Snowflake challenge #9 (2024): "Rec your newest thing"

[brightknightie]

Challenge #9: Rec your newest thing -- enthusiasm, obsession, fandom, earworm, etc.

Yesterday, I read an impressive Journey to the West AU fanfic, told from the dragon-horse's perspective, in which Monkey is mute. (This is a sober re-imagining, not the bonkers humor I often go for in JttW.) This change makes humanity (and Heaven) take him even less seriously (though Buddha treats him exactly the same). Removing his voice swallows his patter and boasts and exposes his foundational motivations in new, evocative ways. Killer final line. "Spring Unheard" by Idonquixote (T, gen, ~8K words).

A few days ago, I finished watching the five episodes of Echo, the latest MCU show on Disney+, the first officially under the "Marvel Spotlight" imprint for standalone, don't-need-to-know-canon, adult-aimed productions (Werewolf by Night belongs there, too, imo, if they're willing to relabel it). The title sequence -- theme song and graphics -- is absolutely fantastic, ten out of ten. In a nutshell, I enjoyed it, respect what they were doing, and rank it well above average among MCU TV shows. But while I spent the first three episodes wide-eyed in hopes that they really were taking flight with a whole new kind of story in a whole new storytelling direction, the finale... fell out of the sky and sank under the MCU's third-act formula. Darn it. Hopefully, they've finally learned the lesson that TV is not movies; reputedly, that lesson is why they yanked and restarted work on Daredevil: Born Again, so... fingers crossed.

I'm presently spacing out the final few episodes of season one of My Adventures with Superman because I don't want it to be over. This is my kind of Superman! A very good guy being good! This is a show that deeply understands why Superman must rescue the cat. The story is so clearly told by people who love the characters, and who change them only in ways that make them more essentially themselves for today's audience. I adore how they addressed and subverted certain tropes, like Lois finding out Clark is Superman. Fundamentally, this is a story where he is Clark to the bone, and Superman is just his work clothes, his "customer service voice," and I am there for that. (I think that the "my" in the title is Clark's.)

Comments

[pennywashburne]

My kids and I just watched Season One of My Adventures with Superman, and I loved it. It was nice to have something that interested us all.

[brightknightie]

I have, I think, two episodes remaining. It's been such a joyful story! So much friendship and earnestness! It's made me happy.

[brightknightie]

I finished watching season one of My Adventures with Superman this past week, and found it just fantastic. I love its devotion to good guys being good, and also that it works very well both for people who are meeting the characters for the first time and for people who catch every layered reference to decades of DC canon.

Many, many kudos to that creative team!

[pennywashburne]

It was so good. I'm looking forward to Season 2!

[switchbladeeyes]

I finished watching Echo tonight and, like you, was really into the first three episodes, but the last two, not as much. It just seemed really rushed in the last two. And I never quite understood why Fisk was so Invested in Maya. I thought that needed to be fleshed out more. (I haven’t seen all MCU shows and movies so IDK if maybe this was addressed elsewhere, but it felt missing here.)

Overall, I enjoyed the show, just wished they had spent more time developing the story. I thought it was quite an ambitious and unusual show though considering Maya was not a hero. It seemed more a redemption of a villain type story.

Made me want to rewatch Daredevil.

Echo's ending

[brightknightie]

I heard on "NewRockstars" that Echo's budget got slashed for the final two episodes. I don't know whether that fully explains it; it certainly couldn't have helped. I feel I would have liked a few more total episodes, one focused on Maya and Bonnie, one focused on Maya and her grandmother, then at the end learning her mother's message emotionally instead of having it spelled out and oversimplified in words... The final episodes were suddenly far too much standing around and telling, when they should have been more showing, I felt.

No, no other MCU shows explain explicitly why Fisk is so into Maya, though Hawkeye did previously establish that Maya had grown up with her father working for Fisk (and Maya finding out that Fisk had ordered her father's murder). I ran into a fan-theory that it's because Fisk's wife Vanessa, the only person he loves (in Daredevil), was dusted in Thanos's blip (or otherwise killed), and he turned that tiny sliver of humanity in him toward Maya during those blip years, perhaps having seen her first as a fellow wounded and rejected child, and then as also another person consumed by rage and capable of great violence... to be turned to his benefit.

I never saw Daredevil back in the day (didn't have Netflix), so I'm planning to start watching it for the first time soon (now that it's on Disney+). It's probably a bit too dark for me, so I will proceed with care.

Re: Echo's ending

[switchbladeeyes]

Yes, you’re right about all the standing around and telling toward the end. I thought the vision of the mom just suddenly appearing and explaining it all was… odd.

Those are such interesting theories re: Vanessa and the reason Fisk formed a strong attachment with Maya. I did wonder about Vanessa’s absence in the past, especially in the “Sunday dinner” scenes. Her death or being blipped sure would explain it.

We started re-watching Daredevil. I’d forgotten how dark it was. Definitely goes for a very violent “gritty realism.” I think it’s really good, but some scenes, I’m unable to watch.