Episode 133.5 - Minisode 133.5

[Cameron H. 23786]

I've liked the Suicide Squad trailers (though I haven't seen the most recent one) and they are pretty close to what the recent series have been, which have been fantastic. They aren't really designed to fight someone like Superman, but rather any of the off shoot villains being made by enemies domestic and foreign. One of the more recent stories involved them sneaking into either North Korea or Russia in order to stop them from further creating super robots. Other stories have included them basically wiping out the entire Super Dome because it had been overtaken by a techno-virus that mutated all of the people attending the football game. They aren't meant to be a deterrent for heroes like Superman or Wonder Woman, but rather they are the real line of defense against the stuff other organizations won't give the full measure to, so the line about Superman is basically a smoke screen to get the signoff for a black flag operation using Villains. As for Harley, she has had a similar style like in the film for a while now, usually mixing emo, roller derby girl, and various forms of her old harlequin style when she was introduced, so that is par for what it currently is in the comics.

 

Sorry, I'm on vacation this week, so it's taking me a little longer than usual to respond. Not even sure if I'll get the episode until next week...

 

Yeah, I get what you're saying, but you have to look at it from your "Captain Marvel" perspective. You know how they are used in the comics, but your Average Joe may not. So yes, I'm sure this line is being delivered just as you suspect, but by introducing the trailer with this line, I feel like they are being pretty disingenuous to people maybe not as savvy to the source material. People who don't know anything about them might think, "Oh shit, these have to be some badasses if they can take on Supes!" And be thoroughly disappointed when the get something totally different...or pleasantly surprised. All I can say is I am currently unimpressed.

 

Also, going back to Doctor Strange, I was initially excited about Tilda Swinton, but then I found out she's playing a totally whitewashed character. I didn't really know much about the character, but I learned that today when the picture came out of Scarlett Johannson in Ghost in the Shell. So I'm a bit put off on both accounts.

 

Yeah, whitewashing is problematic, and having no real knowledge of the character, I don't want to defend this too hard, but I believe The Ancient One is also canonically portrayed as male, too. I think the idea is to play the role sort of ambiguously--both gender-wise and ethnicity-wise. Kind of like she exists outside of such distinctions...

 

But I honestly have no idea...I'm still pissed about the accent thing. I mean, I don't know anything about Doctor Strange. Him being British instead of American makes no nevermind to me...Free Cummerbund's voice!

 

Also:

 

 

 

ETA: Oh! And while on vacation I had the opportunity to see a movie in the theaters. I did not see BvS (The manager there said he saw an 85% drop from 1st to 2nd week), but I did see Zootopia. I thought it was pretty good, albeit a little long. Also, I think it may have been bogged down by too many "morals." Any of which would have been great on there own--and I agree with all of them--but taken all together, it came off as a tad preachy. But otherwise, it was very good.

[RyanSz 3140]

 

Yeah, I get what you're saying, but you have to look at it from your "Captain Marvel" perspective. You know how they are used in the comics, but your Average Joe may not. So yes, I'm sure this line is being delivered just as you suspect, but by introducing the trailer with this line, I feel like they are being pretty disingenuous to people maybe not as savvy to the source material. People who don't know anything about them might think, "Oh shit, these have to be some badasses if they can take on Supes!" And be thoroughly disappointed when the get something totally different...or pleasantly surprised. All I can say is I am currently unimpressed.

 

 

Yeah, whitewashing is problematic, and having no real knowledge of the character, I don't want to defend this too hard, but I believe The Ancient One is also canonically portrayed as male. I think the idea is to play the role sort of ambiguously--both gender-wise and ethnicity-wise. Kind of like she exists outside of such distinctions...

 

But I honestly have no idea...I'm still pissed about the accent thing. I mean, I don't know anything about Doctor Strange. Him being British instead of American makes no nevermind to me...Free Cummerbund's voice!

Doctor Strange I only know from when I see him in crossover stories and he's a know-it-all-asshole like Tony Stark and Reed Richards, which is why I call the Illuminati the Legion of Dickbags. I think Tilda Swinton has become the go-to person for ambiguous portrayals as she can appear to come off as so many different types of people. I do know the Ancient One is male but I'm assuming Marvel acknowledges that the vast majority of the viewing audience won't know that so they went with Swinton, though I am surprised that there isn't a huge backlash for it since the character is Asian in the comics, yet people are up in arms about the casting of Iron Fist not being an Asian actor even though the entire history of Danny Rand is that he is a white guy who learned this ancient martial art and became a superhero.

 

As for Suicide Squad there is a little bit of a silver lining that is being glossed over in the trailers in that it appears that they are trying to recruit the Enchantress who has a variety of dark art magic powers, and magic is the biggest weakness of Superman next to Kryptonite. I agree it's kinda burying the lead with how they present it, especially after the first trailer did a good job of showing Amanda Waller wanting to set up a villians team with built in deniability.

 

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

Also:

 

 

 

You win. That one kills me every time I see it.

[taylor anne photo 11311]

Doctor Strange I only know from when I see him in crossover stories and he's a know-it-all-asshole like Tony Stark and Reed Richards, which is why I call the Illuminati the Legion of Dickbags. I think Tilda Swinton has become the go-to person for ambiguous portrayals as she can appear to come off as so many different types of people. I do know the Ancient One is male but I'm assuming Marvel acknowledges that the vast majority of the viewing audience won't know that so they went with Swinton, though I am surprised that there isn't a huge backlash for it since the character is Asian in the comics, yet people are up in arms about the casting of Iron Fist not being an Asian actor even though the entire history of Danny Rand is that he is a white guy who learned this ancient martial art and became a superhero.

I saw a shit ton of black lash back when she was initially casted in the role. But as with everything with the internet it died down and people became up in arms about the next bull shit decision made by Hollywood.

[RyanSz 3140]

I saw a shit ton of black lash back when she was initially casted in the role. But as with everything with the internet it died down and people became up in arms about the next bull shit decision made by Hollywood.

I remember that there was a little about a woman being cast, but not so much about the race, which usually gets more press. I was stunned reading the Iron Fist stuff because a person who had worked for Marvel, though I don't know if recently, really started the fire for that whole shebang about how it should be an Asian actor, which in turn caused a counter backlash from people condemning the remark as racist because the remark came off as only Asians would be good at a martial arts character.

[Ofcoursemyhorse 1043]

Considering Ben Kingsley was their choice for the Mandarin, I dont know why anyone would be surprised why they'd go with Tilda Swinton.

 

To be fair though, I thought Kingsley was great in Iron Man 3, and i'm sure Tilda Swinton will be an amazing addition to the MCU.

[RyanSz 3140]

Considering Ben Kingsley was their choice for the Mandarin, I dont know why anyone would be surprised why they'd go with Tilda Swinton.

 

To be fair though, I thought Kingsley was great in Iron Man 3, and i'm sure Tilda Swinton will be an amazing addition to the MCU.

Also to be fair, Kingsley was only playing an imposter Mandarin, I'm waiting for that other shoe to drop in either this phase or phase 4.

[FisterRoboto 7499]

Also to be fair, Kingsley was only playing an imposter Mandarin, I'm waiting for that other shoe to drop in either this phase or phase 4.

Kingsley's also half-Gujarati Indian. That's still not appropriate for a half-Chinese character, but at least we're getting to the right continent...