The last time I reviewed a Hulk title, I
mentioned that The Totally Awesome Hulk
seemed to be done but that Amadeus Cho was going to be featured in a different
title by Greg Pak. Well, here it is! If Big Apple Showdown was the AAPI comics version of The Avengers or Crisis on
Earth-X (yes, I’m aware that comics regularly do big crossover events, but
my experience is more with movies and TV,) New
Agents of Atlas is their Infinity War
or Crisis on Infinite Earths (I’m
guessing on the latter, since it hasn’t come out yet, but the casting announcements
are certainly, “Holy smorgasbord of superheroes, Batman!”)
A new
alien threat is in town, by which I mean planet Earth. The queen of cinders is
wreaking international havoc with the aid of her army of fire demons, and in
order to stop her, Jimmy Woo has to assemble his largest, most pan-Asian
collection of heroes yet. The disparate group deals with a number of growing
pains, but if they’re going to stop the queen of cinders, they’re going to have
to band together.
All the
mainstays are here: Amadeus Cho (now somewhat less powered than full-on Hulk,)
Ms. Marvel, Silk, Shang-Chi, etc., but there are also a bunch of newer faces.
Brand-new to me, but I understand that they’ve been making appearances in
comics recently. Highlights include a K-pop star who’s also a superhero, a
child martial arts prodigy and the giant astral bear she controls, and Pele,
the Hawaiian goddess of the volcano. Hey, hey, the gang’s all here!
As with
previous crossover events featuring this core group, I enjoy the interpersonal
dynamics, both the larger conflicts of heroes from a bunch of different
countries disagreeing over which region of the world to protect first, as well
as the little things, like Asians from anywhere in the world bonding over spam.
And even though this has left the bounds of a Totally Awesome Hulk story, Amadeus Cho still gets major focus in
terms of character development. Here, he faces up to what it means to truly be
a leader, and he and Jimmy Woo clash over strategy. Ms. Marvel is mostly just
used as a heavy hitter, but Silk and Shang-Chi both get key moments in which to
shine.
In all
honesty, though, it gets to be a bit much for me. I’m sure it would help if I
had more familiarity with the newer heroes, but it was tough for me to keep
track of everybody and it feels like about a third of the story is just all the
various heroes introducing themselves to each other. To use another TV analogy,
it reminded me a bit of watching DC’s “Invasion!” crossover when, at the time, Supergirl was the only show I watched
regularly and I was still getting caught up on The Flash. Even having had a little exposure to some of the Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow characters, it came across to me like a
juggling act. I think New Agents of Atlas
will be an ongoing title now, and it would be nice to get with arcs with
various subsets within the whole big group before they’re tackled collectively
again. Because here, despite enjoying a lot of the individual parts, it doesn’t
quite add up to a satisfying whole for me.
Finally
getting around to a Top Ten Songs for Crazy
Ex-Girlfriend’s final season. I thought the season 4 songs were a little
all over the place (lots of numbers for more minor characters, quite a few
gimmicky songs, not as many slam dunks for Rebecca,) but even though,
musically, it’s not my favorite season, there are still some top-notch songs in
here (including a few from those more minor characters!) Here are my favorites.
“No One Else is Singing My Song” – Great song for
Rebecca, Nathaniel, and Josh to separately wallow in their self-pity of all
feeling “uniquely” lonely in the exact same song. The joke is an obvious one,
but the song does it well. I especially like how the rhythm on “No one knows
the rhythm enough to sing along” really does change with every chorus, and the
“entire company” part at the end is terrific. Not to mention, everyone sounds awesome here.
Best
lyric: “It’s late and getting colder.” – “You’re only getting older.” – “And
you’re next to someone who is fast asleep.” – “That’s so specific!”
“Don’t Be a Lawyer” – I can’t believe Jim
has been an office character this whole time and only now in season 4 shows off
his pipes and his moves in this killer number. Rocking a Bel Biv Devoe beat and
Bobby Brown dance moves, this song enumerates all the reasons why becoming a
lawyer is is a horrible decision. It’s full of clever rhymes (“Your only
expertise / Is runnin’ up fees, / Speakin’ legalese like a dick”) and harsh
truths about the profession (there’s no money to be had in any discipline of
law that isn’t completely soulless,) and the whole thing is beautifully topped
off when the CW lawyer who interrupts the song to issue a disclaimer swandives
out the window in despair.
Best
lyric: God, there are so many! I’m gonna have to go with, “Sure, your parents
might think you’re a failure, / But no one’s ever said, ‘First, let’s kills all
the tailors.’”
“I Want to Be a Child Star” – Although Rebecca’s
half brother Tucker only appears in a single episode, this song makes it a
memorable one. The show nails the look and feel of a preteen pop star, and
Tucker’s enthusiasm for the inevitable spiral that’s sure to accompany his
desired fame really sells the dark humor. The lines describing a child star’s
rise and subsequent flameout are just too real (hang in there, kids from A Series of Unfortunate Events! Stay
grounded and stay safe.)
Best
lyric: “I want to sue my parents for emancipation / After they get caught
stealing from me. / I want to be on the set / Of The Walking Dead / When I lose my virginity.”
“Trapped in a Car with Someone You Don’t Want
to Be Trapped in a Car With” – This is a song that, while amusing, didn’t
strike me too much when the episode first aired. However, the soundtrack has
made me fall in love with it. I love the peppy Beach Boys-style number about
dealing with an annoying car-ride companion, especially how the song shifts
through a few different genres (because the car ride “goes on so long” that the
“group” evolves from ‘60s pop to experimental hippie stuff to more commercial
fare.) Also, like “Maybe She’s Not Such a Heinous Bitch After All” from season
3, there are some fantastic jokes in the background lines.
Best
lyric: From the hippie section – “Why do we even have cars at all? / In the
scheme of things, this Earth is small. / Or do I really need to travel
somewhere / Or can I get there in my mind?”
“What U Missed While U Were PopUlar” – So fun and so true. At
their high school reunion, George schools Josh on what all the nerdy kids were
up to while Josh was busy being prom king. From the morning news team’s
“hardcore” reporting to the band kids’ makeout sessions, the song covers
various nerdy-kid niches and really celebrates that plenty of kids who aren’t
popular still have plenty of their own kind of fun in high school. I also like
the point it brings up that these kids also developed resilience, while Josh,
who had it easy in high school, has been struggling more in adulthood.
Best
lyric: “You were cool while we were not, / But our massage circles were
super-hot. / We massaged while you were popular / And got massaged while you
were popular.”
“Hello, Nice to Meet You” – First of all, even
though I enjoy Skylar Astin, new!Greg remained odd for me, and I never thought
he really felt like Greg. That said,
I do like this song, a cute bouncy
number in which Rebecca and Greg try to put their old baggage aside and pretend
they’re meeting for the first time. The juxtaposition between the sweet
meetcutes and the frank references to their checkered past together is done
really well.
Best
lyric: “I mean, is anyone we meet / Really that new to us? / We’re all the same
species / That grew in a uterus.”
“Sports Analogies” – Oh, I love this one!
A Rat Pack-style number of Josh and Nathaniel getting past their differences
through the universal male language of sports analogies. Lots of terrific
tidbits here. I always laugh when we cut to them in the big-band setting for
the second chorus and both of them now have a scotch and a cigarette in each hand, and the jump from the sad
bridge back into the peppy final chorus is a delight. It’s a song that makes me
wish Nathaniel and Josh had more opportunities to sing together.
Best
lyric: “Sports analogies, sports analogies.” – “We found the common ground in
all men’s personalities.”
“Real Life Fighting is Awkward” – I almost forgot
about this one, since it isn’t on the season 4 soundtrack. It’s in the
background rather than being sung by any actual character, but it’s too much
fun to be left out! The “Kung Fu Fighting”-esque ditty provides a perfect
backdrop to Josh and Greg’s awkward fight. I love the intercut fantasy
sequences of them fighting in an action film, kung fu film, musical, and sci-fi
film, juxtaposing the slick, stylized moves with their clumsy grappling in real
life.
Best
lyric: “Real life fighting is awkward. / There are no cool side effects. /
Punching doesn’t sound like anything. / You often hurt yourself / More than you
hurt the other guy!”
“Love’s Not a Game” – Nice old-fashioned
ensemble showstopper, not to mention a rare chance for White Josh to take
center stage. His feigned outrage at the group betting on Rebecca’s “Three
Guys, Three Dates” situation is just a fakeout, and he instead leads a peppy
number a la Guys and Dolls. The
melody is catchy, the lyrics are fun, the costumes are vibrant, and the dancing
is terrific. But the irony is great too, the repeated repetitions that they’d never be so callous as to bet on their
friends’ love lives, when of course they’re doing just that.
Best
lyric: “Love’s not a game, / Love’s not a game. / That being said, let’s make
it rain!”
“Eleven O’Clock” – This is, of course,
Rebecca’s “eleven o’clock” number in the series finale. While I think
“Rebecca’s Reprise” at the end of season 2 has a bit more of an emotional
punch, this is still neat, cycling through snippets of a number of songs from
Rebecca’s journey over the course of the series. I especially love the slide
into “You Stupid Bitch,” and the conceit with the various costumes from earlier
numbers is cool.
Best
lyric: “It’s eleven o’clock, / And by eleven o’clock, / Shouldn’t I have earned
a frickin’ ever after? / I’ve done the workbooks, taken the pills, / What more
could I do? / How do I still not know myself / After all that I’ve been
through?”
Can’t
argue with the very first Doctor-companion relationships the show ever gave us.
While Doctor Who has had many
truly-exquisite dynamics between the Doctor and their companions over the years
– and the One era itself features some other good groupings – there’s something
magical about this unlikely quartet wandering the fourth dimension together (a few spoilers.)
Elephant
in the room first. This is not your
typical Doctor-companion meetcute in which the companions meet the Doctor at
the onset of some sort of alien crisis, impress the Doctor with their
cleverness/heart/bravery/etc., and get a TARDIS invitation by the end of the
story. I mean, don’t get me wrong, Ian and Barbara have all those things in
spades. Case in point, they both recognize something’s off about Susan, are
concerned enough for her that they want to investigate, and poke around an
eerie junkyard at night looking for clues. It’s not until a bit later that they
have their respective 20th-century minds blown by TARDISes and time
travel, but even in a situation that barely hints at the fantastical, they
prove themselves to be companion material.
But at
the time, the First Doctor isn’t in the market for companions. His only company
is Susan, and that’s the way he likes it. When Ian and Barbara do some snooping
and discover the TARDIS, he’s angry at them for learning his secret and is
prepared to go to extreme measures. And yes, he straight-up abducts them in
time. That is a thing that happens.
And so,
the relationship does not start well. Ian and Barbara are two ordinary
schoolteachers who’ve been forced against their will on a bewildering journey
in time and space, the Doctor is the distrustful, mysterious alien who’s taken
them, and Susan is the “unearthly child” caught in the middle, trying to help
her teachers and her grandfather see the best in one another. As such, the
early episodes are filled with Ian and the Doctor clashing over authority,
Barbara taking the Doctor to task for how he treats them, and the Doctor doing sneaky
things to get his way.
But even
as this friction is going on, very gradually, the Doctor, Susan, and the two
humans are beginning to understand, respect, and even like each other. Getting
into tight situations together (because it’s Doctor Who – no matter where the TARDIS takes them, they’re going
to end up in a tight situation pretty quickly,) they need to collaborate and
come up with plans to stay alive/save the day/whatever’s required of them, and
that means discovering what each of the others brings to the table. Before too
long, almost without realizing it, these four people become a group, one that
grows closer with each passing adventure.
One thing
I really enjoy about this era of the show is the “hanging-out” scenes that tend
to come at the start of a new serial. While stories of six or more episodes
usually wind up dragging at some point, it does
leave space for these low-key moments of the original team TARDIS exploring a
new era/planet: examining local fauna, finding appropriate clothes for the era,
and just generally enjoying poking around a new time and place. I like that,
not jumping straight into the crisis/mystery within the first few minutes of
the story and spending a little time just showing these four having a good time
together. It’s a nice way to establish their ever-evolving relationships with
one another, and while Who still
squeezes in moments like this, they tend to be a lot more condensed than they
are in these earliest seasons of the show.
