Retire the Title: The Answer to "Who Will Wield the Shield?"

Welcome back to another edition of Comic Relief! where we talk about all things going on in the world of nerd!

I know what you're thinking, "hold on, you said the last post was your last one," or "WOW that was a very short hiatus." First off, this is not an end to the hiatus, and this will truly be the last post for a while. However, there is something that has come up, that I have really wanted to talk about, and honestly should have been my final article. However, with Black Panther releasing tonight, I figured now would be a good as time as any to talk about this. Before we get to that though, I would like to dedicate my final post of Comic Relief! to my son James who was born at 2:36 pm on Friday, February 9th. James, if you ever find yourself reading this in the future, I want you to know that while I hope that comics serve as much an inspiration to you as they did to me growing up, that I won't expect you to follow down the same footsteps. I want you to pursue things in life that inspire you, whatever they may be (within reason). I love comics, that's why I started this blog, but you are my son, and at this point there is no greater passion of mine than being your father. So this last article is for you. It may not be my final one ever, but until there is a time where I feel like one won't infringe upon the other, you have my undivided attention.

That being said, let's move on to the purpose of this article. Ever since it has been stated that Chris Evans' departure from his role is imminent, fans have argued over who should succeed him as the Sentinel of Liberty. A large part of the community, including myself, really wants to see Bucky take up the mantle as he did in the iconic Death of Captain America arc: Burden of Dreams written by Ed Brubaker (probably one of the best authors to write for Cap since his inception). While there has also been petition for Sam Wilson to take up the mantle as he did briefly over the past few years, a third option has presented itself.

Black Panther director Ryan Coogler stated in an interview, a week back or so, that initially he intended to introduce Elijah Bradley, The Patriot (if you recall I wrote a character appreciation of him), in the film. Now, I was very excited when I heard this, but I also wasn't disappointed that it didn't happen as Eli Bradley honestly has no place in a Black Panther. I mean for one, he lives in New York city, and for another, he has very little connection to Black Panther in the books. No, Eli Bradley has far more of a place in a series like Luke Cage, or perhaps maybe even his own film altogether. The Patriot could take the mantle that Cap had in his films, a leader and a representation of the spirit of his country.

Times have changed, and it's about time Marvel start to focus on bringing in a next generation of heroes to the spotlight. Perhaps the answer to Cap is that Cap is actually done, his chapters are over, however that does not mean he didn't inspire so many others. The great thing about Eli Bradley is that while most people associate him to a Captain America protege, it's not the one you would think. He wants to be like his grandfather, the black Captain America, and while he has come to look up to Steve as well, he still aspires to be the man he grew up seeing as his hero.

If this film is made, I do hope that Ryan Coogler is tapped to direct. His formula he used for Creed, the Rocky spinoff about Apollo Creed's son, is an amazing template for a film about The Patriot. Having a young Eli Bradley seek mentorship from Steve Rogers, or Sam Wilson because of the damage the super soldier serum did to his grandfather's mind later in life would be a great premise for a film and would provide a nice contrast to what they do with Tony Stark and Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Homecoming. Not only that but you could use the film as a commentary on more localized issues such as gang violence, police/minority relations, and social activism. There is a quote I have used about Captain America in several of my articles at this point:

He was the American Truth. The face behind the mask was our own

However, Steve Rogers may not be the best representation of that truth anymore. The current truth of America is far more diverse, so maybe it is time for a new champion to arise in his place. Perhaps the mantle of Captain America should retire, perhaps it is time for the rise of The Patriot.

This has been my final post of Comic Relief! AGAIN! I hope you have enjoyed all that I have had to say over the past year and a half. Stay nerdy!

A Step in the Wrong Direction: A Commentary of Logan a Year After the Fact

Welcome to the final edition of Comic Relief! where we have talked about as much about the world of nerd as I could do.

Before we get to addressing the modified greeting today, I want to first thank everyone that has come out to support me on this page. My posts have collectively gathered over 4,000 reads, and to be able to reach such a wide audience on my own feet with you to support me has been a truly humbling experience. However, I feel like I have been unfair to you. This pages mission statement was to give my readers the low down on all things going on in the nerd community and in that regard I have utterly failed. It's not a failure that truly weighs on me as it was an impossible task for me to achieve on my own, and even though I had offers to help run the page, life proves to be a gargantuan obstacle that gets in the way of small hobbies like writing a blog. This will be my final entry, FOR NOW. Within the next 6 days or perhaps even the next few hours I am going to witness the birth of my son: James Scott Oden. Between my wife's pregnancy, and my hours at my new job, writing these posts have been very hard to do, and now with my first kid being on the horizon, I feel that the amount of times I'll be able to open a web browser, let alone write a post will be few in number. So this is a close in the chapter of writing for me in Comic Relief! and while there is a lot I would love to talk about (Black Panther's great opening reception, the god awful Venom and Solo trailers, or the AMAZING Deadpool 2 or Avengers: Infinity War spots), there has been an issue that I have very much wanted to discuss, James Mangold's scrutiny over the super hero genre and whether or not Logan is a testament prove the worth of his words.

Over the past few months Director and Screenwriter of Hugh Jackman's final hurrah as the Wolverine has made some very public displays in interviews on his opinion of the superhero genre. To save you a lot of time drudging through a lot of explicit remarks that to a degree are downright distasteful, we'll just say that he doesn't like anything about them. He feels that they are super saturating the medium of film, that they lack any emotional weight, and most recently that he despises post credit scenes with a venom reserved by most people for things of actual detriment like terrorists or rapists. With Mangold's Logan being nominated by the academy for best original screen play, it begs to question by many: does he have a point? and while there is certainly glimmers of truth in what he says, the short answer of it is: no, and furthermore it should be noted that James Mangold additionally doesn't have a particularly great platform to stand on as, well, James Mangold has yet to make a good, TRUE superhero film.

If you made it to this paragraph without foaming at the mouth and rage quitting before I get to explain myself, I want to thank you for taking the time to actually hear out an opinion that may heavily differ from your own, please give yourself a pat on the back from me in thanks. Anyways, there are a lot of elements to creating a good super hero film. However, there is one thing that surmounts all others in that regard: respect of source material, of legacy, and of characters. All it takes is for you to watch Logan closely, and it is very clear that James Mangold holds none of these things sacred. One scene in particular stands out in support of this. There is a scene where Daphne Keene's X-23 is reading a comic book. It's an X men book and the characters are dressed in the iconic garb that you'd see in a Jim Lee book from the 80's & 90s. Logan takes the book and says "Look at this, this is all a bunch of bullshit - it wasn't like this!" Now to the plain observer this is trying to show the exaggeration of the truth that goes behind building a legend, but if you look behind the scenes of it all, it's very clear that Jame Mangold incorporated this scene for one reason: he HATES super heroes. Hugh Jackman has petitioned countless times over the years to adopt his iconic costume in film, and Logan was no different. However, this scene was a way for Mangold to give fans the middle finger and say: THIS IS MY MOVIE  I DO WHAT I WANT! Ultimately, what he wanted was to make a good movie, and a good western at that. In these aspects he succeeded. Logan was a brilliant film, and a gritty homage to the spaghetti Western with love notes to films like Shane and The Magnificent Seven, however, delivering a good super hero movie requires the one thing Mangold didn't have, nor was he interested in bringing to play: love for the character and the universe that surrounds him.

However that's not to say that Mangold didn't have his points. The success of the film does speak volumes to it in fact. It's interesting to see that the thing that so hindered the original X men films, an inability to commit wholly to the story's super hero routes, is the thing that made Logan so well received. Several critics lauded Logan because it did not feel at all like a superhero film, and since its release many have clamored for more films like it. It's sad really because this film is literally a step backward for the genre, so why does it seem that everyone sees this as a pioneering film in the genre? The answer is that Manigold is right about one thing, the genre has become super saturated. Super hero films are almost getting to a point where the might as well be a completely different medium to critique by. After the negative reviews by critics of Justice League, but the fairly positive fan reception, many have begun to question if Super hero movies should actually be critiqued in the same fashion as other films because the audience that goes to see them has entirely different expectations from a film like that. I don't have a solution to that problem, but I do know that while a film like Logan may be a breath of fresh air, the grass always looks greener from the other side, and having seen both sides of this fence, I much prefer the shade of green we have now to then.

I hope you have enjoyed this article and the content I have provided over the past year or so. Hopefully I will be able to post again sooner rather than later, but until then, this has been Comic Relief! stay nerdy and TTFN

Lazy and Perverse: Why I Hate Crisis on Earth X

Welcome back to another edition of Comic Relief! where we talk about all the goings on in the world of nerd!

Well this is a party that I am SUPER late to, and I apologize for that, but it seems that I am glad I waited because there were so many great things to get caught up in that I feel watching this event back when it was happening would have completely derailed my vibe. I say this because I want it to be known that I feel that Crisis on Earth X is a repugnant and awful crossover, and if it weren't for the time I have invested in Arrow and Flash, this crossover would have derailed my support for any of the CW properties (let it be known that I have sworn off Legends of Tomorrow, which wasn't hard because I already found the show to be awful and that it should be replaced with a Booster Gold and Blue Beetle time traveling show, and most of all I have sworn off Supergirl). Let's get started.

To start off I am first going to laud the only things that this crossover did RIGHT. First off, I really enjoyed the Ray. This is how you write an LGBTQ character. His romance with Snart of Earth X isn't forced and completely takes you by surprise in the best way possible, the focus of the character isn't "Hey, I'm gay," (although it is mentioned when they address why he's in a concentration camp), it's "Hey I'm a superhero, and the fact that I am gay shouldn't matter." The reason why it's important to do that, before I get yelled at by someone who is going to misinterpret this and call me a homophobe, is because in the struggle of the LGBTQ community ACCEPTANCE is the most important thing. That being gay is just as normal as being straight. Anyone can be gay, and by having this play out naturally, unlike a certain romance that was incredibly forced into one of the shows in this crossover, we get a character that audiences can actually relate to.  The second and final thing I want to praise was the send off to Victor Garber as Martin Stein. Victor Garber, along with his copilot of Firestorm Franz Drameh, have been pretty much the sole silver lining of the train wreck that is Legends of Tomorrow. Seeing Martin Stein die to save Jefferson, and then Jefferson telling his family and standing with Martin's family during his funeral not just as Martin's partner as Firestorm, but as a surrogate son, was easily the best part about this crossover, and almost redeems just how infinitesimally awful everything else is.

(The scene above does showcase Ray and Snart's Romance, but is not the first revel)

Now let's dive in and start wading through this sewage of an arc. The whole premise of this story is that Barry and Iris' wedding gets crashed by these big bads from another earth. Apparently they come from another Earth, and that in the multiverse there this Earth is so bad that it didn't receive a number, it receives a letter, it's Earth X (evidentally roman numerals aren't a thing in any of the multiverses of the show as X means 10). In this Earth, the Nazis won WWII and conquered the world. While there are small pockets of resistance, it might as well have been Nazi Germany on a global scale. Why people didn't want to complain about this the way they did about the show The Confederates, is beyond me, but let's not get hung up on this. On this Earth there's a Nazi Arrow, a Nazi Prometheus, Supergirl, and Flash. Now this could have been an AMAZING opportunity to switch up things, make some MASSIVE returns of all these shows rogues' galleries, and for the Flash, that's exactly what they did. Tom Cavanaugh returns as the Harrison Wells version of Eobard Thawne, Reverse Flash who is also from Earth 1. This would be REALLY exciting if he played this part with even half the charisma that he did in the first season of The Flash. The rest of these people are complete wastes, Nazi Supergirl (whom I am going to have a gargantuan tangent about here in the next few paragraphs) is just Kara Danvers who grew up on this earth, and despite 16 years of solid parenting on Krypton before it's destroyed, decided that subjugating the oppressed was a better use of her time than setting a good example for the cousin she's supposed to protect. Arrow is just evil version of Oliver Queen, who by the way, is also the Hitler of that universe which makes for one helluva disappointing reveal when you could have had a glorious return of  John Barrowman's Malcolm Merlyn who had realized goals like the undertaking as the supreme leader of a Nazi regime. Tommy Merlyn ends up being the Nazi Prometheus, which is again disappointing as it would have had CONSIDERABLY  more of an impact if Malcolm Merlyn had played a part in this story.

/

The story was bad enough, but look at these horrifically distasteful costumes, like I get why, but... WHY?!

Before I can talk about why Supergirl's story in this crossover was horrific, I have to do a bit of a backtrack. In a list of Superman stories, there is one that I hold dear far above all the rest: All Star Superman. The story in question is that during a rescue mission near the son, Superman's combined exposure to kryptonite and the massive exposure to Yellow sunlight radiation, overload his cells so that he is at his most powerful, however, while he is becoming more and more powerful, the overload in radiation is causing his cells to deteriorate and so he is simultaneously dying. Throughout this arc he reveals his true identity to Lois, and accomplishes all these great and marvelous things to conclude his business on Earth before he dies. It's an amazing story that is a pure homage to Golden and Silver Age Superman. So now you are probably thinking, okay why is this relevant? And the answer is that after they adapted Superman's iconic story For the Man who has Everything by Alan Moore in the first season of Supergril, I had always expected the show to adapt this arc at some point. Crisis on Earth X  is evidently that adaptation, and it's not only in a very unexpected way, it's disgusting.

You may have been wondering why exactly these Nazi Earth X doppelgangers were after our heroes in Earth 1. Well, here's the reason: Nazi Supergirl's blood cells have been over exposed to radiation from their star, which while has made her more powerful, it's also killing her. When she dies there will be a supernova type event, and so they have come to this earth to kidnap this Earth's Supergirl (which is a real funny plot hole because she's not from that Earth or universe) and cut out her heart for a transplant, because evidently an organ transplant will fix the problem of essentially blood cancer. Kara and her doppelganger have many conversations that in a way are kind of meant to parallel Clark's conversations with Lex in All Star Superman, except while one is uplifting and has the villain realize the error of their ways, the other ends up with the hero realizing: "you're right, I should care about me more." I'll let you take a guess as to which is which. What's the absolute worst thing is that this reveal doesn't come into play until like the 3rd episode of this 4 episode arc, so by the time I watched it I had already invested 2 and a half hours of my time, and as much as it pissed me off to see, it would have been worse if I didn't see if they at least used this arc for something good. But no, instead they continued to drag All Star Superman kicking and screaming to a guillotine and cut off it's head in a grizzly manner that allows for the story to lose it's life and essence.

What's even sad is that the characters that get the most focus aren't even the characters I wanted to give a shit about. Sarah Lance, Alex Danvers, Felicity Smoak, and Iris West are the characters with the most screen time and ironically the one of the things that all these characters have in common is that they are easily my least favorite characters in all of their respective shows! Barry does nothing, Oliver just broods and wishes that Felicity will marry him the whole time, and Kara is strapped to a table for most of it. This crossover proves one thing to me, that TV shows are NOT the way  to facilitate a giant superhero crossover, because it was very clear that the reason why they couldn't do much of anything is because it would take WAY  more money than their budget would ever allow for. It's sad that critics and casuals think that this abomination is better than Justice League. Justice League may have had it's flaws, but it at least allowed for me to love the heroes and make them all enjoyable. I had to finish this crossover out of spite for the amount of time I had wasted on it. If you enjoyed Crisis on Earth X,  that's fine, this isn't meant to tell you that you are wrong. I greatly disagree with you, and these are my reasons. If you liked it, GREAT! I'm glad for you! I am glad you didn't feel like your time was utterly wasted as I did.

Anyways, this has been another edition of Comic Relief! I hope you enjoyed, and we will see you again soon!

The Last Jedi: Why It's The Film Star Wars Needs (SPOILER DISCLAIMER)

Welcome back to another edition of Comic Relief! where I discuss all the goings on in the world of nerd!

This past weekend, the film of the year was released. Star Wars has been more than a film saga, it has been a cultural phenomenon since it's release and has shaped generation of generation of fans around it. A few years back, George Lucas sold the rights of Lucasfilms to Disney, and with that a new span of movies began development. We saw the first of those films two years ago with The Force Awakens, and now we get the second chapter in this new saga: The Last Jedi. This movie has proven to be quite divisive with an aggregated critic score of 93% and an audience score at 56%. So the question is what's going on here? In my personal opinion the majority of these negative reviews are based in the fact that as this is such a wide spread fandom, there are so many purists who refuse to look at change and accept it. I have seen people with genuine gripes and talked with them, while I disagree greatly on their opinions, I respect them because they made a decent case for them. However, what I am trying to do is show why this film is great, why it deserves that 93 rating and furthermore why these fans are, in my opinion wrong (if you are not interested in seeing a summary to the film, skip to the "What does it all mean?" portion).

The Sum of its Parts 

In order to do this I am delving deep into spoiler territory here so beware. I am very quickly going to do a run down of the film, and then I will go into an analysis to prove my points. Right off the bat we have essentially two main stories going on in this film (with one subplot). So really quickly I am just going to summarize the first story going on: The rebellion is caught in a game of cat in mouse. The First Order is high on their tail and has tracked them through light speed. The rebellion is able to remain out of the effective range of the cannons, but due to the light speed tracking the empire has, wasting gas on a jump was not worth it. Poe sends Finn off on a wild goose chase with this new character to try and disable the tracking ability, but that's the subplot and honestly, while it wasn't bad, it didn't need to be in the film. So that's essentially what's going on with the rebellion, but this is not the point of this film. The second half of this film is the "training" of Rey by Luke. I put training in quotations because honestly, Luke doesn't want to train anyone.

This Luke Skywalker interpretation has a lot of people upset, but honestly it's the natural point for his character to be in. Of course Luke at this point would have become a cynic. To just use a line from the film: "Do you think I went to the most remote planet in the galaxy for no reason?" The destruction of his Jedi temple and the murder of his students by Ben Solo and the Knights of Ren utterly destroyed his hope, and what's more is that this is ultimately all Luke's fault, however, we'll get to that. During Rey's training, she keeps seeing and interacting with Kylo Ren through the force. This back and forth ultimately leads to Kylo revealing the truth about why he left the Jedi, that when Luke sensed his power, he tried to kill him. Rey eventually confronts Luke, and Luke tells us that he sensed the dark growing in Kylo and when he did for a split second human instinct took over. He turned on his lightsaber. However, not a second later he was filled with remorse, but a second is all it takes as Luke had awoken Ben from his sleep with the sound of a lightsaber, this pushed Ben over the edge and to the dark. Rey in her interactions with Kylo Ren has sensed the good inside of him. So she goes to the first Order vessel to turn him to the light, and take down Snoke.



She is met on the vessel by Kylo and cohorts of storm troopers who then escort the girl to Snoke. At around this time, the rebels true plan is revealed that they were going to an old resistance outpost that had been abandoned for the rebels to hide in. The empire gets wind of this because of a failed attempt to disable the light speed tracker by Finn, and so they start picking of the resistance transport ships one by one. Meanwhile, Rey and Kylo have an exchange on their way to Snoke where both reveal that they had visions of the other turning to their side, in addition Kylo says that he has seen who Rey's parents are. Then it's time to meet Snoke, Rey tries to fight him and is embarrassingly thwarted in her attempts by Snoke through his force mastery, she tries to get Kylo to turn, when Snoke reveals that he was the one that had linked their minds through the force and that anything she may have seen was a direct result of Snoke's manipulation.

After torturing Rey for the location of Luke, Snoke then brings Rey to her knees infront of Kylo Ren, and give Kylo Ren the chance to show his complete transition to the dark and execute Rey. Which is then followed by the BIG surprise of Kylo Rey using the force to turn Rey's lightsaber on and cut Snoke in half! This is then followed by Rey and Kylo teaming up to fight Snoke's praetorian in one of the most satisfying lightsaber displays in ALL OF STAR WARS! As the fight concludes, Rey asks Kylo to order the vessel to stop their destruction of the rebels. Kylo refuses, he's tired of being part of the wheel. "Let the past die," he says, the jedi, the sith, the rebellion. Build new upon the rubble in a world of their own rules. He extends an offer to join him to Rey while also revealing that Rey's parents were nobody who are buried in an unmarked grave in Jakku (I am going to talk more about this in great depth later so please be patient). This leads to the two vying for possession of Rey's lightsaber through the force. Meanwhile, the Admiral who came up with the escape plan for the rebels finally gets her retaliation together and uses the Rebel cruiser as a light speed Battering ram that is one of the most bad ass displays in Star Wars as well to rip apart Snoke's flag ship. Rey and Kylo are both blown apart by the lightsaber shattering and Rey uses the destruction of Snokes ship as her opportunity to escape. General Hux finds Kylo Ren unconscious, but Kylo quickly recovers and takes his place as the new Supreme Leader. His first order: Go planet side and end the rebellion here.

The stage is set for the final act, the final stand of the Resistance it seems. the Rebels are heavily outgunned and outnumbered, and are literally just hoping to stand long enough for reinforcements to arrive. Leia uses her own personal code for a distress signal to all quadrants. The Rebels make their stand but it seems to all be for naught as they fail to disable the battering ram cannon before it rips a hole into the protective gate. With seemingly no other avenue of escape, and no one answering Leia's call for aid. All seems lost, but then enter Luke Skywalker. Who has seemingly visited a barber shop as he sports the same hair style from the original movies. He apologizes to Leia for Ben, and the two have a beautiful reunion that will bring a tear to your eye. Luke goes out alone, watched by the members of the rebellion in shock and awe. Kylo orders the entire First Order battery to be unloaded on his former mentor, and it doesn't even scratch Luke. Kylo goes down and meets his master and the two duel it out. All while this is happening, the rebels find an escape route by following the crystal critters only to find a pathway blocked by fallen rubble. Rey saves the resistance, and Luke explains to Kylo that the rebellion has been reborn and that Luke will not be the Last Jedi. It is then revealed that Luke was never actually there, he just summoned a force projection of his ethereal form to the battlefield. Luke wakes up from a meditative state and it seems the stress of this and the damage he took during the fight was far too much, he disappears the same way Ben Kenobi does when he was struck down by Vader and becomes one with the force (we can pretty much assume Luke will return in the next film as a force ghost). The last shot of the film is a group of slave children being told the story of what happened on the planet. When their master comes out and scolds them for playing and not working, the group disperses. One of the children goes out side and uses the force to grab the broom. He looks up to the stars, you see the rebel emblem ring on his finger and he lifts the broom in the air.

What's it all mean?! 

So, now lets talk analysis here. Just as there are two separate main plots in this film, so too are there two protagonists: Rey and Kylo Ren. What's really interesting here is that before we mentioned that Rey's parents were complete nobodies, and there has been a lot of resentment to that fact, but it's actually very important that they are nobodies. When Disney said these were chapters in the Skywalker saga, they weren't lying, but we all just assumed that meant Rey was a part of that foundation. However, nothing done in The Force Awakens is at all implicit in showing that she is in fact a Skywalker or of any relation, and if she was what would it say about the characters we love if one of them had dropped off their daughter to a slaver in Jakku? She was never intended to be a Skywalker, I firmly believe that. The Skywalker saga is continued ACTUALLY by Kylo Ren. He shares the Skywalker bloodline and it is Kylo Ren who will bring that saga to a close, however, I'll talk about that in just a minute. For now, let's talk about the parentage of Rey, and why not only is it important, but it what Star Wars needs for the future. 

When Rey is training with Luke, Luke says something IMMENSELY IMPORTANT. While teaching Rey to feel the presence of the force he says this:

 "You feel how it connects everything? To say the force belongs to the Jedi alone is hubris. Just because the Jedi are gone doesn't mean the light goes out with them, don't you see that?" 

 This is a concept that extend not only to the Jedi, BUT THE SKYWALKER LINE! You don't have to be a Skywalker to be attuned to the force, or even be a Jedi for that matter. That's ultimately the point of this film. Legends are just that, legends, they have no basis in the reality of things. The Skywalker line is powerful with the force, but they are not the first and will certainly not be the last set of force users with that much power. Under the Empire, they hunted the Jedi to the brink of extinction, however, it's been over 30 years since the fall of the empire. The Force had an awakening last film, however, that doesn't mean this awakening was only for Rey. There are force users all over, and Luke even discusses how when he started the academy he took in Ben and 12 others. The force can be used by anyone, sure some are more attuned than others, but the whole point is that the Jedi could be anyone. You don't need to be from some prophetic line to be a Jedi, to make a difference, to save the galaxy. That's the importance of not only Rey's parentage, but a little slave boy who has been inspired by the miracle of the Rebellion and the sacrifice of Luke Skywalker we see at the end of the film. Legends might be what are needed to inspire and light the fire, but Legends only tell a part of the story. I mean look at Luke before he found out who his father was, he was repairing droids and working as a farmhand to his uncle on literally the WORST planet to have a farm on. He was just as much a nobody as Rey was.

Now let's talk about Kylo Ren, or Ben Solo. This movie was pure vindication for me as a fan of Kylo Ren from the first film. People have been saying: Oh I think Ben will turn to the light side! While I saw this as an obvious option, I had hoped it to be the farthest from the truth. This series sets up both Rey and Kylo as the embodiment of their respective sides of the force. Rey is rational and shows hesitation the way a Jedi should be, and Kylo is a primal storm of emotion that represents the dark side of the Force. I have said since the release of Episode VII that Kylo Ren should not get a redemption arc, and now it's very clear that he won't. Kylo Ren's legacy to the Skywalker saga is ending it. He's been used by both sides of the force for his power and now he's the master of his own. His goal is to drive this train into a wall and blow it up and start something new out of the remains, and this fits his character. Kylo Ren does not get a redemption arc not in the tangible sense, however, Ben Solo will have redemption, not through his actions but in the failings of his master. Luke's betrayal as a mentor shows Rey all the mistakes made by the Jedi. Their crusade against the dark side and need to cut off any aspect of it made them blind to what it meant to be a part of the force. There is a reason the Jedi order needed to end in the first place in order for there to be balance. Ben Solo's turn to Kylo Ren is the thing that will bring about the change needed in the Jedi philosophy. That legacy will be his ultimate redemption. Bringing reform to the broken and dated philosophy of the Jedi order will be the lasting legacy of the Skywalker line. The tragedy is that Kylo Ren will die a villain and will never be seen as the hero he could have been, and all of it stems in the failure of Luke Skywalker.


While my summary gives a full summary of most of the movie, I tried not to go into too much detail. I know that despite my spoiler notice, there will be people who haven't seen the movie who read this that don't care about spoilers, but even still I feel that this is a film people should get as much out of as they can. To those who have seen the movie and didn't enjoy it, or had issues with it, I hope this gave you a bit of a reason to enjoy it as a thought provoking chapter of the Star Wars series. If not, that's fine, you are entitled to your own opinion, and who knows, all of this could even be undone in episode IX. I really hope it isn't, but who knows really.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed and we'll see you next time! This has been another edition of Comic Relief!

Stumble and Fall: The Sisyphean Task of Building a Universe

Welcome back to another edition of Comic Relief! where I talk about all the goings on in the world of nerd!

So there has been LOT of things that have been going on, and I know that it's been a while since I have written, and I promise that I will talk about these things (Avengers Infinity War trailer, Fox/ Disney merger, Aquaman stills, and most recently the trailer release of Sony's Miles Morales Spider-Man animated film). However, there is something that I have wanted to write about and I have been outlining it for a while.

As you all are well aware of I was personally a big fan of Justice League. However, that did little to improve box office numbers for the film. Justice League is yet another film in the DCEU that has under performed and it's to a degree that there are reports of a complete reworking of the universe as they bring in a new chief producer now that Joe Berg has left the helm as chief producer. Ultimately it seems like the DC Studio cannot catch a break. Fans are pointing a lot of fingers: directors, CEOs, editors, the list can go on. That's what I wanted to talk about here today. I wanted to address the problems based upon what I have seen. However, I am not just going to be assigning blame, there are many at fault, but honestly pointing out the problem is only part of a solution, action is what truly solves a problem so I will also be listing ways that these films could have been done and in all honesty should have been. As a disclaimer before I get started I would like to say that I am a fan of the DCEU, I am not utterly disappointed in what I got, but that doesn't mean I can't be constructive and be able to point out the flaws in something I have enjoyed. With that being said, let's begin.

WB Production Company

Now there has only been a lot of hearsay about the over stepping of bounds that Warner Bros and their CEO Kevin Tsugihara have committed since the DCEU began with Man of Steel. I don't have much definitive evidence to throw out there, there is some but not a whole lot. However, it is very clear, to me, that while DC Studios was meant to be a separate entity from Time Warner, similar to how Disney is to Marvel, DC got far too involved in pushing narrative a certain direction in films, and in some instances took direct control over projects and made a huge mess of them. While there are concrete pieces of evidence in this, namely in seeing how much they meddled with League, there are other bits of this as well. If you go back to 2013, back when the announced Ben Affleck to be Batman and that Man of Steel 2 would be Batman vs Superman there were several interviews with Henry Cavill and Affleck about how the film was going to be. The pitch they gave the press, which I believe to be Snyder's true initial intention of the film is a whole lot different than what we received in theaters. In a past interview Cavill had detailed that the follow up to Man of Steel, which at the time was the untitled Batman and Superman film that would become Batman v Superman, would see Clark fully committed to his persona as Superman. Superman's arc in the film would be to reach out to a Dark Knight who was losing his way to try and help (evidently in this initial concept, Clark was inspired by Batman's crusade in his own crime fighting endeavors). Batman was supposed to be an antagonist of the film that is goaded on a crusade to bring down superman by Lex Luthor.

Ultimately this is not the film we received. Given that Snyder has claimed Superman to be his favorite comic character, it makes little sense that after the set up for the character he provided in Man of Steel, that he would make a complete back step in story line by having his narrative in the follow up film to be a horrific rehash of the same story we saw in the aforementioned film. While it's fine to show Superman is a figure of some controversy, it should never have been the focus of his arc and this pretty much reeks of WB saying make it like the Nolan films. While the realism of The Dark Knight trilogy that Nolan promoted worked really well to explore the psychology of Batman and his villains, the same approach works very little for a character who has almost zero realistic qualities, his very nature is so much beyond anything realistic that they kind of missed the point. The initial pitch definitely portrays a lighter film that would feel more true to form for a first encounter of Batman and Superman. Which leads me to my next point. 

Rushed Narratives to Play Catch-Up

If the Marvel Cinematic has taught anyone in Hollywood anything, it's that world building in comic movies takes time. So many of Justice League and even Batman vs Superman's problems are in the fact that DC didn't want to put that work in. In it's second film, we not only introduced the big 2 characters of DC comics, but you pit them against each other in a conflict over the other's morality (not to mention also introducing Wonder Woman, and a very lack luster Doomsday fight). Then not 2 films later we get the formation of Justice League? That's not how this should have been done whatsoever.

 Regardless of what you think, Man of Steel was a good start to this universe, I completely back most fans in their assertion that the criticisms of Superman's first outing in this universe are lazy. There are minor problems, but nothing that truly degrades the story telling. The film is just a different take on Superman's origins that is more stylized to appeal with a modern audience. However, while I agree that Superman meeting Batman should have been the focus of the second film, the story of Batman and Superman fighting one another is one that, in order to set up properly, needs an additional aspect of familiarity between the two characters. That's not to say that their first meet should be smooth, but the point of the film shouldn't have been about Batman trying to bring down Superman, but instead should have been about Superman trying to reach out to a Batman who is lost in the dark and has rebuked all forms of help. By the end of the film the two should be established as allies, if not an uneasy friendship beginning.




If you wanted to do death of Superman, that should have been it's own film. Superman's sacrifice against Doomsday is a compelling story that deserved it's own film. Personally I like the idea of Superman dying before the League is formed. It adds a lot of tension when Bruce and Diana form a Justice League', but the threat is just too much for them to handle, the tension presented by a lack of a Superman would have been great, and allowing Superman to be the extra umf they needed to beat the bad guy I feel is the right move. That being said, Batman vs Superman is a film that requires both of these characters to have developed a rapport with one another. Otherwise the fight's emotionless. The thing that always makes their scuffles so compelling is that they see one another as brothers. Neither of them relishes the idea of having to fight one another, however, both of them have known since the beginning that some day their different views on how justice is to be served were going to bring both their worlds on collision course. I mean hell, one of the big points made about Batman in the DCEU is that he's older and that this mission is a bit too tall an order for him to handle physically, he's ONLY human after all. So have him create something that allows him to maintain his relevance in the mission that might set the other League members on edge, something like, I don't know, Brother Eye. This spout of fandom leads me to my next point, and this is going to piss a lot of people off, so I ask only that you read what I have to say.

Zack Snyder Should Not Have Been Put in Charge of these Movies

Storyboarding in a Batman Gauntlet Can Probably be Ruled You Out as Being Impartial

I am just going to get right to the point because tension is probably bubbling at this point. The fact is that in many ways Zack Snyder is responsible for literally every good thing that as come from the DCEU: casting decisions, character treatments, you name it Zack probably had a hand in it. However, the big problem with Zack is the same reason why he was so great. He loves these characters so much, in fact he loves them too much for him to be objective about focusing on the parts of the movie that are essential, such as plot. If you look at almost every review for a DC film, even Wonder Woman, the weakest link in all of them is narrative. DCEU gets praise for two major things: Character portrayals and epic fight sequences. This just serves as a testament that while Snyder was making these films, he was so overwhelmed by making these characters come to life from the panels of a book in an amazing way, that he forgot that in order to get them on the screen there is the issue of a narrative that drives them to that appearance. I am not saying that Snyder shouldn't have had his hands on these films whatsoever, I am saying that he should have acted like George Lucas in the original Star Wars films where he produced, gave input, and helped shoot a good deal of the scenes, but script and directing were someone else's job entirely. When you care about something so much, it becomes impossible for you to be objective about that something, for instance if I were a director I would never accept a job to direct a Captain America or Spider-Man film. This is because ultimately I love both characters far too much that I would literally only care about making those characters look good, and my narrative would end up suffering because of it. 

Ultimately the DCEU has been a roller coaster of mixed emotions for a lot of people, fans and average movie goers alike. While I am glad that it's pretty much confirmed that the franchise will not be cancelled, I am saddened that it more than likely will lose whatever limited autonomy it had left due to the lack of success in the box office. What's an even greater shame to me is that Justice League, a film  with so much potential for expansion, was the final nail in the coffin that brought down the DC film studio. However, what is most important is that this is not the end, we have Aquaman coming out here next December and after that SHAZAM, so let's see what DC films will do for us in the near future. 

I hope you have enjoyed this edition of Comic Relief! We'll see you next time!

Thunder vs Justice: Which Super Hero film Rocked November?

Welcome back to another edition of Comic Relief! where I talk about all the goings on in the world of nerd!

This month has given us the release of 2 big super hero movies from both sides of the house. On the Marvel side, Thor: Ragnarok was released, and on the DC side, we had Justice League. Now if you look at sheer critic reviews, it's very clear as to who won the month of November, however, if you look at the audience reviews, that becomes a little less clear as both films are very close in audience reception. I am going to talk about what I like and disliked about both of these films, so here is a spoiler disclaimer. Both films have passed their opening weekend, so I feel like there has been an adequate amount of time for people to have seen the films.

Let's start with Thor: Ragnarok, the latest installation to both the MCU and the Thor story. This movie is a great film. It's fun, it's whimsical, and it has some amazing action scenes. However, it's strongest point was based in the Planet Hulk story line on the Planet Sakarr. The introduction of characters like Korg (who is easily my favorite character of the film), and the PTSD inflicted Valkyrie were great. Then obviously the fight between Thor and Hulk was a huge highlight of the film for me as it show cases what I have been telling people for years: if Hulk and Thor went all out against each other, Hulk would get wrecked. The only reason why hulk gets to win is because of outside intervention from the Grand master (played brilliantly by Jeff Goldblum). Yet, as great as this part of the movie is, the part that left a rather large distaste in my mouth was how they handled the Asgard side of things.

 While there were certainly silver linings to this part of the plot in Cate Blanchet's Hela. and Idris Elba's renegade Heimdall, this part of the film actually upset me. To start with the smaller sins, Karl Urban's Skurge really didn't sit well with me at all. The stoic and cold berserker that serves as the executioner to the Enchantress in the comics is supposed to be a bad ass that Even Thor has a great deal of respect for as a warrior. In this film he is reduced to comic relief and a stooge, and while he may ultimately have been redeemed by sacrificing himself, this is far from what I had hoped to see in this film. The callous destruction of Asgard by Surtur as the means to defeat the villain was also greatly upsetting, especially after realizing that for a third time Thor is not the one who defeats the film's villain, but instead he uses outside help. This has become a rather annoying trend, while I understood this to be part of the lesson he was supposed to learn in the first Thor film, he has not defeated single-handed a major foe since then. This is not a trope that I would have wished for Marvel's god of Thunder and it's disappointing to say the least. However, the biggest thing that left a massive distaste in my mouth was how Taika Waititi killed the Warriors Three. Now, I realize the Warriors three are side characters that have had very small roles since the first film, however, that's not the point. The point is that the Warriors Three and Lady Sif are Thor's BEST friends. These are people that he had gone on countless adventures with over centuries, maybe even millennia, and yet they are killed off like no name extras (with exception of Hogun). Let me be clear, I don't mind that these characters died, I mind that they died in such an undignified way. Volstagg and Vandral are the first people to die by Hela, and they just get destroyed. There is no dignity in their deaths, they look like porcupines with the amount of knives they had coming out of them. Then Hogun fares a bit better, but still is ultimately wrecked much the same, but the gravest insult is that we get no reaction of this from Thor. Sure there was a lot going on in this film, but you mean to tell me that Thor wouldn't have thought to ask Heimdall what happened to his BEST FRIENDS during Hela's invasion? Maybe see if they had survived and were helping Heimdall gather refugees? Ultimately this deprives us of seeing a more human element to Thor's character as he has lost not only his hammer at this point, but his battle buddies. It's honestly unacceptable.

All that being said, I want to be clear that I still enjoyed Thor: Ragnarok a lot. I feel that if it were it's own movie that didn't have an established universe it would have been one of Marvel's best, but as it was attached to the character of Thor and the world that surrounded him, I had just hoped for better. Now time to move onto Justice League.

Before I talk about League, I already did a spoiler free review of the film on this very blog, so please check that out. I would also like to preface that in a choice between DC and Marvel I will always pick Marvel as that's what I grew up with and they have my top 3 favorite comic book characters in it. That being said, I enjoyed Justice League far more than I enjoyed Thor: Ragnarok. Justice League honestly was the most fun I've had watching a movie since Spider-Man: Homecoming and I was grinning for most of the film. I grew up watching Justice League and Justice League:Unlimited, so watching this film bring together a League that sorta mirrored the spirit of that show was just so much fun to watch. It was great to see Batman shouldering the death of Superman, and also for the movie to focus on the more human aspects of Bruce's character. In fact one of the strongest it scenes of the film is Wonder Woman helping Batman out of the Bat suit after seeing that his back is covered in bruises. Their exchange about it both shows Diana's compassion and Bruce's steadfast will and determination to the mission. Superman was a show stealer in this film, aside from the noticable removal of the mustache with CG, this is the Big Blue that people have been waiting for. He is considerably lighter in tone, he has some pretty corny dialogue at times, and outside of when they revive him, he is smiling for most of the film. Also the scene where Superman is able to see Flash while he's travelling through the Speedforce and track him was hilarious, and it gives you a scope of just how powerful the Man of Steel is. Not much needs to be said of Wonder Woman, she just continues to do right what she did in her solo film. Where the film shines most is in the DC Trinity, which honestly is fine by me.

Now that being said, there are some immense narrative issues. The first 45 minutes are hard to watch, not because it's boring or anything, but because they jump around so much that it's utterly confusing. One moment, Batman is on a rooftop confronting a parademon, next thing you know WE'RE IN ICELAND! Problems like that exist throughout the entire first act, and while there is enough good peppered through there to allow you to stomach it, those first 45 minutes are certainly a chore in comparison to the rest of the film. Steppenwolf is easily the films weakest link, I am only putting him in the negative column because despite going into the film with literally no expectations of this character to be anything but a giant muscle that brings the league together, most people do not have the background in comics that I have and therefore could have been expecting something akin to Loki in the first Avengers film. However, where this film suffers the most is in the other members of the League. While all the casts' portrayals are great, I felt robbed of more story on Momoa's Aquaman, Ezra's Flash, or Ray's Cyborg. There was a lot of footage cut from this film to fit it's 2 hour runtime and honestly, that is the most notable flaw. All these characters are great, but I feel we are only given diet versions of them because the scenes that were supposed to help you understand them and their purpose in the film were all cut from it. Once Again, Warner Bros prove to be the biggest Achilles heel for the DC cinematic universe as they decided they knew better than the film makers on what should be presented. While I doubt we will get an extended or Snyder cut of the film, I honestly am curious to see what it would have been like with those scenes in there. I would have liked to see more of the other characters in the League, just to kind of feel their presence a bit more.

Ultimately, Thor: Ragnarok was the better superhero film in November. It's narrative was far less clunky and despite my own reservations about how they handled Asgard, the movie does deserve it's B+ or A-. That being said, Justice League was truly a win for DC, at least to me, as for the first time (outside Wonder Woman) my friends and I that left the theater could only debate on how much we all enjoyed the film rather than what we didn't enjoy about it. To me it was far more fun than Thor, and while it might not be a better movie, if I were to chose a film to go see again it would be Justice League. 

Well this has been another edition of Comic Relief! I hope you have enjoyed and I will see you next time!

Justice League Verdict (SPOILER FREE)

Welcome Back to another edition of Comic Relief! Where I talk about all the goings on in the world of nerd!
Today marked premier of the newest chapter in the DC cinematic universe: Justice League, and it has been the topic on everyone's minds for the past week leading up to release. Last night, critic website Rotten Tomatoes released their aggregated critic score of the film at a very disturbing 42 percent. Critics bashed the movie for it's clunky narrative and weak villain. However, I am a firm believer of making my own opinion of the film. Justice League was not only a fun movie, but it genuinely surprised me that it got the reviews it did. While far from a perfect film, Justice League is a movie that surpasses the standards of several Marvel Phase One films. While it may not amaze to the degree of Avengers the film certainly makes headway in some great introductions and portrayals of characters as well as a fantastic screen chemistry between the team itself.

The film's first act is probably it's weakest point, which honestly comes to be expected. This first act does a lot of jumping around trying to introduce the members of the team while reintroducing the characters we already know of. The obvious fix to this problem was to not rush into this film and allow for each of these characters to experience their own solo film adventure before getting to this point, but since that's not what was decided, what we got was decent enough. However, once that first act is done, the movie builds its momentum and never really stopped. While Steppenwolf, the film's villain, is no Iago, he's not terrible and serves his purpose as hulking opponent that provides a necessary threat to unite the league. I honestly don't understand most of the criticisms of this character. As a side note, anyone with any knowledge of who Steppenwolf is, knows he's not exactly what one would even remotely consider as a powerhouse villain in either ability or personality. Where the film shines is where it counts and that is the portrayals of the heroes. Gal Gadot gives yet another stellar performance in League, providing the team with a conscience that parallels to Steve Rogers in the Marvel films. Jason Momoa gives us a fantastic first look at Aquaman that will genuinely make you crave for more (don't fret his solo outing is right around the corner in 2018). Ezra Miller's Flash is a new take on the speedster showing him at the beginnings of his career and the relationship he has with Affleck's Batman is great as you get to see Batman bring out some of the lessons he clearly instilled in other people he's worked with. Ray Fisher's Cyborg was far better than I expected it to be, and even made me invested in him as a Leaguer (something that I had not done previously as I had only associated him as a Titan). The supporting ensemble of Billy Crudup, Amber Heard, Diane Lane, Amy Adams, Jeremy Irons, and J.K. Simmons bring an incredible human element to the film that has been missing in the DCEU's previous outings. Lastly, Henry Cavill and Ben Affleck deserve their own paragraphs.

Let's start with Cavill. If you have read ANY  of my moviepilot pieces, Superman was a big thing for me. My most viewed articles were about Superman, and I wrote several things about how DC had dropped the ball on writing. When it comes down to Justice League, Henry Cavill shines. Cavill's Superman has probably some of my favorite scenes in the movie and they really show that ears have been opened to fan criticisms. He has excellent scenes with everyone in the film even though he only comes back to the action during the latter half of the film. His dialogue is corny a good deal of the time, but honestly that's Superman in a nut shell and I was just happy to see Cavill live up to the potential that he had for the character. However, while Cavill was great, I want to take a moment to address the portrayal that I feel is being missed out in praise.

In many reviews I have read, they claim Affleck's performance to be half hearted. That he didn't seem to want to be there. I couldn't disagree more. If there was any notions of misplacement it's because Batman genuinely feels out of place, and that's absolutely the way it should be. He is the only normal human on this team of essentially gods. Ben does a great job of showing just how humbling an experience the death of Superman was to his character. He is riddled with self doubt, and doesn't even feel himself worthy of leading the League, even claiming that Superman could have done it better. It honestly hurts knowing that this may be the last time I see Ben in the cowl. I sincerely hope that he at least signs up for Matt Reeves' solo Batman film. I think that if he allows himself to do it, he will have a chance to see the true vindication of his hard work, that it will all pay off in the best live action Batman film ever made.

The movies is not without faults, as I said the narrative suffers in the beginning, the CGI is inconsistent at points (no doubt a result of the switch in direction), some of the dialogue is corny. However, it is certainly not enough to condemn the movie to a terrible score. If you put this film up against movies like Thor, Iron Man 2, or even First Avenger it more than stacks up, and maybe that's a bit of a let down that a film with as much potential as this can only cut it against the early Marvel films after five outings, but again that doesn't make it a terrible film. It's a lot of fun and I feel most people will leave the theater not only having enjoyed, but excited to see where the franchise might take us. If Justice League proves anything, it's that the critics went into this film wanting to hate it, and so they looked hard and hard for holes to poke at, rather than walk into a movie with the sole purpose of trying to have a good time. I genuinely expect audience response for this film to show the giant disconnect that exists between critics and the average movie goer.
I would personally give Justice League a 6.5 to a 7 out of 10. Though flawed in some of it's presentation of narrative, it delivers a genuinely fun experience.
This has been another edition of Comic Relief! and I hope you guys enjoyed this review
(PS stay through the credits)
(PPS audience score on Rotten Tomatoes currently resides at an 86)