. If Batman does briefly return, only to gush "Gosh, Kate, you're so much stronger than I ever was", I will scream.
This thread has taken on some new meanings in the past couple of months. Originally about what nostalgia for comics series, stories or characters in general, now it can cover reminiscence about one's own comic collection, which is cool: rediscovery. Also, about the Before Times, when we had new comics coming out. But I believe I heard Diamond will be issuing a June catalog; only the May catalog will have been skipped?
Parallel development means that "can of whoopa**" will have been created by any number of gamers -- and not just as a magic item, but apparently as a skill in Borderlands, as a feat in an unidentified product from Goodman Games,and even a set of dice on Etsy. One version appears in this D&Dwiki with no attribution to a published product.
I wonder what this does to his longstanding plan of 20 individual books, capped by a finale trilogy.
I'm fine with staying home, but if I can't get new comics ... The weekly run to my FLGS was a part of my routine for decades, and before that a weekly run to the spinning rack at 7-11, but for the last couple of years I've traded that for one monthly shipment from an online retailer in my state. They upload the Diamond monthly solicitation near the end of each month, their website tracks my past purchases to pre-load likely buys for the new month, I get each issue bagged and boarded, 35% off the retail price, and a flat $5/month shipping fee. Up through next week. Yesterday they sent all subscribers a notice of how we'd be impacted by the pandemic. I'm following the virus spread, mostly through the John Hopkins web site* and keeping up with local responses, but until I'd received the notice yesterday it had just never connected something as trivial as comics -- I know, heresy; I've been a comics reader for over 50 years -- with something as serious as the pandemic. ====================
Safe: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html
No new comics for a while. Diamond Comics Distributors closed its doors to all new product today, for the foreseeable future. Transcontinental, printers for DC, Dark Horse, Boom!, IDW, Image, Dynamite and others shut down today for at least three weeks. Incredibly stupid of me, but somehow I didn't anticipate this.
Bit of a strange take on Duella Dent (unless, once again, I'm not up on more recent comic interpretations of 70's characters) and maybe Scarecrow as well? Mary continues to not disappoint.
Marvel fans will show up in hazmat suits. Or hope to gain superpowers from exposure. "Bitten by a radioactive virus, she became Patient Zero! With her faithful canine companion, Vector..." Sorry, I'm on kind of a "dumb origins" kick lately. Reading several books like this and watching the 1st episode of Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist will have that effect, apparently.
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