Review Time: The Flash "The Nuclear Man" and Arrow "Canaries"

This week marked the thirteenth episodes of both The Flash and Arrow.  The unraveling of both the mysteries of Ronnie Raymond’s disappearance (and subsequent reappearance), as well as Joe’s unearthing of the past to learn more about the killer of Barry’s mother continue this week on The Flash.  Over in Starling City, the ramifications of Ollie’s return are beginning to be felt.

This is going to be very “stream of consciousness” so bear with me.  Okay, so if you haven’t seen this week’s episodes of either show, STOP READING RIGHT NOW.

SPOILERS INCOMING.

The Flash- "The Nuclear Man"

• “Uptown Funk”- The song begins the episode.  And I like Mark Ronson, I just don’t buy into the Bruno Mars hype AT ALL.  Never have.  It’s a fun song, though, and it fits the theme of Barry preparing for his date with Linda Park.
• Sex joke.  They really went there, didn’t they?  It was funny, but Cisco asking Barry about whether or not he’s worried about his *ahem* “super speed” seemed a little juvenile.
• Joe and Cisco investigating into Barry’s mother’s murder is cool.  It also gives a fresh interaction with characters that have been on the show all season, but really haven’t had scenes with just the two of them.  The explanation of the photos in the mirror due to the super speed  and being able to identify the killer that way came across as a little “well, you know because science”.
• Wells’ mini-speech to Caitlyn about how people "want to go home, where we feel safe, where we feel loved" is a Peter Pan paraphrase.  Which, if you know me, you know I love me some Pan.  So that was cool.  Also, even though I’m not supposed to, I really love Dr. Wells, but I really, really do.
• Barry's adorkableness in the sex scene was hilarious.  Maybe I just identify with him.  Who knows.
• "Flame on".  What you did there?  We see it.
• TIME TRAVEL??  We knew this was coming, with the concept of time travel being so intrinsically linked to The Flash and his mythos, but it’s cool to finally see it mentioned as more than just a passing reference.  Joe’s suspicions of Dr. Wells being involved in Barry’s mother’s murder (which we know to be true) being brought to the forefront is, I think, coming at a perfect time in the season.  With there being ten episodes left this season, now is the time to start ramping up to the eventual showdown between The Flash and Reverse Flash (Dr. Wells).
• Imagine how Caitlyn must feel while talking to her thought-to-be-dead fiancé who has someone else’s consciousness inside him.  It’d be super weird.  And these are people that deal with super weird on the weekly.
• I liked that there was no villain on this episode.  Ergo, there was no "villain of the week" on this episode.  Which is great.  The “villain of the week” concept is pretty prevalent in seasons one of many other shows (Smallville comes to mind), but The Flash has done it in style.  I’m just relieved to have had a break from it this episode.
• Dr. Wheels sure does love killing people, am I right?  He killed Simon Stagg at the beginning of the season, and now he wants to kill Ronnie/Dr. Stein, then he’s got a gun for some reason.  Dude’s creepy.
• Wouldn't Linda kissing Barry after he ate the ghost pepper make her mouth burn too?  Cute though.
• I know I mentioned it earlier, but YAY, TIME TRAVEL!!  I love time travel.  Something to ponder:  Is Reverse Flash Dr. Wells now or is he Dr. Wells from the future?  Or the past?  Did he kill Barry’s mom earlier, or has he not killed her yet because Barry isn’t ready to be able to stop him?  Is that what his “timetable” is?  I know my theory.  What’s yours?
• Ronnie/Dr. Stein- "How can you save me?"  It's a technobabble!  This show has entirely too much technobabble.  I mean, it’s Cisco’s forte, but at least they make fun of it (“I thought ‘super light’ would be easier to say.”
• The reappearance at the end of the episode of Clancy Brown as DC Comics villain General Wade Eiling.  Brown, while a great actor, is an even better voice actor.  Best known, probably for his performance as Lex Luthor in almost every appearance of that character in animation for nearly two decades, but also as Mr. Krabs of SpongeBob SquarePants fame.

Arrow "Canaries"

• Although the Hong Kong stuff is better than the island, I'm so done with the flashbacks.
• Soooo, Vertigo is Scarecrow now?
• DJ Douchebag using "Vine", "fan girls", and "epically epic" is trying too hard to be youth relate-able.  Unless they’re just trying to make him annoying.  In which case, it’s working well.
• Thea's reaction is to Ollie telling her that he’s the Arrow is f****** perfect.  "You're him" and the multiple "thank you"s were great. It’s exactly how a REAL PERSON WOULD REACT to finding out a loved one is a costumed vigilante.  In my opinion.
• Thea: "I did kinda kick your ass" Ollie: "you didn't..."  Fun stuff.  Stephen Amell has good comedic timing.
• And I love that Thea gets mad at Merlyn, EXACTLY LIKE A REAL PERSON WOULD REACT to learning their psychopath father has been lying to them for so long. 
• More Hong Kong stuff.  Snooze. 
• Love the Ollie vs. Laurel stuff.  The “pain doesn't go away cliché” is to be expected with tragic superhero origins, so it gets a pass.  The “Laurel's an addict” is a nice twist, though.
• I rather enjoy the word "detonator".  Random thought.
• Vertigo’s "I weep for thee" could just be a passing “oh look, he’s cultured”, but I think it’s actually a Shakespeare/Henry V quote.
• It is in the midst of this episode that I finally realized that Thea is pretty hot.
• I love fun dialogue.  "You smell like smoke.  Korean BBQ?" "C4, actually..."
• Detective Lance calls Sin “the one with the boy hair”! Lololol.
• Good for Felicity for standing up for the team against Ollie!  I disagree with her... But good for her!
• While I’m on the topic, good god, I love Felicity. Why do I love her so much?
• Thea’s surprise fight scene against DJ Douchebag was super fun. 
• Daggett Pharmaceuticals is a Batman: The Animated Series reference to Roland Daggett’s Daggett Industries, a pharmaceutical company.  A Daggett (named John) also appears in The Dark Knight Rises and is a corrupt businessman. 
• Black Canary got hit with the drug again.  What an amateur.  WAIT, she's hallucinating Lance this time!  So.  IS Vertigo Scarecrow?
• Lance's guess at Laurel's secret starts out kinda funny.  It's like "well, YES. But no..."  The actual reveal that Sara is dead is legitimately heart wrenching.  
• Random note on The League: I like that they use the "of Assassins" name as opposed to "of Shadows" from the Dark Knight Trilogy.  Comic versions trump film/tv any day of the week in my book.
• Next week: OOH, DEATHSTROKE!  Can’t wait.
• Where the f*** is Ray Palmer!?  This is two episodes straight without him!

All around, both episodes were good.  The builds to each season finale will be fun.  Prediction Time:

The Flash Season One will end just as the season began:  Nora Allen’s murder.  This time, it will be from our present day perspective.  Wells’ timetable refers to him having enough technobabble stuff ready to go back in time (and Barry will follow him back) to kill Barry’s mom, which is the inciting incident in Barry becoming The Flash.  It’s a causality loop.  It happens because it already happened.  Gotta love time travel.

Arrow Season Three will obviously end with another Ollie vs. Ra’s fight.  This time, Ollie wins.  Beyond that, I don’t have any bold predictions.

Thanks for reading!

-Josh

 

All characters, and images in this blog are owned and trademarked by DC Comics, a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.

Reboots

Let’s say you’re working along at work, you’re on your computer, and suddenly it stops working properly.  What do you do?  Call your IT Department?  Nope.  Ask the cute techie girl across the office that’s always helping everyone else?  That’s a dumb idea (or in my case, I am the cute techie girl across the office).  Oh, wait!  You have that one friend that knows everything, call him!  Wait, no, you don’t want to look stupid.  You’ve got to fix this yourself.  Here’s a pro-tip for you: When your computer (or phone or tablet or whatever) is not working as it should, the first thing you should try is turning it off and back on, or (to use a slightly more technical term) reboot it.  It’s quick and easy and 99% of the time is the fix for your problem.

Now, let’s say you’re a movie studio head or producer of some sort.  You have the rights to a film franchise that has sucked hardcore underperformed in recent years.  What do you do?  Do a crossover with another waning franchise (hello, Freddy vs. Jason)?  Only if you want to get fired.  Make another sequel (but it worked for Transformers! #sarcasm)?  That’s a genius way to blow a bunch of money and get fired.  Apply the same logic from the first scenario and reboot!

New movie, new cast, new (for the most part) story.  It’s a simple formula with pretty good results.  Star Trek did it.  James Bond did it.  Batman did it.  Just this past year had two movies from franchise reboots (Godzilla and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) that I thought were great movies.  Admittedly, there were some that were not as great (what’s up, 2014’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!).  Next year has a slew more that I’m hopeful for like Terminator Genisys.

Daenerys, Arnold, and The Doctor? YES.

It’s Hollywood’s cash cow now, it would seem.  Take something that was cool 25, 30, or 50 years ago and re-envision it in a modern light.  It keeps things fresh, it gets new eyes on the product, and it helps prevent the use of phrases like “genre fatigue”.  So, if you can imagine audiences tiring of something like Star Trek after ten movies over the course of 20+ years, imagine how difficult of a time the comic book industry has with sustaining readership when an average of between 10 and 15 comics per week are produced 52 weeks out of the year for (in the case of DC and Marvel Comics) 81 and 54 years, respectively.  That’s a lot of stories.

When you have a massive shared universe, much like the DC and Marvel Universes, it’s quite a task to coordinate all of the writers and artists on each title and even more difficult to make these stories published in 2015 jive with those published in, say, 1956.  Even more so than that, though, it’s creatively stifling.  Some writers, like Grant Morrison, are great at taking the concept of “hey, remember that D-list villain from Batman #156 (June 1963)?  He’s now the deadliest enemy The Dark Knight has ever faced!”  Morrison consistently mines continuity to tell present day stories highlighting the legacy of characters like Batman, Superman, and the X-Men.  Morrison’s newest DC Comic, Multiversity, is chock full of these types of plot lines.  Another writer, Geoff Johns is known for taking characters that have lost some of their luster and bringing them back to the forefront.  Just in the last 10 to 12 years, Johns has done that for Green Lantern in epic fashion and Aquaman, killing a lot of the “you just talk to fish” jokes and making DC’s King of Atlantis a legitimate badass.

Johns' New 52 Aquaman #1

But even with writers such as these, problems of negative interpretations of characters, lack of sales, and creative burn out still persist.  If Superman is the most powerful being in existence (as he is depicted at times) and he’s married to Lois Lane, what other stories can be told?  Moreover, in the comic world at least, there’s the thought new readers have of “well, I’ve missed #699 issues of Amazing Spider-Man, why would I buy #700?”  Entry points, from a story telling perspective, as well as from a sales perspective, are a necessity.  Sometimes, you just need a fresh start to get you back to square one.  Sometimes, you just need a reboot.

In 2011, DC Comics announced that they were cancelling their entire publishing line and beginning anew.  This meant that long standing titles like Detective Comics (at #811), Action Comics (#904), Superman (#714), and Batman (#713) would all be renumbered to #1 in September 2011.  This initiative was aptly called “The New 52”, as the DC Universe would be overhauled and 52 separate comic book titles would be published on a monthly basis.  Initially, The New 52 saw great success, with the #1 issue of each title selling out its original publishing run.  Justice League, the flagship title of The New 52, went on to sell out four printing editions.  Over the past three and a half years, a handful of New 52 titles have come and gone, but the core of the original 52 stayed firm.

Alex Ross maintaining his awesomeness.

Many will disagree, but I’m convinced that Marvel Comics has finally decided to follow DC’s lead and reboot their universe and will do so with the recently announced event “Secret Wars”, set to debut in May.  Marvel has an even worse case of “new reader alienation” than DC did prior to September 2011.

Yes, that's my personal copy.

Thirty years ago, DC had its first of these giant crossover, “soft reboot” (getting rid of the bad and keeping the good, rather that losing the baby with the bathwater like a full reboot would) events.  Titled Crisis on Infinite Earths, the universe wide crossover featured all the heroes of the DC Universe battling a villain named the Anti-Monitor, who was hell bent on wiping out their existence.  Ultimately, the heroes were victorious (as they almost always are), but it came at the cost of the lives of certain characters… Like those whose books weren’t selling well.  Now, on the 30^th anniversary of COIE, DC has announced what’s being called “a love letter to the DC Universe and its fans”.  Convergence will be a 9-part series that will serve to end this era of the DC Universe and mark the beginning of a new era.  Half of DC’s current titles will end in March and April as part of another “soft reboot”.  Those titles performing well and are on creative upswing will remain and in June, 24 (so far announced) new titles will launch.  These are a few of those that I’m most looking forward to/intrigued by:

Gorgeous.

Justice League of America.  Written and drawn by Bryan Hitch, a guy best known for his work with Marvel Comics on the Ultimate Avengers.  This book looks to feature the original seven members of the Justice League: Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter Cyborg.  I’m more excited about this book than any of the others.

So, Damian has new pet..?

Robin, Son of Batman.  Essentially, this is just replacing the long running Batman & Robin series, but with a larger focus on the Boy Wonder.  Artist on B&R, Pat Gleason will remain and take over writing duties as well.

A street gang of sidekicks maybe?  Okay.  I guess.

We Are Robin.  I have no clue what this title is or what it’s about, but I’m looking forward to it quite a bit.  More Batman centric titles can’t be a bad thing, right?

Or, as she's been nicknamed by Tumblr-ites, Bitch Canary.

Black Canary.  Spinning out of the pages of Batgirl, this book will be written by one of the writers of that title, Brenden Fletcher.

Starfire.  Another spin-off title, this book (along with Red Hood/Arsenal) will take the place of the cancelled title Red Hood and the Outlaws.

Just a sketch, but it's Ivan Reis artwork, so it'll be awesome.

Cyborg.  33 months after The New 52 reboot, one of the original seven of the Justice League will star in his own monthly series.

Other new series include: Batman Beyond, Bat-Mite, Bizarro, Constantine: The Hellblazer, Dark Universe, Green Lantern: Lost Army, Doomed, Earth 2: Society, Dr. Fate, Harley Quinn/Power Girl, Justice League 3001, Martian Manhunter, Midnighter, Mystic U (tentative title), Omega Men, Prez, Red Hood/Arsenal, and Section Eight.

The remaining ongoing titles are: Action Comics, Aquaman, Batgirl, Batman, Detective Comics, Batman/Superman, Catwoman, Deathstroke, The Flash, Gotham Academy, Gotham By Midnight, Grayson, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Harley Quinn, Justice League, Justice League United, Lobo, Secret Six, Sinestro, New Suicide Squad, Superman, Superman/Wonder Woman, Teen Titans, and Wonder Woman.

With the count of ongoing titles down to 49, DC has finally dropped “The New 52” branding that has been on the cover of all of their books since September 2011.

Check back on Thursday for my review of this week’s episodes of The Flash and Arrow!

Thanks for reading!

-Josh 

Sources: excerpts from primary source interviews; Wikipedia; dccomics.com

All characters, and images in this blog are owned and trademarked by DC Comics, a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. or Marvel Comics, a division of The Walt Disney Corporation or Paramount Pictures, a subsidiary of Viacom.

"You ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?"

BATMANIA- (Noun)

A mental disease causing one to constantly obsess over Batman, being Batman, or anything involved with the Batman mythos. 

In 1988 (great year, by the way) and 1989, America was engulfed in the nation’s second bout of Batmania, the first being in the late 60’s as a result of the wildly popular television series starring Adam West and Burt Ward as Batman and Robin.  The culprit, this time around, was the highly anticipated feature film simply titled Batman.  With Michael Keaton (Mr. Mom, Beetlejuice) donning the cowl and Tim Burton (also Beetlejuice) behind the camera, the film was poised to be one of the biggest movies of all time.  Filmmaker and comic book writer Kevin Smith remembers:

"That summer was huge. You couldn't turn around without seeing the Bat-Signal somewhere.  People were cutting it into their fucking heads.  It was just the summer of Batman and if you were a comic book fan it was pretty hot."

But things weren’t always so optimistic.

In the late 1970s, the plan was to produce a film titled Batman In Space, potentially seeing West and Ward returning to the roles of the Dynamic Duo.  However, before any work was done on the project, film producers Michael Uslan and Benjamin Melniker purchased the film rights to the Batman franchise from DC Comics.  With several script versions being turned down by major studios such as United Artists and Columbia Pictures, Uslan and Melniker’s darker, serious take on the Caped Crusader was without a home.  This was due to studios believing that audiences wanted something similar in style to the campiness of the 60s television series.

More script versions were written, including one by Uslan himself titled Return of the Batman, but still no one in Hollywood wished to take part.  That is, until Warner Bros. (who are, strangely enough, the parent company of DC Comics, but due to the film rights for the Batman franchise being sold in 1979, the Warners had no involvement until the early 80s) stepped in.  Several versions of the film began pre-production, but were axed for various reasons.  Originally, the film would be titled The Batman and would focus on the origins of Dick Grayson as Robin, with The Joker and a gangster with comic history named Rupert Thorne as the villains, and another comic character named Silver St. Cloud as Bruce Wayne’s love interest.  The intent was for unknown actors in the roles of Batman and Robin and established American actor William Holden James Gordon and British actor David Niven as Alfred Pennyworth.  Before filming began, both Holden and Niven passed away, leading to another halt in production.  The next major iteration of the film would see Bill Murray (KCCO) and Eddie Murphy (yes, that Eddie Murphy) as Batman and Robin, but for reasons of which I am not fully clear, this version never came to pass.

This was almost a thing.

Then 1985 happened.  Why is that year so important?  First, The Dark Knight Returns, a seminal work by Frank Miller, was released.  Depicting an aged Bruce Wayne coming out of retirement to once again become Batman, TDKR is regarded by many as the greatest Batman story of all time.  The second reason being that ’85 was the year Pee-wee's Big Adventure hit theatres.  Due to the success of that film, Warner Bros. hired Tim Burton, who at the time had only done that movie and was in preparing to film Beetlejuice.  Burton and his girlfriend at the time, Julie Hickson, wrote a film treatment inspired by the tone and feel of The Dark Knight Returns and the newly released comic, The Killing Joke.  Long time comic writer, Steve Englehart joined the project to help write a full script keeping most of the previous version intact: Robin’s origins, Joker/Thorne as villains, and Silver St. Cloud.  A subsequent rewrite omitted Robin entirely, with the thought process being that too many characters were present.  One final overhaul of the scripted happened, this time by a screenwriter named Sam Hamm.  Hamm’s contributions included changing the characters of Silver St. Cloud and Rupert Thorne to Vicki Vale (a mainstay in Batman comics) and Carl Grissom (an original creation, ultimately played by the amazingly talented Jack Palance in the film).  But Hamm’s main alteration was the idea of NOT showing Batman’s origin other than through flashbacks.  This concept, I love.  I cannot tell you how exhausted I am of origin stories in superhero films and television.

The comic that changed it all.

Burton and company patterned the casting of the Superman film when looking to cast the main roles in the film.  Top names like Mel Gibson, Kevin Costner, and Tom Selleck were considered for the role of Batman and, on the “holy crap, they’d be perfect” list for The Joker were names like Tim Curry, Willem Dafoe, and David Bowie.  Ultimately, Burton’s casting of Michael Keaton led to a backlash among comic fans, which is uncharacteristic for that particular fan base (#SARCASM).  The role of The Joker went to Jack Nicholson.  With two Academy Awards and four Golden Globes, as well as a bevy of nominations, under his belt, Nicholson’s casting came at a cost.  Namely, a ridiculous contact that specified the number of hours he was entitled to have off each day, being off for Los Angeles Lakers home games, having all of his scenes shot in a three-week block (that one ended up not happening, as his shooting schedule lasted about 100 days), a $6 million salary as well as a large percentage of the box office gross.  To top it all off, Nicholson had top billing for the film.  In layman’s terms, that means that his name appeared before that of Keaton’s on all promotional material for the film including posters and home video box art.

"The movie is called Batman.  Who's name should go first, the guy playing BATMAN?  Nah...

Batman opened on June 23, 1989, grossing $43.6 million during its opening weekend, smashing the opening weekend record, set by Ghostbusters II just one week earlier, with $29.4 million.  Batman would eventually gross upwards of $411 million worldwide. 

A Duo of a different Dynamic.

There’s not a lot I don’t like about this movie, but there are several that I downright hate.  For example, Batman KILLS SEVERAL PEOPLE INCLUDING THE JOKER.  I’m not even going to explain why I hate that.

Commissioner Gordon is a dope.  Joker kills Batman’s parents (“small world syndrome” is lazy writing).  I’ve never been a big fan of the all black costume, however, I do like the Bat-symbol and its use in marketing.  Comic writer Grant Morrison brought the use of that particular symbol back about twenty years after the release of the film during his writing of a new comic series titled Batman, Incorporated, a series about the “franchising” of the Batman name:

“I was looking back at the old Tim Burton Batman movie in 1989, and the way they played that symbol, it was such a major merchandising tool.  So I wanted to do something that represented that, or echoed that.  So Batman, Inc. is the notion of Batman taking the symbol and saying, 'let's form an international army or team, or police force, which is endorsed by Batman and wears Batman's symbol.'”

Morrison and artist David Finch bring back the iconic black and yellow oval.

Among my favorite things about this movie are:

The Batmobile, designed by Anton Furst.

This shot of the Batwing, evoking the look of the Bat-symbol.

"He stole my balloons!"

The toys.  My God, the toys.

Bob the Goon doesn't get nearly the credit he deserves.  At least he got an action figure.

Prince.  And to a greater extent, Danny Elfman’s score.

Nothing says "This Batman movie was made in the 80s" like Prince on the soundtrack.

The two greatest things to come from this movie, in my opinion, are the fact that this movie led to the creation of not only a sequel, Batman Returns, but also the launch of Batman: The Animated Series, of which I’ve written at length.  Batmania began in the 60s.  It saw resurgence in the late 80s because of this movie.  And it’s alive and well today and has no sign of going away.  They hated the idea of Keaton, so I don’t think you have anything to worry about, Ben.

Thanks for reading!

-Josh

Sources: excerpts from primary source interviews; Wikipedia; Smodcast.com

Batman, related characters, and images in this blog are owned and trademarked by DC Comics, a division or Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.