Basics of Superheroes: 2025

Last time on Beast Wars, the showdown finally got underway. The Maximals did their best to keep the Predacons away from their base while Rhinox had his out-of-body experience. Unfortunately, Megatron got wise and sent Waspinator and Silverbolt ahead to force them to fall back. Cheetor got kicked into gear by Rattrap and flew to head them off. He took out Waspinator with a headbutt and then had the auto-guns shoot Silverbolt down. Rattrap and Dinobot joined them, and they elect to help the new bot and get him repaired. Rhinox made it back to his body and while they’re still not in a great position, he insists that miracles can happen. The Maximals hold off the Predacons for a bit longer but were eventually overwhelmed. Megatron had his troops walk up slowly to gloat, which bought enough time for a reconstituted, Transmetal Optimus Primal to make a big entrance. He singlehandedly defeated most of the Predacons, and Silverbolt drove Megatron himself off as an end to his affiliation with the Predacons and start being a Maximal. Meanwhile, Blackarachnia was forced to try to recover some of Megatron’s records of the Golden Disks after Dinobot stole the original by Tarantulas. She used his momentary distraction during the fighting to download the records and then pretend that the records were booby trapped. In the end, Megatron announced things moving forward will be… interesting. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

The episode begins with the Predacons meeting to discuss making repairs to their infrastructure that was lost during the Planet Buster attack. He calls Tarantulas to him specifically, despite the spider’s insistence that he’s working on very important research on their new transmetal bodies. Megatron orders him, and the two other Arachnids, Blackarachnia and Quickstrike to a new Energon deposit he’d detected to build a refueling station for them. Inferno and Waspinator wonder what they can do in the meantime, and they’re ordered to build a jamming station nearby to block Maximal communications. They’re excited to do it, Inferno saying as much to his ‘Queen.’ I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it before, but Inferno still sort of thinks he’s a giant ant and not a robot, and he mostly understands the world through that lens. So, if Megatron is his leader, that means that he is Inferno’s queen. He mostly sticks to calling Megatron the Royalty as a more gender-neutral term but slips up constantly. It’s the one thing Megatron hates about his new top kiss ass. Tarantulas ask why they’re doing this and Megatron cryptically says “Preparing for the future.” Whatever he’s doing, Tarantulas does seem to know what it is, saying that Megatron is “persist in his madness.”

The bugs all prepare to go about their various tasks. Tarantulas complains about wasting his time with this, but Blackarachnia tells him to shut up and get moving. She uses a bit of flattery to get Quickstrike to agree to take her share of the cargo, by saying that she’s sure a ‘big strong bot,’ like him can take more than 1/3^rd of the weight. Quickstrike agrees and gives her the nickname ‘Sugar-Bot,’ a nickname he will always use instead of her name going forward. I think even as a child in the 90s, I knew Quickstrike was simp. Waspinator brags that he and Inferno will finish their mission while the arachnids argue. Tarantulas is set on disrupting whatever plan Megatron has in place and plants a beacon in their supplies that will broadcast their position on Maximal frequencies. He transforms into his cycle form and drives off.

We cut to the Axalon where Rhinox is attempting to run tests on Optimus’ new Transmetal body. He says that despite his best efforts, they really don’t know the limits of these new forms and want to use a scanner he cobbled together to get more data. Unfortunately, the scanner shocks them both and knocks Rhinox out. Cheetor interrupts and lets them know he picked up Predacon signal on one of their frequencies. He tells Cheetor to get someone on it, and the closest pair are Rattrap and Silverbolt. So, fun fact, while Scott McNeil has provided the voice for Rattrap, Dinobot, and Waspinator this entire time, he also now voices Silverbolt. So basically, a third of the character interactions of the Maximals are just Scott McNeil talking to himself. Weird. Anyway, Cheetor tells them to check it out, Silverbolt is eager to be a service while Rattrap is a passive aggressive whiner. Silverbolt says he’ll “prove worthy of (Optimus’) trust,” and flies off as his noble trumpets flare. Despite knowing Silverbolt for only a little bit at this point, Rattrap says he already hates when he does that, implying to me that everyone hears the horns when Silverbolt is being noble.

Back with the arachnids, Quickstrike attempts to impress Blackarachnia by offering to take more of her load from her. Blackarachnia is clearly already annoyed by his advances but pretends to be flattered by his attention but doesn’t want to strain him. Tarantulas’ projects into her mind and laughs at Quickstrike not seeing how she’s manipulating him. He reminds her that he’ll allow her to play whatever games she wants with Quickstrike, but if she tries to play with him, he’s going to punish her. He then mentally blasts her so bad she causes some of the cargo to fall on her. Quickstrike rushes over and unintentionally belittles her again, and she snaps at him. He’s confused by this saying it’s impossible to understand females, and Tarantulas agrees that that is a fact of life. And I’m just sitting here thinking about how weird it is robots have any concept of gender at all. Blackarachnia swears to herself she’ll beak free of Tarantulas’ control and make him pay.

The Predacons start setting up the refueling station. Tarantulas is extremely impressed by the location. Aside from the cave entrance, it’s incredibly well hidden, the Energon is abundant, and fits his personal design aesthetic of “creepy underground lair.” He decides he won’t need the Maximals meddling anymore and destroys his beacon, announcing the cave is a perfect location for his new lair.

Rattrap and Silverbolt lose the signal. Silverbolt says they should do their best to follow their noses now they’ve lost the signal, which, ya, works when one’s a wolf and the other rat.

Back at the cave, Blackarachnia has the same idea as Tarantulas, saying that the cave would make a perfect fortress with some reinforcement. Tarantulas notes that the Energon deposit could supply a frugal Predacon for a very long time. He jumps on ‘Blackarachnia’s’ idea, suggesting that maybe they could turn this cave into a stronghold for them. An arachnid alliance, their own third faction. Blackarachnia scoffs at this, saying he's out of his mind. Tarantulas reminds her he’s inside hers, so she really doesn’t have a choice. He pitches the idea to Quickstrike, who is interested in the idea when Tarantulas suggest that he’ll get to fight even more in his faction. He’s hesitant at first, because Megatron is so powerful, but Tarantulas manipulates his fragile masculinity to get him to agree.

Silverbolt and Rattrap find the scent, and know the three Predacons they’re dealing with. They then find the combination of arachnid legs and tire treads that they left behind. The chase continues.

Thinking she’s alone, Blackarachnia mutters to herself that Tarantulas can laugh for now, but she’ll soon use Megatron’s datatracks against her. Tarantulas hears her muttering, but not what she’s actually saying, and demands to know what she’s thinking. She refuses so he tries to scan her mind. He discovers that she’s actually gotten a portion of her mind completely blocked from him. He tries harder to scan, but she fights him, throwing the equipment she’d been holding at him and knocking him over. She transforms and scurries away. Tarantulas gets up and quotes Bugs Bunny of all people, “Of course you realize, this means WAR!” I’m starting to think Tarantulas is a fan of The Looney Tunes…

Megatron relaxes in his CR chamber jacuzzi when Waspinator calls. He says they’re finished their project and will be heading back soon. Just before Inferno knocks a tripod leg over and the tower pitches forward onto Waspinator. So I guess they’ll be delayed a bit longer. Megatron is still pleased with their progress. He decides to check in on his Arachnid trio, but no one will answer their coms. So he knows that at least one of them is up to something.

Tarantulas hunts for Blackarachnia in the cavern. He begins to swear vengeance when she appears, transforming and pulling a knife on him. Having had enough of Tarantulas’ rummaging around her processor whenever he likes, she uses her dagger as a vice on an Energon chunk and tells him to severe the link or she’ll kill them by crushing the cube and causing a massive explosion. He says he’s not afraid and that he can stop her with a thought. Blackarachnia bets that the Energon radiation will interfere with the link. Tarantulas tests it, and she starts crushing the cube. The radiation causes them both intense pain, but Blackarachnia refuses to toss it aside unless he breaks the link. He initially is fine with her killing herself, but their link causes him to feel her pain as well. He finally agrees and breaks the link to free himself. Blackarachnia tosses the cube aside with just enough time to save herself from the explosion. Tarantulas is furious he lost his control over her and threatens to make her suffer for that, but Quickstrike interrupts, saying they’ve got trouble with a capital M.

The Predacons go outside and see Rattrap and Silverbolt closing in. Quickstrike is overjoyed he gets to fight something, finally and leads the charge against them. The battle commences, Silverbolt lobbing explosive feather javelins as Quickstrike fires his poison blasts. Silverbolt’s wing gets clipped and crashes. They trade blows, the Maximals holding their own despite the numbers difference. Until Silverbolt refuses to strike Blackarachnia because chivalry or sexism, depends on who you ask. But he has no trouble fighting Quickstrike, especially after he shoots Rattrap. They fuzors face off, something they often do as they’re ya know, kind of a pair. Silverbolt gets him pinned to the ground but is knocked off by Tarantulas. The spider runs from the cavern, warning the others they need to keep the Maximals away at all costs. Hearing that piques their interest, Silverbolt tries to fly to the cavern, but it explodes, knocking him back. Tarantulas says the Maximals have destroyed the cave and order them to fall back. Rattrap compliments Silverbolt on the explosion, but he insists he didn’t do it. Quickstrike tells Silverbolt, whom he dubs Tinhorn because he’s a southern cowboy stereotype, they’ll have it out for real one of these days and follows Blackarachnia, trying to get her attention again. Rattrap thinks Silverbolt will want to chase them, but Silverbolt has had enough excitement for today and thinks they can leave things as they are. And Rattrap thinks that’s the first thing he’s said that makes sense all day.

At the Darksyde, Megatron chews out his minions for failing to report and then for failing to protect the new refueling station. Tarantulas, so obviously faking contriteness that I’m shocked Megatron doesn’t pick up on it, claims that everything was destroyed even the stable cubes they could have harvested. Megatron orders them all out of his sight, as he’s furious. Later, we see Tarantulas setting up his lab, revealing that he’d destroyed the cave entrance with a single well-placed charge. He ends the episode with the old saying, “be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home,” and cackling madly.

This episode mostly serves as setting up Tarantulas’ position in the new status quo. As I said last time, with the death of Terrorsaur, he takes up the lion’s share of being the most traitorous Predacon. He was never dripping with loyalty, but he used to mostly work in concert with whatever Megatron is doing. But now, he’s much more active in his defiance of Megatron. I mean, he went so far as to propose forming a Predacon faction that was against the Maximals and Megatron. And if Blackarachnia hadn’t broken the link, I think he’d have kept up this plan. She has Quickstrike under her claw, so with her manipulating the other Arachnid, he’d have had two minions that would serve him. But Blackarachnia outfoxed him with that Energon gambit. I’m a little disappointed that the psychic connection didn’t last longer, as having Blackarachnia as an unwilling minion was an interesting dynamic. There was a point where it seemed like these two would work their own side hustle, but neither spider is particularly loyal so in a weird way they grew the most antagonistic to each other than any of the other Predacons. The other part of this episode was just to give us more of an idea of Silverbolt’s personality now that he’s a Maximal. And… ya, he’s a white knight. He does the tasks put to him with honor and vigor, he doesn’t complain, makes noble speeches, and refuses to strike a lady even when the lady will absolutely shoot him in the face if given the opportunity. There is good and bad to the white knight. He also gets along with just about everyone, as showcased by Rattrap being annoyed by but not openly antagonistic towards him in the episode. The only other thing to note is obviously that Megatron is planning something big, and it’s a plan crazy enough that Tarantulas has doubts about it. We won’t get many more details for a while, but since I know the plan, I can confirm its batshit nuts. But we’ll see more of that later. So, ya, Tarantulas is getting more unruly, Silverbolt has ingrained himself with his comrades, and Megatron is planning something bonkers. Next time, Dinobot makes a choice. See you then.

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social

Wednesday, September 24, 2025

Viewer Log: Beast Wars ep 29

A showdown at High Noon.

Last month of Beast Wars, I promise. Not sure what’ll be next, but we’ll take a break from this hyper fixation. Lol

Last time on Beast Wars, we learned of two new combatants. The fuzors, Silverbolt (wolf with Eagle wings and claws) and Quickstrike (scorpion with a cobra headed tail) came online and were discovered by Megatron. He convinces the two, one naïve and one violent, that they’re Predacons and that their job is to destroy the Maximals. Silverbolt is clearly not comfortable even with the activation code word of “Terrorize” so this’ll go well, I’m sure. Meanwhile, the Maximals recover one of their stasis pods, but the protoform inside is unfortunately a blank, a body without a Spark. After this, Rhinox decides to go offline. He says the Transwarp explosion that killed Optimus left a window into Transwarp space open. He needs to do something in Transwarp space but won’t say what. Cheetor uses his new jets to spy on Megatron dealing with the fuzors and a chase begins. Tarantulas also has Blackarachnia transfer his mind back into his body, giving him a new transmetal look. He also kept a psychic connection to Blackarachnia’s mind so he can now mentally punish her if she tries to disobey him. Dinobot breaks into the Predacon base and steals both the golden disks, hiding one but keeping the other on him. Rattrap and Dinobot get the warning from Cheetor, and they outfit themselves with weaponry to help. The Three active Maximals meet the six Predacons, (Megatron, Tarantulas, Inferno, Quickstrike, Silverbolt, and Waspinator) and face off at high noon because this is a western now for a little bit. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

We open on the shootout as it begins. For a six on three fight, the Maximals do really well. They last a whole 30 seconds before being blasted into a pile. Rattrap smacks Dinobot’s side, who throws him off. Rattrap shakes off the hit and moans that at times like this he really misses Optimus. Cheetor suggests flying around and attacking from above, which Dinobot thinks is a good flanking maneuver. But then Rattrap points out the Predacons are on a hair trigger by lobbing a rock into the air above them. It lands about the third it’s original size. Dinobot suggests trying anyway, but Cheetor just smacks him. They start firing from cover and praying to Primus. Well… maybe not, I’m not sure if Primus was established as Transformer god yet…

Anyway, we get a slight continuity error where Waspinator and Tarantulas are shown just arriving at the fight, despite being there since the walking lineup earlier. That’s not super important, but I felt like pointing it out. Megatron tells his troops to prepare to finish them off. Silverbolt asks them to wait. He points out the obvious, that they’ve got the Maximals outgunned, outflanked, and they’ve no hope of winning this fight. When Megatron confirms that’s the situation, Silverbolt hopefully suggests that they give them a chance to surrender! Megatron smacks him for this idea, and threatens to tear him limb from mismatched limb if he questions Megatron’s orders again. He says they’ll finish them off nice and quick and then asks if any of his minions have more to add. Quickstrike starts to talk, and Megatron grabs him in a chokehold with his tail-lance before asking, “yes?” Quickstrike asks if the finishing off could be slow instead of quick, as he likes to make his enemies squirm a bit. Megatron admits he likes the idea, but reminds Quickstrike this is a business before pleasure situation.

Back at the base, Rhinox is still astral projecting from the ship. He’s connected himself and whatever he’s doing to the blank Protoform in the cargo hold. Sentinel warns for the second time that Rhinox has been outside of his body for too long and that his chances of recovery are decreasing rapidly.

Back at the fight, Tarantulas telepathically calls to Blackarachnia and demands she hurries with a task he’s given her. He’s using Megatron’s obsession with finishing off the Maximals as a distraction, so she’ll have time to steal something. No, not Megatron’s rubber ducky floaty he uses when he uses the restoration pits, but Megatron’s Golden Disk backups. While Dinobot took the actual physical disks, he undoubtedly made copies and recorded them to his private data tracks. She accesses his personal files only to discover the system was destroyed in the scuffle with Dinobot. Tarantulas orders her to try to recover something! Megatron notices Tarantulas talking to himself but can’t figure out why. He is monitoring Tarantulas’ communications and he’s not using their radio frequencies. Silverbolt distracts him by pointing out that the Maximals are extremely foolish. They’re outgunned, out flanked, and are running out of time, so why are they still fighting and not retreating. Megatron realizes that even without Optimus Primal, the Maximals wouldn’t be fighting a losing battle without a reason. He does a scan and sees Rhinox’ ion trail from their base. Megatron orders Waspinator and Silverbolt to circle wide and attack the Axalon. The Maximals realize they’ve been fought out, and Rattrap spells it out for us that they need to beat the Predacons to the base or Rhinox is dead.

Back at the Axalon Sentinel warns Rhinox’s core consciousness is fading. Rhinox’s mind is still searching for something, though, and we hear him think/say that what it is, it exists on the other side of the Matrix.

Rattrap orders Cheetor after the fliers. When he mentions that he needs a running start to take off, Rattrap literally kicks him into the sky to help him into the air. He then transforms into his new wheeled configuration and tells Dinobot to get on. Neither is happy with this, but he can drive faster than Dinobot can run in either form.

As they fly towards the Axalon, Waspinator announces to Silverbolt that he’s in command. Silverbolt is very gracious about following Waspinator, even when the dumb bug takes offense to Silverbolt agreeing he should lead, because he worded it like an order. They’re interrupted by Cheetor rocketing toward them and headbutting Waspinator out of the sky. Man, he’s having a rough day. Cheetor then leads Silverbolt away, with the implication that ‘well, dogs chase cats (shrug).’ Rattrap and Dinobot head out and the Predacons are ordered to chase them. Back at the Darksyde, Blackarachnia recovers some of Megatron’s earlier records on the Golden Disks. But she’s a clever ol spider and refuses to look at the computer screen, even when Tarantulas orders her to look. He’s distracted by the fighting and gets squished when Dinobot breaks a boulder from a cliff wall and it crushes him. Blackarachnia uses her few minutes separated from Tarantulas to have the computer download and triple encrypt the Golden Disk files for her.

Dinobot and Rattrap lead Megs and Inferno on a merry chase. Dinobot bies them a little time by shooting Inferno’s turbine and he crashes into Megatron, causing the two to briefly switch heads in the crash. Tarantulas recovers and demands to know what Blackarachnia saw. She claims the records were booby trapped and exploded before she could get anything, showing her hiding her harpoon launcher behind her back, in case you weren’t paying attention. Lucky for her that Tarantulas can’t scan her memories, it seems.

Cheetor reaches the base and orders the auto-guns online. They shoot down Silverbolt when he attempts to transform. Cheetor then gets his tail-sword to Silverbolt’s throat when Rattrap and Dinobot join them. Silverbolt doesn’t want them to delay the inevitable and tells them to get on with destroying him. Dinobot attempts to do the honors but the other two stop him, Cheetor saying that’s not how Optimus would want them acting. Dinobot is annoyed by the sentiment but goes along with it. Rattrap orders him to take Silverbolt to the CR chamber for repairs while he checks on Rhinox. They come in as Rhinox returns to his body. Rattrap pops him out of the pod he was using and asks where he went. Rhinox cryptically says he went to “where all are one.” Oh damn. He says he hopes his ion trail will last long enough. Cheetor reports that the Predacons are launching an all-out assault. Rattrap announces they’re all going to die. Rhinox shrugs and says it happens, but ‘miracles happen too.’ And they head out for more fighting.

The Predacons unleash a barrage on the Axalon, overloading the shields. As they get battered, we see something follow the wires from Rhinox station to the pod, its lid opening. We get a weird scene of something crawling through the base, opening the CR chamber and letting Silverbolt out. The shields collapse, and the Maximals starts shooting. They’re weapons quickly run dry, though, as they’ve been fighting all day. Dinobot waves his sword at them but gets shot in the stomach. The Maximals get overwhelmed. They’re badly damaged, out of ammo, and can barely move. The sun raises and we’re once again briefly in a Western as the Villainous Five Predacons prepare to finish them off. They march in and reload their weapons so they can enjoy it. Dinobot says at least they go with honor, and Megatron says to “Finish it.”

A hole gets blown in the Axalon as the Predacons all gasp in shock. A large Maximal with a very familiar helmet design announces, “Well, that’s just PRIME!” as his combat music plays. Optimus is back and he’s a transmetal too! The Maximals are excited to see their leader back, and Megatron orders the Predacons to destroy him. Optimus then single handedly drives them off with his new cannons and then leaps into the air in Beast Mode astride a skateboard, leading the Predacons away. Megatron announces flight is no longer his advantage and flies after him. tricks Inferno into blasting Tarantulas and Waspinator before they have a quickdraw contest. Optimus shoots and takes Inferno out. Megatron arms his T-Rex arm guns and announces, “Hello and goodbye, Transmetal Optimus Primal!” right before Silverbolt tackles him and knocks him off a cliff. He says to consider his resignation and asks to join the Maximals. He knows in his Spark that they’re who he’s meant to fight with. Optimus says “I like your resume” and welcomes him in.

Later, the others get repaired, and they fill Optimus in on what happened since he’d been gone. He asks how the new bodies handle Energon build up. They tell him that it’s not an issue anymore. Their sector got hit with the full blast of the death moon and it either ignited the Energon deposits or converted them into stable Energon cubes. Optimus says he’s got catching up to do, the first on the list is getting Rattrap to clear his junk out of his quarters. Dinobot smacks him for being opportunistic vermin.

Back at the Darksyde, Megatron sums up what Blackarachnia has told him of what happened since he’d left to get the fuzors. Namely that Dinobot stole the disks and destroyed his backups. He asks if she’s sure his disks were destroyed, and Tarantulas dangles down on an Energon thread to ask as well. She insists nothing was recoverable and Megatron slams Tarantulas up against a wall in frustration. He then switches his feet to skate mode and glides around his base, saying that they’ve entered a new phase of the Beast Wars. He transforms into T-Rex mode, saying future developments should be interesting. Blackarachnia agrees they’ll be interesting indeed, as binary code flashes across her eyes, reminding us she does in fact have Megatron’s Golden Disk data.

I watched this episode back in 1997, and several times since over the years with rewatches. I knew how and when Optimus would return. But still, that entrance is hype as hell even just shy of 25 years later. His new form takes a bit of getting used to, the pointed teeth I’ve never been a fan of, but this was definitely the entrance he deserved. I liked the build up to his return, with the Maximals having to fight tooth and nail to buy Rhinox the time to work. This is one of the rare times where we see the transformers build up battle damage as the fighting went on. Most of the time they’re blown to pieces or maybe damaged to a degree, but then they’re taken out of the scene. We don’t usually see cracked optics or burned and broken bits of armor for as long as we do. It really sells how tough a battle this all was. The show doesn’t officially explain what Rhinox was doing, but it seems like the idea was that he basically used transwarp space to reach back to the point where Optimus’ body was destroyed, leaving a trail for his spark to follow through space/time to take the blank body as his new one. So ya, Rhinox time traveled Optimus Mind/Soul to a new body. Neat. I liked Silverbolt’s arc across this two-part story. He is incredibly naïve and trusting, but smart enough to realize when things aren’t adding up. Megatron’s abusive and cruel attitude as compared to the Maximals being willing to not execute him on the spot and even repair him makes it clear which side the white knight here belongs on. Get used to the horns blaring, by the way, they get used a lot when he’s being all… Silverbolty. Megatron’s promise at the end of the episode that things will be interesting is very much going to be paid off in episodes to come. We’ve got new forms, new characters, minor politics shifting, things are heating up. I should note that with Terrorsaur’s death, we will be seeing Tarantulas picking up the treachery slack, as he’s now the primary rogue element in the Predacon ranks. Just a heads up. But more on that later. Have a good night.

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Bluesky: @basicssuperhero.bsky.social

Sunday, August 31, 2025

Review: Superman (2025)

Dust off your cape and trunks, Superman takes flight once again.

Alright, let’s do this.

Superman (2025) opens on a stretch of Antarctic ice as we get a text crawl explaining this universe. Three Centuries ago, the world became aware of Metahumans, humans with amazing powers. Three Decades ago, an alien pod crash landed on Earth and was discovered by Jonathan and Martha Kent. Three Years ago, Superman introduced himself to the world and was hailed as the most powerful Metahuman. Three Weeks ago, Superman interceded in a war between the countries of Boravia and Jarhanpur, stopping the Boravians from invading. Three Hours ago, Superman was attacked by a man calling himself the Hammer of Boravia. And Three minutes ago, Superman lost his first fight. And our first image of Superman (David Cornswet), Kal-El, last son of Krypton, is him crashing into the Antarctic ice, looking like he was beaten to hell and back. He whistles, summoning Krypto the Superdog to help him out. After, well, being a dog for about a minute (play fighting, licking his face, dragging Superman’s leg around etc), Krypto grabs Superman by the cape and drags him the few hundred yards to Superman’s Fortress of Solitude as it raises up.

Inside the Fortress, Clark is met by several Robot servants, the leader of which appears to be Four (Alan Tudyk) who gets him set up in a chair designed to maximize the sunlight his body can absorb. This is to rapidly heal Superman, but the process is painful as hell from the look of it. Four plays the message that came with his pod from his parents, Jor-El (Bradley Cooper) and Lara Lor-Van (Angela Sarafyan) telling him about where he comes from. The message is damaged, though, and cuts off halfway through. Superman gets healed and immediately prepares to fly back to Metropolis. Four advises against this, as Superman is only up to about 83% of his full strength, and the Hammer beat him when he was at 100%, but Superman’s gotta Superman. He stops when he notices that Krypto had smashed up the place a bit since he’d been there last. He tries to chastise the robots for not keeping an eye on Krypton, but Four points out that they had. They feed him, but he’s unruly. Four thinks it’s because he knows they’re robots and thus are incapable of actually caring about his wellbeing. Superman makes Krypto sit when he tries to come with him and flies off.

Unbeknownst to him, he’s being tracked by the Engineer, Angela Spica (Maria Gabriela de Faria), a cyborg working for Lex Luthor. She wants to try to get into the Fortress, but Lex tells her to wait.

Superman flies to Metropolis at top speed and we get our first look at the Hammer of Boravia. Personally, I think the Juggernaut is going to sue if he ever saw this design. Anyway, Superman battles the Hammer, but we learn that the Hammer has got tech support. Billionaire industrialist and all-around scummy dude Lex Luthor (Nicholas Holt), and a team of LuthorCorp tech guys are monitoring the fight via drone cameras, and imputing commands to send to the Hammer to counter each of Superman’s moves. One of the techies tells the other that Lex has been obsessively studying Superman for years to learn his attack patterns and program these counters into his super weapon. Anytime Superman moves, Lex calls out a command like 18A, 34B, or 98Z and the Hammer applies the appropriate counter. The Hammer drops Superman into the concrete when Lex announces 44T. A falafel salesman named Malik Ali (Dinesh Tyagarajan) and other bystanders gather around and help Superman to his feet despite his protests. He gets ID by Lex’s drones, which can’t be good. Meanwhile, the Engineer tries to get to the Fortress, but it drops back into the ice. Lex orders her back and for the Hammer to finish up. The Hammer finishes spouting anti-Superman rhetoric and says that if he interferes with Boravia again, he’ll be back. Superman tries to go after him, but he’s too hurt. One of the civilians says that maybe he shouldn’t have done that thing in Jarhanpur.

The Hammer flies to a base outside of Metropolis, enters a pod of some kind, enters a weird cave-looking area and then steps out into the LuthorCorp control building, revealing something that we all knew already, that he’s working for Lex. The Hammer is really “Ultraman,” Lex’s minion and personal bodyguard. The LuthorCorp goons all cheer for this great victory.

Later, a much less bruised Superman heads into work as Clark Kent, news reporter for the Daily Planet. Inside, his boss Perry White (Wendell Pierce) complains that he’s late. Clark apologizes and does his best to play down Superman’s defeat at the hands of the Hammer, despite his coworkers like Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo) and Steve Lombard (Beck Bennett) are constantly bringing it up. As he walks to his desk, Pa and Ma Kent (Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell) call him. Well, Ma calls and Pa occasionally grunt to make it clear that he’s there. She wants to congratulate him on his front-page story. He has to brush her off a little as he’s busy, but it’s clear his parents love him. Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) comes over and pokes holes in Clark’s story about the incident, asking if the Hammer really did just fly in out of nowhere and deck Superman, to which Clark insists that it’s true. Jimmy wonders if maybe Superman did overstep with this Boravia thing, but Lois rightly points out that they don’t know if this guy is really from Boravia. When Jimmy says that’s what he called himself, Lois counters by saying she doubts that’s what his parents named him. The reporters shift focus to an interview with Boravian President Vasil Ghurkos (Zlatko Buric) also denying any ties to the Hammer. Clark says that “Superman” said that he thought the Hammer was faking the Boravian accent. Lois seems skeptical as hell about how he’d heard that, but Clark insists he interviewed Superman right after the fight. She points out how funny it is that he keeps getting these interviews with Superman, but he brushes it off. Ghurkos goes on to complain that the alliance between the US and Boravia has been ironclad for 30 years, until Superman came along.

We cut to the Pentagon, where Lex is in an interview with the Secretary of Defense, and several top generals including Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo). He’s pitching them his latest ‘defensive products’ Ultraman and the Engineer. He explains that the Engineer gets her powers from Nanites in her blood and that coupled with her former spec ops experience makes her the perfect weapon. He’s much more vague about Ultraman for some reason, just saying that he’s the most powerful being on the planet. He also has his armored flying soldiers he calls Raptors. They’re all included in his PlanetWatch program. He’s trying to convince the joint chiefs to hire his PlanetWatch to capture Superman after this whole incident with the Hammer. Flag points out that Superman stopped the war, that he’s naïve but well intentioned, but Lex keeps on poking at this idea that Superman needs to be held accountable. Director Crawley (Tinashe Kajese-Bolden) points out that LuthorCorp has sold nearly a trillion dollars’ worth of arms to Boravia over the years and points out the conflict of interest here. Lex insists it’s not about business, saying that they’ll die if Superman keeps going half-cocked like this. He tries to use the fact Superman has his secret fortress in the Antarctic as proof of possible wrongdoing, but they aren’t going for it. Partially due to his popularity, and because of the fear of what would happen if they went after him and failed. You don’t swing at Superman if you’re not positive it’l hit. One of the others asks about Kryptonite, and we learn that that material has been scoured from the planet, but Lex claims he has a work around. They’re still not going for it.

Lois returns to her apartment and hears someone in her kitchen. She grabs a bat to defend herself, only to learn it’s Clark, he’s over to make her breakfast for dinner to celebrate their three-month anniversary. That’s right, she’s been in the know about Clark Kent being Superman for a while now. He says Breakfast for Dinner is her favorite, but she points out that it’s actually his. She still kisses him, though, so it’s clear she appreciates the thought. They start to have a sort-of fight about Clark’s interviewing tactics. He treats it as more playful, but it’s clear Lois isn’t exactly happy that Clark keeps interviewing Superman from an ethical standpoint. To prove that he’s good at interviews regardless of who is doing it, he offers for her to interview him. We’ve all seen the scene, but to speed through it, Lois asks Superman some hard questions about his actions in Boravia and he gets more and more upset about how protecting civilians isn’t a good enough reason to stop a US ally from declaring a war. There are several asides about what is on and off the record, something Clark is really bad at calling, and Lois just keeps poking the tender spots. Oh, and he reveals that he took Ghurkos out into the desert and put him up on a cactus to get him to swear not to do this again. She shifts to how Superman is getting a lot of heat on Social Media lately. Clark says that “Superman doesn’t have time for Selfies,” and Lois teases him for talking in the third person. Lois asks about where he comes from, and he says he’s been upfront about being an alien and that his home planet was destroyed. He says that all he has is the video of his parents telling him to help people and that he cherishes that more than anything. Lois then points out that there is a growing sentiment online that he’s here for not-so-good reasons, pointing to the hashtags Superspy and Supershit, which really upsets Clark. He actually starts to storm off, but Lois stops him, and they try to talk things out for a little longer, but don’t make much headway. She mutters about how she ‘knew this would never work,’ and Clark asks what she means. She just says she’s not good at relationships, and Clark leaves.

We cut back to the Antarctic as Lex touches down with the Engineer, Ultraman, and his airhead girlfriend Eve Tessmocker (Sara Sampaio). The Engineer asks how they’ll get inside, and Lex just says oh ye of little faith as the fortress raises up. They go inside and are greeted by the Super Robots. Lex has his goons take out the Robots in a very impressive fight scene to show off their powers. Krypto attacks and damages the Engineer, but she just throws a ball of nanites onto his face to disable him. Lex goes to Superman’s computer and says that hopefully something on there will give him the evidence he needs to get the joint chiefs to act. He goes into his hatred about Superman, insisting he’s an It not a Man, how he’s got a stupid costume and stupid grin and yet somehow, he dominates the world conversation. He has the Engineer begin to hack the system. She asks what they’ll do if Superman comes back and Lex reveals he has a plan to keep Superman busy for a while. As the Engineer works, she’s able to repair the damaged message from Superman’s parents.

The plan, as it turns out, is to have his minions, one of them being Otis (Terrance Rosemore), unleash a small monster into downtown Metropolis. Well, it starts small. By the next morning it’s full-on Kaiju sized. Superman is doing his best to fight the creature without killing it and to protect the civilians around it, including their pets and a squirrel that almost gets squished. He’s eventually joined by the Justice Gang (Name still up for debate), consisting of Green Lantern Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) and Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi). They’re a privately funded superhero team funded by Maxwell Lord and his LordTech industries. They help fight the monster but also inadvertently cause more damage as they’re overall less careful than Clark. Lois, meanwhile, is watching the report from the Planet. Fun fact, the reporter doing the story is in real life the youngest son of the late great Superman actor Christopher Reeve, Will Reeve. Terrific comes over to Superman and asks for details. Superman reveals that he’s been doing his best to get the creature out of here alive, which doesn’t impress Mr. Terrific. He tells the others to go for its eyes, as its hide is too tough. Ultimately Mr. Terrific throws his T-Spheres into the creature’s stomach and detonates them, killing it. It falls backward, but Superman catches it before it can crush anything. The report Lois watching says that there were no casualties thanks to Superman.

After the fight, Guy tries to get the crowd to cheer for them all, but no one seems to be noticing. Why? Because Lex Luthor is on the big screen, revealing that he’s got proof that Superman is here for nefarious intent. He plays the full message, revealing that Jor-El and Lara sent Clark here to conquer the planet. They tell him to rule the people, to dispatch anyone that goes against him, and to take as many wives as necessary to breed a new generation of Kryptonians. Jor-El explicitly tells him to rule without mercy. Superman is shocked to learn this part of the message. On the talk show, Lex claims that Superman’s actions have been to lull humans into complacency and get them prepared to serve him. Lex goes on to say there’s no telling how large his ‘secret harem is already.’

Superman walks away from the angry crowd around him into a Stagg Industries building nearby. The Justice Gang follow him, Guy making a force field around the building to keep people out, and Guy straight out asks Superman if he has a harem. Superman denies it, saying that he’d never heard that part of the message. Mr. Terrific unfortunately confirms that the message is real, he knows the people that confirmed the message and says they wouldn’t say it’s legit if it wasn’t. Hawkgirl asks where they got the footage, and Superman races to the Antarctic.

Lois confirms with her news source, as it turns out Generals Mori and Rick Flagg, that they’re considering taking Superman in for questioning. Rick asks if Mori is buying it, and Mori says he’s not putting anything past Luthor, but that the message is authentic so they can’t ignore it. Ghurkos uses the reveal to drum up hate for Superman, joking that Superman wants to add Boravian women to his secret harem. After the interview he goes to his office and tells them not to disturb him. It’s revealed he has that same portal device behind a portrait of him that Ultraman used, confirming he’s in on whatever Lex is doing. He meets with Lex in that weird space and Ghurkos celebrates beating Superman. Lex says not to celebrate just yet, and reveals that as part of whatever deal they worked out, he’s getting half of Jarhanpur when the dust settles.

Superman arrives at the Fortress to see his robots in bad shape. Four is stabbing himself repeatedly in the head. Superman sees his computer is wrecked. He asks how Lex got into the Fortress as the door is DNA coded, but Four doesn’t know and shuts down. Superman whistles for Krypto and panics when he doesn’t come running.

Superman flies to LuthorCorp, kicks down the door and demands that Lex give him the dog. Lex has Eve record and post the whole interaction. He comes across as calm and collected as the angry alien spouts nonsense in his office. But he makes sure to take a dig at Superman to make it clear he does have Krypto by whispering that it’s an ugly dog in a cape.

We see Clark watching the Cleavis Thornwaite show that night as he spins Superman as the only rabid animal here. He has Peacemaker (John Cena) on, and he also talks shit about Superman. He missed 22 calls from his parents while all this is going down, so it’s clear they’re worried too. In the window we see the Justice Gang fighting some sort of giant energy creature. Lois, who’d been waiting for him, asks “you have a dog,” and Clark says that it’s a foster situation. She asks if he’d been helping with the creature, but Clark says it’s just an energy imp and the Justice Gang can handle it. He was looking for the dog. He explains that the message was damaged, and he only ever heard the first half of it, and he believed he knew how it ended. He says he’s not here to rule over anyone, and Lois says that she never believed that for a moment. He apologizes for their fight about the interview. He asks what she meant when she said she knew this would work, but she says she doesn’t know. Clark says that he’s going to turn himself into the DOJ in the hopes they’ll take him to where Krypto is. She says it’s just a dog. Clark agrees, and even says he’s not a very good dog either, but he’s alone and scared, so he has to help. They hug and Clark says he loves her before leaving.

Superman is violently thrown to the ground by Ultraman as he’s arrested. He says no one reads his rights and Rick Flag tells him the courts decided rights don’t apply to aliens. He goes on to say that due to the difficulties in detaining someone like Superman, they’ve outsourced his imprisonment to PlanetWatch. Flag does apologize for all this as the plane touches down to take him away.

We cut to that beach from earlier. Superman is taken through to the Portal device and taken in. He’s put into a cell cube with Rex Mason aka Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan). They call him Element man, but that name is less fun. Lex is waiting for him, and Superman says this obsession with him is getting creepy. We learn that this is a pocket dimension Lex created, it exists outside this universe. Clark whistles for Krypto but the dog doesn’t come. Lex explains that Rex can reshape his body into any element, even ones not naturally occurring on Earth, and as he says this Rex turns his hand into Kryptonite.

While Superman is gone, we learn that Ghurkos and Boravia are preparing to invade Jarhanpur less than a day later. Lois is distracted from the news, though, saying that she’s looking into how Lex fits into all this. Jimmy points out the arms deal angle, but Lois doesn’t think that is the case. She says that she’s got a contact with the bank that does the deals between LuthorCorp and Boravia and they say that Lex is charging next to nothing for the weapons. Jimmy asks why and where they’re holding Superman, Lois calls it the 78 billion dollar question. Jimmy, deciding to help, goes into his contacts and looks at someone he has labelled “Mutant Toes.” He messages her, despite the unhinged message, and gets told within 30 seconds that Superman is being held in a pocket universe. He says he doesn’t know what that is nor does his source, but she’s sure he’s there. He says Lois owes him big, as Mutant Toes starts messaging him some more asking to meet up.

In the pocket universe we learn that Lex has largely manufactured the Superman online hate, using a literal farm of monkeys on Computers to message how much they hate Superman 24/7. He sees Krypto as they travel, he’s being held a pod and they’re beaming the images of Super Squirrels into his brain so he’s forever chasing them. Lex says they’ll examine Krypto, learn what they can, and then put him down. They arrive at Lex’s private holding cells. He says they’re mostly rented out to governments to hold their political prisoners, but he’s got some personal prisoners too, like his petty ex-girlfriend. Dude is unhinged. Lex says that he’d have killed Superman already were it up to him, but the Government insists that Superman answer some questions first. We also learn how Lex is keeping Rex under control, they’re holding his son Joseph hostage. Lex leaves and says they’ll be back tomorrow for answers.

Jimmy meets with his contact in a back alley. She’s actually Eve Tessmacher, who is obsessed with him. She apologizes for having to meet him in such a shady place, saying they have to because Lex follows her on traffic cameras. Jimmy asks why she stays with him, and Eve tells him about all the exes Lex has in his pocket universe. Damn. Jimmy tries to get Eve to tell him about the connection between Lex and Boravia. She’s disappointed at the thought that he’s just trying to get information out of her. He swears that getting info out of Lex is to just get rid of him so they can be together again. He begs her to get info, and she says she’ll see what she can do.

Superman tries to talk to Rex, offering to save Joseph if he’ll just let Superman go. Rex refuses, telling Superman to not talk to him and that there is no way out. When Superman tries to talk more, Rex hits him with a bigger Kryptonite dose and he passes out.

We cut to the Hall of Justice, home base of the Justice Gang. Lois has stopped by to get them to help her save Superman. Guy asks how she even knows Superman. They feel each other out, and we learn that in universe Superman wears hypno-glasses that make him look different when he wears them. When Guy confirms they also know Superman is Clark Kent, Lois throws up her hands in exasperation that he’s this trusting. Guy says that he only trusts them as they’re “of the cloth.” Mr. Terrific reveals that he put trackers into Superman’s blood, but they’ve disappeared. Even if he was dead, the trackers would work. He disappeared at a supposedly defunct army base and agrees with Lois article that Superman is in a pocket universe. Lois wants them all to go to Fort Kramer to get Superman, but the others aren’t comfortable fighting the US Government. Well, Guy and Hawkgirl aren’t. As Lois storms off, Mr. Terrific joins her and offers to take her to the Fort. Good guy, Michael Holt. They take his T-Ship, as Lois vents about their relationship, revealing she was going to break up with Clark before all this shit went down and he said he loved her.

Lex wakes Superman up, saying that they have a special guest to talk to him. Superman thinks he means Ghurkos and so makes fun of how Ghurkos pissed himself when he flew him to the desert. But no, he’s just there to watch. The person he brought is the falafel guy Ali. Lex puts a gun to Ali’s head and demands Superman tell him who he’s working with. Ali tells Superman not to answer, saying that he has no family and no one will miss him, begging Superman to protect himself for once. Lex asks who raised him as a child. When Superman doesn’t answer right away, he pulls the trigger and kills Ali. Superman screams in agony at his death. Lex admits he thought that that would go on longer. He promises to bring someone else Superman knows here next and they’ll keep doing this game of Russian Roulette until he talks, suggesting he’ll Clark Kent next. Beside him, Rex is also crying.

Mr. Terrific and Lois land at Fort Kramer. He uses his T-Spheres to map Superman’s movements, ignoring the Talon soldiers as they order they leave. Next comes one of the best scenes of the movie, where Mr. Terrific solos the entire camp using his T-Spheres and Lois watches from inside a force field to the tune of “Five Years Time” by Noah and the Whale. Never underestimate the smart guy. They find the pocket universe portal, Mr. Terrific saying that using that device has huge consequences. Namely that if your math is off even a little, you risk making a blackhole, and that risk goes up every time you use it. He has his T-Sphere’s hack the system, saying he’s only helping because it’ll piss off Guy.

Rex finally breaks after processing what happened, realizing his son is in danger even if he cooperates. He stops making Kryptonite and Superman starts to recover, but slowly because he doesn’t have sunlight to power him up. He tells Rex he needs one to heal.

Lois and Terrific get the portal device working and make their way inside. Beneath them is an anti-proton river, and we see weird growths on the portal on their side. Mr. Terrific says it’s too dangerous for them to go themselves. He sends the T-Sphere to check things out.

Rex says that he can’t make a sun, but he can make something like it. He makes a small star between his hands, even as the other prisoners try to rat them out. The mini son flashes bright, blinding everyone. Superman rockets over and knocks out the goon holding Joey. Rex flies over and tells Superman that he has to be the one to carry Joey as Rex can’t hold him while he’s in a gaseous form. Superman frees Krypto next, and they make their way to the portal. The portal starts to flash and break, Mr. Terrific says it’s been open too long.

Talon guards jump Superman and knock him into the Anti-Proton River. The guards try to grab Rex, but he splashes them with a powerful acid that definitely kills all of them. Mr. Terrific’s T-Spheres find Krypto and the dog immediately starts chasing him. Superman holds Joey out of the anti-protons as they hurtle towards a blackhole. He whistles for Krypto and tries to get him to help them, but he doesn’t get the danger. Rex arrives and grabs Superman, doing his best to pull them out of the blackhole. Superman uses his Super Breath and pushes them all free. Mr. Terrific’s remaining T-Sphere leads them back to the portal, which is basically squished by the rock of the other universe. Superman knocks them all through right before it’s destroyed. Superman tries to go back through to save the others, but he’s too weak. Mr. Terrific tells Lois to take the T-Craft somewhere where Superman can rest for a bit, he says the controls are intuitive. He’ll do his best to secure the portal. Rex flees with Joey into the night. Lois can think of only one place to take Clark, and that’s Kansas.

Lex’s learns of the jail break and throws a fit. He orders Eve out of the room and demands to know where Superman went. Eve calls Jimmy and tells him she has everything he needs to ruin Lex. She mutters that the straw that broke the camel’s back was Lex throwing a pencil at her a moment ago. She makes Jimmy promise to spend the WHOLE weekend with her in exchange for her info, which he begrudgingly does. She uploads a bunch of pics for him, just as Ultraman bursts in and grabs her. He’d heard her screaming from the other room. Unfortunately, it seems like all she did was send him selfies. Hundreds of Selfies.

The T-Craft Lands at the Kent farm and Martha and Jonathan introduce themselves as they drag Clark inside. He passes out in his old bed, muttering to his ma that his bio parents sent him to earth to hurt people. John asks if Clark’s going to be okay, and Lois says he will be. Martha tells her not to mind John, saying that he’s a big old pile of Mush when it comes to Clark. Jimmy texts Lois to tell her to call him. She looks over Eve’s pics and is weirded out by how much game Jimmy has. That is until she takes a closer look at the selfies and realizes in the background of every single one is incriminating evidence. The big one being a picture of Jarhanpur split in half, one side labeled new Boravia, the other Luthoria. She tells Jimmy she’ll be right there and they need to talk to Perry.

At LuthorCorp, Lex is crashing out hard, demanding they open the dimensional rift at Fort Kramer. The device might be gone but the aperture is still there. He insists they’ll be able to close it; they just need it open long enough to lure Superman in. Mr. Terrific does his best to slow him down on the Fort Kramer end, because he’s Mr. God Damned Terrific. Unfortunately, the rift gets bigger and opens a canyon into the pocket Universe.

In Kansas, Clark wakes up to find Krypto watching him while laying on him. He goes outside to eat breakfast and watch Krypto play with the cows. Jon joins him and they have a heart to heart. Clark is still upset about the message, and Jon tells him that what he thought the message said is infinitely more important than want it actually said. Clark wanted to be a hero, that’s what matters. Jon says Parents aren’t for telling what their children are supposed to be. They’re guides, tool givers, not directors. Jon says that he couldn’t be more proud of Clark and starts tearing up. Martha comes out and tells him there’s something on the TV to see. On the news we see the Boravian military about to invade Jarhanpur, the villagers preparing to face them. We see all the characters reacting to the villagers raising a flag with Superman’s S on it and chanting for him. Martha tells him that he cleaned his boots. Mr. Terrific’s T-Sphere arrives and he tells Clark that he needs to get to Metropolis now. The rift is growing and it’ll consume the whole world if he doesn’t stop it.

In Metropolis an evacuation is underway. While everyone is trying to flee, Lois and Jimmy explain the plot to Perry. Saying that Lex sold the weapons to Boravia for pennies on the dollar in exchange for half of Jarhanpur. Perry summons his best people to come with them to take the T-Craft, grabbing Cat Grant, Steve Lombard, and Ron Troope. They get onboard and prepare to post the story as Lois does her best to take off.

So Clark must choose between saving a country and saving the world. Hell of a choice. Guess you’ll have to see the movie to find out.

Okay, so the good. This is a perfectly cast movie. Everyone from David Cornswet to minor characters like Anthony Carrigan’s Rex were spot on for what I know of the characters. David looks damn good in his cape and trunks. I love the behind the scenes story that he came up with the justification for the trunks, telling James Gunn that the fact the look silly is the whole point, to make him seem nice and approachable. You believe him when he screams in pain, and you believe him when he’s giving a heartfelt speech. Perfect. Nicholas Holt is great as Lex Luthor. He perfectly fits the insane hate energy that Lex is supposed to have for Superman. I especially liked his speech in the finale where he makes it clear he knows he’s envious as hell of Superman. It always come back to how badly he wants to be the center of attention, of being the person everyone talks about. Is it petty? Hell yes, but Lex is petty when it comes to Superman. Edi Gathegi is the standout performance though. He’s extremely cool as this basically unknown to the general populace hero Mr. Terrific. His fight scene at the fort was amazing, and I loved all of the nerd flexes he had throughout this story. Rachael Brosnahan is great as Lois, capturing her “I’m a cynic but I want to be proven wrong a good percent of the time” attitude. I could list offal the actors who did great, but there’s not a bad performance in the bunch. I liked the effects, it made me believe a man could fly again. The look of the pocket universe was cool too. I loved the colors and textures of that other dimension, it’s very James Gunn’s style. Speaking of, he’s great as director and screenwriter. I loved this whole thing. And how Lex is finally beaten, chef’s kiss.

My negatives are minimal. I hate that I now know details about Mr. Terrific. … Let me explain. Mr. Terrific is a character that has appeared as a minor character in several DC projects I’ve watched including Justice League: Unlimited, despite knowing of him since I was a teenager, until this movie came out I couldn’t have told you what his powers or backstory were. He was just the guy with a T on his face for me for nearly 20 years. But now I know he’s Michael Holt, that his powers are tech based and that he’s a legacy hero, taking up the mantel from Terry Sloane. It’s the end of an era. Yes, this was mostly a joke negative, but otherwise this section would be tiny. Overall, I think the movie is a bit too fast pace. It takes a bit to get going, but when it does it goes at a breakneck speed. Think like 20 to 90 in zero seconds. But other than that, nah, I loved it.

This was a great reintroduction to Superman. The story perfectly captures his best qualities, that he’s first and foremost an agent of kindness and shield for the weak. He inspires those around him to be better people. He’s the hero that other heroes look up to him and try to emulate him. That while he’s an immigrant that was brought to our world, that he is as human as anyone. He does what he does because it’s right and he protects people. He is, in short, Superman. I had high expectations when I heard James Gunn was taking over the DCU and starting over with the big blue boy scout, and he met every single one. I am super excited to see what he does next (the Clayface horror film is what I’m most anticipating, but Supergirl should be great too). So, ya, this is my favorite Superman movie of the last two decades by a mile. Hope you enjoyed it too. Have a good night!

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Bluesky: ‪@basicssuperhero.bsky.social‬

Saturday, August 30, 2025

Viewer Log: Beast Wars ep 28

Megatron goes recruiting.

Last time on Beast Wars, both sides went through some big changes. Within a few minutes of Optimus Primal’s death, both Maximals and Predacons were hit with a Quantum Energy Surge created by the Transwarp cell detonating within the alien doom moon. The surge painfully upgraded several Transformers, Megatron, Cheetor, Rattrap and Tarantulas, into new “Transmetal” forms, giving them more vehicle-like beast modes. The Maximals did their best to check on Rhinox and Dinobot while also searching for Blackarachnia. The Spider escapes, dragging Tarantulas’ body with her. The elder spider has infected her mind, allowing him to telepathically cause her pain if she disobeys him. Tigertron and Airazor nearly capture her, but Megatron arrives with Waspinator, and they have a standoff. Megatron nearly finishes off Cheetor and Rattrap but is distracted when Rhinox hurls Inferno out of the Axalon and then grabs his machine guns. After the fight, Rattrap announces that the Beast Wars just got a whole lot weirder. Unbeknownst to him, two Stasis pods crashed and activated their DNA sequencers, but were heavily damaged, one of the protoforms bursting from the metal container before the credits roll. Enough recapping. Let’s get to it, shall we?

We open on a gnarled tree during a storm. We’re show the two crashed and damaged stasis pods before cutting back to the Darksyde. Megatron and Inferno head out to claim these new troops before the Maximals can. Waspinator is left to watch the base and notes that with the destruction of the Doom Moon, there’s only one Moon in the sky now. He also notes some unusual markings and says that he ‘knows’ before darting inside. Dinobot watches him go from the cliffs near the crashed ship. He’s sighted by a turret and shot at. He dodges and notices a pit of mud. Pulling a Dutch, Dinobot coats himself in Mud to hide from the turret’s scanner, gets in close and destroys it.

Waspinator heads into Megatron’s vault and sees both Golden Disks floating in a stasis field. He tries to grab one but is blasted back by the field, landing at the feet of the mud covered Dinobot. He grabs Waspinator by the head and disarms him. He asks Waspinator if he noticed about the moon, Waspinator does, and Dinobot realizes that Megatron had been right all along. The coordinates they got from the Golden Disk, aka the Sounds of Earth, and the Transwarp drive had taken them to a prehistoric Earth, one that was unrecognizable due to the interference, or lack thereof, of the Aliens. Waspinator says that the disks gives record of the future, ultimate Power. Waspinator suggests that they team up and steal the disks together, Dinobot thinks that’s a great idea. He hurls Waspinator at the field, temporarily disabling it as it shocks him. He casually grabs the Golden disks as Waspinator is ripped to pieces. He’s then also compacted into a tight cube, because the universe hates Waspinator. Blackarachnia comes in, kicking Tarantulas’ body across the floor as she does. Dinobot escapes with the disks. Tarantulas demand Blackarachnia to go after him, but she refuses, not realizing how powerful the disks are. Tarantulas tells her fine, and they go to transfer his mind back into his body. As they walk off, Waspinator drags himself away, complaining about how no one cares about him and how he’ll drag himself to the CR Chamber for repairs.

The Maximals gather around a pod, having recovered one near their base. Rattrap’s happy this one landed near them, but Cheetor reminds him two more landed in Predacon territory, and there’s no telling where the others landed. We learn that Tigertron and Airazor are headed out to try to find out this very moment. Both Rhinox and Cheetor wish them well, Rhinox saying that they’re part of this world and to let it guide them, and Cheetor asking the Big Cat to look after himself. He chuckles and says, “I will,” to the Little Cat. Rattrap complains about everyone getting schmaltzy and suggests they pop the Stasis Pod and welcome their new buddy. Rhinox then tells him they can’t, this pod has a blank protoform. There’s a body inside, but no Spark to give it life. Rattrap asks what good this’ll do them. Rhinox says none, yet, and that they can only hope Megatron has similar luck.

We return to the damage pods to see that, no, their luck isn’t that good. Their crashes have critically damaged the DNA sequences, and the pods data tracks. The multiple system errors lead to… interesting results. One pod unleashes a Transmetal Scorpion with a Cobra head for a tail, and the other a wolf with eagle claws and wings. The wolf seems very confused, but the Scorpion has serious anger issues and immediately attacks the wolf to prove he’s the toughest. Their fight is interrupt by Inferno flying in and shooting at them both. The Scorpion attacks Inferno, biting him with his cobra-head tail. Inferno doesn’t bat an eye, saying pain is his friend and that he’ll gladly introduce the Scorpion to it. He whips the Scorpion around with his tail. The wolf calls that dirty fighting and tries to help. Inferno shoots at him. Megatron watches from a distance, he enjoys the fighting, but then has his computer to access the new Transformers activation codes while they’re distracted. When that’s done, he slaps Inferno away with his tail, muttering to himself, ‘Goodbye bad cop, hello good cop.” He introduces himself to the new Transformers, claiming Inferno attacking them is just a misunderstanding. He claims they’re all Predacons here, and that they’d know this if their data tracks weren’t damaged. The wolf takes Megatron at his word, but the Scorpion is much more warry. Megatron asks for their names, and they introduce themselves as Quickstrike, the scorpion, and Silverbolt, the wolf. Megatron clearly knows Silverbolt is going to be annoying for him, but continues his rues, telling them they just need to say “Terrorize” to transform. Quickstrike does so first, followed by Silverbolt. Quickstrike’s robot mode uses his Cobra-head tail and scorpion legs for his arms, his scorpion claws becoming his feet. Silverbolt effectively does a handstand, his eagle front paws becoming his legs and his back legs his arms. Silverbolt clearly doesn’t like the word at all, but Quickstrike loves it. He uses his Corba-tail arm to blast Inferno with a poison shot.

Back with the Maximals, Rhinox is working on a device of some kind while Rattrap complains about their luck. He mentions how half their team is currently gone (Optimus is scrap, Dinobot disappeared, and Tigertron and Airazor went on their scouting mission) which makes it insane that Rhinox is about to go offline to do something. He says that the explosion that destroyed the alien weapon opened a hole into Transwarp space, and he needs to do something there while he can. Rattrap tries to stop him, but Rhinox isn’t listening. As ranking officer, Rattrap tells Cheetor to take off and try to find Dinobot before they get attacked. As Cheetor races off, Rattrap shakes his head and asks Optimus how he did it.

Meanwhile, Dinobot is performing a remix of Hamlet’s “To Be” speech, wondering if the golden disks show what WILL be, or only what MAY be. The idea that he lives in a determinist universe terrifies him and he claims he’ll end himself if he discovers that to be the case. He briefly considers destroying the golden disks but says that would be the coward’s way. He buries one of them instead, planning to think it over more.

In his lab, Tarantulas transfers his consciousness from Blackarachnia into his new Transmetal form. He screams “I LIVE” like he’s Dr. Frankenstein and the Creature at the same time.

Megatron continues to lie to the new Transformers, claiming teamwork and cooperation are part of the Predicon way. Quickstrike asks if Treachery and Backstabbing is part of that way too, and Megatron laughs, saying they’re flexible. Clearly, Quickstrike is going to be a great addition. He tells them that they need to focus on the destruction of the Maximals, though. He then sees Cheetor flying by and says they’ll have their chance to do so right now. He shoots at Cheetor and orders Silverbolt to pursuit and kill him. Silverbolt is confused by the order, asking why he’d hurt someone that did nothing to him. Megatron shoots him tiny T-Rex hand guns and angrily tells Silverbolt to NEVER question him again. They all transform into flight mode, with Inferno carrying Quickstrike.

Cheetor has clearly gotten better at flying since the last episode, leading the Predacons into a canyon and flying them around pillars of stone. He takes out Silverbolt, but Megatron just brute forces his way after him. Cheetor radios back to Rattrap and tells him he’s leading a Predacon parade back to them. Rattrap activates Sentinel and tries to wake up Rhinox, but Sentinel warns him that Rhinox’s core consciousness has left his body, and if he’s disturbed before it gets back, he could die. Rattrap whines about terrible timing when Dinobot comes back in, hiding the alien Golden disk behind his back. Rattrap asks where he’d been, “saving the world?” and Dinobot says “possibly.” He brings up the Maximal armory as Rattrap explains the situation to him, namely that Cheetor is on his way with Predacons in toe and if anything happens to the base Rhinox is dead. They get outfitted for war and head out. Rattrap races off in car mode first, sees Megatron chasing Cheetor and shoots him down. Megatron lands and transforms, ordering all Predacons to regroup around him.

In his lab, Transmetal Tarantulas takes menacing steps towards Blackarachnia. She tells him to stay back, or she’ll shoot, only for Tarantulas to reveal he kept a link to her mind intact, allowing him to control her movements, and to psychically torture her if she displeases him. Megatron interrupts him before he can make Blackarachnia shoot herself in the head. Waspinator gets out of the CR Pit at that moment and tries to tell Megatron about what happened with Dinobot and the Golden Disk, but Megatron tells him to shut up and get to his position.

We see the forces gather, Cheetor, Dinobot, and Rattrap vs. Megatron, Tarantulas, Waspinator, Silverbolt, Quickstrike, and Inferno. For some reason some stereotypical cowboy music plays as they load their guns and prepare to have an OK Corral standoff. The episode ends as everyone prepares to fire on each other. Hell of a way to end an episode.

This episode is considered part 1 of a Two-parter called Coming of the Fuzors, referring to Quickstrike and Silverbolt, but honestly it could be considered “Aftermath” part 2 of 3. I like that we’re taking multiple parts to deal with the major paradigm shift that was the death of Optimus and the near cataclysm of what has been revealed to be prehistoric Earth. Speaking of that and the Golden Disks, be prepared for a lot of Dinobot angst this season. The bot seems deeply disturbed by the thought that he is not the arbiter of his own fate and is going to spend a lot of time wrestling with what he should do about the disks. Fun fact, my introduction to Shakespear was Dinobot cribbing lines from Hamlet and a few other of his works, and from characters like Macbeth being a recurring antagonist in Gargoyles. The 90s was a weird time, man. Silverbolt and Quickstrike are nice new additions to the cast. When I first saw Quickstrike I kind of assumed he’d end up more or less sliding into Scorponok’s position, just with a Texan accent and a love of Cowboy desperado talk. But nope, the similarities to the late Scorponok was just in the general shape of his beast form. I like how they seemed to go out of their way to subvert expectations with this second scorpion by giving him a truly bonkers robot mode. Imagine, claws for feet! I also think it’s interesting that of the two, he looks more like the new Transmetal forms, while Silverbolt seems more naturalistic. … You know what I mean, he looks like a wolf-eagle, not like a robot wolf-eagle. And with Silverbolt I like that he was an innately good person. From minute one he showed a kindness and decency that Quickstrike was sorely lacking. He’s extremely naïve, obviously, as he took Megatron’s word as true with zero proof, but he still has good instincts. Like, he doesn’t even really know what Terrorize means but still doesn’t like using it. Hopefully that good nature will get him to make the right choice in the coming battle. Obviously, I know what he ends up doing, but I like talking about these shows like I’m seeing them for the first time, you know that. So, the Maximals are outnumbered two to one, if any of the Predacons can get past them and attack Rhinox he’s dead, and their only backup at the moment would be him unless they get a Hail Mary of some kind. Won’t you come and see how it plays out? Next month. For tomorrow, is Superman (2025) day. Have a good night.

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