The Threat the Suicide Squad was Meant to Face

Amanda Waller is a bad, bad woman, and the casting of Viola Davis was spot on perfect.  I’m pretty sure they used the first season of “How to Get Away with Murder” as her job application for the role, and she plays the character beautifully, and that actually brings us to the character of Amanda Waller in the context of the film “Suicide Squad”.  In the film, Amanda Waller sells the U.S. government on a team of “meta-humans” that could possibly address problems that arise from the existence of beings like Superman, Zod, and Doomsday.

However, looking at the team, I can’t help but notice that none of these characters alone, and certainly not combined, could really address any of those problems.  Amanda Waller is a sales woman, and a very good one.  So good, that she manages to sell the government on this team to such a degree of efficiency that they don’t ever bother to look under the hood of the proverbial car.  This team is designed to take out a known threat, that’s for sure, but that threat isn’t Superman.  Looking at the team for what they are, not just face value like the film does, we see villains with very specific skill sets and psychologies.

Deadshot, in the film, is in prison after his capture by Batman.  He is an expert marksman, Olympic level athlete, and professional killer, and ostensibly has the most to lose as he has a family he wants to get back to, making him more susceptible to Waller’s manipulation.  Captain Boomerang is in prison after his capture by the Flash, and is an above average athlete, brawler, expert at hand projectiles, more than a little crazy, and very willing to kill.  Killer Croc is a mutant lizard man with rage issues who kills and eats people, and is a long established foe of Batman.  He has significant strength and is very tough to physically injure.  Rick Flagg and Katana actively work for Waller and have very specific skill sets that allow them to challenge even the most well trained superheroes.  Note what I said: well trained.  Diablo has pyro-kinesis and a huge guilt complex where in he wants to make amends for past wrongs.  He’s here to offer a bit more “meta” to a meta-human team.  And then you have Harley Quinn, who is in prison after her capture by Batman, is an Olympic level gymnast, certifiably insane, homicidal and a lightning rod for one very particular villain.

Enchantress’ inclusion on the team was as a wild card and a hail-Mary on Waller’s part to lend more credibility to the idea that this team has some real power behind it.  However there is one problem; when you take a look at the team as a whole, they can’t hold their own against Superman.  They couldn’t hold their own against Zod, who would wipe them out in short order.  They certainly couldn’t stand against Doomsday.  Now I hear you saying “But Enchantress uses magic, and all three you just named are vulnerable against magic.” Yes, however nobody knows that yet and it hasn’t been established in the films.  I also hear “Everyone you just listed is already dead.” But those are the kinds of threats she’s trying to sell the government on.  You don’t sell a weapon telling the buyer that it will stop something less impressive than the beings that almost wiped out two cities.  You tell the buyer it will stop the worst thing they’ve ever seen.

That’s exactly what she does, she sell them on that the team could take out Superman, or a Superman-like event.  But the math will not add up.

Unless it’s not Superman she’s preparing for.   The conclusion of the film makes it clear that Waller either knows Batman personally or she knows of him.  The team, their skill sets, their personalities, and what they bring to the table, especially with Harley being a draw for the Joker, are all about fighting Batman.  She is assembling an anti-Batman squad because she sees him as a bigger threat than Superman.

That might be counter intuitive to what we see in that end credits scene, where Waller provides information on meta-humans in exchange for Wayne’s “protection”, however she offers some interesting lines in that scene: “You believe in friends, I believe in leverage.”  That line is spoken in weakness.  She is seeking his assistance, and knows she’s at the disadvantage in that deal.  She’s not proud to be dealing with Bruce Wayne and whatever his protection is.  The second line is “You look tired…you should stop working nights.”  That is a hint that, like every other incarnation of Waller, she knows Bruce is secretly Batman.  She hasn’t been able to use that leverage yet, because he has resources and abilities that she finds useful.  Her Suicide Squad is actually her leverage against Batman, a “break glass when he’s no longer convenient” contingency.  Their “frenemy” relationship is further expounded on when Bruce lays out for her that she should disband the Suicide Squad or that his “friends” will do it for her.  That too is a very important line in establishing why Batman is such a threat to Waller.

Batman inflicts his will upon those he sees as enemies.  I could quote scenes in “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” to support that idea, but countless comics, and 77 years of publication history already supports that: Batman does not care about personal freedoms.  For Batman, life is one big control issue, and he has to be the one in control, and that is scary for Waller because clearly he’s better at it than she is.  Remember she has to go to Bruce to make a problem disappear, which means he has experience in handling these kinds of things, because he doesn’t flinch when she brings it up.  With the knowledge that Batman is assembling his own team, we won’t see her disband the Squad, but rather beef it up with more powerful meta-humans, because to her Batman is a much greater threat…and she’s right.

 

Thanks for reading.


Goes without saying that all character mentioned above are owned by Warner Bros. and DC Comics, with Batman created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger.  Mentioning them in this article is in fair use.
Go see Suicide Squad and Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice.
Heck watch "How to Get Away with Murder" while your at it.

 

The Flash: The Present, a quick review.

Okay, so we’ve gotten our mid-season/winter finale for the Flash in “The Present”.  I was actually really impressed with this episode, and I can’t say that I’ve been terribly impressed with a lot that has gone on this season.  For the greater part of the last nine episodes it feels like Barry has been doing a lot of apologizing, which is fair.  When he re-wrote time with Flashpoint, he screwed up pretty big.  Not with the actual Flashpoint event itself, but in un-doing that event…that’s really where he screwed up.  He keeps apologizing for making Flashpoint, but it’s really him trying to reset the timeline that caused the problems.  Anyway, he’s done a lot of apologizing.  

But you know what; I’m not going to recap everything that’s happened to this point because this is about “The Present” not the past.  See what I did there?  WAIT DON’T GO!  I promise no more puns.

Well, I’ll try anyway.

The episode opens with a flashback to Julian before his days in Central City, where he discovers some ancient artifact and ends with him screaming.  The scene opens with voice over narration from Tom Felton, and I have to say that I like hearing the man do narration.  That’s not an easy thing to pull off, so hats off to him.  We then jump to a quick jaunt to Earth 3 where Barry assists Jay Garrick in apprehending the Trickster, played beautifully by Mark Hamill.  Mark really channels a cross between his classic Trickster and his time as the Joker for this bit.  It’s very brief but so welcomed.  Mark Hamill and John Wesley Shipp returning as “The Flash vs the Trickster” is certainly a call back to the 1990’s Flash TV series, and Shipp even said in interviews that in his mind this Flash and Trickster are the same as from the 1990’s, just so many years later.

Flash enlists Jay’s assistance with Savitar, with Jay offering some exposition about the myth that surrounds the god of speed.  Barry soon learns that Julian, who forced him to resign as a CSI, is tied to research around this problem and confronts him, getting a small amount of explanation. Deeper digging reveals that Julian is more closely tied to the enemy as his research team was apparently wiped out when they discovered the artifact, leaving him the sole survivor.  Dr. Alchemy uses the Philosopher’s Stone to try and create a massive amount of meta humans, but is interrupted by the Flashes.  Savitar appears and takes Jay on a stomp around the city while Barry apprehends Alchemy and captures the stone, only to find that Julian is in fact Dr. Alchemy.

Closing the case around the stone apparently cuts Savitar’s physical form out and Jay is taken back to S.T.A.R. Labs.  Cisco works on understanding the stone and is freaked out by it because all the tests he runs on it say that it doesn’t exist.  At the same time he is also seeing phantom visions of his dead brother Dante, whom he’d just come to grips with loosing.  Julian, while in custody, claims no knowledge of being Alchemy and accuses Barry of being out to get him.  Cisco, meanwhile, opens the stone’s case and unleashes Savitar who attacks the Flash.  Wally launches to assist, and the two managed to distract Savitar enough (by getting mercilessly pummeled by him) long enough for Caitlin to convince Cisco to close the case, sending Savitar away.  Julian is then brought in to serve as means to talk to Savitar directly and the ancient being makes several prophecies that spell the end of the team.  Jay and Barry agree to launch the stones into the Speed Force so it can’t harm anyone.  While caught in the Speed Force, Barry finds himself five months into the future and witnesses Savitar killing Iris.  Jay pulls him out, and explains that what he saw was one possible future, not set in stone, and that he needed to spend time with the people he loves.  The team decides to take a Christmas break since there are no ancient gods, monsters, aliens, or villains to deal with.

Julian takes Caitlin up on an offer to join the West household for Christmas (do we see another potential romance?) and we see H.R., who’s a pretty loose guy get drunk.  Joe brings a date and the team seems oddly at peace.  Carolers come and H.R. makes an off handed comment about singing in the rain being kind of sad.  Caitlin, much to Cisco’s surprise and concern, removes one of her power inhibitors and turns the rain into snow, pointing out that they can bring some joy to the world.  Barry and Iris sneak off to see his present to her, which is an apartment for them to share.

Overall this has been my favorite episode of the year, and a strong stopping point for a series that probably won’t be back until late January.  Everyone brought their A-game, and it didn’t feel like there were any phoned in performances.  H.R. and Joe’s character arcs felt natural, with H.R. getting some really solid “real world” truth to dealing with Wally’s abilities.  Julian has kind of become the new Wells, in respect that you still aren’t sure what side of the good vs evil line he sits on, though he did get Barry his job back.  Julian, I think, is starting to get a good understanding of what it’s like on Team Flash, racing around the city trying to stop disasters, and that I think worked a lot to soften his hard heart.  Julian’s backstory also comes better into view, and Tom Felton brings a great, subtle performance to the character.

Jay’s inclusion in the roster was also fun, I love John Wesley Shipp and I’m really glad to see him back on the series, with promises of more Jay in the future.  The do a nice bit after the first battle with Savitar where Jay comments that Barry’s father would have been proud of him with Barry quickly excusing him, indicating that he’s still dealing with the fact that Jay is his father’s duplicate.

I know we aren’t done with Savitar by a long shot, but it still felt a little phoned in, story wise that he appeared twice in the episode and was beaten both times rather easily.  There aren’t any closeout stingers or bait for the next episode with is both refreshing and a little disappointing at the same time.  It’s refreshing since you pretty much expect that kind of thing now, but also disappointing because I personally wanted something sinister looming on the horizon to make me interested in coming back after the break.

But that was the episode.  Check it out on the CW app, On Demand, or any of the streaming devices that allow you to view CW shows.

Until next time, thanks for reading.

DC CW Invasion! My Biggest Review for the CW Heroe's Biggest Storyline.

Hey folks.  Well, I wanted to wait until all four episodes had actually aired and everyone had plenty of time to see them on either television, On Demand, or the CW app (which is where I saw them).  So lets dig into “Invasion”!

Calling it a 4 part storyline is kind of generous since Supergirl: Medusa didn’t have actually anything to do with the aliens at all.  Medusa chronicled Supergirl’s struggle with a virus that threatened all alien life except Kryptonians…and apparently humans.  That was one plot hole I never felt was suitably dealt with, why did the virus not register humans as aliens.  If its origins are from Krypton, then humans are by default aliens.  Not that it mattered because through the efforts of the team and Lena Luthor, the virus was stopped and J’onn’s white-Martian transformation was reversed through explanations that felt kind of phoned in.  We got some development between Mon’El and Kara, but that’s was about the extent.  Throughout the episode we did see the multiverse warps open up, but close in unexpected places, leading to Cisco and Barry arriving in Kara’s apartment and their recruiting her.

Supergirl: Medusa seemed to be an exercise of convenient timing, and like I said, calling it a part of Invasion is a generous thing at best.

That leads us to The Flash: Invasion, where in we meet the aliens properly as they land in Central City.  This episode leads us in with a brief recap of where everyone is emotional after the events of Killer Frost, where in it was revealed that Barry’s meddling with the timeline indirectly lead to Dante’s (Cisco’s brother) death.  Facing the alien invasion, he teams with Oliver Queen and company and calls in the aid of the Legends of Tomorrow to mount a counter offensive.  He then works with a very standoffish Cisco to warp to Earth 38 (picking up where Supergirl Medusa left off).  Tracking the kidnapped president, they find the aliens who mind attack most of the team and turn them against Oliver and Barry.  Wally unleashes his full speed (which there is a sub plot of Team Flash not wanting to encourage him to use his powers out of fear he will get hurt) and lends an assist before getting knocked out.  Barry leads Kara on a “catch me if you can” run using her to destroy the alien device causing the mind warp.

The episode ends with everyone regrouping and a handful of the non-powered characters getting taken by the aliens, including Oliver.

              

  This leads us into Arrow: Invasion, where we find the minds of our heroes trapped in an alien hallucination where they are leading their ideal lives.  The heroes soon start having flashes of their real lives and see holes in the hallucination.  When they combat the hallucination they are met with versions of their enemies.  In the meantime the heroes outside the alien abduction plot are trying to track them down and learn as much as they can, with Cisco working with Team Arrow, the Flash and Supergirl assisting Wild Dog.  Wild Dog as a bit of a moment but it feels completely forced and anything but organic where-in he has this “I don’t trust you because you have powers…” attitude and seconds later is “Okay, I trust you.” I get that they are trying to give everyone their due, but with four hours to fill they don’t have to rush these little moments.

Oliver and company (nice Disney reference from Cisco there) break out of the mental prison to find themselves on a space ship, and they are promptly rescued by the Waverider.  The team then decides they need to return the abduction favor and locate an alien.

               

Hey folks.  Well, I wanted to wait until all four episodes had actually aired and everyone had plenty of time to see them on either television, On Demand, or the CW app (which is where I saw them).  So lets dig into “Invasion”!

Calling it a 4 part storyline is kind of generous since Supergirl: Medusa didn’t have actually anything to do with the aliens at all.  Medusa chronicled Supergirl’s struggle with a virus that threatened all alien life except Kryptonians…and apparently humans.  That was one plot hole I never felt was suitably dealt with, why did the virus not register humans as aliens.  If its origins are from Krypton, then humans are by default aliens.  Not that it mattered because through the efforts of the team and Lena Luthor, the virus was stopped and J’onn’s white-Martian transformation was reversed through explanations that felt kind of phoned in.  We got some development between Mon’El and Kara, but that’s was about the extent.  Throughout the episode we did see the multiverse warps open up, but close in unexpected places, leading to Cisco and Barry arriving in Kara’s apartment and their recruiting her.

Supergirl: Medusa seemed to be an exercise of convenient timing, and like I said, calling it a part of Invasion is a generous thing at best.

That leads us to The Flash: Invasion, where in we meet the aliens properly as they land in Central City.  This episode leads us in with a brief recap of where everyone is emotional after the events of Killer Frost, where in it was revealed that Barry’s meddling with the timeline indirectly lead to Dante’s (Cisco’s brother) death.  Facing the alien invasion, he teams with Oliver Queen and company and calls in the aid of the Legends of Tomorrow to mount a counter offensive.  He then works with a very standoffish Cisco to warp to Earth 38 (picking up where Supergirl Medusa left off).  Tracking the kidnapped president, they find the aliens who mind attack most of the team and turn them against Oliver and Barry.  Wally unleashes his full speed (which there is a sub plot of Team Flash not wanting to encourage him to use his powers out of fear he will get hurt) and lends an assist before getting knocked out.  Barry leads Kara on a “catch me if you can” run using her to destroy the alien device causing the mind warp.

The episode ends with everyone regrouping and a handful of the non-powered characters getting taken by the aliens, including Oliver.

                This leads us into Arrow: Invasion, where we find the minds of our heroes trapped in an alien hallucination where they are leading their ideal lives.  The heroes soon start having flashes of their real lives and see holes in the hallucination.  When they combat the hallucination they are met with versions of their enemies.  In the meantime the heroes outside the alien abduction plot are trying to track them down and learn as much as they can, with Cisco working with Team Arrow, the Flash and Supergirl assisting Wild Dog.  Wild Dog as a bit of a moment but it feels completely forced and anything but organic where-in he has this “I don’t trust you because you have powers…” attitude and seconds later is “Okay, I trust you.” I get that they are trying to give everyone their due, but with four hours to fill they don’t have to rush these little moments.

Oliver and company (nice Disney reference from Cisco there) break out of the mental prison to find themselves on a space ship, and they are promptly rescued by the Waverider.  The team then decides they need to return the abduction favor and locate an alien.

                Which brings us to Legends of Tomorrow: Invasion where Team Legend splits up and takes Cisco and Felicity into the past to capture an alien.  Leaving the tech support on the ship, the rest go after the alien, which they capture, only for them all to be captured by the men in black.  This leads us back around to the origin of the presidential advisor who was seen all the way back in “The Flash” as he, in the future, sets up Oliver, Barry, and friends to be captured and given over to the aliens.  A couple of things here.  Oliver sidelines Supergirl because he “just wants some normal”…which is stupid because he’s fighting aliens with powers.  You can have normal after Supergirl knocks them out.  Second, we discover that the aliens want Barry surrendered to them because of his time screwery back in Flashpoint which they say proves he’s too dangerous.

The past team is rescued by Cisco and Felicity, and Cisco convinces the team to rescue the alien who is being tortured.  E.T. takes off and leaves behind a transponder in case they need to talk later.  They go back to the future and meet the rest of the team only to learn that Cisco’s tampering with the past (the government was supposed to keep the captured alien) has screwed with the future.  Here, folks, is what organic character development looks like.  Cisco is remorseful for what he did, citing that his good intentions had bad effects and starts seeing the situation from Barry’s perspective.  Barry is prepared to surrender himself to the alien menace and is stopped by literally everyone else.  Oliver calls back on Supergirl, realizing that he was stupid and the team prepare to meet the aliens head on.

Here is where Professor Stein’s story arc comes in, as when he meddled with the timeline, he inadvertently made a daughter he doesn’t remember.  She comes in handy as she coincidentally has a background in the nanotechnology they need to fight the aliens.  He struggles with accepting her because everything thing he’s learned thus far about time aberrations I that they are bad.  Over the course of the three episodes he comes to accept her and they in turn develop a weapon they need to fight the aliens.  Through Barry and Kara’s work, they fit the aliens with devices that, when triggered cause them immense pain, driving them off.  There’s a big party and the president reassigns the agent to the Arctic, because Supergirl told her it would be a good idea…and somehow that mattered.  Barry and Oliver find themselves at a bar, two world weary heroes dealing with the consequences of their choices.

So that’s Invasion:  Final Thoughts?

                As cool as the overall idea was, there was some stuff that just didn’t work.  Character arcs, especially in the Arrow segment, fell flat.  Wild Dog had such a fast heel turn it made me dizzy, and in the hallucination Thea wanted to stay in their paradise but then one scene later shows up to escape with everyone else.  There didn’t feel like there was anything in between.  Again, four hours to tell this story.  Well, three, but still there was plenty of time to give us one or two more moments to develop characters.

During the Flash segment everyone finds out about Flashpoint, which okay, that’s all well and good, but some of the characters act completely offended that Barry would travel back in time to save his mother who was murdered in front of him.  Shouldn’t some of them be a little more understanding?  Further, the Waverider crew track time aberations; Why didn’t they find out about Flashpoint earlier?  Seems like Gideon should have shot out a mass text message “Barry Allen altered twenty years of Earth history!”  Something like that.

As for the Cisco/Barry conflict, I thought this was covered earlier in the season when Barry admitted about Flashpoint to Team Flash and Cisco was pissed because he wouldn’t go back and save his brother, but later forgave him.  Admittedly the progression of Cisco’s character felt more organic here, but it felt like closure to a wound that should have already been closed.

Then there are the aliens.  The show calls them “The Dominators” but they don’t feel unique enough to be called anything other than “the aliens”.  There is no history or individuality to the characters, they feel weak by comparison and look very generic.  Their CGI isn’t the best either, especially from what we’ve seen out of these shows within the last few seasons.

I think ultimately the whole thing would have felt better if they were facing more individual foes and villains with actual powers, maybe do something along the lines of the Hyperclan from the JLA books, where white martians took the guise of earth heroes.

                I did have a few favorite lines from the final episode, such as Ray pointing out that Kara looks like his cousin, and Mick and Sara commenting on how the new president was kind of hot.

Chemistry wise, everyone played off each other really well.  It’s clear that these are ensemble casts who are used to working in large groups and know how to give everyone their chance to shine.  If I had to grade it, I’d give it a solid B.  The project was very ambitious but I don’t think they achieved all their goals and had to rush some spots.  It does offer a proof of concept that these kinds of massive crossovers do work and hopefully we’ll see them refine their craft down the road.

Which brings us to Legends of Tomorrow: Invasion where Team Legend splits up and takes Cisco and Felicity into the past to capture an alien.  Leaving the tech support on the ship, the rest go after the alien, which they capture, only for them all to be captured by the men in black.  This leads us back around to the origin of the presidential advisor who was seen all the way back in “The Flash” as he, in the future, sets up Oliver, Barry, and friends to be captured and given over to the aliens.  A couple of things here.  Oliver sidelines Supergirl because he “just wants some normal”…which is stupid because he’s fighting aliens with powers.  You can have normal after Supergirl knocks them out.  Second, we discover that the aliens want Barry surrendered to them because of his time screwery back in Flashpoint which they say proves he’s too dangerous.

The past team is rescued by Cisco and Felicity, and Cisco convinces the team to rescue the alien who is being tortured.  E.T. takes off and leaves behind a transponder in case they need to talk later.  They go back to the future and meet the rest of the team only to learn that Cisco’s tampering with the past (the government was supposed to keep the captured alien) has screwed with the future.  Here, folks, is what organic character development looks like.  Cisco is remorseful for what he did, citing that his good intentions had bad effects and starts seeing the situation from Barry’s perspective.  Barry is prepared to surrender himself to the alien menace and is stopped by literally everyone else.  Oliver calls back on Supergirl, realizing that he was stupid and the team prepare to meet the aliens head on.

Here is where Professor Stein’s story arc comes in, as when he meddled with the timeline, he inadvertently made a daughter he doesn’t remember.  She comes in handy as she coincidentally has a background in the nanotechnology they need to fight the aliens.  He struggles with accepting her because everything thing he’s learned thus far about time aberrations I that they are bad.  Over the course of the three episodes he comes to accept her and they in turn develop a weapon they need to fight the aliens.  Through Barry and Kara’s work, they fit the aliens with devices that, when triggered cause them immense pain, driving them off.  There’s a big party and the president reassigns the agent to the Arctic, because Supergirl told her it would be a good idea…and somehow that mattered.  Barry and Oliver find themselves at a bar, two world weary heroes dealing with the consequences of their choices.

So that’s Invasion:  Final Thoughts?

                As cool as the overall idea was, there was some stuff that just didn’t work.  Character arcs, especially in the Arrow segment, fell flat.  Wild Dog had such a fast heel turn it made me dizzy, and in the hallucination Thea wanted to stay in their paradise but then one scene later shows up to escape with everyone else.  There didn’t feel like there was anything in between.  Again, four hours to tell this story.  Well, three, but still there was plenty of time to give us one or two more moments to develop characters.

During the Flash segment everyone finds out about Flashpoint, which okay, that’s all well and good, but some of the characters act completely offended that Barry would travel back in time to save his mother who was murdered in front of him.  Shouldn’t some of them be a little more understanding?  Further, the Waverider crew track time aberations; Why didn’t they find out about Flashpoint earlier?  Seems like Gideon should have shot out a mass text message “Barry Allen altered twenty years of Earth history!”  Something like that.

As for the Cisco/Barry conflict, I thought this was covered earlier in the season when Barry admitted about Flashpoint to Team Flash and Cisco was pissed because he wouldn’t go back and save his brother, but later forgave him.  Admittedly the progression of Cisco’s character felt more organic here, but it felt like closure to a wound that should have already been closed.

Then there are the aliens.  The show calls them “The Dominators” but they don’t feel unique enough to be called anything other than “the aliens”.  There is no history or individuality to the characters, they feel weak by comparison and look very generic.  Their CGI isn’t the best either, especially from what we’ve seen out of these shows within the last few seasons.

I think ultimately the whole thing would have felt better if they were facing more individual foes and villains with actual powers, maybe do something along the lines of the Hyperclan from the JLA books, where white martians took the guise of earth heroes.

                I did have a few favorite lines from the final episode, such as Ray pointing out that Kara looks like his cousin, and Mick and Sara commenting on how the new president was kind of hot.

Chemistry wise, everyone played off each other really well.  It’s clear that these are ensemble casts who are used to working in large groups and know how to give everyone their chance to shine.  If I had to grade it, I’d give it a solid B.  The project was very ambitious but I don’t think they achieved all their goals and had to rush some spots.  It does offer a proof of concept that these kinds of massive crossovers do work and hopefully we’ll see them refine their craft down the road.

Legal Advice: The Questionable Ethics of one J. Jonah Jameson...

So this came up over the weekend and I thought it bore further examination.  In “New Avengers #15” Spider-Man, newly appointed member of the team, voiced concerns about what his reputation would bring to the venerated superhero organization.  This is after the Avengers Disassemble story arc.  For more details on that, I recommend picking up the collected editions of “Avengers Disassemble”.  So when New Avengers came out, it literally was a splinter group, an off the books kind of situation led by Capt. America and consisting of Iron-Man, Spider-Man, Luke Cage, Wolverine, and a rotation of Sentry, Ms. Marvel, Daredevil and Ronin.

However Spider-Man isn’t wrong about his misgivings about joining the team.  At this point, Peter Parker is no longer working for the Daily Bugle and J. Jonah Jameson is in full swing with this anti-Spider-Man campaign.  Spidey is right to think his presence on the Avengers team will draw bad press.

Here is where Tony Stark comes up with a brilliant idea: make a deal.  Believing that Jameson is first and foremost a capitalist, he tries to broker a deal with the newspaper publisher offering exclusive coverage of anything the Avengers get involved in to the Bugle in exchange for him laying off Spider-Man.

 

Here is the problem with this idea: Jameson isn’t strictly a capitalist.  I would hesitate to call him a Republican.  He’s more of an independent conservative, and thus will not bend what he believes is right in favor for anything.  Jameson meets with Stark, shakes Spider-Man’s hand (much to the shock of everyone), then the next day blasts the New Avengers for their attempt at bribing him.

On this surface this seems like unethical move, and the team is justifiably outraged because now he’s not only targeting Spider-Man, he’s dug up dirt on almost the entire team, which unfortunately for them wasn’t that hard.  Luke Cage had done prison time for heroin dealing.  He cites that it’s a false accusation; however that won’t necessarily sway the American people.  Jessica Drew, Spider-Woman, is a former HYDRA agent, that’s not a good PR thing.  Sentry, when he is on the team, is mentally unstable, and then there’s Wolverine, a guy who’s left more bodies in his wake than probably any other “hero” this side of the Hulk.  Frankly at this point I had no idea that Wolverine was a publically known superhero, I just figured the X-Men just flew under the radar for the most part.

The point is that while they are outraged, you have to wonder if Jameson was actually wrong for what he did.

Let’s look back at what transpired:  Tony Stark offers Jameson a bribe.  He’s offering exclusive coverage for good press; he’s trying to purchase public opinion.  I’m surprised that anyone was surprised that Jameson took exception to it.  He’s never been one to take a bribe.  Does he unfairly vilify Spider-Man, absolutely, but he doesn’t do so at the expense of his ethical character.

Jameson truly believes that Spider-Man is a menace.  He’s not doing it to sell papers, he can sell papers with any story, but he follows his single minded crusade against the wall-crawler because he believes he is right.  Tony Stark actually severely insulted him on an ethical level by assuming he could purchase his opinion.  The message that Stark sent was “I think your values are so thin that I can bribe you to give my team good press, no matter who they are or what they do.”

Tony assumes he’s going to take the deal, which also says a lot about Tony because clearly this is the kind of deal Tony would take. 

 

Of course Jameson spits the deal back in Tony’s face, and he’s justified to do so.  Then he writes a piece that absolutely blasts the team (see above).  They are outraged, no doubt a few of them are thinking of legal action.  Spider-Man in the comics at one point filed a liable suit against Jameson for defamation of character, so maybe that could work here.  I’m sure that crosses Tony’s mind.

Here’s the legal advice part: It won’t work, because there’s nothing in that article that isn’t true.  All it does is cite the pasts of the individual team members, which he didn’t make up, he used facts.  You can see it on Jessica’s face as she reads the words (brilliant art by the way) that this is absolutely true: she was a member of a terrorist organization; she chose to hurt innocent people.

The blasting of Stark’s attempt at bribery was, in fact, very true and something the public did need to know.  Tony Stark is one of the most high profile superheroes and icons of business in the Marvel Universe.  Everyone knows who he is and/or has supported his business in some way.  That makes him a very influential man, and for a man of that profile and influence to attempt to bribe the media for good press coverage raises a lot of red flags.

Legally, there isn’t anything the team can do.  They cannot demand a retraction or an apology, they have no legal ground to stand on.  The best they can do at this point is lick their wounds and go about their business.

Now the obvious counter is that Jameson violated a contract.  He shook Spider-Man’s hand, which indicated that he accepted the deal, but he never signs any paperwork, he never even verbally says he’s going along with the idea.  He hears Stark out, he meets the team, he shakes Spider-Man’s hand, and leaves.

So why did he shake Spider-Man’s hand?  Well, again, he’s been at a press war with the superhero since day one.  He shook Spider-Man’s hand to say “Good play.” He wasn’t accepting defeat, he was saying this battle was over and he was about to bring it up to the next level.

 

As always, the Avenger, and all associated characters are the rights of Marvel Comics, this post is generated under fair use, and no financial gain was obtained through this post

Thanks for reading.

Whatever Happen to Scar?

Arguably one of the most compelling villains Disney came up with over the last twenty or so years has to be Scar from “The Lion King”.  Voiced by Jeremy Irons and Jim Cummings in the film, the character was the epitome of underhanded evil and deceit.  But just where did all this come from, what is this character’s history?

Scar was born Taka, the second son of King Ahadi, it was pretty much accepted that since Mufasa was stronger, braver, and wiser, that Taka would never be king.  Plus, Mufasa was older and the first born is always next in succession for the throne.  Taka was not out of the loop entirely though, being the second born he had access to the Roar of Elders and lead the Lion Guard, which were essentially the Delta Force for the lion pride.  They were the bravest, the strongest, the fastest, the keenest of sight, and were traditionally led by the second born lion prince.

Using his incredible power and his fighting force, Taka battled in the name of the Pride Lands, however he saw this as an opportunity to usurp Mufasa’s power.  The rest of the Lion Guard disagreed and stood against Taka in battle, resulting in Taka eliminating them with the Roar of Elders.  This abuse of his power cost him the Roar of Elders and the ability would pass into legend until Simba’s second cub was born.

The battle left Taka with a scar, which he now used to identify himself, presenting it as a badge of honor and re-naming himself “Scar”.

This leads us into “The Lion King” proper, where the story picks up with Simba being presented to the Pride Lands.  Simba’s birth took Scar completely out of the running for kingship, which he did not take lightly.  He assembled an army of hyenas and orchestrated Mufasa’s death.

This is where Scar stands out against other Disney villains, as Scar actively kills Mufasa on screen, where others previously arranged circumstances and situations that would lead to someone’s death.  Scar throws Mufasa off a cliff into a stamped.  The event devastates young Simba and Scar convinces him to flee into exile, citing him as the cause of Mufasa’s death.  He then dispatches three hyenas after him, but they fail to kill him, content with him in exile.

Scar takes over the Pride Lands, but his rule sends the land into ruin and desolation because he forces the lionesses to over hunt.  This is actually a scientifically valid situation, as when you have a predatory force that is over taxing a population, it can lead to ruin in the landscape itself.  As things come to a head for Scar and the situation is dire, Simba returns and confronts his uncle.

During the battle, Scar reveals that he caused Mufasa’s death, not Simba, and the pride turns against him.  He falls from a cliff and into the clutches of the hyenas.

Here is where things get, theoretical, because that’s not the last we see of old Scar.

                It’s at this point we have to use a little bit of deductive reasoning to determine what happened to him, but its sufficient to say he probably didn’t stick around Africa, either in the Pride Lands or the Outlands, because he simply wasn’t welcomed.  The next time we see anything that remotely looks like Scar in Disney cannon is in “Hercules” where it’s heavily implied that he is the Nemean Lion, but then the movie doesn’t make that 100% clear.  When we see Hercules battling a lion, it’s a massive beast as seen below.

 

Note that this creature lacks a facial scar, which is pretty definitive for Scar.  But later we are treated to this little Easter Egg:

 

 

Now that is certainly Scar.  But does that mean that Scar is the Nemean Lion? Not necessarily, but it could mean that Scar is a lion of mythic proportions.

 

The story of the Nemean Lion is as follows: There was a vicious lion that was kidnapping women and holding them hostage in a cave.  When heroes could come to rescue said women they were lured into the cave by a woman lying on her side apparently injured.  When they got too close, the woman “turned into a lion” and killed them, offering their bones to Hades as tribute.

We actually don’t need to get into a lot of magic to make this make sense, we just need to understand that this creature:

 

Probably isn’t the creature from the story.  It’s way too big and doesn’t look at all like it would need to lure anyone into a trap for anything.  This looks more like the lion of Cithaeron, a far less famous tale, but one about a lion that was devastating herds and flocks and met its end against Hercules’ brute strength.  That story matches much better with what we see in that image.

The Nemean Lion relied on trickery to accomplish its goals, and feared death so much that it needed to make a deal with him to stay alive.  That’s sounds more like Scar’s methodology.  Plus, with almost mocha fur and a very dark, almost black mane, Scar laying on his side in the dark would certainly fit the silhouette of a woman lying on her side.

But there’s a few things wrong with this.  1) The Nemean Lion is said to have impenetrable skin, able to be cut only by his own claws.  And 2) if you take into consideration that Disney suggests that the Pride Lands are in Tanzania, then Scar would have to travel almost the length of Africa, and cross the Mediterranean to get to Nemea.  Take a look at the map below.

 

That’s quite a jaunt for a lone lion, unless that lion was more than just a lion.  Going back to Scar’s family line and what we know they can do, the male lions of Pride Rock seem to have almost supernatural abilities.  Yes, we said that overhunting can cause landscape changes, but the speed at which we see the Pride Lands change back is beyond natural.  Further, there’s that Roar of Elder’s thing.  That’s certainly otherworldly.  But finally let’s look at what we don’t see.  We don’t see any male lions of Pride Rock hurt by anything other than blunt force trauma, as in Mufasa falling and being trampled, and another male lion’s claws.  Even Simba defies all expectations by surviving the trek across the outlands into a lush green jungle, a trip that probably would have killed any conventional cub.

Suddenly a supernatural lion traveling a distance of 9,631.5 kilometers or 5,984 miles doesn’t seem so farfetched.  This averages out to a trip of about 80 days or about 2 ½ months.  Completely do able.

Getting across the Mediterranean would simply be a matter of stowing away on a ship, since this is ancient Greece were talking and the shipping business was in full swing.

So there you have it, Scar was born in Tanzania, migrated north, and was killed by Hercules.

Magical Matter: Everything has to be made of SOMETHING (a Harry Potter Theory)

So I was watching a video by Super Carlin Brothers on YouTube and they addressed how the Pensive, the Mirror of Erised, and the Veil may be related to the Deathly Hallows.  I won’t get into their full theory here, but I will say that they theorize that they are precursors to the actual Deathly Hallows.  One of the things they touch on very briefly is that they may be connected to thestrals, the invisible flying horse-like creatures that are featured in the books.

 

They point out that the thestrals can only be seen by someone who has seen someone die, like Harry and Luna, but also only Harry and Luna can hear the whispers from the Veil.  Why does this matter?

Because I think that these three possible proto-hallows may actually be made FROM thestrals.

 

Basically, anything that is has to be made from something.  Matter matters, as it were.  Therefore these three objects must have been made from something.  Let’s look at the more basic: The Veil.  In the simplest terms, a veil of any kind is a piece of fabric, which is made up from threads woven together.  We know that the Elder wand contains a thestral hair.  Now here is a picture of a thestral…

 

Not exactly known for its hair, is it.  Well its specified that it’s a “tail hair”.  Now you really can’t have access to a thestral hair unless you…have a thestral.  It’s talked about briefly that the Peverell brothers who were closely associated with the Hallows, possibly having made the Hallows, had access to a herd of thestrals, which would explain easy access to thestral hair.  Which brings us back to the Veil, because that veil had to be woven from something and since it’s a veil leading to the land of the dead, it makes sense that it would be woven from thestral hairs.  Pretty sure if you have a herd of thestrals, finding enough hair without being detrimental to the herd should be a pretty easy task.

So there you have it, the Veil is probably made from thestral hair, and magic.  But mostly thestral hair.

So what about the Pensive?

The Pensive is a little more tricky because its liquid contained in a bowl, but which is the magic, the liquid or the bowl?

Well let’s look at this from a more existencial view, what are memories made of?  When we see them in the film they appear as kind of a liquid, and are dropped into the liquid of the bowl.  Memories are basically dead events, events from the past which have already happened.  So how could a thestral possibly connect to a bowl of liquid?  The bowl that is the Pensive, whether it be the metal or the stone one, is decorated with runes.  These runes could be etched with either a piece of a thestral, such as a hoof or a bone, but rather that getting that gruesome, I’d prefer to think that the etched runes are actually treated with thestral tears.  Thematically it makes sense, even if I’m personally not fond of a crying animal, but it makes the element that much more rare and special.

Now…the mirror.  That is significantly more tricky to riddle out, so for that we’d have to look into some magical biology and the person most closely associated with it.  The Mirror of Erised is, by the Super Carlin Bros theory, the mirror is closely associated to the Elder Wand and Antioch Peverell.  What does the Elder Wand represent?  It’s the tool for which you can get pretty much anything you want, it’s the most powerful wand ever made.  The Mirror of Erised represents everything you desire, you can literally see what you want the most.  If Antioch’s primary focus is personal gain, then he probably isn’t that concerned about the welfare of others, or the animals under his care.

Let’s take a quick side street and look at unicorns in the Harry Potter universe.  When we see Voldemort feeding on the blood of a unicorn we see that it’s a thick, silvery substance.  Its reasonable to assume that most magical equines have similar colored blood, silvery.  Mirrors in the Renaissance period, about the time the Peverell brothers were alive, were treated with silver (or a silvery substance) and then pressed on with glass to maintain a shine.  Its possible that in making the mirror, Antioch slaughtered a thestral and used it’s blood to make the mirror.  Consequently killing a creature to make a magical object usually yields unfavorable results.  If Antioch was trying to make a mirror that would give him what he wanted, and slaughtered a magical creature to make it, then it wouldn’t likely give him what he wanted, just make him look at it.  Magical items are tricky like that.

I really don’t have much to close this out.  I recommend checking out the Super Carlin Bros video that led me to this rabbit trail, and check out their other videos as well.

Thanks for reading.

Supergirl Survivors and Flash Monsters...

Survivors and Monster, Supergirl and the Flash update:

It’s not that I don’t like Arrow…I just don’t talk about Arrow.  Because I don’t want to.

I do want to talk about this weeks’ episodes of Supergirl and the Flash.

In Survivors we get more backstory on Mon-El (is “El” like a common name on Krypton and Daxum?  Like Smith?) and a little more of his personality.  We also follow the teams investigation of the Alien Fight Club run by none other than Roulette.

When translating a character from page to screen, sometimes it can be hit or miss…but they completely nailed Roulette.  The revelation that Miss Martian was participating in the fight club wasn’t all that shocking, we knew pretty quickly that she had some secrets and I would have preferred they dragged that out a bit, but I guess they wanted to get it over and done with soon so they could get into her next shocking secret.  If you haven’t actually seen the episode, I won’t spoil it for you, but it explains why she didn’t want to mind meld with Hank.

Kara’s budding friendship with Lena Luthor, while convenient, does kind of smack of “Smallville”, letting us know that it’s going to emotionally hurt Kara when she discovers Lena is a villain.  I mean, she’s probably going to be a villain.  Probably.

The ended was good enough, it tied up pretty well as well as showing that Roulette would be back to trouble the girl of steel again.  Again, this was a pretty strong episode from a show that hasn’t had a bad episode this season.  But was it good as the Flash with “Monster”

No, no it wasn’t.  This week’s Flash touched on a lot of different notes, but all carried the same message: Fear can make you do strange things.  Caitlin fears what her powers are turning her into, Joe fears entering an intimate relationship, Barry fears he’s not in control of his life (when has he ever been in control?), Cisco fears the new Harry, or H.R. if you will, H.R. fears that he’s actually a fraud, and our weekly villain fears being a victim for the rest of his life.

The biggest reveal comes from Julian however, as he is so driven to solve the case that he nearly kills the teenage hacker responsible for the monster menacing Central City.  Finally after having his soul saved by the Flash, he comes clean with Barry that he lashes out because too is scared of the unknown and unpredictable meta-humans.  Barry invites him for a drink, which both men could probably really use.

So the monster in this episode was, clearly fear.  Many critics are calling this a filler episode but I disagree.  This is a developing episode.  It creates character development while planting seeds that may take root in later episodes.  Like, who is this kid that created the holographic monster?  Will we see him again?  (as of right now I have no idea who the character is supposed to be and all my research into the cast just lists him as “kid”).  I’d hate for him to be a one off character.