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I don't buy that.  It may have been casually true during Age of Ultron (where Phil was alive but we may not have known exactly how or why) but it certainly isn't true now.  Coulson is an LMD "canonically" so I think that's all you need.  You could write a line about "Stark missed me so he built me a new body based on the old Coulson" which, true or not, would be enough hand-waving for it to be both true to the show and make sense for the fans.

It wouldn't even need to be "Somehow, Palpatine is back" levels of bad.  He's a robot so you say he's a robot.  Or if you want more spycraft stuff have two characters who know him but wouldn't know the reason (Thor and Banner?) say "I guess he faked his death?"  Its an explanation to the audience whether or not it's the explanation, and I think that would satisfy the audience.  I think most fans would either get it and move on, or they'd assume that it was explained in a comic book they're never going to read.

I think the real reason is that I think they want death to matter.  I think Tony Stark will stay dead.  I think Natasha will stay dead.  James Gunn has been pretty clear that Yondu will stay dead.  I think T'Challa will stay dead.  If Coulson comes back, it opens that door open.  Why wouldn't the government create an LMD of Captain America instead of using John Walker?  Wouldn't Tony have built an LMD of himself?  Why couldn't Kree technology save Yondu?

If you never open that door, it can't ever be used.

Coulson is a popular character.  He led the first Marvel TV show, and they've literally brought him back every chance they've gotten.  They know he's a capable and fun character to use.  And I think if there was anything they could do to unwrite his death, they would've.  But I think they want him to stay dead, and I think they want his death to matter.  And Agents of SHIELD, as much as I liked it, did undermine a key moment in the Avengers.  And I think, especially since I was only able to come up with four examples of key deaths, that matters too much to Marvel and/or Feige.

This is awesome.  I started reading the first book and just finished Those Left Behind and started Better Days.

Incidentally, I've also been reading the 2015 Star Wars comics.  I finished all the Vader stuff prior to the current run, and I'm making my way through the regular Star Wars run.  I loved all the Vader stuff, and I think the Star Wars stuff is up and down (but mostly good).

Awesome.  I bought some of these yesterday and they'll be my primary mask.  I really only leave the house to get groceries and pick up take out so I think a good reliable mask will be a key part of staying healthy.

My only concern now is that we have grandparents coming over semi-regularly to help with the kids and my oldest is in daycare.  But I think it's impossible to have zero risk.  I'm just doing what I can.

So as I continue watching too much TV, my journey has taken me to Firefly and Serenity.

I'm almost done with Firefly and will watch Serenity after that.  But the question is...are the Firefly comics worth reading afterwards?

Well when I say it was a mess, it just didn't feel like it amounted to anything.  I know they're doing a "graphic novel" approach where they tell multiple small stories, but I don't know if I could tell you much about what the season represented.  What stories they were trying to tell.  What we learned about the characters.

They had an unfair start because the mirror arc had to be awkwardly resolved, both because I'm sure they didn't have the availability of the relevant actors but because there wasn't much story left.  But then they have that horrible CGI for Fuerza with an evil Speed Force but what did that really accomplish?  Then I thought the Godspeed storyline was just handled so awkwardly, especially as a villain that was teased two seasons ago?

I think, at the end of the day, I didn't care about Chester as much as Cisco.  I don't really care about some of the new characters, and as much as Ralph needed to go, they didn't replace him either.  It would've been nice to introduce another hero like Ralph from the deep bench of DC heroes.  Captain Atom?  Booster Gold?  Static?  I'm sure there are tons of people that they could've brought in, but maybe Covid killed that.

It wasn't bad.  I enjoyed watching each week, but I just don't know what they're accomplishing.  It feels like the middle years of Supernatural where the show just felt like it was spinning its wheels.

Superman and Lois is wonderful.  The characters are likeable with real problems that are treated maturely.  It still doesn't feel like a part of the Arrowverse, maybe because of this.  I almost want them to confirm that the show isn't in the same universe, although the Diggle cameo sorta messes with that.

I liked the Flash finale.  I think Bart and Nora brought some interesting dynamics, and the (spoiler) cameo at the end to help Barry was cool.  I hear they're going to use the Flash as their big crossover next year, and I think that would help keep the show relevant.  I do think it needs to wrap up, though.  It's running out of steam, and I'd rather spin the show off as something else if the network wants to continue with Gustin and Patton.  See my Flash and the Canaries idea.

Spoilers for Superman & Lois

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So the Diggle arc is so far a big tease.  It's nice to have John back, and its good that Ramsey is getting some work.  But most of these stories could be anyone.  Diggle showing up on Legends was an easter egg more than anything.  Him showing up on Batwoman was a cameo at best.  I think his story on Flash was good and it was nice to see him suit up again, but his guest spot on Superman and Lois was nothing.  He doesn't seem to be in any different place than he was after Flash.

Maybe the Supergirl appearance will tie everything together, but I don't know if we have any more information than we had before.  I was hoping the extra budget from Superman & Lois could allow them to do *something* but I guess not.

At this point, I assume we'll finish this year with just as much info as we had before the year started.  John found something.  He has to decide what to do.  Blah blah blah.

I'm just going to break my rule.  It's been long enough, and hopefully I can be less careless.

Howdy, howdy!

It's been a while.  I'm maintaining my promise tp myself that I wouldn't do any sort of extracurricular activities on my work computer with my new job.  The problem being that my personal laptop broke and is probably beyond fixing.  My wife and I want to get a new one to share, but we're terrible at making decisions for things we'll share.  So I have a laptop that won't close (trying to close it is ripping the screen off) and she has a super old one. With the baby and everything else, I only pull out the laptop once a week for our weekly budget.

But I think I'm going to start opening up a bit and using this site on my work computer.  Part of the problem is that I shared my screen during a meeting (a small unimportant meeting but still a meeting) and mindlessly traveled here.  Apparently no one saw my screen and only one person thought something was off but I didn't want to risk anything at my new job.  It's too good a job to risk anything like that.

The other hiccup is that we're having another baby.  Due next month.  So my life will probably end up more chaotic than it was. 

But I still love you guys and I'll keep trying to make it work.  Don't worry about me and be patient.  Quinn always shows back up

Really behind but really glad you got your shot and feel better now.  I have a friend of mine who hasn't gotten the shot.  He's not a Trump guy but his mom is.  She's a borderline QAnon type.  I know my friend didn't vote in 2020 out of deference to not making her too mad (and in Texas it wouldn't have mattered, it turns out).  It upsets me that he's not doing it.  I know if he got the virus the odds are really high that he'd survive.  And, heck, it's possible he already had it and was fine.

But I just think it's so stupid to just not get it.  Get it and don't tell his mom.  He's too rational to really believe that there's anything to fear from the vaccine, but maybe he sees the stats and thinks it's enough.  I don't know.  I want to tell him he's being an idiot, but it's so hard to maintain friendships during this pandemic.  I've been terrible at it, as you all have seen

I got a subscription to Comixology for Christmas, and I was so sad to see that the Smallville comics weren't on there for free.  That was something I was looking forward to, before I understood the limits of Comixology Unlimited.

Maybe one day.

I'm about ten volumes into Invincible.  It's all that's available to me on Comixology Unlimited with out buying more (so it's not really unlimited, Amazon).  After that, I'm going to start on the series.

I think it's a really cool universe.  I've heard it referenced a lot, and I'm glad I took the plunge.

I'm also reading the 2015 Darth Vader comics and trying to read Civil War II.  Among other things.  I'm really enjoying diving into comics.

Batwoman is a bit more interesting these days.  I think they went a little hard on the police brutality stuff when I don't think that's really been a thing prior.  But on a show like this, I think it's a good statement to make.

Superman and Lois is still good.

Really looking forward to the Diggle multi-show arc.

Side note - I got a comixology membership and I've been reading HUSH.  It's really good and I went back and read ireactions' commentary on it.  It makes zero sense that it isn't actually Jason Todd.

That's all very sad.  I liked interacting with Informant, and I wish all of this hadn't changed everything.  Even in Texas, I don't know very many conservatives and haven't lost any friends due to politics.  My friend's mom is into Q but that's probably the closest thing.

I'm glad your mom is set for the shot.  And we'd be happy to have you

I agree with that.  Although my biggest struggle, even with the Previously on Supergirl, was remembering what happened last season.  To launch into a season finale like that made me feel a bit whiplashed.  But it definitely feels better now than the Flash, which does feel muddled.

That's on me, not the show.  I get that.

Is there any explanation for why Lex doesn't hate Superman anymore?  He doesn't really mention him.  I sorta wish they'd ended Crisis with Superman on his own world.  I think it would've made sense, pandemic or not.

I don’t know if this is where we brag but I got my first shot of Pfizer!

(I put it here because the vaccine is VERY political)

The Superman stuff is what takes me out. Snyder’s Superman is such a mess and the main reason why I end up disliking his films. It’s obvious that Snyder’s only interest in Superman is making him an antagonist. The “how do we make Superman interesting” answer is “make him evil” every time. It’s what he does every time, and even Suicide Squad works on the premise that the team exists in case Superman went bad.

And I think this works if he committed to it. But he doesn’t...at all. “What if Superman was hated like Spider-Man?” might actually make an interesting movie, but Snyder wants the audience to be skeptical of Clark while also making the in-universe population love him. But they don’t ever see a loveable Superman outside of the footage Joss Whedon shot.

If Snyder got his way, Clark would be a villain in 4/5 movies he was in. And in Man of Steel, Clark is only not the villain because he’s fighting three evil Supermen. Clark redeeming himself (even sacrificing himself) to make up for what happened in Metropolis would be really cool. Superman having to earn the people’s trust is a great premise. But Snyder doesn’t care about redeeming Superman because he doesn’t like Superman. I think Snyder thinks he’s boring.  So he engineers ways for Superman to be the bad guy again and again.

If I were Snyder’s script doctor, I would do it this way

BvS - Mostly the same except a) Batman is the champion of the people (maybe even the government) instead of working for revenge. When he realizes Superman is good, he teams up with Clark b) Clark is working his butt off saving people and winning people over. He’s Chris Reeve Superman. He still dies

Justice League - The same except NO Superman. He’s dead. The League has to win without him.

Reign of the Supermen - Do a full movie of this. Four people emerge claiming to be Superman. Batman has to figure out who is who, knowing that they will need a Superman vs Darkseid. Cavill’s Superman comes back.

Justice League 2 - Darkseid shows up but Clark isn’t ready. Or sure of himself. Batman trains him. The League fails and Superman comes in to save the day (like in Justice League) but gets his butt kicked. Cliffhanger

Justice League 3 - If you want to do evil Superman, do it here. Clark is at his lowest and susceptible. But he overpowers it because he’s won everyone back. He’s the hero of Earth now. And United, they take Darkseid down.

Clark goes through a journey of redemption. He has to win over the people, he has to conquer death, he needs to prove to himself that he can, and he needs to destroy the bad guy.

Yeah I assume that’ll get mentioned as early as episode two. I think they wanted it to be Sam’s decision before giving the government’s reasoning

I saw this online but I think they had an easier explanation. Sam was legally dead so he has no money. Maybe the money he would’ve gotten vía Stark went into some sort of account that was frozen when he died. And Tony, having given up hope of fixing the snap, donated that money to help people affected. So maybe Sam just had zero dollars and would be in worse shape than his sister with no more Stark money to fund being the Falcon.

Alan Sepinwall brought up that post-Snap life probably wasn’t considered and that’s why it seems like such a mess so far. It’s easy for Feige and Co to maintain continuity at a high level, but when you dig into daily life, it’s much harder

That’s pretty cool! I’m glad this isn’t a dead-end storyline, and I’m really glad that the fans get the actress they want. And could be some really cool stories with Ryan and Kate both on the scene

I'm also having trouble connecting with the Flash.  I know they had difficulties since they had scripts written (presumably that they liked) but couldn't film.  So I'm sure they just used those scripts and continued telling the story.  I don't know if Mirror Master can be the villain for a season and a half so I'm sure they'll resolve this quickly and move on to whoever the villain is this year.

But, yeah, the team feels weird.  Barry has faced pretty much every challenge.  We've dealt with just about everyone having powers and losing powers (although Frost being a speedster was cool).  I guess the next logical step is for them to have a baby, but I don't really know what else the show can do, narratively.

Which sucks.  The show used to be a lot of fun, but it just feels like it's stuck in place.  Even doing something like killing Cisco or whatever wouldn't really shake things up anymore - they replaced Cisco with Chester for the premiere and it wasn't any better or different.

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I'm enjoying Superman & Lois quite a bit.  I was worried about the teenage stuff, but it's actually been solid so far.  The one thing is that it doesn't look or feel like the Arrowverse.  At all.  I couldn't imagine Barry running in to save the nuclear plant in Clark's absence, and I have trouble even picturing Kara in this world.  It just feels glossier and more "real"

Although Superman sure gets his butt kicked a lot...

I guess that makes sense.  So in Arrowverse continuity, he had those kids the entire life of the Arrowverse.  When Oliver returned to Starling City and started his quest, years before Barry Allen got his powers and Kara Danvers showed up on the scene, Clark and Lois were already married and had 6-year-old (ish?) twins?

In fact, Kara is only a few years (max ten?) older than his second cousins (is that what second cousins are?)

Considering the reboot, that really doesn't change much.  And I assume the pandemic will make it almost impossible for them to do any crossovers with this show so they may just never reference that.

Anyone watch Superman and Lois? I thought it was well done and didn’t really feel like anything else they’ve done in the Arrowverse.

I’d need to go back and watch Crisis, but did they age the kids up in that episode? I vaguely remember them indicating that Crisis replaced one kid with two, but fairly certain their child was originally a baby. So do Clark and Lois not remember most of their kid’s lives (when they got their memories back) or did they not get their memories back or am I forgetting something?

In my head, we are overfocused on the idea that Evan Peters is Pietro in the Fox universe. I think it’s more of an Easter egg than anything plot related. I think, if it’s Nicholas Scratch, Scratch is showing his true face. And since no one knows who he is, no one is the wiser

I think if they could make him look like MCU Pietro, they would have. So I think he’s not looking “like someone” - Nicholas Scratch (or whoever he is) looks like Evan Peters in this universe

The biggest hole in this theory is the fact that we saw that brief moment of Pietro with gunshots. It doesn’t fit in my theory, unless it was just a moment of hypnosis to sell the theory.

They dropped the Agatha Harkness twist finally.  Most people, I think, saw that coming if they knew the comics, but I thought they did a great job with it.  The "Agatha All Along" song was great, and there's still two weeks to build on that.

The engineer was either very disappointing (someone no one has heard of) or they're still stretching out the surprise.  At this point, I think it's gotta be Reed Richards.  I think it'd be pretty shocking to introduce someone like that in something like this, but the way they're talking about it in interviews and the way the show is treating it, I think it's gotta be something big.

Potential spoilers on the ending (nothing confirmed but speculation I've read)

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So everyone is thinking Mephisto because of how the story went in the comics, but that might be too much to introduce to audiences in less than two episodes.  So who's someone that fits all of the qualifications that have been both on the show and talked about in interviews and feeds into Dr Strange....?

What if Baron Mordo is behind everything?  Acclaimed actor.  Big name.  Leads directly into Multiverse of Madness.  Already established in the universe.  Magic related.  I think this could be a cool way to end it and may fit better than Mephisto/Nightmare/etc.

What I don't understand about the Snyder Cut is the fact that the movie will still have the same skeleton.  Whedon didn't have the time or ability to completely re-write what Snyder had done.  So the story going to be, at its heart, what we've already seen.  I've never seen a movie re-cut to be something completely different.  The Ultimate Edition of BvS added scenes but didn't change how I felt about the movie as I watched it.

I get that it's essentially gonna be a second movie's worth of footage, but at best, it would be a sidequel.

I think this money and energy would've been better used to do his whole triolgy in animation.  They could've rushed through the "Justice League" part (since we've seen it) and then do his finale.  Because at least that would've been new.

Leaving in his spoiler tag to talk about his spoiler talk

Is that how you read that?  I think Evan Peters is at least pretending to be Age of Ultron Pietro, but I'm still not convinced that he's anything other than some sort of trick.  A podcast I listen to speculated that it may be X-Men Peter and some combination of multiverse travel and Wanda may have messed with his memories, which is an interesting take on multiversal travel.

I think Wanda is suspicious, and I think Pietro is at least acting suspicious.  What's interesting is that Pietro briefly flashes with bulletholes - which is weird because we know that Vision's body looks the way it's supposed to (animated by Wanda), but if Pietro is truly Peter, why the bulletholes?

The bigger question for me is who is the scientist that Monica keeps referencing.  Is it the obvious choice of seeing in Reed Richards?  Would Disney introduce a character like that in a Disney+ show?  Is it Jane Foster now that Natalie Portman is back in the fray?  But, if then, why isn't Darcy the one bringing her in?  Same with Selvig.  It could be Riri Williams in a tie-in to a future Disney+ show, but the ages would be wildly off, especially if Riri wasn't snapped.  Could be a parent but that seems weak.

All signs point to Reed, but that would be quite the twist.  Maybe that's what Elizabeth Olsen was referencing when she mentioned a Luke-level cameo.

I think that's fair.  As neither a woman nor LGBT, I'm certainly discounting the effect that she has and what she means to people.  I think (?) Ryan is a lesbian, and there's certainly plenty of representation on the show, but I absolutely understand (better, now) the optics of just killing her off.  But I also understand that it's on Ruby Rose.  If Ruby wanted to come back and save Kate, even for a cameo so she can go on some mission for the rest of the show, she could.  Keeping her alive but never seen again doesn't accomplish a ton, does it?  I loved the character of Quinn, but I never got any sort of peace or relief out of the idea that Quinn didn't die on screen.

I think it would've been better for Sliders if Quinn had been killed, even unceremoniously off screen, so that the other characters could move on and the writers could be free to do their thing.  Same with Wade.  Having the "we don't have time!" line and her coming back as a computer didn't make me feel better.

I get that it's a hard call.  But they're setting up mysteries that they can't solve.  Maybe they eventually get the rights to use Batman and/or real Bruce Wayne.  Maybe they convince Ruby Rose to wrap up her character or recast.  But at this point, they're writing themselves into holes when they could be writing cool new stories with Ryan.  That's where I think their focus should be.

The other option would've been to have Batwoman Inc. as the idea and recast almost everyone.  Maybe Kate sends Luke to help the new Batwoman establish herself in a different city.  Maybe she goes to Star City and they get some of the Arrow cast.  I don't know.  But that's one way they could've kept Kate alive without her on the show, and at least they could have "hey, I just got off the phone with Kate" scenes.

It sucks because the trial is a waste of time and it will hurt Biden more than it will hurt Trump.

Especially since Trump has been very quiet since leaving office.  He can't run the party without a platform to speak from, right?