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Deadline has put up a more in-depth article on Supergirl's renewal issues:

http://deadline.com/2016/05/supergirl-s … 201750208/

They were expecting a California tax credit, and the credit was denied.   As a result, they produced in California for zero financial benefit when they could have been in Vancouver getting a tax credit there.  That's where the talk of moving the show to Vancouver has come from.

If Supergirl survives through a move to Vancouver, I'm betting on a significant retooling that will probably shed some cast.  There would also likely be some cast or recurring additions because you only get that Canadian tax credit if you use a certain percentage of Canadian actors in your production (not necessarily main cast).

The question is whether they will pull a Sliders season two and try to ignore or gloss over the season one cliffhanger so they can just dump Supergirl and a couple of her cast into the Arrowverse.  Kicking Supergirl out of her universe with no way home would be the quickest and cleanest way to explain all the missing cast (especially the likely event that Calista Flockhart would not be interested in going to Vancouver - she's too big of a character to ignore unless you did a "stranded away from home" approach for Kara).

When I saw the fireball coming down at the end of the episode, I really thought it was Fort Rozz falling back to earth because she didn't fly it far enough away; I started laughing at that one.

Supergirl really seems like it's written for kids; I don't know if that was their intention, but it's what they accomplished.   On that note, I have an idea what was in the Kryptonian ship in the cliffhanger.   I place my bet it's either Krypto the super dog or Supergirl's classic pet Streaky the super cat.  That would fit with the tone they've set, and kids would probably love it.

I think Warner is still suffering from the same problem it has for decades - the studio bosses just absolutely don't get this super-hero thing.   And this article about David Goyer probably sums it up:

http://www.bleedingcool.com/2016/03/25/ … ecade-ago/

This movie was Warner execs throwing their hands up in the air saying they didn't know what else to do.

I think that the difference between this and Star Wars is that Star Wars was fun.  People can forgive a lot if they're having fun; and the two actors that carried that exceptionally well were playing Rey and Finn.

Batman V Superman is pretty depressing; and that's kind of amazing when you consider that its inspiration (The Dark Knight Returns) had a lot of fun with satire despite being dark.  And I do hold Snyder responsible for that based on his similar tone in things like Suckerpunch.  He's probably not, but I imagine Snyder as this gloomy, emo guy directing the world to his downbeat view.

But yeah, it is kind of silly when you realize Lois is depicted as a better detective than Batman.

They'll likely take the Part 1 out of it.   Part 1 could change to something like "Justice League: New Gods" and Part 2 maybe "Justice League: Cosmic Odyssey" (using Darkseid stories as the origin of those two names - just as "Age of Ultron" was the title of a comics story).  Of course, they may take a more direct approach with "Justice League: Omega" or something.

The Russo brothers have stated this is their intention with Infinity War Part 1 and 2; they said that one of them may not even be named Infinity War at all.  The Part 1 and Part 2 are just place holders until they decide on the title.

Something I had forgot to remark on, but the latest episode of Flash had Jessie leaving for Opal City; it could be just an Easter egg, or it could be a set up for something more.

Opal City is the home of Starman who had powers somewhat akin to Green Lantern but based on technology; he was originally an Earth 2 character who fought alongside Jay Garrick in the Justice Society.  After Starman became an old man, he passed along his equipment to his more respectable son only to see him shot and killed on his first outing as a hero.  The more rebellious son then took up the mantle in his own counter-culture style, and it went on to become a really great comic based in both science and mysticism.

One of the main characters in the book was The Shade - an old Jay Garrick villain who was possessed by some kind of shadow entity that fell from the stars.  While giving The Shade the power to manipulate shadow into solid forms, it also made him immortal and thus hundreds of years old in present day.

In any case, Opal has many ties to Earth 2 and even Jay Garrick, so I'm thinking we'll be seeing much more of that.  This version of Starman was also considered to become a tv series for ABC many years ago, but ultimately they passed on it.

They were double secret disavowed.

Seven Days is one I'm surprised has never been released (it it even online?).  It lasted for 66 episodes, and I usually got a giggle out of it.

My brother recently started working for a conservative talk radio station that opened in our area, so I've been listening to it.  I think it was Lars Larson who gave a good idea what the average Trump voter is thinking.

Lars stated that the Trump voter honestly doesn't care about most of what Trump says; instead they are looking at two things as their expectation.  They want the wall at the Mexico border built, and they want the Trade deals to change (which are blamed with costing American jobs).  Trump has owned these issues during the campaign, and his people believe he is the only one running who hasn't had a chance to try to address them.

The American people are used to being conned; it's an accepted form of American politics and the expected motivation of all candidates.  But many people have reached the point where they no longer feel like they are being conned - they instead feel like they've been kicked in the stomach and robbed.  There is a difference.

People have to be thrown a bone every once in awhile; and in this election, the wall has turned out to be the bone for many people.

What they should have done is something like a unfinished plotline in the comics from before the New 52 started.  The idea was that the Firestorm matrix had become unstable; and every time they turned into Firestorm it was burning seconds on the countdown clock until Firestorm would go thermonuclear and kill himself and everyone around him.  They could have instituted the concept after Stein had already committed to the time trip and it was too late to go back home.

I believe making Firestorm use dangerous would have been a better way to limit his appearances.

I haven't watched all of the latest episode yet, but I did have a thought about Heatwave.  What if he and Cold are playing a long game to steal the time ship?  They mentioned at the start that this was their goal; and if Cold is able to continue gaining trust with Rip, he may get an opportunity to gain control of the ship.  It would be interesting and redeeming to Leonard and Mick's villainy if they turn out to be the true villains of the series in the final episodes after Savage is defeated.

I'm beginning to wonder if we'll get a pseudo reset button at the end of Legends season one.  The Heatwave situation is on the verge of ruining a good character dynamic for Flash, and I can't imagine they would do that.  There's also the issue of throwing away the present day Hawkman.

Norman Lear probably put it best - in this election, Trump is America's middle finger.

Many of the American people have felt beaten down and powerless for a long time; even when they vote for change and win, nothing really changes (or if it does, it just gets worse).  After accepting there's nothing that can really be done about the situation, how do people show their frustration?  They give the middle finger (and in this case vote Trump).  it seems to be working too; from their bewilderment to their anger, the pros are reacting in many ways like someone just flipped them off.

I would keep in mind too what I pointed out at the beginning of the season; the Zoom plotline could be a take on the Garrick villain called The Rival.   In later presentations The Rival was presented as someone who looked like Jay.  I think that's probably where they're going with this, but I do think it was too soon to go back to that same idea.

For another season wide villain, I would look at Abra Kadabra.  In the comics, he was kind of a goofball who traveled from the 64th century with circuitry woven into his skin that allowed him to perform feats that seemed like magic.   The hook for him is what they did later.  Wally West was fighting him when Abra's defeat lead to the circuitry catching on fire with the skin on Abra's entire body burning.   The resultant short circuit led to Abra shifting out of phase and becoming a kind of ghost for a bit, but he made it back into the solid world by exploiting a Mirror Master device.

The rub here is that when Abra came back, he wasn't goofy anymore; he was scary as hell and a force to be reckoned with.

Well, the obvious answer is that it's Earth 2 Jay Garrick which means the Jay we've known is not the real one.  One subtle piece of evidence for the masked man's identity - the jail cells.   Jessie was in a cell with bars; it's all that was needed for her.  Barry was in a cell with some kind of glass; something to hinder speedsters.  Well, the masked man was also in a glass cell.

The trailers place emphasis on super-hero registration, but I'm not sure that's the full reason for the fight.  In the previous Cap movie, Zola insinuated that the Winter Soldier killed Tony Stark's parents.  I'm not sure how much Tony cared about his Dad, but his Mom may be a different story.  In that light, such a revelation would be analogous to Batman finding out that his parents were killed by Superman's pal Jimmy Olsen.  Would Bruce care if Clark claimed Jimmy was brainwashed at the time?

As for Civil War, I think the comic idea worked a little better than this movie spin; but it had problems too.  The comics presented the spark point as a bunch of kids playing hero which led to the destruction of a town (including a school full of kids).  The government then pushed for super powered registration and mandatory training of people with powers.  It was a metaphor for the current U.S. debate on gun control and school violence. Despite Cap's own experience in being helped by his army training, he saw too much of a Nazi / Jew dynamic in the idea of registration; so Cap was opposed.  Iron Man had a more modern point of view removed from the idea of Jewish concentration camps because all he had ever seen of that was in books or movies.  It was of an academic exercise to Tony while Cap had his heart in it.

We may see some of the above brought up in the movie version of Civil War; might see none of it.  I don't think think Civil War was a response to Batman v Superman, though.  I think it was a response to the Spider-man rights becoming available.  Marvel wanted a quick way to shove Spidey into things as part of a big event; and the comics version of Civil War fit that bill.

My final word on this - it actually hit 550k.  I'm astounded.  550k for a pitch.

What they are doing in the Arrowverse is the original origin of the hawks put forth in the 1940's comics.  The main difference is that Hath-set was a separate character and not Vandal Savage.   The alien origins of Hawkman didn't appear until the Silver Age reboot in the 1960's; and that was a different character (in the same way Jay Garrick is not Barry Allen).  In the late 90's comics, Geoff Johns combined the two hawk origins into one with the Hawks being aliens who crashed in ancient Egypt and were worshipped as gods because of their wings.  The DCAU followed the Johns story (those DCAU Hawkman episodes in fact written by Johns also), but they added in all that stuff about John Stewart and Shadow Thief which had never been seen before.

As for Legends of Tomorrow, I liked it.  It had a fun feel like Flash and lots of comics references; and I liked the twist on why the characters were chosen for the mission.  I wouldn't worry too much about longevity, though.  Rumor is that this essentially will be a mini-series.   The rumor puts forth that Legends will follow the American Horror Story model and be a completely different show each year.   The thought makes sense; the title chosen for this series was taken from a DC anthology title called Legends of the DC Universe.

Rumor further has it that next season would be Legends of Magic with John Constantine in the lead.

I was at the Captain America panel at Wizard World New Orleans this past weekend, and I got a chance to ask a question to the stage full of just about everybody from Chris Evans to Jeremy Renner to the Russo brothers.  I know that these panels are expected to be softball questions; more entertainment than substance, and I thought I had a decent one based on an old Cap What If story where Cap ran for President.  I wanted to ask if Chris and Anthony Mackie would live out the old story and join the presidential election as running mates given that it's back in style for celebrities to run for president these days.

I made the mistake of leading off with the words "presidential election", and Mackie jumped out of his chair and started screaming at me "No!  No!  No!  You are *not* asking this question!  Just go!" as he pointed at the door.  I was laughing my head off about it and kept trying to finish the question, but he was just adamant and frankly angry.  I don't think he ever did actually hear what my question was; he wouldn't stop screaming until I finally walked away still laughing.

So inadvertently, I added something interesting to the panel after all.

For me, the idea is localized travel through reality.  To give a concrete analogy, if you walk to the house next door to yours, the area is obviously going to look similar to your home (your "world").  If you keep walking down the street, the differences start to increase, but it's still familiar.  Once you travel a few miles, you could be in the middle of nowhere where there is no one and nothing.

With the timer, I believe it's limited power amounts to something like walking from your home.  However, keep in mind that because of the necessary countdown trick, the timer would be "walking" you in an expanding or shrinking circle (The Helix Spiral).  Without going in a straight line, it would take much, much longer to gain ground away from home.

As for the catalyst that splinters reality into alternate earths, I believe it's a human conceit that we effect this solely through free will.  You can force your decisions if you are determined about something; but what if it's something you didn't care much about?

Alternate reality theory looks at electron spin and how it's direction affects reality.  For example, if enough electrons spin a different way from our reality, an impulse in your brain may shift.  Think about all the choices you make in a day regarding things that weren't really important to you.  What made you feel like wearing the red shirt instead of the blue?  If you chose the red, maybe it caught someone's attention causing them to interact with you and opening a new decision tree.  If you chose the blue, maybe you escaped that person's notice and that decision tree is closed.

I believe reality splinters based on the decisions we didn't make; it breaks when we don't care.

Jay did mention something about The War of the Americas (which is likely a modern placeholder for World War II so that Jay can still have roots in his origins); but that's all we have so far.  I imagine Barry will be visiting Earth 2 at some point, so we're likely to get more then.

Beyond Earth 2, I still believe this is a perfect opportunity to visit a version the big guns they don 't seem to be allowed to use.  Earth 3 gives us the Crime Syndicate consisting of Ultraman, Owl Man, Super Woman, Power Ring and of course Johnny Quick.  They are not just doubles of Clark Kent, etc; they are their own unique characters in the comics with different origins from the heroes; it should be just enough to let them be used without stepping on any plans for Superman, etc.

Possible spoilers ahead

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They are placing a lot of other elements into if, but it looks like the core concept of this Zoom is that he is the Jay Garrick Flash villain known as The Rival:

Velocity 9 has it's own further history with the Earth 1 reality, but the main reason I point out The Rival is because his origin has him as a contemporary scientist to Jay Garrick.  If Zoom tracks with this, then I would expect his identity to be a double of someone from the main cast.  Wells is the easy answer; Barry himself is a possibility; but I'm betting it will turn out to be a double of Eddie Thawne who lived up to the genius of his blood line on Earth 2.

On a side note, looks like Sliders once again had its influence on parallel reality TV; we got something very much like our vortex, and I swear that even sounded reminiscent to the noise our vortex made when it opened and closed.

Rembrandt's driving scene in the pilot was in San Francisco, I believe.  The building for Rembrandt's apartment was also featured in the early season's of Monk; I think it was his first assistant's house.

I would say that you have to respect Ben Grimm / The Thing.  Ben is Jack Kirby (co-creator of the Fantastic Four) - the cigar chomping, gruff, bruiser with a heart of gold who's smarter and more talented than he appears to be.  Ben is the heart of the FF and a piece of the man who brought it all to life.

From what I hear, the new movie kind of marginalized Ben; but the little development he was given was to show him as someone who had an abusive childhood.  That works for Hulk; but it's not Ben.  Some unused footage seems to indicate that Trank got it right at one point; it showed Ben as a baseball player and allegedly before each game his coach would give the battle cry "It's Clobberin' Time!"  That could fit Ben.

Torch is the comic foil to the group and that should be there.  Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis really nailed the two characters in my opinion.  Reed and Sue are kind of blank archetypes really; Reed is the living exposition to what's going on, and writers have been trying to figure out what to do with Sue for a long time.  There's room to grow there, but the main aspect of the Reed character is his intelligence and inventions; without that, you have a different character.  It would be like saying we're going to take MacGyver in a new direction where he doesn't make stuff.

I do think their celebrity status is important; and even the comics have addressed how the world reacts to the reality bending experiments taking place in the Baxter Building in New York (currently the FF has been evicted and the building was brought by Peter Parker as the new HQ of his multi-million dollar company Parker Industries).

As for Doom, he didn't appear in the comics until issue 5, and I don't see him as the center of the FF world.  Doom would be off doing his own thing and not even noticing the Fantastic Four except that Reed Richards is part of it.  Doom and Reed went to college together, and Doom blames Reed for the lab explosion that disfigured his face (leading Doom to wear the iron mask).  The reality is that the explosion occurred because Doom was hasty; Reed tried to warn him the machine was going to blow up, but Doom wouldn't listen to him.  Doom started there using Reed as the scape goat for all his failures and it's just never ended; if something doesn't go Doom's way, it must be because of something Richards did.

The interesting thing in the comics is that the lab explosion actually only left a tiny scar on Doom's cheek; but Doom was so vain and OCD about his appearance that he freaked out.  Doom went to live with monks for awhile where they forged the mask for him to try to help him overcome his obsession about his face; but Doom was impatient and put the mask on while it was still heated from the forging.  That is what led to his face being horribly disfigured; it wasn't Reed at all.

However, the thing with Doom is that he's pretty much the FF's Lex Luthor.  Doom obsessively hates Reed, so he's always going to be pushing himself into the FF world just for that reason.

As for other villains in the FF universe, the biggest one is probably the Skrulls (and that's likely the key reason why Marvel Studios wants the FF license back).  The Skrulls are shape changing aliens that have been a big part of Avengers stories (including a big one called Secret Invasion); but they first appeared in Fantastic Four, so they are part of that license.  Marvel Studios also needs the FF license back to use the big Avengers villain Kang the Conqueror (who first appeared in Fantastic Four as Rama Tut).

The remaining rogues gallery of people like Puppet Master, Mole Man and the Frightful Four are better served in something like television; the only truly epic things left are Annihilus (the insect emperor of the Negative Zone dimension), Galactus and his heralds and Namor the Submariner (whose movie rights are tied up at Universal Studios).