What if T'Challa became a Star Lord?

Marvel has been pumping out the content on Disney+ this year and right on the heels of Loki finishing up, we get the animated, "What If...?" series. The first episode explored the scenario where Sharon Carter became Captain America instead of Steve Rogers. It was pretty good. However, I don't think they went far enough with the premise. It didn't feel different enough from the first Captain America movie.

I'm happy to report that the events of the second episode, "What if T'Challa became a Star Lord?" was very different and more fully realized the potential of this show. I will do my best to avoid  spoilers.

At first, the idea of this premise seemed dumb to me, not going to lie. A few minutes in, I immediately accepted it and was all in for this ride.

I want to start off by saying this episode was a little emotional for me. Not cause of the content, but because this is the last time we hear Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa. He recorded this before he died, so hearing his voice in the present day was tough. It is just a reminder of the actor we lost. He totally embodied the character of T'Challa. I was afraid that maybe they just took samples, but it is clearly him acting here and it is as wonderful as it has always been.

With that being said, it's even cooler seeing him fill the Peter Quill role as Star Lord in the Guardians of the Galaxy movie.  A lot of the main scenes we know and love are spun differently, starting with when he makes his first appearance. Instead of the "Who?" we get from Djimon Hounsou's Korath, we get the adulation that Peter Quill only wishes he could get. We get to follow Korath throughout the rest of the episode as he tags along with the crew. I want to say, keep an eye out for other subtle changes and appearances of different characters.

What makes this episode truly work, is that we get the majority of the actors that portrayed these characters in the movie, reprising their roles here. There are a few exceptions. For instance, Bautista does not reprise his role as Drax. Other than that, this episode makes it feel like it is a different version of the movie and lives and breathes in that expectation. It just sounds RIGHT.

I won't give away any of the plot, but T'Challa's role here dramatically changes the arc of Yondu the most and it was a joy to see. There is still that same father/son dynamic, but T'Challa changed him, not the other way around. There are also other subtle changes to how characters look and act, which I don't want to give away. The biggest surprise is Thanos and his through line in this episode is really funny. I  think you will enjoy it.

I really can't give away more than that, but the story itself was actually pretty good. It is now a heist film, instead of some galaxy altering event. That change in scope makes it feel more intimate.

I was skeptical on this animation style, but it has started to grow on me. Marvel's animated style over the past few years has been consistently bland and terrible, so if this is the route they will go, I'm okay with it. T'Challa has a really cool redesign, blending the Star Lord outfit with Wakandan touches. The color palette is not as muted in this ep, so things get to pop.

I highly recommend this episode, because this will be the last time we hear Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther and the performance is definitely worth it. In addition to that, it is a lot of fun. I only wish it was longer, but glad it didn't overstay it's welcome.

M.O.M.: Mother of Madness #1

In this blog, I try to write about books that I enjoy. I am your resident comic book nerd, so I want to use my tiny platform to speak to that. My favorite thing to do is to give a hot take on something. Most of the time they are positive. In rare occasions they will be negative. This book, "M.O.M.: Mother of Madness" is that book. 

This book is co-written by Emilia Clarke. We know her as Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones. I am always glad when a famous person wants to come into the comic book world. It can only bring exposure and potentially more fans. It gives us a wider pool of things to read. I feel the same about famous novelists, writers for popular magazines, etc. However, the pitfall of this is that you have these newbies coming into this medium alongside people that trained for it, appreciate it and know how it works. There is a degree of craft that  these new writers will not get. That can become very apparent.

I say all that to temper what I am about to say about this book. I did not like it. I wanted to give it a chance, but it had multiple problems that made it hard to overlook. This is a project that was near and dear to Emilia's heart. The essay she wrote that appears in the back of the issue sums that up. What we got is a mess of a book that is trying to do too many things at once. Let me back my criticisms up with some specific examples.

First of all, the narration is all over the place. At times it is first person. Sometimes it is breaking the fourth wall. One of these is fine on it's own, but when you are trying to mix them all at once? It is nothing but a mess. I think a more experienced writer would know better than to try and cram all this into one story. Now if this will be the tone of the entire book, then this might be forgiven. As a first issue, it doesn't do a good job of setting you up for that. This story jumps back and forth between time frames, so that can be hard to follow.

Next, the dialogue. For those that don't know my reading habits, one of my pet peeves is cultural references and jokes. I feel the more you do those, the lazier your writing feels. It is used as a crutch and forces the reader to get the joke or be left in the cold. This is even worse for me when it is in a world that is not our own or set in the future. In this book, we are talking about forty years in the future. So I expect jokes to be about things happening in the world at that time, not referencing stuff that happened now or ten years ago from our present time. That is lazy. If you had set your book in present day, that makes sense. I doubt those same cultural references would make sense forty years from now. There was a lot of that here and it takes me out of the book.

Throughout the book, you can tell that there is a female empowerment aspect to the story. I get that and I appreciate it. It's just this book handles that very poorly. It is hard to tell what is meant to be satire. Men are still the same trash bags in the future, that comes as no surprise. Is their dialogue supposed to evoke that nothing has changed? Are they caricatures?  It could really go either way.  It is entirely possible that I am missing something here and I can admit that. I feel like this book is trying to be funny and poignant at the same time, but misses the mark. It makes it hard to root out what the message is here.

The main character herself, Maya, has a vaguely described power set. By that I mean, we are introduced to her powers when it is convenient to the story, but done in a ham-fisted way. We know she is a single mother that is also trying to be a hero. Her crusade to stop human trafficking is noble and I'm not opposed to that either. Comic books have always been used as a way to get social messages out there, depending on the writer. You can tell when a writer is passionate about a subject and wants to teach about it. Again, this story does a terrible job at navigating this. It feels very disjointed.

The only reason I know this book is about human trafficking is because Emilia's afore mentioned essay. That is a bad sign because if the book did a good job, I wouldn't need the essay to explain things to me. I'm sure that editorial was more concerned with getting a famous person on a book and getting it out the door than actually editing it. Some feedback could have been given and fixed these issues.

I hate that I'm being so negative on this book, but I was demonstrably sighing a lot while reading this, so I knew this book hand gotten to me. The compliment that I would give this book is that the art from Leila Leiz is fantastic. She is not a name I am familiar with and I will keep an eye out for more work from her in the future. That was the only thing that made this palatable for me. I do not want that to be overlooked in all the criticism I am hurling this book's way.

Now, am I going to read the rest of this mini-series in hopes that it gets better? No. No I am not. I read a lot of comics as it is and I can't waste that time reading  things I am not enjoying. I do hope this book does well and can lure Emilia into doing more work. I think stories like this are needed, they just need to be produced better.