My Plans for December 2019

Thanksgiving Day’s behind us and we survived Black Friday; and I hope the Force was with you if you went shopping. Now the holiday season’s here, and if you’ve followed RJ-Writing Ink since last year, you’ll remember what I did. I watched a holiday special a day, then reviewed it here. Now I’m here to say that I won’t be doing that again this year.

There are multiple reasons behind this. Firstly, trying to write a special a day got hectic for me. I still had to do my other posts, and it got a little difficult. Secondly, there are a few things that I want to focus on for this December. Thus, here are my plans for December 2019. I think you’ll find them taking you to a galaxy far, far away.

Star Wars Hype Build-Up

I don’t get as much of a chance to write about it here, but I’m a huge fan of Star Wars. I enjoy everything from the movies to the books, games, and lore. Despite my love of the franchise, I’ve been a skeptic about the sequel films since they started. However, I refuse to let my optimism be diminished. As such, I aim to make sure the Force is with me for December.

All throughout December, I’m going to be writing about all things Star Wars. There’s no set theme for this, as it can be about anything from the franchise. Some ideas I do have, though, include:

• Favorite Moments in Star Wars
• A look at the philosophies of the Jedi and Sith (and their flaws)
• Characters in Star Wars I’m a fan of
• Good things about the Star Wars prequels
• My biggest problems with the Star Wars sequels

All of this will lead up to my review of Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker. May the Force be with us this December.

A Look Back on 2019

If you’ll recall, I wrote a post at the end of last year calling 2019 “The Year of Endings.” The rationale being that this year saw the end of a lot things in pop culture. With the year coming to a close, I want to look on some of the things that came to an end this year. I’m not sure if this will be one post or a series of posts, but I can tell you that I plan to have it up between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

To clarify, most of what I’ll be writing about will be things I’ve already written on RJ-Writing Ink.

A Look Back on the 2010s

For better or for worse, the 2010s were an eventful decade for humanity. From world-changing historic events to the rise of cultural icons, the 2010s were big. Thus, with the decade coming to a close, I felt it’s appropriate to look back on the big highlights.

Expanding on my look back on 2019, I’ll be writing on a number of topics. I already have some ideas in place:

• Biggest Global Events of the 2010s
• Best Movies of the 2010s
• Biggest moments for pop culture in the 2010s
• Best TV shows
• Best animated TV shows

There’s no set timetable for this, though. All I know is that I’ll be posting it throughout December.

Some Holiday Specials

Alright, I know I said that I wouldn’t be focusing on holiday specials this year. However, if I see a special or movie that I like, then I want to write about it. Don’t expect it to take up much of my blog, though.

May the Force Be With Us

Well, that’s everything that I wanted to say. In between all this, I’ll be doing posts on my regularly scheduled topics. May the Force be with you!

Click here for some of my Star Wars stuff.

Come here to see some of my Animanga stuff.

Click here to see my other animation stuff.

Favorite Marvel Event

After 30 days, it all comes down to this. The final challenge for the Marvel 30-Day Challenge. It’s been a lot of fun, but I’m ready to end this once and for all. My last challenge: name my favorite Marvel Event.

Full disclosure: I was going to use the 2015 Secret Wars, but I haven’t read that yet, so it’s out of the running. Instead, I’m going with what I have read.

Avengers vs. X-Men

If you’ll recall, I mentioned this back on my first challenge involving my favorite character. I think now’s the time go into it in a little more detail.

After Hope Summers returned from the future, more Mutants started appearing around the world, forcing Hope to travel the world and help stabilize their powers. It was a slow process, but it looked like Mutant-kind could recover. Then the long-dormant Phoenix Force appeared and set a course for Earth. The target was its next host: Hope Summers.

The X-Men thought that the Phoenix had come to undo the damage caused by M-Day, but the Avengers were paranoid that it would bring destruction. So they tried to take Hope into protective custody, with the X-Men standing in opposition. Thus, the two biggest superhero teams in Marvel went to war with each other.

I think the purpose of this event, aside from undoing the damage from House of M, was to answer a question. That question being, who would win in a fight, Avengers or X-Men? Given the sheer size and roster both sides had, that fight was a full-scale war that spanned the globe; and I started on Team X-Men. Then the lines got blurred by the Avengers messing things up.

Excellent Job Breaking it, Avengers!

The Avengers tried using a device to get rid of the Phoenix Force, but it split into five fragments that possessed the wrong Mutants. Instead of simple war, now the heroes had to race to undo their mistake. Who ends up winning the fight, in the end, didn’t even matter. Marvel got a major shakeup, and Cyclops was now on my list of least favorite heroes.

The X-Men were the main reason I got into Marvel Comics, and this story was the culmination of seven years of the X-Men trying to keep their species from going extinct. So, it seemed like a big deal to me. Plus, we got to see the kind of fighting that makes fans drool in excitement. Avengers vs. X-Men is my favorite Marvel Event, and nothing can change my mind.

Avengers: Endgame Review

If someone had told me back in 2008 that the movie Iron Man was going to start something unheard of, I’d call them crazy. A lot of us would have. A shared universe of superheroes and interconnected stories had worked in comic books. It had even done well in cartoons with the DC and Marvel Animated Universes of the 90s and 2000s. But movies? No one had tried it; people may have thought it was impossible.

Yet Marvel did it; Iron Man was only the start of a larger universe. Eleven years and twenty-two movies (and several shows) later, the MCU rules pop culture. Now the first chapter to this incredible universe comes to a head in Avengers: Endgame, which has already broken the global box office record.

I told you guys in my last post about how I saw the first Avengers movie with my dad opening weekend. Now, I am proud to say that I got to do the same thing for Avengers: Endgame on Friday, April 26th, 2019. After giving myself a day to process everything, I want to give you guys my review for the movie everyone’s talking about. There will be some mild spoilers here, but nothing that will ruin the plot.

The film starts three weeks after the events of Infinity War, and the universe is working to pick up the pieces. Tony and Nebula get stranded in space like we see in the trailer, but thanks to Captain Marvel, they get rescued and get home. While Tony recuperates, everyone else goes after Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet. To their horror, though, they find that the Stones are gone. Thanos destroyed them so that a) the Decimation couldn’t be undone, and b) he wouldn’t go mad with power with them. So it looks like the Avenger have lost in every sense.

Time passes, and everyone deals with the effects in their own way, some better than others. Thor took it the worst, though; here’s an out-of-context photo that should give you a hint what’s happened to him:

Use your imagination for the rest. Then suddenly, Scott Lang comes back from the Quantum Realm. He had been trapped in there since the Pyms got dusted. The thing is, while it’s been years for others, it was only a few hours for him. Time doesn’t work the same in the Quantum Realm. Piggy backing off that discovery, the Avengers form a plan to undo Thanos’ actions. Using the Quantum Realm, they will travel back to various moments in the past, grab the Infinity Stones from then, and use them in the present to bring back everyone.

So I guess How it Should Have Ended got it partially right with the time travel part. As for me, what did I think about it? I think that it was a very convoluted plan, and if it sounds like Back to the Future, you’re not alone. Tony Stark even calls everyone out by saying “your plan is Back to the Future?” It was a crazy plan, and by all means, it shouldn’t work. To be honest, though, this wasn’t the first time Marvel’s used time travel; it’s happened in the comics.

I don’t want to give away what happens here, but the second part’s basically revisiting past moments from the movies and stealing the stones. I have to agree with Andy Epsilantis from Pop Culture Uncovered on this one: it was fun, but made for a weak story. It did give us some pretty good moments, though. A few of the characters were even able to get some closure to certain events in their past.

Letting the characters see themselves in the past, though, was pretty fun. For example, remember the scene at the start of Guardians where Quill’s singing to “Come and get your Love”? To everyone else, he looks like a dork singing in an empty room, and it is hilarious. The time heist doesn’t go off without a hitch, though. Thanos learns what the heroes are doing, and becomes determined to keep his work from being undone.

While I admit that in Infinity War, Thanos’ goals, while misguided, were to help the universe. That made him relatable as a villain and even, in some way, respect him for actually winning. In Endgame, though, Thanos becomes a straight-up villain. He vows to destroy Earth for its inhabitants constant interference in his plans. Then he’ll remake the universe with himself as a god. That’s pretty evil! And while I did enjoy how complex Thanos was (and still is), having a straight-up evil goal helped watching the Avengers fight him feel great.

What did I think of how it ended? First, I’m just going to come out and say it: THERE IS NO MID OR POST-CREDITS SCENE! The end credits are still epic, but don’t waste your time.

Second, while a three hour movie is pushing it for me, I walked away utterly satisfied. This film’s basically a love letter to what the MCU’s done and how far its come. It’s got humor, action, drama, genuine loss, and the geeky fan service. It is the perfect cap-off to this story that’s been building for eleven years. If it or any of the people involved in it don’t win an Oscar next year, I will be disappointed.
Third, and finally, I like how this movie has Stan Lee’s final cameo before his passing. Best part is that you won’t even realize it’s him at first glance. Having one of the men who made Marvel appear in the final chapter to one of its biggest stories gives it a form of closure.

In short, I thought that this movie was the best, and not just because of nostalgia bait. I highly recommend that you go see it in theaters while you can.

I Give “Avengers: Endgame” a 5/5. Excelsior!

One problem, though: where do they go from here?

Click here to see my reviews for various films.

My #1 Favorite Moment from the MCU- Avengers Assemble, The Avengers

There have been a countless number of moments in the MCU that I have loved, but out of all of them, this was, and still is, the defining moment of the MCU.

The Avengers spent the majority of the movie trying to learn how to work as a cohesive team, with little success. After Loki manages to nearly cripple the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier and kills Agent Phil Coulson, the heroes are able to rally together to defend New York against Loki’s Chitauri army. In this now legendary moment, Bruce Banner effortlessly transforms into the Hulk and punches a flying Leviathan into the ground as the Avengers Assemble in defiance of the Chitauri for the first time.

I still remember going to see this movie opening day with my dad, and up to that point, it was the greatest movie I had ever seen. I think most people even understand just how great this movie really was.

No one had tried to do a movie like The Avengers before. There were movies about superhero teams before, like the X-Men and Fantastic Four, but they didn’t have this level of world-building or attention. The closest I think anyone had gotten to the MCU was the DC Animated Universe from the 90s and early 2000s.

The Avengers managed to do what many had thought to be impossible, and redefined what it meant to make films about Superheroes. I hadn’t paid much attention to the MCU until Captain America: The First Avenger, but this was the moment where everything clicked, and I realized just how special the MCU truly was. But then I saw the end credits, and I saw him.

That’s when I realized that while what I just saw was amazing, it was only the tip of the iceberg. Nearly seven years and sixteen films later, the story that the MCU has been building towards for eleven years is about to be completed. And as I look back on what has come, I still consider this scene to be my all time favorite from the MCU.

I’m going to go see Avengers: Endgame in less than an hour. Whatever happens in the next three hours, no matter how this ends, this will mark the end of an era for Marvel and for superhero movies. Excelsior!

In 2008, few could have imagined what would come out of the film Iron Man. That one movie about a superhero that a lot of people might not even know of became the seed for one of the most ambitious undertakings in film history. Eleven years and more than twenty-one films later, that one film has blossomed into a franchise that has changed the way we see superhero movies. Bit by bit, the films build upon each other, creating a shared universe of interconnected stories that rivaled the comics. DC had done something similar in the 1990s and 2000s with the DC Animated Universe, but this was the first time it was ever done in film.

Now, Marvel has become more popular that it has ever been, and every film seems to get better than the last. Then came Avengers: Infinity War, and for the first time on the big screen, our heroes tasted defeat. I’ve heard stories of children and adults crying at the end. Shoot, I quietly howled in grief when I saw Spider-Man turn to dust. We’ve waited a year to see the second part, and now Avengers: Endgame is upon us.

The ending is a part of every story, and oftentimes, it leaves us with a bittersweet feeling. We know that the MCU will be continuing for years to come, but Endgame is going to bring an end to the story arc that’s been building since the beginning, so it’s going to be an emotional ride.

I have tickets to see Avengers: Endgame on opening day, but I thought that I would do something special for the films that mean so much to me. So, from now until Friday, I will be counting down my five favorite moments from the MCU so far. And since there’s no time like the present, here’s my pick for number five!

#5- Iron Man’s Grand Entrance, Iron Man 2

I’m ashamed to say it, but I never saw the first two Iron Man films in theaters, but I so wish I did. I’ve seen them in the time since then, and some of my favorite moments in the MCU have been from the Iron Man trilogy. It was a tough choice between this, Tony using the Mark I armor for the first time, or the Iron Legion scene from Iron Man 3, but I had to go with this one.

Six months after the events of the original film, the whole world knows that Tony Stark’s Iron Man. With the decision to restart his late father’s Stark Expo, what better way for Tony to make an entrance than with his signature suit. Jumping out of a plane in his armor, Tony lands in the Expo amidst a cheering crowd, dancing girls, and Shoot to Thrill playing in the background.

I like this scene so much because it sums up Tony Stark’s entire personality in one amazing moment. He’s flamboyant, arrogant as hell, and loves being in the spotlight as much as possible. Luckily, he has the charisma needed to keep the spotlight, and underneath that exterior, we know he’s a good person. Plus, the fact he enters to the music of AC/DC shows us that he has good taste in music.

Captain Marvel Review

The year 2018 was a big year for superhero movies, and Marvel reaped the most benefits. Black Panther gave us a cultural icon, Into the Spider-Verse gave us the best Spider-Man film yet, but the movie with the biggest impact was the one Marvel had spent years building towards, Avengers: Infinity War.

Needless to say, Infinity War was a huge hit, with the ending leaving fans in shock. Even if you haven’t seen it, you’ll probably have seen this meme that was inspired by the ending:

So, yeah, it didn’t end well for the heroes. But the post-credits scene offered us hope as Nick Fury sent a message to someone with this symbol on them:

Sadly, we’d have to wait another year to see the sequel, Avengers: Endgame, and there were two more MCU movies out between then. While Ant-Man and the Wasp was fun, its overall purpose was to put Scott Lang in position for his role in Endgame. All that’s left is the Marvel Universe’s trump card, and the person who I think will have a huge role in defeating Thanos, Captain Marvel.

Ironically, despite being one of the strongest superheroes in the Marvel universe, and even sharing the company’s name, those who wear the title of Captain Marvel aren’t as famous as heroes like the Avengers. Nor have they had an easy life. The original was a Kree warrior who became one of the universe’s greatest heroes, but whose career was cut short when he died of cancer.

The next one, the son of the original, went temporarily insane and destroyed, then remade, the entire universe.

As for Carol Danvers, just click here and you’ll see. Given the history behind the character, you can bet I was excited for Captain Marvel. And, even though this is coming later than most, I just wanted to give my review for the origin film for the Avengers trump card, Captain Marvel.

The Plot

I’ll just go over the bare bones of the plot for this. Taking place thirteen years before Iron Man, the film stars Carol Danvers, an amnesiac soldier with the ability to fire energy blasts from her body. Part of an elite squad in the Kree Empire, Starforce, she fights their shape shifting enemies, the Skrulls. But when a mission goes wrong, she gets separated from her comrades and stranded on Earth with the Skrulls in pursuit. Teaming up with a younger Nick Fury to get home, Carol instead discovers her past on Earth as well as secrets that change everything she thought she knew.

The film’s plot seems like a mixture of past Marvel films. It has the sci-fi, retro pop culture elements of Guardians of the Galaxy (some of the Kree from GOTG appear in younger forms) and the spy-thriller elements found in Captain America: Winter Soldier. If you have seen the source material and the other films, you can expect what will happen in Captain Marvel. While this makes the plot a little bit predictable, it doesn’t make it any less fun. When it comes down, isn’t that all that matters?

Our Two Heroes

I will be upfront about my opinion on Carol Danvers: I like her. She’s strong, confident, and she doesn’t take crap from anyone. As shown in flashbacks, she has had to spend her entire life having people look down on her because she’s a girl, or just make passes at her. So how does she respond? By being as sassy as hell, and it is awesome to watch.

Some of my favorite moments with Carol have to do with her dealing with guys who tried hitting on her. In a flashback, some loser tries to show her the meaning of the word “cockpit”, and she beat the guys face in. When a biker tried to hit on her, she stole his bike.

I see why some people would complain about Carol being portrayed with a feminist agenda in mind. She doesn’t always act strong and tough, though. The movie reveals that, deep down, she’s troubled by her insecurities about her past, or the lack of one. It reminds us all that, for all her power, she’s still human and has to deal with those problems.I liked Carol Danvers, and that’s enough for me.

Nick Fury

Of course, this film wasn’t just about Carol Danvers. It was as much an origin story for another character, one that we’ve already known for years: Nick Fury.

The Fury that we see in this film hasn’t turned into the cynical, tough-as-nails spy. He thinks that the most important days in his career are behind him with the Cold War ending, but the events of this film open his eyes.

His adventures with Carol teach Nick that there are threats in the cosmos that he couldn’t begin to comprehend; threats that ordinary people won’t be able to stop. It also taught him how much a single, extraordinary person can do in the face of impossible odds. When you look back on the MCU with Captain Marvel in mind, Fury’s actions show how much of an impact Carol had on him. The end of the film even shows that she’s what inspires the concept of the Avengers.

At the same time, the film also makes a notable effort to humanize Nick Fury, much to the audience’s amusement. The trailer showed us that Fury’s a cat person, but did you know he loves the 60s singing group the Marvelettes, and can sing a good rendition of their hit “Please Mr. Postman”. Or how he got his eye-patch. Rumor has it that he lost his eye when the Kree destroyed it for refusing to talk. The truth is actually funnier.

The point being, this film did a great job at giving fans the origins to one of the most important characters in the MCU.

References and Easter Eggs

Being that this film was set in the 1990s, you can bet that there were millennials who were on the hunt for references to 90s culture alongside the normal Marvel Easter Eggs. Here are a few of the 90s pop culture reference I liked the most:

• Blockbuster- I remember seeing the trailer for Iron Man at my local Blockbuster 11 years ago, and now it doesn’t exist except for one store somewhere in the US.
• Internet Cafes- I don’t remember these, but they look like ancient. We still have them today, but I think now they’re called Starbucks
• Slow Computers- Thank god our computers are a thousand times faster than they were in 1995.
• The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: Never saw the show during its run, but I know it was one of Will Smith’s defining roles. Loved how casually Monica Rambeau mentioned the show.

The thing I remember the most about the 90s, though, was sadly not referenced in the film: 90s Nicktoons. Growing up, Nickelodeon was where I watched my daily fix of cartoons. Granted, some of the ones I really liked didn’t come out until after 1995, but they at least could have included a Rugrats cameo.

Stan Lee Cameo

But the biggest easter egg was always going to be the one that would bring tears to our eyes: Stan Lee’s posthumous cameo. It’s still hard for fans to accept that Stan’s really gone, and unless Marvel decides to just include images of him in future films, 2019 will probably mark the last of his cameos. Aside from the opening paying tribute to the film, Captain Marvel had one of Stan Lee’s best cameos. And it got very meta.

1995 saw the release of Kevin Smith’s film, Mallrats. At the time, it didn’t perform well in the box office, and critics bashed it pretty hard. Since coming out on home video, it has become a cult classic. One of the more memorable moments is when Stan Lee appears as himself to offer romantic advice to one of the main characters. In a nod to this, Stan’s cameo in the film has him practicing his lines for Mallrats while riding the subway. It’s a moment that equally nostalgic and makes fans want to chuckle at the joke.

My Verdict

I don’t care what the haters have to say, I don’t care what the other critics have to say about this. I liked Captain Marvel, and I thought that it was a well-written way to lay some extra groundwork for the MCU. It basically answers the question few may have thought to ask: what inspired Fury to create the Avengers? Now that we know, the MCU is better as a whole. It may not have lived up to the stakes that were set by Infnity War, but to be fair, nothing Marvel does between then and Endgame would live up to it. This movie is like the last piece to the eleven-year long saga that Marvel has been building up to. This film is the calm before the final storm that will rip through the MCU in one month, and I am grateful for that.

Some people may complain that Captain Marvel isn’t good enough to stand on its own as a film, but the MCU has proven that it doesn’t have to. It’s part of a larger universe, and it fits into it very well.

I Give Captain Marvel a 4/5

Click here to see my reviews for various films.