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Books, Games, Wrestling Vol. 24 – The Samurai, The Lantern, and The Bastard

/ Joshua S. MacDougall / Leave a comment

The words don’t come easy sometimes, and other times they just flow out of you to the point where you can put the cork back in the bottle. The right words are even harder, and that is where the true work of writing rests. Even when the right words come easy, the writer’s brain can tell you a lie that they’re wrong, that it’s not conveying your thoughts and feelings in the way you imagine it in your mind. Sometimes this whole Books, Games, Wrestling project is that, like when a wrestler you love passes away, and you don’t know what exactly to say that’ll feel right. Sometimes you just gotta get to it, so let’s get to it.

Games – Big Walk and Onimusha

Big Walk

Since it came out, Big Walk has been a magical experience playing online with my friends. I honestly feel it has brought me closer to them, especially after playing Big Walk nearly every Thursday. It has been some of the hardest times I have laughed playing a video game, solving puzzles, chanting egg as we get the little red things that open up the towers, and uncovering the mysteries of the game. Big Walk is the definition of fun video game design, especially if you’re lucky enough to have a great group of friends like I do. It balances simplified character design

There are a lot of big games coming out between September and the end of the year, but I don’t know if any of them can compare to the experience of playing Big Walk with friends. I just enjoy hanging out in the game with them even if we aren’t making progress, just walking around, listening to the radio or the sounds of our weird bird/ant players walking. This game was on my radar the moment it was announced, and I knew it would be something special, but I didn’t think I’d have any idea how special it would be.

Based on the vibes I hear about the two endings, one for finishing it and one for 100%, it might make me very emotional when it’s all said and done (Edit: It did). If I were to put my analysis hat on, maybe it’s not just the game but the friends you choose to play it with. The game has a ton of personality, but part of that is the personality that you put into it. It’s the personality you can instill in your characters through simple gestures and the setting’s chill aesthetic that adds to what makes Big Walk special. Everything in it just feels good to do: pressing a button, kicking an item far away from you, picking up your friends, turning a light on and off, lifting your arms up and down while chanting egg when you unlock the red items you need to put in the towers.

Onimusha: Way of the Sword

Enter Onimusha: Way of the Sword, which has now dethroned Pokemon Pokopia for my number two spot on my Game of the Year list. The original Onimusha 1 and 2 were games I borrowed from a friend and thought, “Neat, Samurai Resident Evil,” and never gave it much thought beyond the fact that sucking up orbs was cool. This new Onimusha is still Samurai Resident Evil and sucking up orbs, but has thrown in what has made the RE Engine so good for Capcom games, along with the best flavors of Sekiro and other Soulslike games. When I tried the first demo when it came out, the game didn’t grab me like the earlier Capcom games this year, Resident Evil Requiem and Pragmata, did, but the high praise the game was getting from certain reviews, the nostalgia I had for the second PS2 game, and a ten percent discount for a Steam keycode on Fanatical made me pull the trigger on buying it. I’m glad I did, because it has shot up to number two on my game-of-the-year list.

The versatility of the combat is stellar; choosing between parrying, blocking, deflecting, and dodging against enemies as you get your attacks in is a joy. With bosses, learning which one is best suited to use against them and which ones are best suited to use against certain attacks of theirs is so much. One boss will attack relentlessly with a weakness to deflection that makes that the best course of action, while another has you choosing between parrying and dodging to get your two meters up to take that boss’s quick slices and kicks. The common enemies start out simple at first, but as you progress and unlock new abilities, so do they, with more complex moves to use against you where button mashing just won’t cut it. The protagonist, Miyamoto Musashi, is my favorite Capcom protagonist, probably since Leon Kennedy, with a sort of Goku- or Luffy-like attitude of not really being in it for the heroics but is always looking for a good challenge to his swordman’s skills and wanting to be the best; that’s what’s fun for Musashi about being an Onimusha throughout the plot. Whoever decided or mocapped or designed Musashi’s facial expressions in this game should win awards, as he comes off sly, confident, with a roguish quality that reminds me of a Han Solo type. The main hub area of Kyoto reminds me of Komuracho in the Yakuza/Like a Dragon games, with not so many mini-games to play but people to save, side missions to complete, and treasures to find while you travel to more linear locations when the plot demands it.

The feeling and flow of combat can be so important for games like this. The Leviathan Axe in God of War (2018) wouldn’t be the same if not for how great it felt swinging, throwing, and catching it was, and Onimusha is no different with the way swords clash and Musashi slides his enemies’ weapons down and away when parrying just right. When you unlock more abilities, it doesn’t feel like piling on system after system but new ways to turn your enemies’ strikes against them.

The final boss is the best boss of the year, hands down. I love shades of grey villains who think they’re doing what’s right, but sometimes I want a straight-up evil guy, and that is what Yoshitsune is. He’s just interested in drowning the world of Onimusha in blood, and you’re the only one standing in his way. Gameplay-wise, you have to use everything you have learned to beat him with a pattern that is the most difficult in the game but not unlearnable. I used Issen through Onimusha: Way of the Sword, but Yoshitsune really pushed me to learn to use it well, especially in Phase Two. The ending is satisfying but leaves it open for sequels, which I would love to get. An Onimusha 2 could really improve upon the sidequests and make the hub world a bit more interesting, plus I want more of Musashi as a character and more boss fights. Even though I’m finished with the game, I’ll boot it up just to replay the boss fights; they’re that fun.

Books – Green Lantern Comics

I’m not going to make a whole thing of it, but I was apprehensive about the Lanterns show on HBO Max, then decided to give it a shot. Kyle Chandler as Hal Jordan may be one of the best superhero castings ever, and Aaron Pierre made John Stewart interesting to me in a way that the comics and other adaptations often failed to. The dynamic between Hal and John carried the show for me, where often I was craving more Green Lantern mythos and abilities in the show. I was willing to go where it was going, but ultimately the finale disappointed and the more I thought about it, pissed me off. It was a huge letdown, but it led me back to the Green Lantern comic books that got me through a traumatic experience I went through in 2005 and rediscovering my love for Green Lantern.

So I’ve been reading all my Green Lantern comics I managed to save from the house fire, from Green Lantern Rebirth to Blackest Night. I originally stopped reading after Geoff Johns’ final arc, finding Robert Venditti’s run on the series afterwards disappointing and generally just running out of money for comics. Now I want to go to my local comic book store and finish my collection of the Geoff John’s runs, as well as try for the first time Grant Morrison’s run on the book, which I know is very different but Liam Sharp’s artwork looks incredible. I lost all my Peter J. Tomasi run on Green Lantern Corps, so I’d love to read those again somehow. Al Ewing is a comic book writer I’ve come to really enjoy over the last couple of years, so I want to check out Absolute Green Lantern also since most of the Absolute run of DC Comics I’ve really enjoyed, especially Wonder Woman.

I don’t know what’s going on in the current run of Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps, but what I’ve seen of Jeremy Adam’s run doesn’t look terrible but doesn’t look too appealing either. I think I will wait before diving back in.

Wrestling – Remembering Ben Satterly aka The Bastard PAC.

It’s weird when a public figure you admire passes away, and you’re left sad about a person you don’t really know, especially with wrestlers that comes with this veneer of kayfabe separating you from that person even further. It has probably been the hardest a public figure’s passing has hit me since Robin Williams. Since the announcement of his passing on the 27th, I’ve been thinking a lot about the relationship fans have to wrestlers. I didn’t really know Ben Satterly; I only knew The Bastard PAC, a character he played, and yet there is this sadness I feel not seeing him on my screen on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and eventually future PPVs. I started writing this around the time I saw a tweet from Will Washington, someone who worked at AEW who went from knowing The Bastard PAC to knowing Ben Satterly. The Tribute to PAC episode of AEW Dynamite might be their best AEW Dynamite ever, with everyone putting their heart and soul into their matches in dedication to their friend, but it was also the hardest episode to watch, seeing the grief on the faces of all the roster. I want to watch it again, and yet I can’t; it’s too much. One day I will. I’ve had these same words Will Washington wrote on my mind since his passing, he’s not supposed to be gone.

There was a time I gave up wrestling, and what got me back was watching certain matches on YouTube that I think were recommended to me on Twitter or Reddit. I don’t remember which it was, but what was included that I sought out was Samoa Joe vs. Kenta Kobashi, any Young Bucks vs. The Briscoes match, the rise of Daniel Brian in WWE, CM Punk’s pipebomb, and The Bastard PAC in Dragongate.

When AEW was announced, and PAC showed up in full gear saying he was going to be the first AEW World Champion, I believed him, because I was not fully bought into Hangman Adam Page yet. When he beat Kenny Omega at All Out 2019, it was a shock victory that propelled PAC further up the ranks in my mind as being a future world champion. It was PAC, along with Jon Moxley, that started the Kenny Omega and Hangman Page tag team that would be the driving catalyst for Hangman’s character with the Elite, and it was Hangman’s feud with PAC in the early days of AEW Dynamite that not only gave us Cowboy Shit but made Hangman Page one of my favorite wrestlers in the company. For the longest time, if you asked me what the best matches ever were in AEW alongside Hangman/Kenny vs. Young Bucks, I would say the iron man match between Kenny Omega and the Bastard PAC that happened just the week before. If you were to ask me what match I’d show a person to get into AEW or to get into wrestling in general, it would always be The Bastard PAC vs. Orange Cassidy from Revolution 2020.

In 2020 during the height of the pandemic, I remember Tony Khan promising a huge surprise for Dynamite and fans online being disappointed when it turned out to just be the return of PAC. For me, though, I was thrilled to see PAC return after what felt like forever in lockdown without seeing him wrestle on my screen. I much prefer a 1v1 match on pay-per-view for the world title, as WWE had kinda soured my view on three-ways, but The Bastard PAC vs. Kenny Omega vs. Orange Cassidy was for a while the best three-way match I had seen in wrestling for many years. When Hangman finally won the world championship at Full Gear 2021, PAC was someone I fantasy booked having a feud with him as a return to their earlier feud in 2019 and possibly a potential winner against Page, but it was not to be. What was to be, when PAC became the All-Atlantic Champion, was returning to a feud with Orange Cassidy, in which I saw their match live at AEW Grand Slam 2022 at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Trios Best of Seven with The Elite, finally getting his Wembley moment, winning the trios titles with Claudio and Wheeler Yuta, doing a sneak hurricanrana on Will Ospreay to set up their match at All Out, one final match with Orange Cassidy at their old stomping grounds in Jacksonville, Florida. It was incredible to see PAC and Darby duke it out on a golf course.

Maybe it’s because of the relationship I have with watching AEW closely during the pandemic, but it feels wrong that, after seven years that he’s gone and now we just have to move on with our lives. It’s a strange feeling, being sad about a guy I watched on a screen being gone, knowing his friends and coworkers are suffering even more. I didn’t know Ben Satterly, and based on the testimonials of his friends, family, and coworkers, I’m the worst off for it, but I knew The Bastard PAC. This section was the hardest to write out of a confusion of feelings about what the right words were. I finished Onimusha the day his death was announced, an announcement that came out while I was in the middle of watching Lanterns on HBO Max with a friend that led me down getting my Green Lantern comics out. I ended up just trying to write the memories that stand out to me of what he did in AEW that I watched and was there for. It’ll never feel like the right words, because I don’t know what the right words are, but I have an 8×10 photo of PAC on my wall, an autographed trading card in a fireproof container, and lots of good memories watching his performances together, performances he always put his all in. The memories might grow dimmer over the years, but I’ll remember the Bastard PAC. That’s all from me for now, until next time.

After Zelda, Superheroes Were My Gateway To Fantasy.

/ Joshua S. MacDougall / Leave a comment

After the news of celebrated writer and artist Darwyn Cooke’s passing, I picked my copy of Absolute DC: New Frontier and absorbed Cooke’s love letter to the Silver Age of the DC Universe.

It’s massive scale and the enormous cast of diverse characters combined with the lingering thoughts about Robert Jordan’s The Eye of the World reminded me that after The Legend of Zelda it was superhero comics that opened the gateway for my love for fantasy.

The similarities between the two are surprisingly plentiful. Just to name a few:

  • Garish costumes.
  • Systems of magic.
  • Unusual names and codenames.
  • The use of symbology.
  • Enhanced or enchanted armor, weapons, and items.
  • Prophecy and legends influencing the protagonists.
  • History, mythology, and continuity that dates back before a current story but has a lingering effect.
  • Multi-faceted heroes and villains that walk the moral line.
  • Archetypal heroes and villains that serve as both characters and symbols for their cause.
  • Conflicts on the micro scale within close knits groups,
  • Macro scale conflicts that put universes in jeopardy,
  • and those in-group conflicts affecting the chance of success of resolving those universal threats.
  • War: The consequences of war, the threat of war, and the aftermath of war.
  • Death: Heroes, villains, love interests, and side characters all dying and in some cases, coming back.

Superhero comics do have the advantage of being broad enough in storytelling that it can encompass many genres including fantasy. A majority of DC’s magic users, including Etrigan, John Constantine, Dr. Fate, Swamp Thing, Alan Scott, and oh, I don’t know, Neil Gaiman’s Sandman all either dip their toes or fully submerge themselves into fantasy.

What it comes down to is world building. If you can understand the chaos that is the worlds of Marvel and DC then remembering the houses on Game of Thrones isn’t that difficult. What’s different is that for Marvel and DC the rules are always changing. What most fantasy tends to do is either established the rules early on or establish the rules and break them early on to create conflict. This is because eventually those fantasy stories are going to end. Comic book companies are in the business of keeping their stories running for as long as they sell. Thus their characters have to change overtime but not necessarily evolve.

Plus, most series of fantasy novels are written by one creator while superhero comics is a ever-spinning turnstile of different writers and artists. Their environment, purpose, supporting cast, powers, appearance, and even their history could change from one writer to another. Elements that stem from roots in fantasy could not longer be in fashion. Now, their powers, equipment, cast, or origin may not be science fiction in nature.

This can be frustrating to the reader which could not be more apparent with the recent developments in [spoilers] DC Universe Rebirth and the first issue of Captain America: Steve Rogers. Change is acceptable in a fantasy novel, especially a series with no previous history (real world history that is) but not so with most superhero comics considering their long history dating back to World War II. Even new superheroes have this struggle because by the time you establish a new character in an ongoing over a certain amount of issues any change you make is going to met with resistance from your readers.

That and the price is why I made the jump. I was frustrated by bad writing of characters I loved and the ever increasing price of comics versus the price of books made the switch easy. Fantasy novels have stayed relatively the same price, they have a more complete story, no other bad writer is coming in and fucking up what the good writer has done, there are no editorial mandates to fit within a big event happening in another series, and  the story is self-contained.

Still, I may never hace found fantasy without superhero comics.

Why does Warner Bros. and DC Comics Think Their Audience Are Idiots?

/ Joshua S. MacDougall / 2 Comments

It’s been happening for years ever since Christopher Nolan began working on Batman Begins, but Warner Bros. thinks its audience are not nuanced enough to get multiple iterations of their characters.

It started with the Bat-Embargo that was placed on the cartoon Justice League Unlimted. The creators of that show were no longer allowed to use any ancillary characters from Batman including Renee Montoya and Harley Quinn, two characters that were created in their animated universe. Their reasoning was that children would become confused by too many different versions of Batman characters in Justice League Unlimited, Batman Begins, and their developing cartoon The Batman.

First of all, this is highly underestimating the intelligence of children. Speaking from my own experience, I had no problem differentiating Mark Hamill’s Joker with Jack Nicholson’s Joker. It was very clear there was a difference between the animated Batman that appeared on Fox and the version that appeared on the WB network. Let’s take it outside of superheroes. It was clear there was something different about Dan Castellaneta’s Genie in Aladdin: The Series and Robin William’s version in Aladdin: The Movie. This was at an age where there was no internet and I only learned why the Genie’s voice was different by reading the back of Return of Jafar’s case. Kids now have information at their fingers. There would be no confusion.

Oh no, my head. There are way too many Batman's!

Oh no, my head. There are way too many Batman’s!

Warner Bros. still doesn’t see it that way and now they’ve spread this idea to not only children but adults as well. Deadshot, a character slated to appear in the Suicide Squad film and played by Will Smith has already appeared in on Arrow as a member of their version of Suicide Squad. Once the movie was firmly into production suddenly the character had to be removed so there was no “brand confusion.” In other words, sorry audience but you’re too dumb to tell the difference between these:

Clearly they are the same, therefore I am confused on how to take in the media. Sorry Warner Bros.

Clearly they are the same, therefore I am confused on how to take in the media. Sorry Warner Bros.

This spreads out to other obvious characters such as Batman, Superman, and Wonder down to characters like Harley Quinn. It even goes as far as to spread to characters that haven’t even be slated for a film yet. In season three of Arrow, we are introduced to Ray Palmer a.k.a. The Atom. This was originally intended to be Ted Kord a.k.a Blue Beetle but because Warner Bros. might have plans to use him in a film he was not permitted to appear on the show.

Now, with the premiere of Supergirl, Warner Bros. is sticking to their plan of avoiding all “brand confusion” by only mentioning Kara Zor-El’s cousin and vaguely showing Superman blocked by sunlight. Obviously, whoever plays  Superman on the new CBS show would be confusing to those watching Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. The audience might say “Hey, wait this guy look different from this other guy,” because no one else has played Superman before. Oh wait:

I'm so confused.

I’m so confused.

The worst part is that they’re not even consistent. Blue Beetle and Booster Gold both appeared in Smallville with the latter also having a prominent role on Justice League Unlimited. Development for a Suicide Squad film began as far back as 2009 yet they allowed Deadshot not only to appear in Arrow, which wouldn’t premiere for three more years after, but also in Batman: Assault on Arkham along with Harley. Harley appears in all three of Arkham games developed by Rocksteady along with the Joker. The first game in that series came out the year after Heath Ledger appeared as the Joker in The Dark Knight. No brand confusion there.

The most prominent example of this is CW’s The Flash premiering while they’re simultaneously announcing Ezra Miller being cast as The Flash for the movies. How is this not an example of “brand confusion?” Warner Bros. makes the announcement just as their Flash TV series is beginning.  You might be asking, “what if this is DC learning their lesson?” but you have to remember that this announcement was made before Arrow was forced to kill off their version of Deadshot because of the Suicide Squad film.

Marvel, on the other hand, has no problem having multiple version of their characters in film and television. They seem to be doing just fine. For writers of fiction, one of the basic rules of storytelling that is taught is never to treat your audience like their idiots. Warner Bros. needs to learn this lesson before their audience gets tired of being talked down to.

When the Audience is Bored of A-Listers, The B-Listers Will Inherit the Superhero Movies.

/ Joshua S. MacDougall / 1 Comment

For an indeterminate amount of time, comic book fans have been ranking their heroes (and villains) like celebrities with  “A” through “D” rating.

In DC Comics Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman have always been A-List heroes. However, characters like Green Lantern, The Flash, and Aquaman have fluctuated, falling to B-Listers in the 90’s, then rising again to A-listers in the mid-oughts.

Marvel is a bit stranger. In the early oughts, Brian Michael Bendis disassembled the Avengers for a good reason. Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America struggled as B-Listers in the late 90’s. Thor had been killed off, Iron Man was turned into an alcoholic and then a teengager  and Captain American in general seemed directionless. The rest of the Avengers just didn’t have the popularity of their other franches.  Marvel spent years building the Avengers back up to A-List characters, and thanks the  X-Men and Spider-Man being licensed to other film companies they had no choice but to build a movie universe on the back of the Avengers.

If they had owned the licenses for those two powerhouse franchises, Iron Man would not have been the first cinematic universe film under their own film company. They took a character, Iron Man, which the mainstream audience did not know and turned him into one of the biggest characters they currently have. They did it again with Guardians of the Galaxy, which people knew even less than Iron Man. Likewise, 2003’s Daredevil was an embarassment as far as movies go but Marvel took the franchise and turned it into the most watched and highest rated show on Netflix.

By regaining, rebooting, and revitalizing the Spider-Man franchise they’re also pushing back the inevitable. Marvel knows this, that’s why movies like Doctor Strange, Black Panther, and Captain Marvel were merely pushed back rather than replaced by Spider-Man movies. Then, with the rest of the Defenders series on Netflix they’ll turn Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Iron Fist into characters people know essentially raising their ranks from B and C-Listers into A-Listers. They took a character like The Vision and made him the most standout character of Avengers: Age of Ultron. They took a character like Ant-Man and made a entertaining and successful movie about him, which some people found laughable when announced.

On DC’s side it is a bit more worrisome, as far as movies go. Thanks to the success of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy, Warner Bros. believes the grim and gritty approach is the way to go as far as their own cinematic universe goes as evidenced by their dark approach to Superman in Man of Steel, the trailer for Batman v. Superman, and Suicide Squad. This may work at first, but the novelty of it will end quickly. What makes The Flash television series so refreshing is how far away from the Batman tone it is. It’s optimistic, funny, light hearted, and colorful. No dreary colors, no over serious faces, and 90% less angst.

The novelty of Suicide Squad, and Batman v. Superman has a problem. If it wasn’t for Harley Quinn and Wonder Woman the appeal of these movies is what they’re doing differently with Ben Affleck’s version of Batman, and Jared Leto’s version of the Joker. This’ll only last so long. They need movies with different tones with different characters. If they try to Batmanify characters like Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, and Aquaman (which is what it looks like they’re doing anyway) people will become fatigued. Marvel realizes an Iron Man movie should not have the same tone as a Captain America movie, but does Warner Bros. realize that?

The B-Listers will eventually inherit the Marvel movies but if Warner Bros. relies too much on the success of Batman to see what is unique about their other characters they’ll be doomed to fail before they even begin.

A Reboot Green Lantern film arrives in 2020: This is what I’d like to see.

/ Joshua S. MacDougall / Leave a comment

In case you missed it, Warner Bros. announced a whole slew of films for their DC Cinematic Universe yesterday including a reboot of Green Lantern in 2020. Now, in my blind fandom, I really wanted to like the 2011 film but sadly it is fact really poorly executed. It wasn’t the CGI that bothered me, I quite liked the costume and the look of the members of the Green Lantern Corps. but the plot and dialogue was so shoddy.

First of all, skip the origin. Hal Jordan has the ring, has already been trained and make the mentor/student relationship between Sinestro and himself already established. Hal and Carol should be either dating or broken up because of his responsibilities as a Green Lantern.

Second, keep the bits on Earth to a minimum. Let the movie begin on Earth with Hal living his civilian life only for him to get called into action just as he’s on a date or about to kiss Carol Ferris. Then, the rest of the movie completely in space until the very end, leave Hal’s happy ending with Carol rest until the very end or have him need to explain that being Green Lantern is just something he has to do. Either use that to break them off or they decide to try to make it work. Whatever the screenwriter decides, keep the romance to a minimum and downplay the playboy type with Hal.

Next, Sinestro is the main villain, no other villains. He has become the dictator type Green Lantern of his own sector and Hal Jordan is sent in by the Guardians to arrest his former mentor. Here Hal takes down his former mentor, captures him and the Guardians banish him. Sinestro vows revenge, gets banished to Qward then gains the yellow ring through mysterious means. Since they already screwed up Parallax maybe downplay his role with the yellow ring. Also, don’t combine Krona and Parallax into the same character. Perhaps keep Marc Guggenheim as far away from the script as you can.

Most importantly, choose your cast and tone wisely. The problem with the 2011 film was the parts that were funny were cringe worthy and the dramatic parts were so bad they were funny. You need to balance Hal’s sense of humor and quips with the serious tone Sinestro takes while building up the tension that comes when you have to fight someone you used to look up to.

Lastly, build towards the larger Green Lantern Corps., don’t just try to throw different members like Tomar Re and Kilowog for the sake of being in the movie. If you can’t include them naturally, don’t bother. You want to build a cinematic universe but you need to take it slow. Marvel is already ahead of you, may as well get it right before you have to do it all over again.

 

The Flash TV Series is a Breath of Fresh Air.

/ Joshua S. MacDougall / Leave a comment

Two episodes in and I am all aboard the band wagon for The Flash. It is unadulterated superhero fun balanced with drama, something that has been lacking in DC Comics media for a long time. Something that Marvel has been getting the balance right in their movies since Iron Man came out.

I love DC Comics but since The Dark Knight came out they’ve been on the grim and gritty train in every aspect with no end in sight for their movies. If Man of Steel and the concept art for Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice is a sign of things to come for their movie universe then I’m glad The Flash TV series exists.

A lot of the reviews and comments about the show complained about the corny lines but to me, the investment I have in the characters in only two episodes in strong enough to actually enjoy them. Grant Gustin as Barry Allen is hopeful, optimistic and the nerdy underdog with the incredible powers I want to cheer for.

Carlos Valdes as Cisco is easily becoming The Flash’s version of Felicity, the techy side character that keeps the show feeling light with his quips while Jesse L. Martin as Joe West steals every scene as the father figure pushing Barry in the right direction.  The emotion in his face in episode two both at the midpoint and at the end just pulls at my hearts strings, but I am the sentimental type. Plus Tom Cavanagh, formerly J.D.’s slacker older brother on Scrubs has me on the edge of my seat at the end of each episode now, wondering what he’s up to while pushing Barry to become a better hero. I never would have thought that Tom Cavanagh would be the type to have such intense scenes.

I don’t mind the corny lines, because it keeps the show light and fun. What’s the alternative? Superman kills General Zod and lets a large population of his city die? Is anyone at Warner Bros. tired of The Dark Knight Returns motif? Does Wonder Woman really need to wear mud colored armor? Isn’t Superman supposed to be a symbol of hope? According to Warner Bros., no, not anymore. So instead I’ll take the Flash and hope its high ratings will show Warner Bros. that grim and gritty doesn’t always necessary mean good. The world is grim and gritty enough.