fantastic_four

People have dug up from retailer listings that it's a retro collection with no BAF. There are rumors that it's the four in the Byrne Negative Zone blue and white costumes plus Psycho-Man and High Evolutionary: https://marvelousnews.com/252-28898

I know nothing about the Time Variance Authority from the comics. Anyone familiar with the story want to throw a hypothesis in the ring as to why those Timekeepers were androids, who's running the TVA, and where all those variant Lokis are? Hypotheses about how a Loki variant could be a caiman/alligator/crocodile are appreciated as well.

I knew there was one higher, but I couldn't remember what it was last night, but yea, they gave that one an 88. You can find a TON of comparative examples of how Metacritic will give a higher score to a movie that's not as good as one with a lower score, and Black Panther vs Dark Knight is definitely one of those examples. I expect Black Widow also isn't better than Avengers or Infinity War, but I suppose we'll see. They gave a 78 to Endgame and a 69 to Infinity War, and that's a STARK example of their cruddy scoring because Infinity War is definitely better than its sequel.

Metacritic's scoring is a lot tougher than Rotten Tomatoes, and 70 isn't mediocre or lukewarm, it's well above average. For comparison the first Avengers film got a 69 Metacritic, Infinity War got a 68, and Winter Soldier got a 70. The highest I've ever seen for a superhero film on there is The Dark Knight at 84. Anything over 60 from them is probably pretty good, and over 70 should be great. I'm surprised at the critical response so far...I thought it would be more mixed than it is and was expecting an RT score in the 70s. Looks like it's better than I was expecting.

So far reviews look luke warm to good. I see you're unfamiliar with Metacritic's scoring. 70 isn't lukewarm.

Oh, I'm DEFINITELY not trying to give the average person who wants a blonde Snake Eyes credit; I have NO doubt the great majority want it for racially-biased reasons. I was just listing a valid reason and the one why I was puzzled that he was Asian in the trailer. I didn't realize Henry Golding was playing him until this past weekend, and I didn't even know this movie was coming out until I watched reviews of the Hasbro movie figures of Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow, and Baroness over the weekend. Larry Hama himself--who is third-generation American of Japanese descent--probably made him Caucasian knowing that was the majority of his audience, although in statements I found over the weekend he has said he doesn't remember why he did it other than to make him more opposed to Storm Shadow and Japanese culture yet still have close personal ties to it. I'm not really a big GI Joe guy now, but I have a strong fondness for it because GI Joe #1 was the first Marvel comic I bought off the stands, and I had been collecting the figures and vehicles since they started before the comic came out. I only branched out to the rest of Marvel after looking for GI Joe comics. So I do have some tie to the main characters and Snake Eyes, and I'm highly curious where they go with his character in the film even if I don't end up seeing it--which I won't if the reviews are as bad as the previous Joe films. So I'm still puzzled as to why they went away from him being a gaijin and wondering if that element of his character even survives at all in this version.

One thing I thought the show never got entirely right was to create a really great enemy for Dexter. If Dexter is a twisted Batman, they never found his Joker. They made some REALLY strong attempts and cast actors I usually like or love including John Lithgow, Ray Stevenson (LOVE LOVE LOVE him as Pullo in Rome), and Jimmy Smits, but none entirely nailed it as a foe. His brother as the enemy of the first season was probably the best, although Lithgow as an older, more experienced killer was interesting. I love Clancy Brown, too, but I'm skeptical just based upon somewhat flat previous attempts at a foe for Dexter--but if the story is right he could absolutely be fantastic. Doakes was probably the best overall adversary, but he was a cop so it's complicated to think of him as an evil character given that Dexter himself is infinitely more evil than Doakes.

One of my favorite television shows of all time so I'm all in on a revival. Doakes from the first few seasons was definitely the best character in the show aside from Dexter.

One valid reason would be that it made him a gaijin during the time he trained in martial arts with Storm Shadow in Japan. Historically I know Japan has had plenty of dislike for people from almost any nation other than their own so I suppose it isn't hard to replace his being Caucasian with another nationality similarly disliked within Japan, but I don't know enough about modern culture there to know which ones they tend to have the most bias against after World War 2. I assume it's anyone who looks the most different from Japanese, so the blonde hair would make sense as causing him to stand out more. Being African would make him even more disliked in Japan. Henry Golding is Malaysian, but I haven't heard what country Snake Eyes comes from in the film. My understanding is that Japanese culture looks more favorably upon most Asians than Westerners or Africans. The term "gaijin" is reserved for non-Asian people so making Snake Eyes Asian definitely changes the dynamic between Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow to some extent, and it also likely significantly changes the way he was treated and reacted to life in Japan. I'm not sure which Asian nationalities they tend to dislike the most, although I know historically Japan's biggest adversary was always China so I won't be surprised if he's Chinese in the film. But again I'm not sure how enduring their old biases are today now that Japan has flipped from extremely militaristic for centuries to extreme pacifists after World War 2.

Last week's episode combined with reading more about both Enchantress and Lady Loki has me thinking this is the angle they were going for. Enchantress and Lady Loki are pretty similar to begin with in that they're both female tricksters much like Loki so I don't see that we need them both, and to name her "Sylvie Laufeydottir" (see the screenshot below from last episode) is an explicit mix of the two character's names together into a single one. Sylvie is the name of the modern Enchantress, and "Laufeydottir" is Norse for daughter of Laufey, who was the frost giant from the first Thor movie who is Loki's father. Loki's full name is shown on a similar TVA report in the first episode to be Laufeyson i.e. son of Laufey, and Thor's last name in the comics is Odinson. The main element Enchantress has in the comics that I haven't yet seen evidence Lady Loki has is her penchant for seducing powerful men with her beauty, but I doubt they ever do that in the MCU given this new Victorian age of political correctness we're in anyway.

Who could sue them? That name is pretty generic, and given that both Marvel and DC have been using the name for decades I'm guessing that neither has any trademark on it. And I'd be surprised if they could ever get one since the word has been used in fantasy fiction long before either company started using it.

I can't tell that they have it under control, and I assume my FF figures will have serious moose-knuckle and camel-toe. The recently-released Iron Fist has a really bad case of moose knuckle. And one thing I REALLY hate about Mezco is how they digitally edit their promo shots. You couldn't see Iron Fist's weird bulge in any of the promo shots because they either edited or posed it out, but once he was release you can see it in almost every Youtube review.

The other advantage of the Mezco cloth/pleather mix is besides hiding stitching that is ALWAYS out of scale, it also serves to tighten up the cloth goods. The one major flaw of all Mezco figures--particularly the Fantastic Four prototypes shown--is that the cloth goods are always slightly loose to allow the articulated joints to move beneath the cloth, and as a result they always look a bit like a loose sweater. Mego figures INFAMOUSLY have too-loose clothes like this, and many Mezco figures look similar to Mego, although Mezco does optimize them to be as tight as possible more than Mego ever did, yet they're still too loose. When they have cloth fragments attached to pleather then the pleather serves to pull the cloth tight so that it looks fitted as opposed to a size or two too big for the figure's body.

I don't like the pacing of any of the three Disney Plus shows. An MCU movie feels like a roller coaster, whereas the shows so far feel like riding a bus. They're fine, they're just not thrilling.

One relatively easy way to limit yourself is just to buy your favorite Sith and Jedi. Those look FAR better in displays anyway since lightsabers are easily posed in a Force user's hand, whereas the other two cool things from Star Wars--plasma blasts and vehicles which eat TONS of space--are either difficult or too space-consuming to display.

Terrific photos! Yeah, Dr Fate was also my first figure from the line, and I've now preordered Bishop and the Fantastic Four set. I'm also deciding if I want either of the versions of Cyclops (probably not, neither really speak to me). I'm lucky in that I haven't liked that many of their redesigns, but now it's a whole new ballgames having one in-hand, and knowing how good they can be. My main problem is I already collect too many lines and have 2 expensive lines I collect, one regularly and one fairly often now, Transformers Masterpiece line and Storm Collectibles Mortal Kombat line, neither of which are cheap. So something will have to give. Mezco Magneto and the Black Bolt/Lockjaw 2-pack are also great. I don't generally like Mezco's cloth goods, but when they mix it up with cloth and pleather like they did for Magneto and Black Bolt it looks and feels awesome because you don't see any of the thread that ends up looking like rope in the twelfth scale because they position the thread under the pleather. I have Black Bolt and Lockjaw now pictured below (Lockjaw's eyes and signet on his forehead light up), and Magneto is sitting in my Big Bad Toy Store "pile of loot" waiting to be shipped, probably will get it within the next few weeks.

It looks like a super-powered cage match, similar to the one Angel and Nightcrawler had in X-Men: Apocalypse. Except I can't see Wong doing that willingly, and I can't see Abomination doing it unwillingly since he could just bust right out of that cage.

I'm just glad they went back to the comic look for Abomination with the reptilian skin and ear fins. That bones-sticking-out look from the movie was gross. He's even got the loincloth so I don't have to wonder what happened to Blonsky's manhood during the transformation.

The rumor when I lived in L.A. was he smoked the stuff that would knock Snoop Dog out. Carrie Fisher claimed she remembers almost nothing from the year she dated Ford and that Star Wars was filmed in 1976 because his weed was so much more powerful than any other she had tried before.

There are dozens of stories from co-stars, drivers, directors, etc claiming that Ford has been a stoner his entire adult life, including being high on set, so the latter could be true.

Wouldn't Earth 616 would be the sacred timeline? The TVA and it's allies are all over the multiverse!! I don't believe the MCU has established any name for its main universe like the comics has with Earth-616, but if we just use that same name for the main MCU continuity until Feige gives us another one then yes, I assume you're right. What I would like the most is for the TVA to reverse almost everything that happened in Endgame. That entire movie is a HUGE violation of the sacred timeline.

Paramount Plus is just the new name for the lame CBS app you're asking about.

Looks like the review embargo lifts Wednesday June 29th.

That's interesting. I wonder why the TVA thinks she's Loki then? Looking up the origin of this version of Enchantress I see she was created by Loki, so maybe they merged the two characters together for the MCU.