Finished watching Hawkeye. It may be my favourite bit of Christmas media in years and years… which, granted, not saying much, but still true! I enjoyed it!
I have niggles (shoot the bad guy from far away! Repeatedly! THEN walk close to him if you have to gloat!), and there was a moment where Clint says, exasperated, “I fought Thanos…” as he’s beating up a bunch of mooks, and that spoke to me.
Why would anyone mess with an Avenger? Like, full stop? Ever? Clint literally helped beat up Thanos! Possibly the single most powerful… argh…
And then my usual MCU complaints (Where was Thor? Where was Hulk? Where was Antman? Where was Spiderman? Where was…), but again, niggles. Overall I had a fun time watching it, and the chemistry between Yelena and Kate Bishop was legit fantastic.
“Yeah, well, the kick to my ribs hurt!”
“Oh yeah, yeah, that was good form. But then you did… the awesome… overhead throw?”
“Oh thanks! STOP MAKING ME LIKE YOU!”
As much as I dislike the MCU version of Hawkeye, I think the show does a decent job answering that question. The musical and the reactions of the LARP group show the general public perception of Clint as a guy who was definitely there and probably did something to help. But the normal human with a bow probably wasn’t crucial, right?
He’s the Avenger you could believably beat in a LARP fight.
I think there are other answers for these (in space, only has the use of one arm, , trying to re-hide his identity, etc), but mainly it’s that Ronin was meant to be a secret, so Clint’s not calling up any of his friends* to come help him resolve something leftover from when he went on a murder spree.
*Also, how friendly is he with any of the remaining Avengers?
At last, I caught up and watched a movie that was for a long time on my “to watch” list, Wonder Woman.
I admit there were a few things I was not impressed with (archery, I am looking at you, more trick shots with low poundage bows that would barely do more damage than a sucker ended arrow; German soldiers from WWI with too much resemblance to WWII), but I enjoyed the movie. I liked the development of the character, and the action was OK. I can see why it was a hit. I still preferred Aquaman over this, but marginally.
Spare yourself the sequel. I remember seeing this trailer in a theatre and thinking they had really nailed the aesthetic and that it looked amazing. Heck, even in hindsight, that trailer is still excellent. I was really looking forward to seeing it as a result of that. Ugh. It is not a good film. So disappointing.
We finally watched Eternals—took us 2 evenings, that’s not a movie, that’s a series they were too lazy to cut into episodes.
In any case, we wish they had had some connection with our normal set of heroes. I thought the girl with Celerity was neat. Also, I used to play a wizard specialized in transmutations in our old DSA campaign. So Sersi was fun to watch, too. Though what kind of name is that especially when she and mopey boy keep almost kissing? Mopey boy should try to learn a second face and a second accent. So my guess is Sersi is derived from Ceres. But I am sure someone had too much fun with the GoT reference…
You can tell, I am not exactly enthusiastic. This part of Marvel World is still a bit underdeveloped and both Marvel and Star Wars to me are fun too watch because of the amount of world and character building that has gone into it over the years. But I can see potential… and Boba Fett turned out pretty good in the end after a slow start. Although, he had this great theme music and Robert Rodriguez to help him out. (And Mando and Machete)
As far as I can tell, most of the names are small variations on historically famous heroes, villains, and gods, but changed just enough to optimisize search engines make them unique.
Thena = Athena, obviously. Gilgamesh they didn’t even bother changing. Ajak they tweaked from Ajax… so with that in mind I propose:
Sersi = Circe (the witch that fought Odysseus)
Ikaris = Icarus, again obviously.
Makkari = Mercury, I guess?
Phastos = Hepheastus, but also Faustus (makes a deal with the devil for power), which I think is interesting at the very least, even if it is unintentional.
Druig = I’m not 100% sure, but my guess is Druig is supposed to be Jesus? Hard to say, but the mind control thing strikes me very much as a modernist impression of organized monotheistic religion.
Druig is a word for Dragon, and in the comics he’s known for “Flames and nightmares”, I think. Don’t know which Greek deity he would be, although there’s “Dolos” who tricks people (and Gods) so powerfully and reliably it might as well be mind control.
Circe is a good , too. I thought Ceres as goddess of agriculture was a good fit because that’s what she is doing at the start. maybe she’s both after all Circe turned men into swine, right? Greek mythology has been a while for me.
Ceres is as good a guess as mine. My argument might be that Ceres/Hera despised mankind in general (specifically the aspects of mankind that kept sleeping with her husband), but perhaps that’s an unfair perspective on Ceres. The connection to ground/earth would make more sense, since Circe isn’t known for that (although there is often an element of “earth” in witchcraft, but it’s certainly less central than it is with Ceres).
Anyway. I enjoyed the Eternals, but I think it is one of the weaker MCU entries. Not bad, by any extent, but I was constantly asking “Where is Dr. Strange? This seems like his sorta wheelhouse right here…” But that’s my default complaint with any entry into the MCU…
Oh, and no guesses whatsoever on who Kingu is supposed to represent, which is a pity, because he was a really cool character.
Circe is no deity, but merely a sorceress, though part-divine. (Whether one would expect TV/film people to care about the distinction is another matter.)
The original idea of Eternals in the comics was that people throughout history had mistaken them for gods/mythical figures, which is why their names are slightly different.
Kirby didn’t originally intend for them to be part of the Marvel universe and some of their direct connections (like Thanos being descended from them) didn’t come around until later when they were retconned in.
I admit I enjoyed the change from the traditional Marvel heroes, and as I am so behind on the other movies, I welcomed the fresh start. The movie was not anything for fireworks, but I found it enjoyable, especially on the big screen, and also because of the links to ancient Mythology. Although I admit they missed a good chance linking with the Norse gods from the main Marvel trend, but maybe this is something that will come up later??
Saw Death on the Nile last night. Very well acted and produced, though the beginning meanders quite a bit. Figured out whodunit pretty early, though it’s still fun to see all the details when Poirot lays them out.
“This will be fun,” I thought, “since it’s only a single season long.”
It’s funny! It’s clever! The twist is really clever and although I suspected something like it, it was still a big surprise!
And then there was a second season! And I was sad, because I don’t have time to watch a second season! I barely had time to watch the first! But, fine, a few sleepless nights and I’ve finished season two, which is good, because obviously there won’t be a season three! That would be ridiculous…
THERE’S A SEASON THREE!
Argh. Argh argh argh.
So I looked, and sure enough, 4 total season. So another 25 episodes that I don’t have time for. But gosh it’s fun.
I hate Jason, though. Like, really, really hate him.
I once bought a novel by an author of an enormous fantasy trilogy I’d enjoyed years earlier. The new book was of similar size to the earlier volumes, and I had no desire to get enmeshed in another series of such a size, so I carefully scoured the front and back cover for indications that this was but the first of several books. Happily there were no such signs, so I purchased it and into my bookshelf it went. That’s where it was, still unread, on the day that I saw volume 2 in the new releases shelf. There ended up being four of the damn things. I did eventually read them all (about a decade after the last book was published), and after those ~3,000 pages my review would have been: 'salright.
All things considered, what I should have done when I saw volume 2 was to take volume 1 to a second hand shop, and spend my time reading about eight other books.
, trying to re-hide his identity, etc), but mainly it’s that Ronin was meant to be a secret, so Clint’s not calling up any of his friends* to come help him resolve something leftover from when he went on a murder spree.