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So I saw Superman.

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I liked it.  I didn't love it like I was hoping I would.  But it had a lot of the things that I would want in a Superhero movie, and I think it's a nice, solid foundation for a new DCU.

Things I liked:
- I liked this version of Superman.  I like my Superman to be innocent, and I loved that Clark kept saying things like "gosh" and golly" when he was fighting.  I liked that he saved the squirrel.  I like that he was upset when the Justice Gang killed that kaiju monster.  I like a Superman that feels like he has an obligation to save every human life, and I appreciated a Superman that considers himself to be human first.  I know, somewhere, Informant would've liked that too.  Although I have no idea where he or his head is anymore.
- I liked this version of Lex Luthor.  Gunn has said that he really likes the Rosenbaum Lex, and I think you can tell that.  What's funny is that Nicholas Hoult doesn't *seem* imposing, but he's basically the same size as Corenswet.  Maybe not as "big" but almost as tall.  I like that Lex admitted that he was envious, and that it's what is driving him.  I liked that Lex was basically Ultraman, and when Ultraman was beating up Superman, it was really Lex doing it.
- I worried that the movie would be too full.  Superman and Lex and Lois and Green Lantern and Hawkgirl and Mr Terrific and Metamorpho and Ultraman and the Engineer and this Hammer of Baravia.  A lot of characters.  But they made it work.  The movie didn't seem too bloated, and it still felt very much like a Superman movie.  I liked all the supporting characters from Guy Gardner to Jimmy.
- I liked Lois Lane.  In Nando v Movies' spoiler-free review, he remarked that Lois usually gets the short end of the stick in movies like this, but I really liked her portrayal.  She's confident in her journalism, but she's vulnerable everywhere else.  She feels like a well-rounded character.
- Everything with the Kents and young Clark and being a parent and being a son got to me as a parent.  I almost teared up a handful of times.

Things I didn't like / were confused by
- The plot seemed like a bit too much.  I think you could've simplified some of the plotlines and it would've maybe been a cleaner movie.  I didn't love the inclusion of a Superman clone in the first movie, and I think I might've preferred a movie where the Engineer is Lex's only muscle.  She seemed to give him all he could handle, and it wouldn't just be a punching contest.
- I don't understand how Superman survived the nanobot attack.  What did he do?
- Why was this called Superman: Legacy, originally?  Someone pointed out years ago that a lot of characters in this aren't the original version of themselves.  It's the second Green Lantern.  It's the second Engineer.  Hawkgirl is the second hawk person.  I thought the movie would delve into the idea of following in someone's footsteps.  Obviously, Clark's story is about how he was supposed to represent the legacy of Krypton but is choosing to follow the legacy of the Kents.  But I don't know if that's clear enough that it would be the title of the movie, and I feel like it's a bit of a stretch.
- We gave Man of Steel a lot of issues for destroying Metropolis and leading to so much death.  I'm not sure there was a whole lot less death in this.  I know they were evacuating Metropolis, but how many entire skyscrapers were destroyed?  We know there were people in some of them - probably most of them.  I think getting rid of the pocket dimension storyline and removing the black hole threat would eliminate that issue.  I just don't love Metropolis being destroyed with no consequences, and I don't know why they keep doing it.
- Along the same lines, are we going to have another Superman that people don't necessarily love?  I think the movie tried to sweep the whole "he's here to rule us" under the rug, but I think a lot of people wouldn't forgive him.  I think he'd win some people back by turning the tables on Luthor, but I think the movie needed to end with a big interview from Superman where he promises to win people back or something.

And then there's Krypto.  I think he was a good addition, and I liked how they worked together.  But was there way too much Krypto?  I think maybe.

So I'm sure you'll be happy to hear that I watched the first episode of RESURRECTION.  The ending to New Blood (which was fine) was undone, but they haven't retconned a ton.  Instead of dying, Dexter survives because blood loss was slowed by the snow.  Other than that, it's a fairly faithful follow-up to New Blood.

Not only that, it's a much more direct follow-up to the original Dexter than New Blood was.  In a lot of ways, Resurrection has made it so that New Blood is the equivalent of a prequel comic to a Marvel or Star Trek movie.  There's a couple of items that are relevant (but also explained in Resurrection) that you might need to know, but I think most people could jump straight to Resurrection.  It not only picks up from New Blood but picks up a plotline straight from the Dexter finale.

There are also cameos, and they've gone back to using Harry as the avatar for the Dark Passenger.

Well, not only that.  The Supreme Court gave Trump immunity and neutered the lower courts ability to issue nationwide injunctions that can stop Trump's executive orders.  So Trump could do something blatantly unconstitutional, and it might take months or years before the Supreme Court decides to do anything about it.  And they could just choose to ignore it.  And Trump would face no consequences.

It's bad.

And I hate to keep beating a dead horse, but it's crazy how Democrats allowed all this to happen.  Republicans took over everything, and Democrats didn't seem to have any response.  Republicans had an evil plan that they were patient enough to execute, and they did it wonderfully.  They took over all rural areas, and then they started working on urban ones.  They took over courts at every level.  They took over local elections and state elections.  All without any policies or agenda items or anything.

I really don't even know where Democrats go from here.  They have to trust that there are elections, but what do they run on?  How do they fight Republicans and the media?  How do you make an argument when there is no longer truth, and the entire system works for the other guys?  And when the people want to be lied to.  And that doesn't even get into the fact that the Democrats have no gameplan and might be completely incompetent.

This recent flooding in Texas has been blamed by the government controlling the weather by MAGA.  But Republicans control the government.  So even when Democrats aren't in power, people believe they're to blame.

I have no answers.  No solutions.  The war sure seems lost.

Yeah, I wanted to believe what Farron said before too.  But since I clicked on one of his videos once, the YouTube algorithm brings him up a bit.  With how the Trump administration is acting, I still expect them to defy the people and not hold elections.  I think there's plenty of things they could do, real or fabricated, and I think it could work for a time.

I'm not one for the "uniparty" conspiracy, but I do think people on both sides are totally fine with things the way they are.  Congresspeople and Senators have a cushy job with a ton of benefits, and they're content complaining in public but doing nothing about it.  If they were concerned, I think they'd be making a bigger deal about this stuff.  So either Trump isn't as bad as they say, or they are more than fine with it.  I'm waiting for a hero to show up, but I'm afraid no one is coming.

I have enjoyed Pete Buttigieg and AOC, but there's no way America is in a place to elect a gay man or a Latina.  I think Pete could already be president if he were straight, which is such a sad statement to have to say.  I've liked some of what I've seen from Newsom, but honestly the only guy who consistently seems to say the right thing is Jon Stewart.  I still hold out hope on some level that he would run for office, but I don't think he has any interest in that.

Still not watching the news, but obviously I heard about what's happening in Iran.  I think if Trump were a normal Republican, I think there would be reasons to be hopeful that Trumpism could fall apart.  There's a pretty distinct split in MAGA (see Tucker Carlson vs Ted Cruz or Lindsay Graham vs Marjorie Taylor Greene), and with Trump doing nothing to fix the economy, I think there is a real chance that the 2026 and 2028 elections could be bloodbaths.

But I'm still skeptical that we would have elections then, and I think the more signs that Trump is unpopular and could lose power, the less likely we have elections.  I know ireactions posted from a YouTuber named Farron Biased during the election, and he downplayed the idea that midterms won't be held in a recent video.  But I think we've crossed the Rubicon, and I think the whole situation is in the hands of a madman and the madmen that control him.

That being said, if they did another (fair) election right now, I think Trump would get destroyed.  Everyone that figured he'd changed or had forgotten who he was remembers now.  And I think he's shed a decent amount of the loyalists.

My other concern - who is stepping up on the Democratic side?  Cory Booker?  Gavin Newsome?  Politicians can make their name in times like this.  Who is that?  All the names from the Obama/Biden years will be out.  We need a hero.  Who is it?

These spoilers will self destruct in 5 seconds.

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Hmmm, did Ethan not share the poison pill plan with the president, or did I just miss that?  I did feel like some of the motivations seemed a little weird.  Like how the president almost nuked everyone, but that seemed like the most temporary of temporary solutions.  If the president had gone through with the nuclear strikes, the Entity would've still taken control of the American nuclear weapons.  Which, on their own, would've been enough to accomplish the Entity's plan to wipe out humanity.

I do feel like if the president had known that Ethan's plan to capture the Entity would've resulted in no harm to the internet, she would've gone along with it.  It seemed like, at least to me, that the government didn't seem as concerned with controlling the Entity as just staying alive.  The argument seemed to be about the fallout from destroying the Entity, and if Ethan had a plan that didn't cause that fallout, they would've gone along with it.

But why do you think Ethan, at least until the second the movie ended, kept the Entity intact?  Is it not possible to destroy the Entity by destroying the crystal?  Would destroying the contained Entity end up destroying the internet?

And I guess my biggest question, as someone who knows nothing about AI or computers or any technology I guess....I would assume that the Entity would be not one being but infinity beings working together in harmony.  To use an analogy, I see the Entity as being the Borg.  If you capture one drone, even if it's an important drone, the rest of the Borg are still out there.  And that the Entity was trying to get a single drone (or even the Queen) into the secure servers to save itself, but that the rest of the drones would still be out in the world causing chaos.

The idea that the Entity would remove itself from every system in the world and hide all of itself in the servers seems wild to me.  Is that really how it would work?

NOTE: I still really liked this movie, but I do think the script needed another rewrite for some of this stuff that seemed less than polished.

Do TV shows have handfuls of episodes in the can before they air?  I was always under the impression that TV shows were essentially worked on until it was time to air them, and they were produced in order (outside of episodes that require extra FX, special shoots, actor availability, etc).  Like a network couldn't air the Flash season finale first because they don't usually even start working on it until long after the premiere has already aired.

Grant Gustin's last day filming on the Flash was March 4, 2023.  They'd already aired the first four episodes before he was done filming the season.  That episode didn't air for another two months, which I assume was filled with post-production.  So when are episodes in the can, and how long do networks hold them?

I promise I'm not arguing.  I legit do not know and am asking

I don't understand the need/want to air episodes out of order.  Maybe I don't understand enough about how television production works, but they usually produce episodes in a certain order.  So shows will write and film the premiere first and the finale last.  They don't usually start filming the finale until the premiere has already aired.

So if they filmed Summer of Love before Prince of Wails, I don't understand why Fox would hold a finished Summer of Love for weeks when they could've just aired it.  In later seasons with larger episode orders, I figure you'd air completed episodes as soon as you can, and airing out of order would mean completing episodes out of order.  Which doesn't make sense to me unless it's an FX/post production thing.  But wouldn't Torme control that?

I completely agree, actually.  But I think once you open that door, it's open.  And I think the natural evolution of "There's a group of humanoid monsters invading parallel Earths" is "humans form some sort of defense network."  There have to be advanced sliding humans who would form networks with each other to track Kromaggs or rescue Earths or whatever.  Which of course means some kind of multiversal war.  To keep with the Star Trek metaphor, there would be some sort of Mirror universe (an evil human earth that is doing the same thing the Kromaggs were doing).  I assume there would be Earths that would strip other Earths for parts for profit.  I assume there would be sliding tourism.  Who wouldn't want to slide and see worlds where history or entertainment went another direction?

My point is that the Kromaggs opened up the idea that there are advanced societies with control of sliding that are out there messing with other Earths.  Until that point, it seemed like only Quinn had access to sliding.  It changed the game.

And as far as the odds of running into the Kromaggs ever again, I think you're right but the show was really inconsistent with how the multiverse worked.  Quinn says in Summer of Love that there might only be six parallel Earths (which as ridiculous because I think Quinn had already seen or knew about more than that at that point).  It seemed like the way they slid wasn't 100% random as they interacted with related worlds a handful of times.  I've always kinda thought of it as sliding in "neighborhoods" in a city.  They stayed in a single "city" of the multiverse (the "human-led" city of the Multiverse).  And some neighborhoods look different from others, but sometimes you run into the same exact house design that just looks slightly different inside.  I think Quinn's timer wasn't powerful enough to get to the stranger parts of the multiverse where life evolved differently or whatever.

And I think the only reason I'd think the chances they'd run into Kromaggs more was the fact that one of them was being tracked.  If they didn't have the tracking device, I'd probably say that it's unlikely they'd ever see them again.  But if the Kromaggs are tracking them, they'd eventually come back.  And if they came back, would the sliders get drawn into that bigger world that was implied?

Not saying they should have.  But the door was opened.

I think there's a ton you could skip.  If you liked Rogue One and want to see a grounded look at how the rebellion formed (for better and worse), I strongly recommend Andor.  The parallels to our world are obvious, but it's a full step away from the Skywalker stuff.  And it's separated from the other Filoni-based stuff that's currently going on.

I liked Skeleton Crew, and I like a lot of the Mandalorian.  I think my problem with a lot of the Filoni stuff is that the sequels make it feel pointless since I know what's coming.  Maybe the Younglings had a really great field trip right before Order 66, but they still get massacred by Anakin so it's hard to care too much about their story.

I haven't seen Mission Impossible: Final Reckoning yet.  But I'll hopefully see it in the next couple of weeks so I can read and respond.

It is fascinating, though.  I think most Sliders fans think that season 5 is better than season 4 from a storytelling perspective, but I don't think season 5 resembles the Torme years much more than season 4 did.  I feel like they had more artistic control - Peckinpah was less active (right? am I misremembering?) and Jerry's influence was gone.  They moved away from being Kromagg heavy, but they stayed with more Sci-Fi concepts and less alternate history concepts.

I think there was an opportunity to do what they wanted, but it feels like they made a conscious decision to just do more of the same.

(Disclaimer: it's been forever since I've seen any of Season 5).

My wife and I are pretty good about expenses.  We have a budget on a family spreadsheet, and every week we download our expenditures for the week (we have separate credit cards), and we compare our expenses to how we've performed.  We meet for 5 or so minutes a week to discuss, and if we've overspent on any category, we talk through any changes that we need to make.  It's basically a free version of what you might find with any budgeting apps. 

One thing we've done is give ourselves each a certain amount of money (we call it our "allowance") that we can use without any sort of reaction from the other person.  This is usually something that we're doing for fun without the other - if I go out to dinner with my friends or if she wants to get some sort of spa experience.  This usually makes us give second thoughts to purchases that might otherwise be made without conscious thought.  And I think the same applies to any of our categories - making the categories separate and as specific as possible makes you think about the purchases more often.  For example, we ate at more restaurants during mother's day weekend, and so we're going to do less eating out the rest of the month to compensate.

Interesting about your cash back cards.  The bank I use does 1% cash back for all purchases, and then 5% cash back for a rotating grouping of categories on a quarterly basis.  It might be grocery stores one quarter and gas stations another.  I agree that those cards seem to have value, and I think every little bit helps.

It can be hit or miss.  I recently rewatched Bandersnatch and think it was a fun concept.  The story itself isn't super Black Mirror-y.  I think some of it strays a bit from the stuff that I like the most ("how would people react if *insert technology* was introduced?") and that's what I liked about Common People.  If you wanted to try it again, there's probably some lists that would do better at picking which episodes to watch and which to skip than me.  But I think, since Bandersnatch, my favorites are:

Season 6
Beyond the Sea
Demon 79 (although technically this is "Red Mirror" - an attempt at horror)

Season 7
Common People
USS Callister: Into Infinity (if you've seen the original - obviously watch that one first)

In season 5 (which I didn't pick any), I think all three are pretty good but all flawed in their own way.  "Joan Is Awful" is very entertaining and I really wanted to like Bete Noire more than I ended up liking it.

SPOILERS FOR THUNDERBOLTS*

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I really liked Thunderbolts*.  I think the movie was a lot of fun, and I think the characters were really good.  I agree that Pullman's Bob is really good, and he did a good job of both being very scary and intimidating and being really vulnerable.  It's pretty incredible that Marvel was able to get all these huge stars to play, essentially, second-level characters and for a movie about them to be really fun.

We got a movie of:

- Captain America's Friend
- Three characters from the Black Widow movie
- The villain from a forgettable Ant-Man movie
- The secondary villain from the Falcon and the Winter Soldier streaming show

Some of that is a little reductive, but it's all true.  And it's a pretty great movie that I think will do well financially.

I would like to focus on a couple of things I didn't really like, though:

- The New Avengers.  I know it's played like it's a joke, but it bothered me for two reasons.  One, it's not a joke.  They are the Avengers, enough for it to really bother Sam Wilson.  I understand why Red Guardian would do this, and I think it makes a lot of sense for Yelena, Walker, and maybe Ava.  But what is Bucky doing?  He was already an Avenger, technically, and it doesn't seem like he ever wanted to be in the spotlight like this.  I think it would've been a better character move for him to turn it down.

And it shines a light on the fact that the Avengers are gone...for no reason?  I was about to write about how there are a handful of Avengers that are still active, but I guess that's not necessarily true.  In fact, I guess Phases 4-6 haven't done a terrible job at explaining where each of the Avengers is:

- Iron Man (Dead)
- Captain America (Retired)
- Hulk (Off world with his son?)
- Thor (Off world with his adopted daughter)
- Hawkeye (Retired?)
- War Machine (Replaced by a Skrull, Retired?)
- Falcon (now Captain America, working solo)
- Spider-Man (forgotten by the Avengers, working solo)
- Captain Marvel (off world)
- Black Panther (T'Challa is dead, Shuri is in Wakanda)
- Ant-Man (Not sure)
- Vison (dead)
- Black Widow (dead)
- Wanda (dead)
- Guardians (not really Avengers, off world)

Every one of those appeared in phases 4-6 or was dead in Endgame.  So they've actually done a better job than I thought at referencing why the Avengers aren't around, but they really haven't directly referenced it.  It's unclear to me if Hawkeye is actually retired, what the status is of War Machine and Ant-Man, and why none of the new characters have been recruited.  It's unclear to me why the Avengers were allowed to be over, even if I understand why individuals aren't active Avengers anymore.

And I think it all links to that scene at the end of Shang-Chi.  It seemed like Shang-Chi was in the fold, and it seemed like the Avengers existed in some form at that time.  I know Carol has space stuff to do, and Bruce was still around.  So when Bruce did his stuff from She-Hulk...did he just leave and the Avengers building was just empty?

I get that we're going to get a lot of this in Avengers: Doomsday, but it just feels super disorganized that it hasn't been referenced.  Why all these characters felt comfortable leaving the Earth defenseless, and no one thought that was a problem.  I think they've done an okay job of answering the job piecemeal, but like a lot of phases 4-6, it just doesn't feel cohesive.  And this random team being introduced as the New Avengers and then that just being okay just feels weird to me.

I also wish they'd gotten Sam to show up in the post-credits.  In fact, I wish Brave New World was more about this than what it was actually about.

Hey DMD!

I watched Ant-Man and the Wasp.  I really didn't remember anything about that movie, apparently, outside of the post-credits scene.  Which I maintain is one of the best ones that the MCU has done.  Great cliffhanger and great tie-in to Endgame.  I thought it was a pretty fun movie.  I think Ant-Man really works, and I'm sad that Quantumania ended up being such a disaster for the MCU (critically, financially, and even creatively).

******

I think Daredevil was pretty solid.  And when you understand the behind the scenes hodgepodge that it was, I think it's amazing that it's anywhere near as good as it was.  I'm still unsure of what the show as going to be, though.  If we basically got episodes 1-6 of the original concept as episodes 2-7, what was the real difference?  Would the original season, minus missing out on Foggy and Karen (which I know is important to ireactions) really have been so bad that they needed to overhaul it?  Unless they made changes, those shows were pretty good.  I didn't think there was an obvious jump in quality.

I understand they didn't have the Punisher right, and they needed Foggy and Karen to make the whole show feel more cohesive.  But I guess it didn't feel like a dumpster fire that had to be rewritten.

The China stuff is absolute nonsense.  Trump doesn't care about China, and tariffs wouldn't even be on the top 50 ways to hurt China if you thought they were a threat.  Tariffs are being placed to hurt American businesses so that Trump can get loyalty from CEOs in exchange for tariff relief.  It's always a grift with Trump, and it's never about the reasons he uses.  If you ask 10 Trump administration people, they're all going to give different reasons because it's all BS.

Trump wants to help Russia by destabilizing the West.  And again, the tariffs help China way more than it hurts them.  People are still going to buy goods from China so it doesn't affect China there.  Businesses can pass the price along to the consumers so it doesn't affect them (unless the price becomes untenable).  The only people hurt are American consumers.  And China not only will get the same business from Americans, but they'll get additional trading from people that want free trade agreements (so far, Japan and South Korea).

So the winners are:

1. Trump (for getting whatever he wants)
2. Russia
3. China

Again, the people hurt the worst are almost certainly poor Trump voters.  And since there's still a tariff on thoughts and prayers, good.

Oh dang, I meant to link to it.  Now all of this could be complete and utter BS because I tried to find the twitter chain and it's gone.  I haven't read the leaked script (if there is one) and I have no idea if this guy or his main source is reliable.  But if it's fanfic, I think its fun fanfic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SHeSUoN2ZM

I don't disagree.  I've generally liked everything that Marvel has released, even the stuff that probably won't go anywhere like Moon Knight.  I guess my biggest concern is that the process doesn't feel cohesive.  I don't know if it's not cohesive, but it doesn't feel that way.  And the whole universe sorta feels aimless.

Now if you're talking about a season of an anthology show like Black Mirror or a list of A24 films or whatever, it doesn't have to feel cohesive and you can enjoy something here or there.  But in a shared universe, I would like to hope that all the building blocks are setting something up that will reward me for my loyalty. 

Phase one is Tony and Steve's story.  They became heroes, became Avengers, fought, and came back together to save the world before their journeys ended.  But if T'Challa didn't have his journey, the Avengers couldn't have won against Thanos.  If Scott Lang didn't have his journey, the time heist wouldn't have been possible.  If Stephen Strange hadn't had his journey, maybe Tony dies before he could save the day.  Carol Danvers, the Guardians, Thor and Loki, Peter Parker, etc all had their parts to play.

Even small stuff.  Ant-Man (2015) may not feel super important, but Scott meeting Sam at the Avengers compound has a direct through-line to the time heist.  Thor: The Dark World is much maligned, but it introduces one of the infinity stones.  Even smaller stories contributed to the overall story.

Right now, it just feels like independent stories.  And some of that is okay.  They've done so many stories since Endgame, and not every one of them needs to be a puzzle piece.  Moon Knight doesn't need to contribute to defeating Doom for it to be enjoying or worth existing, but I just don't feel like any of it is building to anything.  And part of that is that we're not "checking in" on anyone.  I don't know what Dr. Strange is doing since he left with Charlize Theron.  We don't know what Spider-Man is up to.  We don't know what the Avengers are doing about the Ten Rings.  Brave New World implies there are no Avengers, but that didn't seem to be the case in Shang-Chi.

I think some of this could've been accomplished with a series of post-credit scenes that make the universe feel whole.  Sorta like a mini-movie that is being told via post-credit scenes to just keep our pulse on what's happening in the greater universe.  I think Sam would've been a great guy to put in a few of these movies, but it could've also been someone like Wong or Shang-Chi or someone like that.

But even if actor availability is a concern, they could simply catch us up with dialogue.  Sam could've told us what other Avengers were up to in Brave New World.  Daredevil could tell us what Spider-Man is doing.

And maybe all of this will work in retrospect.  It's unlikely the Sam/Scott fight in Ant-Man felt important at the time, and I'm not 100% sure that scene was even written to connect to Civil War.  But in retrospect, it works.  So maybe we'll look back and see more ties than we think there are now.  But I still think it doesn't feel like anyone is behind the wheel right now.

And I worry that they're going to have to devote time in Doomsday to catching us up.  And I think some of that could've been done in dialogue, in cameos, in crossovers, or even supplemental materials (One Shots or whatever).  It's just crazy to me that we've had so much content but so little continuity.

I'm still all in on Marvel.  My enthusiasm hasn't waned a ton.  But I just wish some of that cohesiveness was still there, and I worry that Doomsday is going to have to do so much heavy lifting instead of storytelling.

Did anyone see the casting for Avengers Doomsday?  Is that a spoiler?

I have no idea how they're going to manage adding the cast of (spoiler?) to this movie.  I think the multiverse is a cool concept (obviously), and it's fun to have worlds collide.  But I really think this was the wrong decision for phases 4-6, and I'm worried Marvel is doing a panic move.

Spoilers for Episode 5 of Daredevil

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So they did their first MCU crossover.  I remember hearing about this, but I'd completely forgotten.  And I'm unsure how I feel about it.  On one hand, it's exactly what I'm looking for, and it might be the perfect link for this particular show.  On the other...Kamala's dad??

I'll start with the positives.  They aren't bringing in a big movie star (editorial - I know the actor playing Mr. Khan is allegedly some sort of criminal, I don't know anything about it), nor are they bringing in someone who requires big time CGI.  In fact, it was someone who couldn't help Matt at all.  If it had been Sam Wilson in civilian clothes or Rhodey or Nick Fury, Matt would've had help.  In this case, it's an established MCU character (he's probably appeared in more MCU material than some people you wouldn't expect) that couldn't help Matt in any way.  And there was an on-screen reference to Ms. Marvel.

So in that minute, Matt felt connected to the universe.

But at the end of the day, its a little bizarre that they picked Mr. Khan.  This feels like the type of cameo where they'd go to Jon Favreau and get Happy Hogan to show up.  If you'd told me there would be an MCU crossover in episode 5 and gave me 1000 guesses, I might never have gotten to Kamala's dad.  I might've gone off the board and picked Iron Fist and assumed that was technically an MCU character.

But I asked for it, and I got it.  I don't need Spider-Man to show up (I know he can't) and have the two of them fight aliens, but it's nice to know that the show isn't ashamed of being in the MCU.

Yeah, I would think the same thing.  I tried to look but also didn't see anything.

Which is surprising to me because I think Rosenbaum is good about getting people to talk about controversial stuff.  But maybe Welling put his foot down or maybe he isn't legally allowed to talk about anything.

I just don't understand the disconnect between the universe now.  In the past, they'd throw Chris Evans in Thor: the Dark World for a sight gag.  Falcon would show up and fight Ant-Man.  Even if you don't want a direct crossover, dialogue is free.  Fisk should either acknowledge that Daredevil and White Tiger are different from government-sanctioned heroes like Captain America, or someone should be challenging him on that front.

I really thought that, following Endgame, the idea of fleshing out the universe via TV shows was a great idea.  The problem is that they've made the universe even more closed off.  And I wonder if the Snap was just too big of an event to follow up on.  Because the Snap/Blip is almost never mentioned outside of a few scenes.  Normal characters never mention it.  And the world seems to have completely rebounded to the point where nothing seems different.  I really liked that recovery from the Snap seemed to have been a huge part of Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

But think about the show/book "The Leftovers" - they made one of the best shows of all time based on the idea that 3% of people disappeared without a trace.  That happened in the MCU (and then they came back!) and now everyone in the MCU is the bullpen at the Daily Planet after Man of Steel.

Maybe they should've had Doctor Strange write a spell that compels people to return to their lives and forget about Thanos.  At least there would be a reason.  Or maybe they need to stay away from situations that would drastically affect society.

But...I went on a tangent.  I think, even if they wanted each show to live by itself, they could have people make references that make the universe feel cohesive.  If Fisk mentioned Captain America or the Avengers, it would feel like the MCU.  Making a shaded reference to Spider-Man is cool, but it feels like the references they'd make in the Netflix show (the big green guy.  the thing that happened in the city).

That's why I wonder if they needed a Nick Fury for Phases 4-6.  Someone who could pop into these shows and movies and make it feel connected.  I think Sam Wilson makes a lot of sense to be that guy, trying to hold the Avengers together in some way.  But they could really use anyone.  I mean, heck, use Coulson.  Say that Tony brought him back with the Snap and now he's the new Fury.  I know that might upset Agents of Shield people but it is what it is.

To me, Trump's biggest flaw isn't his incompetence.  If anything, I think it's the thing about him that I like the most.  If Trump were competent, I think he'd be much more dangerous.  The fact that the Hitler we're getting is really bad at his job might actually save the US because Trump is really really bad at getting things done.

My issue with Trump is that he doesn't seem to ever have the American people's best interests at heart.  I'm not sure he hates the United States, but he certainly does a lot of things to actively hurt it.  If Trump actually loved the United States and wanted it to be great, I wouldn't hate Trump as much (obviously, I still would).  But Trump is actively trying to sell the country out.  He's actively trying to diminish the country and make it less safe for my children.  He's attacking allies that we will need to placate powers we need to be standing up to.  And he's convincing my fellow countrymen that it's okay to do that.

I was thinking about what could get Americans united.  And if Russians actively attacked the US.  Let's say Russia invaded Alaska and secured some of our oil fields there.  Instead of rallying around a common enemy, I bet the narrative would be either that the Russians didn't really do it or that it's okay that they did.  If aliens attacked and we needed to unite as a species, it would either be that the alien invasion is fake or that it's good that they're taking over.

I think, with time, some of this will go away.  I thought it would need to be defeating Trump in a spectacular fashion.  At this point, it may need to be Trump failing in a spectacular fashion, even if it means the next president will need to dig us out of economic and social catastrophe.

I've started Daredevil: Born Again.  One problem, and it's a problem we've seen with the MCU in general with the additional output, is how does this connect to anything?  And it's not like "Daredevil lives in his own space" because he's appeared in two things in the MCU already.  I'm not fully done, but I'm not sure how Born Again ties in with She-Hulk.  When does this take place?  I don't think we need Sam Wilson to cameo, but it would be nice for this to feel like it exists in the MCU, unlike the original three seasons.

Okay so I saw Cap 4.

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Hmmm, I think you might be too hard on Captain America: Brave New World.  While I certainly agree that this is a Hulk movie acting like a Captain America movie, I do think a lot of it works as a Captain America movie.  I think it seems like it's trying to be the Winter Soldier (it feels as close to that as any movie since), and I think Captain America's relationship with the president is something that should be explored.  And then it's a natural extension, for me at least, to bring in Ross' supporting characters.

It could've been a purer Captain America movie if they'd Sidewinder the main villain (instead of the Leader) and made the president someone else.  But then I assume you lose the Red Hulk and the movie becomes something more potentially forgettable like Thor: The Dark World.

I think the movie probably would've been better served to have Bruce Banner in it, but I can see why they didn't want to go that route.  If Banner is there, he might overshadow Sam in his first movie.  It was okay to have Downey in Civil War and make that a mini-Avengers movie because it was Chris Evans' third movie.  If you make it a Hulk movie starring Captain America, it might be a bad look.  Especially for the first movie for a black Captain America.  You don't want that to turn into, on purpose or by accident, "The Hulk and his buddy Sam"

I think there were two natural stories for this movie.  One is perfect but logistically impossible.  The other I'm not sure why they didn't do, but it might have been too late to pivot.

1. Make it a Captain Hydra story.  What's the villain that would affect Sam the most: Steve.  What's the theme of this saga of MCU movies: the Multiverse.  If you bring back Chris Evans as Captain Hydra, brought into this universe by...something...and you have Sam having to face all his fears and hopes and dreams.  He gets to literally see if he's a better Captain America than Steve.  I think that movie is a better story for Sam, it's a better fit for the Multiverse Saga, and it's a bigger draw for people to have Chris Evans return.  But I think they're saving that for later, which is a shame.

2. Make it a "Putting the Avengers back together" story.  Maybe even some kind of Oceans 11 type movie where Sam spends the first act going to see Scott and Rhodey and Shuri and the other Earth-based heroes and trying to figure out who wants to join the team.  They'd all turn him down for one reason or another, but we'd also get to get status updates on everyone.  He tries to reach out to Captain Marvel or Thor or whoever.  Maybe it pivots into some kind of Young Avengers movie with Sam as the leader.  I don't know.  But I think it would make the universe feel cohesive again to have an understanding of what's going on in this universe because I think that's what we're missing. 

In so many ways, the world of the MCU is so much bigger, but we have no idea the state of the world right now.  Why aren't there any Avengers?  Even if most of the original Avengers died, retired, or moved on....there were a hundred Avengers at the fight in Endgame.  None of them wanted to stick around and keep doing good?  That's why I think phases 4-6 should've been about "what does it mean to be an Avenger?" "Can you have a life and be an Avenger or is being an Avenger your life?"  "Does the world need the Avengers" - stuff like that.  I think right now we don't understand what's going on, and that's the reason why the MCU is struggling to me.

But back to the movie we did get.  I think one of my other disappointments is that we didn't really get much of Sam's life.  Nando v Movies brought this up in his review, but Sam's life seems to be pretty changed from where he was in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.  Where's his family?  Where's his nephew(s)?  What is his deal - he seems to have some kind of headquarters.  Who's paying for that?  Who sends him on missions?  Is he a mercenary for good?  He seems to be enjoying being Captain America, but how's the rest of his life going?

Other than that, I thought the movie had good action.  I think the character moments we got with Sam were pretty good.  I still don't understand his position on the super soldier serum, but that doesn't bother me too much.  It was bizarre that we kept getting references to the Celestial but not a single reference to the Eternals.  I think the movie felt pretty unique - I didn't think it felt like any other MCU movie before.  I liked seeing the Leader, although I didn't love the look they gave him.  I think Giancarlo Esposito was wasted a bit, although he was good with what he was given.

All in all, I didn't hate it.  I think there were some wasted opportunities, but I can understand why they went the route they went.  I'm hoping that this can be considered the end of the "Covid era" of MCU because I do think Covid ruined a ton of the post-Endgame era.  With scheduling delays and changed storylines and altered release schedules and abandoned ideas, I think Covid messed with a lot of the master plan.  And I'm hoping Thunderbolts or Fantastic Four, which started development in the post-Covid era (at least FF did), can start to fix the heading of the ship.

Spoilers for Thunderbolts, probably.

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So the trailers for this movie have been pretty good, I think.  I think it will be a fun team, and I think the characters will have a chance to expand.  But we saw it with Suicide Squad, and we're seeing it with Thunderbolts.  The team being advertised is six people: Bucky, Yelena, Red Guardian, John Walker, Ghost, and Taskmaster.  Except all the major scenes only have five members.  In the elevator, it's five.  When they're walking down the street together, it's five.  When Red Guardian is giving his big speech, it's five.

Taskmaster clearly dies very early in this film, and the marketing isn't even trying to hide it.  Unlike when they hid Spider-Man in the Civil War trailer until their big reveal or hid Fat Thor in the Endgame marketing or they hid the Spider-Men in No Way Home or they added back in the Hulk for Infinity War...they aren't even doing any trickery.  They aren't going back in and adding Taskmaster to make it seem like she's in this movie.  In the Super Bowl spot (which I really like), she's essentially tacked on to the end of it to make it seem like she's in the movie even though she's barely in the trailer before that. 

Now the trailer mostly ignores Ghost as well, but at least she's involved in the action.  You can tell she's in the movie.  We know Taskmaster is in the big ambush sequence (I assume at the very beginning) but she's basically gone in every other shot.  So like Slipknot in the original Suicide Squad, I assume she's only in the movie to die and slightly raise the stakes.  Which is fine...but I would've preferred if Marvel wasn't openly parading that in all the trailers.

Especially since Taskmaster wears a mask.  They could've had a stuntperson in the Taskmaster costume for every shot and use those shots in the trailer.  When they're just standing around listening to Red Guardian's speech, throw in the Taskmaster double for the trailers.  In the car ride that Bucky attacks, throw Taskmaster in for the trailers.  If that's too expensive, throw her in in post.  Not in every shot but just enough for us to believe that she's in more than one scene.

It's no big deal at the end of the day, but I'd either prefer they ignore her completely or add her back in.  The way they're doing is a little awkward.

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I'm seeing Captain America this week.  I've heard nothing but bad things but I'm hopeful it'll be entertaining.

Biden absolutely shouldn't have run for another term.  He ended up doing the right thing, but it was too late.  If you look the way the wind ended up blowing, it might not have mattered no matter who the candidate was.