Supergirl S02E04 Review: Roulette!

Supergirl, Season 2, Episode 4: Survivors

A pretty great episode, this one, and a good chunk is because of how focused it is. Or maybe the DC fanboy in me is just geeking out at Roulette and Miss Martian.

The main plotline of this episode had the two ever-flirting team of Alex and Maggie Sawyer track down an alien homicide to discovering a fight club ran by... Roulette! Which was out of the left field but very welcome, and actually makes sense considering the new alien culture plotline that's been going on. And, hey, Roulette is actually played by a Chinese woman which is a neat little bonus. I mean, she's the same actress that played Jiaying in Agents of SHIELD so there's not much in lieu of facial variance but hey, it's something. 

Granted, Roulette was less of a character than main villain Jiaying... but she played her part really well as a hammy, 'can't touch this' upper-culture fight club organizer. And I loved it. I do hope she'll end up mattering in the grand scheme of things and not just a one-off villain, and that her 'benefactor' that allowed her to elude arrest at the end of the episode is actually someone relevant instead of just her being, well, 'can't touch this'. She did get a good argument in against Supergirl, how she's giving the aliens stranded on Earth some purpose, but the fact that she makes them fight to the death and kidnaps people who owe her money kind of puts her squarely in the evil territory. 

The Alex-Maggie stuff is honestly a bit boring, but the alien gladiatorial combat thing really is fun, especially when we discover that M'gann M'orzz, a.k.a. Miss Martian, is fighting in said combat. We'll talk about M'gann's character later on, but it is cool to see M'gann unleash martian rage on that one random spike-alien, the Martian death-fight was well done, and DC fans will get a kick out of seeing Draaga randomly show up and beat Supergirl around. What, how did Roulette convince an alien as powerful Draaga to sit in a box and just chill? 

The Roulette plotline is serviceable backdrop to the large amounts of characterization done for J'onn, M'gann, Mon-El and Supergirl, though. Thankfully they dialed back down the CatCo plotline into two very short and sweet scenes with Snapper Carr, but they had to shoehorn a Lena Luthor scene into the episode. I just wish they just... stop with the whole CatCo nonsense. It's repetitive, boring and adds nothing to the story.

Also, Alex and Maggie flirt a lot in this episode, and apparently just as Alex wants to get Maggie to come over for a drink... Maggie already has a girlfriend! Poor Alex. I don't care that much for this part of the episode, but it's not one that's poorly written and the fact that the romance takes place alongside the Roulette plot means that this doesn't feel as tumour-ish as some romantic threads in other shows.

Mon-El, meanwhile, has a lighter plotline despite the opening flashback -- we see that he was a palace guard that the Prince of Daxam sacrificed his life to rescue, and we see just how discoloured and racist Supergirl unintentionally is, mocking the Prince of Daxam without knowing much about her. It's less Supergirl's fault and more of the general society of Daxam and Krypton -- we also briefly hear a slur against Kryptonians from Mon-El during the flashback. But Mon-El is perfectly willing to play nice, biting back all the unintentional insults from Supergirl, and being buddy-buddy with Winn to be let out. Mon-El doesn't kill or hurt anyone (other than that dude he arm-wrestled with) but Supergirl and Winn are definitely trying to steer him in a heroic direction. It's also fun that they're giving Winn something to do beyond just being Friend-Zone Man. Ultimately, though, the Mon-El subplot is an entertaining distraction to lighten up the episode from the moody green martian talk.

J'onn confronts M'gann and basically asks M'gann to bond with him. Getting all our collective minds out of the gutter, it's not sex but rather a kind of martian telepathic bond that's unique to them. M'gann is super evasive, only managing to tell J'onn about the horrors of concentration camp, and how she's been smuggled off-world by a White Martian that was nice. Of course more veteran DC fans will know she's fibbing on a crucial part of her backstory, but the reveal they did and the little fake-out that M'gann's reluctance to bond with J'onn is about either the fight club or her survivor's guilt is well-done.

Because, of course, M'gann wasn't the young green martian shipped off-world by a white martian that grew a conscience. She was the white martian.

And while J'onn is convinced that M'gann is fighting and probably death-seeking in Roulette's arena out of a sense of survivor's guilt, J'onn tells M'gann to forgive herself for surviving. It's a whole different guilt, though -- M'gann feels guilty because she was complicit in the torture and genocide of the green martians, and she's running away from that. It will be interesting to see how J'onn will react when this inevitably gets out, and the J'onn/M'gann part is consistently the emotional highlight of the episode. If nothing, seeing J'onn finally show more emotion than just stoicness is very welcome.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Roulette, a.k.a. Veronica Sinclair, looks absolutely exactly like this in the comics, right down to fancy Chinese dress and dragon tattoo. In the comics she's primarily a Justice Society of America enemy (specifically, her nemesis is Mr. Terrific) and she's featured in one of the most memorable episodes of Justice League Unlimited. In the source material, she pits superhumans against each other instead of aliens, though. 
• Draaga is a Superman enemy, an alien gladiator from Mongul's planet Warworld, who fought Superman several times. While his role here is barely a cameo, JLA S01E12-13 has a longer, more detailed adaptation of the comic-book version of Draaga.
• M'gann M'orzz is indeed a White Martian masquerading as a Green Martian in the comics, though this time around it's Martian Manhunter that she's hiding this fact on instead of other superheroes.
• Roulette addresses Supergirl as the 'Maid of Might' and the 'Girl of Steel', two of Supergirl's common epithets in the Golden Age.
• Winn briefly notes how Mon-El could've 'leapt tall buildings in a single bound', which is a phrase very often used to describe Superman's powers. Mon-El is also noted to be unable to use heat vision or super breath, something that comic-book Daxamites cannot do. A change from the comics is that the Daxamites are weaker than Kryptonians physically, whereas comic-book Mon-El is physically stronger than Superman.
• Warworld is briefly mentioned by Mon-El as a place he had seen Draaga fought before, and Draaga's origin story is traditionally tied to Warworld.

Hearthstone: The Rest of Gadgetzan [Card Review]

So yeah, we've got the rest of the expansion revealed a couple of days ago. It just took me a while to type up this review because I've been kind of busy. So we'll go with the more exciting class cards first before finishing up with, well, the less exciting neutrals. I'm very excited for Gadgetzan -- I think it's easily one of the best-designed expansions with a lot of the filler neutrals being very fun even if not all the cards are well designed (*cough*BackstreetLeper*cough*).

But hey, I'm excited for this. There's a lot of thought put into the design, especially from a visual standpoint -- I'm pretty sure that Gadgetzan has the best aesthetic of all the Hearthstone expansions, which isn't a low bar to clear. The Gadgetzan update hits our servers on 1st or 2nd December, which is in two or three days.

• Celestial Dreamer: [Druid] The Dreamer is a 3-mana 3/3, which is kinda sub-par, but she has a battlecry that turns her into a 3-mana 5/5 if a friendly minion has 5 or more health. Which might not be the hardest thing to pull off, considering, y'know, Jade Golems. It's slightly too gimmicky for my tastes, though, but it's definitely a very efficient minion that's meant to be played at a later stage... but you won't feel too bad playing on curve if you really have to. 

  

  Trying so hard not to be a joke

• Shadow Rager: [Rogue] Oh, hey, a Rager card that isn't entirely shit! I think Ice Rager was worth a chuckle, but Am'Gam Rager was just beating a dead horse with a stick. I was a little pissed when someone told me that they printed a fourth Rager card... until I saw it, and it's actually... not bad! It's not good, mind you -- a 3-mana 5/1 is still very fragile and won't survive the first trade, but it's got Stealth which suddenly changes everything. Sure, the Shadow Rager dies to any AoE, but it is significantly more durable than its cousins and more impactful than Moroes. With Rogues gaining access to Shadow Sensei, maybe this is the minion you want to buff? It's not the best card out there, but it's nice to have a Rager card that isn't shit. 
• Luckydo Buccaneer: [Rogue] The Luckydo Buccaneer is a 6-mana 5/5 Pirate, that becomes a 6-mana 9/9 if your weapon has 3 attack. The thing is... Blizzard nerfed Blade Flurry and never ended up giving Rogues those cool weapons that they said Blade Flurry was limiting the design space of. Whispers, Karazhan and Gadgetzan all didn't give Rogues a single weapon, so this kind of feels somewhat bad. It's in the perfect mana spot to be triggered by Assassin's Blade, though, so there's that, so maybe you play this in a Pirate Rogue? The Rogue kit is all over the place this expansion, though. They've got a little of the Jade Golem synergy, a little stealth synergy, a little miracle synergy and a little pirate synergy and I honestly would've liked them to just pick one or two and focus more on it. Though I'm definitely not in the group of people who's doomsaying about Rogue. Rogue isn't in a bad spot! It's just expensive to make a good Rogue deck -- they're perfectly fine even at the moment, and giving them the very powerful Jade Golem synergy is going to make them even more powerful. In other words, this is a good card if you're running Assassin's Blade or Deadly Poison. Otherwise, the Luckydo is better off waiting for a time when Rogues get better weapons.

  

  Sylvanas for your opponent,
  Big-Time Racketeer for you.

• Lotus Illusionist: [Shaman] Because Shamans don't have enough power. Lotus Illusionist is a 4-mana 3/5, barely a stat penalty, and if she gets to hit face, she gets transformed into a 6-mana minion. As we all well know, six mana is the premium statline for evolution and everything. Sylvanas! Cairne! Thaurissan! Aya! Savannah Highmane! And five health isn't too easy to take out on turn four. I guess she gets countered with taunt, but I like her. She's a very interesting card that has a chance to be very good, but at the same time gives the enemy a fair amount of time to remove. Again, Shamans are getting pretty decent cards this expansion, which are all fun-looking and not all overpowering which is nice. 
• Finders Keepers: [Shaman] Very simple card. For one mana, you discover a card with Overload. It also gives you Overload 1. Discover is a very powerful effect, yet still somewhat balanced, and Shamans definitely want Overload cards, who by and by tend to be really powerful. Lightning Storm, Lightning Bolt, Flamewreathed Faceless, Feral Spirit, Doomhammer, Lava Burst, Totem Golem, Jinyu Waterspeaker, Elemental Destruction, Ancestral Knowledge... the only real misses with this card are probably Dust Devil and Forked Lightning, and even those aren't half-bad. Whether you want to waste a card slot for it, though, is a whole other question entirely, and I think the answer leans to no. 
• Alley Cat: [Hunter] A 1-mana beast that summons a 1/1 as a battlecry. It's cute. Arguably better than Fiery Bat, since there are two bodies for your enemy to deal with. Also, it's cute. There's not really much to say about it. It's like a Living Roots that always summons two 1/1's... but they are beasts, so it's definitely powerful. I think I'll just breeze through the Hunter cards -- they're very simple and relatively decent cards.
• Smuggler's Crate: [Hunter] For 1 mana, give a random Beast in your hand +2/+2. Obviously very good -- you want to target your Dispatch Kodos and Rat Packs, but hitting basically anything else, like, Knuckles, or King Krush, or Savannah Highmane, are all great. It's definitely a viable turn 1 play, so long as, y'know, you do have a beast in your hand. Great card, just wonder what smuggling and crates have to do with beasts getting more powerful.
• Hidden Cache: [Hunter] A new hunter secret! You basically do the +2/+2-to-a-minion-in-your-hand effect when they play a minion. Again, even more buffs are great, and you'll probably want it in those kind of decks, but I'm not sure -- I'd rather have another minion to help play with the minion synergy. 
• Public Defender: [Warrior] 2-mana 0/7 with Taunt. The artwork of a Tauren lawyer is cool. The fact that this is basically a Shieldbearer on super-steroids? Not really. Yeah, it gets buffed with Stolen Goods, Grimy Goons synergy and Bolster, but I'd rather wait a turn or two and play something that's actually good. It's not the worst thing out there since in the end dropping even a 2/9 Taunt for 2 mana is half-decent, so in a proper deck he could be great, but it's not the most spectacular card out there.
• Sleep with the fishes: [Warrior] 2-mana, deal 3 damage to all damaged minions. Very... unconventional AoE, that's for sure. As long as you don't have any damaged minions on your side of the board (save for things like Acolyte of Pain), Sleep with the Fishes can be combo'd with Whirlwind or Ravaging Ghoul to just deal a 4-damage AoE on all your enemy's minions. Is it ever better than Brawl or Execute? I don't think so. Cool effect, though, and of course they're going to make a pun on the phrase in a gangster-themed set. 
• Hobart Grapplehammer: [Warrior] So, one of the few legendaries that was left to reveal was the Warrior legendary. Hobart is the smallest Warrior Legendary to date, a mere 2-mana 2/2... but he gives all weapons in your hand AND deck +1 Attack. It's comparable to the Mistcaller, except it affects weapons and doesn't have a crippling statline. It's another in a series of weapon-support cards Warriors are receiving alongside Grimestreet Pawnbroker and the Naga Corsair we'll talk about below, and with Upgrade and Bloodsail Cultist being available to Warriors, yeah, weapon-focused decks are having more and more tools. It's a very good card, as literally all but the worst Warrior deck run two Fiery War Axes. I don't think it's going to be an auto-include, but it's sure a very good card in decks with lots of weapons.
• Freezing Potion: [Mage] 0-mana freeze an enemy minion. Very simple card, cheaper than that one Spare Part card that does the same thing. It's a 'not bad' card to gain from the Kabal Courier, but definitely not one you want to put into your deck -- the effect's too weak, and even if it triggers Ice Lance and Cryomancer (below) Mages have so many better options to choose from. It does make Babbling Book and Cabalist's Tome a little worse, which is a good thing to keep those cards in check. 
• Cryomancer: [Mage] The Cryomancer is a 5-mana 5/5 that gains +2/+2 if the enemy is Frozen. On paper this is very good. A 7/7 for 5 mana is obviously great value, and a 5-mana 5/5, if you're really pressed for a body, isn't bad either. And Mages have a lot of freeze effects, with Frostbolt and Ice Lance in particular being very popular. But there's one real problem with Cryomancer and it's that it doesn't particularly synergize well with current decks. Tempo decks don't want minions that don't discount, generate or have effects with spells. Freeze decks want their consistency and stalling and Cryomancer doesn't work that well into that. Secret decks will, y'know, run predominantly secrets. Definitely a cool card with some cool artwork, though. See what I did there? Heh. Cool. Heh. 
• Greater Arcane Missiles: [Mage] Arcane Missiles on steroids! For a whooping seven mana, you deal three damage to three random targets. Now, interesting thought. Does spell damage enhance the damage-per-missile, or just adds a missile? The way Arcane Missiles work is that it adds a single missile... how will it work with these fatter missiles? In any case, it's a very respectable expensive spell that is a great option to put into Reno-Solia mage decks. As a standalone card it's perhaps worse than Firelands Portal, but it's definitely great if you get it for free.

  

  The Purify that Priests
  deserve.

• Kabal Songstealer: [Priest] This Arakkoa is a 5-mana 5/5 that silences a minion. Finally, a Silence Priest card that's actually good! Spellbreaker and Ironbeak Owl both suffer for having shitty stats for their mana cost, and while Spellbreaker is half-decent, it's still way too fragile since some one-drops can even deal with him. The Kabal Songstealer is a class card, though, and can afford to be stronger. He's a simple silence minion, but the 5-mana 5/5 body is a lot more durable and exciting, and definitely better than Mass Dispel and Silence at disabling enemies.
• Greater Healing Potion: [Priest] More potions! The Greater Healing Potion is a 4-mana spell that restores twelve health. Holy mother of fucks, yeah, for all of you complaining that Paladins get all the best healing, they're definitely compensating with this. It's a great healing tool, that's for sure. Whether Priests will want to run it... I don't think Dragon Priest will run this, but it's definitely a very good, unconditional Twilight Darkmender -- it's cheaper, heals more and doesn't require C'Thun triggers, but it doesn't come with a body. Definitely an inclusion in Reno Priest decks. To note that this is specific to friendly characters, though, so no Auchenai shenanigans with this one. Which is fine.
• Unlicensed Apothecary: [Warlock] The Apothecary is a 3-mana 5/5 Demon! Which is pretty awesome stats, of course, but as all well-statted demons the Unlicensed Apothecary has a drawback, which is dealing 5 damage to your hero if you play another minion while he's alive. The solution, of course, is just not to play any other minions while the Apothecary runs amuck in the field. Warlocks are getting more and more good spells to play around with anyway so you can just theoretically buff up the Apothecary with things like Demonfire or Bloodfury Potion and just have him dismantle the enemy. Even if he eats like a removal or something, chances are you might've just summoned a 3-mana 5/5 for free. Pretty cool card. I love it.  
• Crystalweaver: [Warlock] A four-mana 5/4 that buffs all your demons by +1/+1. Very good addition to zoo Warlock, actually, and any demon synergy cards are very much appreciated. Warlocks love swarming the board with cheap demons like Voidwalker, Flame Imp, Imp Gang Boss and the like, and the Crystalweaver doesn't even get a stat penalty for his buff effect. Pretty simple card, but a cool addition to the Warlock arsenal. 
• Blastcrystal Potion: [Warlock] What an interesting potion! Again, this really pushes the potions as primarily removal tools (with the exception of the odd buffing potion that Warlocks get). The Blastcrystal Potion is a four-mana assassinate... except you're still paying five mana, since you're destroying your own mana crystals. Obviously in the late-game it doesn't matter, and Warlocks having a relatively cheap removal option is definitely appreciated. Again, the Kabal classes all need alternate means to do things like removal or deal damage to properly construct a Reno deck, and Blastcrystal Potion is a pretty cool way to do it. 

  

  Not a vampire, despite her
  fashion sense.

• Kabal Trafficker: [Warlock] I love this card! Again, I love how demon-y the Warlock kit for Gadgetzan is, and after a string of expansions where Warlocks have kind of lost their way and are just given weird things like cutlery and fat councilmen, they're returning to more demon synergy. The Trafficker is a very fair card, a 6-mana 6/6 that gives you a random demon to your hand at the end of each turn. It's very powerful, and its statline isn't half bad. I mean, sometimes it's probably not the demon you want -- having things like Pit Lord or Abyssal Enforcer isn't always good, and you don't want to play them all the time, but by and by demons are really good. Which brings us to...
• Krul the Unshackled: [Warlock] Remember Voidcaller? The little shadowy demon that summons a demon from your hand for free? Well, Krul the Unshackled is the boss of all Voidcallers. He's got a very awesome art, and probably hangs out with Raza in the

  

  Demons are back!

  weekend to compare glowing chains. Krul is a 9-mana 7/9, not terrible stats, and his battlecry is summon all demons from your hand. It's the Deathwing Dragonlord effect, but it happens as a battlecry and not as a deathrattle, and unlike dragons, you actually don't want the battlecries of many demons. Like, Flame Imps, Pit Lords, Doomguards, Succubi... you don't want their battlecries to go off. And with the Kabal Trafficker giving your hand some demon replenishment since you're likely to have played a fair amount of demons through the game, Krul being awesome is definitiely likely. Even summoning a Jaraxxus for free isn't half-bad, and neutral demons like Malchezaar or Illidan aren't even terrible to bring out with Krul. Of course, you need to run a Reno deck to activate Krul, but Reno Warlocks are fun anyway so why not? Definitely one of my favourite legendaries in the set. 
• Genzo, the Shark: Genzo is a neutral 4-mana 5/4 with a Jeeves-esque effect where both players have to draw until they have 3 cards, but instead of happening at a set time, Genzo's effect happens when he attacks. It's a simple effect and probably cool for decks that have trouble refreshing their hand (Hunters, I'm looking at you) and definitely decent in Zoo. While unique it's slightly boring, but it can be pretty scarily effective. We'll see. I do love how he's holding actual Hearthstone cards with alternate card-backs.

  

  On Saturdays he goes
  bowling with Yogg-Saron.

• Mayor Noggenfogger: The final legendary of the set, Mayor Noggenfogger is an actual character from World of Warcraft -- one of the few Legendaries  from this set to actually be from Warcraft -- and he's featured pretty prominently in the preview newspapers. Unfortunately, his card is kind of shit. He's a 9-mana 5/4, which is atrocious stats, but he'd better have a great ability, right? Nope, it's just, well, all targets are chosen randomly. Presumably this means spells and minions, so it's hard to remove even a 5/4 when you can't aim where that Druid of the Claw is hitting, but at the same time, you're still not getting anything from spending 9 mana, because your targeted spells and minions go haywire too. The only good place to play Noggenfogger is if your opponent's board is full, so there's a very huge chance the minions just hit each other, but if you're going to go for a gambit like that why not just play Yogg-Saron instead, who might actually be advantageous to you?



Probably gets bullied by
Onyxia and Nefarian.





• Wrathion: Behold, the son of Deathwing! Why isn't he a dragon? Just because he's in his human form doesn't mean he's not a dragon! But, man, I love Wrathion, and he's like the only character in the entire set to be an actual Warcraft character -- and it's testament to the team's designing quality that I don't mind dudes like Kazakus, Han'Cho, Aya, White-Eyes, Solia and Krul because their artwork and the sheer story given to us via the newspapers and blog posts really paint them as colourful personalities that the lack of actual proper characters isn't distracting at all. But Wrathion is a character, the good-aligned son of Deathwing, and possibly the final surviving black dragon. Wrathion is a 6-mana 4/5, which is two mana too expensive for his statline... but he lets you draw cards. How many, you ask? Potentially your entire deck, if your entire deck is made up of dragons. You draw a card, and if it's a dragon, you draw another card until you reach something that isn't a dragon. So if you strike out, you basically spend 6 mana to summon a 4/5 body and draw a card. Which... is kinda bad but not that bad. if you're lucky, you get a free Arcane Intellect or Nourish. The trick, really is how many dragons you need in your deck to make this consistent? Put in too much and you'll mill half your deck when Wrathion hits the board. Put in too little and both dragon-synergy effects and Wrathion's effect will fail to pop off. It's definitely a card that I love the design of, and I really wished there were more excavation-style effects like him.
• Weasel Tunneler: A very interesting neutral epic card, the Weasel is a 1-mana 1/1. Bad, right? Yeah, pretty bad. You want at least a 2/1 for your 1-drop, and even then the 2/1 needs to have an effect or two. But the Weasel's a 1/1 that has the Deathrattle of shuffling itself into your opponent's deck, potentially fucking up a draw or two when they desperately need a removal or a minion and they draw this jerkwad instead. It's a very interesting card, like Dirty Rat, but ultimately you're sacrificing a slot or two in your own 30-card deck just to muck around with this. You could theoretically put this in a Beast Hunter or Beast Druid deck where you get the bonus of buffing the Weasel up and using him to trigger 'if there's a beast' effect since buffs don't get translated to the Weasel when he burrows into your enemy's deck. A very, very unique card, but one that might make your deck weaker by playing him. Love the design, though.
• Gadgetzan Socialite: A 2-mana 2/2 that restores 2 health as a battlecry. Very simple card, basically a scaled-down Earthen Ring Farseer and more neutral healing options for classes that need them, or for Reno decks. Not much for me to say about it. 
• Street Trickster: A neutral 3-mana 0/7 with Spell Damage +1. It's also a demon, for all it's worth, making him in a very exclusive club with legendaries Illidan and Malchezaar as neutral demon cards. Unless you're gunning for Priest Inner Fire hijinks, why would you ever play this card over Kobold Geomancer? Kinda bad. Cool artwork, though I'm surprised he's not like Kabal-exclusive or anything.

  

  That's CAPTAIN Small-
  Time Buccaneer to you.

• Small-time Buccaneer: A neutral pirate that looks like a gnome cosplaying as Captain Jack Sparrow, the Small-time Buccaneer (no relation to the Buccaneer) is a one-mana 1/2 Pirate that is a 3/2 as long as you have a weapon equipped. It's an inversion of the popularly played Pirate cards normally buffing your weapon, and it's more akin to the Bloodsail Raider (gain charge if you have a weapon) or Dread Corsair (discounted cost if you have a weapon). Is he going to be impactful enough, though? Having an early game is great, but most Pirate classes already have them in the form of Swashburglar and regular-Buccaneer for Rogues and N'Zoth's First Mate for Warriors. It's a decent card, but not one I'm especially excited about.
• Blubber Baron: The Blubber Baron is a 3-mana gains +1/+1 every time you play a Battlecry minion while he's in your hand. Like Bolvar, but a lot easier to trigger. He starts off pretty badly, though, and you need to play at least three battlecry minions before he starts to get good. Won't be seen anywhere but arena, I think, but man, what a funny looking artwork.
• Defias Cleaner: The Defias Cleaner is a 6-mana 5/7, fair single-point-penalty stats, with the effect of silencing a Deathrattle minion. Which... isn't bad! Relative to his cost, the Defias Cleaner is more cost-efficient than Spellbreaker and definitely moreso than poor Ironbeak Owl, and Deathrattles are pretty high on the list of cards that are great targets for silence. Ultimately I don't really see him being run other than in Reno decks, but he could be cool. Hell, he could be used on your own minions, which could be used on... Moat Lurker? The Beast? Eh. Decent arena card. The fact that the Grimy Goons are going to have a relatively huge presence in the Gadgetzan expansion means that, well, sometimes you really want to silence things that aren't Deathrattle minions and that makes the Defias Cleaner bad. Just play a Spellbreaker. 
• Naga Corsair: The Naga Corsair is a neutral Pirate, with a very nice 4-mana 5/4 statline. She gives your weapon +1 Attack, which is also pretty good, again, being great in Rogues and particularly Warriors. Bloodsail Cultist Warrior decks need more weapon support to help buff their Arcanite Reapers to even bigger heights and while the Naga Corsair doesn't exactly give durability, making her slightly worse than the Cultist or Upgrade, she's a decent body that also helps trigger Bloodsail Cultist. She's a decent card, that's for sure.
• Red Mana Wyrm: So it's a Mana Wyrm on steroids. Like, Kazakus's red mana (which sadly isn't an in-game feature, neither is Kazakus's giant dragon form) is like magical steroids. So the Mana Wyrm doubles its stats into 2/6, and its effect doubles into gaining 2 attack per spell casted. His cost also balloons up to... six mana? Okay, that's just insanely expensive. At four he'd be a very powerful card, at five he's decent... but six? Also, the Red Mana Wyrm is a neutral card, which boggles me. Why can't he be given to Mages? Or make him a tri-class card? I dunno. It's just whatever.
• Streetwise Investigator: Rogues get Stealth and Stealth-buffers this expansion as their little gimmick, and this one asshole just wants to rain on their parade. He's a 5-mana 4/6 neutral that basically makes all Stealth effects on your enemy disappear, like a very expensive but neutral Flare. It's like Eater of Secrets where it's a great tech card if you're facing a class that runs Stealth. Otherwise, I don't think he'll see much play. 

  

  Imported from Pandaria.

• Ancient of Blossoms: 6-mana 3/8 with Taunt. Oh, and he's a neutral. It's a bit weird why this Ancient of Blossoms is a neutral card instead of a Druid card, and why it's wandered all the way to Gadgetzan of all sets. It's not a very good Taunter, I think? It's a Fen Creeper that costs 1 more mana and has two more health, and while I'd pick this over Lord of the Arena... at the end of the day unless you're playing some serious Bolster shenanigans it's not going to have too much impact. And even if you need a mid game taunter wouldn't you rather play things like Druid of the Claw or Allery Armorsmith? It is a neutral so it might see some unexpected uses, but I don't think it's going to be that good.

Justice League S02E19-20 Review: Superman Revenge Squad

Justice League, Season 2, Episodes 19-20: Hereafter

This episode is one of my favourite episodes of Justice League, one that was better than I thought after rewatching it as an adult, and it was a bit hard to really write down this review, hence the gap between this review and the previous one.

Superman is one of the trickiest characters to write with the authors having to juggle his godlike powers, his uncorruptible morals, his idealism, his internal struggle and having to make him interesting to read. And if multiple live action attempts have shown, very few have managed to 'nail' that perfect portrayal of Superman. Even the TAS-verse itself wasn't immune to inconsistent writing, with Superman's portrayal as slightly weaker and being somewhat war-weary in season one of Justice League being controversial. As one of the two characters with a long internal history both within and without the show, it stands that having a group of villains go out of their way to gain revenge against Superman is very believable.

And it's very cool to see several old faces from Superman: TAS -- Metallo, Toyman, Livewire, Kalibak and Weather Wizard (even if Wizard is a Flash villain, he did face off against Superman in the DCAU) -- hang out together like a bunch of cultists, reciting oaths before heading off to commit the biggest crime of all time. Murder Superman. It's a very well-done story that eclipses the comics' own attempt to kill off Superman with Doomsday that's just, well, dumb. RANDOM SPACE MONSTER KILLS SUPERMAN NOOOO! Having a group of vengeance-seeking villains apparently do the deed, and explore the ramifications of a world without Superman, is definitely the way to go.

The show does a great way showing the world without a Superman, showing how everyone believes that Superman is dead, without insulting the audience's intelligence and establishing that Superman is alive, just sent years and years into the future. But we'll talk about the adventures of Superman and his beard later on, because what's the most interesting is the scenes of the League and Superman's supporting cast regarding his death.

You see, Superman is a relic of a bygone era, yet has continued to be iconic and the number one hero and the face of DC, a position that only Batman can hope to contest. As J'onn himself says in the episode, and as Flash stops Wonder Woman from bashing Toyman's face in, even the idea of Superman, this beacon of optimistic, simple and idealistic justice, is always around and necessary. And there's even a nice and in-your-face bit of meta-commentary when Lobo shows up and forcibly inserts himself into the League. The portrayal of Lobo here might be done for laughs as the brutish ultra-violent metal-soundtracked Main Man inserts himself into the League, but it is a nice little parallel to the comic book industry where grim and gritty characters like Lobo (DCAU's Lobo is kind of more bully than psychotic, though) rise to prominence.

Superman's death causes Wonder Woman to almost immediately go enraged and go for the kill ("I'm going to punch a hole... in your head"), and honestly can you blame her? Toyman sounds absolutely terrified even with that unmoving emotionless mask, and only Flash bringing up "I'm trying to speak for Superman" stops her from going through with the deed. We go through a very sad funeral moment with various characters from Superman: TAS making cameos, and one of the best moments ever in superhero history was Dana Delany's voice of Lois Lane when she flies into a grief-induced angry rant at Lex Luthor when the bald businessman shows up at Superman's funeral. "Are you happy now, Lex?" Lois shows up very sparingly in Justice League, but holy shit, this scene just clinches both grief and anger very well, and she just sobs uncontrollably as Luthor comforts her with a hug.

Luthor is an interesting character to show up in the funeral, but it kind of makes sense. He notes how he'll miss Superman in his own way, and his delivery makes me believe it. Luthor wants Superman gone, but he wants him gone by his own hands. Having lesser villains kill Superman means that Luthor's victory over Superman has been robbed from him forever, so he's grieving in his own way.

The brief scene of the remaining members of the League laughing while reminiscing over Superman, even J'onn (who delivers one of the best eulogies during his funeral, by the way), is very bittersweet, and they even consider breaking the League up. Flash noting how he goofs around because Superman's always around to watch his back is a nice line. Batman's denial is both genre-savvy and sweet, but even the Dark Knight respects the Man of Steel enough to show up in the shadows of the building, seen by none but Diana. Even when he believes that Superman isn't really dead, he respects the man enough to show up at his funeral. And his short speech in front of Superman's grave? That was amazing. Poor Batman is confused. Is he chasing after ghosts? Is he in denial? Is Superman really dead? He regrets not telling Superman that he respects the dude, despite their differences, and yeah, Superman was the very first hero that Batman truly sees as an equal, and the only one that Batman trusts in the League.

They discuss some possible replacements for Superman (Batman is still not a full member, hilariously) and while Supergirl, Metamorpho and others get brought up, Lobo crashes the party and forces himself in, a nice way to insert levity to the episode because, y'know, Superman really isn't dead and is fighting in an alternate timeline and the audience knows this. Lobo is absolutely played for laughs, and the League plus Lobo has to return back to Metropolis because not all villains are as gracious as Luthor, and they're celebrating by shooting up the streets.

Meanwhile, Superman himself has been transported to the far-flung future, in a post-apocalyptic world where Superman is stuck as a vulnerable warrior in a dangerous desert, where he has to rely on his wits (and a very conveniently transported car) to survive in this strange world. He forges weapons out of random materials, he never gives up hope, he grows a beard, he fights and befriends the strange mutated creatures before discovering that, hey, he's on Future Earth! He finds the Watchtower crashed to the ground, before finding the ruins of Metropolis and the sole human inhabiting Earth. The immortal Vandal Savage, his old enemy.

And having lived for thousands of years after humanity went extinct, Savage mentions how without Superman he was able to conquer humanity, and his casual indifference at brushing off being a global dictator as one would brush a decision to get a tattoo you regretted when you were thirteen is just hilarious. "Oh yeah, I killed Green Lantern here. No, wait, maybe here." straight into "Are you coming to my house for dinner?" is just golden. This world-weary version of Vandal Savage, who is stuck alone in a deserted world for thirty thousand years, having realized that his lust of power is meaningless, is a pretty deep take on the character.

So while in the present day the JLA is fighting against scores of villain while battling depression, Superman and Vandal Savage, two badass normal people, ride flying dragonflies to venture into the nest of giant mutated cockroach monsters, where they manage to get a power core that rejuvenates Superman's powers. Vandal's presence is a nice showing how Superman inspires people, and, yes, Vandal wallowing in guilt is something he went through alone, but without Superman to inspire him, would he have gone with the idea of the suicide mission into roachland and get the power source? Vandal Savage succeeds in turning himself from a psychopath into a redeemed ally, and it's a surprising take on the character that just works so well. The final scene as post-apocalyptic Vandal Savage looks around and sees history being rewritten and his past mistakes redeemed by Superman and saying softly "Thank you, my friend" is just so heartwarming.

Superman appears in the present day at just the perfect moment, saving Batman from being headshotted by Deadshot, preventing a death that probably occurred in the splinter timeline. Lobo gets kicked out of the team quite hilariously, and while Vandal Savage possibly remains a villain in the new revised timeline, this is his last episode in the DCAU so Superman probably hunted him down and spent a long time talking to him or something.

Overall it's a very excellent episode, and we haven't even gotten to Lobo's excellent one-liners yet. Kalibak: "I'm not dead yet." Lobo: "You're right, my watch is ten seconds fast."


DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Ray Palmer, the superhero who would become the Atom, is mentioned multiple times as being the scientist that Vandal Savage stole the white dwarf isotope that he used in his bid for power. Atom himself won't show up until next season, though.
• Metallo, Toyman, Weather Wizard, Kalibak and Livewire are all villains that fought Superman in Superman: TAS, and their little cult is a reference to the 'Superman Revenge Squad' in the comics, which feature less well-known Superman villains.
• Lobo himself has fought and teamed up with Superman before in Superman: TAS, and references saving Superman which actually happens, despite J'onn's skepticism. Superman and Lobo's deal during the events of his episode in Superman: TAS also involves him not harming anyone on Earth, and, well, technically speaking, he has kept his word, only fighting the League when he thinks it's an audition, and focusing most of his fighting scenes on Kalibak, who's a superpowereed alien that can definitely take it. Apparently during development Captain Marvel was supposed to take Superman's place for a slightly longer 'Superman disappears' arc, but legal reasons meant that this couldn't happen. 
• Superman has a box of Flash-sponsored Lightspeed energy bars, yet another reference to 'Eclipsed'.
• Superman's monument and gravestone, is, of course a reference to his gravestone after his death at the hands of Doomsday in the comics. 
• Wonder Woman dons a very fancy gilded Amazonian armour for Superman's funeral, which something that her comic-book counterpart sometimes dons in 'serious' battles. 
• Cameos at Superman's funeral include Queen Hippolyta, Aquaman, Queen Mera, Doctor Fate, Inza, Orion, Lightray, the Kyle Rayner Green Lantern, Kilowog, Katma Tui, Tomar Re, Larvox, Alfred Pennyworth, Tim Drake (Robin), Jonathan Kent, Martha Kent, Lana Lang, Kara Kent (Supergirl), Bibbo Bibbowski, Maggie Sawyer, Snapper Carr, Jimmy Olsen and Perry White. This marks a rare Alfred appearance in Justice League, and considering the Bat-embargo, Robin's appearance is surprising as well.
• Copperhead, Volcana, Deadshot and Star Sapphire join several members of the Superman Revenge Squad during the big rampage in Metropolis.

Fairy Tail 512 Review: Weird Flashbacks

Fairy Tail, Chapter 512: Sting the White Shadow Dragon

Well, that's actually... not a half-bad way to end a fight. As always the characters yap their mouths and repeat themselves way too much for it to be super-suspenseful, but it's got something different than just 'really strong punch with fire'. Yeah, Sting does that silly shadow-white silk string thing again to take out Rahkeid, but in doing so, he had to learn, on the spot, how to sink into the shadows and move quickly as tutored by Rogue, and Kagura even got to help using her weight-increasing powers to help sink Sting into the shadows. It's not the most creative things out there, but it's somewhat more enjoyable than the drivel that the manga has been in the past couple of chapters.

Don't care about Rahkeid, though -- his final skill, R.I.P., is another one that's just a huge, explosive area blasty thing that is common to a lot of Fairy Tail villains that looks somewhat impressive but doesn't even get to hit or wound a single target. The sleepiness effect is somewhat different and justifies the need to enter the shadows and whatnot, though, so there's that.

The rest of it is just more Natsu nonsense, though. The retcons of time travel and whatnot still make very little sense and still feel more shoehorned in than Bleach's ending, and the only thing that felt planned was the mystery behind Natsu's scarf. Something something about a woman named Anna who knits the scarf who's definitely Lucy's ancestor. I have to confess that I didn't pay full attention to this section because it's so gosh-darned boring.

Also, Polyurschica tells Lucy to strip to raise Natsu's body temperature. You... you don't need to strip to do that, you know, stupid horny manga writer. If it's warmth they need, start an actual fire -- it clearly doesn't hurt Natsu. Or have Lucy summon like, oh, I dunno, Taurus or something. But no. It has to be yet another cheap, unintelligent and moronic excuse for more fanservice. Oh, and Happy cries because he doesn't want Natsu to die but he will die if they kill Zeref. Oh, shut the fuck up, you stupid twat. You haven't been relevant or funny since... since, shit, Edolas? I don't care about you. 

No promises on reviewing the next chapter if it's going to just be a long talk about Natsu, Lucy and friendship. If we're going back to the bigger war arc then I'm game.

Nanatsu no Taizai 201 Review: Many Arms

Nanatsu no Taizai, Chapter 201: Comrades in Arms

So, yeah, after briefly freaking out over the existence of Goddess Elizabeth, King and Diane figure out that they're transported to the past (or just reliving a Pensieve-style memory) and that they just have to play things out to see just what the heck's going to happen. They arrive at a site where a crapton of demons are massacring a human settlement -- top-notch artwork on that splash page where the demons are attacking, as well as the one where Meliodas goes all one-man-army on them.

They are attacked by a very... silly-looking multi-armed demon that Meliodas identifies as Karmadios of 'Betrayal', one of the Ten Commandments. You cannot run away from him, apparently. Diane and King are freaking out, and Diane gets taken out almost immediately... except she doesn't since Dolor's body is very strong. King channels Gloxinia's power, and outspeeds and just one-shot-kills Karmadios with the power of Gloxinia... except Karmadios doesn't die.

It's mostly just to demonstrate the sheer power of Dolor and Gloxinia, I guess, relative to how weak King and Diane are (180 chapters ago and King's the second strongest Sin, what a world!) and it really could've been paced faster. But still, a nice, decent read. 

Hearthstone: More Jade Lotus [Card Review]

So, a couple of hours after I finished typing up this batch of cards, they revealed the whole Gadgetzan set in one of those 'get Frodan to play decks without knowing what's in them' things, which is always hilarious. But that's going to be a huge, huge article, so have the rest of the Jade Lotus cards -- apparently these are all we're getting in terms of Jade Golem synergy.

• Virmen Sensei: The Virmen Sensei (who has received a massive redesign to be a cool rabbit-man instead of WoW's Virmen design: a rat with rabbit ears) is featured very prominently in the trailer and I honestly half-expected him to be a legendary card or a new character. But it's just a Druid minion. The Virmen Sensei is a 5-mana 4/5, which is one mana cost worse than his actual cost, and he gives a friendly beast +2/+2... more Beast Druid synergy which I honestly didn't expect at all. Obviously comparable to the Hunters' Houndmaster, which gives Taunt in addition to the buff. Houndmaster's got slightly worse stats, but Houndmaster also costs a whole mana point cheaper. Virmen Sensei also has even more things going against him in that a typical Beast Druid already plays Druid of the Claw, Menagerie Warden and Stranglethorn Tiger on turn 5, all of which are far more powerful than Virmen Sensei. I guess it's another option for Druids to buff beasts, but I dunno. This feels like too weak of a card.

  

  ...why does a fish-man even need a boat?

• Gadgetzan Ferryman: Okay, so this card got a huge crapton of flak from the community, who marked it as the next Purify. I actually had a version of this review that I typed up before I saw the community feedback, but didn't publish because I wanted to wait for the huge card dump on monday. And the Ferryman is honestly not that bad! Unlike Purify, which is almost always bad unless in a very specific situation in a very specific deck, or the Toxic Sewer Ooze that is strictly worse than the Acidic Swamp Ooze, the Gadgetzan Ferryman is arguably a card I'd rather have in my deck than the Youthful Brewmaster. It's a 2-mana 2/3, basically vanilla stats, with a Combo that is basically the Brewmaster effect. Yes, it's weird that sometimes the value of a card lies in its effect not activating... but flexibility is a good thing that the two Brewmasters don't have, and if this was a neutral card it would definitely go in all my Reno decks. (Shame that the Ferryman is in the Jade Lotus and not the Kabal). It's another effect available to Rogues that recycles cards like the two Brewmasters, the Shadowcaster, Gang Up and Vanish... is it a good card? Definitely no. Is it a BAD card? Also definitely no. It's a perfectly fine card and I think the community is being ridiculously harsh on him.
• Daring Reporter: A 4-mana 3/3 that gains +1/+1 each time your opponent draws a card. So your opponent faces a 4/4, and it's got some nice artwork! The reporter has been hinted multiple times as a recurring character in the Gadgetzan news reports that's been popping around the community, and it's nice to have her in card form. She's an anti-draw tool, and one that's meant to punish card draw engines. Coming out at turn 4 means she's right on time to intercept those Nourishes and Azure Drakes, and she's especially powerful against Mages' Arcane Intellect and Rogues' Gadgetzan Auctioneer combos. But will she see play as a tech card? She's certainly a lot better than the Hogriders, and while a +1/+1 buff isn't as strong as the Burgly Bully's free coin gimmick, it's still pretty cool, and if nothing else forces a removal from your opponent.
• Shadow Sensei: Another Klaxxi, yay! A Rogue 4-mana 4/4 that gives a Stealth minion +2/+2. This was what everyone was expecting, something that buffs Stealthed minions. Suddenly Jade Assassin, Jade Swarmer, Shaku the Collector and the neutral Finja become somewhat more appealing... but hopefully the Shadow Sensei isn't the only one Stealth buffer. As a 4-mana 4/4 that grants a +2/+2 buff, Shadow Sensei is... okay. It's easier to keep Stealthed minions alive, obviously, but there are better things Rogue can do on turn four than buffing stuff. In theory you get a total of 12 stats for four mana, which is a lot more economical compared to the Virmen Sensei up there. Rogues definitely need more cards like this to really compete with the sheer power that the other classes are getting, and the Sensei certainly looks to be a step in the right direction. But since we're not getting any other Stealth support cards ,well, this will end up being like TGT-era Beast Druid, where there are decent tools available but there's nowhere enough to really make a deck. 
• Jade Claws: Shaman 2-mana 2/2 weapon that summons a Jade Golem as a battlecry. It probably will simply just be swapped out for Spirit Claws in Jade Golem oriented decks. It's a weaker Fiery War Axe -- if we take the overload 1 as cancelling out the Jade Golem advantage -- but it allows Shaman to snowball with Jade Golem as early as turn 2, and the Jade Claws looks to be a lot more reliable and less fragile than the Rogues' Jade Swarmer. 

  

  4-mana 7/7? 0-mana 5/5?
  Yeah, Shamans. We see you.

• White Eyes: Aya Blackpaw's bodyguard from the trailers and preview material, White-Eyes the huge, silent warrior (who might or might not be just a Jade Statue?) is the legendary for Shamans. White Eyes is a 5-mana 5/5 Taunt... that shuffles 'the Storm Guardian' into your deck as a Deathrattle. It's a good thing that it's a Deathrattle, to be honest, because the Storm Guardian? He's a 5-mana 10/10 with Taunt. Goodbye, 4-mana-7/7 and 0-mana-5/5-Taunt, Shamans have a new super-efficient super-statted minion to play with! It's very great value, and it's balanced, too. I don't think you put this into the already oppressive midrange Shaman deck, because it's a much slower card. And 5-mana for 5/5 with Taunt is barely better than the (horrible) Booty Bay Bodyguard, so White Eyes' base body kind of sucks. This is definitely a powerful card, though. Like Elise, sooner or later you draw into the card shuffled into your deck and then BOOM! Your enemy is forced to bring out an answer to the Storm Guardian. Even if the Storm Guardian himself ends up eating like a Hex or Shadow Word: Death, that's still a removal you force out of your opponent. It's not as good or consistent as the Flamewreathed Faceless, which are two 4-mana 7/7's in your deck from the get-go... you have to draw White Eyes and have him die (without him being entombed, hexed, polymorphed, devolved, earth shocked etc) before the 5-mana 10/10 taunt gets shuffled into your deck. So it's balanced, I think, and nowhere as insanely powerful as it appears to be. 
• Sergeant Sally: Sally is a police gnome! She's not a very good police gnome if the amount of criminals in Gadgetzan is in any indication -- and apparently she's a super devil-may-care ultra-reckless 'use the bad guys' superweapons against them' type of crazy cop. But she's got fancy alarm shoulder-pads. That counts for something, right? She's a 3-mana 1/1 with the deathrattle of dealing her attack damage as AoE... but her 1/1 body makes her a bit of a weak thing. I mean, you get an arcane explosion as a deathrattle to a 3-mana minion, but like Abomination or Chillmaw, she's not that good because the enemy can trigger the Deathrattle. You could buff Sally up with Grimy Goon cards, but I don't think that's the way to play her since that'll make her hard to kill off yourself. You could buff her up with Cold Bloods and Abusive Sergeants and run her into something to set off a massive 3-mana AoE, or use things like Ysera's Nightmare or Power Overwhelming -- since she's going to die if those cards are used on her, why not buff her up and deal some huge damage, and then burn the board? I dunno. It's a bit too gimmicky to really see play in my opinion, though, even if a neutral board-clear is pretty good... but definitely a very interesting card. Absolutely love the cameos in the wanted posters, though. Annoy-o-tron, Edwin Van Cleef, Boom Bot, Swashburglar, Deathwing, Possessed Villager, a random Murloc and... BEN BRODE! That made me laugh.

Legends of Tomorrow S02E04 Review: The Walking Dead

Legends of Tomorrow, Season 2, Episode 4: Abominations

Like the previous episode, 'Shoguns', this episode was more of a standalone filler story that demonstrates Legends of Tomorrow's new formula that doesn't let every single episode get hung up on the main season arc plot. In some ways it's an improvement because we don't see Vandal Savage escape (or the Time Masters' nameless agents fail) every single episode, but in some ways it kind of makes me even forget that there's even a Legion of Doom plotline running. And like 'Shoguns', this episode is ultimately forgettable, especially since nothing really huge came along character development wise. 

We have a pretty generic plotline. Time traveler gets stranded in an interesting locale and time, and the Legends have to deal with them to prevent timestream nonsense. After so flagrantly blowing up the Shogun last episode and having a track record of convincing people to act because it's the right thing to do, it's a bit weird that Jax and Amaya spent the first half of the episode passively watching the slaves get abused... but hey, that's how Legends always rolls. Blowing up nuclear bunkers? Setting off a nuke when it's not supposed to be set off? Blowing up a shogun ten years before he's supposed to die? Accidentally convincing Per Degaton to kill his father? But eh.

The team is split very cleanly into three groups in the period of the American Civil War, dealing with the zombie plague TX-90 (a sure reference to Walking Dead's TS-19) that gets accidentally unleashed upon the... Confederates or Republicans or whatever, I don't know the sides and I wasn't particularly fully alert watching this episode. The zombies were fun -- the makeup obviously isn't as well-done as Walking Dead, but the gwaghrhglaaa zombie marching is believable enough. 

The first group has Sara and Nate warn... some historical figure or other about the zombies, which has a couple of really cool scenes like Sara nonchalantly showing up with a bloody, air-chomping zombie head to demonstrate what a zombie is, and Nate's pretty awesome 'run towards a crate of explosives and blow it up while turning into Steel' moment... but ultimately is easily the most boring of the three plotlines. They try to spice it up by having Sara have some dialogue about leadership or whatever, but it honestly didn't stick since Sara has been an absolutely confident leader throughout her short tenure and suddenly having doubts felt shoehorned in.

The second group has Stein and an un-powered Ray deal with Mick being infected with the zombie plague on board the Waverider, with Martin's insane phobia of zombies being absolutely hilarious. "It's not irrational, HE'S A ZOMBIE!". There's a bit of Ray being left with nothing to do without his Atom suit, left to squawk trivia on board the Waverider during the initial mission, but ended up being the cool-headed scientist that was eventually able to develop the means to take down Mick. It's not particularly groundbreaking, but Mick's desperation before his change into a zombie, and him later bonding with Ray and giving him Snart's old Captain Cold gun is out of the left field but a pretty cool change in direction.

(Granted, I groaned a little when, instead of using his fucking fire gun Mick goes ahead and punches the zombies)

The Stein/Ray bits were shot like a traditional horror movie, but never really too tense because of the sheer comedy and hilarity of the situation and Stein's continually hilarious dialogue and the fact that, yeah, this is not how Mick Rory is going to die, so you kind of know that the team will succeed.

Jax and Amaya bear the brunt of the more dramatic moments of the episode, which finally tackles racism in a more realistic way than season one did, which had Jax wander around that one American town in a racist period, but didn't get anything bad happen to him other than a few teenage punks saying some mean words. Here, Jax takes the place of... a slave double agent or something that got killed by the zombies, and tries to infiltrate some party ran by a slave-driver, trying his best to be a professional but ended up getting caught anyway because, hey, as much as Jax has dealt with racism all his life, he's still treated as a human being, which isn't exactly what these slave owners do with their slaves. It never gets particularly graphic other than the sight of the black slaves in chains, and the mostly-offscreen whipping of one lady, but we did get descriptions of setting bloodhounds on runaway slaves, chopping off manhoods and whatnot. And despite that, the other slaves persevered and whatnot. And while Jax got himself captured, Amaya was able to use her Vixen powers to beat up the slave master, free Jax, accidentally get caught up in a zombie apocalypse, and Jax burns down the house with zombies and evil slavemaster dude. 

It's not the best portrayal of periodical racism in television, and the pacing's a bit off at times, but it's the meat of the story that's far more... interesting than all the fun zombie stuff. Which is still fun on their own (and with Ray's suit down, Nate unable to control his powers and Firestorm split up, the Legends are actually unprepared for the zombie apocalypse) but ultimately fillery. 

Poor Amaya is still not really well-defined as a character, though. She has her 'channel gorilla powers' moments, and the bit where the slaves recognize her totem is a cool touch, but as with the pervious episode she exists mostly just to bounce dialogue off of and to give the team another heavy-hitter. One that doesn't require as much special effects as Firestorm or Citizen Steel to portray.

Overall, though, it's not a bad episode, but it's definitely a filler-y one. No Easter Egg Corner this week because, well, there is none. 

Supergirl S02E03 Review: Wonder Woman

Supergirl, Season 2, Episode 3: Welcome to Earth

We're slowly trying to catch up with superhero TV shows! Bear with my slow speed here.

"I sure picked the wrong night to get rid of all my Kryptonite." No truer words have been spoken by J'onn J'onzz, because, yeah, as much as the DEO might be buddy-buddy with Superman and Supergirl... they're not the only Kryptonians out there. But the point didn't get explored any further as we go hard and fast in introducing a lot of new characters and players.

It's actually a pretty solid episode as far as these things go, even if the plotline is a bit predictable -- obviously the escaped 'Kryptonian' isn't the one that attacked the president since the fire effects are different. But the introduction of Mon-El, Maggie Sawyer and Madame President (played by Lynda Carter, a.k.a. Wonder Woman herself), plus the whole existence of the Men in Black style alien sub-culture, the Alien Amnesty Act, Supergirl's short character arc about unjustful bias, and the short cameo by M'gann at the end... oh, plus the villainous Scorcher, are all handled well.

It's such a shame that there is a huge, glaring annoyance in this episode that is the CatCo plotline which I just don't give a shit about. There's nothing remotely interesting in it other than the ham-handed talk about Kara writing the Lena Luthor article with a decidedly pro-alien bias and she should be objective as a reporter regardless of her real views... which felt like retreading ground from season one, to be honest. The backstory we get from Lena Luthor about how she's adopted, how some people like Lex Luthor are intrinsically evil, and how she's making alien-detecting machines (which Kara quickly sabotaged) because humans also have a right to know if aliens are living among them... but did it have to take up so much screentime? James and Snapper's little cock-fight is also stupidly long and predictable, and I honestly just don't care. Snapper is likable enough as the resident jerk, and I'm totally on his side moreso than James -- and I wonder why Cat didn't leave the company to Snapper. He clearly knows how to run the show better than James did. But oh well. 

Speaking of Lena, this just seems to be an excuse to sneak in a potential plot point in the future, but I still think her scenes and interview is still unnecessary. It's not outright badly-written and filled with ultra-liberal-feminist preaching like Supergirl's first season, though, and gets its point across while still sounding like dialogue that two people would have in the real world.

Kara's struggles with her pro-alien bias translates to Supergirl's own problems. See, the sleeping Kryptonian from last episode breaks free and rampages around, and apparently tries to fry the president into a crisp. Except when Winn triangulates the signal or whatever, Supergirl finds out that the mystery arrival is from Daxam instead of Krypton, and she immediately goes ballistic. Daxam and Krypton have had a history, where the Daxamites are a monarchy that Kara has been taught to hate and think as a race of thugs since she was small... but when talking to our mystery Daxamite, the Daxamite is harmless. A bit of a smartass, maybe, be the Daxamite tells a different story -- that the Kryptonians were the ones that started the war, and they are always so high-and-mighty-and-enlightened, and all the Daxamite wanted to do was to go home.

The Daxamite's defense ended up being true as the actual alien attacker, Scorcher, appears to attack the President a second time. Supergirl and friends eventually track Scorcher down and take her down. The special effects in this episode kind of is... variable in quality. Some scenes like Supergirl creating a typhoon around Scorcher look great as always, but some of the fire effects, especially when they're burning on Supergirl's costume, look rushed and unfinished. Scorcher is a pretty basic villain, with one line of dialogue to tell us her motivation: that she thinks that the Alien Amnesty Act is something that's going to be used to goad gullible aliens into the open, something similar to the Inhuman/Superhero Registration Act over in the Marvel Universe.

The President is a cool lady, and in light of the recent American elections (of which, as a non-American, I am absolutely sick of hearing about, so I'll not make the obvious comments and parallels) slightly hilarious, and she has a couple of introdump-y talks with J'onn and Supergirl. She makes a brief joke about her 'other jet', which you might be forgiven to be a reference to Lynda Carter's old acting role as Wonder Woman, but apparently the President is a shape-shifting alien herself! That's an awesome twist at the end that I didn't call out, and it's a great surprise.

Also, the B-plot running through this episode is the grand introduction of Detective Maggie Sawyer, a supporting character from the Superman lore, and a major character in Superman: The Animated Series. She's shown to quickly be genre savvy and enter into a quick friendship with Alex as action girls hunting policemen. Maggie's lesbianism is also established almost immediately, which is refreshing. In Superman: TAS they had to really be super-subtle about it. Ultimately, though, Maggie didn't really do much, falling into the same role as Patty Spivot did in Flash's second season -- hypercompetent lady cop that somehow can reach places before the DEO armed with Winn's hacking and alien tech can. Maggie does get a fair bit of backstory thanks to her race and sexuality and manages to introdump a lot about the alien culture hiding in National City, but ultimately the episode could've moved along fine without her. The alien bar's pretty cool, though.

The Daxamite and Kara have a talk, and apparently Daxam's as fucked up as Krypton is. The Daxamite reveals himself to be Mon-El, who is a character that I'm only vaguely aware of, so it's going to be an interesting experience for me since I know almost nothing about Mon-El other than the fact that he's a Legion-of-Superheroes character and that's one corner of the DC universe I don't really know much about.

(I do know that 'Mon-El' is a Kryptonian name, and it's a bit strange. I'll talk more about this in the Easter Eggs Corner, though)

But more exciting than Daxam is J'onn walking around the alien bar, relishing the chance to move around in his natural form (he notably spends the time around the President in his human form, despite the president's requests) and a barlady seems surprised by him and dashes out. J'onn confronts her... and she reveals herself to be a Martian. Specifically, one M'Gann M'orzz. I DID NOT KNOW THIS WAS HAPPENING OKAY. I mean, it was obvious since Supergirl loves using female characters, but with the announcement that Young Justice's third season is in production, the inclusion of M'gann in Supergirl is a huge, huge treat for me.

Overall, it's a pretty introdump-heavy episode. It dropped the ball on the CatCo scenes and arguably Maggie Sawyer, but I think it did a decent job for Madame President and Mon-El. Interested to see where the Alien Amnesty Act and the alien bar subculture thing will lead, but most of all the J'onn/M'gann subplot. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Mon-El: Mon-El is... a complex character. But then all the Legion of Super-Heroes characters are, considering the sheer amount of retcons they're subject to. Basically, Mon-El was born Lar Gand of Daxam, but fell to Earth and had amnesia. He was found by Superman (when he's young and called himself Superboy), who immediately assumed he was another Kryptonian survivor. Superboy dubbed the mysterious arrival 'Mon-El', with 'Mon' from Monday, and 'El' from his own family name. But he proved to be immune to Kryptonite, and they later discovered his true heritage. Mon-El nearly died of poisoning and was shunted away to the Phantom Zone until a cure could be found, and the cure would come when Mon-El is freed by the Legion of Super-Heroes of the 30th Century, and Mon-El joined said team as Valor. The various retcons have really blurred Mon-El's role, though, as he has been portrayed as the inspiration of the Legion in place of Superboy, as a half-Daxamite that adopts a secret identity as Clark Kent's cousin, and all that. The show seems to be adapting the first origin story, though, so we'll stick with that. 
• Daxam in the comics isn't a sister planet of Krypton, but an offshoot colony that was home to a group of very, very xenophobic Kryptonian descendants. The backstory given here for Daxam (sister planet that was turned into a wasteland after Krypton's destruction) matches the fate of Argo from Superman: the Animated Series.
• Maggie Sawyer: Captain Maggie Sawyer was the head of police in Metropolis ever since the 80's, and was a major supporting Superman character in both comics and cartoon. She's one of the few characters that came out as gay in that period, and Luthor actually tried to blackmail her by threatening to reveal information about her sexuality to the public.
• M'gann M'orzz: We'll talk about her more when she becomes more relevant, but in the comics M'gann M'orzz is better known as Miss Martian, one of the few survivors of Mars and (sometimes adopted) niece to J'onn J'onzz. She was one of the main characters of the cartoon series Young Justice and is hands-down the breakout character in that show.
• Scorcher: There have been... a lot of villains named Scorcher, none of them major villains, and some are just random arsonists. None of them are Inferniums either, or any kind of alien. Hell, I don't think she's even named in the show itself. There have been five villains named Scorcher, the first two being male arsonists, while the third through fifth are all women with fire-controlling powers and minor villains of the Teen Titans, and this Scorcher seems to be based on those Scorchers. Again, none of them are aliens like the Scorcher here. 
• The unnamed female President is played by Lynda Carter, known best as the actress that played Wonder Woman in the old TV series. Several allusion are made to her old role, among them:
• Supergirl spinning around while extinguishing her burnt suit, like how Wonder Woman would transform in that TV show.
• Supergirl talking about Air Force One has the president reply "you ought to see my other jet", a reference to Wonder Woman's invisible jet, but also to the fact that she's an alien, probably.
• Maggie briefly notes how a species of alien learns languages through physical contact, which is most likely a reference to the Tamaranean race from the DC comics, better known to more casual fans as the race that Teen Titan Starfire hails from.

Pokemon of the Week #3: Audino

Pokemon of the Week: #510, Audino, the Hearing Pokemon

Alternate name: "XP Bucket"

Aaaah, Audino. I really wished this week's random number generator fell on an Alolan Pokemon, but it landed on 510, Audino. Which means we'll going to talk about Mega Audino as well. Whenever we land on a Pokemon with a Mega or Alolan form or whatever the hell Gamfreak and Nintendo decides to add in the future, we'll talk about both of them so this week you guys are getting a slightly longer episode of Pokemon of the Week.

Audino is a Pokemon that... I honestly just flat out don't care about. I don't hate her the way I do some Pokemon, but she's just... so... there. She's a pink rabbit-esque Pokemon that takes up the slot for Chansey as the super-bulky heal-oriented Normal-type Pokemon in Generation V (along with multiple other suspiciously-similar substitutes introduced in Unova) and while I don't necessarily prefer Chansey to Audino... I just don't really care about Audino. She's just a very plain design, which is probably what she's meant to be. She doesn't look strong, and she's meant to gear towards the cuter side of the spectrum... but in my opinion doesn't quite manage that.

She's meant to embody the Pokemon Center nurse Pokemon even moreso than Chansey does, with the pink portions of its fur design to resemble a doctor or a nurse's coat, and those weird tentacle feeler things on her ears being apparently extendable and used as stethoscopes. Okay, Audino's flesh-ear things are... the slightest bit disturbing. But okay.

Other than that, though, Audino is absolutely boring. Her Pokedex all talk about her good sense of hearing with her stethoscope ears, and her portrayal in both the anime and games are basically, well, Chansey v. 2.0. In the games, Audino isn't even as rare as Chansey, which was Chansey's gimmick in her original generation. Audino's found in every single route. Generation V had this 'shaking grass' gimmick where every patch of grass has a chance to have a single patch suddenly shake in indication of a rare Pokemon, but two times out of three it's just going to be a boring ol' Audino instead of that Leavanny or Cinccino you're hoping to capture.

What Audino lacks in being a special snowflake, though, she makes up for it in her XP yield. Wild Audinos are notoriously weak, since half of her natural moveset are healing moves, and the XP she gives? Whoo, Audinos are easily the ticket to make your Pokemon level up quickly. And it's something I abused to no end in XY, where some of the daily repeat trainers are guaranteed to have Audinos.

She's got a huge amount of TM learnset, though, enough to give Raticate envy. A brief look through her TM learnlist: Psyshock. Blizzard. Solar Beam. Thunderbolt. Dig. Shadow Ball. Fire Blast. Dazzling Gleam. Surf. Theoretically she can have a wide range of types in her moves, but Audino's stat is so geared towards HP and defenses that she's just not that useful in battle, and besides the presence of other bulky normal-types like Snorlax, Lickilicky and Blissey who have more of an offensive presence makes Audino just forgotten.

Then game Generation VI with its new type: Fairy-type. And Audino shot up in the short-list of Pokemon that everyone thought was going to be given the new Fairy-typing, or at least become Normal/Fairy like Jigglypuff and Azurill. I mean, Audino is pinkier and more fairy-esque than Chansey, right? At least it'll give Audino something that sets it apart, plus adding another Fairy-type Pokemon into the mix. But no. Granbull became Fairy, Whimsicott became Fairy, motherfucking Mr Mime became Fairy, but Audino remains that boring Normal type she's always been.

Doctor's in the house.

Then came Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire, the second half of Generation VI, which gave a lot of Hoenn Pokemon Mega-evolutions... and Audino! Finally making her Normal/Fairy, and turning her pink parts almost entirely white to resemble a doctor's labcoat. She becomes fluffier and puffier, and gains another set of flesh-stethoscope-tentacles under her neck. It's... a design that doesn't really make her stand out that much, to be honest, and the stat increases isn't exactly impressive either. Her ability is locked into Healer, which has a mere 30% chance of curing an ally's status condition.

Mega Audino's stats are given a fair boost, with her two defenses reaching the 125's, and her special attack given a slight boost from 60 to 80 which means her unexpected Flamethrowers hit ever so slightly harder... though she's still ultimately geared towards walling up and healing allies. Which isn't terribly exciting and definitely not what you want to do with a Mega Evolution. I mean, even if you don't go for the obviously game-breaking ones like Kangaskhan, Rayquaza, Lucario and Gengar, there are a lot cooler-looking mega evolutions out there. So yeah, poor Mega Audino just gets left in the dust and she's one of the few Mega Evolutions that I wonder why they didn't just make this a straight-up evolution so you can have Mega Audino (which isn't overpowered at all) as a regular Pokemon, and have someone else mega evolve in your party. Not that every Pokemon has to be equal, but come on. Mega Audino's barely five points more than Milotic and Snorlax if we're going by stat totals, and those two are relatively offensive tanks.

Design wise I just don't care? It's not that I don't like the cute Pokemon, but Mega Audino tries so hard with the frilliness yet not hard enough, so she doesn't look absolutely fun and crazy the way Mega Altaria does. I think it's the combination of the white and the fleshy colour that makes her just look so boring. I dunno. I just don't care about Audino that much.

So yeah. It's a bit of a boring Pokemon. I'm not a big fan. But I did manage to talk a fair bit about it here. Hopefully next week we'll roll a more interesting one.

Movie Review: Batman Unlimited - Monster Mayhem

Batman Unlimited - Monster Mayhem

Released last year, Monster Mayhem was the sequel to Animal Instincts and... it's improved by a fair bit. The voice acting, scripting and jokes are a lot better, and the movie does a better job at trying to make its multiple characters distinct, and I applaud them for that. The pacing is a lot better too, although there are certain places where the show felt rather off, it's definitely a vast improvement over Animal Instincts. 

Let's talk about the bad first. I get that the movie is light-hearted and it has a very fun tone, with the main plot being, for crying out loud, Joker and his goons "ruling" Gotham City by taking over all electronics, and then putting Solomon Grundy as police chief and Scarecrow as minister of economy. That's a laughing riot! What's not quite working is, well, just why the villains are actually parading themselves. Like in an actual parade. Clayface and Grundy I get, the former being a big sucker for showbiz and Grundy's just dumb, but Scarecrow and Silver Banshee actually go along with just waving around on floats?

Another bad one is the very, very long and weird scene where Batman is trying to hack Joker's computer, and then finds himself fighting Joker in a digital landscape, before summoning conspicuous-CGI Grimlock from Transformers and then beating up an army of digi-Jokers and then turning them into digi-Batman... and only this movie can make Batman riding on a robotic Tyrannosaurus rex feel boring. The fact that it ran for like forever was even more unforgiveable, especially since it keeps cutting away from the B-team fighting against the other antagonists. We also get some Team Batman fighting against mind-controlled Ace-the-Batcycle, Robin's bat mount, the Batwing and the Batmobile, but that wasn't as all-consuming as the robot fight scenes in Animal Instincts so I'll let that slide. Another scene that didn't need to happen was Gogo Shoto, and everything about him. He's a plot device, sure, I get it, but honestly why spend so much time early on with him? That felt like a waste since he kind of disappears near the end.

Red Robin and Arrow (they're not calling him Green Arrow here, are they? Huh) are very generic, too, still practically two-dimensional.

But for the most part? It was enjoyable, especially the first half. The last half was marred by the silly CGI T-Rex taking up ten minutes, and Joker's giant robot, while more entertaining than the random T-Rex, still felt procedural more than anything. The plot was a lot more tightly-woven than Animal Insticts, which was all lover the place, and the light-heartedness and zaniness of it all actually felt fun by jokes that are actually funny and a script that was... not quite there yet, but delivered enough jokes. Perhaps one of the biggest credit was using Joker as the main antagonist, because Joker's always a barrel of hilarity, but the biggest jokes come from Solomon Grundy. Hilariously stupid Solomon Grundy. Be it going on a joyride with Silver Banshee, or blushing from Joker's kiss, or insisting that the obviously-only-playing-along policemen obey Chief Grundy, or reading his televized script from his palm and still getting it wrong... Or, god, the pizza scene. I laughed my ass off while watching that.

The villains and heroes being more well defined helps a lot, too. Batman's still Batman, and like I mentioned above Red Robin and Arrow are still pretty identikit generic hero, but Nightwing (despite jobbing a lot of the fights he finds himself in) gets a pretty cool character moment in the house of mirrors facing off against Scarecrow and seeing his greatest fear as becoming like the mentor he hates... shame we don't really explore all that much, because the script basically goes 'oh, you got some troubles, don't you?' and Nightwing immediately just gets angry and starts smashing mirrors, but it does a good job at helping to distinguish him from the others.

Guest star Cyborg is introduced much elegantly than Green Arrow or Flash did in the previous movie, and while all DC veterans know who Cyborg is, we get to see what he can do in a standard hero-intro sequence and he's actually relevant to the plot, operating independently first before being hijacked by Joker, functioning as a secondary antagonist while being hacked, and later being relevant to the finale. 

And finally, the villains are all good fun. Joker and Solomon Grundy are the most hilarious, but the others are too. Silver Banshee is kind of a generic villain, but her voice acting and her utterly metal design makes her really interesting to see on-screen, and her weird buddy relationship with Grundy is unexpected yet hilarious. Clayface's voice acting is a bit m'eh compared to the rest, but his antics is pretty fun. Scarecrow gets the least screentime of the group, but even he isn't immune to great moments, with his moment with Nightwing being great, and his straight man antics compared to the other hammy ones is decent.

The action scenes are great, too! I find the big Joker fight at the end to be disappointing, as is the big superheroes-vs-vehicles thing to be repetitive, and I loathed the weird CGI dinosaur thing... but Batman versus Solomon Grundy was great with a pretty cool shot of Grundy. Green Arrow using balls to take out Silver Banshee when his bow is broken is another smooth action scene, too. And Clayface being all horror movie and shit on the game developer is a nice sequence.

Overall, still very flawed, but a huge, huge improvement over its predecessor. That said, though, I still don't think this series will honestly have long staying power if it doesn't improve in the next installment. 

My Hero Academia 117 Review: Confrontation

Boku no Hero Academia, Chapter 117: It's About Your Quirk

We follow up to last chapter's cliffhanger by having Midoriya and Bakugou meet up next to one of the campus's training grounds at night. As everyone expected, Bakugou has pieced all the things together -- All Might's subtle favouritism towards Midoriya, Midoriya gaining powers out of nowhere, All Might losing to All For One, the existence of quirk-transferring quirks, the brief conversation about how Midoriya's quirk was 'entrusted' to him... Bakugou notes how he had passed it off as more Midoriya nonsense, and how he thought of Midoriya as super worthless before (he's not a nice dude) but suddenly Midoriya got powers and became super good. And, yeah, it's not like Midoriya hasn't been practicing hard, and it's not like Bakugou is jealous -- there's a relatively well-written lack of envy in Bakugou's dialogue, but a lot of disgust and irritation.

Bakugou also notes that Midoriya's lack of defense against his long and well-presented theories (which took up more than half the chapter, god damn) is basically all the proof he needed. Midoriya asks Bakugou a question that basically amounts to "if that's true, so what?" Bakugou then demands that Midoriya fight him right there and then, to really show Bakugou what the child that All Might respected so much is made out of. 

Bakugou doesn't really have any more malice than usual, which is pretty interesting. He's still a dick and he's still perpetually angry, but his intentions truly felt sincere. Not once in his rants did he talk shit about All Might, instead noting how All Might is the one thing the two of them have in common -- a hero they both look up to. Bakugou just wants to know just why Midoriya's aspirations and goals ended up being respected by All Might so much more than Bakugou's, when Midoriya is, to Bakugou, 'just a pebble in the side of the road'. 

Bakugou then charges in and attacks Midoriya, and actually gets a decent hit in by fake-outing Midoriya -- who expected the right arm to be a feint as always, when Bakugou just swings it and notes how Midoriya looks into things way too much.

We'll see if it'll continue being good. There's so many ways this can evolve into just a boring rivalry between the hardworking-kid-who-gets-super-awesome-powers and the super-talented-kid-who's-arrogant that is a carbon copy of Naruto/Sasuke, but I have faith in My Hero Academia. So. 

One Piece 847 Review: Big Mom Be Crazy

One Piece, Chapter 847: Luffy and Big Mom

It's a bit weird now that on the Wednesday-Thursday schedule I only have two mangas left to review -- One Piece and My Hero Academia. Usually there's a lot more, but with Toriko finally ending, the middle-week manga releases have became a lot less in quantity compared to Sundays. Maybe I'll pick Magi back up. I dunno. Any suggestions for any new mangas for me to review?

Back to One Piece. It's a very... eventful chapter, despite not much actually happening. If that makes sense.

We get a brief check-in with Chopper and Carrot. Brulee is a weird psychotic witch, so she ties Carrot up and is about to cook her in a soup, while having Heavy Point Chopper chained up and ready to be given to Big Mom's exotic animals collection -- which has been mentioned before but I didn't think it would be... well, what we will see later on. Chopper notes to himself that Brulee has no idea of Chopper's ability to transform to his normal, small form to get free of the chains and later turn back into Monster Form... but that's all we get to see of this particular bit.

In the same vein, we also see at the end of the chapter a couple of brief panels of Pedro attacking Big Mom's forces guarding the poneglyph, and Brook getting his cane-sword ready to unleash the powers of a live concert. Anything where Brook gets to do something is definitely a plus -- Brook's just been so underused.

But the focus on this chapter is honestly Big Mom. After several chapters of building her up to be quasi-sympathetic, just with different values and priorities, we return to a far more disturbing take on her character. We get confirmation of Mont D'or's powers and that it traps things in book, keeping them alive indefinitely, but fully conscious, as part of Big Mom's animal collection... which is a very morbid thing. We get a brief shot of a Manticore (which we saw in Impel Down), a unicorn, a panda (not Pandaman) and a 'Donkobito', as well as a couple of callbacks to previous arcs like a centaur from Punk Hazard and the longleg/longarm tribes. Big Mom is showing off this collection to the Germa 66 royal family, and Judge asks Big Mom something: Tottland is so full of diversity -- which Big Mom is super proud of -- but why are there no giants?

And Big Mom goes from her jovial self into a brief panel of pure, unadultered anger, before brushing it off as Judge just having missed some. It's interesting, because Judge notes that Big Mom seems to be just an oversized human. So is Big Mom jealous of the giants? Or is she descended from them or something? I dunno. Big Mom bids them goodbye because she has to see to some other important stuff, but she tells one of her aides to stop swooning over Germa 66 because 'fiction isn't always real'.

Yeah, the Germa 66 is like a comic book or something in-universe, right?

Meanwhile, the army of superpowered Big Mom children have captured Luffy and Nami in a cell in a book, and we get a brief shot of Perospero, the first son of Big Mom. Big Mom shows up not exactly face-to-face, but rather face-to-dendenmushi. Big Mom mocks Luffy for a bit, who's all like "I WILL BEAT YOUR FACE UP!" and shows absolutely no fear against Big Mom whatsoever. Big Mom does the speech about how Luffy is just a grain in the desert of the New World, while Luffy is just adamant that he will get Sanji back god damn it. Big Mom rattles off a list of Luffy's crimes before noting that she's willing to let it all slide because she got the magical box from Fishman Island. Which is a natural treasure, containing the fishmen steroids, but we all know there's a bomb in there.

Luffy then straight-up picks a fight with Big Mom again, and then Lola is brought up. And apparently Big Mom hates Lola! And Lola was supposed to be married off to some super-awesome man (who? One of the marines? The Gorosei?) that would've made Big Mom pirate king since she would have enough power to crush Kaidou, Shanks and Whitebeard, but Lola reneging on the deal (and then proceeding to propose to every other man she meets) causes Big Mom to lose everything. Luffy notes how Big Mom is blaming her daughter for her own mistakes, and seems to strike a nerve. That's all we've got, though.

So yeah, overall, a very fun chapter. If nothing else, the shouting match between Luffy and Big Mom is absolutely fun. Sorry not very analytical this review is. Very sleepy