Maybe I'm generalizing, but it's pretty easy for me to imagine that anyone who tries to turn MODOK into a glib, postmodern icon and introduces a talking bomb as an important new character is probably a smarmy asshole
Abracabastard
jamesoleyden--disqus
I only got around to Zero after reading through the Surface and his run on Secret Avengers. So by the time I got to the ending, it was less me hating and more like, "Christ, this shit again." At least in Secret Avengers he seemed like he was having fun with how ridiculous those ideas can be
Counterpoint: Ales Kot's Zero, which was undone only by Kot's usual descent into hallucinogenic philosophy
The only scenes I remember from the Evolutionary War vividly are when he first met Phaeder way, way back in history when he first began experimenting with evolution, and the scene when he tried to commit suicide by Hulk, only for his armor to force his primordial ooze form to stay alive despite his wishes
High Evolutionary's been around for a long time. According to the Wikipedia, he first appeared in an issue of Thor in 1966, but I first remember him when reading the Evolutionary Wars crossover in the 80s
Last I checked, the retcon is that she and Pietro were a failed High Evolutionary experiment. Then Secret Wars happened, so who knows anymore…
I mean, there were a lot of interesting character beats going on, a lot of interesting world building, and a lot of great cinematography.
I've been thinking your latter point might be more along the lines of what we see. That White Rose believes this to be true and is acting in such a way as to make that happen, which would be a really interesting character arc to pursue (as in, they get things working the way they assume they should, only to find out…
I 100% agree that we didn't get much of anything in terms of plot development. But I think the reason for that was the focus and energy turning to showing the characters learning about and being forced to reckon with their new positions on the board after their actions in season one. On the one hand, I appreciate it…
"Hey, do you guys sell Friends box sets?"
"Fine. Whatever suits you, I guess."
The last scene of the show will be a bunch of USA marketing execs patting each other on the backs for coming up with a great way to advertise their programming inside one of their programs.
Knowing that this has some definitive arc that will end on the 4th or 5th season is a double-edged blade here. It helps knowing that these threads should eventually go somewhere. But it's frustrating knowing that the season veered a little too close to filler too often. Damn visually engaging filler, but filler…
A lot of people will probably walk away from this disappointed. For some, it's justifiable because it's yet another cliffhanger with no answers after several episodes in a row of them. For others, though, it's because they may have overthought what was going on in the show.
"What was with the insane inside jokes about USA network, delivered by
Dom’s boss while interrogating Darlene? The blue skies programming
reference, the Burn Notice name check…was that all a weird wink and a nod to the show’s benefactor?"
I don't think there's a pure utilitarian calculus for this kind of moment in global politics, but if you're looking for a countervailing benefit, allowing refugees to flee the political and religious persecution currently in their homeland is far more likely to prevent them from having to choose between recruitment…
That's been my thinking as well. White Rose's thing was almost excessively weird, and while a few characters have alluded to something more out there, it's nothing outlandish: just people bouncing between faith in the unseen supernatural or faith in the future. There are a lot of allusions to a sense of multiple…
…then Elliott enters the bedroom to ask Angela about her plans for the night, and he sees a giant tarantula cowering in the room..
Hopefully we get a better ending than "Casey at the Bat"