it's just such a weird fetish that they don't turn anyone indian or polynesian or spanish or mongolian or Japanese Okinawan or Norwegian (a caucasian? HISSssss); there's so many shades of the human identity ethnically to tap into, but it's always gotta be bland black african american, usually black female.
That specifically is interesting, it's so bizarre. And they do nothing with that background, absolutely nothing warranting the change, because most of these creatives know NOTHING of the ethnic background to use in the first place. But they like the reactions from the swap.
Just a base level DLC skin swap. 100% shallow.
That's not enough to ruin the entire book, but it says a lot about the writer that gimmicks matter more than substance. Could've made Barb a failed P.I or something, and her arc is becoming a realized detective & hacker through trailing Batman.
Something. From what I saw and remember, there was nothing of Barb worth intrigue in that issue worth talking about beyond the unnecessary swap & what says most about the writer: is that was likely the point.
I eventually read the story, some bits of the ending wasn't that well executed- the writer went to some very very weird places (not weird as in *I just didn't like it*, weird as in complicating the narrative bro was going for in the first place = unnecessarily convoluted ).
But the main issue is it was rushed.
The cartoon & first half of the story definitely holds up, like everything before #21 was/is tight.
The story after the fact is still decent but it just felt off. Like the direction/cadence, how quick things were wrapped up took a nosedive.
Just after a certain point things just took off and never came back to lead the viewers along in a more proper fashion, like the first 60% of the story.
Julie is one of my favorite mc's because of how messed up she is, she seems like this idealized, risqué hottie (the image of her *in the pink top & jeans* most of the internet knows about) but she's really got junk in the trunk. Serious baggage, not a nut case, but almost too real a person sometimes.
Because she's even hypocrite to an extent.
And how messed up she always was, later we find out in the story. She's definitely not your squeaky clean feminist, holier than thou female character with a message to preach, she's as flawed as they come, with a bizarre intimate detail of some repressed trauma, insecurities (again) later on even after the show is concerned.
(There's an implication that she's bi as well, and again, the show doesn't include that because that's laaaater on.
To reiterate all this showed up way later. If The Maxx was a 2020 release, her possibly/definitely being bi would be crammed in #1 as if that matters to her overall arc.)
Her being Bi would be branded on her forehead, because that's how many youths are groomed to think that's what their existence boils down to. A very era specific misconception, the sum of what you choose to be isn't your identity: but that ONE SPECIFIC superficial trait (usually a hobby fetish, or something sexual) that's your identity.
A box.
And so, that's what's done here, the opposite. Because this was written before western zeitgeist took a blow to the head.
It's an implication of bisexuality because there's a character that's not Julie...but obviously is Julie, that likes another girl.
The fact that her adolescent "sexual curiosity" on the queer spectrum is not a defining trait of her existence but simply one of many facets of her identity (which is what that is or how that works), good execution on that front.
Did not see that coming, and that's how it should be. Some people will just clutch pearls because *queer* but for most people with nuance, it's the delivery, it's the frequency, it's the desperation to push a narrative vs the queerness being part of the narrative, which is more organic.
So being a central focal point, that's why she (Julie) works, she's fucked up, she's human.
Sara is difficult, the story gave her more to do to a point (which I was here for), but again the execution was weird, she was set up to be a major piece, then things just lost it's own plot. Especially towards the end, and I really liked her, given how she was introduced very very early as a minor character
(It's like introducing Ochako in BNH Season 1 but Season 3 forward she becomes this instrumental character that you couldn't see being any less than what she became after she stepped up to a higher echelon of importance; ofc that never happened for Uraraka but that was just an example).
Sara is very clean as an NPC then gradually came forefront. It read like OP rushed the narrative in the final stretch.
Reminds me of My Hero. Time constraints, exhaustion, boredom, idfk but the tone in the first half was solid
(Like My Hero, but My Hero was significantly worse, the whole thing was garbage but in COMPARISON to post Season 3 the first half was objectively better because there was less on the author's plate, same thing for The Maxx, sort of.)
-but gradually towards the end, the pacing and writing performance just felt off more and more until it just got clunky.
The Maxx, still a good read, a good subversion, a good deconstruction of characters and the “superhero”, still coherent in the last bit, but messy. Eccentric as a whole for the most part.
I watched it twice in the same day and it is fun, same ol’ Ryan hammyness but it ain’t all that.
It’s not some threshold for a better MCU or nothing.
The movie is just No way home part 2, because we all know what that movie did right?
And how many people are talking about it now?
Same shit, different studio. Now its Fox. (Though No Way Home is still decent, recommended. Best MCU Spider-man movie because: Consequences. Not because cameos, but Peter had to grow up & finally become Spider-man)
Otherwise, Fanservice: The Movie
Just better Fanservice than Japan’s bullshit.
The plot of this Deadpool 3 is garbage only because it boiled down to (destroying timelines) which literally means nothing now and the villain was weak because her motivations make no sense.
They’re sent to the void, to go to the base then to escape, to roadtrip, to go right back to the same fucking base, then to some town, and that’s it.
I like a full circle setting when there’s meaning to it, not cause the set pieces were dry as fuck. (pun intended)
Logan somehow gets through to baldy to let them go buuuut now she wants to make the void the only frontier left, multiversal genocide. Ooookay then, cause that’s now a thing.
We don’t even get to see what happened to her in the past. We’re told.
The best thing about it is Wolverine. And Deadpool is a lot more serious at times in this movie.
The film is actually pretty critical of Deadpool through Wolverine and it works but the film itself was just a hack pander piece.
Using Logans corpse like that in the beginning was beyond disrespectful and mind-numbing. And no, being self-aware of the problem doesn’t vindicate the problem.
Dancing and shit, while weaponizing bones, just what the actual fuck is the MCU anymore.
That “call out your own writing flaws, thus that makes continuing the flaws A-Ok”shit didn’t work for Horikoshi and it ain’t working for you, DP3.
Now when you watch the Logan film again, just know- THATS what happens to his remains years later.
MCU comes and literally beats a dead horse.
My biggest complaint:
X-23 was underused.
This character is the Cassandra Cain of Marvel Comics (possible inspiration of Cain 90s to 2003)
She should’ve had more of a bigger role helping Wolverine heal emotionally like Logan was present for her in their journey in the previous movie- a poetic role reversal, but she’s helping to heal his Callous exterior.
The dynamic between her Wade, & Logan would’ve been great.
Not some rushed campfire scene where he spills his guts to a kid he doesn’t even know.
It’s a good good scene, one of the better ones cause DP isn’t in it- but it reads like it was payoff to build up and development we never got to see between these two.
When she walked in the room, and they saw each other: You could feel it, Hugh & Dafne have a very subtle acting chemistry, and its better when you remember: Oh shit, this is a different Wolverine but Hugh worked with this same kid way back when, didn’t he? Yep. Same people, believe it or not.
So you naturally want everyone else in the room to fuck off and just hear these two talk.
Now if Laura was there a little earlier, in more of the film and they had more time together not only would everyone want to see that, but it’d make his change of heart on his part make more goddamn sense.
Because now he has an actual dynamic with this young lady, who in some respects is his kid.
Maybe even set up her getting her own suit, admiring his.
Just wasted potential, all the effort went into “REMEMBER THEM!?”
Nostalgia-Bombs over storytelling. Sloppy
Got Lady Deadpool in the mix, yaaay (said someone), but why are the DP’s dropping so easy and not healing while moving or fighting like they’re mercenaries with healing factors too, they’re not zombies.
I get thematic timing, but if Lady DP was one of the first to drop, why wasn’t she getting up first or faster? Lmfao.
Again, they’re not zombies. And why aren’t they helping fight Bald chic after the fact when Peter shows up? Clearly he wouldn’t be down with all timelines being wiped.
Why doesn’t any of them have the teleport belt? Why doesn’t Wade have the belt yet!?
My favorite scene though is Wade & Logan going apeshit in the van, and thus Logans strength is soooooo much better represented in this movie than any of the others. And there have been plenty of good highlights in the Logan movie (X-24 is prime Logan so the feats are by proxy his own):
The way he manhandles Wade, tackles the van so hard the airbag deploys, he even slings the man through a solid wall- THAT’S Wolverine. Brute fucking strength.
That kind of strength behind unbreakable claws + the healing is why he’s a problem. Imagine that striking strength, it’s like a Car made of razor blades sideswiping you at 60 mph with every throw, and that’s lowballing.
Think about it, he’s got like 200–500 pounds + of metal on him, you know how strong he’s gotta be to carry that 24/7, even while swimming?
His weight class just skips a few tiers.
There’s a reason why he can give Hulk a little bit of a fight, Big Guy Hulk anyway “Dumb Hulk”. Green Scar? Not a contest. But Logan can hang with the best of them for a reason.
Even running on all fours in their first fight, *Marvel ultimate alliance flashbacks*
It got the little things right more than the bigger shit. They really lost me with that timeline destruction plot, please please please stop with the universe shit only If it boils down to “mwahaha me evil”
Did WE really forget why Thanos worked in the first place? less is more more.
Logan was a small scale film, very humble, with personal small scale stakes.
That’s why it works, thats why its tense, that’s why it’s emotional: because there’s no multiverse, no timeline, no reality bullshit. Just personal stakes.
DP&W is more fun than Logan, but Logan is going to age better than Deadpool & Wolverine. As it’s aged very well even now.
It aged better than Endgame.
We’re really overlooking the importance of a stake being “personal” to a character.
Why do you think Phase 3 even worked in the first place? Because Phase 1–2 had personal stakes, small scale storytelling first (small enough, Thor was punching kind of high with it’s 3rd act but hey, it’s Thor).
Now, people seem to enjoy this, good.
Nice to hear laughs than dead silence from collective regret that money was paid to see trash. Same with No Way Home.
I think we’ve had enough of preachy movies making people miserable: but at the same time we gotta trace back the formula to better storytelling, less predictable member-berry heavy gimmick plots- cause this just might become a branched genre of hammy exploitative movies, if all it takes is jangling keys.
Small scale stories are now underrated.
DUNE PART TWO crushes this easily in terms of writing, pacing, story, but this is one of the better films of 2024 tho. It’s a gimmick driven, fun ride, prioritizing the audience liking what they see and not making the audience like what the narrative wants them to see.
Wasted potential on many fronts, Laura should’ve been in so much more of this, hell she could’ve been the compass to guide them through the wastes to accomplish things with purpose instead of them aimlessly wandering from place to place. A more mature, realized Laura, give us some sit-rep on what happened to the other kids, remember those other kids? I still remember the eldest boy, Rictor; He was cool. I hink he was Avalanche’s kid.
All in all, the film is a one-trick pony, but it’s a fun ride.
As hyper-fixated society is on women’s convenience and disregard men’s needs, YOU’D think Women were the one’s building the cities and doing all the dangerous jobs 95% of us don’t even know exist.
I appreciate the story bringing light to a serious crime that people sometimes forget goes both ways.
When do men in general get a break from the same civilization/ society they keep/ and have kept for CENTURIES-millennia (might I add) from falling apart with their own blistered hands.
It’s a level of respect that I notice is missing for one group but exceeding amounts of platitude for the other side, lowered standards in career fields, double standards in clear cases of incrimination, blatant privilege.
No, men are not “pretty”, neither do they fit the standard biological-bias criteria. But they do keep the country’s lights on and infrastructure from collapsing into utter chaos and shittery.
Because again, they do the dangerous jobs most women don’t want to help do. And thus die doing, thus death gap.
But who gives a hoot about that, let alone sexual assault victims born with the wrong/ or right set of genitals that warrant a fuck to give from society.
And the reason I say (fit the standard biological-bias criteria), is no accident, that’s what it boils down to. Bias.
Because as hard as I’m going in on women’s privilege in a gynocentric society, WOMEN aren’t the one’s I want to sock in the face for this prevalent attitude.
Women aren’t the one’s calling male rape victims “Lucky”. It’s males. Piece of shit peons.
Men in power conflated (caring about women) with (only women matter) and that gynocentric-coded toxicity is littered in society from the tv shows to the ads.
Thus the resulting brainwashing is such (I repeat, for those in the back row):
People legitimately have to “hope” a sexual assault victim topic is treated with care BECAUSE/ — -- solely because, the victim is not a woman.
In-Credible.
I will not, repeat, I WILL NOT miss any of this (only women matter) bullshit when I finally keel over and merge with eternal cosmic nothingness.
This trope is so annoying. Sick of talking about it, sick of seeing it, sick of living it, but someone’s gotta say it, and too many people aren’t saying it how it SHOULD be said. Blunt and to the point, without the fluff.
This is why we have to hold each other accountable. Biological-bias shoulda been stomped out years ago all this talk about equality and what not, a nice theory
(I repeat, once more) We should NOT propagate a society where people have to start “hoping” a sexual assault situation is handled with sensitivity just because the assaulted isn’t a woman.
*Female teacher rapes 12 year old boy and has his kid, not in jail for life for some reason*
