The Nerd Reviews: Batman Arkham Knight

Batman: Arkham Knight is the conclusion to the Arkham trilogy of games that brings together the villains of Gotham in a way that forces The Dark Knight to come face to face with his biggest failures and fears; and the game, much like Batman himself, also faces it's biggest failures but does it rise above and become the game we need or does it burn along with all of Gotham?

Unpopular Opinion: Everyone Needs To Stop Hating A White Peter Parker

It was recently announced that Tom Holland will be the next Peter Parker/Spider-Man and in typical internet fashion, people couldn't wait to unleash the barrage of "oh wow another white Peter Parker" comments; this may come to you as a shock but this is how Peter Parker looks:

He is a white guy, always has been, so being upset over the fact that a white person is playing a white hero makes no sense to me. Now, I know what the next argument is going to be, "What about Miles Morales?" and to that I say "What about Miles Morales?" Sure I like him as a character but as a superhero what has he done in the 5 years he's been around? Virtually nothing. Yeah he's been in the most recent events but in terms of his own story there is not much to go off; hell even his origin story connects to that of Peter Parker and that is the problem with Miles so far...he's too attached to the Peter Parker story to have his own. His supporting cast includes Gwen Stacy, Mary Jane, Aunt May,an actual clone of Peter Parker and Ganke (who is a non Peter Parker related character). Miles gets assistance from Shield because of Peter Parker, gets the webshooters that Peter made, deals with his villains....you get the picture. Miles, at least to me, hasn't been used enough in the comics and established in his own right but that is looking to change with the release of his solo this Fall as

You will be this Fall

"Spider-Man"; no subtitles or asterisks, he's going to be the Spider-Man of the new Marvel Universe and I hope with that change they will give him his own rogues and story-lines that are separate from Peter Parker.

One of my biggest gripes with not just the current Spider-Man backlash but with all of the happenings in the comic book movie world is this faux representation that has people getting into a frenzy. The new Fantastic Four has Micheal B Jordan playing Johnny Storm aka Human Torch, who is traditionally a white character, and people are praising Fox for being diverse and all that. Look I don't hate seeing black people as superheroes, if you know me at all you know it's quite the opposite, but what I don't like is black people having to play white characters in order to be heroes. When I see people frothing at the mouth at the fact that Peter Parker isn't being played with a nonwhite character it upsets me because it is such a pandering move to me. You can't just slap on a new paint job and think the character will be the same because a white person gets treated very differently from a black person and that treatment is reflected in the way a character is written; look at the current Captain America, did Steve Rogers have to deal with the social issues that Sam Wilson does? I want to see black superheroes get their shine, I want to have more black heroes in films that are based off of black heroes in comics because that will expose them to a bigger fanbase. Going back to the Johnny Storm thing, let's say a kid sees the new FF and loves Johnny and wants to read comics, it will not be the same Johnny that he fell in love with or connected with and at the end of the day it will increase the awareness of Johnny Storm but not the black one that he thought he was going to see.

I hope this ushers in a new age

With Black Panther coming out in 2018 I think it's time for those who claim to want diversity stop getting upset at white people being cast to play white heroes and start demanding more nonwhite heroes get put onto the big screen. Trust me, there are a plethora of nonwhite comic book heroes who are more than ready to make a big screen debut but clinging onto this faux representation is a joke; it has us being more focused on what kind of table scraps we get instead of questioning why the hell we can't sit at the table. I don't want to give anymore shine to white heroes and believe me I understand that it is so frustrating to not see a minority hero as a lead that you rather just do a racebend but that isn't good enough anymore, it is time that our heroes get the same treatment that the white ones get.

E3 2015: Sony's Press Conference

Ok so Sony wasn't the first of the Big 3 to go but I just finished watching their press conference and I was amazed at just how well they did, well more than amazed because they gave us a special treat during that I didn't even know was happening.

E3 2015: It Begins

Get ready for another week full of new releases, game info, trailers and all the good things we love about gaming. Its a nice change of pace from all the negative press the community has been getting lately; no more talk about morality and all that stuff, just pure unadulterated gaming bliss.

Here's What I Think About The Supergirl Pilot

Full disclosure: I was totally not interested in watching this because that first trailer was just terrible and totally didn't captivate me; seriously this is first trailer and I don't know why they thought it was a good idea (well maybe they didn't because they released a much better recut of it soon after). Now that is out of the way let me say that this is a very ok pilot and if it tweaks a few things then I could see it being a show that I would watch on a consistent basis.

The pilot starts off with the standard Superman exposition ( exploding planet, sent to Earth, blah blah) but from the perspective of Kara so you'll get a glimpse as to why she was sent to Earth and you get to meet her new family, the Danvers (Which is her actual alias in the comics..or was..idk continuity is a funny thing in comics). Fast forward some years and she's living the normal life until an unexpected event puts her on the path towards becoming Supergirl. It's nothing groundbreaking in terms of plot but it manages to not make it feel too similar to Superman's origin and I gotta commend it for that. For starters, Kara already has the powers of Superman and is an adult so we get to see her use those gifts pretty immediately as she uses her super hearing to hear her boss approaching or flies towards a falling plane (after a less than stellar date). I should mention that there is a ton of parallels between her and Superman in this pilot but it's expected because she's his cousin; what I didn't expect was the fact that they didn't actually say his name at all. Seriously, there is no mention of Clark, Kent or Superman anywhere in the pilot and I don't know if that is because of legal reasons or if they really

Her beams are blue because..different?
Also blue burns hotter so yay science!

wanna hammer in the fact that it's not about him but it was very awkward to constantly refer to Supes as "him" "he" "your/my cousin"...like wtf just say Superman, you're Supergirl and he's Superman, it's easy.

As far as the action goes it's effects heavy with her flying all over the place and punching people like 30ft back through walls and stuff, it's more Flash than Arrow in terms of fights so you can decide if that is good or bad. The acting wasn't anything mega spectacular but pretty much none of the superhero shows have super awesome acting in their pilots or series (except Daredevil) and the costume design is on bar with that of Flash and Arrow and I liked those so that's a plus. The inclusion of the DEO is something  that I thought was a natural progression of things since her cousin (dammit not I'm doing it) already exists here and governments always have secret anti alien groups, although I am bummed that it wasn't Director Bones because how cool would that have been? Really cool...it would have been really cool. The other characters in the show are obvious archetypes but again pilots normally do that and expand upon each character during the season; Jimmy Olsen is the obvious love interest, Cat is the cold hearted businesswoman who will most likely get a heart sometime this season, that one IT guy who makes her suit is the friend who is in love with her but it's totally unrequited, angry black military/government official will be cold but respect you in his own way; the gang is all here.

See? That would have been so cool but no they got a normal human

Ok let's go over what I didn't like. Right off the bat I was amazed at how fast the show moved and I'm not talking about her aging to adulthood either. The whole episode just felt rushed, she uses her powers, reveals her identity to her IT work friend, he makes her suit, she stops like...1 and a half crimes and boom the DEO is already capturing her and then she's fighting this dude and then has a total character arc in like 4 mins. It was just too quickly paced and I wished they would have allowed for more development to happen before her big battle at the end. Speaking of the battle, my god I get it she's a woman superhero, I understand that Supergirl is not Superman and is in fact a woman with superpowers, you do not need to beat that point over my head so much. I mean yes for a large portion of comic book history the audience it reached out to was men and being the first female superhero show since Wonder Woman is a huge thing but less is more here. I know you might think I am overreacting but there are scenes in this pilot that I felt were absolutely unnecessary like Kara losing it over the name Supergirl and damn near losing her job over it, the evil dude being like really sexist, the "because she's a girl" part which completely missed why the general said she wasn't strong enough (hint:she was getting her ass kicked), random lady talking about how Supergirl being the first woman hero would give her daughter a role model (I'm assuming aside from her). That last one really bothered me, not because I have something against female heroes, because we have no knowledge of this universe. A little background, the producer for this show is the same producer of the Flash and I remember reading talk about how they would be in the same universe since they would be doing a crossover, now if that were the case then I could see the big deal about Supergirl since the other heroes of notoriety are males; however, if this is it's own separate thing then the only other hero is Superman so saying she's the first female hero seems weird because it's not like there are a million other heroes running around..it's just her and her cousin..idk that just bothered me, GIVE ME CONTEXT SUPERGIRL

Basically this is one of the pilots that if it gets a full order will have some stuff to tweak if it wants to work in the long run but it does have potential. I obviously found a few things that I personally think drag it down but they don't drag it so low that I wouldn't recommend a watch. It does try a bit too hard a times but once they get a rhythm going I feel as if it could be as good as the Flash or Arrow truthfully. So yeah, you can either wait until November and catch it on CBS or use totally legal means to watch an "advanced" copy of it and see for yourself what's coming out in the fall.

The Flash Season 1 Finale

The penultimate episode, Rogue Air, felt like it could be a season finale in it's own right what with The Flash having to contend against not only Reverse Flash but also Captain Cold and the rest of the metas stuck in the accelerator; I didn't think they could top that but once again I was proven wrong as they masterfully not only tied up a season long story-line but also left the potential for season 2 wide open.

We start the episode dealing with the immediate aftermath of the fight with Wells (Thawne aka Reverse Flash) as he and Barry are having a conversation that serves as the crux of the episode; go back in time and save Nora and let Wells go to the future. Now on the surface it looks like an immediate no and we as the audience know that Barry isn't gonna be selfish but I have to commend the writers on how they handled it; they really showed how tempting it could be to change the past but also highlighted all the potentially disastrous results that could happen. I won't go into too much detail as to what happens ( although I most likely will at the week's end to give you guys time to watch) but you probably will not see the ending coming, even if you are an omega nerd. There are some moments in here that Grant really shines, like when he's talking to Wells and especially when he has that heart to heart with his father in prison...things like that really hit home the weight of his decision and make the episode much better. There are a few meh spots in the episode like the Ronnie/Caitlin thing although Victor Garber did a great job as Professor Stein so I can't be too upset with it.

Overall this was a fantastic way to end the season, we get a glimpse of other characters like Hawkgirl, the reveal of a new metahuman, lots of tearjerking moments and an ending that comes out of left field. I'm thoroughly impressed with how much I have enjoyed this show and it is easily my favorite comic book tv show to date. If you haven't been watching this show for some reason, go back in time and punch yourself in the face for how foolish you've been...or maybe just catch up on it now since it's over (although if you do the former I am not responsible for you breaking the time space continuum). SERIOUSLY THOUGH THIS FINALE WAS SO GOOD AND THE ENDING WAS LIKE "HOLY CRAP THEY JUST SAID F IT WE ARE GONNA GO BALLS TO THE WALL HELL YEAH". That is the TD;LR version for all you folks who aint got the time to read these words.

Ok stop reading, this is it, go watch Flash or go to sleep then wake up, do what you do, then watch the Flash. Okay? Great.

Super Powers That Would Actually Suck In Real Life: Super Strength

Superheroes ( and villains...we don't discriminate here) often have spectacular powers that make them gods among mortals; they can fly, shoot lasers from their eyes, run faster than light and so on, but when you really think about it a lot of their powers would suck in the real world. Let's take super strength for a minute.

It does look super cool

So you're walking around and suddenly you see someone's car break down and they need a tow; that's no problem for you at all, you just pick up the car and walk...for about 10 ft before you keel over from exhaustion. Remember, you have super strength and only that,, no other powers, so while you may be able to lift the car over your head you won't be able to maintain that forever ( I mean I can deadlift 400lbs,#humblebrag, but that doesn't mean I can walk around with 400lbs like it aint no thing) because you don't have super endurance. Oh but let's say you aren't going to have to move because OH MY GOD A BUILDING THE SIZE OF THE SEARS TOWER FELL ON YOU!!! Not to worry because you are a strong son of a bitch and can catch that building. Congratulations! You're the strongest person on Earth...or  rather I should say in earth because you have the entire weight of a building being focused on a narrow point, i.e. your legs, and the combined weight of that plus gravity means you are sinking faster than Joss Whedon's nerd approval rating. So now you're holding a building while falling into the Earth's core, hey but if you're lucky maybe the radiation will kill you before you reach that 10,800F oven.

Gotta be real picky with your partners

Of course one of the biggest drawbacks to having super strength is having to make sure it's under constant control, a real challenge seeing as staying in control when you're getting busy is no easy task. I won't get into the details but there is a lot of...involuntary reflexes...that happen that you have no control off. It would be inconsequential to us normal folk but to a person of enhanced strength it could be the difference between life of death. Who wants to constantly have to make sure they touch their partner just right or a night of passionate love making could end up landing you in jail with a murder charge? Especially dangerous for those who prefer their sessions to be as gentle as sand paper rubbing on a cactus. This not only applies to sex but also anything involving physical contact; hugs, hand holding, shaking hands, fighting, playing videogames ( imagine playing the water temple and then moving that block too early and you can't finish it so you gotta start all over...the amount of controllers broken would be astronomical).

In conclusion, it may be super awesome to be able to say "Hey, I bet you I could lift that mountain over there" and then do it, but then you'd have to worry about sinking into the Earth...not to mention have the destruction of countless ecosystems on your hands all because you wanted to impress someone. You know who isn't impressed? Mother Nature.....super strength would super suck.