Week of Review - Mutant X

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A key evolution of the modern age of superhero blockbusters is that more and more the story of a film has become the story of the film’s behind the scenes drama.  Whether it’s the corporate mismanagement of the Amazing Spider-Man films, Josh Trank’s prima donna antics on Fant4stic, or the family tragedy & directorial scarpering of Justice League the behind the scenes stories are now the stories of those films.  

The oldest and largest looming example of this is the Fox/Marvel feud, a war between companies that’s raged for well over a decade.  The two absolutely loathe each other, to the point Marvel has canceled publishing Fantastic Four comics because Fox owns the movie rights and Fox, in turn, was willing to waste everyone’s time and money with Fant4stic.  But where did all this animosity come from, what’s the origin of their feud?  Well, it all goes back to a little show from 2001 called Mutant X- let’s dive in. 

Static Thoughts - 8 Characters Who Should Appear in Legion S2

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So, this Wednesday brings us the season finale of FX’s Legion, a quasi-superhero show revolving around the son of Charles Xavier AKA Legion.  The show itself is pretty standard fair for FX at this point, especially so given that it’s, technically speaking, a period piece.  

Like most of FX’s period pieces, the show is putting a lot more effort into the production and costume design than anything else, with a loose story that leans heavy on the good actors to carry things.  The main advantage Legion has is that it’s a show about reality warping, surreal mutant powers, and mental illness, so the plot has a more genuine reason to be vestigial than the likes of American Horror Story or Taboo. 

However, I’m not here today to review Legion aside from that brief review I just gave.  Instead, let us look forward to the already announced Season 2 and dwell on the question of upcoming cameos, easter eggs, and supporting characters.  Legion season 1 has made great use of surprise characters in the name of twists, with the ultimate reveal of Shadow King’s identity as a real fan favorite and the last minute appearance of Patrick Stewart’s Professor X a great stakes-raising element.  In that spirit, I’ve come up with 8 new heroes, villains, and others from the X-Men mythos who should make the jump to live action in Legion season 2.

Panel Vision - 6 Questions About Fox's Black Lightning

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As the superhero genre continues its absolute dominance of the media landscape of the 21^st century, we’re finally starting to get more diversity in the genre.  Obviously there’s always been some diversity in our offerings so far, Marvel, in particular, has made an effort to give all of their heroes a black best friend (War Machine in Iron Man, Heimdall in Thor, Falcon in Captain America) and DC’s Suicide Squad featured a shockingly diverse cast of supporting characters, but now we’re starting to see diversity in the headliners as well.  

Wonder Woman is finally getting her own movie, Aquaman in Polynesia, Black Panther, and Captain Marvel are both headed for the big screen, and Black Lightning will be getting his own TV show on Fox.  Black Lightning’s show is a pretty major achievement, going hand-in-hand with Luke Cage on Netflix as the first black superhero shows since Blade.  Given that, and the revelation that it will be a Berlanti produced show airing on Fox, I’ve got six major questions about the Black Lightning show.

Disney Announces Rocketeer Reboot

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Edited by Robert Beach

Now that we’ve crossed the midpoint of the 2010s, one thing has become very clear: superheroes aren’t going away.  The genre never really went away after it emerged through Batman in 1989, but for a time, people were expecting there to be a peak or finale to things. However, after eight years of Marvel blockbusters coming out like clockwork along with FOX reviving the X-Men in 2011 and DC/WB getting their act together, the superhero has simply become a constant part of our cultural diet. While this is an exciting prospect, it does raise the question of what happens to those companies without access to the superhero IP of DC or Marvel. 

The answer, clearly, is that they’ll dive into lesser-known heroes, either from the public domain, smaller publishers, or creator owned. We’ve already seen this with the 2000s’ Hellboy, yet it seems the key people jumping on this bandwagon now are, shockingly, Disney. Yes, even though the house of mouse already owns Marvel, they’re hungry for more. Their first aim is a reboot of their 1990s underrated superhero classic The Rocketeer with the new Rocketeer allegedly being conceived as a black woman. 

Gotham S3 Adds 7 New Characters

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Edited by Robert Beach

As we continue to burn through the summer, casting news has begun to filter through about this falls’ collection of superhero shows and next year’s new crop of superhero films. We’re focusing on the former today. For a nice change of pace, we’re looking at one of the only superhero shows currently out that isn’t part of the Disney Empire or the CWniverse: Gotham. 

Gotham, for those who don’t know, is Fox’s Batman prequel show, set when Bruce Wayne was still a child and had just lost his parents and around Lieutenant Gordon’s slow rise to Commissioner. The show’s had its ups and downs, mostly downs, and the latest season was marked by a seriously bizarre downturn in quality control as the show dived head first into as many big, flashy superhero elements and Easter eggs as it could muster. Now, with the third season looming, Gotham has added 7 new characters (mostly villains) to its line up as it continues to try and find its feet.

What could Fox's 2 mystery superhero films be

Well it wasn’t a boring February, that’s for sure.  Between the racial kerfuffle of Gods of Egypt, the critical explosion of The Witch, and the smash hit that was Deadpool February has finally achieved its longtime goal of being a month worth discussing.  And with this unexpected boom of importance comes a shift in priorities, most specifically the priorities of Fox.  

In the wake of February Fox has apparently scuttled this fall’s proposed Gambit movie and announced 2 unnamed new superhero films for 2017 and 2018.  Given that the only thing we know about these movies is that they’re superhero films and I run a column exclusively dedicated to wild speculation on upcoming comic book and superhero fair these are my predictions for what Fox’s 2 mystery movies could be.

Static Thoughts - X-Files: Pusher

One of the majorly anticipated events of 2016 is the return of the X-Files, a genre show from the ‘90s that lasted 9 seasons, 2 movies, and served to dominate the sci-fi landscape in that decade.  Seriously, Star Wars may have been king in the ‘80s and Terminator was an early wonder of the ‘90s but it was X-Files and Star Trek that truly ruled the ‘90s sci-fi conversation and with good reason.  X-Files managed to grow from a ‘90s curiosity revolving around conspiracy theory Americana like big foot and Area 51 into an incredibly tight and well written horror sci-fi series that was the first time cops and the paranormal were combined in the mainstream. 

The entirety of genre TV has been impacted by the X-Files, with some additional points even into mainstream television, like how Breaking Bad creator Vince Gilligan got his start on X-Files.  One of Gilligan’s episodes is my subject for today’s review, a season 3 installment called ‘Pusher’ that revolves around a disaffected sociopath with the power to psychokinetically impose his will on people.  Basically, the titular Pusher is like the first draft version of Kilgrave, the villain of 2015’s hit streaming superhero show Jessica Jones.

Gotham - Strike Force Review

I continue my look at Gotham's downward slide into television oblivion with Michael Chiklis' debut episode 'Strike Force,' full review on Front Towards Gamer:

http://ftg.operationsupplydrop.org/2015/10/18/gotham-strike-force-review-tv/

Fox Launches 2 X-Men TV Shows

Edited by Robert Beach

After months of hearing nothing from either camp, it seems some agreement has been reached between Marvel and Fox to allow Fox to make X-Men TV shows…kind of.  Rather than making a TV Show out of anyone attending Xavier’s school or its sundry collection of graduates, these new shows will focus on some of the quasi-villains and supporting characters of the X-Men mythos. 

The two announced shows coming soon to TV are Hellfire, a show about the eponymous Hellfire Club last seen in X-Men: First Class, and Legion, revolving around the mentally unstable yet extremely powerful son of Charles Xavier. One thing is for sure: this is a major milestone in the Fox/Marvel beef that has everyone speculating, especially in the wake of early rumors that Fox had deferred the Fantastic Four rights back to Marvel. 

Gotham - Knock, Knock Review

I break down the Joker portrayal in Gotham's 2nd episode over on Front Towards Gamer, don't worry though, the show is still bad:

http://ftg.operationsupplydrop.org/2015/10/01/gotham-knock-knock-review-tv/

Assassin's Creed Film Doing Genetic Memories

Edited by Robert Beach 

Why is it so many video game films seem to purposely make terrible decisions in the adaptation process?  Even with junkie games like Assassin’s Creed, where the concept should be impossible to screw up, studios seem to have found a way. I’m a hardcore Assassin’s Creed fan and was looking forward to the upcoming film for a lot of reasons. Though the games have a lot of flaws, their aesthetics and style of action are definitely worth bringing to the big screen and would provide a unique visual spectacle that wouldn’t end up just ripping off a more popular work.
   

What’s more, Michael Fassbender is signed up for the lead role, and he’s an amazing actor that I actually am a major fan of. He’s a major fan of the games, so one could assume that the visual ethos and thrilling par core action would remain intact through the translation process. Even this first promotional picture is pretty awesome, a solid reinterpretation of the assassin gear for the 15^th century. Where is it all going wrong?  Two words: genetic memory.

X-Files Season 11 #1 Review

Last week I took a look at IDW's X-Files Season 11 #1, the comic book continuation of the show, it's a real treat for fans and a great jumping on point for the X-Files Extended Universe, check out the full review over on Front Towards Gamer:

http://ftg.operationsupplydrop.org/2015/08/14/x-files-season-11-1-review-comics/

Deadpool Trailer

So the Deadpool trailer has finally dropped.  While not the same trailer that blew up Comic Con earlier in the summer the red band trailer is still pretty fun and impressive with a lot of the same beats from the comic con trailer.  The main things that are missing are a lot more of the swearing and fourth wall jokes but a lot of that was ultimately added flavor more than legitimate substance.  All the important stuff the trailer needed to get across is still here: Deadpool looks like Deadpool, the action is bloody, the humor gross and juvenile, and the character will be intermittently self-aware.  It’s also confirmed this will be the first R-rated superhero film since the Blade series concluded, though the first ever R-rated superhero film was 1989’s Punisher.  

Channign Tatum Leaving Gambit?

The rumor mills became a buzz on Tuesday night that Channing Tatum was leaving next year’s Gambit film.  At the time of writing nothing has been more or less confirmed about the status of the film or whether or not Tatum is actually jumping ship but with the Internet panic over the rumblings it’s hard to ignore.  I certainly understand why this would cause such fervor.  Fox has had a pretty solid 3 film run with the X-Men recently as most cinema goers and nerds enjoyed the excellent X-Men: First Class, the serviceable Wolverine, and the for some reason popular X-Men: Days of Future Past. 

All this has helped build up some serious buzz for X-Men: Apocalypse and the franchise overall after its serious drop in relevance at the end of the ‘00s.  Despite the series popularity Fox is still looking to cut down on actor costs so X-Men: Apocalypse is actually slotted as a series reboot in order to drop expensive actors like Michael Fassbender or Jennifer Lawrence.  This has made Gambit the first major post-reboot X-Men film so having its lead suddenly start wobbling is a big deal for all involved. 

Gambit Casting Breakdown

Next year is going to bring a lot of big changes to the X-Men franchise.  For the most part this strikes me as being for the best; the X-Men franchise has been more or less running in place since X2 with a major emphasis on the less.  Despite this series lasting for well over a decade the visual emphasis is still on black leather plastic, Wolverine is still king of the party, and the X-Men’s whole existence is still solely defined by fighting to protect a populous that hates them.  It bugs me because so much of that is just the drabbest iteration of these characters.  Hence why I’m really welcoming the changes that will come with X-Men: Apocalypse.  The costumes are imaginative and vibrant, the conflict vast and not just rehashing previous tensions, and it marks the beginning of the end for Wolverine’s role in the franchise.  However, with the series most recognizable actor and character finally bowing out of the spotlight Fox needs a new face for the franchise going forward.  That’s where Channing Tatum’s Gambit comes in. 

X-Files Season 10 Teaser

So, the first legitimate teaser trailer for the X-Files revival mini-series has finally dropped from Fox.  Even though the new X-Files episodes won’t be hitting the air for another 6 months or so it makes sense that Fox is looking to get the ball rolling on this particular project early.  It’s becoming more and more obvious that this is the year Hollywood is waking up to how impactful 1990s nostalgia really is.  We’ve already seen 90stalgia make Jurassic World a monster hit and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see the same thing again in a few months when that Goosebumps movie comes out.  The X-Files stood as one of the defining cultural touchstones of the ‘90s so Fox trying to really build up its return makes a lot of sense especially given the uphill battle the revival is facing story wise.