dewline | Entries tagged with black widow

I got my debit card PIN problem fixed up at the bank. (Sadly, this is an issue that has to be fixed in person, one of the few banking issues that has to be fixed that way.)

I used some Christmas gift-money to buy a personal DVD copy of Black Widow.

There was reassurance that my local comics dealer is still operational, and was able to reassure the staff that I have not forgotten my obligations to them. More pointedly, that I anticipate starting to get caught up on my reading next weekend because payday timing.

The local custom-t-shirt printer can work with PNG files I bring for them, and that they can print on 3XL t-shirts.

The British mystery novels that inspired the CBC TV series Coroner are still in print as of two years ago, and available through local booksellers.

It may be possible for me to finally get a used Wacom Cintiq without breaking myself financially. More on this anon, I hope.

New battery for the cell-phone, finally. Been worrying about the battery I bought with it for a few weeks after four or five years. Didn't think the shop I bought the new battery from would have it in stock yet.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: Home-for-now
Current Music: Tapestry on CBC Radio

I went to see Black Widow at the cinema last night, finally, because reasons of mental health. I masked up, sanitized as best I could remember to do, and as preparation for that, finally set up a Cineplex account for myself.

The show was pretty much what I expected to see. Natasha still died on Vormir in an alternative universe to save the universe she originated in, and we're not getting any revivals here. The Johansson v. Disney lawsuit over the hybrid release via Disney+ has seen to that, if nothing else has. (Disney HQ just had to pick that particular fight, didn't they?)

So, I got my money and time's worth. I will recommend the movie to anyone interested. I still left the theatre on a sad note, because of the above-noted factors, but that's not the fault of the story told in the movie.

If you want a living Natasha working with Yelena on a continuing basis? Go read the comics series currently being published, written by Kelly Thompson, illustrated by Elena Casagrande most issues, with covers usually by Adam Hughes. Strongly recommended.

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Spark on CBC Radio

In case anyone's wondering, I'm still hoping to be able to see Black Widow at a cinema some time next week, if all goes well enough.

It still nags at me: they had to kill both of the child-soldiers who grew up in Infinity War and Endgame. Gamora was thrown away, Natasha jumped as a willing sacrifice...but it still adds up to child-soldiers who died for growing up.

(Yeah, I went to two of Romeo Dallaire's talks at WritersFest events across the years.)

(Sometimes the comics' reset buttons provide some consolation.)

Current Mood: discontent

Searching and researching resumed this morning.

Although, to be honest, the job alerts I've subscribed to via Indeed, Jobilico, Workopolis and the Canadian federal job bank never stop, not even on statutory holidays. So I find myself spending at least an hour a day on weekends and holidays looking at those alone, no matter if I click on any links or not.

I went down to the ByWard Market on Sunday. It's been over a month since my last visit, and I worried that Globe Mags and Cigars and Mags Plus were both finally defunct. I am pleased to report that the first of these is still in business selling newspapers, magazines, and (not so pleased to say the same about) assorted smokeables and related gear. Google Maps tells me Mags Plus on Rideau Street - about a block or so east of ByTowne Cinema - is still active, and I wasn't about to push my luck by personally confirming that as well.

I was amused by the displays currently active at the LEGO Store at the Rideau Centre: the Disney Castle, a replica of a classic Adidas running shoe(!), the apartments of Friends, and a four-story Marvel-authorized Daily Bugle playset, with twenty-five figures of assorted Marvel characters. Both Spider-Men, Parker and Morales. "Spider-Gwen" AKA Ghost-Spider from Earth-65. Daredevil. Firestar. Even Spider-Ham! Venom, Carnage, Doctor Octopus (Otto, not Carolyn), Sandman, "Green Goblin" Osborn, and a few others. Probably runs to C$500 to take that one home, and Marvel fan though I am, I am not that fanatic nor anywhere near that wealthy.

Still waiting for the advisory to go to the pharmacy to get dose # 2. I'm on their e-mail list for this, so that notice should be soon. Perhaps before the end of the week?

Have received word from Lloyd Penney that there will be physical and online components to "Third Monday" tonight, the latter for those of us unable/unwilling to visit Orwell's in Toronto in person. This is good news, I think.

Hoping to see Black Widow next week, finances and health/safety rules permitting. I do continue to read the current ongoing comics series that inspired the movie. Both Natasha and Yelena are core cast members in the comic book series, which is currently set in San Francisco. You should be able to just drop in on the story arc in progress without too much trouble.

More as it occurs to me.

Current Mood: busy
Current Location: Home-for-now

Wishing I could see Black Widow at the cinema. But I don't think Ontario's movie theatres can safely reopen in time. I'll have to wait for the DVD release. If it happens.

If you see it before I can...don't give me hope. Okay?

Current Mood: Resigned
Current Location: Home-for-now

I've read the news about this one being delayed to November. If we're all careful and lucky.

I've been looking forward to this one with both hope and dread since Endgame. Dread, mainly because of Endgame. No use in threatening/bribing anyone involved over the quality or lack of it; the thing's in the can and if I live long enough and if I have the money by that point and if the cinema houses are open again, then I'm going to see it. Disney-Marvel can bank on it.

I'd like to get the dread out of this equation. But I'll have to do without that.

Current Mood: discontent

I saw it.

Two things coming to mind. One is a paraphrase of something Clint said to Natasha in Endgame: Don't give me hope unless you mean it. The other is that I'm bracing for this movie to be an eulogy and no more than that.

It burns me that those of us who care about such things had to wait until after Endgame to get this movie at all. And there are lots of more important things to be angry about, yes. I am angry about many of those other things, too, as you've read from earlier installments of this blog. But this is staying on my personal list of such things, anyway.

Current Mood: pissed off

It occurs to me that I want to see or read a conversation between the MCU's Natasha Romanova and Star Trek's Elim Garak. There is one thing they have in common, admittedly, and they each came to that thing from different yet similar places. I don't think I have the skill or the knowledge to carry off the scripting properly.

Current Mood: curious

Item 1:

There is a particular reason why I want this one to exceed Captain Marvel's box office numbers when it gets to the cinemas. If you've seen Endgame, you likely either already know or can deduce quickly what that reason is.

https://mcuexchange.com/black-widow-filming-start-date/

Item 2:

The director of Falcon/Winter Soldier - all six episodes - has been announced. And we have a direct Ottawa-Gatineau connection here. And it's not her first MCU gig, either...

https://deadline.com/2019/05/kari-skogland-to-direct-6-part-the-falcon-and-the-winter-soldier-miniseries-with-anthony-mackie-sebastian-stan-daniel-bruhl-emily-van-camp-1202619197/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kari_Skogland

Current Mood: hopeful

Long overdue.

http://variety.com/2018/film/news/marvel-black-widow-jac-schaeffer-screenwriter-1202643908/

(Anyone got a BW-themed icon they're willing to share?)

(Does this mean the comics version of Natasha gets to be resurrected?)

Current Mood: hopeful

For Black Panther?

Wakanda's languages being built up, like we've seen with tlhIngan Hol in the Star Trek worlds.

Yes, I expect Wakanda has more than one locally-evolved language. Certainly, they've picked up words from other African languages over the centuries. And being a coalition of cultures that take pride in knowledge, many of even their most traditionalist tribes make certain to be fluent in multiple tongues. Yet it's been long-established that there is at least one language the Wakandans truly call their own. And reality in linguistics being what it is, history and logic suggest there should be more than the one.

For Agents of SHIELD and its collection of related titles?

A guide to the organization itself. Current writer Marc Guggenheim has Coulson recently claiming that he works for Washington, mere months after Mark Waid portrays him as insisting that the "H for Homeland" more accurately means "Homeworld". In Civil War II # 0, Brian Michael Bendis reminds us of the organization's United Nations connections.

Outside of their own series, we have at least one of their agents, Mockingbird headlining her own book. (About damn time!) Both Captains America titles, Sam Wilson and Steve Rogers, have ongoing relationships with the organization. Howling Commandos of SHIELD recently wrapped up some of the adventures of their supernatural interventions via the STAKE division. Black Widow has an on-again-off-again work relationship with SHIELD (currently "off", but don't expect that to last forever). The organization shares the Triskelion complex in New York Harbor with the current incarnation of the Ultimates...and on it goes.

(Don't get me started again on their Helicarriers and "Battlecarriers". Not right now. If you've seen my Pericles Project folder on Flickr, you know how much enthusiasm I can pour into that topic.)

We need a handbook to the organization itself. An "Agent Orientation Manual" if you will. No need to get into the minutiae of clauses of international treaties and internal regulations that should govern SHIELD, but something that nails down the current "broad strokes" of its history, current prominent personnel-characters, technology, operations, adversaries and methods.

For Alpha Flight, now pent up in the pages of Captain Marvel?

A better understanding of how what began as a government-run superhero team tied to my home country became an international planetary defence force. That seems to be slowly unfolding. I await developments with interest.

More as I mull it over.

Current Mood: nerdy

Gizmodo points out a possible venue for the Budapest story that Natasha and Hawkeye allude to during the Battle of New York. Photography is absolutely haunting...and the history of the place? Heartbreaking in its way.

Turns out there's a name for what happened in the movie Gravity: the Kessler Syndrome. It's something that people are planning preventive and remediating measures for, and that's a good thing.

(Also, the source of that article, Space Safety Magazine, is a real thing. If we want those shipyards, hotels, and whatever else we decide to build outside atmo...)

From The Winter Solder? Where Fury and Romanova dumped SHIELD's stuff onto the Internet?

Did they have the time to work out what parameters they needed to "decide" what files to release and which to sit on? Because this little question-asking session over at MarvelMeta from five months earlier raised the thought in my mind. Also, having watched Citizenfour, it occurred to me that for all the craziness Edward Snowden brought down on himself, he still managed to make the time to find people like Greenwald and Poitras to help him start figuring out what had to go public ASAP and what had to be sat on indefinitely for the good of international security.

Given the situation with Project: Insight - a matter of hours before the three Helicarriers launched their mass-murder programming - Fury, Romanova, Hill, Rogers, Wilson and whoever else was helping behind the scenes may not have had that luxury of time and contemplation. So, the situation may well be as described by Gavia Baker-Whitelaw: "Thanks to Natasha's Snowden-esque leak, anyone with internet access can now read everything from SHIELD's black ops missions to the Helicarrier specs to Hawkeye's psych evaluations. Civilians now know precisely how much SHIELD has been hiding from them all these years..."

Thoughts?

(Yeah, this is the kind of thing that my brain turns back towards while I'm trying to clear out my sinuses over the weekend.)

Current Mood: nerdy
Current Music: "Ghost of a Chance" - Rush