Superhero Media: The Superhero Squad Show

Sorry for the irregular posts recently, my work situation will be changing a lot over the next few months, so for now, posts will be Monday and Friday. Once things settle, we'll probably have a new schedule again, sorry, it's just how things are right now. 

Hey there, are you looking for a programme with lots of references to Marvel Comics deep lore, Stan Lee cameos and more characters than you can count? Well look no further than The Superhero Squad Show, a two-season masterpiece that you probably skipped over because it's marketed to young children, but may well be one of the best Marvel animated programmes ever made. Make no mistake, this is a programme for children, complete with a shocking lack of violence, fart jokes and two-dimensional characters, but never have I seen any other Marvel multimedia production reference Artie Simek (famous Silver Age letterer) or George Clinton. Hell, The Superhero Squad Show makes Herbie the Robot a fun and interesting character, how about them apples? The broader narrative, of first trying to rebuild the Infinity Sword, then saving the universe from the "Dark Surfer", is pretty basic, but so much care and effort has gone into each episode that it's very hard to not be charmed straight away.

Even a person so versed on Marvel deep-lore as myself, I found myself having to reach for my Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe on occasion to remember who Jack Russel (Werewolf By Night) or Santana were. Seriously, there's an episode where the main antagonist is Plantman! Which is also a great episode because Wolverine is sick of the Superhero Squad, so joins Captain America's "All-Captains Squad", featuring Captain Brazil, Captain Australia, Captain Britain and Captain Luxembourg. Wolverine, of course, becomes Captain Canada, a repaint I'll have to do at some stage. Whilst there are no appearances of Spider-Man and his associated characters, and few X-Men to be seen, the spread of other characters is brilliant, from Adam Warlock to Zabu, there's a chance your favouirte obscure hero or villain is in there somewhere. New hero Repteal is a tad underused, but I never found him as annoying as some seem to, but replacing him with Scarlet Witch in the second season provides some nice balance that the programme was lacking.

As an extra treat, each episode is named after a classic comic, a fun little device I wish I saw more often, especially given the huge history of the 616 Marvel Universe. The Mayor of Superhero City is played by Stan Lee, who even gets a couple of episodes to develop, though he's clearly not a voice actor, and those episodes aren't the best in the series. The Superhero Squad Show gets to have a lot of fun playing with iconic stories and characters, from "The Ballard of Beta-Ray Bill" to "Planet Hulk", seeing these places and people played for laughs is very enjoyable once you get used to the younger tone. Oh, and the theme song is great! The Season 1 version is probably a little better, but both rock hard and really need a reference in the MCU at some stage, for sure. I really enjoyed The Superhero Squad Show, though I'll admit I tended to only watch a couple of episodes at a time, and it was good to see some of these characters and ideas I love taken a little less seriously for a change. Time to Hero Up!

Superhero Media: Avengers Confidential - Black Widow Punisher

To my knowledge, there are a few of these Marvel/Japanese collab films that follow in a series, but whilst I think I saw one years ago, the only one I can speak to with any accuracy is Avengers Confidential - Black Widow Punisher. As much as I'm finding anime tropes to more and more grating as I absorb more of the media, Avengers Confidential doesn't do too many, so I found myself more able to cope. Keep in mind, I'm not saying that I don't like anime in general, just that some of the common conventions don't sit well with me, personally. Frank Castle is up to his usual tricks when he spoils a SHIELD operation, and is picked up by Black Widow and Nick Fury, rather than be arrested, Frank is offered the chance to work with Widow and uncover who the bad guys really are. After a few fun fights, the real villains are revealed, Leviathan, aided by one of Natasha's former lovers. Just not one of the ones you know.

The fights are well constructed, although Frank punches and kicks people a lot more than you'd expect, and each character moves and fights very differently, especially when more heroes turn up in the third act. I'm not sure how I feel about The Punisher being able to keep pace with Black Widow in a fistfight, Frank is famously adverse to anything too up-close, though a scene where Widow and Amadeus Cho are trying to deprogram Frank as he tears through a room of SHIELD Agents is pretty neat to see. On the topic, how is Amadeus Cho not part of the MCU already? Forgetting the Totally Awesome Hulk for a minute, just as a side character, he's a lot of fun and has a pet coyote. Of course, in Avengers Confidential he's constantly trying to get a "kiss" from Natasha, but you need good non-superhero supporting cast members, and there seems like there's a lot of potential there.

Despite Leviathan being the villain, the major ploy turns out to be selling super-soliders made with a mix of Hulk and Thor's blood (don't think about it too hard) and the team ends up in Madripoor, in an awesome shanty town that I'll be ripping off for my cyberpunk table, fighting Leviathan and several supervillains. The Avengers (Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, Hawkeye, War Machine and Captain Marvel) turn up and some cool redesigns of Gravitron, Baron Zemo, Griffon, Grim Reaper and Taskmaster get in on a big fight that culminates with Frank stabbing Orion through his weird eye thing that I'm pretty sure was just part of his helmet in the comics. Avengers Confidential is a fun ride with a lot to enjoy, but it doesn't rewrite anything major or provide a bold new take on the characters for the die-hard fan to unpack. Given some of the other stuff I've been watching, this was a nice break and a good way to spend an hour and a bit while building miniatures.

Superhero Media: The Punisher - Extended Edition (2004)

As far as I'm concerned, The Punisher from 2004 is the best live-action adaptation of Frank Castle ever made. However, that one comes with a caveat. If you want the best version of this film, you need to track down the Extended Edition from 2009, which I believe was only ever made available on a DVD now long out of print. Whilst the 2004 version has plenty to recommend it, it was cut quite heavily for release by the studio and, as such, has quite a few plot-critical scenes missing. The Extended Edition restores many of those scenes, but due to the lack of funding, the sound isn't polished and a lot of the score is repeated. Returning home after a sting that got out of hand, FBI Agent Frank Castle is looking forward to a family reunion and a life away from violence with his wife and son. Unknown to Frank, however, the person who died in the sting was the son of Howard Saint, a wealthy Tampa money launderer. After cancelling the debt of Frank's gambling addict former partner, the entire Castle clan is eliminated in brutal fashion; with Frank the only survivor.

The Punisher is a somewhat slower burn than other films featuring Frank Castle, but serves as an origin that doesn't merely demonstrate The Punisher's ability to deal death, but how he can construct and execute a plan to make Batman jealous. Rather than simply killing Howard Saint and his entire organisation, Castle executes a long-term operation that drives Saint to kill his own wife and best friend in a fit of jealousy, break off with his major business partners and make a series of poor decisions that place him at the mercy of The Punisher. Thomas Jane is brilliant as Frank Castle, carrying the intensity of the role whilst still being a believable human being. For those still amazed that Leo ate raw meat, check out the commentary for The Punisher; Jane did just about every stunt, learned how to use every weapon, got thrown into a brick wall, had a prosthetic wound sewn onto him but kept going to not spoil the take, and even learned to stunt drive. Jane loved playing Frank Castle so much he made a fan film about him with his own money (which we'll get to in time). It is a great performance, with few cheesy one-liners or quips.

Actually the whole cast is great, even Travolta, who is a competent actor, and the action scenes are done well, especially the car chase with Harry Heck and, of course, the fight with "The Russian". Honestly one of the best examples of fight choreography I've seen out of Hollywood, the Russian fight is paced out to "La Donne Mobile" and has plenty of visual gags to go along with the bone-crunching action, portrayed by two actors who can use their physicality to best effect. Seriously, watch the fight on YouTube at the very least. Yes, I will defend this version of The Punisher for as long as I have breath in my body, warts and all, as it's the one that best represents the character as I perceive him, and I would happily have Jane come back to the role in the MCU, if that was at all on the cards. Hell, get Jane back, adapt some of the Garth Ennis MAX comics and put the team from the John Wick films on it.

Drokk the Law!! - Part XXIII

This time, Game Day with Andy kind of snuck up on me, and I didn't have anything ready. I packed up my terrain and my Renegade Robots and figured it might be fun to just roll some dice and not overthink things. 

No further progress on the table, but I think it will be good when it's done. I'm saving up plenty of greebles to make the detail pop and the broad expanses of most buildings should be well and truly covered in graffiti, lending the whole thing some colour. 

Game 1 saw Blood in the Machine going up against the Brian Ansell Blockers in a Getaway mission, with my robots trying to escape with their loot from a recent heist. 

My gang started in their crashed truck (the reason for hoofing it through enemy territory), surrounded by Blockers eager for easy loot and spilled oil. 

There was plenty of cover to be had, so that with my better armour should have put me in with a chance, so long as I could keep Andy's Spit Guns busy. Victory only required I get at least 3 of my 4 models (one of my Junkers broke down before the game) off the table, so I pushed towards Andy's guns to return fire and gain some cover. 

Sadly, today was the absolutely hottest I've ever seen Andy roll and I couldn't pull off a single trick. In short order, Vendi, Call-Me-Kermit and Handy Mandy were shot off the table and by the close of the second turn, I only had my Demolition Droid leader, Haro2-Goodbye, still standing. 

Maybe it was petty, but this wasn't a campaign game, and I hadn't really done anything all game, so I sent Haro2 on a rampage through the Blockers for some revenge. With the crowded table, Andy had to do some clever maneuvering, through buildings and across roofs, to get any real shots on me, so I chewed through a couple of gangers handily. 

As I said above though, Andy was rolling hot, so my rampage ended all-too-soon. But hey, we're not having anything really develop or games count for anything, so I can do silly plays without consequences. 

Game 2 was the long-awaited debut of the Fatty Stampede! We hadn't had a chance to try the Fatties yet, but they looked nasty on the page, so I deployed cautiously to avoid getting too many charges against me. 

Taking advantage of the Fatties' inability to climb or negotiate terrain too much, I deployed my guns in positions to hopefully chip away at the many Hits on the Fatties before they got too close. Fatties have a lot of Hits, so focus fire is really the only way to bring them down short of heavy weapons. 

Knowing that Haro2 was my best chance of taking some Fatties out, I finally attempted the charge at the advancing stampede. We made a big mistake with the rules here, as the first counter-charge from a Fatty really should have taken Haro2 right out, but even with that aside, I probably wasn't going to win this one. There were just too many Fatties on the table and I couldn't deal enough damage with what I had. 

Haro2 was brought down for a second time in the same day and the game wrapped up with another win for Andy. Turns out Fatties are really nasty and a wave of them like this is pretty much unstoppable without enough big guns on the table and I'll be sure to be painting mine up sooner rather than later. This was actually going to be our last game for a while, but we finally have some more interest and should be introducing some new players in the new year. Hopefully I get some terrain done before then. 

Superhero Media: Split

When Split was released, I was studying my Graduate Diploma of Counselling, and it seemed all of the lecturers and students had an opinion about how "damaging" the film was by portraying an antagonist with Multiple Personality Disorder [MPD]. Now, as of the time of writing (February 2021), MPD doesn't "officially" exist, in that most Psychology researchers, practitioners and workers know that it does exist, but there isn't enough peer-reviewed evidence for it to appear in the DSM-5. I've read an entire Post-Doctoral thesis on MPD, and I still don't really understand it, so I'm willing to give screenplay writers a bit of leeway, and, having watched the film a few times, I'm pretty sure Split isn't actually trying to represent MPD in any real way. Spoiler alert; The Horde is a supervillain and he has some kind of powers, so it's clearly not MPD in the same way that Venom doesn't have multiple personalities of any kind reminiscent of reality. Oh yeah, remember that Split is a backdoor sequel to Unbreakable? Because a lot of people were oddly mad about that at the time.

In all the jokes and memes, it's easy to forget that M. Night Shyamalan has made several really good films, Split being one of them. Split is tense, atmospheric and thrilling for most of the run, even in the closing segments where The Beast is out and displaying super-strength, bulletproof skin and wall-crawling powers. James McAvoy is brilliant as all 24 members of The Horde, even managing different mannerisms for most, and Anya Taylor-Joy does an excellent turn as Casey, blending strength and vulnerability better than most young actors in thrillers. Where Split does fall down though, is in its representations of Mental Health, not so much any conditions but in the practice and lived experience of those with a history of trauma. Throughout the film, Casey flashes back to her younger self, learning to hunt and suffering sexual abuse at the hands of her uncle, and it is through these experiences that she is able to survive captivity and the Horde. Quite literally in the climax.

The Beast's agenda, that only the "pure" can survive, turns out to mean that only those who have suffered are worthy of life, so when he sees Casey's scars, he backs off. Yes, it's the old token of "suffering makes you stronger" and, speaking as a Psychotherapist, no, trauma doesn't actually make you "stronger" in any sense. There are also concepts of Mental Illness giving a person superhuman powers, but that bothers me less, as it's essentially just The Horde to whom that applies, and the old chestnut of a therapist being more focused on their career than their client. Given that neither Split nor Shaymalan is unique in their unhelpful take on Mental Health Psychology, I really can't muster up much anger over it, though I can understand how some people get quite offended by it. As is, Split is a solid thriller, and I would like to see more films constructed around a super-powered antagonist menacing normal people. Someone like Deatwatch, Razorfist or the Dollmaker would be really interesting.