The newest Superman is now out, and I have seen it. What did I think? I loved it! It was a fantastic. I am not going to spoil anything here but I will go over the broad strokes.
The DECU is dead, long live the DCU.
David Corenswet is a great Clark Kent and Superman. He is bright, optimistic, and hopeful. He carries the movie on all of this. There is a lot of "All-Star Superman" here, at least in tone and optimism, not so much in plot.
Rachel Brosnahan is a great Lois Lane. She is smart, observant, and tough. This is a Lois who will get into trouble.
The standout has to be Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor. He is evil, and brilliant, and you want to hate him but he is just so good really.
I loved the "Justice Gang" of Hawkgirl, Mister Terrific, and Green Lantern Guy Gardner, played by Isabella Merced, Edi Gathegi, and Nathan Fillion, respectively. They played their comic roles fantastically. There are good reasons why we have Guy and not Hal, John, or even Kyle. Merced is channeling the DCAU Hawkgirl more than just a little bit.
But the winner is really Krypto.
I also loved Milly Alcock as Supergirl for the brief time we get to see her. Now I want to see Melissa Benoist as Power Girl.
My theatre was packed and all the showtimes around it were sold out. People seemed to really love it. I can't wait to talk about it more.
It was great. Go see it.
Cameos
John Cena makes a brief appearance as Peacemaker. Not a shock, given it's a James Gunn show. It was also a DCEU show (1st season), and he was in the second Suicide Squad movie. So that counts as a previous series. Related is Frank Grillo as A.R.G.U.S. director Rick Flag Sr. from the animated DCU series Creature Commandos.
Michael Rosenbaum, Lex from Smallville and Flash from the DC Animated series voices one of Lex's Raptar guards.
Will Reeve, the son of Christopher Reeve, appears as a Metropolis TV News reporter. Looking every bit like his dad.
The big ones, though, are the opening and closing credits. They look just like the Salkind movies, and the John Williams' score is back.
As I wrap my coverage of the Superman movies, I want to take an aside and talk about DC's first big-screen attempt at an extended universe. Called the DC Extended Universe, or more often, the Snyderverse, this era produced some fun, some good, and some terrible movies.
Suicide Squad (2016)
While not a great movie, it is fun one. It introduces us to Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn, one of many perfect castings in the DCEU, and featured one of my favorite characters, Enchantress. Don't go into this movie looking anything but comic book action and plot. I mean one of my favorite scenes is when Harley sees her old Harlequin costume in her box of things and gets all excited about it. Ok, the scene where El Diablo fights Incubus is also pretty cool.
Wonder Woman (2017)
Honestly, this movie is a masterpiece and is easily in my top-5 superhero movies of all time. Patty Jenkins was great as the director, and Gal Gadot WAS Wonder Woman. She had huge boots to fill from Lynda Carter, and she did it. She gave us a Wonder Woman who is strong and powerful without loosing a gram of femininity; exactly like she should be from the comics. I know the family of William Moulton Marston, Wonder Woman's creator, was thrilled with it. This one might be the best movie in all the DCEU.
Sadly, Wonder Woman 1984 just could not live up to its predecessor's heights.
Aquaman (2018) and Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)
Both of these were fun and were excuses for Jason Momoa to give us his brand of Arthur Curry. They are also fun, but fall just short of great, really, with the 2018 movie being a bit better.
Shazam! (2019), Black Adam (2022), and Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)
Shazam, aka Captain Marvel, "the Big Red Cheese" is a difficult character to get right. He is a kid in the form of a god really. Zachary Levi did a great job of this in the 2019 and 2023 movies and Shazam! was a really good flick. You have to be a fan of the character though I think. Kudos for the cameo of Michael Gray from old Filmation Saturday Morning Shazam! series. The 2023 movie also has Wonder Woman in the end.
Black Adam was Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's dream gig in the DC Universe. So much so he was a producer on all three movies. As expected it is darker than either Shazam movie. Nice post credits scene with Amanda Waller and Superman at the end.
They are not great movies, but fun ones.
The Flash (2023)
Pity the poor Flash. It might go down as the movie that killed the DCEU. It didn't, but it certainly didn't help.
Let's talk about what is good. LOVED seeing Michael Keaton back as Batman/Bruce Wayne. Wonderful, worth the price of the movie. As janky as it was, the Flash running through the Multiverse and seeing ALL the old Supermen, especially Christopher Reeve and Helen Slater, standing side by side as Superman and Supergirl was amazing. Even the Arrorow-verse, which the DCEU always seemed to ignore as an annoying kid brother, gets a nod. Though it does it in a way that shows they are either ignorant of the characters (most likely) or are being purposely disrespectful. NICHOLAS FREAKING CAGE as Superman with a mullet fighting a Thanagarian Snare Beast! If you are a DC fan, you know what this means, so while I would like to give them a pass on being ignorant on the CW-DCU (Arrow-verse) this shows they did know the deep lore. So maybe they were not allowed to use any Arrow-verse characters as their Arrow-verse character...DC does some strange things at times. The end with the big "Batman twist" is fun. BUT it was also a sign that they knew the DCEU was ending.
Now the bad. Erza Miller turned into a bit of a dumpster fire. I mean, he was kinda fun, but never really right as Barry Allen. Plus, we had a GREAT Barry Allen. Grant Justin was amazing. The script is a bit of a mess. Though the Flash having the Flash as the big bad does fit with the comics. Sasha Calle was great as Supergirl, but we never got to see enough of her, and she was gone before we could know her.
There were other movies. Blue Beetle was fun. There was a soft-reboot, sorta-, sorta-not of The Suicide Squad. I enjoyed the Birds of Prey movie, even if most didn't.
There were some fun times here, but by and large they did not measure up to the successes or the storytelling of the Marvelverse. Trust me, as a DC fan, those are hard words to write.
I am hopeful for the new James Gunn helmed DC Studios and the new Superman and DCU. Does this include the newer Batman movie? I don't know really.
While I have a lot of heroes I would love to add, more than a few villains also need my attention. And given how this particular villain got his real-world start, it seems fitting to stat him up now.
Dr. Andreas Gelé, The Refrigerator
You can read the history of this misanthrope here, but he began as a nod to the "Women in Refrigerators" trope as detailed by Gail Simone.
History of The Refrigerator
Dr. Andreas Gelé was born to wealth and privilege but never to love. His father was a was a rich industrialist who made his money on the work of others and his mother was a noted and beautiful stage actress. From his father he gained his intellect and from his mother he learned lessons in cruelty.
As his mother aged she became more and more cruel. In his mind's eye, he still saw her as beautiful. This was reinforced by all the pictures of her on the wall of their estates, where she was young, beautiful, and happy. Frozen in time. Gelé began working on a process to keep the beautiful women young forever. He was drawn to beautiful women, and his prestige later as a doctor and his wealth made that easy. But he never could talk to or relate to them, having grown up socially stunted. So Gelé embarked on a plan so he could have his desires met.
His first experiments in cryonics were failures. Animals would not return to life after being frozen, and even when he perfected the process, they still had tissue damage, finally, through a combination of fluids and gases at supercooled temperatures. He tested it first on his hated father. He died soon after he was free of the ice, but Gelé expected that since the old man's heart was now weak. He froze his mother next. He was overjoyed that the ice preserved her remaining beauty.
All his research, though, has depleted his fortunes, so he robs banks to fund more research and to keep more of his "beauties" on ice. He still has trouble talking to and relating to women, but he finds it much more manageable after he has frozen them.
Creepy little bastard, huh.
The Refrigerator
Dexterity: 2
Strength:
2
Body: 3
Intelligence: 6
Will: 4
Mind: 5
Influence: 2
Aura: 3
Spirit: 4
Initiative: 10 Hero Points: 100
Current Body: 3 Current Mind: 5 Current Spirit: 4
Alter Ego: Dr. Andreas Gelé Occupation: Former Medical Faculty Marital Status: Single Known Relatives: None Group Affiliations: None Base of Operations: Gotham City Motivation: Twisted Obsession Wealth: 6 Height: 5'6" Weight: 125 lbs Eyes: Blue Hair: White
Skills Gadgetry 6 Medicine 5 Weapon (Freeze Ray) 5
Powers Freeze Ray (Gadget) - Ice Control 6 - Ice Production 6 Thermal Goggles (Gadget) - Thermal Vision 6
Advantages Connoisseur [5], Gadget Freeze Ray, Rich Family [15], Scholar: Cryonics [10], Medicine [10]
A special Kickstart Your Weekend this week. Last week, I mentioned a new DC Heroes Kickstarter on the way. Well, it launched on Monday, and it has already blown through all its stretch goals, and now they are making new ones.
So, this Kickstarter doesn't really need my help.
But anyone who spends any time here at all knows about my deep love for all things DC Comics. So they might not need my help, but I am giving it anyway! And what better way to do it than to dust off some characters! Well. Not so much dust off, as in recreate. I will get my old V&V character up soon, but I have been thinking a lot about my occult investigative agency A.R.T.E.M.I.S. and how it might exist in other game settings. So you know what I am going to do here.
For this one, I pulled out my Batman Role-Playing Game, which is DC Heroes 1.5 or something like that. I have (or had, I think I loaned it out) the 1st Ed boxed set, and I was trying to decide if I want the 1st or 2nd ed boxed set from the Kickstarter. I think I am going with 2nd Ed. I had 3rd Ed for a while, but I know I sold that at my local game auction.
So who is this Larina?
The game is dated from 1989, back when Bat-Mania was at its height. So I am making this a 19-year old Larina (1989). The obvious comparisons are her Chill stats (still need to post them) and my recent R.I.P. Horror Role-playing project. This Larina is a little different from her R.I.P. counterpart though they are about the same age (19 vs 22). Is that a Crisis On Infinite Earths potential adventure I hear?
For DC Heroes, new heroes always start out with 450 APs. I bump it up to 500 because I like a little more power. This is magic rich world, so my magic characters need a boost.
Larina Nix AKA Nix the Witch
Dexterity:
2
Strength:
1
Body:
2
Intelligence:
6
Will:
5
Mind:
4
Influence:
3
Aura:
5
Spirit:
7
Initiative: 11 Hero Points: 50
Current Body: 2 Current Mind: 4 Current Spirit: 7
Alter Ego: Larina Nichols Occupation: Student/Research Librarian, Gotham University Marital Status: Single Known Relatives: Stephani Nichols (Mother), Lars Nichols (Father) Group Affiliations: A.R.T.E.M.I.S. Base of Operations: Gotham City Motivation: Responsibility of Power Wealth: 5 Height: 5'4" Weight: 124 lbs Eyes: Blue Hair: Red
Skills Artist (Music) 2 [13] Charisma 2 [32] Medicine 2 [17] Occultist 9 [101]
Equipment Broom (Body 1, Fly 5 [10]) [25] (can fly at about 50 mph)
--
Ok, so who is this?
This Larina is still young. Honestly, this version would work better as a Teen Titan, which would work well with the 1st Edition boxed set.
I might adjust her wealth down to 4. I also need to remember how to give her some more languages. I also decided against the edgy notion of having her parents dead. Been there, done that, no need to go back.
I put her in Gotham as a nod to my copy of the Batman RPG and my undying love for the Caped Crusader. In D&D, her alignment is Lawful Neutral, so she would be an agent of Law here. Not civil law, but Universal and Magic Law. This would make her the natural target of the likes of Mordru. Also, Mordru scared the shit out of me when I got one of my first DC comics. I must have been 5 or 6. So yeah, he is a great Arch Enemy for my witch here. While his modern look is likely the better one, I tend to go with his classic crazy-looking wizard look from his first appearance. Plus, I am rereading all of Michael Moorcock's Eternal Champion books, so the battle of Law vs Chaos is very much on my mind right now.
I want to get my V&V version of Johan ported over, and I have a few others in mind. I am thinking of something like Justice League Dark but with my band of characters here. I guess that means I will need versions of Dracula and the Refrigerator, too. I'd love to find a copy of "Blood of Heroes" from Pulsar Games. It was the same system with more magic. If I do, then I need to update her stats. Maybe Larina as a 30-year-old, really powerful witch.
She has an alter ego, but I have never had a great "Superhero" name for her. Later, she is known as "Witch Queen," but at this point, she is still figuring things out.
Spend any time here, and you know I am a HUGE fan of the DC Comics event "Crisis on Infinite Earths." I loved the comic, the DC YV Universe version, and more.
This is a two-fer for me. There are two games I want to see a new edition of and I hope that once again they are the same system.
I would love to see a new edition of Mutants & Masterminds AND a new edition of a DC Comics RPG.
I started with M&M back in 2nd Edition and I loved it. Such a great game.
When 3rd Edition came out I grabbed the PDFs right away and was going to pick up the print versions, but Green Ronin also had released the DC Adventures game that used the same M&M 3rd edition system. So I got all of those books.
I'd love a 4th edition of M&M and wonder if it couldn't move a little closer to their AGE system.
I also want a new DC comics RPG. I know there is a new Marvel game out and yes it looks great, but I have always been more of a DC guy. I also want to buy more Green Ronin stuff.
Do you know what today is? Well, yes, it is the last of my superheroes for Wasted Lands, but is it also a Zatannurday! Have not done one of these in a very long time. So lets end this exploration right with someone really powerful.
Today I cover the Mistress of Magic. She is a scion of a magical lineage and has worked out ways to do magic with little corruption. It makes her spellcasting more difficult but keeps her from going mad. Or evil. Or both.
The Mistress of Magic
Class: Sorceress Level: 20 Species: Human Alignment: Light Good Background: Magical student and adept
Abilities Strength: 13 (+1) Agility: 13 (+1) Toughness: 16 (+2) Intelligence: 20 (+4) A Wits: 16 (+2) N Persona: 18 (+3) N
The Dreaming Age is an age filled with magic. Dangerous to both the wielder and those around them, the magic is the leftovers of the Deeper Dark; an aberration of a time when the Old Ones walked this Earth. Magic is dangerous, seriously deadly, and ultimately corrupting. It should only be handled by the most serious and dedicated of practitioners.
And then there is this arsehole.
The Occult Detective is the guy who has a little bit of knowledge, a little bit of magic, a little bit of luck, and a whole lot of bad choices.
He is obviously modeled after John Constantine, but his type ends up in all sorts of horror-related media. It makes him perfect for the world of the Wasted Lands.
Okay, let us scale things down a bit and see what we can do with some mystical characters and some that are not super-powerful. At least not yet.
Another concept that comes up is the Demon Spawn that tries to do good. These characters often appear in comics with magic as a theme and they are a great choice for a Wasted Lands game since there is likely to be a lot more interaction with demons.
This character could be a lot of different things, and "demon" might even be an alien, say in the case of Karolina Dean from Marvel's Runaways. But my example here will be borrowing heavily from DC's Teen Titan, Raven.
Now there are a lot of ways to do Raven. We have Psychics, Sorcerers, and even Necromancers. But Raven's primary powers come from her empathic abilities and astral projection with some spells. So I am going with Psychic for her here.
The Divine Touchstones are really what separated the normal people from the heroes and the heroes from the legends. You likely will not use all of these on one character. I'll have some less-super examples coming up.
She has fewer to reflect that she is still just a teen or young adult. This also more likely the speed in which people will want to hand out the Divine Touchstones.
We are working our way up the power scale to tackle the Paragon. Now this guy (or gal) has Power, with a capital P. They are also a favorite of late for deconstruction or alternate attempts (The Boys, Brightburn) but I am not interested in that right now. I am interested in the one that has power, great power even, and wants to use it for the right things. But this is also the Dreaming Age, and life is pretty rough and dangerous. The Paragon of this world and time will also need to be a little rougher around the edges.
In D&D, they would be a paladin or some other knight in shining armor. They are the bright reflection of the Dark Avenger. Thankfully they both have the Amazon Warrior Princess to help balance them out. One of many reasons why this unlikely trio works so well together.
The Paragon
Class: Warrior Level: 14 Species: Human Alignment: Light Good Background:
Abilities Strength: 22 (+5) A Agility: 17 (+3) Toughness: 17 (+2) N Intelligence: 15 (+1) Wits: 15 (+1) Persona: 16 (+2) N
Divine Touchstones Level 1: Mystical Senses (as Sorcerer spell) Level 2: +1 to combat rolls Level 3: Additional Movement: Fly Level 4: Increased Ability Score (Strength +2) Level 5: Divine Smite Level 6: Gout of Flame (as Sorcerer spell), as Heat Vision (unique mode of attack) Level 7: Divine Aura Level 8: Damage Immunity from missile fire Level 9: Increased Ability Score (Strength +2) Level 10: Half Damage from Mundane slashing Level 11: Chill Breath (as Ray of Frost Sorcerer spell) Level 12: Unique Attack, Heat Vision 60' line Level 13: Down But Not Out Level 14: Divine Recovery
The Divine Touchstones are really what separated the normal people from the heroes and the heroes from the legends. You likely will not use all of these on one character. I'll have some less-super examples coming up.
I am continuing my exploration of various superhero archetypes in the Wasted Lands. Today's topic is the Amazon Princess. While this could be Wonder Woman or someone like Starfire, it can also be a character like Xena Warrior Princess. In truth, Xena would fit in quite well in the Dreaming Age.
This character's drive is not Vengeance (like the Dark Avenger) or even Justice (like the upcoming Paragon) but rather the most good possible. In a lot of ways she is also an emissary of a more enlightened, but still warrior, culture.
In both the cases of Wonder Woman and Xena they have a relationship to the Gods, the Greek Gods in particular. In the Wasted Lands then she would come the same culture that the warriors Zeus and Ares come from. But godhood is not her goal.
The Amazon Princess
Class: Warrior Level: 12 Species: Human Alignment: Light Good Background: Nobility
Abilities Strength: 20 (+4) A Agility: 18 (+3) N Toughness: 17 (+2) N Intelligence: 16 (+2) Wits: 16 (+2) Persona: 16 (+2)
The Dreaming Age is both very dark and very hopeful.
Humanity (well...proto-Humanity) has cast off the yoke of the Old Ones and now lives in a time of unimaginable horrors. There are monsters, there are forces of evil, and their are even evil humans that are all too willing to take over where the Old Ones left off. It is post-apocalyptic in a very real sense. But also, humanity has the chance in the form of our (your) heroes to make a better world.
The characters will one day be remembered as the Gods and Heroes of yore.
But not all of them are bright, happy people.
Making "superhero" characters for the Wasted Lands RPG really only takes a change of reference or point of view. If Superheroes are modern myths, then the Wasted Lands RPG can also make those. Though your character's origin story is not going to be one of being a young adult, and then BAM, your character is powerful. Legends are built over time, and legendary characters even more so.
The Archetype of the Dark Avenger is a great example. This character had a really bad day once and now spends a lifetime fighting against the forces of Darkness and Evil (yes capitalized) by donning the guise of evil. In comics, these characters are usually just normal humans but have something special about them. They are unnaturally dedicated to their cause for example, or maybe even they have a bit of an edge. It should also be noted that many take on the guise of an animal or creature that strikes fear into others; the bat, the wolverine, and even devils.
For these Superhero Archetypes, I will present them at higher levels to get a feel for what their legends will be like. I will also add the various Divine Touchstones to make the character a bit more "super."
The Dark Avenger
Class: Renegade Level: 10 Species: Human Alignment: Dark Good Background: Nobility
Abilities Strength: 18 (+3) N Agility: 20 (+4) A Toughness: 17 (+2) Intelligence: 16 (+2) N Wits: 16 (+2) Persona: 16 (+2)
Fate Points: 10 Defense Value: Studded Leather (7) (See below for mods) Vitality: 36 (d4) Degeneracy: Corruption:
Check Bonus (A/N/D): +5/+3/+2 Melee Bonus: +3 (see below) Ranged Bonus: +9 (+4, +5) Saves: +5 to Death attacks and area effects
Divine Touchstones Level 1: +1 to Melee Combat Level 2: Additional Vitality Points Level 3: Level 1 of Warrior Level 4: Level Two Spell: Invoke Fear Level 5: Auto Success (once per session) Level 6: Gains +1 to all attacks and +5% to all skills Level 7: Servant: Ward of Vengeance Level 8: Signature Item: Batarang (+5 to hit, +5 to damage, -3 DV, 1 fate point) Level 9: Down but Not Out Level 10: Hop and Skip
This is not a guy you want to meet in a dark alleyway.
The Divine Touchstones are really what separated the normal people from the heroes and the heroes from the legends.
I have been thinking a lot about gods, monsters, humans, and demons in these pages lately. Between my One Man's God, my ideas for Deities & Demigods II, and playtesting The Wasted Lands gods and their relationship to humankind have been on my mind a lot.
This has also got me thinking about how in today's society, the role of the hero of myth is now played out by comic book superheroes and maybe even more so by their movie counterparts.
And there are more. So this week I am going to make some modern "gods" and recraft them as Wasted Lands heroes.
As is my nature, I am going to lean in on DC Characters, or at least their archetypes.
So come back later today and all this week for some humans as superheroes as gods in the time of the Dreaming Age for Wasted Lands.
I took some time today to revisit the 2017 "Justice League" movie in preparation for Zack Synder's Justice League. I have to admit, I am glad I did.
So I watched four hours of this movie and I have this to say.
I freaking loved it. It 100% totally lived up to the hype.
For now, I am going to avoid spoilers but this version of the movie totally fixes nearly all the mistakes for the 2017 version. I'll have more to say later, but right now consider me pleased!
Mutants & Masterminds from Green Ronin might feel like a stretch from all the other systems I have done, but really it is quite appropriate given the playstyle I like. And if I am doing a multi-verse of witches here, then it behooves me to throw some supers into the mix.
The Game: Mutants & Masterminds 3rd Edition
M&M 2nd Ed was one of my favorite superhero RPGs, so it made sense for me to upgrade to the 3rd Edition when it came out. Also given that the same system was being used in the DC Adventures RPG, I just really could not say no.
I have talked a lot about M&M 3 and DC Adventures here. And it is no surprise with my Zatanna postings that I am more of DC fan than a Marvel fan.
I am happy to see the M&M is still going strong. One of the true success stories of the OGL experiment. Green Ronin even has a Pateron for Mutants and Masterminds at https://www.patreon.com/MutantsAndMasterminds
From the very start of War of the Witch Queens, I knew there was going to be some influences from other games and other universes. Mutants & Masterminds, which already embraces the Multiverse, was an early obvious choice for me. But something that no one knows is that my Come Endless Darkness also had an origin point in M&M. Back then it was going to be Dracula trying to take over the world. I really could not pass up the chance of Dracula fighting someone named Summers. While I moved the whole thing over to D&D (and Dracula to Strahd) I can still see some of the old DNA of M&M in it. Some of the rest moved on to WotWQ. One idea, in particular, was an anti-hero Scáthach.
Now before I get into the character of Scáthach, I do want to address that this is neither the Ulster cycle character Scáthach, nor is the Red Sonja character of Scáthach, The Red Goddess, though in true comic book fashion, both are inspirations. Since she is supposed to be a witch of sorts I am going all the way back to one of my first WitchCraft RPG games that took place at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Plus I wanted a character I could port back over to D&D if I wanted.
The Character: Scáthach the Shadow Witch
Professor Moria Stewart, Ph.D. was a lecturer on classic Irish and Scot Mythology at the University of St. Andrews. She was busy sketching pictures of Dunscaith Castle in Scotland while working on a new paper about Cú Chulainn when she noticed that all her sketches featured the same shadowy figure. She did not remember drawing it, nor even seeing it. She compared it photos she took but nothing was uncovered. She returned to the castle site and was confronted by a Shadow. She fell and hit her head on some rocks below the castle. She was certain to die but the figure came to her saying it would give her power if it could bond to her. Not wanting to die Dr. Stewart agreed and became a creature of shadow herself.
While during the day she goes about her life and teaches her classes to bored undergrads by night (or when she needs too) she can veil herself in shadows and she becomes Scáthach the Shadow Witch!
Scáthach, The Shadow Witch - PL 10
Realm Name: Moria Stewart
No. I am not talking about one of the most fantastic albums ever released (though I should probably spill some virtual ink on that someday). I am talking about the number of options afforded to us in streaming entertainment.
In this time of Covid-19 we are supposed to stay at home and avoid interaction with others. That is fine, but it means we are spending a lot more time at home. So I have been enjoying a lot of what streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Amazon, HBO, and CBS All Access are really trying to get our attention with more programming. Since I am also saving a small fortune by not having to drive into work anymore I am enjoying all of them.
Since I have been spending my week categorizing over 350 different demons for my demon book I don't have much RPG content to share right now. So what's good on streaming?
CBS All Access
Or the all Star Trek all the Time Channel. Star Trek Discovery Season 3 has been fantastic this year. The crew jumped 900+ years into the future (3188 to be exact) to save a sentient AI from falling into the wrong hands. It doesn't quite have the emotional connection that Season 2 (the search for..well...Spock) did BUT for a Trek fan like me it has been great on the fan service and easter eggs. This is essentially Season 1 of the new 32nd Century Star Trek. This gives the creative team so much more freedom to do the special effects they obviously wanted to do anyway but also gives them some good storytelling freedom away from the established Trek canon. This is amusing because this season has had the most callbacks to previous versions of Trek outside of Season 2's TOS homages.
Additionally, we are getting new episodes of Picard, Lower Decks (maybe and second season is coming I have not heard), and new shows like Strange New Worlds (Pike's Enterprise) and Section 31, Starfleet's Gray Ops group. For a Trek fan this is fantastic!
Amazon Prime
My October Horror Movie Challenge would not have been possible without Prime. We have been watching a lot of Vikings lately. Don't confuse it for actual history (even though it was on the History Channel) it has been fun and has given me some ideas.
The Second Age Middle Earth series is underway. Casting has been announced, but I don't think filming has started yet.
Hulu
Have not taken as much advantage of this one as I should. But the really fun Helstrom was here (and not Disney+ for some reason) and it shows that when Marvel does Horror, it can do a great job of it.
In many ways, Helstrom and Satana (Ana in the series) was Marvel's answer to DC's Constantine even though Hellstrom (2 "L"s) premiered a decade before. Hellstrom, Satana, Doctor Strange, Blade and Dracula were all part of the Marvel Horror universe that I loved as a kid. The changes from the comic to series were needed and very welcome to me really. It is still full of Marvel AngstTM, but it is also a lot of fun.
HBO Max (or + or Go or whatever it is called now)
HBO has been around forever. It and Showtime were two of the very, very first "movie channels" out there. But today HBO is better known for its series. True Blood (which for some reason is getting a reboot) and Game of Thrones are two notable ones. This past year I have been watching Lovecraft Country (which is fantastic!) and His Dark Materials, which is getting better in Season 2. We also got the DC shows, Harley Quinn, Titans, Doom Patrol, and soon we will be able to see Wonder Woman 84 and the Synder Cut of Justice League.
I don't care. I am such a DC fanboy that I am excited about this.
Netflix
The Champion of the Streaming Channels, but it has had some serious competition from Disney+. Let's see what they have been offering me. Netflix will be forever fixed in Geek Heaven for Stranger Things. We will be getting the 4th season of that soon; filming is underway. Enola Holmes, based on the YA books was also a hit, even if it didn't exactly conform to the established Holmes canon. We also got The Witcher based on the video game and now R. Talsorian Games RPG of the same name.
Speaking of Season 4, we are getting the LAST installment of the Chilling Adventure of Sabrina near the end of the month. It looks like they are taking it where the comic also went, into dealing with Cthulhu and other Lovecraftian horrors. It looks like it should be great.
I was a little disappointed in ChAoS when they killed off Dorcas played by the lovely Abigail Cowen. while it may have been part of the plot, she was quickly scooped up it seems by another Netflix production, Fate. I saw the trailer for it today and thought it looked cool, THEN I saw what it was at the end.
Fate: A Winx Saga. Whaaat? Winx Club as a comic and then a kids Nickelodeon animated series. I thought it was a poor rip-off of Disney's W.I.T.C.H. so did Disney in fact. Turns out Winx Club was published and in production a full year before the W.I.T.C.H. comics came out. This is by the same people and is supposed to be darker and more adult. I happy to see Abby Cowen is something where she is the star, I thought she had great potential on ChAoS and this should be fun too.
Oh. If you have not seen The Queen's Gambit it is fantastic.
Disney+
What can you say about Disney+? I mean even before they acquired Lucasfilm and Marvel they had one of the deepest wells of titles and characters. Honestly just between the Disney, Pixar, and ABC material they own they could have been fine as a streaming service. But let's be honest, as great as Pixar is no one dropped the cash for Disney+ for that alone. Disney+ has been moving along famously in the last year or so thanks to The Baby Yoda ShowThe Mandalorian. It has been a fantastic show and Season 2 has been delivering an action-packed episode all season long AND with great storytelling AND with characters I never thought in 40 years I'd see on TV. While I am a Star Trek fan deep in my DNA, I do love Star Wars. The adventures of Not Boba Fett and Space Pikachu has been some of the best Star Wars I have seen. Disney+ could honestly do a victory lap now, but that was until yesterday when they made their 2021 announcements.
I have no idea how many new shows and movies are coming out for Marvel and Star Wars now. Lots. More than I ever thought one studio would try to do. Instead of trying to recap them all (lots of other sites are doing that) let me just focus on the ones that interest me.
WandaVison
I have a love/hate relationship with Scarlet Witch in Marvel. First, she was never really a witch so I often felt "lied" too, except the times she was a witch. And a mutant. She was a villain, she was a hero, she was depowered, she was overpowered. As a character, she was all over the place. And sometimes she was just that, all over the place. She suffered from bouts of insanity, deep depression, and loss.
I will give the movies credit on a couple of things. Divorced from her "mutant" background it gave her character more definition. Also for the first time, I bought into her's and Vision's love for each other.
The new series WandaVision looks like it takes the background of the comic's characters and really makes a good series out of it.
Seriously, this could be Wanda going mad and her powers acting out creating new realities or something else. Or both. Given the character, it is likely both. Elizabeth Olsen is also a great actress and she can pull this off. Frankly, the riffs on "Bewitched" are enough to get me to watch it.
Watching this new trailer really puts a different spin on the first trailer released.
There certainly something else going on here. I am looking forward to it.
Marvel: What If...?
One of my favorite Marvel Titles was "What If...?" The comic would break off into different sorts of stories all under the "What If" question. What if Spider-man joined the Fantastic Four? Was the first one. "What if Gwen Stacy had lived? was an interesting one as well. The best may have been the introduction of May "Mayday" Parker as "Spider-Girl" and the Gwen Stacy arc eventually planted the seeds to give us "Spider Gwen". If Barry Allen/The Flash is the center point of DC's multiverse, then certainly Spider-man is the center of Marvel's. It seems a little odd to me then that Spider-man doesn't feature at all in the trailer of Disney+'s "Marvel: What If...?" series.
I am sure it is more shenanigans with Sony. Though the rumor is now that Alfred Molina will return as Doctor Octopus in the third Spider-man movie. Additionally, we could get past Peter Parkers as well now that Disney owns what was 20th Century Fox and Into the Spider-verse was a huge success.
Here we are. Our geek cups run over and there is more to fill even more cups.
Never would I have suspected that we would have so much genre entertainment at our fingertips. Which is good since we really should not be going anywhere.
We have all heard rumors before of Emilia "Mother of Dragons" Clarke being eyed for the part for either the movie or the HBOMax Justice League Dark series. But right now everything is either hearsay or rumor.
But hope springs eternal here at the Other Side.
In other DC news, Ray "Cyborg" Fisher accuses Justice League relief Director Joss Whedon of unprofessional behavior.
New Direct to Video DC Movie is hitting the "shelves" next week.
Of course, it has my attention.
Justice League Dark: Apokolips War deals with the Justice League deciding they need to stop Darkseid once and for all.
Among others, we are getting John Constantine (voiced by Matt Ryan again), Raven (Taissa Farmiga of AHS fame), Rosario Dawson as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman, and Camilla Luddington as Zatanna Zatara (reprising her JLDark role) and more.
Yeah I guess Superman and Batman are in it too.
The big news though that this is supposedly the final film in the DCAU, or DC Animated Universe.
Did it fall prey to Crisis too?
I'll let you know next week. I got my pre-order in.
Had the chance to pick up the new DC Black Label publication of Stjepan Šejić'sHarleen.
It is absolutely fantastic.
Not only can he produce some fantastic art that just grabs you, he also is a great story teller.
If you don't know Stjepan Šejić's work then make sure you change that now!
You can see some of Harleen here from Issue #1. This hardcover combines issues 1 to 3.
I hear he wants to do one for Poison Ivy now too in the same universe. I am all for that!
Though I am still waiting for that WonderCroft comic!
