This year hasn't been the year everyone wanted. We emerged from the pandemic only to find ourselves... Well, still in the pandemic, and the complications from events have not helped the overall situation. Despite this, some roses have managed to peak out through the gloom of 2021 and today I want to focus on those, because what we focus on is what will grow.
10: Disney's Animated Encanto and Luca
Disney did not slouch this year with it's animated fare. First giving us Luca, the touching story about a sea monster who wants to be human told through a beautiful friendship and impressive visuals (Does anyone remember when Pixar cut a scene from The Incredibles because they didn't want to mess with hair underwater?). Following it for the holidays was the musical Encanto, an enchanting film about a magical family with music by Lin Manuel-Miranda, the talent that brought us Hamilton. Despite having no children of our own, the Encanto soundtrack has been all but on loop at our house.
9: Marvelous World of Marvel
I don't want this post to be Top 10 Things that Came Out on Disney+ This Year, unless they're going to start kicking over some sponsorship money, so I'm just going to say that Marvel had an excellent year and take a chance to plug my two favorites: Wandavisionand What If? The fact that Marvel can cater even to my esoteric nerddoms like all-powerful magic beings and multiverse-level threats shows that Marvel truly does have something for everyone.
Before I move past Disney let me also just mention:
This year we got three great Pokemon games (Two if you count Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl as the same game), and each one gave hardcore nostalgia fans something we wanted. For fans of the fourth generation we got the afforementioned Brilliant Diamond and Shiny Pearl, and for N64 fans we got New Pokemon Snap , a remake of the classic game with about a billion new Pokemon. The franchise is alive and well, and any lingering doubts will probably burn away next month with the new Zelda: Breath of the Wild inspired Pokemon Legends: Arceus.
7: The Snyder Cut
As a DC fan it's been hard watching Marvel clock my favorite heroes in the box office, but this year we saw DC make one of its strongest strikes with The Justice League: Snyder Cut. A cinematic masterpiece featuring the original superhero team up. The film is rivaled only by Joker and The Dark Knight (I might be a Joker fan) in quality. It's no wonder cries of #RestoreTheSnyderverse can still be heard throughout the internet.
6: Animal Crossing: New Horizons: Happy Home Paradise
Animal Crossing: New Horizons got a lot of us through the roughest part of the pandemic, and became the 15th best selling game in history according to Wikipedia. As a farewell to the game Nintendo released a $30 DLC which was basically an entirely new game with all the cute animals our little gamer hearts could take. Most importantly: Wardell.
5: Loop Hero
It's hard to review games on our blog, since they tend to take 40+ hours these days and we have jobs and families, but they're are a few games, including the several already mentioned and the ones that will be mentioned, that just had to be played. Loop Hero is an indie darling that absolutely needs to be played to be understood. You rebuild a destroyed world almost down to one molecule at a time, all while running around a constant loop of ever increasing intensity. Play it, if for nothing else so then you can be like the cool kids.
4: The Suicide Squad
Controversial opinion I know since this movie is a hard R, but anything that releases with Harley Quinn or an adorable CG monster is my jam, and this had both. The film was a fun anarcic ride through a little slice of the DC universe and I rewatched it more times than I care to admit before it left HBO Max. Also if anyone knows where to get a King Shark Funko Pop that's not ridiculously priced hit me up.
3: Rick and Morty Season 5
Another controversial show, but one that needs to be discussed:
SPOILER
Season 5 gave us a complete picture of Rick's backstory, the reason that he's the angry antisocial drunk that we've all come to love to hate. We had a hint in season 3 that Rick watched his world's Beth and Diane killed by another Rick in order for him to be motivated to invent the portal gun. We then get Rick going on a multiverse killing spree, at first for vengeance but later out of nothing else to live for. It broke our hearts and explained everything.
Wubba lubba dub dub.
2: Monster Hunter: Rise
That wasn't an order sit down.
The latest in the long running Monster Hunter franchise was as usual a delight to play, with even more giant monsters to battle and turn into fashion accessories. It's odd how the gameplay loop of "Kill giant monster, skin giant monster, go after next monster wearing the last monster's skin" never gets old. Plus in this one you can have a cat and a dog as your companions. MULTIPLAYER IS DEAD IF YOU HAVE THEM!
1: More Temples Reopening
Oh, did you think they would all be geek related?
Nothing has warmed my heart more than stopping at my local ice cream place to find it packed with young people in white shirts and modest dresses. It always puts a smile on my face as I get back in the car and look for somewhere less crowded (I'm not waiting in that line!). It means that temple work is resuming in earnest. One of the darkest moments in the pandemic for me was the closing of the temples, a sure sign that things were very much not okay. But now the work of God is happening again and the world can start to truly come back to life. We may not be back to normal yet, but we're slowly but surely moving that way.
The Marvel movie ends, the post credit scene finishes and the crowd of fellow geeks turns to me expecting me to answer their probing questions, like who Thanos is or what an Infinity Stone is. While I am the "That Guy" of my group of friends, Marvel was never my main wheelhouse. I even skipped the first Iron Man in theaters because I just didn't care. My house is a DC house, and for 13 years I've been living in the wrong universe.
The Snyder Cut
The release of the Snyder Cut of Justice League gave us a glimpse of an alternate universe, one where the DC franchise was the big superhero franchise, the one that raked in the billions, and the one on everyone's lips. Don't get me wrong, I love the MCU. Every character is a treat, and even the worst movie is still well executed, but nothing compares to my excitement when a new DC movie is announced. Justice League gave my DC heart everything it ever wanted, all my favorite characters with hints of more. I feel we got a glimpse of what could've been, or more specifically, what should've been.
DC vs. Marvel
Non-comic fans may want to know what the big deal is, since they're both superhero franchises just with different characters. That's just it though, it's the different characters. Unless you grew up with an incredible amount of free time and disposable income, as a comic nerd you had to pick one universe to follow over another. Growing up I picked DC, the bright colorful heroes who always did what was right no matter what appealed to my young sensibilities more than Marvel's darker real world undertones. Ironically the franchises have since traded tones since DC made an R rated Joker movie and the MCU now exists next to Mickey Mouse, but I digress. It all boils down to a mayonnaise vs Miracle Whip decision. A boxers or briefs decision. A PC or Mac decision. It's a personal preference thing, and you can like elements of both without having your ethics brought into question. My preference though is DC.
The Stories We Lost
Without DC becoming the mega franchise, here is but a small list of things we probably will not get to see on the big screen, compiled by yours truly with an ache in his heart.
Justice League Dark
The Killing Joke
Death In The Family
Crisis on Infinite Earths
Reign of the Supermen
The Flashpoint Paradox
Hikeitia
The War of Light
The Judas Contract
Villains United
Identity Crisis
Fourth World
Gotham City Sirens
Kingdom Come
My point is that we are missing a lot of great stories that could be explored because the Snyderverse was cancelled.
Hope Remains
Will DC restore the Snyderverse, salvage the DC films and create something great? Only time will tell. It's hard to blame them if they don't, since it would be an expensive undertaking and will now not only be compared to the MCU directly but back to its own past failures with critics and trolls constantly looking for things to destroy, but maybe. The real good news, however, is that while Marvel loudly brought out blockbuster after blockbuster DC quietly created a library of animated features that can easily hold their own against their cinematic counterparts in both companies. Several of the aforementioned stories have been explored in animation and are incredible pieces of art, and all are streaming on HBO Max (Seriously, with as many times as I've mentioned them on this site they need to start coughing up royalties).
If you are a DC fan realize that if we don't get the universe we want, we at least have several pieces of the universe we deserve, just animated.
Wonder Woman 1984 released on HBO Max and in theaters on Christmas day, but since HBO Max isn't as prevalent as say Disney+ and movie theaters are still problematic, I'm doing a spoiler free review.
So back into the life of Wonder Woman we go, only this time we're doing it 80's style.
Totally Tubular
Wonder Woman 1984 takes place in the time between Diana first entered man's world in Wonder Woman but before she stole the show in Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice. The first half of the film is an 80's comedy throw back, complete with the girl who we have to pretend isn't hot because she wears glasses but gets a makeover, the nonsense McGuffin with magic properties that moves the plot, and the rich yuppie dressed like someone the Golden Girls would date. After this initial style nod, the film quickly transforms into the superhero movie we expected from Wonder Woman, who, admittedly, has become the gold standard for DC superhero films (Sorry Harley Quinn-you're a close second!)
Villains Done Right
It's hard to talk about the villain without spoilers, but I can at least say their names since Lego spoiled it six months ago. What we get are Wonder Woman's other two villains besides Ares, Cheetah and Maxwell Lord. While these could've easily become standard CGI or mad laughing mastermind but here, the villains are humanized to the point of sympathetic, even when the laughing and CGI comes out. Wonder Woman doesn't have a ton of villains because it's hard to find a constant villain that a warrior demi-goddess wouldn't either compassionately rehabilitate or just decapitate. Cheetah and Aries have been standard for decades, with Maxwell joining in about a decade ago after he was mind controlling Superman. Wonder Woman solved Maxwell's issue by twisting his head backwards in the comics, and while I was fully expecting that to happen in DC's darker superhero universe, the twist we got was a pleasant surprise.
All That Glitters
The biggest headline for Wonder Woman 1984 was Wonder Woman's golden armor making an appearance. Introduced in Alex Ross's award winning Kingdom Come, when the armor was first revealed in trailers DC nerds collectively squeed with delight. The film gives the armor a backstory, that it was worn by an Amazon hero left behind so the others could escape (Not plot important so calm down). When the armor makes its appearance in the film for the climax, it was worth the hype. Wonder Woman uses her winged armor to its full potential, giving all the Alex Ross fans more to squee about.
Overall Opinion
The film itself is an absolute delight to watch, despite some moments of "Wait, what are they doing?" The villains, while well established, do become a bit muddled near the middle but the film pulls together by the climax. Overall Wonder Woman 1984 is the perfect way to start a new year, full of hope, potential and a hero we can root for.
With LA Comic Con, E3, Salt Lake FanX and D23 all being cancelled for the year, it was a delight to find DC Comics was going to put on an online event for fans to hear what the company is up to and give us all a momentary likeness of our favorite yearly events. The show overall was spectacular, featuring interviews with people from across the industry, from film makers to comic artists, all answering fan questions and giving us what we need: something to look forward to in the years to come. Here are a few highlights from the show.
Gotham Knights
What was the Arkham video game series missing? All the sidekicks in co-op of course! Gotham Knights allows players to step into the shoes of Batman's loyal sidekicks after his death, leaving Batgirl, Red Hood, Nightwing and Robin to defend Gotham. Can they stop the mysterious Court of Owls? Will they be able to fill the Dark Knight's boots? Will this thing be available on PS4 so I don't have to buy a new system? Time will tell.
The Suicide Squad Reveal
A lot of talk has been floating around the Suicide Squad sequel (Reboot?) titled The Suicide Squad, and Fandome gave us the full cast lineup with who they're going to be playing. Reprising the roles of Harley Quinn, Rick Flag and Amanda Waller are Margot Robbie, Joel Kinnaman and Viola Davis, respectively. The rest of the cast is full of familiar faces including Nathan Fillian, John Cena and Idris Elba, playing villains for the covert Task Force X. We still don't have who will be the official villain yet but with James Gunn, director of Guardians of the Galaxy onboard, we know we're going to be in for a treat.
Wonder Woman 1984
Several panels focused on the sadly pushed back Wonder Woman 1984, reminding fans that it is still on its way. Along with an interview with both Gal Gadot and Linda Carter, we got a new trailer giving us more on the villains of the movie, The Cheetah and Maxwell Lord, plus more cameos from Chris Pine as Steve Trevor. The two have not lost their chemistry although speculation as to how he's come back and why he wasn't around for Justice League is still going strong.
Speaking of...
Justice League: The Snyder Cut
Fans have been begging for this since Justice League came out in theaters to underwhelming reviews. While The Snyder Cut was not announced at Fandome, a new trailer dropped with more hints as to what was removed in the theatrical release. We see more of Batman's vision from Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice with a destroyed Hall of Justice in the devastated city and more hints that Darkseid will be the big villain the League will take on. While I'm personally excited for this cinematic event, I'm still waiting to see the original cut of Suicide Squad. Call me biased.
Speaking of my bias...
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
As an avid Harley Quinn fan, I was incredibly excited to see Margot Robbie come back as the Joker's Favorite Henchgirl. My squee came again when it was announced that the Suicide Squad was getting their own Arkham style video game where they need to take out the Justice League. We don't know much about game play, the idea is enough to keep me intrigued until it comes out in 2022.
The Batman
I could go on with little anecdotes from interviews and other fun things that made the long lived DC fan inside me squee, but this is a highlight post so it's time for the biggest drop. We got a trailer for the upcoming Batman movie starring Robert Pattinson, and it looks amazing. Like, Dark Knight amazing. You've gotta check it out.
The Arrowverse’s epic 5-episode crossover had its finale last week. Over the course of the crossover, we saw the multiverse die and be reborn. Most of the deaths of the crossover were undone by the universe being saved, but there were a couple deaths (Oliver and Barry-90 to be specific) that were a bit more permanent. With all that happened over the Arrowverse in the course of five episodes, there are a lot of implications for where the CW will go from here.
Earth-Prime
Based on the little I knew of the Crisis comics, I wasn’t surprised that this happened. It made sense for them to consolidate our CW shows into one universe, instead of three. This could lead to more crossovers (I’ll cover that later), but it could also lead to some continuity concerns. For example, before Crisis, Lena was antagonistic towards Kara. Now apparently she and Lex are one of Supergirl’s biggest supporters? Does that mean that the course of Supergirl’s season will be abruptly changed? Is it part of Lex’s schemes? Or will it just be disregarded? It also effectively changes the backstory of many of our heroes. Like how did Barry and Kara meet, if he didn’t accidentally break into her universe? I’m guessing questions like these will be mostly ignored, but it’s just one thing that comes to mind.
Smallville, Birds of Prey, and Superman Returns
These series have been off the air for 10+ years, but as of this crossover all three of them are now officially part of the Arrowverse. It’s unlikely that we’ll have crossovers between these series and the current Arrowverse (especially since Smallville’s Clark Kent has given up his powers--though I’d love to see Tom Welling return again), but you never know. I watched Birds of Prey in preparation for the crossover and I would love to see more of them (assuming they exist in the new multiverse). On the other hand, Superman from Earth-96 could easily come back (especially for an episode of Legends); that’d be fun.
Titans, Doom Patrol, and Stargirl
In addition to the series that have ended, DC has its own streaming service with original shows, like Titan, Doom Patrol, and (coming soon) Stargirl. All of these were officially added to the Arrowverse during the prologue to the Crisis and the epilogue of the finale. I’ve never watched these shows (as the DC Universe streaming service requires a subscription that I can’t afford right now). It’s unlikely that Titan or Doom Patrol will cross over with the others later on, but it’s possible that Stargirl could cross over, as it’ll appear on both DC Universe and CW. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Justice League and Crossovers
As the crossover drew to a close, Barry brought the main heroes from each show to the STAR Labs warehouse from the Invasion crossover and he unveiled a Justice League-like round-table. With everyone on the same Earth now and with a central base, besides the DEO or Star Labs, it seemed like they were prepping for more crossovers. We can definitely expect more crossovers to happen on an annual basis, as is tradition. However, the way Barry talked I wondered if we might get more mini-crossovers, like when Ray and Felicity visited STAR Labs in The Flash Season 1. Having Jefferson or his girls leave Freeland for an episode to help with an electricity-powered meta in National City could be a very easy thing to do now. Plus, I miss those kinds of crossovers. It made the universe feel more cohesive, instead of only getting together for world-ending scenarios.
DCEU
Ever since Man of Steel, DC has been trying to create a cinematic universe akin to Marvel. They haven’t been as successful (and honestly I haven’t seen their movies), but with Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen showing up for his Crisis cameo, it’s now possible for movies and TV characters to cross over. Will they cross over? Probably not. DC likes to compartmentalize. But they could! And honestly THIS is the thing that could get me to watch all those DCEU movies. They have seven movies so far and with eight more on the way, tying it into the established, successful Arrowverse could be beneficial for them.
What were your takeaways from Crisis on Infinite Earths? I’m looking forward to seeing how the aftermath will play out on each show. I guess we'll find out the start of it with this week’s Batwoman and Supergirl.
It's no doubt that the Justice League movie has had a shaky production history. Two different directors, countless reshoots, a rumor that the first cut of the film was "Unwatchable" and of course the track record of the other DC films.
So imagine my surprise when I thought the Justice League movie was actually quite good.
No, it's not the perfect movie. DC movies still have the problem that they have plot holes you can comfortably walk through at the best of times, but a good movie isn't a perfect movie, as I explain at about 10 PM to my beligured friends after my 3rd or 4th can of Coke. Justice League skims closer to perfection than it's main predecessor Batman Vs. Superman in one significant way: It's fun.
The plot is your standard pull the gang together plot. While there's nothing much to it I won't give too many details just because I'm not the type of internet troll who would sneak spoilers online. There's a big evil threatening to destroy the earth, naturally, so Batman decides to look up the weirdos he's been gathering data on like a creepy Facebook stalker. Our bad guy is your standard super villain, "I will conquer you all" types, with an army of easily disposable monsters so the crew has something to practice on before hitting up the final boss, but it's not the plot that makes the film great.
Every character is full of those witty Joss Whedon one-liners, and every scene is full of the same vibrant colors that you'd find from opening a comic book. This is the kind of super hero movie I've been waiting for from the DC universe. One full of joy and fun, unlike the gloomfest that was Batman Vs. Superman, or the sadly odd yet oddly satisfying mess that was Suicide Squad. This is just pure unadulterated super hero fun for the whole family.
So then what's next for the DC cinematic universe? Well the other critics hate this film, but I suspect we're getting to the point where the super hero film market is more saturated than Superman's briefs on a vacation to Atlantis. That being said, after this film I want to see what else DC has to show us, so long as they keep the tone n the light side and the battle headed towards Darkseid.
I hate that we live in a time where this image is real
but not everyone is excited about it.
They're owned by Disney. Marvel films are collecting far more praise and fangirls than any DC film since Dark Knight. Used to be kids wanted to exclusively dress up as Batman, now Halloween is full of Captain Americas, Iron Mans, and Hulks.
Will DC recover? Will kids dress up as Batman and Superman once again? Will the Dark Knight escape from the Riddler's sinister death trap?
Sorry, went somewhere different for a minute.
If you'd have asked me last week if I thought DC's upcoming "We're just as good as Marvel"'s Batman Vs. Superman film was going to go, I'd have told you that they're was little hope. The casting rumors has it filled to the brim with heroes that have sparked heated debates. The fact that it's directly tied to the bafflingly awful Man of Steel film and rumored to be connected to the unbelievably awful Green Lantern films, I just had no hope for the people who have taken thousands of dollars of my money for comic books.
Then I saw this:
Okay, they've got my interest.
Marvel, being owned by Disney, seems to be taking the classic good guy/bad guy angle when it comes to super hero films. Easy morals the kids can follow, over-dramatic villains for the snarky heroes to beat on (Loki and Winter Soldier of course excluded), and that's fine. DC though seems to be headed into the dark and gritty direction. Moral questions being brought up, complex villains and even the best heroes making mistakes.
Will it work?
Let's just be glad they didn't dress
her up in a string bikini.
Honestly this is probably the only way DC could go to not look like they were flat out ripping off Marvel. Going the gritty dark root opens DC up to the more adult audience, the ones who like having a significant plot to go along with people in their underwear beating each other to death with cars. My worry is if DC is going to be able to make it work. The Dark Knight series only really worked because of Heath Leger showing everyone how a villain is done, and the third installment barely pulled the franchise together. As I said earlier, I was not at all impressed with Man of Steel's attempt at making Superman dark, my biggest reason being is that they tried to force it on him so much it smacked in effort, like trying to sell Hot Topic clothes at the MTC, it just didn't seem like a good fit.
This trailer seems to indicate though that Superman is being swept up in some sort of mass hysteria of people either thinking that he is god and here to save everyone or is not god and will doom us all, and Batman seems to be on the side of the doomsayers. If you look at Batman from an outsider perspective, he is a vigilante running around with unlicensed weapons assaulting countless victims a night and causing massive property damage so I can see how Superman would see him as dangerous as well, so I can see now why these two would end up in a brawl.
Nobody is making fun of Aquaman again.
My last concern is one I mentioned earlier: the trailer only showed Batman and Superman. Where is everyone else? The above estimate at the plot seems like it would take a lot of screen time to establish, so where could they squeeze in Lex Luthor, Wonder Woman and Aquaman? Not to mention the rumors that have been floating around about Darkseid, Doomsday, Green Lantern, Flash, and Martian Manhunter. This is why Marvel took their time and gave most of the main characters their own movies to establish and breathe in before smashing them all together to trash New York. Avengers works because we already know these people, so what's going to happen when we have to stop the epic Superman/Batman brawl to explain who these people are and what they're doing?
Overall, I feel more hopeful for this film. I was going to see it either way because they'res nothing I love more than a good train wreck, but now I'm hoping Superman comes by and saves the day.
People have been asking me what my thoughts are on the Batman/Superman
movie that was announced at Comicon.
And my thoughts are… Eh?
Then I heard that the heroes will be adversarial. And I
thought… Eh?
Batman and Superman have been the biggest super heroes in
the world for decades, arguably until the Avengers film franchise came out, so
the question of who would win in a fight is anything but new. The debate in
most comic book stores between fans ends in one of two ways: Either Batman employs
some sort of bat-gadget, usually utilizing Kryptonite in some way, or Superman occasionally
smashes Batman’s head into the moon.
Either way, the fight doesn’t take long.
Comic book writers have endeavored to make the fight last
longer, usually coming up with contrived reasons to hinder Superman, which is
usually counterproductive to the contrived reasons they have as to why Batman
and Superman are fighting in the first place. It’s hard to justify why Superman
would be turned evil enough to take on his best friend but not evil enough to
kill him. As interesting as some of
these comics get, nearly all status quo has to be restored by the end so nobody
actually dies or ends up horribly disfigured. This usually makes the fights
seem more like an episode of Jerry Springer than an epic battle.
All that being said, I am glad that they’re doing the super
hero equivalent to a buddy cop movie instead of blatantly ripping off the
Avengers… to a point. Since the Avengers ripped off the Justice League in the
comics in the first place it’s nice to see the cycle finally end, but maybe DC
could’ve taken at least a look at Marvel’s book before starting on the next
project.
My biggest problem is Batman. Why do we need another
anything with Batman in it? Since 1989 there have been seven Batman films released
in theaters, eight if you count the animated Batman: Mask of the Phantasm. We’ve
also had six animated series in that time that featured Batman as a main
character, seven if you count Young Justice. That’s a lot of Batman!
If DC should copy anything from the Avengers it should be
their willingness to introduce the general public to some heroes they may not
be familiar with. How compelling would it be if Superman, while flying around
the world, landed on Themyscira and met Wonder Woman? In the comics they’re currently
going out, so it would be relevant, and I think a story about superman having
to choose between a near-immortal like himself and the vulnerable Lois would be
a far better story than yet another awkward bromace between the Dark Knight and
the Man of Steel.
So at the end of the day I put a weary thumbs up for a
Superman vs. Batman movie, with the hope that after this we can finally move
away from Gotham City and make the real hit movie: Superman meets the Harlem
Globetrotters.
