The irresistible rise of Olivia Rodrigo has been one of the great musical mysteries of recent months. This is far from the first time that a young female singer songwriter has been precipitated to pop stardom at a tender age, nor the first time that a former Disney cast member has successfully made the crossover […] More
What is supremacy? Is it a Nietzschean object of literal physical superiority or an ideology, a state of mind? The Falcon and the Winter Soldier S1E4 suggests both in the Marvel Cinematic Universe might be part of the same formula. ‘The Whole World Is Watching’ is a title that knows just how provocative it is. […] More
Power, and the use of power, beget consequences. The Marvel Cinematic Universe has grappled with consequences across many of the interconnected lattice of films it boasts, and those of Avengers: Age of Ultron have lingered among the longest. Both The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and WandaVision before it are as haunted by Joss Whedon’s […] More
Symbols are growing ever more central to superhero fiction as the power and meaning of modern and classical images, heroes and structures continue to bedevil commentators and audiences in reality. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier contributes to this discourse as it continues in S1E2 to frame the entire series around not just Captain America’s […] More
WandaVision may have wrapped up, but The Falcon and Winter Soldier has just begun. Join Rachel Stewart, Will Johnson, JP Nunez, and Don Shanahan as they sit down and discuss what may lie ahead for Sam Wilson, Bucky Barnes, and Sharon Carter. Rachel: Well, “Please Stand By” lasted all of two weeks, thanks to Disney+ […] More
Later this year, Marvel debut their animated series What If…? which explores alternate universe takes on classic Marvel universe stories, but one unlikely to appear is this: what if The Falcon and the Winter Soldier had been the first Disney+ MCU series released? Thanks to Covid-19, like with much else in the world of culture […] More
Originally intended for release back in August of 2020 (shortly after what would have been Black Widow’s big-screen premiere in May of 2020), The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is finally entering the fold this Friday, March 19th on Disney+ as the second entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s much-anticipated Phase 4, which began with […] More
**This article features spoilers to many MCU films and WandaVision** Despite an ongoing discourse to the contrary, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is an ever-evolving art project with twists, turns, switcheroos, what-have-yous, and WTFs. I’m not here to argue the merits of the cinematic value of the MCU (or, at least, not in this article. Anyone […] More
Higgins: Oh, you…you poor, dumb son of a bitch. You’ve done more damage than you know. Joe Turner: I hope so. – Three Days of the Condor (1975, dir. Sidney Pollack) Conspiracies should leave you cold. They should take place in buildings made of glass and metal, with characterless minimalism decorating the lobbies, and indistinguishable […] More
Note the title of WandaVision’s ninth and final episode: ‘The Series Finale’. Series. Not season. Series finale. Writer and show-runner Jac Schaeffer goes into the ending of Marvel’s experiment with a conclusion in mind, if such a thing exists in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Herein lies the curious paradox of the MCU and why some […] More
For a television show constructed on narrative tropes, ‘Previously On’ puts an exclamation mark on the point WandaVision has been making since the beginning: it knows there is an audience tuning in. From the beginning of the series, as we found Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) & the Vision (Paul Bettany) existing within the confines of […] More
While realism certainly has its place in storytelling, my tastes have always leaned more towards fantasy. It’s partly the escapism, which lets you immerse yourself in a world far away from your problems, and partly the layers of meaning that fantasy lends itself to. Magic and the supernatural can create powerful metaphors for the struggles […] More
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