Stranger Things S01E02 Review: More People Disappear

Stranger Things, Season 1, Episode 2: The Weirdo on Maple Street

It's a chapter that's mostly about setup, again, but at the same time also moving the plot forwards. More mysterious things happen, while our core cast discover a lot and at the same time not much about Eleven (a.k.a. El). We get to learn that she has no notion of normal societal norms, we learn that she doesn't understand privacy, we get to see that she's hella afraid of closed doors and being alone, we get to see a flashback that shows her tossed into a cell in front of her papa. Mike bonds with her with La-Z-Boys and teaches her the concept of friendship, whereas his two buddies Dustin and Lucas are more concerned about the fact that Eleven happens to recognize the still-missing Will. Oh, and is telekinetic, able to control doors and shit. Oh, and she points at the D&D wizard figurine and places it in front of the Demogorgon, noting that Will is 'hiding' from something. 

There's a bit of an E.T. feel as Mike teaches El all about the human culture and all the fun stuff that young boys get to, which I felt was a bit odd that Mike immediately assumes that El is this almost alien quantity as opposed to just a lost and sick little girl, but okay, I'll buy it. There's not much else beyond that, even though the kid side of things takes up a significant portion of the episode. 

Meanwhile, as Joyce (Will's mom) gets more desperate as mothers tend to be when their children are missing, his brother Jonathan goes to talk with his father, who's an ass. Oh, and Joyce gets to hear Will's voice on the telephone once more and confirms that it's him and not some hopeful static... only for the electricity to cut out. And then Joyce finds that Will's radio and light is playing at full power, and while we're left to puzzle just what the fuck happens alongside Joyce, the goddamn wall moves and reaches out, the first overt display of horror in the show. And, yeah, it's pretty effective even though it's slow and deliberate. Now whether the thing that reaches out through the wall is Will or the monster...

Chief Hopper's search for answers is... more methodical and probably not the most interesting thing in the episode, but it still works as a way to tie in both the missing Will and the seeming murder of Benny, the dude that took in 11 last episode. Will ends up apparently being a possible suspect for murdering Benny, or at least involved in some way. 

Oh, and government people have tracked down either the monster or 11 (jury's still out just what escaped from their containment) and are canvassing Will's house all Ghostbusters-style. 

Nancy's romance with Steve, and the whole 'yeah I'm totally not gonna fuck oh no wait I'm gonna fuck' is equal parts realistic and boring as all get-out. It does at least lead to something interesting as Nancy's geek friend Barb gets apparently abducted by the mysterious entity, while Jonathan, who's going off nearby in search of Will (and photographing Nancy's tryst with douche McHormones) photographs almost everything in the party other than the actual moment of disappearance. It's... a weird bit and this particular part of the story is one that I truly feel is weak and uninteresting. It's obviously leading to something -- Nancy's involvement in another disappearance and all that, but still...

Overall, it's more of an episode that's far more concerned about setting the tone and getting characters from point A to point B, so nothing actually spectacular happens here. 

Nanatsu no Taizai 241 Review: Dead People

Nanatsu no Taizai, Chapter 241: To Crush the Commandments

So... basically our heroes escape from full demon form Chandler, but not before a pass-the-torch moment between Dolor and Gloxinia to King and tiny Diane. And... it's honestly nowhere as touching as it should be. Partly it's because that Dolor and Gloxinia's characters are such ciphers -- Dolor and Gloxinia were more plot devices with more or less identical motivations and characterizations, and mostly function to give King and Diane the backstory and power-up they needed, and beyond vague insinuations we didn't really get to see why they had the heel-face-turn they did. They were evil for a bit, then they were exposition machines, so to see them die is... eh. Whatever? I dunno. Taizai has been inconsistently paced since... since the timeskip, I'd honestly say, and this death is just particularly unmoving for me. I just hope it's permanent, though, because at least if we're killing characters we're killing ones that we sorta-kinda are supposed to care about. Particularly because the Chandler fight has been pretty poorly handled throughout all this. So.

Overall, though, I just hope this is done and dealt with and we'll move to something more. 

The Gifted S01E04 Review: Deus Ex Pulse

The Gifted, Season 1, Episode 4: eXit strategy

This is a bit of a weaker episode than its previous episodes, in that there's not much that's super interesting about it. The Mutant Resistance plans a raid, there's some arguments done over whether the kids should come along, Marcos gets this weird subplot where he gets hooked into the Cartel again, they do battle against Sentinel Services, Polaris and Reed fight and later ally themselves, and the Mutant Resistance escapes. There's not really that many memorable moments or character defining moments -- what we saw of Polaris, Eclipse and Reed Strucker in this episode aren't stuff we don't already know from previous episodes. Blink has a bit of a subplot where she's still confused from the whole Dreamer stuff she got from the previous episodes, but it's not too distracting.

I felt that the weakest point in the episode was the random flashback in the beginning of how Thunderbird's buddy Pulse was lost during a previous raid to a Sentinel Services facility, only for Pulse to show up working for Sentinel Services in the climax, and apparently (despite not actually showing it in the flashback) his make-electronics-go-haywire ability also functions as a way to create a field that disables all mutant abilities around him. It's obviously not a novel concept -- there have been many times where the mutants in X-Men, or superheroes in general, lose their power. Famously for X-Men, it would be the movie X-Men: The Last Stand. More recently, it'd be the Inhumans TV show (although Inhumans did it far worse in that half the cast spends the entire series depowered instead of like three minutes). .

There were a couple  of somewhat cool scenes, with the addition of a couple of new mutants (Harry the invisible man, who, surprisingly for a redshirt, didn't die!) and the Strucker kids learning to do a little combo move to rip a bus axle apart. Also a big fan of how Polaris's threatening of Reed's knee screws ended up being the way for the two of them to escape the truck. Polaris and Reed's conversation is definitely my favourite parts of the episode, where Polaris condemns Reed (rightfully so, in my opinion) for his sudden change-of-heart. Thankfully she proves to not be that prideful and ends up working together with Reed to return to the Resistance, but Polaris's speech about how suddenly working with the mutants just because his kids are mutants doesn't suddenly absolve him of all the sins of throwing other mutants into jail. Yes, Polaris condemns Reed that he was one of the bad guys, and that realization, more than anything that he's experienced thus far in the show, seems to hit him the hardest.

Perhaps one of the weaker bits that the show has is the dialogue (the kids, John and Lauren get hit with it the hardest) and pacing of the episode. I'm definitely not a big fan of the Eclipse subplot at all, which felt like it just brings the whole Mutant Resistance stuff to a screeching halt just to get the information they need, and to get Marcos be tied up with this oh-so-evil Cartel members again. I just hope the Cartel doesn't show up in future episodes because I don't find them particularly interesting in the mutants-vs-government storyline, but eh. It's an interesting bit to show that Marcos used to have to work with the underworld to survive, but couldn't they have made it a mutant cartel or some shit to actually get me to care?

Stranger Things S01E01 Review: Roll for Initiative

Stranger Things, Season 1, Episode 1: the Vanishing of Will Byers

I'm not sure if I'll finish this series, but the first episode certainly makes a good case for it. (Oh, Happy Halloween, by the way! Here's your requisite horror fiction review). Stranger Things is a horror series released last year on Netflix (just like many other series), and I got to watch a couple of its episodes last night. It stars kids as its main characters, which is sometimes a rather iffy proposition. Child actors are either annoying as all hell (and this can boil down to either actor capability or poor scripting) or charming. I'm not entirely decided yet, but I do think that the cast of four geeky kids playing a D&D campaign is more on the charming side. Perhaps its bias, because I've been getting into D&D myself, but hey. (Also, kids, it's not a Demogorgon. D&D Demogorgon is the name of a demon prince, not a species of monster!)

But the show's charming enough as far as I've seen, and the 80's Indiana town setting is likewise pretty fun. It's only eight episodes long for a Netflix show, which is also relatively welcome length-wise for a quick little romp.

I do love any sort of horror that doesn't actually rely on jump scares to be scary, but rather on atmosphere. Stranger Things is a master at this, although the first episode is a pretty slow burn into this strange world. We follow two plotlines -- one involving a mute girl running from what appears to be government agents, and a second plotline featuring the titular disappearance of Will Byers. Will's disappearance is pretty cool, where we don't actually see what abducted him, but a combination of the dread that his family and friends feel, as well as the actual scene of his disappearance -- using tropes like the barking dog or playing with light or the perpetually-offscreen monster effectively, the show does make Will's appearance and its aftermath pretty harrowing. In fact, I feel that much of the horror comes from his mother and brother not really knowing what the fuck is going on with him. That scene with the little forest hideout is definitely well done. 

The other kids -- Mike, Lucas and Dustin -- are mostly your archetypal identikit geeks that spend ten hours playing D&D, geeking out over old-style radios and being bullied by jackasses in school. They are confused at where Will has gone, and that's about it as far as setup goes. We get to meet Mike's sister Nancy who's keeping her teenage hormones and her boyfriend's sex drive in check, which isn't a sub plot I'm particularly enthused about. 

11 is the other side of the story. I think she came from the weird Hazmat government facility with that mass of weird goopy tentacle web thing? Or is that unrelated to 11? Regardless, she befriends a deli owner who's a nice dude that assumes 11 is an abused kid who ran away from home, but his attempt to call Social Services is interrupted by a government assassin. We don't actually get to see why 11 is so scary, just where she came from, and that she can kill two grown men offscreen. 

A good chunk of the episode is just honestly showing the police sheriffs looking for the missing Will, and the three kids sneak out of home to help out, because kids. Upon which they meet 11. That's where we end in this episode, and, well, I've watched a couple more episodes that I'll talk about in subsequent days. We'll see if I continue to like this show enough.

Movie Review: Thor: Ragnarok

Thor: Ragnarok [2017]

Well, that was pretty superb. Thor: Ragnarok is the third Marvel Cinematic Universe movie to star everyone's favourite boisterous God of Thunder, as well as Thor's own fifth cinematic movie outing. The movie also stars Thor's brother Loki, a long-runner in the MCU himself, as well as the Incredible Hulk, who has made a career of never actually getting a proper standalone movie after Incredible Hulk due to licensing problems or whatever.

In any case, Thor: Ragnarok is the 17th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and that's without counting TV show entries. That means we're two more movies before we actually get to Avengers: Infinity War... but even then, Thor: Ragnarok actually has a pretty big pressure. It's a third Thor movie, and the first one was just fine and the second was kind of poop, so can this one actually be a fun, standalone movie, or would Thor work better as part of an ensemble cast? Why give Thor a third movie, when multiple characters like Hawkeye, Black Widow, Scarlet Witch, War Machine and many others haven't gotten a movie yet -- and that's not counting all the other Marvel characters who haven't actually been adapted into live-action yet? More importantly, how can they make Thor: Ragnarok special and not just well, 'another Thor movie'?

Well, clearly by setting almost the entirety of the movie off-Earth, casting Kate Blanchett to play the goddess of death, shatter the status quo (somewhat) and co-star the Hulk. Thor: Ragnarok is a bit of a mixed soup in that it not only adapts the titular Ragnarok (I'm unfamiliar with the Marvel comics arc, but I do know a fair bit about Norse mythology), the villainness Hela, as well as the Planet Hulk storyline. All the while, the three main players Thor, Hulk and Loki, as well as newcomers Valkyrie and Skurge, are given character arcs that carry them throughout the full 2 hour runtime and makes an actually satisfying story as opposed to, well, Thor: The Dark World.

Oh, and the entire movie is done in a space opera style, in a delightful homage to the Jack Kirby era of madcap vibrant aliens that inspired a lot of DC and Marvel comics work. 

The movie isn't perfect. There were many times where I felt like they moved from set piece to set piece a bit too fast. There were times when I thought the gags (which were admittedly funny) were slightly overused -- in particular, in the climax when Asgard exploded I really wished Korg would shut the fuck up, as much as I enjoyed Korg for the rest of the movie. And the villains of the piece, Hela and Skurge, clearly could've done with more character development and interaction with Thor. And while we did get an introdump about Ragnarok, there wasn't a sense of dread about the incoming apocalypse that could've been added with a couple extra lines sprinkled throughout the movie. When Thor decides to "yeah, let's cause the prophecy to happen!" at the end, it felt more of a 'oh yeaaaah this plotline exists huh' moment instead of a lightbulb flickering on.

The climax is also guilty of many things that multiple MCU movies and indeed superhero movies in the past decade has been guilty with. When dealing with an ensemble cast, the villain must apparently have an army of disposable goons that die with one shot which our heroes can murder with abandon while showing off their cool moves. And that kind of cheapens some moments, I think, like Skurge's last stand, and it did go on for a bit too long. 

Still, you know what the movie did right? Making the movie fun, but still have stakes. And it did so without actually seeping itself too much in drama the way the second Guardians of the Galaxy movie did. And a good chunk of that comes from the fact that more than half of the movie's runtime happens with our heroes in the wacky planet of Sakaar, which is the dumping ground of the galaxy for all the scum of the universe. 

Let's talk about Sakaar a bit, before we get to the nitty-gritty Asgard stuff. The Grandmaster (played by Jeff frikkin' Goldblum) is an amazing antagonist that rules over the world, setting up big championship gladiatorial matches, which is honestly just a long, convoluted way to get Thor to fight the Hulk in the arena, and it's as amazing as it sounds. Mind you, having Thor be disabled by a little doohickey (his thunderbolt didn't fry the mechanism?) is a bit grating and I really wished they had found a better way to incapacitate Thor if they needed to do so... but eh.

Thor's character arc is more or less stable in this movie, where he's a lot more level-headed. Compared to the hot-headed prince that he was in the original Thor, he's far more forgiving of Loki (or rather, not wanting to give a shit), he's grown past bickering with his brother enough to even second-guess his betrayal (and actually gives a speech about growing beyond their static characters, something that apparently hit home for Loki), he's became a bit more subtle in trying to... 'manipulate' Valkyrie, Hulk or Bruce Banner, and he's had to deal with loss over all that. I really wished the movie had spared more time to allow Thor to contemplate the arguments that Hela is making -- that Odin is as much a warmonger in his younger years as Hela is being right now -- but that's a bit of a small complaint. 

Thor gets Mjolnir shattered by Hela into a thousand pieces, and I guess part of his Sakaarian arc is to discover what makes him truly Thor, but he does that relatively quickly and seamlessly as he realizes that he is the God of Thunder, not the hammer (as Odin notes, he's not the 'god of carpentry tools'). It really could've benefited for a bit more comparison with the whole 'Asgard isn't the place, it's the people' deal, and is probably one or two more lines short of that. 

Hulk, surprisingly, gets far more screentime than puny Banner. Banner does show up, but it's mostly for gags as he finds himself in a goddamn alien world that happens to have a population that's fans of Hulk, but Banner himself didn't really quite impress as a character. Hella funny, though, simply on the strength of Mark Ruffalo himself. Hulk himself is an interesting enigma because in all his three previous outings in the MCU, he tends to just be rampaging, the inner monster unleashed by Bruce Banner to fight. Here we actually get to see Hulk just be Hulk, and in addition to, again, a lot of great comedic beats ("But... giant monster!") for the Green brute, he also gets to speak a little and talk to Thor. Not as an extension of Banner, but as Hulk himself. He's not particularly verbose, of course, and he thinks in terms of strength more than anything, but beyond his pontificating as the star of the arena, it's clear from his arguments with Thor that he still likes his friend around, and despite his harsh attitude is looking for friendship. 

Best shown in the relationship between Hulk and Thor is the calmer, quieter scene in the two's shared quarters, where Hulk actually gets to emote expressions that aren't "angry" or "angrier", and Mark Ruffalo's character performance really shines here. 

Rounding up the main heroes is Valkyrie (played by Tessa Thompson), a newcomer to the MCU. She's... okay. Many people are hailing her as the best new character in the MCU. I certainly like her. She's a tough badass lady that drinks a lot, shoots a lot and beats up people a lot. She gets a backstory as a member of the valkyries, which were all slaughtered by Hela in the past and she's running away from that. Her character arc is simple -- stop running from her problems, and start fighting for Asgard and defeat Hela. It's a simple character arc, but it's effective nonetheless, making me root for Valkyrie as much as I do Thor or Hulk. Valkyrie's lack of actual romance with Thor or Hulk is also very much welcome, with how enroachingly filled previous Thor movies have been with the romance stuff.

Loki is also for the ride for the majority of the movie. His duplicity in replacing Odin is quickly revealed, and after Thor exposes it, he drags Loki to Earth ("I left him here, I swear.") and after an encounter with Dr. Strange (which was perhaps a bit too self-indulgent, but hardly detrimental) Loki's meeting with Odin as his father that he tricks and despises dies is definitely effectively portrayed by Tom Hiddleston. Loki's constant changing of allegiances, and his love-hate relationship with Thor throughout the early Sakaar arc is well-done, as he naturally worms his way up Thor when he seemed to be in power earlier in the movie, and later to the Grandmaster in Sakaar. While Thor recruits Loki's services and has some great scenes, the brotherhood bond between the two is definitely the highlight of the movie once more. 

Yes, Loki, like the rest of the cast, is great for gags. Between the constant throwing of rocks at his face to see if he's a hologram, to "Get Help!", to his 'eep' reaction when seeing Hulk show up in the arena and his bombastic "YEAH NOW YOU KNOW HOW IT FEELS" when the Hulk whacks Thor around in the arena... Loki's fun. But Loki's also great for drama, as that elevator ride when Thor reveals that... he doesn't actually hate Loki. He's just done. If they're just that different, he's going to be a mature, supportive brother and tell him to go off where he clearly can excel. And that clearly disturbs Loki.

But nothing more than Thor's deft handling of Loki's attempted betrayal, double-crossing Loki and giving him a speech about how he should grow beyond being a 'god of mischief' and actually do something -- be it a villain or a hero or somewhere in between, just don't stagnate pathetically. And this ends up with Loki deciding to take over Korg's rebellion (I love Korg) and showing up to Asgard with a gigantic spaceship, and later participating as one of Thor's allies in the final battle. It's one of the best heel-face-turns as Loki gets absolutely deconstructed and reconstructed by his brother, showing that, yes, he can grow from the increasingly repetitive Starscream archetype.

Perhaps the weakest link among the protagonists is Odin. Anthony Hopkins turns in an amazing performance as always, but while the wise daddy Odin in both real life and flashback clearly is well-portrayed, we never actually get any real conversation between Odin and Thor or Odin and Hela about the fact that he used to be Nordic God Hitler or some shit like that. I felt like that could've been better told, beyond Thor's shrug that, yeah, Odin's a shit dad despite all his zen speeches.

Hela herself, played by Kate Blanchett, is our very first female supervillain in a MCU movie (the TV shows have had multiple female supervillains) and Kate Blanchett clearly had a lot of fun chewing the scenery. Her backstory as Odin's eldest child (as opposed to being Loki's child like the actual Nordic myth) and being someone so powerful that Thor and Loki combined couldn't make her break a sweat is pretty awesome. She doesn't actually get to do much beyond giving huge speeches, summoning weapons out of thin air and lobbing them at enemies, resurrecting the dead and killing unimportant side-characters, though. Sure, she's got a couple of 'here's my motivation' lines in regards to her status as Odin's executioner and how Odin discarded her like garbage when his ambition was lacking. Still, better than Malekith. Oh, and Hela totally killed Hogun, Volstagg and Fandral, those three dudes from the previous two movies! Hogun had a badass scene leading that army. I kinda wished Volstagg and Fandral had a better death scene, but the movie's running as long as it is already.

I mean, sure, she's got style. Between her fancy spiky helmet (guess we know which elder sibling Loki emulates) to her endless barrage of giant nordic blades to her big-ass giant wolf Fenris, she just exudes style. Pity that her status as Thor's sister is barely acknowledged beyond some "SISTER!" "BROTHER!" screams at each other. 

Hela toppling over the 'Infinity Gauntlet' that cameod in Thor all the way back before Thanos was planned for the MCU and going "FAAAAAKE" was the most hilarious meta joke ever.

Skurge the Executioner (Karl Urban!) is the other villain here, although to call him villain might be a bit... too much. He hangs out with Hela because, shit, doing otherwise meant being shish-kebabed like all the other Asgardian warriors, but his heart is clearly not in it. His death is nowhere as badass as what Wikipedia tells me his comic counterpart was, but it's still pretty badass in a way, wielding guns and shooting down undead soldier after undead soldier to allow the Asgardian refugee ship to get away, before being killed by Hela. Skurge is likable for the majority of the movie as this unwilling anti-villain, and I do like what little he was given. 

The bookends of the piece is Surtur, the fire giant lord, who promises to herald the titular Ragnarok by destroying Asgard. Thor beat him in his weakened form (too soon!) and sealed him within his eyebrows crown, but later Loki and Thor would unleash Surtur with the Eternal Flame, and summon Ragnarok to destroy Asgard and Hela, while they bugger off with the actual people that mattered. It felt a bit too much, and again, either better flow from Ragnarok to Hela to Sakaar to Hela to Ragnarok would've definitely worked better. Maybe if Hela was part of the Ragnarok prophecy itself, or if Loki unleashing Ragnarok was a central part of the prophecy? As someone well-versed in the Nordic lore I know they are, so it would've been pretty easy to make the climax actually revolve around Loki, Thor and Hela more than it is Thor going "hey, let's unleash the plot device introduced in the opening act!" (And yes, as entertainingly hammy as Surtur is, he's definitely a plot device)

The Grandmaster is fun. There's nothing much more to say about that. He's Jeff Goldblum as a Marvel alien overlord, and that's all you're getting and that makes me happy. 

What else? Korg and Miek are funny. There's not much more to say about them. I'm pleased to learn that they're not brand-new original movie characters, but are actual adaptations of existing comic-book characters. I hope Korg shows up more. He's fun. Dr. Strange is great as he has been in his home movie, and while his interactions isn't quite that much he's still enjoyable. Stan Lee gets a cameo as a psychotic alien barber and it's hilarious. 

Heimdall! I knew I forgot someone. Idris Elba is a great actor, but he's made his distaste of being in superhero movies well-known and his performance as Heimdall is... isn't bad, but it clearly could've been better. He mostly acts as the 'face' of the resistance on Asgard, to have someone ferrying away the refugees while Hela is going all crazy and shit.

So yeah. Like many recent blockbusters, Thor: Ragnarok feels like two movies stapled into one. I really wished that we had the Planet Hulk stuff separately as a Thor/Hulk buddy cop movie, and the Ragnarok Thor/Hela/Odin/Loki stuff as its own movie, but this was what we got. An ambitious movie that jumps from set piece to set piece, and never forgets to be funny... and honestly? It's a pretty accurate adaptation of the 80's/90's comics anyway that jump from plot thread to plot thread as fast as it could. It's funny, but perhaps too funny for its own good at some points, and maybe the movie would've flowed better with some editing that prioritized the Asgard plot over the Sakaar plot. It's not perfect.... but by god, it's fun.

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Stan Lee cameo! As an alien barber.
• The Grandmaster introduces the Hulk with a long "the... incredible...." which ends at the word champion, but clearly is supposed to be a reference to the incredible Hulk's full title.
• The events of Age of Ultron is mentioned, both the invasion, Hulk going MIA in the quinjet, and Thor's own (apparently unsuccessful) quest for infinity stones. Loki freaking out over Hulk whacking Thor around like a ragdoll is a reference to the beatdown done to him in Avengers. Thor and Jane have apparently broken up since, although it was a mutual dumping, as Thor notes. 
• The 'Revengers' that Thor says as the name of their group is the name of actual evil Avengers teams in the comics. 
• Obviously the Infinity Gauntlet appeared in Thor in Asgard's trophy room several years before Thanos is revealed as the Big Bad of the MCU -- and the Infinity Gauntlet's appearance in Asgard has been the subject of much debate. 
• The fake actors that played Loki, Odin and Thor in the play on Asgard are played by Matt Damon, Sam Neill and Chris Hemsworth's own brother Luke Hemswroth. 
• Hela in the comics is actually Loki's daughter, accurate to the Nordic mythology. Her role here as Odin's secret daughter that neither Thor nor Loki are aware of is taken from the character Angela in the comics.
• Among the sculpted busts on the Grandmaster's tower, you can see Beta Ray Bill (a horse-faced alien that became Thor in the comics), and, as the internet tells me, also Man-Thing, Bi-Beast and Ares, none of which are characters I recognize other than Beta Ray Bill.

Gotham S04E06 Review: Oink Oink

Gotham, Season 4, Episode 6: A Dark Knight - Hog Day Afternoon

The episode is a bit of a breath of fresh air for me, in that we're taking a break from having entire episodes of Gotham being split up between the Gordon plot, the Bruce plot, the Barbara plot, the Nygma plot, the Penguin plot and the Ra's plot. Instead, it's a rare case where the case-of-the-week, Gordon and Bullock facing off against the arrival of Professor Pyg, is the highlight of the show almost exclusively. There's a Penguin and a Riddler subplot under it all to keep it from being monotonous, but I did like this episode for having focus. 

Let's go through the subplots quickly. Penguin and Sofia go through the song and dance of "Penguin thinks Sofia is treacherous, apparently she's not". Which isn't the most interesting thing out there, but Robin Lord Taylor and Crystal Reed's acting are both pretty top-notch, and we get Penguin interacting with Mr. Zsasz (and Mr. Penn!) which is always great. "Just to make it clear, boss... is this a chat-chat or a shovel-in-the-trunk chat?"

The Riddler/Grundy/Leslie subplot isn't too interesting, and it's basically just Leslie ending up deciding to help Nygma because she needs the money for her poor-people clinic. It is hilarious to see Nygma trying his best to be evil Riddler and failing to even threaten Leslie properly. Evil (well, sorta-evil) Leslie is hot as hell, by the way, even if all they did was like straighten her hair and swap out her wardrobe a bit. Great job, costuming department. 

The rest of the case deals with the morbid serial murderer Professor Pyg, who is lashing out against corrupt cops in Gotham and killing them, sewing decapitated pig's heads onto their faces. Meanwhile, Gordon has to deal with Bullock for the first time this season (I think?) and partner up with him. I genuinely thought that this was going to be Bullock's swan song considering he's been absent for the majority of the season, and having him get one last adventure would be a swan song tactic that many TV shows employed before. Thankfully, Bullock doesn't die even though Pyg slit his throat, and we get the revelation that, of course, he's a dirty cop. Which isn't that far of a stretch considering season one Bullock was pretty damn dirty. 

Pyg himself is okay. He's a bit of a new villain for me, and I've hardly any sort of attachment to him compared to how I tend to be verbose with other Batman villains -- he showed up around the time that I stopped reading comics regularly. But his portrayal here is fine, and while undoubtedly goofy (oink oink, motherfuckers!) there's this line that they tread between sadistically horrible and weirdly funny that I felt they managed to do adequately well here. I'm not sure if I'm chomping at the bit for Pyg to return the very next episode, but if they're going to pull a Mad Hatter or a Barnes and have Pyg be a recurring villain at the background of the main villain (who I'm assuming is still Ra's) it won't be a particularly bad one to have. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Professor Pyg, a.k.a. Lazlo Valentin, is a relatively new addition to the Batman rogues' gallery, first appearing in 2007. In the comics, Pyg is a schizophrenic with an obsession of making people perfect, torturing and doing surgery on people and sewing pig masks on them to make them compliant 'dollotrons'. Professor Pyg was also prominently featured in the 2013 animated series 'Beware the Batman' and in the video game Arkham Knight. 
• Leslie Thompkins' job as a doctor for those who doesn't have money is her job in the comics (where she isn't involved in Gordon in any way, is much older than the rest of the cast, and didn't turn evil and hot).

Movie Review: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice: Extended Edition

Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice [Extended Edition] [2016]

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is the second installment in the new DC Cinematic Universe. And, well, it being a bit of a mess (okay, a gigantic fucking mess) is pretty well known. I could go on and on about how the entire premise of having a crossover movie that ends with Superman's death be the literal second movie in a fledgling universe (which itself has a three-year gap between the first Man of Steel movie and BvS) is a dumbass move, but then we'll be here all day talking about the DCEU as a whole and not the movie.

But Batman v. Superman isn't without its merits, of course. It introduced the world to Gal Gadot's amazing rendition of Wonder Woman, who herself would get a solo movie in 2017. It had a surprisingly well-written war-weary Batman played by Ben Affleck, and even though Batman killing is anathema to who Batman should be... part of me wants to say that I enjoy Ben Affleck's acting way too much to not like it, but most of me is just pissed off at a Batman that's absolutely kill-happy. There's taking liberties in adaptations, and there's absolutely breaking one of the few core tenets that make the character who he is. Batman isn't the Punisher or the Vigilante. Batman is the dude that tries to even save the bad guys. So I'm going to say it here, and I'm going to say it however many times as I need until they actually change it: any work where Batman actually directly causes the direct death of a person (even that "I don't have to save you" scene in Batman Begins is dumb as all hell) just takes me out of the movie and makes me angry and just pissed off. I enjoyed Ben Affleck in spite of all that, which speaks more to the strength of the actor and the individual scenes and not the actual writing of the movie.

And I would be lying if I said I didn't squee at the sight of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, the DC trinity, my childhood heroes, assembled on the big screen with the most triumphant background music blaring in the background. Because, man, holy shit. As a longtime fan of DC comics, it's practically impossible not to cheer for a movie that got me that excited -- it's quite a different feeling to seeing the Avengers assemble in 2011, because as much as that movie's a more solid story than BvS, I don't quite have the same nostalgia-filled feelings for Captain America, Iron Man and the Hulk as I do for Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman. Not to say DC is better than Marvel, but simple personal childhood nostalgia, is all. 

That said, though, BvS was still a huge mess. There's a plot buried there cobbled from multiple comic-book arcs, but it took a couple of viewings before things really made sense. And, of course, there are some inherent problems beyond pacing and writing, among them the absolutely moronic "Martha" resolution to the Batman/Superman fight, and the whole CGI-Doomsday fight being unnecessary and way more prolonged than it should be. Oh, and it had a way-too-grimdark tone which has been enveloping any DC-produced live-action movie since Nolan popularized it with Batman Begins, something that I won't discuss too much here. 

It's divisive, and nearly a year since I watched it in theaters, I still have mixed opinions about it. 

The thing, though, is that the filmmakers released an 'Extended Edition' or an Ultimate Edition or whatever. The actual movie that aired in the theateres is 153 minutes long, a mammoth movie in its own right, but the Ultimate edition is 182 minutes, a full 30 minutes longer than what we got in the theaters. The makers promised that it would have better pacing, it would explain the motivations of characters, and it would be the actual, 'complete' product.

While it is no excuse to deliver a sub-par cut to the studios -- no one should be expected to track down ultimate editions and director's cuts to fully enjoy a movie -- I do care about DC superheroes enough to track down a copy. I won't list every difference between the theatrical and extended version, others  have done it better than me (here's a link to Screenrant's helpfully exhaustive listing of the differences) but the theatrical movie that we got did feel like it was rushed and things didn't quite feel paced right. It's not just a restoration of deleted scenes like Suicide Squad was, but actually recut to properly tell the stories. 

So I sat down in front of my television, plopped in the Blu-Ray for the Ultimate Edition, and prepared myself for 182 minutes of superheroing.

And, well, does it improve on the original Batman v. Superman? Yes and no. The final act of the movie (the Batman-vs-Superman, and the proto-JLA-vs-Doomsday fights) remains entirely unchanged, so you still have the utter silliness of having part of the ideological conflict (which is presented far better in the Ultimate Edition, thus making the climax an even bigger letdown) be resolved by Bruce and Clark having moms with similar names. You still have the Doomsday fight drag on and on and on. You still have Lois spending half of the climax diving underwater because she threw the kryptonite spear away like an idiot. Those parts, the Ultimate Edition didn't quite manage to fix, and without significantly changing the scenes shot for the finale, I don't see a way to actually fix those. 

But the first two acts end up being vastly improved, in my opinion, by a restructuring of scenes and the restorations of over 30 minutes of well-done exposition. Yes, some of the... clumsier and unnecessary scenes from the thaterical cut, like Clark walking on the icy mountains to meet ghost dad, or the incredibly egregiously clunky 'knightmare' sequence that adds no real purpose to the rest of the movie that future!Flash's warning doesn't give, ends up still being unnecessary, but at least the rest of the movie that happens before and after those scenes are far more improved. 

The biggest improvements that the movie makes is making it a lot clearer how Lex Luthor manipulates Bruce and Clark, and as such Bruce's paranoia, and just how Lex sets it up, is far more well-told. We get more extrapolated scenes of Clark going to Gotham City and seeing the damage that this more ruthleess take on Batman does, giving both Superman and Batman a distinctly miscoloured viewpoint on the other. Clark's investigation on the Bat-Brand, and the way the prisoners branded by Batman end up in prisons, gives far more context to the other scenes that the brand shows up in. 

Yes, Luthor still has his scenes that have him act like an insane manchild, and that's very, very unfortunate, but at least this time around he has the manipulations to back up all his stupid piss-tea and jelly bean nonsense. Whereas the original theatrical cut has Luthor be a wacky maniac that seems to be an attempt to ape the Joker, the extended edition makes Luthor into feeling like a mastermind who hides behind a veneer of hipster insanity.  

Lois's subplot in the first half of the movie is also greatly expanded upon, and her investigation subplot on the disastrous African massacre is a lot more well-structured, with the movie making it clear that it's Luthor's lackey Anatoly Knyazev that machineguns the terrorists, and then uses a flamethrower to burn the bodies to hide the evidence. Luthor's manipulations of the politicians, the crippled Wayne employee and other witnesses is also a lot more structured here.

The end result means that the character subplots for Luthor, Batman, Superman and Lois, at least up until the climax of the movie, ends up being far more believable and organic. It's not a perfect story, of course, but it does a long way to telling us why these characters do what they do. Even if "Martha" is still a goddamn stupid way to end a fight.

Let's talk a bit about the plot of the movie itself, and not just differences, since I never actually did a proper review of BvS. 

The movie opens with a quick recap of Batman's origin story, told as the opening credits roll. We get to see the basics of the story without retelling it, but not without rushing into it so as to confuse those that are somehow unfamiliar with how Bruce Wayne became the Caped Crusader. We get the murder of Bruce's parents in Crime Alley, we get him falling down the well into a cave of bats... and then we cut to Man of Steel. It's an amazingly shot scene from the ground level of Bruce Wayne as he drives around Metropolis in a car, desperately trying to save his employees as the two godlike beings Superman and Zod fight it out. The scene is actually paced exactly like the climax of Man of Steel, with specific things that the two kryptonians do replicated seamlessly, which is an amazing bit of filmmaking. In the aftermath of that, Bruce sees all the devastation wrought, including the now-orphaned daughter of one of his employees, and simply glares angrily at the destruction this does. 

Then we cut into the real plot, where Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen are reporters interviewing a civil war in the fictional African country of Nairomi. Here the plot is expanded upon a little more, with the situation being told to us by both Jimmy and the Nairomi warlord, and the fact that the faction is more of a rebel faction. Of course, for whatever rason, Jimmy Olsen is shot in the head -- one of the bigger problems that the DCEU had prior to the bad reviews is moments like this. Being dark and gritty for no real reason at all. Did killing Jimmy Olsen accomplish anything that killing a nameless CIA agent would accomplish, beyond pissing off Jimmy Olsen fans? Nope.

At least the 'main' story's told a bit better, mind you. I've already discussed above how the Ultimate Edition made changes to how the massacre is carried out, how Superman is framed by Knyazev's men to murdering the rebels in his attempt to rescue Lois. This leads to a B-plot that is absent in the theatrical cut, where one of the survivors, a woman named Kahina Ziri, giving testimonies as to the question of Superman being "whose hero?" considering her people were slaughtered and Superman did nothing (or, well, arrived to late). 

We then cut to the proper introduction of Batman, in one of the most badass scenes ever (BvS has no shortage of badass scenes, it's the product as a whole that fails) where two stupid Gotham cops investigate a beaten-up criminal, while Batman is perched on the corner of the ceiling. It shows Batman's status as a boogeyman pretty well, and shows us some really great classic Batman scenes. One of the scenes after focusing on the bat-brand given to the criminals cuts to Clark Kent, after some lovemaking, see this on the television, and decide to head to Gotham to investigate as a reporter. We get some additional scenes with Perry White as well, who keeps telling Clark to work on football articles and ignore the whole Bat vigilante thing. Clark Kent's bright-eyed Metropolis boy heading into the dark slums of Gotham City and experiencing firsthand the terror that the Bat of Gotham strikes into the criminal scum from eyewitnesses. it's a pretty powerful scene. 

Bruce, meanwhile, is shown to not be healthy. Between abusing drugs and generally being cold and dark and far more violent than traditional potrayals of Batman, we get to see a reason why -- the camera lingers on the costume of Robin, spray-painted with HA HA HA HA, implying that this version of Batman has already lost a teenage sidekick to the war against crime. This is where some context would work for the more casual viewer, though. As someone more in tune with the DC lore, I could go 'huh, Jason Todd and the crowbar already happened', but most viewers probably missed this little easter egg. Whether by actually showing us, or having lines between Bruce and Alfred going all "the last time I let a maniac run rampant he took away Robin" or something along those lines would go a long, long way to better explain Bruce's determination to stop Superman, far more than the weird kryptic Knightmare sequence (god how I hate that name) did. At least Jeremy Irons's snarky Alfred gets a few more lines than before. He's fun. I like him. 

Lois, meanwhile, does her own investigation, in a series of scenes that, with the spaces between them filled, makes a lot more sense. She finds out that the US government is supplying bullets, or at least involved in, the Nairomian civil war. It's actually pretty interesting, really, and makes a fair bit more sense with the added time that the Ultimate Edition gives her. 

All the while, we also get to see Lex Luthor's introduction, getting the chunk of kryptonite from the ocean, manipulating senator June Finch about import laws and whatnot. It's also a bit more evident that, while Luthor here is portrayed like an unstable and hipster maniac, he's doing things in service of a larger goal, obtaining resources and acccess to Zod's ship from Man of Steel, engineering the paranoia between Superman and Batman, and we even get some humane moments where he drops his veneer of mania and talks about the father he doesn't quite have a good relationship with. It's still a pretty iffy portrayal of Luthor, because Luthor really shouldn't be crazy (or have hair), but it's, again, a lot more serviceable than the original theatrical version of BvS. Oh, and it's actually made clear here that he manipulates the initial meeting between Clark and Bruce at the charity ball, something that the theatrical version omits. 

This leads to the meeting between Bruce Wayne and one Diana Prince, a.k.a. Wonder Woman, who steals the data that Bruce downloaded from LexCorp... but quickly returns it and makes it clear that they're on the same side. Poor Diana doesn't get much to do after that, mostly checking her email from Bruce on an airplane ride and seeing the videos that LexCorp has on other metahumans -- Aquaman, Flash and Cyborg, in a montage of pretty cool 'look at all these guys you'll see in the cinemas next year!' before showing up at the climax. 

But back to the ball! Clark and Bruce have some discussion about vigilantes, Lex breaks down while giving a speech, and it's back to their personal investigations into the other vigilantes. Lex manages to track down Wallace, the Wayne employee crippled in the prologue during Superman's attack on Metropolis, and sponsors him in an attempt to bring Superman to trial, so to speak. Meanwhile, Clark gets word that the criminal that Batman arrested -- who is moved to a Metropolis prison and killed by Knyazev's thugs -- and gets a very discoloured view that Batman marks his victims for death in prisons, even meeting the wife of the criminal. It's clear why Superman ends up flying and stopping Batman's rampage in the pier, with this miscoloured view of the vigilante.

Not that Bruce's investigations are any rosier, mind you. Kahina Ziri, the witness, is clearly sponsored by Lex Luthor to give false testimony to damn Superman, but she was killed by Luthor's agents shortly after. Luthor also manipulates events so that Wallace doesn't get any of the financial help that Wayne Corps gives him, embittering him and allowing him to become a pawn to deliver a bomb on a wheelchair -- a bomb that blows up during Superman's trial and murders not only Wallace, but also a lot of Luthor's allies who might implicate him. Superman then buggers off to the mountain... although that bit's still a bit rough even in the Ultimate Edition. The Knightmare is also indulgent and adds nothing, but I've talked about it above. 

In another great scene, the aftermath of Batman's assault on LexCorp, stealing the kryptonite, taking out an entire facility's worth of thugs and leaving behind a batarang, is another one of those awesome scenes. And as much as MurderBatman is something that makes me uncomfortable, the Batmobile-vs-Knyazev-thugs scene is amazing. And with all the added subplot where Bruce and Clark suspect each other's alter egos a lot more, this scene has a fair bit more impact.

Luthor going off to play his hand is a bit more shaky, though, kidnapping Lois Lane and Martha Kent, while simultaneously accessing the Kryptonian computers and using Zod's body and his blood to create a kryptonian horror. And this is where the big streams of long action scenes and arguably some of the weaker parts of the movie happen. Instead of talking, Superman and Batman fight each other, and... it's cool. As much as I want to talk shit about it, as much as I want to talk about how not even with the added scenes it really justifies the stupidity of them not talking it out, the fight between Batman and Superman is cool. Less cool is ending it with "Martha". There are a gajillion other ways you could've had them stop fighting and end it (Lois throwing herself in-between one of the punches?) without the stupidity of that scene. But okay.

They work together this time, and we get an amazingly badass scene of Batman versus the entire building of Knyazev and his thugs, rescuing Martha. There's nothing else but to describe it as amazingly spectacular and amazingly choreographed. It's brutal, yes, but it's brutal in a not-so-murdery-way. We also get Superman confronting Luthor, who seems to have gone off the deep end (not a fan of second-act Luthor) and created Doomsday and... yeah. It's not very impressive, just this indestructible troll creature. We do get a lot of great scenes in the Doomsday fight, mind you, it just ran on for way too long. Between Superman punching Doomsdsay into space, or Batman's solo Batwing strafing runs, or the united front of the three superheroes against Doomsday, there are some great scenes. It's a shame that the climax isn't done quite well, with the kryptonite spear scene being the worst offender of prolonging the climax.

Luthor is arrested, shaved and put into jail, with Batman warning him to basically fuck off, and send him off to Arkham Asylum. We get another teaser for Justice League in the Ultimate Edition, with Luthor communing with the mysterious metal figure of Steppenwolf when he's arrested by the police, but that's just some cryptic stuff.

The funeral for Superman (and Clark Kent) are both well done, as rushed as the death scene is. It's very emotional, especially in the expanded edition, and this galvanizes Bruce and Diana to basically start the Justice League. Of course, the dirt around Superman's grave floats, so obviously he'll be back.

Honestly, the biggest problem with the movie is that it tries to do so much. Superman meeting Batman. Superman fighting Batman. Introducing Lex Luthor. Introducing a new version of Batman. Introducing Wonder Woman. The Dark Knight Returns. The Death of Superman. The founding of the League. Yes, the extended edition does restore a lot of plot points, and it does make the movie a fair amount more watchable and intelligent than it does before, but it doesn't restore it into any sort of awesome masterpiece. Add that to three of the main characters losing what made them iconic in the  first place -- Superman being turned into a morose glum man instead of a symbol of hope, Batman being turned into a murder machine instead of a vigilante with a rigid moral code, and Luthor being turned into a manic manchild instead of a smart, measured industrialist villain... especially when the characters's transformations don't feel earned, considering that as far as the DCEU universe is concerned, this is the first time we've seen any of them... yeah.

It's still, as I first rated it, a very flawed movie with a lot of great scenes and set pieces interconnected flimsily and a climax that drags on and on. I still don't particularly like this version of Luthor, and I still think that Superman's a lot more mopey than Superman should be. At least, for better or for worse, the gigantic backlash that BvS suffered has caused the filmmakers to restructure their plans for the DC cinematic universe in general, and that, if nothing else, is a great blessing to us. Bring on Justice League!

My Hero Academia 158 Review: Overhaul's Origins

My Hero Academia, Chapter 158: Chisaki's Abnormal Compassion

I didn't review the previous chapter because it's honestly a lot of the same thing with the previous chapter. Overhaul makes a bit of a bad guy monologue, Midoriya resolves to protect Eri, the two have a bit of a power up. Kinda cool that Eri can immediately fix all of Midoriya's broken bones to allow him to use 100%, but on the other hand this fight has been going on forever -- and one thing that Boku no Hero Academia's previous arcs cannot be accused of is prolonging fights more than it should. And for me, this fight certainly has been.

It's not that I don't enjoy the artwork -- I certainly do. But the pacing has been dragged on and on, and we end with this chapter where Midoriya finally whacks Overhaul in the face with a 100% punch, seemingly and hopefully ending the battle. The 'big picture' that Overhaul gives us with his backstory, about how he wants to basically supply both sides of the villain-vs-hero war and how the previous yakuza boss disapproved of that kind of is a bit too basic for my liking, I think, and ends up turning Overhaul from a unique villain to kind of a run-of-the-mill profiteer. I dunno. The fact that it all ends with a generic "my burning spirit can change the futureeeee" shonen stuff is also kind of cringe-inducing, and if that was what we're going for then I really wished we didn't have Nighteye's prophecy of a death.

Oh well, at least this fight is hopefully over. 

The Flash S04E03 Review: Harrison Wells is Back!

The Flash, Season 4, Episode 3: Luck Be A Lady

Okay, I actually quite liked this episode. It's just charming, and we didn't get bogged down by a subplot of Barry dealing with his pesky emotions. Hazard is played by such an infectiously cheery actress that it's hard not to like her, and we even get Harrison Wells of Earth-2 back! Harry Wells has always been far more relevant to the plot and his dry, jackassery has always been more entertaining than H.R.'s one-note comedic beats (that's not to say H.R. isn't enjoyable, of course, because Tom Cavanagh is just such a charismatic and amazing actor). But this episode is a neat breath of fresh air for a series that I'm somewhat worried about.

What kind of took me away is the sheer amount of sub-plots running throughout this episode. Sure, Hazard isn't actually a huge, big threat that threatens to take over the city or whatever, but the sheer amount of subplots -- Harrison Wells telling Wally that Jesse broke up with him, Harry and Cisco's pissing contest, Barry and Iris looking for a wedding venue, Joe and Cecile's house problems... while it's not like I don't enjoy the day-to-day lives of this superhero team, it's honestly a bit too much for my liking. 

I did like how Wally ends up leaving the show at the end of the episode, hopefully hinting that the show's going to find something better to do with him instead of just standing in the background and disappearing for huge chunks of the episode and no one even realizes (let's be honest, did you?). I just hope it's not the writers writing Wally out because they can't find anything interesting to do with him. 

The Thinker and his secretary continue to appear as a creepy, mysterious monologuing man who talks about how everything is part of the plan, and all that stuff. We also learn that the bus from the first episode that the Flash zips through was what caused this season's batch of metahumans to appear, and there are 12 in all. 

Hazard herself is a very fun villain, helped by the brief montage of her own bad luck, and her bubbly vocal mannerisms is just so instantly likable... but, of course, she's siphoning her luck from the... universal constant goobledeygunk that Cisco theorized, so we'd have a quote-unquote scientific explanation for the madness of this episode. It's a decent enough story, and a decent enough episode, that I certainly liked this.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Rebecca "Becky" Sharpe, a.k.a. Hazard, isn't a specific enemy of the Flash. She succeeded her grandfather, the supervillain known as the Gambler (Steven Sharpe III), who battled the Golden Age Green Lantern and the Justice Society. Becky Sharpe would take on the alias Hazard and become a bit of a villain. 'A bit' because she's got a no-killing rule going on, and is more concerned about righting the injustices done against her.
• Becky's casino blackjack dealer costume is actually her comic-book counterpart's supervillain costume. Her desire to get back at the casino she used to work in is a reference to how Hazard has a hatred towards casinos due to her grandfather, the Gambler, being out-swindled by a certain casino which eventually led to his suicide. 
• Harry notes how the breakup cube is made up of Atlantanean metal, and Atlantis itself has been referred to multiple times in Earth-2 stories.
• Cisco borrows Green Arrow's catchphrase in the laser tag game: "You have failed this city." In addition to the show's own "run, Barry, run" catchphrase. 

Arrow S06E03 Review: Green Crossbow

Arrow, Season 6, Episode 3: Next of Kin

So this episode was... satisfactory. I do like the fact that we're actually shaking up the status quo and having John Diggle's Green Arrow carry the mantle for a little while longer. Hell, we even get the new, revamped season 6 opening theme that states John Diggle is Arrow. Also, we don't have any flashbacks in this episode, which is definitely welcome in my book. 

What's less welcome is this episode, which, while taken in a vacuum is a perfect example of a self-contained episode that still ties into the overarching plotlines of the season (the FBI stuff, Diggle Arrow, Daddy Oliver) really feels repetitive. Oliver trying to be a good daddy is heartwarming and all, but we've seen variations of it over the past two episodes, and I find it really hard to care. Sure, it ended up with Oliver and Felicity rekindling their romance for like the sixth time and I kind of shrug it off. If they don't make the entire show about Olicity shipping at all, it's definitely going to be great. Oliver also juggles mayoral duties while trying to deal with his commitment to Team Arrow, which, while told well, does feel like a case of "been there, done that".

John Diggle's first tenure as Green Arrow this season is... interesting. We get a villain in Onyx (a minor Batman villain that I'm happy to see) wreaking havoc with some... revenge plot or whatever involving a biochemical gas, but Diggle keeps freezing up during missions, causing Dinah to confront Diggle, while Wild Dog goes over his head to report it to Oliver. Oliver and Diggle's talk in the base about brooding is definitely well done, and easily the highlight of the show. I did like the mood whiplash of going from Diggle struggling with multiple problems like his lack of ability to shoot arrows to his freezing up to conquering all that and having a yay party at the Arrowcave... only for the final scene to show that he's doping? (Or, who knows, maybe it's just vitamins) It's actually pretty well-crafted by the episode, so even in an episode whose plotline by rights shouldn't surprise me, they still manage to do it. 

Definitely not a fan of the CIA plot, though. It reeks of boredom, and the revelation that we're going to extend it to more beyond the first two episodes elicits nothing but a groan from me.

We also get a couple of amazing action scenes, with Diggle fighting Onyx around the car while the hostage scrambles around within the vehicle is the epitome of a classily-shot action scene. Also an amazing action scene is Diggle being shot up into the air by a canary cry.

Overall, though, it is still a pretty amazing episode that stars John Diggle's Arrow and the trials and tribulations that the fledgling team missing its former headpiece has to deal with. It's honestly nothing we haven't already seen before, since this isn't the first time Oliver goes missing or puts down the hood, but there's definitely a sense of torch-passing as compared to "shit Oliver is missing in Nanda Parbat, what are we gonna do?" which we had in the third season.

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Onyx (a.k.a. Onyx Adams) isn't a full-out villain in the comics, but rather a retired member of the League of Assassins. She did get involved briefly in Star City and battled several mystical  villains alongside Green Arrow and Black Canary, but would be a key player during the 'War Games' era in Batman stories.

Nanatsu no Taizai 240 Mini-Review: Boring Chandler

Nanatsu no Taizai, Chapter 240: The Foundation of the Future

Didn't really want to make a review for this chapter, but I'll be short. It's not super-bad, but it's just so... goddamn... boring. And that, honestly, might actually make it bad considering it's an action manga. We have another in a series of "we beat Chandler! Oh no wait we didn't, he's super-duper-powerful." followed by a "oh no Chandler took out one of the Sins! Oh no wait he didn't, deus ex machina plot bullshittery just happened." Like, yeah. Chandler's such a flat villain, and there's only so many times that Ban can be told he's useless that it becomes less of a foreshadowing of his current character arc and just being as subtle as a sledgehammer to the face. And there's only so many times that Zeldoris and Mustache Man can talk up Chandler every chapter. The fact that Chandler himself is such a goddamn boring villain with a one-note motivation, no real good lines to speak of, generic magic powers, a boring design and quite literally came out of nowhere because we ran out of quirky Commandment villains, and really doesn't serve any purpose whatsoever in the story... yeah.

Either kill someone or get defeated already or get a personality, Chandler. 

Supergirl S03E03 Review: To The Marsmobile!

Supergirl, Season 3, Episode 3: Far From The Tree

So I really, really loved the martian stuff on this episode. Supergirl and the Martian Manhunter ride the mars-mobile, an old-fashioned Chevy which shapeshifts (because of course it does) into a spaceship, allowing the two of them to travel to Mars and deal with the problems that the white martians are having in their rebellion. Meanwhile, on the B-plot, Alex and Maggie throw a bridal shower and have to deal with Maggie's homophobic dad.

The Maggie/Alex stuff is cool and well-acted. I don't really have much to complain about it since it's still some fun stuff, but I... also don't have anything to say about it. It doesn't grate the way that Supergirl's first season did when it tried to tell an acceptance/moral story... it's just not the type of story I'm overly invested in or am looking for when I boot up the superhero show. I do love that the show portrays Maggie's father not as a one-dimensional homophobic villain, but as a clearly conflicted one that brings up how he had to struggle with racism in his youth, and how he's trying to spare Maggie of having to deal with being discriminated against... but I honestly do think that the show's trying way too much to deal with LGBT and racism all at once which leaves the resulting storyline somewhat muddled. 

J'onn and Supergirl show up on Mars, though, and get to meet the Mars resistance... and that I can certainly get behind. Between the quick-fire introdump on Martian religion with H'ronmeer, the revelation that J'onn's father, the priest M'yrnn, is still alive and in possession of knowledge of an artifact that could be used by or against the resistance. And M'yrnn is just so tunnel-visioned in his racism towards the whites (who genocided his race) that he refuses to believe that J'onn is alive, especially since his son 'wouldn't have ran'. There is a neat bit of parallelism between J'onn and Maggie, who both are dealing with parents they haven't seen in a while, who also wouldn't accept them, which is... okay, I guess. Again, I'm not particularly big on the Alex subplot.

Oh, and M'yrnn J'onzz is played by Carl Lumbly, who voiced J'onn himself in Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, which is just perfect.

So yeah. The Mars stuff is definitely my favourite parts of the episode, and is masterfully executed. Between the obvious pain in J'onn's eyes, or M'yrnn's obvious hurt and anger at the fact that the Whites would use his son's memory against him, to the dawning realization of the beautiful memory that J'onn shows M'yrnn in their old home... yeah. A lot of great material here. There is some weak justification that "martians like to take the form of our guests" to have M'gann, M'yrnn, J'onn and the other Resistance Dude (Tal'all?) be in human form for a good chunk of the episode, but shit, CGI martian makeup is expensive so I didn't particularly mind. 

I also loved how Supergirl is content to let J'onn and M'yrnn to mostly work out their differences until it's obvious that they needed her help, and her talking to M'yrnn about how she came from 'the dead world' and how he has a chance to let the white martians fix their world is well done. The conversations between J'onn and M'yrnn are definitely the highlight, though, and the revelation that M'yrnn follows J'onn and Kara to Earth is definitely a surprising but welcome one. 

Also, gotta love Kara going through the whole "I took a wrong turn at Alberqueque" deal. That was unabashedly hilarious, and the Martian-vs-Martian action scene that happened afterwards is just awesome. 

Overall, though, it's easily Supergirl at its best, juggling fun hijinks, action scenes, fantastical sci-fi set pieces with a strong emotional core. Both the J'onn and Maggie stories are certainly well-told even if both do probably need more room to breathe.

DC Easter Eggs Corner: 

• It's namedropped several times here, but M'yrnn makes several references to H'ronmeer, the martian collective-mind god. M'yrnn J'onzz isn't alive in the DC comics for the most part, and mostly exists in J'onn's flashback stories. 
• Till'all, in the comics, is a white martian refugee who crash-landed on Earth and thought that he was a green martian, one of a group that was taken care of by J'onn. 

Legends of Tomorrow S03E03 Review: Totems and Water Ladies

DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Season 3, Episode 3: Zari

This is a more solid episode, even if it reeks heavily of repetition. While the setting and plot devices are different, the whole thing is just a repetition of the plotlines of the previous two episodes "Legends fuck a mission up, the Time Bureau show up, they have a face-off, Legends fix the mission anyway". Sure, the face-off now involves Sara and Sharpe staring each other down with their time spaceships as opposed to whacking each other in a corridor, but there's definitely a huge sense of "seen that" when I watched that episode. It's still fun, of course, even if we do have to resort to scenes of Nate being quite literally high off his ass on some Zambesian herb. 

The main plotline thankfully is starting to sluggishly move forward, with the main plotline (taking place in 2042, a dystopian ARGUS-headed regime over the USA... which the show doesn't actually do a lot with) involves Kuasa, the water-wielding evil sister of Mari McCabe, the 2017-era Vixen, hunting down the totem of air. Which, in this episode, ends up falling to Zari Tomaz, a wanted criminal who has been working as a resistance fighter in 2042. Zari manages to manipulate the Legends to working with her to ostensibly rescue her brother from a metahuman detention center, but it's just an excuse to steal the totem. It's all basic stuff, we get some absolutely cool shots of Kuasa's water powers (that shot of her pouring her way through the car's air conditioning system is amazing), but it's otherwise a pretty standard and basic character introduction. 

Zari herself is okay. Likable enough for me to root for, a decent enough backstory and a good enough actress, but she's not actually done a whole ton so I'm still waiting for her to actually be relevant. 

There are some laffs when Gary, the little nebbish Time Bureau Agent that called in the case which the Legends intercepted, is concerned. There are some laffs too when Mick just doesn't manage to shoot anyone in this episode. Gideon has apparently grown a lot snarkier than she has been, which is also good for some comedic beats. Oh, and Amaya goes on a spirit vision which basically tells her to guide the new totem-bearer, which is neat, but feels a lot more plot-device-y the way Hawkgirl's visions had been in the first season of Legends of Tomorrow. It's a pretty decent episode overall, one that was entertaining, but hardly spectacular. 

DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• We'll not really talk that much about Zari's alter-ego because that might be a bit spoileriffic (and also inaccurate, considering her powers are now tied to Zambesi totems instead of Egyptian magic), but she does mention that she has a brother. In the comics, Adrianna Tomaz does have a brother, Amon Tomaz, otherwise known as the superhero Osiris.
• Mick being happy to plan a "Prison Break" is, of course, a reference to his actor's role in said series, one of the many, many times that the show has been mentioned. 

One Piece 883 Review: Dog Jaw

One Piece, Chapter 883: Merienda

Um... okay? As much as I'm happy that we're devoting an entire chapter to the Luffy/Katakuri fight as opposed to having each chapter go from one set of the cast to another, I really don't think that this is the best usage of page-time. Katakuri having a literal break from the fight to eat donuts in a mochi shrine without properly killing off or subduing Luffy, and then revealing that he actually has an extendable lower jaw and he eats snacks lying down despite his whole "my back has never touched the ground" thing... yeah. I'm not really sure that was necessary. It's a character quirk that, while I don't hate (sewn-shut mouth Katakuri actually looks quite cool) but I'm not really a big fan of how the fight itself was randomly interrupted for this. We have an angry Katakuri fighting against Gear Fourth Luffy, of course, but why can't we just have that at the beginning of this chapter? I dunno. The tension in this fight -- which has already been inconsistent due to the constant interruptions -- has just died out completely for me.

EDIT: I have some extra complaints about this chapter. Before you ask -- no, I don't mind having villains be funny at times. That's one thing that One Piece does well. But at the same time, we didn't really need this to interrupt the fight at all. And doesn't Katakuri have an ability to see into the future? So why didn't he see that Luffy is still alive and will attack? Unless it's tied to his consumption of sweets regularly, which I feel is a bit of a weird limitation that came out of nowhere.

Also, credit where credit's due, I did like how Katakuri interrupts Luffy's attempt to do Gear Fourth by just slamming him down with mochi and talking about how he's not underestimating Luffy like the rest of the Big Mom pirates. It doesn't really mean that I like the chapter all that much, though.

Lore of Hearthstone, Episode #7: Curse of Naxxramas

Ah, Curse of Naxxaramas. Hearthstone's first expansion (well, technically, its first adventure). With Naxxramas, we'll do things slightly differently. Because it is an adventure, it naturally has more story content within the adventure itself, so we'll talk first about the adventure itself (based on a raid in World of Warcraft), then we'll talk about the boss encounters in the adventure -- several of which are also legendary cards -- and then continue talking about the rest of the cards. Hopefully I can be less wordier about this!
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Naxxramas

There are actually two versions of the Naxxramas raid in World of Warcraft. The original Naxxramas was the most difficult raid prior to the first WoW expansion, Burning Crusade. During WoW's second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, Naxxramas was revamped, and moved from its original position above Eastern Plaguelands to Northrend. While Curse of Naxxramas is largely based upon the raid's second incarnation, there are several aspects it borrows from the first as well.

Lore wise, Naxxramas is a mighty Necropolis, which, in Warcraft III, was the main 'town hall' of the undead forces where acolytes would be trained, and all the resources that the faction gathered would be teleported to. Necropolises of the undead Scourge would hover above the ground, spewing its unholy magic upon the land around it. The mighty lich Kel'thuzad would use Naxxramas as his base of operations during World of Warcraft, after the Death Knight (and future Lich King) Arthas left him in charge of Scourge operations in Lordaeron. Naxxramas would be a bastion of the Scourge's strength where adventurers would attack to attempt to stop the invasion of Scourge upon the Plaguelands, and a band of paladins led by Darion Morgraine once assaulted the mighty necropolis in a failed attempt to free his undead father Alexandros from being an undead thrall. In WoTLK, Naxxramas moved towards the Dragonblight in Northrend using Naxxramas as a staging ground to besiege the Alliance fortress Wintergarde Keep. (Presumably the bosses within are just reanimated once more prior to Naxxramas' movement. Undead beings tend to do that.)

In both incarnations, as is represented in the Hearthstone adventure, Naxxramas has four quarters or wings -- one filled with spiders (Arachnid Quarters), one filled with filled with necromancers perfecting the plague (Plague Quarters), one filled with abominations and other sort of flesh golems (Construct Quarter) and one filled with training the death knights (Military Quarter) before Kel'Thuzad's central chambers would open.
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Kel'Thuzad

The final boss (and narrator) of Naxxramas is the arch-lich Kel'Thuzad, a being that is instrumental in the rise of the Scourge and its greatest champion and subsequent leader, Arthas Menethil. Kel'Thuzad began much of his life as a particularly talented human mage, a member of the Council of Six -- the mages that ruled over the magic city of Dalaran. However, Kel'Thuzad's power-hungriness and love for the forbidden art of necromancy caused him to be susceptible to the call of the Lich King. At this point, Kel'Thuzad's experiments in necromancy caused the archmages of Dalaran, particularly Antonidas, to banish Kel'Thuzad. Undeterred, Kel'Thuzad would sell his significant properties and venture to the icy wastes of Northrend in the hopes of searching the source of the mysterious voice in his head. Seeing the power that the Lich King commanded, Kel'Thuzad was frightened and enraptured at the same time, but the undead forces of the Scourge did not permit him to leave. Kel'Thuzad would journey to the Frozen Throne and meet the great Lich King himself, and would swear eternal loyalty in exchange for immortality, power and knowledge.

Kel'Thuzad (TCG art)

Still human, Kel'Thuzad would return to Lordaeron and use his charisma to found the Cult of the Damned, creating a cult that worshipped the Lich King, lulling them with promises of eternal life in undeath. In Warcraft III, Kel'Thuzad would mastermind the first part of the Lich King's invasion, by placing a plague within the grain distributed to Lordaeron's villages, killing many villagers and raising them ass undead. While Kel'Thuzad was careful to target smaller farmlands and villages, soon word of the undead plague reached the Order of the Silver Hand and the mages of Dalaran, where they sent envoys -- Arthas Menethil and Jaina Proudmoore -- to investigate the town of Brill. Kel'Thuzad would elude the pair for a while, but was eventually hounded down by Arthras, who struck him down with his hammer. With his dying breath, Kel'Thuzad calmly told Arthas that they are not finished just yet.

That would be true, and we'll cover Arthas's entire journey several expansions down the line with Knights of the Frozen Throne, but Arthas would return as a champion of the Scourge, mightiest of the Scourge's Death Knights. Kel'Thuzad's ghost would appear to Arthas and advise him throughout the journey, and Arthas would collect Kel'Thuzad's ashes, and later use the power of the high elven Sunwell (after, y'know, killing the entire high elven people because that's how the Scourge rolls) to revive Kel'Thuzad, not just as any undead, but a powerful Lich -- one of the mightiest kinds of undead. They are skeletal beings that commanded absolute power over frost and death. One of the four types of heroes available to the undead race in Warcraft III, Liches are able to unleash Frost Novas, power themselves with Frost Armour, sacrifice an ally with Dark Ritual to power up the Lich, and destroy even the land itself with Death and Decay. With these powers at his bony fingertips, Kel'Thuzad would continue being Arthas's faithful ally, telling Arthas that their dreadlord allies -- servants of the Burning Legion -- were not true friends of the undead Scourge. Kel'Thuzad would oversee the summoning the mighty eredar lord Archimonde into Azeroth, who then, as Kel'Thuzad predicted, proceed to ignore the undead Scourge and put his lackey Tichondrius in charge of the Scourge. Thus ignored by the Burning Legion, Kel'Thuzad and Arthas would escape amidst the confusion, enacting the Lich King's master plan, pitting the demon hunter Illidan against Tichondrius, then watching as the forces of the living in Kalimdor defeated Archimonde.

Kel'Thuzad (Heroes of the Storm)

In Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne Kel'Thuzad and Arthas would return to the Eastern Kingdoms, and continue their reign of terror over Lordaeron. Kel"Thuzad would assist Arthas in purging all the living humans and  the remnants of the paladins from Lordaeron, but the betrayal of several dreadlords, as well as a significant chunk of the undead becoming independent minded, caused Arthas to nearly be killed by Sylvanas Windrunner if Kel'Thuzad had not intervened. Kel'Thuzad would remain in Lordaeron to ensure that the Scourge still has a foothold there while Arthas went to Northrend, and eventually became the new Lich King. Between Warcraft III and World of Warcraft, Kel'Thuzad would enter the mighty necropolis Naxxramas, from where he would rule over the Plaguelands.

Kel'Thuzad would be responsible for the corruption of the Mograine family, transforming the once-noble Alexandros Mograine into a Death Knight and corrupting the holy weapon Ashbringer, and upon Alexandros's purification, transformed his son Darion into a death knight in his stead. Throughout World of Warcraft, the combined forces of the Argent Dawn and the Scarlet Crusade would weaken Naxxramas enough to open it to attack by Alliance and Horde forces, and Naxxramas would be the final dungeon to be released before the expansion Burning Crusade. Adventurers would return with Kel'Thuzad's phylactery -- a magical items that liches possess which store their soul -- to the Argent Dawn. Instead, the adventurer was manipulated into giving it to Father Inigo Montoy, who absconded with the phylactery, allowing for Kel'Thuzad's return in Wrath of the Lich King. Revived and able to regain his form, Kel'Thuzad would summon Naxxramas to Northrend, and would reward Inigo Montoy by transforming him into a Lich called Thel'Zan. However, adventurers would once more lay siege to Naxxramas, defeating Kel'Thuzad and his minions once more.

In addition to his collectible card and his role in the adventure mode, Kel'Thuzad would also show up as an alternate hero skin, and as "Headmaster Kel'Thuzad" in the Scholomance Academy expansion. 

Note that Kel'Thuzad's minion card's quotes, as well as that of Feugen, Stalagg, Thaddius, Rivendare and Loatheb, are taken verbatim from the Naxxramas raid in WoW.
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The Bosses:

Anub'Rekhan

The Scourge's first wars happened in Northrend, where the first Lich King, Ner'zhul, exerted his force of will over the native Nerubians, a race of spider-people. The Nerubians would be largely wiped out and transformed into undead crypt fiends (see below), but the mighty spider lords of the Nerubian race, characterized by their more beetle-esque appearance, were instead transformed into more powerful Crypt Lords. Crypt Lords made their first appearance in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, mightiest among them the Traitor King Anub'arak. Crypt Lords are able to Impale enemies by slamming their claws onto the ground and transforming the terrain before them, have a spiked carapace that deflects attacks, summon Carrion Beetles from corpses, and as their ultimate ability unleash a Locust Swarm that damages all around the Crypt Lord and restore health to him. Anub'Rekhan in World of Warcraft doesn't have much lore to him, like most raid bosses, but it is noted that Anub'Rekhan is one of Anub'arak's most loyal commanders, serving him against the Scourge in life, and now serving him in death as part of the Scourge. Anub'Rekhan in WoW was also able to cast Locust Swarm, a spell that his Hearthstone boss encounter would represent in a spell card that both deals AoE damage and heals Anub'Rekhan.


Grand Widow Faerlina

The Grand Widow Faerlina is once a high ranking member of the Cult of the Damned, who serves as the second boss in the Arachnid Quarter. Some backstory reveals that Faerlina, in life, is a botanist before her death and eventual resurrection as an undead (she looks remarkably well for an undead, though). Her task in Naxxramas includes breeding and taking care of the armies of spiders that swarm at the command of the Scourge, and also helps to develop potent poisons for the Lich King. Faerlina's boss fight in Hearthstone mirrors that of her World of Warcraft boss fight, in particular the usage of the Rain of Fire spell, as well as Worshippers that makes Faerlina more powerful.

Maexxna

The giant spider Maexxna is the final boss of the Arachnid Quarter, and she is a gigantic bone spider (with a unique model) that was captured from Northrend and brought to Naxxramas. Under the care of Faerlina, Maexxna would breed the gigantic amount of spiders that roam the halls of Naxxramas, nestled in a nest deep within the Arachnid Quarter. Her boss fight in the Hearthstone game borrows some of Maexxna's WoW mechanics, including the abilities Web Wrap and Necrotic Poison.


Noth the Plaguebringer

Noth the Plaguebringer, is once a reputable mage of Dalaran, who heard the call of the Lich King like Kel'Thuzad. Noth accepted the summons and served the Scourge in necromancy, but throughout the Third War Noth began to have second thoughts about the brutality of the Scourge. Kel'Thuzad would freeze the living heart in Noth's chest, transforming him into an unfeeling undead, silencing any doubts Noth has. In Naxxramas, Noth is tasked to perfect the process of the plague of undeath even more than it already has. In Wrath of the Lich King, Noth is one of the Scourge generals that would be involved in giving quests to newly-risen Death Knights, tasking a novice death knight to gather materials for him to create a plague cauldron.

Heigan the Unclean

Heigan is a necromancer, sporting the distinctive giant beard, robes and goat-skull-hat of the Necromancer unit from Warcraft III (a look shared by Gothik, three entries below). Necromancers are human members of the Cult of the Damned that are able to raise corpses to fight as skeletal warriors, an invaluable asset to bolster the powerful strength of the Scourge. Heigan is the mastermind behind the creation of the plague cauldrons that blighted the Plaguelands, and is also the master of the traps built into the walls and floors of Naxxramas. Heigan is infamous in World of Warcraft as a 'dance boss', where players would have to navigate their position in the boss fight room, 'dancing' around Heigan's spells pthat causes specific areas of the room to erupt in flame, a mechanic somewhat replicated by his ability to deal damage to a specific part of the board as his hero power.

Loatheb

The final encounter of the Plague Quarter is the mighty beast Loatheb. Once a peaceful bog beast, a creature made up of plants, Loatheb was infused with the plague of undeath, turning him into a horrifying abomination and a unique undead bog beast. Loatheb is able to use the fungal spores within his body and unleash them that turns magical arts against those who wield them, preventing adventurers who battle him from healing. Loatheb's ability is represented in the game with his spell-corrupting battlecry. His spell, Deathbloom, as well as summoning fungal spores (like the Hearthstone token, the mobs are also called "Spore"), is represented in his boss fight.

Instructor Razuvious

Instructor Razuvious is the first boss of the Military Quarter, and he is a Death Knight. Death Knights of the Scourge (not to be confused with the Horde's Death Knights, which is a bridge we'll burn when we get there) are fallen paladins that are raised into powerful undead warriors, able to call upon the powers of the grave to raise the dead and harm the living, basically turning them into the reverse of paladins. Most famous among the Death Knights is Prince Arthas Menethil, the first Death Knight of the Scourge, who would slay many more paladins and raise them as Death Knights. In Warcraft III, Death Knights are able to unleash Death Coils that smote the living and healed the dead, heal himself with Death Pact with the cost of killing an ally, emit an Unholy Aura that empowers those around him, and animate six fallen corpses to life as his ultimate spell. In Wrath of the Lich King, Death Knight would become a playable class, with your character being part of the Ebon Blade, a faction of Death Knights who managed to escape the mental grip of the Lich King.

Which brings us to Razuvious. Instructor Razuvious, true to his name, trains the death knights in Naxxramas, and he wields a gigantic runeblade, the weapon of choice of death knights. The battle against Razuvious in Hearthstone mirrors the fight in World of Warcraft, where players would use Orbs of Domination to take control of Razuvious' Death Knight Understudies and turn his students against him. Instructor Razuvious would have a greater role in Wrath of the Lich King, where, true to his name, he is one of the first quest givers that novice death knights would meet, and would give them quests to prove their mettle and craft their first runeblade.

Gothik the Harvester

Gothik the Harvester is a master of necromancy, and he would teach death knights in the art of necromancy, allowing even the weakest death knights to be able to raise the dead. His boss fight in World of Warcraft, like Hearthstone, would involve him summoning 'Unrelenting' enemies that, upon death, would be immediately reborn as 'Spectral' enemies. In Wrath of the Lich King, Gothik is a quest giver that tasks novice death knights, tasking them to spread plagues to murder the Scarlet Crusade, while Gothik would busy himself transforming the local peasants into ghouls.

The Four Horsemen

The Four Horsemen are four powerful Death Knights in service to Kel'Thuzad. Their members in Hearthstone reflect the second incarnation of the Death Knights (the third incarnation, introduced in World of Warcraft: Legion would be represented in Knights of the Frozen Throne), after the original leader of the Four Horsemen, Alexandros Mograine, is freed from the curse of undeath by the heroic sacrifice of his son. With the loss of Alexandros, Kel'Thuzad would raise the mighty Baron Rivendare to replace him. The other three Horsemen are Thane Korth'azz, Lady Blameaux and Sir Zeliek. They serve as Kel'Thuzad's royal guard, working together with their combined powers against interlopers.

Baron Rivendare, in life, was a rich baron in Stratholme, and a good friend of Kel'Thuzad. Kel'Thuzad would recruit Rivendare into the Cult of the Damned, and would eventually be transformed into a Death Knight, charged to rule over the remains of Stratholme. Baron Rivendare would battle against agents of the Argent Dawn in the Plaguelands, serving as a boss in the old Stratholme raid. After Alexandros's departure, would take his place as a member of the Four Horsemen, while his son Aurius Rivendare would take his place as the Stratholme boss. In Wrath of the Lich King, Baron Rivendare is a quest giver to beginning Death Knights.

The other three Horsemen didn't quite have as much lore. Lady Blaumeux is presumed to formerly be a paladin, and as a death knight, she is noted for her mastery of shadow magic, able to drain life from those she encounters. Thane Korth'azz is a fallen dwarven paladin and a former member of Uther's Silver Hand Knights, who, unique for death knights, wielded the power of flame. Sir Zeliek is a unique case, where his faith as a paladin was so strong in life that he was still even able to wield the power of the Light in death. Unfortunately, while Zeliek retained his sanity and mind, able to shout warnings to adventurers, his body is forced to obey the commands of Kel'Thuzad, and he is forced to do battle against champions of the Light, making his existence a tortured one.


Patchwerk

Patchwerk is a huge Abomination. We've talked about Abominations before, so I won't repeat myself. He is the first boss in the Construct Quarter, and is noted for his unnatural speed and strength among abominations. Hearthstone's Patchwerk's Hateful Strike is borrowed from a similar ability from his WoW counterpart. Patchwerk, on loan from Naxxramas (he hates loans), would appear in Acherus, and is swarmed and defeated by death knights of the Ebon Blade who was freed from the Lich King's influence.

Grobbulus

While Abominations are sewn together from various corpses to produce a far more powerful creature, in World of Warcraft agents of the Scourge would experiment and attempt to improve on the design, and one of these improvements is the Flesh Giant -- the first of them being Grobbulus. A bizarre design with metal plates and plague pipes incorporated into his body, Grobbulus had a giant metal arm for his left hand, and a gigantic plague syringe for his right. Grobbulus would inject the Naxxramas plague into his enemies, creating slimes and mutations and sowing chaos among those he faced. Grobbulus' abilities in Hearthstone, Mutating Injection, Poison Cloud and Fallout Slime, are all copied from his WoW encounter. By the time of Wrath of the Lich King, the Scourge would employ a different version of the Flesh Giant -- undead warriors created from the bodies of literal giants of Northrend, although variants similar to Grobbulus are still seen here and there.

Gluth

Gluth is a gigantic plague dog, whose appetite was so ravenous that Feugen had to feed Gluth armies of zombies that are too weak to be used in combat. Plague dogs are bestial versions of abominations that are stitched together from the parts of animals, and Gluth was originally unique as one of the only plague dogs in existence. In Wrath of the Lich King, however, more plague dogs would be seen in Icecrown. Gluth's skill in Hearthstone, Decimate, is borrowed from his encounter in WoW.

Feugen, Stalagg & Thaddius

The final encounter in the Construct Quarter is comprised of Feugen and Stalagg, and subsequently the mighty Thaddius. Thaddius is a being known as a Flesh Titan, and is created from the flesh of the innocent -- specifically, the bodies of dead women and children. Thaddius is powered by electricity, and stands menacingly tall over all present. Thaddius also commands the power of lightning. Unlike most other beings in employ of the Scourge, there is only one more Flesh Titan known to exist in Azeroth -- Thrym, who is comprised of the corpses of storm giants.


To fight Thaddius, adventurers have to defeat his two lackeys, Feugen and Stalagg. Feugen and Stalagg are fought together in WoW, and they are an unusual and relatively rare breed of undead known as a wight. Wights resemble large, hulking, mutated zombies, with bolts implanted in their necks. Wights retain a fair amount of their human intelligence. Feugen and Stalagg in WoW would fight their enemies by making use of the electrical magnets to swap around their threats.

After Feugen and Stalagg are defeated, the flesh titan Thaddius is faced. And upon slaying Thaddius, the screams of women and children that play in the background of Naxxramas' background ambience will be silenced.

Sapphiron

Sapphiron is a Frost Wyrm. Sapphiron began life as a mighty blue dragon that lived on Northrend, hoarding a stockpile of magical artifacts and surviving the Lich King's influence over Northrend. However, Sapphiron encountered Arthas and Anub'arak when they returned to Northrend in Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, and Arthas challenged Sapphiron and her brood. Despite her resistance and initial confidence that the death knight would be mere entertainment, Sapphiron was felled by Arthas, who would raise her as one of his mightiest frost wyrms, able to access particularly powerful abilities beyond that of a normal Frost Wyrm, and make use of Sapphiron to combat the naga and blood elves loyal to Illidan, and subsequently to shatter the dwarven base that barred the gates to the ancient city of Azjol-Nerub. Arthas left Sapphiron behind when he and Anub'arak descended deep into the bowels of Azjol-Nerub.

Prior to World of Warcraft, Arthas would send Sapphiron to Lordaeron to assist his majordomo Kel'Thuzad, where she served as Kel'Thuzad's loyal servant and bodyguard, blocking the path to the final encounter. Prior to Cataclysm, Sapphiron also held the Key to the Focusing Iris, an artifact required to summon Malygos.

Mr. Bigglesworth

Mr. Bigglesworth is what you get when you use Animal Companion against Kel'Thuzad, and she is Kel'Thuzad's cat! As a little easter egg in the Naxxramas dungeon, you can encounter a little living cat living in the catacombs of Naxxramas, and that cat is, well, Mr. Bigglesworth, Kel'Thuzad's cat. If you're the cruel type that murders hapless little cats, Kel'Thuzad will curse you damn interlopers.


Note that the boss-exclusive minions that the bosses use starting from Noth onwards -- Skeletal Smith and Necro Knight (parsed as Necroknight) are based on Military Quarter mobs in Naxxramas. The Deathcharger minion used by many of the Hearthstone is also based on the Deathcharger Steed mob from Naxxramas.
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The Cards:

We'll now go through all the collectible cards, starting with minions, and then ending with the very few spell and weapon cards to make it into the Curse of Naxxramas adventure.


Stoneskin Gargoyle: Gargoyles were introduced in Warcraft III as one of the Undead Scourge's frontline fighters. While not exactly undead from a lore perspective (though considered as undead in WCIII and WoW), gargoyles are strange creatures that resemble giant bats with skin of crystalline stone, and serve as the Lich King's aerial scout and raiders. Gargoyles were first seen in the Third War, being brought to Loraderon by Arthas for the Siege of Silvermoon. In Warcraft III, Gargoyles are able to land and transform into a Stone Form, turning it into an immobile, spell-resistant statue that regenerates its health quickly, but renders it unable to attack. It's perhaps this ability that is reflected in the Stoneskin Gargoyle card, where it is able to restore its health. The Stoneskin Gargoyle is based on an enemy with an identical name in the Plague Quarter of Naxxramas in WoW, which likewise can assume the Stoneform ability. Death Knight players are also able to summon a gargoyle minion.



Zombie Chow: Zombies are first introduced in Warcraft III as the most basic, most brutish form of the undead. With even less mind left in them compared to the savage, animalistic ghouls or the skeletons, who sometimes retain some semblance of intelligence, zombies are true, mindless shambling walking corpses that serve as nothing but shock troopers. Some conflicting sources state that zombies are the first stage of undeath, a transitionary phase between the living and being a ghoul. The Zombie Chow is based on an enemy found during the Gluth boss fight in Naxxramas, where they are apparently minions that Kel'thuzad feeds to Gluth. They must be kited away (basically distract them so they run to a different side of the room) from Gluth, who would eat them to recover his health, the likely inspiration for the Zombie Chow's ability.

 
Wailing Soul: The Wailing Soul is a wraith, a type of spectral undead introduced in Warcraft III and represented by a banshee model. In World of Warcraft, wraiths would get their own model, represented as ghostlike figures with a hood and chained legs. The Wailing Soul is based on a mob found not in Naxxramas, but in the nearby Wintergarde Mausoleum.


Shade of Naxxramas: Shades are introduced in Warcraft III as invisible scouting units of the Scourge. Acolytes can be sacrificed and upgraded into Shades by having them quite literally kill themselves in service to Ner'zhul at Sacrificial Pits, transforming them into ghostly beings of undead. In World of Warcraft, many variations of Shades exist and they can attack enemies this time around. The Shade of Naxxramas is based on a mob with an identical name found in the Military Quarter of the Naxxramas raid.


Mad Scientist: The mad scientist is a type of undead introduced in World of Warcraft, lacking a lower jaw and dressed in scientific garb, with tufts of hair on the sides of their head, serving as manic alchemists perfecting the plagues that the undead so love to use. It seems to be less of a creature type and more of a rank. Multiple mad scientists are found in the service of both the Scourge and the Forsaken, most prominent among them Professor Putricide, a boss in Icecrown Citadel. The specific mob called Mad Scientist, appropriately enough, hails from the Construct Quarter of Naxxramas.


Spectral Knight: Spectral enemies in Naxxramas are found during the Gothik boss fight, spawning when you kill their Unrelenting variants, similar to how the Hearthstone boss fight goes. The Spectral Knight is presumably based on the Spectral Death Knight from that same encounter, especially considering he's holding a runesword.

 
Deathlord: There are several different creatures called Deathlords throughout World of Warcraft lore. This card is, obviously, based on the Death Knightmob called Death Lord, found in the original iteration of Naxxramas, but removed in the revamp. In Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, the Eldritch Deathlord is a powerful revenant that was faced by Rexxar and several other champions of the Horde, being once a great paladin who wiped out a large amount of innocents and is transformed. In the recent Legion expansion, Deathlord is a title granted to Death Knight players who have proven themselves worthy and completed a portion of their class order campaign and have became one of the leaders of the new Ebon Blade.


Sludge Belcher: Sludge Belchers are abomination mobs found in Naxxramas' Construct Quarter. Like their Hearthstone counterpart, upon their death, Sludge Belchers in World of Warcraft would summon a Bile Sludge. The Bile Sludge is a type of Oozeling, a smaller version of the Ooze, characterized by their lack of a face.


Nerub'ar Weblord: The Nerub'ar Weblord is a Crypt Fiend. Crypt Fiends are fallen Nerubians, a race of spider-people that lived in Northrend, whose great empire of Azjol-Nerub has been crushed by the Lich King and a majority of the race has been risen from the dead to serve as shock troopers for the Lich King. Now the majority of the undead nerubians are known as Crypt Fiends, particularly the most common spider-like variant of the nerubian race. These spider-like creatures, first appearing in Warcraft III, are able to hide in the ground and ambush enemies, as well as launch web bolas to ground flying enemies. The Nerub'ar is a faction of undead nerubians that lay siege to Valiance Keep and Warsong Hold, the Alliance and Horde bases in Northrend during Wrath of the Lich King. While a specific mob called Nerub'ar Web Lord exists, they are Crypt Lords (see Anub'rekhan above) instead of Crypt Fiends.

 
Nerubian Egg: In Warcraft III, when Arthas fought against the living Nerubians, he would find pockets of eggs around several of their settlements. In both Warcraft III and World of Warcraft, nerubians both living and dead tend to eggs of giant spiders, although specific eggs that hatch into full-grown Nerubians are rarely found.


Anub'ar Ambusher: The Anub'ar are a group of undead nerubians that are presumably named in honour of the once-great king of the nerubian people, Anub'arak, now transformed into one of the Lich King's mightiest servants. While the artwork here once more depicts a crypt fiend, in World of Warcraft the Anub'ar Ambusher, found in the Dragonblight, are nerubian spiderlings instead, which are juvenile stages of the nerubian that do not possess the more humanoid (as humanoid as the nerubians get, anyway) upper body.

 
Dancing Swords: Dancing Swords are a type of animated object, a type of object infused with power by unholy magic. Death Knight player characters in World of Warcraft are able to summon flying rune weapons, and in the Military Quarter of Naxxramas, several types of animated weapons, like the Unholy Axe, Unholy Staff and Unholy Swords, can be found.


Haunted Creeper: The Haunted Creeper is based on the Dread Creeper (and, as early drafts of the Hearthstone team shows, was initially named that), a spider enemy from the Naxxramas raid. Giant spiders have been around since the First War, summoned by orc warlocks to fight the humans. Giant Spiders would remain a common enemy throughout Warcraft III and World of Warcraft, with WoW in particular introducing multiple families of spider. From the artwork, the Haunted Creeper is a 'venom spider', characterized by their spindly legs. Spiders are often associated with the undead and the nerubian. There are many Spectral versions of animals, basically their ghosts, really, although an actual Spectral Spider, as far as I can tell, isn't added until Arachnis, a rare miniboss in the Hallow's End event during Warlords of Draenor.


Webspinner: The Webspinner, in contrast, characterized by its large, furry legs, is based on the 'tarantula' type of spiders, commonly found in forested areas. The Webspinner isn't based on any particular mob from Naxxramas, although various spiders and nerubians have the title 'webspinner', like the Deepmoss Webspinner pictured here.


Voidcaller: Now we're in the realm of things that don't quite have a connection with the Naxxramas raid. The Voidcaller not the name of a specific mob, but a race of superior voidwalkers, characterized by having what seems to be a cloak of old cloth around it, and two lanterns hanging next to its head. But most strangely, the Voidcallers hvae a large glowing crystal that jut out from their back that seem to be similar to parts of a naaru. Due to the rarity of the Voidcallers, very little is known about them. (The card artwork for Hearthstone depicts a normal Voidwalker as opposed to a Voidcaller).

Reincarnate: Reincarnate actually comes from Warcraft III as the ultimate ability of the Tauren Chieftain hero (a good chunk of which comes into the Shaman lore in WoW),  allowing the Tauren Chieftain, upon death, be resurrected to life with the spirits of the ancestors for a second chance of life. World of Warcraft would have a similar ability for Shamans known as Reincarnation, which also allows them to resurrect themselves with a portion of their health. An interesting fact is that prior to Curse of Naxxramas' release, this card was actually titled 'Rebirth', but player feedback (Rebirth is a druid spell) caused it to be changed shortly before the release of the adventure.

 
Death's Bite: Death's Bite is a two-handed axe that drops from the Kel'thuzad encounter in the World of Warcraft Naxxramas encounter, apparently one of the more desired weapon from the raid. There's not much lore to it, though, other than the fact that it's one of the more popular weapons from Naxxramas at the time.
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The following minions are all original to Hearthstone, although generally based on the spooky Scourge-y feel of Naxxramas: Echoing Ooze, Unstable Ghoul, Undertaker and Dark Cultist. The quotes that the Dark Cultist say borrows from some lines of the Warcraft III Acolyte unit. 

The following spells are all original to Hearthstone, just general class-flavoured abilities and stuff: Poison Seeds, Duplicate and Avenge.