Category Archives: Marvel
6 Mutants Who Would Have Been Better than Dangerous Dreadlocks Guy
I saw Dark Phoenix last weekend and it’s fine. It wasn’t a trainwreck — pun intended — and it wasn’t a masterpiece. It was just another perfectly fine and generic X-Men film; mildly entertaining with some solid special effects. I’m not going to do a full review of the film because I really only have two thoughts: I can’t wait for Marvel to do it better, and I’m still annoyed whenever these films fill out their mutant ranks with movie-original nobodies.
Look! I managed to find a picture of him online!
Who the hell was Dangerous Dreadlocks Guy? According to IMDB, his name is “Ariki”, but that means nothing. He’s not from the comics. Reading the internet tells me this character was supposed to be “Red Lotus” from the comics, but nobody’s ever heard of Red Lotus, and the character in the movie bares no resemblance to Red Lotus anyway.
The X-Men movies were always doing this. It’s insane. Remember the guy who threw spikes in The Last Stand? Or the guy who’s arms would regrow when Wolverine cut them off from The Last Stand? Or the various nameless student characters in the background, like that kid who could change the channels without looking or the kid with the blue tongue in X2?
What I’m saying is: there are hundreds of available mutant characters in the X-Men comics. Why did the movies insist on creating no-name nobodies to fill supporting roles? To let off this steam, here’s a list of mutants who could have been used instead of Dangerous Dreadlocks Guy.
I Don’t Quite Understand the New Avengers Video Game
The first real details of the upcoming The Avengers video game from Square Enix arrived at E3 last night…and I don’t quite understand what I’m seeing. Apparently it’s going to be a “live service” game with a focus on online co-op, where you and three friends play Iron Man, Black Widow, Hulk and Thor in an original Avengers story.
Here’s the main trailer:
There are a couple of smaller trailers out there on the web, including one with Hank Pym. Ant-Man has already been confirmed as future DLC.
But yeah, I don’t quite understand this game. Based on this trailer, I just don’t know what we’ll be playing. It all looks like cut scenes. And this “live service” thing is new to me. I think it’s similar to games like Destiny and Anthem, which I’ve never played. I think they’re these ongoing games, with constant updates to costumes, quests and content to keep people active and playing longer. Like World of Warcraft with its expansion packs every couple of years. At least I think that’s what it is.
I dunno. I haven’t read any articles on this Avengers game that fully explain what’s happening. It looks like just a bunch of wild fighting.
Hopefully we’ll learn more in the future. The game comes out on May 15.
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Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 6/8/19
You know what’s sad? I was so disinterested in Dark Phoenix, the end of the X-Men movie franchise as we know it, that I didn’t even bother to come up with an X-Men-themed List of Six this week. That’s how little this movie matters. I’m going to see it this afternoon.
I don’t even have any X-Men comics on my review pile this week. I’ve got Batman, War of the Realms and the new Black Cat comic, but not a lick of X-Men. Oh well. Comic Book of the Week goes to a lesser issue of The Green Lantern, but pickings were slim.
Proper use of phenomenal cosmic power ring
Meanwhile, I’m skipping a bunch of War of the Realms tie-ins in regular ongoing series, from Iron Man to Fantastic Four. The main series hasn’t excited me enough to bother with the tie-ins. And the new issue of Young Justice was painfully uninteresting, so I scratched it off my list too. So…I really need to find new comics that I actually enjoy reading.
Comic Reviews: Batman #72, Black Cat #1, The Green Lantern #8, and The War of the Realms #5.
Jessica Jones is Back for One More Go!
The last of the great Netflix Defenders shows arrives next weekend: Jessica Jones season 3! It’s sad to see these shows go…even if they didn’t turn out all that great. I especially disliked season 2 of Jessica Jones, so we’ll see how season 3 turns out.
Here’s the trailer:
Looks good at the moment! Who’s that villain, you wonder? He’s none other than Foolkiller!
Not familiar with Foolkiller? Then allow me to share with you how I first learned of Foolkiller: classic Marvel trading cards from the early 90s!
He’s undefeated against fools!
I think Jessica Jones is in big trouble! The character, not the show. The show’s already cancelled after this.
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Gay Quasar is Alive!
Sorry for the bluntness of that title, but it is Pride Month and I wanted to catch everybody’s attention. A couple of years ago, Marvel introduced a new Quasar, Avril Kincaid. I didn’t think much about her because I’ve never thought much about Quasar at all. Avril is gay, which is great for diversity in comics and representation…but then Marvel went and killed her in one of their big Events. Granted, I think she was created to be killed in that moment, since she wasn’t around very long and the same creators were involved.
Heroic sacrifice
I became interested in Avril when I did a List of Six looking at what LGBTQ+ characters could star in their own solo superhero movies. Honestly, there aren’t many stand alone gay characters in comics…and I settled on Avril as Quasar being Marvel’s best bet. Since then, I’ve been particularly interested in the character…so it’s a shame she’s dead.
Until this week’s Guardians of the Galaxy Annual, wherein classic Quasar Wendell Vaughn reveals that she’s alive!
Nobody cares about Wendell Vaughn
So neat! A new and potentially prominent solo lesbian superhero could come back to comics soon after a disappointing “death”. Seriously, there are not many stand alone queer superheroes out there. Most of them are members of a team, like the various gay X-Men, or they’re a package deal with their significant other, like Hulkling and Wiccan. If we want an LGBTQ+ superhero to have as important and prominent solo superhero film as all these other characters, I think lesbian Quasar Avril Kincaid is Marvel’s best bet, so I’m glad she could come back.
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