Thursday 25 October 2018

Supergirl Season 4 (4.1 American Alien)

4.1 - American Alien

There are two main issues I had with this first episode of Supergirl:

Firstly, that she
[spoil]seems to be oblivious to the burgeoning animosity towards aliens[/spoil]

Although it is somewhat understandable (hope etc), it does imply that she has been ignoring things going on around her, or has been dismissive of them.  One of the things she seemed to ignore was that [spoil]they took both spikes[/spoil].

The second was that
[spoil]she was slower than a couple of motorcycles[/spoil]

Unlike the first issue, I have no excuses for this one.

It was good to see Lillian Luthor again, and I grinned at the reveal of Otis and Mercy (like I've said elsewhere, I don't check on previews etc, so I rarely know about these things ahead of viewing).

Otis was certainly more capable than the version of the character made famous by Ned Beatty in Superman but there was still the recognisable clumsy and slightly goofy element to him.  The actor playing him also reminded me of The Cowboy from Innerspace.

Separately: Winn was never J'onn's PA, nor was he ever Alex's, yet, for some reason, Alex seems to treat Brainy as if he is her PA.  As Director, Alex would almost certainly have an assistant for the admin side of things.  It may be that J'onn was someone who kept things closer to his chest and preferred to handle the paperwork/arrangements himself, but it's highly unlikely.  It just doesn't fit with the idea of a government agency, regardless of how secretive it is.

As for the reveal, leading in to the season's initial arc, I think we knew it was only a matter of time before the secret that [spoil]President Marsdin (played by Lynda Carter (Wonder Woman)) is an alien[/spoil] would be uncovered, after we saw a flash of the truth last season.


As with previous seasons, there is a lot within the show that reflects what is currently going on the world, especially the US, and, while many don't like the approach, I think it's a good way of keeping things different to a number of other superhero-shows.

On the box

So now that the new seasons of the shows have started, I'm going to try to layer this into the blog.  Hopefully, this will mean more posts throughout the week, alongside the ones for comics etc.

Bear in mind - as with comics - I tend to avoid previews as much as I can, so there will likely be instances of surprise on my part which some readers might have a "well, d'uh, they revealed that in an article on such-and-such-a-website".  I also don't watch the 'next time on' sections that show up at the ends of episodes.  As a result of this, one such surprise, for me, was the reveal of a new actor over on The Flash.  I was, literally, on the sofa wondering, "Is that?" and then I checked on a popular online database and found that it was.

So, as a heads-up, the main shows I'll be posting about are:
Supergirl
The Flash
Legends of Tomorrow

I'm really behind on Arrow (I only saw the first few episodes of the last season) but will be watching the Elseworlds crossover episode, and will try to catch up at some point.

I've been meaning to check out Gifted but haven't gotten round to it.

Titans isn't available in the UK yet.

There are a few other shows I watch here and there, but they're usually when time allows rather than something more regular/consistent like the ones above.

Also, Halloween is coming up so there may be some horror reviews, if I get time and depending on what we get around to watching.


If anyone has any suggestions, please let me know J

Thursday 18 October 2018

Once more into the breach

(Full disclosure: this post has been sitting in my drafts for three months.  It's a bit of a jumble and I'm going to leave it that way - hopefully, I'll be posting more coherently going forward.)


With Bendis on board, it's time to stop procrastinating.  When I started this blog, I honestly thought that, at the very least, I would do a weekly (or thereabouts) round-up on recent comics.  I'm mainly a DC reader, but I do check out other books here and there when time and enjoyment allows - Invincible, for example, was a must-read whenever new issues came out.

But I didn't do it.

I kept thinking 'no one is going to read this'.  'No one cares.'

I used to be a regular on the old DC Boards, both before The Great Crisis  and The Final Entropy that forced us to seek refuge in other venues across the interwebs - DCU, CBR etc - and I think I have a reasonably good standing in the sites that I do use, but time and work and life have lessened my availability in sharing my thoughts with other readers on those sites.

It's the way things end up being, right?

And the things I did write about - the Man of Steel movie, for example - I may have gotten a little carried away with.  I'll try to temper that.

So now I'm going to try to make more of an effort on this blogging thing - at the very least on the comics-side of it, especially with Superman.  It's going to be an escape of sorts, I think.

Some reading this post may have come here through my Harry Potter fan fiction - What if the Dursleys had been nice - and I think tying these posts to my writing is an important thing for me to do, going forward.

So, yeah, time to stop procrastinating...