Azurephile27

Joined 02/23/2012
  Super Member

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329 Posts

Black Widow New Trailer
There's a new Black Widow trailer. It includes some new footage, including a very young person with blue hair (New Rockstars says this could be a young Natasha). If you're not familiar with Task Master, that character (in the comics) is able to copy the moves of someone he (or she) studies. One of the locations in the movie is Budapest, which if you remember Black Widow and Clint Barton reference a time there so maybe this covers it. The end of the trailer announces that the movie's release date is July 9th in theaters and on Disney+ premier access, "at an additional cost." I recently reported that to watch this on Disney+, you're going to have to pay $30 for it, which I still think is a bit expensive (as movie tickets in my area are $8 each and new Blu-Rays might cost that much or less).

If you want to get some more details, check out this video posted by New Rockstars: https://youtu.be/7kjrjVhTs_Q

Are you looking forward to this? How or when do you think you'll see it?

Let's talk about The Falcon and The Winter Soldier (with spoilers)
This discussion may include spoilers, so if you don't want anything spoiled, this may not be for you. However, if you're like me and are keeping up with the Disney+ Marvel shows and movies, feel free to share your thoughts. I also want to give you a FANTASTIC source for this discussion, the New Rockstars Channel on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7yRILFFJ2QZCykymr8LPwA/videos

Captain America’s shield was destroyed by Thanos in End Game. However, Steve Rogers took a trip through time and we see him return, but looking much older with a different shield. It’s possible that while the original was made of Vibranium and the new one is made of Proto-Adamantium. You probably recognize Vibranium from Wakanda and Adamantium is what was used to give Wolverine his metallic skeletal enhancements. I believe I saw that this is what the shield is made of in the comics. Anyway, Steve apparently spent time with Peggy Carter (who I LOVE personally) and delivered the new shield to The Falcon, Sam Wilson. Bucky Barnes, The Winter Soldier and The White Wolf, was present and he approved of this. However, Sam couldn’t accept it. He didn’t feel like it belonged to him, even though Cap had told him “it does.”

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier starts off showing Sam on a mission where he meets up with Batroc, who we saw in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. We get to see Sam flying with his wingsuit and using his drone named Red Wing. Unfortunately, Red Wing was destroyed in the next episode.

After the mission, we see an extension of how Sam felt about Cap giving him the shield. He was part of a ceremony in which he gave up the shield, seemingly to be displayed in a museum. However, we see at the end of the episode that the government has given the shield to a new Captain America, John Walker a.k.a. U.S. Agent. This was definitely a slap in the face to Sam and Steve’s memory.

Apparently, it’s not known exactly where Steve is during this time. Sam’s partner on this mission, Joaquin Torres, asks Sam about a theory that Steve is “on the moon,” but Sam doesn’t necessarily confirm or deny this. I think he said something like “don’t believe everything you read on the Internet.” When he was leaving their meet up, Joaquin asked him where was going and Sam joked that he had business to do “on the moon.” In the comics, Joaquin becomes The Falcon as Sam becomes the new Captain America.

When we first see Bucky Barnes he’s The Winter Soldier on an assassination mission. Later we see he’s befriended Yori Nakajima, the father of one of the guys he killed in that mission. Clearly Mr. Nakajima doesn’t know that it was The Winter Soldier who killed his son, but Bucky is trying to make peace with his past. It isn’t until the second episode when Sam and Bucky finally get together. Bucky confronts Sam and asks him why he gave up the shield and that he was stupid to do so. Bucky joins Sam on a mission against a new global terrorist group called the Flag Smashers. The Flag Smashers are super soldiers who want to return the world to during the “blip.”

The nature of the show is clearly tackling race issues. We can see this in the second episode more clearly when Sam and Bucky go to visit Isaiah Bradley, who lives with his grandson Eli Bradley. It turns out Isaiah is a super soldier, but wasn’t as well known as Steve Rogers. He was sent to defeat The Winter Soldier and although he failed, he still broke the Winter Soldier’s metal arm in half. Afterwards he was imprisoned for 30 years as tests were conducted on him. He is rightfully very angry about this when Bucky goes to see him and we get to see a taste of his power. In the comics, Eli joins the Young Avengers, which the MCU seems to be leading to as we’ve seen other characters through the MCU who are in the Young Avengers, such as the daughters of Iron Man/Tony Stark, Clint Barton, and Ant-Man along with Billy and Tommy, the twin sons of Wanda Maximoff and Vision.

The racism doesn’t stop there. As Sam and Bucky leave Isaiah’s house, police officers pull up to the two of them. They show off Bucky’s white privilege and treat Sam as though he’s some how bothering Bucky. They ask for Sam’s ID, but not for Bucky’s. Sam doesn’t have his ID and soon enough the officers recognize him and Bucky as Avengers. Then they find out that there’s a warrant out for Bucky’s arrest since he missed his court ordered therapy session. In the end, John Walker gets Bucky free of his court ordered therapy. Sam and Bucky get in a heated discussion with John Walker and his buddy, Lemar Hoskins a.k.a Battle Star. So they go their separate ways.

Later, we see Bucky convincing Sam that they need to go see Zemo, who’s in prison. They need to find more about the Flag Smashers and their use of the super soldier serum and Hydra was apparently hunting super soldiers, as we learn in episode 3. We see them break Zemo out of prison, who leads them to Madripoor. There they meet with someone Zemo knows and they find out the name of the doctor involved. Sam's cover was blown by a call from his sister. She then orders the men to be killed, but she gets killed by an unknown assailant. This puts a bounty on the group. Later, as they're escaping, they find that some mysterious person is still killing the people that are after them. It turns out to be Peggy Carter’s great-niece Sharon. You may remember her from Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Civil War, in which she was first keeping an eye on Steve Rogers, but later Sam and Bucky witnessed the two kissing, which even they said was kind of weird. She claims to be in Madripoor, because of being a fugitive in the U.S. due to stealing Cap's shield and Sam's flight suit for them. Sam promises to get her a pardon for helping them find the doctor who created the new super soldier serum, which was derived from blood analysis of Isaiah Bradley. I feel kind of suspicious about Sharon, it's hard to explain. Sure, she stated that she's in Madripoor, because they don't extradite people, but she could have gone to any other country that has that same policy. She's obviously well connected, so I wonder what's really going on with her.

The identity of the Power Broker is still a mystery. There are actually two Power Broker characters in the Marvel comics, so it's possible it's one of them. You may notice "The Power Broker is watching" written on one of the walls in Madripoor. Apparently, he (or she) is living in the upper part of Madripoor, which the group avoided due to Nemo's advice.

At the end of episode 3, we see that Bucky has found some small metallic spheres that give off some kind of odd sound. Bucky follows these and picks them up, which leads him to an alley. Ayo appears and Bucky says, that he was wondering when she would show up. She says she's after Zemo. You may remember her from Black Panther, T'challa's body guard.

New Rockstars has suggested other Hydra cameos may appear such as Red Skull, who we last saw in Infinity War when Clint Barton and Black Widow went to get the soul stone. It seems as though Red Skull may have been freed of his service there, since the stone was collected. Arnim Zola was a very prominent Hydra scientist. His digital self was apparently in the background on one of the computers when Tony Stark went back in time and met his father. In the comics, Zola gets a robotic body, so it’s possible he could make an appearance.

Most of the Easter eggs appear in the show’s credits. New Rockstars pointed them out. It seems possible that Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross may make an appearance. You may recognize him from The Incredible Hulk, which starred Edward Norton. He also makes an appearance in the MCU as Secretary of State. He was the one pushing the Avengers to sign the Sokovia Accords. However, even in The Incredible Hulk, Thaddeus had his hands on a kind of super soldier serum that was used to create the Abomination. In the comics, Thaddeus creates a team called the Thunderbolts. This group includes Zemo, so we may see the beginning of this group’s formation.

There’s been a bit of news recently that there’s going to be a special cameo of a “well-rounded character” who’s kind of on the same level as Thor. New Rockstars also pointed out that this is going to be emotional some how. They have a new video out with their own theories and hopes of who that character could be.

I’m enjoying the show so far, though it doesn’t feel as exciting as WandaVision. Maybe that’s because WandaVision was our first thirst after a long drought of Marvel content, or maybe it’s because that show was just extremely fantastic. I’m still looking forward to seeing what happens in the show. I’m not all that fond of John Walker, although at the start of the second episode he appeared to be a decent guy. Although he’s still a mystery, because it was mentioned during his interview with Good Morning America that scientists had studied his body. Apparently he excelled in many traits, which could possibly mean he’s had some of that super soldier serum. He certainly could use the shield just as good as Cap. Still, the trailer shows Sam and Bucky with the shield, so we have yet to learn how they get it.

I really love the Marvel intro in these shows and the movies. It feels electrifying. It's like it sets up my psychology to expect that something great is coming.

What do you think of the show? What do you think is going to happen? What do you want to see? Let’s talk about it in the comments!

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier only has six episodes and after that Loki’s show begins on June 11th!

Let's talk about WandaVision (with spoilers)
This discussion may include spoilers, so if you don't want anything spoiled, this may not be for you. However, if you're like me and are keeping up with the Disney+ Marvel shows and movies, feel free to share your thoughts. I also want to give you a FANTASTIC source for this discussion, the New Rockstars Channel on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7yRILFFJ2QZCykymr8LPwA/videos

I've recently watched all of the Netflix Marvel shows along with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and other Marvel movies (some of which I'd already seen). I have some thoughts on those, but I might set aside that discussion for now as to be more current, plus I'm not entirely sure those shows are considered to be canon. I know at least, from what I've seen Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn’t seem to be canon, which is sad, because it was FANTASTIC.

Let's start with WandaVison, which recently ended. I thought it was quite an exciting show to watch. I eagerly awaited each episode every week. I also watched New Rockstars, which helped explain some things and point some things out. This was especially helpful to me, because I’ve hardly read any Marvel comics, so all the material is pretty much new to me. Thanks to New Rockstars, I jumped on the "Mephisto train." Some of us thought Mephisto was going to make an appearance, but alas he wasn't there. Paul Bettany (Vision) teased a very special cameo. Elizabeth Olsen (Wanda) also teased a "Luke Skywalker" level cameo (I may write more about that in another post). However, it turns out that cameo was just a duplicate Paul Bettany (white Vision). We also went wild when we saw Evan Peters (Quicksilver). We though this meant that the multi-verse was going on and he was taken from the modern Fox X-Men films. Unfortunately, it just turned out to be a "nod," though many of us just felt like Marvel trolled us. I thought giving him the last name of "Bohner" was kind of an insult (calling him a "boner"), but it turns out that was just a nod to a character on the show Growing Pains with the nickname of "Boner." Because of these, New Rockstars learned that we have to manage expectations. They explained that this was the first of Marvel we got after End Game, we were starving for Marvel content, especially since much of it got delayed due to the COVID outbreak.

It took a bit of time before we learned who was the villain and even though who we thought might show (Mephisto or Nightmare), we instead got to see others such as "Agnes" Agatha Harkness ("it was Agatha all Along" as the cool theme song suggested), however Wanda was also guilty. It was her magic that created the Hex, which turned Westview, New Jersey into a TV show. It was her grief of losing Vision that caused all of this. The Darkhold also made an appearance with Agatha, which took a different appearance than the one we see in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (which is why I initially wondered if it really was the Darkhold). Agatha was definitely one of my most favorite characters on the show. It’s hard to describe, but I loved her flamboyancy and devilish humor. I found something about her to be very attractive. Wanda left her in Westview under the spell. Maybe we’ll see her return to the MCU some day.

Wanda and Vision had children, as they apparently do in the comics, twins, Billy and Tommy. Unfortunately, they were created by Wanda’s magic which created the Hex and thus disappeared along with (colorful) Vision when the Hex disappeared. We were left with a scene of Wanda in a cabin in a remote area. We saw her drinking tea while she was also using astral projection to study the Darkhold. Within it, we hear Billy and Tommy crying out for their mom. Maybe she has to break into the multi-verse to rescue them, or maybe it’s just a trick by Mephisto. She’s returning in Doctor Strange and the Multi-verse of Madness, so we’ll possibly see how that all goes.

The show was fantastic, really! I loved how each of the early episodes progressed to be a replication of older sitcoms such as The Dick Van Dyke show, Bewitched, and Growing Pains among others. We later learned that this was because Wanda really loved watching these sitcoms while she was living with her family in Sokovia, as the bomb (made by Stark Industries) dropped in their house. We learned that Wanda was able to prevent the bomb from exploding. We also got to see Hydra experimenting on Wanda with the Mind Stone, but it’s not the source of her power. Apparently she had inherent power, she is a mutant after all, daughter of X-Men villain, Magneto.

In the final episode, we see Wanda and Agatha duel, which was pretty cool, especially with how Wanda was very sly in creating runes in the Hex to nullify Agatha’s magical abilities (as Agatha had done to Wanda when she took her to her basement). We also watched (colorful) Vision fight a white Vision. The former was re-created by Wanda’s magic. The latter was Vision’s body, which was recovered by S.W.O.R.D. They were trying to put him back together (after getting destroyed by Thanos) and hoping that they could control him, but they couldn’t find a power source for him. However, they received what they were looking for after retrieving a drone they had sent into the Hex. After the drone was taken out of the Hex by Wanda while she confronted S.W.O.R.D., it still contained Wanda’s magic and that’s what they used. This worked, but not for long as (colorful) Vision defeated this new white Vision with a logic puzzle. In the end white Vision flew off, but we don’t know where he went. I imagine we’ll see him again.

We also can’t forget about Monica Rambeau. We last saw her in Captain Marvel, as a kid, but when she returned in WandaVision, we see her return from the “blip.” We got to see her play a role in Wanda’s show, but she questioned Wanda and reminded her that Vision died, which angered Wanda, who cast her out of the Hex. Monica was scanned by a doctor, but the scans didn’t show anything, except what looked like a bright light. Monica later re-entered the Hex, in the flesh. When she got inside we see that she can see differently. She apparently sees magnetic fields. Later, she tried confronting Wanda again, but was thrown back by Agatha. We also found out more about Monica’s power, but later we also found out that bullets can pass right through her. In the end, she was led into the local movie theater by someone who turned out to be a Skrull. She said someone was waiting to see her “up there.” This may refer to Nick Fury, who we last saw in what may be a Skrull space ship. Apparently, she goes by many names in the comics and it isn’t yet known which the MCU will chose. However, it seems she may later join Billy, Tommy, and other Marvel youth as they were part of the Young Avengers in the comics. This includes the daughters of Iron Man/Tony Stark, Clint Barton, and Ant-Man.

The show certainly didn’t answer all of our questions. For instance, we never learned what exactly was up with that rabbit who ate a bird in Agatha’s basement, though it was later mentioned in a podcast that it was Agatha’s familiar (which is like a witch’s pet).

I thought the show was like an emotional roller coaster. I know my emotions were in high gear. Much of it was tear jerking, especially seeing Wanda suffer through her grief of losing Vision.

I may have missed some things here, but I thought I’d write about the show. I created this so we could talk about the show here. So, please write in the comments and let me know what you thought of the show.

NMS Expeditions Update Lets You Journey Together
If you have some friends that also play NMS, you can now play together in a special "Expeditions" mode. It looks like there's a set path along with rewards. You also start off with some gear and stuff. I just saw this on Steam and thought I'd share, since I know quite a few of us here play NMS. I haven't played it in a while and I'm not sure when I'll play it again, but if someone wants to try this out, I might be up for it. Take a look at the trailer and let me know what you think.

Doom Eternal's Ancient Gods Part 2 DLC Arrives Tomorrow (Update: Now Available!)
Doom Eternal's Ancient Gods Part 2 DLC arrives tomorrow and you can watch a trailer for it in the link I embedded. I played Doom Eternal months ago and gave the game a "must play" on the Cheerful Ghost ratings score. If you're a fan of Doom, I believe it's a must play. I (obviously) thought it was a great game and I'm looking forward to getting back into it.

Let me know what you think about this. Are you planning on playing it? I may jump in right away, although I may wait to finish what I'm currently working on. If you see me on Bethesda.net soon, you'll probably see that I'm playing Doom Eternal (or waiting for the DLC to download). Feel free to hit me up, my username is GregoPeck.

Feel free to check out my review: https://cheerfulghost.com/GregoPeck/posts/4544/doom-eternal-rocks

We can talk about the game there or in any other posts found here at Cheerful Ghost.

Check out the following links I found:
About the new Sentinel Hammer: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/doom-eternals-ancient-gods-part-2-dlc-trailer-shows-off-the-new-sentinel-hammer/1100-6488927/

Saga concludes, but Doom still has plenty of stories to tell: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/doom-has-plenty-of-stories-to-tell-despite-current-sagas-conclusion/1100-6488934/

More on the new DLC as a whole: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/sh-t-is-gonna-hit-the-fan-in-doom-eternals-ancient-gods-part-2-dlc-thanks-to-a-new-weapon/1100-6488911/

I also mentioned in another post that it's possible that some day we'll see a female Doom Slayer. I think that would be awesome!

Dynasty Warriors Movie Trailer
Dynasty Warriors just got it's first movie trailer released. I've embedded one with English subtitles, but if you're looking for the Chinese original, you can find it here: https://youtu.be/4DH4GMQ_A3Y

I think the trailer looks awesome, I'd like to see it, though I prefer English dubs, instead of reading subtitles, but that hasn't stopped me from watching classic Godzilla movies or other anime. If you've played any game in the series (including the Hyrule Warriors games), it'll look very familiar. The music was also spot on, too, very recognizable.

My exposure to DW is limited. I didn't get into any of them until Hyrule Warriors (a Zelda version) was released on the Wii U and became my favorite game for that system. I even got some burned in images from it on my plasma TV. The game did get another iteration, but I didn't play it. It came out for the DS and that's about all I know (except for the fact that it only ran well on the "New" model version of the 3/2DS). I eventually got Dynasty Warriors 8: Xtreme Legends Edition on Steam, but I've barely played it, because at the time I couldn't get my XBox 360 controller (that I had specifically for PC gaming) to work well with it, so I gave up. Maybe now that that controller has been replaced by an XBox One controller, it'll work better or maybe I just didn't dive deep enough to figure out how to get it properly configured.

Another gaming franchise makes it into the movie business. What do you think about this?

Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi News
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I found some fresh news about the upcoming Disney+ series for Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi. Indira Varma has been "reportedly" cast though no details of her character are available. You may remember her from Game of Thrones as she played Ellaria Sand, sister to Oberyn Martell who was played by Pedro Pascal (The Mandalorian). The article also says that Ewan McGregor will return as the Obi-Wan we know from the prequelogy (that's what I call it) along with Hayden Christensen who will be playing Darth Vader.

I think this will probably be a really good show. The article states that "[t]he series will take place between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope." I'm looking forward to this one. I hope the success of The Mandalorian is just the beginning of Star Wars awesomeness to come. This should be true seeing as how more shows and movies are in the works.

"Shows featuring Boba Fett, Cassian Andor, Lando Calrissian, High Republic's The Acolyte, Ahsoka Tano, and Rangers of the New Republic. And yes, there are still more movies coming as well. The next Star Wars release is the Clone Wars spin-off animated series The Bad Batch, which arrives on May 4."

I'd also like to slide in a bit of news here, too, that I recall reading recently that said Rian Johnson's is working on either another Star Wars movie or another trilogy.

I think Disney+ is proving to be fantastic! What do you think about all of this? Are you excited for more Star Wars?

Speaking of Star Wars, incase you missed this (I put it in a link of another article I wrote in the forums), if you're a Star Wars fan, you must watch Patton Oswalt's "Star Wars filibuster" on "Parks and Recreation" (though I haven't seen the show, this clip is AWESOME and improvised). Check it out at: https://youtu.be/5BBhNkywMJY

Check out the article (except for that last bit I put in there regarding Rian Johnson): https://www.gamespot.com/articles/star-wars-obi-wan-series-casts-game-of-thrones-indira-varma-report/1100-6488257/?utm_source=gamefaqs&utm_medium=partner&utm_content=news_module&utm_campaign=homepage

Bordlands Movie Casting News
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I found some fresh news from the production of the Borderlands movie that I'd thought I'd share. They've cast Ariana Greenblatt to play Tiny Tina. Ariana played young Gamore in Avengers: Infinity War. The article also reveals (possibly not new news) other cast members including "Cate Blanchett as Lilith, Kevin Hart as Roland, Jamie Lee Curtis as Tannis, and Jack Black lending his voice to Claptrap." I think this seems interesting. I wonder how Jack Black will sound as Claptrap. There's currently no news of when the movie will be released, but at least we know it's in production.

It's interesting to see video games being adapted as movies, sometimes with success and other times with failure. I remember something I read recently about this and how movie makers have seen that video games have become a dominant leader in entertainment. What I read mentioned how, many years ago, movies would buy the rights to video game characters and such, but did not stick to the IP and instead took their own "creative" path. I'd say Super Mario Bros. (the 1993 movie) is a prime example of this. What I read stated that movie makers saw Sonic the Hedgehog as a success and have seen the value of video games. That movie did veer off of what we knows as Sonic the Hedgehog a bit, but it probably wasn't as off course as the Super Mario Bros. movie. In fact, there will be a Sonic the Hedgehog sequel and it may already be in production. If you watched that movie's end-credits scene, you'll notice that Tails will be joining Sonic in the sequel (and rightly so, I think). Monster Hunter is another recent video game that was adapted into a move, but from what I read it seemed to have flopped, although the movie itself most certainly showed the possibility of a sequel.

Let me know what you think about this announcement. Is Borderlands something you're looking forward to seeing? What do you think about how more video games are being adapted into movies?

If you want to read the full article you can find it here: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/borderlands-movie-casts-avengers-infinity-wars-ariana-greenblatt-as-tiny-tina/1100-6488253/?utm_source=gamefaqs&utm_medium=partner&utm_content=news_module&utm_campaign=homepage

Marvel's MODOK First Trailer and Release Date Announced
If you're not yet drowning in movie and TV show news, particularly ones premiering on streaming services, here's a new one for you. Marvel's MODOK will appear on HULU on May 21. MODOK stands for Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing, so expect plenty of carnage. I'm not familiar with this character, so I don't have much to say about it. I did notice that MODOK is voiced by Patton Oswalt, who I've now seen in different Marvel and Star Wars related things. He was a part of S.H.I.E.L.D., in fact doubling or even tripling himself, it was cool. I like that someone who's obviously a fan of Marvel and Star Wars gets to be a part of those things. If you really want to see a very entertaining video of Patton Oswalt talking about Star Wars and Marvel during an episode of "Parks and Recreations," check out this link (I strongly recommend you do): https://youtu.be/5BBhNkywMJY

Feel free to share your thoughts about all this!

Source: https://www.gamespot.com/articles/marvels-modok-gets-first-trailer-and-may-21-premiere-date-on-hulu/1100-6488108/

Beavis and Butt-Head Announce a New Movie on Paramount+
The movie news just keeps pouring in. Beavis and Butt-Head have just announced a new movie on Paramount+ and they haven't aged a day since they made their introduction to the world.

I've been a long time fan of Beavis and Butt-Head. In fact, I recently found my Beavis and Butt-Head "Frog Baseball" shirt. I remember wearing it the one and only time I tried skiing, which failed miserably. I watched MTV all the time during their reign. Ya know, back when MTV actually showed music videos. Back then, I would often get disappointed seeing the same episodes repeat. They made a comeback, but this time without music videos and I think that "sucked!" This might be interesting, or it might be really stupid (they are morons after all).

And yes, I remember their video game(s) too. I think I saw one on the PC and maybe the Sega Genesis or Game Gear (I had the latter).

What do you think? Are you or were you a fan?