Superhero TV Shows VS Movies

Credit where credit is due. Inspiration for this post comes from IGN, and also I have been watching a fuckload of Arrow. Full disclaimer, I love Superhero Movies. I've blogged on all the recent comic book movies. The aim of this blog is to present the pros and cons of the movies and the shows.

Character Development

In any of the Spider-Man movies only a couple of people develop over the show. Peter Parker goes from nerdy highschooler to a Spider-themed Superhero. His antagonist will go from good guy to bad guy, sometimes back to a good guy. His aunt will get kidnapped and give hints that she knows Pete is Spider-man. Most superhero movies will have similar characters and develop them. 

But if you watch Arrow. If you watch fucking Arrow. Then you see the most ridiculous amount of character development for a superhero and his supporting cast. I'd even say the most out of any screened-superhero. For the first couple of episodes I hated Oliver Queen. I thought I had seen enough superhero movies to know that if I hated the protagonist not much would change my mind. But fuck me was I wrong. Oliver Queen is the man, he gets shit done. He has flaws and he recognizes them, and it happens over a believable length of time. 

World Building

If a Superhero has more than one villain appear at a time it is often criticized as been overcrowded. The Avengers worked so well because every major character had already been introduced. In a movie the audience expects to be entertained for the whole movie, and justifiably so, the filmmakers don't have the time to flesh out every character and introduce new ones in a single movie. Whereas a television show has nothing but time to introduce characters and develop their motives and relations. Over two seasons of Arrow, Oliver Queen has fucked like 200 girls (198 more than Peter Parker) and has 50 villains (45 more than all the Movie Avengers combined). 

There are so many secret societies running around in Arrow that it is hard to keep track of. Sure there are many alluded to in the Marvel Movies and some even brought to the forefront, but Arrow does a lot more with them albeit over a longer stretch of time. Movies barely scratch the surface of the source material, the first Thor barely showed any of Valhalla and over 5 Spider-Man movies we can't see anything as great as a Spider-Man Nickelodeon cartoon.

Actually Superheroes

What makes a hero a hero? How many times do you have to save the world to be considered a superhero? In the movies Tony Stark defeats a bigger Tony Stark to be considered a superhero. Spider-Man fights a Lizard-Man and is considered a superhero. Captain America defeats Red Hitler and is considered the world's first superhero. That is one guy, until the next movie. I would like to believe that in between movies these heroes are fighting other villains, but the movies keep telling us that nothing new has happened in a length of time. Spider-Man didn't gain any new enemies between the Lizard and Electro. In a television show you see the day to day lives of a superhero. And every day he is fighting some new guy with powers, or making a new friend. You see the inner workings of a superhero in a superworld.

Movies have their place. They are huge budget escapes with high stakes. Big events. Fun popcorn time. Large water coke with ice please. Deep-fried peppermint choctop. They are easy to see, you can see them with friends that barely care about the source material and every movie is different. TV shows require a lot more time and energy but the payoff is greater, even if the reward isn't equal to the time invested.

Get pumped for the Daredevil TV Show coming out.

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I have a Twitter, so follow me or else : @KrisCreedYo

Superior Spider-Man Discussion

What day is it? The 17th of April? No. No. Get excited. It's fucking Spider-Man day.

Why is it Spider-Man day? Because the second Amazing Spider-Man movie comes out today? Yeah, I guess so. But also. Wrong. Today the final issue of Superior Spider-Man comes out. Man am I pumped. I'm going to buy this bad boy first thing in the morning.

This blog is going to be broken up into two sections. This section, which is sort of an intro-y section and the next section, which is me going on about how great Superior Spider-Man is.

To say I was excited would be a statement.

Dan Slott didn't get me into Spider-Man, that honor goes to Brian Michael Bendis with his Ultimate Spider-Man. But when Peter Parker died I swapped right on over to Amazing with his Big Time run. It was amazing. There was enough of a backlog for me to read up to #698 to get current on Spider-Man and then disaster struck. Peter Parker was dying. For me, Peter Parker was dying again. And I relate to Peter Parker, because everyone does, that's his character. A relatable guy with spider-powers. I just stopped reading Ultimate because Peter Parker was dead and now I had to stop reading Amazing because Peter Parker was dead. And Dr.Octopus was taking over. That fat guy with the stilts for hands. But fuck me swinging. Web swinging. Spider-Ock was awesome. He was a completely different Spider-Man to Peter and he kept it fresh.

It wouldn't be a Spider-Man Day without some music.

Spiderpus would kickass, take names then kick some more ass. He was organised. He protected the whole city, albeit in a totalitarian fashion, but he set out to do what he believed needed to be done to preserve Peter's legacy. And he made friends and enemies and he started having sex with a midget. Spiderpus was very open-minded, and that is what I expect from a super-hero. I think her name was Anne-Marie, which is more creative than Mary Jane. Just.

And he gave himself more powers. He redesigned the spider-suit to give him like, extra vision powers and he had octopus tentacles come out of his back. And he had henchmen and spider-bots and giant spider-bots. He launched an assault on Shadowland, the most powerful organised crime land in the Universe and he barely broke a sweat. He saved lives using synergy and proactivity. He even started a Spider-Man Incorporated.

I know it sounds like I'm taking the piss out of the comic. I am a little bit. But I love it. It is the first series that I have read the entirety of it's run as it came out. As amazing as Amazing Spider-Man was this series is more amazing (can't think of a better word). If you haven't read this series because it has a fat octopus-man in the body of a skinny spider-man then you are doing yourself a huge injustice. As it stands this is one of my favourite comic book series of all time.

It is also the only comic I have ever gotten signed by it's writer. Thank you Dan Slott for making this.

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Follow me on Twitter if you want to talk Spider-Man- @KrisCreedYo

Captain America: Winter Soldier Aussie Thoughts

G'day mate. You've been hurt before. It's ok now. The first Captain America movie was beloved by a lot of people. Those people were Americans. Some other people may have liked it but it was Captain Stars & Stripes the Amazing Patriot VS Nazis. The movie was probably fine I, like all my friends, fell asleep watching it. I still went on movie discussion forums and all I saw was praise for the first Captain America movie. I have since chalked this up to patriotism.

So when the reviews for the second Captain America movie started rolling in positively I had to critically think whether it was going to be a good movie or not. The positive reviews could have been American propaganda for all I knew and expected. Surprisingly though, Winter Soldier was amazing.

The movie expands on the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Not everything is as it seems, which is great for a 70's style action spy thriller modern superhero movie epic. There is corruption within SHIELD and Captain America doesn't know who he can trust, so he trusts the first person he meets after being told not to trust anyone and also he trusts the person he ran past at the beginning of the movie. It is still really cool though.

Comic elements are made more apparent in this movie than the previous Iron Mans and Captain America. Not everything is cemented in reality, thus making the movie a lot more fun than previous movies. The Triskelion from the Ultimate Comics makes an appearance and is moved to Washington DC from New York. Everything makes sense in this movie. Corruption. Super Villains.

This movie could have easily been Agents of SHIELD: The Movie. The plot is SHIELD centric, the villains are villains of SHIELD more than Captain America, though the titular villain does have a lot in common with Cap.

This photo would have worked better in my Zombie Apocalypse/Captain America blog

The casting was perfect. Chris Evans nailed Captain America moreso than the previous movies. Scarlett Johanson provided more depth to the Black Widow. Samuel L Jackson showed Nick Fury as more than the all-knowing badass that he has been depicted as. GHB had an amazing cameo as Batroc the Leaper. Holy Fuck The Winter Soldier was a beast, he was the Terminator mixed with Robocop mixed with Captain America, massive beast. Cobie Smulders was a badass, that Falcon guy was a badass, the badass guy who fought the Falcon was a badass. Any one of these characters could have been swapped with John McClane and the movie would make perfect sense. That is how badass everyone is.

The theme of the movie, Surveillance VS Freedom Cage Match XXX, correlated a lot with what is happening in the real world. It shows insight into Big Brothering the world and whistleblowing. Americans may take more from this movie than the rest of the world but the message is internationally relevant.

With this movie Marvel has expanded the Earth elements of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The world is now being lifted from realism into something a lot more fun. Intrigue, superpowers, super villains. This movie has it all.

If you are wondering whether to see this or the Lego Movie, do yourself a favour and see this one first.