My Two Cents: Flavors of Kryptonite

It does more then make Superman want to barf, who knew?

Let’s talk about one of the biggest crutches in comic book history, Kryptonite. Sorry, that’s a little harsh, but honestly, the glowing green rock is used rather liberally to make the invincible Superman all too vulnerable. It exists today mostly to make it seem less insane for guys like Lex Luthor, Ruin and occasionally Batman to face off against the big blue boy scout and not be killed instantly since he’s literally invincible otherwise. But that’s not the only function of the final remains of long dead Krypton. The history and varieties of this unusual alien mineral is a bit stranger then you might imagine. Let’s get to it.

If it also didn't give humans radiation poisoning
and tumors, it'd be a great holiday gift.

To start off with, I figured I should mention the rather odd place that Kryptonite came from. The glowing green rock from Krypton didn’t originate in the comics, but instead on a radio show. Yeah, back in the day Superman was part of a highly successful radio show that some postulate was as popular if not more so then the comic book incarnation. The series was called “The Adventures of Superman,” and was introduced it in 1943. Superman was only about five years old at the time, so the radio show was probably all but encouraged to make stuff up as they went. The story goes that Kryptonite was developed specifically to, or at least in part to, allow Superman’s voice actor, Bud Collyer, to get a little time off. See, a radio show can take hours to record even only a half hour of usable content, which can get pretty demanding on a main character. I’ve done a little voice work with the guys of Redshift on Fancy Pantsgangsters online, and I know for a fact that it often takes upwards of 2 and half or more hours of recording time to get a half hour of useable content. Editing is a pain in the ass, apparently. The idea was that Superman would be weakened by the rock, and then the could get someone who sounded vaguely like Collyer to groan and moan. This would allow the series to continue recording a few episodes of content, while allow their star some much needed r and r to keep him at tip top shape. A surprisingly simple, but elegant solution to the problem. Kryptonite must have really worked in the radio show, as the mineral was introduced into the comics six years later and became the modern Achilles Heel.

Hey, Clark, it's a really bad idea to tell anyone
about the rocks that can kill you, buddy!

In the DC Universe, Kryptonite is shown to be an irradiated fragment of Superman’s homeworld of Krypton. The surviving pieces of Krypton turned into glowing green crystals that saps a Kryptonian of their super strength and makes them physically ill so long as they’re in its presence. Long term exposure causes a Kryptonian’s blood to turn green and for their complexion to shift to that color as well. While it doesn’t affect a Kryptonian’s other powers, the physical illness and pain largely makes it impossible for them to, say, use their freezing breath to coat it in ice or something. The effects of Kryptonite can be reduced, albeit only slightly, if a Kryptonian takes in a huge amount of Sunlight. And the effects can be blocked entirely if placed in a lead container. As the most common form of the stone, I don’t think Superman has had a series without the glowing rocks popping up in one form or another since it’s creation. While this is the most common and arguably dangerous form of Kryptonite, it does come in other flavors.

The second most common form of Kryptonite is the Red variety. Which is somewhat fitting, as Kryptonite was originally started off as red before being reimagined as it’s signature green color. Red Kryptonite doesn’t affect Kryptonian powers, but their minds. Kryptonians exposed to Red-K will start behaving bizarrely and impulsively. The best description I’ve seen is that it makes them act drunk. They’ll lash out with extreme aggression for little to no reason, and just generally be a jerk. The effects are temporary, ceasing the moment a Kryptonian is taken out of its range. It’s been mostly used in series like Smallville or Batman: The Brave and The Bold, to turn the pillar of morality that is Superman into a legitimate foe for some of his allies, without having to do something too extreme like murdering Lois Lane.

They really did talk funny in the early days.

Another flavor is Blue Kryptonite. The effects of this one varies from series to series. In the main comic continuity, it has no effect on Superman or other Kryptonians. Instead, it works as an antidote for Red-K. Guess it’s working on that old opposite ends of the color spectrum canceling each other out idea.  It does, however, have the same effect as Green Kryptonite on the imperfect Superman clone Bizarro and those like him. IE, strength reduction, physical pain and illness. So, you want to bring this stuff to a crazy Superman, but keep it from a calm Bizarro. At least in this continuity. In the long running series Smallville, Blue Kryptonite instead painlessly strips a Kryptonian of their powers, rendering them more or less human. It’s used on a few occasions for Clark to play human, to destroy their Bizarro by supercharging him to beyond what his body could handle, and to strip a group of clones from the Kryptonian city of Kandor of their powers. While it was rather different from the main continuity, the powerless Clark’s adventures and their version of the Kandorians make up some of my favorite episodes, so I’ll let it slide.

The last variety I’ll touch upon is Black Kryptonite. This rather new variation of the glowing green rock (it was only introduced in 2005), has probably the strangest effect. When exposed, a Kryptonian will be split into two entities, one good and one evil. The two individuals have the same memories and powers of the original individual, and will be rejoined if exposed to more Black-K. In the Smallville season 4 premier, a small of Black-K was used to split Clark’s mind. This allowed the original Clark to suppress and reestablish control over Kal, a personality the AI version of his father Jor-El had implanted inside him. It was later used on the Kryptonian supermonster Doomsday to split the monster from it’s human side, Davis Bloom. The results were less then satisfying, as in this instance both sides kept about the same level of evil and the human half of the equation murdered Clark’s friend and ally Henry James Olsen. While this is one of the stranger flavors of Kryptonite, it is kind of a nod to older Superman stories.

Considering we see in another episode that Black Kryptonite
does work on and split humans up too, are we supposed to
assume Martha Kent is pure good to not be effected?

From what I’ve read in my research there was a time when there was a plethora of Kryptonite variants with unusual properties. These included but are not limited to Red-Green Kryptonite, an alloy that mutated and disfigured Superman; Red-Green-Blue Kryptonite, that split Superman’s head into a Red and Blue variety both with increased intelligence; Jewel Kryptonite, a form of Kryptonite from Krypton’s Jewel mountain that can give Kryptonians Astral Projection powers, and Magno-Kryptonite, a variant on the glowing rocks that magnetically attracts objects from Krypton. Apparently in the 70s and early 80s there was something of a trend of writing really weird and/or non-canon stories that often turned out to be either dreams or one offs. The unique flavors of Kryptonite were mostly used in those. This changed during the Crisis on Infinite Earths Storyline where one effect of multiple versions of DC’s Earth getting smooshed together had most of the more exotic Kryptonites turned into K-Iron. It’s basically just exotic bits of soil, metal, and crystal at that point. The Green variety remained, though, as well as the ones I’ve listed here, which are typically made by intentional or accidental tinkering with the common green variety.

I think Kryptonite holds kind of an odd, but useful place in the history of superheroes. Yes, the fact that Superman is so super powerful that they had to invent a substance to make him weaker so his all too human enemies stood a chance is kind of hilarious. But, at the same time it was something that got the ball rolling on heroes with limits and flaws. But back before the introduction of Kryptonite, heroes didn’t really have weaknesses per say. Stories back in the early days could largely be summed up as “dastardly villain steals or threatens something, Superman super jumps in, defeats them and super jumps away.” But as time went on and people wanted to see their heroes in more peril instead of being the auto-win option, they had to start introducing things like weakness, starting with glowing green rocks, but over time adding more realistic weaknesses. Sure, Iron Man’s alcoholism and weakness for redheads isn’t as crippling as Superman’s radiation sickness, but it’s kept him from having out and out victories on several occasions. And then there’s always Peter Parker’s greatest weakness, Rent. Am I reaching a bit to connect the realistic vices of modern heroes to the Kryptonite of the original man of steel? Maybe. But the connection does seem there. That and I’m highly entertained by the thought that the imperfect, flawed heroes of today can trace their origin back to a glowing Achilles heel that may or may not have been invented to give a voice actor a day or two off.

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Doing It Better: Angel's Story Arc

Let's see if we can give Angel the credit he's due.

It’s been a while since I’ve done a Doing It Better post. I think I should change that. And I’ve had an idea stuck in my craw for a few days now that I wanted to talk… er… type out and see what happens. But, instead of a single movie that I rework, I thought I’d try reworking a single character’s story arc… or lack there of in this case. I’m talking about Warren Worthington III, or Angel as he’s sometimes known. For this, I’m going to add him into the X-Men: First Class time line and see if we can’t make his death in X-Men Apocalypse have a bit more weight then the “Oh, that bird guy died,” situation we were given in the final product. Just to be clear, I’m completely ignoring the little better then a cameo part he had in The Last Stand. Why? Because one of the most visually iconic and a founding X-Men deserves better, that’s why. I’m going to assume that you’ve seen the movies, and just focus on the scenes that Angel would be included in.

Part One: Icarus in Flight

...
Subtle.

For this, we’re going to insert Warren into the plot and dropping Sean Cassidy aka Banshee. I’m doing this because having two guys whose primary skill is flight is a little redundant, Sean was a minor character at best, and that the version we’re given here bears little resemblance to the Sean of the source material. Seriously, why is the famously Irish Mutant an American in this version? Because somebody somewhere wants all of the X-Men to be from the US of A, I guess… grumble.  So yeah, Sean out, Warren in. I’m keeping Angel Santiago as she ends up changing teams anyway.

For his introduction in First Class, I imagine it’d be something like, Xavier and Magneto tracked down Warren to a lavish party being thrown at his New York Penthouse. On the way up the two Mutants discuss how insane it is that someone as wealthy as one of the Worthington’s is actually a Mutant. Once inside, they track Warren down and try to get him to talk. He blows them of twice before Magneto, clearly annoyed, uses his mastery of Magnetism to pull Warren’s expensive watch from his wrist. A visually disturbed Warren pulls them into a private room. He’ll do the usual “Oh my god, I didn’t know if there was anyone else like me,” and then take off his unusually heavy coat to show off his impressive bird wings. After that, they’ll take him to the compound in DC.

During that little party the Mutants have while at the Division X facility, he’d explain the bird wings, and that he’s got the sharpened senses of a bird of prey, as well as a bird-like metabolism. He and Angel Salvidor would have a disagreement about which of them should get to call themselves Angel. I’d argue that, while Angel’s name is in fact Angel, Warren kind of matches the term a little better, no? They’d get interrupted before coming to a decision.

Things would more or less remain the same through Sebastian Shaw attacked the Division X base. He’d cause rampant destruction, kill most of the guy’s there and finally murder Darwin in front of the others. Warren would side with Charles and the X-Men, and continue on when the group relocates to the Xavier Mansion. He’d be included during the week training montage, I imagine he’d be doing something to increase his speed in the air and or the dexterity of his wings. Something like him punching a sand bag a few times with his fists before swapping over to slapping it with his wings. They could work some humor out of that. I’d include a scene or two of him bonding with Beast especially, as the two would be the only Original X-Men on the cast. Maybe make him be the first person to reassure him after Beast’s little experiment turns him all blue and hairy.

Jump ahead even further to the final battle, and Angel will more or less completely take over Banshee’s role in the film. They could use his super-human sight or rig up some sort of sonic pulse device to cover Banshee’s scream. What? Hank McCoy is on that Blackbird, he’s someone that I think could out MacGyver MacGyver.  As the… Hellfire Club, I guess, join the fight, he and Salvidor can have an aerial battle as they dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge around each other before he knocks her into the water as she acid blasts one of his wings. What? I think stalemates are more fun then out and out wins and losses. He’d rejoin the X-Men and the credits would roll.

Part Two: Icarus Falls  

Shame this isn't what we got, even if it had been
the fourth blue character in this film.

Angel would have a minor but significant role in Days of Future Past. He’d be absent from the far future part of the film, only popping up with a mentally time traveling Logan hits up the X-Mansion. Like Hank, he’d be living at the mansion and helping keep things afloat. As wealthy as the Xaviers are, you really can’t have too much money funding a private school for Gifted Youngsters, or what’s left of one. I’d also add that in the intervening years that Hank had discovered the healing properties of Warren’s blood and that he used it in his cocktail for keeping Charles’ legs working and his blue hair suppression medicine.

He’d join the group as they picked up Pietro, yes I’m still refusing to call him Peter, and spring Magneto from his prison cell. He’d probably make a few snide comments about Magneto’s accommodations, and like Hank, ask Wolverine about what happens to him in the future. Like with Hank, I think Wolverine would confirm his death but also be rather vague about it. Cause that’s just the sort of guy he is.

I’d include a scene of Hank and Warren bonding while the group is flying towards DC. It’d be something simple like sharing a drink and toasting to making a brighter future. Maybe include some jabs in about how pissed Alex is going to be when he finds out he missed a time travel adventure.

He’d largely be a background character again until the final battle at Magneto’s attempt on Trask’s life. He’d try to grab Trask and fly out the area, only to have Magneto point a Sentinel at him, and have the machine do something to cripple Angel. Either with bullets, rockets or a flamethrower. Something to destroy his wings. Angel would crash, sobbing in the dirt. Magneto would step over Warren to go after Trask, with a grim “I’m sorry, brother,” to his former ally. Things would continue as in the film, with Wolverine getting waterlogged and captured by Weapon X, the X-Men stopping Magneto and Trask, and the timeline changing for the better. The only downside being Charles sitting in with Warren as he is told that they can’t save his wings, and that his own healing factor won’t be enough to recover them. The scene would end with Warren’s pain riddled sobs of agony.

Part Three: What would you give to Fly again?

What would you give to Fly again?

Apocalypse would work very similarly to how it did in the real film, but with Angel getting a larger role. Like in the original, Mystique would arrive at the underground Mutant fighting ring, saving Nightcrawler for a life of gladiatorial combat. Warren would be there, too, doing his best to fight with his still clearly crippled wings. I’m thinking that at least one would be nearly gone and the other would be incredibly burned. He’d be a drunken, belligerent mess, lashing out at everyone that gets too close to him. Mystique would have a briefer interaction with him, asking him “What happened to you?” when she sees him. He’d snap something along the lines of “You and your bastard boyfriend!” before stumbling off.

Things continue as is, with Apocalypse waking up and recruiting Storm as the first of his new Horsemen, and the weirdly age swapped Alex Summers bringing Scott to the X-Mansion for training. Yes, I’m still weirded out that they made Alex the original X-Man and made Scott his younger brother. It was odd. Just before the Summers meet Charles, I’d include a short interaction between Hank and Charles. They’d be talking about Warren and if either had any luck on helping him. By Charles getting him to come back and talk, or Hank figuring out a way to restore Warren’s wings. Obviously, they would have no success, and Hank would look incredibly distressed that they might lose his friend forever.

Apocalypse would then track down Psylocke. Unlike in the film, Warren would be with her and Caliban, looking to get paid for the fight that got interrupted. Not sure where I’d work this in, but I’d include some indicator that Warren had blown most of his inheritance on treatments for his wings. Psylocke would be recruited, but just before leaving, a barely sober Warren would laugh at Apocalypse. The demi-god would force him to talk, with the half crazed former rich boy mocking Apocalypse and informing him that whatever plans he has will be stopped by the X-Men. Apocalypse, intrigued by the X-Men, would interrogate Warren on the group, and learning the who’s who about the current and former members. Warren would start sobbing about not being able to fight with his friends, at not being a real X-Man anymore in his own eyes. Seeing ‘great potential’ in Warren, and knowing how much of a boon it would be to have a former X-Man at his side, Apocalypse would offer Warren a deal, his loyalty for a new set of wings. Warren, without hesitation agrees. He’d restore Warren’s wings, and create Archangel.

Flash over to Magneto in Poland, after he’d killed the militia that murdered his family, Warren would fly in and start fighting him. The two would be reasonably evenly matched, with the newly christened Archangel proving stronger as his metal wings are non-magnetic, and the feathers are dripping with neurotoxin. Warren would give one extra sucker punch to Eric’s face and tell him that he’s lucky Apocalypse wants to see Magneto. He’d then bring a barely coherent Magneto to Apocalypse. Movie would continue on the same course, with Magneto destroying the ruins of Auschwitz, Apocalypse using his powers to force the launching of nuclear missiles into space and capturing Charles, and Pietro arriving just in time to superspeed the students from an exploding X-Mansion, but being too slow to save Alex Summers.

While being held hostage by Apocalypse and his Horsemen, Charles would make pleas to Warren and Magneto to help him stop Apocalypse, only to find his former student too consumed by barely suppressed fury to listen and Magneto unable to help. After that interaction, Magneto would ask Warren why he’s doing this. Warren would snap at Magneto and tell his former teammate to screw off. More things unfold like in the movie, Charles last desperate plea to get aid from Jean and the other X-Men, Magneto using his enhanced powers to alter the magnetic field and Apocalypse prepping to transfer to Charles’ body, gaining telepathy strong enough for him to mind control the whole of the Earth.

 The X-Men would arrive and do battle with Psylocke, Storm and Archangel. As the fighting continues, it’d end up being Warren vs. Hank. The two would fight, the whole while Hank trying to reach his friend. Lots of “you don’t know me anymore” from Warren and lots of “What has your anger cost you?” from Hank. Hank would ask Warren why, and he’d start screaming. He’d shriek about the futility of Charles’ dreams, about having his life stolen by hatred, and how Apocalypse world would be one without pain and suffering. Hank would ask something along the lines of, “So because you got hurt, the whole world has to burn?” and let Warren know that he and Charles never stopped trying to find a way to get him his wings back. We’d cut away before the fight resolves.

Yeah, the Metal Wings definitely have a few perks.

Things continue forward, with Pietro getting Magneto to switch teams and Storm joining the X-Men and the multi-wave attack on Apocalypse. He’d fend them all off for a while, rallying when he see’s his bird of prey swoop down to stand beside him. He’d tell Archangel to finish off his enemy, meaning Magneto, as his prize for being a loyal servant. He’d instead stab Apocalypse through with his bladed-wings. Archangel would give Xavier a fair well nod and a psychic call of Do It! Before being obliterated along side Apocalypse. We’d end on a memorial wall, with Alex Summers and Warren Worthington III being added to it. We’d then cut to the new generation of X-Men and they’d roll credits.

Was it the best rewrite to give Angel more love? No, but I think I added enough of him in that the Angel in the X-Men films would be more worthy of the character from the comics. One of the biggest flaws of the X-Men films, in my opinion, is a habit of zeroing in on specific characters, Wolverine in the classic films; Mystique, Xavier and Magneto in the semi-reboot and only giving the tiniest head nudges to the other legacy characters. I don’t think anyone wanted Archangel in Apocalypse just to see Archangel. We wanted to see Warren Worthington III, the good but flawed man that sold his soul to the devil to get back the thing he wanted most and though of as the thing that made him special. We want to see him fall from grace, but also to see him find a way to stumble back onto his feet. Or at least I wanted to. I hope some day to see Warren in something that covers his full arc, from X-Man to Horseman and back again, but sadly it looks like it’ll be quite a bit longer. But who knows? Since Disney got Fox, we might start seeing X-Men cartoons again and Warren can get another bite at the apple. Here’s hoping. 

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Review: Captain Marvel

Captain Carol Danvers comes to kick ass and take names.

Say what you like about the movie, but
she looks great in that costume.

Captain Marvel has some pretty big shoes to fill, being that she is one of Marvel’s most powerful characters and being that she was the focus of the end credit scene of Avengers: Infinity War. For those who might not remember, as the vast populations of New York was disintegrating following Thanos’ snap, Director Fury’s final action was to pull out an old but fancy looking pager with Captain Marvel’s emblem on it. We had a lot of questions following this scene, such as when did Fury meet the Captain, where was she during all of the insanity of the last few years, why did he need a pager to summon her? All of these questions and more will be answered in the course of this film. Let’s get to it.

We open to Carol… I mean, Vers, having a nightmare. She dreams of being in some kind of fire fight with a few hazy individuals. She awakes and we see a day in her life. She’s a Kree soldier, part of their elite Starforce. She trains with her commander, Yon-Rogg, both in combat and in controlling her emotions, which is a big deal with the Kree. After a meeting with the Supreme Intelligence, the AI master of the Kree, she’s put on her first mission after waking up on Hala, the Kree homeworld, six years ago.

Vers and her team are dispatched to a Kree border world to retrieve a spy they’d had on the surface. He’d been discovered by a group of Skrull and activated his distress beacon. The Skrull are a race of shapeshifting aliens that the Kree have been at war with for centuries. These aliens are particularly dangerous as they can assume the form of other beings down to their DNA and can even scan and utilize their targets most recent memories. The Starforce’s main job is hunting Skrull infiltrators and wiping them out.

I'd have really liked even a throwaway line as to why some
Kree are blue, and some are standard human colors.

Planet side, the Kree are ambushed by dozens of Skrull as they track down their spy. Vers is separated from her team and is captured by the Skrull leader, Talos. Vers is put into a device that scans her subconscious memories. Which is impressive considering she had complete amnesia. They focus in on a woman from her past, interestingly this woman is the person that the Supreme Intelligence assumes the form of when Vers visits it, and a set of coordinates. Vers breaks free, beats the crap out of the Skrull and escapes as their ship crashes. She makes a not so graceful landing in the middle of a Blockbuster video. Yep, she was taken to Earth… specifically LA… in the mid-90s! Oh no!!!!!!

Vers is able to get a message out to Yon-Rogg and her team, who tell her to stay still and lie low. She also asks Yon-Rogg if she’d ever been to Earth before, which Yonny fervently denies. Laying low is made somewhat difficult with the arrival of Director… (sorry, forgot, 90s,) Agent Fury and rookie Agent Coulson. They attempt to interrogate the Alien soldier but their interview is cut short by a Skrull sniper. Vers chases after the shooter, but loses him. Vers was able to recover a crystal the Skrull was carrying that has most of her recovered memories on it.  Fury, who’d been following on the street, does kill another Skrull that had assumed Coulson’s shape. He shows it to his boss, Director Keller. They’re shocked to see this obvious alien. Keller tells Fury to meet Vers and try to work with her. After Fury leaves, Keller puts his head to the dead alien and says a little prayer over him. Yeah, Keller has been replaced by Talos.

Your first mistake was letting her regain consciousness.

Fury tracks Vers, who’d stolen some grunge clothes and a motorcycle, to a bar that she’d seen in the crystal. They interrogate each other, where we learn a little about Fury’s history (former Colonel turned spy turned SHIELD desk jockey, can’t eat toast sliced diagonally) and that Skrull can’t copy powers, or so Vers claims after she photon blasts a Jukebox. Fury agrees to help Vers find the woman, someone that Vers identifies as Lawson.

They use some info they’d scrounged up, and Fury’s security clearance, they break into Pegasus, a secret military base that Lawson worked in. They sneak into records and discover a few things. That the woman is Dr. Wendy Lawson, she is very dead, and she was a Kree. Some of her research was in Kree, which is how they found out. Lawson and a pilot, <redacted>, were killed in a test flight of her experimental lightspeed craft.  Vers also recognizes another pilot woman from her recovered memories named Maria Rambeau, and herself, in one of the photos. The plot thickens.

Fury called in some SHIELD Agents to help him capture and bring in Vers, but quickly discovers that Keller is a Skrull. He used info about Skrull not being able to access older memories and uses an inaccurate anecdote from their past to confirm it. Keller sends SHIELD agents after them, but they’re able to slip by thanks to Coulson trusting Fury over his orders. Fury and Vers escape using a Quadjet, a prototype to the modern Quinjets. They look up Maria who is living in Louisiana with her daughter.

Maria and her daughter, Monica, are shocked to see her. Why? Because they knew Vers as Carol Danvers, a former pilot, and Maria’s best friend. Vers… er Carol reconnects almost instantly with Maria and Monica, the younger Rambeau not questioning at all how her supposedly dead Auntie is back again. Their reunion is interrupted by Talos, who’d tracked them down. He explains the situation. Turns out, the Kree have been executing a genocidal campaign against the Skrull. The aliens have been running from planet to planet trying to hide from them following the destruction of their homeworld. More shockingly, Talos claims that Larson (in actuality a Kree named Mar-Vell) betrayed the Kree and was helping the Skrull. As proof, Talos reveals that he had the blackbox from Lawson’s downed plane. They play it for Carol, which helps her to reclaim her memories. Turns out, after flying towards Lawson’s ship, they were shot down by a Kree fighter. Lawson was morally wounded in the crash but asks Carol to guard her research. Carol comes face to face with Yon-Rogg, the leader of the Kree assault team. Carol shoots the core of the ship, destroying it and infusing her with its energy. She was then taken to Hala, had a control disk implanted on her neck and the rest is history. Back in the present, Carol, Fury and Maria agree to help the Skrull get to Mar-Vell’s ship and get them to a new home. Just in time for Yon-Rogg and his team, along with Ronan the Accuser to arrive. Woo.

Dark Phoenix, eat your heart out.

So, the good first. Brie Larson is great as the good captain. She’s charismatic, likeable and yet damaged in a way that is fun to watch. She and Samuel L. Jackson had a great chemistry to them, it was an excellent buddy cop vibe between them. The effects were phenomenal, that includes Carol’s energy blasts, the advanced Kree weapons, and the de-aging effects on Samuel L. Jackson. Seriously, there were parts where I couldn’t tell that they used CGI on his face. I liked the way that they shot Carol’s various remembrances/dream sequences. They were just disjointed and weird enough to seem like actual dreams at times. The jokes were also on point, particularly with the Skrull. When the aliens land and assume human forms for the first time they have a great “We’re wearing the same thing” moment to it.

The bad is minimal. The run time made this a bit of a slog. Not too terrible, mind, there were just a few scenes that needed to be cut down a little. Like the chase between Carol and Talos and Fury, it just ran on a little too long. A lot of stuff was also thrown at us at once. We not only had to learn a bunch of things about Kree culture and Hala, but then more about Skrulls and the war with the Kree, and then readjust to 90s LA once Carol gets there. And that’s all in the first act! Because of it, certain awesome things about all the different elements are glossed over. Like the Supreme Intelligence, a computerized amalgamation of all of the Kree’s greatest minds is kind of just shoehorned in at the beginning and ending. We also don’t get much info on the Kree-Skrull war, other than the Kree are trying to wipe out the Skrull for reasons, and the Skrull just want to be left alone. Not much to go on there. And there were the usual errors that always seem to pop up with prequel movies. Like we’re expected to believe that Nick didn’t see any superhumans between 1995 and 2008? Seriously? Also, if it bugs you that some Kree like Yon-Rogg and Mar-Vell look European, while most other Kree are blue… too bad, never explained.

Here’s a third category I’ll be touch briefly on. These are elements I don’t think are particularly good or bad, just things I noticed. I’ll start with an obvious one. They gender-swapped Mar-Vell. In the comics, the alien spy turned superhero Mar-Vell had the civilian identity of Dr. Walter Lawson, and was the on-again-off-again lover of Carol Danvers for several years. I kind of liked this change, as it turned Mar-Vell into more of a mentor character and largely removed any sort of romantic entanglements from the film. Which I think was the right call, this thing would have been 2 and ½ or even three hours long if we had to work a romantic subplot in. And I’d say this gender-swapping thing worked better here then, say, in Dr. Strange, due in part to the fact they turned a white man into a white woman instead of an Asian man into a white woman. Just saying. I’m also not sure how I feel about shifting the Skrull completely from villains to victims. This is kind of fitting, as in the comics, The Skrull only became a militaristic intergalactic power after they met the Kree. The blue aliens turned a race of space merchants into conquerors by necessity. Changing them into 100% victims means either the Skrull are going to have a massive ideological shift somewhere over the lasts thirty years in order to commence with the Secret Invasion or other Skrull related story lines, or we're not going to be seeing the Skrull again.. The ideological shift isn't impossible, but it’d make the heel-face turn of Talos and his ilk seem pointless.

Overall, I’m giving this one a B+. It’s not the perfect film, but it’s a good Marvel movie. They had a lot of things that they needed to do in a short amount of time, and while it was clunky in places overall it was a fun ride. I think that Brie Larson’s Carol will be an excellent addition to the Avengers roster and will be invaluable in the fight against Thanos. I will say that I understand that this movie isn’t for everyone and you have every right to not like it, from an artistic standpoint. But, if your big issue was the fact that Brie is a bad ass woman, I think the movie had an excellent answer to the trolls. Stop reading now if you don’t want it spoiled. Have a good day, if you chose to stop early.

Stop it.

No complaining if you kept reading.

Okay, here it goes.

In the films climax, Carol faces off against Yon-Rogg. The Kree pulls out his weaponry, and tries to egg her on. To fight her like he trained her, to show her she’d mastered her emotions and all that. No powers just fist to fist. Carol instead points a hand at Yonny and blasts him into a cliff. She then walks over to him and calmly states, “I have nothing to prove to you.” And that’s very true. She doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone. She’s Carol Danvers, she’s going to kick butt and take names whether anyone approves or not. 

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Villain Profile: Baron Heinrich Zemo

I wonder if he ever considered cutting a mouth hole into his mask...

Is there an aristocratic title that sounds more unilaterally evil then Baron? There’s just something about that title that makes you picture an evil wealthy noble holding a glass of wine, swirling it evilly and plotting to murder his higher ranked sibling to steal their title. Or maybe that’s just me. I can’t really think of a good Baron… other then Red Baron Pizza. Just saying. Our next character does nothing to fix the image of Barons, as he’s Baron Zemo.

Surprised his higher ups were
cool with the crown...

Heinrich Zemo was both a Baron and a top scientist within the Nazi party during WW2. He worked in the same branch of the third Reich as Red Skull, Baron Strucker and the other future members of HYDRA. A really twisted SOB, Zemo would often test his latest death machines on captured soldiers and even German civilians. His technology includes enormous death rays, early model androids, and highly corrosive toxins. He often faced off against Captain America and the Howling Commandos. While they clashed a few times before, things came to a head when he was testing out his enormous death ray cannon. He’d decided to test it on a nearby German town in an attempt to kill the Howling Commandos. Nick Fury and his crew escaped, but the town was still destroyed. Zemo planned to frame the Allies for the attack, but Fury and the Commandos were able to expose Zemo. After this, he lost most of his standing in the Nazi party, and he became universally despised. Not enough to get him executed or fired, but he lost face… which made what happened next somewhat ironic.

After that death ray fiasco, Zemo began wearing a reddish-pink hood to cover his face. It kept the townsfolk from throwing tomatoes at him, I imagine. His next great work was a powerful glue that he dubbed Adhesive X. It was incredibly strong, and couldn’t be dissolved or removed by the science of the time. His plan was to release on the Allies, disabling their soldiers and vehicles. Thankfully, Captain Steven Rogers got wind of it and confronted the mad scientists. During their battle, Captain America threw his shield in that beautiful way that he does and shattered the vat containing the adhesive. Adhesive X splashed all over, hitting Zemo in the face, seeping into the hood and permanently fusing the fabric to his face. See? Irony.

The hood didn’t affect his senses or his ability to breath, but lacking a mouth hole made it impossible for him to eat solid food. Being suck behind a mask forever drove Zemo insane… well… more insane. He shifted from a more behind the scenes villain into a field commander for the Third Reich. Once it became clear that the Nazis were pretty boned, Red Skull sent Zemo to London. Why? To steal an experimental plane that the Allies were working on. It wouldn’t save the German’s war effort, but that wasn’t that son of a Schmitt’s real goal. No, Red Skull leaked the plan to the allies, ensuring that Cap would face off against Zemo and kill his ambitious subordinate.

He's going for Cap's heart.

Zemo was able to get the drop on Cap and Bucky, capturing his opponents and strapping them to the plane. Zemo launched the plane, rigged with explosives, and set it off. Captain America was able to get loose and fell into the sea, while Bucky was apparently killed in the explosion. Believing himself finally rid of his hated rival, Zemo fled to South America, where he spent the next few decades. He enslaved a tribe of natives and lived as a king amonst them. Imagine his blinding rage when he learned Captain America resurfaced.

After a few minor failed attempts at killing the first Avenger, he formed the Masters of Evil. This team, composed of opponents of the core Avengers, were hellbent on killing the Avengers. Their plan was to spread Adhesive X all across New York. The plan was stalled by the Teen Brigade, a group of young people that try to help the heroes whenever they can, and finally stopped by the Avengers. Zemo escaped back to South America, to continue plotting. He worked with Thor enemies the Enchantress and the Executioner in one plot, and turned everyman Simon Williams into Wonder Man and had him join the Avengers as a spy. Both plots were foiled with relative easy.

Things were ended when Zemo kidnapped an Avenger’s Ally, Rick Jones. He freed his Masters of Evil and sent the group to battle the Avengers. Leaving Captain America alone to face off against him. They faced a pitched battle that ended with Zemo triggering an avalanche with his gunshots, killing him in the fall. Captain America walked away from the battle believing his partner Bucky had finally been avenged. While that was the end of Heinrich Zemo, his mantle would rise again with his son, Helmut. But that’s another story.

His son is a better dresser,
   just saying.

Baron Heinrich Zemo was a brilliant chemist, physicist, and robotics engineer. His immense intellect would only be eclipsed by his sadism. He seems to relish in causing pain and misery to others. While his skills were only in the academic field, after his accident he spent years developing fighting skills that made him a match for even the likes of Captain America. He also developed a serum to retard his aging, making him retain the physical strength of his prime despite being well into his sixties.

Despite being one a long-time foe of Captain America, Heinrich Zemo hasn’t gotten much screen time outside the comics. This shouldn’t be too shocking, as the original Zemo is often eclipsed by his son in terms of popularity. But he’s had a few roles.

The one I know the best was his role in Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. This version is a mix of both Zemo’s, having the background and hatred of Captain America of Heinrich but wearing the costume and having the superior fighting skills of Helmut. He was introduced in the episode “Breakout part 1.” He was being held in the Raft, SHIELD’s highest security prison. It’s where they hold the worst of the worst. This is largely a cameo appearance, as he’s only there long enough to tell the deranged Franklin Hall aka Graviton that he was the longest inmate of the Raft, surpassing Zemo’s own six-year stint. He returns in “Living Legend.” He returned to HYDRA’s base, to reclaim his place at the organizations head from Baron Strucker. In this version he’d been one of HYDRA’s founders. He beats the piss out of Strucker and his #2 The Grim Reaper, but changes his mind about controlling HYDRA when he learns Captain America is alive. He leaves a humiliated Strucker and takes HYDRA top scientists Arnim Zola with him. Zola unleashes a bioweapon called the Doughboy to distract the Avengers while Zemo goes after Captain America. He’s got a great line while dueling Cap, screaming “The Skull can have Bucky. Your life is mine to take!” when he nearly strikes down Captain America. Cap is saved by Black Panther and Zemo retreats. Afterwards, he’s approached by Thor villain the Enchantress and the two form the Masters of Evil. He’s a major recurring antagonist for the first season, escaping several attempts at capture.

Heinrich Zemo is mentioned several times in the third season Avengers Assemble, subtitled Ultron Revolution. He’s the driving force behind his son Helmut’s attempt at reclaiming the family’s honor. His main episode is “The House of Zemo.” In it, Helmut uses technology stolen from the time traveling Kang the Conquering to bring his father to the present from 1943. The two Zemo’s battle the Avengers in the present, and Heinrich bringing a third Zemo from 2099 to the present for aid when he grows disappointed in Helmut. He’s eventually forced back into his proper time.

He’s referenced once by Helmut Zemo in Captain America: Civil War. He and the rest of the Zemo family were killed during the events of Age of Ultron, when the Sokovian capital was raised and dropped during Ultron’s attempt at an extinction event. This version of Heinrich must have been an excellent parent as his death is what drove his spec ops son insane and inspired him to use Bucky as a weapon to destroy the Avengers.

Heinrich Zemo is a villain that I love to hate. Vain, egotistical, narcissistic and cruel, while also brilliant, he’s everything you want in an evil Nazi scientist. He’s a character that I think is mostly remembered for what he did, in forming the original Masters of Evil, creating Wonder Man, and for being the father of the current Zemo, Helmut. And while that’s a shame for Heinrich, it does help that his biggest claim to fame was making the first Anti-Avengers team. While Red Skull will always be Captain America’s greatest foes, Heinrich will always be in the top three. I mean, he’s the reason that Captain America was believed dead for decades. It’s easy to hate a Nazi, but Zemo makes it fun to. 

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https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4c/Baron-zemo.jpg
https://nicktheultimaswordwielder.fandom.com/wiki/Baron_Heinrich_Zemo?file=4d55e16377826.jpg
https://comiccrossroads.fandom.com/wiki/Heinrich_Zemo_(Earth-7045)?file=Baron_Heinrich_Zemo_%28Marvel_Resuited%29.jpg

Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 30

Teenagers battling a serial killer, what could possibly go wrong?

Tenya Iida was intense even at 8.

Last time on My Hero Academia, things were not looking good for the fledgling Ingenium, Tenya Iida, as he fought the Hero Killer Stain. The serial killer wasn’t much impressed by this Ingenium and quickly disabled him. Before he could kill either Iida or his original captured hero, Izuku Midoriya flies in and knocks the villain away. Despite being disabled himself shortly thereafter, Izuku is saved by Shoto Todoroki. He rallies after shaking off Stain’s Quirk-based paralysis and the two heroes-in-training do battle while a furious Iida watches the fight impotently.

We open on a pair of Iida flashbacks. One is to a previous episode where he was gushing about how great a hero his elder brother, Tensei, is. The other is to an older memory of Tenya gushing to Tensei about how awesome he is, and the elder Iida telling young Tenya that he’s such a great hero because his little brother believes in him. In the present, Iida once again tells his friends to run, but they just keep battling Stain. His body is twitching all over as he tries to break free of Stain’s Bloodcurdle quirk. Stain gets in close to Todoroki, chiding the hero-in-training for relying so much on his quirk and goes to slash off his arm. Iida is able to finally shake off the paralysis and rushes Stain with a Recipro Burst. For those who don’t remember, that’s when he shifts his engine legs into overdrive and moves with blinding speed. He’s able to knock Todoroki out of the way and snap Stain’s sword with a kick.

Here he comes to save the day! And he's kicking swords
in half!

Revitalized, Iida says that he won’t allow his friends to bleed any more. Stain is unimpressed, claiming that he doesn’t believe that Iida can be a hero and that he’ll always be a fraud. Iida agrees he’s not a hero, but refuses to back down. They all start battling again. The licensed hero that Stain captured, Native, tries to get Izuku and Todoroki to run as the villain is only after him, but the boys refuse. Todoroki notes that Stain’s movements and behavior are becoming more erratic. The villain still nicks Izuku, stunning him again. Iida has Todoroki freeze his legs, to circumvent the fact that they’re overheating due to the damage his Recipro Burst causes to the engines in his legs. He also takes a few knives to the arm defending Todoroki.  Izuku is able to shake off Stain’s Bloodcurdle again, and he and Iida both rush and hit stain with their respective special moves, Recipro Burst Extend and Full Cowling 5% to the villain’s face. Side note, the level of blunt force trauma that Stain can take to the face is impressive.

We take a brief jump back to Gran Torino and Endeavor battling the Nomu along with the rest of Hosu City’s heroes. The Green monster puts up a decent fight, but is quickly incinerated and flattened by the two heroes. Endeavour, confident in his own abilities to stop the Nomu and remembering his son asking him to send pros if things start winding down with the Nomu, asks Torino to look into where Shoto ran off to. So… Endeavour isn’t a total bastard.  

Back with the boys, Stain is able to get one more slash in on Iida before another kick plus a fire blast and a hard smack to an iceberg knocks him out. With that, our three heroes in training have defeated the notorious Hero Killer. I really hope they have a good healer on hand or Iida in particular is going to have some really gnarly scars.

Double strike!

Back with the heroes and Nomu, the local heroes are having issue with the two remaining Nomu. Faceless Nomu and his flying buddy are smashing things and being a nuisance respectively. Apparently being weaker than the one that attacked the USJ still makes them tougher than the average bear. The Faceless one nearly kills a hero, but is stopped by Endeavor. The flame elementalist knocks the creature back and then incinerates the creature’s brain, killing it easily despite the monsters healing powers. Apparently burnt cells don’t regenerate. Neat. The flying Nomu nabs a hero to uses as a hostage, or maybe for a snack, and buggers off. Endeavor chases after it, hitting it the face, destroying one of its eyes, and forcing it to drop the hero. But I guess Nomu have a high pain tolerance as the beast continues to fly off.

The boys get Stain tied up and disarmed. Which probably took a while, the dude had a TON of knives and other sharp implements hidden in his gear. Iida and Todoroki try to move him as Izuku gets a piggyback ride from Native. The kid was running on fumes by the end of the fight and I guess being paralyzed twice can screw you up. While everyone is happy with the victory, Todoroki is the first to point out this was mostly due to luck. Stain was faster, stronger, and more tactically minded then anyone else. His downfall came about because he was getting desperate to kill at least Native and run. As such, he started to make a lot of mistakes due to his haste. Still, a win is a win. Gran Torino arrives and gives his pupil a sharp kick to the face for getting off the train. Despite this bit of discipline, Torino is honestly impressed with Izuku. More heroes arrive and are shocked to see Stain in custody. Iida is able to apologize to his friends for getting them into danger like that, just before it hits the fan again.

Endeavor is an asshole, but he's #2 for a reason. 

The Flying Nomu swoops in and nabs Izuku in its claws. It splashes some blood around from the wounds Endeavor put into it. Before anyone can react, Stain pulls a hidden blade from his sleeve, breaks free of his bonds, licks up the monster’s blood to stun it, leaps, and stabs in the head. This is all the more impressive when you consider the incredible concussion that the serial killer must have been suffering from. He declares that in a world of fake heroes, Izuku is a ‘worthy’ hero.

Shigaraki, watching from atop a building is infuriated. Both by his Nomu being defeated and by seeing Izuku meddling in his plans again. I’m sensing a pattern forming between these two. Namely, Shigaraki has a plan and Izuku fowls it up. Nice to have a hero/villain dynamic set up so clearly.

Someone should probably check his pulse. Not it!

Endeavor arrives at the scene, which throws Stain into a murderous fury. Can’t imagine why. He screams that the only one that can stop him is All Might, everyone here is going to die, and all that jazz. His sheer, indomitable will keeps everyone frozen with terror at the sight of him. But, instead of capitalizing on his advantage, Stain passes out. Future Narrator Izuku reveals that after the fact they found Stain had punctured a lung and essentially passed out standing up. Well, all’s well that ends well.

This was an excellent climax to the Stain Arc. Seeing this murderous psycho put the young heroes through their paces and shake Iida to the core like he did was both exciting and terrifying. This has been an excellent character arc for Iida, as he was forced to look at the sort off hero that he wants to be. While Stain’s words and actions were cruel throughout, he did push Iida into pushing beyond his desire for vengeance and instead focus on doing what was right to protect others. I especially liked the point that Iida tried to be true to his word, intentionally taking several blows meant for his friends during the battle. An excellent counterpoint to Stain’s adamant belief that a leopard can’t change its spots. Being intensely convicted doesn’t mean one is correct, after all. I especially enjoyed how it took the combined effort of all three boys in order to deliver the finishing blow. Yes, I just realized that I was miss spelling Nomu as Noumu. My bad. While Stain has been defeated, his rampage will have far reaching consequences to this universe. But I'll get back to that on another day. 

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Hero Profile: Iron Man

There was a time when the suit was made of Iron. Back in the 60s.

Wow, I’m at four hundred posts. I never thought that I’d make it this far. Thank you, my audience, for sticking with me for these last few years. I’ve enjoyed writing my various hero and villain profiles, TV and movie series, and anime, and hope to keep making these post well into the future. In honor of this special occasion I feel that I should do a post on arguable the most popular superhero of the last decade, Iron Man.

The start of something amazing.

Iron Man began his life as Anthony “Tony” Stark. Son of Howard and Maria Stark, Tony was given a life of extreme privilege. Being the son of one of the richest industrialists in the word will do that. Tony was extremely intelligent, graduating MIT with Master’s degrees in Engineering and Physics before he was old enough to vote. Sadly, his parents died in a car accident a few years after graduation, and Tony inherited Stark Industries. Tony proved to be an excellent CEO and owner of Stark Industries, pushing the technology his company produced to it’s very limit. Unfortunately, Tony’s personal demons made it hard to like the man. He had a weakness for alcohol, gambling and women.

Things took a turn while showing off some new weapons during the Vietnam War. Tony was injured by a booby trap and captured by the Viet Cong, led by a fella named Wong-Chu. Wong-Chu wanted his prisoner to build him weapons to fight off the Americans, but the shrapnel in Tony’s chest effected his productivity. Chu forced another prisoner, Ho Yinsen, to build a magnetic chest plate to keep the shrapnel from ending Stark. Stark and Yinsen worked on weapons for Chu, but in secret also began work on a suit of powered armor to aid them in an escape attempt. The armored exoskeleton would protect Tony and was equipped with enough weaponry to plow through a small army. Which he did, but unfortunately Yinsen was killed providing a distraction for Tony to escape. Tony was picked up by the US Army, and met his future best friend James “Rhodey” Rhodes.

Yes, there was a time when Iron Man fought crime in the
Mark I Armor.

Once back stateside began upgrading his suits of armor and started battling threats to both himself, his company, and/or the United States. Tony circulated the story that the Invincible Armored Iron Man was his personal bodyguard. He pulled a Batman, portraying himself as too much of a playboy industrialist for anyone to take him seriously as a superhero. He cultivated a plethora of villainous opponents, including Black Widow (while she was still a Russian Agent); a pair of armored villains, The Crimson Dynamo (multiple Russian Agents don the suit) and Titanium Man (Merc in a battle suit); and the Mandarin.

He quickly formed the original Avengers alongside Thor, Ant-Man and The Wasp, and the Hulk. The heroes came together after Thor’s villainous brother Loki attempted to use the Hulk to kill Thor. Iron Man and the insect duo were also drawn in after tracing the distress call the Loki used to draw Thor to the Hulk. While the team initially believed that the Hulk was the menace, they ultimately came together to stop Loki and agreed to work together should ever an issue too big for any one of them to arise.

As the years went on, Tony’s dependence on alcohol grew more severe. Nearly dying on several occasions can do that to a fella. And finding out SHIELD had been buying shares of Stark Industries in an attempt to force Tony to continue to build weapons for them. Not cool Fury, not cool. It took some doing but he put the kibosh on that. Around the same time, criminal industrialist Justin Hammer used his own resources, a small army of Tony’s minor tech-based opponents, and an expert hacker to control Tony’s Iron Man Armor and used it to kill a diplomat and make Tony’s life a living hell. With help of Rhodey and his other allies, Tony was able to defeat Hammer’s plans. He didn’t bounce back as well when another corporate type named Obadiah Stane attacked him personally again. Stane seized control of Stark Industries using dirty deals, and hired a black widow, not Natasha, to get Tony to fall in love with her just to reveal she was a paid actress. Tony spiraled into Alcoholism, hitting rock bottom and becoming a homeless vagrant. He turned over his Armory and the title of Iron Man over to Rhodey, believing he was no longer fit for the role but knew an Iron Man would always be needed. After some time on the street, Tony started recovering and started a new company to try and get his life back together called Circuits Maximum. He developed a lot of new tech, and started building a new Suit of Armor as therapy. This turned most fortuitous as Rhodey snapped. Turns out, they hadn’t recalibrated the Iron Man Armor to fit Rhodey’s neural patterns. The suit attempting to rewrite his brainwaves to fit Tony’s basically drove him into a homicidal rage. Tony donned his new suit and was able to stop Rhodey. Having figured out that Stane was behind ruining his life, Tony went to face off against him. Stane had used the armor designs he’d taken with the company to build his own suit. The returned Iron Man faced off against the Iron Monger. Tony defeated Stane, but the latter committed suicide rather then face punishment for his crimes.

You wish you look this good.

Since then, Tony has grown to be one of the ‘faces’ of heroes in the US. He has run several Avengers Teams, SHIELD, and other projects all in the attempt to make life safer for everyone. He’s continued to battle his alcoholism, corporate takeovers, and villains stealing his tech. To cover all of his adventures would take way more time, so just know he’s been one of the busiest heroes in the Marvel Universe.

Tony began his career as simply a brilliant weapons designer. He used his marvelous brain and near unlimited resources to build himself an arsenal of powered armor to battle his enemies. He’s pretty much got a suit for every occasion. Such occasions include armors for deep sea, deep space, Arctic conditions, Stealth missions, and the ever popular Hulkbuster Armor. That’s the one that can wrestle the Hulk. Most suits include repulsor technology, the beams of energy that fires from his gauntlets and boots, and the uni-beam, a high powered repulsor on his chest. The suits allow him to fly, take enormous amounts of punishment, and give him super-strength. The suits have become so advanced that Tony needs an AI to help him operate it. He’s had several AI programs including JARVIS, named after Edwin Jarvis, Tony’s butler; HOMER; and later a program called PEPPER. I wonder if anyone told Virginia ‘Pepper’ Potts? She’d be… interested in that, I think. Tony is one of the most brilliant men of the Marvel Universe, often working with fellow eggheads Reed Richards, Hank Pym, Hank McCoy, Bruce Banner, and T’Challa to handle some of the more complicated issues that the Marvel Universe creates. He’s a brilliant mathematician, physicist, chemist, and software engineer. He’s also a charismatic leader, having been put in charge of several teams.

Tony has had powers at one time or another. Using an advanced Techno-organic virus called Extremis, he’d been able to control his suit remotely and use an advanced nanobot suit that he could store in his body. He’s lost and regained this power a few times over the years.

Tony has appeared in a TON of Marvel properties over the years. I’ll stick to the shows and series I know best, for simplicities sake.

Obviously the one you all know is from the Marvel Cinematic Universe starring Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. The first film follows his creation pretty closely. Billionaire playboy philanthropist Tony Stark is kidnapped by terrorist following a weapons test. Though in this iteration it’s a Middle Eastern group called the Ten Rings instead of the Viet Cong. He escapes thanks to Yinsed and his Mark One Armor, and comes home only to discover his technology is being sold under the table to groups like the Ten Rings by his long-time business partner and mentor Obadiah Stane (Jeff Bridges). He builds several versions of his Iron Man Armor to battle the Ten Rings and Stane. The final battle taking place atop the Arc Reactor at Stark Industries. The movie ends with Tony revealing to the world that he’s Iron Man (bypassing the Bodyguard lie) and being told by Nick Fury that he’s not the only hero in the world.

This is what you'd get if Iron Man and Spider-Man did
a fusion dance.

The sequel saw Tony battling his industrial opponent Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell), an insane Russian Physicist who uses an arc reactor based electric whips named Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) and poisoning from the palladium in that the Arc Reactor in his chest uses to keep the shrapnel from his heart. The poisoning makes Tony spiral, much like his alcoholism in the comics, and causes a rift between him, Rhodey (Don Cheadle), and Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow). Tony is able to figure out an alternative power source for his Arc Reactor, saving himself from palladium poisoning. This was just in time for the finale, where the movie caps off with Iron Man and Rhodey in his War Machine armor vs. Vanko in his own armor and a squad of Iron drones. Fun fact, Vanko in this series is completely original. He's a combination of the original Crimson Dynamo Anton Vanko, in this version that is his father and Whiplash, a nameless mercenary villain that Tony has battled. His suit is essentially Crimson Dynamo with electro whips.

Iron Man Three saw him having to face things coming full circle as he did battle with the evil organization AIM, it’s founder Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), the ‘Mandarin’ (Ben Kingsley) and their Extremis super soldiers. Despite being forced into a corner more than once, which included blowing up Tony’s house, Tony, Pepper and Rhodey are able to fight off AIM and the Mandarin. Thanks in no small part to JARVIS and Tony’s Houseparty Protocol.  

RDJ’s Tony has appeared in Avengers, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War and the upcoming Avengers: Endgame. Too much data to cover, just know he’s a pivotal character in all of these films. He’s also a supporting character in Spider-Man: Homecoming, and has a cameo in The Incredible Hulk.

Tony has a CGI TV series back in 2009 called Iron Man: Armored Adventures. Oddly, this version is a teenage Tony Stark battling a teenage Mandarin named Gene Khan, an adult Obadiah Stane, and various individuals trying to steal Stark International from him. Most of his villains were of the tech based variety such as the Maggia crime family, Three or four Crimson Dynamos, Justin Hammer and Hammer industries, the corporate spy Ghost and disgruntled former Stark Industries employee Donald Gill aka Blizzard. It was an odd show, I mean it was essentially fusing Iron Man with Spider-Man, but worth a watch if you see it on a streaming service.   

Iron Man was a founding member of The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes along side the original Avengers: Hulk, Thor, Ant Man and Wasp as they battled a villain called Graviton. He became the team’s de facto leader, financial backer and head of advertising. He even lets them set up shop in one of his mansions. He and the team defrosted Captain America, battled escapees from the various Marvel super-prisons, and ultimately fought Thor’s traitorous brother Loki in Asgard. Season 2 had him eventually bailing on the Avengers as the Skrull’s infiltration got into full swing. The infiltrating Skrull posing as Cap had spent the better part of a year planting doubts in the team’s minds in order to disable of the Earth’s most important teams. He rejoined to fight off the Skrull, after a sort-of collaboration between him and the equally brilliant Dr. Doom lead to a means of forcing Skrull infiltrators into their natural forms. He stayed with the team through the series finale, where an expanded Avengers work with their allies to fend off Galactus and his Heralds.

Jump back to 2006, and I doubt anyone would have guessed
at how amazing an Iron Man RDJ would be.

He was also a main character in Avengers Assemble. This series seemed to be loosely connected to the movies, with the core Avengers being Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye. The group disbanded after the battle with Loki, but are forced to rejoin after Captain America is kidnapped by HYDRA. They save Cap, foiling Red Skull’s attempt at stealing Cap’s body, but the villainous MODOK uses his mental control of tech to literally rip Tony’s suit from him and giving it to Skull. They get Tony into a backup suit, and from that point on battle the newly dubbed Iron Skull and his Cabal. They later go on to fighting villains such as Thanos, Ultron, Kang the Conquer and others. This version of Tony also had guest spots on Ultimate Spider-Man and Hulk and the Agents of SMASH. All of the shows were part of Disney XD’s Marvel series created by the team called Man of Action.

An aged Iron Man appeared in Next Avengers: Heroes of Tomorrow. He was one of four surviving Avengers after Ultron obliterated the team and took over the world. Thor went back to Asgard, the Vision vanished, and Hulk’s in self-imposed exile, FYI. He took his friends children to a safe house in the wilderness. These kids include James Rogers (Son of Captain America and Black Widow), Torunn (daughter of Thor and Lady Sif) Henry Pym Jr. (Son of Ant/Giant Man and Wasp) and Azari (son of Black Panther and Storm). Thor dropped his daughter off after the fact so she could learn to be a hero like he had all those years ago. Tony protects his friend’s progeny for over a decade before things go sideways. The Vision returned to their hideaway, which ultimately leads to Ultron tracking them down. Tony lets himself be captured to by his kids time to escape. The kids discover and team up with Francis Barton (son of Hawkeye and Mockingbird) and an aged Hulk to free Tony and avenge the parents and world they never knew. It was kind of odd seeing Tony in a full mentorship role, but he has a nice bond with these kids. He couldn’t save his friends but he did everything he could to make sure their heirs were ready to do what Avengers do best.

Tony Stark is one of the best characters of the Marvel Universe. I’d read that Stan Lee created the concept of Tony Stark to make a character that people of the time despised and yet would grow into someone they love. Tony started as an alcoholic, warmongering, playboy robber baron that cared only for himself. But, following his near-death experience, he grew to become a hero that other heroes look up to. I’d say that he is one best examples of the Stan Lee/Marvel model, of a flawed person that tries to become a superhero worthy of the term. His brilliant mind, and unlimited resources have allowed him to build a suit for every occasion. His demons make him human, but his drive makes him a hero. I love seeing him in just about every series. He’s been a highlight of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and I’ll be sad to see him go after RDJ’s contract is up. The Invincible Armored Iron Man is one to always stand tall and defend the world when called. 

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Viewer Log: My Hero Academia ep 29

Iida's in pain, caused by Stain, Izuku is on the case, to put him in his place.

Last time on My Hero Academia, All Might received some disturbing news. His friend and police contact Detective Tsukauchi told him what they’d learned about the Noumu that they captured. According to DNA tests, this monstrosity was originally a petty criminal that has been augmented with drugs and had several other people’s DNA forcibly added to his own. This is unusual as such Chimeric fusions don’t induce multiple powers in people, leading Tsukauchi to believe the DNA fusion is due to someone’s Quirk. All Might is visibly shaken at the thought that this proves “Someone” is back. Meanwhile, Shigaraki meets and instantly hates Stain the Hero Killer. In a bid to out do the hero killers notoriety, Shigaraki unleashed three Noumu into Hosu City, where he’d dropped Stain off in. He hopes his monster’s rampage will make everyone forget about Stain. And, while Stain abducted and sets about killing a hero called Native, Iida tracks him down. He vows to defeat his brother’s assailant and claims the name Ingenium before the battle begins.

With Izuku, his mentor for the week, Gran Torino, singlehandedly fends off a Noumu from attacking their train car. He tells Izuku to stay in his seat while Torino deals with this, but Izuku being Izuku ignores that sensible order. He leaps after Torino and the Noumu back to the city. On the street, Torino is able to easily outpace the Noumu, but the monster is easily distracted. When Torino proves to be too hard a target, it turns its attention on a few bystanders. Thankfully, the monster is incinerated before it can hurt anyone. That colossal Domineering Incendiary-lobbing Condescending Kiln-impersonator (Don’t give me that look it’s been a while since I did a DICK acronym) Endeavor, had come to town to hunt down Stain and decided to step in on the Noumu. While he’s a terrible parent, the dude’s fire power is peerless, he burns the creature to cinders in seconds.

Some men, and monsters, just want to watch the world burn.

Unfortunately, there are still two more Noumu to deal with, a bat-winged gargoyle creature and a behemoth that lacks eyes. As Izuku runs in to lend aid, he happens to hear Iida’s mentor Manual loudly call out for his missing student. Izuku realizes that his stiff friend had probably run off to deal with Stain and starts looking for him.

With Shigaraki, we flashback a few hours. Turns out, sometime either just before or right after dropping Stain off, he demanded his master turn over the six Noumu that recently been finished for his use. Master, being a cautious but ambitious man, lets his student have three. They’re not as powerful as Duckbill Noumu, but the three should be destructive together. Shigaraki is certain that his monster’s attack will eclipse Stain’s reputation by the time dust settles.

Back with Iida, he gives the vile Stain a speech about how amazing his brother was as a hero and how heartless it was that Stain took that from the elder Iida. He reaffirms his identity as Ingenium, and rushes his nemesis. Stain easily dodges, stabs Iida with a spiked boot and knocks him to the ground. The twisted shinobi mocks the new Ingenium and claims both men who’d held the name aren’t ‘real’ heroes. In a fury, Iida screams that he’ll kill Stain. Stain then points out what a failure Iida is as a hero, because he’s focusing on his vengeance more then protecting the injured hero Native. He then licks Iida’s blood, and Iida is suddenly paralyzed. Before the villain can capitalize on his advantage, Izuku highspeed leaps in and punches the jerk hole off his friend.

Izuku punch!

Izuku realized that Stain is probably connected to the League of Villains and that his modus operandi meant he’d be somewhere far from the action with the Noumu. Focusing on that idea, Izuku highspeed leapt around the back alleys until he found his friend at Stain’s mercy. He wants to lead the villain to the street, so they could get some backup from more heroes, but the paralysis of Native and Iida makes it impossible. After hearing Stain pontificate about how corrupt the hero world has become, he realized that the villain is a fanatic. He texts something out before the fight continues. Iida begs Izuku to run, as this isn’t his fight, but Izuku refuses. Since, yeah know, heroes meddle. He rushes Stain again. He’s able to dodge around Stain’s sword and hits him with a 5% OFA smash. He knocks the baddie for a loop, but Stain is able to slash him with a dagger and licks up the blood. Izuku drops, paralyzed as well.

Stain praises Izuku for being a real hero, focusing on saving others above all else. He might just leave Izuku alive after killing the “fakes” Native and Iida. Before he can hurt either of them, a massive blast of flame forces him back. Todoroki walks up. Izuku had texted out his gps location, which caused some confusion for Todoroki, but he figured it out and rushed right over to help his classmates. Izuku advises Todoroki keep out of Stain’s stabbing range, which he does with his fire and ice attacks. He takes a moment to point out to Iida that, if he really wants to be Ingenium, he needs to let go of that killer look in his eyes.

Izuku starts twitching, much to his own surprise. Stain, deciding to get his kill, distracts Todoroki by throwing a kunai and runs to kill Native. Izuku gets up and lunges at him, knocking the villain away. This causes some confusion, as Izuku was the most recent victim of Stain’s Quirk and should still be immobile. They quickly theorize that Stain’s power must work according to blood type. Present Mic’s disembodied voice explains to us, the audience, that Stain’s power is called Bloodcurdle. He paralyzes his victims for several minutes depending on their blood type. It goes O, A, AB, and B, with O being the shorted and B the longest. Stain’s blood type is B for those who are curious.

Todoroki and Izuku hit Stain in tandem, Todoroki’s ranged attacks making openings for Izuku and Izuku’s close combat skills giving Todoroki ranged options. Todoroki muses to himself that he knew Iida’s hatred as it was the same kind that he carried for so long. He was able to let go of it after seeing his mother and hearing her tell him to keep moving forward. Her advice was what let him get out of his own way and work for his dad, something he’d have never done before. Love or hate Endeavor, he’s the second greatest hero in Japan, so there’s a lot he can learn from him. Iida tells his friends to run, as he feels he’s not worth all of their efforts and potential sacrifices. And Todoroki tells him to stop whining and be a hero, to be the kind of Ingenium that Tensei could be proud of. This seems to hit a cord in Iida and he starts struggling to move. Damn you guys!

Okay, so let’s talk about Stain. As of right now, we know that he’s insane. He is a man that is so against the idea of non-selfless heroes that he is hell bent on killing or maiming any hero that even slightly seems like they’re doing it for the money. Stain, buddy, we all love Spider-Man but not everyone can do the whole poor hero thing. Despite this insanity, he’s incredibly skilled. His gear and weaponry are all optimized to increase the odds of drawing blood. He flips swords and knives around with such skill that you’d think his powers were physically based. Instead, he has what might seem like a near useless power in paralysis via ingesting blood. I don’t know about anyone else but that just sounds ookie. That all said, he’s a convicted SOB. He believes wholeheartedly in his mission to ‘purify’ the word hero, and does make a few good points. He’s got that in common with Thanos I guess, nutty but has a few good points. It’s a shame he went nuts. If he’d made it as a hero, he probably could have done a lot of good with his power. I like that his words seem to have a jarring effect on Iida. I could think of few things more emotionally damaging then facing off against one’s sibling’s assailant and realizing that he has good points about your job. Side note, I’m really confused why Ingenium was on his list. As far as we know, he’s just as committed to saving people selflessly like All Might. Really, the only difference between the two is that Ingenium had a ton of help in his sidekicks. So, I guess the hallmark of a real hero is doing it yourself. Thankfully, Izuku, Todoroki and hopefully Iida will be able to stop this psycho before he does any more damage. 

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