Oh no, I hear you groan, not this guy again!
Well yes, it is me! But don’t worry, because I’m here bearing the gift of six answers to six amazing themed questions, from the bastion of heroicness (is that even a word?) Heather, keeper of Just Geeking By, and all round good egg! Today’s theme is superheroes, and you can bet your on-the-outside-undies I have some thoughts on this!
Disclaimer though, I only know the movies, I’m otherwise pretty naff at superheroes!
It’s superhero day on April 28th and we’re well overdue for a theme dedicated to superheroes. Don your capes, check your utility belts and grab your sidekicks as we head into the world of superheroes this week.
Question 1 – Who are your favourite superheroes?
I would be very remiss to pass on Iron Man for this, as it was Mr. Stark that got me into the whole genre. I’ve never been one for superheroes, and my imagination can’t seem to process comics, so naturally it just passed me by, until Iron Man 2 came out, and my friends forced me to go see it with them… it blew me away! It was funny, action-packed and the effects were top tier.
And the main character was cool as hell! Funny, sassy, and flawed as hell, Tony Stark made for a compelling protagonist. Powerful bank account, unstoppable power armour, the very real mental health of a man who’s led a chaotic life, despite being raised in the lap of luxury. For me, Iron Man never really stopped being cool, thanks, in no small part, to Robert Downey Jr’s brilliant portrayal.
He was a total dick to Bucky Barnes in Civil War though, no need for that.
Question 2 – Do you have a favourite sidekick?
There’s one sidekick from the MCU who is guaranteed to crack me up with pretty much every single line he says, the mighty Drax the Destroyer from Guardians of the Galaxy!
It might be his complete lack of understanding when it comes to figures of speech, or maybe his total lack of empathy that make him such a funny guy… maybe it’s his almost deranged levels of bloodlust?
Or maybe it’s because he’s played by Dave Bautista, who by all accounts is a really cool guy?
Either way he’s amazing, and should definitely get his own movie! Imagine it, a big, burly maniac just bouncing from planet to planet, getting into scrapes that are way over his head, insulting all of his friends and hating on dance wherever he deems to go.
As long as he takes Mantis with him, obviously.
Question 3 – Who is the most underrated superhero in your eyes?
Like I said at the top, I only know superhero movies, and I reckon that the movie Shazam! was a bit underrated, you know!
The story of young runaway in search of his mother… who somehow inherits powers from wizardy Djimon Honsou that turn him into a handsome, buff superhero whenever he says the titular phrase, this movie was great fun from beginning to end, combining teen drama, superhero action and plenty of comedy.
It also featured the ever-fantastic Mark Strong as the baddie, who not only had super powers of his own, but can summon a literal gang of demons! Wicked!
Question 4 – Marvel, DC or another superhero franchise?
I’m very much an MCU fan, the wife and I often watch through them, especially the best ones such as Thor Ragnarok and Black Panther. They just seem to have the right mixture of visuals, comedy and flawed but likeable characters for me. The Marvel movies also seem to have some really good soundtracks too, the movies I mentioned above were both supreme in this regard, and Captain Marvel also had a killer ’90s soundtrack as well.
I also have a confession to make: I have no time for Batman and Superman… I know, you’re unsubscribing…
Batman just doesn’t hold any joy for me. He’s grim, grim, grim, has a silly costume and I just don’t like any of the villains all that much. Superman is just too goody-goody and too powerful, not my cup of tea really. At least Cap was interesting and flawed as a character!
I don’t hate all the DC movies though. I enjoyed Wonder Woman (even if the main baddie looked hilarious in his magical armour) and Aquaman and the aforementioned Shazam! were both criminally underrated, in my opinion!
Question 5 – Who is the scariest supervillain of all time?
I don’t know about scariest per se, but I really do think Michael Keaton’s portrayal of Vulture was amazing in Spider Man: Homecoming.
Keaton’s turn as this iconic villain was brilliant for a couple of reasons: he had a motivation that I understood (though not to the point I sympathized with him, I’m not a baddie), he was menacing as hell when encountering Peter Parker in a social setting, as they both danced around the fact that they knew each other’s secret identities, and he looked so freakin’ cool in those metal wings, mask and bomber jacket combo!
Question 6 – What is your favourite superhero movie and/or TV show?
It’s gotta be Thor: Ragnarok, this is the absolute nadir of superhero movies for me.
It’s stylish, bold, full of action and, perhaps most importantly, really taps into Chris Hemsworth’s talent for comedy. This time around, Thor is at his absolute best, joined by his evil/not evil brother Loki, re-introducing Bruce Banner/the Hulk after a long absence, and introducing Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie, the excellent Cate Blanchett as the evil Hela and, most brilliantly of all, the incomparable Jeff Goldblum as the Grand Master, a rather villainous sort indeed!
So, there we are. Another week another fun set of questions answered. I hope you all had a good old time reading my brain offal, and that you also check out similar output from the other Avengers of blogging, who hide behind the #SeriouslyGeekySundays hashtag… ready to strike!
See you all next time!
Craig Rathbone - Writer 
I’ve been dealing with superhero fatigue, but this was still an interesting read. I was huge with superhero stuff when I was a kid in the 90s with some comics as well as the cartoons like X-Men, Spiderman, and Batman: The Animated Series. When I was in my teens, I played HeroClix which was fun and I was exposed to more characters I never heard of. You had some good answers there.
I’d say some underrated superheroes would be Bishop, Black Orchid, and The Question to name a few.
Interesting choice for a scary and epic villain. I think one supervillain that I thought was the most low-key intimidating was Proteus from the X-Men. He had reality warping abilities, beat the main team by himself, and he is the only villain to MAKE WOLVERINE CRY in the cartoon! If you can make Wolverine hit the waterworks, you know you’re hardcore.
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Ohhh was that the green alien thingy in the sewers, when he teamed up with Deathstrike? See I admit I’m mostly movies facing with superheroes, and came to it very late, though the X Men and Spiderman cartoons I did watch back in the day, especially the latter, I got quite addicted to Spiderman!
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I think you’re thinking of one of the Reavers (forget his name). Proteus was that Scottish guy who does have a human form, but can turn into this giant orange psionic form when he uses his powers. He was the son of Moira MacTaggart and that one jerk politician in the UK in the cartoon.
Yeah, I understand when it comes to the movies. It’s crazy how mainstream and acceptable liking superheroes are in this day and age. I certainly watched those cartoons back in the day. Spiderman was a good one and they did those crossovers with the X-Men for multiple episodes. Fun fact: That version of Spiderman was voiced by the same guy who was Prince Eric from The Little Mermaid. This is hilarious to me for since both characters have two things in common: redheaded girlfriends and octopus-themed villains.
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There IS a theme there yeah! Brilliant! And yeaaah I remember Proteus now, it set in some twee version of Scotland where all the accents were lovably bad, good episodes! I totally get how the movies have made it super acceptable to like the genre too, I could never get into comics and, to be fair, 90s kids in northwest England could be pretty awful assholes
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Of course! Nice! I’m glad you remember Proteus now. In hindsight, the Scottish accents were a bit wonky. Hahaha! I’m sure those episodes weren’t near Glasgow, Edinburgh, or Aberdeen if memory serves me correctly.
I know, right? It seems like the average person at least likes superheroes a little with the movies and everything. Sorry to hear that about that kind of pressure being a kid at the time to not check out comics as much. America wasn’t that much different in the 90s either.
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It was a silly decade, who even misses it? And I suspect that it was meant to be the Highlands, like the Isle of Skye or some such place, only with more tortured teenage mutants I suspect 😁
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Sure thing. There were some fun things in the 90s, don’t get me wrong, but I wonder what it would be like as an adult during that time period or how I would react to certain things.
That makes sense and I feel like it was in the more rural parts of Scotland or in one of the smaller towns in that country. Sounds like a good description. Hahaha! Come to think of it, there were other UK-based characters associated with the X-Men from what I remember like Wolfsbane who is also Scottish (from Ross and Cromarty which I just found out) and Psylocke who’s English, but I don’t know too many else.
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Yeah there’s a few UK ones I think, I know theres a UK version of Captain America, but can’t imagine he’s quite as likeable as Steve!
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Gotcha. Those were a few I could name. Oh, I forgot there was a Captain Britain, too! I’ve heard of him, but I wasn’t too familiar with that superhero.
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Yeah if the current state of this nation reflects him, then he wouldn’t be a particularly nice guy! Gotta say, I enjoyed Falcon & the Winter Soldier, that was really good, nice to see Zemo get more character
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Oh no! That wouldn’t be a good thing if he was like that or if there was some kind of Captain Britain successor of sorts. I haven’t seen Falcon and The Winter Soldier, but that’s good to know. What superheroes would you like to see get their own show or movie?
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I reckon poor War Machine is worthy, he’s been a reliable backup man in the MCU for years and I bet you could write a good adventure for him too! That and Don Cheadle is pretty cool too! If also like to see Drax and Thalos from Captain Marvel team up too
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A War Machine movie could be intriguing. Don Cheadle is a great actor. It still blows my mind that he could be in movies such as Hotel Rwanda, Talk to Me, and Reign Over Me before playing a superhero character. Drax could be another interesting choice. Whoever thought that a former WWE World Champion would play a Marvel character of sorts? Hahaha!
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Yeah agree on both! Cheadle really does have a fantastic range, and Bautista is always really funny as Drax. Ben Mendehlson is excellent as Thalos too, some very fun dialogue “thats not a cat, it’s a flurkan!”
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Thanks. Cheadle is such a great actor and I’ve liked more movies he’s been in than not. Talk to Me is something I might want to re-watch. That one has him in a radically different role as he plays the real life 60s DJ Petey Greene and Chiwetel Ejiofor plays his uptight manager in that one. Bautista does a great job as Drax and certainly can pull off playing a character like that. That is also a good quote. Hahaha!
Some heroes I can think of who should get their own movies would be the John Stewart character as Green Lantern (the same one in the Justice League cartoons), The Question, maybe some lesser-known X-men characters or teams with the right director, Mr. Terrific, and possibly Moon Knight.
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Some good shouts there, did I hear Moon Knight was getting a series, sure I did! And I’d like Gambit to have a movie of his own too!
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Thanks! I didn’t know he was getting a series. Sweet! A Gambit solo movie would be great.
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Yeah I’m fairly sure I read it somewhere, though the details elude me! I vaguely remember Gambit being in that awful Wolverine movie, though he didn’t really get up to much, just had a brief fight and flew a helicopter
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That’s still a good idea for them to try. Oh wow, I sadly saw that Wolverine movie in theaters when it came out. It was so bad! Gambit was underused and had the wrong accent! He’s the Cajun Cowboy for crying out loud, movie! He has a very strong Louisiana accent and not some generic Southern drawl in X-Men Origins: Wolverine!
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Yeah think I saw it in the cinema too, total waste of money that! Waste of some very good actors too! I mean… That Deadpool…
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No disgreements there about being a waste of money. Oof! Yeah, THAT version of Deadpool was just a big sack of no. Sure, he started out okay with him being his typical chatterbox self, but then they ruined him SO MUCH and sewed up his mouth! How can he be the merc with the mouth if you’re just going to silence him?!?
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Yeah it was very cringey! I was so happy that new movie Deadpool went back and sorted out the old one, that was a very funny scene! I do sometimes wonder if I’m the only person on earth who dislikes Batman though, it’s a lonely stance I’ll tell you 😂
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I hear you right there. I haven’t seen the Deadpool movies in their entirety, but I do know his character is WAY more accurate in the portrayal. They actually go back to that old scene? Oh, wow!
Batman is someone that I don’t hate, but I do find him overrated since he can be written as a Marty Stu at times and the fans can be annoying especially when they claim he’s “realistic”. Nope! He is realistic in that he has no superpowers, but it’s not realistic with how he could fight crime, invent gadgets, and still have the mental wherewithal to be a multi-millionaire playboy for his day job? Nah…doesn’t work like that.
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Yeah I know exactly what you mean, I would expect millionaire-ing would take up all of the time you had! And using realism as something to be snarky about is a bit odd in the world of superheroes! Like marking down a cat because it can’t drive!
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Sure thing. I could certainly believe that when it comes to the aforementioned millionaire-ing with doing business stuff, buying expensive things and trying to look posh. Very true and it’s quite inconsistent with superhero fans mithering the creators or critics to be realistic for some characters over others. The Question was way more realistic of a hero than Batman for example. That cat similarity is proper apt. I might have to use that in future conversations! Realism works in some cases even in fantasy/sci-fi settings but other times things need to be extraordinary.
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Indeed! Like I would expect something like a war movie to be realistic, but if the next Dr Strange sees him pulling bunnies out of a hat because magic isn’t real it would sure be jarring 😂
I reckon it’s a genre that needs a bit of extraordinary!
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Thanks. It’s definitely a case of time, place, and genre. Dr. Strange pulling rabbits out of a hat would be a funny sight. I would expect that more out of Zatanna and she is a mage! It’s fine to have some heroes who don’t have powers, but superheroes could use more extraordinary settings and other characters.
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Exactly, it’s the perfect genre for really pushing the envelope with over the top creativity, and they work well when they do!
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Sure thing! You have the right elements to be creative with something very grandiose or still have a sense of wonder if it is more understated.
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